What am I doing wrong?

[Silverstar_Lawman]

I have only had the GT for a short while took it to the beach Disc mode, disc and notch set at min, sens at about 12 o'clock, no problems other than the small waves made the threshold change?. Took it to a park today and could not get a constant threshold did what the manual says and put it in all metal and switched to track raising and lowering the coil med pitch in the air to high as the coil approached the ground? I'm not sure but is the threshold supposed to change pitch as the coil approaches the ground, and should it be jumping around while wading?

 

[Rick(ND)]

First thing is are you going to hunt in all metal or disc? Most hunt in disc and find it goes deeper and if that is the case you do not have to do any ground balance and just switch to disc and use the all metal for pinpointing. In disc the tones will change to that of the target it sees and keep that tone until the next target. If it is iron or a target disc out the threshold will null and come back with a low tone threshold. I will leave the one switch in pinpoint as this switch is only active while in all metal and not active while in disc and only when I want to pinpoint will I go to all metal.
I think you will find that in a park there is much more trash than on the beach so you will be swinging the coil slower and listening to much more threshold changes.

 

[William1221]

Rick,You have to ground balance in all metal for the GT? I that is true Will you give me the procedure u use? If that is true than you have to ground bal. in all metal for the Excalibur too?

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Metal detecting can be a lot of work and frustrating give yourself some time.The Sovereign is a great unit.Find a park and dig your targets, hands on in the field.I usually only hunt in discriminate and never use the all metal or pinpoint.Both the notch and dis controls are at the lowest settings.I listen to the tones and watch the numbers on the 180 meter for a cross reference.Enjoy the park and the hunt and the good finds will come.

 

[Silverstar_Lawman]

Ron I don't want to give the wrong impression I'm having a blast although I have found some clad and pull tabs along with some bottle caps. I have not attached the meter yet, want to get better with the tones and pinpointing right now then I'll add the meter. I have been using a nickel taped to some cardboard, I have my wife tape it, flip it over then I try to tell her where its taped. No regrets at all with the GT and as soon as my headphones get here I'm going to hook them to my box and I'll have an excal hybrid. I love this hobby. But I'll admit I am looking forward to that first gold or silver

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Silverstar,without the meter I'm lost the high tones are too close for my hearing.The meter will allow you to separate coins from trash with amazing precision,even better than the best ID units.The meter helped me learn the tones a lot quicker.The meter will allow you to increase your odds of finding that nice gold ring.

 

[Silverstar_Lawman]

I am going to try the meter today, as I think about it I also have tinnitus which I am sure keeps me from hearing all the tones, like you I have a lot of trouble with high tones. When you calibrate the meter is it 180 on a quarter? The manual says 170 but I think I read in the forum here that was a misprint.

 

[Ron from Michigan]

Silverstar 180 for quarter or dime.The wiggle works well I have found a 173 that builds t0 175 usually a IH penny.

 

[Rick(ND)]

William,

The ground balance on the GT is made for prospecting mostly where ground balance is very important and where tracking is too. With this being the case you just put the one toggle to all metal and the other one to track as it will track the ground conditions as they change. Now if you want to stay at one certain ground condition you can lock it in once you have used track first and swept the coil or even leave it sit I believe in one position without moving it too so it can track it and then lock it with the toggle switch you set for track. Now on the older Sovereigns and the Excalibur you don't have this tracking feature other than the original Sovereign, so there is nothing you can do to ground balance. Like I say the Sovereigns and Excalibur do not need any type of ground balance if you use disc. Now if you use all metal is the only time on the GT the switch for pinpoint/track or lock will be activated . This is why I leave mine in pinpoint all the time and just switch to all metal if i want to pinpoint a target. No need to do any ground balance unless you want to hunt in all metal and then I feel you just got to put the one toggle switch to track and the the other to all metal the GT will do the rest.

 

[Silverstar_Lawman]

Rick,

Hit the beach again last night and took the coil cover off had the sens set at about 12 and the waves while wading were causing falsing so I turned the sens to about 2 o'clock and that stopped it. Hunted in Disc with disc and notch at min and used the all metal switch to pinpoint as you suggested above, works nice although I need to keep working on pinpointing.

 

[Neil]

Hi Rick,

When the GT is in that auto tracking all metal mode will it track out a target if you swing over it to many times? In other words will it loose a target if you swing over it to many times, will you loose the signal?

I know Minelab warns of this on the Xterra and says to switch over to manual GB once a target is located in tracking mode. I also experienced this when I owned a MXT and at the beach any small or deep target would disappear after a few swings when in auto track.

I just bought a used GT (my first "newer" Sov having never used an Elite or the GT)and will be using it in the same locations I hunt with my Sov XS so Ill see first hand if minelab really improved the Sov.

Also, anything you could share on the noise cancel bands would be appreciated. The two bands and the tracking feature are the two things Ive never used.

Thanks much,
Neil

 

[Rick(ND)]

I believe this would also be the case with the GT too if you go over the target too many times as it would start tracking it out. I never have used the all metal mode for coin hunting other than for pinpointing, tried it once and didn't like the sounds or felt I could not hear the deep targets that well. I like many others feel for coin hunting we get better depth in the disc mode, can go faster and dig a lot less trash with good ID.
On the freq switch I notice if you run it in freq 2 it will work just like the reg Sovereigns as far as the meter. In freq 2 the ID on the nickle will still be the 144=145 on a 180 meter, but in freq 1 it will read more in the 148-149 range, the clad and silver all reads the same. Also it don't seem to me that freq 1 don't work as good as freq 2 for me and why I will run mine in freq 2 unless I get close to another Sovereign or electrical interference than I will go to freq 1.
Also with the GT you can turn the iron mask off like the original in disc, but all those built from the XS to the Elite iron mask was on all the time. Turning it off will help on false signals on iron, but you may miss some coins where there is a lot of iron. With it on it may false a little more and seen this on the GT more than the the older Sovereigns, but once you dug a few iron falses you will see the difference in the tones and how they act. I found coming at those that are questionable deep ones I will come at the target from different angles and can tell if it is a good one or a false. The GT is a bit more sensitive is why I feel this happens more than the older ones.

 

[chuck ky]

173-175 is right on an i.h. they read just like a zinc penny except for the first ones which read lower.

 

[Neil]

n/t

 

[Silverstar_Lawman]

n/t

 

[Gulf Hunter]

For surf and wet sand, I think the meter is a bad idea and I'll tell you why. You don't need to depend on what the meter tells you, but listen to what the unit is telling you. The reason I say that, is because you surely will be getting an Excal and tones rule, not what the meter says. You might as well get used to it, while your learning Lawman. That's just an ole pirate's 2 cents fer ya! Do as you will mate! GH

 

[Silverstar_Lawman]

GH I am only going to use the meter for inland hunting. I still remember your advice about digging all targets at the beach, and in the 3 trips out to the beach I have started to be able to tell junk from good targets by tones. I found out last night that ketchup packets have a foil lining as it sounded off with that low almost burping sound when I found it.

 

[Gulf Hunter]

n/t