To use discrimination mode, start with a preset like Coins or Jewelry, then access your detector’s DISC control to set rejection thresholds. Begin with moderate settings and gradually increase to filter iron, foil, and pull tabs based on their conductivity values (typically 00-40). You’ll reject low-conductivity trash while accepting higher-value targets registering 40+. Always ground balance first, then adjust discrimination incrementally—avoid setting it too high initially, as this reduces depth and masks potential finds. The sections below explore environment-specific strategies and advanced notch techniques.
Key Takeaways
- Start with preset modes like Coins or Jewelry, then gradually increase discrimination to reject iron, foil, and pull tabs.
- Discrimination filters targets by conductivity: ferrous trash registers -18 to 20, coins 40+, silver near 99, gold 30-40.
- Use notch discrimination to eliminate specific conductivity segments while preserving detection of valuable targets in other ranges.
- Higher discrimination reduces detection depth; balance settings with sensitivity adjustments and proper ground balancing for optimal performance.
- Avoid excessive discrimination in iron-rich sites; switch to all-metal mode for maximum depth and unfiltered target detection.
What Is Discrimination Mode and How Does It Work?
Metal detector discrimination mode analyzes the electrical conductivity and magnetic properties of buried objects to distinguish between different types of metals in the ground.
Discrimination mode reads conductivity and magnetic signatures to separate valuable metals from trash before you dig.
Your detector emits an electromagnetic field that interacts with targets, producing responses it processes to assign Target ID values along a conductivity scale.
You’ll establish rejection points that filter unwanted signals—instructing your machine to ignore low-conductivity iron while accepting high-conductivity silver and gold.
This filtering system evolved from historical contexts where detectorists spent hours digging trash.
Modern discrimination lets you focus searches on valuable targets without wasting time on bottle caps or nails.
You’ll receive audio or visual indications only for accepted conductivity ranges.
Remember that proper gear maintenance ensures accurate target identification, as dirty coils compromise electromagnetic field stability and conductivity readings.
The detector’s coil receives the electromagnetic responses and processes them to classify the type of metal, determining whether to alert you based on your discrimination settings.
Rejected objects may produce no response or a rejected tone, as the detector ignores signals within designated ranges.
Understanding the Conductivity Scale and Target ID
When you activate discrimination mode, your detector’s conductivity scale becomes the primary reference for identifying buried targets. This numerical display—typically 00 to 99—segments metals based on their eddy current generation.
You’ll find ferrous trash registering -18 to 20, while non-ferrous valuables like coins and jewelry hit 40+. Silver produces the highest readings near 99.
Signal fusion technology combines conductivity data with mineralization analysis, letting you distinguish targets despite ground interference.
Higher frequencies (20-40 kHz+) excel at identifying low-conductivity gold, while lower frequencies stabilize high-conductivity silver identification. Multi-frequency detectors provide consistent target ID across varying soil conditions.
The middle range presents challenges—pull tabs overlap with gold targets around 30-40.
You’ll need to dig these uncertain signals when hunting valuable low-conductivity metals. Understanding these patterns gives you discrimination control.
Remember that depth and orientation can affect your conductivity readings, causing the same target to display different values depending on how it’s positioned underground. Your detector processes electromagnetic field changes through the receive coil to generate these conductivity readings and identify target characteristics.
Types of Discrimination Settings Available
Your detector offers several discrimination frameworks, each serving distinct detection strategies. All-metal mode processes every target without filtering.
While notch and custom settings let you block specific conductivity ranges or create rejection windows tailored to site conditions.
Preset patterns provide instant configurations for common scenarios—coin, relic, or beach modes—saving time when you’re working familiar ground or need quick adjustments in the field.
Variable discrimination uses a simple control knob to adjust the level of filtering, making it straightforward for operators to broaden or narrow their target acceptance on the fly. Multi-notch systems allow you to set up to three notches simultaneously, enabling wider rejection ranges for sites with multiple types of unwanted targets.
All-Metal vs. Filtered Modes
Before you can effectively discriminate targets, you’ll need to understand the two fundamental operating modes your detector offers: all-metal and filtered discrimination.
All-metal mode delivers maximum depth and continuous audio responses across all conductive objects—iron, foil, coins, and relics alike. You’re hearing everything beneath your coil without signal filtering interference.
Filtered discrimination lets you reject targets below your set conductivity threshold, silencing iron and low-conductivity junk while maintaining responses for coins and higher-value items. The trade-off? All-metal sacrifices trash rejection for superior depth and reveals targets masked near iron, while filtered modes reduce noise and sharpen your focus.
Neither frequency adjustment nor filtering changes actual detection depth—only what you hear and see displayed. Your detector analyzes the phase shift responses from targets to distinguish valuable metals from unwanted trash in discrimination mode.
Excessive discrimination can obscure good targets and cause false negatives, particularly when hunting deep or small objects in mineralized soil.
Notch and Custom Settings
You’ll create rejection windows for pull tabs or nails while coins pass through freely.
Multi-notch models let you stack up to three custom notch zones simultaneously, widening your rejection range without blanket filtering.
Custom discrimination patterns**** take this further:
- Save your site-specific settings for quick deployment when you return to productive locations
- Adapt discrimination patterns to urban trash versus historical sites without starting from scratch
- Combine notch zones with Target ID segments to cherry-pick treasure types in heavily contaminated ground
This precision beats broad linear rejection when you know what you’re hunting. Lower discrimination settings help you detect valuable coins and jewelry while still filtering out common trash like foil and iron.
Preset Pattern Options
Most modern detectors ship with factory-programmed discrimination patterns that target specific treasure categories without manual threshold adjustments. You’ll find presets labeled “Coins,” “Jewelry,” “Relics,” or “Beach” that automatically filter metal composition based on conductivity profiles.
These patterns reject common junk—pull tabs, foil, bottlecaps—while accepting high-value targets.
Coin modes typically eliminate iron and low-conductivity trash, preserving silver and copper signals.
Jewelry settings widen acceptance windows to capture gold’s mid-range conductivity despite potential signal attenuation from depth or mineralization.
Relic hunters benefit from broader patterns that include brass and pewter.
You’re not locked into factory configurations. Use presets as starting points, then modify rejected segments based on field conditions.
This approach maximizes recovery speed while maintaining control over your hunting strategy without rebuilding discrimination maps from scratch.
Setting Up Basic Discrimination Levels
When configuring your detector’s discrimination system, you’re establishing which conductivity ranges trigger audio alerts and which remain silent. Start by selecting a preset mode—Coins or Jewelry—then access your DISC control through the menu or adjustment knob.
Discrimination settings control which metal conductivity levels produce audio alerts and which targets your detector ignores during your hunt.
Begin with moderate settings that reject iron nails and gradually increase to filter foil and pull tabs.
Your setup determines hunting success:
- Low discrimination preserves freedom to find relics and small gold that mimics junk
- Moderate levels cut through urban trash without sacrificing valuable coin signals
- Higher settings eliminate beach debris like cans and bottle caps efficiently
Test known targets over ground before finalizing.
Complete ground balancing after discrimination adjustments to prevent target masking.
Swing slowly, verify stable responses, and lower sensitivity if interference disrupts performance.
Configuring Notch Discrimination for Specific Targets
Notch discrimination lets you eliminate specific conductivity segments while keeping adjacent ranges active—a surgical approach that separates valuable targets from persistent trash.
You’ll configure this by identifying problematic mid-range targets like pull-tabs (typically 20-33 on most scales) or screw caps, then disabling those specific segments while preserving coin responses above and below.
Start by testing known targets to map their conductivity signatures on your detector’s scale.
On models like the Garrett ACE 400, raise discrimination thresholds incrementally—moving from ID 8 to 10 eliminates that specific range.
The Nokta Simplex offers menu-based segment toggling for intuitive control.
Ground mineralization affects notch effectiveness, so adjust settings when moving between soil types.
Most detectors organize targets into 5-6 main categories such as iron, foil, tab, zinc, and nickel for easier discrimination control.
You’re trading recovery speed for selectivity, but properly configured notches preserve your freedom to hunt productively in trashy environments.
Adjusting Discrimination for Different Hunting Environments
Your hunting environment dictates discrimination strategy more than any other factor—the pristine pasture demands entirely different settings than the trash-laden urban park. In clean sites like remote woodlands, you’ll maximize freedom by minimizing discrimination or running all-metal mode, detecting everything without artificial signal filtering.
Trashy environments require gradually increased linear discrimination to balance efficiency with opportunity.
Beach metal detection demands dynamic adjustment—lower discrimination in secluded areas, higher settings near tourist zones to screen hot rocks and foil. For relic hunting, keep discrimination minimal; historically significant iron targets disappear with aggressive filtering.
Urban hunting requires strategic compromise:
- Higher discrimination cuts through modern metallic debris
- Moderate levels preserve valuable target detection
- Regular re-adjustment matches changing ground conditions
Practice environment-specific settings across diverse sites to build reliable detection intuition.
Balancing Discrimination With Sensitivity and Depth
Because discrimination and sensitivity function as interconnected controls rather than independent adjustments, changing one parameter inevitably affects detection depth and signal stability.
High discrimination filters weak signals from deep targets, effectively reducing your detector’s penetration range. You’ll need to compensate by increasing sensitivity, but this amplifies EMI interference and ground mineralization noise.
Start at 70-80% sensitivity, then raise discrimination incrementally while monitoring for chatter. If false signals emerge, reduce sensitivity rather than accepting target masking in trashy ground.
Larger coils demand this balance more critically—their depth advantage disappears when discrimination rejects borderline responses from valuable targets.
Ground balance before adjusting either control. Mineralized soil forces sensitivity reductions that compound discrimination’s depth penalties, leaving you detecting surface-level finds when coins lie inches deeper.
Common Mistakes When Using Discrimination Mode
You’ll compromise detection efficiency if you crank discrimination too high right away, blocking low-conductivity valuables like gold jewelry and small coins that overlap with junk signals.
Skipping all-metal mode entirely prevents you from learning your detector’s true response patterns and understanding what targets exist before filtering them out.
Target masking compounds these errors—when iron trash sits near coins, aggressive discrimination degrades target separation and causes you to miss non-ferrous items hidden within mixed-signal zones.
Setting Discrimination Too High
While discrimination mode helps filter unwanted targets, cranking the settings too high creates more problems than it solves. You’ll create detection blind spots that reject valuable items sharing conductivity ranges with trash—small gold pieces mimic pull tabs, old coins register like junk metals, and thin jewelry produces foil-like signals.
High discrimination severely limits your freedom to detect:
- Lost depth performance: Elevated settings suppress faint signals from deeper targets, keeping treasures beyond your reach
- Target masking: Relics and precious metals get blanked out alongside ferrous items they overlap with
- Signal instability: Overly aggressive filtering generates erratic tones and false readings in mineralized ground
You’ll spend more time adjusting settings than actually hunting. Keep discrimination moderate—dig more initially, learn target signatures, then refine your approach based on real-world experience.
Ignoring All-Metal Mode
Many detectorists handicap themselves by running discrimination mode exclusively, unaware they’re sacrificing 30-50% of their machine’s detection depth. All-metal mode delivers superior penetration through threshold-based ground balancing, revealing targets discrimination simply can’t reach.
You’ll detect deep coins, caches, and relics invisible to discrimination’s motion-dependent processing.
Mineral interference compounds this limitation—discrimination struggles with hot rocks and mineralized soil that all-metal handles efficiently.
Your coil selection matters more in all-metal mode, where larger coils maximize depth potential without discrimination’s processing overhead.
Switch to all-metal for initial site surveys, trashy areas with multiple targets, and depth-critical hunting.
You’re free to process targets manually rather than trusting automated filters that reject low-conductivity gold and misidentify edge-positioned finds.
Master both modes instead of defaulting to discrimination’s convenience.
Overlooking Target Masking Issues
Critical masking scenarios you’re missing:
- High discrimination settings filter out small gold items sharing conductivity ranges with rejected trash.
- Zero-disc iron rejection on Sovereign-class detectors eliminates ferrous chirps but shields co-located valuables completely.
- Trashy environments exponentially increase masking risk, hiding recoverable targets beneath junk signals.
Smaller coils and lower discrimination reduce these masking effects markedly.
When to Switch Between Discrimination and All-Metal Mode
Understanding when to toggle between discrimination and all-metal mode directly impacts your detecting efficiency and target recovery rate.
Switch to all-metal when you’re hunting sites with mixed targets or unknown conditions—it maximizes depth and sensitivity while eliminating depth limitations that discrimination imposes. You’ll detect deeper coins and smaller relics that discrimination might miss.
All-metal mode eliminates depth restrictions and maximizes sensitivity, letting you recover deeper coins and smaller relics that discrimination would miss entirely.
However, target masking becomes problematic in trashy areas where junk signals overwhelm valuable finds. That’s when you’ll switch to discrimination mode, filtering iron, nails, and foil based on conductivity thresholds.
Use linear discrimination to reject everything below your set point, or employ notch discrimination to ignore specific conductivity segments.
In goldfields and relic sites, all-metal proves essential since valuable targets often share conductivity ranges with trash.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Discrimination Mode Accidentally Reject Valuable Items Like Gold Rings or Chains?
Yes, discrimination mode can reject gold jewelry because thin chains and low-karat rings often produce signals matching trash like foil or pull-tabs. Mineral detection interference worsens this. You’ll miss valuable targets unless you lower discrimination settings or periodically use all-metal mode.
Does Discrimination Work Equally Well on All Metal Detector Brands and Models?
No—discrimination performance varies like different GPS brands reading terrain. Metal detector calibration and frequency technology differ markedly between manufacturers. Minelab’s multi-frequency and target identification techniques outperform basic Garrett models in trashy sites, while budget detectors often misidentify low-conductivity targets.
How Often Should I Recalibrate My Discrimination Settings During Hunts?
You’ll need to recalibrate whenever you change locations or notice ground conditions shifting. Calibration frequency directly impacts detection accuracy—check settings when moving between areas, encountering different soil types, or experiencing false signals that compromise your hunting freedom.
Will Discrimination Mode Still Detect Targets Buried at Extreme Depths?
Discrimination mode reduces your extreme depth detection because filtering slows target processing. You’ll miss deep versus shallow signals when soil interference masks faint responses. Switch to All-Metal mode for maximum penetration, then discriminate only after pinpointing promising targets.
Can Saltwater or Mineralized Soil Interfere With Discrimination Accuracy?
Ever wonder why your detector goes haywire at the beach? Yes, saltwater interference and mineralized soil impact dramatically reduce discrimination accuracy. You’ll need specialized ground balancing and lower sensitivity settings to overcome these conductivity challenges effectively.
References
- https://detectorpower.com/blogs/metal-detectors/metal-detector-discrimination
- https://www.joanallen.co.uk/metal-detector-discrimination-settings
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NUeipZ_nZM
- https://www.metaldetector.com/blogs/new_blog/target-discrimination-chart-for-metal-detectors
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyMRk58oITI
- https://www.minelab.com/blog/article/target-separation-vs-target-discrimination
- https://metaldetectingforum.com/index.php?threads/what-is-zero-discrimination.115027/
- https://www.highplainsprospectors.com/blogs/news/faq-what-is-discrimination-in-metal-detecting
- https://seriousdetecting.com/blogs/detecting-prospecting/metal-detector-discrimination-scale-explained
- https://owmo.de/en/2024/03/conductance-target-id-metal-detector/
