beach setting tips for the gt,.

[treasurehunter1957]

hi just purchased the sovereign gt with the 10inch tornado coil. been to the beach a few times , found the machine to be very good , but i believe i am not using this machine to its full potential , as i am a british detectorist and not many people appear to be using the gt here in the uk. i am looking for tips and settings ,and wether i need to change coils. i would be most grateful for an tips . cheers steve . portsmouth, united kingdom,

 

[crazyman]

Steve, I can only tell you how I do it in my area. If your hunting in disc. mode you basically set the GT up the same as you do on land. 0-disc, 0-notch, full volume with slight threshold and just enough sensitivity to maintain a steady threshold with a moderately slow sweep speed. It's important to keep the threshold from nulling on the minerals to get the best depth and sensitivity to small gold and the sensitivity can vary depending on the beach. If you have good beaches and can run your sensitivity high then good but if you have to run it at 2:00 or 3:00 or even auto sens. to maintain the threshold then do so as you will get better depth and sensitivity with the lower settings as opposed to using to much sensitivity. Some like to use reverse discrimination by hunting in all metal and then rechecking targets in disc. but again it's dependent on your beaches on which is deeper or works better for you. I have pretty nasty beaches so my sensitivity setting is usually set pretty low. Sometimes I can only run in auto with the 10 inch coil but I'm still experimenting with using iron mask off as it seems to help maintain the threshold better in manual at higher sensitivity settings.

 

[bootyhoundpa]

th 1957. i only have 1 week of beach experience with my gt but it exceded my expectations performance and depth wise. my settings on this side of the pond are as follows; disc-0 notch-0 volume-half to three quarters [ depending on preference] iron mask-on threshold switch in up position fix position band-1 sensetivity-start in 12 o clock position threshold dial just barely audible. sweep slow to start and listen for signals which sound off in both directions of swing. swing several times over target while watching center of coil -this is a short cut pin point method. dig up target. i can tell you i was a little suprised at the depth of a few of my targets such as a penny at 15in deep a dime at 15in deep a pocket knife and cast aluminum toy cars at 24in deep. note if detector is to unstable or chattery you will have to slowly turn your sensetivity knob clockwise until detector stablizes . i would recommend you practice at home with common coinage of your country to familiarize your ears to the tones of each coin. also if you have gold practice with that too. you will usually hear a low tone on gold. unfortunatly trash will often have a low tone as well. next you will need a sand scoop or shovel to dip up the target .keep digging the target is in there somewhere . i find my gt works best in damp sand near waters edge. dont be afraid to dig up trash till you get used to tones. also dig those weak whisper signals near the water as they usually turn out to be coins. be patient and you will be very successful with the gt the more you use it ..best of luck to ya. cheers. ps do not allow detector box to get wet as this would ruin your gt.

 

[crazyman]

Best beach detector I've ever used.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpk2zPaEBWE&feature=player_embedded

 

[jbow]

First get a binocular harness so you can chestmount the control box. My advice would be to simply run it in disc, find what you believe to be a deeper target and then tweak the sensitivity until you get the best audio signal. Maybe check it on a few targets and just leave it there... and carry a good digging scoop!!

I say this because the highest sensitivity you can run may not actually be the best, you will only know by fine tuning it on a real target to the best audio response.

You do not have to swing at a snail's pace on the beach. Sometimes if you are swinging a little too fast in stable, reasonably clean ground you wont miss a target but it may null or signal a little past the actual target because you are swinging faster than the processor can process. I'd slow down if the targets are really deep or if you get the best audio that way. I ALWAYS adjust a detector to match my sweep speed. I can tweak my sweep speed but i'd rather not. I do swing the Sovereign a little slower than I swing an F-75 or a T2 but not much... unless I am in trash or really bad ground.... but then I am usually not using the GT.

The GT has the best audio TID in the business and the 180 meter is awesome but an aluminum soda can will read like the same number as a US quarter or dime but you can usually tell by lifting the coil that the target is larger than a coin... but then again there are good targets bigger than a coin so, I dig a lot of trash. The BEST thing about the GT is it's stable TID on jewelry, it may give a TID in the low 100s or 90s or on up to 150 but if it stays on the number (and it usually will...) DIG IT !!! An alloy will make the number jump more so a lower carat gold may not be as stable. Silver or better gold will be stable from every direction. The GT was my first detector and I will probably never give it up because of it's beach performance and it's jewelry/old coin capability on deep targets. I've told it before but at an old farmhouse, in a very small area around the back door I hunted with the Explorer SE, E-TRAC, Tejon, T2, and F-75 and... I found nothing. I got a few very iffy signals but I thought they were trash. I got the GT out of the truck and the first five targets I dug were three pennies from 1917/1918. A silver piece about an 1x1/4 inches and maybe 1/8 inch thick.. it said "spoiled" on it, and a circlet with small diamonds all around it, it was white gold, the kind of thing wimmen hang on a chain around their neck about the diameter of a nickel or penny. All the targets were over 8" deep and all gave me a steady TID... ONLY with the SovereignGT and 10" Tornado coil.

You my friend are going to have a blast!! but get that binocular harness. It is cheap and it is WAY better than a hip mount situation plus the box will be farhter away from the saltwater. You can take some cling wrap and wrap the coil cable where it comes into the bottom of the box and on around the bottom of the hipmount (chestmount)... then, it it isn't too windy and the waves aren't too high I take a small bungee strap and wrap it around the clear plastic lid, wrapping the lid folded up and out of the way...so that I can easily look down and switch and to AM pinpoint when I want to. If it is rainy or too windy I will leave the clear lid over the controls. You won't regret chestmounting. The GT is just finewith the box on the rod if you cal slide it over a lawn but if you have to hold it off the ground or sand... it get's heavy. If you use the coil cover clean it out regularly, not at the end of the day but check it after 30 minutes and see how it looks.

I will be at the beach with mine later this summer !!! Going to find me some OIL... some BP oil !!! Yikes !! FWIW, I still buy BP gasoline. BP had an acident but our stupid government has turned it into a disaster by their inaction and their obstruction. I blame the US federal government... they are useless.

Julien

 

[strobeone]

Julian, I am trying to set up my GT in a harness for my Uncle to use as I believe he'll do a lot better with it this way. Do you have any pics of the binocular harness you talk of??

 

[crazyman]

Strobeone, Here's a pic. of my chest mount setup using a Bino strap. I use the belt to go around my middle to keep the control box from flopping around if I bend over. It's very comfortable and the controls are right there if you need to use them. You can also clip your meter on the belt for easy viewing for hunting on land. I have a way of using a plastic bag and zip ties for this setup if I'm going to be going in the water up to waist deep.

 

[pamlicopanther]

Nice setup. Where did you get that? Also, have you tried incorporating a waterproof box to put the unit in?

 

[rollie29]

Steve,

I'm a fellow Brit (from Southend-on Sea) now living in FL since the 80's. I use a GT as well and for me it's the deepest and best machine I've ever used in the wet sand. Keep discrimination at 3 or below and use the iron mask. I don't bother using the notch feature. You will dig trash, but I think the UK beaches are probably cleaner than the ones I hunt here. Dig those whispers and you'll be surprised how far down you'll go. The only thing you will have to get used to is the change in tone between the dry sand and wet sand. Go Pompey!

JP

 

[Critterhunter]

Stick a dime (better yet a gold ring or nickle) in the sand about 5 to 7" deep and then play with sensitivity for best response. You'll be surprised that probably 2PM or so will give the best depth, depending on minerals. If you rely on the machine seeming to run stable then you are costing yourself depth. Higher sensitivity settings might null, miss, or degrade the target. Continue to stick the target deeper and play with sensitivity until it narrows down your setting to something very tight, where anything lower or higher either nulls out or degrades the audio or ID. Most of the time this setting is much lower than what people would consider stable. However, at one beach a few weeks ago the best ID was with the machine running a little unstable (slight nulling here and there as I swept), but this was still at around 2PM on the dial I think (from memory). HIGHER is NOT always better! Trust me. Try it and you'll see this machine shine and be amazed by it's depth once that sweet spot is found. In real clean sand or ground lacking minerals perhaps 11PM or even full sensitivity might be best, but I have yet to find any soil or sand in my area that would give better depth at higher sensitivity levels like that.

 

[crazyman]

I've got some good tides in a couple of days so I'll have to find some deep faint targets and play with the sensitivity. So far I've achieved my best performance with depth and stability setting my sensitivity just high enough to maintain a steady threshold with a moderate slow sweep speed no matter where it ends up on the dial. So I'll try lower sensitivity and see if this can possibly give me better depth. I'm still skeptical about this at least in my ground. As long as I maintain my sweep speed to stay out of any ground null with that particular sensitivity setting I seem to be getting the best depth so far in my bad ground. I've dug silver dimes at 9 inches on land and I think I can get them even deeper. Now this might not seem impressive to some in other parts of the country but my ground is very challenging and Charles Garrett stated in an article years ago while testing early VLF discriminators that he did his testing in "Washington State where some of the

 

[Critterhunter]

Please do and let me know. However, I'm finding a medium sweep speed leaning maybe on the faster medium produces the best/deepest response, and of course the short/fast Sovereign wiggle will give the best ID/audio once the target is found. It's always been a much lower sensitivity setting than what will keep a stable threshold. I'm talking like a third turn or more down from what is stable to anybody. That beach the other day is the only spot I've hit where the best depth doing the buried target test was at a sensitivity setting where the threshold would null out slightly on just about every sweep for a second or two here and there. Almost like small bits of iron were in the ground but they weren't. Then again, I'm doing this stuff on the 10" and 15x12 SEF coils. If you are using a smaller coil you might find maxing out sensitivity isn't dilluting the target with the ground matrix because the coil sees less. My ground is medium to high minerals at most sites but yours may be even worse too.

 

[strobeone]

Thanks for the responses. On my way to purchase my new setup. Will post back with Florida finds and we'll see how I did!!! Great forum!!!

 

[Magyar]

Really nice set-up.

I think I would like to try the chest mount...I've seen several for sale on the Internet...any suggestion as to the best site to purchase one?

Have been using hip mount, but your set-up looks like what I need to get into the deeper water.

Thank you

 

[eagleeye299]

For chest mounting try the Butler Creek Binocular Buddy. It's a nice neoprene strap that goes around your neck and a surgical tube that goes around your chest. The neck strap really distributes the weight for all day carrying comfort and the tubing holds the unit against your chest but still has enough stretch to allow you to pull the unit away from your chest to look at it or make adjustments. You can find the whole set up in most sporting goods or camera shops, any place that sells binoculars should have it. Costs about $24.00.

 

[Magyar]

n/t

 

[crazyman]

Magyar, most sporting goods stores carry binocular straps. Camera straps work also.