Disappearing Targets???

[Anonymous]

At a beach in Georgia recently I came upon a strange happening I was not familiar. This beach was loaded with hundreds of bobby pins. Someone must have dumped them for meaness or dumped them to get rid of them but there were hundreds in a two block area. My Goldquest found them all of course and gave a double signal from one direction so ID'ing them was not a problem but upon digging many, and many deep one's, I found that when I got to the depth they were at, the target would disappear. I would make one or two more scoops and the bobby pin would be in the scoop or in the dumping of the scoop. I know I disturbed the "Halo" of the rusting pins but that did not account for the fact that once scooped out on the side of the hole the Goldquest would easily hit the pin while not hitting it after disturbing it in the hole...
Hope I have explained this well as I do not understand how this happened and it was rather different. These were the bobby pins that are not closed together to pinch but krinkled and in the shape of a "U". Can anyone explain....Frank

 

[Anonymous]

Maybe your digging caused them to fall into a vertical position. This would make them much harder to detect, Dave. * * *

 

[Anonymous]

Well my thoughts would be that the deap ones were
all vertical and when you disturbed them then they
would be lying flat or horizontal, giving a much
weaker signal at the bottom of a deap hole, I get
this a lot with nails when looking for gold.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks fellows, it sure happened a bunch of times--but then I was digging them a bunch of times. It's just like christmas, you never know for sure what is in the package until you open the package...Frank

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Frank and all,
Thin iron and steel objects often do the disappearing act. This is usually because, as Robby and Dave said, they change their orientation and position with respect to the coil as you are digging. The other complication is that the maximum signal from a pin, is when the TX field is parallel to the line of the pin. If the pin is lying horizontal the signal is least when it is under the coil centre and maximum when under the coil edges. Sometimes it even appears as though there are two objects. If, in the course of digging, the pin is flipped vertical, then what was two signals now appears as one, with a maximum under the coil centre. Also, they can drop deeper into the hole and fall below the detection range. Sometimes I have dug for ages for a signal, assuming it was on the coil axis, only to find that it was a shallow pin or nail in the side of the hole. This is where an electronic probe is very useful. You can get it down into the hole and very quickly see where the object is.
By the way, there is no evidence that PI's respond to halo effects from objects.
Eric.

 

[Anonymous]

Since I cannot see the object before actually finding it, it is only guessing that leads one to guess correct or guess incorrect. I will have to believe that digging disrupts the object in a manner that "stealths" it to the radiated pattern. But the comment on no evidence of "the halo effect" being visable to the pattern really throws me. Numbers of times the wet sand that was around the iron object will when withdrawn from the hole and tossed to the side of the hole give a momentary signal that causes me to think the target is at that place. I figured it was several thousands of corroded material from the target that was still intact and still engerized from the radiation of the coil. I will watch this more closely in the future so I can discuss it hopefully in a more intelligent or experienced users explaination.
Again I sure do apprecaite your and anyone's help, everyday is an opportunity to learn something new... No one will ever know it all or enough. Frank

 

[Anonymous]

I have noticed on the beach that several types of targets seem to disappear. This happens when the target is deep. Since the salt/sand transmits deeper than air, when you have removed a large amount of the sand on top of your item, the signal disappears.