More Newbie Questions

[MikeinWA]

These are not Garrett-specific questions, I guess, but after using my ACE 250 I have a couple of detecting questions.

First, a couple times I've detected a target, apparently a deep one. I pinpoint it, I think pretty well (I've been pinpointing reasonably well now), and start digging. At some point the target starts to get harder to detect, and the hole is getting pretty deep (like about 8" or so). After a while I'm not sure if the once strong, but now weak "beep", is really a target anymore, or just the machine reacting to a deep hole as I sweep across it. In other words, my target seems to be disappearing, and I start feeling like maybe I somehow lost it. Yet, I seem to have dug nothing up! I always check the dirt I've dug up both visually and with the detector. Any thoughts on where I'm going astray?

Second, I've been working an area along a river, with a lot of history (well, 125 years, or so--old for where I live). I hope to find some old coins, in particular. However, I'm only finding newer coins (i.e., post 1970's). Some of the coins are down about 5 inches or so. With coins of such recent vintage, is it likely that targets of say 1930's and older are pretty deep down? I'm thinking periodic river flooding (or human activities) have buried the old stuff. Good assumption or bad assumption? I'm trying to decide if this area I thought to be a good spot for old stuff, isn't good at all due to changes in the terrain.

Thanks for any guidance. What a fun hobby!

Mike

 

[khouse]

When you start loosing your beep increase the sensitivity and see if that helps? Put it in all metal mode and on those targets and check. Also you may be digging some metal that has rusted so bad it's leached into the ground. Then when you dig some out the signal is not there? What were your settings? You may want to invest in an electronic pinpointer?

 

[Uncle Willy]

First of all it seems you're detecting rust pockets. As you dig you begin to destroy the rust pocket and your target fades and disappears. You can't judge coin depth by what age you find at what depth. I've dug coins from the 1700's at two inches and clads at eight inches in the same area. There is no predicting Mother Nature. Many things come into play when it comes to coin depth, soil conditions, weather patterns, amount of foliage that falls each year and covers the ground, storms and floods in the area, landfill, and a host of other things. There is no accurate depth predictor for coins.

Bill

 

[MikeinWA]

I've thought about the possibility that I may be digging iron, although I've only been putting that much digging effort into targets that are indicating something that looks like a coin. That said, I've dug up nickels that are falling apart, so maybe that is what is happening.

Regarding settings: I usually start with the default, or maybe a click either way. I just about always run in all-metal mode. And yes, if I kick up the sensitivity as I start losing the signal, the target show up better.

I appreciate the input coin age and depth. Maybe I won't write off my search area. It must be rewarding to find that first old treasure--I keep hoping!

Mike

 

[gordygroover]

Interesting question Mike,
I too run a 250 and have encountered the same scenario...Must be something about all the rain we are getting this winter that is really messing with our signals.
What part of the state you hunting??? I am here on the bank of the Columbia at the mouth of the Cowlitz if you are ever down this way...

 

[khouse]

Mike,
It's not the coin that's laying flat with no other metal around it in good soil. These perfect coin signals will tell your gut that there is a coin or coin like target under your coil. It's the other 90% of the signals that we battle. These are good treasure sitting on edge, next to iron or tabs in not so good soil that we have to dig through and dig up. You can win the battle if you keep digging!

 

[cwilk]

When I was new, I had all kinds of interesting things happen to the targets I was digging. I would sometimes push the target deeper into the ground with my digging tool which put it out of my detectors range. Once or twice I found a coin stuck to my digging tool. More often I would refind a dirty, obviously buried, coin on the grass 2 or 3 feet from where I had just lost a signal. I've even found a lost target in the cuff of my pants. Make sure you don't have any stray metal on your person down around ground level. Steel toed shoes. Dime in your shoe for a phone call. (That's a joke but I was always sent out with a dime in my shoe for a phone call when I was a kid.) It will happen less and less as you become more proficient.

As Uncle Willy typed, deeper doesn't necessarily mean older. My oldest dime was about one inch down about 30 feet away from a very active little league concession stand. There were old homes there in the 20s and 30s.

Agree fully with your last statement. Detecting is always a blast and I dig something surprising on almost every hunt.

Good luck.

Chris

 

[John-Edmonton]

Scenario #1.....The target you are reading is probably some remaining iron/rust left over and broken down over the years. As you get closer and further break it apart, it gives a lesser or reading and sometimes dissapears altogether.

Scenario #2.....It depends if you are detecting on a flood plain. If so, some of the targets could be buried in feet, not inches, or the oldest targets could be almost lying on the surface. Sometimes the best place to dig is in the river gravel itself.

 

[Paul(NWO)]

Moist soil enhances the signal. MD'ers refer to the area around a metal signal as a "halo". The halo increases with the moisture content of the soil and vice versa. We have clay soil here in the area where I live and a small piece of rusty iron will give a coin signal in moisture and when dug may disintegrate leaving a rust stain on the dirt that's dug but is no longer concentrated to give a good signal. The target may have been in the ground a long time and have a giant halo compared to it's size. So when digging the halo gets knocked out and then the target isn't large enough to give a signal. As a newbie you may or may not want to do this but when you get an iffy signal turn 90 degrees and swing. If the signals breaks up it can be junk or a coin on edge. You will have to dig to learn. Try lowering your sensitivity in a wet soil area. You will lose some depth but the junk won't throw as strong of a signal and you will be better able to id signals. You will still have to dig to learn. You can also lift your coil a little and swing. Small targets disappear quickly and so do coins on edge.

If you're not finding much in the "usual" places, go where the other MD'ers don't go. In a park, the grassy areas, near fences, under bushes, near parking areas, hills that kids sled down, the areas of a bark/mulch play area away from the equipment (the open areas) etc. Keep hunting, that "Nitro" moment is waiting on you.
HH

 

[razorwire]

I encounter the best stuff on the first and third base lines of old ball fields, along the soccer fields side lines, around the posts of volleyball courts(my first time out a sterling silver ring near a net post) I also get alot of reading that break down to nothing. I've found more junk-fishing handles,pop tops rusted pieces of metal, cigarette holders,bic-lighters, I finally found a horse shoe in an old pig pen. I can't figure out why so many of my finds are old pieces of coal. I look in picnic areas, anywhere I figure might yield something of valve, I bet I've made close to 12.00 this year and about fifty hours of looking.