Need a bit of MXT advice

[Silver Surfer]

Have had the MXT for a few weeks, and I need some advice..
I find WAY too many aluminum cans that are showing up on the screen as pennies or dimes, at 4" or so, then I dig down to over a foot and find those darn aluminum cans... Why is the MXT showing them as such a small target?
I finally deduced that if the signal at pinpoint stays strong from coil edge to coil edge, it cannot be a coin... BUT... Yesterday I hit a spot that had a corner to corner signal that had just a small break in it (while pinpointing), and if it would have said anything but "quarter", I wouldnt have dug it.. But this machine has never lied on a quarter, so I dug it and immediately hit into a pile of quarters, and then two more quarters about 3 inches to the left of the original dig.. Total of 8 quarters right there, the space in between the first group and the other two was about 3 inches. All were only 2 inches or so down.

So my question is, how does one determine if the signal is false or not? I figure that if the MXT says it is a dime or penny at 4-6 inches, and I dig down that far and find nothing, then I shouldnt waste my time digging deeper... Sound like a good plan?
All advice appreciated, as even though I know one must dig lots of caps/tabs, I am tired of digging peoples can dumps..
The beach was the worst, often finding 6 or 8 alum cans in one hole 2 ft down.. Litterers suck! Why can they carry it in full and heavy, but cant carry it out empty and light

[bigtim1973]

When you pinpoint coins should only give a coin sized target "sound." In other words the exact pinpoint on the coin will be very small.........If you pinpoint on a beer can the general area of the exact "pinpointing" of the beer can will be quite larger........It boils down to this; coins should be a small blip and beer cans will give a longer beep when swinging the coil while searching. Another thing I do is if you have a questionable target that you might assume is a beer can but it shows a coin and it is giving a very strong signal and it is showing 4 inches deep, I lift the coil off of the ground and see how high my coil is before the signal nulls out..............If it is still giving a response about 10-12 inches off of the ground then the odds are a beer can.........Thats what I do and others may tell you another way but it works for me, Tim

[ColoradoGoldman]

Hey Silver Surfer, A real good book that explains why the MXT will not ID deep targets some times is Jeff Fosters "The MXT Edge" He explains how deep targets are processed by the MXT.
C

[Tin Nugget]

BigTim sumed it up. If it says a coin at 2 or 3 inches, you lift the coil 6 inches and still get a strong signal, it will be a larger target deep and most will be a VDI of 74 for cans. This beats digging 10 inches to find a target that said 2 inches. Now on an older site you may want to dig these anyway.

[Hutch911]

I relic hunt mostly but I dig everything. I almost learned the hard way. Was on a old road bed full of trash dug at least 15 beer cans between 3 - 10 inches deep. Hit a good tone and said no it's a beer can and kept going. Then I turned around and dug it. Turned out to be a US box plate only 4 inches. To this day I dig every good tone you never know what it could be. It is frustrating digging all the trash but there are some good finds in the middle of it. There was someone here who dug a CS tongue and got another tone praying it was the wreath. The plug had a beer can in it and re checked the hole and a few inches in the hole was the wreath right under the beer can. It stinks but dig them that's my way of thinking.

Hutch

[Silver Surfer]

Great advice and thanks to you all... I will try the coil lift from now on... Of course, in an area that is old historically, I will use the "dig it all" scenario, but in areas that are not that old, I will be a little more picky!

SS

[Evan/tn]

I relic hunt mostly but I dig everything. I almost learned the hard way. Was on a old road bed full of trash dug at least 15 beer cans between 3 - 10 inches deep. Hit a good tone and said no it's a beer can and kept going. Then I turned around and dug it. Turned out to be a US box plate only 4 inches. To this day I dig every good tone you never know what it could be. It is frustrating digging all the trash but there are some good finds in the middle of it. There was someone here who dug a CS tongue and got another tone praying it was the wreath. The plug had a beer can in it and re checked the hole and a few inches in the hole was the wreath right under the beer can. It stinks but dig them that's my way of thinking.

Hutch

i was thinking buckles hide in the beer can range too