Today I was playing with v3i settings and i was air testing with coins and with 7 gain about 80 ds I started hunting when I had a wierd hit of vdi jumping from 50s to 70 and clear. A foot deep no lie because of the several times tried to recover the target but it was still in the hole I saw the rusty nail coming out with my digging tool and soil. About an inch long thin and rusty nail in a such extreme depth and I can not recover a coin in more of 4'. Does this give to you any ideas guys to you?
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wierd depth with a nail
- Thread starter cypearl
- Start date
When nails get thin like that and are old square nails all the metal left in them can be non ferrous and present itself as a good target. I dug one last night at a foot under a pvc water line here at my house. It happens.
Rest assured that a silver quarter will sound very similar at near that depth. I have been digging old .34 cal rimfire cases last night at around 6".
Rest assured that a silver quarter will sound very similar at near that depth. I have been digging old .34 cal rimfire cases last night at around 6".
Yes...the typical composition of old square nails is significantly different compared to modern round nails and they sometimes show as a good target.
When the ore was smelted to make square nails, little to no separation of the different types of metal alloys was completed. The ore often went from the ground to the nail; every type of metal that was in the ore is in the square nail. So as square nails age, the iron corrodes away leaving behind all the noble non-ferrous metals like copper. So the longer in the ground or the older a square nail is, the better it looks to a metal detector.
In ore processing most all the different noble metal are present to some degree or another in trace amounts. For modern round nails, the smelting process is much more elaborate. They separate and keep all the noble metals for resale at much better prices. You really are getting only iron in a round nail. As the iron corrodes away, noble metals are not there to make the signal better with age. However, the signal is so strong and polarized (magnetically) it can often still be difficult to reject.
Square nails are more difficult to reject compared to round nails, as the noble metals within the square nails alloy enhance the square nail signal both with and without age.
In summary, square nails are mostly iron with whatever other metals were in the ore. Round Nails are just iron.
When the ore was smelted to make square nails, little to no separation of the different types of metal alloys was completed. The ore often went from the ground to the nail; every type of metal that was in the ore is in the square nail. So as square nails age, the iron corrodes away leaving behind all the noble non-ferrous metals like copper. So the longer in the ground or the older a square nail is, the better it looks to a metal detector.
In ore processing most all the different noble metal are present to some degree or another in trace amounts. For modern round nails, the smelting process is much more elaborate. They separate and keep all the noble metals for resale at much better prices. You really are getting only iron in a round nail. As the iron corrodes away, noble metals are not there to make the signal better with age. However, the signal is so strong and polarized (magnetically) it can often still be difficult to reject.
Square nails are more difficult to reject compared to round nails, as the noble metals within the square nails alloy enhance the square nail signal both with and without age.
In summary, square nails are mostly iron with whatever other metals were in the ore. Round Nails are just iron.
Larry (IL)
Well-known member
Most deep square nails will not sound the same at 90 degrees, many will not sound off at all when cross checked and most deep nails will not pinpoint exactly where you get the best tone. The eddy currents often will concentrate off of the pointed end(s) of the nail or wire. Those two tricks will do away with 90% or more of your nail digs.