Sensitivity Experiment

[Neugene]

After reading several posts regarding the sensitivity level, I have been searching the areas around my house this week playing with the sensitivity level to get an idea of how it can affect depth.
Last night I did a couple of air tests and here is what I found:

With the sensitivity set at manual 28 I could get a pretty solid reading on a mini ball at about 16" give or take. (The actual number is not the important thing in this test.)
Switching to Semi Auto sensitivity and leaving it at 28 the distance was cut roughly in half.
I marked the spot where the mini ball gave a good signal on Semi Auto, switched to manual, dropped the sensitivity all the way down then raised it one notch at a time until I got a good signal at the same distance as Semi Auto.
The signal appeared with a manual sensitivity setting of 9. I understand that the Semi Auto tries to keep the machine stable and as close as possible to the number you have dialed in, but I did not expect it to drop that much.
Has anyone else tried something like this? If so, did you get similar results?

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

And with the same results. You can also do the opposite. Set sensitivity to 1 and try manual and semi-auto. Here semi-auto will be much more sensitive.

It is one of the most common misconceptions made from reading the manual that semi closely tracks the set sensitivity. Many of us feel that using semi-auto allows the machine to detune farther than we would like, especially in electrically noisy or trashy areas.

However, there are many hunters who stick with semi-auto and make lots of good finds.

Chris

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

I also have found that the sensitivity when set to manual can REALLY surprise you. And many times, in certain ground, you can actually LOSE depth when jacking up the sens too high, even if it SEEMS stable. I have never run mine as low as 9 but I'm not surprised at all. And I regularly run 18 or 20 and know what the machine will do in that range and it goes PLENTY deep. There are times when you can crank it up, but it's generally NOT necessary and like anything, too much of a good thing can lead to bad results. I also do a lot of testing when I get a deep target, to both lower and raise the sens and see how it affects signal quality. The results are often surprising. And they can vary widely due to ground and EMF conditions as well.

 

[jimp]

Since the ground conditions change so fast that in order to keep the machine running at it's peak I just stay on auto. In manual the X-1 will act up and I believe that with what I have been finding if I have missed a few then I will get them next time. take a look at the 1880 10 dollar gold I found in semi auto on Kellyco's website. That is one of many many goooood finds in semi auto. Then I think of the almost perfect 77 Indian I found using manual not 25 miles from Chris(So CentWi) and as long as the coins keep coming my way I won't question as to weather I am running the right way. If there is a right way to run this beast. Good hunting everyone. Jim P. Rockford,Illinois