I believe you are right when you say that raising the coil you can notice the
changes better David. May not be true on all detectors however. I like those
without VCO pinpoint. Make absolutely certain that the target is centered and
then you can analyze the signal best. Pullabs, for the most part if they are fairly
flat in the ground, can be checked in nonmotion pinpoint to get their approximate
size. As you move a target away from the coil and the signal becomes weaker
the differences in the sounds you hear are more evident. I pay attention to how the
sound starts and ends. Also the fade rate in nonmotion pinpoint as I sweep over
the target. You are right, it does take a lot of practice. This is how I started out.....
I hunted only one football field during this testing period where I felt the ground conditions
would be the same throughout the entire field. For the first 40 hours I dug everything
that I felt was not iron. Yes, every single signal, bar none. I listened to them all before
I dug them and tried to guess what they were. At the end of this 40 hours I discovered
something very interesting. I could tell the difference between a nickel, pencil ferrule and
a thin (engagement type) gold ring while they were in the ground. This was done with
amazing regularity. The detector I used didn't have any meter. For about 4 seasons I did
this and had quite the collection of gold jewelry. All from dry land. For the last 4-5 years
I have been trying different detectors, about one a season, trying to find one that could
duplicate these results with more depth. So far I haven't found that detector. Most of my
gold jewelry was within 4" of the surface. Maybe I should be happy with that. I am beginning
to think so and may very soon go back to that detector that did so great for me. HH Gene