Any advice for the M6?

[kelpike]

I took the M6 to one beach, (first time on a beach), for about 40 minutes, then another beach for roughly 20 minutes. Pretty much every signal showed at six inches. However, each time I dug, the signal just disappeared. It was rather frustrating. I had disc set just below 1 as recommended by nittany1 (thanks), sens at 90, and Auto Trac set to Beach. I was getting tons of signals and what seemed like alot of distortion but not sure if that has anything to do with the fact that this was my first time using wireless headphones. Should I be running my sens and AT at diferent settings? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[nittany1]

When I hit the beach I usually use my 6x10 DD. It does really well at the beach. I tried my 950 that came with my M6 at the beach and ran into a little bit of chatter here and there. It was odd that the 950 got chatty in some areas of the beach that were completely dry and other places on the very same beach it was fine. The 6x10 DD is fine everywhere from the dry sand all the way to as deep as you dare to put it in the surf. You can also run the 6x10 DD sorta hot if you want to get a little bit more depth. I don't own the 8x14 DD yet, but I would imagine it would do fine at the beach too as it's of the same design as the 6x10 DD, think of it as the 6x10's big brother.

If you don't have the 6x10 DD you can turn down SENS a little bit at a time until the chatter goes away. Even at lower power settings the 950 goes pretty deep. Another thing you can do when you run into chatter is pump the coil up and down about 9-10" off the sand, that will ground balance to the sand you're over at any given time.

 

[ps249]

Dig the higher pitch beeps and ignore the low grunts.

 

[kelpike]

When I hit the beach I usually use my 6x10 DD. It does really well at the beach. I tried my 950 that came with my M6 at the beach and ran into a little bit of chatter here and there. It was odd that the 950 got chatty in some areas of the beach that were completely dry and other places on the very same beach it was fine. The 6x10 DD is fine everywhere from the dry sand all the way to as deep as you dare to put it in the surf. You can also run the 6x10 DD sorta hot if you want to get a little bit more depth. I don't own the 8x14 DD yet, but I would imagine it would do fine at the beach too as it's of the same design as the 6x10 DD, think of it as the 6x10's big brother.

If you don't have the 6x10 DD you can turn down SENS a little bit at a time until the chatter goes away. Even at lower power settings the 950 goes pretty deep. Another thing you can do when you run into chatter is pump the coil up and down about 9-10" off the sand, that will ground balance to the sand you're over at any given time.

I've been watching for different coils for the M6. I thought the first coil I should buy would be the 4X6 because most of my hunting is in trashy areas. I rarely get to hunt on the beach, but i'd still like a coil that will help while beach hunting so I guess I'll watch for the 6X10 also. As crazy as this sounds I really hate getting deep signals (not refering to beach hunting)
because they always turn out to be a large chunk of steel or a crushed soda can. I have not hunted any old locations yet but even some of the parks i've been in haven't seemed to have been hunted before so I would think a few older coins would turn up. So far I only found one wheat penny and no silver. Do I ignore low grunts while beach hunting? Asking about that because of the greater chance to find gold jewelry on the beach. In other words, would gold sound off as a lower grunt?

 

[nittany1]

Stuff that comes in around 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or any of the low numbers, usually it's junk like foil, but it's also where the 14k and 18k gold necklaces and bracelets come in also. I found a thin 14k necklace that way, it came in around VDI 1 and bounced to 0 and back to 1. You may dig 99 times and get foil then get some jewelry once. Sometimes even less often than that. I've never come across any gold necklace or bracelet or earring that came in at less than 0, it's always been at least 0.

 

[kelpike]

Stuff that comes in around 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or any of the low numbers, usually it's junk like foil, but it's also where the 14k and 18k gold necklaces and bracelets come in also. I found a thin 14k necklace that way, it came in around VDI 1 and bounced to 0 and back to 1. You may dig 99 times and get foil then get some jewelry once. Sometimes even less often than that. I've never come across any gold necklace or bracelet or earring that came in at less than 0, it's always been at least 0.

Thats really good to know. I always thought gold would come in around the teens. I guess I have more digging to do. I keep my Disc set just below 1 ever since I read that tip from you on a previous post. I appreciate all your advice.

 

[nittany1]

Gold rings come up a lot higher than gold necklaces and bracelets because gold rings are chunkier and round shaped. Necklaces and bracelets are thinner and can be spread out instead of balled up. As long as you keep the DISC low with the intention of finding necklaces and bracelets, you're sure to get the chunkier rings too because they'll have a higher VDI than the thin stuff.

 

[Michaeltime]

I like the advice on the M6

I got my M6 Aug of 2010 only run it Aug to Nov before . I started reading how people were out hunting in Dec so I got out in Jan and did some detecting . Got me two silver for this year in a week. Spent from Aug to Nov to get two in 2011. I am going to practice with the coins in air to see what the VID numbers are further away from the coil. My hunting buddies find quarters down 7 or 8 inches mine are all up 3 and up. I use the 950 coil. Had a chance to get the 5.3 for $125 on craigsllist and passed on it for now . It sin't there no more.
M6 Mike
Seen someone post where to get the TDK WR700 wireless headphones on Newegg.com and bought a set today online. On sale was $249 I got them for $99.00 free UPS shipping.

 

[nittany1]

I took the M6 to one beach, (first time on a beach), for about 40 minutes, then another beach for roughly 20 minutes. Pretty much every signal showed at six inches. However, each time I dug, the signal just disappeared. It was rather frustrating. I had disc set just below 1 as recommended by nittany1 (thanks), sens at 90, and Auto Trac set to Beach. I was getting tons of signals and what seemed like alot of distortion but not sure if that has anything to do with the fact that this was my first time using wireless headphones. Should I be running my sens and AT at diferent settings? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

One thing you may have not done is ground balanced your M6 after you hit the wet salt part of the beach. The dry part of sandy beaches is pretty easy to balance to, the wet part is where you have to be methodical. When you get to the wet sand part of the beach, put your ground Trac in Beach and pump the coil up and down from about 8" or 9" to 1" off the surface of the sand about 10-15 times. You'll hear a wahhh-wahhh-wahhh-wahhh-wahhh as you are doing this, and as you do it, your M6 will get quieter. When it goes silent you're good to go. You should be doing the same technique in dry sand or soil with the Trac set to On, but if you don't your M6 will still run fine, but to get the most out of it, you should pump it up and down to get it balanced out nicely. It's really a nice machine because it puts a lot of power in your hands for what is realistically a really decent price.