So what exactly happened here?

[JTnew]

After about 10 hours of searching I've become quite adept at finding coins with ease. I'm hunting in stuff that was built around '75 so the oldest I've found is a '44 wheat... but still... pulling out 10 coins an hour or so.

Anyway, I got a typical coin signal. Said 6 inches. I start digging, scanning my hand fulls of dirt each time. Get down to about 7 inches and nothing. The detector is still chirping over the hole and the pinpoint puts it right in the hole... this time 9 inches down. I keep digging. Get about a foot down, my hole is quite large at this time. The signal is much lighter but still in the middle of the hole. Barely registering now it seems so I scan the rest of my dirt and the area around it. No signal other than the now-weak one in the hole. Dig down another 2-3 inches and now I'm barely hearing any signal but it's still pinpointing (barely at this point) right in the middle of the hole and nowhere else.

I eventually gave up. Any idea what caused it?

 

[Woodland Detectors]

Mikey likes to play tricks on new dectorists by moving their targets around under ground.

 

[pennyfarmer]

There are a couple of things that cause this.

• Large iron target that has a good sized halo will ID closer to the surface. When the halo is broken the signal is weaker.
• Coin on an angle can project its image at an angle a few inches away
• Hot rocks can behave this way. I have had a hot rock waste several minutes of time trying to locate it.

One item that can really help in this situation is a hand held pinpointer. Go to Harbor Freight and purchase their cheap one and give it a shot.

 

[cheese]

Sometimes a small coin or object like a dime can keep falling back into the hole when you dig. I find that dimes like to slip down the slot made by my digger just a little deeper than the loose dirt I scoop out, so then I have to dig a bit more, etc...

 

[mrs.oroblanco]

I've had this happen too. It's annoying.

Finally, on one in particular (in my own yard), I decided to follow it to the nth degree. It turned out to be some kind of metal object that had rusted into thousands of pieces. The rust particles were responsible for the continuing signals. (I think it was an old tin can, but not sure).

B

 

[old_goldchaser]

I had the same thing happen to me just a few days ago. Was hunting a homestead site. I mean..he could have been describing what happened to me, almost. There was one thing different.

I figured it was just a hot rock. Its happened before..and it will happen again. Especially out west here. I was using my GTI 2500. It got the pinpointer on it and I took the pinpointer and found that when I put the pinpointer in the bottom of the hole, the signal disappeared...but raise it an inch or so and would get a faint signal.. Move it around the sides of the hole and wouldnt get anything. It was like it hovered in the hole just above the bottom. Then it was weak too. Had to have been a hot rock type of thing. Nothing else. If I had expanded the hole, it likely would have disappeared becasue I would have removed the area of mineralization that was causing it. The "halo" would have been totally disturbed.

I thought it was a neat phenomenum though with being able to poke my pinpointer through it and lose the signal. Anyone had this type of thing happen?

 

[pennyfarmer]

I thought it was a neat phenomenum though with being able to poke my pinpointer through it and lose the signal. Anyone had this type of thing happen?

Neat? I have other words to describe it like: frustrating, irritating, and WTF.

 

[old_goldchaser]

I thought it was a neat phenomenum though with being able to poke my pinpointer through it and lose the signal. Anyone had this type of thing happen?

Neat? I have other words to describe it like: frustrating, irritating, and WTF.

I was trying to look on the bright side of things. I tend to have something of an analytical mindset so that kind of thing when it happened...while I did feel kinda like you describe....well...it made me curious as well. In an open hole, could use my pinpointer to get a signal from the top down to midway, then lose the signal towards the bottom or at the bottom actually. And couldnt get a signal from the sides. Now THAT is a headscratcher. Frustrating....hmmm yes.
And a BIG WTF though I usually dont use such terms.

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

HI my friend: If you have encountered a very rusted flat sheet of iron, you will have the following typical reactions.

Don Jose de La Mancha

 

[Frankn]

Pay attention!! I am going to tell you exactly what happened. I know because it cost me an hour of my time, but I found the target.
What you described is exactly what happens when you scan over a iron wagon wheel rim. You dug in the middle and there was nothing there. As you dug down, the signal deminished, but still pinpointed to the center of the rim.
Now go back there and dig on the edge of the target. you will find the rim!
This happened to me about 12 years ago, but you will never forget it.

​

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

You just gave up too soon. ;-)

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

We put too much faith in the detectors (and marketing of same). The detectors are designed to assume we have coins shaped and sized objects under the coil. And then, unfortunately, a set of bedsprings at four feet is about as conductive as a quarter at six inches and unless you have a sophisticated detector that can interpret such things you dig. And dig. And dig . . . only to quit; disgusted.

I had a bad time at a fair grounds until I discovered my "phantom" targets were bits of nichrome wire from broken midway lightbulbs that the glass and bases had been cleaned up. Little black wires that read as dimes. Once I figured it out I found I could lift the coil while sweeping over the spot and the coins kept giving good signals longer then the wire bits did.

 

[jmaryt]

Mikey likes to play tricks on new dectorists by moving their targets around under ground.

(hot damn!)..mickey sure is talented!

 

[SteveDodds]

I too have experienced this. It was in my yard about 5 feet from the side of my house. I decided to keep diggin until I found what was making my detector sound off on silver. I got about 2 feet down and found some sort of a clean out spot for my sewer( at least that is what I think it probably was) with the remnants of a some sort of a big coffee can sitting on top of it.

 

[BIG61AL]

it is the price we have to pay for finding the good stuff.....we all get burned by this.....my nemesis is the dreaded flattened aluminmum can....I can find those at almost 9 inches but they read as penny at 0-2 inches......

 

[DavyJonesLocker]

You were picking up a coin signal in china! should have kept digging, you almost were there! LOL it happens to the best of us

 

[jeff of pa]

 

[Frankn]

Jeff, is that like the old saying" digging to China"?

​

 

[jeff of pa]

Jeff, is that like the old saying" digging to China"?

​

哈哈Aaaaa没错

I Think that's why they wear the Hats.
So they don't get pocked in the head by a Trawel

 

[ivan salis]

a iron item that rusts away totally still leaves behind traces of its existance 00 see the rusty color in the soil?-- that often "rings" up due to the metal content left behind in the soil ( a halo or ghost)-- as one digs it --it breaks up the soils metal content and it just "disappears" poof like magic --always be on the look out for rust colored soil and other mineral spots in the soil --they can play tricks on you -- in some places the mineral levels are so bad , it causes the detector to false beep beep beep a lot -- if so you might have to adjust your sensitivity or power levels down a bit to get your machine to work correctly.