Yep Crazyman, that's a con to running the notch- not being able to hear the number and decide for yourself if it sounds different than the other "tabs" with the same number. On the other hand, the advantage to silencing them is you are more apt to notice any non-tab numbers and in particular nickles. Like I said, my nickle count goes way up when I'm hunting running the notch and in a ton of tabs. Some numbers are just so close in sound that had I not been running a notch I would have ignored some of these nickles thinking they were tabs. I don't usually look at the meter until I'm interested in a target by ear, so I'm more apt to check things out when running the notch and something sounds through.
Mainly my prefered method of "discrimination" when ring hunting is to not use any discrimination or notch, but rather to look for steady IDs and good audio on targets. If they change by more than a digit (maybe two) swept from different directions then chances are good it's not a ring but rather a piece of trash uniform in shape. Most of the rings we scanned would lock onto one or two numbers, MAYBE three in the odd instance but much more rarely. I'd say from memory out of all those rings we scanned only a few would give a "worbly" bad "up and down" type audio and a jumpy VDI that was changing by more than 2 or 3 digits (sometimes as high as 10 or 15) depending on which way you swept over them. These rings were ones with many holes in them caused by webbing or engraving of tiny bands like a lattice or something (words escape me, and I ain't no expert on ring styles). Mainly if they have say mutliple bands at the head or in some way a bunch of tiny spider web type holes in the metal then that's when they'd sound sick and change in ID a lot.
So long as the tabs aren't so bad that I'm losing my mind I won't run the notch or discrimination, and rather just go by how soft/round/smooth/warm the audio sounds and if the ID is staying at one, maybe two, and rarely three digits depending on how I sweep over it. Rings are a lot like nickles, or for that matter any coin...They won't change in ID much regardless of how you sweep over them. Think of how much a nickle normally changes in VDI #s as you change positions on it. Hardly any change if at all. It'll either stay one number or perhaps change by a digit or two, but for the most part is very solid. Same deal with other coins. Take pennies....They rarely change by three digits. Same deal with most rings, and for good reason....Coins and rings are round and for the most part uniform in shape. Trash that is shaped oddly or rough at the edges will tend to change more in numbers as you sweep over it. It also won't have as good/smooth of audio most of the time like a ring will. it'll sound harsh, tinny, hollow, bangy, or a few other ways....where as a gold ring will sound smooth, round, warm, soft, solid, etc.
We are very lucky to have such good audio and VDI ability on the Sovereign. It's not just the depth of this machine on coins and rings that puts it at the top of the mountain in terms of performance compared to other machines. It's not just the ability to handle the roughest of grounds that would send other brands running away whimpering. It's also the telling audio and VDI the Sovereign has. It's got the perfect VDI resolution IMO- not to high making it jumpy, and not too low making it unable to split hairs on things like tabs and rings. It's also got long drawn out audio that speaks in long sentences to you about a target it's seeing. I can't stand machines that just beep or use such processed audio that you lose much of the target's traits.
One other thing- My other favorite method of avoiding tabs and other similar trash while ring hunting and not using any discrimination or notch is to "time travel" back in time before they were invented. I figure out how deep tabs go at a site and then I'll dig anything deeper than that. It's easy enough to tell by sound just how deep a target is. Once I note that say round tabs (obviously older than square tabs) go for the most part no deeper than say 5.5" at a site then I'll dig anything that sounds 6" or deeper. If not too many tabs are at that 5.5" max depth then I'll even still dig stuff that shallow, but anything shallower than that I'll just pass by if it's got a tab ID that is common to that site.
Another handy trick is to not use discrimination or notch but to mentally note the common tab numbers that pop up at a site. If your memory isn't that good then carry a card you can scribble the numbers down on as you dig them. Once you find say that there are maybe 5 or 6 specific numbers that all the tabs are reading found at that site then dig everything else. Often there will be only 4, 5, maybe 7 or 8 types of tabs found at a site, and that includes both round and square tabs. Why is that? Because local bottle/can companies supply certain types to most of the stores in the area. You can really fine tune this to laser out those specific most common tab numbers and then dig everything else. Of course this doesn't work at all sites. Some of mine probably have 20 or 30 types of tabs, but remember that many of those will read the same as each other. Still, when the diversity of tab types gets that wide and there are just too many of them to the point of distraction that's when it's notch time for me. I'd rather want to hear everything else I plan to dig and silence everything I'm not going to even think about digging at sites like this. It greatly improves my concentration.
Were you running a meter, or just digging by sound? If by chance you were running a meter what numbers did that chunk of gold register? I cherry pick a trashy local park for silver and normally skip over most low tones. I keep thinking of spending an afternoon digging and searching for some gold... At $1350 a ounce for 24k that stuff will pay a Sovereign off in a no time!
