Iron scans as Silver

greenprimate

New Member
Joined
May 6, 2012
Messages
12
Location
Saratoga Springs, NY
I got permission to Detect a property first built upon in 1790. I don't believe it has been detected before. *fist pump*

Here's the rub...

The site is littered with nothing but Nails. (Most of these nails are newish but a few are square.) The iron always reads as Silver. The nails in the ground read solidly as 88-98 on my DFX and can pin the needle on the 6000 Di Pro SL. I have found as many as 4 Nails in a single hole as deep as 10 inches. The pistol probe goes nuts on every setting except on minimal threshold. There's that much iron.

I am going to work this site all summer if I have to. I know there is good stuff there, but I need to weed out the iron first. Is there a better way than merely digging all these nails up bit by bit?
 
Other than a huge magnet, I don't know.

I am curious as to why these nails ring like silver. Could it be the density of the nails that increase it's conductivity?
 
Day Two.

I have a little under a pound of iron at this point. My discrimination is turned all the way up. Who knows what I'm missing but it doesn't matter because the only signal I can get is strong silver. The nails above ground read as nails. Other than the nails, the soil is a pleasure to dig in. Sandy soil and no rocks to speak of. The only thing that is about as common as the nails is pieces of coal with bits of old porcelain thrown in for good measure. The farther I get away from the house the fewer hits (nails) there are. I am beginning to think a carriage house or small barn behind the house burnt down. This might explain the nails, but not the faulty readings.

Well... back at it I guess.
 
I wouldn't crank up the disc, just evaluate each target as it comes... I get the same effect on my x terra 705, it's amazing where iron will read sometimes... It's alot slower, but you won't miss anything like say gold...
 
Sound advice.

A few days ago at this same site, I got a good mid 80's tone. I rolled my eyes and then my sleeves and got to digging...

2 Nails and a 64' Jefferson nickel in the same 4x5 hole. Progress. Not staggering, but progress none the less.

First (barely) silver of the year for me.
 
64' Jefferson nickel in the same 4x5 hole. Progress. Not staggering, but progress none the less.

First (barely) silver of the year for me.


The silver nickels were produced only in 1942-1945 and are known as the war nickels. You got yourself a regular 75% copper and 25% nickel nickel.:grin:
 
Fair enough... no silver... but it's still shinier than a dang nail. I probably have 6 hours into the place and finding anything other than nail shaped rust is cause for a party.

I'm beginning to think that the last roofer had only one arm. (Might explain all the hardware.)

I might have to crawl under the porch with a pinpointer for a little change of pace.
 
have you checked the hole with the MD after removing the nails, there may be silver down there. that happened to me I got a good coin signal,dug the hole found a few nails,checked with the MD & the coin was still there,checked the hole with the ProPointer & found the coin
 
Always. Even when the Pistol Probe turns up a goose egg after I've found the latest rusty nail hoard. There have been times when my holes turn into trenches. Many signals sometimes bleed together in a horizontal fashion. I am trying to be careful and not wear out my welcome by making the lawn look like a drunken idiot with a backhoe was trying to extend the house's foundations.

I have been using the stock programs on the DFX set for higher discrimination for the most part. I will amend that on my next effort as zeemang suggests. Not like discrimination is helping at all anyway and I have been missing that silver well below that iron.

Maybe I should give this spot a rest and go somewhere else to learn my machine a little better. Perhaps a site where I won't have to exhume a Desoto's weight in junk in order to find a single inbred nickel. I wonder if there is some subtly of use here that I can't quite grasp yet.

This is still loads of fun. Being stubborn and careful will pay off.
 
That's Odd, I thought you might be a Noob & weren't rescanning the hole after pulling the nails. I havn't ran into this problem yet & hope I dont, that can really drive you crazy. Good luck
 
iron as silver

Yes, iron, or the edges of it as you pass the coil over it can read as silver both in the display and the tone. This seems to be a VAST weakness of modern high end detectors which the engineers cannot seem to overcome.
Every detector I've ever used has this falsing flaw. It is frustrating but until a better system comes along and it doesn't cost you the mortgage on your house to buy, then we do what we have to do.
 
That's Odd, I thought you might be a Noob

No mights about it.

Ramer just gave the definitive answer. This is exactly what I was wondering. With an area littered with a lot of little iron, almost all the iron could read as silver. It's reassuring that this is a legitimate phenomenon of detecting rather than some measure of ineptitude on my part.

Luckily, I hit the motherload of nothing for the ultimate experience in obscure glitches right off the bat. I got permission to hit a house built in 1820 last week. This place will be an acre of pull tabs that reads as uranium.

Thanks for all the help. This is the most outstanding and genuine community that I have had the pleasure of being a part of. I can't wait to share my findings when I have some.
 
Silver iron is a real pain I know. I love my iron audio. When it is jumpy or you want to see if there might be two distinct signals, gotta love the iron audio. I have found many dimes and quarters by an old rusty nail etc. Above, below, and beside are no problem. Touching is a little harder but I still.dig some good sounding iffies. I had one clad quarter with a BB sized rust spot from the rusted nail touching it.

Big pieces of iron like pipes or buried railroad spikes sometimes read in the 90-99 range so I always iron audio those.
 
Yes, iron, or the edges of it as you pass the coil over it can read as silver both in the display and the tone. This seems to be a VAST weakness of modern high end detectors which the engineers cannot seem to overcome.
Every detector I've ever used has this falsing flaw. It is frustrating but until a better system comes along and it doesn't cost you the mortgage on your house to buy, then we do what we have to do.

Iron audio helps.
 
Some posts on the various forums have stated that the 90 or 95 and higher VDI readings on iron is actually the iron signal wrapping around to the end of the scale. For this reason, some people will notch out anything 90 or above. Usually, you will only find silver dollars this high up on the numbers. So if you notch out the high end, you will not find that silver dollar that you probably would never have found in the the first place.
I don't pretend to understand this "iron wrap around" business or if it is even a legitimate phenomenon.
 
I found the same thing, it tended to be well rusted nails though...My at pro can tell then apart if you do the 90 degrees but only if its not end up because then it gives a slightly longer sound or the numbers jump around a little, call it a quiver, but point up or close to it and it rings pure silver or clad and yet another nail in my trash box (my record is a 6 to 7" nail on its end....that had me big time, and was beside a totlot thankfully head up and not point up, but still)
 
Considering that there is something like 15 or 16 different kinds of iron oxide (rust), which can flake off, or leach into the surrounding soil. It really isn't surprising that old nails come up as different metals. The machine isn't detecting the actual metal, just an electromagnetic signal, eddy currents, and makes a calculated guess, based on the strength and duration.

I've pretty much dug a ll the good signals out of my backyard, and down to digging mixed and subtle signals. Pretty much just digging nails lately, but did get a corroded zinc this morning.
 
Eventually you will get better at determining if it is iron or coins. Rotate in a circle around the target as you scan and note if the signal begins breaking up and becomes inconsistent. Keep an eye on the confidence indicater and FE indicater if your detector has these. Also, use the pin pointing function to zero in on the target. On my detectors, if I back off the target a bit and re-enter pin point mode and move closer to the center of the target and I do this several times I will eventually be exactly on top of the target, and 90 percent of the time, at this point, if it is iron it will read only as iron. Problem with this is it stops you dead in your tracks and uses up valubable hunting time. But at least you will know if it is a nail or a coin without going to the effort of digging it.
 
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