Funny story with my new Sovereign

[bobbydadario]

I bought this detector from craigslist recently and planned to get back to detecting after taking a bunch of years off. Well, you know when you get a new machine, you really want to practice hearing the sounds of different coins. First time out with only a short time to detect, I went to an area in an older residential area. I found a bunch of pennies there years ago with my Fisher 1265. I turned up the discrimination a few dots and tried to notch out pull tabs. Yup, just wanted to find coins and thought the settings might disc out tabs and accept nickels. The first coin tone I hear sounds "round" and high pitched. So I dug it. And it was a nickel. I could tell because of the back, but the front was totally caked up with dirt. For the next 10 minutes, I kept smiling 'cause thing machine was a real nickel killer. I mean, first time out, and I nailed it! I really patted myself on the back for the great settings!

I get back to the car and clean off the coin….turns out that high pitched tone I heard was because I found a 1943P coin! Will anyone share their accept nickel/reject tab settings? I came close via air testing, but maybe you guys with more experience can school me

 

[Rick(ND)]

First off the notch will not notch out all of the pull tabs as it only does a certain area of them which is decided by where you set the notch. For me if I am going to notch out any at all it will be the ones that I seem to get more of, like the round tabs read close to a nickle and will lay a nickle on the ground and a round pull tab and turn the notch until the pull tabs starts breaking up so I can tell it is not accepting it and then go over the nickle to see that it will see it. Now if it don't get the nickle I will turn the notch up more so it will get the nickle and then check to see how the round pull tab will read. The tabs that come off the newer cans will read close to the zinc penny range, so the notch can be maxed out for me as it will still get me my zinc pennies which also will be the IH and some of the early Wheaties. If you set it for the older tabs you will pick up the newer ones and if you set it for the newer ones you will get the older ones.. Notch is only good for any target higher than the disc is set at, so some hunt with 0 disc and some will turn it up just a little to reject some of the alum foil. I still say the best way is using a 180 meter and going by the tones and the numbers as from my experience I find the beaver tails off the older round tabs read around 140-142 while nickles will have a tone all to them self's, but for a newbie it maybe hard to tell the tones, but the meter will read 143-146 unless some war nickles will reads up to 151 but still have the nickle sound to them. On round tabs they start for me around 147 on up and the zinc pennies, IH and very first wheat's read 176-177 and the alum screw caps seem to fall in the 177-178 mostly and the copper pennies, dimes and quarter and even half's read 179-180.
To learn the Sovereign I find auto sensitivity will help learn it, but I run around the 10 O'clock position with my disc set around the 10 O'clock position too with no notch and the volume at max with a slight threshold so I can hear when I go over iron and can slow my sweep speed down when it is nulling a lot.
Like i say notch only covers a few numbers, so it can not notch out all the different pull tabs, but can notch out the ones I am bothered with the most.

Good Luck and have patience as the Sovereigns are great when you get to know them.

Rick

 

[GeorgeinSC]

I keep Notch pegged out at the bottom of its range. I use a meter on my GT to help me determine if I want to dig or leave it in the dirt. My hearing is not the best and I have trouble distinguishing between some of the tones. The meter makes all the difference for me.

 

[Auriemma]

For my Sov XS:
VOL maxed
NOTCH at zero
DISC at the edge of foil
SENS is as HIGH as it will go without falsing (12-4 o'clock)
THRESH is around the dot.
I also set the internal jumper to Silent Search. (Personal choice)

From here, I use my ears. When I get a hit, I check the Meter. I make my decisions from there.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Bob,nice hunt.My settings are zero notch and discriminate.,listen for the tone first and then quick glance at the meter.Unusual ID numbers are dug with high probability coin numbers will usually result with very good finds. Good Luck Ron

 

[bobbydadario]

Thank you all for your thoughtful replies. I realize now that I do not have a good grasp on the relationship between notch and disc. I didn't realize there was interplay there. Oh the fun of learning! I see most of you use the meter. I am going without since I will be use a lot at the beach. Also I kinda miss the old Fisher 1265…2 disc, able to toggle between the two. Hope I can still learn and ask questions from you guys!