Recovery is very quick. If there is something within a couple inches it will find it so long as it is a nail or something similar and if it is on the same plane. That is to say, if the object is under the iron I don't think it will find it unless the object is bigger than the iron bits. Check out this youtube vid. The Tejon is able to pick out the object in the center of a ring of nails. But if the object were just a little bit lower than the nails then it would be harder to pick out unless the nails were not so close to the object. It's not a miracle machine, but for me it's a heck of a step up from the Ace 250 which goes bonkers around iron.
-Swartzie