Tony PMed me and it got me to thinking. About two years ago, I had three dump trucks full of river sand spread out over my yard. This sand comes from the Brazos River which does get salty now and then due to lack of rain, that would explain the numbers. I told Tony that I found an area in my back yard where the numbers stayed at 42 on both the disc and AT modes. The hematite I just use to check out the GB on my machines but the number 99 stills stays on the F70, will not move and the machine sounds off every time the hematite goes near the coil. On my XT50, the number gets down to a 2 and even though I can still hear it, it's alot quieter than the F70. In my yard the XT50 sounds the same whether at 0 or 20, will not change tones at all. The tone will change using the hematite. Both machines work good and both go deep but the F70 in this area will go deeper than the XT50, about 4" on coins deeper. Thanks for the help, that's why I like reading this forum, lots of help all the time. HH John