Since its too cold here [size=x-small](sub 0 tonite, and yeah I know that's shirtsleeves for you yankees)[/size] for me to go detecting for a while, I'm going to spend the rest of this evening studying the sounds that my Excal makes. I have all the items you find and hope to find to test ( gold/silver/platinum/titanium/brass rings, various clad, lead sinkers, beer cap, pulltab, bobby pin, etc). My question for the hive mind is whether this is worth my time and how much air tested responses equate with beach and nearshore wetsand responses? I know depth testing is a waste of time given that I dig everything I can hear anyway. All opinions greatly appreciated!
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Air testing for Sounds
- Thread starter KinTN
- Start date
Buried Crap NJ
New member
Confused to your reasons. If your testing for sounds/tones to see what there response will be, then there must be a reason. If you dig everything you don't care what it sounds like. I went this direction because depth has a great reflection on the targets sound! It will change in wet sand, dry sand and in the water. Its not the tone alone but the sweetness of the tone (one Tone vs. two or more WOW = bad) Better testing could be done by mixing different targets at different depths from the coil. (iron and coin) or even coin and coin. The Excalibur will reject one of two good target if they lie too closely together. It will change the tone of the dominant target as well. Conditions always prevail and in an environment where the targets plentiful you would really benefit in choosing which could be gold! Remembering time, tide aren't always on your side. if you don't already have tony Dianna's CD I recommend it. If you get into the habit of listening to it before each hunt on the ride to the beach it will clearly improve your hunts.
BCNJ
BCNJ
dewcon4414
Well-known member
If you have nothing to do .... then its fun to try and learn the tones. In the REAL world... you are going to dig everything that beeps excepth a shallow bottle cap which is easily id'ed. If you are trying to learn the tones to NOT dig a target..... then you need to change your mine set. You want to learn something ..... learn proper coil swing keeping the coil on the sand, close griding and even sweep speed. Thats where most targets are missed. Ive got enough hours in to know most of the tones even the deep ones. The Xcal is one of the BEST machines ive ever owned at not liking iron..... so if it beeps you better check the target even if you know its can slaw. Cant tell you how many broken or small rings ive found that are real close to can slaw. There is such a large range for gold. Spend some time doing research of your area.... youd be surprised what you find on those old atlas's. Like BC said.... those deep tones can very quite a bit.... so its getting a tone at all thats MOST important. If you can get your settings to wiggle out a repeated tone.... even one way....you are half way there. Those are the targets others walk over. Have a little fun learning.... but dont take those tones as gospel... things really change out there.
Dew
Dew
This weather sucks,2 feet of snow on my drive way -15 temps and my farm tractor won't start.I don't think it would be a bad idea under controlled settings to test targets for different tones,which may help.I agree with Dew that there is no substitute for actual field experience.HH Ron
Neil
Well-known member
Ron we have some bad weather here in NJ also but it looks like you guys are really getting walloped. Ricks in the same boat as you. Thats gotta be terrible to have to deal with that.
Kintin tones in the air can equate to in the ground tones but all the other factors measure in as well. You might try mixing up targets in your air testing, like waving a nail and a dime together, a pulltab with a nickel and so forth. The detector is gonna read and report on whatever it can see under the coil and since you have no way of knowing whats in the ground your gonna be dealing with a multitude of mixed sounds.
I do believe its good to learn the basic sounds in the air such as what a dime sounds like by itself and also other coins, various rings, pulltabs, small and larger pieces of iron, bottlecaps.......cant hurt at all.
Kintin tones in the air can equate to in the ground tones but all the other factors measure in as well. You might try mixing up targets in your air testing, like waving a nail and a dime together, a pulltab with a nickel and so forth. The detector is gonna read and report on whatever it can see under the coil and since you have no way of knowing whats in the ground your gonna be dealing with a multitude of mixed sounds.
I do believe its good to learn the basic sounds in the air such as what a dime sounds like by itself and also other coins, various rings, pulltabs, small and larger pieces of iron, bottlecaps.......cant hurt at all.
Folks, I appreciate all the thoughts and comments.
To clarify some of your questions:
- yes, I'm bored being shut in with this bitter cold weather and am looking for an excuse to play with my machines.
- I only had my Excal a few months and am still learning it. its spent a total of 2 weeks at the beach (and a few test runs in a local lake) so I am a relative noob with it.
- Everything I've dug with it so far sounded pretty much the same (tho admittedly the targets were pretty sparse) and that bothered me. I am used to the symphony of sounds that my Safari sings and the same hi pitched Brrrrap for pulltabs/bottlecap/coins + reading everyone else talk about listening to different sounds made me think I was doing something wrong or just missing something obvious.
- yes, I truly dig everything at the beach but when I am land digging with the Safari I know with about 80% certainty what I am about to dig. others on the net seem to have this ability with their Excals and I want it too. since I cant do what I really need, more beach time (I live 8 hours away), I'm trying to do the next best thing to real world experience. my yard is full of steel building crap and my woods are full of barbed wire, spent brass, and nothing else so that's out too. I absolutely cannot imagine running the Excal in a park or schoolyard- at least at my current state of ability with it.
What I found last night:
- the sounds I was hearing were pretty much the same because I havent swung over gold yet. other than nickels/pulltabs, there was some pitch differences between titanium rings and what I have found on the beach so far, but with the time between targets, my mind didn't hold onto the difference. I liken this to my Safari learning curve where I couldn't tell the sound difference between a pulltab and a nickel until I got into an area that had a lot of nickels and I heard lots of the 2 sounds in a short period of time.
- bottlecaps, pulltabs, and all (including silver, but excepting nickels) coins gave the same pitch, tho there was arguably some differences on the 'edges' of the sound.
- gold rings of varying karat and configurations were all over the map- mass seemed more important than gold content.
- platinum sounds like nickels (hooray! Safari thinks that too)
- all told, I gained some peace of mind that I was hearing the Excal correctly when at the beach. and as soon (if not sooner) as this thing is out of warranty, its going to OBN for the headphone upgrade.
BC/NJ and Neil: good point on mixing targets. i'll try that.
BC/NJ: Dianna's CD? I haven't heard of that; can you point me in the right direction? I listen to various Excal youtubes and have considered clive's CD.
Dew: I think you've summed up my philosophy: have fun learning. When I look back, I think the journey of learning the various machines that I have owned was as much fun as the targets I dug. But being the impatient person I am, I am always looking for a shortcut. Theres only so many more hours until I am dead!
Again, thanks for your input guys.
To clarify some of your questions:
- yes, I'm bored being shut in with this bitter cold weather and am looking for an excuse to play with my machines.
- I only had my Excal a few months and am still learning it. its spent a total of 2 weeks at the beach (and a few test runs in a local lake) so I am a relative noob with it.
- Everything I've dug with it so far sounded pretty much the same (tho admittedly the targets were pretty sparse) and that bothered me. I am used to the symphony of sounds that my Safari sings and the same hi pitched Brrrrap for pulltabs/bottlecap/coins + reading everyone else talk about listening to different sounds made me think I was doing something wrong or just missing something obvious.
- yes, I truly dig everything at the beach but when I am land digging with the Safari I know with about 80% certainty what I am about to dig. others on the net seem to have this ability with their Excals and I want it too. since I cant do what I really need, more beach time (I live 8 hours away), I'm trying to do the next best thing to real world experience. my yard is full of steel building crap and my woods are full of barbed wire, spent brass, and nothing else so that's out too. I absolutely cannot imagine running the Excal in a park or schoolyard- at least at my current state of ability with it.
What I found last night:
- the sounds I was hearing were pretty much the same because I havent swung over gold yet. other than nickels/pulltabs, there was some pitch differences between titanium rings and what I have found on the beach so far, but with the time between targets, my mind didn't hold onto the difference. I liken this to my Safari learning curve where I couldn't tell the sound difference between a pulltab and a nickel until I got into an area that had a lot of nickels and I heard lots of the 2 sounds in a short period of time.
- bottlecaps, pulltabs, and all (including silver, but excepting nickels) coins gave the same pitch, tho there was arguably some differences on the 'edges' of the sound.
- gold rings of varying karat and configurations were all over the map- mass seemed more important than gold content.
- platinum sounds like nickels (hooray! Safari thinks that too)
- all told, I gained some peace of mind that I was hearing the Excal correctly when at the beach. and as soon (if not sooner) as this thing is out of warranty, its going to OBN for the headphone upgrade.
BC/NJ and Neil: good point on mixing targets. i'll try that.
BC/NJ: Dianna's CD? I haven't heard of that; can you point me in the right direction? I listen to various Excal youtubes and have considered clive's CD.
Dew: I think you've summed up my philosophy: have fun learning. When I look back, I think the journey of learning the various machines that I have owned was as much fun as the targets I dug. But being the impatient person I am, I am always looking for a shortcut. Theres only so many more hours until I am dead!
Again, thanks for your input guys.
Buried Crap NJ
New member
here is a sample of the Cd you can pick it up at many online stores.
https://myspace.com/betfe
Select music and play all.
BCNJ
https://myspace.com/betfe
Select music and play all.
BCNJ
[size=large]KinTN IMO I would build up your strength and stamina so when you get out detecting you can dig and dig as many targets in the amount of time you have.
if it makes a sound dig it, if you swing over a target this way that way that way this way trying to guess what it is, you would have been better off to just DIG IT!!
Some of my best Old Gold rings were the worst signals I have dug!! I have had deep gold rings null from one direction and a iffy signal from the other do you walk or dig! The dreaded foil ketchup packs, sound just like a thin gold ring! A aluminium bottle cap a quarter or a silver ring pretty much the same sound, if you dont dig you wont know. you can learn tones but if you detect once a week or a month will you remember them? Then you are out on a windy beach with waves crashing
most of the time you hear a sound then you try to turn your head in different directions to hear it better to pinpoint it.
Good Luck Jim[/size]
if it makes a sound dig it, if you swing over a target this way that way that way this way trying to guess what it is, you would have been better off to just DIG IT!!
Some of my best Old Gold rings were the worst signals I have dug!! I have had deep gold rings null from one direction and a iffy signal from the other do you walk or dig! The dreaded foil ketchup packs, sound just like a thin gold ring! A aluminium bottle cap a quarter or a silver ring pretty much the same sound, if you dont dig you wont know. you can learn tones but if you detect once a week or a month will you remember them? Then you are out on a windy beach with waves crashing
most of the time you hear a sound then you try to turn your head in different directions to hear it better to pinpoint it.
Good Luck Jim[/size]