Deep Target Question

[scrapmagnet]

I have a Minelab Safari, I was swinging today and had a solid 35 target, deep. It was tight from two directions. The signal remained up until I dug to about 14" and then vanished. No reaction on my pinpointer. I dug down to about 18". It is age old farm field (last farmed in 75 years ago and now lawn) and you can dig it with your fingers. Could the target be deeper yet? Could it be that I was now "air" scanning that caused me to lose the target? It was getting dark so I had to fill in the hole.

 

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[detectorcowboy]

I'm thinking deep iron in the sidewall of the hole?

 

[Ocean7]

1) falsing due to sensitivity set too high
2) iron object causing pinpointing to be way off
3) iron nail became rust flakes and disappears once you dig hole
4) hot rock or highly mineralized soil
5) not properly ground balanced
6) electro-magnetic interference from power lines in ground

very annoying but it happens to the best of us or so it seems.

 

[robertk]

Well at the risk of overlooking the obvious, did you scan the dirt you took out of the hole? Did the signal return when you filled the hole back in?

 

[scrapmagnet]

By the answers, I have to assume that the answer is no.
There is a good amount of iron here and some has corroded to almost nothing. When I encounter that, I normally get a jumpy, elongated signal. I did scan the pile, the chunks that fell off of my shovel and the area surrounding (quiet). The signal was tight enough that I thought it was a shallow target until I looked at the depth. Lots to learn...

 

[scrapmagnet]

I had an interesting experience today. I was reworking an area after yesterday's rain. I picked up a deep signal, kind of jumpy. I then pulled a plug about 8 inches deep and made a clean flip to the side. Barely any loose dirt. Rescanned and came up with nothing in the plug or the hole. Not a peep. Having dealt with corroded iron recently doing the same, I looked at the plug and the hole. No evidence of rust.

I decided to dig. At about 16-18 inches, my pin pointer picked something up. It was a piece of iron about the diameter of a pencil and about two inches long.
I am now thinking that there may be something to all soil vs an air gap, post plug, when it comes to deep targets. I now have another hole to recheck, if I can find it. once the soil settles again.

 

[pepperj]

I had an interesting experience today. I was reworking an area after yesterday's rain. I picked up a deep signal, kind of jumpy. I then pulled a plug about 8 inches deep and made a clean flip to the side. Barely any loose dirt. Rescanned and came up with nothing in the plug or the hole. Not a peep. Having dealt with corroded iron recently doing the same, I looked at the plug and the hole. No evidence of rust.

I decided to dig. At about 16-18 inches, my pin pointer picked something up. It was a piece of iron about the diameter of a pencil and about two inches long.
I am now thinking that there may be something to all soil vs an air gap, post plug, when it comes to deep targets. I now have another hole to recheck, if I can find it. once the soil settles again.

Minelabs hate air, also other detectors as well.
Strong signal, dig plug, nothing. Pin pointer nothing, the target is deeper than the pin painter's ability to detect it. The air between the coil and the bottom of the hole seems to blank out the detectors ability to detect the target again.
Usually if a person digs another few inches something develops, either sound or target.
Though I have also done,filled in the hole and carried on.

 

[releventchair]

I have a Minelab Safari, I was swinging today and had a solid 35 target, deep. It was tight from two directions. The signal remained up until I dug to about 14" and then vanished. No reaction on my pinpointer. I dug down to about 18". It is age old farm field (last farmed in 75 years ago and now lawn) and you can dig it with your fingers. Could the target be deeper yet? Could it be that I was now "air" scanning that caused me to lose the target? It was getting dark so I had to fill in the hole.

Are you using a handheld pin pointer?

forced to help ,I 'd insist you carefully control the removal of soil and it's contents onto a piece of canvas or a Frisbee with a part of it's side cut out or something.
Then insist you explain where your target is as you SLOWLY take more soil away from where you indicated a target. Checking what you remove each time.
Or you can carefully scan everything after you lose your target.

Different detector similar problem.
Results.
Small piece of lead birdshot. Size 4 or 6 I don't recall the actual guess at the time.

An eyelet from a tennis shoe.

A tiny piece of wire.

Without a patient pin pointer?

Then there are times my initial pinpointing using the detector is off a few inches. Which is a lot to be off! And when it is it is multiple times in the same area and conditions. It's not just being off a little once. And each time there are multiple targets but the detector is focused on the strongest regardless of if it's being beyond my coils center signal.. Meaning the iron I'm mostly ignoring is yelling from 3-4 inches away from what I'm also catching and being interested in as interesting ,when the detector is used to pin point.
Going to good target tone/i.d. with the handheld at spot selected by eye to match good tone gives better accuracy than the coil as a pin pointer in such trashy/multiple target areas.
Does that make sense?