bare soil problems

[Anonymous]

I have been using the XS for about 20 hours a week for well over 2 years now and have had some amazing finds at ridiculous depths in the right conditions.Naturally, I have exprimented with all the combinations of adjustment that the machine boasts but the loss of performance on certain sites is frustrating.
Wet,BARE soil always reduces penetration in my experience and the addition of iron nail contamination,typical of many Romano-British sites
makes for very disappointing results.
Given the narrow window of opportunity to get on the fields in these conditions,losing A/Es and siliquae at 2-3 inches is not welcome!
My detecting partner confirms this every time.
Are we overlooking something ?
If not, perhaps the rumoured replacement will overcome the problem.
Merry Christmas, Chris

 

[Anonymous]

In detecting the mineralized soil in Virginia, I found that using the manual sensitivity vs the auto-sensitivity seemed to make a lot of difference. You might want to try switching to see if that helps.
Jim

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Jim, Thanks for the idea. We have experimented with this. Occasionally it seems to help a little but I suspect the 2D loop just can't cope with what is effectively a blanket of iron due to the sheer number of ferrous targets (mostly small nails).While its trying to null out on these it only seems able to detect shallow non-ferrous items. On "clean" ground it is quite capable of 3 to 4 times the depth on the same coin.
Uncontaminated bare soil(regardless of type) definitely also reduces performance and using the manual option does seem to help a tad.
If it performed on all sites the way it does on relatively clean grass, I would be a very happy man!

 

[Anonymous]

I too have experienced a marked decline in depth on wet ploughed soil here in the UK. I have put this down to mineral content of the soil.
During the summer I searched a ploughed field which due to lack of rain was very dry. Searching this field resulted in a number of buttons and similar type signals frequently comming to the detector. However on two subsequent visits during the very wet spell of this winter I had ONE, yes ONE signal only and this resulted in a coin only one inch in depth.
A friend of mine searched the same field last winter and told me she had trouble getting signals when it was wet. Searching in semi auto sense made no difference at all. Later study produced information that said the local area was good for copper mining.
I have heard a lot of talk over depth gain on targets in wet soil, but I beleive it is down to the make up of the soil which determines how much depth you get when it is wet. Some soils will decrease the depth you get and some soils will increase it depending on it's make up.
If you look at it logically, if a target signal is supposed to be enhanced when the soil/target is wet, then surely it must be the same for certain minerals in the soil that our detectors are sensitive to?
But this is only my opinion