New to Metal Detecting

[Bgee2010]

Hi all.
I've been interested in metal detecting for years and finally just bought my first machine. I read reviews for weeks before deciding on a Tesoro Compadre, 5.75 coil.
I received it today. I've been reading forums like crazy and have found a lot of great information. So much information in fact, that I'm finding myself a little overwhelmed.
So my question is this:
What advice or information do you wish someone had given you when you were just starting out?
I appreciate any help you guys can give.

 

[fltacoma]

Swing slow, take your time, and think about where people were in the area that you are detecting! Always think/put yourself back in the time to where foot traffic was the heaviest. For example, if you have an older house, or know someone that has an older house, detect along the driveway because change can fall out from someone getting out of the car.

 

[pinenut]

Run discrimination as low as you can stand... If you're tired of digging trash, then try setting disc just past pulltabs; you'll still get pennies, dimes and quarters.
Keep your swing fairly short ( like around 3'-4' at most), your coil close to the ground but not scrubbing it, go slowly and overlap on your swings. The 5.75" concentric is great in trashy spots but doesn't cover alot of area per swing, so you will want to overlap.
After getting used to the machine, try "thumbing the disc" to help ID your targets. After a while you'll get to know just where certain things break up in disc and how they sound when they do break.

I don't know what kind of support equipment you already have. You'll probably want:

Digging tool - several good ones out there, but a $10 survival knife does work. I use a Lesche and it's tough but doesn't look as dangerous to others as a knife.
Kneepads - $5 Harbor Freight are what I like.
Finds apron - I like the cheap, two-pocket cloth aprons from Lowes; Home Depot's are similar.
Gloves - I use cheap latex covered cloth ones from Harbor Freight but practically anything is better than a bare digging hand. I only use a left glove as my right hand doesn't dig...
Pinpointer - not necessary but sure helps speed thing up. I recommend that you DON'T get the Harbor Freight one, but rather, get a good one as soon as you can afford it. Everyone has their favorites. I can recommend either the Garrett "carrot" and the Whites TRX - they're both very good.
Headphones - you don't need expensive ones, but I recommend getting some that hold up well and don't need any adapter. $25 Garrett or similarly priced Calrad 15-135b, are fine. If you want more sensitive ones... I use and recommend the Killer B's Wasp model. My son and daughter use the Calrad with thier Compadres.
Bugspray - I have to add this... I hate bugs buggin' and have a serious problem with summertime black flies...
Hat and/or sunblock... Carrying bag to transport your stuff to the hunt site... Water, snacks...

The best advice of all...
Find the good detecting spots everyone else hasn't already done. That's the toughest part. Let your Compadre do the rest.

 

[WV62]

All good advise, but don't do like some around here and get a shovel and head for the park. Learn to dig and retrieve your targets with as little damage as you can. Take all trash targets with you.

Ron in WV

 

[BarberBill]

Always recheck your hole after retrieving a target - sometimes there's more than one.
BB

 

[REVIER]

Hunting with Tesoros are fun, the Compadre one of the most enjoyable for me.
It is even better when you know what you are doing, it can be confusing at first when you are new to all this but it gets way better as you gain knowledge and experience.

Here is an answer I posted in reply to another newbie, over the years a few have told me it helped to get along that initial learning curve a bit faster.


______________________________________________________


I wrote this before I ever laid a hand on one.
I hope this will be helpful to some so I will repost it here.
I just imagined how I would hunt if I took all the knobs off my Vaquero except the disc knob.
Hey, what works, works!




"I have been having lots of luck finding coins but want to make sure I am using the discrimination correctly. I am trying to avoid digging up every single thing I detect. I have found quarters, dimes, and pennies, but I still am not certain what I am digging for, until I find it. I just want to make sure I am not missing anything "big". Will gold or silver throw a signal like a coin does on the dial or am I missing something? Why is a nickel lower on the discrimination whereas a penny, quarter, and dime are higher?
Thanks"





Look at the picture below.
Here is where metals will show up on your dial.
Forget the numbers, just study their locations.

The way you figure out what you are digging before you dig it, which is never 100% by the way, is to "thumb" that disc knob and figure out where the metals in the range you see in the picture go away or "disc out".

*Tip*....It is more accurate to turn the knob way up and then turn it down slowly as you are swinging over the target and stop at the area where you hear a tone come in, than to turn it up until it fades out.

Now you have done this and lets say it was silent till you got to the zinc mark.
Now you have a clue, and this hobby is all about taking all your clues and putting them together to make an educated guess.
From studying the picture, you remember that this zinc area should sound off if you have a zinc penny or other zinc item, an Indian head penny, a screw-cap or gold.
Might be some other things like can slaw, but it could be one of the first four, too.
Maybe you want to lower that knob to all metal now to get the loudest most solid signal possible, and run your coil around the target area and try to size the target.
Where does the tone sound loudest and then fade out?
Hit it from a different angle and try to get a picture in your mind on how big it is...coin size, maybe a little bigger?
In all metal or turning it back below zinc on the disc knob, how loud does it sound when you scan it?
Really loud, maybe medium loud or softer?
This gives you a clue on the depth.
Another depth trick is lift the coil and swing over it.
Do you lose it at 3 inches above the ground, 4-5?
If you know your limit of your detector, and subtract the height of your coil above the target where it goes silent, this can give you approximate depth.

Now you decide to whip your coil over the target real fast and see if the tones stay solid from all angles or breaks up.
If it breaks up it could be trash, if not, still might be a good target.

All of these techniques are aimed to give you clues, and those clues will lead you to an educated guess and that will lead you to digging a hole...or not.

As you put in your time, you also start to hear slight differences in that tone.
A zinc penny might sound very solid and full and the same all the way through as you thumb that knob up till the signal fades out or down listening to how it comes in but a screw-cap might not sound so full.
Maybe you noticed after locating and scanning hundreds of these that a screw-cap doesn't stay full, but maybe breaks a little right at the end.
It gets a little fuzzy.
You never could tell the difference at the beginning, but now, after much practice, you can hear that difference, and so you have another good clue as to what you might have sitting in the ground below you.

Solid tone, rings true, no breaking of the signal, small like a coin, really loud tone, can raise the coil pretty high before it fades out...I think this is a zinc penny that is about 1 inch down...then you dig it...and it is.
Or maybe not, like I said, not 100% in this hobby...ever...but you cut your odds down some on digging trash, and you made a good guess.

It's a process.
As you progress, your guesses get better.

The universe must be laughing at us that do this hobby because it made so many bad things ring up in the same areas as so many good things.
Aluminum hangs out where the high tone coins do.
Nickels and gold live in the same neighborhood as some pull tabs...as a matter of fact, gold seems to live in almost all the neighborhoods.
Nobody is perfect, we all dig lots of trash, but the better you get the less trash you dig and the more treasure you find.

Study the picture, know your metals and where they line up in relation to your disc knob...then practice, practice practice.

Really listen and try to remember that tone you hear before you dig a target, then remember what target you dug after that specific tone.
It takes time for your instincts to kick in and this stuff becomes second nature, but it will eventually happen.
Once you dig enough holes.

That's how I would do it.

HH

 

[slingshot]

I would set it at the "I" in Iron and retrieve all targets as this will help you learn the target sound characteristics of the Compadre- soft, loud, broken, elongated, short, skippy, etc. You will then formulate some initial conclusions: coin size, larger than coins, tics that are too small to be coins, broken iron signals. Then you can play with your discriminate if desirable. In a high trash area, I've found MUCH clad by setting the discrimination to where tabs just break u.p-places where some notch machines missed them. Then Revier's posts for advanced techniques. He also had a good post on the double beep of coins near metal poles. Crazy fun machine.

 

[Bgee2010]

Thanks for all the advice, everyone. I'll keep you posted!!

 

[Bryan V]

I have a different opinion than most here when it comes to advise for someone new to detecting.
The amount of trash in a typical park can be overwhelming.
I think your first time out you should use lower sensitivity, high discrimination and just dig pennies and higher for a short time.
Work on pinpointing, sizing targets and proper target retrieval.
It will be funner for a first time user to quickly find some coins so they don't get discouraged digging nothing but foil, pull tabs and nails.

When they start getting the basics down, turn up the power and start turning down the discrimination to start introducing the real world which is mostly trash.
A few hours or days using high discrimination won't hurt anyone.
Everybody learns at a different pace and the key to the hobby is to have fun.

Bryan