Pinpointing in mineralized soil??

[aj0421]

Hello everybody, this past weekend I did a two day metal detecting event at an old farm property. I experienced what I guess for the first time a very mineralized ground...Finding the targets with my detector wasn't that bad (had noise but targets stood out) but when I got down on one knee and tried to use my Garrett carrot I had a hell of a time trying to find my target. It was falsing??? Until last weekend I never had this issue, I can only think it was the soil. I tried grounding my pinpointer on start up but that didn't help. I left the pinpointer on in my left hand as I walked around swinging my detector with my right hand.

Any suggestions if I run into this problem again?

 

[EmuDetector]

Did you try a button tap with it near the ground after it was already on?

 

[Martin_V3i]

I never leave my pinpointer on walking around. Turning it on with the tip on the ground should make it quiet though, or the quick tap as mentioned. I seem to recall mine doing the same thing whenever I did leave mine on. Been too long to remember though.

 

[markinswpa]

Hello everybody, this past weekend I did a two day metal detecting event at an old farm property. I experienced what I guess for the first time a very mineralized ground...Finding the targets with my detector wasn't that bad (had noise but targets stood out) but when I got down on one knee and tried to use my Garrett carrot I had a hell of a time trying to find my target. It was falsing??? Until last weekend I never had this issue, I can only think it was the soil. I tried grounding my pinpointer on start up but that didn't help. I left the pinpointer on in my left hand as I walked around swinging my detector with my right hand.

Any suggestions if I run into this problem again?

Low battery maybe ? Try a fresh battery aj. I know mine will do that when low.

 

[aj0421]

Did you try a button tap with it near the ground after it was already on?

I did a few times and it didn't seem to help.

I never leave my pinpointer on walking around. Turning it on with the tip on the ground should make it quiet though, or the quick tap as mentioned. I seem to recall mine doing the same thing whenever I did leave mine on. Been too long to remember though.

I left it on so I could do a quick recovery and move on to the next target. Sometimes I will hold my knife and pinpointer in the same hand end cap to the butt of my knife.

Low battery maybe ? Try a fresh battery aj. I know mine will do that when low.

I hope it is not that because the battery was only put in a week ago and I hunted one time with it. Energizer (not lithium) battery at that. I need to get a battery tester or multimeter that can test batteries with a load. My pinpointer was giving me a beeping noise every so often when I was walking around with it but I thought that was just the beeps to say "Hey you left me on, what are you doing".

 

[MasonDixonMding]

It’s very dry now where I am. So when I have falsing after turning it on with the tip on the ground. I’ll stick it in the dirt a inch or so than hit the button again. This usually stops the falsing. Good luck.

 

[Rock Jock]

Hello everybody, this past weekend I did a two day metal detecting event at an old farm property. I experienced what I guess for the first time a very mineralized ground...Finding the targets with my detector wasn't that bad (had noise but targets stood out) but when I got down on one knee and tried to use my Garrett carrot I had a hell of a time trying to find my target. It was falsing??? Until last weekend I never had this issue, I can only think it was the soil. I tried grounding my pinpointer on start up but that didn't help. I left the pinpointer on in my left hand as I walked around swinging my detector with my right hand.

Any suggestions if I run into this problem again?

How high does your metal detector rate the soil mineralization during ground balance? I'm unfamiliar with your devices' indications and use a Garrett AT Max. If your site is a South Jersey site then it should be on Atlantic Coastal Plain soils. They are likely to be pretty sandy, particularly as you approach the shore area. Any thoughts about the nature of the mineralization in those soils or the surficial geology (this info might be a bit tougher to procure: https://www.state.nj.us/dep/njgs/njgeolmap2.gif)? If your detector is not confirming your suspected high mineralization levels in the soil and your Garrett carrot pinpointer is still acting up, you may have a problem with your pinpointer and need to send it to Garrett for a check up. I had to do that with my Garrett pinpointer. They simply replaced it.
Mineralized ground water can deliver iron minerals to permeable sandy sediments and you may encounter it as "iron banding". NJ also has "bog iron" deposits on the coastal plain that were mined in colonial times for iron until richer deposits were found in other places. There are other ways of concentrating dark minerals in unconsolidated sands and sandstone in windy and watery places: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_mineral_sands_ore_deposits. Don't know if any of this helps or is relevant, but it is a consideration in soils.

 

[jmaclen]

Just giving another possibility......

If you are using the Manticore or Equinox 800, there can be quite a bit of crosstalk between them and your Garrett Carrot depending on sensitivity levels, mode being used and soil moisture.

I rarely am able to put my detector coil on the ground anywhere near my dig hole when using one of these high gain simultaneous multi frequency VLF detectors even after doing a detector noise cancel with my pinpointer ON and near the coil.

 

[Rob183]

Detectors today don't pinpoint like the older analog machines, never needed a pinpointer with them.

 

[aj0421]

How high does your metal detector rate the soil mineralization during ground balance? I'm unfamiliar with your devices' indications and use a Garrett AT Max. If your site is a South Jersey site then it should be on Atlantic Coastal Plain soils. They are likely to be pretty sandy, particularly as you approach the shore area. Any thoughts about the nature of the mineralization in those soils or the surficial geology (this info might be a bit tougher to procure: https://www.state.nj.us/dep/njgs/njgeolmap2.gif)? If your detector is not confirming your suspected high mineralization levels in the soil and your Garrett carrot pinpointer is still acting up, you may have a problem with your pinpointer and need to send it to Garrett for a check up. I had to do that with my Garrett pinpointer. They simply replaced it.
Mineralized ground water can deliver iron minerals to permeable sandy sediments and you may encounter it as "iron banding". NJ also has "bog iron" deposits on the coastal plain that were mined in colonial times for iron until richer deposits were found in other places. There are other ways of concentrating dark minerals in unconsolidated sands and sandstone in windy and watery places: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_mineral_sands_ore_deposits. Don't know if any of this helps or is relevant, but it is a consideration in soils.

This could very well be the case, I was only 20 mins from the saltwater. My Manticore was making grunts on every swing. Pin pointer would beep in both the hole and plug even when I would touch it on the ground next to the plug I made.

 

[markinswpa]

I did a few times and it didn't seem to help.

I left it on so I could do a quick recovery and move on to the next target. Sometimes I will hold my knife and pinpointer in the same hand end cap to the butt of my knife.

I hope it is not that because the battery was only put in a week ago and I hunted one time with it. Energizer (not lithium) battery at that. I need to get a battery tester or multimeter that can test batteries with a load. My pinpointer was giving me a beeping noise every so often when I was walking around with it but I thought that was just the beeps to say "Hey you left me on, what are you doing".

Lotsa good suggestions here aj but sometimes its the simple things we overlook. Hey I forgot to ask you, did you wind up getting the Tayago boneconductors ? If so, ??? Good luck Mark

 

[aj0421]

Lotsa good suggestions here aj but sometimes its the simple things we overlook. Hey I forgot to ask you, did you wind up getting the Tayago boneconductors ? If so, ??? Good luck Mark

Yeah I am going to try the suggestions. The dirt was really sandy and had a red brick color. I am going to ask some of my buddies that were there if they had the same issue.

No, I have not tried them. I have mostly been using the ML-105s. I like them and they fit my big head.

 

[aj0421]

My friend who also attended the event had issues with his Garrett pin pointer giving false signals.

Any other pin pointer work better in highly mineralized ground?

 

[sube]

I would think a PI pin pointer . sube

 

[Bucktrout]

I am in north nj. most of my pinpointers falsed due to the mineralization. I got the Fisher F pulse and that works tremendously well. I am trying the ML pro-find 40 currently but it is falsing just like the Garret and the Whites TRX did.

 

[aj0421]

I am in north nj. most of my pinpointers falsed due to the mineralization. I got the Fisher F pulse and that works tremendously well. I am trying the ML pro-find 40 currently but it is falsing just like the Garret and the Whites TRX did.

Thank you, I thought my pinpointer was malfunctioning as I never detected in those conditions before. I may have to pick up one of those F pulse pinpointers if I run into that problem again.

 

[MasonDixonMding]

I just had a falsing problem with my pin pointer. I hadn’t run in to this before. It was my detector causing the false. It was after I noise cancelled. The fix was just to move the noise cancel one number. Falsing all gone! I’m using the 900 and the f pulse.

 

[GroundSweeper]

I have a carrot and it usually always finds iron in the hole I'm looking for the 'good' signal in. Around here there's iron everywhere.

 

[hoser]

Being as our area is primarily sand, mineral falsing isn't much of a problem. That being said, four things cause my Garrett Carrot to false, low batteries, leaving it on too long, setting my search coil down too close to my plug, or iron rust or oxide right there.

 

[Fe Man]

This thread appears to be where I need to ask about this. Today I went out to try my new Legend in my backyard. I'm still using v1.13 of the Legend's programming. I also had my new Carrot to try out. So, using the default settings for Park, I started prowling around the yard (my house is only three years old and built on the crest of a hill, with a treacherous slope to my backyard). The soil, such as it is in East TN, is mostly clay.

So I'm going along and got a good signal in the 25 - 35 range. I know it's probably scrap, but at this point in learning I'll dig everything to see what the detector finds. So I started digging. I got down two or three inches and used the carrot to check. It made rapid chirps, so I continued to dig. I checked with the carrot every few inches and it continued to get faster and faster. Finally, when I was up to my elbow in the hole I dug, I checked and the chirping was much less intense. So I poked it into the soil I dug (see pic) and it went back to crazy town. Nothing was found anywhere in the dirt I excavated. I'm at a loss to explain this. Any ideas why this happened?

This is a brand new carrot (and I assume, battery) from Bart at BBH. About ten minutes earlier I used it to find the end of my septic field line (that was thrilling and very unexpected) and it acted "normal."