New Guy Questions...

AllenJ · Mar 9, 2018

Purchased my first detector, an AT Gold, a couple months ago. Have been out about 5 times and am feeling more confident each outing. I'd like to confirm something I'm seeing, what I have come to call "ghost targets". I note on the detector these targets either don't register at all on the Target ID scale, or jump around from nothing to zero to 99. I dug a few of these signals my first few trips and found nothing. Last outing I had a couple of these and decided they are not worth the time to dig but because I'm still so new to this sport I of course wonder.

My question is does anyone dig signals that don't register on your Target ID, or bounces around?

Carolina Tom · Mar 9, 2018

These could be iron halos. A rusted piece of iron creates a signal, but it disappears when you dig the hole. You disturb the rusted iron, and it no longer produces a signal.

The secret to this hobby is to dig holes. People mistakenly think that the machine is smarter than the shovel.

In most places, I dig all of the repeatable signals. There are exceptions, but more holes equals more treasure.

Good luck brother!

Terry Soloman · Mar 9, 2018

When that happens, re-ground balance. Sometimes the ground itself has strong pockets of mineralization that throw off auto-tracking or a manual ground balance, causing the machine to see a "ghost" target. re-balance, and see if the target has disappeared. :skullflag:

AllenJ · Mar 9, 2018

Thank you both for your quick replies, your advice is going to used tomorrow!

Nevada Prospector · Mar 9, 2018

Hi Allen, You didn't say if you were searching for coins or gold nuggets or whatever. If you were hunting for nuggets you should be digging those weak possibly deep signals. Nuggets won't likely be big enough to register a VDI number unless they are very near the surface or large. When hunting for nuggets you should dig everything.

One problem that I had was similar to yours. I would forget to take off any discrimination when the target disappeared. It would detect it until I dug then it would disappear. Taking the discrimination off would then let me hear it again. Digging disturbs the signal making it more difficult to detect.

AllenJ · Mar 12, 2018

Thank you sir, your advice is appreciated. I went up Saturday and dug all targets that gave a signal. If the signal was suspect I re-ground balanced prior to digging and it did saved me a couple of holes. The soil in this area is very harsh, the machine ground balances in the low to mid 80's. There a lots of hot rocks too and breaking them open usually shows a black mineral inside, iron I suspect. Bottom line it was fun and nice to get out of the house and into the mountains, and I have more square nails to add to the collection

digger460 · Mar 12, 2018

"I note on the detector these targets either don't register at all on the Target ID scale,"

On deeper target's with the AT's, you will not get a number or depth. Then you have to dig :icon_thumright:

AllenJ · Mar 13, 2018

Thanks Digger, that is exactly what I was most wondering about. I reviewed a YouTube video Sunday by the Hoover Boy's too, he said in hot ground you get the same thing, no target ID on good targets. I had seen the video before but did not take note of that. More holes to dig, more treasures to find!!

signal_line · Mar 20, 2018

Something to try: when you get an iffy target, switch to All Metal mode. Some targets mixed with steel alloys cause the discriminator to struggle. All Metal is going to be more accurate here. Yeah, deep targets will not show full ID number--expect a lower number. Look for tiny blips that sound like they speed up. Don't swing too slowly in disc mode. Three feet per second seems fast but that's optimal speed. Ground balance I do not pull coil very far off surface when bouncing it. I use All Metal and make sure the ground is clean before balancing. On hills you need to balance more often, sometimes every few feet, but any ground every ten minutes at least. Takes about five seconds. Low 80's not that hot.

G.A.P.metal · Mar 20, 2018

On your next "ghost target" ... Lower the Sensitivity...see if that helps .
Gary

RTR · Mar 20, 2018

My grandson calls them ghost coins.We hit about 3 of them yesterday.

AllenJ · Mar 20, 2018

Thank you gentlemen, all advice that I'll follow.

Signal_Line, I usually run in All Metal mode due to it being the most sensitive. I'm in the motherload part of the country and certainly don't want to miss a faint signal that may put some cash in my pocket! Last trip out I turned my auto ground balance down to 1 which made the detector a little unstable if that's the right term. The background hum was affected by terrain and soil somewhat but I felt I was able to tell the difference between that and targets due to the tone sound, and I ground balanced often. When I'd hit a target if I had any question I would switch to Disc 1 (set to 20) and would turn Iron Audio on, ground balance a few feet away and was able to get what I felt was a better idea of what I was digging. It really seemed to help as I called every target but one and that one, well who really expects a tin foil turkey pan to be buried that deep lol. I really thought it would be a large aluminum can.

An update to the original post: I've been out 3 times since, I've followed the advice and note that I've not had a "ghost signal" yet. With the exception of one hole I've found a target (nothing good yet, more square nails, wire, and trash). The one hole I dug where I did not pull out a target I must have dug just right, I swear I saw a rust ring in the dirt. Once broken up the signal disappeared of course.

I like my machine so far, I know it is not the best but for the money and my experience level I'm starting to get very confident with it. My digging partner, my oldest son, uses a GB2 and we're both learning each time out and know at some point we're going to get something worth a little bragging about!

Thank you all again, your advice is appreciated and being put to use.

signal_line · Mar 20, 2018

Nugget hunting go buy a book on it. The trick there is to bury a small piece and then tune to get the best signal. As a last resort, RTFM.

signal_line · Mar 20, 2018

RTFM, read and follow the manual. Or something like that.

Also many free instructional videos on the Garrett website.

I hate to say it, but when you said you turned the GB down to 1 (and a few other things) I have to question your sincerity. How do they say it? "Seriously?" That ain't how I would phrase it.

AllenJ · Mar 21, 2018

signal_line said:
RTFM, read and follow the manual. Or something like that.

Also many free instructional videos on the Garrett website.

I hate to say it, but when you said you turned the GB down to 1 (and a few other things) I have to question your sincerity. How do they say it? "Seriously?" That ain't how I would phrase it.

The AT Gold (not sure about any of the other AT models, or any of Garrett's metal detectors for that matter) has an auto ground balance feature. By default it is set to 2, I reset mine to 1. The auto ground balance allows the machine to operate at the set ground balance with a factor of +/- the number indicated. The only information I could find on this feature was in the detectors manual. I read in another highly rated book on metal detecting for gold that auto ground balance is usually not something you want turned on when trying to detect gold since it could cause you to miss the faint signal gold can give.

I'm sorry I gave you the wrong idea, that certainly was not my intention. I am serious, just a beginner though so this is all new to me.

AllenJ · Apr 3, 2018

My eldest son and I got out last Saturday for another adventure. Once we fixed the flat tire on my truck :censored:

we made it down to a new spot on the creek and quickly found out the number of hot rocks in this area was outlandish! Every few feet it seemed our detectors were sounding off and after digging a few holes each we'd identify a rock as the culprit. I eventually set my detector to Disc 1 with iron disc set at 15 so I could actually find targets that were metal. Now I know that this is not the best setting to have my detector on when prospecting but in this case my thinking was we have limited time and I'd rather find spots where heavies have dropped out than to be digging up hot rocks the rest of the day. We spent the next few hours detecting/panning and found various metal objects but nothing of any true value, and one little flake of gold. Oh well, we had fun and we're already looking forward to another outing next weekend to a different spot!

dirtlooter · Apr 3, 2018

while your AT GOLD may not be a higher class detector, it is still a very good one. mine has found several gold rings, silver rings and silver jewelry, coins and other very cool things. My wife found an 18 inch woman's 10 k necklace, those can be challenging for a lot of detectors. Take in what has been suggested and learn your machine, I tried to dig by tone and not the #s because they can be off and mislead you. like it was said, let the shovel be your discerner, especially on those deep faint signals. Hope to see some of your finds soon.