This is written
mainly for beginners. Hopefully all will find it useful. If you have any tips of your own that you would like to see added
to the list, please email them to me at bedfordbob@embarqmail.com
# 1 ) Read the Manual ! I'm as guilty as anyone else on this one. When I get a new
Minelab machine its open the box, put it together, shove the batteries in it and run out the door. After
you get over that. Take the time to read your Minelab manual and learn what the machine will do.
Many of these Minelab machines have programs that are Pre-Set and ready to go. All of these Minelab machines offer you a wide
variety of settings for hunting in different situations.
#2 ) Practice, Sounds and is simple. Get a variety of different
targets. Sample targets should include a rusty nail, coins ( silver too ), Aluminum pulltabs, a Gold ring, and if Relic Hunting
maybe a musket or mini-ball and a horseshoe. Set these targets on the ground, sweep, listen to the tone, see what the display
(if your machine has one ) is saying. The best thing you can do if you have the space is to make a " Test Garden " Plant
the targets at different depths. Note Targets that have been in the
ground a long time produce the halo effect. Hence targets that have been in the ground a longer time will be able to be detected
at deeper depths.
#3) Make yourself up a backpack or bag that contains the
following :
a) Extra batteries and/or
battery pack. This should be for every possible battery need. For your pinpointer as well as your detector.
b) An Extra Trowel or Digger
c) First Aid kit, you never know
d) Tiolet paper in a ziplock type bag
e) Bottle of water
f) Some type of hard candy. Especially is you or anyone else
you detect with is a diabetic. A low blood sugar is bad news when your way back in the woods.
g) Extra set of Headphones
h) Tool Kit & wire ties
i) Anything else you can think of that you might need ie.
rain gear, large plastic bag etc. Also put into the vehicle a large
shovel, pick or pry bar. Sooner or later you will have a need for one of these. Once at an old cellar hole there was a very
old fallen down hollow tree. I got a signal in the hollow part of a tree. A Cache had already been recovered in the area.
I dug as deep as I could go with my hand tool. Had to go home and get a pick and shovel. The signal sounded iron but I wasn't
going to pass on it especially at that depth. Dug way down and found 2 Yankee axe heads. No Cache, But could have been.
