Mick in Dubbo
New member
While out with the Terra on the week-end, a detecting buddy dropped by and after a conversation we organised to go for a hunt together at the racecourse/showground of a neighbouring town today. He is 81 years young and I had an RDO.
Despite early morning rain, we were able to hunt dry. He was armed with his XS Sovereign (which he has owned since new) and I took off the 6in concentric coil and put the standard coil on for the hunt. The conditions were perfect for a pleasant days hunt.
Watching my hunting buddy and listening to to his Sovereign was impressive. The audio response to targets both in discriminate and all metal (pinpoint) was very impressive. I was surprised at how clear coins sound in pinpoint, compared to larger targets like screw caps. After the first 2 hours, he had found $19 and I was yet to find my first coin. What was even more disturbing, is that some of those coins came from some of the very spots that I'd gone over. I couldn't believe that I'd missed them. Anyway, just before we stopped for lunch, I finally snagged my first coin for the day; a $2 coin.(So the detector was working
).
Things picked up after lunch, with a further $5 snagged with the X-Terra and I had a crack with the Sov for 20 mins and snagged another $3, while my hunting partner snagged another$6. Total for the day was a combined amount of $35. I've gotta say, that playing with the Sov was a lot of fun and it is surprising how much real estate it can cover.Yeah, I know that if you swing too fast, masking of targets is going to happen; however, the ground wasn't very cluttered. Mind you, this detector was set on single tone with a silent threshold (not the way I'd operate it, but as far as the tones go, you'd have to pull off the covers to adjust it internally. No idea why, it's just the way this particular detector is.)
As a result of such a poor show with the X-Terra, it gave me the motivation to play around with it to see if I could improve things. After playing around with it and swapping coils, I was surprised at what you can do with the large 10.5in DD coil. i haven't used it in quite some time but it sure does improve the amount of ground you can cover as well as figure out coins from larger targets. At least on shallow targets. What I noticed is, that after a target has been detected, by switching to prospecting mode, a shallow coin will give a strong signal on the centre and right side of the coil, while giving a dull signal on the left side of the coil. Targets like screw caps will give a strong signal on all three points. It will be interesting to try it out in the field. I also tried the 5x10 coil and although it's a good coil, it doesn't seem to give this info.
Mick Evans.
Despite early morning rain, we were able to hunt dry. He was armed with his XS Sovereign (which he has owned since new) and I took off the 6in concentric coil and put the standard coil on for the hunt. The conditions were perfect for a pleasant days hunt.
Watching my hunting buddy and listening to to his Sovereign was impressive. The audio response to targets both in discriminate and all metal (pinpoint) was very impressive. I was surprised at how clear coins sound in pinpoint, compared to larger targets like screw caps. After the first 2 hours, he had found $19 and I was yet to find my first coin. What was even more disturbing, is that some of those coins came from some of the very spots that I'd gone over. I couldn't believe that I'd missed them. Anyway, just before we stopped for lunch, I finally snagged my first coin for the day; a $2 coin.(So the detector was working
).Things picked up after lunch, with a further $5 snagged with the X-Terra and I had a crack with the Sov for 20 mins and snagged another $3, while my hunting partner snagged another$6. Total for the day was a combined amount of $35. I've gotta say, that playing with the Sov was a lot of fun and it is surprising how much real estate it can cover.Yeah, I know that if you swing too fast, masking of targets is going to happen; however, the ground wasn't very cluttered. Mind you, this detector was set on single tone with a silent threshold (not the way I'd operate it, but as far as the tones go, you'd have to pull off the covers to adjust it internally. No idea why, it's just the way this particular detector is.)
As a result of such a poor show with the X-Terra, it gave me the motivation to play around with it to see if I could improve things. After playing around with it and swapping coils, I was surprised at what you can do with the large 10.5in DD coil. i haven't used it in quite some time but it sure does improve the amount of ground you can cover as well as figure out coins from larger targets. At least on shallow targets. What I noticed is, that after a target has been detected, by switching to prospecting mode, a shallow coin will give a strong signal on the centre and right side of the coil, while giving a dull signal on the left side of the coil. Targets like screw caps will give a strong signal on all three points. It will be interesting to try it out in the field. I also tried the 5x10 coil and although it's a good coil, it doesn't seem to give this info.
Mick Evans.
