In mineralized ground, the CTX 3030 is everything they claimed...Amazing.

[nil]

I've been using a V3i for a couple years, the ground here is moderately to high mineralization. First commercial oil wells were drilled, after they discovered oil a few miles down the road, besides the soil, as you can imagine, the land is infested with iron from the thousands of wells and dereks. Over the last 10 years, it was a waste of time trying to metal detect around here, i,d pretty much given up on it and drove 20-30km, closer to the coast of lake Huron. I took the Ctx to a park that has a few mansins around it from the oil baron era, which i've never found a thing, with the V3i, never dug a target below 3" deep. I only spent an hour after work and found 2 silver dimes from the 40's, a 1902 large cent, a broken silver cuff link, and looks like the back of a watch casing, plus some miscellaneous clad, all the silver was found at 6-8". Using target separation ground-coin and recovery deep, I am shocked, this amazing machine just opened up an area that was completely undetectable. Tonight was the first night I kissed a metal detector, and I mean the Ctx 3030. I am now minelabs biggest fan.

 

[Marksman7]

Congratulations and welcome to the light, once you know the power of the force you can never go back. Seriously though it is everything that they have said and so much more as every great detectorist out there finds there mojo with this machine and all the tips and tricks start to flow through.

 

[Digger]

Congrats on beating the effects of mineralization! With your new "secret weapon" (CTX 3030), imagine all the places around there that have been "given up on" by you and others. Keep us posted as to your success, as there are many out there wanting reports from folks hunting in highly mineralized locations. HH Randy

 

[ryanchappell]

I've been using a V3i for a couple years, the ground here is moderately to high mineralization. First commercial oil wells were drilled, after they discovered oil a few miles down the road, besides the soil, as you can imagine, the land is infested with iron from the thousands of wells and dereks. Over the last 10 years, it was a waste of time trying to metal detect around here, i,d pretty much given up on it and drove 20-30km, closer to the coast of lake Huron. I took the Ctx to a park that has a few mansins around it from the oil baron era, which i've never found a thing, with the V3i, never dug a target below 3" deep. I only spent an hour after work and found 2 silver dimes from the 40's, a 1902 large cent, a broken silver cuff link, and looks like the back of a watch casing, plus some miscellaneous clad, all the silver was found at 6-8". Using target separation ground-coin and recovery deep, I am shocked, this amazing machine just opened up an area that was completely undetectable. Tonight was the first night I kissed a metal detector, and I mean the Ctx 3030. I am now minelabs biggest fan.

Where is this?

Too bad you had a V3i and not an ETrac, then you could compare what the Auto Sens is on both machines, and we could use that as a rough imprecise gauge for how mineralized the soil really is.

What is the autosens setting itself to in this soil? My E-Trac usually runs about 14-21 around here, but even at 21 I seldom get more than 3 inches of depth. My average silver coin depth is 2 inches deep.

Congrats on beating the effects of mineralization! With your new "secret weapon" (CTX 3030), imagine all the places around there that have been "given up on" by you and others. Keep us posted as to your success, as there are many out there wanting reports from folks hunting in highly mineralized locations. HH Randy

Yep!

 

[MHirschmann]

Congrats on the finds and I am glad to hear you are making out well with the CTX. This machine is really starting to grow on me as well. Thanks for the report and I look forward to seeing your finds soon. HH -Marc

 

[jimpugh]

n/t

 

[nil]

Thanks everyone,
I'm pretty excited about finally having some success around here, usually peoplewill try once and give up, should be able to make some nice finds.
I'm new to the minelab and I didn't think about checking the sensitivity level, I've have it set to auto plus 2, with my V3i, I would get ground prove readings anywhere from -75 to -85, which is moderately high mineralization, I buried a silver quarter at 5", and tried every setting imaginable, could barely get a response, definetely not one I would ever dig, so the CTX hitting a dime at 6 inches is a landmark. I forgot to mention in my original post, every target I dug had some type of iron nearby, from past experience I thought I falsed on iron pieces, but a good target would pop out amidst the junk.
When I pre-ordered, I thought, this might be a waste of money, from how other metal detectors function in this soil, but now, this thing is worth every penny, cant't wait till the 17" coil and waterproof headphones are available.

 

[earthmansurfer]

Hey Nil, Congrats on your deeper finds.

I have an important question for you but follow me first:

I had a V3i too and really loved it. But, in my iron mineralized ground I wasn't getting beyond 5" most of the time (beyond that VDI's jumped like mad). It would hit silver at 7" though in testing. I could run it very very hot though, didn't get better depth running less sensitivity.
My ground readings were 1%-2% most of the time with the VDI at -92 to -93. The % was low but the VDI was very high iron mineralized level (of that 2%). What readings did you get on the %?

With the E-Trac I immediately starting digging lots of coins in the 6" to 8" range, with a few at 9". I can run the E-Trac at 30 manual most of the time - definitely gave me better depth. I'm hoping the CTX gets me just a little bit more in manual GB, we'll see.

I didn't think my ground was so bad, but afterseeing your VID with the VDI I am wondering.

Thanks,
Albert

 

[GunnarMN]

look whear minlabe came from , australea, the wors ground in the world, if they can hunt that ground ?

 

[nil]

Hey earthmansurfer, I watched a few of your videos with the V3i, your ground looked very similar to mine. With the sensitivity probe I had a signal of 7.5 and noise of 2.5%.

I couldn't run my V3i very hot, usually tried to keep the rx gain at 8-11, any higher and every rusty nail came up with silver Vdi's. My biggest problem was the jumpy vdi's on every pass, it was if every dig was a crap shoot, with the Ctx, the FeCo numbers are so stable on every pass.

I don't know if this helps, I put the Ctx on manual 28, and in the soil here it got a bit unstable, tried the noise cancel, didn't improve. Went to auto plus 2 and it ran like a dream. I was going to ground balance, but it was working so well, I didn't want to jinx myself.

 

[ryanchappell]

I had a V3i too and really loved it. But, in my iron mineralized ground I wasn't getting beyond 5" most of the time (beyond that VDI's jumped like mad). It would hit silver at 7" though in testing. I could run it very very hot though, didn't get better depth running less sensitivity.
My ground readings were 1%-2% most of the time with the VDI at -92 to -93. The % was low but the VDI was very high iron mineralized level (of that 2%). What readings did you get on the %?

With the E-Trac I immediately starting digging lots of coins in the 6" to 8" range, with a few at 9". I can run the E-Trac at 30 manual most of the time - definitely gave me better depth. I'm hoping the CTX gets me just a little bit more in manual GB, we'll see.

I didn't think my ground was so bad, but afterseeing your VID with the VDI I am wondering.

Your ground is only moderately mineralized if you are detecting coins at 6-8" with an E-Trac. If I started finding coins at 6-8" I would be doing a happy dance because I found very good soil for this area! Seriously.

look where minelab came from , australia, the wors ground in the world, if they can hunt that ground ?

You would think! I guess they did that with the Musketeer, and the GPX. THEY DID NOT DO THAT WITH THE ETRAC.

I have found 43 silver coins with my E-Trac in 300+ hours and the average depth is tightly distributed right around 3 inches deep. I did find one quarter at around 6" deep in blacker soil. 10 at less than half an inch, 30 less than 2 inches. Also, it is not uncommon at all to find clad at 4 or 5 inches deep and silver at 1 inch deep. I did it yesterday in a 30 x 20 foot front yard. Either the coins are sinking or they are not, and I am only finding the silver coins that did not sink, otherwise they would be undetectable at 6" to 18" deep.

 

[earthmansurfer]

Nil - Thanks for the reply. It helps to know about the soil like that. I think yours is just a bit worse than mine as I could run sensitivity at 30 BUT there is like no EMI here, so maybe we are very close. We will have to keep an eye on eachother ;-)
On the E-Trac (no idea about the CTX) there is a boost process at the 24/25 level. At that point it is much stronger than the level before. You can easily see this by doing an air test. The Fishers/Teknetics machines had this too I think. Without a doubt I got noticeably better depth in manual over auto+3 (at least up to that level 24/25) Thx

Ryan - LOL, thanks, I needed that. Someday soon you just may get to do that happy dance. Well, for years I felt your pain. The Omega was the first machine that gave me any depth, to around the 6" - 7" mark. The E-Trac consistently put me at 8". The signals would often be bouncy, as you can see in my videos, but they were strong. I am thinking in manual GB I might get a little more depth from the CTX. Looking forward to the speed.

Thx guys,
Albert