Rookie has a question

[Wisc.]

Hello folks! just received my very first metal detector the other day, a Minelab X-Terra 705, but also just received 4"s of snow so I can't take it outdoors. So I'm getting to know it by reading the manual & Randy Horton's "Getting to know your X-Terra". I also have been playing around with it by setting it on the dining room table & going through the various menu's & settings. So I have this coin collection that I've had sense I was a teenager & checked out various coins by air test & the machine works great. I have three 1943 steel/zinc coated pennies & when I pass them by the coil I get readings of 40,46,30,18,sometimes I get the 2 dashes-in other words readings all over the place. This happens when I'm in any of the 4 discrimination patterns. In all metal I get ether a -6 or -8. Why all the funny readings?

 

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[Sandman]

This is normal for all detectors that have screens. It is the conductivity and the distance from the coil, the way the field hits it and so on. MD is OK. This is why most of us either don't have screens and rely on hearing or cover the screens with duct tape so we don't use them.

 

[Longhair]

Sandman is mostly right, up until he goes off on his anti-visual tangent.

Regardless of whether you have TID or not, it's always audio first! The ID is only another tool that you can choose to use or not, but it should not be something that you rely on.
And air tests are indicitive of very little anyway, as is your testing steel pennies.....'cause you aren't likely to find any. Most have rusted away long ago.
The 705 is also way too sensitive to fire up indoors. EMI and other elements can easily screw up any indoor tests.

Be patient. Spring is just around the corner, and you'll be able to go outside.

 

[Sandman]

Sandman is mostly right, up until he goes off on his anti-visual tangent.

Regardless of whether you have TID or not, it's always audio first! The ID is only another tool that you can choose to use or not, but it should not be something that you rely on.
And air tests are indicitive of very little anyway, as is your testing steel pennies.....'cause you aren't likely to find any. Most have rusted away long ago.
The 705 is also way too sensitive to fire up indoors. EMI and other elements can easily screw up any indoor tests.

Be patient. Spring is just around the corner, and you'll be able to go outside.

What I should have said but was to lazy was most hunters with screens spend to much time trying to figure out what the screen is saying instead of digging iffy signals and getting on with sweeping for more noises. I have screens and if I pay to much attention to them I lower my finds. But some guys like to second guess the MD or play with the menu's and lose more time & targets. It comes down to what turns you on. At a beach, looking at your screen lowers your chance of seeing eye candy too.