whites prizm 4 junk or what????

[vabuckhunter]

i bought this machine 2 years ago and havent used it till this weekend. hit it hard friday and saturday at a couple old houses and came up with 11 memorial cents a key and junk no clad or silver. is this machine junk or is it operator error?

 

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[Skywola]

I would not write it off yet, it takes time to get use to how the detector works. I got a TDI and it does a great job, and I am still learning . . . . .

 

[Iron Patch]

i bought this machine 2 years ago and havent used it till this weekend. hit it hard friday and saturday at a couple old houses and came up with 11 memorial cents a key and junk no clad or silver. is this machine junk or is it operator error?

Your machine must be junk. You obviously missed at least 10-15 gold coins and at least 5 gold rings, which is about how many each of us find each time we go out.

wow .... your detector sure sucks on rings.

 

[hogge]

I use a Prism IV. You may want to look at some of my finds. Alot has to do with where, (and how), you are hunting. I find the Prism IV durable, easy to operate, and lightweight. Patience my friend. Patience.

 

[Chug And Red]

Hang in there, it takes time to learn your machine, you won't find good things all the time, but when you do hit that one special signal, it will be worth the wait, and work!!!!!

 

[Sky Pilot]

Heck y'all they're still new here!

Vabuckhunter: Welcome To TreasureNet!


SKy Pilot

 

[liftloop]

you have a great detector it takes time be happy your not swing an ace 2fiddy.that prizm will prove it self yet. you have a solid detector for the money.believe me your finds will in prove.

 

[ivan salis]

its a "METAL DETECTOR" not a magic wand -according to you it found metal --it is only going to find what metal is at the spot --if the spot is full of "newly dropped items" * ( like mem cents and such- thats what your going to find ) -- if you are hitting areas that were heavily hunted areas in the past by other detectorist -the good pickings might be a bit slim -

so in a way it could be "operator error" -- bad spot selection (the place you hunted sucked or has been pounded to death by others ) -- a bit of research can aid greatly -- since you can only "find" what was lost there in the first place .---- one needs to "target" likely areas in which what your looking for is liable to be --much better chances to find civil war relics at a old civil war camp site than just picking some random lot to detect --get the drift?

if you "hate" your machine feel free to send it to me --theres several kids in my detecting club that would just "love" it to death -- its takes time to get to be "one" with the machine at least 100 hours in the feild , minimum.

 

[vabuckhunter]

hey eddie and iron thanks for the smartass remarks kinda uncalled for isnt it? ive been seeing all yalls posts and it just seemed odd to find all them cents and no clad i havent seen many posts like that on here is all i was saying. i wasnt sure if it was me or not. thanks for all the positive input i put a quarter dime and nickel in the yard and went over them and the reading was true as far as saying what it was so i should be digging evrything?

 

[vabuckhunter]

it was not true sorry for the mistake

 

[TooManyHobbies]

Welcome buckhunter, you found eleven cents because they weren't dimes or quarters. If they were, you would've found eleven dimes or quarters. That's just the way it works. Think gold, silver and old coins and they will eventually appear. Not to mention all the junk you dig that the machine says is gold, silver and old coins. Keep at it grasshopper, you'll be addicted in no time.

 

[MightyMouse]

i bought this machine 2 years ago and havent used it till this weekend. hit it hard friday and saturday at a couple old houses and came up with 11 memorial cents a key and junk no clad or silver. is this machine junk or is it operator error?

Go to a store that sells paint, grab a few paint sticks(normaly free) cut them into small sections and tape or glue things to the end. By things you will want to do Quarter,Dime,Nickle,Penny,pulltab,junkring,bottle cap etc.... Use these as air test strips. Place your machine over a table of sorts with coil hanging off the end and one by one wave the test strips under the coil. listen to what your machine is doing. Wave strips at diffrent angles and far and near to the coil. Try this with diffrent setting on your machine. Also what you can do to get use to things is do a test garden. If you have a yard pick a small area and bury diffrent things and diffrent depths. Space things apart to where when you swing your coil over what you burried your not going over the top of 2 things. Also mark what you have in the ground some how. And don't forget where you burried things lol. Also i'm not sure of your machine but if your hunting places you know doesn't have a ton of trash run it wide open no disc. and dig everything. you should run no disc. any way but i know i don't. Remember also if you do disc. that your gold falls in with foil and tab. Ooo and remember dig everything. HH

 

[Sky Pilot]

Go to a store that sells paint, grab a few paint sticks(normaly free) cut them into small sections and tape or glue things to the end. By things you will want to do Quarter,Dime,Nickle,Penny,pulltab,junkring,bottle cap etc.... Use these as air test strips. Place your machine over a table of sorts with coil hanging off the end and one by one wave the test strips under the coil. listen to what your machine is doing. Wave strips at diffrent angles and far and near to the coil. Try this with diffrent setting on your machine. Also what you can do to get use to things is do a test garden. If you have a yard pick a small area and bury diffrent things and diffrent depths. Space things apart to where when you swing your coil over what you burried your not going over the top of 2 things. Also mark what you have in the ground some how. And don't forget where you burried things lol. Also i'm not sure of your machine but if your hunting places you know doesn't have a ton of trash run it wide open no disc. and dig everything. you should run no disc. any way but i know i don't. Remember also if you do disc. that your gold falls in with foil and tab. Ooo and remember dig everything. HH

Great advice for any detectorist.

Great job and welcome to TreasureNet, MightyMouse!

Sky Pilot

 

[Demon_Wolf]

The first metal detector I bought was a White's Prizm 4. I took it out and found just modern clad with it in the summer of 2007. It's a good machine for clad hunting and just to get out but from my experience with it, it just plain sucks!!! The deepest coin I ever found with it was a wheat penny at 4 inches and that was the only old coin I found with it that summer. I dug a lot of trash with it at more then 4 inches, It would give you a good signal until you retrieved the target and once you had it out of the ground it would give a iron signal like it was suppose too. Then in the winter of 2009 my interest's peeked again in metal detecting and I bought a Garrett GTI 1500 and in the summer of 2010 I found a total of 24 silver coins. 1 Barber Quarter, 2 Washington Quarters, 11 Mercury Dimes, and 10 Roosevelt Dimes. 48 wheat cents with the oldest being a 1909 Plain. And 1 1897 Indian Head Cent. I just bought The Garrett At Pro for this year because I wanted a metal Detector that I could hunt the fresh water beaches and I also could go into the water with it. So far this year I have been out 4 times and have found 2 Mercury Dimes, 1 Roosevelt Dime and a 1892 Indian Head Cent which is the oldest coin I have found so far. So my personal opinion is to buy one of the higher end models or you will get bored with metal detecting pretty quick. Good Luck And Happy Hunting!!!

 

[DMN]

VA -- there's a lot of good info here, and just like detecting, pick the right spot!

Patience, research, a good shovel, strong back and a willingness to be persistent really help when detecting. A couple people here already let you know about the management of your machine. The rest of it is research and research, and some reading, followed by research. Doing that, you can put your detector on the land which may have the good stuff. There are a number of people here who have tremendous finds by doing just that. And always remember to get permission. Build some good rapport with the owners of the lands you detect on and you'll probably gain access to places no one has had a chance with for a long time, if ever.

Does your detector suck? Maybe, but you've got to be in the places that have the goodies too! Dig often and dig all! Good Luck.

 

[Charlene]

Be patient, better things will surely come your way..we hope

 

[root]

i bought this machine 2 years ago and havent used it till this weekend. hit it hard friday and saturday at a couple old houses and came up with 11 memorial cents a key and junk no clad or silver. is this machine junk or is it operator error?

I have a Prizm IV also. I started out in my own yard and found over 40 coins, most of which were pennies. Think about it.....If you are wrasslin' in the yard and lose what's in your pocket, the pennies will be hardest to find. Thus more pennies. Not to mention that if you knew the contents of your pocket and knew it was mostly pennies you may not spend too much time lookin' for them.
Just my .02

HH,

root

 

[MonkeyBoy]

i bought this machine 2 years ago and havent used it till this weekend. hit it hard friday and saturday at a couple old houses and came up with 11 memorial cents a key and junk no clad or silver. is this machine junk or is it operator error?

Nope.. Ok machines.. my oldest dug his first Civil war plate with one at 11 years old.. 8" deep at a pretty good angle!! Yes, I'm bragging about him, he is my boy!! ;-) It wasn't the greatest for depth and close targets but it does the job.

Stick with it.. set up a test garden for yourself and just keep at it! You need to experience a couple good finds and lots of trash to get it down.. true with any machine. I switched over to a V3i from a DFX last year and I'm just now getting really comfortable with it..

Keep hunting and have fun!

MB

 

[hogge]

The first metal detector I bought was a White's Prizm 4. I took it out and found just modern clad with it in the summer of 2007. It's a good machine for clad hunting and just to get out but from my experience with it, it just plain sucks!!! The deepest coin I ever found with it was a wheat penny at 4 inches and that was the only old coin I found with it that summer. I dug a lot of trash with it at more then 4 inches, It would give you a good signal until you retrieved the target and once you had it out of the ground it would give a iron signal like it was suppose too. Then in the winter of 2009 my interest's peeked again in metal detecting and I bought a Garrett GTI 1500 and in the summer of 2010 I found a total of 24 silver coins. 1 Barber Quarter, 2 Washington Quarters, 11 Mercury Dimes, and 10 Roosevelt Dimes. 48 wheat cents with the oldest being a 1909 Plain. And 1 1897 Indian Head Cent. I just bought The Garrett At Pro for this year because I wanted a metal Detector that I could hunt the fresh water beaches and I also could go into the water with it. So far this year I have been out 4 times and have found 2 Mercury Dimes, 1 Roosevelt Dime and a 1892 Indian Head Cent which is the oldest coin I have found so far. So my personal opinion is to buy one of the higher end models or you will get bored with metal detecting pretty quick. Good Luck And Happy Hunting!!!

Yep.....The prism IV sucks. I've only made The Banner 3 times......(Not to mention "Best Finds of 2008" with a Rev War Relic),1783 CFT. KG III copper I sold for $3,750, A Vermont Ryder 6 I sold for $760. Ryder 7, (avatar),10+ Conn Coppers, King George Coppers, 2 GW Buttons, countless seated, large cents, IH's, reales, military buttons, and TONS of relics! I paid $300 for mine. It's not the machine! YYYYep! The Prism IV sucks!! P.S. As regards to depth: Last year my brother in law, who also uses a PRISM IV, found a CFT. 8 Real at a depth of over 12 inches! You should have seen the crater he had! Came up as a bottle cap signal because the thing was COUNTERFEIT! He just sold it 2 weeks ago, to a guy I converse with from C-4, for $225. Case closed!

 

[mastereagle22]

I have one that I bought for my son and I also use as a loaner when Baldingboy and I go out hunting. On a hunt not too long ago his son, I think he is 10, found the only keeper coin of the night with the Prizm IV.

The one thing that I can honestly tell you is that new people to this site as well as old tend to forget that for every good find we dig there are probably 20-30 trash targets. I took $38 of scrap iron, $25 of scrap copper and $15 of scrap aluminum I had dug and cleaned up last year alone. That is not counting all the trash I tossed!!!

You cannot buy a detector and use it two or three times and expect to know how the machine works. I will also say that location plays a huge roll in finds. If you go to a park or a school playground a day or so after another detectorist has been there your finds will not be good. If you get lucky and hit a school or park several weeks after it has been done your chance to have a decent find increases dramatically.

Remember that a Metal Detector is a tool, and like all tools you have to use it a LOT to get proficient with it. If you think you are wasting your time with the Prizm IV buy something else. But I don't really think the machine is a piece of junk and for what it is supposed to do I think it does a fine job.

That's just my 2 cents worth........ Welcome to Tnet