Whites Classic III tips?

Pizarro · Aug 15, 2007

White's Classic III tips?

Hi,

I just acquired a Classic III and spent my first day detecting. I am hooked! I found a 1965 quarter, a dime and about 10 pennies. I searched in a fairly large city park for about 3 hours. I found lots of pull tabs and bottle caps among the coins.

I downloaded the users manual and have a pretty good grasp on the basics of the unit. I need some help fine tuning for better results.

I have my unit set on ring range discrimination, sensitivity P and Frequency P. What is the best setting to eliminate some of the pull tabs? Is this more of and audio skill than a set up adjustment? What should the settings be for trying to locate jewelry vs. coins? Does this unit primarily find coins instead of jewelry?

The quarter I found was in the middle of a grassy area with nothing else around, the pennies were all found by the tot lot area. It was pretty easy to search.

The area which gave me fits was buy the picnic tables. Lots of indicators but way too many pull tabs and bottle caps. Any help on how to search through the trash would be appreciated!

Any idea how deep this unit will search ? Thanks in advance for any pointers on this unit!

khouse · Aug 15, 2007

Re: White's Classic III tips?

Make you two very small lettered decals. Just print it on a piece of paper and use clear tape over the top. Label one nickel and label the other coin. Put a small line on each label. Then air test a modern nickel and slowly rotated your disc knob clockwise just until the nickel does not beep. Place your nickel decal and line it up with the dial mark. Then do the same to the coin decal. It would be up to you if you want to count a zinc cent a coin. Anyway you get the picture. Then run your disc about 9am. Then when you get a beep dial up the disc to see where the target falls off. Then you'll have a better idea of what lies beneath. Make as many decals you want,foil, tabs, quarters etc.

Pizarro · Aug 15, 2007

Re: White's Classic III tips?

Excellent. Thanks!

slow sweeper · Aug 16, 2007

Re: White's Classic III tips?

I used the older version of the Classic III for many years. Found a lot of coins and three gold rings. khouse's idea is a good one. I would hunt with disc set at just below ring range and after getting a good repeatable signal would slowly turn up the disc until the signal started breaking up. After a lot of practise I had a pretty good idea if I wanted to dig the target depending on where I lost the signal.
The old Classic's had the control box UNDER the shaft. I could keep swinging over the target and use one finger to turn up the disc. But the new version has the box on TOP of the shaft doesn't it? If so it may be harder to do that.
Just remember that the ring range setting is just a ball park figure. Rings come in a zillion sizes, shapes and metallic make up. The detector will react a little different to each one. Also if there are multiple targets under the coil the detector will have a harder time giving you accurate info.
Crank up sensitivity all the way if you can do it with out the detector "chattering" a lot. Also, check targets from different angles too. Sometimes an "iffy" signal will get better from a different angle.
Gold rings fall into the pull tab range and there is nothing you can do about it. If you want to find gold rings you are going to dig your share of tabs.
Good luck and happy hunting.

aladdin · Feb 10, 2008

Re: White's Classic III tips?

Have one and love it !! been usin it bout 4 yr ! have newer units but this MD keeps-a-finding. AS wine this unit only gets better with time!!

doctorbb · Feb 11, 2008

Re: White's Classic III tips?

I've had one since for 5 years. Great machine. The other responses are right on. Search just below the ring preset and use disc knob to find where the target drops out.

lisfisher · Mar 19, 2008

Re: White's Classic III tips?

I've had mine for about 8 years, I love it. Never any problems.

tabsrus · Jul 4, 2008

Re: White's Classic III tips?

What is the Black sand switch for??

khouse · Jul 4, 2008

Re: White's Classic III tips?

If your in highly mineralized soil or sand it will shift the disc down some. Monte could give you the science of the whole thing if he sees this post.

R-bass · Jan 5, 2009

Re: White's Classic III tips?

I have mine for 6 years still works good with the bulls eye 5.3 this is now my backup to my M6

briankb70 · Jan 6, 2009

Re: White's Classic III tips?

R-bass said:
I have mine for 6 years still works good with the bulls eye 5.3 this is now my backup to my M6

ditto here except backup to a DFX. I really enjoy swinging the classic III.it's really my favorite for cost ,reliability,and fun factor

nowwhat · Jun 12, 2009

Re: White's Classic III tips?

I bought my SL/lll classic new in 2000, it's hands down my favorite unit for coins & jewerly. Like most MD'rs I've use others and I'll probably own other units as time goes by, but I'll never get rid of the classic lll, it's just to handy and easy to use. The only fault it has is the speaker plug is not stereo, that would help these old tired ears of mine.

MARCVS · Oct 19, 2009

Re: White's Classic III tips?

My first metal detector...great machine :hello2:

dahut · Oct 25, 2009

Re: White's Classic III tips?

My first Whites. Great detector. Follow Kenny's advice about tagging the DISC control, and just finger the DISC knob as you swing over targets you encounter. Sometimes, pulltabs will give themselves away because they tend to be at the same depth, or as you raise your coil while you swing over them, they fade off quickly. A slow sweep helps to process them, too.

Get as many tabs as you can and practice with them at home, comparing them to rings and coins. Do this on clean ground, under real world conditions. In time you will instinctively react to the clues they give.

This takes a lot of practice and patience, and there is no sure fire way to eliminate all pull tabs.
So, make it your goal to understand them and how they react. Then when something behaves differently, you will be alerted. It's a mental thing.

61willys · Oct 29, 2009

Re: White's Classic III tips?

My best advice is to Use it ...play with it ...Learn the sounds of it...I started slow with mine because the single tone was hard for me to get used to ...But once you do you can hear the roundness of the coins especially a quarter or dime. I love mine but I just moved up to the classic 5 ID and Its like the Classic with a screen that tells you whats under Ground I love it...Just went to the Coast this weekend and found 26.00 plus dollars in clad and a merc dime and 5 wheaties My wife did help with her prizm 4 but I was The King of Quarters with the Classic 5 ID...best advice is GET OUT AND SWING THAT SUCKER...

LOL Happy Hunting and Good Luck may the Gold and Silver come up to meet you...
Dave Jones
North Fork,Ca.

KJ$IPW · Jan 11, 2010

Re: White's Classic III tips?

First off, you have a great machine! The Classic III is my first, and favorite detector, the black sand switch, shifts the discriminator lower(almost an all metal mode), you will find deeper targets this way, but you will dig more junk. If you are having problems around playground equipment, turn the sensitivity down some.
hh hope this helps out
Steve
in my test garden, I buried a dime at 7 inches, I could not find it with normal disc. I put it into black sand, and the detector beeped

RigDean · Apr 15, 2010

Re: White's Classic III tips? long post...

You've got a great machine there! :thumbsup:

The classic III will always have a special place with me. :laughing7:

It was my first MD.
I was staying up late one night and a whites commercial came on showing all the cool stuff out there to be found. So I ordered the DVD and free info. I was mesmerized... :tongue3:

Next day I went to the pawn shop...I walked around for a bit and they didn't have any out so I asked if they had any metal detectors. The lady looks at me kinda funny :icon_scratch:

then she says "hold on a minute" :dontknow:

She walks to the back and a few seconds later comes walking back with the classic III in her hands..."you mean one of these?''

:icon_pirat:

I turned it on and it worked! Trying to hide my giddyness, and not acting that interested I asked, "whaddya want fer it?"

The lady replies, "I dunno, how does forty bucks sound?"

I still wasn't sure about MD ing at the time and didn't know much about them but I knew I wanted one...I paid the $40

This thing was immaculate, no scratches, no dings, the coil even showed little to no sign of wear. I found a dealer sticker on the battery.(Treasure Cove Ft Smith Ar.) So I went over there and he offered $100 for it! :hello2:

I knew then I got a good deal, So I didn't sell it to him but I did buy a Whites PRL-1 as a backup and for my brothers. He also hooked me up with the user manual for both machines and gave me a 1944 mercury dime to start my collection!

Thanks for sharing my story with me, it's good to see others who had their beginning with the classic III...I still have it and don't plan on getting rid of it.

As for tips and tricks on it, everyone here has pretty much confirmed what I know about it. Turn your discrim to just barely knock out iron, unless it is real trashy but I wouldn't turn it up too much(lose depth) then you can confirm targets using the methods described above. Even though it is a single tone machine, the more you use it, it will be as good as having different tones.(almost) You will learn the subtle nuances of different coins 'n' things. For marking pulltabs, I cut a white piece of electric tape in the shape of a small triangle and stuck it where it "points" to the spot where pulltabs are disced out. If you are scanning a target and suspect a pulltab, turn the disc knob until it "nulls", if it nulls before you get to pulltab, it could be a nickle. I would try different pulltabs(ones you've dug up) and see where you want to place your mark. The disc knob(mine) is very sensitive and if it moves even a hair it will make a difference. Don't forget to turn the disc back down after recovering the target. You don't want to leave it where it discs the nickles. Unless you are on an all silver hunt!

As for depth...many factors will come into play here. Such as size of target, discrimination, sensitivity, ground moisture, metal composition, etc...I have dug crushed cans at atleast a foot deep that sounded like a shallow coin. Most of my coin sized finds were found from surface to 6". The classic III discriminates very well, so if disc is up between coin and ring range but you are getting a choppy/broken signal, it could mean there is a coin at the edge of detection capability, so you might want to investigate those faint sounding choppy signals :icon_thumleft:

It is a great machine and you will do well with it

One other tip I can give you and this goes for almost any electronic device which uses batteries. If you are not using the machine for any length of time, say 2 weeks or more(winter) take the batteries out because over time they can leak and corrode the internal electronics...

Would be great to see some pics of your finds! HH