what's under our feet

[congerman]

I do 90% of my detecting on beaches but we have plenty inland permissions my machine is A sovereign elite I go of the different tones for depth +targets this machine as most will know nulls out some iron products my question is to the people who do more inland than me if the machine is set to ignore certain metals how do you know you're not walking over items or do you have no discrimination on your machines when hunting known roman+celtic + older  periods  venues as I have seen some very old items that look to be made of iron found with various machines that people say are great for discriminating out trash my thoughts are they must run their machines on all metal modes am I right in that 

[Chef Geoff]

For maximum efficiency "all metal" is the way to go on 99% of machines but most users who detect this way know the tones so still don't dig iron, this is one bug bear of archaeologists in that we only ever show half the picture.
It's a case of ignorance is bliss I'm afraid and what I mean by that is.........
http://www.timelineauctions.com/lot/iron-sword-with-pommel/17203/
 

[congerman]

Thanks for the reply very  much appreciated  the link was an eye opener to what could be ignored 

[Val Beechey]

I have a Safari and always detect in 'all metal' setting and dig any signal that gives the slightest indication of anything other than iron.
I have found that the Safari will pick up even small objects quite close to iron that are missed by discriminating against it. Remember though that iron will give different signals depending on depth, size and degradation.
I have often thought about what I might miss but the reality is, it would be impossible to dig every iron signal and downright stupid to try in a heavily mineralised field. Boils down to 'you pays your money and takes your chance'  This is probably why so many beginners have good luck.....they dig everything.

Val

[galoshers]

loads of hoards missed by the standard machine as theyre not deep enough .
i reckon 100s of hoards are being missed and walked over regularly