My metal detector is sending me mixed signals! One minute it sniffs coins then a bit of digging changes the tone to iron (or rust mainly) is it to sensitive or just the ground conditions?
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Garrett ace 150. ....
- Thread starter Nick150
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CRUSADER
Gold Member
I have no experience in this machine, but the best thing you can do is dig it, forget what its telling you, just work out the SOUNDS.
CRUSADER
Gold Member
Trust me I end up with pouchs of crap every day I hunt. On average about 20 pieces for every 1 keeper. They should call the trash digging & not treasure hunting. My best advice is spend time speeding up your recovery of the objects, it generally takes me about 20 seconds or less from the beep to pouch. When your quick the finds will flow. Accept that you are going to dig plenty of crap. I enjoy clearing it off the land & on a good site when you return year after year on the same spot, you will not have to hear it again.
luvsdux
Bronze Member
- May 16, 2007
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If you are hunting trashy areas, the trash may be masking good targets giving you mixed signals. If that's the case, a smaller coil will help.
luvsdux
luvsdux
You need to reduce your sensitivity. The Ace series are very sensitive. It's not unusual to reduce the sens to 4 bars to eliminate deep iron rusty crap. Try running your sens to 3 or 4 bars in trashy sites. You will still get decent depth at these settings.
mineralized_miner
Full Member
- Dec 2, 2013
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Coinmaster GT
Fisher F2
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If I were you, I'd turn off all discrimination, and just dig things that can be easily construed as coins or other valuales (repeatable good signals) and stay away from really high signals that are big, as they are often large iron.
Basically yes you loose depth. But using too much power on certain grounds can work against you in getting a clearer signal on some good targets. The best way to explain it that I didn't come up with is related to your vehicles headlights. Think of fog as the mineralization and trash in the ground. You running your brights but can't see very far because of the glare. You switch to low beams and although you can't see too far you can see better. So reducing your power on your machine can help in certain ground.
CRUSADER
Gold Member
Yes.
A general rule on all machines is run the Ses. as high as the ground allows & the Disc as low as you can. I have no Disc.
treasurecoasteric
Sr. Member
- Jan 6, 2014
- 276
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Nick - Everyone new to the hobby has the same questions. Ask away ! We have ALL been there and wondered the same things and can help you out.
Rather than think of reducing your sensitivity as losing depth, think of it as allowing your machine to run stable. Just this afternoon I hit a patch of black sand and had to reduce my sensitivity to about 60% to stop all the false signals. There is no question that I lost some depth, but now my machine was running effectively, which is more important than anything.
Get out there, have fun and dig away - welcome to the world's greatest hobby!
Sent from my BNTV600 using TreasureNet
Rather than think of reducing your sensitivity as losing depth, think of it as allowing your machine to run stable. Just this afternoon I hit a patch of black sand and had to reduce my sensitivity to about 60% to stop all the false signals. There is no question that I lost some depth, but now my machine was running effectively, which is more important than anything.
Get out there, have fun and dig away - welcome to the world's greatest hobby!
Sent from my BNTV600 using TreasureNet
- May 9, 2012
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Machine is blind. See,s better than you or I though. Big iron a big find for unit even with iron discriminated out. (Though a couple notches enough to discrim little iron usually enough).That low iron tone and icon illuminating will still happen, just keep swinging and imagine the machine is just talking to itself, hmm, iron, nope .o.k. next, ha piece off foil , iron again, wait hint of copper, iron, nickle/pull tab gold, ding!,ding! ding! I,m a pin ball machine,(dig!).. Raising coil above target found will stop tone on a small target but a large one, maybe coffee can will keep ringing bell tone when you are a foot, maybe higher even above it. A handheld pin pointer will help solve some mysteries, o.k. it will help solve alot of mysteries.My 150 and I really got along different when adding a pinpointer and discovering the little tiny things it could find that I was missing when digging. (the disappearing signals I had claimed.)
Multiple targets are common in same spot. That will confuse the machine and the user. Its a good thing when you have multiple tones over a small area and that high toned bell is just able to be triggered. You,ll see. A big solid hit can be a nice coin,or a can. In time it can be sorted better before digging, but if any doubt dig to learn more!
Multiple targets are common in same spot. That will confuse the machine and the user. Its a good thing when you have multiple tones over a small area and that high toned bell is just able to be triggered. You,ll see. A big solid hit can be a nice coin,or a can. In time it can be sorted better before digging, but if any doubt dig to learn more!
- Thread starter
- #15
Its all new to me so im absorbing all of this info. You lot are really helpful thanks. Just another query, if for example the target was 3" deep im assuming if the coil was snug on the ground the depth would read as 3". If the coil was 3" above ground it would or should read as 6"? Reason I ask is I cant get very low on the particular field im scanning as the furrows are very deep.
- May 9, 2012
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Depth is the least dependable indicator maybe. Our depth indicators are part of the installed logic that depends on a number of possibilities. If you have one cent indicated at 3 inches and it is one cent and your coil is snug it should be close yes. A brass rifle cartridge ringing up at a cent (if it does) may be any depth. Target size, its material and even soil type can effect reading. Because of my technique a couple inches of depth are sacrificed. So a target reading four inches(if accurate) is only two. Faster response when swinging back and forth tells me as much it is not deep.. Been running Ace 350,s. Even with depth indicated the majority of targets are first "marked" by eye ,then a scratch on surface, then are checked with hand held pinpointer. If pinpointer sounds its shallow.If not I cut a deep plug.
Targets at deepest indication on screen all ways fun to see,not all ways fun to recover l.o.l.. Really its hard to trust whats there without seeing it and all the opinions(and like mine are only that,opinions) saying dig all tones and signals till you get ideas of what targets are before you dig, they are trying to say its how you interpret what unit offers you.
If I confidently announce its a pull tab and move on past it means I don,t want to dig it. Does not mean its a pull tab. Yes you gain and stop digging as much of what you don,t want to in time. If that,s what you want to do. But how do we know what is below the chunk of iron, (an example,not saying leave iron or anything) we leave because we don,t want the iron?.Can the better units "see" beyond and around the masking item? Let the world debate that till you can prove different. By removing target your Ace will be able to check below it . Of this I am fully confident. How far it can I,m not . A big part of the fun.
Targets at deepest indication on screen all ways fun to see,not all ways fun to recover l.o.l.. Really its hard to trust whats there without seeing it and all the opinions(and like mine are only that,opinions) saying dig all tones and signals till you get ideas of what targets are before you dig, they are trying to say its how you interpret what unit offers you.
If I confidently announce its a pull tab and move on past it means I don,t want to dig it. Does not mean its a pull tab. Yes you gain and stop digging as much of what you don,t want to in time. If that,s what you want to do. But how do we know what is below the chunk of iron, (an example,not saying leave iron or anything) we leave because we don,t want the iron?.Can the better units "see" beyond and around the masking item? Let the world debate that till you can prove different. By removing target your Ace will be able to check below it . Of this I am fully confident. How far it can I,m not . A big part of the fun.
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CRUSADER
Gold Member
Like I was trying to say at the beginning, forget whats on the display its not important or accurate, specially the depth part. Cover a good area systematically, dig as much as you can tolerate & learn the sounds. Once you know what an iron nail sounds like, you can ignore it, if you want to etc...
My detector has no display & nor do I want or need one.
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JunkShopFiddler
Bronze Member
- Feb 15, 2013
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I usually wait 'till after a good toad strangler (that would be a hard rain, ha ha.) to dig the iffy signals. After a good rain the digging is easy so I turn up the sensitivity because you can pop out the junk a lot faster and then move on quickly..If the ground is dry like concrete, I set my sensitivity low and just go for a cladfest, and maybe a shallow silver ring or coin.
CRUSADER
Gold Member
Good idea when doing grass/parks but he is in a ploughed field so its very unusual to get hard ground.
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