Second time out with the new GT..........long!

[bottlebum]

Hello everyone,
Went detecting for a few hours today to try and learn the new machine. This was my second time out. The first time out, I was hunting a real trashy park and wasn't quite sure about my settings because I had accidently left the manual at home. All I was able to find was some can slaw.
Today I detected the back yard of an old federalist style house near my home, built in the 1860's. I started out using the basic setup discribed in the manual, for running discrimination. I also used the meter this time. Again, the yard was loaded with trash signals and nulls.I found it more bearable to run with the iron mask on. Without the iron mask, I was bombarded with signals, which got pretty annoying. The ground here in southern Indiana, is hard as a rock, making it very difficult to dig. Most of the signals I got were real strong signals. I think that the deepest, good signal I dug, was only a few inches deep. I didn't get any faint signals. I'm thinking that the ground might be too hard for anything to sink too deep.
I noticed that someone else had been detecting before me because I saw alot of holes that had been filled in, with the junk finds left on top of the ground, near the holes. (I can see that someone around here, needs an education).
All in all, I didn't have too bad of a second hunt. I did manage to find a few memorial pennys a few roosavelt dimes a compass and a cool badge. All of these finds registered between 169 and 171 on the meter with the badge signal being slightly broken.
I have noticed that when I set the threshold with the coil raised in the air, that I always lose the threshold when I lower the coil to the ground and start scanning. When I stop swinging the coil, the threshold would return, only to dissapear again upon resuming my swing. ??? I'm a little worried about this and the fact that I am not getting any deep finds. I should probably count my blessings because this ground is HAAARD. I also tried running the sensitivity at around the 12:00 position, with no noticable increase in finds depth. I'm using the stock 1000 tornado coil, which seems to seperate the signals pretty well but think that a smaller coil, say a 5 or 6 inch coil, would be alot more productive for these trashy sites. (I'll have to start saving for one)
I guess I'll just keep on trying and see what happens.
Sorry that I didn't get any pics of the house I was hunting. I promise to get some and post them next time.
Thanks for looking!

 

[Rick(ND)]

The GT sounds like it is working just fine as the threshold will go away when it sees a disc target or iron and when you stop the coil it will come back. Now with the sensitivity in auto it may not be quite as bad plus slowing the coil down will also give the GT time to see everything plus also give you the depth too. If the threshold is coming and going and changing tone is is OK, but if it seems like a solid null the sensitivity is too high or the coil is being swung too fast.This is why auto sensitivity may be the best to learn the GT with and the depth will still be great if the coil is not being swung too fast. One other thing is it could be very trashy and this is where a smaller coil like a 5 or 8 inch will help separate the targets better.
One more thing is you meter reading as this don't sound right if you are calibrating to 180 on a new dime or quarter as the dimes you found should have read 179-180, but if you are calibrating to the 170 it shows in the owners manual it sounds about right. I would set it for 180 as this is what you will see most are doing so the numbers we post of our finds will be 180 numbers. To me a copper penny, clad and all silver will read 179-180 while the new zinc penny(some 1982 on up), the IH and some of the early wheat pennies will read 176-177 and if you use freq 2 the nickles will be 144-145, but in freq 1 they will read higher like 147-148.
Just take the time to learn it and have some patience and you will be well rewarded with good finds.

 

[bottlebum]

Hi Rick,
I do have the meter adjusted to read 170 on a quarter, like in the manual. I'll reset to the 180 setting.
I ran in the auto sens. setting most of the time out and was always thinking "swing slow" yet some areas of the yard seemed like one big null. Could be just a little too junky for the 10 in. coil. Thanks for your input Rick.
HH, Bill

 

[chuck ky]

where are you from in sou. ind. i,m right on the ohio river in owensboro, ky. i have the sovereign and the t-2.

 

[bottlebum]

Hi Chuck,
I live in Huntingburg. Is Owensborough close to Tell City, In.? The reason I ask is because I've been to Tell City a few times and noticed that it's right near the Ohio river.

 

[joecoin]

I have been through some areas of lawn that are just one big null. The largest of these areas was probably 8 feet long and the width of my swing(maybe 8 feet?) When I slow to an imperceptible crawl, the null was still pervasive.

No power lines above or below, no nearby electrical interference of any kind. I'm assuming I was over either an old privy or just a dump area.

 

[chuck ky]

maybe 30 miles west.maybe halfway between evansville and tell city.

 

[bottlebum]

Hi Joe,
Same experiance here. I had even thought the same as you did because one of the spots was a large depression in the ground. I thought it might be an old privey. It was about 15-20 feet off the back of the house. Hummmm... I might want to get the big shovel out
bottlebum

 

[Rick(ND)]

It might just be too much iron for the 10 inch coil. I just tried my Sovereign I built up with the light weight shaft, 180 meter and the S1 probe plus a 8 inch coinsearch coil to see how it will work in real trashy site I found. This is farm house site where I was told there was a lot of trash there years ago. My Explorer SE in all metal shows solid signals of iron. With the Sovereign it seems almost a solid null too, going slow and listening to any positive threshold and wiggling the coil to try to get a good signal I recovered some small pieces of lead a few pieces of alum and did get a Wheaties. There was a second signal too when I used my S1 probel down about 3 more inches with the S1 in all metal pinpoint that was a 3 inch long square nail. There was many time it was a solid null, but this is the time I go real slow to try to see a good target in with iron. Got another Wheaties too and when it was out of the hole I went over the hole with the coil and it was just a null. Was over this same area a couple weeks ago with the SE and got no coins, but got a old brass lock, a token and a key chain. Took my F-75 to it and just dug trash and now tired the Sovereign XS2 there. I was running high sensitivity too just to see if I can do it by going even slower and it worked. With the sensitivity at 10 o'clock position I did get a couple rusty pieces of a can that was just too iffy not to check out and got a nickle too that was only 4 inches deep and read 138 and I was able to work it up to 143 as it had some trash with it too.
If you get back to that site just try to run no disc or notch and try to go slow and listen for any positive signal and do the Sovereign wiggle only over that very small area and try to get the tones to start climbing as this can be a good target in with trash item. If it is louder signal and only gets up to 150-170 chances are it is trash, but if deeper and can get the numbers and tones to climb as you wiggle the coil is one you may want to dig.

 

[bottlebum]

I'm going to try to get back to the same site this weekend Rick. I will try going slower over the null areas. I was scanning pretty slow when I was there the last time but will try creeping the coil over the area to see If I might be able to wiggle some goodies out from amongst the trash. There are also a few targets that I had passed because of the low readings on the meter but after seeing the chart you posted, I've been having second thoughts about them. The tones were solid and round sounding,lower than the pulltab signal, possibly nickels. I limited myself to digging only the higher tones because the ground is so hard and difficult to dig. My using a 5 or 6 inch square spade didn't help. I deftinatly need to replace the ground shark that I used to have.lol !
I'll let you know how it goes.
Thanks
Bottlebum

 

[Michigan Badger]

I'm new to the GT too and am loving more every hour.

I've been detecting for over 40 years but this is my 1st Sovereign. I tried the different settings but like the AUTO sensitivity and IRON MASK ON settings best. I set discrimination at about 3 marks.

I find the best is to just listen for those solid positive hits that sound good from all directions.

HH,

Badger

 

[bottlebum]

Hi Badger,
I had an XS about seven years ago. I did pretty good with it in the short time I had it. I know for a fact that the Sovereign is a very capable machine but like every one says, we need to take the time and learn how to bring out the best in them.
All of us sovereign and excalibur users need to get together and start posting our finds and not let the other model users get the best of us. Post, Post, Post.........
HH