Malcolm1984

Thanks F350, I’ll give raising the detector a go to see if that helps eliminate the iron I’m finding.

Hi palzynski, it’s really good to have your input with your knowledge of various detectors and it’s good to hear that this is a normal thing with the Vanquish 540. 
I will try listening to the sounds rather than focusing too much on the numbers to see if it helps.

Hi Jeff, typically I’ll use jewellery or coin mode on high iron bias with -9 to 0 rejected. 
I have previously heard of the 90 degree technique and have noticed that the signal either changes or disappears. Thank you for the tips, I’ll give the suggestions a go. 

Thanks all, you’ve given me some really good tips and information to go with. I have encountered the mineralised clay ground recently where there has been nothing there once I’ve dug it out. To be fair, in the 8-10 times I’ve been out there has only been a couple of occasions where I haven’t had any finds which is nice and I’ve already got the bug so there’s no chance of me giving up. It’s also nice to hear that others have experienced the same with their machines so at least it’s not unique to me or my machine, so thank you for your feedback.

Thanks for your response, back to digging it is, fingers crossed I can find more than just nails.

I’m completely new to metal detecting and the vanquish 540 is my first detector. I am hoping that someone can provide some advise on the random signals I am picking up. Whilst detecting in woodland I am frequently getting signals that range from 6 to sometimes as high as 39 in the exact same spot, when I dig it up most of the time it appears to be iron nails or other iron objects. I was expecting iron objects to show as a very low number or even minus figures. Has anyone else experienced very high numbers for iron and how do you know when something is worth digging? I have iron bias set to high so that should help but doesn’t seem to. I have found an old coin that showed a reading of 16 so it’s very confusing to know what to dig and what to leave. Thanks for any advise you can provide.