F5 confidence bar

[jeeper]

I have been in the habit of digging everything and was just wondering if you guys only dig if the confidence bar is at or above a certain level? I mostly hunt parks and freshwater beaches so I don't want to miss something that may be jewlery, but I'm also wasting a lot of time on hair berrets ( tons of those ) and lead fishing weights. Also, what gain and threshold do you prefer to use if you are on the jewlery hunt? I have been trying to notice what numbers certain things ring in at, but I don't find enough jewlery and stuff to get a pattern going. Will discrimination at say, 20, and notching out tabs lose out on some of the good stuff? Thanks for your answers.
Jeeper

 

[jim tn]

I have a F75 and not a F 5, but I do know by notching out tabs some gold rings will be missed. I personally never use notch for that reason. With my F 75 I have found several gold rings from the turf and depending on their size, they will read from foil numbers all the way up to zinc cents. Of the number I've recovered, 5 read exactly as a nickel...nearly the same as a lot of tabs. I know I miss gold, as in the dirt I don't dig everything. To the practiced ear, though, some gold does sound just a little different. Good luck. HH jim tn

 

[jimmyk]

A good gold ring will hit a little harder and sound a little better. You'll dig some trash, but one solid 14k gold ring is worth it.

keep on diggin'

jimmyk in Missouri

 

[Cal_Cobra]

Jeeper I really haven't found the "confidence" meter on the F5 or the F70 to be all that accurate.

 

[jeeper]

Any particular " tone " everybody prefers to use. I am still stuck on the first one, but am really trying out all 4 to see if a certain tone sound give me more confidence about digging a target. Sometimes I'll get a hit, then not another going over the same spot a couple times, then hit again. It always comes up on pinpoint and I dig because I'm afraid it may be a coin or ring on its side. Anybody else? only dig if it picks up every pass? Thanks guys, I don't have anybody experienced I do this with so this is where I get ALL my information.
jeeper

 

[Mike Hillis]

Hi Jeeper,

My ground is probably different than most. My FE304 graph is nearly always at a full 4 bars and my phase readings are most often in the high seventies, like 78, 79 and the ocassional 80. The fill dirt we bring in to grow grass on depends on how deep I get stable id numbers. When I get a deeper signal with jumpy numbers I'll make several sweeps looking to see what numbers will display with the higher bar readings. If I can see some consistancy in the higher bar numbers, then I'll recover it cause it will be something worthwhile more often than not. Other wise I'll pass it by. Falses will waste tons of your time and you'll have to teach yourself to let them be. We all had to learn what good targets sound like and the quicker you learn the difference the less time you'll waste on them.

I don't beach hunt very often but I hunt turf for jewelry. Remember threshold is a two fold setting. -9 to 0 is trigger point settings. +1 to +9 is audio control settings. I like setting my Threshold at a +5 due to what it does to the audio. Then I set the Gain to what ever setting the site will let me be stable at. This is one of the reasons I like the F5 so much. I can't get this type of audio control on other units.

Don't be afraid to use your disc and notch settings to help you focus on good target ranges. The more focused you are the more ground you can cover. The more ground covered equates to more good targets in your pouch.

Good luck,

Mike

 

[Terry in PA]

What I found out is on shallow targets the confidence meter is pretty good. The deeper you go on a target it tends to be a little off. Now with that being said it's not off by far. I've noticed on deeper coins it would be only one bar off of full but on shallow coins full bar.I use three tones because I like to hear
those low Iron grunts and the soft high tones of deep silver targets. Nickel is also in the high tone range which I don't like but that's were they put it.

 

[Low-Boy/LCPM]

It is kind of like the V3 you can look at alot of stuff and think about digging or just dig it and see what you have.....I dig it.... the ground can change a Lot of the characteristics of the target so I never look at the bar..I look at the VDI and listen to the sound.

 

[jim tn]

I hardly ever check the confidence bar, either. I dig by tone first, second and third, then give the depth reading and vdi a quick glance. Not that it doesn't have some merit, but when I do check it, it is my least determining factor to dig or not. HH jim tn

 

[RIPdigger]

I'm still fairly new to the f5 so I take my time and try to use everything it has to offer. I also try everything Mike Hill and others suggest, thank to all for the great info on this very fun detector.

 

[jeeper]

I think I will start recording vitals, ground balance, conf bar and the ID number given, then what came out. The depth seems to be dead on for me. I don't know what it is about the pull tabs, but I think somebody comes in and hides them just for me. What are they coming off of ? I can see people pulling the tops off their pop/beer cans, but are the pull tabs from befor my time? I'm 34, and don't recall having a beverage with a pull tab.

 

[marcomo]

I think I will start recording vitals, ground balance, conf bar and the ID number given, then what came out. The depth seems to be dead on for me. I don't know what it is about the pull tabs, but I think somebody comes in and hides them just for me. What are they coming off of ? I can see people pulling the tops off their pop/beer cans, but are the pull tabs from befor my time? I'm 34, and don't recall having a beverage with a pull tab.

Yep, the pull tabs are from before your time.

The pulltab for beverage cans came into production in 1962 (according to Tom Dankowski) and I'm pretty sure it was replaced by the current style pop top sometime in the 1980's.

Maybe somebody else can narrow down that latter date a little more?