Just discovered why gain needs to be in the 6 area..

[Anonymous]

As an ex whites dfx user/owner I thought the higher the gain the better. Well after reading several posts at the minelab forum I noticed that the pros aren't running gain at 10 like I was. So I decided to set it to 6 and wonder of wonders a three dimensional world has opened up to me. No wonder iron mask was giving me too much information. It was because all of the targets had the same intensity in terms of sound. Now that I'm running it at 6 I can hear the targets different depths and can walk through the trashy areas just listening for the low noises. It's soo cooooool!!!!!!

 

[Anonymous]

Yes the gain does not really affect depth, just the volume.. it might seem like your getting deeper cause you hear them better, but I think any gain will see the targets that higher gain does, just be quieter at the lower settings.. of course I dont know what happens if you go lower than 5.. I usually run 6 or 7 on gain.. with the bigger coils using less gain.. I suppose if you get into a fairly clean area with deep targets that a gain of 10 might be the way to go though, should be able to sweep a bit faster and just check out the blips.. nothing sweeter to the ears than a solid high tone with very low volume

 

[Anonymous]

in today. Did I understand you correctly that with a larger coil I should run it lower? If so about how low?
Thanks for the help.

 

[Anonymous]

Friends who use Exp's tell me to run gain at 7 or 8 with the smaller 8" coil. So I figure for the larger coils, you want to run 5" or 6". For an X12, maybe it's around there too? Maybe lower? Guess you should go test it out when you get your X12.
Btw, when I started a few weeks ago with the Exp. the guy I bought it from said to run gain at 6 while I was still learning as any higher might be too much. I haven't tried gain at 10 yet but even at 7 or 8, it seems a bit busy.
HH
Elmer

 

[Anonymous]

The guy on the forum that has the most silver, or close, for the year, runs 10 gain. He also uses 32 Auto.
I run 10 Gain with everything even the WOT. And <i>hear</i> is why...
I was real good at picking out the extremely faint targets with 5 and 6 gain, but I still made the switch and now that I have used it a while, I don't see going back anytime soon. I think my silver count is up since I have. Anyway, I have had friends with an Explorer go over faint targets I have found. Here is what I did, I found a deep target and called them over and and made a 4 foot or so circle. I told them that somewhere in that circle is a target I would dig and a lot of trash items. Find it and tell me what it is. They couldn't even find it most of the time. One time I even watched one guy swing his coil direcly over it 4 times and he missed it. This doesn't mean much except that it is easy to miss some of the super faint targets with a lower gain. Sure you find a lot of the targets, but you will go right over some of the deep ones and miss them because they are so faint that they don't grab your attention long enough. (I am talking newer users here)
Now with that being said, gain 10 does <b>not</b> go any deeper than any gain setting, it just makes everything sound equal and makes the deep iffy hits stand out well enough to grab your attention so you further investigate. I have found deep targets and ran my gain down to gain 3 and it will still get them, but we couldn't use it hunting, we would miss a bunch because we wouldn't hear them good enough.
Gain 10 is definitely not good for newer users to try, it will probably cause you to miss targets. But gain 10 in the hands of someone that can handle it does great. More "pros" use high gain than you realize. Maybe not 10, but I sure know a lot of people that use at least 8 or higher. I think a higher gain helps tell deep iron from deep iffy coins better, but that is just my opinion and I wouldn't bet money on it till I actually took the time to check iffy signals with different gains.
Now, I am not saying for you to use 10 gain, not at all. I am just saying that after you have a couple 100 hours in on it, you might try it again.
My two corroded zincs

 

[Anonymous]

Yes, you should use a higher gain with smaller coils. At least Sunray thinks so. <IMG SRC="/forums/images/biggrin.gif" BORDER=0 ALT="">
You should also use 5 or 6 gain with the stock coil while you are learning.

 

[Anonymous]

when I tried to turn it up to 10, I started getting all kinds of little beeps that didn't seem to be there before. This was in a late '60s park, so they couldn't have been a bunch of coins down a foot. Think these little beeps were tiny trash or even ground minerals. Think I had sensitivity set at 16 at the time, or maybe 22. When I turned the gain down to 8, these unwanted little beeps seemed to disappear. HH, George (MN)

 

[Anonymous]

Hi There Patrick
I only use the gain at 9 or 10 when i am sure it's a place full of coins and relics and with not much iron. Then you can use the gain very good to track those deep coins. In all the areas i prefer 6 or 7 too.
Happy hunting Michiel

 

[Anonymous]

Patrick, I go with alot Rick said but, I like to always run Gain at 8. I think it just gives me enough variation in tone based on depth.
But everybody hears things differently too.

 

[Anonymous]

ric i think gain setting is a personal choice i use 6 or 7 and find the deep coins just find i think THE MAN with the most silvers primarily uses 6or 7 gain 10 ironmask and sensitivity much lower than 32 he also hunts mostly in manual. we all know him, mike m thanks jim p