Tell Us About Your "Trash" Signal That Turned Out Otherwise...

[Critterhunter]

(Mumbling to myself..."OK, let's see if this thread goes anywhere in this forum...) A while back I started a thread like this in the main detecting forum and it had a lot of posts with great interesting stories from people. With that in mind, I figured this might be both interesting and informative at the same time for other Sovereign users to hear about what kind of "junk" signals turned out to be good targets for you. For instance, most of the time I've found that coins on edge still give the proper ID/audio response, but I have dug a silver or two that were on edge and acted/sounded more like a screw cap. However, they were "different" in some way and that's why I dug them.

One silver I dug would slowly climb until it made it to 180, and then collapse like a house of cards, only to repeat the entire process all over again. It was a little jumpy while doing the climb, but consistent. On the other hand, screw caps might give you a 180 signal one way and really sound sick and bounce around in the 170's a lot the other way, while the silver never sounded "sick" in audio to me and as said reacted differently in VDI.

Whether it's a coin that was real deep, masked by iron or other trash, on edge, or a gold ring or some other good find that might have had the same problems, I'd like to hear about your "trash" signal that turned out to be something good. One of those deals were you said to yourself "I sure am glad I dug that!", or "I wonder why it gave me such a bad signal?"

If this thread bombs (which it probably will) I'd invite you to search for the other thread in the main detecting forum from somewhere close to a year ago. I think you'll enjoy the stories people had, and it will give you the inspiration to dig those "iffy" or "junk" signals when that's the only way you're going to have any chance at not getting skunked for the day.

 

[plugger]

About 3 years ago I was hunting a beach along with 2 other guys, one of which was using a DFX. We were not together, just there at the same time. I watched the guy with the DFX "speeding" (compared to me and my GT) along a large sand berm that I had come to hunt because they always knocked it down when summer started. It was only used to protect the upper, main beach during winter storms and all they did to build it was to bulldoze the lower beach at low tide so there was plenty of "old" beach in that berm. I have found lots of goodies over the years by going over the sand after they bull dozed it back down. Anyway, he stopped at a spot for several seconds, listening and looking at his screen and then moved on down the berm and then to the wet sand area. I was working a grid pattern of about 15 feet wide all along the same sand, so after a while I came to the spot he had stopped at and it sounded broken, but "good" to me so I took a scoop of sand and shook it and there in my scoop was a womens white gold wedding band with about 8 or 10 diamonds, all in a row, pretty baguettes, set in a channel. I popped that baby into my jewelry tube and then swept the spot again and got a real nice sweet sounding hit! It was the engagement ring to the band! The main diamond was a princess cut weighing .55 carots and the was another bunch of baguettes on both sides of the big diamond and several round diamonds on each side. It was a beautiful set and it appraised at $6200. I have found several nice diamonds rings before, but this was the nicest of the bunch. I belive he thought it was junk because the 2 rings were in close proximity and maybe on they side and the irregular shape of the engagement ring probably contributed to the "broken" sound. Now, I listen intently to all trashy and broken sounds, and yes, I dig alot of trash, but I also get alot of goodies too! I have a whole case of silver chains and St. Christphers. I followed that (at a distance) for the next two hours and dug another 4 rings a bracelet. 2 of the rings were on the bracelet and sounded funny too. I love it when these guys with the screens show up and try to "chery-pick" their way around my beach! Once I found 4 rings in one scoop that a DXF guy listened too and never bothered to scoop it to see what must have been making his numbers jump all around. If I like the sound, I'm digging! I don't want a meter talking me out it! I found a coin spill once that covered a couple of feet near a big rock and the audio was jumping and screaming worst than an aluminum can. I must have needed 20 scoops to get all the coins (all nickles, dimes and alot of quarters)! It ended up being my best coin day ever! Over $35! Sorry about the length, but I think of my Sov as a vacuum cleaner at the beach. If my coil goes over it, I'll find it!

 

[fir469]

I use a Musketeer Advantage with a 15" WOT. Recently in a farm field that has produced many coins from 1840-1910 as well as TONS of buttons and civil war relics I got a rather "Choppy" signal. It sounded like a broken, sputtering, choppy iron signal 3 ways, but the 4th way swinging it sounded like a keeper... So I probed around it with the coil and always from that one side I got the good signal and the rest iron signals... So I dug it! So glad I did... Turned out to be a holed 1841 Half Dime, not great shape but still a nice old silver. The iron signal?? Well that turned out to be a railroad spike another 4 inches deeper then the half dime... How the Musky hit that little sliver of silver I'll never know, but I guess I'll chalk that one up to the incredible separation of the Minelab and a little luck on my end...

I recently went back to that field and explored many of the broken signals I passed up before, this also netted me 4 more buttons and 3 IH's... all the holes had iron in or close to them... DIG THOSE BROKEN SIGNALS!

 

[crazyman]

I dig a lot of trashy signals on the beach that turn out to be good targets. If they make a peep, are one way or even a threshold change I dig them on the beach. On land I'm a little more selective. When hunting in iron if I can get a repeatable signal from at least one direction I dig it and often have found coins very close or mixed with some type of iron. In my bad ground sometimes even single targets can sound choppy at depth so in parks I dig any signal good or bad as long as it's repeatable. I was hunting a park recently and got a very choppy signal that I couldn't get a distinct tone on even doing the wiggle. I left it and kept hunting but I kept thinking about that target. Even though I couldn't get the choppy signal to climb it was still repeatable so I went back and dug down and at maybe 8 inches I found part of a sterling silver bracelet about the size of a penny with a big green turquoise stone. The back of it was all silver but little silver was exposed on the front and sides and it was sitting face up so I was impressed that the Sovereign hit it that depth.

 

[Critterhunter]

Thanks for the responses. Can't wait to read them later...As usual the stuff I want to savor I print out to read over a smoke. Here's the link to the thread I started a while back in the main detecting forum. Some great inspiring stories on digging "trash" or iffy signals. Check out the one about the cache jar of coins that somebody ran off with! I would have had to done something about that myself, one way or another...

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?18,1061972,page=1

 

[RONC(OR)]

I have 2 targets finds that bring that to mind .One was what I thought was a bottle cap turned out to a 10k medallion and chain the other was a zinc penny sound the turned out to be a 14k signet Tiffany ring that weighed 27 grams I dig it all in the water HH RonC

 

[Art (NWOH)]

It would be hard to say. I like oddball things...anything unusual, so I tend to dig anything that does not come up like the predominant kinds of trash.

I guess it would have to be a nice little silver ring I found once.
It came in right square between zincs and higher coins. Also right square between high and low screwcaps. I just had to dig it up to see what it was .

HH

 

[Rick(ND)]

I Like to dig any odd signals that are deep with the Sovereign as you find some interesting finds. The one I remember the most is one of the best gold rings I have found in a old ballfeild that been used since early 1900 in a old town. It has been detected to death, but I like to try anyway and listen for those weak and deep signals. The area is where the bleacher used to be 30 some years ago until around 1988 so there were pull tabs everywhere and one sounded smoother and sounded like a nickle, but the ID was a little lower as it read 141 on the Sun Ray meter where nickle read 143-144. A 141 would be a beaver tail off the old round pull tabs, but being it sounded smoother and deeper sounding I decided to dig and Glad i did as around 9 inches deep was the oldest and nicest looking Gold signet ring I have ever seen , but the band had a crack in it. Took it to the jeweler to have repaired and while there I ask being it wasn't marked what K was it,. He said for a accurate test he would have to put a piece in acid which he didn't care to do as it was a very old design ring and said it he felt it was over 14K as it was soft. At our next club meeting a guy says he has a gold tester he is going to bring so we can get a idea of what it is.

I have found other good items too I thought were trash, but they were different sounding or deeper than trash normally is.

 

[Critterhunter]

That's one of my favorite methods of avoiding trash...Looking for deeper "pull tab" signals for instance than how deep they go at a particular site. For instance, one site I like to hunt as round tabs down to about 6", so you can bet any tab signal deeper than that is going to get dug by me most of the time there. I like to think of that as "traveling back in time" past when that particular trash target was invented. Also a handy way to avoid modern pennies when the site is just loaded with them and I don't have the time to dig them all out. But I'd have to say my favorite way to avoid trash is just by listening to it's audio and watching it's ID response. Most uniform in shape targets will give solid locks regardless of sweep direction, and many of those are what I'm after...Rings, Coins, Buttons, Tokens, Etc. But, this thread is about doing the reverse...Digging the iffy junk signals and finding something good.

I've seen plenty of spots where silver dimes would read as low as zinc pennies or even into the high tab zone, while still giving "perfect" responses like they were those targets. Most of the time targets will move down the scale when the soil is bad with many machines (not finding that to be as much of a problem with the GT), but even more rarely I've hunted spots where targets moved up the conductivity scale. When that happens it's even harder to figure out what is worth digging. I've dug tabs giving me decent penny or even clad dime signals. That spots give me fits. Luckily I maybe hit a site like that once a year or two.

 

[crazyman]

On our nasty mineralized Puget Sound beaches the tones on clad Quarters and dimes come in lower than zinc pennies and can be choppy especially the quarters. The quarter tones are even lower and harsher than the dimes. Funny thing is the zinc pennies still give a nice smooth high tone.

 

[William1221]

Im new to sovereign so all signals sound like junk sooo I dig them all BUT Im getting better lol

 

[Critterhunter]

Stick with it. Even for me with years of detecting experience on many machines the Sovereign (or any machine for that matter) has a learning curve. Screw caps were giving me fits until I learned how they acted via the ID and audio. If there isn't a ton of them at a site them it's best to dig those, because coins on edge or masked can act very similar. I believe I can tell the difference but just the same...