help with my compadre.

[Thorne]

Any tips for picking the silver/gold jewelry from the pull tabs and foil? Can't seem to get away from these damn pull tabs.

I know I know it's part of the job I'm not complaining about digging trash.

Just trying to see if there is a way to cut it down?

 

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[Terry Soloman]

Silver yes, full discrimination. Gold, nope..

 

[Thorne]

Will silver rings/ necklaces show up at full disc?

 

[Terry Soloman]

Will silver rings/ necklaces show up at full disc?

Yes

 

[digger27]

Rings, if they are big enough at max disc.
Silver chains...probably not unless they are huge and super thick.

I have other ways to tell most tabs from good targets.
How exactly do you use that disc knob?
Set it and dig everything that beeps or do you thumb that knob?

 

[Thorne]

At first I dig everything that rings just past iron. Then I get lazy and start thumbing it to see where it cuts out. If it cuts about pull tab I skip it. The. I get real lazy and just set it to max disc and only dig clad

 

[digger27]

Ok, let me tell you how I hunt with this thing and what seems to work well for me to cut out a lot of that trash with confidence.
Confidence is a big thing with me, it is the reason that drove me to be a real world dig-it-all hunter at first, and that is because the "what ifs" in this business would kill me if I let them get to me and they still will even to this day, anal as I am about these things in this hobby.
Keep in mind without X Ray vision there is no way to ever tell 100% what you are swinging over without digging it...EVER, something I know and believe in with the very fiber of my being, but I dig so much trash looking for gold jewelry in so many trashy sites that I just had to find a way to cut out at least some of it and over time this is what I figured out...my line in the sand if you will.

I use a Vaquero and a Compadre and I have never in all my hundreds of hours hunting with either one set the disc knob and dug everything that beeps above it.
I have always thumbed that knob on every target and tried to figure out and make an educated guess on what that target might be.
Just a game I have always played with myself and it has become the natural way for me to hunt and pretty fast and efficient too because I have had so much time in doing it this way.

You will sacrifice some depth, not much but a little as you turn up the disc.
All units are a little different but there might be very little or as much as an inch difference in depth with the knob down in all metal and the knob set at max disc.
Maybe even a little more on some units.

I used to hunt like they say in the manuals and turn the knob up to the fade out point to figure out targets, but over time I changed and eventually learned to hunt in all metal to get the deepest, clearest signals and then turn it up past the fade out point and then back down slowly and listen closely to how the target comes in...I never turn up the disc till it fades out anymore.
If there is a lot of iron I might set the knob a little below the I in iron, if I don't want to dig a ton of junk like little foil at a real trashy site I might go all the way up to a little past the N in iron, if I am tired maybe up a little more to cut out some foil but that's about as high as I go.

In my opinion it is much more accurate to go past the target fade out point and then back then it is to do it like the manuals say.

Listen to what it sounds like as you do this and you dial down to hear how targets come in.
Good targets like coins and rings will usually just "come in"...they just appear with very little noise like crackles, pops, or clicks or scratches, irregular shaped trash will usually not sound like this and you will have anywhere from a little to a bunch of these noises and sounds as you slowly dial down.

These rules don't apply 100%...there is still a lot of shallow or coin shaped trash or trash that is presenting itself perpendicular to the ground that still might come in solid like many tabs, compressed foil that is coin shaped and some others like certain sizes and shapes of can slaw pieces, and some good targets that might be deep and near the limit of the scanning field that could be a little more noisy, but 98% of the time I have found these rules will hold true.
Out of all the coins nickels seem to be a little weird and might come in noisy, also, but all other coins seem to come in clean.

Most high tone pop tops will disc out.
They might disc out when you turn the knob to max disc and just a slight turn back they could come in with no noise clear as a bell, but dimes, quarters, copper pennies and other large high tone coins won't do this and won't disc out so you can always tell.
I can't count how many pop tops I used to dig learning this fact, but don't anymore.

I still dig a lot of trash because doing it this way only cuts out about 70-80% of the trash amount I used to dig when I actually did dig it all, and it might be true that I have missed some very good targets along the way that just fooled me and never fit into these rules I have, but if you could see the large amount of great targets I have found while avoiding digging so much trash this way you would understand why I don't worry about those missed targets all that much, anymore.
Again, having confidence I am not missing great targets is actually more important to me than actually knowing the truth, and I go back to my sites over and over so if I don't hit all targets from all different directions every time I just figure I will usually get around to it eventually.
Sometimes hitting targets from one direction vs. another could make a difference in the sound of that signal as it comes in, and I do stop and do a turn sometimes when examine targets in the gold areas, but again most of the time these rules apply when scanning targets from all directions.

Sometimes I still dig trash at some sites even though I suspect it is actually trash just to check myself at first, especially at new sites, but eventually I just fall into this method and stop doing that after my trash digging threshold has been reached and hunt and I have found some great targets in sites so trash filled you might not believe it doing it this way.

This technique seems to work on both the Vaquero and the Compadre, so this is the way I do it when I hunt with either one and probably always will.


By the way, that silver necklace/chain targets NOT coming in high where silver rings and other silver targets is a theory I have I developed because of what I have seen in the real world when I have come across these things...and I have dug many.
The picture will illustrate why I think this way, these are just a few of the silver chains I have found in the last few years.

Every one of them came in solid and clear when dialing down using this method on the ones I found when I was hunting with my Tesoro's, also, so even though chains are and can act strange I have never swung any detector that can lock onto these things in all sizes and shapes with such a solid signal as the Compadre can.

 

[Thorne]

Thanks man that is some solid info. Going to test that tomorrow if the weather is nice

 

[digger27]

Good luck!
It takes a bit of practice, but over time this has become a fast, efficient and natural way for me to hunt and it has found me hundreds of dollars in clad and many other great targets.
A few of the best ones below, and I have never used my Compadre as a full time unit either...just part time.

 

[jfeeney]

Thanks for this info... I have an Outlaw and Compadre. The Compadre is a backup and partner machine. I'm going to try these techniques.

 

[SilverFinger]

The law of averages says they're gonna be tabs so I dig every 4th or 5th signal that disc's out right around nickel. New style tabs seem to disc out slightly above the nickel mark, while nickels drop off pretty much at the 5 cent mark, beaver tails disappear considerably higher. The way I figure it is there's still a better chance of finding gold by digging 75% of your 'bad' signals to save time than NOT digging 100% of them. If I'm feelin' energetic, I'll go back over the ones I passed up and dig 'em later. I think my approach works pretty well as I am finding goodies.
The little 10k ring below was a 'skip a few, dig a few' signal.

 

[MikeG]

Good tips. I will practice these in the spring with my new Vaquero. Coming next week! Thanks.