Sounds of the Sovereign

[spdrus]

As a new GT user I am still trying to learn the sounds. Unfortunately the User Manual doesn't give a lot of detail regarding the sounds of this machine. Anyway, I have a few specific questions...

Just some background. I am beach hunting. Setting Disc and Notch to 0. Decent, slightly audible Threshold and Sensitivity set out of Auto (around 12:00). I am digging ALMOST everything (not digging nulls). My GT came with the 8in Tornado coil (which I realize is not the most ideal when trying to cover a lot of ground at the beach), but it's what I have.

1) I often encounter targets that produce a signal from one direction of my sweep, but not my other direction. Do I dig this? Do I try a faster/slower swing speed? Is this junk? Can I tell?

2) On a couple of occasions, my target seems to have moved/disappeared while digging. So, I'll be getting a signal, dig pretty far down and then have no more signal there or in any of the sand I've removed from the hole either??

3) Sometimes I just give up on a target. For example, I'll dig a deep hole (like 24 inches) and still can't recover the target and can't believe there is something deeper than that. In these cases I usually just give up since I am filling all my holes back up and want to cover some more area during my hunt.

Any questions/suggestions? Thanks!

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Treasure of Victoria Peak - Grab it through Amazon!

[Keppy]

Well for one thing you have to pin point off the toe or heel of your coil......... Or you will dig forever and not find your target at times............. Once you get a beep center it on your coil then pull your coil back untill the sound goes away........................ then move you coil forward slow you will get your sound ..............stop the target should be right at the tip of your coil...............

 

[spdrus]

Thanks, Keppy!

That is some good info about pinpointing!

But do you know why I sometimes hear a signal in one direction only?

 

[Adrian SS]

A tone in one direction at the beach with the Sov is generally a target and will often be bits of rusty iron or tin or fish hooks,nails and bits of wire. make sweeps from several different directions and slow the sweep speed down a bit. let the threshold recover before sweeping back over the target. if the signal still does not repeat in two directions the you can probably ignore it but just to be sure , check a few every now and again. I have recovered a fair bit of gold jewellery that only signaled in one direction and often with a low iron tone.
In the wet sand single tones can come from the varying concentrations of salt or from small wavelets as they pass under the coil.

Targets that disappear as you dig down have possibly changed their orientation to the coil or have sunk out of range or you have tossed them out of the hole; This is where a good pinpointer comes in handy.

 

[miller433]

To dig or not to dig.... There is no easy answer. I was able to cross pinpoint on a signal this past summer that started out reading in one direction only, it turned out to be a very deep 14k white gold ring. On a beach with lots of targets I probably would have passed this signal up.

Moving targets are frequent for me since I hunt mostly in the water. A small lead fishing weight that falls through my scoop, an earring or a small piece of aluminum can keep my very busy. Aluminum that's been melted in a campfire is the worst.

I have given up on many targets, especially on land. It's hard to justify, or get away with, digging a massive hole in someones yard or a park. In the water I will spend more time digging since the holes are easier to fill.

The metal detector never lies.... if it's a repeatable signal there is something metallic down there.
I try and use each time out as a learning tool. I will start out digging every signal and, depending on the level of trash, start picking on the signals that I find to be good ones.
You are not alone.

 

[creeker42]

Hello spdrus
Read Clive James Clynick's book "Finding Gold, Silver and Coins with Minelab Sovereign and Excalibur Metal Detectors" Great book that describes the sounds of the the Soverign. I got my copy at Kellyco. It was a big help for me. regards
Ed

 

[spdrus]

Thanks for all of the great advice.

I am glad I am not alone with the entire 'giving up on a target' deal.

Even though I have only taken the GT to the beach - after almost a 2 ft deep hole, I just want to move on and find more easily recoverable targets. I have ordered Clive's book!

 

[Deepdiger60]

Although i have used my GT once so far on the beach a bay beach just to get used to salt signals i use it mostly in fields plowed or not i find different metals do give off different sounds and silver n gold both a nice even smooth sound ,iron is the loudest along with a grunt , the best sound is copper KG or LC give off a nice even sweet signal , 3 weeks now and i got it down pretty good ,the other day i got a very deep low signal in my head phones i could barely hear it but i dug it anyway 12 inches later it was a tiny piece of green copper not even the size of a half of a penny and paper thin i was amazed how that machine found something that small so deep it does not miss a thing plus the S-1 search probe helps a lot when deep , i dig everything so iron is no problem plus in plowed fields i don't used the pinpoint just the best signal passing over the target with the coil is right on target all the time ,one more thing a good pair of headphones make all the difference i use the Black Widow they block out at least 90% of all outside sounds and keeping your threshold at its lowest works best you can hear the deepest targets that way . I use a 10" stock coil and a S-12 coil .Keep using it and you will master it Good luck Jim PS if you do get those HP,s ? make sure you look around you while waring them i felt the ground shake and turned while kneeling to dig a hole and there was this huge field tractor stopped 10 feet behind me i could not hear it

 

[spdrus]

Hello,

I am probably giving up on about 1/2 of all my signals due to depth, exasperation, poor pinpointing etc. I also had NO idea how physically exhausting this hobby could be. About 1/2 the time I pinpoint spot-on and get my target with 1 or 2 scoops, othertimes I can be down 2+ feet and still be getting the signal.

wonder if I have passed up any really great finds so far, but I am not in the best physical condition so digging 2ft holes in wet sand is VERY hard - then it takes a lot of time to re-fill the holes - time that I would rather spend searching for my next target.

Maybe I should try the All/Metal - Pinpoint mode for the next difficult target.

So far I've just been pinpointing using the Sovereign Wiggle or just noting the loudest part of my swing, sometimes doing 90 degrees and re-swinging the coil. I need to hire a 'digger' and pay them half of my finds for recovering the targets for me - LOL!