I went on a trash hunt last Sunday with my new Compadre.
The disc is so good, so razor sharp, that I was hoping there was a way to figure out trash signals better than I could on my other detectors.
My Vaq is good, this one seems a little better.
So I went looking for trash.
Headed to a very trashy park where there hasn't been a garbage can in many of the older areas for about 90 years.
That's the way it seems to me, anyway.
When I have to clean out 15 pop tops, beaver tails, can slaw, foil and other trash shallow and down to 3-4 inches deep in sometimes a one foot square area just to clean out a space to ground balance my Vaquero, that's pretty trashy.
The object of this hunt was to see if I could figure out if I was swinging over trash or treasure by using this beautiful machine, and use every trick I have learned in my short time in this great hobby.
Throughout the hunt, I dug up a lot of trash...and I did learn some things.
Just like on my Vaquero and even on my F2, I learned that coins have a distinct sound.
Rounded and fully formed.
Hard to explain, but they ring out loud and the tone seems to continue on a little further, further than a pull tab or other trash.
If I was new with this I could not tell the difference, but thousands of signals I have listened to with my Vaquero have given me a few new skills I did not have when I started.
When we tell you newbies you have to put in the hours to learn the language, this is one of the things we mean.
I am by no means fluent in the Tesoro language, it's gonna take much more time and hundreds more hours for me to even begin to think I am, but I can tell the difference in many types of tones that I could not in the past.
So I know that coins hit hard and in this hunt I could usually tell instinctly I had a good coin signal at first swing or two.
Sometimes, I did have a pretty good signal from other trash targets and the object of this exercise is to see if I could figure out the trash, so I tried a few other things on most of the signals I dug in this hunt.
First, I hit all signals from different angles...at least two.
On coin targets I got a solid repeating tone, always.
On some trash signals like a folded over beaver tail pull tabs, too.
And larger solid trash pieces, also.
Some signals did not repeat from a different angle, or broke up bad and some even went away, totally.
Every target that did not hit from all angles was trash...today.
Just to let you newbies know, this is not always the case.
Sometimes good targets act like this too.
Most times not, but once in a while they do.
Obvious lesson one...a lot of trash targets don't repeat from all angles.
Second thing I did on all signals was shake the coil, whipping it at different speeds and up to warp 2, or as fast as I could, anyway.
The construction is very solid on Tesoro's, and this is a very light unit so I could whip it pretty fast.
The object here was to see if I could get the signal to break up, or if I got a solid beep every time the coil passsed over the target.
The quick recovery on this one can give you a pretty good idea if you found some kinds of trash because a lot of it did break up when I did this.
Small pieces of foil and can slaw did it most times, pieces of beaver tails broke most of the time, a large amount of pop tops did too.
Flattened older pop tops usually did not, folded over beaver tails usually didn't either.
They look and act exactly like coins to most detectors if we are just going by sound.
Also large pieces stayed solid, like sterno cans and other large trash like big mouth screw on tops.
As a matter of fact, aluminum and zinc screw on tops gave me fits all day.
I hate those things!
Not quite a fully rounded signal as a coin, but close.
Some kinds of this trash did break if I hit it from different angles, though, like older steel caps.
Coins never broke up no matter how hard I whipped or from any angle.
Lesson two...coins stayed solid no matter how fast I whipped, a lot of trash did not.
Keep in mind after analyzing every signal I dug every one to see.
The proof is in the pic below.
Now these first two lessons I already knew, most of us do.
I did find out that these techniques really work on this unit...a little bit better than my others.
The Vaq is close, but the standard coil is bigger than the 7 inch on this one and my 10x12 DD coil, well, that's a whole new ball game using that one, too.
There is something to be said for, and an advantage to, using smaller coils, I am quickly learning.
I assume the 5.75" coil on the newer Compadres might be even better at these things.
This next lesson was the real reason I went on this trash hunt.
The discriminator!
The compadre and my Vaq are from the same company, but they are not built the same.
Different frequencies, which is not a big deal, and discriminator circuits, which might be a bigger deal.
Test number three that I did on all targets...thumb that disc!
Up, down, constantly on every signal and several times, too.
Most of you know, or should, that Tesoros and I assume other detectors that use a disc knob, will be more accurate if you turn the knob past the fade out point of the target and dial back down to see where the signal comes in.
I belive most directions and manuals say dial up till you lose the signal, but nothing else.
The compadre manual is pretty simple and really does not mention any of this at all.
Somebody ought to rewrite that thing and give people a little more info, I think.
Well the good news here is that I think I discovered a few things while getting a sore thumb turning that disc all day.
Coins do not seem to break up very much at all when you bring that dial down and they come in.
I am talking about copper, zinc and nickels of course, because dimes and quarters will not disc out.
Every coin I found the unit was silent till I got to the, I guess we'll call it, "entry point".
Silent, silent, silent then bam...a solid signal!
There might have been a little breaking on a few but I don't remember any, and if there was it was so short that I really didn't take notice.
Trash was a different story.
A ton of my trash broke up going up and coming down.
Not all of it, most of those stupid screw caps did not, and some other coin looking trash like those folded beaver tails, again, but most of the other stuff did.
I am thrilled about this.
I have been a dig it all hunter since I started and I am always going to dig a lot because in this business you just never know, but I also dig most everything because I always get that, "what if", nagging feeling when I leave a target in the ground.
By using all these techniques I am hoping I can read these signals and get enough info to confidently walk away from some that in my heart of hearts I KNOW is trash.
I went out on another hunt today at the same site, and practiced all of this again and dug lots more trash.
I listened closely to the tones, whipped the coil, played with the disc knob and listened not only for the break but what kind of break and how it broke, and I am glad to report that all the signals that I thought were trash today were trash, and the few coins I came across I recognized as a good target before I dug it.
There were several signals that I wasn't 100% sure of, even by doing all of this, but I did have a good suspicion and I was proven right most of the time.
I am not an expert, far from it, but I think I have a good start on getting a handle on using this fine detector and maybe I can concentrate less on digging every blasted signal I come across and spend a little more time learning ways of recognizing the difference between good and bad, even the iffy ones.
I want to get good at this...Tabdog good, and dig more good targets and less bad ones.
I have a long way to go, but I believe I am on the right road.
I learn by doing, and the best way to learn about trash is to dig trash.
A picture is worth a thousand words, and if you look at the pic, for me, learning is worth digging a ton of trash.
I learned a bunch...it was worth it!
Hope this helps.
HH
