Questions about ground balance and other things for new user.

[fsuhunter]

I just picked up my new vaquero. It is my third detector (the first one was a bounty hunter IV, second was xterra 705) and so far I am liking the fact that it is very different from my Xterra. The thing I really like about it is the silent search mode. I absolutely hate the Xterra in iron infested areas. It is so frustrating to either hear the constant iron chatter or the very loud threshold hum when iron is discriminated out. With the Vaquero, complete silence- I really love that!

Since the Vaquero is lighter, I expected it to feel lighter than my xterra (10.5 DD elliptical), it does not. In fact, it feels much heavier to me.

-Ground balance is confusing to me. At home, I seem to be able to ground balance ok (the detector gets louder on the way down and I turn ground balance counter clockwise and then it seems neutral). But when I am on the beach, even in the dry sand, it does not matter which direction I turn the knob, it does not seem to make any difference. It always sounds a little louder on the way down. What am I doing wrong?

-Similarly, I have read advice that I should turn the ground balance knob counter clockwise 5 times and then clockwise 2 times to make sure I am where I want to be. My question is, does the detector need to be on or in all metal, or discrimination mode, or maybe it does not matter?

-Last question...With super tuning- it seems very easy to do, which makes me think I am doing something wrong;-) It is as simple as 1) ground balance and then 2) crank up threshold and sensitivity as loud as possible until it falses?

 

[tvr]

But when I am on the beach, even in the dry sand, it does not matter which direction I turn the knob, it does not seem to make any difference. It always sounds a little louder on the way down. What am I doing wrong?

I guess FSU is Florida and not Frostburg. ;-) If you are over entirely neutral dry sand, and that is typical of much of Florida, you may expect that response. I'd set it in the middle and hunt. If you get over the wet sand, the Vaquero will not ground balance all the way to the wet salt and will give a positive (louder when lowered) response. It is possible to detect the wet sand, but you loose a lot of depth and can get a lot of false responses.

I have read advice that I should turn the ground balance knob counter clockwise 5 times and then clockwise 2 times to make sure I am where I want to be. My question is, does the detector need to be on or in all metal, or discrimination mode, or maybe it does not matter?

Does not matter. That procedure just gets you set to the middle of the potentiometer range.

With super tuning- it seems very easy to do

Yes it is that easy. The one down side to super tuning is that at high levels of supper tuning, the ability to discriminate out targets, particularly large iron, goes away. The discrimination ability is still there with mild levels of super tuning, but with it cranked all the way, you can find deep good targets and some incredibly deep iron. If you are looking for iron relics that is not a bad thing. If you are in farm fields or old junk yards, you many find a lot of iron you don't want.

Super tuning is a tool. I don't use it a lot, but it has it's uses.
Cheers,
tvr

 

[fsuhunter]

Thanks for the thoughtful answers. One more question on ground balance- Since the knob spins round and around, do you sometimes need to do more than a complete turn (either counter or clockwise) to ground balance?

 

[allcav]

FSUHunter, give me a call, I can help you ground balance in less than 2 minutes. (Too much to type on the forum LOL)

 

[fsuhunter]

Thanks for the offer Robert (allcav). I will try you some time this week!

 

[tvr]

There is one school yard I hunt where the soccer field is pretty negative and the baseball field is pretty positive. It is about a two turn difference between the two areas of the school. Most places I've hunted, it is like DirtyDimes says, not a big change once set for that location.

Venturing onto the wet salt sand is a little tricky when the detector is not designed to ground balance all the way to the wet salt. The best set up I found was balance it to the dry sand as best as possible and leave it there. Run sensitivity around 6 to 7. Set discriminator right at the iron mark. Head out over the wet sand. If you get a lot of falsing, turn the discrimination up a little, but no higher than the low end of foil. If still falsing too much to hunt with, turn the sensitivity down a little more. I've gotten a little better depth with the 5.75 inch concentric that with the standard coil over the wet sand. I can run the sensitivity about one number higher with the smaller coil.

I have dug very deep targets in the dry sand with the Cibola and Tejon. The Cibola I have has been modified for a manual ground balance, essentially making it like the Vaquero. They are not so deep over the wet salt.

I think you will like the Vaquero a lot when you are more as one with the detector; but maybe not as much if the wet sand and water start calling your name.
Cheers,
tvr