Question on an old farm site.....?

[Willy_MN]

Hi all, I'm new to detecting -- bought an X-Terra 50 a little over a week ago and have been out every day but one since - trying to learn the machine.
It has been a challenge trying to learn what the machine is telling me, for sure, but I'm enjoying the time outdoors. I had been doing some research
on the Sioux Uprising, which started in the area I live -- that is what actually brought me to get into detecting in the first place.

Anywho, my question comes from some unusual (to me anyway, ) signals I was getting on Saturday evening. I was doing some detecting around
an old farm house area that I located from an 1880 plat map. I was working an area around three very old oak trees behind the house and got solid,
shallow signals in an area that is about 12"x18". In all metal I get nothing but 39-45 for VDI numbers at 0-2" deep in the entire area and slight ferrous
signal along the one edge of the patch. I have dug down 3-5" in most of the 12"x18" area and have found nothing in the dirt removed, but holes still
ring loud and clear. It was getting late, so I covered everything back up and headed home.....very frustrated. This really threw me off because, up
until now, the depth readings, on the things I have dug, have been spot on.

My questions are:
Do you think I am experiencing some anomalies in the soil that I've not seen yet?
If not, is it possible that I'm picking up on a larger target that is actually deeper than the MD is saying?

Like I said, I'm very new to the hobby, so go easy on me. Thanks in advance for any advice you may have. Thanks also for the great information
on this forum -- it's all very helpful for a noob trying to learn the ropes.

HH,
Willy

 

[Elton]

Try ground balancing and going back over the area...............Turn sens down till stable......Dig down till you find a target, or do not find a target..

Then you will know.. Many things in the ground can and will make a detector beep......Are you positive it's not falsing ???

 

[Willy_MN]

Thanks for the reply, Elton. I ground balanced two or three different times and played with the sensitivity and noise
cancel as well -- it still picked it up the same. I have run into the rust halo effect on a few targets this past week (dig,
find no target, signal is gone when rechecked) and I don't think that's what this is. This spot, no matter the amount
of digging or position of dirt, rings out the same. I will head back with some deeper digging tools and see what
happens.

How is one sure of whether or not the machine is falsing? Sorry for the rookie questions.....

Thanks for the advice,
Willy

 

[Elton]

Constantly beeping on targets that are not there...Check your coil connection make certain it is tight...You should go on the xterra forum and get the experts advice..also read at top of Xterra forum FAQFAQ might help you solve the problem..

 

[Joel-Winnipeg]

I was out today detecting a soccer field and had that problem.
The detector would sound good and said 2 inches depth.
I proceeded to use the probe and could not hit anything.
I dug that spot down to about 4 inches still nothing,pass the detector over it and still indicated 2 inches.
Proceeded to dig it down some more and checked the hole with pinpointer and got a signal.
I probed it and hit a metal object and knew it was iron junk.
This I knew and just wanted to be sure.
The dirt under the top soil was brought in from somewhere else and is loaded with iron object.and junk
I've dug quite a few of these fields and now know what to expect ,so if it doesn't sound right or overloads or is a wide pinpoint I leave it alone.
As I dig mostly coins and jewelry I've come to anticipate the signals.
Once you've had the experience and put in the time in detecting and digging the finds you'll know what to leave alone or to dig up.

 

[Willy_MN]

Constantly beeping on targets that are not there...Check your coil connection make certain it is tight...You should go on the xterra forum and get the experts advice..also read at top of Xterra forum FAQFAQ might help you solve the problem..

Elton, thanks, I've done quite a bit of reading in the X-Terra forum, including the FAQFAQ -- great information in there. I think the biggest issue is operator error (inexperience). I think it's easy to get impatient at first -- I'm learning something every time I go out, so that's a plus. Just have to slow down and soak it all in. I spent this evening in our backyard digging up junk with my daughters -- had one larger piece of iron ring out similar to the spot at the farm site. Ended up being 8-9" deep when the meter said 2-4". That's probably what's going on at the farm site too, but I'll go back to make sure.

Thanks again for the guidance,
Willy

 

[Willy_MN]

I was out today detecting a soccer field and had that problem.
The detector would sound good and said 2 inches depth.
I proceeded to use the probe and could not hit anything.
I dug that spot down to about 4 inches still nothing,pass the detector over it and still indicated 2 inches.
Proceeded to dig it down some more and checked the hole with pinpointer and got a signal.
I probed it and hit a metal object and knew it was iron junk.
This I knew and just wanted to be sure.
The dirt under the top soil was brought in from somewhere else and is loaded with iron object.and junk
I've dug quite a few of these fields and now know what to expect ,so if it doesn't sound right or overloads or is a wide pinpoint I leave it alone.
As I dig mostly coins and jewelry I've come to anticipate the signals.
Once you've had the experience and put in the time in detecting and digging the finds you'll know what to leave alone or to dig up.

Thanks, Joel. As far as coins go, I haven't found anything but pennies so far. I've got those dialed in now along with pull tabs and bottle
caps (most of the time). I'll keep plugging away and hopefully keep making progress. It's a pretty enjoyable way to spend time -- you never
know what's going to come out of the hole.

Thanks for the input,
Willy

 

[Elton]

n/t

 

[nw1886]

I would love to find an anvil! I'd put that thing to work right away!

 

[Willy_MN]

I would love to find an anvil! I'd put that thing to work right away!