This is what I have learned about dealing with trash using Tesoro detectors.
I am usually a dig it all hunter but late last year I got real tired so for about a month I stopped doing so much of that and at the end of some long hunts do it still, and I have worked very hard at trying to figure out trash so those "what if" feelings don't drive me insane when I am in that kind of mood.
I think I might be a little crazy compared to others because so many try to avoid digging tons of trash and I seem to be the opposite where I love digging it and the trashier the site the better I like it.
Well, maybe not like so much as long ago I decided this is the best way to hunt...for me, and I do this for the exercise as much as finding treasure so there is that reason, too
I suspect the real reason I got to this point is among all the trash signals I have dug I have also had some major surprises along the way...very huge and delightful surprises... and I just can't seem to wrap my head around the idea of ever missing anything good let alone great...so I dig and I am fine with it.
For those times when I just don't feel like digging every blasted thing I come across I have read about and use some well known tips others have posted like whipping the coil over a trash target quickly and noticing if it breaks up, or lifting the coil as I swing over a target and listening to see if it breaks up at the edge of the scanning field or just fades out, and these techniques work.
I have also done a lot of experimentation discovered something else.
On every target I come across, and I mean every one, I got in the habit long ago of NOT just turning that disc knob up till the signal fades out to see what area the knob is pointing to figure out target types like all the manuals say, but I always turn all the way past the area till the target fades out completely and then slowly turning down the knob to the point where the target comes in.
Except high tone targets like quarters that don't disc out, of course.
After several zillion targets acquired and dug I am convinced this is a much more accurate way to figure out just about every target.
I get so much more information out of not only seeing where that disc knob ends up when the signal is solid and full, but more importantly I get even more info when I hear precisely HOW that target comes in.
I noticed that and most good targets like coins, definitely on others like rings that are full and not broken, and surprisingly on most chains too, when I turn down that knob most good targets will just "come in"...solid and full...there is very little crackling or fuzzyness in that signal most of the time, not even one or two clicks.
Trash on the other hand usually does have much more crackling and clicks in that signal before it firms up and I assume this is because most detectors are designed to home in on solid round objects like coins and not irregular shapes like trash or objects with holes like tabs.
Now this is not true 100% of the time because the universe and life just doesn't work this way for us in this hobby.
There are some trash targets that do act like good coin targets and will come in full and solid and with no clicks.
Some beaver tail tabs with that tail folded over, foil that is thick like a coin, compressed and formed into a round coin shape, some small coin shaped pieces of can slaw and even a few sta-tabs do fool me me from time to time because there is virtually no difference between some of these and a real coin signal.
If those kind of targets are laying completely horizontal and flat in the ground this can compound this problem, but luckily most trash is not horizontal but turned slightly on edge to almost vertical, in my experience, and react accordingly with much crackling and clicks.
Conversely, sometimes good targets like coins do act weird and have some fuzzyness and at least a few clicks before solidifying, too.
I noticed this happen on a few zinc pennies and nickels can be totally weird, sometimes.
Yesterday I was using my Compadre and dug a nickel that was a little iffy and didn't even disc out till close to the tab section, and another nickel that came in at the correct area on the disk knob but still acted very crackily just like trash.
Even though I was a little tired at this point and was not digging all trash I still dug both of these signals because I heard something in each signal that triggered my digging impulse...a slight solid tone that rang true even though they were very short nowhere near the very solid type signals that most good targets I dig emit.
Exactly why I dug those is hard to explain but I just chalk that up to an ability I have acquired over the hundreds and hundreds of hours swinging my Tesoros...something most Tesoro owners can attest to once they accumulate enough time and experience in listening and learning the Tesoro language and quality of the tones.
The good thing about all this is that even though I do this thumbing knob thing on all targets to figure them out I also dig most targets too, and I can proudly say I have gotten good enough to correctly determine trash from treasure about 90% of the time.
On hunts where I don't dig every signal I still do check myself and dig many of the trashy ones throughout every hunt just to make sure...again those what if feelings will mess with my head and destroy me if I don't...no matter how tired I am.
The best thing is my greatest targets I have found like gold rings, silver coins and silver bracelets and chains, this technique worked 100% on those type of targets every time.
Don't think this thumbing, listening figuring out thing takes a whole lot of time either.
I have had so much time in doing this and so much practice I have gotten extremely fast at it and usually beat out any and every hunting partner in shear volume of targets dug even though I take a few seconds to do this on every one, and still seem to hit those correct guesses somewhere around that 90% number most of the time.
I am not saying I never leave any good target in the ground doing it this way, after all if I never dug a trash sounding but still good target how would I ever know, but I can tell you that I have had a few hunts where I was avoiding digging as much trash as I could and still walked away from 2 in particular with a pretty empty trash pouch but a couple of really great treasures.
One was a nice silver necklace that came in as foil, and another which was a gold ring that also came in as a higher foil signal but below nickel.
Trash targets both in a site filled with other trash targets that came in at exactly the same positions and yet still sounded good and more importantly met my criteria of coming in solid with very few if, any, clicks at all.
I read all posts on several forums about techniques using the Tesoro detectors and try to remember and use them when I need to, but I have not read many that talk exactly about this sort of technique of turning past the fade out point and back, or if they do at the very least using it as much as I do.
On my Compadre I know this works tremendously, on my Vaquero it seems to work just about as well, especially when using a concentric coil over my DD which has a slightly sharper disc ability.
I am assuming it will work on most Tesoro's including the Outlaw.
If you have a mind to please give it a try and let me know if it works for you, too.
