5 Advanced Metal Detecting Tips.

Intro: 

Hey Everybody. Welcome! To Episode 68 of the metal detecting show podcast. My Name is Ciaran and I have been Metal Detecting for nearly 30 Years. This week I simply want to give you an update from my world of metal detecting and I want to give 5 Advanced Metal detecting Tips.

Music

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Content:

Hey Everyone welcome to the podcast,  I hope you have had more holes this week than a gold digger's diaphragm, 

So this week I want to give you some advanced tips for metal detecting but first let’s talk about my week I actually got out a few times this week but most notably a snorkel hunt with the Nokta Makro Pulse dive finding the standard beach fare however the sight of me flaying about in the waves evoked a wave of mortification and towel clutching but fun none the less I really enjoyed it and will do it again soon.

Next I went mud larking on the hottest day of the year 4 hours eyes down ass up with noting of importance to report I did however attempt to generate some content to add to this content for YouTube essentially so people could watch me digging or mud larking while listening to the episode and I am not a photographer it was terrible I definitely have a face for radio and I admire everyone who puts out YouTube content every week but you gotta start somewhere and ill keep endeavouring to figure it out and will add it to my weekly process once I can figure it out ensuring some level of quality. 

And finally for this weeks update [we got one Sound track] the Podcast has its first Patreon in Mervin Cooney, Mervin has been  a long time supporter of the Podcast and his contribution goes towards paying for hosting and production of the podcast so from the bottom of my heart I thank you Mervin as we say in Ireland your some Man.

So onto this week’s topic of choice 5 advanced metal detecting tips. 

Now in researching of what I consider my advanced tips vs what others consider an advanced tip I did some benchmarking on what everyone thought, firstly to me an Advanced tip will be proven to increase your wins. However In every blog, list, post they all include research on the list 

and if you’re a regular listener of the show you will know I always rabbit on about how research is key but getting research right is a basic requirement of the hobby and shouldn’t be only considered advanced.

I don’t want anybody just getting into the hobby thinking ohh ill leave the research bit till im more advanced in the hobby, no start now, before you even go out the door research research research. 

Anyways rant over research will not be on my list of advanced tips. 

If you look/read anybody you consider advanced in the hobby they all have this one trait, Patience, Strength of conviction, power of positivity whatever you want to call it relentless optimism but they all have a frame of mind that allows them to be positive or resolute in their convictions to know if they stick to their process, thrust the research that they will have the expected outcomes, this allows them to keep on going when others call it a day. 

These are the guys who will go to the same site over and over while others say it is hunted out and find the big finds, Can focus all day on one type of signal they are looking for while disregarding every other signal just to dig three holes and find a gold ring. When they’re tired they will dig three four more holes you get the idea. These guys are disciplined while positive and you need this too to advance in the hobby. The longer your out the more focused you can be the better the results. Positivity will take you a long way.

My next tip would be don’t be random, The Lottery is random and if your random while metal detecting you will have random results. 

I have to admit I struggle with this point all the time I’m a big fan of the burst out the door I don’t care where I’m hunting I’m just glad I’m hunting hunt however I am aware of this and set my expectations correctly that if I do find something great it was more down to luck than anything I did. 

Don’t be random on your equipment or hunt prep make a check list if you need to force you to stay defined and measured in your preparation. 

Don’t be random with your swing if your swing is erratically moving between parallel and pendulum fix it but make a explicit effort to fix it or to remove the random from it. 

When you get on site Start gridding don’t just randomly wander around a site hoping to randomly hit a hot spot grid the site and you are most definitely gonna hit that hotspot. 

A good analogy of this is get a child to randomly take a line for a walk on a piece of graph paper. When there done look at how many squares were not addressed with a line, get another child to do it and another and another and after all these children have taken a line for a walk on the same piece of graph paper I guarantee you there will be some empty squares or hotspots still left on the paper. 

Now ask the first child to do it again but this time tell them the line must go through each square and they will take their time writing slowly and deliberately ensuring that every square has a line going through it, it took longer maybe a lot longer but it was done properly and the graph paper was hunted out.

Focus on any part of your process break it down what steps are not necessary or are random or not deliberate enough are you constantly leaving targets in the side of the hole. Practice pinpointing and digging the hole till you have it right. Random bad Deliberate good.

Understand the implications of coil sizes I recently did an episode on coils and it was one on my least downloaded episode but ill synopsize it here when talking about coil sizes bigger is not necessarily better I don’t know how many times I see people abandoning their big 17 inch coil only after a few uses, this is because in my opinion there is only one place a 17inch coil is useful and that’s on a field and only on a field that doesn’t have much trash this is because a larger coil is more prone to target masking again making it less efficient

I believe the extra ground coverage per swing comes at a cost to the length of time you can hunt flinging a large coil about ultimately reducing your overall hunting time at the end of the day. There is a time and a place for a large coil but not many and unfortunately it is often the first beginner mistake people make in purchasing one. 

What you need is a small coil sometimes called a sniper coil you don’t get the ground coverage but you do get an extended search time with the lighter coil plus it is specifically designed for trashy terrain allowing you to manoeuvre between bottle caps and ring pulls with a very little chance of target masking. 

With practice you will be able to identify good target amongst several trash targets before you even put a spade to the ground. However a smaller coil can let randomness enter your swing as it more difficult to overlap your swings if the coil is smaller so bare that in mind but I believe this is a small price on something that should be refined out of your process anyways.

RTFM Read the Flipping Manual actually read it and read it again I can’t believe I have to add this to an advanced tip but it’s a fact that we have all read the manual once haven’t we! 

I’d say if we actually did the math the average times we all have read the manual would be a lot less than 1 so a lot of us have not read the manual people. 

If you don’t read the manual how can you understand what your detector is capable of, Ask your buddy with the equinox how does iron bias work and see if he aware of the capability. 

I struggled for ages pairing my headphones with every detector because I used to go straight past that section to the hunting features this cost me at least 15mins every hunt till I made a concerted effort to get to grips with it. 

A good rule of thumb to how well you understand your detector is to try to explain how it works including all it features and what they do to someone, even vocalising this will show you where you have gaps in your knowledge 

As Einstein says “Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone” In other words if your explaining your detector features to someone who has zero detector knowledge and you cant do it simply do you really know your detector.

Lastly use the weather to your advantage, I see all over social media yeah metal detecting season is here well I would say that the summer is off season for an advanced detectorist yes the beaches are full but It is a fact a metal detectors work better in moist ground, it is a fact that hurricanes and storms kick up treasure off the sea and river beds and the best time to hunt a beach is after these. 

It is a fact that ground coverage is at a minimum in winter the crops are usually drawn in early Fall.  It is also a fact during the Fall and winter months there is less people about so getting on site will be less congested. And not only is general joe not about but also you fellow detectorist are no where to be seen. 

I understand this info may be useless if your in a country that freezes and get covered in snow for the majority of fall and winter but if your not put on a scarf and hat and get out there learn to equip yourself against the rain and wind it will be worth it.

And finally a bonus tip don’t store different metals together as dissimilar metals touching off each other are prone to bimetallic corrosion this is caused as each metal will have a different electrode potential especially if there is water or moisture present resulting in electrons swapping between them causing corrosion much like electrolysis we chatted about previously. Typical examples are Aluminum and Stainless steel now saying that most of our high value targets are made from inert metals but absolutely watch out for this. 

And that’s it you may have noticed that I didn’t mention any specific equipment or advanced detectors as I believe if you adopts these tips no matter what equipment you have you can be an advanced metal detectorist and advanced or the latest equipment only brings complexity to the process of metal detecting and sometime these are not even an advantage. 

So to wrap up let’s do a recap to drive the message home.

1.     Patience and a positive frame of mind get you further than you think.

2.     Remove the random.

3.     Bigger is not always better especially when talking about coil size.

4.     RTFM read the flipping manual and explain it to a someone.

5.     Use the weather to your advantage maybe Fall winter is our seasons.

Remember the equipment doesn’t make you an advanced detectorist its your mindset.

Wrap Up 

That’s it for this week’s I hope you liked this episode of the metal detecting show podcast.

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If you like this content and would like more please don’t hesitate to tell your friends and don’t forget to hit that subscribe button.

Once again, I hope you have enjoyed this episode and we will chat to you all again next week. 

Get out there eyes down and Happy Hunting.