Minelab Sovereign • Alisha's Metal Detecting

I decided after a year of finding nothing much that 4 detectors for beach is overkill and I need to sell at least 1. So I came home, disassembled my lot of 2 sovereigns and 1 Excalibur to get my Elite back together, went frantic because suddenly I have 1 shaft missing but then found it again leaning against the kitchen table lol.

I ‘ll keep the Sovereign 1991 because it’s very vintage and it’s also very loud, meaning that I will not need headphones. It’s also the cheapest since it is the oldest (thus furthest away in time from the GT which I guess will be the most sought after detector) but I reckon all the Sovereigns are pretty similar in performance. The new battery pack lasts 12 hours or more. The downside is that it will only work properly with original 8″ Minelab coil or the -too-heavy 10 inch Tornado but that’s a tad too heavy for me. So I guess I’ll keep it for now and maybe have fun with it one day with the 8″ coil.

The Excalibur is the one that can handle all coils, it’s very practical with the harness, while the Sovereign’s shoulderbag does annoy me a bit and also can lead to broken cables. I also cut it into pieces completely to suit my psychopathic urges so that makes it the least sellable. Don’t like so much that it always needs headphones.

So the one I will sell is the Sovereign Elite.
Good about it: can handle all coils, works well.
Difference with the old Sovereign 1991: the new batterypack only lasts 6 hrs for some reason. It does come with a battery holder for normal AA batteries, the ID Meter, the bag, and some other things so this one is the most Sellable, I guess. Cable of teh coil and the meter got replaced since I got it after dog ate cable and owner used Meter cable to replace the coil cable in a horrid way. I think I did my first good bit of cable soldering (twist cable and not forget any shrink tube) on this one so am quite confident about it.

Got some bids of 375 on the first day. Not sure about where it will go. I figure it was a Very wanted detector for the people who like to have a decent old-fashion beach detector classic, but there is also the Equinox now working its way through the whole Vintage-loving Armada. And also the cheaper Minelabs with lower price that work quite well on the beach.
Have to wait for the few people that really want a Sovereign.

Saaie kippen in kanaal

This guy seems to know what he’s talking about. I did try some things but I didn’t get the tone-inside-the-wiggle. This all probably also should work for the Sovereign as the Excalibur is often said to be just a waterproof version of it.

The good thing about these detectors is that they *null out* when going over iron. The bad thing about that is that if a Good target (a ring for example) lies right next to iron, the iron will null out the sound of the ring too. So Michael Oliver says to dig the iron too, if you have hunted the beach already quite a bit. The other guy says you should wiggle it from different directions but it doesn’t work for me.

All I know is that I can have bad low tones/low Id’s with the Deus sometimes and when dig them (when the sound IS very consistent and it seems to be a smaller object), and after some mud comes out of the hole, suddenly the tone and ID go up and a good target comes out. I think a good target can give a bad ID when it’s deep or lying in such a way that the detector only can grab onto a thin part like when a coin is just on its side. I also often have one spade out and then the signal goes missing, so then I grab the pinpointer and move it around in the hole. Often the target has fallen into a deeper bit or has it changed in to a less detectable position.