If you do some air testing, you will find that there is a limit to the range of the scanning field on your Compadre.
All of them seem to be different for some reason, some might go a little further than others.
Don't ask me why, but they do.
The only one you have to be concerned with is yours.
If you turn the disc up all the way to the right, then take a dime, wave it in front of the coil and keep moving back till it starts to break up.
Mark that spot.
Then turn the knob all the way to the left into all metal.
Wave that dime again at the marked spot.
It should be a much clearer signal, and you should be able to wave that dime a little further back and still pick it up.
The more disc you use, the less depth you will get.
This is a rule that covers most VLF detectors on the market .
So this is my thinking....
If I am in a tot lot, I am going to hunt in all metal to take advantage of the greatest amount of sensitivity for two main reasons.
1. To get the deepest I can because there might be something good but small and deep in those chips and I want my best chance of reaching it.
2. There might be a very small target that I want to pick up like a tiny gold ring or a small clasp on a thin chain like the one in the video.
In that video I was in all metal and I didn't show it, but that 3 inches max I picked up that clasp turns out to be less than 3 inches as I turn up that disc.
Even turning up the disc to iron I lose a little depth, and in a tot lot with a higher percentage of jewelry that is likely to be found...why take the chance?
All metal and dig everything in a tot lot is my rule, and unless there is a ton of small iron that I don't feel like digging that day, (I WILL go back and do that another time if that happens...but that is rare), well, I am going to dig everything and clean that place up the best that I can.
Now lets switch to hunting in grass.
I still hunt in all metal so I can acquire the strongest signals that I can, then I thumb up that knob up till it fades out, and then down till it comes back in and check the position of that knob.
I find that this will give you a more accurate reading than thumbing up till the signal fades out like the manual says.
Some guys set the knob at a certain level and dig everything above that level that beeps.
Me, I like to make guesses and try to figure out what is there before I dig.
That's just my way of learning.
By hunting in all metal, I can get signals on targets I wouldn't even know were there if I was using any disc at all.
It has been said that about 90% or more of the good coin and jewelry targets we seek are 6 inches or less in depth.
That is great, but that is not 100%, and if my Compadre will get past that 6 inch mark in all metal, I am going to use it that way as much as possible.
Let's say I am in an older park, I am hunting with the disc knob around iron, or foil, or tabs, or maxed out.
Also lets say I happen to roll over a 1916 D Mercury dime but it is sitting right at the very edge of detecting field in all metal.
With any disc at all, I probably would not even hear this signal.
As a matter of fact, there is a good chance that these deeper targets can actually fool you another way.
Lets say I pick up that Merc as a pretty solid signal because it is sitting at an area that is 1/2 inch below my max depth.
If it was shallow and well within my range, I could thumb that knob all the way up, it will never disc out and I could tell it was a good high tone target I would want to dig.
This time, it is not shallow and I thumb that knob up to figure it out, but because detectors lose depth and sensitivity as you turn it up, there is a chance that this great target will actually disc out...and maybe disc out way before I get all the way up to the max disc point .
Maybe it goes away at the zinc level instead, or tabs or even nickel or foil.
If it fades out, (or in my case comes in), at tabs, I would probably think this is a tab because it acted just like one.
There is a reason they call these kind of units beep and dig, and why a whole bunch of guys that use these do exactly that.
If it beeps, we dig.
I might dig more trash than others because I set my disc lower and pick up more signals, but I have also found my share of great stuff doing it this way, maybe more than my share, and I am fine with my style of hunting.
I have been mostly a dig it all kind of hunter since I started, and no matter what detector I am swinging I usually do that.
Even if I suspect the target is trash because I have dug bad targets in the past and they were not trash...they were good ones.
This scenario of missing a deep Merc I wrote about above is a rare thing, probably...but it could happen.
I am very happy using my Compadre in all tot lots and even in parks because I am usually looking for jewelry and the kind of parks I hit they would most probably be shallow enough to find, and that great sensitivity gives me confidence that I have a chance to find small gold, chains of all types and most rings.
However, if I am at sites where I know there is a possibility of older and deeper coins, or relics or even some deep jewelry, then I pull out my Vaquero which will go deeper than the compadre, even though I lose a little on the sensitivity side between the two.
This is why some people build arsenals of 2-3-4 or more different detectors.
Every site is not the same, and all the targets we seek are not the same either...or sitting in the ground at the same depths.
in advance for your help ! 
for the rain to stop !
