LIAR!

[Haywire Haywood]

My metal detector is a bold faced liar. LOL... Now granted, I have a total of about 3 hours swinging it, but when it gives me a strong repeatable 80 and I dig up a chunk of iron 2" across, course language emits from that toothy hole under my nose. Thought I had something worth digging under that old clothes line.

peevedinKY.

 

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[jeff of pa]

yep, no detector can tell you what is under the ground before you Dig.

I'll repeat....

no detector can tell you what is under the ground before you Dig !

they only tell you what it may be

 

[luvsdux]

Jeff is telling it right. The only reliable thing any detector can tell you is there's metal under the coil. Anything more is just a machine's best guess relative to how it's been programmed.
luvsdux

 

[dirtscratcher]

It's obvious neither of you have seen the Whites commercials.

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

Did you have the iron audio on it should have grunted at you if you did, A detector is only as smart as it's operator. I have dug a lot of iron and bottle caps because I didn't have my iron audio turned on.

 

[JUNKER]

You mean creative advertisement or should a say advisement

 

[SusanMN]

My first TID machine was an XLT, and that darn machine seemed to think it found fifty cent pieces everywhere. Having no idea then how rare it was to actually find a fifty cent piece, I'd get so excited only to be crushed when it turned out to be crappola. All the rest of my detectors are also fibbers from time to time, but you learn to read their signals and know when the are pulling your leg.

 

[Davers]

yep, no detector can tell you what is under the ground before you Dig.

I'll repeat....

no detector can tell you what is under the ground before you Dig !

they only tell you what it may be

Yeah you need Superman's eyes for that..

 

[Haywire Haywood]

I had it in pro mode with the iron discrim set at 35. No iron audio. Basically I put it in coin mode and reactivated the two tab/foil segments that were eliminated by default.

Ian

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Ian, the target ID's on ANY detector, are ... as Jeff said ........ only telling you conductivity. NOT actual composition. They don't tell you what a target *is*, aside from it's conductivity. And while a penny or dime or quarter may have a distinctive signature (TID), yet so too can other objects share those same ID's. And don't forget, size plays into the conductivity of an item.

For example: take a small snippet out of an aluminum (or just take the tab), and wave it in front of your machine. Gives a foil or tab or whatever signal. Right? Ok now take the entire aluminum can and wave it. Reads penny or quarter or half or whatever. Right? BUT WAIT! The composition of each object NEVER CHANGED. In each case, it's still aluminum. So what changed? The size did. See? However, with practice, anyone can tell the size difference, just by audio, of the difference between a tab or finger-nail sized item, versus an entire-can sized item

And so too should it have been for the big iron object you found: While it may have read 80 (which is commensurate perhaps with a higher conductor coin), yet I'll bet there should have been audio clues. Not sure about your particular machine, as I'm not too familiar with the AT-pro. But on most machines the audio difference between a 2" square piece of rusted iron should have a difference, audio-wise (not TID wise) than a clean coin-signal. Perhaps the AT pro doesn't have such an expanded range of tones to learn. Some machines are just "beep or no beep" machines, with little tell-tale audio clues. You can switch to all-metal pinpoint, and sometimes the relative comparison can be learned as well. Or get a better machine. Because, for example, I know that with the explorer, even there would be a sound difference. And with various whites machines like the XLT, 6000 di pro, etc... the trick is to momentarily speed up the swing. Iron objects will "break up" and cease to be "clean". But if they were a coin or conductor, they "get better" with faster swings.

All in all, I'd say you must've watched the Whites commercial and fallen for the hype of "tells you what's in the ground" . Doh!

 

[BC1969]

It is in my opinion all in the sounds, take my old trusty 1265x, after swinging that thing for more than 2 decades and no fancy meter, I know its sounds so well that 8 out of 10 times I can tell you what I am about to dig up, maybe the old school detectors back then had much more detailed audio responses than the more modern machines do, I do not really know, but I can tell through audio and raising and lowering the coil pretty much whats down there, that and other little undocumented tricks I learned with it that was never in any manual.
That in all my wisdom of detecting as long as I have is the most important truth...Learn your machine and what it is trying to tell you through audio, worry about the bells and whistles later.

That being said as a side note, my explorer 2 is a beast of audio..its like a celtic flute orchestra..and will drive you to the brink of insanity lol..but man oh man, is it a great machine as far as target separation goes...just wish it was not so susceptible to EMI...its worthless in the neighborhood I grew up in, but my old fisher has no issues with it..go figure.

Mike

 

[CincinnatiKid]

Hang in there.
I tend to stay away from coin mode and normally use jewelry. Yes, you will dig much more trash, but since you're new to the machine, you should dig all repeatable signals. Coin mode definitely blocks some gold. Good luck...
Peace

 

[luvsdux]

It's obvious neither of you have seen the Whites commercials.

I have several TID detectors including 2 Whites so Yes, I have seen their commercials. In all fairness, I'd have to say that the accuracy on coin ID is pretty good if the coin isn't too deep and allowing for the fact that as mentioned above, it's still a machine's best guess. One thing I have found interesting is while they often enough call trash a coin, in my experience they very seldom call a coin trash. The percentage of times a coin is identified as a coin is really pretty good, although denomination might be a bit fuzzy some times.
luvsdux

 

[Haywire Haywood]

From what I read, the ATP is fairly complicated in it's whisperings. I'm just too dumb just yet to translate them into English. If it's not raining tomorrow, I'll try that old homestead site I've been given permission to swing at. Probably dig a lot of stuff that it's going to tell me not to. I'll turn on the iron audio and see how that helps.

Ian

 

[barrywk]

haywire..ive only had my atp a few months but im learning. The iron sound on atp is kind of a low electrical sound(hard to describe),but the coin sounds will be a higher even tone.When u hit a target you aren't sure of turn your iron audio sound button on on,you should hear the low tones.Also if your tid numbers are jumping around more than a couple of numbers good chance its not a coin.Also when u not sure move 45 degrees around and swing an X over ur target and see if your tid numbers stay consistant and one more thing you can do is raise your coil in the air several inches ,if u still getting a good signal it could b a large object under ur coil

 

[Haywire Haywood]

the trick is to momentarily speed up the swing. Iron objects will "break up" and cease to be "clean". But if they were a coin or conductor, they "get better" with faster swings.

That makes sense. I was slowing my swing down to get a better read. It wouldn't get a clear signal with a normal to faster swing.

Ian

 

[Msbeepbeep]

My m6 likes to put one over on me now and then, it says ring, it's a ring alright, pop top ring! Well it is round with a hole in the middle! Nice if I was collecting "aluminum " rings! Lol!

As you get more familiar with your detectors sounds you will be able to figure out what it is telling you about the target.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

Got rained out today. It actually stopped raining by late morning, but it would have been a miserable 37* mud fest down there. I'll go when there's better conditions.

 

[ModernMiner]

From what I read, the ATP is fairly complicated in it's whisperings. I'm just too dumb just yet to translate them into English. If it's not raining tomorrow, I'll try that old homestead site I've been given permission to swing at. Probably dig a lot of stuff that it's going to tell me not to. I'll turn on the iron audio and see how that helps.

Ian

If you're going to detect at an old homestead you'll get to know that ATP well. There will be lots of rusty iron targets especially if it just rained, so bring a bucket.
I had an ATP for a short time. It was spot on when I got my coil over silver. Good luck to you.
-MM-