Why do ground conditions give many false readings on vdi meter readings

49er12

Bronze Member
Aug 22, 2013
1,238
1,627
Rolling Rock, Pennsylvania
Detector(s) used
Minelab xterra, Whites DFX, Notka Makro Simplex. Folks the price don’t mean everything, the question is are you willing to put in the time to learn the machine, experience will pay off I guarantee it.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I understand certain soils, most coins are not laying flat which gives much stronger tone and vdi. I?m saying I use both tones and vdi and I?m sure I passed over finds. Most of you say tones are more important, that?s fine but vdi has to become more accurate on all machines because the difference can be 20 or so numbers off, never staying within reason of error +2 or -2 or about. Silver dimes as of late regardless depth is 6 to 8 inches, under tree roots . Point is what?s the information you can offer. In ending if I determine a good signal I go side to side and don?t usually give up. So give us your thoughts on this common situation, thankyou
 

ScoTTT2

Jr. Member
Jul 19, 2021
47
133
steuben county, ny
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
There's a very interesting video on utube from Tony Eisenhower, where he shows the TID#s of a few hundred gold and silver rings on the Nox800, the just of it is that a ring will come up at any and every TID on that machine. It doesn't take a lot of coin shooting to know that if you only dig the known TIDs for a target you're looking for that you'll be missing some real good targets .. coin spills, for example where you have a nickel and dime together .. or a coin and piece of trash .. there is just no way to make a machine ID those type of targets accurately .. but the tones do not lie .. I hunt with a guy with his ctx 3030 and watched him go over and over this target only to decide that it wasn't what he wanted to dig .. eventually I was in the same place and the target sounded real good to me, but the TID put it in the same place a large piece of trash or beer can would usually fall .. but because I liked the sound of it and it sounded smaller than a can, it I dug it .. turned out to be 13 quarters all touching each other .. then there's depth, the return of a signal is different to a machine the deeper it goes, so the machine 'guesses' on what that target is ..a 4 inch deep silver dime is easy to ID where as the same dime at 10 inches is less so .. to me the TIDs give you a reason NOT to dig something, more so than a reason to dig it .. I seldom follow those numbers.
 

smokeythecat

Gold Member
Nov 22, 2012
20,713
40,790
Maryland
🥇 Banner finds
10
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
XP Deus II
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I do not depend on the VDI, and as a matter of fact don't need one on a machine.
 

OP
OP
49er12

49er12

Bronze Member
Aug 22, 2013
1,238
1,627
Rolling Rock, Pennsylvania
Detector(s) used
Minelab xterra, Whites DFX, Notka Makro Simplex. Folks the price don’t mean everything, the question is are you willing to put in the time to learn the machine, experience will pay off I guarantee it.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
So the very imperfect system, yes better than years ago. Ok tones alone offer the same I don’t care if you have 50 tones you can’t differentiate the item in ground. I to listen to tones and vdi helps , I’m not expecting perfect even though they could do something with aluminum, pull tabs, even cans, if you can eliminate that well.I never had a problem bending over to dig,some do I’m lucky. But yes guys we all pass something over and who no how many times. So I’m not operating a equinox 800, or xpdeus, but look when I go out I’m not in all metal but I dig most, why not. If some expect says he can determine every sound well great but not true. So eliminate aluminum, pull tabs I be happy
 

OP
OP
49er12

49er12

Bronze Member
Aug 22, 2013
1,238
1,627
Rolling Rock, Pennsylvania
Detector(s) used
Minelab xterra, Whites DFX, Notka Makro Simplex. Folks the price don’t mean everything, the question is are you willing to put in the time to learn the machine, experience will pay off I guarantee it.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
So the very imperfect system, yes better than years ago. Ok tones alone offer the same I don’t care if you have 50 tones you can’t differentiate the item in ground. I to listen to tones and vdi helps , I’m not expecting perfect even though they could do something with aluminum, pull tabs, even cans, if you can eliminate that well.I never had a problem bending over to dig,some do I’m lucky. But yes guys we all pass something over and who no how many times. So I’m not operating a equinox 800, or xpdeus, but look when I go out I’m not in all metal but I dig most, why not. If some expect says he can determine every sound well great but not true. So eliminate aluminum, pull tabs I be happy
 

smokeythecat

Gold Member
Nov 22, 2012
20,713
40,790
Maryland
🥇 Banner finds
10
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
XP Deus II
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Don't bet your life on eliminating aluminum. I can MOSTLY tell a belt plate from an aluminum can, however, that said, the time it takes to get the aluminum out of the way is less than standing there for 3 minutes repeatedly swinging a machine like your IQ is 10 and not knowing what to do. In three minutes I can dig 4 signals, or more.
 

Treasure_Hunter

Administrator
Staff member
Jul 27, 2006
48,433
54,826
Florida
Detector(s) used
Minelab_Equinox_ 800 Minelab_CTX-3030 Minelab_Excal_1000 Minelab_Sovereign_GT Minelab_Safari Minelab_ETrac Whites_Beach_Hunter_ID Fisher_1235_X
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
You eliminate aluminum you're eliminating gold, they are are almost identical conductivity, people who try to discriminate out pull tabs and aluminum cans are going to either miss a lot of gold and or lose a lot of time like Smokey says.
 

Terry Soloman

Gold Member
May 28, 2010
19,420
30,084
White Plains, New York
🥇 Banner finds
1
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
Nokta Makro Legend// Pulsedive// Minelab GPZ 7000// Vanquish 540// Minelab Pro Find 35// Dune Kraken Sandscoop// Grave Digger Tools Tombstone shovel & Sidekick digger// Bunk's Hermit Pick
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
If you are depending on visual identification numbers, OR tones, Ground Balance is your friend. Soil conductivity changes, at times, every five-to-ten feet. When I am trying to go deep, listening for "whisper" tones and jumping VDI, I manually ground balance every 10-minutes, or more regularly if the soil is clay and- or high in iron. It takes a couple-hundred hours with any machine to learn it's language. Concentrate on learning from every target you dig. Compare numbers and tones, soil type, and signal strength. Then, suddenly one day you're getting a signal and you KNOW what it is before you dig it. You are now fluent in your machine's language.:skullflag:
 

Tony in SC

Gold Member
Jun 8, 2006
6,106
8,456
Upstate South Carolina
Detector(s) used
Whites, Minelab, Tesoro, and custom machines
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I almost didn't dig my best gold ring because it was 1inch from a rusty nail.
 

OP
OP
49er12

49er12

Bronze Member
Aug 22, 2013
1,238
1,627
Rolling Rock, Pennsylvania
Detector(s) used
Minelab xterra, Whites DFX, Notka Makro Simplex. Folks the price don’t mean everything, the question is are you willing to put in the time to learn the machine, experience will pay off I guarantee it.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Tony what machine do you use normally
 

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Discussions

Top