Faint signal makes me wonder what else I've been missing lately

TrpnBils

Hero Member
Jan 2, 2005
870
1,234
Western PA
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Detector(s) used
CTX 3030
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I have been going to a 1798 house off and on for about 3 years now with mostly disappointing results. It's kept up real nice and is rented out occasionally by the owners for vacationing tourists, so there's a bit of modern debris there too. Two years ago I dug my first IHP there and a 3-ringer. I've got a couple of wheats out of there, but nothing real exciting. It's been gone over a million times by other guys, and there are multiple dump sites on the property (which is only about an acre). It's loaded with nails and there is a ton of garbage debris buried in the back yard.

Anyway, today a friend and I struck out at our first spot so we went there just hoping to pull something worthwhile. It's the first time I have been there with my 3030 and the first time he was there with his Etrac, and the first thing I found was a CW round ball on the surface where they had just dug to lay a new drainage pipe earlier this month. On the way to the truck at the end of the hunt I went into "screw it" mode and put on my big coil, high trash program, and jumped the sensitivity up to 30 manual. I heard a faint chirp in with some iron that was repeatable on every 2nd or 3rd pass and at 90 degrees, so we opened it up (it wouldn't pinpoint, so we cut the sod about 6" deep in a + shape about 2 feet wide, folded it back, and went down as far as the soil would let us. Certainly the largest plug I've dug (although I'm proud to say it was damn near pristine looking when we left). I hit a root about as thick as my arm at about 8" so we dug another plug out next to it so that we could tunnel under the root because that's where one of the signals was at. After each pass with the digger, the signal got clearer and was staying around 39-47 conductive with steady ferrous numbers.

Once under the root, I pulled out a handful of soil and found myself looking at a nice Matron Head variety large cent at a measured depth of 11". It's dateless and in bad shape, but it's period and I'll take it, and I rescanned and then pulled out four rusted nails in the same hole. I really wish I would have been confident enough that it wasn't a nail falsing that I would have played around with the settings a little to learn some more or else had my friend do the same with his Etrac to compare signals, but I didn't. It was so faint...I can't begin to imagine what else I've been passing over. I did have the presence of mind to check it with my primary program (GH settings in combined mode) and I would like to think I would have dug it with that too, but the iron grunts might have turned me off of it early. I think the tight pattern high trash mode really helped me out here.




 

Upvote 21
Hi; I do dig every signal. If I hit a spot that has several signals I cut a LARGE plug and recover each target. I do NOT over lap my p[lugs. Your right in that will ruin the grass roots but if your careful you should be ok. I do a lot of parks during the warm weather here so I tend to be careful but during the cold weather I'm in the farm fields where it does not matter much. But no matter where I am I always fill my holes PROPERLY. Keeps people happy that way. I've never had a problem digging a large plug either. Just make sure to fill the plug back into it's original Position ok. Good Luck. PEACE:RONB
 

Determination sure paid well for you! Congrats on your LC!
 

Well Jeff I'd say this answers your question as to if your machine is working properly... that is if you were still wondering after our testing the other week in that park. :)

Its great to see you are still getting some goodies from that honey hole. :thumbsup:
 

Well Jeff I'd say this answers your question as to if your machine is working properly... that is if you were still wondering after our testing the other week in that park. :)

Its great to see you are still getting some goodies from that honey hole. :thumbsup:

It makes me think about a lot of things.... it was such a faint signal even on full manual sensitivity on something so big I don't know if I would've picked it up if it were a quarter or certainly anything smaller than that. Would I have picked it up on a sensitivity of 20 or so like I had been using? I don't know.... I wonder what else is there.... Also makes me wonder how much stuff from that time period has sunk below the level of current detectors (high-end Minelabs that currently reach China excluded here).
 

It makes me think about a lot of things.... it was such a faint signal even on full manual sensitivity on something so big I don't know if I would've picked it up if it were a quarter or certainly anything smaller than that. Would I have picked it up on a sensitivity of 20 or so like I had been using? I don't know.... I wonder what else is there.... Also makes me wonder how much stuff from that time period has sunk below the level of current detectors (high-end Minelabs that currently reach China excluded here).

I applaud you for taking the chance to see what was down there, despite the big root!

When there are four nails surrounding a coin, it doesn't matter what machine you are using... you have to: a.) hit the target just right to even hear it; and b.) trust your instincts, which only comes from experience. Now that you have dug this coin, its more likely you will dig that next target generating a faint signal at the fringe again. Next time, though, it may only be at 9-10 inches with the sensitivity "down" on Auto +2 or 3 instead of 12" with it on max manual sensitivity....but you will recognize it. :)

And you are right... aside from a GPX (pick a number) or a GPZ 7000, there are a lot of targets simply outside the range of virtually all detectors. And I'm convinced there are targets at a lot of sites that even those "reach China" :laughing9: detectors don't see at all also. Someday we will have a machine that both picks them up super deep and properly IDs them... it more than likely will be a different type of technology than currently used, IMO.
 

I applaud you for taking the chance to see what was down there, despite the big root!

When there are four nails surrounding a coin, it doesn't matter what machine you are using... you have to: a.) hit the target just right to even hear it; and b.) trust your instincts, which only comes from experience. Now that you have dug this coin, its more likely you will dig that next target generating a faint signal at the fringe again. Next time, though, it may only be at 9-10 inches with the sensitivity "down" on Auto +2 or 3 instead of 12" with it on max manual sensitivity....but you will recognize it. :)

And you are right... aside from a GPX (pick a number) or a GPZ 7000, there are a lot of targets simply outside the range of virtually all detectors. And I'm convinced there are targets at a lot of sites that even those "reach China" :laughing9: detectors don't see at all also. Someday we will have a machine that both picks them up super deep and properly IDs them... it more than likely will be a different type of technology than currently used, IMO.

Boy do I know what your talking about... You read about how much better a detector separates the targets, but you have to learn your machine... I have a Minelab Safari and its learning your machine. I just found a Mercury dime with a beaver tail in the same hole, the Safari gave a faint tone that something was good in the hole. I first pull out the beaver tail and then checked the hole and then pull out the Mercury dime below the beaver tail.... So learn your machine...
 

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