Newbie's Comparison Of GT To Whites, Explorer, Etc.

[gear box]

Critterhunter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!What's wrong with you,do you have frostbite in your thinking department? I'm not going to sleep all winter wondering what you left there. Fer shame,Fer shame,Fer shame!. Anyway what do you mean by audio boost? And do you mean the threshold when you refer to background hum?
Good hunting,Gary

 

[Critterhunter]

Yea, I know...but I was cold and my hands were not going to get any warmer by digging up that wet ground. My friend said he didn't dig it (probably couldn't find it because he had real trouble even hearing the signal when he knew right where to sweep). I plan to get out there the first day I can this winter when the ground unfreezes. It was a perfect 180 signal in any direction and I know it's a coin. Just a matter of what. Wheat? Silver? Rosie? Merc? Barber? Seated? I know mercs are easily 6 to 9" at this place and a friend dug a seated at 9" or so there. It's that good black topsoil where coins sink fast. Some spots like this have a clay lower level so coins will sink fast for years and then slow down at a certain point. I'm guessing based on the depth of rosies, mercs, barbers, and seateds there that they start slowing down when they hit about 9", as the mercs/barbers/seateds can all be found at this depth. Only place I can hunt around here right now is certain spots in the woods where leaf cover keeps the ground from freezing. Remember that on a cold day you want to get out.

I don't know how to explain what I'm hearing when the GT hits a deep coin (like 6 or 7" or deeper). The audio seems to "ramp up" in that I can hear the background "fuzz/white noise/whatever" get louder as I keep doing the wiggle over the coin. When I move the coil away the audio will drop back down and return to the normal threshold after a second or two. All I know is the deeper targets sound louder than you would expect them with the normal audio on most detectors that don't have an audio boost, in that the audio gets softer as the target gets deeper. Once the coin reaches a certain depth (6+" or so) the audio seems to start getting louder instead of softer. The background "noise" is my only clue that it's a deeper coin, and not the coin's audio level. When I got to pinpoint I can then tell just how deep it is based on how soft the pinpoint gets. If it isn't some kind of audio boost then perhaps it's some kind of RX signal amplifier that the GT uses to hit harder on deeper targets? I don't know. Maybe that's why the GT is said to hit harder on deeper targets than previous Sovereigns and also give a more solid ID at the deeper fringe depths? I'd like to hear what others have noticed on the GT with this versus older Sovereigns.

 

[crazyman]

I was hunting a ghost town site. The digging in the thick woods was easy but I made my way into a clearing where the ground was frozen solid and got a perfect high tone hit. I couldn't pass it up and started chipping away. After about ten minutes and about one inch I had to give up. I could see gouging a good coin this way plus my wife who was with me was freezing also. I marked the spot. Luckily I don't have to wait for spring as this was just a long freak cold snap for around here and the ground will be thawed again soon.

 

[UtahRich]

Mercury Dime - 1923

 

[Rick(ND)]

I too notice this on the GT and why I always said the GT is the best Sovereign made at this time. On the older Sovereigns I seen where the tone and ID numbers trying to get the correct ones, but just can make it but sure is trying, Now with the GT I see those that are deep the tone and numbers seem to make it to the correct one much easier so I feel it has a bit more power. The down side is i also see it false on iron more too as i run iron mask on all the time like the older Sovereigns were. I found on those deeper target and weak one I just have to come from a different angle and if it is iron it will null or move so it is not a problem for me.

 

[gear box]

Could you compare that background fuzz/white noise to the low buzzz or the slight threshold change that you got on the old machines from year's ago? I used Whites machines back then and I alway's knew that when I got that low buzzz it was a deeper target, It wasn't a loud beep. Is this similar to what you are referring to?
Thank's Gary

 

[Critterhunter]

I'll try to explain it this way...I'm not saying I'm hearing the threshold. It's more like I'm hearing the "white background noise" from the signal being amped up somehow so that it produces a solid (loud?) response to a deeper target. You know how it is when somebody turns an amplifier on and you can just hear the humming or "background noise" in the audio that you couldn't hear when it wasn't being amplified? It's like that. It's like the GT decides to either amp the audio or RX signal from the coil once the coin goes past a certain point in depth. On a more shallow target (say less than 5 or 6 inches) I don't hear this effect. It seems like coins get softer and softer as they go deeper but once they pass 5 or 6 inches or so the signal now starts getting louder. Maybe everything past that depth is raised to one single but louder audio level or something? I don't know, but the background noise is my clue that the coin is past that point, not how loud it is. Pinpoint tells me it's deep by getting softer but not discriminate...just the background "noise".

 

[gear box]

Ok, I can see what you are saying about the white background noise, it might be compared to the hiss on a cassette tape player. But all I hear is the threshold. Anyway at least we got something to talk about now that winter is here.
Thanks Gary

 

[Critterhunter]

Yea, you hit it on the head...like the background hiss from a tape in a way.

I haven't found the occasional falsing from iron with iron mas ON to be a problem with the GT. Sure, I can hear it here and there but it's easy to tell what it is by the audio and the response not repeating all the time when you keep sweeping over it. I'm used to hunting with nothing discriminated out on the QXT Pro as I listen to everything from small iron all the way up to the ground signal (hot rocks above coins). I simply would assign high tones to the targets I wanted to pay attention to and lows to the ones I didn't. It gets real easy to ignore the lows and listen for the highs among them. I hunt this way to avoid any masking and also because your initial sweep over a deep coin might end up anywhere on the scale all the way down to iron. When I hear something soft and deep or mixed in with low tones I'll sweep over it to try to pull a clean high tone/coin ID out of it.

The occasional falsing on the GT from iron is nothing compared to always hearing it. In fact, I'm a bit bothered that I am not allowed to hear the iron under the coil. I guess it's easy to tell by the nulling of the threshold but it still doesn't offer me the kind of information that hearing it would (Is it nails, a large piece of iron, a bunch of medium sized objects, etc). I guess you could just flip over to all metal to hear all that but it's nice to be able to see it while hunting in discriminate. The way I look at Iron Mask is a way to open up the "window" to iron objects and let any signal that might be above it through more easily. From my testing, though, it appears it's more than that. I'm somewhat amazed at how it will let a coin directly under a nail sound off and even ID correctly most of the time. Still waiting to dig one that way, though.

 

[Critterhunter]

I was hunting a ghost town site. The digging in the thick woods was easy but I made my way into a clearing where the ground was frozen solid and got a perfect high tone hit. I couldn't pass it up and started chipping away. After about ten minutes and about one inch I had to give up. I could see gouging a good coin this way plus my wife who was with me was freezing also. I marked the spot. Luckily I don't have to wait for spring as this was just a long freak cold snap for around here and the ground will be thawed again soon.

A few months back I was hunting a spot in the woods near an old picnic area along a river. I dug a few wheats right away and a rosie and merc, I think. Anyway, I was getting a signal that sounded something like between a silver dime and a silver quarter. Dug out a silver rosie. Re-checked the hole and sure enough now I'm getting another dime/quarter type signal. I marked the spot and left because a friend was going to hunt the area with me the next day. I called him on the phone and said "How many people can say they've got silver waiting for them in the ground and know for sure." Next day he sweeps over the spot and says what I already suspected, that he thought I had multiple coins including silver in the hole still yet. Out comes another silver dime and a silver Washington, along with a wheat or two.

The was with my QXT Pro. I have yet to dig silver with the GT, but I have dug an indian, V, and several wheats so far with it.

 

[gear box]

I dug a wheat penny earlier this year that had a nail with it. It looked as if the nail had been laying on the penny although I can't say for sure because I recovered the nail before I got the Penny. But the penny had a stain on it the size of the nail. It hit good with a higher tone than the last several dozen hit's. When I circled the hit from different direction's it would null out or give a broken or odd tone, but in one spot I would get the high,good tone. I can't remember for sure but I think the meter climbed to 179 or 180 where I got the good tone. I was really surprised and happy at the same time when I got the penny and nail, a good indication how good this machine really is. I had some other good experiences with the GT that really has helped out in the confidence department. I feel that I can go back to all my old spot's and get a couple of good older keepers from there and not wonder if I'm wasting my time there.
Everybody have a nice Christmas,Gary

 

[Critterhunter]

Yea, if you scroll up you'll see where I tested the Iron Mask feature on coins with a nail laying next to or over them. I found I'd get a perfect ID and audio in certain spots so long as I swept short and medium to fast. If I swept longer, slower, or moved 90 degrees the signal would either null or look/sound badly in ID and audio. If you get a iron hit that keeps trying to break through try moving around it and sweeping short and fast. If you pull a clean coin ID then dig it.

 

[jamesinwesttexas]

I'd like to ask someone on this thread just how small a piece of metal [in particular gold] a Sovereign [in particular a GT] will respond to and how well would it do it in bad ground? Thanks.
James