Critterhunter
New member
Today I headed to a beach to hunt the dry sand that has been hit hard. I've already gridded most of this beach myself, and I know it's been hit hard because of the lack of targets compared to what is typical. Anyway, after gridding for a while I noticed even coins in the 6" range or so and deeper where choking out big time, sounding off with a heavy null and barely breaking through. This beach has a good bit of black sand in it along with microscopic iron and is just mineralized in general on top of all that, so I wasn't suprised it was giving even good targets at pretty moderate depth issues. Due to that, and combined with the lack of many signals, I figured it'd be the perfect time to experiment more with pin point mode and see if it would hit targets better for me.
With my remote PP switch wired inside my hand grip, it makes it rather easy to switch back and fourth between discriminate and PP, so when I found a target in PP I'd flip over to discriminate and see how the target sounded before digging. Wasn't long before I was popping a handful of quarters and other coins, and to top it all off many of these were a COMPLETE NULL when I flipped over to disc to see how they sounded, and I'm talking from two 90 degree directions even! That was a real shocker, and confirmed what I suspected- that when the ground is real bad PP mode is seeing targets easily that disc is nulling out or badly degrading due to the microscopic iron, the black sand, or just the mineralization in general. While not all these coins were complete nulls in disc, many off the sounded to bad that I would have bet money they were going to turn out to be iron or say a crown cap or something, where they'd null one way and give a scratchy sick signal the other. For sure I would have missed many of these if I was hunting in disc and didn't hit them at the right angle, or in fact would have got a complete null from them no matter what direction.
Wasn't long before I had a pouch full of coins, with many nickels and quarters to boot. Even got a wheat penny where as I've never dug an old coin on this beach before. And I'm talking many of these coins were solid "zing/zing" hits in PP mode from any direction with no doubt they were targets and not sounding deep at all, yet when I flipped over to disc they'd either sound really bad or just null out completely to where I'd never even know they were there. I suspect minerals or black sand can confused the detector and make it think the target is just part of the ground signal, and I suspect the microscopic iron in the sand could even pull the coin down low enough in conductivity that the GT thinks it's iron and nulls it out. Double whammy type of problems I bet for various targets.
And to think, if a BBS machine, known for handling the worst of soils or sands, is having problems with getting any kind of depth in this sand in disc, imagine what kind of trouble all other non-BBS units out there are having with this beach. That encouraged me to spent about 5 hours gridding it hard, and as a reward for my effort I got not only a pouch full of coins, but also one ring. It read 163 when I checked it in disc. It looks like it could be white gold or silver, but I suspect it reads too high to be white gold and too low to be silver, even though it's a thin plain band. I'd figure even a silver ring this thin should read as a coin as it always had on other machines I've owned. I've only had a few tiny silver items read down as low as a zinc penny on the GT that I've found before, and those were tinny silver items about the size of a pea and not a round intact loop like a ring, which presents a much bigger conductive picture to a detector. That's why Minelabs will nail even thin gold rings at depth but have problems with tiny gold items.
I can see scratches in the ring but no different metal color under that, so whatever it is, it ain't plated. But still, if it was white gold, containing nickel, I'd expect a ring of this size to read well down into the foil range. It doesn't look like aluminum but I'm not counting on it being any kind of keeper metal. I'm guessing that if it is any kind of keeper it might be nickel/silver, which would put it's VDI of 163 just about right for a ring of this size I think. There are no markings inside except for the letter "L". Anybody have any clue what that might mean?
So anyway, I'll just say that I am now a PP mode convert for at least beach hunting, at least when targets are not all over the place and the beach is mineralized. When those two combinations are present (lack of targets and badly mineralized sand), I'll for sure start hunting in PP mode. The beach was like a ghost town of targets until I flipped over to PP mode and then it was like a totally different beach.
One thing I found that is handy- You can tell the size of the target and also get a good idea of if it's iron or not by listening in PP mode. The size of the target is easy just listening as you short sweep over it. As for iron, I could tell most of the time it was going to be without even checking in disc, because the iron has a more "fuzzy" ramp up and ramp down sides of the hit. It may sound like a good target when right over it, but the "approach" and the "descent" of the audio has a distinct sound to it with iron compared to a non-ferrous target. Just the same, I scooped those too just to be sure I was guessing right, and probably 7 out of 10 times it indeed was iron when I thought it was going to be.
Another handy tip- Once I scooped out the hole and dumped it on the beach to check for the target, if I heard it in PP now in the dumped sand, I'd flip over to disc and see if it's sounding off now. If it's not then it's going to be iron, but if it is then you just dug a target that only PP could hear at even say 5 or 6" deep in this bad sand, where as disc was completely silent on it or was so bad sounding that you'd bet money it was an iron false or something. Nothing was more exciting then hearing nothing in disc when I found a target in PP, and then after scooping it out of the depths and dumping the sand, disc was now giving me a nice tab signal or some other good mid range or foil hit that had me hoping a ring would be waiting for me in that sand.
So I'm now going to call PP mode "Dead Man's Mode", because when the beach seems to be lacking targets or is so badly mineralized that you think you are a dead man for that day's hunt, flip over to PP and you might find the beach come right back to life. That's how it was for me today.
Next time at this beach I'm going to try All Metal fixed and flip back and fourth between that and disc and see if it seems to be any better than PP mode for this beach. I can easily just set the proper switches on my GT and then my remote PP switch will now toggle between disc and all metal based on how I have the switches on the GT's faceplate configured. I'm just wondering if once I set the ground balance in all metal track and then throw it to fixed, will fixed hold the ground balance when I flip over to disc and then back again to all metal? If it doesn't then I'll have to hunt in tracking mode because it'll be a real PITA to keep ground balancing all metal every time I flip back to it to want to use fixed. I guess one way to tell would be to set it for fixed, then flip to disc, then flip back to all metal and flip over to track and pump the coil and see if the balance needs setting again or if it seems still right on right away.
PS- So am I advocating hunting in PP on the beach all the time? Nope. It seems rediculous to me to hunt with one of the best discriminating detectors in what is basically an all metal mode (PP is a form of all metal that doesn't feature a ground balance). If the targets are numerous then no point in not using disc, especially if the beach is loaded with iron. But if the beach is badly mineralized and lacks targets because it's been hit hard, then I would highly recommend that instead of wandering for hours look for a signal that you flip over to PP mode and try that for a while. If you start popping coins or tabs that when you checked in disc they nulled out or sounded like iron trying to break through on you, then you know you are at the right beach at the right time, and with the right mineralized sand conditions, where PP mode will shine like you'd not believe and breath new life into that beach. So long as you aren't scooping 20 iron targets to recover one non-ferrous one then it's a winner for sure, and even if you are scooping iron it's probably worth it to save the day because otherwise you'd not be finding much at all. The time saver is if you dump the sand out and PP now says the target is on the beach, but when you flip to disc and it's still nulling out, then don't even bother with finding that piece of what you now know is iron junk. Just re-fill the hole and leave that iron for the guys using PI units.
With my remote PP switch wired inside my hand grip, it makes it rather easy to switch back and fourth between discriminate and PP, so when I found a target in PP I'd flip over to discriminate and see how the target sounded before digging. Wasn't long before I was popping a handful of quarters and other coins, and to top it all off many of these were a COMPLETE NULL when I flipped over to disc to see how they sounded, and I'm talking from two 90 degree directions even! That was a real shocker, and confirmed what I suspected- that when the ground is real bad PP mode is seeing targets easily that disc is nulling out or badly degrading due to the microscopic iron, the black sand, or just the mineralization in general. While not all these coins were complete nulls in disc, many off the sounded to bad that I would have bet money they were going to turn out to be iron or say a crown cap or something, where they'd null one way and give a scratchy sick signal the other. For sure I would have missed many of these if I was hunting in disc and didn't hit them at the right angle, or in fact would have got a complete null from them no matter what direction.
Wasn't long before I had a pouch full of coins, with many nickels and quarters to boot. Even got a wheat penny where as I've never dug an old coin on this beach before. And I'm talking many of these coins were solid "zing/zing" hits in PP mode from any direction with no doubt they were targets and not sounding deep at all, yet when I flipped over to disc they'd either sound really bad or just null out completely to where I'd never even know they were there. I suspect minerals or black sand can confused the detector and make it think the target is just part of the ground signal, and I suspect the microscopic iron in the sand could even pull the coin down low enough in conductivity that the GT thinks it's iron and nulls it out. Double whammy type of problems I bet for various targets.
And to think, if a BBS machine, known for handling the worst of soils or sands, is having problems with getting any kind of depth in this sand in disc, imagine what kind of trouble all other non-BBS units out there are having with this beach. That encouraged me to spent about 5 hours gridding it hard, and as a reward for my effort I got not only a pouch full of coins, but also one ring. It read 163 when I checked it in disc. It looks like it could be white gold or silver, but I suspect it reads too high to be white gold and too low to be silver, even though it's a thin plain band. I'd figure even a silver ring this thin should read as a coin as it always had on other machines I've owned. I've only had a few tiny silver items read down as low as a zinc penny on the GT that I've found before, and those were tinny silver items about the size of a pea and not a round intact loop like a ring, which presents a much bigger conductive picture to a detector. That's why Minelabs will nail even thin gold rings at depth but have problems with tiny gold items.
I can see scratches in the ring but no different metal color under that, so whatever it is, it ain't plated. But still, if it was white gold, containing nickel, I'd expect a ring of this size to read well down into the foil range. It doesn't look like aluminum but I'm not counting on it being any kind of keeper metal. I'm guessing that if it is any kind of keeper it might be nickel/silver, which would put it's VDI of 163 just about right for a ring of this size I think. There are no markings inside except for the letter "L". Anybody have any clue what that might mean?
So anyway, I'll just say that I am now a PP mode convert for at least beach hunting, at least when targets are not all over the place and the beach is mineralized. When those two combinations are present (lack of targets and badly mineralized sand), I'll for sure start hunting in PP mode. The beach was like a ghost town of targets until I flipped over to PP mode and then it was like a totally different beach.
One thing I found that is handy- You can tell the size of the target and also get a good idea of if it's iron or not by listening in PP mode. The size of the target is easy just listening as you short sweep over it. As for iron, I could tell most of the time it was going to be without even checking in disc, because the iron has a more "fuzzy" ramp up and ramp down sides of the hit. It may sound like a good target when right over it, but the "approach" and the "descent" of the audio has a distinct sound to it with iron compared to a non-ferrous target. Just the same, I scooped those too just to be sure I was guessing right, and probably 7 out of 10 times it indeed was iron when I thought it was going to be.
Another handy tip- Once I scooped out the hole and dumped it on the beach to check for the target, if I heard it in PP now in the dumped sand, I'd flip over to disc and see if it's sounding off now. If it's not then it's going to be iron, but if it is then you just dug a target that only PP could hear at even say 5 or 6" deep in this bad sand, where as disc was completely silent on it or was so bad sounding that you'd bet money it was an iron false or something. Nothing was more exciting then hearing nothing in disc when I found a target in PP, and then after scooping it out of the depths and dumping the sand, disc was now giving me a nice tab signal or some other good mid range or foil hit that had me hoping a ring would be waiting for me in that sand.
So I'm now going to call PP mode "Dead Man's Mode", because when the beach seems to be lacking targets or is so badly mineralized that you think you are a dead man for that day's hunt, flip over to PP and you might find the beach come right back to life. That's how it was for me today.
Next time at this beach I'm going to try All Metal fixed and flip back and fourth between that and disc and see if it seems to be any better than PP mode for this beach. I can easily just set the proper switches on my GT and then my remote PP switch will now toggle between disc and all metal based on how I have the switches on the GT's faceplate configured. I'm just wondering if once I set the ground balance in all metal track and then throw it to fixed, will fixed hold the ground balance when I flip over to disc and then back again to all metal? If it doesn't then I'll have to hunt in tracking mode because it'll be a real PITA to keep ground balancing all metal every time I flip back to it to want to use fixed. I guess one way to tell would be to set it for fixed, then flip to disc, then flip back to all metal and flip over to track and pump the coil and see if the balance needs setting again or if it seems still right on right away.
PS- So am I advocating hunting in PP on the beach all the time? Nope. It seems rediculous to me to hunt with one of the best discriminating detectors in what is basically an all metal mode (PP is a form of all metal that doesn't feature a ground balance). If the targets are numerous then no point in not using disc, especially if the beach is loaded with iron. But if the beach is badly mineralized and lacks targets because it's been hit hard, then I would highly recommend that instead of wandering for hours look for a signal that you flip over to PP mode and try that for a while. If you start popping coins or tabs that when you checked in disc they nulled out or sounded like iron trying to break through on you, then you know you are at the right beach at the right time, and with the right mineralized sand conditions, where PP mode will shine like you'd not believe and breath new life into that beach. So long as you aren't scooping 20 iron targets to recover one non-ferrous one then it's a winner for sure, and even if you are scooping iron it's probably worth it to save the day because otherwise you'd not be finding much at all. The time saver is if you dump the sand out and PP now says the target is on the beach, but when you flip to disc and it's still nulling out, then don't even bother with finding that piece of what you now know is iron junk. Just re-fill the hole and leave that iron for the guys using PI units.
So no need to try to convince me. I don't see myself using it on land (meaning not at the beach, but at a beach like this for sure!) unless the ground is badly mineralized like this and the site isn't loaded with iron that keeps fooling me into thinking it's a good target, but I can already tell much of the time if it's iron by way of the ramp up/down part of the signal, so who knows in badly mineralized land sites where targets are scarce I might even find I like it for that too, espcially in known deep coin sites.