DetectingWales.com

Hi guys,

Thinking of a little early-morning sortie to the beach tomorrow with a new-to-me Minelab Safari. Any tips for best settings please?

PS this is my first time with this machine - please be gentle with me . . . ;)

Wish you the best of luck, enjoy.

I had a Safari and spent many happy hours on my local beach. Unfortunately I really can’t remember what settings I used.
There is another member with a Safari. I’m sure if he sees your post he’ll be happy to advise.

Thanks, Val. I've got my clock set for 04:45 and I should be there by first light . . . ;-) I read on one of the forums to use All Metal Ferrous and notch out -10 and +39 with sensitivity as high as it will bear.

We'll see :D

Well, I tried the Safari on the beach - I arrived there just after 6 on an ebbing tide and stayed until nearly 8 (which is when they start charging for parking . . .)

I set the machine as per the advice on the other forum and found the sum total of 1 penny and a 1942 .303 bullet casing. No idea what it was doing there - there were a couple of firing ranges a couple of miles in either direction but I  used to think I'd detected that area to death when I used to go there a few years ago.

The settings seemed OK - I was finding lots of junk - and I got the sensitivity up to 18 out of 20 with no falsing. Overall I'm pleased that the machine seems to work as it should but it's very different from my last machine and it feels like it's going to take a bit of getting used to.

Might go back tomorrow . . .

I’ll send Chris a message on your behalf. I’m sure he’ll help you if he’s around.

Thank you, Val!

P.M. sent tan

Mornin Tan,
                    been holding a tiger by the tail for the last twelve months n the old brain box is a wee bit awry for remembering my regular beach settings for the Safari but I would say that you do need to keep your swing speed  really slow, or you will find that by time the machine has picked up a target and  decided what the target is you will have moved past it and may think that it is ghosting.

                   Out of interest,  which beaches are you detecting?

                                   Chris :)

Hi Chris.

Thanks for the advice - I've been used to a much different machine. I've got Andy Sabisch's book so I've been trying to keep the sweep speed down - bear in mind I've spent a whole 90 minutes with the Safari so far! I did get that ghosting effect you mentioned and now you've explained the cause!

I was at Rhyl, not too far from the sea wall between the Pavilion Theatre and the lifeboat station. Didn't help that I picked up a follower who wanted to chat  :)

Colin

                     Jeez, those followers can be a real pain in the bum but I do try to give them some time and chat but when there is a cold wind I tend stiffen up following a couple of hours tecting and then standing in a chill wind. My hope is that one of those followers could possibly impart some local information, or may even be a farmer who could grant me permission to detect their land. Thought that I had cracked it one day but the lovely young lady that I gave my time to 'was' a farmer...……..but she farmed in New Zeeland! :(


                     I have never had much luck at Rhyl front and normally beach detect at Talacre, or west of the blue bridge at Rhyl; free parking dockside.

                     Andy's book is a superb reference book for us Safari owners and I always try to recommend it to new owners but somehow forgot to suggest it to you.

                             Stay safe, stay well, and happy hunting

                                        Chris :)
                     

                     

I'll be damned - mine was a Kiwi too. Staying at his daughter's place by Splash Point. I've detected the other side of the Foryd in the past but as that was where the targets for the firing range were I only found a bucketful of bullets. Didn't need a detector - they were poking out of the sand  :)

Looking forward to trying it on land sometime to see how it performs - be interesting to go over an old permission to see what my old machine missed . . .  ;)

                    We must have covered the same section of beach at Foryd. Along with plenty of 0.303 projectiles I also got a few coins and  a number of large lead Victorian projectiles that looked like lead mushrooms; probably the same kind of stuff that snuffed out the Zulus at Rourk's Drift.

                                                  Chris :)

I was on the beach directly behind Asda at Kinmel Bay when I found all the .303s - were yours Minie Balls? Never had one of those but no doubt they're about.

BTW - trying to get a handle on the sweep speed - how slow is slow? If it's that important I'm going to have to learn it  :)

Just pretend you’re going to sleep as you walk. Getting slower and slower and the machine is getting too heavy to hold off the ground.
Sounds a bit far fetched but it does work. Plus the length of your step. Shorter is good, your not in a race after all. I heard someone call it the Safari Shuffle !
I have seen reference to seconds on each sweep but didn’t take much notice.

Just as bad when you change to a Deus. Everything about that one is fast fast fast.
Now I’m onto a NOX and I’m having to remind myself it’s slow slow slow. Agonising ain’t it !

That slow?

In the past I've always tended to stride off across the fields like I was on a route march (and I've got long legs . . . ) so I've probably been missing a good few targets that way. It's like I see a big field and seem to think, 'there's a job to be done so let's get it over . . . ' To be fair though I'm pretty keen on keeping the coil low to the surface and keeping my sweep level (horizontal) otherwise I'd be losing depth all over.

Must learn the dance  :D

I think it’s all to do with the recovery speed. The Safari isn’t the fastest gun in the West but it sure is accurate when you hit a target.
All Minelabs benefit from a slow swing and as you said, if you concentrate on the swing position, you won’t miss much.
Just to rub it in a bit I have to say the NOX is the Bees knees at recovery speed and you can adjust it. It was one of the main selling points. Even so they recommend slow and low.

HH. Val

              Don't forget that as you swing the coil left and right, at the same time as you stride, you may be leaving wedge shaped gaps at the end of each sweep. I worked a paddock for a good few hours with the Safari and pulled out loads of coins; both  decimal and pre-decimal. A week or so later I worked the same section of paddock using a Quest Q40 and continued to pull out plenty of coins.

              I put the continued recovery of coins from the paddock down to a more efficient sweep of  the coil, rather than the Q40 being any better than the Safari; which it isn't! I will often swing the Safari to a count of four seconds but do tend to have the shaft extended to almost maximum. Yes, progress can be quite slow but you will not miss much!

             
                                            Chris :)