DirtFlipper
New member
Greetings,
Thought I'd pass along a couple humble tips that have been useful for me when hunting with a small coil (8x6 SEF in my case currently, but also others in years past).
If you're searching a signal rich area (aka "trashy site"), the main point of using the smaller coil is to get better target separation, and pluck out the stuff others may have missed. But by taking advantage of why things have been missed, maybe a few more items can land in your pouch. There's the case of iron masking and the nulling it causes, and listening for targets from within that, sure. But then there's the other type of challenge - conductive targets that sound off, but aren't 'good' targets (high conductors). So here's the tip - when you encounter the conductive 'bad' signals (like pull tabs), use them like markers and stop to sweep in a pattern around them from a few angles. When folks encountered them with their larger coils and they sounded off, other good targets may have gotten masked as well. The point here is to exploit that more than just using slow sweeps - actually draw circles around the bad target from different directions/angles and look for those masked targets next to them. I think there's a bit of a tendency to 'skip' a little forward when a bad target is found to get it out of the sweep area for folks. Instead, do the opposite! The small DD type coils can really nudge up near them and separate other signals with practice.
The other tip has to do with pinpointing (actually works with any size coil though). Instead of moving the coil to the side and turning on pinpoint mode and moving back towards the target, after getting the general area (from the 'wiggle' and X-ing perhaps), lift the coil straight up until the threshold returns, then enable pinpointing and lower it back down on top of your best estimate of where it was. This is very helpful when multiple targets are nearby. But - watch the SmartScreen! (this is on an SE). The target will still ID, and if you've lowered it on top of the 'good' signal you think you've found, the cursor will still (hopefully) be in the upper right (or whatever area is 'good' for you). If you've come down on a nearby ferrous target, the cursor will move and you'll need to repeat.
These have been very helpful for me, so am just passing along.
HH,
DirtFlipper
Thought I'd pass along a couple humble tips that have been useful for me when hunting with a small coil (8x6 SEF in my case currently, but also others in years past).
If you're searching a signal rich area (aka "trashy site"), the main point of using the smaller coil is to get better target separation, and pluck out the stuff others may have missed. But by taking advantage of why things have been missed, maybe a few more items can land in your pouch. There's the case of iron masking and the nulling it causes, and listening for targets from within that, sure. But then there's the other type of challenge - conductive targets that sound off, but aren't 'good' targets (high conductors). So here's the tip - when you encounter the conductive 'bad' signals (like pull tabs), use them like markers and stop to sweep in a pattern around them from a few angles. When folks encountered them with their larger coils and they sounded off, other good targets may have gotten masked as well. The point here is to exploit that more than just using slow sweeps - actually draw circles around the bad target from different directions/angles and look for those masked targets next to them. I think there's a bit of a tendency to 'skip' a little forward when a bad target is found to get it out of the sweep area for folks. Instead, do the opposite! The small DD type coils can really nudge up near them and separate other signals with practice.
The other tip has to do with pinpointing (actually works with any size coil though). Instead of moving the coil to the side and turning on pinpoint mode and moving back towards the target, after getting the general area (from the 'wiggle' and X-ing perhaps), lift the coil straight up until the threshold returns, then enable pinpointing and lower it back down on top of your best estimate of where it was. This is very helpful when multiple targets are nearby. But - watch the SmartScreen! (this is on an SE). The target will still ID, and if you've lowered it on top of the 'good' signal you think you've found, the cursor will still (hopefully) be in the upper right (or whatever area is 'good' for you). If you've come down on a nearby ferrous target, the cursor will move and you'll need to repeat.
These have been very helpful for me, so am just passing along.
HH,
DirtFlipper