Some info for those new with the Sovereign Series

[Rick(ND)]

Here is some info I hope will help those new with the Sovereigns series of detectors.

What I have learned with the Sovereign series of Minelab detectors



The Sovereigns are a different type of detectors and not like anything most have ever used. These do take some time to get used to and the biggest tip I can give it DON

 

[DonNWF]

To me the SOV is a turn ON and GO detector. it is easy to set up. Its that GO part that takes the learning. After using mine on the beach for awhile I find myself going way to fast when I get on a dirt site. and I have to go back to a basic lesson -SLOW DOWN. . Its not just about setting SENs,. switching to A/M, adjusting threshold, , iron mask, volume, coils etc., etc., its mostly about using good SOV techniques and Rick knows all of them..

 

[jljkansas]

I have been going back over some of the areas that I hunted when I first got my Sovereign, and WOW! I'm finding a bunch of goodies. Here's one thing I was doing wrong. I followed the meter readings to much, just like Rick was talking about, I still found good items that would come up to the correct numbers but I didn't pay attention to those higher tones that were in the pull tab number range. MY TIP, if you get a high tone, DIG IT no matter what the number is.. I've found min-balls,rings,I even found a Shield nickel this evening that read 132 on the meter but sounded like a piece of lead.
Good info Rick.
Happy Huntin everyone.
jljkansas

 

[james1969]

Great post,a lot of hard earned tips there!

Here's a great tip,if you get an iffy signal and are not sure if it's iron or a good target down deep try this,switch to all metal fixed(you should have already ground balanced in all metal and set the switch to fixed),now listen to the volume of the allmetal signal,if it's loud it's iron for sure,if it's very faint or you can hardly here any signal at all then start digging!
Believe me this will get you many deep finds,about 2 weeks ago I got a signal that was a soft null,it was not the decisive null the Sovereign gives over big or shallow iron so I checked it in allmetall,there was almost no signal at all,well that was good enough for me and I started digging,down I went untill at about 14 inches down I found an extremely corroded copper penny!.I also find that deep lead in particular loves to hide as a soft null if it's way down deep.

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

Although it has been a while since I have owned a Sovereign and did not get to know it well enough to do any good; I do own an Explorer now and have found out just how valuable the audio system is on it.I trust it far more than the display. Given their similarity, I would assume that they would behave in a similar way, which allows you to be able to determine a coin by sound alone, which is far more accurate than a meter. You are right about not giving up, as it does take a bit of time to train your ears, which I strongly encourage. Doing this at home with different targets, makes learning out in the field a whole lot easier.The GT has some good benefits over the Explorer, in the types of ground that you can hunt, and the fact that you can choose to have a metre or not. Not having one, is a great short cut to getting to the heart of what makes these machines so good.
Mick Evans.

 

[ujat]

jljkansas: wht do you mean for "soft null"? Is when the threshold tone don't change after the null?

 

[wpruden]

what size coil were you using when you found that corroded copper penny.
Also it seems to me that you average 3" to 4" more depth over the actual coil size.
example 8" bbs coil will do 11" to 12" & 10" bbs coil will do 12" to 14", and so on!
the 8"coil is a killer on trained ears!
I dug a wheat penny this past November at 11" with the bbs coil and got 550 on the meter twice.
also let me know about my estimates on coil depth above.

Wpruden

 

[james1969]

I was using the stock 10 inch Tornado coil,it should be said that that site has zero mineralisation and I can max out the GT with the threshold as steady as a mountain,this causes some falsing over iron but it's easy to tell it's not a real signal,the depth of the Tornado is really eye popping in non mineralised soil and the beach,on my most mineralised site where I can only run the sensitivity at 3 o clock I rarely get coins beyond 6 inches.I never used the 8 inch coil yet but I use my Joey a lot and make no mistake this little coil goes very deep as well,also the sounds seem nicer to my ears.
Now here is one thing I might criticise on the Sovereigns,they are not as deep on low conductivity and tiny finds as I would like,of course no detector is as deep on low conductivity as high but I just don't find much of the low conductivity finds past 6 inches,I'm not talking about mid conductivity finds but the real low stuff,maybe I'm being too critical but my old Compass Goldscanner seems to do better in this regard but was certainly no where remotely near as deep on the high conductivity finds as the GT,whatever Minelab say about 17 frequencies at once(not possible) I feel they Sovereign mainly puts down low frequencies which accounts for it super depth on high conductivity finds but average depth on low conductivity stuff,Still on my old pasture fields it will beat the pants off nearly all other detectors made,bye the way last Thursday I dug up a large piece of lead as big as my fist,how deep was it?,well you could easily bury a large dog in the hole and I'm still tired!

 

[james1969]

What I call a Soft null is the like the null you get over a tiny piece of iron,imagine a steel BB barely detectable at let's say 3-4 inches,the threshold will just quieten down rather than the instant decisive silence you get over a large piece of iron,the null will also pinpoint on a dime(maybe literally!) rather than the wider null you get over iron.Like I said switch to all metal fixed,is there hardly any signal at all,if so start digging.Of course some of these nulls will actually turn out to be tiny iron but many will be good finds.

 

[D Wes]

Out standing info on the Sovereign's. Very well explained and defined. The two of you have been swing Sovereigns for a while.
Thank you both for sharing your knowledge.