Pioneer 505 Help? General Help?

Rin,

I could write a book to answer your question, but I'll just attach the url to the instruction manual for the 505.
http://www.detecting.com/pdffiles/M...oneer505.pdf

You should be able to isolate the target (say a coin) to a 2"x2" area and using the depth indicator, know right where to dig. That's if the detector is properly tuned and you are confident what you are digging. If that coin turns out to be a 2 foot square sheet of metal a foot down, all bets are off. I started with an old bounty hunter and got very good at recognizing "tone" of the target. Silver coins were clear as a bell. To get this feel, collect a group of potential targets (including nails, pull tabs, etc.) and pass them over the coil. Note the different tones and "fall-offs" of signal in discriminate mode.

Back to the target isolation. I presume you're hunting in TR Discriminate mode and pinpointing in all-metal. In all-metal, just make an X over the target to pinpoint and then note the depth. With my old Bounty Hunter I got good enough to use a screw driver to "pop" coins down to about 4 inches.

Roofing nails are tricky - they will return as both iron and copper on my Garret 550, the indicator going back and forth between the two spots on the dial - so once you get used to those indicators, you can move on (unless you decide to dig everything, which experts tell you to do). Wire and pieces of fence are a nightmare, but obviously if you see a long and narrow signal, you can deduce what you're dealing with. Large pieces of metal can be deceiving, as you'll get multiple "pings". My least favorite "find" was a '40's-era automobile rim, or wheel, buried six inches down. Finally, if you're having trouble pinpointing, remember to "halve" each clump of dirt that you dig until you find the metal. I was amazed that my detector could easily sense a tiny nut less than a quarter-inch wide. Luckily, as SeatedNut indicates, coins are the easiest of metal objects to detect.