Question about meters

[JMC]

My only real experience with detectors has been with beep and dig discriminators. My question is how much information does a meter really give?. With an iron infested property like mine unless you reject iron you would be digging every foot or so coming up with square nails, iron scraps, and chasing old pipes. The Compadre has done a great job of getting the coins and keeping me from digging all that trash. I've got a friend with one of the higher end metered units and he mentioned it would actually point out what the target really was, skeptical since I've seen them get fooled more than once. But this unit is his new baby (Garrett AT Pro) and he claims great improvements in technology. Anyway for those of you out there that have used those new machines including Tersoro's metered units let me know what you think. At this point if I add another machine it would be a Tiger Shark so I could get the waterproof unit for kayaking and water hunting. Thanks folks

 

[Wolfdog]

This is just what I have had,Garrett 2500,Mindlab Safari,Fisher F2, BH 202,White's MXT,all with meters and none of them were 100% right all the time.I had most of them a year at a time so it was not buy and don't like and get rid of them within a month or 2.This is just my experience and meant to give what I have had happen to me.I am not an expert just a hobby metal detector that lives for this hobby.
Thanks Wolf

 

[Rob in (Ca)]

Meters will just give you a general ideal what VDI scale range your Target is in, But Meters can also fool you to, Sounds good, but the meter is very jumping, so you think it's a junk target, when it's really a good target ? (Beware of that one) if it sounds good.......... DIG IT!

I have owned all the top of the line & mid range detectors out there with all the polar plots, sizing, target Trace features, but I still had to Rely on the old fashion way..... If it sounds good and it's above iron ...........DIG IT.

Good luck HH

 

[dan b]

I've had many different machines with meters, and they all have one thing in common. They illustrate conductivity. What you do with that information is up to you. You should always rely on the audio first, and use the meter for a second opinion. Tesoro's meter machines (Deleon especially) is great because the audio is classic Tesoro (great), and the meter is a nice bonus. I dug 68 coins this morning in less than 2 hours. Lots of dimes today for some reason.

Dan

 

[Mega]

I tried recently going backwards to just using a beep and dig machine and boy it was the 'worst' decision i have made for a long time,i still own 5 machines without meters they do a good job on specific niche sites like roman and saxon ones that are very trashy.

But boy i could not get back quick enough to a metered machine,tones are ultra reliable no question about that but the extra informations that the screen provides most of the time is reliable enough to make that all important decision too dig.I am not saying that they are perfect but as a general rule the information that modern detector meter's provide is a bonus.

What i am saying is that i would not switch the volume of a detector right down and just rely on the screen as that would be totally crazy,but the combination of the reliable audio as the main indicator and a 2nd opinion from a meter/screen must be a bonus,well in my mind it is.

Of course its personal choice,at the end of the day a detector is just a lump of plastic and electronics inside,the detector does not find your items its the skill of the operator and not what detector you use.

Me personally i am not afraid to say i much prefer a metered machine any day.

 

[mncricket]

I have an f2, an ace 250, an mxt, and an at pro....all with meters. I find myself grabbing my tesoros more and more often....not the metered ones!

 

[Hombre]

I tried recently going backwards to just using a beep and dig machine and boy it was the 'worst' decision i have made for a long time,i still own 5 machines without meters they do a good job on specific niche sites like roman and saxon ones that are very trashy.

But boy i could not get back quick enough to a metered machine,tones are ultra reliable no question about that but the extra informations that the screen provides most of the time is reliable enough to make that all important decision too dig.I am not saying that they are perfect but as a general rule the information that modern detector meter's provide is a bonus.

What i am saying is that i would not switch the volume of a detector right down and just rely on the screen as that would be totally crazy,but the combination of the reliable audio as the main indicator and a 2nd opinion from a meter/screen must be a bonus,well in my mind it is.

Of course its personal choice,at the end of the day a detector is just a lump of plastic and electronics inside,the detector does not find your items its the skill of the operator and not what detector you use.

Me personally i am not afraid to say i much prefer a metered machine any day.

Mega B,

I'm sure that you know all about hunting in the iron as you mentioned your Saxon and Roman sites, they must be teaming with ferrous trash. I did the field test for the Tesoro Outlaw and hunted with a friend that has a XP Deus. We hunted some house demolitions that were full of nails and trash of all sorts. At the end of the day, we both had about the same amount of trash items and some old coins to show for our efforts. I'm not saying the Outlaw is as good as the the XP Deus but I did not feel outgunned either and the XP costs three times as much. I had the freedom to use a relic shovel and dig all solid signals and some iffy targets and came out with some goodies and my friend with the XP Deus did well too. If had an opportunity to visit the UK on a treasure hunting tour, the Outlaw would be safely tucked inside of my luggage.

 

[ToneTime]

I like analog tone the best, a discriminate beep with lots of information then dig. As far as meters go I second the Deleon if you really think you need a meter machine. The reason is the good audio that is the top priority then some extra info from the VID that goes with it. I like the Deleon but for some reason just don't have as much fun using it as I thought I would. The meter to me just seems to attract then distract me from when I would normally be concentrating on audio. I guess they have their place and the Deleon is a good machine but I'm mixed on my opinion of VID machines right now, time will tell.

 

[Furious T]

I have metered and non-metered machines. My metered machines come from Minelab, Teknetics, Fisher and Tesoro. My non-metered machines are mainly Tesoros, and I use them all periodically. To address your question, I find that different machines give different levels of information, but whatever machine it is, it is important to still consider the audion information given by the machine, and and the information given in the different modes, ie Disc mode/all metal(pinpoint) mode. Using all the information-giving sources of the machines, there is a wealth of information if we take time to consider it and evaluate it. The Tesoro DeLeon is no exception and is one of the best machines I have for identifying iron (including steel bottle caps). On all the visual ID machines I have, the ID readout (Number) can suffer in reliability when the target gets deeper than say, 5 - 6 inches, but as long as the user is aware, then it is something which can be accommodated by the user.