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Hunting with the GT in Pinpoint Mode.

D

DonNWF

New member
A recent posting string on the Xcalibur indicates that some Xcal users search in Pinpoint Mode. Is this a similar mode to that available on the GT? I know the GT manual states not to search in pinpoint mode because ground balance is disabled (Pg 21).

But if you do what I've done on a couple of occasions while operating in silent mode, forgetting to reset into Disc Mode after pinpointing a target. Then I'm off and hunting in pinpoint. In non-silent you pick up on your operator error quicker because of no threshold.

My question then is - So whats wrong with searching in GT pinpoint mode?

I have picked up non-ferrous using pinpoint that I did not get, or very weak,in Disc. If ground balance is disabled, so what (Just what is disabled?), running in pinpoint is not a problem in my ground, or beach. I think there are times when a pinpoint search may be the way to go. Running in regular A/M drives me nuts with the GT. To much noise. Any comments? Don
 
Well, I don't have a GT but I do have an Excal and I did have an Elite. And as far as I know, the GT is the same as both of those in the respect that if you hunt in pinpoint mode you don't get variable tones. Why somebody wouldn't want the variable tones at all times is beyond me. Why not get a Pulse Induction machine then? Maybe I'm missing something, but the variable tones are what MAKES the BBS machines, for me anyway.

I'm not much on pinpoint anyway. I think I tried it once on my Elite. I hunted all this past summer with my Excal and never used it...not once. I just find it too easy to pinpoint without it by doing the old side-to-side/forward-to-back thing with the coil and BAM, there you go. They could take that switch off the Excal if you ask me. But there's always more than one way to skin a cat. As long as the cat's getting skinned, rock on. :super:
 
hey guys,
i had my GT out today and was running with my disc. toggle with disc. on and my pinpoint toggle on pinpoint and i was getting variable tones. this does seem a bit confusing cause ive heard different ways to run. if there is someone that can put me straight on the right way to run the GT it would sure make me happy. my question is this. there is one toggle that reads,[ track - fix - pinpoint.]which one of these positions should i be in when hunting ? i myself can locate my target by just moving the coil side to side forward nad backwards. time to go back to the manual.
stan pa. sjmdc
 
Well, that's interesting. I would have never thought that. There certainly aren't any variable tones with the earlier Sovereigns or the Excal while in pinpoint mode. I just fired up my Excal and tried it just to make sure I wasn't nuts. I had it in disc mode and swiped a gold ring, a nickel, and a quarter over the coil and the tones were low, medium, and high accordingly. I switched to pinpoint and swiped the three targets again and they all had the exact same sound.

So does anybody else here say the GT (or Excal or Elite/XS) gets variable tones in pinpoint mode?
 
Gonna let you in on a little secret, Stan.........

Stop relying on what anyone tells you to do if they are not hunting in YOUR locations, and have the SAME objectives YOU have. Even then, they better know what they're doing.

YOU have to figure out if it is more prudent to hunt in disc or all metal.

YOU have to decide if you want iron mask on or off in disc mode.

YOU have to decide if you want to hunt in all metal in either track, fixed, or pinpoint.

YOU have to decide if you are going to pinpoint in disc, a/m fixed, a/m track, or a/m pinpoint.

YOU need to figure out what will best suit your purposes at any particular location.

HH
 
The GT does not have tone ID in pinpoint. Stan is hunting and pinpointing in disc mode. The all metal track, fix, pinpoint control is disabled untill the am/disc control is switched to am.

HH
 
Just grabbed it and added it to my collection. And what a manual it is! At 12.4 MB, it's the biggest one they have by far. Must have taken me almost 30 seconds to download it! :lol:
 
Stan,

The toggle switch that says track, lock and pinpoint only works when the GT is in all metal mode and it makes no difference while in the disc mode. The toggle switch that says iron mask on, iron mask off and all metal I find running iron mask on will find coins close to iron, but will give a little false on edge of iron. What I do is run in iron mask on when I detect as for me I have the best depth over all metal, so being the other toggle switch is only activated in all metal I leave it in pinpoint so when I want to pinpoint a target I just have to switch the toggle switch to all metal and ready to pinpoint. I find the lock and track is only if you want to hunt in all metal and find either one of these 2 it is hard to pinpoint in. I would say the all metal mode is more for the gold hunters is why they put the track and lock on the GT which only the original Sovereign has. I will also say being I have tried all the different models of the Sovereign the GT is the most sensitive, so you do have the better of the Sovereigns.
From what I have understood from the owners manual the BBS of the Sovereign only works in the disc mode, when you go to all metal is when you have to ground balance by either going to track and leave it or to track and after it tracks then lock it. I feel this is why it seems to have better depth in disc than all metal, at least it sure does here.


Rick
 
disc. toggle on. track, fix, pinpoint toggle on pinpoint. that toggle is in the pinpoint mode and yes im getting a varible tone ID. when i come across a target i want to dig thats giving me good numbers ill switch the disc toggle to all metal and no i dont get varible tones. i know that once i go into all metal the track, fix, pinpoint toggle gets activated so now im in all metal and pinpoint mode.
when i flip the disc. toggle back to disc. on the track, fix, point toggle is deactivated. hope this makes sense. i think whats messing things up here is on the GT there are two different toggles and the pinpoint mode happens to be on the ground tracking toggle and all metal mode is on the all metal, disc on, and disc off toggle.
stan pa. sjmdc
 
I think that Art and Rick have more than sufficiently explained it. Regardless of where your toggle is set, you are not hunting in pinpoint mode unless you're in All Metal. When you're actually in the "pinpoint" function it is strictly for locating the target and does not provide variable tones...it's one tone for everything, as with the Explorer, Quattro, and just about any other machine.

I think where things got confusing was with Don talking about people with the Excal hunting in pinpoint mode and then you saying you were doing that with the GT. Nobody I know hunts with the Excal in pinpoint mode, which would definitely not provide variable tones and would waste one of the best features of the machine.

So are you hunting only with the GT now or still switching back and forth with the Explorer? Which do you feel more comfortable with? I don't have any problem jumping from my Explorer to my Excal to my CZ-70 but if I were to offer one piece of advice for somebody who was trying to do that I would say master one first and then master another. That worked best for me, anyway. There's a lot to learn and they are very different machines.
 
hi mike,
the sovereign compared to the explorer seems like a very easy machine to use. its pretty basic. the one thing thats great with the explorer is the no-motion pinpoint. ive had my explorer for a few years and pretty much got that down so i figured it would be good to have a second detector and always heard good stuff about the sovereigns so thats why i went with the GT. i just got the s-12 for it and used it yesterday for the first time and i liked it alot.
last week i forced myself to run the explorer in ferrous mode all day and started to get the hang of it. with the explorer its a never ending learning curve which is why it makes it a interesting machine to detect with.
stan pa. sjmdc
 
Yes Stan the GT with all the toggles are confusing to begin with, but after you have used it a bit it really not bad at all. The Sovereign GT is a detector to be used in disc with the BBS for most all hunting other than prospecting, so it gives us 2 choice in disc, iron mask on, or iron mask off. With it off we get less chatter around iron, but we can miss some of the close targets next to iron too, but with it on we will hear good targets close to iron better and will hear a little chatter around iron. The third position on that toggle is for all metal operation which we use to pinpoint with to make the signals smaller and easier to find the target. When in the all metal mode the three position toggle is now activated with the track, lock and pinpoint and as you will see in track or lock it is very hard to pinpoint with, so we leave it in the pinpoint position all the time when we are not prospecting with it so we can just switch between the disc to hunt and all metal to pinpoint with.
Now another switch we never had on any of the other Sovereigns is the silent search switch which has it purpose I have found out, but at first I felt it just confused many with all the toggle switches. Then there is the freq toggle to switch between band 1 or band 2, most find band 2 is the one to run in and use band 1 if you get any electrical interference as the meter will read the correct number in band 2 on nickles we are used to on the other Sovereigns, so we feel the freq on 2 is the same freq as the older Sovereigns. I also feel I have better performance in 2 also myself.
With all these toggles it get confusing,but really the only one I use once I set it up is the disc all metal one as the rest are set and 95% of the time never touched again while hunting.
The early Sovereign original had 3 different toggles most found confusing and many didn't use so the Sovereign XS, and the XS2 only had one toggle switch, the XS2a added one for single tones which was not on the Elite,but they added the freq toggle on that one. Now comes the GT with all the toggles that confuses many that can be set up more to a person hunting needs that actually has features so we can do different types of hunting.
One more thing, how many have tried the all metal in track or lock to do any coin hunting with?? I find myself I can not get many coin signals that I get in disc with no problem. It may work good for prospecting,but for me it sure don't do nothing for me for coin hunting.
Don't let it confuse you with all the toggles as it will be quite simple once you have used it a bit.

Rick
 
Stan,

I started with the Minelab with the Sovereign XS, thought after the first day this was a very confusing detector. After some time with it found it to be quite a interesting detector with the best ID and depth I had ever seen. Felt I did well with it and got a Explorer when they first came out back in late 1999 or early 2000 ( wonder why it seems the detector company's bring out a new detector when most have winter?)Figured it should be easy to use as I know my Sovereign, but it wasn't and that has been about 6 years ago and I am still learning on the Explorer. I do OK with mine, but it sure is not as simple as the Sovereigns are and I sure dig a lot more trash with the Explorer, but see more interesting finds with the Explorer too. I find I like the tones of the Sovereign better because of my hearing as they will stay a little longer so they will be heard.
Being you are going from the Explorer to the Sovereign you may find the Sovereign a little different to understand, but stick with it and I think you will see something.
Now I got to use the X-Terras a little before freeze up and I feel this may be a great detector too once a person learns it too as I have picked up a couple of coins my Explorer and Sovereign missed that were on top of iron, but then again I dig more iron with the X-Terra too. I also will be trying out the new Teknetics T-2 in the spring as I have one doing air test right now and don't feel it will replace my Sovereigns or my Explorers, but may be one I keep after I do some actual hunting with it, but have to learn it too.
 
Thanks guys for all the interesting comments/posts.

Here is some feedback:

Mike/VABeach -

My post was triggered by "RE:pat35, try this" under "Have quest Ref used excal1000" and all those references to hunting in A/H pinpoint in that thread. N5pip, near your post, stated that he ran in pinpoint because he got more depth than in Disc. So some beach guys appeared to be hunting in pinpoint. But looking at it again I think they may be misstating PP for A/H. I also mostly use pinpoint to size the target and double check signal strength, when not sure of the hit. As you say, to pinpoint use the coil, and its easy on the GT and you don't get into that toggle trouble or like me run with it still in PP for a while.

Back to the Question -

The bottom line with the GT is that in A/H mode, track or fixed (NOT A/H PINPOINT), most agree the depth is not there. Thats why most hunt in Disc and of course get the benefit of tone ID.
However, I have found that in my ground/beach hunting I can match Disc depth when in pinpoint mode. Obviously if you couldnt why try to pinpoint. For those that hunt or want to hunt in A/M, and wanted good depth , that information might be of interest, but with one note of concern, the manual says running in pinpoint is a no-no.

I'm no electronics guy, so I ask the question, If you can't hunt in PP with the GT because of a ground balance problem, what is that problem???

Obviously if your in A/M pinpoint mode your not in fixed or track mode, maybe thats what they mean. But I've ran my GT a good ways in pinpoint mode with no problem. My ground didn't go out of balance . And when I'm at the beach and in pinpoint mode my beach does not get unbalanced, The GT just keeps on sending those deep beeps on new targets and I dig it. It doesn't seem to care if its balanced or not. Maybe I'm out of balance :rolleyes:

Maybe us detectorist are all unbalanced!!! HH Don
 
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