Got the 6X8 SEF Coil Yesterday

[gonzo1968]

Tried it out at an abandoned schoolyard. Unfortunately, still having the same poor luck I had with the stock coil. I have had this Quattro for 2 years and still am not completely satisfied. I keep reading these posts of people finding coins, jewelery and other valuable items. I just keep digging pull tabs and bottle tops. I read the book by Sabisch, and it helped a little. Maybe its my location( SW desert). If any of you members have any info that could help me, please post it....

 

[Hardtack1862]

Sounds like maybe your only getting shallow targets. What kind of depth are you experiencing? The Quattro is a high quality unit. If this the first Minelab you have used, my experiences were mainly using Tesoro's, the sounds are different and take some getting use to. Have you done some bench testing to try to get a handle on the sounds that the detector is producing? Keep in mind that air testing does not give true performance and depth, but it does give you a resemblance of the kinds of sounds on the different types of targets (iron items,pulltabs, screw caps, bottle caps, bits and pieces thereof against coins, jewelry, gold, and silver.) You can get an idea what of what a deep target sounds like (good or bad target types). I cannot know what your are experiencing, but offer you that time and effort produce results. What are you experiencing?

 

[gonzo1968]

Most of my targets are on top. I did a test garden when I first got the machine. I understand what sounds to look for. It worked fine for a while, but lately it seems to have stalled. Also, I notice that the background hum disappears quite often, and it misses real targets. I have the sensitivity @10 with high trash density. I am mainly searching parks and soccer fields.

 

[Trackerman]

Alot if it has to do with were you live what state etc. Some states have really old coins . Some jewlry and coins and some is the machine and user. So dont feel bad

 

[diggetdawg]

hello gonzo, sounds like we hunt the same kind of grounds even though i'm in long beach ca. I get the same poor results in trashy grounds and the speed (or lack of) does not help matters. I can't see going over the same ground sweep 3or 4 times with a low sensitivity to see if something gets a response and when it does it's a bear to get it to repeat in the same spot because when u finally get something that sounds good it will keep repeating that sound even if u move 3 feet away. its just too much time & frustration for me. and yes my machine nulls out also,... where most of the time i hear nothing even with sensitivity down to 6 it is very frustraiting. this is why i have decided to buy a cheaper 3rd machine rather than buying another coil. (other machine is a gold machine so i dont use it as much) i have friends that have $200 machines that have great finds in the same area where all my machine would do is be real quiet. the only reason i keep it is because it seems to be a really great beach machine. I totally understand about pull tabs & bottle caps I dont think they make a machine yet that cannot be fooled. but total null..... that really sucks. I have not used it in the ca. deserts yet. seems like it should work being that i'ts just a very old beach lol. well good luck out there.

 

[Onus]

I think the "hum" always stops when you are over a ferrous object that is discrimnated out. Or at least it is supposed to. And I don't know where you have been hunting or how much research you have done, but if it ain't there you won't find it. If it is totally nulling out that often I would suspect something is amiss and send it in to be checked. I was having a heck of a time adjusting to my Safari and fought it for several months and then from listening to others on this site I found out it wasn't doing what it was supposed to do. The problem is, I couldn't tell it wasn't working right because I was not accustomed to Minelab machines. Maybe that's your problem too? Onus