You don't say what machine you're using, and the settings you're using.
It's going to be hard for anyone to answer the question too, without "seeing what you're doing", because things like swing speed, centering over the target, and so forth make a difference it what you'll ultimately see and hear. Also even the reading that you, the user, perceives is nebulous and up for interpretation. Ie.: some persons interpret a single "bounce" or two into the negative number range, to be bad or "innacurate reading" or whatever. While an experienced user knows how to interpret such bounces, and know how to interpret that it simply means (or
doesn't mean as the individual case signal may merit) that you're on the edge of the machine's ability to give a stronger repeatable bells-of-notre dame signal, verses one which takes some know-how as to what the occasional odd bounces mean.
For example: When I first got the explorer, I took it out to the nearest old school yard, where I knew that deepies still lurked. But after hours of use, could not make heads or tails of anything beyond 4 or 5". Only the shallow ones "locked on" and "read correctly", while everything else sounded like a flock of sick geese, with no rhyme or reason, etc... I was about to throw in the towel, and go back to my whites. But before doing so, I hooked up with a proficient Explorer user, who was back then, effortlessly pulling 8"+ deep silver and wheaties from parks in his towns. We traded off flagged signals. I watched what he was doing, listened in on what he was trying to isolate. Watched how he swung, paid close attention to what he passed, verses what he chased, and his analysis of each one before he dug. And conversly, I'd show him signals, and he too would chime in "nail false" or "corroded zinc at 3 inch" and so forth. Within 30 minutes, the "lights went on", and all of the sudden deep fluty signals (that you might say were not "locking on") all of the sudden made sense.
You see? No amount of printed text info can convey such things. They have to be heard and seen. So if you know of a proficient user in your area (not just a sand-box hunter, but someone who routinely comes in with the old deepies), who uses your particular machine, try to hook up with them, and trade off flagged signals. And it should preferably be a place with abundant side-by-side signals to choose from, not a tired worked out place where it's 30+ min. between choice good deep coin signals. So even if you have to choose a 1940s/50s place, *just* to get your practice in, do it. Because if you choose a tired sad place where choice old deep coins are few and far between, your brain will never develope a pattern of good vs bad, since they are too far inbetween, it will just become random, without memorizable rhyme and reason.
When I have it on . Sometimes a penny and dimes read a negative number would like to rule out garbage but I know I'm missing old coins. Any suggestions on why it is doing this on depths over 4 inches but quarters and half dollar. Stay with a good reading. The ground is extremely dry and where I dig the plug usually dies so as little digging as possible would be nice.
