Florida Gulf Coast CTX 3030 question

[nagov]

Ok, one year of water hunting under my belt. Currently own a Sand Shark, CZ-21 and a Minelab GT and just got back from 2 weeks working the water and found that I used the Sand Shark and GT more than the CZ. I tend to think it was because I have gotten used to having a treshold sound in my ears to entertain me. I do love the nulling on iron with the GT on days when my arms are to sore to dig all that I do with the Sand Shark. I've been saving up my finds and am about ready to cash them in to add another detector to the ones I have but I am torn between getting an Excalibur or the 3030. I really wanted to get the 3030 but when I started reading a few people having trouble with falsing at waters edge, I started to rethink my decision. What I would like to specifically find out is how are the Gulf Coast 3030 owners liking their 3030 since for the most part it is calmer than the east coast waters. Would you get it over the Excal for use in the Gulf? I mainly water and wet sand hunt but do on occasions spend some time in the dry sand.

So what should I do?

Cliff

 

[hershey1]

Appears you have a pretty good arsenal already and sounds like you are successful with your machines. My CTX has been great in dry sand wet sand and in the water. I ran in auto +3 deep on low trash combine audio beach mode with open screen. Sometimes 4 tone. A little falsing but when I changed to manual the number of targets seemed to drop so I mostly ran in auto +. And regardless of what some might say you can have more than 1 target on the screen at one time (good and bad) but the CTX is an amazing machine. Is it better than the Excallibur? I can't tell. The last 4 years my Excall has been GREAT. In the water up to knee deep the CTX is fine, deeper knee to chest I like the Excall. I think because I wiggle the coil backwards instead of using pin-point and for me makes recovery easier. I am going back to Fla. 8-17 and will be from John's Pass to Clearwater if you are anywhere close send me a PM and maybe you can try these machines out before you buy one. There is no bad choice regardless what you decide. HH

 

[Big Boys Hobbies]

Cliff feel free to give me a ring. Love to help answer your questions. I just got back from Florida using the CTX. I was impressed.

 

[Big Boys Hobbies]

Appears you have a pretty good arsenal already and sounds like you are successful with your machines. My CTX has been great in dry sand wet sand and in the water. I ran in auto +3 deep on low trash combine audio beach mode with open screen. Sometimes 4 tone. A little falsing but when I changed to manual the number of targets seemed to drop so I mostly ran in auto +. And regardless of what some might say you can have more than 1 target on the screen at one time (good and bad) but the CTX is an amazing machine. Is it better than the Excallibur? I can't tell. The last 4 years my Excall has been GREAT. In the water up to knee deep the CTX is fine, deeper knee to chest I like the Excall. I think because I wiggle the coil backwards instead of using pin-point and for me makes recovery easier. I am going back to Fla. 8-17 and will be from John's Pass to Clearwater if you are anywhere close send me a PM and maybe you can try these machines out before you buy one. There is no bad choice regardless what you decide. HH

Great post Hershey! Be sure to post your new results from the upcoming trip!

Need company? lol

 

[saltwater jim]

Well I have the excal and the ctx. ive got ctx to run smooth in the gulf . im running gain between 18-22 deep on and sens 24-26. i found by lowering the gain it seems to run smoother. the ctx is a deep machine and imo its deeper than my excal. i believe a lot of problems peeps are having is trying to run it like the excal . i know when i first got the ctx i turned sens up to 28-30 as i run my excal with sens turned high . i believe the ctx is more powerful and sens at 1/2 is prob like sens at 3/4 on the excal. these are just my impressions but machine goes deep at those settings.

ive tried auto+3 with preset gain 24 and machine runs smooth but i think in manuel ctx goes deeper. burning questions are whats better auto or manuel, lower gain and higher sens , or higher gain and lower sens. all i know is i digging deep targets in the gulf with a lower gain and sens at 26-28 hh jim

 

[nagov]

Thanks for the input everyone..... Bart, when I get closer to the goal, I'll be sure to give you a call to answer any questions I still have..... I just know one of the two will be added to the arsenal this fall.

Cliff