505 question

[just-dig]

I just started metal detecting a few months ago with a bounty hunter pioneer 505. I've been over a few sites here where I live and have found some early wheat pennies along with some older relics but no silver so far. The places I've been hunting on are really trashy areas. I've tried cleaning up the areas by pretty much digging all signals. I started out notching out the nails and really like the way it will find the coins but nothing deeper than three inches. I know there's coins deeper as I'm finding larger targets such as buckles, and larger iron pieces from six to eight inches but it seems to max out on coin sized objects at around three to four inches. I am not using headphones and I notice at times that the display is bouncing around in the eight to ten inch range but I'm not getting any sound that i can hear and haven't had much luck at pinpointing these deeper targets. I started running the discrimination as low as it would go and the sensitivity up as much as possible. I see a little better depth now but I know I'm missing deeper targets. I dug out a plug yesterday at five inches, I dropped a wheat penny in first, put the plug back in, packed in the loose soil around it and tried to hit the penny. I would get a beep once in a while and noticed the depth indicator showing something there, but the signal wouldn't repeat, not even close to repeating. I dug up the penny and dropped in a mercury dime. I did get some sound out of the dime, but it sounded like it should have been a nickle, or foil. It still would not repeat for me. I can remember running across some targets like this that I did not dig just because it wasn't a repeatable signal.
My question is, will headphones remedy this or am I maxed out at three inches with this machine?
Thanks

 

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[Slingshot]

I have never used a 505, but I do use a 202, and I consistantly dig coins at 5 inches, and have dug several quarters at measured 7 inches, so I have to suspect that something is not right here. BH's are finicky about two things that can cause a multitude of problems. #1 - the wire from the box to coil must NOT be loose and floppy on the stem, and #2 - the batteries MUST be inserted reversed to each other, which means one with the base showing, and one with it's top showing. I had a lot of erratic behavior out of mine untill I began making sure I followed these two steps, so give them a try as you have nothing to lose.

 

[Gorgar]

I have never used a 505, but I do use a 202, and I consistantly dig coins at 5 inches, and have dug several quarters at measured 7 inches, so I have to suspect that something is not right here. BH's are finicky about two things that can cause a multitude of problems. #1 - the wire from the box to coil must NOT be loose and floppy on the stem, and #2 - the batteries MUST be inserted reversed to each other, which means one with the base showing, and one with it's top showing. I had a lot of erratic behavior out of mine untill I began making sure I followed these two steps, so give them a try as you have nothing to lose.

Are you serious? Anyone else swap batteries end to end?

 

[capt1989]

Slingshot, as funny as it sounds the answer is yes. Can't explain why it effects some of the detectors but it does. Just-dig, you should get deeper signals, but a freshly buried coin is not a indicative of a coin that has been buried a long time. Look up "halo effect" as it relates to metal detecting and it will shed some light for you. Also make sure your not swinging the detector to fast. The deeper targets may be getting masked by shallower trash if the detector does not have time to recover from sweeping over another target. Also, a lot depends on the type of soil you are hunting in, something that is often over looked when people post their depth results. The 505 is a great detector. I have one and use it often. Definitely make sure your coil wire does not have any slack in it. If none of this helps, you may need to contact First Texas and send it in. Good luck.

capt1989

 

[black651]

I started using a 505 this last summer and had the same difficulties until I tightened the coil.

As far as depth goes, I have found quite a few good items deeper than 8 inches with my 505 - and I didn't believe it until the third or fourth target I dug up but after that I became a believer in how really awesome this model performed! It's good to know that I can trust what the unit is telling me. If the 505 says there is something down there and I am digging past 5 inches - I keep digging until I find it. (Damn glad I finally shelled out for a pin pointer!)