a few thoughts/questions I have

[Bowie]

Trying to put some thoughts together,you guys are truly helpful.
I hunt a lot of plowed fields, Ive read the Soverign needs to be kept/coil swept right on top of the ground. Difficult to do in a plowed field,especially if it is in rows and not disced flat.
I love the idea it hates iron, can someone talk more on this and how it reacts to targets laying close to iron whether it is nails or bigger pieces
Ive read this forum a good bit, but not all yet, seems many of you are beach hunters. Also from what I recall, this machine hits well in the nickel area. It also seems it does well on jewelry. What about silver?
Finding all the jewelry and nickels, do you think the machine just hits better in this area than say silver or penny, I like to find those Indian Heads also,lol. Or is from say, hunting a old park or lot that has been hit so many times by other detectorist and those guys have just disced out the tabs and aluminum trying to find the silver?
I know this can only be gained from my use of the machine, but I was hoping someone could talk more on the threshold changing as it passed over a target. Does this machine make a signal (type of beep) when encountering a target or does the threshold just make a change?
Back on the iron, love hate relation there,lol. I like to know its there and what it tells, but do not like a lot of falsing.
I have a couple pair of Killer Bs, have any of you found them to work well with the Sov?? good?bad?
Ive no experience with DD coils, so Im sure I will have to spend some time practicing pinpointing. But, on the deeper targets, will I be able to stay on top of the target as far as PPing? or does it seem to move? I am just guessing at this because many of you recommend the S1 probe.
I see most of you recommend the meter for the type of hunting I do.
I also will get the Sunray 5 inch coil. But I see many of you like the 10 inch slimline however if I recall this isnt the 10 inch that comes on the GT.
I know some other thoughts will hit me later,lol.
Thanks for your time,
John

 

[grumpy]

Bowie
Y ou have some interesting questions there; I know what you mean about the un even plowed places; You (my two cents worth) could either go slow and move the coil with the contour of the ground or cross rows; Either is going to be a get used to challenge but should work; Slow is good for the sov.
On the coils and pin pointers the stock 10 with the gt is a great coil and should keep you going fine in the fields, you wont need a 5 inch anywhere near a field that is good for play ground equipment and up next to fences like chain link. save the $ for gas and such. Pinpointer is nice but in a plowed field you can tear up a lot of dirt without doing any damage and hand sweep if your short of change.
Good machine there and good luck
Grumpy

 

[gear box]

Hi John. Those are all the thing's every other new Sov owner wants to know including me. I've had mine for one summer now and have made good progress with it. I think it's the best machine you can buy without all the bell's and whistles. I really haven't encountered a target that only gives a slight threshold change as I think I those would be very deep. I'm still waiting for one of those. I have found a few nice older silver pieces that were moderatly deep,say 7" to 8" deep that I wouldn't consider a beep either. What I have found is that after a few dozen hit's that are low tone hit's that are usually junk of some kind but one will stand out from the rest and that tone will increase in pitch considerably I think it's the highest tone the machine will make [silver] but it really isn't a beep,it's more like a louder threshold change it almost has a ring to it not a slight change like the really deep ones would be. I only have one good example of a good target mixed with iron. I found a wheatie with a nail that gave an odd signal the first time I swept the coil over it. It was odd enough to get my attention and make me circle the target and sweep from different directions. It would null or break up in all direction's but one, and on that one spot the tone would climb and I could get the meter to climb to 179 if I remember right. It turned out to be a 3 inch nail and a wheat penny from the 50's. So when your out there check each and every signal that get's your curiosity up it's payed off for me on a few times now. Not every signal will register good the first time you go over it. Listen carefully for one of those higher pitched tones in all the low tones you've been hearing, even if it appear's to run together with what you assume is a bad target, it may be an old coin right next to junk, a meter would help here. And yes I recommend a meter I wish I would of gotten one when I bought my machine it help's you decipher what the machine is telling you with all the different tones. As far as pinpointing goes I use the method where you sweep the target while pulling the coil toward's you, the target will be about 1/2 inch from the front of the coil, I mentally mark the spot or use a blade of grass or some mark on the ground for reference, I turn 90 degrees and do it again and I'm usually pretty close but not alway's. If it is iron [the kind that gives you a false] you may find out that it will move around but a good target will stay put. I don't use a pinpointer but I think I will get a handheld one next summer. I just don't want anymore weight or wires to contend with, with an inline one.
Good luck ,gary

 

[Nauti]

Hi Bowie,just thought i'd drop a few lines on a xmas rally our club held a week ago.The rally was on ploughed land that had been left to settle so it was fairly compacted.The settings i used were manual sensitivity with threshold on and iron mask on.The threshold was nulling quite a bit indicating there was quite a lot of small iron present....there were also some scratchy,broken signals indicating some slightly larger pieces of iron....you will get these broken signals if you run the machine with the iron mask on.This is when you have to investigate the signals because some of these can be good targets next to iron.when i get these signals i will sweep at the signal from all directions nice and slowly and if i can lock on to the signal(even if it's only a one way signal) i will dig it.I managed to get some nice targets from these iron infested fields...even some quite small targets, by using the machine this way.What i am saying is that i get better results if i put up with a little falsing....you just have to learn what the machine is trying to tell you and investigate some of the iffy signals.You can run the machine with the iron mask off which makes the machine less prone to false signals in amongst the iron but if you can't hear these signals you will never investigate them and you will miss targets.The more effort you put into this machine the more it will reward you.I can also say that in six hours of searching i never dug one piece of iron which is excellent by any standards....this machine has excellent discrim.You ask about it's ability with silver....no worries here either.I live in England and we search for the small medieval hammered coins(and some of them are really small).These coins are very low in conductivity but the sovereign finds them just as good as any other machine....and better than most.This can be put down in part to the machines ability to cope with all types of soil,especially mineralised soils.I've watched people who own dedicated 'hammered hunters'being totally outgunned by other detectoists who own minelabs just because their machine won't cope with the soil as well.Overall the sovereign is a brilliant machine,one for the beach and inland sites and as an overall detector it's a bit hard to beat.