Todays outing and a question for the more experienced

[Monty]

Getting monotonous I know but I went back to my old highschool this AM. Got up at daybreak and beat the heat. They screwed up and left the gate to the football field open (it's usually locked) this morning and I did some quick reconnoiter on the outskirts of the field. I picked up 6 quarters, 3 dimes and seven pennies in about an hour, all clad, all very shallow. Wanted to hurry in case someone came and ran me off! I also made a mental note of a couple of areas where I got some very loud hits on targets at or below 8". I didn't dig any of them due to time restraints but I plan to go back and see if silver lurks at those depths.

OK, now the question: I have a lot of trouble digging those deeper targets. It is not unusual to dig down to a target at 8" and not be able to find it. I use my pinpointer probe and still can't get a buzz. I also run my detector over the plug and nothing. Then I refill the hole and the signal is gone! But I may come back a few days later and the signal is back! Really weird! This has happened with two different detectors so I know it's not the equipment. Also, sometimes when I can't find the target I refill the hole and the signal remains! Can anyone tell me what's going on here? Deep targets just really give me a hard time and it's so discouraging to take the time and effort to dig that deep and come up empty handed. JIM

 

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[jeff of pa]

My Guess Your Too far off the Center of the Target & are Digging Past it.

& also too far off for the Pinpointer.

This will happen with nails Especially.

 

[omnicognic]

In addition to what jeff said, sometimes 8" is the top depth indication, meaning that the target may be much deeper, but the detector only says it's 8"! The coin/target may be on edge and throwing off your pinpointing!

 

[Monty]

I have recovered a few targets that deep and they were always where my detecto pinpointer said they would be. I can pinpoint shallow targets almost 100%. I guess I can dig larger diameter holes and maybe I will get them on the fringe? I suppose the angle of the coil would make a a difference on deeper targets? It makes sense that if it isn't perfectly level the hole would be dug off just a bit? I think I'll try my 14.5" coil and see if that helps any. It's supposed to go deeper than the 10.5" coil. Just thinking out loud! Given time I may reason it out, hmmmmmm. JIM

 

[lonewolfe]

My Guess Your Too far off the Center of the Target & are Digging Past it.

& also too far off for the Pinpointer.

This will happen with nails Especially.

To elaborate a little more on Jeffs post here,

larger rusty deeply buried nails will throw the detector off,

usually it will be in the side of the hole you dig (don't ask me why) but that's been my experience over the yrs with them,

it just happened to me yesterday at an old fair grounds,

I got a good quarter signal (as rusty big nails will give) and dug down about 6 or 7 inches and NOTHING,

scan the hole again, and NOTHING,

dig the sides out, and out comes a rusted old spike about 6 inchs long that was at approx. 4 or 5 inches deep but off to the side of where my detector said it was!

 

[nutso]

I agree with Lonewolf, it's happened to me many times. darn Nails!

 

[DugHoles]

Jim's question as always puzzled me as well............glad to finally have an answer......Thanks all..

GL & HH,

DugHoles
Upstate NY

 

[resurector]

Jimbo--
Thats a classic case of"the disappearing signal" happens to the best hunters and the best machines. Lonewolf pretty much hit it on the NAIL head.What I wanna know is-- how do them rusty nails know to move to the walls of your hole so not to be found??You'll get to where, most of the time, to ignore these after pinpointing,diggin and finding nothing. The ones that really get me are the ones that are verticle in the ground and very rusty.I know for me its a learn by error deal. Ive learned but that only proves---Even a broken watch is right twice aday!!LOL-Good Luk..........resurector

 

[lets_go]

Thought I was nuts, or the old Whites sl wasn't working right. Thanks for the advice.

 

[beetle662]

Two words:

COIN GNOMES

 

[slow sweeper]

Old rusty nails ARE tricky. Here's another reason for "ghost" signals. At least for me. My MXT runs at close to 14 kHz. This makes it sensitive to lower conductive targets like small gold nuggets. Unfortunately it makes it sensitive to little teeny pieces of foil and aluminum too. As you know a detecters depth readings are based on coin sized objects. I've gotten signals with a depth reading of 6-8 inches. Turns out to be small foil or aluminum at 2-3 inches. Small enough to be missed by my probe and/or to be dug out of the hole without seeing it. Smaller than coin target will read deeper than it really is and larger target will read less deep.

 

[rusty nails]

YEP - they all pretty much( rusty) nailed it - rusty anything throws my ace into an erotic mode !
on 2-4 targets i flip the plug up with the coil aiming at it - if its in there it goes crazy - sometimes
it will show a deeper pinpoint if you are say 2" down and 2" off your target - keeping this in mind i always make sure the pinpoint tone and icons r at their highest reading - i use my detector at a very short length for a guy thats 6' 2" - its merely an extension of my arm - and i can read all while it still being upright - and me on my knees digging - LBP

 

[T-Rex]

Has happend to me too... sometimes I will ream it out a bit, and other times fill it on and go on... seems like it's almost always trash like nails or shrapnel & the like when that's happening... I found a crappy old fence post topping last time out... thought I had something good...

I don't like to spend to much time on one spot, but who does...

 

[Monty]

Went out this morning with my ACE 250 and couldn't pinpoint for anything. Missed several targets by a couple of inches. I even tossed out a coin and tried a static test. I couldn't nail it even when I was looking at the coin! So I dug out my 2500 and it nailed the targets every time. Usually the ACE is right on. One thing I noticed was that there was a very heavy dew on the grass when I started and it had dried out quite a bit when I pulled out the 2500. I just wonder if the heavy dew was messing up my ground balance with the ACE? Both machines have auto ground balance but I think the 2500 is a little more sensitive. I wish I had thought of it at the time and I would have manually ground balanced, but you know what they say about foresight vs hindsight.

 

[hollowpointred]

thats really odd Jim. i have hunted in the dew many times with my ace with no problems. in another post you said that when you lay your ace down to dig and then pick it back up to scan the hole again your ace sometimes "goes to sleep?".i wonder if your ace has some sort of intermittant problem with it? i have never experienced either symptom with my ace.it just seems that it behaves strangely once in a while. perhaps a conversation with Garrett's customer service department is in order?

 

[T-Rex]

I know that when I sit my ACE down to dig, after I'm done and pick it up I always get a false reading for a quarter... every time... my GTI-2500 doesn't do that...

It's weird, some days the ACE seems to work better than others... the 2500 is more consistent...

I know one thing it sure is a welcome break on the old arm to swing the ACE vs. the 2500 that puppy starts to wear on you after a while...

Anyone else got the thumb soreness? Like Nintendo thumb from playing video games too long... guess you could call it detecto-thumb...

 

[Monty]

I don't get a sore thumb, it's my elbows that ache after a while. Altlhough the ACE is lighter the 2500 is really well balanced. I keep the power unit on the machine instead of putting it on my belt. it seems to balance better that way.....at least for me. I switch hands a lot but it's awkward for me south handed . JIM

 

[JackRussell]

carefull if it is 8 inches down and on a ball feild ...ive been fooled underwater sprinklers..

 

[rusty nails]

i dug a nice size hole in my back yard last night - ace was going crazy 2 pcs of some type of metal -
showed silver 1$ .50 / but after pinpointing went to silent icon (had it notched out) iron/foil - should have listened to the detector (i dont call it a machine) - ACE WAS CORRECT AGAIN ! - anyways thats the only place i can detect until the weekend - but its still a learning experience - LBP

 

[bk]

I use an older Fisher CZ6. Quite often I'll get a relatively good signal that reads >6" on the meter. I'll cut a plug and check the signal. Still reads good. After some more digging, I will eventually find a nail. It's almost always in the side of the plug, and it's always laying with the tip of the nail facing the inside of the plug.