Swinging

Intro: 

Hey Everybody. Welcome! To Episode 65 of the metal detecting show podcast. My Name is Ciaran and I have been Metal Detecting for nearly 30 Years. This week as we get back on track after my vacation I want to do a few shout outs chat about my metal detecting this week and we discuss swinging.

Music

Hey everyone before we start I want to thank you for listening to the podcast and I hope you enjoy the episode this week  If you want to support the show there are many options available from the links in the episode notes below and if you want to interact with me and the show that information is there too.  

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

Content:

Hey everyone I hope you’re getting down and dirty detecting this week. 

This week I hit a beach while on vacation I had planned hitting the beach that was closest to me while on vacation but the tides were all out of sync with my plans and I have to admit I did contemplate leaving it off but I asked myself what advice would I give you guys and of course the advice I would give would be look for a better option even if you do have to drive a bit to get to it. 

So I did a quick google search of the counties most popular beach’s and found a great site only another 30 mins drive away so I hit that beach for a nice few hours detecting finding a wide range of targets including enough change to get me a coffee and a doughnut on the way home but top finds were a tungsten ring and a chicken penny from the early 1900’s. 

During the Hunt an elderly lady approached me and I thought ok here we go another hater but I was very surprised when she was very knowledgeable about the hobby and the plight of metal detectorists in Ireland and asked me did I do any mud larking on the river Thames

and of course I hadn’t but I was delighted to have experienced the conversation she did give me a tip that I would find very little on the beach prior to the early 1900’s because prior to that the area was an extremely poor area with little interaction from the high society as she put it and true to her word the earliest thing I did find was that chicken penny from the early 1900’s. 

In other News I have received the second Pfizer Vaccine with no adverse side effects only now I can see sounds and smell colors hahah but this means I can get on with looking for permissions this summer as the last two were a wash out due to covid. 

Before we move onto the main topic I want to give a few shout outs to the following few people that have reached out to the show either offering topics for conversation or to highlight some great content for me to check out.

So Starting with Blake Harder who is in regular contact with the show which funny anedotes and topics for us to discuss or questions to ask so officially Thanks Blake I love receiving your mails. 

Shout out to Chris Johnson who emailed me recently while on vacation to let me know that the podcast website hadn’t linked the last few episodes which thankfully I got back up today so many thanks Chris. 

Another Shout out to Vespa Trixie just because it’s a great name and a great suggestion to do a full episode on breaking down discrimination which I will put on the roster for a future episode.

And final shout out this week to Andrew from Millersdetecting on youtube Andrew who has messaged me a few times over the weeks has a great little you tube channel that he does with his dad its really good so check them out ill put the link in the show notes. Its early days for them on youtube but watch out for them they are doing some good stuff.

So onto this weeks topic of swinging no not that type of swinging you dirty mingers but swinging your detector.

Firstly to start with a point of note your detector should dictate the shape of your swing what I mean here is how your detector performs for example if it has a sub par or slow response and recovery you may want to slow down your swing but more on that later but just remember you detector dictates your swing. For example the minelab Quattro was notorious and needed a slow and low swing to make sure nothing was missed.

Most beginners start off with the classic banana or pendulum swing where the ends of the swing are rising away from the ground with zero over lap and a swing that looks like they are throwing the coil from side to side as fast as possible while zig zagging across a field leaving everything behind declaring that this field has nothing on it I have done it to death we have all done it and adapted but some still do it.

Now I suppose lets talk with what the perfect swing looks like. A perfect swing occurs where the coil head floats as close to the ground as possible while remaining parallel to the ground from the start of the swing to the end of the swing it also must overlap with the previous swing. The easiest way to keep the coil parallel is to almost shuffle from foot to foot using your hips to help rotate and maintain the position its hard to describe but a simple youtube search reveals 100’s of videos on the topic.

Now Blake did ask me does the coil type make a difference to the level of overlap required and to be honest I never thought about it to that level but I imagine as a Double D coils sweet spot is where the two coils overlap at the full diameter of the coil the requirement to overlap would be less than say a concentric coil whose sweet spot tends to be in the shape of a cone tapering to somewhat of a point meaning that there would be a requirement to have more of an overlap to account for the taper in the sweet spot. 

Now if you want my honest opinion here I think its hard enough to remember to over lap on each swing consistently that to be aware if it’s a ½ overlap or 1/3 overlap might be a step too far and start failing into the realms of diminishing returns just overlapping should be good enough.   

The  speed of the swing like I send previously will be dictated by your detector but a good test to do Is put down a bottle cap on the ground and swing your detector in all metal mode over the target at the rate you normally hunt at if the signal is in any way iffy remember this is essentially an Air test which I hate but which tests the detector in the best environment possible which serves a purpose here. 

anyways if the target signal is in any ways iffy you need to slow down your swing till you can hear the bottle cap fully and resoundingly. 

Another test is to swing the coil over your bare ground with no target and your threshold volume up full so that you can hear it very obviously if when you swing your coil and your threshold is nulling out even though there is no target there then you are swinging too fast whats happening is the detector cannot read the phase shift from the ground balance and is nulling out the received signal and believe it or not the ground type can have a baring on you swing speed if the ground is hot as in minerilized then you should adjust your swing speed down to let your detrector account for the ground balance easier.

So the ideal swing is parallel to the ground from start to finish slow enough as dictated by the capability of your detector and must overlap with the previous swing path of you can. 

The length of your shaft eh hemmm has baring also too often do you see people with the shaft at full length waving from side to side trying to maximise coverage it doesn’t work like that you will just accelerate the rate at which you fatigue at. 

The best way to set up your  shaft length is to adjust the length till the coil can sit approx. 24 inchs in front of your feet while allowing your elbow to bend slightly. If set up incorrectly you are setting yourself up for carpel tunnel in your elbow or wrist which can put you out of action for years so be careful Resulting in you needing one of the many accessories on the market to help you balance the weight of the swing to reduce injury. 

I myself had a harness for a few years to help with the CTX weight however I got rid of it once I saw a picture of my accentuated belly looking like a butcher tied piece of pork.

So to wrap up, firstly your swing and pace should be comfortable but should also match the detectors capability with the shaft set at an appropriate length. Parallel to the ground with some overlap.  It doesn’t need to be overly complicated. 

It a fundamental basic skill that needs to be efficient, a good swing can increase your site coverage and ultimately increase your wins.

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.