Posted originally at www.findmall.com by Andy Sabisch

Andy Sabisch is an avid detectorist, writer and reviewer who has contributed to the hobby for years.  I ran across this post over at Findmall.com, one of the largest detecting hobby sites on the web.  I was so impressed I asked Andy for permission to post it here…he graciously consented.

PLEASE NOTE: This is NOT intended to discourage posting…on the contrary, post all ya want!  Andy’s point is to be careful WHAT you post… don’t give away your sites, be careful about posting historically important finds, etc.

************************************************

Over the years I have seen many posts that leave me scratching my head wondering what the person was thinking or should I say not thinking when they hit the final ENTER key. With some of the controversy that has come up on this forum and others lately, I wanted to pass on some points to consider when you are thinking of posting something . . . . do with it what you may:

Read the rest of this entry »

One of the more important things everyone needs to do to be a successful treasure hunter…

is to know the detector your using, know how to set it, know how to tweak it and understand what it’s telling you.

Before I start explaining what I mean let me say that anyone, using any detector, in any hunting condition can find good stuff. It’s just a matter of how long will you hunt and how many bad hunts will you need to endure before the good targets show up.

Knowing how to setup your detector is important, if you have a manual ground balance and can’t balance it well your not going to find as much or  hunt as deep as you could. Threshold, discrimination, gain, even the volume plays a roll in how effective the machine will be for any given condition. Get to know what each knob or button does to the way your detector reacts, and just when you feel you have it mastered play with the settings a bit more, you may be surprised what else you learn about your detector and how it reacts to a different setting.

Understanding what your detector is telling you, by the way no matter what you think or what someone tells you  your detector doesn’t lie to you, even when it’s confused about what’s under the coil there will still be subtle differences in the way it reacts to different targets. There will be a time when you can tell a pull tab from a gold ring , most of the time, just by the subtle difference.

Each detector type, brand, model, individual detector and each person swinging the detector is different. What works for one may or may not work for another.

OK so now you may ask “how do I get to know all this stuff about my detector? Do I read the instructions? Do I read a book about it? Do I watch a video? Talk with someone that metal detects? Search the net?”  The answer is Yes to all of them but the most important, no the only way your ever going to know your detector is to get out and use it, than use it some more. Experience has no shortcuts, that I know of anyway.

The more you know your detector the more stuff you find. It wont take too long before your hearing the whisper of a target below the coil that you didn’t hear before.

*reprinted by permission of First Texas and Dave Johnson

File: El Paso Chapter GPAA talk 12 Feb 08 Dave Johnson minor update 25 march 09

The History of Metal Detectors, with Emphasis on Gold Prospecting

Dave Johnson, Chief Designer @ FTP & Fisher

Good evening! My name is Dave Johnson, and I’m the Chief Design Engineer for the world’s largest manufacturer of hobby type metal detectors located right here in El Paso. The brand names we manufacture include Fisher Research Lab, Bounty Hunter, Teknetics, and a number of private labels. I’ve been designing metal detectors for 27 years for several different companies, so there’s half a chance that if you swing a metal detector, I had something to do with it.

My presentation this evening is on the history of metal detectors, with an emphasis on gold machines. I’m not here to sell my company’s products, but it’d be downright discourteous of me to show up and not bring some literature and a Gold Bug 2 to demo. So after the meeting if anyone is interested I’ll be happy to talk with you.

* * * * *

Read the rest of this entry »

First no detector.., then no finds.., then gold!

What A Difference

A Day Makes!

By Tony Mullen

Minted at Charlotte, North Carolina in 1847, this gorgeous Coronet $5 gold piece was the find of a lifetime for Tony Mullen, now a proud member of W&ET’s exclusive “Gold coin Club”

Every treasure hunter has probably had this nightmare. You finally get permission to hunt a particular place that you have been eyeing for quite some time, and then something happens. Something you could never imagine is about to ruin your “perfect opportunity.” Well, that almost happened to me one weekend in March 2001. I hunt with a Fisher CZ-7A and had sent it in to Fisher for some planned maintenance, figuring that I still had time before the weather broke and the hunting season kicked in. I expected that, with transit time included, I would be without a detector for about two weeks. My wife Teresa figured that out, too, and the Honey-do list was a sight to behold!
The first week was not too bad. I was steadily chipping away at “the list.” Then it happened. My father, Frank Mullen, called me from Virginia. He had just turned up an 1852 silver 3 cent piece, having received permission to search a site that dates back to the l770s. We had been watching that place for quite some time. Needless to say,
____________
The look on
Teresa ‘s face was priceless. She just looked at me and asked, “Is it real?”
____________

Read the rest of this entry »

Copyright Bill Ladd 2007

Contents not to reproduced without written permission of Bill Ladd

“Learn Your Metal Detector”


By Bill Ladd

One important thing I’ve picked up along the way in this great hobby of ours is to never scoff at, or doubt the unit a fellow detectorist is swinging. This is especially true when a fellow hobbiest is carrying a detector some would consider “cheaper” or “outdated” technology. I’ve seen far too many times these wily old vets do just as well, if not better, than all the competition in the same field that day. Why? Well, as we all know, sometimes it’s just the luck of walking over the right spot. But more so, I believe it’s because the detectorist with the older unit has years of experience with his particular machine than the others. Even though his detector may not be digital, multi-frequency, or full of all the latest “bells and whistles” as some of the more expensive modern units, the user knows it. He or she knows it like the back of their hand; just knows the “sounds”. This hobbiest has trained his ears….it talks to he or she so to speak. Perhaps the other treasure hunters were trying out a new brand of detector that day in hope of attaining some kind of edge. But, new detector users often have to struggle though a tough learning curve of several hours with all of the advanced tones, notching, and digital readouts and programming common on today’s top units. Many of us feel new users need a minimum of 30 hours in the field to really grasp all that a new metal detector is trying to “tell” you. A “newbie” to the hobby may need more than twice that.

Read the rest of this entry »