Just bought a Garrett 1350...Bit disappointed! First of all Anytime gold/ring appears I don't even waste my time..always junk! It gets a very strong read out and tone for a 25 cents piece and I'll dig.. a bottle cap! The scale and tone indicates one thing and the pinpoint indicates another. The arrow jumps around like a cat on a hot tin roof..25cent back to foil up to pull tab over to ring/gold between dime and penny,making all different tones... It must of read "5 cent" million times..wont waste my time on those either..trash! And as far as "ACCEPT/REJECT IT SILL PICKS UP THE TABS AND CAPS..JUST READS THEM UNDER A DIFFERENT SYMBOL OR READS PULL TAD WHEN I REJECTED IT! Now I know there's not rings and gold and silver under every reading or tone..but this machine gives to many false reading! Buried a solid gold cross "4" inches on (jewelry) just to see how it would appear on the scale..It read between foil and pull tab! SOLID GOLD! Had this really been buried I would have past it over as junk. I read the manual cover to cover and sat through the film many of times and adjusted the sensitivity...still it cant tell foil from gold,coins from pull tabs! Please, Besides telling me to sell it or stick it under the bed..any advise?
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"WHATS WITH ALL THE FALSE READINGS?"
- Thread starter wolfgang
- Start date
Well first off...the machine is behaving correctly, as are the readings...
It is through practice, and Patience that you learn to use the machine. This is not a Garret thing, or a 1350 machine thing...all machines will read differently for different metals.
Remember, that it is the machines best "guess" as to what the item is...the operator must dig it to see if it is actually what was indicated, or something totally different.
You will need to dig ALL signals since you are new. Then, after awhile, you will start to develop your own opinion on past experience as to whether dig a target or not.
I found a gold ring a couple weeks ago...the indicator jumped from nickle to foil, and I almost passed it up...but I know that gold WILL fall in that exact same range, so I dug it, and my wife has a new piece of jewelry!
So keep your patience, and get ready to do a lot of digging.
Good luck!
Ken
It is through practice, and Patience that you learn to use the machine. This is not a Garret thing, or a 1350 machine thing...all machines will read differently for different metals.
Remember, that it is the machines best "guess" as to what the item is...the operator must dig it to see if it is actually what was indicated, or something totally different.
You will need to dig ALL signals since you are new. Then, after awhile, you will start to develop your own opinion on past experience as to whether dig a target or not.
I found a gold ring a couple weeks ago...the indicator jumped from nickle to foil, and I almost passed it up...but I know that gold WILL fall in that exact same range, so I dug it, and my wife has a new piece of jewelry!
So keep your patience, and get ready to do a lot of digging.
Good luck!
Ken
Bottle caps and pull tabs read as good targets. All machines share this same problem no matter which make or model. Now most seasoned hunters will tell you that gold has a softer sound to it, but they also dig many pull tabs too. Large cents read as twist tops, so I have dug lots of those, but have dug many large cents. Rings can show up anywhere on the ID scale, depending on their mass, size and composition. The type of soil also affects how targets will read. If you rely too much on your meter, you will miss a lot of good targets. Use your ears too.
The guys finding all the rings and silver are also digging thousands of junk targets too. They just don't post the junk. That's normal. Once you get used to the GTP 1350 and what it can and cannot do, you will be able to dig less junk and more good targets. But you have to put in the time my friend.
Metal detecting is a hobby, and hobbies are meant to be enjoyed!
The guys finding all the rings and silver are also digging thousands of junk targets too. They just don't post the junk. That's normal. Once you get used to the GTP 1350 and what it can and cannot do, you will be able to dig less junk and more good targets. But you have to put in the time my friend.
Metal detecting is a hobby, and hobbies are meant to be enjoyed!
Uncle Willy
New member
First of all how high are you running your sensitivity? Second, solid gold will read as foil or pulltab, mostly foil because they have the same conductivity. The 1350 is a very sensitive detector and your ground may be mineralized.
Bill
Bill
Rosco Bookbinder
New member
I dug up a bottle cap yesterday hoping it was a ring. Shooties...
I dug up a ring thinking it was a coin. Goodies......
I've also dug up a ton of aluminum thinking it was anything else. Nature of the game.....
I dug up a ring thinking it was a coin. Goodies......
I've also dug up a ton of aluminum thinking it was anything else. Nature of the game.....
Stay with it!I have been swinging a 1350 for almost a year now. i have made many nice finds with it and think that it is a very effective machine. the pinpoint and profiling are dead accurate. the analizer may jump around a bit but this is normal for any machine, especially if you are running your sensitivity too high.larger iron targets will make the indicator jump and the bell ring, but the tone will be clipped. you may be scanning more than one metal target at a time. i often find pieces of trash in the same hole as a good target. all this takes time in the field to learn with ANY detector. detectors are tools. like hammers, they are only as good as the man swinging them. KEEP SWINGING!
I had similar worries when I first got the 1350's predecesor, the 1250. "Lousy, beeping toy," sums up my comments at the time. I didnt listen to Bill either, who gave good advice, and sold it. I now have a 1350 and am constantly amazed by what it can do - if I work within it's guidelines. I go along with What everyone said, plus:
1. Turn the sensitivity down from the factory setting. It is normally too high, especially in the trashy areas you seem to be hunting in.
Too many targets in proximity to the coil will cause havoc with the processor, especilly if your swing speed is a little slow and you have the SENS way up there.
I suggest a setting of only around 6 or so to start out - even 5 if you are in, say, a tot-lot, some other "new ground" area or live where there is high mineralization. Unless you know for a fact that desirable items are buried at extreme depths, cranking the SENS on the off chance that one will be there is a waste. If you DO know such things exist, then you will need to clear away the surface clutter anyway and think in matrix "layers." Working the SENS down instead of up will settle it down a lot.
2. Something else you can do is speed up the swing rate. I know that flies in the face of convention, but the 1350 has a fast response time, especially to solid targets above 4-6" depth. Fortunately, this is self regulating. At any speed where you can control of the coil, particularly at the ends of the sweep, you will be within the response range of the processor. This will help to bypass iffy targets, but practice this in your yard to determine what works.
3. Large, roundish iron targets or the same targets deeply buried will often read as high end conductivity targets. Particularly if you have the SENS jacked up. This includes bottle caps. The tipoff is that the cursor will bounce around from high to low and not stay steady.
If you only remember one thing make it this: The 1350 will signal good targets - if they are good. If the cursor jumps around alot, it is going to be just what that implies - an iffy target.
Now good also means intact and whole, like pulltabs. To the detector, they are good targets - only you make a different assessment of their value!
4. Here's a surprise for you: Gold in jewelry form reads as foil/nickle/tab, almost everytime. Filigree and finley configured gold will be more like foil and if there is a chain then it is anybody's guess what will be the reading.
Typically, jewelry sized foil will be erratic and hard to pin down. Alas, so will small gold, with the exception of rings. Rings offer a superb inductive reaction to the elctromagentic field of a detectors coil. However, the material they are made of will determine their ID.
My 14K wedding band, about as clean as you can get, target wise, reads smack dab under the tab readout, at 4.5 on the scale! The most common exception I can think of is large, 10K class rings. They will read up around screwcap/penny.
Most people who find alot of gold jewelry also have a LARGE collection of tabs, foil and nickles to show for it. They just dont show it in their posts. One of the reasons I always put some, if not all, the trash I find in my posts is that I want people to see the Immutable Truth of Detecting:
"There is far more trash in the ground for a detectorist to sift through than goodies."
5. Okay, homework time, brother. Spend considerable time logging target responses. Plant a test garden if you need to. I have tested and retested the response of every target I keep in my collection, trash and goodie alike, and have written down the responses. You should do the same.
6. Consider a sniper coil. The sensing area of the 1350's coil is rather large and has a lot of power in the fringe parts of the detection field. A smaller sniper will eliminate much of this problem, while not losing too much depth. Trashy areas = sniper coil.
I am sold on the 1350, but I feel that Garrett doesnt make enough of all of this, either. Their handbook is small and they dont delve into the extreme sensitivity effects or the reality of trash vs.treasure.
Also, none of the makers tell you about perseverance and the need to spend tens of hours with any one machine until you get the revelations needed to make it work for you. It is a voyage of discovery on may levels, not just finding goodies.
We're here for you, though, and we want you to be successful. Stick with it friend.
1. Turn the sensitivity down from the factory setting. It is normally too high, especially in the trashy areas you seem to be hunting in.
Too many targets in proximity to the coil will cause havoc with the processor, especilly if your swing speed is a little slow and you have the SENS way up there.
I suggest a setting of only around 6 or so to start out - even 5 if you are in, say, a tot-lot, some other "new ground" area or live where there is high mineralization. Unless you know for a fact that desirable items are buried at extreme depths, cranking the SENS on the off chance that one will be there is a waste. If you DO know such things exist, then you will need to clear away the surface clutter anyway and think in matrix "layers." Working the SENS down instead of up will settle it down a lot.
2. Something else you can do is speed up the swing rate. I know that flies in the face of convention, but the 1350 has a fast response time, especially to solid targets above 4-6" depth. Fortunately, this is self regulating. At any speed where you can control of the coil, particularly at the ends of the sweep, you will be within the response range of the processor. This will help to bypass iffy targets, but practice this in your yard to determine what works.
3. Large, roundish iron targets or the same targets deeply buried will often read as high end conductivity targets. Particularly if you have the SENS jacked up. This includes bottle caps. The tipoff is that the cursor will bounce around from high to low and not stay steady.
If you only remember one thing make it this: The 1350 will signal good targets - if they are good. If the cursor jumps around alot, it is going to be just what that implies - an iffy target.
Now good also means intact and whole, like pulltabs. To the detector, they are good targets - only you make a different assessment of their value!
4. Here's a surprise for you: Gold in jewelry form reads as foil/nickle/tab, almost everytime. Filigree and finley configured gold will be more like foil and if there is a chain then it is anybody's guess what will be the reading.
Typically, jewelry sized foil will be erratic and hard to pin down. Alas, so will small gold, with the exception of rings. Rings offer a superb inductive reaction to the elctromagentic field of a detectors coil. However, the material they are made of will determine their ID.
My 14K wedding band, about as clean as you can get, target wise, reads smack dab under the tab readout, at 4.5 on the scale! The most common exception I can think of is large, 10K class rings. They will read up around screwcap/penny.
Most people who find alot of gold jewelry also have a LARGE collection of tabs, foil and nickles to show for it. They just dont show it in their posts. One of the reasons I always put some, if not all, the trash I find in my posts is that I want people to see the Immutable Truth of Detecting:
"There is far more trash in the ground for a detectorist to sift through than goodies."
5. Okay, homework time, brother. Spend considerable time logging target responses. Plant a test garden if you need to. I have tested and retested the response of every target I keep in my collection, trash and goodie alike, and have written down the responses. You should do the same.
6. Consider a sniper coil. The sensing area of the 1350's coil is rather large and has a lot of power in the fringe parts of the detection field. A smaller sniper will eliminate much of this problem, while not losing too much depth. Trashy areas = sniper coil.
I am sold on the 1350, but I feel that Garrett doesnt make enough of all of this, either. Their handbook is small and they dont delve into the extreme sensitivity effects or the reality of trash vs.treasure.
Also, none of the makers tell you about perseverance and the need to spend tens of hours with any one machine until you get the revelations needed to make it work for you. It is a voyage of discovery on may levels, not just finding goodies.
We're here for you, though, and we want you to be successful. Stick with it friend.
Uncle Willy
New member
Always remember the 1350 is sensitivity driven so keep it low rather than high. You should have listened to the prototype before I had it changed. Over many areas it sounded like a machine gun, picking up every morsel of anything that was in the ground.
Everyone thinks you have to crank that sensitivity to the max and that it is a depth control. IT IS NOT. When you run the sensitivity up you not only make the coil sensitive to the target you hope to find but also sensitive to everything else in the ground including mineralization. I repeat - IT IS NOT A DEPTH CONTROL.
Bill
Everyone thinks you have to crank that sensitivity to the max and that it is a depth control. IT IS NOT. When you run the sensitivity up you not only make the coil sensitive to the target you hope to find but also sensitive to everything else in the ground including mineralization. I repeat - IT IS NOT A DEPTH CONTROL.
Bill
Uncle Willy
New member
Yeah 10% machine - 90% operator. A detector is only as smart as the guy on the other end of it.
Bill
Bill
A few weeks ago, I read somewhere to crank your sensitivity up until you get false readings, the back off a # or two. Well I took that advise and dug up enough junk to build a car. I was averaging about 10 coins per day.
I printed the advise above, reset my 1350 and went to the same park and dug up only 3 tab and a total of 29 coins, including a nickle. I have found almost 2000 coins in the last 18 months and only 60 nickles.
Thanks You for the very sound advice.
Your Friend,
John D.
I printed the advise above, reset my 1350 and went to the same park and dug up only 3 tab and a total of 29 coins, including a nickle. I have found almost 2000 coins in the last 18 months and only 60 nickles.
Thanks You for the very sound advice.
Your Friend,
John D.
Mick in Dubbo
New member
First of all, Welcome to the forum. I hope we haven't overwhelmed you with information.
I can appreciate your frustration with a new machine, especially if it is your first one. I've only owned an ace250 for three weeks now, and felt the same way as you did for the first 2. It is kind of like learning a musical instrument at first, but after a bit of practice, you get better and enjoy the hobby.
I have 2 ways of telling screw caps apart from coins. First is through pinpointing. I have noticed that a coin seems to give a narrower pinpoint than a screw cap, provided it hasn't been squashed flat. The second way that you can figure it out, is when you probe for the coin.I generally use a thin flat head screwdriver.When you probe for the target with the screwdriver; once you have found it; see if you can push the screwdriver through it. If it is a screw cap then you will feel the screwdriver pass through it. It is an unmistakable feeling. If it is a coin, then it will feel solid.The only downside to this method, is that you risk damaging the coin. I'd generally recommend this technique if you are hunting modern coins, where scratching it won't be of much concern.
My other detector is an X-terra 30, which on paper is as close to specifications to the Ace250 as 2 detectors can get, but because of the elliptical shape of the coil, I think it is the reason that you can figure out through pinpoint, what is a screw cap and what is a coin.That is with only 11hours use on the Ace and I have over 200 hours on the X-terra, and still can't determine a coin from a screw cap.
This should apply to the 1350 as much as the Ace, as they have the same coil.
All the best with the hobby. I hope you get to enjoy it for many years to come.
Mick Evans.
I can appreciate your frustration with a new machine, especially if it is your first one. I've only owned an ace250 for three weeks now, and felt the same way as you did for the first 2. It is kind of like learning a musical instrument at first, but after a bit of practice, you get better and enjoy the hobby.
I have 2 ways of telling screw caps apart from coins. First is through pinpointing. I have noticed that a coin seems to give a narrower pinpoint than a screw cap, provided it hasn't been squashed flat. The second way that you can figure it out, is when you probe for the coin.I generally use a thin flat head screwdriver.When you probe for the target with the screwdriver; once you have found it; see if you can push the screwdriver through it. If it is a screw cap then you will feel the screwdriver pass through it. It is an unmistakable feeling. If it is a coin, then it will feel solid.The only downside to this method, is that you risk damaging the coin. I'd generally recommend this technique if you are hunting modern coins, where scratching it won't be of much concern.
My other detector is an X-terra 30, which on paper is as close to specifications to the Ace250 as 2 detectors can get, but because of the elliptical shape of the coil, I think it is the reason that you can figure out through pinpoint, what is a screw cap and what is a coin.That is with only 11hours use on the Ace and I have over 200 hours on the X-terra, and still can't determine a coin from a screw cap.
This should apply to the 1350 as much as the Ace, as they have the same coil.
All the best with the hobby. I hope you get to enjoy it for many years to come.
Mick Evans.
Mick in Dubbo
New member
n/t
Uncle Willy
New member
We appreciate all the help we can get bud.
Bill
Bill
Wolfgang,
Most hunter dream of gold but as they say there is more trash than gold in most areas.
I am but a newbie here on this forum. Since November I have used my GTP1350 and found eight rings (one gold, two silver), a few charms, a silver open heart pendent on a silver chain from Tiffany's, an old toy gun, lots of trash, and around 1600 coins. The oldest from the 1700's.
So the GTP1350 will in fact find items when you work with it and read some of the advice from the members of this forum.
If you still hate the GTP1350 I would bet there are others that would be more than glad to take it off your hands.
Farnum
Most hunter dream of gold but as they say there is more trash than gold in most areas.
I am but a newbie here on this forum. Since November I have used my GTP1350 and found eight rings (one gold, two silver), a few charms, a silver open heart pendent on a silver chain from Tiffany's, an old toy gun, lots of trash, and around 1600 coins. The oldest from the 1700's.
So the GTP1350 will in fact find items when you work with it and read some of the advice from the members of this forum.
If you still hate the GTP1350 I would bet there are others that would be more than glad to take it off your hands.
Farnum
Dick from IA
New member
This is one of the best threads I've read. It's helping me with my Ace 250 and has convinced me the next one will be a GTP-1350, for sure.
Now to find a dealer who will trade for an X-Terra 70.
Now to find a dealer who will trade for an X-Terra 70.
Uncle Willy
New member
Yeah we get serious on here every once in awhile.
Bill
Bill