People are afraid that if they turn iron mask off they won't find anything but shallow targets and if iron is even close it won't see even those targets. Since the beginning Minelab has said that if your hunting in bad ground or in thick trash and iron turning iron mask off would give better performance. As far as the benefit of using iron mask on, Minelab clearly states that "circumstances may arise" that a target "could" be lost with iron mask off and then adds "depending on settings and conditions". The benefits of turning it off far outweigh the the limited benefit of having it on in the conditions above. Good ground, low EMI with moderate iron > use iron mask on. Bad ground, high EMI with high concentration of iron and trash > use iron mask off. It's as simple as that.
Find's Treasure Forums
Welcome to Find's Treasure Forums, Guests!
You are viewing this forums as a guest which limits you to read only status.
Only registered members may post stories, questions, classifieds, reply to other posts, contact other members using built in messaging and use many other features found on these forums.
Why not register and join us today? It's free! (We don't share your email addresses with anyone.) We keep email addresses of our users to protect them and others from bad people posting things they shouldn't.
Click here to register!
Need Support Help?
Cannot log in?, click here to have new password emailed to you
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
Park Hunting and Discrimination
- Thread starter synthnut
- Start date
That is the reason I use the old Sovereign bar graph meter
What is that..???
I'll tell you. I have learned so much stuff about the Sovereign in the last week that I should have already known.. well, it makes me feel like I must be stupid. For some reason I was convinced that IM on was the way to hunt. Heck, I am re-thinking the whole thing... starting over.
Now there is a bar graph meter?? I've seen the 550 ( I think) meter and the ML and SR 180 meters...
I never use any disc or notch and I almost always hunt in disc.
Julien
What is that..???
I'll tell you. I have learned so much stuff about the Sovereign in the last week that I should have already known.. well, it makes me feel like I must be stupid. For some reason I was convinced that IM on was the way to hunt. Heck, I am re-thinking the whole thing... starting over.
Now there is a bar graph meter?? I've seen the 550 ( I think) meter and the ML and SR 180 meters...
I never use any disc or notch and I almost always hunt in disc.
Julien
This is the bar graph meter that came out with the first or Original Sovereign. Most people like the 550 or 180 meters but this works for me for what I use it for anyway. it's very similar to the meter on the Whites ID,IDX and IDX Pro detectors that I really liked using in trashy sites.
You ever wonder why this iron mask switch was taken only on the original Sovereign and never used on any of the other Sovereigns until the GT?? Many found they would be running it with iron mask on as it did get deeper and coin close to iron where as with it off they lost some of this ability so they made the XS a little more sensitive (what the XS stands for ) over the original. I feel they put this switch back on the GT as it is much more sensitive than any of the others and because of this it seems to false a bit more on iron with it on, so they gave you the option for the beginner and those that are more concerned about keeping a more solid threshold. For the beginner it makes it so much easier to use and like you say if in real bad ground it will help a person, but I feel myself with all the years on all the different Sovereigns with it off you are going to miss some good targets. I feel with it on you will have to swing the coil slower and you will hear so many more targets, but with it off you can swing faster and have a more stable threshold. That is my opinion anyway and why I say you have to get to really know your Sovereign and what it is saying and it will really impress you. Mine sure has many different times by pulling coins at depth many don't believe until they see it done.
I sure wish I would have kept all those bar meter I had traded in for the Sun Ray DTI meter as I gave them away for $10-$20 as no one wanted them, I could have sold them to you being you like them so much.
The main thing whether you run iron mask on or off or auto sensitivity, high manual or low manual is getting to know what it is telling you. I run mine in iron mask on, manual sensitivity at around the 10-11 o'clock position with a slight threshold and use my Timberwolf headphones as they give me the best volume and good tone quality for my hearing. Real old areas that have been worked hard I have to go much slower to hear those deep targets being they are so small compared to those not as deep. Using a 8 inch coinsearch coil at a old well worked park got dimes and pennies at 12+ inches while with the Sun Ray X-12 got a barber quarter at 14 using these settings and going very slow, in fact got over 70 old coins out of this old park using this method in around 18 hours of total detecting. and everyone told me it was cleaned out and were they surprised( I was too very surprised) when they seen what a Sovereign can do once you get to know it.
Good luck to all and sure would like to see more great finds by your Sovereigns as it is the detector that can do it along with the Minelab E-Trac.
Rick
I sure wish I would have kept all those bar meter I had traded in for the Sun Ray DTI meter as I gave them away for $10-$20 as no one wanted them, I could have sold them to you being you like them so much.
The main thing whether you run iron mask on or off or auto sensitivity, high manual or low manual is getting to know what it is telling you. I run mine in iron mask on, manual sensitivity at around the 10-11 o'clock position with a slight threshold and use my Timberwolf headphones as they give me the best volume and good tone quality for my hearing. Real old areas that have been worked hard I have to go much slower to hear those deep targets being they are so small compared to those not as deep. Using a 8 inch coinsearch coil at a old well worked park got dimes and pennies at 12+ inches while with the Sun Ray X-12 got a barber quarter at 14 using these settings and going very slow, in fact got over 70 old coins out of this old park using this method in around 18 hours of total detecting. and everyone told me it was cleaned out and were they surprised( I was too very surprised) when they seen what a Sovereign can do once you get to know it.
Good luck to all and sure would like to see more great finds by your Sovereigns as it is the detector that can do it along with the Minelab E-Trac.
Rick
It's all about the ground conditions Rick because in some places like we have up here you can not run in manual and keep a steady threshold at almost any sweep speed unless you use a small coil. Maximum sensitivity in most places I hunt with the 10 inch coil would be at 3:00 or a little lower with a very slow sweep with iron mask on. Maximum with the 8 inch S-8 is around 1:00 with a very slow sweep. Testing on a silver dime that turned out to be 8-9 inches in the field showed that with iron mask on with the sensitivity at 1:00 I got a broken signal medium/high tone that was repeatable on every other sweep. Using auto sens. the dime could not be hit. Turning iron mask off with the same sensitivity the dime gave a nice soft repeatable high tone. Doing the same testing on targets on a very bad beach showed the results were similar on deep targets but had even a bigger advantage on how well it hit on small targets when turning iron mask off. One that I remember most was a very tiny small silver earring that I thought was a very deep coin because it was just a high tone whisper. I was hunting with the 8 inch coil with iron mask off and when I flipped to iron mask on to check it I could not hit it with any sweep speed regardless of my sensitivity setting. It was about 1 scoop down. I may never know but everything I've seen so far on how the Iron mask reacts on iron, minerals and electrical noise seems more like a gain setting or boost or even a filter not just a narrow band of discrimination.
Minelab didn't actually put the switch back on the GT to turn iron mask on. They put it back on so you could turn it off when needed as a lot of people liked the Original Sovereign better than later models that hardwired the iron mask. The Original Sovereign was more sensitive also maybe even more than the GT. At least from memory mine was.
The 2 original I tried didn't have the sensitivity that the XS had which is the one many to this day still preferred. We tested them side by side in actual targets and found the XS, XS2 would hear targets the original couldn't see. At that time we also tried the iron mask switch and found for us with it on did better for us in our ground condition. Back in 1996 when I first started using Sovereigns which was the XS many with the originals were switching to the XS as they found they were much hotter and back then we never heard much of anyone using the Sovereign with iron mask off, but if it works for you I think it is great. Myself I have only used my Sovereign around here in ND,MN and South Dakota and have worked some tough sites with a lot of nulling and just had to slow my swing of the coil down and never had a uses for anything under a 8 inch coil, tried a 5 inch coil, but found the 8 inch worked better for me.
I will try my GT when I get it in again with the iron mask off and see if I can do a few in the Field test as maybe there is something to it I never seen before when I tried it.
I need to win the lottery so I can afford to travel around and stop and visit everyone and be able to detect with everyone in their areas and do some serious side by side comparisons.
Rick
I will try my GT when I get it in again with the iron mask off and see if I can do a few in the Field test as maybe there is something to it I never seen before when I tried it.
I need to win the lottery so I can afford to travel around and stop and visit everyone and be able to detect with everyone in their areas and do some serious side by side comparisons.
Rick
No, just a digital bar. it has no numbers. It has a normal ( narrow range) and expanded ID range. The expanded range separates zincs from copper and nickles from most tabs. V-nickles and buffs read just below the normal nickle range. I don't know just how deep it goes yet with accuracy but it ID's iron great and it keeps me from digging shallow zincs if I run out to a park. Since I use my ears on the deep stuff I'm not going to trust any meter for that. It's just has to do with preference. That's why I preferred analog meters to numerical meters. I just don't need that type of resolution.