What happened to my Target?

[NorCal 6er]

I had a nice solid hit dug down about 3 or 4 inch’s rechecked still a good signal
Pulled out more dirt checking each shovel full as I take it out, at about 6+ rechecked the hole nothing, ok it’s in the dirt I pulled out, nothing
I checked the hole and dirt for foil or any thing that would give me a signal nada.
Searched 3 to 4 feet around the hole thinking it popped out, nothing

Has this ever happened to you?

Joe

 

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[Jeffro]

It happened to me a lot at one particular aprk a few months back. Found out it was gopherholes for some odd reason. Every dry hole turned out to have a tunnel under it. When I broke through, the signal disappeared. Wacky?

Another thing it could be is a small iron piece that has rusted thoroughly away. The halo spreads out from the rust to make what appears to be a coin sized object, however when you dig you seperate the iron particles enough to make the signal disappear.

 

[gregl01]

Yep, sounds like either large iron or rusted remains of such. Look at the soil, sometimes you'll see remnants of metal or just reddish muck. Don't get frustrated though, theres tons of iron left to mess with ya' !!!!
Greg

 

[Sandman]

Yeap, could be a higher mineral area like was mentioned. Then too it could be a .22 bullet or even a BB or birdshot from a shotgun shell. This happens when we use the high sensitivity settings of these super hot machines. What detector were you using? I have had the sound go off on what I thought were tree roots.

Hope you find it.
Sandman

 

[buscadero]

Nor: Next time stick a Magnet in the Hole! I'll bet you come out with little "rusties" on it!

 

[detectoraddict]

Like the other guys said probably rusted out iron. Sometimes DD coils will do this as it can be a half inch deeper to go and it just won't pick it up. This has a lot to do with all the mineralization and you broke the halo. Get yourself a good pinpointer and this can help in this situation.

 

[seas1to2]

2 things I have found, if I get a good signal an it dissapears, you rechecked the hole an the dirt pile, go ahead an dig another scoop or 2, coins will sometimes get turn on edge an dissapear, this has happens a few times in the past month to me. also sometimes a very small piece of foil will come up an maybe be stuck on the edge of your scoop or grass plug an the wind will blow it away, I saw this happen 1 time

 

[LowRider]

I had this problem with my Ace 250. I get a good solid hit and dug it up and there was nothing there. I figured it was interferance from my wheelchair. I got my GTI 2500 and the same thing happend. This time is was a bad coil . I put the 5X10 DD on it and it worked just fine. Now I am waiting for a new coil.

Mike

 

[drver]

Dittos seas1to2.

I beach hunt with an Ace 250 and after getting frustrated a few times with the disappearing signal I talked with a local digger. The advice was to dig one more scoop, well pulled coins most of the time others it was still nothing.??

 

[TORRERO]

Another thing that everyone reading this might remember, even if you don't want to
believe this.....
I have had this happen twice in a lifeime of hunting....
I was on a beach, and got a really good signal, I knew there was something there.
I was using a shovel, dug down and turned up the sand, now when I swung over
the site, I got no signal at all... after digging out the hole and still nothing, I decided
to kick the sand around, and sure enough I spied something GOLD in the sand, reached down picked it up, and there was a womans wedding band...
But now my machine would not respond... when I dug for this, my shovel had hit the
edge of the band and cut it open on one side. Now it was an open ring.
I also did this in a school yard with a small digger, and after the signal disapeared
I remembered this and sifted through some of the dirt, and there was a small
girls gold ring with stone, and I had cut the band with my digger.
Gold gives a good signal in ring form, but almost no signal in piece form.
What I saw was a cut ring... what my machine tried but could not see was a thin
slice of gold... this is why chains are so hard to detect.. because your machine does
not see a large piece of gold, but very tiny gold links it can't pick up...

What do you all say about that ?

 

[drver]

Not sure, sounds like it may be possible but... when a ring is open it is still the same diameter just not connected. Why won’t the coil see gold just because it’s open?

 

[TORRERO]

The same reason an Iron can lid sounds so good in the ground but when
you break the rim, suddenly it gives an iron signal.

All a metal detector does is read the conductivity of an item.
when an item is flat and round it conducts very well, a connected ring is a complete
circle, as in two wire completing a circuit... so to speak, but when the circuit
or ring is broken, suddenly electricity does not flow, or as in the ring, only through
the small cross section portion of the ring...
In the case of "REAL" Gold, this tiny cross section may not be enough for the
machine to actually see a return on, as in a small gold nugget.

If you really doubt what I'm saying and you have a small gold ring you have found,
or a small silver ring, take and cut it at a place and open the ring up.
try to detect it, and then push it back together with your fingers and do it again..

See the difference you get..
Watch the reading on machines with meter readouts...
Silver rings with-out a cut read in the 75-85 range..
with a cut they may read in the 30-40-50 range...

Gold rings without a cut may read 15-20-30 and Gold rings with a cut....
Well you probably won't get them at all....
or maybe 1-2 if your lucky...

 

[NCHermit]

Not sure what to think about that.I've never cut a ring while digging it.And dont use a meter,but have found hundreds of gold and silver toe rings which are not connected by design.Dont seem to have any conductivity problem.But I did run a test with a fluke meter on three different wires in different cofigurations and their conductivity was the same.A 2 inch piece of .5mm reads the same no matter the shape.A 2 inch piece of.8mm same result,A 2 inch piece of 1mm same result.Seems to me what ever the conductivity of said metal is,,,thats just what it is,,no matter the configuration.Just my .02 observation/test.

 

[TORRERO]

But I did run a test with a fluke meter on three different wires in different configurations and their conductivity was the same.A 2 inch piece of .5mm reads the same no matter the shape.A 2 inch piece of.8mm same result,A 2 inch piece of 1mm same result.Seems to me what ever the conductivity of said metal is,,,thats just what it is,,no matter the configuration.Just my .02 observation/test.
[/quote]

I don't know what a "fluke meter" is, but I suggested cutting a ring a using your metal detector
to see the results...
there may not be a difference when touching a piece of metal with some type of tester,
but your detector is not a fluke meter, and "sees" things in certain ways, at certain times...
It can see a complete circle VERY WELL, and a broken circle as just another piece of
wire..
I guise if you have not tried the experiment, then its not much good to question my results
using a different method right ?

 

[Postalrevnant]

Happens pretty often to me.

Rev

 

[NCHermit]

OK,,,try cutting that ring with out moving it.Position of said conductor is going to change,,,the detector is a send and recieve radio device.When that said conductor moves its like changing the direction of an anttena to the radio wave.making it stronger or weaker by position.
Not questioning your results,just running test on conductivity for what it is.How well a certain object conducts or passes an electrical current or signal.A Fluke meter is an electrical device that does just that.
My results just showed that it may not be a conductivity thing at all.
Could be something to it though,who knows.
I'm thinking it's more probable to be angle of radio transmission.
You can do the same thing with a coin...the conductivity of said coin will be the same no matter the angle,but your detector will pick it up differently if its on its side than if its upright.

 

[NCHermit]

OK,,I just could not stand it so I took 2 rings 1 silver 1 gold,
Laid them on a piece of hard wood over clean ground.I ran the detector over each..Got a good signal on both although different sounds due to different compounds.
Then cut both rings,,laid them back into the same flat position and checked again.Still both sounded the same,both had good signal.
So then I started changing coil angles from flat to the subjects to around 45 degrees to the subjects.The more angle the less signal.
I'm thinking that losing signal has more to do with angle of reflectivity more so than actual conductivity.
By the way Gold is one of the best conductors known to man.Way better than say copper.But a penny has more mass and reflective surface than a ring.Therefore there is a better chance for the penny to reflect back the radio signal.
There still maybe some merrit into the theory ya never know.
After all man used to think the world was flat.
Some times it's best to leave things alone,,sometimes it's best to check into different ideas....I can never just leave anything alone.I want to understand the unknowns,sometimes the most basic things can turn into the hardest.
When you beleive in things that you dont understand,your going to suffer...Superstition. Happy Hunting,,,treasure to us all.

 

[DirtDevil]

This was a problem for me too when I started mding . Here are my solutions I learned, and now I get the target every time.

Your discrimination may be too high. Many times a coin or thin ring dug out of the ground will fall on edge. It may sound off low in the scale as iron. Lower your disc or switch to All Metal, you'll find the target again.

Also, a coin or thin ring on edge will produce a double beep depending on the size of your coil. Pinpointing it is difficult. Swing the coil over to hear both beeps and dig between the beeps where it nulls out. Again, keep the detector in All Metal mode to continue to zero in on the target. You'll eventually find it.

A target that has turned on edge and in the bottom of the hole you just dig, becomes a smaller surface area to find. An increase in sensitivity will find it again.

Practice this in your backyard and put various coins and rings on edge just sticking out of the ground. Swing your detector over it at various heights. You'll learn a lot more about how your detector behaves.

HH

 

[ClonedSIM]

There's some truth to a signal changing or disappearing entirely when a target is moved or manipulated. There is one particular park in a nearby town that is great for producing older deep wheaties and small silver. The biggest problem with the place is rather a odd one, though. For some reason, on wheats and only older wheats, they sound great in the ground and they sound great as you're digging the hole, but as soon as they break the surface they will not tone at all. This is on my XLT.

I'm able to hit the no disc. pinpointer and the XLT will pick them up so I can find them once dug, but if you scan them on the surface, they give no tone at all. Here's the kicker, though. Nothing after 1934 or 35 will act the same way. Only older wheats, and no other coins, produce this reaction.

 

[seas1to2]

http://websearch.cs.com/wm/boomfram...upplementaryPages/MetalsElectConductivity.htm Silver is the top conductivity not gold