Search Modes - Newbie Here

[holehawg]

Good morning all. I am a newbie; not just to the CTX 3030 but to metal detecting. My first detector is the CTX 3030 and I am blessed to have it! I have been reading the forum posts and watching all the you tube video, digging into the manual etc. "learning to be my detectors master." I am pleased to say that I've gone out (3) times and have found a coin each time. Being an anxious rookie, the first day, if my detector made a noise and I could pinpoint it, I dug like the wind. It didn't matter if the noise was low pitched or high. I just put it together, charged the battery and went. I actually swung for about 10 minutes and dug for about 2 hours - bottle caps, pull tabs, nails etc. I decided there had to be a better way and started reading and reading. I got a good work out that day . Even so, I found some coins (pennies and a dime - newer).

After reading some of the posts, I am starting to get a better "feeling" for when to dig and when to pass. I now understand the TID readings (to a degree) and can decide if I want to put in the effort or not. Thanks for all those who have posted the TID for coins etc. What a blessing to us all.

I have also committed to the Lord to tithe 10% of my findings to the church and invite anyone else to join me in this.

My question(s) are as follows:

Please help me understand the "Search Modes":

Coin:
Ground coin (what does this mean in regards to the settings/sensitivity/filtering)
Ferrous coin (what does this mean to the settings/sensitivity/filtering)
Deep search (what does this mean to the settings/sensitivity/filtering)
Fast recovery (what does this mean to the settings/sensitivity/filtering)


Silver

What does it highlight and what does it filter?

High Trash

What does it highlight and what does it filter?

Beach

What does it highlight and what does it filter?

Relic

What does it highlight and what does it filter?


What do these modes specialize in? As an example:

I live along an historic river in the Miami Valley, OH. My home was built in the 1940, However, I believe the land was settled well before this. I had a few minutes and doing some surveying (locating but not digging - too hot) in my yard last night. I came across a some very odd settings in a remote part of my property:

In the silver mode and coin mode:

1.50 = 9" down

I found several:

1.36
1.42
1.50
1.43

All in this 5' square area about 9" down. All the coins I've found tend to have a reading of 12.43 etc or in that ball park. It was late and I didn't dig but is my hunch right that these may be aluminum cans etc. or could I have found the Shawnee Silver/Gold hoard (I'm a Positive person . I know, you won't know until you dig but, it is pouring today and was too hot to dig last night. Any thoughts on these readings?

Any help with explaining the modes would be very appreciated and I wish all the best of blessings in their digging!

 

[Larry (IL)]

My you have a lot of questions......

Instead of answering all of them, let me say that they all are answered in the owners manual, it should be read with detector in hand several times and things will start to click.

In relating target ID to the actual targets is a matter of experience............ I would suggest digging all targets for the first month or two so you will learn what the CTX is telling you.

Being new to the hobby, you have a lot to learn and most of that education is not from the books or from us, but comes from getting your hands dirty.

Welcome to the hobby and the forum.

 

[squirrel1]

Holehawg, take it slow and steady. I recommend you learn how to load your own programs using Xchange 2. I recommend you stay with the 50 conductive target separation mode and try and build your program to reject 25 ferrous and higher. Adjust your gain to 28. Adjust your tone to long. With all that done you can start detecting. You can switch between ferrous coin, ground coin, high trash, low trash while detecting or even over a target. Same goes with fast recovery on or off, and deep on or off. If you slip up and make a mistake when you are building your program, not to worry just do a default factory program reset. Like Larry said you really need to play with the detector, read/reread the manual, get proficient with Xchange 2, and get in the dirt. A bud with explorer/etrac/CTX experience would help too. Read around on this forum and don't forget about the CTX classroom portion of this site. And last, don't be afraid to post what your hearing/seeing.

 

[hershey1]

What Larry said. You started with a great machine. Since you have never detected I would suggest staying in the factory modes for awhile. As you become more familiar with your machine and the hobby adjustments will come. Read and study the code of ethics for metal detecting. Learn how to recover a target with leaving little sign as possible that you were even there. Any questions are welcome on the forum which by the way was not available when a lot of us when we started. Good luck and welcome to a great forum and hobby. HH

 

[pspr]

Everything they said but I would use the Auto gain and keep it around +2 for starters. Put the sensitivity window up on your screen so you can see where the gain is staying at for your soil. If it is in the low teens you need to make adjustments with various settings for your soil. (gound-coin, ferous-coin, manual sensitivity, vol. gain, etc.)

 

[TIM CLARK]

Where in the Miami Valley are you I am in Richmond Indiana if you are close we could get together for a hunt . One thing I did when I started out was I would hit the School play grounds and soccer fields and ball fields always a lot of clad to be found there.

 

[Bell-Two]

I am near Dayton Ohio and member of a very good detecting club, while I do not have a CTX yet I have had experience with the E-Trac which has similarities. There are members in our club that have the CTX and could be of help in hands on experience.