NEW TECHNOLOGY RANT

[oldkoot]

I have to agree with CP and Okoot, I love it simple. My go to machine, Excalibur, 1994-93 tech. Turn it on, adjust the threshold and go, rarely do I need to adjust anything else. Do I miss small gold, Yep. And trashy areas, it's a slow recover'er.. But it does very well on the deep targets in Am/PP, which is just what I need. And those stock yellow Koss water proof head phones, trash them.. get something that has some volume.

I will tell you I have five Beep and digs and the hardest thing for me is trying to decide which one of those five I want to swing on a given day, i still have some of those so called higher tech Cell phone on a stick detectors but they have pretty much became wall hangers for me

the five beep and digs I have currently are the Troy Shadow X5, Golden Mask 7, Golden mask Pro 4WD, Tesoro Vaquero, and the Deep Tech Vista X listed in no particular order, they are all fun Analog Detectors

 

[Dave_e]

Some days I enjoy tweaking and fine tuning and getting geeky with my Rutus Atrex and all it's settings.
Other days I enjoy turning on my Nokta Impact with 7" concentric coil, ground balancing and go.

It feels like the more options I have in life the more I enjoy it.

 

[jmaclen]

I would like to keep it simple but I don't detect in an area where that is possible. Simple detectors and even expensive simple detectors do not get more than 4" depth where I detect.

The most simple detector I own is a Minelab Vanquish 340 with its 10" elliptical coil. It's pretty simple but it has SMF Multi IQ tech. Without that tech, it would be useless where I detect on anything but recent drops. With that tech it gives me accurate target IDs on coins 8" deep. Amazing for less than $200 MAP price. It doesn't even have an onboard pinpoint function or ground balance. Just a power button, sensitivity control, volume control, three different preset discrimination patterns and a headphone port. Runs on 4AA batteries.

So, I bury myself in the manuals for these recent, more complicated VLF detectors and try to come up with an understanding of the features and settings and then set them up the way they work best here through trial and error.

If I manage to get that done, these newest fancy detectors really are turn on and go with just a couple of minor adjustments to the ground balance, sensitivity and target recovery speed.

I don't have a choice where I detect. Either I stop detecting because these new Swiss Army knife detectors are too confusing for my almost 69 year old brain or I dig into the details and figure them out as best I can. That figuring them out part is not very fun sometimes. After that process is done, they are lots of fun for sure and really good detectors.

 

[JCR]

I agree with both Dave and Jeff. I enjoy what performs on my sites and part of the fun is learning & understanding the why as well as the how. Each of my detectors has it's own personality, strengths and appeal.

 

[bigtim1973]

Remember this, you do not have to use anyone else's settings on your detector!!

 

[Cherry Picker]

Not to blow my own horn, but years ago it was all about knowing how to get the best out of what you had for the conditions you were hunting. I spent a lot of time learning the processes that make a detector work, and not work. At the time, I held a good enough understanding that I was mentioned in several metal detecting books. They don't mean a lot now because most of the technology we had to manually adjust is now the push of a button.

I am especially proud to have made the list and asked to share my knowledge of metal detecting with others is a book called Finders Secrets of Success.

 

[UT_Dave]

That's cool as heck CP!

I have to say though, I still think as much as ever it's all about knowing how to get the best out of what you have for the conditions you are hunting. When the combination is right, tuning one of todays hotrods for conditions can still make surprising finds in familiar places.

Having so many parameters to experiment with is fun, for me, too. I like trying an adjustment on a iffy wild target, making it worse, go the other way until it's better, then worse again, then back to better. Then try another different adjustment a few targets later. Get settled in and hunt the site feeling like I've optimized pretty well. Simple isn't as fun to me. Not that what I usually do is very complex either though, it's still pretty simple.

- Dave