Sovereign Mods & Todays Finds

[D Wes]

Hunting a old House today that I have hunted several times through out the years with my hunting partner. I went to my favorite place at the left side of the house where I have dug up some nice Tokens and coins.
Starting at the back working my way toward the front, I wasn't finding any thing that I could call a Keeper, starting to believe I had cleaned this section out I was very surprised, my partner had been up in front of me and not finding any thing he moved over to the other side so I went up to where he had been and my self many a time as well, not having much hope in this spot I got a high tone and dug up 5 wheat cents in a 13 inch circle. I would of sworn that some body planted the wheat's there because they were only 4 to 5 inches deep. The ground conditions were perfect and I believe that is why no place is ever hunted out.
Came home and decided to hunt my front yard not wanting to quit yet, I got a high tone and was shocked, it sounded really good so I dug and there was a very nice 1902 Indian Head Cent. Ground conditions and weather play a big factor in detecting. The last few outings I have dug up some nice old coins and my partner has gotten a little discouraged because he has a new top of the line detector that I my self would like to own and I'm swinging my old faithful Sovereign. He is new to Detecting and in time he will develop the skills to dig some nice old keepers as well. To all of you new comers out there with new Detectors don't get discouraged because your not finding the old stuff right away, it is a art to learn and it takes time, be patient and don't sell your detector believing it is the Detectors fault and another top of the line Machine will do better. Yes there is allot of nice Detectors out there and if you have a Sovereign or a Explorer your good to go and only time will improve your finds. My best friend who is now unable to Detect any more because of his health and age really had a fun time with me when I started Detecting. I had the Best and he had a plain mid line Detector and he got my goat a many a time and helped me to not give up after I went through several Detectors believing it was the machines fault and not me and he was just very Lucky! No he had experience and patience to listen to what his Detector was telling him and you can only get this with time swinging your detector with a frame of mind that your learning a new art and you will master it. Do not be afraid to experiment with settings and make yourself a test garden. My wife finally gave up one day after
shaking her head at me so many a time out in the test garden late at night with a flash light and decided the only way she was going to be able to spend time with me was to join me. She really loved it as much as I did and had allot of success. As far as the Mods are concerned with the Sovereign's there are many of them but to my knowledge none of them have been able to increase the depth but only tailor the detector to suit the person swing it. Many have claimed that the Tones being increased will improve the Depth or cause the Detector to lose Depth. Both are not true and there are benefit's to some by changing the tones that can increase your finds. My best friend and I have hearing impaired, you could say mine might be from loud Rock & Roll from the 70's. My friend sent his Sovereign to Minelab telling them he was having trouble with the low tones on Nickels because of his Hearing, they sent it back and the problem was solved, they changed the tones for him and his finds did increase. This is how I learned about changing the Tones on the Sovereign's. I have done extensive testing with several Sovereigns on Tones. Its like this, if your not having problems hearing the different tones on your Sovereign don't fix it as Ron says and I agree with him. If you buy a Sovereign that has this Mod don't worry, it can very easily be set back to the Factory Settings or to your liking that fits your hearing the best. There are other Detectors that have tone settings to change the Tones to custom fit it to your Hearing. Its not magic, just custom tailoring the Tones to reach the peak of your Ears. I do not recommend opening up your Sovereign to play with the Tones unless you really know what your doing. let the professionals do it only if it is NECESSARY!

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Interesting Post

 

[Cal_Cobra]

The stories here are worth the price of admission alone

 

[Art (NWOH)]

I did not like the original tones on my 2a. Adjusted them up until the highest pitch was just right for me. Later when I got the GT, I pulled out a frequency counter and matched the GT to the 2a. They are both the same now.
There is something about getting the pitch just right to get your attention on the highest targets that helps me identify the difference between the higher targets.

HH

 

[D Wes]

Art that is very interesting and I my self would really like to have one of those frequency counters. Where might I get my self one of those to purchase and do you give tips on how to use them.
Thanks for the Information Art and Good Hunting.

 

[Art (NWOH)]

I have a Radio Shack bench multimeter that has a lot of functions built in, including a frequency counter.
I hooked the meter up to the wires in the headphone connector then turned up the threshold until the counter function gave a steady reading.
Next, I waved a dime over the coil to get a 550 meter reading and tone for the coin (you would probably use 180). Note.....only works with the threshold tone, as the target ID tone is not steady enough or long enough to get a good reading. The solid , lingering threshold tone is stable.

Initially I adjusted the internal tone adjustment to the pitch that I liked on my 2a without a counter. Only was interested in getting it where I liked. Later did the same to the GT, using the counter to adjust to matching pitch. This required checking the pitch freq of the 2a, then setting the GT to match by the procedure above.

When the tones are set to match on the high end, they also match on the low end too.........in case you wondered.
If you only have one Sov, then it is not important to check the tone freq. If you have more than one, or are planning to get another one, this is the best way to match them up if you want to have them tweeked to your own personal taste.

Please don't ask what freq I adjusted to. I have it written down somewhere, but it is not important. What is important is that it is where I like it, and that it is the same on both detectors.

HH

 

[D Wes]

This will really help me when I get another Sov soon. I like to set my tones to my Liken to where I'm comfortable with them. It took some time to get it just right.

 

[Tinfoil]

Is there a bigger spread in the numbers on the low end targets . Thanks Jerry aka Tinfoil : :

 

[Art (NWOH)]

It spreads everything out by a factor of just a bit over 3...........550/180= 3.something. 3 times the resolution.
It's more resolution, however it it appears less stable than a 180...because it can display 3 times as many values. Most want to see a single solid number, and this is difficult to get with a 550 meter.
Then there is a difference between 550 meters.......
The XS meter I started with was very fast, and followed the tone patterns of the detector. I could see things in how the numbers ran on the meter that were difficult to hear in the tones. The Elite(sovereign) meter that I have is S-L-O-W in response . Have to wait for a while for it to get to it's final reading. Really hate it. And because it's so slow, it does not provide any response pattern on targets the way the XS meter does. This is one meter that might as well be converted to 180.

If you have the right meter and know how to use it, then they can give you an edge on target ID, but most can't stand them.

For beach hunting, I suggest you just dig everything that don't sound like junk, unless there are a lot of trash items that give you very specific readings that you want to avoid. I dirt hunt, and often dig anything that don't sound like trash..........unless there are some tabs or other things present that sound pretty good and always have a specific target ID that I wish to avoid.

HH