Sensitivity

[John61boy]

Do you always want to choose the highest stable sensitivity for the best performance?
Explain the times when you would turn down the sens. level and why?
Fell on the ice, detector hand/ arm in a brace, trying to learn other ways to maximize my xterra 70, once I get to use it again.
Thanks in advance for the replies.

John

 

[khouse]

I like to run my sensitivity on the edge. Meaning I'll start it maxed out. Then drop it little by little to make it run stable. Then every once in a while I'll bump it up a notch or two to see if I can get away with the extra power. I'll do this on any brand of detector.
Exception. Today I hit two bark chip tot lots. The top 3 inches was thawed out but deeper than that it was rock solid. I didn't want to chip the ice and just like using my boot as a digger. I was running the sensitivity at #10 in the field. Then when I went around the equipment poles I dropped it to #2. There is no reason to run a high sens if you can only dig 3 inches.

 

[John61boy]

Thanks Khouse, just the kind of example I was looking for.

 

[Digger]

I think of my Sensitivity setting (in relationship to the ground I am hunting) similar to weather conditions with the headlights on my car. If it is a clear night with unobstructed view, I put them on bright. If it is foggy, I switch to low beam and slow down. In either case, I want enough "power" to penetrate the area. But not so much that it bounces back at me. HH Randy

 

[Neil]

Khouse makes a good point, adjust it to your site. When you get a deeper target, adjust your sens up and down and see how the target sounds and IDs before you dig it up. Do this a few times at each site and you should have a good idea of what sens setting you should be using, and it really can vary from site to site, there is no real standard. Sometimes a lower sens works good but I do find most times with the Xterra to get decent depth I have to set it pretty high, 25 or more.

HH
Neil

 

[kcarter4x4]

Well, this is all great advise. I needed to know this information. I appreciate John asking. I do have one question. Bare with me, I am new to this. How do I know if the SENS is up to high. What will the detector do?? Thanks for all the great help.
Cheers
Kevin

 

[Gonehunting]

in the newer parks, usually 7 to 9, cause of all the pulltabs, older (known pre1960's) I move it up to about 12 to 13 depending on how many signals i am getting. I they seem to go together alot I lower it. If it seems like I m not hitting alot I move it up 3 notches at time till I am getting solid hits with out the chirping. at old house places that there is alot of iron. I stay around 23 or 25. It really depends on how much junk is in the ground. I usually hunt in all metal but, if the iron content is high I'll switch over to patterns and knock out +8 and below... I was afraid it would hurt the nickles but found a 1904 v this weekend after going from all metal to pattern with the disc set at 24. I posted the pics earlier today. It all about what your comfortable with listening too. GH

 

[khouse]

Try hunting a 10 ft x 10 foot area with the sensitivity at 20. Then go over the same area with the sensitivity at 30. You should hear your detector beep a lot more with less repeatable signals and it will just plain sound a little nervous. This is when you know your sens is a little too high.

 

[nugget71]

n/t

 

[Digger]

n/t