I thought this was going to be easy

[ChrisinCt]

All my life as far back as I can remember I always wanted a metal detector , but for whatever the reason it just never happened.

I'm at a point in my life were the kids are grown or almost grown and having a few dollars set aside for a rainy day I said to myself now is the time,.
How can one go through life always wanting something but never doing it. Am I right?

For the past couple weeks while I debated in my mind as to whether to purchase one or not ,I would have these thoughts of how easy it was going to be to just walk around and pick up old coins and lost jewelery.

Visions of soon to be vast wealth (maybe not vast) convinced me to jump right in , I purchased the Spectra V3i. The salesman who was totally honest had me convinced spending more money up front on a better detector would make my time with the detector much easier.(Here come the visions again) I was sold, I couldn't wait to get it home and start amassing my soon to be fortune.

Well! it's not quite working out that way. Who knew he dorky guy with the Bermuda hat, wearing cut off Sears leisure pants and sporting brown socks with black dress shoes swinging a metal detector at the local park was really a NASA engineer in disguise?

Jeez!! these things have more bells and whistles on them, it's really overwhelming for a guy just starting out.

My hats off to all of you who have put their considerable time in to master this craft. It's a whole lot harder than it looks from an outsiders perspective.

Well That's my introduction, Thanks for the help I'm picking up from Q & A's that have been already posted here, I'm sure I'll have a million more questions in the coming weeks as I get better acquainted with my Spectra.

 

[Larry (IL)]

Hi Chris and welcome to the forum. Fear not the beast, put it in the coin and jewelry mode and get out there and have fun. This hobby is about having fun and learning the V3i will take time but it is plenty good right out of the box. You have a double whammy there, leaning the hobby plus learning the V3i but it can be done. Be patient and take baby steps. Most important...HAVE FUN.

 

[magic]

Chris,
Dont feel so bad. It may be alot to handle at first but just take it slow and learn the right ways. It like playing a guitar, it takes time and the more you put into it, the more you get out of it. Just dont change things if you are not sure what they do on the machine. Read this forum and you will be ok.
Just give it some time. You have the best there is out there!

 

[Taterhead]

haha...

I bought a metal detecting instruction video once and the guy *was* a NASA engineer!

He filmed the intro in front of a NASA building, even.

I don't have the video with me so I don't remember the name, but it was great.

Taterhead

 

[SwingBlade]

Chris -

You will be fine. Like Larry said, start with the stock coin & jewlery program out of the box, it's a great place to spring board from. Also, take a few hours in your yard testing it out with everything you can find. Put coins, rings, rusty nails, bottle caps etc on top of the ground, this way you can put the tones, the screen and what you know is on the ground all together. Most importantly, don't be afraid to change any settings, you can always restore anything you changed.


Happy Hunting!

SwingBlade

P.S. Tater.... I believe you are thinking of NASA Tom Dankowski.

 

[hang7575]

Find your self a real good place to detect that nobody has hunted yet and it WILL become easier quickly. It is hard to learn till you can consistently find good stuff but it will happen. Have fun

 

[Ol' Hound]

Welcome Chris! I feel your pain! There is a heck of a learning curve with the V3i but I believe you are up to the task. I'm taking it on and I am not a NASA engineer......These guys on this site have been pretty dang good and there is a ton of info in the historical threads. Good luck and be safe! Brian

 

[burlbark]

I have been tweaking with mine for 4 months now and have still been finding settings that can can be changed. I found things that are not in the manual and I am sure I will find more. I have started messing with the fade rate and resolution. Tweaking and more tweaking, and if there is another update I will only be thrilled.

 

[mickfin]

Velcome Chris no im not a Vampier LOL Iv ben with Whites 4R 25 years N thay have good units , I have a V3i also, Mickfin

 

[mickfin]

Wenever your in a adjustment and you dont know what it dose wile in that Adjustment Hold down Menu and press Zoom wala the manual is in the V3i,
Did that help??? Mickfin

 

[ferdware]

Welcome to the hobby or should I say addiction of metal detecting.
I also started out with the V3i, and nothing but good things to say. Especially with the Whites company. 5 stars.

Practice and read posts on this forum and you will feel confident in no time

Good luck.
FERD

 

[Jim D]

Hello Chris;
I,ve been metal detecting for over 30 yrs and has used Whites detectors for over 20 yrs and my way of thinking is that theirs not a better
detector on the market. But I,ll say this the V3i for me was a bit over whelming when I first started using it compared to all the other Whites detectors I used
The V3i is the top of the line and as you know has all the bells and whistles but like me you probably wont be using alot of them. I,ve had mine
since march and still learning what is the the best program and adjustments to make to help me find the older coins.
Like Magic and others have said just take it slow and easy and learn a little at a time.
If your using headphones you might want to turn your threshold volume down to around 3 or 4 unless you are in a noisy environment. For me its way too loud and I wear a hearing aid.
Also If you are getting alot of false signals turn down your sensitivity settings( RX gain,Discrimination,and All Metal ) to get a more stable operating condition. and there is also other adjustments that will help you run more stable too.
Good Luck and dont be afraid to ask questions as their is alot of members here ready to help you get the best out of your V3i.

Jim D

 

[jbow]

A few things...

1: Mine your friends and business associates to find a good place to hunt... and old yard, old farmhouse. Private yards, older ones that haven't been hunted are the place you want to be to find some interesting stuff.

2: Be sure you have a good ground balance, make sure there is no metal in the ground... both listen to the audio and watch the red bars.. find a clean place and bob the coil more that you think you should have to, it should go quiet. don't lower it all the way to the ground, stop an inch or so off the ground and raise it 8 to 10 inches.. keep at it until its quiet while going up and down.

3: Pay attention to the sticky post above about setting your frequency offset in pinpoint. I tried this today and it really helped quiten my V3. In Frequency, move over to "offset" pick a number and pull the trigger. Some numbers will pulse, some will be noisy, but some numbers will be quiet in pinpoint. I just held my coil about 10" off the ground and held it still... it made a huge difference.

4: Find a target, preferable a coin 3 or 4 inches deep. Walk up to it swinging at your normal swing rate. Go to Ground Filter and set the filter so that you get the best audio without having to change your sweep speed. If you are in a lot of iron or a lot of any metal lower your recovery delay to 50 or 45, if the targets are less numerous and/or deeper raise the recovery to 80 or higher. Usually a lower recovery number will allow a faster swing and will seperate close targets much better. 5khx is usually just a little slow to me I bump it up to 7 or 7 high (maybe 7.5 I don't remember right now the exact number) The recovery set at 45 is about as fast as an F75... set higer (like 80 to 100) it is more akin to a Minelab, it takes more time to process the target info but can go a little deeper.


Make it so that the audio is good for your style of hunting and suits the site you are hunting but mostly remember to get a GOOD ground balance and set tat frequency offset number so that it is quiet in pinpoint... it makes a huge difference.

The 4x6 shooter is a good stable quiet coil but not as deep, the SEF 8x6 coil is a very good coil and personally I like the D2 better than either the 5.3 or the 950 coil. If your ground is mineralized a DD coil is your friend!!

Julien

 

[Larry (IL)]

Excellent Julien............

 

[jbow]

n/t

 

[Rob (IL)]

Taterhead, his name is Tom Dankowski.

 

[jbow]

See Rob's post above... http://www.findmall.com/read.php?66,1290395,1296204#msg-1296204

J