Vaquero on Galveston/Stuart beach.

[Humble Hunter]

Yesterday I took my Vaquero with the stock coil out to Galveston beach and could not get it to ground balance at all/ not even close, way positive. Tried all the usual things like turning down the sensitivity, turning up and down the discrimination, singing a sad country song, nothing worked. What coil would allow the Vaquero to work decent in the wet sand. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[tvr]

Many single frequency detectors do not have the ground balance range to ground balance to the wet sand on a salt water beach.

When you can't ground balance to the wet salt, the best compromise I've found so far is set up ground balance over the DRY sand that is near the wet area that you are going to hunt. Turn the discriminator up to about half way between the foil and iron words on the panel then go to the wet area and start hunting. Keeping the coil distance to the ground even as you sweep helps cut down on falsing, turning down sensitivity some helps too. You do loose depth and some sensitivity to very small targets, but it lets you hunt.

I found my first silver ring in ankle deep surf with a Cibola and it was making bonging sounds as the waves washed over it. Had to sweep with relatively even water depth than wait for the wave wash then sweep again. That ring got me hooked on the water. I went to a used CZ20. Unfortunately this year has not allowed much time in the water. Hopefully next year will offer more.
Cheers,
tvr

 

[Humble Hunter]

Thanks for the information. Happy hunting

 

[Diggler]

Yesterday I took my Vaquero with the stock coil out to Galveston beach and could not get it to ground balance at all/ not even close, way positive. Tried all the usual things like turning down the sensitivity, turning up and down the discrimination, singing a sad country song, nothing worked. What coil would allow the Vaquero to work decent in the wet sand. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

A Double D coil should quiet it down at the beach. If you are not looking for much over 6" of depth I suggest the CleanSweep. Otherwise the 12x10 widescan.

 

[tvr]

Actually, I've found the concentrics do better than the DD or widescan type of coil over the wet salt on the single frequency detectors. Found that true on every single frequency detector I've had where I've had both DD and concentric coils to compare. I have both the clean sweep and the 12x10 and have used them on the Cibola and Tejon at the beach. Have also worked other single frequency detectors with both concentric and DD coils over the wet sand to see how they did. Across the board, I found better audio response and discrimination with the concentrics when over the wet salt sand.

I also recommend going to a smaller coil, like the 5.75 inch concentric, to get best use over the wet sand. The DD's do better when you have high mineralization that takes you to the very positive side of the ground balance setting. Wet salt, as you have found out, goes the other way.

While I have not gotten better than about 4 inches deep with 3.6 x 18 inch cleansweep over WET salt sand on the Tejon, I love it over the dry sand! It covers so much area and when you are ground balanced correctly over the dry sand, it does not loose much depth compared to the 9x8.

If you do a lot of hunting over wet salt sand or want to get in the shallow ocean water, I'd suggest saving for an additional, different detector and keep the Vaquero for work in the dirt or dry sand.
tvr

 

[Humble Hunter]

Thank you for this information.