HUNTING IN ALL METAL WITH THE SOVEREIGN
tip from Gary Keithline: In addition to several good ideas that have been already listed I have found it is a good idea to do the following:
Go out to a favorite old park where you think there is still an occasional deep target. Switch the Sovereign to "all metal" pinpointing mode. Then search the area for a deep sounding, barely there blip. Make sure you hit the prospective target from two directions 90 degrees of each other. Then with the coil held precisely over the center you have found switch to "discriminate" and barely swing the coil over the exact center in as small of an arc as you can muster. If the threshold goes silent it is junk iron. If on the other hand it starts to climb and doesn't have a broken up sound to the signal it is probably a very deep target. If you are using a Sun Ray meter you should be able to get a lock on it if you can control the size of the wiggle. The smaller the better. The higher the pitch the higher the conductivity of the target. There are times when this is the kind of hunting I prefer. You can go after just coin sized objects that are deep. If the center is different in "all metal" than it is in "discriminate" then you are on a piece of junk. Anytime the sound is faint, the centering is the same in both modes and the pitch is high you are in for a metal detecting treat. I got a 1902 Barber, 1919 Merc and a 1880 IH penny while showing a prospective customer the above this evening in a "hunted out" park. The soil was so dry that deep tonight was about 6 inches. If you are experiencing dry soils it is much harder to get the really deep stuff. But at the same time remember the trash is a bunch quieter also and some previously masked coins may become available from the dry conditions.
Good hunting... Gary