CTX bobby pins and bottle caps

[bklein]

I've had my CTX over a year now. I bought it used and had to send it back to Minelab soon after I got it as I discovered the GPS didn't lock very often. They fixed it and things were good until this summer. I search the same 1 mile stretch of CA beach area (Aliso to Montage). I had used a surf PI before this and was always getting annoyed by digging hairpins and bottle caps. I got the CTX and it seemed I never hit hairpins and the bottle caps were obvious in sound and numbers. This summer though I am hitting hair pins - they primarily will be FE35 but jump all over the screen. In the past they would just null the audio and never show a target - I'd dig out of curiosity and find the hairpin. "Wow, that's cool" I'd say. Well now they are showing up as targets.
Secondly there seem to be a large number of rusty bottle caps that show up as 12/09-13 range. Gold I'm thinking. Nope, bottle cap. So I am wondering, is this a time of the year thing where after enough guys hit the beach after the winter erosion season the crappy rusty bottle caps are mostly picked up and just those in better shape are left and they hit with obvious sound and numbers - or did something change in my CTX?

 

[tcornel]

I am picking up a lot of rusty bottle caps with good signals. Right in that 12/09 to 13 range. I wish I knew how to tell as digging a 12" deep cap gets old fast.

 

[DetectorCdunk]

I feel your pain I dig at least 20-30 a day on the ebach

I am picking up a lot of rusty bottle caps with good signals. Right in that 12/09 to 13 range. I wish I knew how to tell as digging a 12" deep cap gets old fast.

 

[MINELABBOB]

THE ONLY TOPS YOU

should be digging drop in 1239-1240 alum. screw type. as 4 metal bottle tops on my detector are on the top line but now if you disc. down 5

and across to 35 you should be good. the only thing that falls in 12-10--12-13 are sm.broken pull tap or nickels !! and junk. most times with my


detector any thing from 12-1---12-10 90% of the times its junk now they say some sm. gold jewelry drops in there but that junk is not worth my

time digging . now in all-metal yes your going to dig bottles unless you know that they are.bottle tops . you may want to work on a disc pattern

4 them good luck!!


minelab-bob

 

[tcornel]

I must be missing something. Almost half of the rings on the TID chart are in that 12/1 to 12/13 range. Most seem to be smaller rings though.

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?86,1762075,1762075#msg-1762075

That is a good idea to build a disc pattern for caps in the pattern 2 mode.

 

[RichW]

I hunt the beach and water a lot and I never hit bobby pins. I do dig a lot of bottle caps. Most will give a half or broken signals. You have to sweep over then a few times to make sure there's nothing good hiding in all the trash. They really slow you down if they are plentiful like on my beach. Get's pretty irritating and they really cause a lot of wasted time. Usually, but not always, you'll get very jumpy numbers when you pass over them. Then there are some that ID and sound good and you have to dig em. I have not found a way around them yet. They were easier to walk past when I was using my Excal II with 8" coil. Most would null out and I only dug one occasionally. The CTX seems to like them a lot more than the Excal.

 

[glenn3-88]

I did some tests with my CTX on gold rings. Both white and yellow gold, both small plain wedding bands
and broad heavy thick wedding bands with diamonds, diamonds with small gold bands and big gold bands,
college rings, high school rings. What I found is that the smaller gold bands were hitting 12/6 to 12/10.
The thicker bands 12/11 to 12/21 and the thicker school rings from 12/25 to 12/29. But there was one consistent
thing about all of them. While hitting in the same tone range, (I have mine set at 950 in that area) it was
clear that the gold had a lower, sweeter, almost purrr like tone where as the caps had an abrupt almost
popping like sound. Get some small bands and increase the size and slip some bottle caps in there with
them and you will see what I mean. That was a test in home with the items on a thick pillow and another
pillow approximately 10" thick placed on top so that it would asimilate distance in ground you may detect
them. Most caps on mine are hitting above the 12/29 and up to 12/38 range and I actually had to go out
and find rusted caps so they would hit in that range.

 

[MINELABBOB]

MOST STUFF I DIG BELOW 12-10

is junk as 4 them gold bands in the 12-6-1210 they must be sm. !! i dig 12-10 and up because of the junk in my area.

12-15 and up the rings get better as i have a few nice ones in the 12-20s -12-30s

 

[bklein]

I found what is going on here at least for bottle caps. If you set your Separation mode to Ferrous Coin they will hit along the Ferrous 11 or 12 line, whether they are rusty or nice and clean. The other 3 modes they hit on the Ferrous one line.
I don't have enough gold rings to try this with - can someone try all four modes on gold and silver rings and post?
Do not use Ferrous Coin at the Beach!
I'll now try some hairpins.

Barry

 

[bklein]

I hit on the reason the hairpins are detected. It is dependent upon the noise channel selected.
If you start with channel one - its the worst - it will hit on the target each time. As you move past channel 6 or so it starts to get intermittent. As you get to Channel 11 they are quiet!!
It is interesting that the response does seem to linearly follow the channel number.
I wonder what this means to other targets?
It also helps to use Normal mode rather than the others like Smooth. Smooth will stretch out a response so you sometimes hear it. Normal is nice and quiet.

 

[MINELABBOB]

YES WHAT YOU SAY IS TRUE

i also have seen this but dont know if you will find one 4 sm. gold

 

[Justme]

At times because of ground conditions the signal may go from "12" line to 11 or even 14. Prior to bootcamp I would not dig an 11/13. I knew where an 11/13 was I've walked over several times. Finally dug it and it was a nickel. Target trace showed a solid red almost crimson color. If it shows a solid on target trace from 11-15 FE line I'm digging. Scattered yellow I'm not digging

 

[glenn3-88]

I think I mis-lead you all on the small gold rings or either did not explain what a small gold ring is.
What I found at 12/6 was either a gold toe ring or a child's ring. Most probably a toe ring as they
were and may still be popular with the young ladies. I tried it again this morning and yep, it still is
showing up a 12/6. Now how many times are you going to get a chance at detecting a toe ring?
In summation in regards to that, I have run across many 12/6's since and no I did not dig them.
Only reason I dug this one is I was new to the machine and more curious to know what it was
rather than "knowing what I was doing"; that along with the fact it was dead center the target icon
and red as blood.

What I am finding so interesting now on this subject is the fact that the noise channel may or may
not have a definite affect on what the CTX sees. May be worth trying with the same disk settings
in FC on a bottle cap or screw cap!!

 

[MINELABBOB]

I HAVE FOUND THAT

noise cancleing does play a part in performance and keeping your detector sounding smooth and running good. most times my CTX likes

CH. 3--6---9 most times but i have been in places were it goes to 10--2--7 but not to afton . you are lucky-er then me i may

find 1-2 good targets 12-1-12-10 most times its junk so i dont even dig now 12-10-and up i dig i use FC and check with HT COMB mostly

after you get a couple of years with the CTX you will be king of the hill !! wen i got mine i though i was good but now that i have 2-3000 hrs

i realize how much i didnt know before. it realy is 1 of the best detectors i have ever used.!! i spend 60% of my time testing that is why i know

that detector.

good luck bob

 

[bklein]

Is there a way to discover which channel an Auto noise cancel procedure has chosen?

 

[MINELABBOB]

are you talking about whitch CH. it picks !! if so hold down NC.BUTTON 4 2SEC. AND RELEASE it will show you