Ground Balancing, playing nice in the sandbox , beeping rocks and 101 other questions ... (not really)

[Pink Magnolia]

I am new to the hobby as of Feb 2020. I also joined a great local club and have attended 2 hunts with them so far. The regular monthly meetings are on hold d/t Covid, so I am turning to online forums for help. I have a Fisher F22 and have read the manual many times and keep it handy for re-reads.
First topic - I have heard/read mention about ground balancing and have no idea what this means.

Second topic - I have read about types of dirt and don't understand how that effects my digs/machine

Third topic - I felt bombarded as a newbie , being asked about what equipment I had, where I bought it , what I should have bought and was kinda shamed bc I bought my stuff online (also we were under quarantine at that time too) I much prefer to support local businesses but honestly at the time, I was unaware there is a shop less than an hour from home. I just want to remind seasoned hobbyists... be nice to newbies. We haven't been around a long time, we don't know the jargon and we are on a huge learning curve. We have many questions and may not have the budget to buy expensive items. I wanted to dabble some in the hobby first before committing to expensive equipment. I am so happy to say that I am the proud owner of a new Garret pinpointer. I really enjoy reading about reviews of various items and they often influence my purchases. I beg you to please don't forget to present the pros and cons in a way that newbies can understand. At this point, I am clueless about what brand or physical feature makes a coil great or bad. Honestly, I just now found out that I can buy different coils for my machine. Point of this topic is not to fuss, but we newbies really look to the seasoned folks for advice and we deeply value your input...we just need to understand what you are telling us, lol.

Fourth topic - why in the world do I get beeps on rocks??? This confounds me.

Fifth topic - one of my favorite you tube MD guys that I watch has a device that looks like the size of a deck of cards. He touches it to the target he has unearthed and IDk if he trying to see what exactly the material is made of?

6th topic - I am getting discouraged. I hunt, hunt, hunt. I dig, dig, dig and really have not found any cool coins or real jewelry. How long did it take you to find your first awesome treasure? I have dug up so many beer tabs, aluminum foil, rocks, car shock, nails etc. I am questioning if I am doing this right. I have my machine set to not beep for iron. I keep digging up the beer tabs, aluminum bc according to my manual, this is where nickels are supposed to be found at.

7th - should I buy a coil cover?

8th - What makes a detector compatible with cordless headphones?

Thanks to all! Can't wait to hear back.

 

[jmaclen]

Thanks for joining this forum. You asked some excellent questions
1. The F22 does not need to be ground balanced. It comes with a factory preset ground balance setting that will work well in most soil conditions.

2. Some types of soil can have lots of small iron particles from decomposing rock formations which contained iron. Some metamorphic and igneous rocks, particularly volcanic ones are especially troublesome. This can cause problems for some detectors especially those that cannot be ground balanced by the detector user. The same goes for dirt or sand with lots of salt content or lots of burned coal or burned charcoal from wild fires. There are also places that have been heavily fertilized with chemicals or manure that can cause problems too. All of these types of soil mineralization can cause a detector to see the ground as a target. That is what ground balancing does, by adjusting the ground balance, it allows the detector to not see the ground as a target to some degree and lets actual metal targets be detected more easily. The ground is always a target to some degree and the deeper the target, the harder it is for the detector to detect it.

3. Some people are jerks and don't know how or don't want to share their knowledge and experience. Find someone that can mentor you and treat you with respect. There are plenty of people on the various metal detecting forms that will do that and once your club meets, hopefully you will find someone like that.

4. I don't know where you are detecting or what types of rocks are in your area so this question is hard to answer. If you are hunting with iron targets rejected, you may get some higher beeps over iron rich or volcanic "hot" rocks which are examples of your detector seeing the ground (rocks) as a target. Some rocks in your area could be man-made cinders, slag or burned coal which will act like "hot" rocks too. Animal manure can also get a response from some detectors.

5. Sorry, no clue......

6. For coin and jewelry hunting, I had to learn to hunt in areas where there were likely to be "cool" targets, like bark tot lots, playgrounds, school yards, sledding hills, parks, sand volleyball courts, around the edges of outdoor basketball courts, soccer and football fields, fresh and salt water beaches, etc. Of course, you have to know the rules and have permission to hunt these places. I also learned to do coin popping (look for this on youtube) which does not tear up the ground or cause one to dig huge holes needlessly. One of my mentors told me to especially hunt in public parks where I might take a date to "make out" like under trees or where people take blankets and picnic.

Try running your F22 with less sensitivity and just go for the shallower, easy to recover targets first. Practice on the targets you want to find along with the trashy ones you find more often. Learn how your detector responds to each one. Take a nickel, dime and quarter with you to your hunt site and see what they sound like and what numbers you get in the ground conditions at your site. I hunted lots of bark tot lots and playing fields in the beginning and stayed away from really trashy areas until later.

Most most of my detecting life I have been a gold prospector that used specialized gold nugget detectors. I only started coin and jewelry hunting 5 years ago. I did not find much jewelry in my first year of detecting for coins and jewelry. Part of that was inexperience and part was the detectors I was using. Now, I usually find 50 or more rings (usually 10 to 20 are gold or silver) per year and I average about $60 in clad coins per month. In my area (Denver Colorado) old silver coins are deep and are very hard to detect since the dirt here is very mineralized. Your F22 would not work very well here for any deep targets.

7. Are you sure your coil does not have a coil cover on it? If you are hunting around boulders or sharp rocks/concrete......maybe, especially if you are like me and get to hunt for 10 to 20 hours per week. I can wear out a coil cover pretty fast since I keep my coil on or just above the ground ALWAYS even when I am gold nugget prospecting in really rough terrain. Some people's swing is like a pendulum where the coil only touches the ground right in front of them and moves up a lot at the end of each swing. I think of my detector and lower arm like it is a door with my elbow being a hinge and just open and close the door without moving my upper arm or shoulder very much. Also try to get your detectors length adjusted so your swing arm is in a natural position and not chicken winged. If you learn to swing your detector so the coil is really close to the ground at all times, your coil with hit more targets and cover more ground. You will wear out the bottom of your coil faster however so a cover might be a good idea.

8. Garrett and Quest make products that have a transmitter which plugs into your detector and transmits a 2.4 gHz signal to their proprietary headphones which have a receiver built in. They work very well on any detector that has a 1/4" or 1/8" plug in. Trond along with some other companies, makes a Bluetooth transmitter and Bluetooth receiving headphones/earbuds which can do something similar. Not having so many wires to deal with is really awesome and well worth the expense.

Jeff

 

[jmaclen]

More on number 8.......Garrett Z-Lynk and Quest Wire Free are specially made for metal detectors. Trond ATPX Low Latency Bluetooth (you need ATPX low latency so there will be very little lag between the transmitter and receiver, otherwise if you pinpoint a target with your detector, it could be several inches off to the side instead of directly under the center of the coil)

 

[jim tn]

Jeff pretty much answered your questions along with a lot of good advise. There is nothing more perplexing to a new detectorist then to go out and recover dozens of trash items and maybe 3 or 4 coins. Do keep in mind, though, we all have gone through it. Its just part of the learning.

I've been with this grand hobby a good long time and the first thing I still do when I purchase a new detector is to take it out in the back yard, throw a cent, nickel , dime and a quarter spread out in the grass and go over each coin to learn what it sounds like and reads on the detector. I then do the same with a variety of the most commonly found types of trash. Once I get accustomed to the tones and readings, I then try and find a coin rich, less trashy spot, to put it through its paces. Upon starting out, run the F 22 a little tame. Learn it first before going to full sensitivity. Jeff mentioned one such spot, a tot lot, typically one that has wood chips, but pea gravel is good, too. Many schools have these tot lots and a few parks in my area have them as well. Un-fortunately, many of our tot lots here have been closed due to Covid and are now just re-opening in my area. Hence, if hunted before Covid, they probably haven't had time to get refurbished. School yards also are fairly coin rich and usually not overly trashy.

I think once you become familiar with your F 22, you will find it will serve you well. Most importantly, just have fun. That's really what this hobby is all about. Yell, if you have more questions. HH jim tn

 

[Pink Magnolia]

Thanks for joining this forum. You asked some excellent questions
1. The F22 does not need to be ground balanced. It comes with a factory preset ground balance setting that will work well in most soil conditions.

2. Some types of soil can have lots of small iron particles from decomposing rock formations which contained iron. Some metamorphic and igneous rocks, particularly volcanic ones are especially troublesome. This can cause problems for some detectors especially those that cannot be ground balanced by the detector user. The same goes for dirt or sand with lots of salt content or lots of burned coal or burned charcoal from wild fires. There are also places that have been heavily fertilized with chemicals or manure that can cause problems too. All of these types of soil mineralization can cause a detector to see the ground as a target. That is what ground balancing does, by adjusting the ground balance, it allows the detector to not see the ground as a target to some degree and lets actual metal targets be detected more easily. The ground is always a target to some degree and the deeper the target, the harder it is for the detector to detect it.

3. Some people are jerks and don't know how or don't want to share their knowledge and experience. Find someone that can mentor you and treat you with respect. There are plenty of people on the various metal detecting forms that will do that and once your club meets, hopefully you will find someone like that.

4. I don't know where you are detecting or what types of rocks are in your area so this question is hard to answer. If you are hunting with iron targets rejected, you may get some higher beeps over iron rich or volcanic "hot" rocks which are examples of your detector seeing the ground (rocks) as a target. Some rocks in your area could be man-made cinders, slag or burned coal which will act like "hot" rocks too. Animal manure can also get a response from some detectors.

5. Sorry, no clue......

6. For coin and jewelry hunting, I had to learn to hunt in areas where there were likely to be "cool" targets, like bark tot lots, playgrounds, school yards, sledding hills, parks, sand volleyball courts, around the edges of outdoor basketball courts, soccer and football fields, fresh and salt water beaches, etc. Of course, you have to know the rules and have permission to hunt these places. I also learned to do coin popping (look for this on youtube) which does not tear up the ground or cause one to dig huge holes needlessly. One of my mentors told me to especially hunt in public parks where I might take a date to "make out" like under trees or where people take blankets and picnic.

Try running your F22 with less sensitivity and just go for the shallower, easy to recover targets first. Practice on the targets you want to find along with the trashy ones you find more often. Learn how your detector responds to each one. Take a nickel, dime and quarter with you to your hunt site and see what they sound like and what numbers you get in the ground conditions at your site. I hunted lots of bark tot lots and playing fields in the beginning and stayed away from really trashy areas until later.

Most most of my detecting life I have been a gold prospector that used specialized gold nugget detectors. I only started coin and jewelry hunting 5 years ago. I did not find much jewelry in my first year of detecting for coins and jewelry. Part of that was inexperience and part was the detectors I was using. Now, I usually find 50 or more rings (usually 10 to 20 are gold or silver) per year and I average about $60 in clad coins per month. In my area (Denver Colorado) old silver coins are deep and are very hard to detect since the dirt here is very mineralized. Your F22 would not work very well here for any deep targets.

7. Are you sure your coil does not have a coil cover on it? If you are hunting around boulders or sharp rocks/concrete......maybe, especially if you are like me and get to hunt for 10 to 20 hours per week. I can wear out a coil cover pretty fast since I keep my coil on or just above the ground ALWAYS even when I am gold nugget prospecting in really rough terrain. Some people's swing is like a pendulum where the coil only touches the ground right in front of them and moves up a lot at the end of each swing. I think of my detector and lower arm like it is a door with my elbow being a hinge and just open and close the door without moving my upper arm or shoulder very much. Also try to get your detectors length adjusted so your swing arm is in a natural position and not chicken winged. If you learn to swing your detector so the coil is really close to the ground at all times, your coil with hit more targets and cover more ground. You will wear out the bottom of your coil faster however so a cover might be a good idea.

8. Garrett and Quest make products that have a transmitter which plugs into your detector and transmits a 2.4 gHz signal to their proprietary headphones which have a receiver built in. They work very well on any detector that has a 1/4" or 1/8" plug in. Trond along with some other companies, makes a Bluetooth transmitter and Bluetooth receiving headphones/earbuds which can do something similar. Not having so many wires to deal with is really awesome and well worth the expense.

Jeff

Hi Jeff,
First let me say thank you so much for the very informative post. This has really helped me alot.
I take it that when I upgrade machines, I want one that has ground balancing?

I was at a local place here in the foothills of NC and there is an old iron smelting furnace from the Civil War. The soil was very dark and rich and I kept getting lots of beeps on rocks. This is also on a riverbank. I have read that my detector isn't good in wet sand so when at the beach, I stick to the dry sand. There has also been times where I got hits and dug down to what looked like an old fire there with remnants of charcoal.

5. The guy's you tube that I mentioned is metal detecting 24. I watch him and Digging Daytona. Is that nerdy? lol

6. What cool advise, thank you. I will you tube coin popping tonight. That is a new term to me.
I have put the settings on what the manual suggested bc I didn't know enough to adjust the sensitivity. I do know how to change it at least, lol. I will do as you suggest. I am blown away at your yearly bounty, wow!! That is exciting.

7. I am embarrassed to say that IDK if there is coil cover. I have not added one. I bought it on Amazon and I just went back read that description and I did see this ... so thinking that I don't have a cover. When a club member told me that I needed one, we were standing in a paved parking lot and I had my detector leaned up against a tailgate. Maybe he was thinking I shouldn't put it on the ground? IDk.

Additional Waterproof Searchcoils & Accessories​

Accessories: Arm Strap, Protective Cover, Searchcoil Cover

8. I will put this on my Christmas list! This also reminded me to ask...why do some metal detectors have a cable from the coil to the control housing and others dont?

Thank you again Jeff

 

[Pink Magnolia]

Hi Jim,
Thank you the reply. When I watch the you tube videos, I have wondered how many hours they don't show. I will say that I have learned alot just since starting in Feb. I did tell myself that if this turned into something stressful and not fun then I would quit. So far, I am addicted.

Funny you mention what you do when you get a new machine. I did that early this evening. I made some short videos and will upload those soon bc I have more questions. Before I did my experiment, I thought I would toss the target in the grass and would get a specific number reading on my machine so in the future I wouldn't waste so much time digging trash. Boy, was I wrong! I hope people on the forum won't think there is no hope for me , lol.

Can you tell me more about this that you wrote please? "Upon starting out, run the F 22 a little tame. Learn it first before going to full sensitivity" Can you break it down for me more? Does full sensitivity mean I get all the beeps which is not got at this point bc I can not discern the different tones yet?

Thank you so much for your time,
Kelley

 

[Monte]

Kelley, You've had some good help, as expected. If you don't mind I'll add a little, even if it might be duplication of sorts.

As Jim TN mentioned, whenever I get a detector in-hand, regardless of how long I've been an avid detectorist (since March of '65) I always get it assembled and slowly go through all of the adjustment settings and make sure I am familiar with all of the adjustment functions and intended performance potential they might offer. Even when I get models in-hand that I am very familiar with and have owned, even recently. I always want to learn more, and refresh my memory of what I have learned in the past. That way I'll get the most out of my equipment.

If you're starting out in the hobby, just know what part of the hobby you'll have to confront. If you just want to hunt the tot-lots, playgrounds, sports fields or a parking strip or even your own yard to learn the F22, do some practicing as was suggested. Learn what sweep speed you need in order to find targets, most of which are going to be surface to maybe 4" deep. Don't sweep too slowly, and don't sweep too briskly, either.

Know that urban sites are likely to have a lot of discarded trash, such as foil, bottle caps, pull-tabs, etc. There will be some iron junk out there, too, and my suggestion for a lot of newcomer is to start out by running your Discrimination to reject the Iron range. For some, if there is a lot of smaller-size and lower-conductive foil, then eliminate another low-end segment to get rid of that. Will you miss a good target? Possibly, but in the long run you're going to be ignoring a lot of trash and that way you can concentrate your time and effort on finding 'keepers' and that will help you feel better about the sport. In time, as you master your detector and search techniques, you can start to add back in a little more of the lower-end Disc. ranges.

Coil covers? Don't be concerned. Most of the time the search coil should be worked anywhere from 1" to 23" off the ground. No contact should be made as it can cause performance problems from too much ground mineral signal affecting the close-proximity Electro-Magnetic Field close to the coil. Also, while you can cruise the coil along the top of the grass of a mowed lawn, scrubbing a coil on the ground also slows and interrupts your sweep. The search coil presentation should be off the ground a little and made at a consistent side-to-side coil orientations w/o bumps and snags and such if the coil is in contact.

I've been working on a multi-detector product review of detectors that ell for $550 or less and just received another I bought last Friday and three of them on Monday. Interestingly, the two more expensive of them based on the original MSRP came w/o coil covers. No big deal because I don't scrub the coils. Helps keep them lighter weight, and sometimes the coil cover can add more front-end weight than some might imagine.

Hang in there, learn your detector, and keep getting out to have fun as often as you can. Oh, you mentioned hunting an older remote locations and be warned, you're going to encounter a lot more challenging discarded trash to deal with at many of those places. Don't be in a rush to master that type of hunting. I wish I knew where you lived because if it was close to me, and I'm in far Eastern Oregon in the tiny town of Vale, I'd be glad to offer to meet-up and help with any hands-on I could. Learning as you go, be sure to make use of this and any other helpful Forums.

Monte

 

[jmaclen]

Hi Jeff,
First let me say thank you so much for the very informative post. This has really helped me alot.
I take it that when I upgrade machines, I want one that has ground balancing?

I was at a local place here in the foothills of NC and there is an old iron smelting furnace from the Civil War. The soil was very dark and rich and I kept getting lots of beeps on rocks. This is also on a riverbank. I have read that my detector isn't good in wet sand so when at the beach, I stick to the dry sand. There has also been times where I got hits and dug down to what looked like an old fire there with remnants of charcoal.

5. The guy's you tube that I mentioned is metal detecting 24. I watch him and Digging Daytona. Is that nerdy? lol

6. What cool advise, thank you. I will you tube coin popping tonight. That is a new term to me.
I have put the settings on what the manual suggested bc I didn't know enough to adjust the sensitivity. I do know how to change it at least, lol. I will do as you suggest. I am blown away at your yearly bounty, wow!! That is exciting.

7. I am embarrassed to say that IDK if there is coil cover. I have not added one. I bought it on Amazon and I just went back read that description and I did see this ... so thinking that I don't have a cover. When a club member told me that I needed one, we were standing in a paved parking lot and I had my detector leaned up against a tailgate. Maybe he was thinking I shouldn't put it on the ground? IDk.

Additional Waterproof Searchcoils & Accessories​

Accessories: Arm Strap, Protective Cover, Searchcoil Cover

8. I will put this on my Christmas list! This also reminded me to ask...why do some metal detectors have a cable from the coil to the control housing and others dont?

Thank you again Jeff

metal detecting 24 uses a camera that he can put in a hole to see what the target might be. Where he is detecting in Europe there are still lots of unexploded grenades, artillery shells and bombs dropped from aircraft. He is smart to use that small video camera so he won't disturb any live ordinance. He also uses GPS to mark where those possibly dangerous targets are.

Since your F22 control box is weather proof and the coil is waterproof, I would not worry too much about a coil cover or a rain cover for the control box. You might like the arm strap though.

Adjusting the sensitivity (SENS) is easy. Just press the Menu button and keep pressing it until you see SENS highlighted. Use the +/- buttons to change the setting of your sensitivity. It has settings from 0 to 10. I would set it on 4, 5 or 6 (6 is the default setting) so as James said your F22 will be more "tame" and won't sound off on too many tiny or really deep trash targets. It will give you a nice repeating tone on coin sized targets from surface to about 5" which is where most recently dropped coins, jewelry and trash will be. Personally, I would hunt in either Jewelry (which rejects most iron targets) or Coin (which rejects iron and most foil/aluminum targets). You will still dig some pull tabs and some can slaw that will come in the same bin (3) as nickels and many 14K gold rings. Your F22 has iron, gold and silver underneath the numbers at the top of the screen. I would ignore those labels for now and just try to memorize where nickels, pennies (zinc and copper), dimes and quarters occur in the bins (3, 5, 6, 7, ). If you have headphones with a volume control you can use them to control the volume or just leave it on 7 which is the default setting. You change the volume level the same way you change the sensitivity.

Saving History with SC Digger did three YouTube videos about the F22 assembly, features and beach hunting. His vids are pretty good.

The F22 is a very good detector for someone starting out. It has plenty of great features hiding in it like the Custom mode....

Some detectors like the XP Deus and XP Orx do not have coil cables or headphone cables. They use wireless connections between the coil, control box and headphones. That is great unless you submerge the coil in water since water will interrupt the wireless signal.

Other detectors like the Nokta Impact and some Minelab detectors have the coil cable running inside the lower shaft to protect it.

By the way, metal detecting 24 uses an incredibly fast swing speed with his XP Deus and due to where he hunts, he often scrapes the ground, underbrush and logs with his coil and even knocks the coil cover off. I have similar issues where I hunt but I usually put coil tape around my prospecting coils so the cover won't come off and I won't wear holes in the sides of my coil or coil cover. Where I gold prospect, it is impossible to not bump my coil into things. It happens on almost every swing. Also, I never swing my coils as fast as metal detecting 24, even when I use my XP Deus.

 

[jim tn]

Kelly, once again Jeff did a banner job of explaining my comment about running your detector right off and for several hunting hours at about medium sen., or a little TAME.

For those just getting started with this hobby, things in general can tend to be somewhat over-whelming. You've already mentioned about reading the manual...and more then once. That's of utmost importance with getting started with any new detector. Learning your detector well takes time. Much more time then a handful of outings of a couple hours each. Shoot, I've been running Fisher F 75's since they first came out in about 2006 and am occasionally learning something new with it still.

Anyway, just get out there and start digging targets. After recovering a few dozen screw on bottle caps you will began to realize most have a bigger feel to them then does a coin, as one example.

Good luck! HH jim tn

 

[Ronstar]

Just a thought here and it might be way whacky. When I was first getting into this hobby I too seemed to be digging more trash than treasure. Never really saw a place in the forum where pictures of “this weekends trash finds” was an option..... sometimes seeing junk finds that the detector said was treasure and the users comments could be beneficial.

 

[jmaclen]

jim tn and Monte are two people whose posts I always read and learn from. Ronstar as usual for him, had a great idea. So Kelley, these are some of this years finds and are photos of two bags of pull tabs (I keep them like trophies since each one could have been gold, a nickel or a bullet and recycle them later), a plate of keys, knives, and other stuff, a plate of pet tags, toys and bling, a plate of bling rings and a small box with gold and silver. I figure that every time I dig a good sounding target in the gold or silver range as it is labeled on your F22, I have a small percentage chance of finding gold or silver, a bigger chance of finding a coin or neat relic, and an even bigger chance of finding trash. I would need five zip loc bags like those in the photo to hold the clad coins from this year and a couple of five gallon buckets for the can slaw, steel bottle caps, aluminum screw caps and other larger non-ferrous junk. I have not dug any targets while coin and jewelry hunting that were more than 12" deep by the way. Most were surface to 6" deep.

I am totally addicted to metal detecting but that's okay with me. Since I am recently retired, it keeps me busy, gets me outside even in a pandemic, I get paid to walk my dog, and I get some good exercise.

Jeff

 

[Monte]

A really nice display for Kelley and others who might not appreciate the volume of trash the avid folks also deal with. It's all part of the game we play of metal-detecting seek-and-find. You had a great year!

Monte

 

[Ronstar]

Seeing all those pull tabs just exploded a memory from college days...... we started a pull tab chain! Bend the beavertail thru the ring and crimp and just keep going. The living room was maybe 12x14 (memory) and in one calendar year we circled the room just short of four times! I wonder what ever happened to it? Not in Guinness, not (hopefully) still in that rathole, might have been heavy enough to recycle and get a cup of coffee. Now I have to ask the old crew......

 

[Pink Magnolia]

metal detecting 24 uses a camera that he can put in a hole to see what the target might be. Where he is detecting in Europe there are still lots of unexploded grenades, artillery shells and bombs dropped from aircraft. He is smart to use that small video camera so he won't disturb any live ordinance. He also uses GPS to mark where those possibly dangerous targets are.

Since your F22 control box is weather proof and the coil is waterproof, I would not worry too much about a coil cover or a rain cover for the control box. You might like the arm strap though.

Adjusting the sensitivity (SENS) is easy. Just press the Menu button and keep pressing it until you see SENS highlighted. Use the +/- buttons to change the setting of your sensitivity. It has settings from 0 to 10. I would set it on 4, 5 or 6 (6 is the default setting) so as James said your F22 will be more "tame" and won't sound off on too many tiny or really deep trash targets. It will give you a nice repeating tone on coin sized targets from surface to about 5" which is where most recently dropped coins, jewelry and trash will be. Personally, I would hunt in either Jewelry (which rejects most iron targets) or Coin (which rejects iron and most foil/aluminum targets). You will still dig some pull tabs and some can slaw that will come in the same bin (3) as nickels and many 14K gold rings. Your F22 has iron, gold and silver underneath the numbers at the top of the screen. I would ignore those labels for now and just try to memorize where nickels, pennies (zinc and copper), dimes and quarters occur in the bins (3, 5, 6, 7, ). If you have headphones with a volume control you can use them to control the volume or just leave it on 7 which is the default setting. You change the volume level the same way you change the sensitivity.

Saving History with SC Digger did three YouTube videos about the F22 assembly, features and beach hunting. His vids are pretty good.

The F22 is a very good detector for someone starting out. It has plenty of great features hiding in it like the Custom mode....

Some detectors like the XP Deus and XP Orx do not have coil cables or headphone cables. They use wireless connections between the coil, control box and headphones. That is great unless you submerge the coil in water since water will interrupt the wireless signal.

Other detectors like the Nokta Impact and some Minelab detectors have the coil cable running inside the lower shaft to protect it.

By the way, metal detecting 24 uses an incredibly fast swing speed with his XP Deus and due to where he hunts, he often scrapes the ground, underbrush and logs with his coil and even knocks the coil cover off. I have similar issues where I hunt but I usually put coil tape around my prospecting coils so the cover won't come off and I won't wear holes in the sides of my coil or coil cover. Where I gold prospect, it is impossible to not bump my coil into things. It happens on almost every swing. Also, I never swing my coils as fast as metal detecting 24, even when I use my XP Deus.

Hi!
I had no idea that was what metal detecting 24 was doing. Wow!! I wondered what he was doing when he holds up his fingers like he is counting. Also, I noticed he will put a stick or something in the ground sometimes. Ahhhh, so much to learn grasshopper , lol.

You mentioned fast swing... I have watched videos where the person puts the coil directly on the ground when swinging. And on some of the F22, some of them will literally scrub the ground while using the pinpointer. I don't touch my coil to the ground much and if I do, its only lightly. IDK if either way is correct/incorrect.
Thank you for the great info!

 

[Pink Magnolia]

Kelley, You've had some good help, as expected. If you don't mind I'll add a little, even if it might be duplication of sorts.

As Jim TN mentioned, whenever I get a detector in-hand, regardless of how long I've been an avid detectorist (since March of '65) I always get it assembled and slowly go through all of the adjustment settings and make sure I am familiar with all of the adjustment functions and intended performance potential they might offer. Even when I get models in-hand that I am very familiar with and have owned, even recently. I always want to learn more, and refresh my memory of what I have learned in the past. That way I'll get the most out of my equipment.

If you're starting out in the hobby, just know what part of the hobby you'll have to confront. If you just want to hunt the tot-lots, playgrounds, sports fields or a parking strip or even your own yard to learn the F22, do some practicing as was suggested. Learn what sweep speed you need in order to find targets, most of which are going to be surface to maybe 4" deep. Don't sweep too slowly, and don't sweep too briskly, either.

Know that urban sites are likely to have a lot of discarded trash, such as foil, bottle caps, pull-tabs, etc. There will be some iron junk out there, too, and my suggestion for a lot of newcomer is to start out by running your Discrimination to reject the Iron range. For some, if there is a lot of smaller-size and lower-conductive foil, then eliminate another low-end segment to get rid of that. Will you miss a good target? Possibly, but in the long run you're going to be ignoring a lot of trash and that way you can concentrate your time and effort on finding 'keepers' and that will help you feel better about the sport. In time, as you master your detector and search techniques, you can start to add back in a little more of the lower-end Disc. ranges.

Coil covers? Don't be concerned. Most of the time the search coil should be worked anywhere from 1" to 23" off the ground. No contact should be made as it can cause performance problems from too much ground mineral signal affecting the close-proximity Electro-Magnetic Field close to the coil. Also, while you can cruise the coil along the top of the grass of a mowed lawn, scrubbing a coil on the ground also slows and interrupts your sweep. The search coil presentation should be off the ground a little and made at a consistent side-to-side coil orientations w/o bumps and snags and such if the coil is in contact.

I've been working on a multi-detector product review of detectors that ell for $550 or less and just received another I bought last Friday and three of them on Monday. Interestingly, the two more expensive of them based on the original MSRP came w/o coil covers. No big deal because I don't scrub the coils. Helps keep them lighter weight, and sometimes the coil cover can add more front-end weight than some might imagine.

Hang in there, learn your detector, and keep getting out to have fun as often as you can. Oh, you mentioned hunting an older remote locations and be warned, you're going to encounter a lot more challenging discarded trash to deal with at many of those places. Don't be in a rush to master that type of hunting. I wish I knew where you lived because if it was close to me, and I'm in far Eastern Oregon in the tiny town of Vale, I'd be glad to offer to meet-up and help with any hands-on I could. Learning as you go, be sure to make use of this and any other helpful Forums.

Monte

Hi Monte,
Thank you for your reply. One of the reasons I decided on the F22 was the easy Iron audio feature and the weight of the detector being 2lbs. That is a great idea about eliminating the other low-end segment.
Please let me know when you finish your review, I would really like to read that.
There is a softball field behind my house and I spend time back there. I also go to public parks. I am always looking for new spots and the club I am in gets us some awesome sites.
I was told about a local park used to be a Indian site so may go there this weekend. I haven't approached anyone in person to ask about metal detecting on private property yet. I did find out that our local fire dept (I live in a one street, 1 red light only town) sits on the site where the old train depot used to be. I did send them a letter asking for permission but have not heard anything back. I don't know how successful letters are in gaining permission.
Thank you again for the great comments.
Kelley

 

[Pink Magnolia]

jim tn and Monte are two people whose posts I always read and learn from. Ronstar as usual for him, had a great idea. So Kelley, these are some of this years finds and are photos of two bags of pull tabs (I keep them like trophies since each one could have been gold, a nickel or a bullet and recycle them later), a plate of keys, knives, and other stuff, a plate of pet tags, toys and bling, a plate of bling rings and a small box with gold and silver. I figure that every time I dig a good sounding target in the gold or silver range as it is labeled on your F22, I have a small percentage chance of finding gold or silver, a bigger chance of finding a coin or neat relic, and an even bigger chance of finding trash. I would need five zip loc bags like those in the photo to hold the clad coins from this year and a couple of five gallon buckets for the can slaw, steel bottle caps, aluminum screw caps and other larger non-ferrous junk. I have not dug any targets while coin and jewelry hunting that were more than 12" deep by the way. Most were surface to 6" deep.

I am totally addicted to metal detecting but that's okay with me. Since I am recently retired, it keeps me busy, gets me outside even in a pandemic, I get paid to walk my dog, and I get some good exercise.

JeffView attachment 8267View attachment 8268

I really, really like the way that you think about each item as a possible treasure. I am blown away at these pictures and what you said about how much clad coin and can slaw you have found too! Mind boggling to me. I am not retired and don't get to go MD near as often as I want. It certainly is addicting. I see so many cool things in your pictures that would make some incredible jewelry! I would make those dog tags and keys and pieces of rings and make a necklace out of them. That green / turqouise pendant if beautiful!

 

[Pink Magnolia]

Seeing all those pull tabs just exploded a memory from college days...... we started a pull tab chain! Bend the beavertail thru the ring and crimp and just keep going. The living room was maybe 12x14 (memory) and in one calendar year we circled the room just short of four times! I wonder what ever happened to it? Not in Guinness, not (hopefully) still in that rathole, might have been heavy enough to recycle and get a cup of coffee. Now I have to ask the old crew......

Too funny, we totally did this too and I had forgot about it!!!

 

[Monte]

Hi Monte,
Thank you for your reply. One of the reasons I decided on the F22 was the easy Iron audio feature and the weight of the detector being 2lbs.

Kelley, due to age (getting close to being petrified) and a flock of health issues I deal with, I have had to keep a close watch on the weight and balance of my detector / coil combinations, and as time passes I keep thinning down and adjusting my arsenal. I had the Fisher F-44 which I really liked, once i mounted a more comfortable search coil for most of my coin hunting sites (that was the round 7" Concentric). I met a gal the end of June at a presentation I was doing who really liked the F44, and in a moment of weakness I sold it to her, along with the 7" coil. Fortunately I had another brand new 7" in my Accessory Coil Tote and, just today, I mounted it on my new Fisher F5 for some of the comparison work I am doing.

I bought that F44 new with that coil s I didn't care for the egg-shaped or tear-shaped Concentric or the 11" BiAxial DD coils, and already had an 11" BiAxial on-hand anyway. I only used two coils on the F44 .... the 7" for day-to-day Coin & Jewelry Hunting, and at times the 5" DD if I was working a very trashy site. In both cases, with the F-44's design, I just hunted slowly and methodically.

Please let me know when you finish your review, I would really like to read that.

Gladly, and if you would drop me PM or an e-mail to: monte@ahrps.org

There is a softball field behind my house and I spend time back there. I also go to public parks. I am always looking for new spots and the club I am in gets us some awesome sites.
I was told about a local park used to be a Indian site so may go there this weekend. I haven't approached anyone in person to ask about metal detecting on private property yet. I did find out that our local fire dept (I live in a one street, 1 red light only town) sits on the site where the old train depot used to be. I did send them a letter asking for permission but have not heard anything back. I don't know how successful letters are in gaining permission.

I have always worked on research, and winter's down-time worked out well for that. I always try to get permission, but only from a property owner. If a park or school, etc., never ask a grounds-keeper, always ask the owner or city or country ... seeking out the proper person. And usually, if it is public property, I don't ask unless there is good reason to do so.

As for Private Property, going back to 1968 when I first sought permission, right to the present time, I learned it is always best to ask in person. I never use a phone, and only tried twice for written permission. I gave that up many decades ago. I like to meet people, introduce myself, and look them in the eye when I approach them to seek permission. The odds of a quick answer, and the odds of it being in my favor, and much better than a phone or letter contact.

Monte

 

[Ronstar]

Just a couple of additional tidbits......
I had some generic business cards made up with my name and phone number and a image of a metal detector on the front. Back side had a couple highlights of my background and interests. I’ve had several hits come from that which in turn gets referenced to others. So far no crank calls and I left out the email on purpose. Secondly, I’ve made friends with local Realtors who have rural accounts. They will ask the owner about doing a search on property for sale especially if the house is empty. Rural does not get as many snoopy neighbors as in town either. The key to getting good recommendations from Realtors is being able to demonstrate near perfect plugs! Know when to dig and when not to dig. Leave dead spots and it does not work well for your reputation.

 

[Pink Magnolia]

Just a couple of additional tidbits......
I had some generic business cards made up with my name and phone number and a image of a metal detector on the front. Back side had a couple highlights of my background and interests. I’ve had several hits come from that which in turn gets referenced to others. So far no crank calls and I left out the email on purpose. Secondly, I’ve made friends with local Realtors who have rural accounts. They will ask the owner about doing a search on property for sale especially if the house is empty. Rural does not get as many snoopy neighbors as in town either. The key to getting good recommendations from Realtors is being able to demonstrate near perfect plugs! Know when to dig and when not to dig. Leave dead spots and it does not work well for your reputation.

Hi,
Where did you leave the cards or who did you give them to? The realtor source is a good idea. What about places where they have cleared the land before starting a new house development?