Question, hunting in full discrimination?

steveFL

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Sorry, posted my question on the wrong board. To explain...

I have been hunting for the past four mornings which ended on a good note. The first couple of days were clad, dog tag, old Mardi Gras doubloon, costume jewelry and a lot of trash. The third day was less trash some clad and my first silver ring (925). The forth day was even less trash some clad another dog tag and another silver ring (925) with some type of inset stone.

However, I must admit. The only reason that I dug less trash on the third and forth day was simply because I was worn out, sunburned and blisters on my hand. So come day three and four I started hunting in full discrimination mode, just couldn't dig another bag of trash.

I realize that I was passing up some targets but what exactly? Can someone please explain.

For the record I did test my MD in full discrimination before switching over and it still hit quarters, dimes, nickles, some pennies plus silver, aluminum cans/lids, etc. Had no gold to test but was told that it would still detect it but maybe not smaller pieces (earrings). So what could I be missing?

Anyway, if I messed up and passed over some good stuff I'll return and search it again in all metal mode, just have to heal/rest up some.

Thank you.
 
well your losing depth for sure. and if your running full disc you could be masking targets. if you got a nail just above a coin the discrim circuit will null on the nail but also the coin below it. gold will also be missed it can fall into the iron-silver range. big gold should still come up but anything smaller than the Rosetta stone might be missed. you can use full disc to cherry pic then come back from a different angle with less disc to scoop up what you missed, finally run all metal and check for anything left
 
Okay, I wasn't aware of the masking or loss of depth. I like your suggestion, hunt next with a little less discrimination then a final hunt in all metal. That will be easier on me because I dig pretty much everything being new and not knowing all the tones as of yet. Thank you.
 
Metal Detecting is good exercises. I do use gloves to help with the blisters.
 
May I ask what machine you was using?

Some do better than others when running a lot of disc.
 
I run a Compadré and I am guilty on a couple occasions of just getting tired of digging pull tabs. Doesn't happen often and I honesty think it nearly best to just call it a day at that point. I usually hunt with the disc set at the r in Iron. You may be missing out on some lighter gold if you venture into the foil disc range and beyond. Like I said though, guilty myself on more than one occasion. I'm not a huge thumber of the disc knob.
 
I run a Compadré and I am guilty on a couple occasions of just getting tired of digging pull tabs. Doesn't happen often and I honesty think it nearly best to just call it a day at that point. I usually hunt with the disc set at the r in Iron. You may be missing out on some lighter gold if you venture into the foil disc range and beyond. Like I said though, guilty myself on more than one occasion. I'm not a huge thumber of the disc knob.

Thanks for sharing. Yeah, the first two days were all metal and as mentioned dug everything. The third and fourth day (hunt) was mainly full desc and dug mainly coins and my first two silver rings. Just had the time to hunt but also needed a little rest to heal up so figured that i'd use full desc to lesson the pain.

I plan to search it again coming at it from another angle (grid pattern) in a lesser setting as gianetics suggested, will try the setting that you mentioned, "r in Iron". Then may hit it one last time in all metal. My biggest problem is being so new and not knowing the tones well enough to walk away without digging. Although, I am getting better but those darn "what if's" kill me so I dig it. With time i'll learn to keep walking as others have mentioned here at the forum.

However, on a positive note. With all the digging I have learned to really pinpoint my target and my dig holes (plugs) are a little more than softball size/sometimes less which leaves little to no trace that I was there.
 
Okay, hands/blisters were better and rain in the forecast for Friday so went back and hunted the area again in the iron mode (r in iron as suggested by GroundSweeper). Cleared out more trash, smaller items undetected by my first pass and some more clad which was mainly deeper than the clad I found before. Will return once more after the rain and hit it in all metal mode, hoping to uncover that deep(er) stuff, we'll see. I kind of did this search in reverse order but as mentioned just couldn't dig anymore due to the reasons explained above. Nonetheless, I am curious to see what I uncover on this last pass. At the very least just wondering what the dates will be on the clad? How much deeper/older will the 3rd pass be? I'll post my results. Thank you for all the help.
 
Loosing depth due to added discrimination is a myth today. Yes, masking can be a problem but they eliminated the loss in depth from discrimination some 20 years ago. The masking varies from detector to detector from extreme to pretty much a non issue.

A good detector that is properly adjusted will miss very little other than trash. With that being said, good stuff can read in the trash zone as well.

Know your detector, your hunting environment and what you're looking for, and you can use discrimination without the fear of missing much at all.
 
I agree, not all metal detector lose depth with discrimination. I like to disc out everything somtimes,and other times I use all metal.depending on location
 
Loosing depth due to added discrimination is a myth today. Yes, masking can be a problem but they eliminated the loss in depth from discrimination some 20 years ago. The masking varies from detector to detector from extreme to pretty much a non issue.

A good detector that is properly adjusted will miss very little other than trash. With that being said, good stuff can read in the trash zone as well.

Know your detector, your hunting environment and what you're looking for, and you can use discrimination without the fear of missing much at all.

Hmmm, okay, well that's good to know, I sure didn't want to miss/lose things that may be deeper, although, the 2nd pass finds did seem deeper but may have just been me or the area found. I still plan to hunt the ground one more time (3rd time) in all metal since I didn't the first hunt, guess that will tell me how well my detector is adjusted.
 
I agree, not all metal detector lose depth with discrimination. I like to disc out everything somtimes,and other times I use all metal.depending on location

If you run a CTX on the beach you best be running an open screen. It will miss all sorts of stuff in disc:shock: Forgot to add. Ask anyone using an Excalibur if disc is as deep as all metal.
 
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Here is a chart showing different items conductive range.
This will help you understand the order that items will discriminate out.
Equate this to your discriminator dial and its markings.
The steel bottle cap usually lines up with the end of the word iron on your dial.
I e tested a few gold men's class rings with my Tesoros and
if you have your disc set to ignore zinc pennies you won't find the gold.
It's the cruel joke of detecting. The Gold hides amongst the garbage.
Hope it helps.. Noah
 

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On a tesoro cranked up to max disc I think you lose all gold except that which comes in at penny, chime in if you run a tesoro.
 
On a tesoro cranked up to max disc I think you lose all gold except that which comes in at penny, chime in if you run a tesoro.

Correct. I've tested a few different 10K and 14K mens size class rings, and all of them disced out between tabs and zinc pennies.
 
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