GT Sensitivity Question....

[deanosaur1972]

On some machine's the sensitivity setting is not all about depth, there are machines that, for example, on a sensitivity of 12 o'clock that would be its maximum depth and then any lower setting would just expand the coil - in other words a setting of 9 o'clock would be the same depth as 12 o'clock but would increase the coil size so you wouldn't have to be over the target as it would make it a wider search area.

Just something I was thinking about, on my last hunt I was doing a bit of experimenting (having read about another machine's sensitivity) - it was a brief try but it did seem that on the GT the sensitivity not only expanded the coil but also had the extra depth - am I correct in my assumption?

Hunting at night on beaches, whilst great for detecting is not necessarily wonderful for proper testing!! So I will ask the experts....

Still having fun trying out different things - my low tide area is sanded in at the moment, its producing plenty of coins (last two hunts have produced

 

[element]

i believe sens on the sov adjust how sensitive it is to objects. this is why it is more stable when you lower the sens because its not sounding off on all the tiny pieces of metal or minerals especially small bits of iron that cause the machine to null constantly..

Depth is reduced but not much.. a coin a 10inch sounds clear at say 12'oclock but at 4 o'clock it would be a fainter signal..


where are you in the UK? newquay? think I spoke to you before somewhere (another forum)... my beaches all sanded in too..

I normally manage around

 

[deanosaur1972]

Depth is reduced but not much.. a coin a 10inch sounds clear at say 12'oclock but at 4 o'clock it would be a fainter signal..

Yeah I understand that but was wondering at what point on Sens would be lowest depth - on certain other brands a 12 o'clock setting would be maximum depth while any higher sensitivity would just be making the coil bigger and wider, but not deeper. I believe that the GT does go deeper just out of Auto - but I don't know conclusively - I do know that it expands the coil size, just on my short tests I could be swinging well over 1ft away from a target but would know there was something close by.

where are you in the UK? newquay? think I spoke to you before somewhere (another forum)... my beaches all sanded in too..

No, Dorset here - with the real high tides the top of the normal dry sand has cut away nicely here, unfortunately all that sand has only been shifted to the wet sand area line that is THE line - need a very strong storm to shift it, I reckon its around 3ft higher on the line that produces the real goodies. But at least its shifted a lot of coins into that area.

 

[element]

well in air test that Ive done just out of auto is deeper than auto by 2 inches at least.. Like I said though its just that the signal starts to become fainter. thats the thing though as when the machine is running too hot (to high sens) you hear all the tiny pieces of metal which sound like deep signals. If you run the sens down lower you then you wont pick up the shallow tiny stuff but will still be able to hear clearly the deep good stuff like rings/coins...

The sand on the cornish coast has probably raised 2ft at least on the wet sand line aswell..

 

[jbow]

I think it is probably dependent on your ground. Sometimes IMO, running sensitivity can be like using high beams in fog. I find, in my ground, that either AUTO or setting the sensitivity around 2:00 works best... but if I go to the beach in NW Florida where they have that soft white sand... I can run my sensitivity a lot higher.

What I would do is either find a target that is fairly deep and then adjust the sensitivity to where you get the best audio without excessive falsing and leave it there. You can also bury a target on a beach and disturbing the matrix really shouldn't be a problem. If you're in the wet sand and using a gold ring you should tie some fishing line to it because it is possible for it to quickly sink to a depth where you may lose it. I learned that from NASA Tom. I think it is on one of his videos, the one on beach hunting. He was trying to figure out why some parts of the beach hold coins and jewelry that aren't too deep while several meters away everything might be too deep to find. IIRC, he found that parts of the beach where your feet sink... a ring will also sink quickly and deep but places where the sand is hard and your feet don't sink hold more treasuse. These places run in lines on the beach. I don't fully understand it but I do remember that he tied a lineto a ring and it sunk several feet very quickly in one place and hardly at all in another on the same stretch of beach.

All that to say.. be careful if you bury a ring in wet sand to test your Sovereign on... tie a line to it. I don't know how well his DVD will apply to your conditions but IMO it is very good. It is a doudle DVD with one on beach hunting and one on inland relic hnting. Tom is VERY analytical and methodical... very.

Just Google Tom Dankowski if you don't know who i'm talking about.


Summary: Whatever targets you are finding... take one or two common ones and (after securing it to a line) bury it at the depth where you usually find things and then tweak your sensitivity to give you the best possibla audio, ignore the meter if you have one. Then bury it deeper until you get to the point where the detector will only null to tell you there is a target. Then tweak the sensitivity to see if you can get audio... if not... practice with the null because at some point of depth you will lose audio but still get a null. Learn the size of the null of a good target (one of your common finds) as opposed to a larger piece of iron. You may find that you are able to get more from your GT than you ever imagined. When you are working with the null try burying a goodie and a piece of iron of similar size a maybe a meter or two away to see what the difference is... then check them both in AM and in pinpoint with different sensitivity settings to see if you can find a way to tell a deep goodie that will only null from a piece of iron that nulls.
Are youy aware that the GT in AM mode actually offers a little bit of disc? It does. Somewhere around 145 or so the AM tone will switch from "low-high-low" to "high-low-high". That is good to know when in AM because it is a quick way to tell silver from iron, ferrous from non-ferrous... to some extent anyway. It takes a bit of practice, at least it did for me.
I love the GT on the beach. I use the 10" Tornado coil but sometimes wish I had a bigger one. I always chestmount the box using a Cabelas Pro binocular harness, it makes a world of difference in comfort and helps to keep the box safe and dry. If I am notin the edge of the water or if the eind isn't blowing too much I take a very small bungee cord, one of the ones that is about 8" long and I wrap it around the clear plastic lid after folding it back out of the way... so I can easily access pinpoint or AM or whatever else.... it works for me. I imagine a large rubberband would work as well or better.

Anyway... that is probably more than you wanted to know or stuff you already knew...

HH,

Julien

 

[deanosaur1972]

I think that I must have phrased the question wrongly, should have done some diagrams to explain what I mean. Never mind I will do some proper tests soon.

Then bury it deeper until you get to the point where the detector will only null to tell you there is a target. Then tweak the sensitivity to see if you can get audio... if not... practice with the null because at some point of depth you will lose audio but still get a null. Learn the size of the null of a good target (one of your common finds) as opposed to a larger piece of iron. You may find that you are able to get more from your GT than you ever imagined. When you are working with the null try burying a goodie and a piece of iron of similar size a maybe a meter or two away to see what the difference is... then check them both in AM and in pinpoint with different sensitivity settings to see if you can find a way to tell a deep goodie that will only null from a piece of iron that nulls.

Now I didn't know that ?????

Will have to give that a try out - that could be very useful in one particular area where I pull out most of the rings that I have found. Thanks...