One the hardest things for me was to learn to ignore a lot of the sounds. Its a very sensitive machine and gives a beep over everything. Around here there is a lot of square nails, pull tabs, gum wrappers, etc... so its constantly making some kind of noise. Its the clean ( not broken up or grunting at the front or end or both on the tone ), repeatable audio signal, that a VDI that seems to be consistent as well. Sure you will miss some of the deeper or oddly angled stuff sometime by skipping iffy signal, but will surely help you dig the better targets that tend to be coins and rings. Just got ours this spring and being in WI we haven't had much time since the frost left the ground and already have 12 silver coins, tons of wheat's, and 7 rings with it so far (2 silver rings out them, rest are costume jewelry) and about $50 or so in clad. I do have a pile of trash in the back of my truck right now as well but 90% of them I knew weren't gonna be a coin before even breaking ground because they didn't fit "my" idea of a good signal like I said above. But if your after the gold too you have to dig those trash and nickel signals too. Even the trash ones we dug still made a consistent audio response at least 3 out of 5 swings, and had VDI that varied no more then 30 points or so.
Maybe I should be digging more of the ones that are all over, like 10 on pass and then a 91 the next with a super crackly, non repeating audio, and I prob will start trying a few now that I am way more confident with the machine.
As for pinpointing if its a really good signal like 8" and under I do the same as was said before, where I wiggle the coil as tightly as I can while still getting the beep in both directions and then slowly move the coil back while still wiggling it like that till the signal falls off. If its shallow, its always right off the front center of the coil. To double check sometimes I will visually mark that spot and then wiggle while moving it forward and see where it falls off the tail of the coil and compare spots. If they are of an inch or so, its most likely a deeper target so the shape of the detecting field actually curves back the deeper you go so I will split the difference in those spots and dig there. Lately I have been teaching our 11 year old how to pinpoint and have been showing him using the pinpoint button. So far that this is very accurate as to where the target is once you find the point of highest signal on that LCD screen. Watch those bars though as sometime the audio continues once your past the center of the target and can also use those bars to get an idea on how big the target is. If you move it slowly while holding the PP button down and it comes up and stays up for about 4 inches then you know its not a coin or several close together, but most time I will see my LCD bars fall and rise between targets if there is multiple coins/targets there. We also notice its seems best to just move the coil like 6 inches away from your target before pressing the PP button since here its so trashy you end up detuning it unintentionally over another target close by and then slowly move OVER it and PAST it and then come back to its highest point. If it goes up and doesn't come back down after you think it should have stop and start over again. 99% of the time the target is always right in front of where the shaft bolts to the coil. I have been really impressed with its accuracy. Alternatively you could find highest reading side to side, mark that line, turn 90 deg and repeat and dig where X is made. OR you can wiggle tighter and tighter wiggles til you get your line and then turn 90 deg and repeat, and dig the X.
Next I noticed if you have something super close the surface the coil will actually make 3 beeps for the one target. I believe this is a side effect from having the sensitivity up higher on the scale and it beeps each time the outer bar, center bar, outer bar passes over the target. Test this by slowly sweeping it over it while visually marking the spot on the ground where the first beep is according to the outer bar of the leading side that is swung for that direction. In other words if your swinging left mark the beep where the left most bar of the coil is on the ground and see if the center bars, and the other sides outer bar beep in the same place. I just find the second beep so I know the target is under the center of the coil, and then proceed with the wiggling pinpointing technique. These really shallow ones where constantly causing me to dig 4 inches to one side for a while till I figured it out.
Sorry its so wordy and hope this helps you or someone else at some point since these are some of the little things I have learned so far and can think of off the top of my head.
Happy Hunting Ben
