tones or panel

[ran-man]

When detecting does anyone go by only the ID tones and really not pay attention to the LCD display. How important are the extra bells and whistle's on a detector.

 

[U.K. Brian]

All depends on what and where you detect. Stick to parks/top of the beach and target I.D. is important if your only after recent losses.
If your after the old and normally deeper stuff forget meters and tones and just discriminate between ferrous and non ferrous where you have the best chance of making the right decision before digging.
You then only have to find out if your machine is one that drops the target reading down into ferrous or goes the other way with deep targets or those in bad ground.

 

[Sandman]

Good job UK Brian. I like to think of it another way. If the thrill of the hunt and the fun comes from doing it your way, enjoy all the bells and whistles. It's how much fun you have. Face it, we're not doing this for the profit.......

Cheap cars and Caddys will get you from point A to point B. But it is more fun in the Caddy for a lot of us. You only go around once, why cheat yourself out of some fun.

HH,
Sandman

 

[The Beep Goes On]

I like the bells and whistles, but go mostly by tone. If it sounds interesting, I take a look at the display.

HH!
TBGO

 

[Ricardo_NY1]

This is a good question. New to the hobby, I'll answer it like this..........I think we can all agree that you can't trust a detector's bells and whistles 100% of the time right? With that said, there will be things in the ground that you can dig or not, and possibly miss something you would've otherwise been happy digging up. On another note, taking into account that the bells and whistles will not be correct 100% of time, they neverthless are trying to tell you something. Anytime you begin to get Target ID's wether solid or bouncy ones, depth readings, steady or also bouncy, this is additional information that the detector is giving you beside the sounds. You can choose to play it by ear, but that would be ignoring data. If you can learn how a detector reacts to different targets/metals with the bells and whistles, then you have that additional data to make a decision about how to spend your time digging. As an example, I will share with you a technique that I learned very recently with the ACE 250 that I use. I have noticed that there are times when the target ID will jump between a dime and half dollar. As it does this, so does the depth readings. It will/would point to the dime at 4 inches and then jump to the half dollar ID at 6 inches. Bouncy iffy signal right? Not quite. I learned that by noticing at what depth that dime ID was reading (4 inches) as the depth and ID readings bounce back and forth, I could lower the sensitivity to keep out the interference from the other source that was causing the 1/2 dollar reading at 6 inches. I automatically knew that I was going over two targets, one deeper than the other. By lowering the sensitivity, I eliminated the deeper target and got/get a nice clean dime signal at 4". If I were just listening to the audio, I would've waved the signal off as a bad target, perhaps a bottle cap or crushed can. With what I said in mind, I would be against an all tone method of hunting. I say combine tone with panel.

 

[U.K. Brian]

By the time you have adjusted the machine the target could have been dug.
The trouble is deep targets. No one has got deep target ID right yet. A Fisher CZ is called an iron magnet as if you increase the sensitivity to get maximum depth bad deep targets will ID as good. So you end up digging them and curse the amount of rubbish you end up taking home. The Whites Spectrum or XLT is considered an excellent discriminator but in fact ID's deep iffy targets as bad when some are good. You dig little deep iron, think its a great machine and go home not realising the amount of good finds you have left behind.
A good tone only machine like the XP Goldmaxx has super fast response and recovery times and will indicate two nearby targets. For your use you are doing the right thing picking up any little quirkes that make detecting easier especially if your detecting a sensitive area where you don't want to create a lunar area of filled holes. Guess I'm saying its horses for courses.
One thing you should try that works with many detectors but not all is to see if the direction of sweep affects the targets ID. Some metered machines that bounce the target give a better ID in one sweep direction and an off one in the other. See if you get that with your Garrett. If there is a difference it saves a lot of time.

 

[neilo]

The Minelab Explorers are a good example of machines with excellent tone Id, You will note that the digital readout is reasonably accurate at shallow depths only but at depth it does struggle. Also the digital readout is affected by different ground conditions and also high sensitivity settings but the tone id is not affected.I use my explorer a lot of the time at night and even during the day rarely look at digital readout. If the machine is used in iron mask mode this also will affect digital readout as the machine attempts to ignore a nearby rejected piece of iron. So my advice is if it sounds good dig it,regardless of what the digital readout says. Good hunting seeya Neilo

 

[gregl01]

I find myself distracted by LCD readout and when icons bouncing around make me second guess myself. I love my Tesoro Cibola- it beeps you dig... too easy!!!!
Greg

 

[patpall22]

Great question. about eight months ago before I had My DFX, I used a coinstar 4 and was really forced to earn That detector just beeped when any Metal was under the coil. The only Discrimination was wether or not you could hear the slightest of breakups in the signal. Now that I have My DFX, I Turn on the tone I.D. and concentrate on the individual sounds but mainly because I absolutely love the sound that silver makes on that machine. It will sing like a bird under a good silver target. I will say that I would be digging allot more if I didn't use the Signagraph on my LCD to confirm if Its a solid metal. I have dug much less crushed cans with that feature. I would say I listen to the tone, then confirm with the Signagraph. I don't pay much attention to the Icons.

 

[Eddy1H]

I have been detecting for some time now and find that even if your machine has ID and tone you will eventually learn by the sound as to what the detector is trying to tell you, most all of the new ones 10 or so years old are really amazing littel machines.
Try it both ways with and with out ID and see how it goes, I have developed with time, a really good feel for the sound the machine makes on each target and after a while the way they repeat sounds, kinda sticks in your mind, with all this said you do have to actually dig some of every thing and remember the good and the bad signals,or sounds your machine makes. All the circuits in the world are no match for your natural hearing. But of course use the discrimination after you identify a signal, just increase until the signal breaks and you will learn your machines lingo. For me I prefer analog it just seems more responsive, but to each his or her own,.It gets easy with time. Keep in mind just because you go spend a grand on a machine don't mean you will clean some ones clock out on a metal detecting adventure if they have a two or three hundred dollar machine they have been using for years. Just a little FYI, buy one and spend lots and lots of time with it and it will reward you with some cool stuff. Happy detecting
Eddy

 

[red]

Can you hear it ?
I know a few of the guys on the form are in that older group.
I have got to use a detector with readout, I can't hear the good sounds from the bad ones, or at least not good enough to use only tone.
So if anyone is like me and tone deaf as a rock then it a easy choice.
My hunting buddy uses a Fisher 1236 "I think" thats only tone and he loves it but has a little trouble setting it up.
Where one with readout is pretty much turn on and go and easy to see what your settings are.
I've said it be for.
Go to a MD show play with them all and buy the one you like best and you'll be happy and hunt more.
Fisher,Whits,Garrett and all the major brand have great machines.
HH and have fun at it.
red

 

[SHERMANVILLE ILLINOIS]

Ran M,

I was a cannon cocker in the military, some tones
are difficult.

Red,
"I know a few of the guys on the form are in that older group"

yes older group, not old

have a good un...............
SHERMANVILLE

 

[red]

Head phones do help.
Cannon Cocker ..ouch that has to hurt when it goes off.
My position was about 15ft. from the cannons when they went off round after round and you better not break ranks until ordered and by that time you were ready to advance.
The battle of SanJacinto was tough but by golly we won it.
But I was deaf be for then.
That'll tell you how old I really am.
Have a great hunt y'all
red