Example of 3030's Great Target Separation

[4ryan]

I'm a long time lurker, first time poster. Here's a group of finds that show the incredible target separation of the 3030. They were found last fall but I'm just getting around to photograhping them.

There is an old horse racetrack that had been pounded for years before I got to it. It's just a farm field now. I detected it with my Etrac probably a dozen times with 99% of my finds coming from an area 100' square. The area is littered with iron, probably the site of an old building. The iron is the only thing that kept other detectorists out of the area. I did very will with my Etrac and recovered over 50 coins, the newest being 1920. They were a mixture of of silver 5 cent pieces, dimes, quarters, and large cents. The last two times I detected the area I didn't retrieve a single coin with my Etrac during a full day hunt.

I got my 3030 last fall and went back to the same area. I was hoping to find a couple of coins still lurking amongst the iron. I was surprised at how good the 3030 was at sniffing out the good stuff. Almost all the targets were in very close proximity to iron, some with iron touching the coin. You can see the rust stains on some of the coins from the iron. I was a little nervous about the expensive upgrade from my Etrac. After this hunt I sold my Etrac and never looked back. The 3030 being weatherproof, having GPS, and the wireless headphones are features that I always wanted. Kudos to Minelab for making a killer detector.

Good luck to all this year.
Ryan

 

[WildOutdoorAddict]

Welcome 4ryan..and this is a great story and also could be a great selling tool for dealers..

 

[christopher-ohio]

Thanks in advance!

 

[jimmyk]

Sweet. What is the country of origin for these coins? Were you using the stock coinl?. Always fun to rehunt an area with new technology to see how detectors have improved over the years.

keep on diggin'

jimmyk in Missouri

 

[4ryan]

I was using the stock coil, combined mode, and ferrous/coin. The soil is red clay which has high mineralization.

I just received my 17" coil yesterday and am itching to try it out. I'm going to the UK in 2 weeks to do some detecting so I'm looking forward to the extra coverage. I did a few air tests and the large coil gets the same distance as the stock coil when testing with a very small hammered silver coin (about the size of US 3 cent silver). I'm not too worried about missing some small objects. The number one target you dig over there is lead. I'll not worry about passing over shotgun BB's and tiny scraps of lead. I know an air test doesn't mean much but the ground here is frozen to about 3 feet deep. If only I had put in my test garden last fall like I had planned.

I'm not a dealer, just an avid detectorist. I'll post my UK finds when I get back.

Ryan (in the Great White North)

 

[INSAYN]

With your mineralized red soil, what kind of depth were you seeing with the CTX?

 

[4ryan]

With your mineralized red soil, what kind of depth were you seeing with the CTX?

I was running Manual sensitivity around 22 most of the time. There was too much chatter above that. If you slow your sweep speed down you can crank up the sensitivity pretty high.

The deepest 5 cent piece was approximately 7-8" and it wasn't a solid signal. However, it was definitely a diggable one. Even an occasional high chirp is a target worth persuing in my opinion. Once you hit pinpoint, with pinpoint trace enabled, you get a solid ID on the target(s). I was running minimal discrimination and it was a pretty noisy experience due to all the iron. However, it paid off.

The deepest overall target was the quarter, which was laying perfectly flat about 10" deep (just a bit deeper than the length of my Garret probe), and it was a repeatable signal, even with the iron in the same hole. It's rare for coins to be sitting flat in this field from all the plowing over the years. I didn't dig anything under ~5" as these had all been cherry picked over the years.

One thing I notice from digging in this type of mineralized soil is that the dryer the conditions, the worse it is for falsing. In wet soil conditoins all that mineralization is homogenized and provides a much more stable background. The ground conditions were optimal that day.

 

[INSAYN]

Thanks for the detailed answer. Sounds like your CTX is a solid weapon for you.
That's awesome!

 

[GKMan]

Hahaha I like your detector descriptions Insayn

 

[INSAYN]

Thanks bud.

Hahaha I like your detector descriptions Insayn

 

[~ACE~]

Nice oldies! Love those Fishies dude. They are so small, but the CTX seems to love them! Keep up the good work

 

[Big Boys Hobbies]

Great post!