Picked Up New Sovereign GT Today!

[spdrus]

Hi all,

I finally picked up my new Sov GT today. I got it from Ron at Goldiggers in Raritan, NJ - what a great guy. Very helpful!

Thanks to all of you for your advice on different machines and for steering me in the direction of the GT for my beach hunting. Thanks to Mike 4-H for recommending that even if I didn't get my detector from him - to use one of my local NJ dealers.

And let me tell you - I use the word 'local' loosely!!! It was almost a 6 hour round-trip with rush hour traffic.

Got home and went to my small local river beach after getting some tips from Ron and all of the advice I've been reading on here. I found that I still don't understand all the buzzes and beeps and all the different sounds.

I played with settings and ended my first hunt with one bottlecap, twenty-seven cents in clad (1981 Quarter and two Lincoln pennies) and a key!

This is my FIRST EVER Metal Detector and I think I need a lot of practice and probably some training in understanding all the different noises - this is what I found the hardest. Also, keep in mind this was my first hunt ever and it was DARK.

Anyway I am willing to put in the time to learn the machine better and hope to top this result very soon.

Some final observations - I had the unit mounted on the shaft and was surprised how heavy I found it (hunted to almost 2 hours) after awhile so I am going to look to hip mount it with a bungee or something. Also, I ended up really boosting the discrimination and setting the sensitivity on auto because I just wanted to find SOMETHING with a signal that was loud and clear (the pennies, quarter and key near the surface were very loud and clear). I realize that by doing this I may have missed something better, but I found as a person doing their first hunt you just want to find SOMETHING.

Anyway, thanks all and I'm $0.27 towards paying this bad-boy off

 

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[Montauk3]

The first rule is not to get discouraged.
It's like anything else, difficult at first, then as you learn it gets easier.

Search this site and let your head be like a sponge. Absorb. Trial and error is a great learning tool.

Good luck.

 

[spdrus]

Thanks Montauk,

I won't get discouraged.

But I would like to hunt with someone who is experienced with the GT because I was quite surprised at all the buzzes and beeps etc. that I heard. I knew there would be a threshold hum and I tried to set it correctly, but I heard some many different sounds and buzzes and beeps and growls I didn't know what to do - LOL!

I ended up 1) Boosting the discrimination 2) Switching to Fix (From Track) and 3) Flipping into Silent Search mode. After these adjustments things got quieter and the next four signals I got were key, penny, penny, quarter so I actually started finding stuff. I realize that most beach hunters use 0 Disc and dig everything, but I was getting signals every inch of this beach - and the beach I was at tonight is only 50 ft wide and 12 ft deep (e.g. TINY!!!!) as it's the smallest beach I have ever seen so I thought it would be a good place to begin since I wouldn't be overwhelmed due to its very small size.

Oh well, I will keep trying!

 

[Montauk3]

If you use discrimination, you may very well lose good finds.

My suggestion would be to have disc set to off or #1. Don't use silent search.
You DO want to barely hear the threshold.

As a raw beginner, try to guess every time you get a hit as to what you have under the coil before you scoop it up. After awhile you'll start to associate certain sounds/tones with bottle caps, canslaw, Etc.

DIG EVERY HIT. Excluding nulling, for now.(sound blanking).

I'm sure you will have many others join in with suggestions for you.

Remember, the more you do it, the easier it gets. Just like math. LOL

You have read the manual. After you've used the machine a few times, reread the manual. Things will start to fall into place. (repeat)

Where are you located?

 

[Dixie Digger]

i think one of the biggest mistakes people make is to try to run Sen too high to the conditions they are hunting.if you are getting a lot of false signals dont be afraid to turn your Sen down until it stops beeping on every swing . the setting will be diff from beach to beach but most of my hunting is with Sen set around 11:00 to 12:00..and lower when i hit the water around 3:00..i dont run in auto tune! a lot of people think you need the Sen set wide open,when in fact it can hurt your depth by too much Sen.

 

[Sandman]

Listen to Dixie Digger & Montauk3 (Ralph) as they know. Besides not using to much sens to start, keep the disc low and Iron Mask ON. This will allow you to only hear targets other than iron unless it is big. Don't worry about the different tones you'll hear as the targets will be plain and repeatable. On the beach I never need to use Pinpoint, just do the "Minelab wiggle." This is wiggling the coil while pulling it toward you. When the tone stops slowly push it forward and as soon as you hear it again the target is just off the front tip of the coil. I think Bootybay is near you, but she might still be miles away. Look for her posts here.

Study this site too...http://www.nmhra.netfirms.com/pulltab/

Minelab sells a hip mount bag that I wear from around my neck and it takes all that weight off the arm. I also have a Sunray inline probe with mine that I use when I am in the woods and fields. It is like a 1" coil with about 5" depth and works off the detectors batteries and controls.
Good Luck,
Sandman

 

[spdrus]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions...

Yes, the only things I think I might add are 1) The hip-mount bag (for hip-mounting and protecting the unit) and 2) The Clive Clynyk (sp.?) book.

Perhaps I should have tried lowering the sensitivity dramatically - I just put it on Auto after awhile.

The Manual says that Track/Fix/Pinpoint is disabled when in Disc. (I used Disc/Iron Mask On for my first time out) but I seemed to notice some differences in the sounds whether I was in Track or Fix (then I read the manual again and it seemed to indicate that in Disc Mode this switch was disabled - is that true)

Also, maybe lowering the Sensitivity way down would have produced less beeps and buzzes!

Well, I'll keep trying

Oh, by the way, I am in Brick, NJ (close to Point Pleasant)

Thanks All!

 

[crazyman]

Spdrus, yes the all metal track/fix option is disabled in discrimination mode. I agree with Dixie Digger about using to much sensitivity. Using to much sensitivity can give you less depth especially with the Sovereigns. My best advice is to set your sensitivity to maintain a steady "audible" threshold with your normal sweep speed while hunting no matter where it ends up on the dial. This will give you the best depth and sensitivity especially to small gold. Your sensitivity setting will have a big effect on the sweep speed needed to maintain the threshold also. Even though auto sensitivity will still give you good depth try to stay in manual if possible. If your hunting a beach with a lot of mineralization and having a hard time with falsing and/or maintaining a steady threshold try turning iron mask off. Using iron mask off makes the detector less sensitive to mineralization and iron.

 

[creeker42]

Good luck with your new Sovereign GT, spdrus. I love mine, the more you use yours, you will too. It's one of the best wet sand beach machines out there. regards
Ed