Need a heads up on a Cibola that's on it's way

[harvdog42]

Hello all,

I just purchased a Cibola that is going to come with the 5.75 coil, a 9 x 8 coil and a 10 x 12 coil. I do mostly beach hunting since I live near the coast in S. California and have a Sand Shark for that purpose.

I read such great reviews on the Cibola I had to try one. The Cibola will be primarily a turf machine for me. I read one review where the guy said he could tell the difference between pulltabs, nickles, bottle caps, etc. just by the sound. Is he living in a dream world is that within the capabilities of this machine?

The land machine I use now is a Fisher 1265 which I like but I'll be dambed if I can tell the diffence between many low conducting targets.

Are there any tips you guys can give me about using this machine before it arrives?

Thanks in advance.

Harvdog

 

[Sven]

You can tell the difference if you have trained ears. The differences are very suttle, most people wouldn't be able to here them in disc. mode. You get a better sense if you switch from disc to all metal pinpoint when pinpointing, here's where you can really hear more of a difference. Don't expect this to be like a multi tone detector, it's not. You will need a really good set of headphones, try the Ratphones.

Your favorite coil will probably end up being the 5.75, it's the one i used most for TotLots and general coin shooting.

Enjoy the Cibola

 

[gregl01]

Yep, I can tell the differences too. This machine will sound scratchy or broken blips and chirps over junk, but sound real smooth over the goodies. It takes practice but it can be done. I've logged many hours with mine and the 5.75 coil is the only way to go!!!! Good luck

Greg

 

[harvdog42]

OK Gregg,

That's great to hear. What about zinc pennies. Can you tell a zinc penny when you hear one?

Harvdog

 

[gregl01]

Well............ zinc pennies are difficult. My ears ain't that good!!!!!! You sometimes develop an intuition as to what you're digging, and with practice you'll just know. Its hard for us in the northeast 'cause I can only hunt 7-8 months a year, and it takes the first few times out to re-learn everything again! I hope to be hunting soon.
Good luck with your Cibola and post some goodies for us keyboard jockies!!!!!!

Greg

 

[tvr]

The Cibola gives you information in a lot of ways. I hunt mostly in discriminate mode with the discriminator set at iron. will crackle but not beep solidly at this setting.

If you thumb the discriminator and see where the target starts to crackle or discriminates out, you have more conductivity information. Zinc pennies discriminate out higher than pull tabs but lower than dimes or copper pennies.

In pinpoint, louder higher pitch is shallow, soft low pitches are deeper but aluminum sets off a bit higher pitch just about all the time even when it is a little deeper tab. You can size and shape targets in pinpoint.

With practice over targets you will learn to discern sharp or smooth edged beeps, the crackle, how long the beep is over the swing where it discriminates out and things like that. Add that information to information in pinpoint, and maybe raise the coil some to see where you lose the target and there is a lot of target information that you can get from this "beep and dig" instrument.

Enjoy your new Cibola!
tvr

 

[tabdog]

Tha zinks disc out before tha copper ones.

But I dig zinks, they could be a goody.

Rings, IH's and other goodies have hit as zinks.

Several silver jewelry items hit there, or all tha

way down ta foil.

I have trouble culling anything between foil and

up.

But I pass on aluminum cans and big iron and

tha such as that.

Happy Huntin,

Tabdog

 

[tvr]

Oooops ... revise thought error .... "will crackle but not beep solidly at this setting." ... on small nails.

 

[harvdog42]

By the way. Does anybody have experience with the Cibola in the wet sand? Is it fairly stable in the wet? I'm happy with my Sand Shark for the wet but occasionally hunt beaches with so much iron I prefer a VLF to discriminate some of it out.

Harvdog

 

[tvr]

I have had great results over the dry sand. Wet sand in fresh water no problem!

Wet saltwater sand ... with the Cibola I had falsing consistently crossing the wet / dry boundary. Once past the immediate boundary I could hunt the wet sand. In the wet salt I could detect with the sensitivity turned down to I think 5 or 6 with max of 7 without much falsing but didn't find anything much deeper than about 4 maybe 5 inches set like that.

Since then I have had some suggestions of maybe running the discrimination a little higher than just at iron and see if I could then run a little more sensitivity. I haven't tried that yet since I haven't packed the Cibola on beach trips in a while.

In the suds (up to knee deep) ran about the same as wet sand but would sound off with bonging type of sound as waves washed over. Then a few seconds to sweep and hear targets, then bonging, then sweep some more as the cycle repeated. Found some stuff but decided to get a waterproof detector.
tvr

 

[harvdog42]

OK TVR,

That's about what I expected. My 1265 falses when salt water waves wash over the coil also. But it does fairly well in the wet sand as long as there is not too much black sand. I hunted with the 1265 for years on the beach and found my share of goodies with it, but now prefer to hunt with the Sand Shark on the beach.

I hunted with a DFX on the turf for awhile and found a few gold items. But the older I get the more simple I like things. I've been hunting with my 1265 at parks recently and found that I was comeing home with just as many goodies as I was getting with the DFX without looking at a VDI meter all the time.

I think I'm going to like the trash separation characteristics that people talk about with the Cibola, especially with the 5.75 coil.

Thanks for the reply.

Harvdog