Should one use DISC in Black Sand?

[seahunter34]

When in shallow saltwater and black sand using a multi frequency VLF machine and searching for gold jewelry, Should One Use Discrimination or Not? I have 2 opposing thoughts on this. 1, Discrimination will help to lessen the response of black sand/ground so one can hear the gold better. 2, Using Zero Discrimination the machine would have less to process and as such one might hear gold targets better? So which is better- to use discrimination in black sand or not to?

 

[GeorgeinSC]

I swing an Excalibur II at the beach and in the water. I run it in Disc most of the time. There are folks that run theirs in pin point as they can run the sensitivity at a maximum. Then they go to Disc to see if the target is iron. I just keep my machine sensitivity to where it does not do a lot of falsing and use the Disc to keep from hearing all those bobby pins etc that are in the sand at the beach. .

 

[WaterWalker]

If you use DISC, make sure you can detect a nickel, if you can not, you may very well loose a piece of gold. You will "loose" a bit of depth in DISC, but to me it is well worth the aggravation, especially in the ocean. If you pass over a very deep marginal signal, it will show up again when the sand moves on...something to look forward to.

 

[seahunter34]

I swing an Excalibur II at the beach and in the water. I run it in Disc most of the time. There are folks that run theirs in pin point as they can run the sensitivity at a maximum. Then they go to Disc to see if the target is iron. I just keep my machine sensitivity to where it does not do a lot of falsing and use the Disc to keep from hearing all those bobby pins etc that are in the sand at the beach. .

I'm just wondering if discrimination in black sand will help or hinder the detection of good targets? I'm trying to find settings to make my CTX work better in black sand and have to wonder if blanking/nulling over bad targets like with an Excalibur in black sand is a good thing? I'm also wondering if discriminating would help reduce the ground signal noise, so I can hear good targets better? Or does discriminating in black sand cause the machine to work harder, so one won't hear good targets as well?

I travel to hunt and do not have a black sand test garden at home.

 

[seahunter34]

If you use DISC, make sure you can detect a nickel, if you can not, you may very well loose a piece of gold. You will "loose" a bit of depth in DISC, but to me it is well worth the aggravation, especially in the ocean. If you pass over a very deep marginal signal, it will show up again when the sand moves on...something to look forward to.

You make a good point. Perhaps I should bring a gold ring to the site tied to string and see which settings, if any produce a better response? It would be interesting to find out in the field. My concern is detecting a particular gold producing Caribbean black sand beach, I have to travel too. So I wanted to be better prepared with black sand setting ideas.

I guess my main question is in black sand, will discrimination aid in finding gold targets, or will discrimination/blanking cause a loss of gold target detection because of the black sand?

 

[dewcon4414]

Near the surf with an Xcal i hunt in PP its less effected by the salt and minerals and you can run full sensitivity without falsing. There arent as many targets as one may think near the surf either so you just need the ability to check targets.... because you need to dig everything but iron and a bottle cap anyway. You are going to loose depth in disc because of the salt, minerals, and processing required by disc. especially in the area you are asking about. Also hunting in an S pattern E to W rather than a N to S helps because Black sand is layered that way and you wont get quite as much falsing.

Dew

 

[WaterWalker]

I have no experience with the CTX, but I do own two Excaliburs.

I have not found black sand in the Caribbean like we have here in New England. I have had no issues with the Excaliburs in the Caribbean.
I believe the black sand will have more of an effect on a signal than a bit of discrimination would have. The VLF signal is not the best for a black sand beach. PI detectors work much better.
Therefore if I have a worry about black sand...I use a pulse detector.
I have proven my Infinium will "see" targets the Excalibur does not because of black sand.

Use nylon fishing line with good knots on the gold ring when you test. I have heard of thread breaking.

There is no substitute for personal testing and learning your detector, we can only speak to our own experiences.

 

[sonnar28]

I have better results in black sand in discriminate, manual sensitivity a little on the low side (2 - 3 o'clock) with a Sov GT and a 10 inch coil, short sweeps, with double sweeps left to right with any signal or in prime areas. When moving to a different area, I hold the coil still for about 5 seconds before sweeping to rebalance. When I have tried using all metal, I spend a lot of time chasing ground noise. Rechecking any promising area at right angles seems to bring out more targets than usual. If I am not finding targets, it usually means that I have the sensitivity too high or I am sweeping too fast ! If there are bands in the black sand, go with the bands, not across them. BTW I use nickels as test targets, it is safer. Good luck, let us know how it goes.

 

[Johnnyanglo]

The general rule with the FBS machines: The more DISC you add, the less sensitivity you have.

Since the FBS machines are hybrids using time constants, the mineral sands are not so pronounced. There's a stray beep here and there with minimum DISC used, but otherwise the detector runs quietly. That is in Hawaii ... lot's of magnetite at the beach.

That is running in Auto +3 ... switch to manual and it will be chatty for sure.

 

[Lenmcgold]

Johnny,
Good info. here. Going to Hawaii soon. I have a Garrett AT Pro. Will do dry sand and wet, and a little in the water. Any suggestions with my AT Pro anyone?
Thanks, Len Mc

 

[Ron Lord]

Hawaii back sand isn't real black sand! Real black sand will stick to a magnet in a heart beat, Hawaii black sand is Volcanic Sand.black sand that is magnetic will mask out Gold.

 

[Johnnyanglo]

Yes, when it comes to black sand (magnetite) the beaches here are lacking. The black grains on the beach are actually black volcanic glass from old lava flows that met the ocean (but it does look like black sand). I appreciate the update from junklord3139, that is good information to know. In other words, the beaches here are fairly inert, so depth should be at a maximum.