New to Metal Detecting
Hi,
My name is Dave & I live in Minnesota.
I just bought a Bounty Hunter Discovery 1100. I know it's not the best & most expensive one but for me 'as a beginner' it works just fine. I just started doing this today, my son & I thouight we found something but we couldn't locate it? My questions are how do you pinpoint a find? Plus what does the mode button do, if I press it it beeps and switches from Silver-Copper to Midrange to Iron depending on hpw may times I press it. I thought I could just press on and start detecting. I was under the impression that the detector would switch from the different metals? Or does it? Now I know I must seem like a complete moroon but I'm not. I read the book that came with it & I have a college degree but I don't understand this. Does the detector differenate bewteen the metals? Is that what 'Discriminate' means?
plus the Sensitivity I can adjus that but if a coin is located 6" below the surface and I have it set for 2" will it find that coin?
Sorry for all of this but maybe I should have researched more. My son is 5 and I thought this would be a cool way to get outside & do stuff together.
Well we also shoot bow, fish, hike, ride bikes, walks, skate park, etc, etc together!
P.S. My wife thinks I'm nuts and can't do this.
Dave
Pinpointing an item's' can be hard, I'm working on that.
Thanks so much for the advice.
Dave In Minnesota.
No problem. One more suggestion. Try taking some different metal objects and lay them on the ground. Use your metal detector and get used to how they ID. Get used to pinpointing the object. What I do is wave my coil in a square box shape over the target to zero in on it. Then I use an "x" pattern to really hone in. It takes a little practice, but you'll get good at it. Doing it with objects that you can see will help you to visualize objects under ground. You will then be able to locate them quicker. Try using all different metals of different shapes and sizes.
Thanks so much, Thta did help out allot! I was confused with the metal discrimination.
I really apprecite this!
Dave
What I do is leave my discriminator set for all metal, then I usually discriminate myself. I have become fairly good at knowing junk from other stuff. Sometimes you can be fooled. For example, I was detecting once and I got a hit that ID'd as aluminum and iron and was spread out over a a foot or so. I usually deem this to be junk metal, but I dug up a nice silver locket that was on a cheap metal chain, so you never know. Most coins are located within 2 inches, but some old stuff could be deeper. If I were you, I would leave the depth set to 6 inches. No harm in that. You might just find something interesting. BTW...I took my wife with me to the beach and she got hooked a little too. Well, I hope I have helped you a little. Good luck with your hunting. Just keep at it. You will learn as you go. Just have fun.
Jeff in NY
First, yes, discrimination is the process where the machine tries to differentiate between different metals or objects. There are some things you need to know. No machine discriminates with 100% accuracy, sometimes you just have to dig to find out what you have. My machine discriminates for coins quite well. The problem is that gold reads like aluminum on my machine, so you dont know if you have a gold ring or an aluminum bottle cap. You just have to dig it up to find out. So if you set your discrimination to block out aluminum because you are digging too much junk, you may miss a nice piece of gold jewelry in the process. Gold rarely sounds like iron on my machine.
Hey Dave,
Welcome to Metal Detcting. I too am fairly new. I have only been doing it for about 5 months. I have a Bounty Hunter Pioneer, which my wife got for me for my birthday. Its something that I always wanted to try, but I had no idea how much fun it would be, or how addicted I would become to it. I think I can answer some of your questions because I have a similar model. It is also a beginners model, but don't let that dissuade you. I have found lots of cool stuff with mine. I will try to answer your questions in a few different threads, so as not to run on too long in any one.
Jeff in NY
Hi Jimmy,
No problem, I'm asking for allot of help. I'll have to re-read he book that came with it.
The book talsk in circles that's why I'm having a hard time understanding it.
It has this card in there to join lost treasure that's why I did.
hey dave, welcome to the greatest past time hobby in the world,i'm sorry i can't help you as i've only ever used whites xlt which i dearly love and am very successful with it,the more you use it the better you will catch on.if i can help you with anything else just ask.
Hello Dave and welcome to the world of metal detecting!
Read your manual several times and it will slowly start to sink in. Discrimination is a way of getting rid of unwanted metals. The higher you turn it up the less you will find. Most detectors that we use work on conductivity of the metals - iron on the low end and silver on the top end, with the rest in between. Depending on the mix of metals in an object depends on where it falls on the detector scale. Example: Gold plated over 18KT Gold
Lots of variables but it will come with time and practice.
I suggest making a test area in your yard. Plant some known objects at known depth (use colored wooden tees to mark items) and practice. Suggest the items be no deeper than 6 to 8 inches. Also the larger items (quarter compared to nickel)can be picked up at greater depth.
Hope this information helps!