HELP

[nolanation]

Ok, so my last two hunts have been at old houses, prob from the 20's or earlier. At both houses I have been running Ferrous Coin, little to no discrimination, GB off, Fast and Deep off....I live in NC, so there is lots of clay, and some rocks. Around the houses I get CONSTANT iron chatter everywhere. And I literally mean that. I have to go slow just to hear a bleep and then narrow it from there. I am wondering if this is typical at old houses or if I need to be running a Ground Balance when I go to these places as maybe it is my soil. Or maybe needing to run in Ground Coin. Or both. ANY help is appreciated as it is slightly aggravating to have constant iron feedback in the entire yard. I am very new to the CTX as well.

 

[GateKeeper]

You need to run some discrimination. Let me tell you this, the CTX 3030 is like no other machine. What I have found out is that the CTX actually runs alot better with MORE discrimination than with little to NO discrimination. Also, if you notice that you Auto sensitivity is 17 or below, run it in Ground coin. If the sensitivity is 18 and above in auto, run it in Ferrous coin. Now put in some disc.

 

["Dr.Tones"]

You didn't make mention of noise canceling. If you haven't performed a noise cancel I would start with that. If you're still experiencing chatter try taking a look at your sensitivity setting. I usually run auto +3. Pay close attention to your machines recommended sensitivity setting as it can be a good indication of how mineralized your soil is. For me if my recommended number drops below 13 I switch things up. I'll try ground coin for a bit or maybe do a GB. Sometimes it's just a bunch of iron garbage though. The closer you get to the actual building the more likely you are to run across nails and screws in un-welcomed numbers. Hope that helps.

 

["Dr.Tones"]

Great point gatekeeper! I use disc as well. I honestly have tested soooooo many targets with and without it and can't find a reason not to use it.

 

[Larry (IL)]

Working around old houses can be a real pain. Just think how many new roofs has been put on and some of the old roofs were tin or asbestos with special nails and holders. If the house has been "updated" with aluminum siding, there are usually an abundance of trim clippings too. On the worst of the old homes, I will say back about 10 feet or so and concentrate on the yard, but if you do venture into trash land, this is where discrimination would come in handy.

I have yet to use a detector that works better with more discrimination and I don't think the CTX is the first but if more discrimination makes YOU a better hunter, by all means use it, that is what it is there for.

 

[FooserPaul]

Working around old houses can be a real pain. Just think how many new roofs has been put on and some of the old roofs were tin or asbestos with special nails and holders. If the house has been "updated" with aluminum siding, there are usually an abundance of trim clippings too. On the worst of the old homes, I will say back about 10 feet or so and concentrate on the yard, but if you do venture into trash land, this is where discrimination would come in handy.

I have yet to use a detector that works better with more discrimination and I don't think the CTX is the first but if more discrimination makes YOU a better hunter, by all means use it, that is what it is there for.

Larry is 100% right....

Every old home I have done... it is near impossible to detect right next to the house... Small coil and work slow... but I normally fan out from the house until it is not a constant or mostly null from all of the iron... Then start to work the area...

Resperctfully,
Paul

 

[GateKeeper]

Actually Larry, YES it is the first. After many phone conversations with one of the field testers, he agrees that MORE discrimination does not hurt the CTX's performance. I also just visited the Minelab facility last week and asked them this same question as well, and they also agree. So YES, the CTX 3030 is the first. Larry, I know you have been hunting for a long time, but you must open your eye's to the new possibilities of this machine and not doubt what other's are saying. Using more discrimination does'nt just make you a better hunter, it will make you detect smarter. Use the CTX to it's fullest capabilites that Minelab intended for us.

 

[nolanation]

Thanks for all the input, now, any suggestions on programs/discrimination patterns that you guys like to use? I have noticed too with discrimination on, the little that I did try it, there was almost no threshold as it nulled out. BUT while I was out there I did dig some targets that clearly had iron in the hole as well. So the CTX was able to pick out the good of the junk. I will move further out in the yard, and possibly try Ground Coin and Ground Balance. I do noise cancel, but I did not do it with the coil 12" above the ground like I read today that I am supposed to. I will also pay closer attention to what my suggested AUTO sensitivity is.

 

["Dr.Tones"]

We look forward to seeing your finds!

 

[sparkster]

Nolan

This is the Sparster. We talked last Wednesday, the day we got our detectors. The advice I was given is to start out using coin mode with the basic patterns. Set sensitivity
On auto +1', noise cancel. Throw some coins and junk out a check what each reads on the VDI and listen to the different tones. Try the pin point feature so you get use to pin point with a double D coil. I know all of this sounds really basic, but it sure helped me, cause I have never used a mine lab before. used plenty of double D coils.

After a couple shots at that routine I added a couple of different size gold rings a class ring and some silver coins to the mix and gave that a try just to get the VDI and tones down. My last 1 hour excursion was in a park that I knew probably didn't have any silver coins in it. I just wanted to see if I could use the VDI and tones and know if I was looking and hearing a quarter or a dime or a penny. On this hunt I found 11 quarters, 5 dimes, numerous penny's a junk ring and a $1 dollar coin. The important thing is I had a great idea what each one was before I dug it. Surely not rocket science, but this was great progress from my first two experiences.

This is how I'm trying to learn the CTX, in kind of baby steps, cause I know I am a CTX Dummy. Heck, I couldn't even use the navigation buttons very well on my first trip out. Make sure you got that down, it's to hard to try and remember all tha navigation junk on the fly.

Tomorrow I am going to add Gone hunting's combined tones to my machine. Seems everyone is doing that. It opens the machine up much more.

Don't get frustrated, go slow and the information and the results you want will be embedded much better. Go for it and have a good time.

 

[Big Boys Hobbies]

Working around old houses can be a real pain. Just think how many new roofs has been put on and some of the old roofs were tin or asbestos with special nails and holders. If the house has been "updated" with aluminum siding, there are usually an abundance of trim clippings too. On the worst of the old homes, I will say back about 10 feet or so and concentrate on the yard, but if you do venture into trash land, this is where discrimination would come in handy.

I have yet to use a detector that works better with more discrimination and I don't think the CTX is the first but if more discrimination makes YOU a better hunter, by all means use it, that is what it is there for.

Great post! Try the smaller 6" coil and most importantly learn your machine somewhere else first less trashy. Talk about going for the biggest boy on the field! Lol hunting a old torn down house is the worst!

 

[sparkster]

Nolan, if your machine keeps mulling out next your old house, that tells you some important information. It's iron infested. Nulling out means you are running over something with your coil that you ave discriminated out. I even hear that going on in the park I hunted, but not as bad as whatvyou described. In addition you could also be around some serious EMI in the area your hunting in. Remember even a cell phone in your pocket can drive your machine nuts. Maybe try a wide open area and check everything out that you are doing and see if it still happens. Just an Idea.

 

[nolanation]

Thanks for the tips. Just bought the 6" coil! I am excited to try that out there, but will certainly go back to some less trashy areas in the mean time. Also speaking of cell phones...I always have mine in my pocket when I am detecting. Is that a bad idea?

 

[unearth]

You need to run some discrimination. Let me tell you this, the CTX 3030 is like no other machine. What I have found out is that the CTX actually runs alot better with MORE discrimination than with little to NO discrimination. Also, if you notice that you Auto sensitivity is 17 or below, run it in Ground coin. If the sensitivity is 18 and above in auto, run it in Ferrous coin. Now put in some disc.

When you say auto 17 or 18, is this with or without the plus 1, 2, or 3?

 

[nolanation]

I'm going to assume without as it is no longer the auto/"recommended" sensitivity after you adjusted it.

 

[nolanation]

Will say as well, that I am quite impressed with the CTX ability to pick treasure underneath trash if you take your time, I dug a few keeper targets including an eagle button, out there that had several pieces of rust in the plug.

 

[GateKeeper]

You need to run some discrimination. Let me tell you this, the CTX 3030 is like no other machine. What I have found out is that the CTX actually runs alot better with MORE discrimination than with little to NO discrimination. Also, if you notice that you Auto sensitivity is 17 or below, run it in Ground coin. If the sensitivity is 18 and above in auto, run it in Ferrous coin. Now put in some disc.

When you say auto 17 or 18, is this with or without the plus 1, 2, or 3?

When you are running in auto, look at the suggested sensitivity on the right in green. That is your baseline.

 

[Dr.Deus]

If you do happen to go back to that iron infested area of the old house, and you notice that its almost impossible to decipher a good target, you could also try reverse discrimination hunting. set up the discrimination pattern to accept all iron and reject the rest of the screen. Set the tone id profile to 2 tone ferrous.dropping the tone id line to about the 30 ferrous line and select a tone to your preference. using deep off fast on. you're going to hear all the iron grunt hits because you've accepted it. but lets say you hit something you've discriminated out. The machine will null out. Now you KNOW you hit an actual real target because of the null.After this happens look at the screen and spot where the cursor is and see if its rejecting something around the target ID you were looking for, i.e relics or coins. Then switch over to another mode using the user button to try and locate where the null was coming from either leaving the discrimination pattern open or using your own preferred discrimination pattern.I was switching over patterns whenever i saw the cursor hovering around anything above the foil range. Also i believe that i set the manual sensitivity level to some where around 10-15 which i thought was a good idea, since you wont be finding many deep targets because of all the nearby surrounding iron. Work it slow. Something to try. HH

 

[sparkster]

The cell in your pocket was input from someone else here on the forum that said his cell ran his CTX nuts until he turned it off.

 

[Kevin@TKSales]