Question for AT Gold users

[Unclebuck257]

OK, first I'll admit that I'm a newby and certainly new to the AT Gold and therefore, I'm certainly capable of messing up. I've watched the Garrett videos on the AT Gold a bunch of times and I'm learning as I go. We live in rural Texas and up until the 2 inch rain we just had two days ago, our ground has been so dry that there were one inch cracks in the pastures. It's that black gumbo type of soil. Figured that right after that rain would be a good time to go out.

Our daughter and her husband own the place right next to our acerage, so permission is no problem on their place. On their place is the remains of a VERY old homestead, with just the rock foundation left, right at ground level. Yesterday the wife, with her F-2 and me with my AT Gold head over there.

First thing I did was Ground Balance the unit and I was in the All Metal mode. I started swinging in about 3 foot sweeps with the standard AT Gold 5X8 DD Coil. While working around the edges of the foundation, twice I got strong readings in the 75-90 range. I dug each up and it was trash metal at about 4 inches. Once the trash was gone, I then got no other readings from that spot. The third spot drove me crazy with readings at 28 and then solid 75-90's again. Again, same thing. Once I dug up the spot and removed the trash metal pieces, I didn't get anymore readings.

I'd appreciate thoughts and suggestions from other experienced AT Gold users as to what is going on and what I'm sure, I'm doing wrong. What I can't figure out is why a solid 28 reading and also a solid 75-90 reading too, but obviously from old scrap metal. I even tried and switched to Disc1 mode too, but found no difference.

 

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[Potts]

Do you use a Pro-Pointer.

 

[Sandman]

what you have there is the Halo effect from the trash leaching into the soil and it makes the target appear stronger. All detectors do this.

 

[Unclebuck257]

Potts,

Yes, I was using a pinpointer. It wasn't a Garrett but the one that came with my wife's F-2 from Fisher.

Sandman,

I didn't know about that hallo affect and I appreciate you telling me in your answer. Thanks.

 

[Sapper724]

You're not doing anything wrong, you just need to learn your machine. It'll take at least 100 hours on it before you'll know it well. Videos are nothing compared to experience in the field. Take your time and be patient. Start off in your own yard or clean parks to start learning

 

[Sandman]

Potts,

Yes, I was using a pinpointer. It wasn't a Garrett but the one that came with my wife's F-2 from Fisher.

Sandman,

I didn't know about that hallo affect and I appreciate you telling me in your answer. Thanks.

Your welcome. Read about the Halo effect here. Halo Effect

 

[Unclebuck257]

Sapper724,

Yeah, I realize that I have many hours of using my AT Gold ahead of me just to become familiar with it. Not knowing anything about the halo affect however, I was really concerned since even new electronics can be defective. Thanks for your reply.

Sandman,

Read that article on the halo affect and yes, being an old homestead site, those trash metal pieces had been in the ground a very long time. Sure explained what happened and why. Again, Thank you!

 

[SoCalBeachScanner]

Hi UncleBuck,

Your best bet is to not rely on the display of the machine. Go by what you are hearing. I rarely look at the display for signal strength or depth because it tends to jump around a lot, especially in trashy areas. Bury several types of metals at different depths to get use to what you are hearing. That will help you learn to hear the deep whispers of a quality coin or relic that is 8" or more.
I hope that helps ... Bill

 

[signal_line]

Lean how to use Iron Audio. Especially if it is an iffy target, go back over it with IA on.

 

[Unclebuck257]

SoCalBeachScanner

Thank you for that advice, I believe I'll do just as you suggested.

signal line,

Thank you for your advice too and that's a tool I need to learn to use.