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General or Miscellaneous Tips
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Recently recovered two 10 inch wheaties that would initially not repeat in a 90 degree turn. Used to the CZ5 but was using the CZ7A which goes to 10 inches on the depth reading, CZ5 only goes to 8 inches...Now if I get a solid signal in one direction only hit that pinpoint button and if it hits 10 inches, really play around with it and if I get any kind of repeatable signal from another direction go for it. Seems the extreme depth has something to do with repeatabilty. Usually an 8 inch signal will repeat with no problem. Hard to tell with the earlier analog models as an 8 inch depth could easily be several inches more as it maxes out at 8 inches. By the way got three additional wheaties and a 18 and 36 merc all in the 6 to 8 inch range.Don't know if the CZ7A is better on iron or I have conquered the problem as I have only dug one large corroded nail in the last month....Dan(Pa)
1.) Sometimes we find a few goodies in a small area. Have you ever done this and found no more in that vicinity. Next time: Go to the pinpoint or all metal mode and slowly grid a 5'x 5' square.
a. If you get a signal then switch to discriminate and play around with it.
b. If you get no signals then move on--(a barren area)
c. If you get lots of signals ---chances are there are some more goodies mixed in with a little trash (target masking). Dig a few just for the heck of it (you might be surprised).
The grass is not allways greener----if you hit a hot spot ----slow down and investigate.
It took me a long time to learn this so I hope it helps a beginner or two. If it does let us know what you found. Good Luck!
2.) Run your unit with no discrimination and the low tones
will usually come through before the high coin tone.
3.) I'm a newbie and have been having lots of fun working the
many nearby parks with the sensitivity set at 6-8 to maximize
the potential of my CZ. Your post about a sensitivity setting
of 2 inspired me to retry around the iron at a nearby park I worked
a few days ago. Results? As fast as I could dig, I recovered 14
pennies, 7 nickels, 3 dimes and 2 quarters!
4.) Try sensitivity at 2, it will aid in discrimination and cut down on masking when target is next to iron.
5.) Do not run your sensitivity above 4 to start with. It sees just fine set there until you get used to the machine.
6.) Run your sensitivity at 6 or 7 and you won't loose much depth.
7.) I live in Florida with very salty, sandy, humus soil. I
found that I had to turn my sensitivity down to between 2-4 or
I fought "false signals" all day long.
8.) When pinpointing, back off the target, push the pinpoint,
then wait a couple of seconds before sweeping back over the target,
otherwise your target will evaporate and leave you bewildered.
It takes a couple of seconds for the detector to make the transition
from disc to all metal.
9.) To learn more, plant a coin garden. Plant some coins from
6-8 inches deep. Listen to the signals they produce. Plant some
at angles and do the same. After they have been in the ground
for a long period, they may read differently than when initially
planted. Spend a little time daily or weekly in your garden studying
your signals. Alter your settings. Try hunting at discrimination.
It will help you determine if the machine is reading iron off
the side of the coil as you approach an iron target,
or if you are getting a true bounce when directly over the target.
10.) Normally you should set the sensitivity to the highest level you can without getting a lot of false signals.
11.) Volume should be set at 5 to let you know when a target is deep, not a weak signal boosted.
12.) It's a fact in this hobby that if you want to really excel as a metal detectorist, you have to start digging a lot of targets. At least, dig all high solid repeatable signals with a CZ without concern of the meter and you will be surprised at what pops out. It is sometimes because there are so many conductive metals that fall into the high range. To me having a unit that ID's nickel with a high tone is a great feature, hence so many nickel and surprise finds.
13.) To properly ID any target, slow down! The CZ's ID more accurately at a very slow sweep. When swept in a moderate/fast mode the tone id is not fully locking on. When slowed to about 1.5sec/ft, it locks on with no problem.
14.) To properly ID a target you must have it under the center of the coil. This becomes more critical the deeper the target is. Off center targets will tend to give false signals.
15.) When you are working in the trash with the 5" coil that's when you really have to slow down!
16.) I have the CZ-7, and it works great in mineralized soil. I sometimes have to turn the sensitivity down to limit false readings, but still have great depth.
17.) Take care to ground balance well, sweep with a relatively slow speed and don't discriminate out the iron. Deep silver will ID as iron and high conductivity coin at times.
18.) I suggest that you do not use the audio boost so that
you will be able to tell that you are dealing with a deep signal.
19.) Another thing to try in a real trashy area is to use the
five-inch coil, and discriminate everything up to coins, even
the nickels. You will be surprised on how many silver dimes you
can find this way. I have found them between the five and six
inch range this way.
20.) I saw a fellow's find for this year, and it was in the pounds of old silver. I ask how he did this, as this park is well metal detected. He uses an 8" coil and sets his discrimination on coins only. He is very methodical in the way he covers the ground and uses small flags to point out questionable targets only to come back with the 5" coil to make sure what the questionable target really is. This way ...he is not bothered with changing coils all the time. He covers the areas like an archaeologist would in a grid fashion.
21.) For a while I wasn't finding much, then I got a very faint signal while I swept the coil in several directions. The depth indication was 6" so I decided to check. What a surprise it was to dig up a good 1906 Barber half. I had GB set on 5, sensitivity at 3 and discrimination at zero.
22.) Just got the response from Fisher on my sensitivity question.
I asked, "Is the sensitivity linear or non-linear?"
Linear settings means "1" represents 10%, "2"
means 20% and so on. But they said, "No, its not linear,
it's non-linear." It just means that when they designed the
1266-X or CZ series a "1" setting is the lowest response
and by turning it up to "10", you get the highest response.
As you turn the knob or setting higher the sensitivity increases
by amounts that may be equal to each other or not, for example
a setting of "2" is not 50% of "4" setting,
but a "4" setting is just an increase over the "2"
setting by an arbitrary amount. So what does this all matter?
I wanted to find out how much sensitivity I was exactly using.
Everyone benefits from knowing
how their detector works, so its fair to say when you want to
cut down on masking from iron, use a setting of 2 or 3, slow your
sweep (in order to let your detector recover faster between targets).
23.) I have added a CZ-7a Pro to my 1235X and I agree with the sensitivity being really critical on the 7a. I have just begun learning all the features of the 7a but it appears to me that the "old" 1235x could pinpoint much better than the new machine. I'm backing down on the sensitivity and won't give up till I get it right.
24.) Many times I've used the tips posted on the forums to help on my learning curve, but I've also learned not to totally rely on them. In this MD'ing business there are many variables, even weird at times. By going against the grain sometimes you will be pleasantly surprised!
25.) Just listening to the audio sound can eliminate a lot of the false signals and iron signals. Takes some practice.
26.) I think one key to success is to go very slowly and listen for the faint or erratic ticks from your detector.
27.) There will always be stories of a goodie that read as a common type of junk or coin, but that's because target ID can only narrow the odds down, not guarantee ID.
28.) Make sure that you are sweeping at a relatively slow speed and when you run into wheat pennies, slow down even more. There is bound to be silver there, although fewer of them, as more pennies made it to the ground than silver.
29.) Make sure you overlap your sweep pattern.
30.) Being properly ground balanced is very important. If at times you can not GB in normal mode, switch to the salt mode. This has helped me, especially on damp, humid mornings when the ground is wet.
31.) I personally run my volume at 5, my discrimination at 1, and my sensitivity around 7. In this mode, when I'm properly ground balanced, I don't often dig nonrepeatable signals.
32.) I hunt around a lot of powerlines and with the 8" coil, I get a fair amount of chatter. With the 5" coil I get none.
33.) Be prepared to dig a lot of junk for awhile. That is part of the learning process. Lots of people never get past that stage and quit. Hang in there and it becomes addictive.
34.) Autotune is a very sensitive wide scan all metal, motion search mode. You can use autotune or target ID mode. When in autotune, target ID does not work. In the Fisher operating manual it's recommended that you use autotune on black or gray sand beaches or highly mineralized soil. I've tried this at the beach and it works great.
35.) It's my understanding that most experienced treasure hunters prefer to manually ground balance their detectors. It's very easy with all the CZ's.
36.) The autotune mode on the CZ machines is an all-metal-motion search mode. When in this mode, you will not get a visual ID indication of the target. You will only get an audio indication, which will only be one tone, not the three tone audio you receive in the discriminate mode.
37.) I have read that the CZ machines do better in wet ground
than they do in dry ground.
