How accurate is metal detecting in a log?

My detector is pretty accurate on shape and location on the ground, but what's your success with using a metal detector to find nails and stuff in logs?

I know a guy with a big hedge log I want. It has been sitting for a long time so I'm not sure if it is rock hard or rotten, but I don't want metal compounding the dulling problems. I do know there is some metal in it.

 

9V Harbor Freight wand is good for about 4 inch depth if you hold it just off the log. Run the metal detector over it before EVERY cut.

 

Good info. I welcome other experiences.

I went over today and forgot about the log, so no metal detector or 90cc, and it was a 28" Osage log. Anyway the guy let me use the Echo 590 I ported for him with 28" bar. He bet it would take 3 chains, I got it done with 1 Archer chain, and it wasn't too bad afterwards. I didn't hit any metal, but found 2 screws, a metal strap and an eye bolt sticking out of it, and it was laying on a pile of metal trash.

 

My buddy goes over every single log with a metal detector before it go’s on the sawmill. He once bought a giant black walnut crotch thinking of what great end tables it would make BEFORE he checked it with the detector. Thankfully he got around to it and the detector went off the scale when he neared the log. He threw it on the burn pile and over time a large fish hook shaped plow shear began to reveal itself. Somebody laid in the crotch one day and the tree grew around it.

 

Carbide blade. He could have had some added history and character in those end tables.