Ghost singals

[LuckyDragon]

Ever go metal detecting and than your detector finds some thing and you pin point it, than you try recover the target but it not there.
And than run your detector over it and the singal has moved , than you dig to recover it and again it not there, and the same thing happens over and over?
It very bothering and a waste of time.

 

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[gleaner1]

Quit diggin' and move on. Happens alot. Probably DEEP crap, iron. No coin will behave like this. If the site allows, try to find it just for fun.

 

[GpSnoopy]

I've come across this, and very often it's been a tiny bb, blob of solder, piece of copper wire, or some other small item that you can't see, but gets moved around as you dig. If it's small enough, just flipping the plug it was in might put it far enough from the coil to lose the signal, and then it comes back when you put the plug back. I use a handheld pinpointer now and that has helped immensely in finding these elusive targets.

 

[Iron Patch]

There are several explanations.... but always a reason, just make sure it's not the unit or a bad coil.

What's probably the most common reason for a "ghost signal" is a target that is just breaking through the discrimination. Once you dig the hole it breaks the halo from the object having erroded for years, and this decreses the quality of the signal enough for your detector's discrimination to reject it. The best way to deal with this is to go into all metal or zero disc. and find it that way. A probe is a huge help!

Minerals or salt can cause this and is dealt best with by lowering the sens., or in some cases 'notching', on certain detectors. The typical VLF will have these problems when around salt water.


Another is the target changed position after you started to dig and ended up on edge, or masked, or another way to suddenly hide it from the detector. (The smaller the target, the tougher to locate) The way you deal with this is not to give up, and once you have a lot of experience with a unit you tend to know what singals are too good to give up on. Again a probe can really help with this one too.

The last I can think of is the target is deeper! This isn't too uncommon with my explorer and happens once I dig the hole and break the halo. I can't tell you how many times I was ready to give up and as a last resort dug deeper and found the target. The explorer is a little strange that it will detect in disc. deeper than the all metal pinpoint will sound off.

I guess there is one last reason. Don't use an explorer and keep a can of bug spray in your pants pocket. I'll leave it at that.

 

[gleaner1]

Man, I totally mis-read this post. I was thinking the "dig to China Syndrome", where you keep getting good signal no matter how deep you dig, but cant find it. Now I see the question true and think 22 brass and bullets, small lead, small wads of foil....will make you do some hoop jumpin'.

 

[LuckyDragon]

If it not there , than forget it, it's not worth digging a large hole.

 

[Chug And Red]

Womens hair pins do this its very irritating!!!! unless they drop a little gold next to it!!! LOL!!