Question for you experienced diggers

[Postalrevnant]

I live in SE KY where there is coal everywhere. I realize that coal can have other metals inside, however I am wandering if coal can bring this signal?

I have the bounty hunter 505 and still a total newbee. I am using its auto-descriminate button...well this is happening on all settings actually.

I am getting a signal on the detector that says $1 silver. The right most signal on my detector and supposedly the silver strongest. Yet when I dig the hole I am only finding coal or glass. After I remove the coal glass I don't get a signal any longer. Niether do I get a signal directly on the coal or glass. I have been sifting the dirt and have dug up this signal atleast 10 times now only to find coal and glass in the hole.

Any ideas please? Is this normal?

Thank you,
Postalrevnant

 

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[Sandman]

Since after you dig up the coal glass, you've broken the metal matrix and there is nothing for the detector to "see" anymore. More costly detectors handle this better, sometimes.

 

[Jeffro]

try turning down the sensitivity until these false signals stop. Sometimes that helps.

 

[Postalrevnant]

Thank you Sandman256 and Jeffro. I might have a lemon detector...or perhaps not. I tried out all coins today after my post and got a very wild variety of hits from 1 cent zinc to $1 silver from each coin. The range was pretty wild.

I did of course check the area I was detecting it in first and got no signal before the test. I do not however know if its a temperature thing or something else. Will be posting on find of the day since I know it is seen by many.

Would much appreciate however if any of you know of a way I can test to be sure if my detector is a lemon, or if its natural to get a wide variety of hits on each object.

Thanks again,
Postalrevnant

Oh sorry forgot to reply to sensitivity question. Have been trying everything from 80% to almost off and still getting erractic signals.

 

[PostFatal]

I don't know if you checked your other thread about this so I'll give you this link here also. http://www.detecting.com/knowledgebase/show_article.cmdl?c=8bf7e7a1a86411d4

 

[Rusted_Iron]

Even the Minelab will find coal if the Sens is up too high. Coal cinders and coke are the worst.

Even though coal and coke are non-metallic, the carbon in it is a good conductor and will register on most detectors I've tried.

This one time I did actually get a really great signal from this chunk of coal that was caked with cement, but it turned out there was some kind of hexagonal metal ring embedded in it!!! That was ultra-weird.

 

[Postalrevnant]

Thanks Rusted_Iron tis a shame about the coal, its everywhere here. I just noticed today that coal cinders was making my detector go nuts. Its been harding telling if it was coal or if it was somehow falsely detecting glass. I just ran outside a bit ago and grabbed 3 bags of trash I had dug up over the last 2 weeks. Turns out that the glass that I was getting bleeps on was slightly crusted with coal cinders. I thought I was going nuts for sure digging up glass then not finding a signal any longer. Was about to send this detector back for calibration.

Postalrevnant

 

[Rusted_Iron]

I know of a couple hot spots in the places I hunt where there's so much coal in the ground, mostly coal cinders and coke, that you might as well forget detecting there. False signals everywhere. In those areas I suspect you're actually better off using an older model detector (such as an old Coinmaster) that's not tuned so "hot".

 

[U.K. Brian]

You don't have to go for a less powerful machine, the new top of range XP machine (Goldmaxx Power) has more depth and sensitivity than the previous model and includes an 'auto' position to cut out coal and coke.
With the previous models the solution was by offsetting the ground balance to a degree.

 

[bakergeol]

Yes the old whites detectors such as the Whites 4900 could handle these highly conductive pieces. I believe the 5900 and 6000 could also?. These were the main problems for me around the very old school yards(coal cinders,etc). These are of course antiques compared to todays detectors. A PI would not have this problem. In fact my GS5 will simply ignore high conductive pieces such as coal, coke and metallic sulfides as it ignores most "hot rocks". However, high end PIs like the GS5 are expensive and are mainly designed for deep low conductor (gold) hunting.

Perhaps Brians solution is the best. In the UK where coke and coal I imagine are everywhere they have developed the Goldmaxx Power with the coke and coal elimination. I have always heard outstanding things about the XP Goldmaxx. Here are the air tests on the old model. Actually the XP did very well compared with high end US models such as the Explorer, GT12500 and DFX(in the majority of the tests- better). If you ever decide to upgrade to a high end model the XP is probably what would be necessary for your area. I don't know how difficult or how expensive it would be to import one from the UK and those would be the major issues.

http://www.nexusdetectors.com/Testspage.html


HH
George

 

[Rusted_Iron]

Yes the old whites detectors such as the Whites 4900 could handle these highly conductive pieces. I believe the 5900 and 6000 could also?

I think you're right. I don't recall ever having this problem with my old Sears, which is a White's 5900 or 6000 (not sure which) in disguise.