Why does nobody talk about using a stud finder on plaster walls?

I tried for two weekends to hang shelves in my 1950s bungalow in Dayton and everything kept slipping because the plaster was so crumbly. A neighbor who flips houses told me to use a deep-scan stud finder set to metal mode, not wood, and it honestly changed how I do any mounting job now. Has anyone else figured out a better way to locate studs through plaster without tearing the wall apart?

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robert_hayes26d ago

Actually the metal mode thing is a workaround, not the real fix. Plaster has metal lath in a lot of old places, so that setting picks up the lath instead of the actual studs. I found that out after drilling three holes in my own 1940s place trying the same trick.