At first I went out like I would with any other detector..cranked the sensitivity as high as it would run stable and just tried to learn the detector. Seems to work fine this way, but for the heck of it I'm following Ivan's advice and so far his suggestions are working well.
Ivan has a few posts stating to set the sensitivity at 4, raise the coil 3 inches off the ground (just shorten the shaft to its shortest limit), and set the discrimination between min and Iron.
3 inches off the ground makes sense, because the manual states the readings are the most accurate when the targets are between 4 and 8 inches. I can tell you from experience that while air testing I found targets responded further away with higher sensitivity, but some how at 4 targets in the ground still hit hard at various depths. I read some thing recently that said sensitivity really doesn't effect depth like it used to.....if that helps explain it at all.
Personally I find the bars to be the most accurate.......I do look at the #'s.......and I use sum mode just to listen for the sounds and to size the target.....not sure sum mode is necessary, but I still like the tones. I also switch over to all metal once in a while to see how large the target is. Its nice having all 3 options on one switch ( sum, all metal, and discrimnation mode) right at your thumb. You could litterally use all 3 with in a couple seconds....
I've gained some insight by reading tab-nabit's posts too.
Let us know what you think of the detector........So far I'm loving it........I was leary of parks for years...now I feel comfortable cherry picking what I choose.