Something to check

[BarberBill]

From time to time I've come across references to depth loss when using discrimination. I did a simple air test on one of my machines this afternoon and discovered a minor loss from all metal to discrimination, but disc. set to 0. This stayed pretty well the same up to where the disc setting was just above rejecting a nickel, in fact it gained a tad, then fell off markedly. By full disc. the depth had fallen to half or less. This is something that those that like to use full discrimination to "cherry pick" an area should be aware of and by all means should check out how their machines respond when cranked to max disc.
BB

[pan4au]

good info BB.. I generally run low disc.. and rely on the chatter of iron for "what not to dig... I have, on several occasions, raised the disc in areas with excessive trash.

[Buckaneer]

Just for yuks, try the same test with the disc notched up -- except hike up your sensitivity a lot higher. See if anything different happens.

OTOH, the apparent loss of depth while cherrypicking really isn't much of a factor if the targets are characteristically a few inches down, or if your in a public place like a schoolyard or park where we shouldn't be digging monster-deep holes anyway (I keep mine to no deeper than my digger blade, basically to keep twitchy bystanders off my back -- yeah I probably leave some decent stuff in the ground, but I like being a good ambassador of the hobby better).

Curiously, I was cherrypicking today in the woods with my disc hiked to a hair over 7 to hit just the coppers and silver and the Sensitivity at 3 to kill off the old pull tabs -- and I *still* got stuck spending a good 15 minutes digging an old zinc pie plate/tin at the bottom of a hole almost elbow-deep. Ugh. And I've got a low-end Tesoro, which isn't exactly a depth monger. Interesting what happens once you get in the dirt.

[BarberBill]

Buccaneer, your comment on the zinc plate points out how much more depth most detectors get when the target is something of real size versus coins. I dug a gallon sized, rusty can at a measured 17" found with my Tesoro Eldorado with the 7" widescan coil. Even at that depth the signal was loud and crisp. Unlike your comment though, I had the sensitivity turned up. Another time, early on in my detecting, I hit an old, buried car battery at nearly arms length deep with a Tesoro Compadre. Unfortunately, none of these larger, deep targets have turned out to be treasure chests of goodies. LOL
BB

[Curbdog]

Running with my Compadre, if I have the discrimination most of the way up, I get about 4-5 inches max on small targets. Coins have more of a pop to the tone than aluminum/ pull tabs.

My hunting buddy runs with an Ace 350. His gets more depth than mine for sure. Today we rehunted a yard I've been over and he got 18 dimes to my 3.

I guess sometimes I enjoy the speed in recovery and moving on, rather than excavating dump truck loads of earth, feet down. My first silver, a 1941 Walking Liberty half, was only 3 inches down. Without any target I.D. sometimes I do "cherrypick" if time is an issue.