Dancer

Midalake made a few good points. Maybe more but these stick in my mind. Results of A five day hunt with the D2 than going back couple months later finding a change in the machines reaction to the conditions. Bearing down with a machine to extract that extra 10%. With many of todays top machines it will take 300 hrs or over to come anyway near mastering. In the wild. As for learning, mastering or blundering while hunting. I got a Vista X analog shortly after they came out. So after a year of many many hrs of hunting, I thought I had it down pretty good. Ran across a video by the late Des Doone ( might have the spelling wrong) anyway came to a tip in his video that I knew I was weak in. It was like Boom the fog went away, and my nickel finds started increasing. There are more than a few guys out there that know their stuff and can get it across in a video.

So, I've been hunting since 2002. I got an example How doe's someone make a decision to get rid of a proven expensive machine for almost a clone of the machine they got rid of. Say the Deus 1 vs the Deus 2 (Just a example I've never even seen any Deus) Can the D2 improve a hunters finds enough to make the switch? Even when most guys dig the iffy signals anyway. Not picking on Deus, name most any other company and they have Clones of machines that have been around for many years. So 3 of us wade Panama City for 2-3 months in the winter. It can be quite perky in there most times. One guy beats the 2 others most years. He's younger, can hunt deeper and longer. He hunts a 20+ yr. old Excal. I run a Tarsacci other pal a Nox 600 Fairly new machines. Huh ? How would he do with our machines? About the same I bet. He can find holes out just a little too deep for us two. This guy tries his best to share his spots with us too. A real good guy. So because he can get out to the sweet spot he can out do us with his machine or ours. IFor good results #1 It's the Site #2 The hunter #3 The Machine I don't see how you can get around it.

I always found the best way (for me)to understand what the machine is saying is putting it on a lot of targets. Might say I only hunted for the easy stuff. Parks, schools and beaches. So digging a lot of targets to learn the machine. Always been a question to me is how people hunting for the hard stuff like silver in iron infested sites can really get to know their machines. I'm guessing hunting silver in over grown trashy areas sometimes means finding a very few good targets per hunt. Now I understand many hunters take far less time to understand a machine than others. A lot of hunters are still learning a machine even after digging a thousand good targets in the wild. I'm talking clad, jewelry. Going out and digging a thousand silvers or nice relics to me would take for ever to master a machine. On top of that the newer machines are far more complicated. It just seems to me that some can fully evaluate a machine in far, far less time than others. I got to admit I often learn something new every time I go out. So having comparisons with a few machines ( some borrowed ) on a handful of targets (some staged ) and then making a decision is beyond my pay grade. So hats off to the ones out there that are recognized as reliable testers.

Comparing is for the Beholder. Back when a pal and I were in our twenties we spotted a couple girls' sitting at a table. Both were smitten at the same time. So he says "I don't like yours" than he goes and sits next to the one I wasn't interested in. Gets better, after talking for about 20 minutes, everyone agreed to switch. Worked out for a couple of weeks, until we bumped into 2 new girls. Sound familiar?

The machine has done very well for me where I can take it. The biggest advange for me being water proof, and very dependable. No drips no leaks no send backs. I truly believe take all the machines mentioned above (including Tarsacci) on most any beach. The biggest difference in overall finds will because of 1. the hunter 2. luck As in all good hunting it's the site, the hunter , than the machine that counts. Gold and Silver started drying up a while back, now finding coins on most beaches is getting horrible. Ain't no machine gonna fix that. It's true though lack of marketing is a mystery.

Was just hunting a replenished beach. Lack of everything. My machine ( Tarsacci ) was doing a very good job of IDing junk. Most interesting challenge was Quarters vs Bottle caps Very similar in tone and numbers. Because of the overall lack of coins I dug everything close. But called it junk or coin ahead of digging. So I guess I was right in understanding the machine maybe little over 80% of the time. I'd say crust, bent up, hope against hope or my 73 yr old ears , and machines being machines resulted in the miss's. Fresh Stella caps were the most tricky. I hunt a beach down in Florida, if tent pegs were worth 10 cents I wouldn't bother with coins.

With out a doubt. Pick any 10 hunters ,any 10 different machines starting from $200 up to unlimited. It would be very hard to bet against any of them. Except for ruling out the guy who swings his coil up to his hip.

That 24" Chain would sure be a huge help to anyones Bottom Line. Really nice score Dewcon.

Hunting a Replenished mild salt beach. So this beach gets a ton of tourists. That's good. What's bad is it's gone just about coinless. I mean break a buck your doing something. Two hunts got a nice,Small stainless ring. And today a "Maui Jim" pair of sunglasses. Mint shape. About $250 on the internet. So I set the Tarsacci with the recommended settings in the manual. St salt 27. GB 500. Thresh. I keep at -2 Disc -8 to -2. This was done right in the room. Than any adjustments can be easily made while hunting. I didn't wade but at this beach at these settings the Tar was quiet even with wave slaps. Even beach , parking, the Arcade, drinks & food. So coins are rare. Some guys write they don't like digging Clad well this is the place.

First switched to the Standard Coil for this hunt. Good idea to lightly grease the coil fittings while I'm at it. Dicided to use the Tarsacci Headphones so removed the PigTail. Pigtail was a little stubborn after having been on there for sometime. Little shot of oil did the trick. Won't let that happen again. Refreshed myself on directions for G ballencing, and everything else I might have to change for a Salt water beach. Of course taking both coils, some spare parts just in case. Another thing making a check list to make sure I don't forget everything else I need. Like make sure my Scoop handle isn't ready to snap in half. Little things like that. We all been threw it.

I'm sure it must have happened sometime but never heard of a hunter getting Zapped in the headphones. There are plenty of stories of Shark encounters while wading. One I remember is where a hunter felt a bump in back of his leg. Turned around and it was a 4 footer. He got out OK. That would really make me think about getting back in for a while.

Two seasns ago in 2020 a hunter I know scooped up a Silver Peace dollar. It was in November. On a Gulf beach. Two months later I got one about a half mile up the beach. Can't believe they were seeded, certainly no ship wreck. This beach is resanded from time to time. So whats the story on finds like this ? As for the Kennedy Halves, many guys just coming into the game might not find that many in a life time. And the why these things happen is a good mystery.

Had my Pro for a long time. Tried a couple set ups at the beginning. After all these years, I'd bet I got less than 4hrs on anything but Pro Zero. The custom and coin modes just never grabbed me. But I can't really say why, either. Gotta be a lot of people like this. Machine offers different modes, guys stick to one or maybe two for life. Now a days, machines have near countless of modes to hunt and many never get tried out. Except for a limited number. Or am I all wrong on this ???

So been a while since the AT had some luck. Sort of a tough day only(14) coins . But most very shallow. Than just covered by grass (thought it was a quarter) snatched this 925 wedding band. It saved a not so good day. This all happened hunting around a Tot Lot at a Park.

Returned to one of my beat up sports field. Think I said somewhere it's getting hard to crack 20 coins (Clad) out of there. Started real slow ,couple of trash tickets a dime than. I got a 28-29 signal using 18 frec. Dug the plug and like a deck of cards 4 quarters 3 dimes sandwiched together. That's 7 coins from a 19 coin day. They been lost for a while, I'm sure I missed them at some time or other. Maybe I just came from a different direction, anyway they been rescued. Using the Mix mode about 90% of the time. Switched to the Big Coil cause lots of ground and it paid off. $2.98 for the hunt, not much but a lot for this site.

This morning they took my left ( Kat er Rack ) from me. Oh, it's going to be a big difference they say. Better night driving, reading, interesting sights at the beach. Their getting my right side in a week. So I'm hoping it improves eyeballing on the hunt. Which has really dropped off for me in recent years. There's a lot of Eyeball stories amongst us out there, I'd bet. ( We'll See )

Well hey, you wouldn't take a Battleship up a river to Battle small craft. Thats what River Patrol Boats or maybe Destroyers are made for. For close- in fighting along fences and Tot lot slides ect , gotta pull another tool out of the bag.

Another good test would be. How close you can detect a coin near these targets. By adjusting the settings.

It's hard sometimes to get the jest of how many different terrains that are encountered out there. Myself , in my area (mud hunting) mild soil, mowed, in season easy digging. When wading , soft sand. Mostly. Others have to hunt hot ,rocky, uneven ground, emi you name it. So there causes the need for coil covers.

Geezer, heck sometimes the best way to understand your machine is to take a handful of coins. Mix them up with your common pieces of trash you run across. Find a sand pit somewhere and fling them around. Then hunt every coin out of there. Stay away from digging the minus numbers see what happens. After you find all the coins, find all the left over trash you left. Of course have your machine ground balanced before hand. Then head out to the Wild and see how you do. Hope this helps, really I'm just a dig a good signal hunter but I do bite on those ( iffy signals ) more than enough.

One thing I noticed using Mix, If I was getting a good bong sound with +07 to +12 , it was usually a nickel sometimes a corroded penny. No luck with those numbers if there was any - signs. There are plenty of iron signals around, I just don't dig them. There's rarely a fresh drop on this field. Today there was just one. Maybe a Crow dropped it. Amazing that there are still that many nickels out there cause its getting real hard to crack 20 coins.

Oh, the only Bling top of the picture, one old lead tire weight.

Fiddled with some settings, switched to 18 freq and went Gold Ring hunting. Headed out to one of my favorite sites, a football field off a Middle School. Since 2002 I've dug over a thousand clad coins, some silver rings, couple silver quarters and one Honker of a Gold Band out of there. It has been dorment for quite a few years now, even the trash is scarce. Anyways going out hoping for something Gold or at least break a Buck. In between dead spots I started digging +07 ,bouncing up to +12 .....Started getting red clad nickels. Nine nickels out of just 23 coins. Did dig 2 pull tabs couple small pieces of alum between those numbers. Every time I'd hit one of those nickel signals I would dream this gotta be a ring. Nope Nickels all nine of them. I believe +07 to +12 was caused by variances in depth, laying on its side and one was laying with a penny. Also I think 18 freq, the numbers trend a little higher. 9 Nickels, $1.25 is actually a good hunt out of that field. Well keep banging around nickels the Gold will turn up someday. (Better hurry tho )

Ridge, sounds like wade hunting season. Bet you know a swing rope or two over a lake or stream somewhere. Usually a hot spot. Watch out for the Water Moccasins !

Geezer, yep it would have been worse if it happened at the beginning of the hunt with no spare. ( I speak from experence )