T2 Tones

[pull tab mel]

If this has been covered recently I apoligize in advance.......What tone # do you guys use the most? I started out with the 1. and stayed with it.....I will briefly change but always come back to the 1. I need to learn the others and was wondering which ones you prefer?

 

[chuck ky]

it depends on what i'm hunting. if i'm hunting tot lots i use 3 tones because the zinc pennies give a lower tone than other coins. if you hunting with 0 disc. you will want to be able to hear the iron tone, so i would prefer 3 tones then also. when i cherry pick and use 80 disc. i like 1 tone sound better.

 

[Bill Ladd]

with disc on 21 it's murder in the iron nails.......
You'll get a low "burp" on the nails & the good stuff will repeat at a high tone loud & clear...
I began with only 1 tone, & it works fine, but I love 2 tones now the best for my style hunting & my sites....
HH,
Bill

 

[1940goldy]

how many tones can you get in all metal mode or do you just get different tones for different metal targets in the discrim you get so many differant tone settings does it not work the same in all metal

 

[Monte]

serious hunting, such as when I work ghost towns; homesteads; pioneer or military encampments; stage stops; railroad depots, sidings or sites;mining camps or towns or logging camps or towns; old recreation sites; or urban renovation work or vacant lots where there was once a dwelling, then I like 1 Tone ID, or maybe 1+. If there is a lot of iron, then 2+ is my favorite pick.

I like to hear the low-tone audio response with the T2, G2, Omega and Gamma, and when working those toes of sites I especially prefer to use the 5" DD coil. With the 11" DD, and the greater coverage of both good and bad targets, I prefer 1 or 1+ Tone ID, and hunt with that coil in lower iron-target sites.

Monte

 

[chuck ky]

even in low iron sites what would be the advantage of not being able to tell the iron signals without watching the screen. thanks

 

[Monte]

even in low iron sites what would be the advantage of not being able to tell the iron signals without watching the screen. thanks

I guess I could qualify the reply, pointing out that is is based on MY personal preference, and naturally the site and intended targets play an important role.

Here are some examples of when I like to use a single-tone ID, such as '1' or '1+' on the T2, or 'd1' on the Omega or Gamma, or just leave the Disc. setting at '0' on the G2:

1.. When I want to find everything at a site, regardless of the metal make-up. Brass buckles, lead bullets, iron knives, silver coins, gold jewelry, copper thimbles, etc.

2.. When I am hunting in the motion Disc. mode with a low/minimum Disc. setting and I want to hear a coin (ferrous) or nail (non-ferrous) or other target that could be masked by a rock. I use the example of my "Homestead Rock" from a Central Oregon where the homestead building and chimney had collapsed long ago. The intense mineral body (rock) can keep some detectors from responding to a coin on the ground beneath them. Some might, but many won't because they don't adjust low enough to accept all metal while ignore the rock (ground) signal.

Furthermore, even if a detector does provide a reasonably good audio response on a rock-covered coin, the TID is usually low, even showing Iron, and the audible response is also usually going to match the visual display. In short, many coins and other targets are going to 'Beep' as Iron so hearing a low iron audio tone doesn't mean anything.

3.. When I am hunting in a plowed field or working with some 'clumpy' soil, (aka 'dirt clods') because they can cause the same shortcomings of a solid rock. That is, they are an intense mineral body and can distort the received response, visually and audibly, just like the 'Homestead Rock.'

4.. If I am Cache Hunting.

5.. If I am specifically looking for Gold Jewelry, much of which can be very small or thin or oddly positioned and might 'read' in the upper Iron range.


Here are some examples of when I like to use a Two-Tone ID, such as '2+' on the T2, or 'd2' on the Omega or Gamma, or just increase the Disc. setting to '40' on the G2:

1.. If I am hunting a site that has an abundance of iron nails, the 2-Tone ID lets me better isolate them to either ignore, or seek a close-by favorable target signal.

2.. When I am casually Coin Hunting a site where I like to hear the presence of iron so I can check around it. Especially when I am mainly interested in coins and other higher-conductive targets.

I can only reflect back on the early days of metal detecting and the progression which has brought us up to today, be able to consider the "advancements", then factor in just how much of an advantage they are, or that we only thought we have use of. In the earlier days of recreational metal detecting we had BFO and TR's, with the TR's being well appreciated because they could ignore most iron nails and provide a 'Beep' on a target. We heard it and dug!

In the early '70s most hobbyists were transitioning to the then-new TR-Disc. models. They used a simple variable adjustment to reject the most problem trash, based upon the order of conductivity. Bottle Caps would easily be rejected and let us hear Nickels and Pull Tabs, for example. We just set it to knock out only the lower-conductive target that annoyed us the most, then heard a beep and recovered the target.

By the late '70s and early '80s, we had the new motion-based Discriminators and those would let us reject most trash targets, but we had problems with the bottle caps that didn't used to bother us. In the early-to-mid 1980's we got Target ID that could visually display a possible target, and that was soon complimented with audio Tone ID which let us hear a change in the target based upon conductivity.

The problem with that progression was that early on our discriminators did a good job and we only had to listen for any audio response and then recover a target. Not my comment at the bottom of my forum posts. Our eyes ares the best discriminator we have!

With our more modern detector offerings, we have good high-scale readings on lower-conductive targets, the Bottle Caps especially, that were never a serious problem before. In addition, we have some silent-search detectors so we can't identify a target that nulls out because we only hear an increase in audio from the Threshold setting. Then, due to all the various trash that produces a higher target ID or VDI or Audio Tone ID response, we have to learn and use techniques to try and ignore recovering possible trash targets. That gets us looking at the display too much and relying on a 'proper' target ID or audio Tone ID response.

My answer to that is to keep things simple. Don't use more Discrimination than necessary, and that includes NOT using audible Disc. (Tone ID) and visual Disc. (TID and VDI) all of the time, and certainly not banking a whole lot on it being correct.

Just my personal take on things. I have watched way too many people get caught up in believing their audio and visual features even to the point where they will ignore recovering many good audio hits or reasonably good 'iffy' responses. I match the site, the site challenges, my goals at the time, and the detector model I have in-hand, then I get underway.

Monte

 

[pull tab mel]

Lots of good info here......I am trying to soak it in.....lol