An explanation is in order.

[crazyman]

The pumping or bobbing method when setting your sensitivity in discrimination mode is not something I just pulled out of the air and is not something I came up with. This method has been used for many years by hunters using different brands of detectors in "bad" ground that varies from site to site and isn't unique to the Sovereign alone. Some call it "Power Balancing". Monte brought this technique to my attention a long time ago long before I picked up a Sovereign. It worked really well on some of my Whites detectors and I've used it through the years on other makes also. As I said in an earlier post this is just one method to set your sensitivity at the maximum your ground will allow and is more beneficial in bad ground than good. It is also just a starting point and you can then adjust your sensitivity further for the type of hunting you do whether it's Art's method to get the best signal on the deepest coins or using lower settings for iron or trash. If you have bad ground this may be helpful. If you have good ground and you can run your sensitivity at max anyway then this method is not useful or needed.

 

[hershey1]

That's what this forum is for C-man. Most older folks knew where you were coming from. New people can learn more from guy's like you than they will ever learn from these new manuals. Years ago if you did'nt have a few tricks up your sleeve you was a hurting. Now all you have to do is go to the internet and ask experienced hunter's and there will be someone that can help with the problem. HH

 

[Neil]

I set my sens from start at about 12oclock and adjust it as I go based on falsing and threshold disappearing on sweeps. when your hunting you should know if its set correctly by this and obviously if your pulling up deep targets. I would be good running my sens all the way up or all the way down if thats what the site dictates. sweep speed is as critical or more as the sov is slow in recovery and needs time for the processor to process
same with the explorer and etrac, they are a bit faster but they require slow sweeps if you want to hit those real deep ones. after youve used one awhile you get a feel for it and the method can be applied to both bbs and fbs detectors.
silent search machines dont give you the same feedback as the ones that use a threshold so we are fortunate there(minelab users).

 

[crazyman]

Thanks Hershey. It's just a tip that might help someone. Calling it garbage even though it's been used by many people for years with success is a bit funny. Maybe they think I'm some type of usurper for their self proclaimed Sovereign Guru Throne.

 

[crazyman]

Neil, the sensitivity setting is such a simple adjustment. As long as it ends up where it works best for you it doesn't really matter how you got it there. I didn't think offering an additional tip on how I do it as a starting point to get there would cause this much trouble. I like starting at max for that particular ground when I first start setting my sensitivity as the only way to go from there is down when I do adjust. I've never been able to go up so it's just faster for me in my mineralized ground.

 

[Critterhunter]

I'll say this with my very limited exposure (at least on the GT) to the pump method. If I set sensitivity in my normal sweeping around and adjusting fashion and then see what happens when I try the pump method, I find that the threshold will null when pumping telling me that it is still too high yet. That's why I have hopes that the pump method will at least get closer to the proper sensitivity dime method than the normal way I set the GT up.

I understand your logic and feel what works for you is what's most important. Who is anybody else to say that it's not the right way to start about setting it when they don't hunt that nightmare of soil you've talked about.