new to forum

[diginillinois]

hello all, im new to this forum and soon ( like 05-21-13) i will finally get my first minelab safari. since i am stepping up from a pioneer 505 this is a huge jump. just wondering if anybody out there has gone from a pioneer 505 to the safari and re-hunted the grounds they had covered with the 505... what did you notice different about the targets you found if anything? what was the deepest signal you had with the 505? what was the deepest you got after you upgraded to the safari? being from illinois i havnt noticed to much of an issue with ground mineralization with the 505... but did you notice anything about your ground condition that the 505 didnt pick up? hope to hear from some of you......... thatnk you

 

[KinTN]

I have a 505 as a backup (got it for next to nothing) and I let my nonmetaldetecting friends use it when they go with me. I cant give specifics as I never hunted with the 505 past ensuring that it worked properly. I will say that you DEFINATELY need to rehunt your grounds with the Safari.
As to ground conditions, what I see is that they can change from day to day just using my Safari. imo, soil moisture is Huge in how any detector responds.

Welcome to the Safari Club!
1) don't let the music discourage you; one day something will just go KLIK in your brain and your finds will go up dramatically and your trash will go down;
2) read the past threads around here and your Safari learning curve will be climbed much quicker!

 

[Simpsonslammer]

Very true about soil moisture. We have had some very heavy rains lately, I was out yesterday and copper memorials were coming in at 38. Clad quarters were still ringing up 38 but had a slightly higher tone

 

[diginillinois]

im a patient person lol i am looking forward to the learning curve... i have read alot of the posts on here already and i cant seem to find the andy sibachis quattro safari book in stock anywhere lol. but after two years with the 505 its time to step up to a better machine..

 

[kschae4]

Welcome Dig. All your old spots will be new again using the Safari. I agree with Kin and Simpson's comments and lend my BH Land Star to newbies as an introduction to md'ing. Reading through this forum will answer many if not all of your questions. It is a fairly long forum (92 pages starting in 2005 with the Quattro), and if you don't have the time or patience to start at the beginning (which many of us encourage) one can use the search function for your specific questions and concerns. HH.

 

[diginillinois]

the only thing I'm not sure of at the moment is the whole fbs thing... it basically sounds like 28 signals thrown to ground but only a few are actually recognized on there return based off of ground mineralization? ( not sure if i read it right) the tone ids are what I'm looking forward to however as i don't put much stock into any device that claims to accurately tell me what is in the ground ( to many variables for any hand held machine, like distance of the coil to the ground, sweep speed, moisture content, time object has been in ground, mineralization, emi, and don't forget the condition of the batteries or if there is dirt in the coil cover) so i tend to not even look at the user interface unless I'm switching modes ( the 505 has three tones lol not hard to learn, i did an air test with a 1908 barber dime and a 1954 quarter with the 505 and a sad 3 inches on the dime and a sad 4.5 on the quarter.... i can only imagine what i have missed

 

[Goldstrike]

Welcome diginillinois! I have not owned a 505 so I can only share tips re: the Safari. The following is only a very simplified outline of what I have done to get where I am today.

1. Do not get discouraged with all the tones. When I bought my Safari, it was very discouraging to hear all these tones and to not be able to figure out what they meant. I almost felt like I had bought a defective detector!! You will find out soon that the many tones are a real asset. If you are prepared to learn, I guarantee you will know what they mean and what kind of target is under your coil after a short while.

2. Build a test garden. Gather a selection of different types of ring pulls (they can register differently) Get some different Karat gold rings, silver ring/s and all the different coins in circulation. Tie bright colored ribbon on them along with a label telling you what they are and where you buried them! and then bury them at different depths etc;
If you don't want to build a test garden, lay these items wide apart on a long plank/s of wood (cannot have any nails or staples in the wood) and sweep your coil over them at different heights. Take lot's of notes on how they sound and the I.D. Use headphones to shut out distracting noises.

3. Detect your own property and see what the sounds are telling you and also what you recover....take lots of notes.

4. Practice, practice, practice and enjoy the thought of knowing you will master the tones soon and be rewarded in coins, relics, gold and silver targets! Just look at all the previous posts on the forum like Kschae4 advised and the proof that the Safari is an AWESOME machine is in all those recoveries that you will see. Good luck and happy hunting!

P.s. don't be too dependant on what your screen is telling you, rely more on the tones for accuracy and use a small coil (6inch excellerator) if you have the funds to buy one (Kellyco has them) This will help you in target separation and identifying the individual sounds.

 

[KinTN]

i don't put much stock into any device that claims to accurately tell me what is in the ground

dig, you Will be able to "call your shots"/targets with a pretty hi degree of accuracy before digging them when you get familiar enough with your Safari. If you call 2 possible targets (clad dime or clad qtr), your accuracy goes WAY up. Pulltabs, foil, US coin denomination, and silver rings I can usually call before digging. If you are referring to the screen display, you are absolutely correct; its worthless imo.

 

[diginillinois]

well i got my safari this morning at 830 am lol. i got about half an hour in with it befor my 5 year old freaked out cuz a spider got to close to her lol( gotta love little girls and there constant fears of things smaller then them) but no so bad.. couple of pull tabs, a quarter, a dime, and some foil lol. as far as the test garden goes i cant do that but i do did do some testing with some gold and silver rings and clad and silver coins. i just need to get some time on the machine and i should be good. those tones are a bit heavy to take but like anything its time and familiarity.

 

[diginillinois]

i do have a question about a signal tho... it kept returning to the 40 id and was getting a small chirp like the one i got on my silver coins and ring but it wasnt constant... does the safari default to 40 on a false signal from tin or alum in the ground near iron?

 

[KinTN]

Most folks blank out 40. I tried leaving it open for a few months after reading someone here doing it, but never found anything but junk there. I'll still do it occasionally in areas that aren't too trashy fwiw. But I don't relic hunt.