Second beach Hunt with GT

[oziswinger]

OK,

So I went out again to a more popular beach, armed with the advice I got from my last post.

This time:

"Disc" and "Notch" dials switched off.

Toggles in "disc", "track", "threshold" and "band 1" positions.

Volume set at max, and threshold wound up till audible. Sensitivity at about 1 o'clock.

All went well, and in 2 hours we found a couple of coins, a bangle, and old copper nail (which has a maritime look about it) and a 925 silver toe ring. As well as a heap of bottle caps, ring pulls and other junk.

I definitely noticed a very different tone on the silver ring, being higher and sharper. It was only down about 4 inches.

I also started to get a feel for the noise made by a rusty bottle cap, which has a rougher "croak" at the end of the tone.

Ring pulls gave a loud tone, but I wasn't 100% accurate on guessing them.

I noticed the machine nulling out over some targets, and didn't dig them, but still dug up one or two ferrous items that gave a signal.

All of this was around the high tide mark in firm damp sand, from 4-14 inches deep.

When I went down to the really wet sand, it seemed to give a bit of trouble, with a sudden signal that nulled immediately, then wouldn't repeat. Also nulling occasionally, but not repeating when I went back over the area.

I turned the sensitivity down to 3 o'clock, but still dug a couple of signals that disappeared.

So I guess some questions would be:

Does this all sound about right? Any suggestions?

Any tricks for detecting in water

What's a good plan of attack to cover a beach?

It's a bloody big place when you look at the prospect of covering it all with a detector. Low tide is a long way down (300-400m) from the high tide mark. Do I really go all the way down there?

As a self employed person, I can honestly say that it was one of the first times in ages that I totally forgot about the business and relaxed a bit.

It's a lot of fun, and my boys love it, so I'm quite keen to do this regularly.

Cheers all for your previous advice.

 

[goodmore]

You never get it all. That's what so fun about the beach. And every year it is reseeded. Every storm creates a new area to hunt. You are doing fine. You need to learn on your own what the difference in tones are. In the real wet sand the coil will give a false signal if you are running w/ too much power. Especially if you bump it on the wet sand. You did well to turn the sensitivity down. You will learn what to expect in different areas. When you started to detect the wet sand and went back and forth between wet and dry you did something with your Sovereign very few detectors can do. Most other require major adjustments. All you did was turn down the power a little. And when you learn to tell false signals from real signals you won't even have to do that. A bigger coil covers more area. But learn that detector first.

 

[oziswinger]

Cheers GM,

By "too much power", you mean sensitivity...right?

Or are you referring to volume?

Sorry if my question seems dumb, I am a rank beginner.

Cheers,

 

[goodmore]

sensitivity

 

[Jiminsandiego]

I'm pretty new with my gt too, but I'll put my 2 cents in. If I have to go to 3 o'clock i find that auto works smoother especially when there are bands of black sand. The bottle caps here are all different but I've learned that the "stutter" or delay in the signal gives them away more so than the tone (for me). Corona caps are tuff to disc. The wet sand here is like mud or mixed concrete so my $40 scoop is being replaced with a $170 diamond head (on it's way now). Today I was at the beach at a very low tide and took advantage of it because it is rare to be there at such a time (the dry sand is always there). A pendent (1/10 oz of gold) and a wheat penny came home with me , as well as a lot of pull tabs and aluminum slag. Pull tabs are just part of hunting the beach. They sound like nickels or gold to me. I like to sometimes switch to "all metal pinpoint mode" after finding a target to help pinpoint it.
"Being self employed means you are never out of work". I can relate!
Cheers,
Jim

 

[Birdseed]

OZSWINGER

It has been my experience that when the SovGT signals then nulls with the "Disc" switch in center position, there is generally a piece of oxidised ferrous or a mixture like galvanised iron (zinc&steel) close to the coil.

I know that this switch has been discussed to death on this forum. I like to think of it as :
1. All Metal is just that, the detector responds to all metals within the range of the coil
2. On-The detector makes the decision but allows YOU to hear a signal followed by nulling if the target is maybe a nonferrous target close to ferrous
3. Off -The detector just makes the decision, with the result you will get less false signals followed by nulling.

If you look at the front panel of the SovGT you will notice that Minelab have broken it up into 4 areas by color.

Dark Blue areas are the Discrimination controls
Light Blue are the Volume and Sensitivity controls
Grey area contains the All metal controls
Just to confuse matters the Dark Blue area is further divided by the wiggly line to highlight the fact the All Metal/Disc switch has the ability to switch the Iron Mask feature on (middle position, discussed in 2 above) and Iron Mask off (bottom position, discussed in 3 above)

I've probably confused everyone but that is the way I like to believe it works. It works OK like that for ME

Peter Downunder