Help me to Understand, Please.

[Digums]

Hi guys, I have been metal detecting every day for about a week now and I am still struggling! This detector is either a pathological liar, or maybe its me. Here are my questions, please help!

I did like the guy at the store said and always dig when the detector reads the same thing in multiple directions, I still get mostly junk.

Do most metal detectorists only dig on the really high beeps? That's the only time I ever find anything and a lot of the time it is still trash! What kind of beeps and signal should I be feeling around for? Which ones to dig? I find lots of recent coins but I am worried I am missing jewelry items only digging on high beeps but if i get so tired of pull tabs and pop can tops.

My model is a lone star that I run(most of the time) in auto mode 70% sensitivity and 40-60% Disc. I have been looking in old parks with grass or dirt.

Thanks!

 

[dave5710]

Higher disc. will give you less junk. But the only way to find gold and platinum rings and such is to dig everything. The only way to find it all is to dig it all. After you spend the summer digging lots of stuff you might try using the notch feature (if your machine has that).
Notch lets you tune out certain things like pop tops or pull tabs. I always recommend that newbies take a nickel and fine tune the disc. until the nickel can't be heard. Then slowly back off the disc. until the nickel comes though clear. That should get rid of some of that stuff. On my T-2 nickels ID in the same range as pop tops, only nickels are much more consistent. Personally I run disc. very high and dig very little junk. This morning I dug 37 coins out of 40 targets. Read your owners manual a couple times and use the search feature right below the banner, at the top of this page, to learn more about the Bounty Hunter Lone Star.

There are alot of experienced Lone Star users here and with that avatar I'm sure several will be willing to help.

Good luck, take care and remember.......we love pictures.

 

[GoGoGopher]

Keep your SENS at about 12 o'clock position, unless you can run it higher without getting constant chatter from the machine...turn your DISC down to about the 10 o'clock position...you never really want to run it higher than this, unless your only looking for silver and coins...keep your swings level to the ground, with the coil only skimming the grass, or 1/2" off sand or rough ground...you should be able to count 2 mississippi between each end of your swing...If you get an iffy signal, swing the coil in short fast sweeps over the target (I call this the wiggle)...If it still breaks up or muti-tones, it is probably trash...Dig ALL repeatable signals...you have to dig them pull-tabs to get the gold....Also, Use good Alkaline or rechargeable batteries...That is one thing you DO NOT want to skimp on...ALso make sure the cable to box connection is good...

Hope this helps some...

Happy Hunting, and Welcome to the Addiction,

 

[Joel-Winnipeg]

Parks are usually a good place to find some jewelry.
Any where that people play some type of sports.
I have a tendency of digging lots of the low signals that usually equate to junky signals.
The gold will run from foil to upwards of nickel readings. Most of the rings I've found are in the 10 to 40 VDI readings
You must be prepared to dig most of those to get the gold mixed in there.Last year found a women's engagement ring VDI 20
Don't forget that gold rings will not be a common item lost and easy to find.
The higher signals usually are coins and silver finds.
Just today I was digging a VDI reading of 27 as a junky signal and it turned out to be a mans 10k ring.
Last week dug up two rings with one a VDI of 32 junky signal which turned out to be a women's wedding band of 14k
while the other ring was a band also around the same signal but that one was a junk ring almost exactly the same size ring.
So patience and dig all the signals is the only way to find them.
Also location where those type of items are lost.
I use the Discovery 3300 and MXT ,XLT
Hope this help you, patience you'll find them and have to dig it all.

 

[drummerman]

I've been MT'en a couple of years and I still get junk. I figure, "when in doubt, dig it out!"

 

[Suninyourhand]

I don't know, but there might be something of use if you wade through some of this stuff: www.metaldetectorreviews.net/detectors/66-1-lonestar.html The videos feature your model, I think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BpfCwo4_KY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymP2N93qPj0&feature=related

 

[abcoin]

I use the Lone Star as my main detector. From your experiences, it sounds like the park you're hunting is junk-filled. The nature of the specific area that you are hunting always has a HUGE effect on what kind of settings you should use and what type of signals you'll get. For example, I've hunted areas where the trash was so plentiful that, no matter how much discrimination I used, I still couldn't take a step without getting a signal! By contrast, one of my regular sites is a schoolyard where the junk is minimal. Here, I can use all metal mode for the entire hunt, while still minimizing the junk found. Parks can be great places to search, but if this particular one is frustrating, try another site and come back once you've gained some experience. Hunting at a less trashy site will also help you learn what each type of target truly sounds like. Remember, junk can register anywhere under any target ID segment, but so can good finds (coins, rings, etc). For now, though, see out a less trashy place, and, as far as settings are concerned, start with sensitivity at 75% (3 o'clock), disc. nob no more than 25% (9 o'clock), and mode DISC. Once you get used to this, try messing around with the settings to get something better for your specific hunting site. Hope this helps, abcoin.

 

[jenca]

I was just at a thing called Women in the Outdoors last weekend, and one of the activities I opted to go with was metal detecting. something the instructor said that seems to fit with different posts I've seen here, is that for every ring you find, your apt to dig up 100+ pull tabs. It takes a lot of patients when you're starting out. Not only getting use to your equipment, but also figuring out how it responds to stuff. I'm pretty green when it comes to my skill level, but every time I go out it seems like I learn something new about what my detector will respond to. When I get frustrated with pull tabs or the park I commonly go to is full of kids, I'll just shoot for coins and discriminate out everything except coins. My detector doesn't have a headphone jack so doing this cuts down on unwanted attention. Though to find nickles and from the sounds of it rings, digging when i signals for what could be a pull tab is good, because pull tabs and nickles show up in the same range from what I've learned. when I shoot for coins and discriminate everything else out, I get pennies, quarters and dimes but generally just modern coins.

There is a certan amount of trial and error involved, but think of it like your opening a gift from the past and the element of surprise at what you find can help keep the interest level up.

Something else you may want to do, is look into the history of sites you are considering to give yourself a beter shot at finding something other ten pull tabs. The instructor at the event I attended said that postcards can offer clues to where things may have been in the past but may not be now, in addition to looking at things like old maps of the area. sites with an older history may be better then a site with a newer history if that makes sense.

The big thing though, is to be patient with yourself and hope for silver and gold, but be prepared for pop tabs.

This forum has been a huge help for me in getting beyond the frustration phase I was in initially and now I'm starting to enjoy it more.

Check your manual, it may help explain things like different tones and that sort of thing specific to your detector I found that studying my manual was helpful in understanding my detector better.

Hope this was encouraging, I'm not always great with explaining things, and I will be the first to admit I'm a newbie detectorist, so I am always learning myself.

My soon to be other hobby might be Geocaching, which I'm hoping will help me locate other possible sites for my metal detecting that I might not have noticed otherwise.

Happy hunting!

 

[dave5710]

Definitely don't get discouraged.You will learn new things every time you go out. Listen the the sounds your machine makes and pay less attention to the display. My first machine was a BH Pioneer 202, and I thought I knew everything there was to know about it after 3 months. After 6 months I realized that I didn't know very much about it at all in those first 3 months. Keep practicing, hone your skills, learn your machine, and keep trying to find good locations. Heavily hunted locations, may be the biggest reason why sites aren't producing as well as you think they should.

 

[Digums]

To all who replied, Thank You! As I do this more I am getting to know my detector better, I picked up a pinpointer too so that makes for a little less work. I have taken the attitude to go out, enjoy my time, dig what my gut tells me to, and not worry about the rest. I still feel like a big dork the whole time I'm doing it, but it's an obsession. I even dream I'm detecting a lot of nights! (I'm pretty sure I get pulltabs there too!)

Good Luck to you all!

Digs



PS I found Jesus the other day! He was just on his cross, laying about 2" under the dirt next to a parking lot. Nickel plated but I just didn't have the heart to toss him in the trash with the pop tops.

 

[TURNMASTER]

Learn your machines sounds and try to guess the target before you dig. Some coins will only sound good from one direction, and will sound trashy from every other. Your TID may only ID good from one direction. You should get a consistant hit from that one direction. Bent nails sound like coins. Read thru some of the other forums and pick up tricks there as well. Just becouse you run a BH does not mean you can not learn in the Garrett or Minelab areas.

OH Yeah, Pics or it never happened! We want to see the Christ you saved (or did the Christ save you?).

Addiction is the correct term for this hobby.

 

[salmonriverhotrock]

Have been detecting since 1982 and if your not digging some junk with your finds, your not seriously detecting and may be discriminating too much for what ever you are looking for at or lower than pull tabs.

One machine I run is a BH Pioneer 505. One advantage I see in the multi-tone machines is I can run zero discrimination and yet still rely on 4 tones to do some segregating. The 505 is also the only machine I have that uses tones and digital display to give a HINT of what you may have found before digging. Can't say I put all my faith in the display, not because it don't work but it can be fooled now and then. I say hint because not all pull tabs for instance are made of the same aluminum alloy as another and can find now and then that one part or the other is missing or folded back over the pull ring changing how it detects. Even with coins, how they lay and how oxidized they are will determine how they detect. Dry and wet soil and those with high mineral or irons can test you and machine. What you are going to discover is you may dig a pull tab and wonder why it did not quite tone and or display as one when others do and so on with other things. These machines are set up for the most likely metal alloy content you will encounter and those you want to keep with as little effort as possible required to electronically discern them. The Zinc and Copper pennies being a good example of different alloy content and what most likely would be encountered though some folks would prefer to not bother digging and or keeping the Zincs.

These Tone Machines are not like old school where those of us learned and still hunt by sound, seeking particular variation and duration of it through the coil swing, not by bells, whistles, and teleprompters. My old Garrett Freedom II in the pin point mode will tell me almost 100% of the time that I have found an aluminum beer or soda can. It's not a listed or promoted feature of the machine or is it in the instruction manual but I did eventually put both sound and can together by the distinct sound it made. Why it does it I can not explain and especially when pin point is all metal and should be one sound for all metal.

Something you may try is the small 4" coil in trashed out areas. You may lose a little depth but will hit on smaller items and not have so many things under your coil at once to figure out. I think you have the right attitude though, jump in with both feet and and learn it, and your machine will not end up sitting in a closet. Too bad though you had to buy one of them pin pointers. More batteries and stuff to pack around, keep dry, and get in the way. My 505 pin points like a good Bird Dog. It has the All Metal Mode but you use the Ground Trac which is like a ground balance with it to sort of speak, dial it in on the spot if you need to be more precise. I don't think the Lone Star came with Ground Trac but has the All Metal mode. Have more than once enjoyed my 4" coil in trashed out camp sites and other places and would not part with it.

As for mostly finding modern, you need to keep in mind how many years people have been detecting and where at before you. Then figure in places people used to be able to detect and can no longer. It's not that there are no coins to detect for, it's that the older in the best available places have pretty much been gone over and many times. Construction, land closures, housing developments. The silver coins tend to stand out when dropped and people are more likely to see and pick them up before bothering with a penny. The area I'm at is hunted a lot but I have managed to find one wheat so I feel fortunate.

If you think it's hard trying to find old coins, you should try your hand at detecting for natural gold (a whole different kind of detecting). I'm in Gold country (very worked over) and can find tiny pieces of lead and copper bullet and bird shot fragments but I have yet to find a nugget or flake of gold electronically. I even use two different tiny pieces of gold as my out in the field test pieces to check my settings. The general rule is if you can find lead, you should also find gold at about or the same size IF it is there.

The way I look at it, most of us will never get rich doing this stuff so you have to have a love for it first and be content there is anything in the ground to dig for as it all could be taken away tomorrow.