Bearing in mind it is a very different beast to the EuroACE, but has some distinct similarities in terms of the "Iffy" signals.
Perhaps I was hoping for too much (or believed the hype...), but after reading the manual before purchase, and then carrying out some trial runs before going into the field, I was pretty confident that I (listening) and the machine (through it's VDI) could recognise iron, coins, different metals etc. and I have to say that for about 75% of the targets I and the machine get it right.
I now only operate the machine in single tone, 18KHz, Pbox high.
For example lumps of ferrous (such as big nails, screws, and larger items such as horsehoe parts) generally indicate iron, and show -16 on the VDI and have a broken start and end to the audio- so do not get dug.
Flat bits of iron - such as sheet metal fragments laying flat will indicate -17 in one direction, and +85 at 90 degrees sweep, but the hodograph correctly indicates thin ferrous.
Items such as the buckle below (at 7 inches depth) indicate a target ID of around +50 and a nice straight peak on the display. Roman nummus come in around +65 from 6 inches depth...
So far so good, BUT, a copper alloy button (size of a 10p) at 4 inches gave a cracking clean signal one way, crackly signal at 90 degrees but no VDI information at all - I almost did not dig it!
Also I sometimes get belting signals from small ferrous, but no VDI info, and also crackly weak signals - but still above the background chatter that do prove to be small ferrous, or other junk, but on occassion broken remains of cartridge cases (corroded and thin).
So, after this long winded diatribe, what I am asking is this - is this typical of detecting pasture land (I know one area is particularly contaminated with junk), do other detectors behave the same or similar (the EuroACE for example will also on occassion have me digging ferrous junk, and certainly does not find as many small items at depth as the GM)?
I am generally very happy with the machine, especially now I have the settings more or less sorted for best recovery/depth compromise, and I know it is all too easy to look at youtube vids and think that a different machine gives far better results, but a little reassurance would be great!
Settings in case anyone else is using one and interested:
18KHz
PBOX high
Threshold - as high as you can get away with - 25 on my pasture permission, down to 21 in really trashy area
Gain 0-1 too unstable at 2
Mono audio
Discrim depth 5 (not the default 8 as this can lead to missing small bronze I have found)
Iron discrim is set just above the iron indicator line on the VDI - could probably go a little higher but still playing.
Final tip - make sure the coil connector is tight and solid otherwise it will chatter like crazy (I mean really tight); and swing slow on pasture - this machine can really pick tiny deep targets out, but patience is needed.
Thanks all
