DFX Makes No Sound When PinPointing

[Kentuck]

My DFX works great and I have been making some good finds including 1834 and 1857 dimes, an 1868 nickel, and Mexican 5 cent piece and some early 1900 pennies, and I have the DFX set and working great in my area which is heavy in iron trash(mostly old nails), but I get 9 inch depth easily on some of these coins. Yesterday I found a good sounding target and VDI readings generally in the 50's range, but when I went to pinpoint...nothing! I re ground balanced and still nothing. PP worked fine after that on other targets but not on this one in particular. Anyone have any ideas what the problem might be?

 

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[digging440yrs]

Make sure to move coil off target then turn on pin point, also try a ground balance off to the side of target. This is where a hand held pp comes in handy----hope this helps, tom

 

[Kentuck]

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I moved the coil away from the target then moved it over the target, and nothing. I have used a DFX for 15 years and never had this happen. I moved on to another target, pinpointed it, and dug it. I even turned the detector off, and reloaded the program, then went back to the place of the 'silent' pinpointing, and the same thing happened, it has a good strong AC signal, but absolutely nothing in pinpoint mode. Never had this happen before. I even upped the DC Sensitivity to 50, just to see if it helped, but still nothing. I will go out later and try again. Thanks for your help.

 

[digging440yrs]

Gotta dig it, then let us know------

 

[Kentuck]

I already dug it the first time it happened but I didn't find anything and still had no DC sound with the hole open. I dug about one foot down and a little over a foot wide hole. I used my hand pinpointer but found nothing either. I filled the hole up and it still made a good sound in AC but still no pinpoint sound at all. If it were a deep object the DC pinpoint mode should surely pick it up if the AC detects it. I even raised the coil, in pinpoint mode, to a height of 6 to 8 above the ground and still no sound. I tried from different angles also with the same results. Strange...
I'll go out and try again, and will dig a huge hole and search it extensively and see what I find. Thanks.

 

[airscapes]

probably a truck!

 

[Kentuck]

A truck? LOL, good guess and that would be something! I thought of it being a larger object, but in search mode or AC mode, it only picks up a tone in a small area, and there are several other tones within a few inches to a few feet away, and they all register in the DC mode. I went out last night to recheck the area and it did the same. I dug a hole at least 2 1/2 feet wide and 14 inches deep and got no DC response. I checked the removed soil with my pinpointer and then refilled after finding nothing. Another sweep of the detector and in AC it made a reasonably good sound/tone but nothing in DC pinpoint mode. I have a different DFX and will try using it on the same area and see what it does. There must have been a house once in that area back in the 1860's. I find coins and old junk. I found a token 'good for one loaf of bread' made between 1836 and 1840 by the Duquis Brothers in Louisiana, how it got here, I don't know. Who knows what lies deeper under the reaches of my detectors...

 

[victhedog]

can you pin point on other targets?
power lines noise or pipes?

 

[wingmaster]

Sometimes on those really deep targets you will get a whisper tone but it will not lock on to pinpoint and seems to happen on targets that are in the 12" range, this is when I use the tight wiggle to pinpoint these targets and make sure to pull at least 12" of dirt out as on those really deep targets the detector won't pick up the target at all once you dig the hole and disturb the ground. It's usually some very deep old silver when there like that and it might also be some iron in with it being that deep that keeps from a pinpoint but it's the disturbing the ground matrix from digging the plug out at depth that keeps the detector from picking it up anymore. HH

 

[Kentuck]

Thanks, VicTheDog and Wingmaster. Vic, I can pinpoint on all other targets, even one about 18 inches from this spot. No underground pipes, other than junk pieces and there is a huge powerline crossing my property about 100 yards from this spot which I have to adjust for, on some days, as it will drive the detector crazy and on some days, it is not much of a problem unless I get really close to it, say 40 yards or so.
Wingmaster, the spot gives me a good solid tone in the search mode with AC set to 75 and PAG set to 3, but when in pinpoint mode, it goes silent when I pass over this spot. I always get a sound in pinpoint/all metal mode on all other 'hits'. It was a little broken up yesterday after I dug and refilled the hole, but still no pinpoint sound.
I will re-dig it next chance I get and dig as deep as I can and check it repeatedly with the DFX and pinpointer and see what I find.
Thanks for the replies.

 

[roccus]

Try another detector if you can see what happens if same thing then you got a detect ghost messing with ya...

 

[wingmaster]

Well before the fist time a bothered to pull out at least 12" of dirt I know some were passed by because the old whites pinpointers were about useless and wasn't even carrying it at that time just using the coil and only going down about 10 to maybe 11" and thinking something big deep but the thing is most very deep coins you will lose the signal all together after breaking the soil matrix cutting the plug. It's going to be way harder to pass those real deep whisper targets now though as I finally got a TRX pinpointer and they will get you 3 to 4" on a dime, I've filled up a big hand towel overflowing with dirt on a few old silver dimes. With the right coil and gain setting I still pull deep silver dimes at an old pounded park most won't detect anymore. Once they get so deep you need to go by sound as the VDI can be way off for real deep silver, I've had silver dimes read 40 to 50 VDI but was a faint whisper target and that silver just sings to you sometimes. Good headphones are a must for those faint whisper targets as well, the cheaper sets won't let you hear some of the real faint targets. HH

 

[Kentuck]

The DC Pinpoint mode went silent before I dug the hole, and did the same after I dug and then refilled it. I checked it with my hand pinpointer but didn't waste a lot of time searching the dug out soil as it was getting dark. I haven't had time to go back to that spot since I get home late and it gets dark, and I haven't had the time, and the spot is not easy to find in the dark, considering I'm on over 60 acres here. I never pay too much attention to the VDI numbers, I go mainly by sound and by the Signagraph. Thanks for the reply.

 

[Whatdayagot]

I've had this happen also many times what I found was if you pinpoint around u will get a signal it just won't be where u think it was or where it made original noise it's something closeby move around it and off to the sides a bit u will get a pinpoint within a few feet of where u thought it was I think the machine is just a little slow with picking certain things up and give a bit of delayed response try it out that's what I do and I usually always find something right around it but it may be a little bit off do like a big circle pattern

 

[Kentuck]

I did get a strong signal about a foot and a half away from the spot of the AC response. Maybe it is a deep large object at an angle off to the side? The problem here with pinpoint mode, or all metal mode, is that there is so much junk, that it is almost rare to find a spot that does not have some kind of junk under the coil, which also makes it hard to find a place to get a good ground balance, so I get a DC response in a lot of the area, and can rarely move the coil more than 2-3 feet without a response in DC mode. Thanks for the idea, Whatdayagot.

 

[1KBlueTuber]

Try ground balancing right on the target AC signal location, I'm curious what happens

 

[Kentuck]

Good idea, KBlue, next time I get out there I will definitely try that, and I will thoroughly dig and search the area. Thanks for the suggestion, I'm curious also to see what happens.

 

[Kentuck]

OK, I finally had time to get out and hunt a little yesterday, after we had a 2.3 inch rain the day before. On my way to the spot where the Pinpoint Mode went silent, I found another spot that did exactly the same thing. There was a good solid tone, with VDI's generally in the 50's but jumping from the upper 80's down to the teens. The signagraph show somewhat splattered and some solid bars all in the upper positive side of the scale. When I tried pinpointing, it went silent. I tried re-ground balancing, and even ground balancing over the target. The target became broken sounding in search mode, but still no pinpoint sound. All I dug from the hole was a small broken possible square nail a little over an inch long. Re-covering the hole and running the coil over the spot again produced a slight broken signal and still no DC sound.
I found nothing at the other original sight, which I had already dug before. Still had a good sound, but no pinpoint sound. Did the same, GB even over the hole with only a change in search mode sound. It got dark on me, but I will go out again soon and dig around these two areas to see what lies in the immediate vicinities, since maybe a closeby object is causing a problem. Oh, and I also have dug literally hundreds of old square nails here but never had a silent pinpoint happen like these two areas.
One thing here in this area, there are targets everywhere, and I do mean everywhere. In pinpoint mode, it is rare to find an area that does not make a sound. I have to GB outside of the hunting area to find a spot with no target.

 

[1KBlueTuber]

Pretty sure your just over iron and it's halo. One neat feature of DFX is the DC phase in pro options. I've encountered similar targets that sound great sometimes both left and right and north/south only to pull the trigger and nothing. D.C. Phase will provide a positive number for a mostly non ferrous target similar to vdi. So in pinpoint using VCO and D.C. Phase, if my target is deep and provides a positive number, your damn sure I'm gonna dig it. I've found seated dimes and quarters next to nails and scrap iron pieces that were masked and it's only because of that D.C. Phase and VCO used while pinpointing and showing a positive number higher than 5 that I decided to dig and was glad I did. Try it and you won't go back

 

[Kentuck]

Thanks, KBlue, I'll give it a try here. I have used it before, but never stuck with it since I dig all good sounding targets and even those that are iffy. I'll see what it does on the other 'no pinpoint noise' spot. I've gotten good enough to 'call' a target before I dig it, with pretty accurate results, but with help of the Signagraph, and sometimes the VDI, if the targets are shallow enough.