Best gold beach detector?

[Odanscoils]

I loved my sovereign probably my favorite. it was just way to big and heavy for my stature I guess you could say. And in the 100+ degrees temps for few months of the year we have here it was just not enjoyable to swing for any length if time
If its more work then pleasure its not the right one.

I put my control box in an old purse of my wife's.
Cut a hole in the bottom for the coil wire.
Just the coil and meter on the shaft.
Very light now.

 

[DigDog]

I put my control box in an old purse of my wife's.
Cut a hole in the bottom for the coil wire.
Just the coil and meter on the shaft.
Very light now.

Unfortunately after few failed neck surgeries wrapping something around my neck or shoulders not really an option. Need as light as possible around 3 lbs max no headphones
Just the 3 lb detector is challenging enough it is what it is that or just not do the hobby at all as i have been.
Sure want to

 

[ROBOCOP]

I modified my Sovereign xs2aPro by mounting the box behind my elbow. I got a piece of tubing from an aluminum crutch and it slides into the top of the shaft perfectly. I relocated the V-clip from the stock shaft and bolted it to the tubing. I made the tubing a little extra long and I can slide it to a couple of different length locations so the box can act as a counterweight to whatever size coil I use, currently I use the Sef 10" x 12" coil. I have to reach back to toggle between all metal and discrimination as necessary. I also use the Detector Pro swing buddy to the center of the shaft and I can make a nice smooth swing. I still have the 550 meter on its own v-clip in its original location.

 

[Odanscoils]

Unfortunately after few failed neck surgeries wrapping something around my neck or shoulders not really an option. Need as light as possible around 3 lbs max no headphones
Just the 3 lb detector is challenging enough it is what it is that or just not do the hobby at all as i have been.
Sure want to

You could always make a hip mount. Was a kit for that. Though taking the box mounting bracket off the shaft and making an attachment for a thick belt that won't twist may work for you.

 

[Odanscoils]

I modified my Sovereign xs2aPro by mounting the box behind my elbow. I got a piece of tubing from an aluminum crutch and it slides into the top of the shaft perfectly. I relocated the V-clip from the stock shaft and bolted it to the tubing. I made the tubing a little extra long and I can slide it to a couple of different length locations so the box can act as a counterweight to whatever size coil I use, currently I use the Sef 10" x 12" coil. I have to reach back to toggle between all metal and discrimination as necessary. I also use the Detector Pro swing buddy to the center of the shaft and I can make a nice smooth swing. I still have the 550 meter on its own v-clip in its original location.

550 meter.
I'm still not sure of tuning it.
Do I tune it to 500 on a silver quarter
Or 550 on a silver half.
I really don't know.

 

[Odanscoils]

Unfortunately after few failed neck surgeries wrapping something around my neck or shoulders not really an option. Need as light as possible around 3 lbs max no headphones
Just the 3 lb detector is challenging enough it is what it is that or just not do the hobby at all as i have been.
Sure want to

I don't think the box weights 3lbs

 

[Rob183]

Unfortunately after few failed neck surgeries wrapping something around my neck or shoulders not really an option. Need as light as possible around 3 lbs max no headphones
Just the 3 lb detector is challenging enough it is what it is that or just not do the hobby at all as i have been.
Sure want to

I know what you mean, my 2 cervical and 3 lumbar surgeries have been successful but I still have to go light. The Legend and stock coil are pretty much my limit.

 

[Mark ( ohio )]

I will be at the beach next month ( OBX )... with me will be a cz20/21 and a nox 600. Planning on hunting as much as possible. Will see which produces the best, but its really about location, location, location.

 

[Odanscoils]

I modified my Sovereign xs2aPro by mounting the box behind my elbow. I got a piece of tubing from an aluminum crutch and it slides into the top of the shaft perfectly. I relocated the V-clip from the stock shaft and bolted it to the tubing. I made the tubing a little extra long and I can slide it to a couple of different length locations so the box can act as a counterweight to whatever size coil I use, currently I use the Sef 10" x 12" coil. I have to reach back to toggle between all metal and discrimination as necessary. I also use the Detector Pro swing buddy to the center of the shaft and I can make a nice smooth swing. I still have the 550 meter on its own v-clip in its original location.

How do you tune the 550 meter ?
I'm pretty certain I'm not doing it quite right.

 

[gfatizzi]

How do you tune the 550 meter ?
I'm pretty certain I'm not doing it quite right.

 

[gfatizzi]

You can use a clad dime, quarter or copper penny as they all read the same. (550) I use a 180 meter myself. It's a lot less jumpy. If I had the 550 meter, I would do the 180 conversion on it. Just my personal preference.

 

[Odanscoils]

You can use a clad dime, quarter or copper penny as they all read the same. (550) I use a 180 meter myself. It's a lot less jumpy. If I had the 550 meter, I would do the 180 conversion on it. Just my personal preference.

Thanks for the reply.
I use a silver half.
So do I tune to 500 or 550 ?

 

[gfatizzi]

Thanks for the reply.
I use a silver half.
So do I tune to 500 or 550 ?

550

 

[Odanscoils]

550

No wonder it hasn't been working correctly.
Thanks

 

[Rick(ND)]

No wonder it hasn't been working correctly.
Thanks

I really dont think it would make a difference if you use 500 or 550, but if you are going by what other are saying on the numbers they get with their meters that are 550 then your will be different if you use 500 numbers.
Myself I never like the 550 meters as I like a more accurate reading that a 180 meter gets. I know the early 550 meters were very jumpy and those close signals would overlap on some numbers and found that my 180 meter could tell the difference between the copper penny and those after 1982, this also goes with many of the screw caps that run close to the new zinc penny.
Now if you decide to use calibrate 500 versus the 550 you will not get any numbers over 500 and it will bring all the numbers some say is a nickel it will be lower than that number.
the later 550 meters were more stable and didn't jump around as much, but for me it couldnt ID like my 180, maybe its just I am used to the 180 meter and know what it is telling me. If you notice the GT went to the 180 meter when they came out.
Now this is my experience with the 180 meter, the copper penny and Dimes quarters and half read 180 when it was calibrated to 180, the silver dime would lock on the 180 faster while the clad would run 179-180 on the meter, the clad quarter would mostly be 180 and the silver quarter would maybe jump to 180-181. the screw caps would read 176-177, but sounded bigger than that of a zinc penny, many older wheat and indian heads would read 176-177 and sounded different, Now the nickel would run mostly 143-144 while they had a different tone as it was smother sounding. than the round pulltab. If I got a 141-142 I got a beaver tail off the Pulltabs, but if if sounded like a nickel I would dig it as a few gold rings sounded like a nickel, but a couple of number lower. Also some of the war nickel also read higher but had the nickel. tone to it.

Good luck when you can get out to detect and go slow and listen to those tone.

Rick

 

[Odanscoils]

I really dont think it would make a difference if you use 500 or 550, but if you are going by what other are saying on the numbers they get with their meters that are 550 then your will be different if you use 500 numbers.
Myself I never like the 550 meters as I like a more accurate reading that a 180 meter gets. I know the early 550 meters were very jumpy and those close signals would overlap on some numbers and found that my 180 meter could tell the difference between the copper penny and those after 1982, this also goes with many of the screw caps that run close to the new zinc penny.
Now if you decide to use calibrate 500 versus the 550 you will not get any numbers over 500 and it will bring all the numbers some say is a nickel it will be lower than that number.
the later 550 meters were more stable and didn't jump around as much, but for me it couldnt ID like my 180, maybe its just I am used to the 180 meter and know what it is telling me. If you notice the GT went to the 180 meter when they came out.
Now this is my experience with the 180 meter, the copper penny and Dimes quarters and half read 180 when it was calibrated to 180, the silver dime would lock on the 180 faster while the clad would run 179-180 on the meter, the clad quarter would mostly be 180 and the silver quarter would maybe jump to 180-181. the screw caps would read 176-177, but sounded bigger than that of a zinc penny, many older wheat and indian heads would read 176-177 and sounded different, Now the nickel would run mostly 143-144 while they had a different tone as it was smother sounding. than the round pulltab. If I got a 141-142 I got a beaver tail off the Pulltabs, but if if sounded like a nickel I would dig it as a few gold rings sounded like a nickel, but a couple of number lower. Also some of the war nickel also read higher but had the nickel. tone to it.

Good luck when you can get out to detect and go slow and listen to those tone.

Rick

Thanks Rick
I've never dug a ring or earrings. Small jewelry.
Does the GT give that nice like vroom vroom sounds on those ?
What's the numbers like ?
Solid or bouncy ?

 

[Odanscoils]

Thanks Rick
I've never dug a ring or earrings. Small jewelry.
Does the GT give that nice like vroom vroom sounds on those ?
What's the numbers like ?
Solid or bouncy ?

I ment I've never dug small jewelry with the GT.
My first earring was with the Ace 250 actually.
Rang up a solid nickel.
I'm fairly new to the GT.
Had originally bought it for my father up in Alaska.
Finally getting it back from little brother after dad's passing. He only tried it twice.
I've barely scratched the surface with it.
Injuries keeping me down.

 

[Rick(ND)]

It takes time to learn the Sovereign and understand those sounds and tones as to what to listen for. I didn't like the Sovereign when I first got it as most have the same problem. From using it and doing some digging it with some time I did OK and the more I used it the more I learn, now to me it is so simple and easy to use. For me the 180 meter is the secret to my success with the Sovereign . I use the meter to tell the targets that read close to a good target.
Example I was detecting where a bleacher were at a old ballfield that was loaded with both type of pull tabs, the good numbers I wanted were my 180 which is copper or silver coins, the new zinc pennies read 176-177 while a nickel read 143-144 and has a different tone as it is smoother sounding than a round pull-tab , the little beaver tail off the round tab reads 140-141 and quicker or smaller sounding. Now in this area I got a lot of trash reading of both type of pull-tab , got a few coins too others missed also. The one reading sounded like a nickel, but read as a beaver tail of the round pullab which most would not dig, but being it sounded so smooth and a little deeper I had to dig, found a older style gold signet ring that was a good 11 inches down. Over time I dug many small pieces of of misc jewelry and many time my wife would have me check out many of her MXT signal as they were iffy and I could tell her what I though it was so it save a lot of digging for her.
The GT now is a bit more sensitive and do get fooled a little on iron, but see if I come from a different angle I can see the difference and sometimes you have to work the signal with the Sovereign wiggle to just go over that one small area and just do the small wiggle over just the target and see if you get the nice tone. The best one I had was I got a signal in a different ball field and those that were detecting with me said it was iron and a false signal, but doing the wiggle sounded so good in one little area I just had to dig it, found out around 5-6 inches down was a big rusty half inch bolt laying on top of a Franklin half and had the rust spot where it laid. Like I say you use the detector and learn it well and understand what those tones all mean and you will be surprise at what it can do.
I havent used my Sovereign for the last few year as I cant do what i did year ago, I do miss using my Sovereign and use my Troy Shadow X5 as it is light weight a little . Maybe this winter I can find a way to mount the control box different so it wont be as heavy, the figure out get off the ground when I do my digging.

Sorry these post get so long and hope it isn't boring .

Rick

 

[Odanscoils]

It takes time to learn the Sovereign and understand those sounds and tones as to what to listen for. I didn't like the Sovereign when I first got it as most have the same problem. From using it and doing some digging it with some time I did OK and the more I used it the more I learn, now to me it is so simple and easy to use. For me the 180 meter is the secret to my success with the Sovereign . I use the meter to tell the targets that read close to a good target.
Example I was detecting where a bleacher were at a old ballfield that was loaded with both type of pull tabs, the good numbers I wanted were my 180 which is copper or silver coins, the new zinc pennies read 176-177 while a nickel read 143-144 and has a different tone as it is smoother sounding than a round pull-tab , the little beaver tail off the round tab reads 140-141 and quicker or smaller sounding. Now in this area I got a lot of trash reading of both type of pull-tab , got a few coins too others missed also. The one reading sounded like a nickel, but read as a beaver tail of the round pullab which most would not dig, but being it sounded so smooth and a little deeper I had to dig, found a older style gold signet ring that was a good 11 inches down. Over time I dug many small pieces of of misc jewelry and many time my wife would have me check out many of her MXT signal as they were iffy and I could tell her what I though it was so it save a lot of digging for her.
The GT now is a bit more sensitive and do get fooled a little on iron, but see if I come from a different angle I can see the difference and sometimes you have to work the signal with the Sovereign wiggle to just go over that one small area and just do the small wiggle over just the target and see if you get the nice tone. The best one I had was I got a signal in a different ball field and those that were detecting with me said it was iron and a false signal, but doing the wiggle sounded so good in one little area I just had to dig it, found out around 5-6 inches down was a big rusty half inch bolt laying on top of a Franklin half and had the rust spot where it laid. Like I say you use the detector and learn it well and understand what those tones all mean and you will be surprise at what it can do.
I havent used my Sovereign for the last few year as I cant do what i did year ago, I do miss using my Sovereign and use my Troy Shadow X5 as it is light weight a little . Maybe this winter I can find a way to mount the control box different so it wont be as heavy, the figure out get off the ground when I do my digging.

Sorry these post get so long and hope it isn't boring .

Rick

Boring. Haa.
Love a good read. Especially anything on the GT !!
I have maybe 20 hrs on a new GT. Just been setting.
Here's my light weight set up.

 

[Rick(ND)]

Boring. Haa.
Love a good read. Especially anything on the GT !!
I have maybe 20 hrs on a new GT. Just been setting.
Here's my light weight set up.

Looks good and a nice collection of coils you have there. I see you wrap the coil cable up further up the shaft and away from the main coil which I do also so it not affecting the signal which I too do.
On my XS Sovereign I used the hip mount bag also, but tried to move the box back on the shaft and added a extension to bring it further back to balance the detector which really made a different on the weight. I found that I would turn the V clip backward so know I bad the control under my my elbow which made it easier when I used the all metal to pinpoint and also to check the deeper signals if good or bad. I did the same to one of my GT and kept the control box on the shaft, but further back and help on the balance so it didnt feel so heavy. I had to grind a way on the stop on the mounting bracket so I could mount the control box backward so it was easy to turn on the pinpoint and to adjust the control if needed. I haven't done this to my GT yet as I been trying to use a camera bag and mount the control box on my chest with a small belt around my chest so the bag isn't swinging when I bend over. .
Now on coils I felt the 8 inch coinsearch coil was the best when learning the Sovereigns, but they are hard to find now and they are no to be used in water. The other coils I like was the Joey coil you have to git in tight spots. The 10 inch Tornado coil beat the original 10 inch BBS coil while my favorite big coil was the S-12 of SunRay. On the 8 inch coinsearch I found these coils seem to make the tones last longer for me with my bad hearing and recommended to those that are new to the Sovereigns and having trouble learning this detector.
It took me a while with the Sovereign to understand it, but once it all hit me it was easy and every time I used it I learned more, those that got to know this detector well probably still have one as it is hard to get rid of a detector that does so well for them. Those that used one and didnt like it more than likely sold them as they didnt have the patience for this detector.

Thanks for reading these post and hope it will help you to do well with you GT.

Rick