Menu
What's new
Find's Treasure Forums

Welcome to Find's Treasure Forums, Guests!

You are viewing this forums as a guest which limits you to read only status.

Only registered members may post stories, questions, classifieds, reply to other posts, contact other members using built in messaging and use many other features found on these forums.

Why not register and join us today? It's free! (We don't share your email addresses with anyone.) We keep email addresses of our users to protect them and others from bad people posting things they shouldn't.

Click here to register!

Need Support Help?

Cannot log in?, click here to have new password emailed to you

Find out what you are missing with your MD'er.

John 'n' W.Va

John 'n' W.Va

Active member
This speaks volumes to me. Especially hunting older homes. If you read this you will better understand what and why you are missing targets. I read this in relic's and had to share it.

http://www.dankowskidetectors.com/behindthemask.htm
 
Wow, John 'n' W.Va:

What an eye-opening article. To put it mildly, if you have a shot a a very old sight, use all-metal mode and dig every signal. Amazing!
 
I have discussed this problem before and written articles about it. If you have two objects in the ground, one above the other, your detector will only see the top target and the one below will be invisible. Even if the objects are separated with one below the other and both still fall into the signal cone the results will be the same. Many targets are masked audibly or silently if another target is blocking the signal. It ain't exactly rocket science. It's like small chains. The detector never sees the whole chain, just one link or the clasp, whichever is closest to the coil. Once the signal hits a target ( any target ) it doesn't matter how many other targets are below it the detector only sees the top target and stops right there.

Bill
 
Yeah the only way to overcome masking is to dig everything, junk and all. That's why early detectors cleaned many places out. They had no discrimination and you had to dig every target.

Bill
 
Great stuff!!!! Very interesting!!!:thumbup:
 
I had already noticed this problem with my GTI, Id dig trash and afterwards find 2 to 3 coins within inches of where the trash was dug and no signals indicated before. Great article. At least now I know its not just me.
 
I went to my seasoned test garden. I went right to my clad dime at 4 inches. I first put a crimped staple right over the dime. The Ace 250 didn't miss a beat. I then added another staple that was open. So now I have two covering the dime. Once again the 250 hit the dime with proper ID. I then put a paper clip over the dime. As figured the dime was masked. This is to be expected with such a large piece of iron over the target. I routinely recover coins with iron in the same hole with the 250. I also tested a different brand detector in a higher price range with the exact same results as the 250. I really don't think a staple is going to hold back the 250. Your results may vary.
 
I was out for an hour today and I was thinking the same thing, I have gotten a lot of coins with iron in the hole. I got a good silver hit when I dug this silver ring with a pop cap fused to it. There has to be a lot of targets that get masked I sure. Yet there are some that get through.

[attachment 92547 3-26-08Bcapring.jpg]
 
.......and that my friends is why a "hunted out area" is never hunted out.:detecting:
 
Another reason is just the sheer logistics. Since most targets will fit inside a one-inch square - lets say you are hunting a ten foot by ten foot plot. This plot contains 14,400 square inches or 14,400 potential targets. Your coil signal on a concentric coil at peak depth is covering an area about the size of a quarter. Even if you overlap your swings a bunch you are still missing a world of real estate. The only way you could hunt that area clean would be to scoop up every square inch of soil down to a given depth and sift every bit of it.

Bill
 
Every time or you could leave someting real nice behind for the next beeper swinger. I've dug such targets out of holes left by another hunter who failed to re-scan his hole.

Bill
 
I have been told by several people that the white's DFX can see thru iron and others have told me the minelab explorer can as well. This article is dated 2000, is it possible new technology has came out?
 
The good thing about all this: all the dectorists who just want to grab a metal detector,shovel and disregard property will probably become discouraged-but in the meantime will not adversely affect our hobby. Fortunately, I'm not seeing this scenario as much: big holes, shovels, etc. Actually, this article made me realize how much there is left to find.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top