Numbers jumping and vanishing

[parrothead]

[size=medium]I set up my X-Terra 70 and start hunting and then numbers with a - in front start showing up. Also I will get a good hit in the 30 to 40 + range and then the target does not show back up.
I set GB etc but must be doing something wrong and sometimes on pinpoint it does not stop sending out o tone even when not on the ground.
Any ideas/help would be great.. HH[/size]

 

[BarnacleBill]

Most likely it is iron falsing. A minus(-) sign in front of the ID number is usually iron or a microscopic piece of aluminum foil. The other part of your statement of a temporary hit(response) ID~40ish then silence or a minus(-) with a low tone is a sign of iron falsing. That slewing/jumpiness is one of the ways to distinguish a true silver/copper coin from an iron false. This is one of the things that comes with experience and digging targets to learn what the detector is trying to tell you. Usually turning down your sensitivity will help minimize this falsing.

There are a couple of other possibilities, maybe interference or maybe poor ground balance/too high sensitivity. But starting out as a newbie, to take care of Ground Balance just turn on the Tracking with the sinewave symbol (~) upper right of the control panel and off you go. You don't have to know a thing about ground balancing, the detector will do it for you. Also keep the sensitivity at tame levels ~20 to make learning the machine easier.

You have in your hands one of the more stable and well filtered detectors as far as iron.

HH
BarnacleBill