I've been hunting nearly all in all metal mode with the AQ. Thinking back to a trip I took specifically to see how the AQ handled a beach filled with hot rocks; I figured it was time to really learn the discrimination capabilities. One thing I previously figured out is that it is difficult to get rid of hair pins on any setting, yet they do give that classic double beep that makes them easy to walk away from. I decided to pick a couple of targets and set up to hear the tone shift in tone mode that would tell me to walk away from those targets that otherwise do not give a lot of clues.
The problem targets I picked to set up with were some small screws that I had dug while thinking they were going to be good targets, but were not. Setting up to identify those screws as "no dig" in tone mode had me at Reject = 7; ATS just shy of 9. Spent the last two days working with settings but staying pretty close to those settings. If I chose to just dig the sweet high tones and none of the warbles or grunting sounds then about the only iron I was digging was the occasional hair pin; predicted as hair pin due to the double beep. I was not digging tent stakes. I also wasn't digging pennies, dimes, quarters or lead sinkers. Soda and beer cans went low grunt too!
Nickles and the couple of gold rings I brought to test all screamed that smooth high tone. I did dig some sinkers, but that was because I was hitting on the brass swivels that go high tone. Without the brass, the sinkers break to low tone grunting.
Interesting couple of days. I think I'm pretty confident now that if I want to just go hunt for gold and not dig coins; I can do that. There is a chance I will not hear that huge monstrous gold ring when set like I'm set, but the focus will be squarely on looking for the majority of gold jewelry and not digging otherwise. In the middle of fresh drop season, it very well might be the way to go!
The problem targets I picked to set up with were some small screws that I had dug while thinking they were going to be good targets, but were not. Setting up to identify those screws as "no dig" in tone mode had me at Reject = 7; ATS just shy of 9. Spent the last two days working with settings but staying pretty close to those settings. If I chose to just dig the sweet high tones and none of the warbles or grunting sounds then about the only iron I was digging was the occasional hair pin; predicted as hair pin due to the double beep. I was not digging tent stakes. I also wasn't digging pennies, dimes, quarters or lead sinkers. Soda and beer cans went low grunt too!
Nickles and the couple of gold rings I brought to test all screamed that smooth high tone. I did dig some sinkers, but that was because I was hitting on the brass swivels that go high tone. Without the brass, the sinkers break to low tone grunting.
Interesting couple of days. I think I'm pretty confident now that if I want to just go hunt for gold and not dig coins; I can do that. There is a chance I will not hear that huge monstrous gold ring when set like I'm set, but the focus will be squarely on looking for the majority of gold jewelry and not digging otherwise. In the middle of fresh drop season, it very well might be the way to go!