Did I bite off more than I can chew???

[Ryan Kruger]

I just recieved my ctx on tuesday of this week and I am amazed by it!

But..... Being a newbie to metal detecting I don't understand what it is telling me, so I have dug EVERYTHING.

Coming from a teknetics delta 4000 to a CTX has me lost, overwhelmed and excited all at the same time.
I have basically just put the machine together, turned it on and started swinging.

I am a mac user so exchange doesn't work for me until I can get a virtual program or buy a windows computer just for the ctx.

I've found lists about what the target numbers for coins usually are, but what about trash? Has anyone taken the time to record the numbers they get that would indicate pull tabs and such? So far I've been way to excited to pay attention to the numbers, like a kid in a candy store.

So my question is this, is there anyone on here that would be willing to take the time and REALLY stupify the ctx down for me? I don't know how else to say that. Alot of the stuff Ive read seems to be written for someone that is upgrading from say a etrac so they know alot of the basic (basic to you) things.

Is there anyone out there like me who is coming off of a very basic machine to the ctx that is willing to help a guy out? Youll know what im talking about and what im looking for.

I don't really have any specific questions so any questions you can think of to ask yourself and then answer for me I would greatly appreciate it.


Thank you very much.
Ryan

 

[Leon]

Hi
Alot can be said about the CTX, but it aint easy to learn, just in a couple of hunts. Didnt really had much time to get to know it myself lately, but ill give you a link to a page with (in my opinion) great information on what all the different menues and settings actually do.
Check the menu on the right side called ctx settings. It really helped me understanding the basics. If this doesnt help, at least you got a great link for treasure stories Happy hunting:


(for some reason the link wouldnt work, google: Truth about metaldetecting, treasurehunting info)

 

[chuckciao]

First thing you need to so is to upgrade the Xchange2 firmware. You do not need a windows computer to do this. Download the Xchange2 upgrade from the minelab site onto your desktop. Once you have the Xchange2 upgrade icon on your Mac desktop, connect your CTx to your Mac via the supplied USB cable. Drag the Xchange2 icon into your CTx icon and do the upgrade. Once the upgrade is finished, unplug your CTX from your computer. Now you have the latest firmware with pinpoint lock and saltwater upgrades.

Hopefully, some of the more experienced users will chime in and offer suggestions and user tips
Good luck
Chuck

 

[GKMan]

Hi Ryan
Welcome aboard... You are starting off with a serious detector.... Out of the box you should be able to use one of the built in modes. As far as what to dig... I guess if I had to tell someone what to look for I would say 12:40's and above, but that is a very oversimplified answer... Go to some playgrounds and start looking for some lost change.... It will be a way for you to build your skill set a bit... At home outside put some coins on the ground in front of you and practice pinpointing, learning the TIDs and sounds of the machines. Youtube is your friend there are many good videos on there to help you out. They have alot of nice videos here on findmall on one of the links above but they are not as much for how to start off detecting.
Find a friend with a Etrac, Explorer or CTX to help you out a bit.

 

[GKMan]

Leon.. I would try to send that link I a PM or email....


Here try this link out
CTX Basics

 

[Buried Crap NJ]

Use the numbers only for a reference for now. Its a tone detector with a cursor and a TID meter. These three items along with you make the detector. The TID's will be the same for good items along with trash the tones are what will direct you along the way. As posted above use the preset programs for several months and then move dials as you go. If you want to be successful then you need to not worry about finding treasure and learn the machine first, treasure will follow. really take this post seriously I spend the first 3 months pulling my hair out.... why I was turning dials and was completely lost. I spent the next 3 months learning and the next three hunting for treasure. The last three months I have pretty much became comfortable with the use of the machine. I took the time and spend many minutes testing a real target before I dug it. killed me to waste valuable hunting time but it's truly has paid off for me. This was my first computer based detector in 39 years.
BCNJ

 

[erick byrne]

Ryan, Hello and welcome to the wonderful world of the CTX! It truly is an amazing machine. Like you, new I'm new to metal detecting and new to Minelab machines. My first detector was a "Bounty Hunter - Lone Star" that my wife got me for Christmas 2012. I used it a few times and quickly realized that there had to be something more, so I did a lot of research and bought the CTX. Coming from a computer background, I was thrilled that I could update/upgrade the operating software, the "wireless" headphones are fantastic, I love the Xchange program & the color LCD added a nice touch for someone who is getting old and doesn't see as well anymore.

Like you, I was frustrated, I didn't know what was a good signal, or what was junk. Should I change this setting, or leave it alone? Do I need to ground balance or not? What is discrimination and how does it help me? etc. So I printed the manual and read it cover to cover, I even punched the papers to fit a three-ring binder & I take it with me on every hunt (I leave it in the car of course!) I found this forum & I've read damn near every post on it.

When I bought the CTX from Bart (Big Boys Hobbies) he gave me a bit of advice, put the machine in one of the preset programs and learn the machine without changing a bunch of settings. Learn the basics, learn the sounds it makes in your test bed (you did make one, right?) and then tinker with the settings to more match your style of hunting & more importantly to match the soil conditions you encounter on those hunts. Only you can make those "educated" adjustments in the field.

READ THIS FORUM! and I don't mean just the first page or two. Do what I did, go back to the beginning and read back to the present day. One thing that helped me was every time I read a good tip, I would cut & paste it into a word processing document that I call "CTX Hints - Tips" I organized it by subject and I always open the document and have it ready when I read the forums. That document gets updated, printed out, 3 ring punched and put into my notebook so I can have the information at the ready when I go hunting.

Pay special attention to the posts from the guys who really understand this machine, Digger, GateKeeper & a few others come to mind. They know this machine very well and answer most questions with a tremendous amount of detail, some of their suggestions might work for you and your hunting conditions.

I hope this helps you! Happy Hunting!

 

[squirrel1]

First and foremost stay in factory programs. Get you some coins, pull tabs, nails and chewing gum wrappers. Sweep over them watch your screen and listen. Mix each coin with a nail and sweep. You need to break your learning process in parts. First try and grasp an understanding of sensitivity (both auto and manual), next discrimination. Do you have a bud near you with explorer, etrac or CTX? They could be a good help in accelerating your learning. Read this forum in your spare time as much as you can. You'll see where others have had the same questions as you will undoubtably will have and see what response they got. The CTX is still fairly new and most are still learning so don't be shy in asking questions no matter how trivial. You need to read the operators guide as well. Given time the detector will come second nature to you. I consider the CTX to be one of the easiest to use to find good stuff with. That's why most love them. Stick with the CTX, learn it and it will produce. There are many that have transitioned from other brands of detectors to the minelabs. Some get discouraged too quickly and closet their detector or sell it. And go back to their previous detector in which they feel more comfortable. Lots of times this is associated with group hunts where they are being taken to the cleaners by their buds only because the buds understand and have more experience with the detector/s they are using at the time. Believe it or not after some sell because of initial discouragement eventually wind up buying back because they eventually realize their old detector can't make the same finds the newer detector can. The CTX is expensive but believe me you get what you pay for. All you have to do is unlock its potential.

 

[Ryan Kruger]

erick,
I read all of the posts like you did, but I didn't save any. Watched all the videos I could find that weren't just a "look at this dime in the bottom of my hole". What say you to sharing your hard work with a ctx newbie from wisconsin like myself? I also bought mine from Bart at Big Boys Hobbies but haven't called him for any help yet as I usually do better if I can read thru something rather than on the phone. So until I can at least find my way around the machine I will stick to asking questions on a forum.

Thanks
Ryan

 

[Digger]

If you've already read all the posts in this forum, take a look at the Resource Center. We've put some FAQs, program files and other goodies up there. Access it by clicking on that banner near the top of this forum. For some basic "how to" videos, approved by MInelab for use on this forum, GateKeeper has a link to them near the top of these posts. HH Randy

 

[xentryx]

One of the most important things to remember though no-matter what you read is that ground conditions vary everywhere. Take everything you read into consideration and learn but utimately, experience with your CTX is your best friend.

 

[erick byrne]

Ryan, I am happy to help in anyway possible, BUT remember I am a newbie just like you. Most of the guys on this forum have WAY more experience than I do. I own my own business, so I work a lot of hours, so my swinging time with the CTX has only been about 30 hours. I once read that after about 200 hours with it, you will feel a lot more comfortable. I just sound like I know what I am doing because I have the ability to read A LOT of posts, eliminate the unneeded information, condense the important information and repeat it in a way that us newbies can understand. I find that sometimes the guys with a lot of experience can oversimplify what they are trying to say and people with little experience have a hard time following their advice. Not a knock on them by any means, but how many different ways can they give the same straight forward advice? You read the forums, how many times has GateKeeper and Digger (and many others) answered a question with.."you have to practice with the machine, make a test bed, learn the sounds... read the forums..." the same advice given over and over. And you know why they keep giving the same advice? Because it's damn good advice!!! There is no replacement for experience. They must go mad answering the same questions over and over and over. God bless their patience!

I can't count how many posts start with..."I'm new to the CTX, what settings should I use? because newbies like us are looking for the all encompassing "magic settings" or "perfect" discrimination pattern to use. These things do not exist, everyone swings differently and everyone has different soil conditions. Everyone wants to find the good stuff 15 minutes out of the box, but I can honestly tell you after about 30 hours of use, I haven't found ANYTHING worth writing home about. Am I a little discouraged? sure, who wants to pay $2500.00 for a machine and not find the good stuff right away. But I am not beaten, I will learn how to make it work for me and my hunting conditions. I am, in no way, competent with my machine, but I will be...after about 200-300 hours! But, what I am good at is learning from other peoples experiences, and thankfully you and I get to learn from their trial and error.

As my experience and confidence grows, I am happy to help you and anyone else I can, but until then, follow the advice from the guys on this forum, they know what they are doing.

Now I have to go and follow my own advice!

Hope this helps! Happy Hunting!

 

[GKMan]

Good post...

 

[mtwolf2270]

My advice is simple first like all have said follow the advice given, truly time is your friend with any machine. I have a little over a year on my ctx and here is what I did. I first set up combined audio so, I would not have to learn 50 sounds. I set my bins in ranges I could keep straight use the numbers posted on this forum that has all the ranges for good targets. Then, I set up what I want for the ranges of the targets I want in that group. For example nickels even tho they are 12-13 almost always they can hit 12-11 12-14 and war nickels 12-13 or even 12-15. ( This in my ground) I set the audio the same as my silver bin. So, I would slow down and work an area and have found more buffs and v's this way. I also did what is not my comfort zone, I hit parks and school yards very heavy just to learn trash form treasure and used the stock coin program till I learned what works in my sounds. I also set my audio so my gain and volume and settings matched what I needed for me not the factory settings this is a personal preference. Once I learned the sounds I set up my programs that will come later for now learn her language and the great finds will come. Another key is slow down let the machine do her thing. The target trace is a big clue not also 100% but in time you can almost tell a bolt or bent nail with the trace. If it sounds good in 2 directions dig it regardless of trace. Like wise if it is solid repeatable good trace dig it 12-18 may be a pulled tab most days. Not the other day it was 10kt gold ring. Hope this helps some. Stick with her and she will live up to the hype I promise she will

HH Matt

 

[Ryan Kruger]

I was able to sneak out for a couple hrs. Found a dime 12-44. Two pennies I believe those were 11-35/38. Also a tinfoil can lid that registered as a 12-41. I was really expecting a dime there. After pulling trash out of the hole I re swung the coil over the hole and nothing.

Running stock coin program.
HH
Ryan

 

[vancemetaldetecting.com]

You'll come along fine buddy I sent you a video link to your PM! You have to get into combined mode ferrous coin if you PM me your phone number I will call you and help you get it setup!!

 

[doc1964]

Ryan,

Welcome to the "dark side" All the advice that has been given so far is sound and on target. In the past few years I've helped a lot of guys get going with the E-Trac and now the CTX. IMHO, the most important thing is to get a good setup (lots of great modes can be downloaded from the Resource Center) and stick to it - don't play around with a bunch of settings, you'll only start chasing your own tail. Run it, run it, and run it some more. You'll dig a lot of nails and junk, but you'll also start digging good stuff. Look for deeper targets in among shallower trash. At some point, it will click, and when it does, look out! Don't get me wrong, the learning curve never ends - I learn something new every time I get out, but you can start distilling down what you learn and use it to optimize your time in the field - that's what the CTX is - an extreme optimization tool - less trash, more treasure. Keep checking this forum, a lot of knowledge here!

 

[EtracTom-AdirondacksNY]

Run stock coin program, set TRASH to HIGH set GROUND to DIFFICULT IF your auto sensitivity is lower like here in auto sensitivity at +3 mine runs at 17-19-20 most of the time. IF your soil runs it way higher up in the mid to high 20's then you don't probably need Difficult Ground. Trash High helps the machine differentiate a good target near or next to a bad target and will signal on the good target. If not set to high trash it will signal on the target good or BAD even though it may be trash as I understand it and miss the good target.

SWING SLOOOOOWLY like 4- 5 seconds per sweep in each direction and keep the coil sliding across the ground not in the air. Like the Etrac and most Minelab Explorers they don't like air under the coil and so keep it on the ground. Let it read the ground under the coil.

If in doubt about a target go to a wide open screen and if the little target cursor goes way down into the lower part of the screen and the ferrous number is way high like in the 25-35 range then it may sound good but most likely be trash iron if your coin hunting, unless your Relic hunting then it may be what your looking for an iron target.

Like others suggested test targets yourself and memorize some of the sounds and numbers to help get yourself started and TRUST the machine it will find them and deep too.

If some haven't found anything good yet it may be where your looking and your coil hasn't crossed over anything good yet. Look of for other spots to try. Also grid from different dirrections and angles you will be surprised at times.

Hope some of this will help someone out.

 

[sparkster]

Ryan, believe me I do not think yo have bitten off more than you can chew. You sound determine and logical about all of this.

I'm one of those guys that went back to the detector he used before he bought the CTX. From the voice of experience, do not do that. Stick with your CTX. I have a lot of time to hunt, being as I'm retired. I'm out most every day. The AT Pro has been my goto machine for a couple of years. I have found loads of clad and jewelry with the Pro. The reason I have been using it is because I need rotator cuff surgery on my right shoulder. The weight of the CTX after a couple of hours makes the pain in my shoulder extremely severe. I had left shoulder rotator cuff surgery 2.5 years ago. All of this has come about from 55 years of basketball almost every day. So much for my health problems.

I know for a fact that the CTX is probably the best machine available in the detector market today. I have used most all of the high end detectors in the past 5 years. The learning curve on the CTX is rather difficult for non Minelab detectorists. It is not impossible, not even close. If you read a lot and practice every chance you get and check this forum out regularly you will be very successesful. Remember that all of these high end machines are first and foremost tone driven detectors. That means you need to learn the tones for what you are looking for. Then once you hear a tone that you feel is a quarter, then look at the VDI, and see what it says. Remember that position on the VDI meter, especially on the CTX is as important as the reading. All of what I'm saying is learned by practice. Throw some coins in the grass along with some junk. Listen to the sounds that each makes.
Practice, practice, practice. In no time all of this will become second nature.

I recommend downloading "Gone Hunting for History's" combined tones. He helped me early on and that was the best for me. Brad at "Big Boys Hobbies" is very knowledgable and knows how to put you in touch with "Gone Hunting for History".

Ok Ryan, that's all I got. Hope it helps. By the way, I'm going to put my CTX back into action, using my left arm predominantly. Wish me luck. I don't want to do that rotator cuff surgery again, it's ugly.

HAPPY HUNTING