Hey Tom,
This machine takes time to process the signals it encounters. So if you pass over targets faster than it can process them, you won't get to hear them. If you want to determine your swing speed, place several pennies and pulltabs (alternating) in a row about 4 or 5 inches away from each other. You want to find the maximum swing speed you can get away with and still be able to hear each item as you make your pass. Sweep over them while you are in iron mask -10. This represents the speed that you should be sweeping in a trashy area. In a clean area, you can sweep a little faster.
This machine is very simple when it comes to programming it. If you want to make a coin program, you simply sweep your favorite coins in front of the search coil and the machine will learn those coins while excluding other items. I have a friend who just bought the machine and he learned in wheat cents, silver coins, and indian heads, and rejected every thing else. Now he just walks around and finds coins.
This machine can be used for leisure-hunting, or it can be used for the hard core detecting of hard to get coins. If you want to relax and cruise around looking for obvious coin hits, you can make a simple coin program like the one mentioned above. Dig any repeatable signals. It is that simple. I watch my friend do it all the time. This method causes you to get only obvious coin hits, and causes you to miss coins that are tough to hear because of great depth, corrosion, proximity to trash, or angle of orientation. When you feel that you want to be very careful and go for the hidden stuff and deep old coins, you have to switch to iron mask mode and commit yourself to learning the sounds. When you go into iron mask mode, you will be minimizing the amount of discrimination down to just a little iron discrimination. This helps you hear all those iffy coin signals.
If you use too much sensitivity in a real trashy area, all those iffy coin hits will turn into terrible sounds. You have to turn down the sensitivity until the targets sound like well-defined individual signals instead of sticky chirping sounds.
I use the 7.5inch minelab coil in trashy areas, and the stock 10.5inch in cleaner areas. My deepest penny with the 7.5inch coil was at 9 inches.
I think the 7.5" coil is an excellent coil to learn on. When you get familiarized with machine behaviour, then you can switch to the 10.5 coil.
You also need to get the Sunray X1 Target Probe or you will be miserable.
Do not dwell on the screen for target identification if you are in iron mask and learning the sounds. If you rely on the screen, you will miss coins. The most valuable skill to have is the knowledge of the sounds.
Set up your machine with settings recommended by an expert. After that, do not change them until you have a couple hundred hours of practice with them. If you change settings all the time, you will not learn your sounds.
To make the transition easier, you might want to set up a simple coin program like I mentioned above and practice going after repeatable signals. Then each time you hear a signal that you think is good, switch to iron mask -10 and listen very carefully before you dig up the target. After a while you need to force yourself to search in iron mask -10. This is the mode of operation where you will learn the sounds and find a heck of alot more stuff.
Mike
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