Sovereign Masking the good stuff?

I have only been out with the Sovereign XS-2a Pro a handful of times.
I am mostly beach hunting now.
There is a lot of iron/junk metals from sparklers (They sell these like hotcakes along with every other fireworks you can imagine on the beach).
As most of you know who have used the sovereign it goes quiet when swung over iron/junk metal. I happened to notice it masks coins right next to them.

Do you guys hunt in all metal mode or what are your favorite wet sand settings?

Thanks in advance guys!

On the Sovereign...... regardless of mode......... it is a slow-to-reset/recover between adjacent targets.

On the sovereign in trash you must use smallest coil you have..hopefully that's the 8 which measures 7.25 ..

Go slow then go slower...seriously it doesn't reset fast but it can see around iron and trash if you go slow enough..

I've seen it do some remarkable things in trash especially on silver and coins like large cents and such...and Ive seen it do some NO NO's on buttons in trash..just cant hear them where another machine will..

As sites dwindle in finds almost to non existent it may seem the Sovereign may not show you too many keepers..

Yet also its a Great tool to have in modern trash and in large iron littered areas ..it does not like to dig large deep iron or any iron for that matter..where about every VLF made will false on big iron and read and I.D. good high conductor the Sovereign does not do this..yet it will lock on to big brass and such that almost all VLFS struggle with in big iron..they too see big brass well but it vns be hard to tell big brass from big iron if the stuff is deep in the eyes of a VLF unit...Not so on the Sovereign..

the Sovereign to me is a tool..get ti in the right spots and its amazing get it in the wrong spots and its disappointing..


It's hard for a Sovereign to dissect low conductors from trash.Not high conductor's though.In open areas I dig a good many buttons with the Sovereign...It when its nulling form iron rejection if you have disc on zero that you have to really pay attention if there's an adjacent target..The shallower stuff can break through in proximity of nails if thers a null but if it s a hard null and weak deeper target that's where it will miss things...so you have to creep along especially if there's trash

If you're on the beach I would run it zero disc all metal and check targets in disc as I hear them...Hip mounting makes it easier to do and or adding a remote mode switch to the handle..

To this day and it's been 25 years since I picked one up and ran it I have a NEED for one..There that good and that technologically advanced a quarter of a century on..

Keith

“I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own”
-Nikola Tesla

Like Keith said

low and S L O W in/around iron but it will pick D E E P stuff out like you've never seen if it locks onto something.

I dug a largie at a solid foot deep in iron/trash this last spring at a hard hit place I've not been able to pull anything out of for about 1.5 yrs with several other machines (all VLF's) but just when I thought it was dug out = the Sov. came through and hit that big penny in a mix of iron/trash near a well hole that I've ran at least 6/7 different machines over several times with several coils on each.

Keith nailed it. I ran one non stop for 10 years. Miss those tones. Sometimes you can't go to slow.

Some users (like Keith here as you see) will say that the Sov. and Excal are not prone to masking problem. Ie.: that they do have a fighting chance at getting conductive hints on targets under nails or whatever. But that wasn't my experience.

However, I'll be the first to admit that I'm probably having a mental bias against them when it comes to the question of masking. Because , as you know, there is a long "tail" on the signal when in discriminate mode. That sort of reminds me of the early days of the original 6000d and 6db (anyone else here old enough to remember those?) And those machines had a similar sounding "tail" . And as you recall, they were prone to mask.

So too do I have a mental bias and assume that the Sov. "tail" in the signal is going to be masking. Yes I realize you can slow down the swing (it doesn't require fast-swing like the old 6000 did). But ... I still can't get past that annoying bbeeeoonnnggg tail

Keith Southern Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> To this day and it's been 25 years since I picked
> one up and ran it I have a NEED for one..There th
> at good and that technologically advanced a quarte
> r of a century on..
>
> Keith

I might be persuaded to sell the one I have.

Hey Jack D.

One is already enough for my SOMETIMES needs..

Thank you though..!!

“I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own”
-Nikola Tesla

I know the Sovereign GT is useless in Iron filled sites unless you are I all metal and another thing is even if you turn the Iron mask off it still stays on in the back ground, if you sweep over a piece of Iron it can mask targets until the coil is 3 foot past the target.

I started out with the first "original" Sovereign and have owned every model since. Are they the best choice for iron infested sites? No but I have dug a lot of nice relics and old coins using them in old logging camps and ghost towns. Sovereigns are not very impressive if you're just doing air tests but they do much better in old ground on deep targets. I still use my GT when I need more depth especially on old salt water ferry crossings and old lumber camp dock sites.

Yeah Mike, in clean ground they are awesome, Iron sites can be a problem, but on clean normal soil they can go very deep indeed, My GT had me digging some monster holes using the standard coil, but in Iron sites no matter what coil I used it was impossible to use it in the Disc mode,

auminesweeper Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I know the Sovereign GT is useless in Iron filled
> sites unless you are I all metal and another thing
> is even if you turn the Iron mask off it still sta
> ys on in the back ground, if you sweep over a piec
> e of Iron it can mask targets until the coil is
> 3 foot past the target.


This was my experience. But I have seen a video where someone shows it to have decent operation at getting a conductive hint where a nail is laid directly on top of the coin. Just wasn't my experience in actual field hunting. There are much much better machines than Sov's for when it comes to ghost-townsy nail-riddled hunting. JMHO

Tom_in_CA Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> auminesweeper Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I know the Sovereign GT is useless in Iron fille
> d
> > sites unless you are I all metal and another thi
> ng
> > is even if you turn the Iron mask off it still s
> ta
> > ys on in the back ground, if you sweep over a pi
> ec
> > e of Iron it can mask targets until the coil i
> s
> > 3 foot past the target.
>
>
> This was my experience. But I have seen a video
> where someone shows it to have decent operation at
> getting a conductive hint where a nail is laid dir
> ectly on top of the coin. Just wasn't my experie
> nce in actual field hunting. There are much much
> better machines than Sov's for when it comes to gh
> ost-townsy nail-riddled hunting. JMHO

Yep, I loved the sovereign but that constant nulling and waiting for the threshold to come back was a curse because my sites have many centuries of Iron junk in them nothing would work, I would set the Disc so it would only knock out nails but it was torture, Coming from the musketeer Advantage did not help because it was a rocket ship when compared to the GT, which was a shame because I really like the GT.

John.