DIGGER27
In Memory Of
Hey everyone!
My experience with a new detector, tips and opinions on this beautiful working unit for those of you thinking about getting one.
Sit down, grab a drink, it's long but hopefully not too boring.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So last week, the first time out with the used but new-to-me 7 inch coil Compadre from Skiwhiz went well.
Even though I didn't have more than an hour, I did hit some grassy areas and a tot lot at the park right next door.
Found a few coins, a few pennies, a quarter and a nickel on the surface under the chips, and that lone disc knob seemed to be right on.
Coins disced out where they should, the quarter woud not disc out at all, nor would copper pennies or dimes.
A few tabs I came across disced out right on the tab mark.
On my Vaquero, it is very similar except on this one I could sense there was a little more precision, like a fine tuner.
The stay-tabs made a tone right up to the mark and just past it was gone,
On the Vaq, there might have been a lttle spill over, a tiny bit of breaking then the silence, but not on this.
Solid beep...then gone.
I like it....check that...Love it!.
I also found one lone bead from the kind of chain that comes on nail clippers, you know the really tiny ones.
My detectors at home with larger coils and different electronics could not pick this bead up, the Compadre did in the field and at my house.
A solid, repeatable, dig it for sure tone.
I was blown away, to say the least.
Throwing some coins down on the carpet at home I discovered the recovery speed was as good as most any other detector I have ever held, and I pick my detectors because of this.
I am a fast swinger, you see, and I can slow down if I think about it but my natural swing speed can still be pretty fast so why not just use and own detectors that are forgiving in this respect?
Line up several coins close to each other and I know the detector is for me if I hear that machine gun tone...beep, beep, beep beep, beep.
This one was great at this, and so was the target separation.
Placing 2 coins next to each other, a quarter and a zinc penny, I swear I could get them no more than 1 1/2 inches apart and still hear two distinct tones as I passed the coil over them.
This is the other thing I require in my detectors and my Vaq and F2 can do it too.
Now I have a third, so the arsenal is coming along nicely.
This hunt last Sunday was going to be about experimintation and getting to know my latest and greatest.
I just love playing with new detectors for the first time, don't you?
I went to an area where I have been many times before, but within a mile there are several different kinds of areas to hunt.
Many grassy island areas in a high school student parking lot, a park on the other side of a school with picnic areas and a tot lot, some grassy areas and a couple of large soccer fields, one one which holds a free concert every summer with thousands of people walking and sittng around all over it.
About a mile from here and on my direct route to home was another school with a tot lot, play filed and a large sports complex that is used by the high school.
I started at the grassy islands in the high school parking lot because I have found so much here in the past.
I hit these islands several times and got a bunch, then a few months ago I changed the way I hunted to a very tight pattern and made an effort to slow down, and these islands that I had thought were cleaned out became alive with good targets again.
Much more clad and other cool stuff and even a gold ring came out of here since I changed, but I have done most of these this way all summer and it was slowing down a bit.
Still more here, however so this will be a good test.
A soaking rain the night before was a welcome sight, and I was looking forward to digging actual plugs again instead of a crumbly mass of dirt, and it is still blazing hot around here as the day wears on so I got to the site at 5:30 am to get a good start in a little bit cooler temps.
Put on my gear, popped on my caplight since it was still dark and began the hunt.
She was working well as I aquired and dug my first targets.
A stay tab was first up, it disced out right at the tab mark and the tesoro shake over the target that made the signal break up a bit as I whipped that coil told me this was probably a tab.
Had to dig it anyway, and I was planning on digging every solid target all day because this is how I learn my detectors.
Solid signal, disc it out, make a guess, dig it and see if I am right.
I stuck my lesche into the grass and ..heaven!
The blade penetrated down to about 5 inches and I made similar cuts on 2 other sides and popped the plug.
I didn't think it was that deep, but I wanted to see how moist the ground was underneath and how far down the rain had seeped.
It was wet to about 4 inches and then some very dry sand type dirt on the last inch.
Got the propointer out and found a tab about 1 inch down in the middle of the plug so my guess was right on.
Replaced the plug and moved on.
For the next couple of hours I located and dug target after target...lots more clad, some more tabs, foil, a couple of pop tops.
I was not doing the slow and tight search pattern that found so much more in these islands after I thought they were done, because this was not a day for that type of hunting.
Today I was swinging just to find solid signals of any type and see what kind of information I could get out of these signals, whether they were good targets or suspected trash.
I was also hovering around iron and all metal throughout the day, usually I would place this thing below foil and dig everything else from there on up.
This one is more sensitive to gold than my others and if there was a tiny gold stud or fine chain in my travels I would find it at these lower settings.
Also, as most of you know, all metal will give you the most depth and you lose some as you move that disc knob higher.
In my difficult soil even my Vaq that will go very deep in milder soil or in tot lots, can't really get too much deeper than about 7 inches at most of my sites around here, but I wanted to get as much as I could out of the new one and see how far she really could go.
Air testing I was getting 6-7 inches on coins and rings and Skiwhiz said he checked it before sending it to me and the sense was set almost at max, which I take that statement to mean higher than factory settings.
Even so, I like the fact that I still have a little more left to go, and I had no issues with falsing at all thoughout the day.
I was very happy about this.
I hunt on max sense always and I have learned to recognize and ignore most false signals from real ones so they never bother me.
I usually get more of them on a usual hunt, but not today.
I don't remember getting even one except around the big metal in the tot lots.
I did try sizing the targets with some quick passes from a few different angles on several signals throughout the day.
Sllingshot said this thing is great at this and of course he was right.
Maybe it was this smaller coil, but I could almost see the size in my mind when it was a coin size object, and the slightly larger size of a piece of can when I ran over it.
I could almost swear that I could even tell that a tiny piece of foil was smaller than a coin in my head, which it was, but I am sure that cannot be possible.
I am not that good at this...maybe Tabdog might be but I don't think I am.
Maybe it was a dream, but all I know is everything I tried had an air of surgical precision to it.
Pinpointing, sizing, the disc knob...all of it.
My Vaq is great at this stuff too, this one is just a little better, a little tighter.
Seems like that, anyway.
Also want to add that like my Vaq, if you turn the discrimination knob up and dial down till the signal comes in, this is more accurate than doing it the way the directions say and turn the knob up till the signal fades out.
I dug a good amount of clad, even though I wasn't exactly coinshooting, and the only coins that were a little strange were a couple of nickels.
They were actually weird all day no matter where I was hunting.
Some disced out right at the 5 cent mark, but some were higher and some were lower.
One I do remember was sideways in the ground, but I still got a good signal on all of them and I have dug gold around this mark so I am digging all these signals...always.
The sun was starting to blaze, it was heating up so time to move to another place.
Next stop was a little park and tot lot on the other side of the high school.
Not so much interested in the picnic table area, even though it was covered with trees and cooler, but I have not been to the tot lot in awhile so that's where I was headed.
There was a covered pavillion near the bathrooms in this park, and I have found clad around this thing before and it was nice grassy soil and easy digging so I decided to walk around this thing once.
I have hit this area too, with all my detectors a few times, but I still managed to find some more clad.
It seems no matter how clean you think the site is, this thing will still manage to find a little more.
A few beavertails and parts of beavertails showed up here and I noticed that different parts disced out at different areas on the disc, and rarely at the tab mark, but I know from experience this is normal.
A quarter, pennies, a dime or two, I have searched this area several times with my other detectors and it is not huge but I stlll managed to find a little more clad.
Then I headed down to the tot lot.
This is one of those kinds that have a plastic interlocking boarder surrounding the area, about one foot tall sticking out of the ground and old grey wood chips about 1/4 way up...usually.
As I got closer, I noticed that something looked different.
All the chips were a nice, red cedar colored and now they were all the way up to the top of the boarder...spilling over in some spots.
Not a piece of trash laying ontop in sight.
They must have just filled this within the last day or two.
How nice that this city has it together enough even in these tough economic times to be able to afford to lay down a huge new blanket of chips here and fill it up another 8 inches to make a nice soft blanket for the kiddies.
Annnd...I'm screwed!
For the Vaq, this would be no problem.
I have picked up studs off of jeans one foot down in chips with no mineralization using it, but this one has a limit of about 6-7 inches on the solid tones so I don't think this is gonna work out so well for me, today.
I stepped in and started to swing and as I feared, well, what is that old Simon and Garfunkle song..."The sounds of silence."
No signals at all...none.
Like I said, they must have just filled this recently and it has not had a chance to fill up with much of anything, yet, and any target in the origional chips below is out of range.
I did find 2 signals here, however.
One was a scratchy, not so solid one but it did repeat and I dug down a measured 8 inches through the new chips and found a quarter laying just below the surface of the old ones.
Good to Know
Deep targets at the limit of my field might not be super solid but they do repeat.
Found a zinc penny the same way.
Not sure if it will work the same way in soil, but I will dig some real iffy signals in future hunts and see.
Sure hope it works the same.
I decided to move to a soccer field that has thousands of people milling around every summer because of a free concert put on every year with "A" list country talent as headliners.
I have been here before and I always thought there should be a bunch more stuff to find than I usually do, but the area is huge and I never gridded it so I usually just wander around when I am here hoping to get lucky.
Ryanchappel did find his first ring here when I took him to all these same sites on our first hunt together.
I know where the stage is set up and where all the food and drink venders set up too, so I concentrated on those areas and did find some more clad and some trash.
I hit a very nice loud signal and dug up 2 quarters laying together.
I can tell quarters sound different on this one, fully round and long.
Still did the sizing thing and I was getting pretty good with that by now, and xing is laserlike just like all the Tesoros, so it was very easy to zero in on the targets all day.
My Propointer brings me to the exact spot I need to dig so I never really have to make huge holes or dig big plugs.
In my first short hunt I noticed I had to supertune the Propointer more than usual to find a lot of my targets thoughout the day, which tells me the Compadre seems to be internally ground balanced pretty good to match my difficult soil.
Even with manual GB on the Vaq, most targets I seem to dig are about 2-3 inches or so, sometimes more.
With the compadre, I was digging several that were beyond the range of my PP unless supertuned and they were at least 4 inches or more.
I can't believe I can get more depth with this one than the Vaq, bit it seems that way.
I think I will send the Vaq in to Tesoro and let Rusty have at it just to ease my mind.
I wandered around this area for awhile, started to get bored and moved to my next spot.
This was a middle school with a large playground, tot lot, and a sports complex on the same site.
This is one of my go-to places and it is huge,.
That playground is where I found my first rings, just junk, lots of clad and even a dime from the Bahama's...and how that got here is a mystery.
This site also has a little fair with carny rides set up every summer, and I have started to grid this place on one end and do my slow and tight thing, but today I was just wandering.
I found some more clad, and several nickels.
Nickels are one of the things this thing seems to like, they go out at least an inch more than quarteres in air testing, and decent size gold rings get out to about here too...or close.
That I like to see.
I know this thing is a great coinshooter and all around unit, but the real reason I got it was that small and fine jewelry...especially gold.
Nice size gold comes in at about nickel, so this is nice to see.
I hit an area in the sports park that is a practice/training area for the high school baseball team.
It is behind fences but they are usually never locked.
I don't really go in here much because I don't want to take the chance of leaving any holes that the kids could catch with their cleats, but last year one of the coaches stopped me and said he lost his gold wedding ring somewhere in the area.
I asked him where and he really didn't know and he was wandering all over this place and in other areas around it when he lost it so it is pretty big.
I took his # and put it in my phone and said I will call him if I ever find it.
Every time I come to this spot I hit these specific areas for at least a half hour hoping to get lucky and find his ring for him.
Nothing so far, but maybe one day.
Did that again today, still no luck so I moved on to another tot lot near to the school.
This has pebbles in one part, chips in the other and old chips.
I have cleaned this place up too but it is pretty easy to find fresh drops so I still come back from time to time.
I found a few more coins and I noticed that I still was not getting close to the big metal legs of the equipment at all.
Watching videos from other users, they seem to get much closer before the machine signals, but my sense is turned up a lot on mine and that is fine with me.
I did try something, though.
I threw a penny down on the chips about 3 inches out from one of the large metal legs on the swings.
As I moved around the legs this unit will sound off as you move it.
Super slow it does not do this as much but I just can't go that slow so the heck with that.
I noticed as I moved around the leg I was getting constant tones but as I moved over the penny I did get a distinct double beep.
You will get this same type of signal if you move over a shallow or surface target, or if you scan two targets close to each other.
This was great information to know, even though I can search around big metal with the Propointer if needed, this double beep thing can alert me to targets in the area of this big metal stuff without having to get down on my knees so much.
Wandered around the chips for awhile, found a little more clad including another nice double quarter signal which perked up my ears...these quarter signals are something I have gotten to really know well in my head.
Kind of like when you hear the ring of a silver coin dropped on a hard surface.
It's almost instinctual at this point.
On all my detectors I can usually be sure 99.99% of the time when I roll over a quarter.
It looks like I can do that on this one too.
The heat was getting to me at this point, so I sat down for a minute on a bench under a shady tree to rehydrate.
I was getting very tired, the heat was intense, I had a pocket full of clad even though I wasn't really looking for it, and I learned a bunch throughout this hunt.
I decided to hit the playfield a little that starts just outside this tot lot and then walk back to the truck and get back home to the AC.
I remember saying to myself I wish I could find some kind of jewelry to finish off this hunt, and a minute later I dug the junk ring that came in at about the nickel mark.
Allright!
Then I said to myself I wish I could find that treasure chest full of gold coins, but no such luck on that one.
I guess I get one wish per hunt so I will be more specific in my wishing, next time.
I ran over that large carabiner thing in the tall grass on the way back, probably left over from the Carny's and their rides, a few more coins too, then all my energy was gone and I was done for the day.
Pics of the clad and trash from this hunt below.
This was fun.
I learned a ton, got some great practice in, and due to my experience with my Vaq, it all felt like second nature.
I can see that a total newbie might not not have such an easy time as I did at first, without my experience, but I also know that this one can be pretty easy to learn if you just put in a little time and dig a bunch of signals.
That's the best way to learn, you know.
Analyze all signals, then dig, dig, and then dig some more.
Luckily, that process is also a lot of fun with this mighty impressive Compadre.
HH everyone!
P.S.
I hope this thread might be the start of something like my innocent F2 review thread I posted last year.
I am thrilled to report that that thing has now grown to about 9000 views, about 50 added to this number every day, and plenty of people have told me they picked the mighty F2 as their first because of the information contained in it and are very happy that they did.
Several have surpassed me in their quality and quantity of great finds which thrills me to no end.
Since the Compadre is also one of the most recommended units for newbies, I hope that anyone that has any tips, tricks, revelations or insights will feel free to post to this thread so it can be used as an honest resource to anyone new to this, or even the veterans thinking about getting one as a specialty unit.
I will do this myself as I discover even more wonderful things as I learn them.
I think it is special, and I am very glad I have one in the arsenal.
HH
My experience with a new detector, tips and opinions on this beautiful working unit for those of you thinking about getting one.
Sit down, grab a drink, it's long but hopefully not too boring.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So last week, the first time out with the used but new-to-me 7 inch coil Compadre from Skiwhiz went well.
Even though I didn't have more than an hour, I did hit some grassy areas and a tot lot at the park right next door.
Found a few coins, a few pennies, a quarter and a nickel on the surface under the chips, and that lone disc knob seemed to be right on.
Coins disced out where they should, the quarter woud not disc out at all, nor would copper pennies or dimes.
A few tabs I came across disced out right on the tab mark.
On my Vaquero, it is very similar except on this one I could sense there was a little more precision, like a fine tuner.
The stay-tabs made a tone right up to the mark and just past it was gone,
On the Vaq, there might have been a lttle spill over, a tiny bit of breaking then the silence, but not on this.
Solid beep...then gone.
I like it....check that...Love it!.
I also found one lone bead from the kind of chain that comes on nail clippers, you know the really tiny ones.
My detectors at home with larger coils and different electronics could not pick this bead up, the Compadre did in the field and at my house.
A solid, repeatable, dig it for sure tone.
I was blown away, to say the least.
Throwing some coins down on the carpet at home I discovered the recovery speed was as good as most any other detector I have ever held, and I pick my detectors because of this.
I am a fast swinger, you see, and I can slow down if I think about it but my natural swing speed can still be pretty fast so why not just use and own detectors that are forgiving in this respect?
Line up several coins close to each other and I know the detector is for me if I hear that machine gun tone...beep, beep, beep beep, beep.
This one was great at this, and so was the target separation.
Placing 2 coins next to each other, a quarter and a zinc penny, I swear I could get them no more than 1 1/2 inches apart and still hear two distinct tones as I passed the coil over them.
This is the other thing I require in my detectors and my Vaq and F2 can do it too.
Now I have a third, so the arsenal is coming along nicely.
This hunt last Sunday was going to be about experimintation and getting to know my latest and greatest.
I just love playing with new detectors for the first time, don't you?
I went to an area where I have been many times before, but within a mile there are several different kinds of areas to hunt.
Many grassy island areas in a high school student parking lot, a park on the other side of a school with picnic areas and a tot lot, some grassy areas and a couple of large soccer fields, one one which holds a free concert every summer with thousands of people walking and sittng around all over it.
About a mile from here and on my direct route to home was another school with a tot lot, play filed and a large sports complex that is used by the high school.
I started at the grassy islands in the high school parking lot because I have found so much here in the past.
I hit these islands several times and got a bunch, then a few months ago I changed the way I hunted to a very tight pattern and made an effort to slow down, and these islands that I had thought were cleaned out became alive with good targets again.
Much more clad and other cool stuff and even a gold ring came out of here since I changed, but I have done most of these this way all summer and it was slowing down a bit.
Still more here, however so this will be a good test.
A soaking rain the night before was a welcome sight, and I was looking forward to digging actual plugs again instead of a crumbly mass of dirt, and it is still blazing hot around here as the day wears on so I got to the site at 5:30 am to get a good start in a little bit cooler temps.
Put on my gear, popped on my caplight since it was still dark and began the hunt.
She was working well as I aquired and dug my first targets.
A stay tab was first up, it disced out right at the tab mark and the tesoro shake over the target that made the signal break up a bit as I whipped that coil told me this was probably a tab.
Had to dig it anyway, and I was planning on digging every solid target all day because this is how I learn my detectors.
Solid signal, disc it out, make a guess, dig it and see if I am right.
I stuck my lesche into the grass and ..heaven!
The blade penetrated down to about 5 inches and I made similar cuts on 2 other sides and popped the plug.
I didn't think it was that deep, but I wanted to see how moist the ground was underneath and how far down the rain had seeped.
It was wet to about 4 inches and then some very dry sand type dirt on the last inch.
Got the propointer out and found a tab about 1 inch down in the middle of the plug so my guess was right on.
Replaced the plug and moved on.
For the next couple of hours I located and dug target after target...lots more clad, some more tabs, foil, a couple of pop tops.
I was not doing the slow and tight search pattern that found so much more in these islands after I thought they were done, because this was not a day for that type of hunting.
Today I was swinging just to find solid signals of any type and see what kind of information I could get out of these signals, whether they were good targets or suspected trash.
I was also hovering around iron and all metal throughout the day, usually I would place this thing below foil and dig everything else from there on up.
This one is more sensitive to gold than my others and if there was a tiny gold stud or fine chain in my travels I would find it at these lower settings.
Also, as most of you know, all metal will give you the most depth and you lose some as you move that disc knob higher.
In my difficult soil even my Vaq that will go very deep in milder soil or in tot lots, can't really get too much deeper than about 7 inches at most of my sites around here, but I wanted to get as much as I could out of the new one and see how far she really could go.
Air testing I was getting 6-7 inches on coins and rings and Skiwhiz said he checked it before sending it to me and the sense was set almost at max, which I take that statement to mean higher than factory settings.
Even so, I like the fact that I still have a little more left to go, and I had no issues with falsing at all thoughout the day.
I was very happy about this.
I hunt on max sense always and I have learned to recognize and ignore most false signals from real ones so they never bother me.
I usually get more of them on a usual hunt, but not today.
I don't remember getting even one except around the big metal in the tot lots.
I did try sizing the targets with some quick passes from a few different angles on several signals throughout the day.
Sllingshot said this thing is great at this and of course he was right.
Maybe it was this smaller coil, but I could almost see the size in my mind when it was a coin size object, and the slightly larger size of a piece of can when I ran over it.
I could almost swear that I could even tell that a tiny piece of foil was smaller than a coin in my head, which it was, but I am sure that cannot be possible.
I am not that good at this...maybe Tabdog might be but I don't think I am.
Maybe it was a dream, but all I know is everything I tried had an air of surgical precision to it.
Pinpointing, sizing, the disc knob...all of it.
My Vaq is great at this stuff too, this one is just a little better, a little tighter.
Seems like that, anyway.
Also want to add that like my Vaq, if you turn the discrimination knob up and dial down till the signal comes in, this is more accurate than doing it the way the directions say and turn the knob up till the signal fades out.
I dug a good amount of clad, even though I wasn't exactly coinshooting, and the only coins that were a little strange were a couple of nickels.
They were actually weird all day no matter where I was hunting.
Some disced out right at the 5 cent mark, but some were higher and some were lower.
One I do remember was sideways in the ground, but I still got a good signal on all of them and I have dug gold around this mark so I am digging all these signals...always.
The sun was starting to blaze, it was heating up so time to move to another place.
Next stop was a little park and tot lot on the other side of the high school.
Not so much interested in the picnic table area, even though it was covered with trees and cooler, but I have not been to the tot lot in awhile so that's where I was headed.
There was a covered pavillion near the bathrooms in this park, and I have found clad around this thing before and it was nice grassy soil and easy digging so I decided to walk around this thing once.
I have hit this area too, with all my detectors a few times, but I still managed to find some more clad.
It seems no matter how clean you think the site is, this thing will still manage to find a little more.
A few beavertails and parts of beavertails showed up here and I noticed that different parts disced out at different areas on the disc, and rarely at the tab mark, but I know from experience this is normal.
A quarter, pennies, a dime or two, I have searched this area several times with my other detectors and it is not huge but I stlll managed to find a little more clad.
Then I headed down to the tot lot.
This is one of those kinds that have a plastic interlocking boarder surrounding the area, about one foot tall sticking out of the ground and old grey wood chips about 1/4 way up...usually.
As I got closer, I noticed that something looked different.
All the chips were a nice, red cedar colored and now they were all the way up to the top of the boarder...spilling over in some spots.
Not a piece of trash laying ontop in sight.
They must have just filled this within the last day or two.
How nice that this city has it together enough even in these tough economic times to be able to afford to lay down a huge new blanket of chips here and fill it up another 8 inches to make a nice soft blanket for the kiddies.
Annnd...I'm screwed!
For the Vaq, this would be no problem.
I have picked up studs off of jeans one foot down in chips with no mineralization using it, but this one has a limit of about 6-7 inches on the solid tones so I don't think this is gonna work out so well for me, today.
I stepped in and started to swing and as I feared, well, what is that old Simon and Garfunkle song..."The sounds of silence."
No signals at all...none.
Like I said, they must have just filled this recently and it has not had a chance to fill up with much of anything, yet, and any target in the origional chips below is out of range.
I did find 2 signals here, however.
One was a scratchy, not so solid one but it did repeat and I dug down a measured 8 inches through the new chips and found a quarter laying just below the surface of the old ones.
Good to Know
Deep targets at the limit of my field might not be super solid but they do repeat.
Found a zinc penny the same way.
Not sure if it will work the same way in soil, but I will dig some real iffy signals in future hunts and see.
Sure hope it works the same.
I decided to move to a soccer field that has thousands of people milling around every summer because of a free concert put on every year with "A" list country talent as headliners.
I have been here before and I always thought there should be a bunch more stuff to find than I usually do, but the area is huge and I never gridded it so I usually just wander around when I am here hoping to get lucky.
Ryanchappel did find his first ring here when I took him to all these same sites on our first hunt together.
I know where the stage is set up and where all the food and drink venders set up too, so I concentrated on those areas and did find some more clad and some trash.
I hit a very nice loud signal and dug up 2 quarters laying together.
I can tell quarters sound different on this one, fully round and long.
Still did the sizing thing and I was getting pretty good with that by now, and xing is laserlike just like all the Tesoros, so it was very easy to zero in on the targets all day.
My Propointer brings me to the exact spot I need to dig so I never really have to make huge holes or dig big plugs.
In my first short hunt I noticed I had to supertune the Propointer more than usual to find a lot of my targets thoughout the day, which tells me the Compadre seems to be internally ground balanced pretty good to match my difficult soil.
Even with manual GB on the Vaq, most targets I seem to dig are about 2-3 inches or so, sometimes more.
With the compadre, I was digging several that were beyond the range of my PP unless supertuned and they were at least 4 inches or more.
I can't believe I can get more depth with this one than the Vaq, bit it seems that way.
I think I will send the Vaq in to Tesoro and let Rusty have at it just to ease my mind.
I wandered around this area for awhile, started to get bored and moved to my next spot.
This was a middle school with a large playground, tot lot, and a sports complex on the same site.
This is one of my go-to places and it is huge,.
That playground is where I found my first rings, just junk, lots of clad and even a dime from the Bahama's...and how that got here is a mystery.
This site also has a little fair with carny rides set up every summer, and I have started to grid this place on one end and do my slow and tight thing, but today I was just wandering.
I found some more clad, and several nickels.
Nickels are one of the things this thing seems to like, they go out at least an inch more than quarteres in air testing, and decent size gold rings get out to about here too...or close.
That I like to see.
I know this thing is a great coinshooter and all around unit, but the real reason I got it was that small and fine jewelry...especially gold.
Nice size gold comes in at about nickel, so this is nice to see.
I hit an area in the sports park that is a practice/training area for the high school baseball team.
It is behind fences but they are usually never locked.
I don't really go in here much because I don't want to take the chance of leaving any holes that the kids could catch with their cleats, but last year one of the coaches stopped me and said he lost his gold wedding ring somewhere in the area.
I asked him where and he really didn't know and he was wandering all over this place and in other areas around it when he lost it so it is pretty big.
I took his # and put it in my phone and said I will call him if I ever find it.
Every time I come to this spot I hit these specific areas for at least a half hour hoping to get lucky and find his ring for him.
Nothing so far, but maybe one day.
Did that again today, still no luck so I moved on to another tot lot near to the school.
This has pebbles in one part, chips in the other and old chips.
I have cleaned this place up too but it is pretty easy to find fresh drops so I still come back from time to time.
I found a few more coins and I noticed that I still was not getting close to the big metal legs of the equipment at all.
Watching videos from other users, they seem to get much closer before the machine signals, but my sense is turned up a lot on mine and that is fine with me.
I did try something, though.
I threw a penny down on the chips about 3 inches out from one of the large metal legs on the swings.
As I moved around the legs this unit will sound off as you move it.
Super slow it does not do this as much but I just can't go that slow so the heck with that.
I noticed as I moved around the leg I was getting constant tones but as I moved over the penny I did get a distinct double beep.
You will get this same type of signal if you move over a shallow or surface target, or if you scan two targets close to each other.
This was great information to know, even though I can search around big metal with the Propointer if needed, this double beep thing can alert me to targets in the area of this big metal stuff without having to get down on my knees so much.
Wandered around the chips for awhile, found a little more clad including another nice double quarter signal which perked up my ears...these quarter signals are something I have gotten to really know well in my head.
Kind of like when you hear the ring of a silver coin dropped on a hard surface.
It's almost instinctual at this point.
On all my detectors I can usually be sure 99.99% of the time when I roll over a quarter.
It looks like I can do that on this one too.
The heat was getting to me at this point, so I sat down for a minute on a bench under a shady tree to rehydrate.
I was getting very tired, the heat was intense, I had a pocket full of clad even though I wasn't really looking for it, and I learned a bunch throughout this hunt.
I decided to hit the playfield a little that starts just outside this tot lot and then walk back to the truck and get back home to the AC.
I remember saying to myself I wish I could find some kind of jewelry to finish off this hunt, and a minute later I dug the junk ring that came in at about the nickel mark.
Allright!
Then I said to myself I wish I could find that treasure chest full of gold coins, but no such luck on that one.
I guess I get one wish per hunt so I will be more specific in my wishing, next time.
I ran over that large carabiner thing in the tall grass on the way back, probably left over from the Carny's and their rides, a few more coins too, then all my energy was gone and I was done for the day.
Pics of the clad and trash from this hunt below.
This was fun.
I learned a ton, got some great practice in, and due to my experience with my Vaq, it all felt like second nature.
I can see that a total newbie might not not have such an easy time as I did at first, without my experience, but I also know that this one can be pretty easy to learn if you just put in a little time and dig a bunch of signals.
That's the best way to learn, you know.
Analyze all signals, then dig, dig, and then dig some more.
Luckily, that process is also a lot of fun with this mighty impressive Compadre.
HH everyone!
P.S.
I hope this thread might be the start of something like my innocent F2 review thread I posted last year.
I am thrilled to report that that thing has now grown to about 9000 views, about 50 added to this number every day, and plenty of people have told me they picked the mighty F2 as their first because of the information contained in it and are very happy that they did.
Several have surpassed me in their quality and quantity of great finds which thrills me to no end.
Since the Compadre is also one of the most recommended units for newbies, I hope that anyone that has any tips, tricks, revelations or insights will feel free to post to this thread so it can be used as an honest resource to anyone new to this, or even the veterans thinking about getting one as a specialty unit.
I will do this myself as I discover even more wonderful things as I learn them.
I think it is special, and I am very glad I have one in the arsenal.
HH
