Metal Detecting Diary

Garrett Pro-Pointer Pinpoiner Review

Sunday, March 1, 2009

The Garrett Pro-Pointer

This time I’ve put the new Garrett Pro-Pointer pinpointer to the test. The Pro-Pointer is the first pinpointer made by Garrett and it was well received among fellow detectorists. Let’s see how it fared in my hands.

The first thing you will notice is how sturdy the pinpointer is. You can just feel that it’s quality built.

You turn the thing on by pressing the rubbery switch in the middle and after a loud one-second beep the thing is ready for use. During this initial phase the pinpointer is auto-balancing itself to its surroundings.

Once the pointer is turned on and balanced you are ready to begin pinpointing. This pro-pointer is sensitive along the whole front half – from the tip up to the on/off switch. While some may find this a nuisance – after all this is a pinpointer, it can come quite handy to find the target quickly using the large detecting surface. Once you are close to the find, just continue pinpointing with the tip of the device.

Besides beeping, this pinpointer also vibrates so it can be easily used with headphones on, or if you happen to have hearing problems.

Perhaps another thing to note is the built-in bright white led light to see inside those dark holes or simply if you find yourself hunting in the dark.

The back of the pinpointer can be unscrewed to reveal a compartment for a single 9V battery, which is still not depleted after many months’ use, so thumbs up on that one.

One thing that annoyed me was the loud sound this thing emits when turned on and when you are closing on the target. You can read on how I’ve silenced the thing down if you find the volume level too high or the sound annoying.

Overall, the positive sides of this pinpointer far outweight the annoying beeping, especially because some of you may not even be bothered by it. Anyway, here is a quick + vs – list for a quick overview:

Plus:

Quality built
Ease of use
Good depth
Vibration
Low battery drain

Minus:

Annoying sharp sound when turned on
Loud sound overall

In the end here is an official clip on the Garrett Pro-Pointer, which illustrates its features nicely.

Filed in Pinpointers, Reviews | Tagged Garrett, Pinpointer | Comments (0)

Reducing The Speaker Volume on The Garrett Pro-Pointer

Friday, January 2, 2009

The new Garrett Pro-Pointer is undoubtfully a great pinpointer, solidly built and working great, but in my opinion it is annoyingly LOUD. Of course if you want to silent it a little, you just have to put a finger on the speaker port, but if you are looking for a more practical solution, I’ve written a step-by-step tutorial for you to turn down the volume for good. Don’t worry, the procedure is quite simple and reversible, so mostly anyone can do it. Ok, here we go:

Step one: Open the battery compartment and take out the battery.

Opening the battery compartment

Step two: Remove the screw in the corner inside the battery compartment.

Removing the screw

Step three: Remove the rubber cap covering the ON/OFF switch. Basically you have to squeeze the thing and pull it out. Notice the white microswitch under the cap.

Removing the switch cap

Step Four (Careful!): Hold down the microswitch and carefully pull the battery compartment out from the back of the unit. As you pull, make sure the switch doesn’t get caught against the pointer’s housing. I’ve learned this the hard way, as I forcefully pulled the battery compartment out and the switch fell to pieces. And believe me, with that many tiny parts it is not easy to put it together again!

Holding down the microswitch

Step Five: Pulling the battery compartment out, the electronics are revealed. Notice the big black round thing with the hole in it? That’s the speaker. At this point you could unweld if you want to shut it off completely, but I went easy on the poor thing and I’ve basically taped it over.

Exposing the Electronics And Speaker

Step Six: Tape over the speaker with any tape you like. I’ve used the normal transparent type and I’ve taped it over six times until I was sure that was the volume level I wanted.

Taping Over the Speaker

Final step: Assembling the unit is basically the reverse of the disassembling procedure above. One word of advice: Don’t push the electronics with the battery compartment too hard inside, it should slide in quite easily. The trick is to make way for the electronics by carefully pushing the wires away from the travelling path of the circuit board. Also notice the grooves on the inside of the pinpointer housing. Make sure the circuit board slides into these grooves as you push it in. Luckily the thing will slide in position without much effort and you’ll be able to enjoy your modified gadget in no time.

Good luck hunting with your silenced pinpointer!

Filed in Mods, Pinpointers, Tutorials | Tagged Garrett, Mod, Pinpointer, Pro-Pointer, Speaker | Comments (4)

The Futhark Spade

Friday, December 12, 2008

The whole thing After a couple month’s of fair use, it is time I give a short review of my newest digging spade tool – the younger Futhark.

The first impression of the spade is its weight – and it’s damn light. Taking it the first time to a metal detecting trip I thought the wooden handle wouldn’t survive much abuse. Now after many trips and many holes dug, I am sure it will last me for a very long time before it needs replacement. This is not a flimsy spade, but a first-grade tool made by an enthusiast detectorist.

The exceptional attention to detail that went into producing this spade can be seen from tip to handle. Any point along the wooden shaft that could suffer a break, has been well taken care of. For example, the part of the wooden shaft where it splits in half towards the handle is fastened tight with a metal pin. Same it goes at the other end where the shaft is inserted into the stainless steel digger.

The steel’s end is made from thick metal and the pointy end is very sharp. Stepping just lightly on the spade’s nicely folded shoulders, easily and neatly cuts into the earth – a real joy to use!

Take a look at the gallery below. After many outings the spade still looks good and it feels as strong as new.

Filed in Reviews, Tools | Tagged digger, digging spade, Futhark, stainless | Comments (0)

Shallow Water Hunting Explained DVD Review

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Well, this was refreshing! No, I’m not talking about beverage – I’m talking about about the new DVD by The Metal Detectives, titled “Shallow Water Hunting Explained”. To tell you the truth, I was expecting an amateurish product, but the 110 minute vid delivered a polished and well presented view on the subject. No kidding, the DVD took them nearly three years to complete.

The “metal detecting trio”, namely Gary Brun, Gordon Heritage and Pat Watson lead you through the following:

Mudlarking,
Wading in rivers,
Beach hunting
They cover both basic and advanced (costly) equipment
They don’t forget about safety.

I must say that I would enjoy the DVD more if the authors would fit in more tips and tricks on metal detecting in water. With a title like this, one would think to learn a little something extra, but then again, metal detecting is a pretty straightforward hobby.

Going for £22 including P&P to a UK address and 32 Euro for the rest of Europe the DVD is not of the cheapest, but I consider the money well spent. Also marketing a DVD for such a niche hobby costs a lot and I understand the authors need to cover the production costs.

You can pick your copy at the links above, or you can find more information in this topic at the minelabowners web site.

Thumbs up to the authors!

Filed in Reviews | Tagged DVD, Minelab, shallow water detecting | Comments (0)

Digging tools, anyone?

Sunday, August 24, 2008

My #1 is a German army surplus folding pick & shovel. This thing is quite heavy to carry around, but it is also very strong and pretty much indistructible. You can get it on ebay for about 15€, I got mine in a nearby military shop… actually I got three, just in case.

Careful if you are purchasing this kind of spade, be sure to get the one with the square pin type to block the shovel/pick part in place. The one with the screw tight thingie doesn’t quite do the job as it tends to unscrew and leave you bleedingin no time

Fiskars, known for its gardening tools, makes my #2. The main thing about this little digger is the material it is made of – nylon and fiberglass composite. Having a tool made of a non-metallic material, means your metal detector won’t detect it, and you can pass the digger filled with scooped earth (and finds) right throught the coil, keeping your hands clean.

I have seen people carrying around a huge number of spades, knives, diggers… etc., but for me these two have proved to do the job.

Filed in Tools | Tagged digger, military, pick, shovel, spade | Comments (0)

Sherlock DTS-PRO Pinpointer Review

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

It’s been a while that I was considering getting a pinpointer to accompany my Minelab X-Terra 70, but I was outraged at the prices of most probes out there. After spending some time on the web researching and reading many user opinions on various pinpointing probes, I decided to buy a cheap (45$) Sherlock DTS-PRO pinpointer. Now, was the little device just what I was looking for? Did it reach my expectations? Well, read on to find out.

The Sherlock is a simple to use palm-sized plastic pinpointer. Its use is simple; you turn the sensitivity adjuster until the red light and/or beep sound goes out and it is calibrated. To activate it, you have to push and hold the round membrane button in the middle and release it to turn it off – simple. The device produces quite a loud constant sound when it hits metal, and you can turn it off by flicking a switch in the 9V battery compartment. Besides sound, the pinpointer has a front mounted led diode, which lights up when you are on target.

The pinpointer’s performance is perhaps on the weak side, punching about 5 centimeters into the earth. I haven’t tried other pinpointers, but I felt like I could use a bit more power when searching for the find in the hole. I’ve found myself spending too much time probing around with the sherlock, when what I should have been doing was digging deeper.

Looking at its construction, it doesn’t feel very sturdy, and I don’t believe it could handle much abuse, but hey, you get what you pay for.

You might think this review is on the negative side, but the sherlock is still a decent piece of hardware I wouldn’t want to be without. As long as you keep it away from water and too much dust and handle it properly, it is quite a lot you get for the money spent.

Update: I’ve recently purchased the Garrett Pro-pointer, which for double the price brings much more depth, precision and build quality. My opinion on the Sherlock has certainly changed – for the worse. Stay tuned for a review of the Garrett.

Filed in Metal Detectors, Reviews | Tagged Metal Detectors, Pinpointer | Comments (0)

Garmin Colorado & Oregon Backgrounds Redesign

Monday, August 4, 2008

If you’ve paid any attention to the default backgrounds that came with your Colorado and Oregon GPS, you’ve probably noticed the unbelievably low quality of these 240 x 400 px wallpapers.

If you don’t like the defaults either, and you don’t have time bothering to create your own, I have created 12 fresh backgrounds for you. 9 of these are meant to be used as replacements of garmin default images, so they are named exactly as garmin versions.

Installing the new backgrounds

New Garmin Backgrounds.
Unzip the downloaded file somewhere on your computer.
Connect your garmin unit to your computer and wait for the Garmin drive to appear.
If you want to preserve the garmin originals, it is time to back up them now. The backgrounds (.jpg files) are stored in the “Garmin->Profiles” directory in your unit’s internal memory, which you should have mounted my now. Copy those files somewhere on your computer for safekeeping.
Copy the jpg files you unzipped previously into the ”Garmin->Profiles” directory in your unit’s internal memory.
Eject the garmin unit.
Enjoy the new backgrounds.

Filed in GPS | Tagged Backgrounds, Colorado, Freebies, Garmin, GPS, Oregon | Comments (0)

Garmin Colorado 300 – Great Companion for Metal Detecting

Sunday, July 27, 2008

It was a while that I was planning to get a serious GPS to accompany me in my metal detecting campains and I must say I am content of my decision on purchasing the Colorado 300.

The unit is rugged and waterproof, so you can handle it even with dirty hands, which I do have quite often, as you can imagine It also comes with a carabiner clip accessory, which makes it extremely handy when your hands are full. Besides the usual stuff you can expect from a GPS, the unit comes with an integrated electronic compass, barometric altimeter and has a very accurate high-sensitivity receiver, so you can save your finds’ locations quite accurately. On my trips through the woods it only lost satellite signal once, in a very thick forest, but comparing it to my previous experiences with other GPS units, this one is better by far.

The only downside so far, is the slow text input system, which makes it quite painful to enter longer descriptions of your finds and/or locations. I managed to overcome this by simply accepting the default waypoint name and editing it later on my computer.

There are several options on the software side for waypoint and routes editing. If you are using a Mac, like I do, Garmin has a nifty application called Bobcat, which is still in beta, but I must say quite usable. For a full list of Mac apps made by Garmin, visit their Mac OS X site. On the Windows side, the range of apps is quite large, so you should have no problems locating any, still the most used is probably Garmin’s MapSource.

If you want to know more about the Colorado, visit GPS Tracklog’s site for a thorough review.

That’s about it folks, I would love to hear suggestions and comments, so feel free to post.

Filed in GPS | Tagged Bobcat, Colorado 300, Garmin, GPS, Mac OS X, MapSource, Metal detecting | Comments (0)

Two Recently Dug Crosses

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Here are two crosses I found recently on ploughed land, the larger aluminum one was found about 10cm below ground on a centuries old brook embankment. Chronologically, both objects seem to fall in the World War I era.

As you can see from the photos, the larger has several inscriptions on it.

The front side says:

ST. ANTONIO DI PADOVA

VENERATO NELLA BASILICA DI S. APOLLINARE

RAVENNA,

which tells us, it is dedicated to St. Antonio from Padova (Italy), more precisely in the basilica of Sant’Apollinare.

On its back, there is a latin inscription:

ECCE CRVCEM DOMINI FVGITE PARTES ADVERSAE. VICIT LEO DE TRIBV IVDA RADIX DAVID ALLELVIA

The basilica in question seems to have an interesting and turbulent history.

Filed in Finds | Tagged aluminum, copper, crosses, medals, religious | Comments (1)

Grand Opening

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Hi, and welcome to my metal detecting diary. This first entry is a little about myself and my hobby.

My name is Damjan and I am a metal detector user since last autumn, which makes me a novice in the hobby I guess. My first and actual metal detector is a second-hand Minelab X-Terra 70, which I learned to love and appreciate. I learned to appreciate it even more since I mounted a 7.5 DD coil, which I never ever take off.

I guess this is it for now, I am going to close this entry by promising you to write new posts as often as time permits. I am planning to report on personal detecting stories with pictures, maps and maybe a tutorial on research etc.

Thanks for visiting and come back soon!

Filed in News | Tagged 7.5 DD coil, Minelab, News, x-terra 70 | Comments (0)