Strong/Iffy/Bad Signals

Sounds like you have it figured out already..

Sweet.

So when looking for that "gold item" you should still dig the bad signals? or let it go. My reason for asking is it is my understanding that good items can be all over the place, thus appearing to be a bad signal...correct?

Yaa..Its confusing, Theres many variables like a coin or ring in the ground on edge, Piece of iron or junk next to a good target will cause the i.d. & sounds to jump around or mask the good target all together..Best thing to do if your unsure is to dig the signal, Thats the only way to really learn your machine..

good info, thanks!

Machines can vary as well.With the Sovereign a broken signal can be a coin on edge or a deep one.I switch to all metal pinpoint and dig.Its the only way.Basically if your signal doesnt go away on any sweep you must dig.

Sometimes I have a good beep in one direction but no beep
on the other (90°) . I should dig it anyway,just to be sure.
Ground is very dry and hard now . I hasn't rained since long
ago. Bad ground in this zone.
A fellow detectorist who has a Minelab says, his MD works better
in such dry ground condition.Because if an iron nail is near to a good
target,it seems lack of humidity helps the MD to discriminate the two
metals.
Otherwise,in wet condition,the nail could mask/influence or even
eliminate the other "good target signal"
Ramm

Deeper targets usually will ring up differently also. Meaning won't necessarily lock on to the target with the same ID each time.

Its a game of odds and learning to tilt the odds in your favor is important.

For some playing the odds is simply digging everything and hoping the odds are there is good stuff in with the junk. In this case you're at the mercy of whatever is there. You could spend hours/days hunting a location only to find out it had no goodies. Or perhaps a good cherry picker has already cleaned out the good stuff and left the junk for you to dig. Thats the odds.

For some playing the odds is selective recovery in an attempt to maximize time. I fall more into this category. The key here, besides knowing your detector, is being able to swing the odds in your favor by selectively leaving the obvious trash and plucking the goods. What becomes important with this type of hunting is having a detector capable of telling you good from bad, with the best accuracy possible and thus increasing the odds in your favor.

I like the DFX because I get a lot of feedback from a target to base my decision to recover or not on. I have the normal sound where I listen to the quality of a target plus I use Tone ID so now I have 2 forms of sound feedback not just one. On the display I have a VDI number, a Spectragraph and probable Icons. With these 3 forms of visual feedback each also has more than one indicator. For example, the VDI number not only gives me a numeric indicator but using the numeric variance is also a form of feedback. A good tight VDI number variance is an indicator that what is being display is pretty accurate. Sort of like the Accuracy Probability/Confidence Level on the V3.

The SpectraGraph not only gives feedback on probable target by the location on the graph, but the hight of the bars indicates probable depth and a tight bar pattern is another Confidence Level feedback. I also use one of the DFX's features that most users turn off. The Icons. As I said the more feedback the better the odds are in making a good call. The Icons give an indication of what the DFX thinks the target might be, and the order of the Icons tells which is most likely based on the other information on the DFX.

Yes I do "cherry pick" the vast majority of my hunting but the odds are in my favor, and I'm very comfortable with my odds.

Of course shallow targets are pretty predictable. When it comes to deep targets all bets are off.

Wow guys, nice tips, it really seems like understanding your MD is key. I just learned a lot.