Bouncing signals and sinking coins

[mwaynebennett]

Okay, the BH owner's manual says that signals that bounce up and down the spectrum are most likely "junk." How do the BH circuits know to bounce for a pull tab but not for a gold ring, if they both fall into the same part of the spectrum? I have dug bouncing signals, and indeed most of the time I found junk but sometimes I have found quarters and nickels.

Also, are any of you aware of any studies as to how coins get below the surface? It seems to me that under trees and in lawns, that dead vegetation get on top of coins and decomposes creating a thin layer of "soil" and this process repeats, year after year until the coins are below the surface. I have dug several thousand coins but have yet to find one US silver coin and have found only one wheat penny. At what depth are most pre-1965 us coins found?

Mark

 

[john barrale]

i have found that if a signal stays just around the target id then dig it if it jumps way down or way up then it must be junk, i have a discovery 3300 and its pretty much on the money, i have digital display and if it reads 79-78,and then jumps to 42 then it must be junk but if it stays on the original number or around it, dig it and usually its money.i also have a bounty hunter QD ll and if it jumps from 25 cents to pull tab its junk but if it stays on the money reading i dig it aswell i hope this helps you.

 

[mudpuppy]

All those are good questions because it shows you are really thinking hard about targets, their tones, locations etc...you are gonna be alright!...You keep digging coins and you will find silver just on accident and most likely less than 3" deep for some reason..you might find a spill of peace dollars with a nickel on top that everybody has passed as a bouncy trash signal.
Mud

 

[Ed in SoDak]

Unstable ID can be multiple targets. You may get a "merged" ID that is incorrect for either of the buried items and will change as your swing angle differs a little, or depending on which items hits the coil first. So a coil swing in one direction will ID different from the opposite direction as you swing back and forth over the signal.

Metallic makeup and shape of the item(s) also plays a part. Rusty items can read all over the park and be different every swing and might give frequent high tones or ID. Empty bullet cases are another junk item that can fool me as being good. Things near the coil edge when you're using discrimination can sneak in a quick false tone that is just random and hard to make repeat until you center up on them with reduced disc or in all-metal. If you center on them with enough disc to reject them, the detector will now be silent. You'll only hear them when they false near the coil edge until you turn off the disc. Then they will reveal themselves for what they are.

So yes, certainly there are explanations for bouncy or "junky" ID that may turn out to be either "good" or "bad" items. Detectors are hardly foolproof, but they do a pretty good job if you consider all the variables of soil, depth, items(s) in the ground, your own techniques and detector settings, coil used, the color of your lucky mood ring, etc., etc.

-Ed

 

[jazzman58]

A bouncing signal may partly be due to the position of the item in question as it sits in the ground. A coin, or any other item for that matter, that is for example sitting at less than 90 degrees to the ground will often give a erratic signal. In the end it is up to the user to decide what to dig and what not to dig. I tend to dig about everything, but hey, that's me.
The depth thing gets to be a whole other question. I have found 10 year old dimes at 4 to 5 inches. The oldest coin I have ever found was a well worn Indian head penny. I can make out 18 for the first 2 numbers of the date and maybe and 8 or 9 for the third number. The fourth number is gone. When I swung the coil over this it bounced big time. But it was a slow day so I dug to see what it was. I found this at about 2 inches in depth. However it was close to a tree so possibly the tree roots had pushed it up towards the surface as the tree grew. I would think that soil type, annual rainfall, size of the object would all weigh into an items sink rate. No hard and fast rules here that I can think of.
I have been detecting for around 10 years, I myself have not dug up a silver coin either. The house I live in is over 100 years old and I have detected my yard many times with a couple different brands of detectors. Either there is no silver in my yard or I have not detected in the right area. I'm sure that back in the day that if someone lost a coin they would have probably spent some time and looked for it. Keep swinging that detector as I am sure you will find silver someday, at least I hope I will.

 

[jazzman58]

Sorry, I meant to say sitting AT 90 degrees to the ground (you know a coin sitting on it's edge kinda thing) , not less than 90. I apologize for any confusion on this. Sometimes the the brain goes faster than the fingers or the fingers go faster than the brain. Again I apologize for any confusion.

Jeff

 

[mwaynebennett]

So I should have doug all of the bouncing signals over the years for they could have been gold and platinum or gold and silver jewelry or at least coin dumps. Where is my Way-Back machine?

Mark

 

[Ed in SoDak]

I tend to trust the detector's guess at ID too much, but I do dig different signals till I figure them out. Spent bullets seem to fool me more than anything, but I only know that's what they were because I did choose to dig them.

I found a platinum ring at beach once that I dug because it had a different signal to it than anything else on the beach.

The "merged" signal from multiple targets that are very close to each other might cause me to skip them as junk. Usually one of them is junk, but a good target nearby might only move the ID into a different junk category so I still ignore it. Left undug, we'll never know!

-Ed

 

[mwaynebennett]

I wish that BH had made waterproof electrical connectors at the coil so that the wide sweeping action of a large coil could be rapidly exchanged for the more precise properties of a smaller coil. The configuration as it is now requires unwinding and rewinding cords.

 

[Ed in SoDak]

I'm fond of swinging the 4-inch coil freehand, holding just the coil, no stem. But then I dig by sitting down, especially in areas like under the playground jungle gym. I've swapped coils "live" with my Time Ranger powered up. Sometimes it locks up most times it works without losing my custom settings or ground balance.

Some older detectors have two sizes of coil in one housing.

-Ed