Learning Curve Frustration

I've been using the Racer for about a month and have around 60 hours on it. I thought I was starting to get the hang of what it's telling me until I spent a couple hours at a 100+ year old park today in another town. It was the trashiest park I'd ever encountered. Having such little time, I originally wasn't digging pennies but as good sounding targets were rare I thought, what the heck. There were a lot of good sounding pennies but every one of them turned out to be can slaw. Any tips on dealing with that situation?

Well for one 3 tone is the ticket, definitely more nuance than 2 tone. Now there are no solid guarantees, meaning you follow these guidelines you won't detect a good target and walk.

So first of all while in 3 tone get a zincoln, copper penny, dime and quarter, and a few pieces of can slaw. Place on clean ground and sweep. Listen closely. You should hear the can slaw have a longer hollowish tone vs the coins-shorter/cripser cleaner tone. You will notice faster ramp up of short tone on good targets.

With this said a person will still get fool every now and then with crushed can slaw (layered) and pull tabs where the ring is wrapped around the ring.

TID-the tone should always be the driving factor when studying a target, but TID and how it is displayed can give clues and many times you will see/hear the connection between the tone and TID display (or the way it's displayed)
So when you get good tone, watch your screen TID. Does the Tid stay in the screen and quickly disappear on sweeps once the coil is past the target?? If so dig. Now if the TID comes in the screen say 82/83 and while you're sweeping you see a significantly lower number quickly jump in the screen(i.e 54 when coil approaches the edge of target. Many times I find these are junk targets and the tone on these TID displayed targets will be longer/hollowish sounding.

Remember these are not absolutes, but a person not digging all nonferrous it may help you along.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/22/2015 04:35AM by tnsharpshooter.

I agree with TSS. I never used the Racer, but from what I heard, it's great in trash and, it's real strength is the audio. Practice with some good and bad targets and listen to the subtle audio nuances. Also, if the trash is that bad(Like a machine gun) slow your sweep speed, try to isolate targets. There could be a lot of "averaging(low targets mingling with high targets and bringing their VID down AND messing with the audio)" going on. Masking is there as well.

Bey
TW-3 minutes

That would be the last place I would start out on any new detector but I would use the 5" or the 5x10 coil and turn the gain down to maybe 30-50. And see if you can learn from this area...

LowBoy

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

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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!

"That IS the most frustrating thing with it...one day I found all coins...great...very next day all I could find was iron!"

Thanks everyone. I was probably just moving too fast . I slipped away from my in-laws picnic to go. Another thing I have noticed and it may just be a trait of DD coils; if I have a coin on or very close to the surface, it will sound like two separate targets. If I raise the coil up 3-4 inches it sounds like one. Is this normal?

Don't get me wrong, I love the Racer. I know that I'm the weakest link in the process at this time. Once I started at the park, I realized how challenging it was and moved out in the wide open areas but was surprised that it wasn't much better.

That sounds like what my PI does on bobbie pins, wire and coins on edge. I assumed it was a trait of fast recovery reacting to the start and end of the target. Any feedback? ?

Past(or)Tom
Using a Legend, a Deus 2, an Equinox 800, a Tarsacci MDT 8000, & a few others...
with my beloved, fading Corgi, Sadie

If you're just picking up newer clad out of the trash, don't be afraid to drop the gain even more. I very often run the gain at 01. It will still get you 4 to 5" of depth but it narrows the signal so you don't pickup adjacent trash items and if your digging too many zincs, just dig 83's and up and skip the 82's.

Too many unwelcome targets, such as clipped aluminum, pull tabs, pry tabs, screw caps, and some desired items, such as gold and silver rings, broaches and other jewelry, might have conductivities very similar to the coins we are seeking. All we can do is find the metal target and, if it isn't likely iron, recover it, take a look, and decide if we want to keep it or throw it away. Pretty simple and all detectors will encounter the same challenges when it comes to 'proper' target identification.

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FollowTheBeep
Thanks everyone. I was probably just moving too fast.

Sometimes we can fall prey to 'bad habits' and hunting too quickly with fast coil sweeps is one of them. It can happen to us all from time-to-time, and with the racer I enjoy a comfortable, average, 'normal' sweep speed. I keep my coil sweeps short, as a rule, to about 24" to 36" from side-to-side depending upon the site conditions and make sure I use a methodical sweep to thoroughly cover the area.

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FollowTheBeep
Another thing I have noticed and it may just be a trait of DD coils; if I have a coin on or very close to the surface, it will sound like two separate targets. If I raise the coil up 3-4 inches it sounds like one. Is this normal?

... AND ...

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Pasttom
That sounds like what my PI does on bobbie pins, wire and coins on edge. I assumed it was a trait of fast recovery reacting to the start and end of the target. Any feedback

Yes, this is very normal. It can be more noticeable, or maybe more likely to happen, if the Gain is rather high, but it is caused by a metal target's near proximity to the search coil and effect on the EMF. It doesn't matter if it is a Concentric search coil or a Double-D design, or even if it is a Mono coil on a PI. A reminder here is that most manufacturers mention in their Owner's Manuals that a search coil should be swept about 2" off the ground surface. That would eliminate a lot of the back-reading and near-proximity issues that

On Bobby pins, wire, and any elongated target, especially iron, it is common for a detector to produce a double-beep if that target is swept lengthwise. As for a flat round object, such as a coin, if the coin is "on edge' and swept across one direction you'll likely get a double-beep, but if you turn 90° and sweep across the coin it will be a weaker single-tone, just as a single tone if you turn and sweep across the bobby pin, etc.

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FollowTheBeep
Don't get me wrong, I love the Racer. I know that I'm the weakest link in the process at this time. Once I started at the park, I realized how challenging it was and moved out in the wide open areas but was surprised that it wasn't much better.

Wide-open or confined spaces can be very trashy or they can be fairly void of targets, and all we can do is patiently hunt a site as best we can, using the best skills we have mastered to get the best performance. Then, make sure we are working the area with a detector that can provide the level of performance we want and need for a site.

Best of success as you learn the Makro Racer, and if you have that small coil, make sure you use it. I keep that coil mounted full-time to my most-used Racer.

Monte