• Forum server maintanace Friday night.(around 7PM Centeral time)
    Website will be off line for a short while.

    You may need to log out, log back in after we're back online.

Basic Detectin' Strategies

bullofspadez

Junior Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2006
Messages
41
Would love to hear Some peoples views and or techniques to Swingin', Diggin', Gridin', and any other in's you can think of???

I have mostly worked the TotLots and its easy to walk back and forth when you have borders, but what about park or beach hunting and setting good grids for yourself?

And the reason I opened this post up for an influx of information is that I read in another topic about having the sun in front of you when digging...I am sure i have done this by accident but reading why others do this made much more sense.
 
Hi bull good post am a newbie so dont know bout the sun in front of you,but im curious now why lol
 
No bull :lol:bull what about the sun. Just another newby.

I am looking to find info about the swing speed. :?:

John
 
I am by no means a "master", but here are a couple of tips.

The sun issue is so that you can see the LCD screen (if you have one) on your machine.
I have found that my polarized sunglasses inhibit my view of my Exp II's screen, all the more reason to learn the sounds that your machine makes, then refer to the display when needed.

Sweep speed will vary with different makes and models of equipment due to their recovery rate after locking in on a target. You certainly cannot swing like it's a scythe, the rule is slower is better. Most machines prefer no faster than 1 to 3 feet per second. Slower speed allows for separation of targets. For example, you can have a few pieces of trash surrounding a keeper. The slower sweep speed allows for target separation. You can also get an idea of target size by sweeping a hit VERY SLOWLY, along with raising your coil a few inches. Most aluminum cans signal my machine with the coil a foot or more off the ground.
 
Good post :yes:
One thing you can do is pick a starting point and push a small twig into the ground at that point. Pick a landmark in the distance such as a certain tree or building. Start sweeping and moving toward it. I usually go out about ten to fifteen feet and push another small trig into the ground at that point. I turn around move about 3 to 4 feet to the left or right and start back the other way. When I get to the first marker I turn and move the the left agian another 3 to 4 feet and keep repaeting this procedure. :yes:
There are other ways I hunt aso but thats how I like to do it in the open say at a park.
 
Avoid swinging the detector in a pendulum like fashion
where the coil lifts up at the extremes of the swing.

It costs you depth near the ends of the swing and
it can lead to falsing.
 
Make sure you keep the coil on the ground. every inch you swing it above ground is 1 inch less depth you'll get
 
Stick to the plan. I hear about more people working a spot and then getting in the car to go somewhere more productive. Stick to the plan , driving time is wasted time. If your hunting the park that day. Then hunt it, till your done and get it off your list of palces to do, and then move on.
 
If your hunting a park, clad and jewelry are what you are after, do a little homework. Watch where others are detecting, watch where people are congergating.

At the park I frequent, most people detect certain areas but rarely if ever detect the garden area used for weddings. This is where I go. Rings, earings, chains, and clad are very common there.

When I am after older coins in the same park, I try to hit the out of the way places where other md'ers pass up. Some silver and wheats should be there.
The tot lot.....I personally never hit that area. There are almost always kids playing there, and when they are not, other md'ers are hitting it.

Always try to think a little differently about the places where you detect, it will give you an edge over the others....Aguila
 
I was also confused on the swing speeds when I first started a year ago. I was swinging really slow because that is what I had read on so many forum threads. I use a White's detector and visited their site where I found plenty of downloadable videos on the use of the detectors. The videos showed a much quicker pace in swinging and these guys were experts in the field of MDing. Even though you may not use a White's detector, these videos may help to illustrate this a little better. I have started using these techniques a little more and have had better luck. Go to http://www.whiteselectronics.com/ and click the Videos link.

Also, there is a detector show on Outdoor Channel 2 (HD) sponsored by White's Electronics. You don't have to have HD to watch the episodes. There are links on the Outdoor Channel website to view the show's episodes on your computer. I wouldn't recommend downloading these episodes unless you have a cable or bb connection since most are 8-10mb files each. These are very informative to watch and I have picked up a few tips from this.

I don't want to start a war on swing speed since I think this is a "flavor" and subject to each detectorist's way of hunting. There are probably times when fast is better, and vice versa.

Hope this little tidbit of info helps.

Best of luck!
 
As far as the sun goes, I find it MUCH easier to find my target with the sun shining in the hole as opposed to looking through my shadow :roll:
 
absalon said:
I was also confused on the swing speeds when I first started a year ago.  I was swinging really slow because that is what I had read on so many forum threads. 
...

I don't want to start a war on swing speed since I think this is a "flavor" and subject to each detectorist's way of hunting.  There are probably times when fast is better, and vice versa.

Hope this little tidbit of info helps.

Best of luck!

Actually, swing speed can have a profound effect on the achievable depth you will get from a given detector.

Whereas an MXT, for example, is very forgiving to verious swing speeds, the same is not necessarily true with other detectors. A Minelab Ex, for example, requires a much slower swing speed to get maximum detection depth from it. It also has a much longer recovery time and if you swing it too fast you will get target masking, simply because the unit hasn't had time to recover from the previous target.
 
Back
Top Bottom