To Target I.D. or not to Target I.D. that is the question???

[Ivan]

Recently, I got into a lively discussion with a bunch of fellow THer's........the thing that trigered it all was a few of them saying target I.D. was useless. They felt it was not effective ....mainly a way for the companies to add profit margins to their units. One comment was "I can tell the sounds of my targets really well". Well I will beg to differ. I have found many good targets under adverse conditions that were only possible due to target id!! Target ID is not the " be all end all" it is just another tool ......not to be over relied on..... but used intelligently. I've found 18 silver quarters last year mainly because I could tell them apart from pennies........impossible by sound but clearly visible on my Cortes screen. And they came out of frustrating "penny fields"...but they stuck out like sore thumbs. Gold rings too.........start to develop patterns that you can see stand out as compared to many lower end "ring like" trash. Tighter numbers confidence bar patterns, all of these are tools that can help you pick out more potentially good targets in less time. In my area one of the biggest headaches was a # 35 ( on the Cortes ID) pulltab. By ignoring this number I have dug many rings that I probably wouldn't have dug.... had I been digging the very very prevalent # 35. Sure there may have been a #35 gold ring in there too.... but not very likely. Ignoring #35 frees up time and energy for more likely gold targets. Since getting a target ID unit my "gold finds" increased. And this was true for my previous target id units as welll ( Whites PRO XL and M6) Sure I could hunt with a non target ID detector but why pass up that valuable additional information that's right there in front of you to consider "or " in some cases ignore!!! Just one man's opinion.

 

[tabdog]

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[SkiWhiz]

I don't think there is a answer to the is the id or the non id unit better question. Like asking people what is better a Ford or a Chevy. I think it would be best if a person could afford a id & a non id detector. Unfortunately I am not one of those people. I have been using a Tesoro Silver uMax this summer and it really amazes me. The best $250 I ever spent, actually $239.20 Steve.

 

[Ivan]

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[tabdog]

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[Beale]

One other issue with the TID. I am running a X-Terra 70. (I know wrong site), but I read all of them. Anyhow at least on the 70 I see som range. I have seen pennies from 30-36. Nickles at 10, or 12. Dimes come in at 36-38, and I have yet to see a quarter other than 42.

I know this really does not relate to the Tesoro's, but it is an example of being fooled by TID. I have dug pennies thinking I was getting a dime, and vice versa, Beale.

 

[khouse]

There is no doubt about it - If your a beep dig hunter you will find most all the goodies. Lot's of coin and jewelry hunters will slowly turn up the disc knob to see where the target tone breaks up. Kind of like a manual TID if you will. I had a non TID unit's for over 14 years and did just that. I knew right where certain objects were on the disc knob. But for me having the TID is just another tool. This tool saves me time on short hunts or the times where I have only 1 hour to hunt a site that I'll never hunt again. If I'm at a site that I can hunt anytime then the first time I go over the area I will "cherry pick" only the good TID numbers. Then each time I hunt the same site I will lower the disc and dig more iffy targets. It's like Easter egg hunting with 20 kids. They all run out to the yard and quickly pick up the easy eggs. Then once that's over then the hard core hunters go back out and scour the area for the harder hidden eggs. Usually less than 25% will go back out and the other 75% are eating candy! But the other kids that go back out will have more candy to eat later........

 

[Scully]

It does add an extra level of information from which you can make your decision to dig. Granted, TID has limitations but it does show you useful information, such as target depth. In the case of the DeLeon/Cortes, it shows you when big iron is trying to fool you into thinking its a coin, target stabiltiy (rings read real stable) and of course power level at a glance. If you are skillful, you can see when there are two different targets side by side. Do we need TID? No, but does give you a bit more information.

 

[tabdog]

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[tab-nabit]

I have and use both types of machine. I mainly go by the audio. If I'm using a TID machine, I usually have decided to dig or not dig by audio, and might at times use the TID for depth or some additional information. I'll still continue to use both types of machines, but audio is where it's at for me. It's nice to have it both ways for preference. My - 2 cents....

 

[khouse]

Now if the V had even a single digit TID and kept everything else the same. Well they couldn't build them fast enough!

 

[tabdog]

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[Ivan]

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