Target "averaging"?

[DigFella]

My hunting buddy & I are using the ATP & ATG respectively at nail infested cellar holes with success with iron audio. But on our 3rd time out we dug a couple signals that read low conductive, like 38-40's, etc. But they were nice repeatable signals. Finally I dug one to see, and in the dug dirt it shot up to 70's! Low & behold an Indian head penny. Now we think some kinda ID averaging was taking place. That the unit was taking the nails in the same hole & combined with the penny showed a 40 until out of the hole & seperated. Does this sound right? If so, we gutta lot of 40's targets to go back & dig Also, since we are AT newbies, does disc matter the iron? We run disc 40, iron audio on & let the high tone pop out of the chatter. Bill Ladd did this on a YouTube video but I'm reading other people saying to flip iron audio off & on, or drop disc into the 20's. Any reason why or just to lessen the chatter?
Our attitude is if it aint broke, leave it alone. But if a disc setting in the 20's works we'll try it.
Thanks!

 

[ajaj]

This has happened a couple times with me, but not exactly. Whenever I've encountered this, there was a hint of something "good" when first swinging. I mean there was a "feel" to the occasional high tone, or if no high tone, there was a "feel" to it. This only comes about from many hours on the machine. Do I dig a lot of junk?...YUP! But I dig a lot less than when I first started with the AT Pro. I guess this is the biggest hint of all...each site is different due to a myriad of factors; dig a whole bunch at each site and determine conditions for each type of thing dug. Oh, go get them Indians

aj

 

[Tom_in_CA]

With a question about "averaging", you have to also realize, that there's a "never-ending" curve of variations of target placement. What I mean is, if one target is EXACTLY placed (co-mingled one *exactly* on top of the other), then you might get a consistent "average" between the two VDI's. But target-placement is never so clean and neat. Because the moment you have ANY type of space apart from them (eg.: nail next to, but not *over* the coin), then instead of an "averaging" you might get "mixed". Bi-metal tones, where one is trying to over power the other, so you get a hint of each one, depending the direction you sweep the coil, the speed you sweep, and so forth. So there is not any one consice formula or answer to it. Even ones that are exactly over each other, even though they might reduce your IH to a "40", yet ...... it's not a "clean and neat" 40, if you know what I mean.

 

[John-Edmonton]

Two things working....It could be some masking from a nearby target, or a completely dissolved iron object in the soil still giving an iron signal. The other issue is that the coil reads the surface of a target, not the metal below. An oxidized coin will be read as whatever has accumulated on the surface from either oxides from the copper or other mineralized leaching of other metals onto the surface electronically from the soil mineralization. That is why the hunters that dig the best targets tend to dig all the targets, especially if they are deep.

Your metal detector is fine and doing what it is supposed to.

 

[DigFella]

Thanks for the responses. Sorry if I indicated that my unit "wasn't working right". It's just the opposite. We are kicking butt & taking names on iron loaded sites. I'm just saying that we were only digging 50 & up. That was our mistake & we are just trying to understand the ATs better since it was only our third voyage out-
HH

 

[hunter_46356]

I've only been on the AT Pro for a month now and I too have found some nuance's with it. The places that seem to give some unusual responses are typically trashy, lots of iron and tabs. I have found through digging good signals w a good VDI on one swing but cross swings produce good tone but sometimes no VDI or not a good repeatable one. At times I just can't walk away on these. Better than 50% of the time I end up with a good target that is deep and has trash associated with it in the hole. Definitely something going on here and I can't keep from digging them. There's just something about them that sounds too good. Haven't dug any Indians but most of the confusing encounters have ended up deep wheat's. These Pro's are Awesome. First silver ring today, typical men's wedding band, pushing 10" deep. This one was no question a good target. Solid 91 every which way you swung the coil. Still can't pick out the alum. cans though. They come in high 70's to mid 80' but do seem to jump around a bit. I guess that's the only way to tell, but it's hard to walk away sometimes....when it's screaming dig me. Guess that's what keeps this game interesting.

 

[GroundScanner]

Hi Hunter, with the alum cans what i do is raise my coil bout a foot and a little higher and it will still sound off that tells me its a can of some sort , while im only looking for coins and jewelry . Hope that help HH GS.

 

[hunter_46356]

GC, I do use this technique and ya it works great on cans. Alum bottle caps still get all of us and will until someone comes up with the technology to pin that one down. I think there may be some slight differences in the tone of caps but not sure. I have been hunting in Pro Mode Coin, and Zero with disc. 32/40. I've just recently started using Custom Mode and still working on fine tuning the elimination of certain VDI's. It seems to really quiet things down but need to do some more work with that.

 

[DougJorgie]

Now we think some kinda ID averaging was taking place. That the unit was taking the nails in the same hole & combined with the penny showed a 40 until out of the hole & separated. Does this sound right?

I have noticed this too. I just did an air test on Sunday and noticed this "averaging". I held a clad quarter between my pointer and middle fingers(positioned so it would be parallel to the coil) and a safety pin between my pinky and ring fingers. This put the 2 items about 2-3 inches apart. When I swung them under the coil at about 4 inches I got a combined number. The quarter by itself came up in the 80s and safety pin by itself came up in the 20s. When combined like I described, they came up in the mid 40s. Out of many tries I only had the quarter ring through by itself once or twice. I even tried to duplicate the "wobble" technique, but no success singling out the quarter. This changed everything for me. I have passed up on a lot of solid repeatable signals in the 40s. This was all done with the stock 8.5x11 DD stock coil. I wonder if the 5x8 DD would have been able to single out the quarter? I definitely agree with the "averaging" theory though.