Help Me Understand Please

Went out to our local ball fields again today to listen to more targets and the different sounds they make. These fields have proven to be full of clad, so it helps me to hear plenty of coins and all of the farm trash and just plain trash. I have begun hunting with the ATPro on Pro-Zero mode, so it allows me to hear all of the tones, shallow and deep, etc. I have discriminated out most of the iron, on the ATPro setting is 40. Collected tons of coins today in just two hours, but there are these targets I've pictured here that just scream dig me. The very large piece of farm junk rang in right around where the pulltabs and gold would be heard, again, on the ATPro around upper 50's low 60's. Some of the other stuff, like the washer, chimes in with the quarters and half dollars. What gives? Size? Composition? Why are these targets calling to me? They're not iffy signals so I need to see what it is even though I think it's not a coin. In one instance a coin gave me some weird signals, not sure if I should dig it I dug to find out, and lo and behold it was a penny. Can someone help shed a little light on the other objects and why they sound like such good targets. BTW this was ALL of the non coin targets dug in two hours, and close to 20 coins. Thanks Dave

Okay, so you are encountering the same things we all encountered when we started! Here's what I figured out and when I did, the great finds started coming! Listen to the "size" and "quality" of the signal. Coins make nice little tight signals. Big chunks of iron make nice big signals that say dig me but when you realize the signal is 6 inches in diameter you can skip it. I always listen to the quality of the tone not just how high it is. By quality I mean this: It starts off sharp and drops off sharp. If you were to graph it on a chart it would look like a mountain. If you hear warbling at the end it's usually trash. If you were to graph this type of signal it would look like a mountain with little hills next to it. Why you ask? Because coins are nice and round with the same thickness and density throughout and make nice consistent signals. Trash is irregularly shaped, not the same thickness or density throughout and make warble-like signals.

A silver dime is less than one square inch in diameter. At 6 inches deep it is less than 1/4 square inch to your coil. Move slow and listen for quarter inch signals that have depth to them. Best wishes and HH, Dave.

Great information, thank you! And based on what I did and learned in the field today I know exactly what you mean. I was understanding quality of the signals but not so much shape or size. I can move around a target and do better at understanding it's size, and avoiding some of the junk. So the large chunk of trash though ferrous will sing out because it's so large, and I'll bet that washer is something like brass or something else I don't know yet.

Daddydigger has given you the key to detecting. In this case size does matter. Any signal that ends up warbling...pass. Any signal that gives a large footprint when pinpointing....pass.

Pro does have a learning curve. Set mine at pro zero two sens bars down and iron at 20....dig and they will come!