Bryannagirl
Member
OK ahead of schedule my Safari has arrived. So of course I had to play. I was going to take out to the real world but alas it was raining so I was restricted to bench testing. First impression is that it air tests way better then my DFX ever thought to (and I had heard that Minelab FBS does not air test well) and TID is more consistent. So far so good. There is really not much to change or fiddle with - just tun it on select a program , noise cancel, and then start swinging the coil. With just these few steps she seem to be performing well. My air test on coins was hitting well at 9+ inches and maybe more but did not have a ruller so I will keep it conservative. Next it was time to look at the other options changing programs is just a push of a button. Went back and forth between conductive sounds ( coin and coin and jewelry programs) and ferrous sound (relic and all metal). Not a 100% sure, but sounds like the ferrous makes all good targets higher pitch. My initial impression is that conductive sounds make more sense and should be easier to audio Discriminate trash targets. But who knows in the field may change my mind.
Next I set up a test garden on my elevated dinning area ( this is a raised platform made of wood that is about 10ft x20ft witch is about 2.5ft off the floor). The coins and some trash were spread out on top of the carpet covering my dinning platform. Because it was made out of wood the only thing that interferes with the testing is the nails used to build it. Kind like a built in trashy lawn.. First thing in coin program I noticed the threshold mulling over the nails. Luckly they are spaced out enough that testing was still possible. Silver coins and quarters had a very sweet high pitch tone. Copper pennies also had a high pitched sound as well but seemed to cut off sharper then the silver and quarters. Dimes where high but not as high as silver or quarters. Zincolns almost had a sound of there own and I am betting that with practice I may be able pick out the zincs from the copper. I also had some gold plated jewelry a couple of rings and a woven chain. It was obvious that the chain Had some ferrous under that pretty gold platting. I could hear its low tones but the coil almost had to be touching to get it. My gold plated rings sounded off with a mid tone below nickel in pitch.
Next came the trash. I was some what encouraged because my bottle caps and pull tabs and can slaw seemed to have their own songs to sing that may help in some cases with their early identification. I had one piece of trash that created an unusual thump along with its tone. This was a foil ball in was a very odd sound and I am still a little perplexed what the detector was trying to tell me by the thump.
On the down side it seemed the TID numbers really lagged the tones. Audio was johnny on the spot but visual was pretty slow. My initial air test I did not notice the lag but the coil was in the air with no ferrous around.
One last thing, she does swing heavy. When comparing to my DFX they are about the same weight but the Safari feels heavier like you got an extra two pounds hanging at the end of the poll. Will have to figure out how to swing her for less fatigue.
Hope the weather gets better tomorrow so I can see how she performs in the field. If I am lucky my first dig will be a coin (even a zincoln) and not some trash
Any tips or comments on my initial observation would be greatly appreciated
Next I set up a test garden on my elevated dinning area ( this is a raised platform made of wood that is about 10ft x20ft witch is about 2.5ft off the floor). The coins and some trash were spread out on top of the carpet covering my dinning platform. Because it was made out of wood the only thing that interferes with the testing is the nails used to build it. Kind like a built in trashy lawn.. First thing in coin program I noticed the threshold mulling over the nails. Luckly they are spaced out enough that testing was still possible. Silver coins and quarters had a very sweet high pitch tone. Copper pennies also had a high pitched sound as well but seemed to cut off sharper then the silver and quarters. Dimes where high but not as high as silver or quarters. Zincolns almost had a sound of there own and I am betting that with practice I may be able pick out the zincs from the copper. I also had some gold plated jewelry a couple of rings and a woven chain. It was obvious that the chain Had some ferrous under that pretty gold platting. I could hear its low tones but the coil almost had to be touching to get it. My gold plated rings sounded off with a mid tone below nickel in pitch.
Next came the trash. I was some what encouraged because my bottle caps and pull tabs and can slaw seemed to have their own songs to sing that may help in some cases with their early identification. I had one piece of trash that created an unusual thump along with its tone. This was a foil ball in was a very odd sound and I am still a little perplexed what the detector was trying to tell me by the thump.
On the down side it seemed the TID numbers really lagged the tones. Audio was johnny on the spot but visual was pretty slow. My initial air test I did not notice the lag but the coil was in the air with no ferrous around.
One last thing, she does swing heavy. When comparing to my DFX they are about the same weight but the Safari feels heavier like you got an extra two pounds hanging at the end of the poll. Will have to figure out how to swing her for less fatigue.
Hope the weather gets better tomorrow so I can see how she performs in the field. If I am lucky my first dig will be a coin (even a zincoln) and not some trash
Any tips or comments on my initial observation would be greatly appreciated
