Excal 1000 and land / relic hunting

[John (Ma)]

I am planning on doing a couple of planned relic hunts this year and they are rain or shine. I was curious if it rained, would the excal be worth while relic hunting? Any experiences or thoughts, settings, etc. would be great. Thanks

 

[Art (NWOH)]

There are some things to watch for.
Sov/Excal works best when the ground is uniform in moisture. Having a layer of moist dirt on top of dry dirt is going to hurt you. The response from dirt of different moisture content will be seen differently by the detector. This makes it harder to analyze what is really dirt and what is really metal. When the detector is looking at two distinctly differently responding kinds of dirt at the same time it can only average the two without ever really looking at either one right.

I would rather hunt dirt of consistent moisture content from nearly saturated to bone dry than to hunt a layered moisture situation.

Adding one more thing....
What I have found that works best is what is about to happen here right now. It has been raining a lot and the ground is squishy saturated. Once it stops raining and the water drains away to the point that you can dig a hole without having mud the ground will be just about perfect. It will be good digging without mud and the ground will be of nearly uniform moisture content.
HH

 

[John (Ma)]

Yes, I can see how that could be an issue. I guess I have to figure out how to make my land detectors waterproof. Maybe a plastic bag over the controls or something. Thanks for your reply.