Metal detecting trouble.

Ender_boy24 · Jan 20, 2017

I was metal detecting yesterday with my Lone star pro Bounty hunter when it got a hit. After frantically digging for a long time i came up empty handed. The same thing happened time and time again. I just started metal detecting and haven't found anything recently but i was wondering if any one could tell me why my detector was acting up. Or if it's sensitivity is too high or what. I discriminated Iron from its detection but that didn't work so i was wondering if even after that it will pick up ground minerals. When i got these hits i made sure to swing over it to check if it was false but it wasn't.

Peyton Manning · Jan 20, 2017

toss a coin down and check it, or if your shoes have metal eyelets try those

Ender_boy24 · Jan 20, 2017

jeff-gordon said:
toss a coin down and check it, or if your shoes have metal eyelets try those

It can detect fine when i hover it over something i dropped it just keeps giving out false signals whenever i go detecting.

Loco-Digger · Jan 20, 2017

How high are you running sensitivity? What discrimination do you run? Are you using a coil cover?

68kaiser · Jan 20, 2017

I notice my cell phone plays hell with my fisher f4. I can't have my phone with my when I use the f4. The vaquero dose not care.

foiler · Jan 20, 2017

ground balance

68kaiser · Jan 20, 2017

If its a repeatable hit chances are good there is a target under your coil.. Do you have a pin pointer? When I first started I dug holes chasing false signals... A lot of holes now that I think about it. Weird things happen with signals. Hot rocks, emi, halo on iron that breaks up after you dig it. my V gets good signals at times and after a foot or so I give up unless the it sounds really good.
I am not familiar with your detector. Does it have all metal mode? If so switch to AM if the target goes away after you dig and see if you can find it again.

Rustynailsandscrews · Jan 21, 2017

All of the above answers are good and very possible. I don't think your detector is capable of manual ground balancing so if your in a hot rock mineral area backing the sensitivity down may or may not help. If your getting good repeatable signals in the same exact spot something is there. The ghost signals also could be the halo effect as others have mentioned, where an object disintegrates to nothing but dust but the detector picks it up as an object. Try a whole different spot and see if things improve. When I first started detecting I went through a lot of what your describing and it can be very frustrating. Also be aware that buried electrical,phone lines and invisible dog fences can make detectors behave erratically. I'm guessing your getting ghost signals or the target is so small your missing it when you dig it. I have found pieces of bird shot that weren't readily visible when I dug the plug.

Ender_boy24 · Jan 21, 2017

Thanks for all the help! I was able to fix the problem and found some things on a hunt today.

fmrUSMC_0844 · Jan 21, 2017

Great! What did you find out?

Ender_boy24 said:
Thanks for all the help! I was able to fix the problem and found some things on a hunt today.

Ender_boy24 · Jan 21, 2017

fmrUSMC_0844 said:
Great! What did you find out?

The sensitivity was way too high and i kept hovering over my shoes which set it off. Thanks for the help everyone!!!

68kaiser · Jan 21, 2017

Lol reminds me of waving a hand full of dirt over the coil... With my jacket that has brass buttons on the cuffs. It still gets me.

Rawhide · Jan 23, 2017

Usually when that happens its a dime the same color of dirt for me. But shoes got ya, well it got me too when I started.

Treasure_Hunter · Jan 23, 2017

Also remember Iron rusts, you could be hitting the remains of old iron target that has completely rusted away and your getting signals from that, when you try to recover it you disturb the soil that has the rust and you lose the target.