False signals

[Kype]

I have a question about false signals. Last weekend I was using my AT pro and quite a few times I had a good hit but once i broke ground it was gone. I even took my pin pointer out to double check and nothing. I was also ground balancing . But still had false signals. What gives?

 

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[HIGHSTRUNG]

It happens on my 800 occasionally. I get a strong signal and dig a plug out. Go back over with the detector and the signal disappears in the hole and the plug. I just chalk it up to my lack of skills.

 

[Junk Monkey]

An old timer (older than me) once told me that an old tin can dissolved in undisturbed soil can still be picked up with most modern detectors, however as soon as you start to dig, you scatter whatever remains of the metal, and there goes the signal. My recent experience with disappearing signals was with fired 22 bullets that get scattered during the recovery process. The thing first detected was still there, but is now somewhere else due to careless digging on my part.

 

[Deep1]

Iron can do this occasionally, but more often than not it will be a small piece non ferrous on the surface.
Shotgun shot, aluminum rivet heads, primer caps, I could go on.
When you dig the top layer dirt is now the bottom of the pile, it can put small targets out of reach.
You can get a good signal on a buckshot on the surface, but when you flip a plug over, your loop is now a few inches away from the small target.
Next time it happens, check the top of the plug or the bottom of the dirt pile.
With small stuff even the pinpointer will have trouble finding it.

 

[smokeythecat]

I haven't had much of a problem with this. Normally I take some dirt from the bottom of the hole and the teeny tiny itsy bitsy relics comes out of hiding.

 

[BC1969]

I've been doing this for a long time. Lets start with the basics. Did you try a different coil?
They don't last forever sometimes. A broken wire inside of the coil from banging trees and rocks will cause false signals.
Did the coil wire come loose?

Okay next step.
Were there overhead power lines? Or worse transmission lines?
Underground utilities can also cause false signals.
Was it very sunny?
That's for older analog detectors..
The sun causes false signals. I detect primarily at night because of it.

Last but not least, you may have encountered the halo effect.
Old disintegrating iron like screw tops will rust completely away in the same spot and will sound like a good target until you disturb the soil and poof, gone like a fart in the wind lol
I will remember more later.

BC

 

[Kray Gelder]

I get that here once in a while. It's a mineral layer just thick enough to disturb the field your coil is putting out. The false target will disappear, or move, after digging the hole. It's caused by rain leaching through the soil, and depositing the dissolved minerals on a slightly denser layer. You can usually see the layer, or feel it with your hand digger when you cut through it. Took me a while to figure it out.

 

[Kype]

Thanks for all the advice. Bc1969, this is a brand new at pro. No underground or above wires. I'll take everything you guys said into consideration. Thank you

 

[Toecutter]

Aqua chigger was talking about this in his last video, discrimination is being tricked when the item is in the ground, after digging it up the discrimination kicks in and seems like the item is gone...turn off discrimination and boom ull here it agin

 

[Lost Signal]

I'm pretty new to metal detecting, and I'm the king of lost signals. I've come across the corroded metal dust, and pieces of shot, but here are a couple of other things that I have experienced.

Semi-rigid plant material, sticking up from the ground can give a signal, and sometimes it can sound and behave pretty convincingly. Once you dig the plant out of the way, the signal ends.

The other thing that screws with my Garrett 250 is when the object is right inside the wall of the hole. I don't know the physics behind this phenomenon, but I have lost a signal that turned out to be a large cent buried 0.5" in the wall of the hole, that I dug. My pointer is not great, so I've made a habit of following up lost signals by carefully running the pointer around the sides of the hole.

Hope this helps.

 

[SusanMN]

Use your pinpointer on you target before you dig. This will give you some idea of size and whether you have a surface find.