Does some old glass create false MD readings?

davinci

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Jan 2, 2013
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When detecting an old secluded dump in the woods. (Many years ago my father said the old timers around the county had dump locations. Many of these are grown over but I came across a few locations while hunting. However I get readings that bounce around and no metal not even tin or caps. Just bottles. Do some bottles trip the detector? Is there metal in the old antique glass on this stuff? Or could it just be natural minerals in ground or old decayed metal that bled into the soil? Anyone want to chime in?
 

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lookindown

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Old decayed metal, such as lids and caps, sounds the most plausible to me...Ive never heard of glass triggering a metal detector.
 

Rawhide

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Lead was used in everything back then. Even glass. Not sure what is setting off your detector.
 

Charlie P. (NY)

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Blue glass has cobalt in it. Lead was used in glass for better "shine", but not to bottles so much as cut glass like bowls and drinking glasses.

More likely you have a lot of iron oxide from scrap iron in the dumpsite. Or something bigger and deeper than your detector is displaying.
 

DDancer

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Never heard of bottles setting off detectors. Gotta ask are the bottles clean or are they full of sediments? The materials used to color and burnish glass are used in small concentrations~ not enough to set off a detector in my opinion. Interesting *hrm* wonder that the bottle hounds here would strike up on detectable glass ;)
 

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