Sovereign GT

I picked up a Sovereign GT because I had never used one before. Took it out to a local school today for just a quick 30 minute try out.
I started in all metal because I wanted a pulltab to use as a target id for discrimination. First target was a pulltab and my wishes were answered.
I set the discrimination just past the pulltab to eliminate all the aluminum trash that I know is there.
After about 10 minutes I get a really loud sharp tone. I was sure it was shallow because of the signal strength and the fact I had the discrimination
set so high. I had to dig down over 7" before the pinpointer hit the target. I was thinking I had missed the location.
It turned out to be a 1919 wheat penny. So I am very happy with the Sovereign. I just can not get the pinpoint down to where I feel good about the
target location. Anyone who has ever used one and know some tips for setting and how to pinpoint, please share with me.
I really like this detector.

Tom in SC

The Sovereign was my main and favorite detector for 10years. Pinpointing....Go off the tip of the coil,and check it 90degrees to each other...do it in all metal...I had a switch on the handle to make going disc to a.m. quick.

I always ran it at lowest disc.
Go slower than you have with any other detector...especially if you know there should be old coins around. If you go slow enough and have the tones down,you can hear a wheat co-located with a zinc, or a silver mixed in with a tab...the audio is incredible!If you get a threshold blip or a maybe signal,investigate with the minelab wiggle.
If I was still hunting deep turf,I would still be swinging a sov.
I used to detect with 5-6 guys who all had explorers,and the sov held its own. Good luck! Ray

Used all the older units in this line but never the GT. Excellent units but heavy and ill weighted even modded. Good luck with your new weapon and haven't used one in years.
Sort of a crazy audio to get used to but made some excellent finds along the way...

The GT is a great detector. My only main complaint was that the tone ID was a little tight, I found it hard to hunt by tone alone. Susposedly this can be adjusted but I didn't try.

I really liked the way you could charge up a deep target and get it to response correctly by doing the Sovereign Wiggle.

Alas, it is a slow hunter and when detecting time is limited, I prefered something faster.

HH
Mike

Great deep silver Killer...

Probably the deepest silver coin hunter made in less than perfect ground..

If you think your going slow ....Go slower...LOL!!

I liked the XS the best...The GT the least...

They all are about equal though...the 8 inch white coil is the best in my opinion for talking to you and allowing the tones to really nuance...

disc on zero....no notch....Sens clicked out of auto and as high as you can get it without falsing...

threshold barely audible...multi tone..

iron will null the treshold as will mineral and even too fast a sweep...

Disc on zero still rejects iron so keep it there......

what you are after is a little baby kitten sound in the audio report.. it will be high and keenand sound tight if its deep...the shallower the target the wider it sounds...a dime 1 inch deep will sound like a beer can ....and a beer can sounds like a car hood.....but listen for that little kitten whiny sound like its way off in a distance and isolate it and listen to the quality of the report and you use short strokes over it...it will really sing to you...aluminum will have warbles in the tone.almost like wrinkles..

overlap and go slow and listen for the tone....its sweet....get proficient and a foot deep dime can and will be had...I dug so mush silver with mine 20 years ago it was almost a crime...Thats what I used it for, Silver money and DEEEEEEEEEP Minnie balls...

its dead on low conductors and wont unmask well either...but I have seen it pull some large cents and such( High Conductors) out of iron...

Deepest belt buckle I ever saw dug was with a XS it was pushing 2 foot in red clay....had that baby kitten sound to it...CZ-6a could not hit it ...Toltec ,1266,5900 either this was in 1991 or so......we checked the target with different machines available that moment...it was a CSA rectangle in red clay DEEEEEEP....right dead middle of a old house site hunted hard and not producing so any one who got a signal we all checked it signals were that sparse...So yes on high condcutors its crazy deep....


As Mike alluded to you can move the tones around inside the unit ...to narrow it up though I found turning the volume back did wonders to reducing the footprint of the report...but it can hurt the deepies is you arent really listening...

also has an excellent stable all metal mode...

Keith

I used my xs till it was literally held together with duct tape. The old white 12inch sunray coil was awesome. I did the silent search mod,but then turn up threshold till just audible...seemed to go deeper that way. Like Keith said, go SLOW!! I would crawl that sucker at times,but it would get the deepies. Pulled an indian head out an inch deeper than a lesche is long.

I have been using various Sovereign models for about the last 7 to 8 years. They are all about the same on depth. Using the Sovereign in the dirt can be very rewarding. It sure can go deep. The draw back is hunting in the iron and trash. Some claim that it hunts trash very well. Well not as good as the CTX or Deus in my book. But on clean sites it is a killer.

The target meters made for them can sure help if you are hunting the dirt. In fact the Sovereign with a meter can pick nickels better than any other detector I have ever had.

I currently have the XS-2A model. I bought the box added a Plugger shaft and a 12 x 10 SEF coil. This is still my favorite wet sand hunter. And I have the CTX. The Sovereign hits the targets better for me. Especially those near miss targets. The SEF coil seems to hit those targets outside the coil detection field much better. The CTX needs to run right over the target. Plus I chest mount the box so I can swing the Sovereign set much longer.

One of the worst decisions Minelab ever made was killing the Sovereign line with no look to the future. The Sovereign will go down in history as the most overlooked detector by people in the hobby. Why? Probably because it didn't have a fancy meter with menus.

I know one thing. Every time I sell one I want to kick myself in the behind. So the one I have now will be with me until one of us dies.

I always wanted to try a Sovereign. I was wondering do you guys prefer Iron Mask on or off? This is one of Critter hunters favorite machines. It's kinda the under dog in this digital world like CZ's. I always liked the underdog! LOL!

Keith I take it you prefer other detectors to the Sovereign for deep silver what would they be? Ilike to hunt for old coins and am always looking for a better detector. I know you recommend the Omega 8000 and the f75. Since Im getting Tesoro Tejon Ive ruled out the AT Pro because of questionable depth.

Hello Tom,

The Sovereign is great for deep park silver, Slow processing for sure but it'll get the deep coins with ease.

One can actually hunt without a meter yet still go after deep coins avoiding surface high conductive, The Sovereign audio is amazing.

Still use them, Have an XS board inside a Whites BeachHunter housing allowing it to use the whites 12-volt battery tray. Has all features too, All with waterproof pots.

Picked up a GT 2-3 years back, Now fitted with a modified Joe Patrick Patriot meter. The meter is directly connected to the housing board, No in-between outside cables connect the two so now the coils mount directly to the rear housing. Still have a few more touchups to complete with the Patriot meter, But here's a snapshot of what the final outcome ended up as.

Yup! Sovereign is a neat machine!

Paul (Ca)

Explorer XS is the deepest on silver I know of....if you really learn the Tone....the CTX is right there too to a degree, though I feel the CTX is not quite as deep as an original Explorer XS...

The later Explorers were evolving as they went so they got slight audio variances and better mineral handling as they progressed till the ETRAC and then CTX...

Both those handle minerals better than a first run Explorer XS so they are less noisy in dirt but also slighltly less depth as a by product..

You gotta give to get....and to get the really deep silver with an Explorer XS you will have to distinguish High mineral tone ring to a legtimate silver high ring tone...it takes time and practice but can be rewarding....

but then also the Explorer XS cant unmask in iron like a CTX ....

They Need to make the CTX deeper than the Original XS Explorer and retain the trash hunting capabilites it has right now...WOW!!!

What made the Original Explorer so deep was that it reported it all even the hot rocks and mineral...instead of masking the minerl let it flow through the audio and if you became proficient with the tones you could hear the REAL deepies...the later models tried to combat the mineral nosie problems and in doing so the machine is deciding what is mineral and what is not and as we know DEEP targets can mimic minerals ....And also the nulling efefct of mineral can mask a good target deep...

Again a perfect example of keeping the audio gate open and reporting it all and letting the user decide what to dig....I love hearing mineral reports on machine if its got enough intelligence in the audio to allow for investigative digging...

A tuned ear with the right instrument in hand can be deadly...

Whatever you use dont look at it as beep dig scenario...thats to simple for finite hunting..really get into the nuances and quirks and think outside the box on the settings...but remember the more you hear the more you will dig...

Keith

Sounds backwards I know Harold but turn the iron mask on....what this does is allow the machien to hear non ferrous targets closer to ferrpous target's...

IF you turn it OFF. it actually is allowing the partila response of iron ..like the blips and blurbs sounds you hear from iron to be removed form the audio and in doing so it MASK MORE....

so on is allowing the machine to work in a more unmaksing mode in iron....allowing the partial bluprs of iron tone to enter the audio at times...(LESS FILTERING IN A WAY OF REJECTED TARGET'S)

Off is allowing the machine to ignore the iron completely audio wise...(AGRESSIVE FILTERING IN A WAY OF REJECTED TARGERT'S)

backwards wording sort of....but then again they had the sens control backwards too didnt they, full CCW was full gain...LOL!!

Keith

Paul, that is two great machines that you have there. I really like your waterproof design...Stuart

Old California Wrote:
"Have an XS board inside a Whites BeachHunter housing allowing it to use the whites 12-volt battery tray. Has all features too, All with waterproof pots."


Hi guys, I just stumbled across this forum while dreaming of buying/tinkering with a Sovereign.

Old Califorinia, In my opinion you should be crowned undisputed champion of the modded Sov game. How did you manage to get that XS board into the Whites housing?! Did you buy the housing direct from Whites? Is it a current housing for the 300? Did you have to add more pots, drill holes, how did you wire it up, brace the board within the housing, SOOOOoooo many questions!

Either way i love it! If you could tell a tale or two about how you managed to build that piece of fine art i'd be incredibly grateful.

I want one.

Thanks!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/03/2014 12:30PM by bender.

Excellent machines.... i use mine beach hunting with a 13" coil. Oddly enough they are as deep in disc and PP mode. I did adjust mine to sound more like my Xcals and i prefer it on the beach over the Explorer.... not so much for depth because they are about the same, but because the tones on the lower end separate better and dont sound as much like minerals in the wet salt sand. I think they did aways with the Sov just because it wasnt water proof..... yet it provided us beach hunters with after market coils we use on the Xcal. Its one nickel killing machine.

Dew