Frustration galore!!!

I have been detecting for 6 to 7 years and hunt with a good friend who uses an Explorer SE Pro. He has hunted for over 20 years. I have an Explorer SE pro also. My frustration is his ability to out hunt me virtually every time we go out. I am using the same settings as he but still fail to match or come close to his finds. He is 40 years younger then me and can dig and move faster then me. But he sweeps at a almost stand still pace. I do to but to no avail. I have other detectors and it makes no difference what I use he out does me almost every time. The other day he found three silvers a gold pin and a silver pin along with a few tokens. I was using my T2 SE and found four old artifacts none of much value. We were finding all of our stuff at the same depth. I am about to give up on Metal detecting. I am not interpreting my detectors correctly or something. I just had to write this to get some of my frustration out. Thanks for reading.

Have you tried comparing signals on undug targets? He finds one and lets you see if you're hearing it before he digs it? Might be very educational.

Or it might be that he's just reading the site better? Or it may be a hearing issue. I have a drop in part of my high range hearing so I really punch the signal on my Etrac so I can hear the quieter high range noises. I also found headphones that some don't like just because the highs are loud, it helps me.

Don't abandon ship yet!

Here's your problem right here: "I have been detecting for 6 to 7 years... he has hunted for over 20 years."

He has developed the "ear" for what he is doing. Giving up isn't an option. Keep at it and try to break down the signals just as Tom would, scientificaly.

"Happy hunting" - Schultzie

You have yet to develop your detector sense...

By that I mean the 6th sense for detecting...

I cant stress enough.....No matter how much you read no matter how much you watch on video or set your setting exactly right etc....till you get in the zone with your macine or your machine's the finds wont come as quickly...

Theres the second nature that will develop as time goes on....Never judge your sucess on what another person find's....dont worry if he digs 5 gold coins and you dig 3 zinc penny's....stay on course for learning....

You cant read it you can watch it you cant be told about it ...its just happens as time goes on...And till it clicks its sometimes misunderstood info you obtain...

I do see some of your finds on here and they are to be proud of in their own right...!!Congrat's!

but learn your machine inside out ..

I know alot of folks read on forum's and think they want to use this or that equipment as we all do...But till you see the real use of a SPECIALTY machine and such and understand More than the critcial settings of the machine but the areas to use it and when to use it and have the understanding to use it all combined at once and to your advantange the full reward will not be realized...

Machines are inanimate objects...they cant change but you can...you have to learn it ,it wont learn you...so the best advice I know of is stay in the field and dont swap around alot from machine to machine...If your after silver in a park stay on the explorer...if you hunt in alot of iron and want to dig it all more than selective dig then the T2 is better...this is just in the simplest of statement's though...whatever equipment you have get really invovled with it...If you are competitive on the hunts with a partner work on fringe depth signal's in park's...want jewelry in the park look around the swim areas if there is such or bath houses or volleyball net's....look for the older areas of the park maybe where the grandstand was at in the 1890's if you want to find barber money...


I remember When I was in my teens I guess it was about 25-30 years ago I wanted to dig Buttons more than the abundance of bullet's I could alway's dig.. So I bought the button machine.. A Tesoro....the other hunter's were doing well with them and digging some buttons that I had never seen...Boy was I in for a shock...Mind you at this point I had probably been swinging for at least 6 years...

I had the machine, I was out hunting civil war sites.....where was the button's? weeks later still no buttons yet the other guys were bragging about the buttons....Oh finally a few started to show up here and there but sounded good...but I bet it was another 5 years before I really realized How to find the button's...I did not have to change my settings, I did not have to hunt different area's...I had to hunt areas differently...Things had to click...I had to learn to interpret the clicks as it was...I had always heard the buttons since i was a zero disc hunter but the buttons did not ring out in iron spots where they were located like a higher conductor bullet did...so they were alwasy there I jsut could not interpret them...once I did I still did not know why they did not sound good...Oh sure you would dig clean sounduing ones occasionally but not constantly.... few more year had to go on till I finally learned a formula for them...Now I dig more buttons than I do bullet's...A quarter of a centruy later...actually theres really no telling how many buttons are to be found they show up everywhere...

Is your hunting buddy a BETTER hunter than you ?.... Probably not.................Is He luckier than you ?.....Come on now! .................................Does He have more time in the field?...YES!!

Hang in there..

Keith

Yeah don't give up. Learn one machine well. I just got a T2 this summer. I have practiced with it alot in my iron infested yard. I got to know it pretty good. Now I am confident that if there are treasures to be found where I am I will find some. I have also gotten pretty good at diggin targets quickly. Practice and have fun.

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

Never judge your sucess on what another person finds


SUPER ADVICE Keith.



Keep at it and the good finds will come. When you say you are both running the same settings on the SE Pro, do you know if when your friend hits a spot where there may be some nulling or targets aren't clear, does he go into all metal mode or lower the discrimination ? Although you may both be running the same settings, he may be doing a few things differently than you when he does find a potential target or target area.

The extra years detecting helps a bunch too !



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/20/2013 11:23PM by therover61.

Could be a lot of factors but you just can't beat experience in the field...Heck in my 70's for several hour hunts have kept up with the young'uns and bested many using 20 year old units while they had the high priced new units. I like the idea of comparing signals with this fellow and believe me what settings work for him just may not be the best for you. Headphones, hearing, experience all come into play along with knowing your unit and believe me Explorers are great units but not for everyone..We all have our favorites and well maybe you just haven't found yours. I realize luck is a factor but if your bested consistenly
may be time for a change of units. Practice makes perfect so hang in there my friend and hunt against yourself not another individual as it tend to make you hurry and miss some good finds and all will fall into place and in time you will be getting your share of goodies in the pouch....

When I acquired one of the first CZ's............ it would only find coins in the 7" - 8" range. About 3 months later........ it was finding 9" deep coins. Then about 4 months later..... it was (fairly easily) finding coins in the 10" range. It wasn't until about 2 years total operating time.... when I could nearly consistently recover (just shy of) 12" deep dimes.
Ironically.............. no setting /// control panel configuration had been changed! ((( Hmmmmmmm ))).

What all these guys have been telling you is true...it just takes time...and especially time with your main unit you will be using. I too get into the "funk" you are feeling when I find myself switching out different units too often. I've been detecting for 40+ years and I do my best with the units I have had a lot of time with. In my younger days I didn't have as much money to spend and only could afford one unit...but I put a lot of time on that one unit and could literally tell you just about what kind of coin was coming out of the ground and how deep it was. Why?...Because I knew my unit. Hang in there and study those signals closely...you will eventually probably out-perform your friend!

Thanks all for your encouragement. I really have found a lot of the good stuff as any good detectorists. My frustration is how little compared to my hunting buddy. I have only a little time left to get as proficient as my buddy because of my age (81).I have an agreement with my buddy to hook up with his detector and follow him around one day listening to him hunting to see how he reacts to signals. I think I will take him up on it. I have swung over many of his signals with my detector and got the same readings as his and same depths. Even when detecting with different detectors.

Keep thinking young!

I lost an old friend a few years ago, he was 102. We met when he was 82 and solo sailing his boat from Maine to Texas and back one year. He had just come off learning to ride a motorcycle and taking a Kawasaki from VA to WA to spend a month on an Alaskan crab boat his son captained (think Deadliest Catch). Then he drove it back home. Sold the sailboat when he was 92 because he didn't want to keep up an old wooden boat any more and I wasn't there to help! Didn't stop driving until he was 99. He was also a fresco painter and writer in retirement. Learned a lot about the importance of keeping moving from him.

Knew another solo sailor in the Caribbean in his late 80's. Wouldn't have an outboard on his dingy because he said rowing kept him young. Knew another couple your age who sailed around the world.

So keep swinging!!!

Some of us understand what our machines are telling us and some don't. Some just need a little zip of a tone and we are digging and finding targets. You should compare targets and listen to what he hears and see if you hear the same and try and understand what makes him dig or not dig...

LowBoy

TAKE A LITTLE TIME KICKBACK AND WATCH SOME OF MY DETECTING VIDEO'S BELOW ON YouTube

[www.youtube.com]

If you don’t dig it, then how are you going to know what you’re missing!
How can you have your pudding if you don’t eat your meat!

A good marksman calls his shot, Tom does the same most of the time on his DVD's! Unlike myself I sing cheesy songs(so-low) been trying to change? Might try video taping your hunts together and seeing with your own eyes the difference? Good Luck & HH