Hit the beach yesterday

[therover]

Found a spot that gave up over 100 wheat pennies, all in really good shape. There are 80 in the pic...my brother got 23 of them. All of these were found in an area about 50ft x 50ft. I picked these off with my CZ6a.

Funny thing is...not one silver coin. The 10:1 wheat to silver ratio was non existent. But, instead of a silver for every 10 wheats, we got a foreign coin. Ones from Hong Kong, Mexico, Trinidad, Israel, Canada, Italy and the weirdest one was the 1939 German coin with a swastika on it. I took a pic but it did not come out too well.

JC

 

[Hombre]

Nice finds Rover

That's a lot of wheats, it's kinda like sometimes, bummer with no silver in with them. Lots of interesting oddball coins though, and I like the German coin, never popped one of those out.

HH..........Randy

 

[tvr]

Lot of older coins!
CZ6a really does the job.
I posted on the beach and water / scuba forum for last week's beach trip. Used mostly the CZ6a but also the Sandshark. With the CZ6a I ran autotune with sensitivity cranked up and then flipped to 0 to check. I'm now sold on autotune with this detector at the beach, unless it gets real trashy.
tvr

 

[therover]

There was way too much iron and junk. I did use autotune on another beach were there weren't many targets. It is a good mode for deep search and wide scan, but most times I just run in 0, sweep slow, scrub the coil and listen for the distinct high tone ping.

And boy was it pinging yesterday.

 

[sport.pilot]

Hello,

Can you explain to me what difference I will experience by hunting in Auto Tune vs Discrimination set at 0? Is the signal in Auto Tune a bit wider and more sensitive/deeper? I realize that you do not get the 3 tones, but I guess I am uncertain just how much of an advantage I get using it, say in ground that does not have a lot of trash. Thanks.

Darryl

 

[tvr]

sport.pilot,
Autotune is a motion all-metal mode. Coil needs to be moving, but doesn't need to move fast. If you hold the coil directly over a target in autotune, the detector will tune out the target and you won't hear it until you move the coil. It does seem to spread the field a little (make the sweep area a little wider). I set it with an audible threshold tone and listen for a change in the tone. If there is nearby interference or too many targets, it can drive you nuts; change to 0 if that is the case. I found that I can move just a little faster in autotune and still hear small changes on deep targets. I'll re-check those moving slowly and when I get a target centered in autotune, I'll flip to 0 to get an ID. If you are in the water (with a CZ20 or 21), autotune does not give a speed advantage because you really can't move the coil that fast in the water.

The reason I like using 0, even when in trashy areas, is that with more discrimination (1 or above) I won't hear the low tone. When at 0, I can hear the low tone and hear if it bounces to mid tone or high tone. One of the reasons CZ's are said to be iron magnets is that iron targets frequently break from low tone to high tone. If you are discriminating out the low tone and never hear it, it is hard to tell if you have an iron target that is breaking into high tone or if it is a deep copper or silver target just on the verge of detection. If you are listening to the low tone too, it adds information that you don't get when you run higher discrimination than 0.

A trick I use to try to figure out what is iron and what isn't, is to slow the swing down and walk around the target when swinging slowly in 0. Iron that breaks into a high tone, with usually stay low tone when you slow the sweep way down. The walk around the target, still swinging slowly, helps determine if the low tone is an iron target or is iron partly masking a better target. If the target starts going more high tone (or mid tone) at a different position and sweep angle as I circle the target, then it gets dug. Once you learn what the CZ tells you, and I think that means listening to all the tones and using some changing coil sweep speeds, you really don't dig much iron unless you want to really be sure what the target is or are looking for iron relics.

Big thing is to practice and learn it.
Cheers,
tvr

 

[sport.pilot]

TVR -- Thanks for the AutoTune explanation, very helpful. Do you use the Boost mode? I find the detector to be way to loud for my hearing at a volume setting any higher than 1 or 2 at the most. And since there are no volume controls on the headset, I am not sure I see the value of it? Finally, my coil cover is somewhat lose and I am wondering if anybody uses a silicone type material on the top to seal it and help hold it on. If so, what is the name of a good product to use? Or if you have some other method, I would like to know that too. Thanks again to all of you for your help.
Darryl

 

[therover]

n/t

 

[tvr]

sport.pilot,
Last week with the CZ6a I was running boost at about 8 and found it enhanced deeper targets a lot. With the CZ6a I have headphones that have volume control and I turn the headphone down to where it is comfortable and still very hearable and then I can run boost.

With the CZ20, (and I'd guess the CZ21 too) the headphones are without a volume control and are loud. I tend to not run boost if there is a lot of trash. But if there aren't a lot of targets I'll run some boost and just raise the coil when it becomes painful. I've thought about modifying the CZ20 headset; but have not done so yet.

therover,
Thank you!
Coming from an accomplished hunter like you, those kind words are very flattering and humbling.
Cheers,
tvr

 

[sport.pilot]

Thanks - I was thinking that it certainly was an oversight on the part of Fisher to not put in volume controls in the headsets, or at least make them an available option. I wonder if any underwater headsets have them. And if so, if they could be substituted for the Fishers. I would want to wait since I am sure that Fisher or any other company would say that doing that voided the warranty! Anyway, if you do modify the headsets and they work in the water, I hope you post the results.