New to Fisher, 3D depth

[sandnsea49]

I received my 3D the other day and went to my favorite old park. I hunted about 3 hours and didn't find anything but zincs and pulltabs. Coins there are usually 6 to 12 inches deep. When I use my explorer I usually pull out at least a few wheaties or an indian head. So I went to another park circa 1920's where the coins would not be as deep. I found one merc ( 1916, no mintmark ) at about 8" deep. The sound came out as a very soft, hi tone "tic". If I would have been swinging the coil any faster I would have missed it for sure. I also found 8 wheaties at about 5 inches down but even those signals were just short, choppy, hi tone "tic" sounds, but a little louder. Is this normal? I am used to my minelab which sings out even at 12" signals. If 8 inches gives a faint "tic" sound it would never sound out with a 12 inch signal. My settings are: volume 8, ground balance 4.5, sensitivity 4, and discrim 1. Please let me know if this is normal for a CZ. I have never owned one before and would like to learn more about them.

 

[mtdoramike]

You would be lucky to hit a dime at more then 10". This is in my soil here in central Florida.
My CZ5 is good for about 10" on a quarter. The CZ70 will go 12" on a quarter. These are with faint whispers not a loud or robust beep. I've never dug anything deeper then a foot. So if you got a machine that will hit a dime at 12" or better with a good tone then you need to hold onto it like grim death. Now the CZ3d, which I've only had for about 2 weeks from what I can tell isn't any deeper then the CZ5.

Now for all you depth demons out there, You might have better results in your areas then I do mine, but realistically with any of the machines that I have used, I haven't found any of them that could touch a dime at 12" deep, fresh or long buried.


You can always try turning up the sensativity to 5 or 6 and see how the depth is and just tolerate the falsing. I know my 3d will allow me to increase the sensativity to 6 in some areas and then I just swing real slow to minimize the falsing.

Good luck,
Mike

 

[Dan-Pa.]

Put your volume up to 10 and sens. as high as your unit remains stable..CZ is a slow swing unit and consider it a 8 inch plus unit with a loud hit with volume at 10..frequently get silver dimes 10 to 12 inches in my neck of the woods.At a volume of 8 you are still in a mid modulated
mode. Don't know what your hearing is like, but a good headphones set high enough should make those deepies sing out loud and clear no whispers.For gosh sakes learn the bobbing method as ground balance plays a big part in depth, never look at where the knob ends up just want to be sure its properly ground balanced..My CZ7A usually is at 8 sens., but sometimes lowered to 6 to keep a stable unit. Many say sens. of 4 is as deep as it will go, after 13 years with a CZ I disagree and 6 or 8 usually works for me and just can't get it up to 10 and keep unit stable..
Yep I have used the Explorer and coil for coil the CZ is deeper...Go put an 8 inch on your Explorer and am sure you will agree.

 

[Dan R.]

That 8 inch dime sounds pretty good with the stock coil. I usually get a little louder or smoother signal on a deep coin 7 inches or deeper but I have my volume set 4 or below.
I don't get any tics but usually smooth soft nearly not hearable signal. Very faint on deep stuff.

I usually get most all small coins with same type of signals not lounder dimes then same deptn pennies. And I can swing my cz a little faster then my GT Sov but not by much.

If I go to almost a stand still I loose a slight depth on the cz but if I swing real slow I can hit on those hard to hear deep targets.
Although my cz and minelab work along the same with tone id they just are two completely different detectors with different responses. I have a few years experience with the cz and just a few weeks or a month or so with the sov. Learning that the sov may or may not get similar depth with similar size coils. I have learned my Gt won't pass up targets as easy as my cz can. My gt uses a 7-1/4 coil compared to the cz stock 8 coil, My sov has a 10inch stock coil compared to the cz 8inch stock coil. Both detectors with stock coils are about the same depth under certain conditions but that is where it ends. Conditions vary . My hearing not so good as a younger person or even my wifes hearing. I can miss targets others will hear. I use a big 12 inch coil on my cz70Pro it gets a few more inches depth and has pretty good responses in cluttered areas . ( far better then I ever expected)

Don't know what to say about your 3d except ( here I get into trouble ). Trade it in on a cz70Pro.


HH

Dan R.

 

[sandnsea49]

The manual is very conflicting about how to bob for GB. The very first sentence says "Set as in the "turn on" procedure, making sure the DISC control is at AUTOTUNE and the SENSITIVITY control is set so you can just barely hear a threshold hum". BUT! the "Turn on" procedure says, "Disc=0 for normal use in target ID mode. Sensitivity=10. Can you see how confusing this is? Bobbing says two different thngs----Set Disc control to Auto Tune and set as in turn on procedure which has Disc at 0. Then it says to set sensitivity so you can just hear a hum, but turn on procedure says to set sensitivity to 10. So How can you follow the turn on procedure it says to follow in bobbing when it differs to what bobbing says to do? I AM SOOO CONFUUUUSED. ARRRRGGGGHHH. Mr. Dankowski might be a rocket scientist and he can understand what he wrote, but I'm just a blue collar type guy and I just don't understand scientese. When I did try it I ended up in the same place at the "pushbutton Method" anyway. Sorry if this is so long but I never had to GB before.

 

[Anonymous]

The way I read it is, there two turn on procedures, If you read # 3 and the third sentence, I think that will explain it. HH

 

[KyJoe]

I wish my Exp would sing on those 12" signals. My 3D has a depth advantage in my test area. My ground is very moderate GB'ing between 6 and 7 on my CZ. I think this important in comparing these two machines. As the mineralization goes up the Minelab does well (IMO) and in low mineralization the CZ is better.
I will stress the importance of using the bobbing method to get an exact GB, this is important to get the maximum depth from your CZ. Run the sens as high as it will allow and run stable, I can usually run between 6 & 8. Also, try the 10" coil on your 3D or even the 12.5 Sunray if the amount of trash permits the larger coil. I'm getting the Sunray next week.
The CZ has a cone shaped signal compared to the DD coil on the Minelab so it is more important to closely overlap your swings. A larger coil would help this also.
Using the CZ's GB scale, at 5 my machines are very close but when the GB gets above 5 the CZ is better.
I like 'em both. HH, Joe

 

[Jackpine Savage]

I never saw any difference between the bobbing method and the push button method, they always ended up in the same position. Try adjusting the GB slightly positive, neutral and slightly negative to see which helps the most in YOUR area with the iron falses. For max depth set the sensitivity to 5 or 5 1/2 like Tom D. says. Thats the hot zone for depth and still maintain best seperation. If its really trashy then lower it down from there.

HH Tom

 

[Bill W.]

I think you're just seeing the differences in your area vs. someone else's. I own a 3D and a Explorer... of the two machines the 3D is the deeper machine in MY area in tamer ground. My area varies in mineralization from 4 - 6.5 in GB. Which machine does better depends on how mineralized the soil is at the site I am hunting. Because the Explorer uses a DD coil it has an obvious advantage in more mineralized soil due to coil design. I think if you keep some notes you will probably find out that with less mineralization the 3D is hard to beat. The CZ70Pro is right there with the 3D in depth. Pay attention to your GB number and you will start to see a what I mean. One other thing I noticed that around my area lately has been somewhat drier. Last weekend I walked over to my coin garden and could not hit some deep coins I have buried there with any machine I have. Soil conditions can make a BIG difference in depth too. HH!

-Bill

 

[Jackpine Savage]

Forgot the manual, its simple. Set the disc to auto-tune, turn the sensitivity up until you hear the so called threshold hum (if your machine doesn't hum at high settings, some don't, turn it all the way up to 10). Turn the GB knob fully one way or the other, it doesn't matter which and listen to the change in sound as you bob the coil while adjusting the GB knob. The difference in the sounds should be obvious as you adjust while bobbing. Practice it a bit and its a no-brainer.

The final setting really does not indicate the degree of iron mineralization. I see a lot of confusion caused because most people do not realize that the reference settings between the analog 3D and CZ5 are the opposite of the digital models. In other words fully clockwise on the analog machines is a setting of 1 and on the digitals it reads 10. The big thing is how touchy the machine is when GB'ing, if only a slight turn makes a big difference in response, it indicates the ground is more mineralized. Around here in most areas I could turn the knob one full number before hearing a lot of change in the ground response. In other areas just a slight tweak would alter the response to the ground.

Practice practice practice.. GB'ing is not a black art.

HH Tom

 

[sandnsea49]

dry land. When I took my 3D out the ground was so dry it was powdery, like sand. I am looking forward to using my 3D. I did find 3 nickels, which I normally don't find with the minelab. It was fun hunting with it. I dug a lot of junk but that's part of the learning curve. Thank you everybody.

 

[Dan-Pa.]

To tell you the truth 12 years ago a dealer brought up the bobbing method and I started getting them deeper, would have to read the manual to use the push button method as I never used it since..I really believe you get better seperation in lower sensitivty but for depth as high as you can while keeping a stable unit. 8 seems to be tops that I can get and many areas 6 on a digital CZ with increments of two. Explained to me years ago doesn't matter where the knob ends up as long as its properly ground balanced and a minute turn can make a big difference. Info came from a Fisher Tech. Good info on positive and negative ground balance as it does helps for someone experienced with ground balancing but someone new to the machine just try for a neutral balance.Certainly respect your views and opinions and yep nice to kick these things around as we all learn..