This is only your 6th post on the Findmall Forums so I am not familiar with your past metal detecting experiences and familiarity with detectors, or what your goal is. So, let me just take a stab at what I am reading, make some presumptions, and add my opinions ..... if you don't mind.
dlh said:
I got my Vaquero today and was able to go outside and play with it for a while.
Getting out to use the detector is good, especially in mid-January. Some can't get out and play right now. I always encourage anyone who has a new-to-them detector, be it their first or if they have owned a number of different makes and models, is to keep things simple.
Learn the control settings doing a table-top, 'air test' so that they are familiar with some basics of the Discrimination control. be attentive to the control adjustment and indicated target suggestions, then compare that with the sample targets used. Make sure all coins, when you are learning, are moved past the search coil as if laying 'flat' to the coil, moved across the center axis of the coil, and then do it at a minimum rejection level. Then, slowly increase the variable control to see where certain coins and other targets start to je rejected and then where they are cleanly rejected.
In going out the first week or two to 'learn' a new detector the most important things to learn are the allowable sweep speeds to know how much is required, and how fast is too fast. This will vary based upon the ground/medium you are hunting in.
You should also spend time learning the audio responses of smaller-size targets compared with larger-size targets. Iron ([size=small]ferrous[/size]) targets Vs non-ferrous targets. Also make use of the Pin-pointing feature to learn how to size-and-shape some targets to classify them as small or large, or perhaps elongated in shape. Then, master the art of Pin-Pointing targets with the new detector.
I also suggest never using any more then the minimum amount of Discrimination a person is comfortable with. In my case, I hunt some sites in a threshold-based All Metal mode, or with a model that allows for all metal detection at the minimum silver-search Discriminate setting. For most general day-to-day detecting, I seldom, ever, use more Discrimination than is required to just barely reject a sample nail laying on the ground.
dlh said:
I think I was able to ground balance ok so I started hunting a little in the yard.
I hope you mastered manual Ground Balance as it is a very important need when hunting in the All Metal mode. In time, once you learn your Vaquero and can 'advance' into a more skilled level, you can learn to set a peak-performance GB setting in the Discriminate mode, too. If you selected the All Metal mode, adjusted to hear a slight audio Threshold hum with the search coil held about 6" to 8" above the ground, then lowered the coil toward the ground and made the proper GB adjustments for a 'spot-on' to
very slightly positive GB setting, you would be set for best performance .... in the All Metal mode.
dlh said:
My first target was discriminated out just before max. and thought it was a penny....a 3" piece of copper tubing.
Why use so much Discrimination when learning your new detector? Why would you 'think' it was a penny?
The copper tubing, 3" long, would have sounded much different than just a penny.
If you were 'guessing' that it might be a penny based upon something printed in the Owner's Manual or some labeling on the control display face, then I suggest that was an error. Here is why I feel this way:
1.. On so many models similar to the Vaquero, the labels on the decals do not always coincide with the actual rejection point, or acceptance point, of the Discrimination level.
2.. I have seen many models like that which have the potentiometer installed so as not to be properly regulated, or just having the control knob put on out-of-position, and that can result in an errant reading or setting.
3.. Finally, there are certain features on detectors that the '
average' hobbyists usually wants, and I mean
average. That would be the newcomer or anyone who takes on the hobby as a simple, now-and-then activity to search for coins. Their main goal is just that .... coin hunting.
We have had metal detectors with variable Discrimination controls since the early '70s and we learned that it was handy to just knock out problem trash, such as iron nails. That was FORTY YEARS AGO! Naturally some who didn't like digging ANY junk could increase the Discrimination level to knock out iron nails, then bottle caps, then smaller foil and larger foil. In time they even improved the Discriminate range to reject the common ring-pull type tabs. Doing so, naturally, meant we would also lose the detection of the 5
