Prospecting mode use in wet salty sand?

[brissietex]

Hi all...

I am trying figure out how to better stabilise the Prospecting mode (or at least get some decent depth in All Metal) in wet salty sand. Can it be done? What coil frequency is recommended for this environment?

I know that multi-freq machines such as the Explorer and Sov can do it well. My Explorer II is very good at this but I love the Prospecting mode on the XT-70 to bits and find it hard to break away from.

cheers...Keith

 

[Digger]

Hey Keith, I don't live near the beach, But based on design, the 18.75 coil should provide both higher sensitivity and better neutralization in a salty sand environment. You should be able detect smoothly in the Prospecting mode with proper settings in GB and Sensitivity. Listening to the threshold tone in Prospecting mode is like listening to a ground balance tone. If you have the X-70 GB correct, the tone should be smooth and steady. If your X-70 is not ground balanced correctly, the threshold tone will be unstable. As with dirt hunting, if the sensitivity is set too high, you will get a lot of varying ground noise. The trick in Prospecting mode is to set the GB so that you are hearing a steady threshold tone. And then raise the sensitivity as high as you can without disrupting that steady tone. One other thing you might check is the Noise Cancel. Changing channels might help quiet things down too.

As to your question about getting decent depth in the all-metal mode.....again, I don't beach hunt. But I am curious if you have tried the Beach GB Mode? It was designed for a sand / salt water mix. But as the manual warns, tracking is not recommended unless targets are scattered far apart. Otherwise low conductive targets might be balanced out.

Just tryin' to help! HH Randy

 

[brissietex]

Thanks Digger.

I currently use the 5x10 HF coil almost exclusively and I'll try your GB/Threshold suggestions the next time that I am out with the XT-70. I have found the coil to be ideal for the beach and I keep the XT-70 in beach mode the whole time. I just found the sensitivity to be a bit more so in this mode and it doesn't seem be a bother even on the dry sand.

My usual hunt pattern is dry to wet, switching from Prospecting to All Metal as I cross into the wet sand line. I keep the the machine in tracking mode the whole time since the targets are usually few and far between. However, I'll re-think doing this when I am out the next time.

I was thinkng of getting a 10" HF coil but wasn't sure if it'd harder and deeper than the other 10" coils. Still rather have a 12" HF tho but it looks like a snowball's chance in... of seeing this anytime soon.

cheers...Keith