AT Pro Question

wswhiting · May 9, 2014

Hi,

I've been detecting a couple of months now and was wondering about faint high signals that do not register on the VDI with any numbers. Are they worth digging. I noticed on the AT Pro instructional DVD that came with my machine that the demonstrator dug a deep target that had no numbers registering on the display yet dug a nice target. I also watched a YouTube video of a guy doing the same thing and getting silver coins. I have heard these faint signals, but I'm not sure if they are worth digging. Any help is appreciated!

steve1357 · May 9, 2014

Run some tests in your yard. Drop a dime or penny or ladies gold ring and scan it at different heights. You should be able to duplicate what you are seeing. Notice what your detector tells you as you get farther away.....

VDI is limited to several inches, those of us old timers, or at least me, run all metal and rarely use VDI since it is limited in depth. In my experience, if you're getting weak targets with no VDI, it means they are usually deep. Unless of course it's very small pieces of trash like a gum wrapper an inch deep. I dug a 1928 wheat penny the other day that was just a whisper among a lot of pull tabs in a city park. Granted, it's worthless and I wouldn't have dug that deep if I knew what it was, but it could have been silver or gold just as easily. When I use VDI, most of the time it's to ignore shallow targets that are producing solid VDI numbers. Then again, a gold ring, a nickel, a small gold coin, bottle top, etc can all ring up the same VDI.

VDI and tones are not the end-all of detectors, I feel you'll miss out on the good stuff watching the screen. I dig all weak signals, as there is not any way to determine if a weak signal is a $20 gold piece or a piece of gum wrapper an inch deep.

A lot of experienced users will suggest you dig everything at first to build up your own way of thinking what your detector is telling you.

But again, on a weak, deep target the detector is barely hearing, there is no way to know what it is.

HH

signal_line · May 9, 2014

Some times the deepest targets will not give a high tone. So a high tone with no ID number sounds unlikely to be anything but if the area is producing good targets, you have to decide to dig or not.

Tedyoh · May 9, 2014

Dig those whispers for sure......

frostdigger · May 9, 2014

I have dug silver dimes that where on edge that would barely squeak. If I have a repeating whisper I always did it pending on location. A lot of times if I'm in a nice manicured yard or well used park I wont dig as many iffy signals.

Keppy · May 9, 2014

If you have seen others dig those sounds with out a vdi .. That should tell you yes dig them..

wswhiting · May 10, 2014

Keppy said:
If you have seen others dig those sounds with out a vdi .. That should tell you yes dig them..

Thanks for all your input. I think I'll a few whispers and see what I find.

signal_line · May 10, 2014

If you just get it one time and can't get it to repeat, it's probably just some fluke interference or something. When you go to pinpoint and you have a hard time hearing it then it's deep.

strycker · May 10, 2014

That is how the colonial shoe buckle I dug showed up. Now I wonder what I've missed in the past thinking it was interference. I heard a high ping, no VDI. It repeated a couple times on the pass over, and on edge about 5 inches deep was a nice buckle. It's posted so take a look. It's not small for sure, but the razor thin edge made it's signal extremely faint I guess. Now I'll be digging anything remotely repeatable, VDI or not.