Help, tuning vaquero in wet sand

[cjruger]

Im on vacation in florida right now and have been looking on the beach. in dry sand machine is normal but when moving closer to water in the mildly wet sand i cant tune it, it just starts going all over the place. I have had the v for a couple years now and am pretty familiar with it just cant figure out this problem. i recall reading about others having the same problem but dont recall any solutions. Any ideas?

 

[tvr]

I've used a ground balance modified Cibola and a Tejon in those conditions. Should apply to the Vaquero too. These detectors do not ground balance all the way to the wet salt. Even at full negative it is still very positive of the salt.

The best compromise I've found so far is set up ground balance over the DRY sand that is near the wet area that you are going to hunt. Turn the discriminator up to about half way between the foil and iron words on the panel then go to the wet area and start hunting. If it falses too much, increase the discrimination slightly and decrease the sensitivity slightly. Any discrimination higher than mid-foil won't help more, so don't go too high with the discrimination.

Keeping the coil distance to the ground even as you sweep helps cut down on falsing, turning down sensitivity some helps too. You do loose depth and sensitivity to very small targets, but it lets you hunt. I found that the best depth I could expect was maybe 6 inches over the wet salt sand. Much better over the dry sand!
Good luck!
tvr

P.S. I think I was running mostly with discrimination just lower than the word foil and sensitivity about 7 to keep it usable.

 

[cjruger]

thats what i was trying, tuning in dry and moving to the wet, but wasnt sure if the machine would work properly. i did really get any hits unless it was right near surface. i ll keep trying with the disc. turned up a little

 

[tvr]

They do really suffer over the wet salt water sand. I did a little better with the 5.75 inch concentric coil mounted up than I did with a bigger coil. I ended up going with different detectors for the wet salt water areas.

 

[therover]

...then you will not be able to ground balance it there. What I had to do is find the area where the unit started acting up ( ie, semi-wet sand), and then work from that area back up into the dry sand.

The Vaquero will be a super dry sand unit, but the wet, salt sand will probably render it useless.

 

[Dan-Pa.]

Take some aspirin along as although one of the best freshwater and land gold units Tesoro does not perform well on wet saltwater sand. Might try balancing a tad negative if you have a manual ground balance but of course that may cause depth loss and likeness for small gold jewelry....

 

[cjruger]

ya, I have come to realize that im not going to be in teh wet sand too much. i can get in to some of it but the really wet stuff is too much. I hit clearwater beach this morning by the pier. found some change and a hair broach with fake diamonds .nothing good though. 2 other guys showed up about 1 hour after light.

 

[cjruger]

UPDATE if anyone is interested. I tuned it in the dry sand and turned up the disc. just under where gold goes out and it worked fine in the wet sand and even the water.

 

[tvr]

Glad you got it to where you could use it!

 

[comcat]

hiya,,try a 12x10 dd coil they are great,,

 

[Dan-Pa.]

High disc. may eliminate the wet salt sand effect but you also lose the gold jewelry and thats why one hunts swimming beaches..One good gold ring can make up for a lot of clad and an occasional silver..

 

[cjruger]

no, I checked it with my wedding band, it still hits gold good where i have it set. Im back home now. didnt really find lot, i did find a small silver sterling ring the last day. it looks like it had been there a while. it was really corroded. but better than nothing!

 

[Dan-Pa.]

It will get the nickle and above I would think but will miss the foil range which probably equates to 35 percent of gold rings including the thin gold womans rings with nice stones...

Of course all depends on your settings and the beach you are hunting...For what its worth many gold rings are found in the dry sand and your unit should work well out of the wet salt sand...

I am judging as I know every mans gold wedding band I ever tested was nickle or above..of course their are exceptions small thin white gold or just an extremely small gold wedding band may fall into the foil range..but all in all probably loosing 1/3 of the gold rings not to mention gold medallions or gold chains...

 

[cjruger]

ok thanks for the tip. i will have to check it out next time i get to wet sand. ya the machine worked fine in the dry sand, it tuned it nice. i found a bunch a few pieces of junk jewelery, nothing good but the sterling.