Carcasses, clad quarter, and a mystery bearing

[jsandin]

I hunted three sites, and at each one I found a carcass. Dog carcass (maybe) by the river, and a deer carcass at each of two forest sites. It's deer season, or close to it.

Found only a 1967 quarter, a sinker, and the brass from a light bulb at the river site. In the woods, I found farm junk, including a bearing that sounds exactly like a coin with the Tesoro uMax. It's a steel bearing and I think I can see the rusted balls inside. It's heavy. Why would this not be eliminated when I've set the detector to do that? I'm thinking there's metal other than steel in it. Or maybe the shape has something to do with it.

 

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[Professor of Engineering]

Nice finds!

 

[1320]

Some things just can't be discriminated out with Umax detectors, especially larger items.

 

[against the wind]

Congrats on getting out.
We have snow on the ground where I am.

 

[jsandin]

Some things just can't be discriminated out with Umax detectors, especially larger items.

That's good to know.

This detector seems to have a sweet spot relevant to this issue. I air-tested the chunk of cast iron (lower right) vs the bearing. The cast iron got discriminated out, but the bearing fooled it every time!

Evidently, if I'm not in that sweet spot when I hunt amongst junk, I end up digging more than my share of big square steel nuts and random compact hunks of iron. The more compact they are, the better they sound. I mark them with a fluorescent red stick and come back a few minutes later to dig them, which means that I no longer remember what the beep sounded like. I may stop doing that.

 

[1320]

That's good to know.

This detector seems to have a sweet spot relevant to this issue. I air-tested the chunk of cast iron (lower right) vs the bearing. The cast iron got discriminated out, but the bearing fooled it every time!

Evidently, if I'm not in that sweet spot when I hunt amongst junk, I end up digging more than my share of big square steel nuts and random compact hunks of iron. The more compact they are, the better they sound. I mark them with a fluorescent red stick and come back a few minutes later to dig them, which means that I no longer remember what the beep sounded like. I may stop doing that.

I agree with your sweet spot assessment. My Sidewinder (Umax) behaves the same. The bearing you found most likely has stainless steel balls. I'd hazard a guess that the iron has leached onto them giving them the appearance of being iron.

 

[G.A.P.metal]

Man i used to sell a lot of those Sidewinder Umax first "Surface Mount Technology" in the industry... small and lite in weight .
I remember getting my first shipment of those Umax`s and the first box i picked up i had to open to see if there was anything in the box.
Great machine .
Gary

 

[jsandin]

I agree with your sweet spot assessment. My Sidewinder (Umax) behaves the same. The bearing you found most likely has stainless steel balls. I'd hazard a guess that the iron has leached onto them giving them the appearance of being iron.

I never considered that the detector might react differently to stainless steel. Now it all makes sense.