Sovereign xs-2 pro questions

[bigjay302]

I have recently been given an xs-2 pro. I do have experience detecting with my Ace 250 but obviously the xs-2 is pretty different. I have fully read the manual and have the settings roughly where i would like them. I have been out the past two days and found nickels, dimes, pennies, bottle caps , pull tabs and TRASH! Now i am not naive here. I know alot of the digs are going to be trash, and i don't mind, that is part of the fun to me. Anyways, I am 24 this week and I live in Hampton, Va. The book tells me how discriminate against foil and pull tabs but then it also informs me that I am going to lose alot of other items, ie. relics or deep old coins. My question is, should I disc. or just place the settings in the middle of the range and just dig. I have gotten very good at reading the meter and the the tones that pertain to coins about 1-4in deep but i am really interested in finding some OLD coins. I do schools, churches and fields mostly, where permission is granted. Also I am planning Saturday or so to run up to Yorktown beach and see what is hitting there. I am interested in going out with other detectorists, but my irritable bowel syndrome often prevents me from making any plans too far ahead of time because it doesn't allow me to do too many things too far from a restroom hehe. Also, should i use my XS-2 in disc mode or all metals, as i have heard several different pros and cons for both. thanks guys/gals. have a great day and happy hunting.
-Jason B.

 

[Rick(ND)]

Jason,

This all will take time and patience to get used to this detector as most will tell you. Depth will come from experience with the Sovereign and speed will kill the depth if you go too fast. Most people will will run no or very little disc and let you hear everything and use the tones and the meter to do the IDing of your target as the Sovereign gives you lot of info and let you decide on what to dig and what not too.If you have the meter on it it will depend on which one you have as to what to set the number at when you calibrate it. There is the 550 stock Minelab Digital meter and some that are rescaled to 180 numbers and a couple after market 180 meters. Either one are good and I like the 180 meter myself. I check mine with a quarter on the ground and while swinging the coil over the quarter and only the quarter I try to make the numbers go as high as I can and set the meter to read 179-180 and nothing higher.
Now you run in disc as this is where you will get tone ID and the meter will read the ID as it will not in all metal pinpoint. The disc is set very little if any so you can hear everything but iron as the Sovereigns hate iron as you will see with the nulling or signals breaking up and not repeatable. Notch many don't use, but you can notch out some targets that is set higher than what the disc is set at, but like the disc you can not notch out the new zinc pennies on up. I set the sensitivity at around the 10-11 o'clock position, but being you are new you may want to start out in the auto to help keep a smoother threshold and help you learn the tones. If you are a coin hunter the tones with the meter reading you should dig very little trash and mostly coins, now if you hunt relic or beach you will want to dig all repeatable signals. Threshold with the coil in the air set for a slight hum and you are ready to go.
Swing the coil slow and listen to the tones it makes and try to just swing the coil over just that target when tyring to ID and use the meter to help ID as it will show you what your ears are hearing so some of the close tones your ears cant tell the meter will. Like I say I use a 180 meter so my copper pennies made before 1982, my dimes, quarters and half dollars will read 179-180 while my zinc pennies and most IH pennies and even the first early Wheaties will read 176-177 and many of my screw caps off older pop bottles and wine bottles will read 177-178 and they all sound the same so this is why the meter can help on the close tone ones.. My nickles will read 144-145 other than the war nickles as they can read up to 151, but still have a nickle tone to them. The difference between them and a pull tabs that reads the same numbers is the nickle sounds so much smoother tone.
Now from experience you will get to know the tones and swing the coil right over most junk and you will ignore most of it, but when you hear the right tones you will stop and check out the target. Even running with no disc I check out less targets than I do with other detectors that has notch and higher disc.
Deep one will come from experience and slow working of the coil as you have to go slow for the detector to see these deep targets over 8 inches deep in most cases and the signals are smaller then normal too so if you are going too fast you will not hear them. I use this a lot when I am in a old area that has been hit hard over the years as most of the new stuff is gone so I don't have to listen to all the loud hits and can concentrate on the weak and deeper signals. As they get deeper the signals is smaller and weaker too and with these Sovereigns I find that you may just hear a slight change of tone letting you know it has seen a target, now you have to swing back and forth over just that target to try to get the number to read as high as you can and try to get a 179-180 number, but in some case it is so deep it can not ID correctly. The tones and meter reading will be trying, but just can make it or will only for a split second, these are the one I like if when you go to pinpoint they are weak there too.
It all take time and some patience, but it seems like a person learns more each time you use it.

Rick

 

[bigjay302]

Rick, Rick, Rick. HOLY CRAP!! I appreciate the time you spent responding to my post. You gave me alot of information and alot of your time too. I took the xs2 to the local elementary school at 1:30. I went there yesterday and took up alot of coins and alittle bit of trash. I am learing the 500 number scale and what is what and I can tell the difference when i hit a coin against trash. But I still dig if i get a strong signaleven if it desn't read a coin number on the reading. This is to gain experience more than anything. I found two pennies today, ALOT OF TRASH, and a BIG hinge/door latch that was DEEP (10-11")i will take a pick of my finds from this week tonight and post it up. Again Rich i appreciate the time and words of wisdom. I have some wheat pennies, new dollar coins, and some quarters, dimes, and nickles so i am going to run them past the coil and record the results. One thing i did do was put the smaller coil on the xs2, i did this so i could narrow down my area to dig until i get better at my dig accuracy, am i hurting my performance with my smaller coil on there?
-Jason B.

 

[bigjay302]

[attachment 61499 Picture.jpg]
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My treasures from this past week with the xs-2. Only a 3 hours worth.

 

[Rick(ND)]

A smaller coil will help you learn the Sovereign better. I learned on the 8 inch coinsearch coil on the XS I had, when I got the XS2 it had the 10 inch BBS coil and felt I lost some depth as the guy that bought my XS was getting better signals on the deep targets, so I went back to a 8 inch Coinsearch. Since then I have used the Sun Ray 12 inch coil which is good for area you need the coverage, the Sun Ray 8 inch which seem to separate better than the other 8 inch coils. Now I have the Sovereign GT with the 10 inch Tornado coil on it and I do like this coil and stays on my detector More than any of the other ones.
I see you have a good start with your Sovereign and by digging everything you will get a lot of trash plus your chance of a gold rings is better too. Soon you will get to know which tones are the bad one and which ones are the good ones so you will dig less trash. What ever you do don't give up on the Sovereign and soon you will see why most of us swear by the Sovereigns and not swear at them like many of us did when we started out.

Good luck and we will be waiting to see some great finds you will be finding.

Rick

 

[harry]

HI .. The SOV is really quit easy to use... when you here the good tone from 2 different directions pin point it the best you can. then with out moving the coil directly above the target switch to dis and do the sov wiggle over the target.. If it still sounds good with out breaking up you WILL have a good target.This works on all good targets, once you learn the wiggle and sounds you wont even look at the meter any more you will know from the sound. Hope this helps.... HARRY

 

[bigjay302]

excellent, so run it in all metal mode, zero in on my target and then switch to disc mode makes sense and should save some dig time.

 

[harry]

Hi No run in dis when you think you found a good sound in 2 directions switch to pinpoint, then when on target and not moving switch back to dis and do the wiggle if a good coin is down there it will sound sweet... remember that sound then you will find the really deep ones.. the sov has no problem with coins at 10 inches. Harry