GTAx550

[scrapman]

I was in my yard practicing on finding coins that I buried at different depths. I buried a quarter at 12", a dime at 6", a nickel at 3", and a penny at 8". I set the depth sensitivity to 12" on my MD.
The only hit I got was on the nickel at 3". The only problem was that it shows as a piece of iron or a flip top.
I also set the same coins on the surface and all read what they are supposed to except the penny which reads far left of the penny image around a 7 on the scale.
Has anyone else had these same results or do I need to have my MD serviced?

 

[stikman]

Read this past post. You may be having the same problems that I had.
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?32,733182,738096#msg-738096

 

[born2hunt]

scrapman,

I'm borrowing a friends gtax750 and recently did a similar test. I burried a silver peace dollar @ 6" which should be within the coils range and it hit as iron with a slight jump to bottlecap. No belltone at all. I checked it with several different sensitivity levels, all with the same results. I sure hope the technology in the newer machines is a step or two up from the gtax series.

I also tried it with the coin on edge. I could only get a belltone by decreasing the depth of the coin. Makes me wonder how many good targets I've passed off as junk?

Steve in PA

 

[stikman]

Since it's repair, the 550 has kept me excited about this hobby. I almost always know what I am digging and I've never had any problems since it was repaired. I wouldn't hesitate to buy the 550 again if I had to do it all over again. I'm sure that if the guy I bought it from knew that it would have only been $40 to repair, then he wouldn't have posted it on Ebay so cheap.

 

[Uncle Willy]

Are you and this tector new to each other? Freshly buried coins are difficult to detect, especially at the depth you buried them, due to an effect known as Metallurgical Phenomenon. THere are many tectors out there that would have problems with a 12 inch deep coin. The 550 will do much better than that and is hot on rings. Try it in the real world. I have a field test on it at losttreasure.com

Bill

 

[Uncle Willy]

Read my post. Same applies to your situation.

Bill

 

[scrapman]

Ok thanks for the help.I airtested it and I got a belltone at around 6-7" on each coin.I got a slight audio response at 10" when I pushed the pinpointing button. I guess it's doing the best it can. Time for an upgrade.

 

[scrapman]

I noticed theres two holes in the back of the back of the display unit that are used to tune the MD. Has anyone tried to fine tune thier own MD or do you know what these adjustments are for?

 

[Uncle Willy]

If you're getting depth like that an upgrade ain't going to help much. One should never buy a detector based on alleged depth. Too many seem to think all old coins ( or any coins ) are buried halfway to China. THEY AIN'T! I've found coins from the 1700's at two inches and clad at 8-10 inches within a few feet of each other. There are things more important than a detector's perceived depth. Doesn't make any difference how deep or shallow a coin is if your detector can't see it.

Bill