Just bought a Sovereign GT!

[Lightstryder]

Just bought a Sovereign GT yesterday. It's being shipped and is supposed to be here on Saturday! This will be my first Minelab, I am expecting good things. I use a Garrett GTI 2500 now, and there is nothing wrong with that machine, but from what I hear doesn't compare as far as depth. I am not getting rid of it just yet though, the recovery speed is insane on that machine especially with the new DD coil. I was actually saving up to buy a water PI, but couldn't pass up this deal, and figured I would just have to wait a little longer for the PI. Did I make the right decision? Tell me what you think. Give me some advice on the GT. Tips? Thanks in advance, and Happy Hunting!

 

[Rick(ND)]

You are going to be entering a whole new experience, so have patience, read the owners manual and reread it again, do some in the yard testing on surface targets just to see how some will act and sound like to get the basic understanding of the Sovereign. There is a lot of information this detector is telling you and you will wonder why you bought it, but it will get better each time out with it as you learn more.
The Sovereigns are slower working detectors and this is where the depth comes in as some of these signals are deeper and weaker sounding and if you go to fast you will not hear them at all. Understand that the Sovereign will null alot in iron as the Sovereigns hate iron, but some will signal and after some time with it you will tell those signals are not the same as a good target. Set the volume max, sensitivity to auto to start with, no notch and the disc at 0 or like some will run around the 10 o'clock position on the dial.I never use the silent search as I want to know what the detector is doing at all times to know if I am going too fast and hear those real deep targets. I run iron mask on for detecting, but off maybe easier to learn with, but can miss good targets close to iron too. I leave the track/lock/pinpoint in the pinpoint mode so when I switch to all metal to find the target it will be in the pinpoint mode too as this toggle is only active in all metal and when back to disc this switch settings are not active.
Remember the threshold tones stay of the last target it sees and there is nothing wrong with the detector. Most information you will learn from experience with it so the more you use it the more you will learn and the better you will get. To get the basic some air test will give you the idea of how it all works, but the real information come in actual hunting with it and digging anything that just don't sound right that is deeper.
I hope you got a meter with it too as it will help the learning curve quite a bit i feel and i feel it is very important myself and always have one on any of my Sovereigns.
Big thing is don't give up as some do as they want the depth and ID without learning the Sovereign language and how to use what it is telling you, those that do stay with it will tell you the Sovereigns are AW SOME!!!

Good Luck and keep us all informed on any questions you may have.

I tried many different detectors over my 38 years of detecting including the GTI 2500 and I feel if you get to know your Sovereign well you will see many nice coins and other good targets you and others have walked over for years that have been missed.


Rick

 

[Lightstryder]

Thank you Rick, I am looking forward to using it! I am a slow hunter already, and with the new DD on my GTI I don't have imaging anymore and have tried to go on sound more, which is great. I was trying to train my ears for PI hunting anyway, so look forward to listening to the GT talk to me. I didn't however get the digimeter, but will try to find one in the future.

 

[Critterhunter]

Chest mount that Sovereign by sticking in a plastic bag/rubberband it and then sticking in the Minelab chest/hip bag or something else high on your left front shoulder and you can wade up to your belly button. It's the easiest machine out there to convert to water hunting from land use, and it's depth is second to none on land or at the beach...so you might not want the PI after you see how deep the Sovereign can go and still be able to discriminate out iron.

Just remember to drill a hole in the shaft right at the top of the coil mount to drain water or you could ruin your machine when it's snapped back on the shaft. Stick a measuring tape down the shaft to measure where the hole should be- right at top of the coil mount plastic piece that's glued into the shaft.

Ain't no deeper detector on the market. As deep or deeper than an Etrac or Explorer. Just less bells and whistles to distract you.

 

[Lightstryder]

That's good advice Critter, thank you. I am looking into different ways to "Water Proof" the GT. I have seen some stuff people have come up with and it's pretty impressive, the ingenuity. The hip mount bag is back ordered atm from what my dealer said, so that will give me time to learn the machine on land. Then later I can convert it and wade in. I keep hearing how deep this machine is and that is pretty exciting, who knows you may be right, and I won't want the PI after I become acquainted with my new GT. I may even end up selling my GTI, who knows! Thanks for the post Critter!

 

[Critterhunter]

Trust me, you'll get sick of digging real deep targets on the GT as it is, and won't want to dig deeper only to find iron using a PI unit.