New Member, New Vaquero, Old Silver

[muconium]

Hi Tesoronauts!

This is my first post. My new Vaq came Fedex yesterday and I found a 46 Rosie and a 36 Quarter on ground that I had worked over with my Compadre. The Vaq arrived at 1 pm and I had silver within two hours....

There IS a learning curve compared to the Compadre as far as what to listen for. The Compadre was second nature to me, but I feel like I'm struggling a bit. I expect it will become natural to me soon. I am hunting an 1900's schoolyard where the original building was torn down, so I'm hearing lots of crackles and half-signals. Do you guys dig these? Also, I have a tendency to crank the disc up to max and grab all the silver I can. Can people give me a clue about their best disc settings for depth? Should I go with "dig all repeatable signals"? It seems crazy to disc on "iron" and dig everything.... especially over trashy sounds.

Thanks!

 

[POLEWAGGER]

Welcome and congrats!
Your first silver with the V, and you didn't even post a pic for us to drool over
At first I would dig everything. It will be worth taking the time to hunt with the pointer on iron, and disc out every repeatable hit. I would also recommend checking in all metal too. I suspect you already know that pinpoint is the same as AM. See if you can ID the target before you dig. Sometimes AM will reveal multiple targets that sound "broken" in disc. Running the disc high doesn't kill the depth very much. Look for Monte's Power Balancing post(s). Try to remember to swing high, low, fast, slow to help get a better "picture".
Keep us posted on the finds!

 

[hatpin]

Im new with my vaq also.I always start out by digging it all . I dont go full disc . Ive dug up a lot of old coins with it that discriminated out before it reached max. disc. My most successful way is to search at min disc or close to it, then each signal slowly thumb the knob up and listen closely. If a signal just fades away it is usually a good one no matter where it discriminates out..

 

[Jeff in Pa]

That's awesome to find silver in two hours! My advice is it run the discrimination on the mark just above iron, dig repeatable but notice that most of the time only coins or coin like objects will sound sweet, meaning no crack or cut out and end of the beep. Cracks at the end are usually junk. Also when you PP and it floats or moves it will be junk or when PP'ing it sounds like a large target it's junk. Remember to lift your coil when swinging over what you think is good this will give you a idea of depth. Cracks usually mean that something it rusted or corroded and junk. After you dig a few and learn to thumb the discrimination to discover and predict correctly what it is then stop thumbing so much and listen more. When you do this run the discrimination up to the mark just below nickel. Oh and if it sounds sweet and discs out just as you pass a nickel it most likely is a nickel. The discrimination is spot on. If the junk is getting to be too much you can always bump up the disc to just above tab and just dig the sweet repeatable signal. When you do this you will hear a lot of short blips but just ignore them, the processor on the V is very fast as you will come to learn. Now if it's deeps a coin will bleed across the sweep but will not pop or crack. Of course deep will be a lower " not as loud" sound. These you must take your time to PP or your digging will frustrate you, I know this from experience. Also the school you are hunting probably once used coal to heat it and a heavy dose of coal clinkers will make the V go crazy but there's no mistaking that once you know what it doing it. Have fun learning. Don't let it frustrate you, if you get frustrated either bump up the disc or take a break. The V is amazing at all it does and if you give it time you will see that it will hang with so other detectors that are priced much higher but it's all about practice and learning what it is saying.

Good luck and HH'ing!


Jeff

 

[muconium]

Thanks for the feedback everyone! I went back to the same schoolyard yesterday and today, and had ZERO luck for anything but clad that the Compadre couldn't get.... Oh, well. I'm hunting small grids of a pretty big schoolyard, so this will be a place I continuously come back to.

I'm a little more comfortable with the sounds now. I can hear the same old Tesoro chirps and blips on junk targets, except the Compadre is louder.

 

[muconium]

Just to fill you guys in on my philosophy of hunting, I have 3 old schools near me, just a few blocks away. I think of them as a laboratory that I can go to at the drop of a hat. I was actually able to find an 1899 Indian Head with my Compadre at the bottom of the chips in a totlot. I think they dug out some soil when they installed the totlot in the school's playground and that gave me extra depth. I also have no guilt about cranking up the disc and cherry-picking at the end of a hunt, since I know I will be coming back to hunt the same ground on a lower disc setting.... I'm not a one-and-done type guy.

And, yes, Jeff! I've had it with clinkers, they act like hot-rocks. I do enjoy finding old bits of school-building, though. Finding bits of orange brick in the hole lets me know I'm in the right place!

I also have no way to upload pics. I'm sorry. Pics are one of the best things about other people's posts. Maybe my next gizmo will be a camera?

 

[Habanero]

I don't mean to change the subject, congrats and all on you finds with that new Vaquero and all, but your forum name caught my attention and I was laughing out loud because it is so close to something else with a different spelling

 

[muconium]

I don't mean to change the subject, congrats and all on you finds with that new Vaquero and all, but your forum name caught my attention and I was laughing out loud because it is so close to something else with a different spelling

LONG STORY. here goes: It started as an old email account on Yahoo. My girlfriend at the time, who was a nurse, SWORE that baby poop was spelled muconium, but I knew it was spelled meconium. She insisted almost to the point of an argument, so I went with the MU spelling. It's the one "user name" that I don't forget, so I just keep it going.... I couldn't think of a good "MD name" when I signed up here... All the good ones are taken, like Pulltab and Cladiator....

 

[Habanero]

Lol, any story that involves baby poop has to be good! I missed out on the good names too; I don't even like habaneros b/c they are too hot. I wonder if "cladinator" was taken or not? That's pretty cheesy though Anyway, welcome to the forum; we are a pretty good lot over here and you've come to the right place to get advice, hang out and share your detecting stories. You also started off on the right foot with a sweet machine! Happy hunting

 

[treasure4pleasure]

I've been researching Vaqueros and found these vids on youtube. This guy demonstrated his well and is one of the reasons I chose this machine. He has several. Hope this helps!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L10NQcT7YDo&feature=channel&list=UL

 

[muconium]

I've been researching Vaqueros and found these vids on youtube. This guy demonstrated his well and is one of the reasons I chose this machine. He has several. Hope this helps!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L10NQcT7YDo&feature=channel&list=UL

Believe it or not, '53 Silver is a member here, I think.....