So... Tell Me About Sensitivity & Discrimination

collegefbfan

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Jul 3, 2018
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I am really interested in this hobby. However, sensitivity and discrimination are two factors might be a little overwhelming. Would these two factors make an individual give up too easily? Can anyone give me the lowdown on these two things? Many thanks.
 
It would make an individual give up immediately if you did NOT have them,and the ability to adjust them according to site conditions. They are your friends,so choose a machine that has adjustability of both of these features!
 
Yeah, sounds a little confusing. I guess just get one and give it a go.

Tell you what may assist in your understanding...run your sensitivity really low for a while...Like 'half power' and run your disc just under what a nickel pings in at...dont worry about running full power or about the depth of your finds...You will be finding plenty at half sens...

If you run your sens too high, it makes it hard to hear all the individual chirps of objects and their specific location...they all wash in together...Running too hot at full 'power' can get very frustrating for a noob...Even now, I'm running my rigs never at full sens...about half or less depending...hell...still plenty of punch but with the benefit of isolating the targets a lot better, it allows the proportional audio to kick in and make sense..."Theres a Q at 4"...

Disc simply blocks out the unwanted signals like iron...starting at zero and on a scale upwards generally...the trick is to think about what these features are intended to do and how they can help you...then you dial your rig into the comfortable settings that YOUR brain understands in YOUR specific location, and have a Merry Christmas there on out!

It just takes a bit of thought and in field application and study...no other way to figure it out besides doing it yourself..we all hear and understand things a bit differently....set up light, ramp it up if you think you need to...you will get it....
 
They're sorta like medicine- too little and you don't feel much better- too much and you get worse! Also, you can talk to different doctors and get different opinions, but until you go for treatment you'll never know. There's quite a few intro detectors today with nice features and reasonably priced. Study and find one that appeals- or better yet find a dealer and actually try one. My take? Don't worry all that much about sensitivity as halfway settings on most suffice until you learn the machine. Discrimination IS a learning process, however. Set it low for iron nails, and you will detect canslaw, pulltabs, foil,etc... and oh yeah, coins, rings, jewelry. Raise it incrementally and you will MISS canslaw, pulltabs,foil,etc.... and oh yeah some coins,rings jewelry.:D Get a detector with these features that are adjustable and have fun!:cool:
 
How you set your disc and sens depends on what you are hunting. If your stabbing the park for recent clad drops, you would have disc high and sens low, leave the nickels and pull tabs for the next guy, unfortunately a lot of rings hit the nickle/pulltab range.
If you are hunting for relics and would be happy finding square nails and lantern parts you have the sens high and disc low.
No matter how many bells and whistles a detector has what is in the ground is a guess until you dig it. Experience and a good machine gives you more information and improves your odds of guessing trash from treasure.
If you spend a little time with disc and sens low it won't take long to learn what the machine is telling you.
 
If your machine has preset programs use them and don't worry about settings. Watch all the youtube videos you can find that feature your machine. Throw some coins on the ground and see what numbers come up for each type and try to remember those numbers so that when you see them again while hunting you'll know what they (probably-maybe) are. Pretty quick it will all come together. Most of all remember to have fun.
 
Location conditions such as mineralized soil or salt water beaches effect the performance of metal detectors and the ability to adjust sensitivity and discrimination for these conditions is part of the "art" of this hobby.
 
You'll be fine, don't over think it. Run with factory presets for a while, then crank up the sensitivity and pay attention to the changes. Go back to factory sensitivity and open up the discrimination, pay attention to the changes, in your targets, then crank up the sensitivity.

The biggest mistake I made starting out was getting so excited to dig a target, I didn't let the signal register in my brain so I could associate the two. It just took longer for me to learn that. I think many do the same. Always analyze the signal well before you dig it and this should shorten the learning curve.
 
For me I think High sensitivity is overrated and Low sensitivity is underrated. Lots of people think they need to run their sens high or they won't get any depth. I don't think that's true. You'd be surprised to see how deep lower settings of sense will get. An added bonus is you get a lot less falsing and ground noise. This is especially true in trashy areas.
 
Example: Ace 250. I was detecting a school playground with solar panels nearby and when approaching them my Ace starts beeping all over the place so I turned down the sensitivity till it is mostly quiet.
Discrimination: Ace250. I like to find gold at these places so I can notch out above pulltab through pennies so I get gold and silver or clad. Its up to you with disc.
At first I turned off everything below pennies and dug only quarters.
Happy hunting!
 
Thanks for all the advice. Some good stuff here. Just for information's sake, I will probably be going with the Garrett Ace 300.
 
I think personal preference comes in to play, some people like to hear everything and decide what to dig themselves rather than let the machine decide. When I'm in a new area, I'll run wide open just to see whats there. You can learn a lot about an area by the trash left behind
 
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