Hello Pete,
I was on a freshwater beach, not sure if you were. But I have data from saltwater in a review I did a little while ago here: http://www.findmall.com/read.php?55,290751,290751#msg-290751
Look in the target test grids at the two different beaches, and at the bottom of each column I list the GB and Sens settings for each machine. The two beaches varied in the amount of black sand they have.
So if a saltwater beach, I suggest the following:
Set Disc Pattern 1 to reject -9,-6,-3,+3
1. While swinging or bobbing the coil never ever let it come closer than an inch to the sand.
2. Set Sens around 10, go the dry sand, and I mean dry for several inches down. And I also mean not in fog, mist, or morning dew.
3. Ground balance there in a target free area that you check with All Metal mode.
4. Print out, take with you, and look at the figures in my target grid for ballpark numbers.
5. Look towards the water, and draw a mental picture of how damp/wet the sand is in zones going towards the water.
6. Walk towards the water till you get over damp sand and bobb the coil in a target free area like you were ground balancing but in Disc Pattern 1.
If you get no falsing, increase sensitivity by 2 and bobb coil again. Keep this up till you find the Sens setting just below where falsing occurs.
7. As you change "wetness" zones you will probably notice more or less falsing, so just re-adjust Sens.
8. Do not try to hunt saltwater beaches in All Metal, you'll lose your mind.
The saltwater beach areas I hunt have black sand, so the detector is trying to deal with two different types of ground. The black sand is magnetic and the salt is conductive. The old saying, "no man can serve two masters", it's tough for a single frequency machine to deal with this matrix.
If this doesn't help, just ask away.
HH
BarnacleBill
