Pinpoint And Depth: Necessary Or Not?

[strick]

The Pinpointer and depth meter on the 7000 suck so I never use them. I use the pinpointer on the 3030 sometimes for deep targets but have grown out of using the pinpointer as much as I used to when I first started detecting.  Never look at depth that much either...I've grown more into a beep and dig guy which is probably why I still dig some deep rusted pipes lol

 

strick

[klunker]

 A lot of the time I handle pin pointing and depth with an excavator. The 7000 is absolutely horrible for pinpointing because it will give you such a big signal on very small gold. With the ML 705 you could dig a coin sized hole. It's very accurate without using the pinpoint mode. I can't imagine any use for a depth mode- your either going to recover the target or you aren't.

[Steve Herschbach]

Well again, it is a feature for coin hunting only and the feature only exists on machines that might be used for coin detecting as well as prospecting. The Gold Bug 2 has no pinpoint or depth feature as it is pure prospecting machine. The Gold Bug Pro does offer those features, but not for the prospector. Many people coin hunt with the machine. The intention is to minimize damage to lawns in urban areas. So it is kind of an apples and oranges thing.

[DDancer]

Hehh, trying to compare a Zed, or any PI for that matter *disregard to the claim of super VLF*, to a coin hunter is like putting a lion in a shark tank and seeing who wins.  There are hybrids in the VLF species that incorporate coin/prospecting abilities.  However there is a vast difference in species of machine, VLF verses Zed/PI, and pin pointing is not a characteristic of the Zed/PI species.  Nor do I think it'll ever be achievable.  One can hope; but honestly in prospecting machines, regardless of species, pin pointing is a pretty moot option.  For reasons that Steve has made very well in my opinion.

The cost index for the feature is pretty minimal.  The cost to the user in added data to dig/not dig can be invaluable.  Try using old BFO's for a while :)  Make you want an old Bounty hunter in a heart beat.

addendum : Pinpointing regardless of the machine is an operator function/skill.  Great to have as a noob but seldom used as one gets to know the nature of the beast they are running.