Help, Please...

[riki727]

Hi All:

I have a Bounty Hunter Pioneer 202 and am having difficulty getting the hang of tuning out what I don't want to detect and also pinpointing objects. I went to a local children's playground yesterday and am having trouble with the following scenarios:

1. Because all the playground equipment is metal, my detector goes crazy when I get within 2 feet of it. I press the "all notch" mode which is supposed to detect only coins (I think) but it still seems to pick up the playground equipment....I get constant erratic high beeps as if the detector can't figure out if there's a quarter or dime. How can I discriminate further to tune out the equipment but still find things?
2. I will pass over an area (away from the equipment) and get a constant signal but each time my detector passes over the area the pitch of the signal will change and so will the depth (usually between 4" and 6", sometimes jumping to 8" and then back to 4"). I dig but just can't seem to find anything.
3. I will get a seemingly pinpointed signal, start digging, not find anything, wave my detector over the hole, and the signal has changed location by several inches. But when I dig there, the signal either disappears or seems to move again. (I'm very careful about the soil contents - or in this case mulch - I remove from any hole I dig - I place them on a plastic sheeting and move them a short distance away - I wave my detector over it with every shovel full so that way I know if I've dug up the object or not).

Sorry it's such a long-winded group of questions, but I'm starting to get frustrated. There is so much of the playground I haven't searched yet because I keep getting waylaid by the above scenarios and the very short time I have to detect runs out.

Thanks!!

[JCWhite]

Hi Riki,
I have a Pioneer 202 that I bought for my grandson and It is ok for finding coins. In a playground area when you get within 2 feet of the metal on the play equipment this detector will be agravating. Sometimes I have luck turning my back on the large pices of steel/iron but can never get too close. When I am not near large metal pieces the 202 works ok but like any detector you have to learn what is trash and what is a coin. I realize that this is not a very good answer but if you will bury a couple different coins about 2 to 4 inches in your yard you will see how this detector acts and then get back to the playground. In summary, this unit can find coins but does not do a great job of filtering out trash noises and interference so you have to put up with a bunch of beeping in trashy areas. Hope this helps and maybe others with more experience can add information here. Whatever you do don't get discouraged. When I first started, I was very frustrated trying to figure out what the darn thing was tellling me...

[bigbillinsc]

when you get within 12 to 24 inches of that big iron in playground equipment its gone read as overload on your detector. i have a worse problem in the totlllots i hunt. all the metal equipment is grounded and they are all tied together underground with flat braided copper wire. every 6ft is another copper rod driven into the ground and it is as big as your thumb. it took weeks of detecting this lot to get it mapped out. my solution was simple.... turn sensitivity way down. most clad and jewelry will only be down a couple of inches in the wood chips any how.dont mess with discrimination. you may miss a small ladies ring (or a big gold one). in situations like that your best bet in sense control and not disc.

most all of my jewlery i have found has come out of tot lots at less than 4 inches in the wood chips. so that shows me i dont need to look as deep with my machine.

but the most important part of all is learn your machine. i have had my prizm for almost a year now. and the 6000 has been up and running for a ouple of months. i still air test these machines regulary. almost habitually. i shake everything under my coil from pennies and all types of clad. to nails screws pull tabs cans and yes my wedding band and my left hand that full of surgicall screws (20 screws stainless and titanium) this may seem as waiste but i not only look at display but listen close to the tones. if something is dif tonight than it was last week i wanna know why. plus it is a very quick way to learn what your machine is telling you. try the above procedure with dif setting on your notch and disc. dif settings on sense control. i know that air and ground conditions are dif. but if you pay real close attention to the machine during your air test you will be able to make a better educated decicsion when it comes time to dig.

i hope i havent bored ya with long drawn out response. but im just throwin in my 2 cents. i am wanting to upgrade to dfx. money is tight and limited. so untiil i can upgrade i need to make do with what i have. and since they arent top of line machines i need to take advantage and learn them as best as i can.

Good luck Maam. i hope this helps ya out. your clad is going to a great cause and i want you to find plenty of it. Plus treasure you never dreamed of

HAPPY HUNTIN

[INDY]

The ACE 250, with the sniper coil, will get you right next to the playground equipment !! You can also go under metal bleachers.
Having the ace250, with a sniper coil, has made it possible for my son to enjoy detecting, before because of his wheelchair, detectors would just sound off consantly.

[julieburger]

I am waiting for minelab to make a snipercoil for the x70. I still get some of the issues you have Riki. Especially the moving signals.

[bigbillinsc]

it those "WORMS" moving your targets

sorry i couldnt resist that one..

Speaking of which i need to go post to that thread to keep it alive

Happy Huntin one and ALL

[julieburger]

As Leslie says God love a duck.... I need that sniper. Oh and Bill I caught those worms moving my silver coins. That is why I can't find them LOL.

[riki727]

Everyone for your wonderful advice. Bill - I'm beginning to think "my" playground may be grounded the same way yours is, so maybe mapping it out will work for me, too. And it makes sense that "finds" would be closer to the surface, so I'm guessing those blips at 8" could be from the playground structural foundation.

My machine seems to have only 3 tones, low...medium...high, so I'm constantly checking the display to see which category it's falling under. But when I was finding clad in the playground my detector was spot on as to whether it was a penny, nickel or quarter. But it makes sense not to discriminate...who knows what I've missed. I'm looking forward to going back next time and taking my time and really listening to my machine as you suggested.

And Chuck....I've only had this detector for a month and it was a birthday gift from my kids, so if I upgraded this quickly they may get hurt feelings. But as soon as I'm ready for that upgrade...I'll definitely give you a holler!!

Thanks again!!

oh...and by the way...it's MOLES moving the targets around here!!

[mlamp20412]

My BH SSII will sound off as well when next to large metal, such as playground equipment. May be the BH coil design or shielding? Try reducing the sensitivity, as Bill stated, most of his finds in the tot-lot are shallow. They do make a 4" nugget coil for BH detectors that may work with your machine for $30 or so. Might be an option if you are keeping the 202 for a while, check compatibility.

If the soil is highly mineralized you can get signals that seem to move around. Once you disturb the area by digging the MD moves on to the next highest area of mineralized soil and sounds off. This can keep to digging a few inches to the right or left all day or until you hit less mineralized soil, then it disappears. Reducing sensitivity can help as well as "x-ing" the target to pinpoint and dig only signals repeatable from multiple directions. If it changes from low to high signal erratically it may be irregularly shaped trash, foil or highly oxidized metal.

This is all based on my experience with my BH SSII.

HH-