First attempts at the beach.

[grantham]

After reading one of dfmike's post about beach hunting, I went to a couple beach/volleyball courts and tried some of his beach settings, zero disc, volume at 10 and V break at 45.

Interestingly, I looked at my settings at the end of the 2nd hunt, the settings were 25 disc, volume at 12 and V break at 45.
Not sure why somewhere along the way I let the iron in the volume, when going from 10 to 12, I was constantly finding nails, like almost a dozen at the second hunt.
And the nails explain why I kicked up my disc to 25. Im still learning this tone break and teaching myself to be more reserved with anything under 40,
I guess I just chalk it up to a newbie with an itchy digger.

Also I found these little round disc and lots of them. First hunt at a nearby volleyball court yielded 11 of these little guys in 1.5hrs.
At first I thought they were parts of a cheap bracelet that exploded on the court, because they were not close, found them at both ends and the middle of the court.
A side note however is this is another example how the F19 loves the smalls. And I mean the very smalls.
As you can see in the first photo of the first hunt these little boogers are 1/4" in diameter.
They look plated too, which is why I assumed cheap bracelet. The VID was 56.

But while hunting the second beach/volleyball court (these two courts are about 25miles apart) I found another tiny disc.
You can see it in the second photo which is the second hunt upper left by a little blingy compass.
So now I'm thinking they might be a part of the volleyball's valve/gasket. I dunno...any thoughts?
I found more clad at the second beach than any other location and my premonition for jewelry was on point, as I found some costume jewelry: an earring and the compass.

Lastly I found a 1/2" Craftsman rachet and socket, I posted pics of that in the Today's Finds Thread.
I did not photograph the trash and man-o-man, there was alot.
Have a good day!

 

[tometusns]

Grantham running zero disc and v beak at 45 should make the iron a low tone but you'll hear everything being on zero disc. I've watched relic hunters at old houses doing that and when they hear a high tone mixed in they stop and work the signal to determine if they want to dig it or not. I hunt the f19 with the disc set at 45 if I'm looking for gold rings/ jewelry. They v break up to 68. That way you don't have to listen to the iron and any low tone could be a desired target and your high tones could be coins or silver. I can't tell thou how many good targets I've recovered with nails and other iron in the hole right around the good target. The f19 can really pick stuff out in iron without me having to listen to the iron. I listen for a high or low tone, work the signal then decide whether to dig or not. Also work an area from different directions some targets will only hit in one little spot because they're being masked by iron.
Some guys prefer hearing everything and some like a more silent search mode. Try them both and see what you like they best. Good luck andHH!! Tom

 

[grantham]

Grantham running zero disc and v beak at 45 should make the iron a low tone but you'll hear everything being on zero disc. I've watched relic hunters at old houses doing that and when they hear a high tone mixed in they stop and work the signal to determine if they want to dig it or not. I hunt the f19 with the disc set at 45 if I'm looking for gold rings/ jewelry. They v break up to 68. That way you don't have to listen to the iron and any low tone could be a desired target and your high tones could be coins or silver. I can't tell thou how many good targets I've recovered with nails and other iron in the hole right around the good target. The f19 can really pick stuff out in iron without me having to listen to the iron. I listen for a high or low tone, work the signal then decide whether to dig or not. Also work an area from different directions some targets will only hit in one little spot because they're being masked by iron.
Some guys prefer hearing everything and some like a more silent search mode. Try them both and see what you like they best. Good luck andHH!! Tom

Hey Thanks Tometusns! I will honestly admit (only 2 weeks = 30hours under my belt) that multiple targets have thrown me off and probably quite a few times. And to make matters worse it seems to happen after I have already spent some time digging trash. So when I would try to work the area to determine what is what, Im sure being tired of the rubbish has an impact on that evaluation. Lastly, trying to grasp my intent along with the detector's settings is also kinda tough for a beginner. I am learning that the location and intent correlate with the F19's settings... so by choosing the location I am choosing my intent (or vice versa) and in order to be efficient this influences the F19 settings. When choosing a beach, jewelry is the intent, higher disc. If I am on some old property, then relics/coins become the intent lower the disc and of course any jewelry is a bonus. Its slowly coming together. I plan to hit an athletic field this week, so with jewelry mostly the intent, your settings: disc @45, v-break @68 volume 10, seems like a logical start. Thanks again.

 

[tometusns]

I hope you get some gold!!! Good luck!! Keep us informed. There is a very interesting video on Utube of a guy using a 705 and eliminating everything except the low conductors. He has recorded the numbers where all 49 of his gold rings have hit. There is one spot where only 3 rings hit and he has blocked those numbers. It would be nice to know where those numbers would correlate with the f19. we could ad a notch to our gold rings pattern and eliminate some trash. I think it was the pull tab spot but can't remember for sure.

 

[dfmike]

The way I see it, running disc to eliminate iron or setting volume to 10 gives the same result. Either way, you won't hear iron signals. The reason why I use volume at 10 preferably is that It will not compromise depth in any way. raising disc usually does affect depth but not equally on all detectors.

Most people I know don't set the F19 at volume 10 because they want to hear the iron signals albeit at a lower volume. Personally I don't want to hear the iron at all. I find it too distracting especially in trash where the F19 excels. Personally I don't like the tones induced by the v-break which sound exactly like the traditional iron grunt. I can't condition myself to associate gold targets with that grunt. I only use it to push the level of the targets I don't want to dig past 40 hence my setting of 45. Nowadays, I hardly use v-break at all. On the beach I dig every signal past iron if I can get a good repeatable VCO tone from 2 sides. I then check the VDI and have a good idea what type of target I will retrieve. I find the VDI on the F19 to be very accurate and stable even at its maximum depth capabilities.

On a side note, judging by the targets you have retrieved, gold or silver jewelry is just a question of time. I'm just surprised you haven't dug more pull tabs !

 

[tometusns]

Dfmike, you're right about the pull tabs and that would be the spot to throw in a notch. Also the v break making a lower tone for lower conductors if you just want the one tone to hear that would be great too. Grantham the f19 has a lot of ways you can hunt it. You'll find your favorite ways after a bit. I know dfmike and me both agree its a great machine for sure!!

 

[grantham]

Thanks You Two!

Dfmike, After reading this thread:
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?18,1928411
Tom in CA made some great points about high athletic areas are prone to more jewelry and possibly less trash.
I too was surprised and satisfied by the low number of pull tabs, I only found one beaver tail and one square tab.
So I was shooting for less trash choosing a more active area like the volleyball courts, just gotta keep the ferrous metals from distracting me.

Tometusns, It is an awesome machine, and if I can figure it out a little better with time, especially in trashier areas, I truly will be impressed with it.

Happy Hunting guys!