Short Cycling Pump - Confused

My pump is short cycling. It's a shallow well with a jet pump & relatively new (2 - 3 years) bladder tank. It is set to 30 - 50 but as soon as the pump stops, the pressure bleeds down to 30 & the pump fires again. Goes right up to 60 & shuts off. Here's the weird part: If I close the ball valve to the pressure tank the pressure still goes down when the pump shuts off, but only to 45 or so. Then slowly goes down to 30 over some time.

My first thought was that the bladder has a hole in it so I unplugged the well pump and turned on the faucet in the house. I had a steady stream for 30 sec. or more so it seams like the bladder tank is OK. Any ideas?

Discovered after posting that my iron filter is clogged with dirt which was the problem. I had this problem before but have installed a filter since then so it's strange.

Unless the iron filter was stuck in a backwash, you have a leak. Probably the foot valve in the well on the bottom of the drop pipe.

Your tank sounds like it's waterlogged to me anong with other problems.

Dirt in a filter doesn't make a pump cycle.

bob...