portable depth tester, dumb idea?

John Madill said:

i am fortunate enough to live just 45 minutes away from a brick and mortar metal detector store with lots of new and used detectors for sale.

I would love to be able to compare them on depth and thought maybe i could take a 6" diameter piece of pvc pipe, cap off the bottom, toss a coin in there and fill it up with dirt then cap off the other end. and make some simple stand for it.

i was thinking a silver quarter. so what might be a good depth test between several detectors? i was thinking 10", hoping many would miss it but a few fine machines would find it. Sort of like Cinderella and a glass slipper thing.

your thoughts on depth, etc, are appreciated.

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the one problem I see with what you are suggesting is I do not think a 6 inch PVC with a coin in the bottom and then filled with dirt will tell you anything of value, for the simple fact and this is just my opinion I believe a metal detector needs more dirt then a 6 inch PVC will hold to give you a accurate reading from your detector, a detector samples all the ground around it while operating, there are to many factors that come into play when you are detecting in real world scenarios, moisture in the ground,iron particles in the ground, salt content in the ground, these are just a few and I am sure there are a bunch I have not mentioned in fact I know there are more things then what I have listed that comes into play when you are detecting, length of time stuff has been in the ground all of this factors into what a detector can or will see, putting a coin or metal object in the bottom of a capped off 6 inch PVC will tell you nothing except your detector is seeing a metal object and a TID for that target, which different ground conditions can skew target IDs, I feel the same when someone states the have made a test bed unless that test bed was set up many many years ago to me they tell you nothing more then your detector is seeing metal objects