Fooling me or my detector?

Jeepfreak81 · Apr 25, 2018

As many of you know, I'm a first season detectorist. I've been hammering my backyard for a week or so now and have probably 8 or 10 hours of hunting under my belt all together. Now, my yard is incredibly trashy. In fact, local legend has it that before the houses on my street were built, debris from a large downtown fire was dumped here and leveled out. This would have had to be mid 1800's as my house was built 1880ish, first one on my street. I'm pretty certain all the previous homeowners dumped in the yard for trash removal, pretty common in this area until 50 years ago or so.

Now, on to my question. I've found some neat things, and lots of junk. I run my AT Pro in Pro coin mode with Iron disc at 40 and the sensitivity down 3 or 4 notches depending on my mood. Sometimes I'll get a pretty good tone in the 80's or 90's only to dig and find nothing but nails and scrap iron. A recheck of the area doesn't reproduce the numbers after digging. Am I missing things in the hole or is the junk causing the detector to read "off"

Just wondering as I've had it happen quite a few times. I will say, that the sound is a bit choppy when this happens. Repeatable, but choppy.

ColoradoMike · Apr 25, 2018

"I run my AT Pro in Pro coin mode with Iron disc at 40..."

Why coin mode? I suggest trying "pro zero" mode. Leave the discrimination down to about 24. If there is iron, use the iron audio. See if that makes a difference.

ScubaDetective · Apr 25, 2018

Rusty iron will and does give false signals.

It is your yard and you have years to clean it up of all targets. Enjoy every one and realize that is the nature of the beast.

Even a scratchy signal could be a good one. Gold chains and rings with broken shanks do that.

Jeepfreak81 · Apr 25, 2018

ScubaDetector said:
Rusty iron will and does give false signals.

It is your yard and you have years to clean it up of all targets. Enjoy every one and realize that is the nature of the beast.

Even a scratchy signal could be a good one. Gold chains and rings with broken shanks do that.

Ya, that's why I end up digging them. dont' want to miss anything good :lol:

A couple have turned out to be something interesting. I'm going to open a hardware store pretty soon to sell of the nails :laughing:

Jeepfreak81 · Apr 25, 2018

ColoradoMike said:
"I run my AT Pro in Pro coin mode with Iron disc at 40..."

Why coin mode? I suggest trying "pro zero" mode. Leave the discrimination down to about 24. If there is iron, use the iron audio. See if that makes a difference.

This was at the suggestion of a few people to try and skip over some of the iron for now. Ultimately I'd like a 5x8 coil, but it's not in the budget at the moment.

Rollie · Apr 25, 2018

I'm no expert for sure. I've only been at it a few years, but when I first started I worked my back yard for weeks and didn't find anything but trash. Looking back, I just don't think that your average back yard is that good of a place to learn. So I went out and tried to find places with a little more potential. I think that picking a good place to search is as much a part of it as identifying and finding stuff. I started having my best luck on hillsides where kids go sledding in the winter. Less pop tops, bottle caps, and foil, and more good stuff. I cut my teeth on sledding hills and tot lots. But I still hit my back yard every once in a while. I just make a quick trip over it. As time goes on, I am able to find more good stuff and less trash, just because I'm learning all the time.

ColoradoMike · Apr 25, 2018

I can't prove this but, seems like when I run the discrimination numbers up, it changes the vdi responses. i.e. penny coming in at 78 normally will then come in at higher number. I hunt quite a bit with the AT Pro and my first-hand experience has convinced me to leave the discrimination alone (0) for the most part. Otherwise, it throws me off. However, I do play around with notching out stuff once in a while. When I do that, I also play with the discrimination knowing full well I am messing around in unfamiliar responses of the machine.

Jeepfreak81 · Apr 25, 2018

ColoradoMike said:
I can't prove this but, seems like when I run the discrimination numbers up, it changes the vdi responses. i.e. penny coming in at 78 normally will then come in at higher number. I hunt quite a bit with the AT Pro and my first-hand experience has convinced me to leave the discrimination alone (0) for the most part. Otherwise, it throws me off. However, I do play around with notching out stuff once in a while. When I do that, I also play with the discrimination knowing full well I am messing around in unfamiliar responses of the machine.

Interesting, I might have to do some testing

Sent from my Moto E (4) Plus using Tapatalk

RF1 · Apr 25, 2018

Newer ATP user here. Some of that trash will give you a good tone and high reading. Try to train your ear for the repeatable mid and high tones. I run pro-zero and either disc iron to 30 or so, or leave it at 0 to hear everything depending on how thick it is.

You can use the pinpoint feature to also judge how big the target is. An individual coin will sound small. A plow tip will sound big. Several coins in one hole can sound big.

I started out just digging, and digging to learn what the machine tones were trying to tell me. Go by tones more the the numbers. All that trash can and will throw them off. In a clean site, the numbers can be pretty accurate.

shughey00 · Apr 25, 2018

For the best audio information on this or most detectors you can run the discrimination down low...I like to hear the iron. There are several very good reasons for this and almost every relic hunter who has detected for many years we will run the detector as wide open as possible...most of the time. Wide open means little to no discrimination and iron audio on..if there is that option.
One big reason is that while large iron will often false high it will also have an iron audio mixed in...but...if you turn the disc or audio disc up enough to clip out the iron sound then you will "hear" just the good high clipped portion oft that large rusty iron...or just as bad deep rusty square nails.
Rusty iron almolst al;ways will have an iron tone as you come OFF the target...while centered over it it may just be a high tone..but as you come off of it the "edge" of the target will grunt iron tone....very typical. I have very seldom run into deep iron that did not do this...even deep nail will...but then again so do very deep silver coins but that is due to signal loss...but another time.
So it is best to listen to it all...then you will learn by sound when something has that rusty iron sound to it...verses say a rusty nail next to a coin...and most times there is a difference but it takes time to learn it. but you will never learn it with discrimination turned up.
Now as a rule I never turn disc down far enough to start to hear ground minerals..that is not needed....some detectors have that much low end adjust-ability while others do not

IDXMonster · Apr 25, 2018

shughey00 said:
For the best audio information on this or most detectors you can run the discrimination down low...I like to hear the iron. There are several very good reasons for this and almost every relic hunter who has detected for many years we will run the detector as wide open as possible...most of the time. Wide open means little to no discrimination and iron audio on..if there is that option.
One big reason is that while large iron will often false high it will also have an iron audio mixed in...but...if you turn the disc or audio disc up enough to clip out the iron sound then you will "hear" just the good high clipped portion oft that large rusty iron...or just as bad deep rusty square nails.
Rusty iron almolst al;ways will have an iron tone as you come OFF the target...while centered over it it may just be a high tone..but as you come off of it the "edge" of the target will grunt iron tone....very typical. I have very seldom run into deep iron that did not do this...even deep nail will...but then again so do very deep silver coins but that is due to signal loss...but another time.
So it is best to listen to it all...then you will learn by sound when something has that rusty iron sound to it...verses say a rusty nail next to a coin...and most times there is a difference but it takes time to learn it. but you will never learn it with discrimination turned up.
Now as a rule I never turn disc down far enough to start to hear ground minerals..that is not needed....some detectors have that much low end adjust-ability while others do not

Really really REALLY good post. Running low disc allows the operator to hear “true” signals,good or bad. It just means you have to proceed forward more slowly and be more deliberate,when hunting heavy trash.
As Rollie stated also,I would not learn there,unless you have nowhere to go. Knowing how a coin responds by itself will help even in trash where signals are sometimes “clipped”. But even at a partial response,they still have certain qualities about them which can only be learned through experience with that particular machine. Some of this stuff is VERY nuanced.
Excellent discussion...

Fooling me or my detector?

Jeepfreak81

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ColoradoMike

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ScubaDetective

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Jeepfreak81

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Jeepfreak81

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Rollie

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ColoradoMike

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Jeepfreak81

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RF1

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shughey00

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IDXMonster

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