A question for the experienced MDer

Silversmith45 · Mar 13, 2018

Dave1904 said:
Last week I was digging a signal that was hard to pinpoint. After searching around for a minute I looked to the side at my shovel and saw a nickel stuck to the blade Happens occasionally to me when I get careless.

I had that happen a couple of times with magnets.

Birddog1911 · Mar 14, 2018

I had one disappear just yesterday...of course, I'm a newb though. Got a good signal, dug the whole, and it just disappeared. Wouldn't hit on the coil or pinpointer. Tired digging deeper, tried coming at it from different angles. Nothing.

MDFace · Mar 14, 2018

Used to happen quite often with the Garrett 250. The X-Terra has pretty much eliminated that but it does still happen sometimes, usually with signals that aren't that convincing to begin with. Someone taught me a little trick - crack the soil with the spade before you dig and swing over it , it almost totally eliminates phantom signals.

BvM · Mar 14, 2018

This is very easily solved.

Stop wearing steel toed boots....

:laughing:

Digger-Dave · Mar 14, 2018

I manage to get a few ghost signals per year.

BvM said:
This is very easily solved.

Stop wearing steel toed boots....

Sometimes you can get a short signals from bumping the coil on rocks or stubble.

T-Man · Mar 14, 2018

BvM said:
This is very easily solved.

Stop wearing steel toed boots....

I was going to say the same thing. Not to be sound snarky but because I've actually done that. Also holding a handful of dirt in a gloved hand and the PP is tell me the target is there but can't find it. Then remember I have a wedding ring on inside that glove... If I slapped myself everytime I did something stupid like that I'd be dead by now. :lol:

Skippy SH13 · Mar 15, 2018

glazier said:
Sorry if this has been asked before, but I gotta ask "How often do you end up with nothing in the hole you dug?"
The reason I ask....today I must have dug 10-15 holes...3 of them contained nothing, nada, zilch.
I'm using an AT Pro with a Pinpointer.

Maybe one out of 10,000 holes, but there has always been an explanation, such as red soil in the dirt that showed what was there was corroded, and had created a "halo" effect... when I disturbed the dirt, the halo was disturbed and the signal wasn't strong enough to trip the detector or pin pointer any longer. As I said though, I can spot the red...

Basically, you're saying that you dug the repeatable signal, and when you dug it up, the signal disappeared, but you didn't find anything? I'd suggest that was a rust deposit.

Cheers,

Skippy

RayK · Mar 15, 2018

I have been detecting since the early 80's and it happens to everybody. If they say it doesn't then they are not out enough to see it more.

Because you said this only happened a couple times it is more than likely one of the following:

Typically it is a large object that is deep fooling the detector into showing a shallow depth. Try all metal mode and see what the detector sounds like.

A coin on edge can also give you problems locating them. That is one of the reason to come at the target from multiple directions. Even while pin pointing with your detector on the object, try different directions. I have had coins on edge be a couple of inches from my plug throwing off pin pointing with the detector.

Very small objects that the detector picks up but the hand held pin pointer has trouble detecting them. I have had this happen with very small lead shot and foil.

Ray

ROBOTCOP13 · Mar 26, 2018

I was going to say metal eyelets in your sneakers.

Get cheap sneakers at Wal Mart, plastic eyelets.

MrNovice · Mar 26, 2018

bowwinkles said:
Sometimes the signal your chasing is something that is deep and very large. Large iron deep gives off a high number normally for me.

With an AT Pro, I’m thinking this is the issue. Gotta do the raise the coil and sweep trick and see if your targeting a car buried 7ft deep! :digginahole:

halfstep · Mar 26, 2018

BvM said:
This is very easily solved.

Stop wearing steel toed boots....

I have to be careful, especially with a big coil. I have 11 screws and 2 plates in my right ankle and 2 screws in my left ankle. Add to the problem, I have a few loose screws in my head. Anyone who metal detects is crazy. We work hard to clean the parks for two dollars an hour. What the heck. :?:

A question for the experienced MDer

Silversmith45

Elite Member

Birddog1911

Senior Member

MDFace

New Member

BvM

Junior Member

Digger-Dave

T-Man

Elite Member

Skippy SH13

RayK

Senior Member

ROBOTCOP13

Elite Member

MrNovice

halfstep

Elite Member

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