Finding Rings with the Minelab Sovereign and Excalibur along with other hints and tips... A Study of the Minelab Broad Band Spectrum Technology in use...
Copyright © 1997 Mike Keener and Otto Feiler All Rights Reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part or in any form without written permission of the publisher.
Table of Contents Introduction 4 About The Writers 5 A Little History Lesson 5 Accessories 7 Set-Up Options 9 Discrimination Controls 10 Ready Set Go 11 Advanced Tuning 13 Ring Guide To Discrimination 14 Sumary of Discriminator and DTI-II Meter Readings 26 Detecting Problems And Possible Solutions 27 Techniques And Methods 30 Closing Thoughts 33 Code of Ethics 34
Introduction Our goal in writing this booklet is to provide the Minelab Sovereign and Excalibur user with information regarding the recovery of rings along with some of the finer points in getting the most from your Minelab machine. It is also our intent to share some hints and other tips from our years of experience in the metal detecting hobby. We hope that you find this information useful both in the recovery of rings, and in dealing with some of the more problem targets encountered in the field.
About the Writers Mike Keener and Otto Feiler together have more than 45 years of experience in metal detecting. Mike has been a Sovereign user since they were first introduced in 1991 and during that time has watched the machine evolve into a top contender in the race for the best. Otto has only been using the Minelab Broad Band Spectrum technology since May of 1996 but has found a winner in these new and exciting detectors.
The responses to a target sounds the same on both machines. It does take time to get used to the sounds and to learn the way the detector “talks” to you and what it is “saying”. Once you do, you will find they have a lot to say. You will also like the fact that you don’t have to ground balance these machines and they also are not an “automatic” ground balance machine either. Instead, they take a kind of “snapshot” of what the ground “looks” like.
Accessories Minelab Accessories * 8 inch Coinsearch coil 8 inch Seasearch coil no picture available Sovereign Meter 11 inch round * Note: All searchcoils shown are of the “Double-D” design.
Accessories SunRay Accessories * S-12 12” round Ultra Depth S-5 5.5” round Intruder S-1 1” Electronic Target Probe DTI-II Meter * Note: All searchcoils shown are of the “Double-D” design.
Set-Up Options The Sovereign XS has two dealer set internal setup options. 1) Silent or audible threshold in the discriminate mode. This is a matter of personal preference but Minelab recommends using an audible threshold and so do we. Threshold is explained in more detail in the Techniques & Methods section of this book. 2) Single or Multiple Tone Target ID. Minelab recommends using a Multiple Tone Target ID as do we. This system has the audio increase in tone as the targets increase in conductivity.
Discrimination Controls There are two discriminator controls on the Sovereign. A Disc control knob and a Notch control knob. There also is a switch that allows you to select between the disc or pinpoint modes. The Excalibur has the same controls as the Sovereign with the exception that it does not have a Notch control. The Disc and Notch controls only function while in the discriminate mode. The discriminate mode will always reject ferrous objects and will always accept the U.S.
Ready Set Go You would be wise to read your owner’s manual several times. As you hunt and then read the manual you will pick up more of the information needed to really become proficient with these units. Although you really need to sit down in a quiet place and read your manual. We have included a couple of fast and easy set-up options to get you out the door in a hurry. We assume that you are using the Sovereign XS or Excalibur in the factory default mode settings. i.e.
For Excalibur users, turn the Volume control full clockwise and turn the Threshold/On-Off control clockwise and adjust for a slight sound. Don’t forget to always wear headphones. Adjust Volume to a comfortable level, if needed, keeping in mind that you could fail to hear faint signals if the volume is too low. Sweep the searchcoil as close to, or touching, the ground at all times while sweeping side to side at about 1 to 1.5 seconds per foot.
Advanced Tuning We recommend that new users learn the basics of their machine before attempting to use the advanced tuning techniques. Set the Disc and Notch controls to your desired settings. Set the all-metal/discriminate switch to all-metal. Pinpoint on the Excalibur. Turn the Volume control all the way clockwise. Set the Threshold control to a slight hum. Slowly sweep the search coil on the ground, side to side, while keeping the searchcoil as close to the ground as possible.
Ring Guide To Discrimination The rings that we hunt for are made from various metals and are found in a variety of shapes and sizes. Because of the variety of rings, they do not display any consistent pattern of conductivity. Factors such as metal and alloy content, diameter, metallic surface and shape, and the orientation of the ring in the ground crosses the entire conductive and non-conductive range of metal.
A couple of notes: Other than the rings that registered iron in the previous frame, no rings were found that would have been rejected with a discriminator setting from all the way counter-clockwise, or 1, to number 3 on the control. In other words, with your discriminator set to 3 or less, all of the rings would have been found. The rings that registered iron in the previous frame were found by digging signals that made the threshold go silent.
The above rings would be rejected with a discrimination setting of number 6 or higher on the dial. Of the above 28 rings, 13 or 46% were gold and all registered 80 - 89 on the DTI-II meter. The gold bridge in the upper left corner was also found at this setting. These rings and jewelry items would be rejected at a discrimination setting of number 7 or higher on the dial. Of the 18 rings, 12 or 67% were gold and all registered 90 - 98 on the DTI-II meter.
These rings would be rejected at a discrimination setting of 8 or higher on the dial. Of the 25 rings in this frame, 14 or 56% were gold and all registered 99 - 106 on the DTI-II meter. No other gold jewelry was found at this setting. These rings and pendant would be rejected at a discrimination setting of number 9 or higher on the dial. Of the 38 rings, 16 or 42% were gold and all registered 107 - 116 on the DTI-II meter.
These rings would be rejected at a discrimination setting of 10 or higher on the dial. Of the 34 rings, 16 or 47% were gold and all registered 117 - 125 on the DTI-II meter. One more piece of gold jewelry was found at this setting. These rings would be rejected at a discrimination setting of 11 or higher on the dial. Of the 38 rings, 9 or 24% were gold and all registered 126 - 136 on the DTI-II meter. No other gold jewelry was found at this setting.
These rings would be rejected at a discrimination setting of 12 or higher on the dial. Of the 49 rings, 16 or 33% were gold and all registered 137 - 144 on the DTI-II meter. One other piece of gold jewelry was found at this setting and the first sterling silver ring These rings would be rejected at a discrimination setting of 13 or higher on the dial. Of the 51 rings, 16 or 31% were gold and all registered 145 - 153 on the DTI-II meter. One more sterling silver ring was found at this setting. .
These rings would be rejected at a discrimination setting of number 14 or higher on the dial. Of the 78 rings in this frame, 16 or 21% were gold, 3 were sterling silver and all registered 154 - 160 on the DTI-II meter. These rings would be rejected at a discrimination setting of number 15 or higher on the dial. Of the 89 rings, 20 or 22% were gold, 10 were sterling silver, and all registered 161 - 169 on the DTI-II meter.
These rings would be rejected at a discrimination setting of number 16 or higher on the dial. Of the 60 rings, only 7 or 12% were gold, 12 were sterling silver, and all registered 170 - 171 on the DTI-II meter. These rings would be rejected at a discrimination setting of 17 on the dial. Of the 16 rings shown, 2 or 13% were gold, 4 were sterling silver, and all registered 172 on the DTI-II meter.
These rings and the rings on the following page, were accepted at a discrimination setting of 17 on the dial. Of the 410 rings shown on these two pages, 9 or 2% were gold, 268 were sterling silver and all registered 173 - 180 on the DTI-II meter.
Of the 1069 rings tested, the 410 rings found with the discrimination setting all the way clockwise represent 38% of all the rings found.
The rings in the above frame would not lock-on due to a lack of continuity or shape. In other words, the rings were either broken at the sizing joint, didn’t make a complete circle or the actual shape of the ring prevented a meter lock. Fifteen of the 49 rings shown were sterling silver. Out of the 314 sterling silver rings tested, 15 didn’t lock-on, and all but 31 of the rest fell into the number 17 setting on the discrimination dial and would always be accepted.
The balance of the book will be devoted to identifying common problems encountered while metal detecting, along with suggestions of possible solutions to these problems. Note: When the discrimination control is set all the way clockwise, everything on the meter between 173 and 180 will ring in if the meter is calibrated properly for the coil being used.
Summary of Discriminator and DTI-II Meter Readings 47% of all rings found were either Gold or Sterling Silver. 70% of all the rings, 46% of all the Gold rings, and 95% of all the Sterling Silver rings would be found if you just keep your discriminator control set no higher than 12 on the dial.
Detecting Problems And Possible Solutions No matter how good you get, sometimes you will have a questionable target signal that turns out to be good while you have a good signal that turns out to be junk (like an iron nail). Then there's the target you can't find, it's there but nevertheless you can't find it, but it's still there. How about the one that's there then it's not.
at 3 feet, a large piece of a cast iron stove at 4 feet, and a larger piece of tin sheet metal at 4 1/2 feet using the standard 8 inch Coinsearch coil. Sometimes all a person has to do is go another inch deeper to find the target. Case 2: You have a signal that seems contradictory, having both good and bad characteristics.
Solution to case 4: Usually it's a coin on edge or perpendicular to the coil and will be found between the two holes. If you swing the coil back and forth and the coin edge is going perpendicular to your sweep path, the audio response will be two closely spaced beeps. The coin on angle will have a pinpoint error and will be found in the middle of those two beeps. Case 5: You get a weak but positive response and a lock-on with good tone while searching in the discriminate mode.
Techniques and Methods You can obtain an additional 1 to 3 inches more depth by turning the sensitivity control to just off the auto position while detecting over lightly mineralized soil or sand. This might cause the detector to become unstable and produce false signals. The detector will also have a tendency to ID more nails and elongated iron as good targets. If this occurs try following the steps outlined in the Advanced Tuning section.
Make sure that when you run into an area that is producing a number of deep coins (6 inches or greater), to make a second search at a different direction from the first to get good coverage. One of the hardest techniques to explain is what a really deep target sounds like. It is the most important target to learn but the hardest to describe. To just say a deep target is weaker in sound than targets on the surface will not produce the really deep coins all the time.
The blip, broken, burp or odd sounds that happen when you are just walking along and swinging your coil is a sound that your machine makes to let you know that there is a metal object but you were probably swinging to fast or you just barely got the object on the overlap. You need to slow down your swing, and get the coil on the top of the target. By doing this the target will have either a positive response, a negative or null response, or a questionable wavering or broken response.
Closing Thoughts This ring guide to the Sovereign and Excalibur has been written from our own experiences in using both machines. It is the culmination of what we have learned and theorized about how these particular machines work and how to get treasure that has been left behind by not only others, but ourselves. We hope that this guide has been of interest and a help to both new and experienced users alike. Hopefully, many of you will have the same experiences and successes with these machines as we have.
Code of Ethics I Will respect private property and do no treasure hunting without the owner’s permission. I Will fill all excavations. I Will appreciate and protect our heritage of natural resources, wildlife, and private property. I Will use thoughtfulness, consideration, and courtesy at all times. I Will build fires in designated or safe places only. I Will leave gates as found. I Will remove and properly dispose of any trash that I find. I Will Not litter.
