Please share your settings!

[wayne_etc]

Hey folks,
I thought it might be helpful to Xterra n00bs like me for you experienced guys (and gals) to share your "usual" settings. In other words, how do you "normally" run your sens, thresh, tones, patterns, etc in your most typical conditions? Maybe also tell us what those conditions are - trashy park, old homesites, plowed fields, woods, beaches, etc.

Thanks in advance!


w

 

[lafatlife]

Unfortunately settings that work for one person may not work for you. Start with the default settings until you have a lot of hours on your machine. 20 hours minimum. Then you can start messing with the settings.

Ground conditions are a big factor with settings.

 

[wayne_etc]

Yes, I agree.
Would still be interesting to see what works for different folks in different situations.


w

 

[Goes4ever]

well I hunt old homes 80-90% of the time, sometimes schools, rarely parks

I use the 3khz coil 100% of the time, have not taken it off since I bought it. My area has pretty mild ground, The 10.5 DD coil did not perform well here.

sensitivity, I run at 25 at almost every site, RARELY do I have to lower it, if I do I try 24, then 23, if I am getting a lot of interference and noise cancel does not take care of it. If I have to go much below 22-23, I almost hate to hunt an old site, feel like I lose too much depth. But that is just me.

Threshold, just barely audible, differs on location, if a lot of traffic I might have to bump it up a bit, if in country and it is quiet I have it low as possible

always keep target stabilizer on 100% of the time

I run pattern one 100% of the time

multible tones all the time

I hunt primarily by "sound" once I learned the tones, I really do NOT pay attention to numbers on screen. Where I hunt I do not get perfect signals, there is so much iron at old homesteads, and it throws off the numbers constantly, but if you listen to the tone, your machine will tell you if there is a good target down there. After digging indians that bounced from #8 all the way to #44 and silver that went from #20- #46.........I started ignoring numbers. I walk around iffy signals swing over it and 3-4 directions, if tone sounds "sweet" to my ear, I dig. I can almost guess 8 out of 10 times if it will be a coin, regardless of the numbers bouncing. Since switching to my method of using multi tones, pattern one, AND digging by sound instead of numbers. My silver, and deep indian numbers have increased GREATLY.

I can only imagine all the coins I have dismissed as junk and just kept on walking because the numbers jumped too much. Not to mention all the coins I missed because I never heard the soft whisper of deep silver because of all the iron grunts when I was running all metal.

Mark convinced me back in spring, early summer, that I was walking right over silver using all metal, I argued up and down with him, but agreed to give it a try for one week. I went to an old school I had hunted before in all metal, first trip there I covered an area I hunted before, but this time I used pattern one. I found 3 silver that day.

went back again and went over more of the same area and once again found 4 silvers, where I could not find any before in all metal. This school is the most iron infested mess you can dream of. But using pat. 1 allowed me to "hear" those high tone whispers of silver, where before all I heard was iron grunts.

When I located a good deep silver target, I switched to all metal and went over the target again, NO whisper, only heard the iron grunt. So Mark was right, I WAS walking right over silver and missing it completely.

Don't take my word as gospel, but give it a shot, what do you have to lose? You see Mark's finds, he has 140+ silvers this year, I am at 94.

 

[wayne_etc]

Awesome post G4E. Just for clarification- when you say multiple tones do you mean the 99 setting? The little that I've used the 70 I really like pattern 1.

w

 

[Cliff KS]

I have misplaced my manual. How do I turn the target stabilizing on?

Also, how do I do a factory reset? I added some additional notches to the pattern 1 once when I was dealing with a site that had a lot of different types of pulltabs and want to return it to the original pattern.

I am going to try my 3 kHz coil again, but this time in pattern 1 instead of all metal.

Thanks for all the tips. You and Mark have been tearing it up this year!

 

[TURNMASTER]

Look to the FAQ for the manuals and if not there then go to Minelab's site.

Keep in mind as I have read posts, what I seem to see is subtle differences in setup theme. The variations often seem to be based on local geology and not hunting style. What works for Mark, G4e or Randy may need tweaking and / or a different coil for me. Some tricks I have read about in the last 6 months appear to be techniques that are used for limited situations or tougher ID's.

A lot of the guys hunt in 4 tone and I do as well. 4 tones is probably enough, it is for me.

I run Thresh at just barley audible, I have changed from 0 to running between 3 to 7

Sensitivity seems to be a crap shoot. I like to run 23 to 25. There are a couple of sights so trashy I ran low teens. I got little depth with the stock coil. Swapped to the 5 x 10 HF DD then to 6" HF DD and ran the sens back above 20 and found my first silver. If you are falsing try to slow down 1st then down sens. That advice came from Dick at Bowen's Hideout, or at least that is how I interpreted what I was told. After getting out of the garbage I put the MFCC back on.

Not ready to run a single coil yet

Don't mess with pattern 1. Leave it alone and play with 2 3 or 4 for simplicity's sake.
One man's opinion

Experience is King
Jeff

 

[Digger]

First thing I do is set my Noise Cancel Channel. I set my threshold so it is just barely audible with my X-Terra and headphones turned to the max. Next, I ground balance for the site and pump up my Sensitivity so it is just short of falsing. Usually in the mid to upper 20's. Sometimes less in nasty trashy areas. Running all metal with multiple tones, I hunt by ear. The only reason I look at the meter is to get an idea as to what denomination of coin to expect when you open the hole. I know some guys like to use a Pattern mode or a modified Pattern, which seems to work well for them. Just recognize that the only difference in any Pattern (with various notches set to reject targets) and all metal is the sound of the tones. Pattern modes replace the threshold with silence on rejected targets. In all metal, multiple tone, every target replaces the threshold with a distinct audio tone. Like I said, the only difference is the sound (or silence) made by each of the targets. Either works well. Just depends on how much audio your ears can separate. In all metal, the trick is to familiarize yourself with the pitch of the audio tones well enough to know when to stop and dig, or when to keep on swinging. Single tone audio reports are worth further investigation. Harmonics usually represent blended metals or iron. In wide open sites, my personal preference is to hear everything that is in the ground. For those sites I prefer the 3 kHz coil. Knowing where each of the adjacent targets are hiding allows me to separate targets more efficiently. If I am in a place where I continue to hear the same "trash target" over and over again, I might modify a pattern to reject the notch represented by that type of trash. If I am hunting a really nasty old homesite, I will reject most of the ferrous notches. In those sites I opt for the 6-inch DD coil due to it's superior separation characteristics. Sweep slower than you expect and listen for the subtle changes in that threshold. JMHO HH Randy

 

[Mark in S.E. IA]

Hi Wayne, I use the X-505 and use the 10.5 DD 7.5 kHz coil all the time because the ground is a little on the hot side in my area and sometimes very hot. I like to run in pattern 1 with 4 tones, but their are times when I do run in AM with 4 tones but not very often. As far as sensitivity goes, I like to run it as high as I can. I'm willing to put up with some chatter when I'm it an area that has deep old coins. Normally I run it at 18 and on the X505 #20 is max. I have the threshold set at #3. I have the volume up as high as I can stand it because I want to hear the whisper of a deep coin.

As you can see from the post before me, we all set up our MD'ers a little differant and use differant coils then each other. Over time each of us has figured out what works best for us. Over the years Randy has had great success with using AM and multi tones. Terry is having great success with the 3 kHz concentric coil and running in pattern 1 with multi tones. I'm doing ok with running in pattern 1 with 4 tones and using the 10.5 DD 7.5 coil because my ground is on the hot side. The only reason why I don't have a smaller coil yet is because Minelab has not come out with 6" DD 7.5 or 3 kHz coil yet and the only coils that I well buy is a DD because of the hot ground that I have around here. Do you hear me Minelab, lol.

One tip that I can give you and everybody else is to slow your swing speed down. If your swinging faster then a 3 to 4 sec swing speed then you run a good chance of missing those deep coins and in some areas you need to swing slower then that.

P.S, thanks Terry, but your the reason why your doing so good. You sure have the great ability of finding places and getting permission to hunt those places the have the older coins. Keep up the good work.

 

[Beale]

Pattern 1 99% of time. Standard coil
Threshhiold at a 4
sens 20-23
3 tones, more than that and I really can not handle it.


That my basic setup, Beale.

 

[Goes4ever]

Beale, have u tried the 4 tones? It is really not much different from 3 tone, especially using pat.1

 

[Beale]

Beale, have u tried the 4 tones? It is really not much different from 3 tone, especially using pat.1

I have tried it for a shor while. I am 40% deaf in my left ear and have Tinnitus in the same ear. (The ringing that never leaves). Four tones was a bit much for that ear. I will have to try it again though. I got some good tips from Mark on hunting and using 4 tone. Maybe if I just use it I will get used to it, Beale.

 

[SteveP(NH)]

The purpose of the various settings on detectors is to enable you to fine tune the operation of the detector to your local conditions so copying what other people have there machines set at is in my opinion the wrong way to go about learning how to maximize the effectiveness of your machine.

The approach you should be taking to learn what each adjustment is supposed to do and then adjusting them one at time (from the factory presets) to your local conditions in order to maximize depth, target separation, and target ID accuracy for your local conditions. So the questions you should be seeking answers to, are not, "What do you set your tones at?" but instead, "What are the advantages and reasons for using different tone settings?" and so on. Then once you gain that understanding you can make an informed decision about how to run that setting for your style of hunting and local conditions.

 

[CampCache]

Wayne,
I want to thank you for asking the question. I learned quite a bit from the responses in seeing what other people use as their settings. Goes4ever looks like he uses his X-70 in alot of the same manner that I use mine and for the same reasons. I tried his settings and really like how well they worked in my area.

 

[Goes4ever]

Wayne,
I want to thank you for asking the question. I learned quite a bit from the responses in seeing what other people use as their settings. Goes4ever looks like he uses his X-70 in alot of the same manner that I use mine and for the same reasons. I tried his settings and really like how well they worked in my area.

good to know........is your soil mild?

 

[CampCache]

good to know........is your soil mild?

Fairly mild. I can't remember what it registered when I tested it with the X-70's hidden feature but it was milder than alot of soils. I can run the sensitivity fairly high without it falsing. Thank you for posting your settings. Can't wait until the bugs go away for the winter.

 

[Goes4ever]

what state are you in? what coil are u using?

 

[CampCache]

I am in the south. I use the 9" LF concentric in iron and the 6" HF DD in modern trash.

 

[blueray]

Hallo all, As a limey looking in on this site, I must say if you have any sort of hearing problem the multi tones on detectors are a little bit confusing.I use an explorer se pro as well as a 705 and have to use the settings that are best for your individual hearing.One mans meat is another mans poison.

 

[Bill M]

You can read or print the manual from Minelab's web site.
Bill