Need advise on moving target?

DiggerGal

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Oct 12, 2013
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California
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I'm so confused and a little frustrated. I am very new to this hobby and I am noticing that yesterday and today, when I am passing over a high pitch tone (low and slow) my MD will read 3 out of 6 times. I change directions, nothing happens. I redirect the same way as the first and nothing but now the reading is happening above or below the original point.
Turned the detector off and on and same thing happens.
Perhaps it's the coil? So confused. Your experience and advise is appreciated.
Thanks!
 

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toe2short

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May 28, 2013
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30
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What type of MD? Can you adjust your sensitivity? Are you in an area that has a lot of junk? It can be a number of things.
 

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DiggerGal

DiggerGal

Hero Member
Oct 12, 2013
564
505
California
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Garrett AT Pro
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All Treasure Hunting
What type of MD? Can you adjust your sensitivity? Are you in an area that has a lot of junk? It can be a number of things.

I have a Bounty Hunter Treasure Hunter. I have set the sensitivity at about 3:00 position and lower it when I have a hard time pin pointing the target.
Another thing I noticed is now when I lay it down it also will just chirp at times when the coil is not engaged with the ground. I have unplugged the coil, power off and on etc. :(
No change
 

cudamark

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There could be more than one target in the same area. Maybe a good one and a bad one. Maybe one is deep? What happens when you swing the coil faster? What reading do you get in all metal with no discrimination? One way to tell is to go ahead and dig it and find out!
 

Ism

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Jun 17, 2009
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Sounds like a iron wire, rerod, bolt, large nail or similar. Long iron in the shape of a rod generally only sounds off on the ends in disc mode. If its on an angle in the ground, you will only hear one end of it.
Ergo, you swing one way it will sound off but not consistently, turn 90 deg. and you won't hear anything. Being that it is long you will generally not hear the other end.
Pinpointing is difficult because the target will sound off a couple inches off center in most cases. Best thing to do is dig and learn what these objects are.

Cudamark also made a good point. Iron next to a good target will often do the same thing.
 

Msbeepbeep

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Jun 24, 2012
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I have a M-6 and it gets confused when there are good and bad targets under the coil in the same spot, or if it is a piece of long wire. Over head power lines makes mine chatter a little also. Try going very slow and from different directions. Like they said if all else fails dig it up and put the mystery to rest. Some pieces of trash give weird signals, like AA batteries signal bounces all over the place on my M-6.
 

Jason in Enid

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Oct 10, 2009
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It's iron, possibly 2 iron objects next to each other. Your detector is trying to disc them out and only partially succeeding. When you swing long-ways across them you gets an occasional response, when you swing cross-ways it is easier to reject.
 

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DiggerGal

DiggerGal

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Oct 12, 2013
564
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I put the mystery to rest. I dug it up and it was an old window crank from a car! I just laughed. Makes sense why the detector was bouncing around on audio. Fat to skinny, metal and plastic. I don't think ( at least I hope I don't)I will find one again.
Lesson learned. When in doubt, dig.

Thanks everyone!
 

RobRieman

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Nov 12, 2012
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I put the mystery to rest. I dug it up and it was an old window crank from a car! I just laughed. Makes sense why the detector was bouncing around on audio. Fat to skinny, metal and plastic. I don't think ( at least I hope I don't)I will find one again. Lesson learned. When in doubt, dig. Thanks everyone!

Good example for sure. Old window cranks are made of chromed pot metal typically and are a large chunk of metal. You will get strange readings on these kind of items no matter what detector you are swinging. Dig the oddball signals and soon you will be speaking its language!
 

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