Settings for the GT

[equinespy]

Ive just bought a Sovereign GT - my very first detector. I will of course read the manual but it would be good to hear some opinions on settings. I live in Switzerland in a small farm alonside a river. There have been settlments here since 1293. Im thinking of exploring land adjacent to the river - I think they hunted deer here with bows and arrows hundreds of years ago that got stuck in mud along the river. I think I might find arrowheads and other medieveal things. Im not looking for modern coins and this place is so remote there wouldnt be any point anyway! Im also unlikely to fnd bottle tops as its farmland - can I leave the iron filter off and get more depth? I want to be able to get decent depth and search for anything initially. If the mineral content here is high or i start finding tin cans etc - I have no idea - what would I adjust settings to? Thanks for the advice - want to get going before the snow comes!

Please just give me a generic setting of the knobs that would work on farmland and give good results

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

Turn your Disc and Notch all the way down. Run it in ID mode, Band 1, volume at about 3/4's, Sens at 11 oclock, and then test some targets of the variety you hope to find. Get a feel for how they hit, compared to trash. There will be a distinct difference. Learn the tones. It's that easy. Good luck.

 

[jbow]

You want to hunt in All Metal. You will get your greatest depth in AM and once you learn it's AM language you will do well with it. I know folks in the USA who hunt inland for relics. They hunt in AM and do very well. That might be your best bet...

Learn to set your sensitivity so that your threshold breaks up a little but is there for most of the swing. Don't be afraid to lower it. Don't be afraid to lower the volume just a little, that can help keep it stable too. Then with it set to a very slight threshold hum you will hear the faint rise in the hum signaling a deep target. The deep ones should be the old stuff... You will want to dig everything that is deep. If the stock coil works well get a 15" WOT coil. Post some finds!!!

Julien

 

[Rick(ND)]

I too would run in the disc mode with the iron mask on, the disc all the way off and the notch all the way off with the sensitivity at the 11 o'clock position and the silent search off so you have a slight threshold so you can tell when the Threshold nulls to let you know it has seen iron. This also helps you so you don't swing the coil too fast to miss some good deep targets. I myself find the freq 2 give me more depth that the freq 1 does.
Go slow and easy and listen to the tones it makes and dig those that are repeatable when you swing the coil over only the small area that is repeatable, kind of a wiggle it will look like.
Wear headphones that are comfortable and run the volume max on the GT and set the headphones to a comfortable level as this will give you the best signals on the deeper targets.
Good luck and I hope to see some great finds found by you.

Rick

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

Yeah, I forgot to mention the Iron Mask and the Silent Search but also agree with those. Interesting on the Band 2...I usually preferred the Band 1 on my Elite only due to the slight difference there was in the numbers for nickles. But yesterday I was running in 2 at the spot I was at because it was more stable. So you see a depth increase, huh? I will try to test that today on mine.

 

[Rick(ND)]

Mike,

A few years ago we had a discussion on this and it seem like most like the freq 2 as the nickles read like all the older Sovereigns did on a nickle, freq 1 they would run higher than normal. Many we talk to found they could do better in the freq 2 and only use freq 1 when we got interference from another Sovereign or electrical interference.
With The GT which I am sure you see is a bit hotter than the older Sovereign and to me much hotter than the Elite was. I seem to get more iron falsing with the GT, but see by coming at the target from another angle it will move or null. also notice with the GT the meter will ID deeper than the older Sovereigns did.

Rick

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

Yes, I agree on the hotter and also on the iron falsing. And it seems to me to not lend itself to pinpointing as easily as the Elite did when used with the S-12, probably due to that hotter sensitivity. I am still needing to adjust on that a little. All in all though, it's got it goin' on.

I did the toggle boot mod and also O-ringed the control knobs to make them less prone to accidental movement. I have the Minelab bag and a spare lower shaft arriving tomorrow. Have you modified your tones at all or do you like them the way they are out of the box?

 

[Rick(ND)]

I find the tones it has from Minelab has worked the best for me for my hearing as i am hard of hearing with total deaf in the real high tones. I had picked up 2 other Sovereigns that had this mod done to them and found too many signal sounded the same and hard to tell the difference in them for my coin hunting, so I turned them back to where they should be and worked much better for me. I bought both of these from 2 different people that said they didn't like the tones with one guy saying he bought it from another guy that too didn't like the tones so he sold it. I think it would be good for some with different hearing loses and adjust as needed, but the 2 I had were maxed out on the tones which is too high.
On the Sovereigns I use the Timberwolf headphones as they are the loudest for me of all I tested plus the tones are so easy to hear for me even with my very bad hearing. On the Explorer i have to leave my Variability at 8 to hear the tones well and use Troy Pro headphones to get the volume I need as they are the loudest for the Explorers i could find.

 

[Michigan Badger]

I'm sure by now your question has been answered several times over.

I'd just like to add that the best thing to do is to experiment on your own. Try the auto settings w/iron mask and all of that then also try to go it manual. .

The higher the sensitivity the deeper the machine will detect. Even Minelab will admit this.

We get all sorts of claims of depth for all machines made today but the truth is that weather, soil, and hunter experience, make or break even the deepest detectors. But having written that, most claims are extremely exaggerated. In real life coin hunting situations you'll do well to consistently search down to a level of 7 inches deep. Some top detectors made today only consistently search down about 5 inches deep. To go deeper one must hunt very slowly and constantly recheck faint signals from several directions.

Here's a trick I use for hunting remote sites with little trash. I'll move along rather quickly until I get a metal signal. The setting for the GT would be auto sensitivity, iron mask, threshold, pinpoint, etc. Once I find a spot with a signal, if it turns out to be anything that was man-made, I may shift to manual sensitivity (as high as possible) and turn iron mask off. I'll then hunt very very slowly and rework that spot from different directs. NOTE: I never use the notch thing and I always run in minimum discrimination mode unless I'm looking for iron relics. In that case I hunt in all-metal mode.

The GT is the best coin/relic machine made today (in my opinion). Also, the best coil for the GT is the one that comes stock on the machine.

HH,

Badger

 

[equinespy]

A big thank you to all. Watch this space....

 

[Rick(ND)]

Why would you want to turn iron mask off if you are going to be going slow listening for the deep targets or those close to iron? With it on it may false on some iron a little bit, but easy to tell good from bad most of the time, but can see coins and other good targets close to iron much better. With iron mask off it will not false as much, but also can not see coins as close to iron and just null. The early Sovereign except the original and now the GT always had iron mask on and could not turn it off.

 

[ahia]

How do you change the tones?

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

The tone can be changed internally...to change the pitch range somewhat, to the preference of the individual user. Like to make the higher coin pitches and deep silver come out more high pitched. It requires internal adjustment of some of the circuitry. There are some dealers that do it and other hunters that have "tweaked" on their machines. I personally have not done it.