Wet Ground

[atexaspete]

After several days of rain, then a day or two of sunshine, I decided to get out the last couple of days. The ground here is really saturated (water oozes around my shoes when standing still), and like pudding. In about 4 hours (a couple each day) if found about 80 quarters, 40 dimes and a few pennies. I decided that if I was going to get that muddy, and knowing the park was fairly new and not going to yield much more than clad, I would only dig quarters and dimes (some of the pennies came in really high).
My observation is that the wet ground really makes the targets sing. They hit really hard. Also the TID's (which ordinarily are really reliable and consistent for me so far) seem to be higher than normal. Quarters were fairly consistent at 42, but would get to 44 and 46 occasionally (where they have always been flat 42 in normal ground). The dimes (normally 36 and maybe 38 for me) were anywhere from 36 to as much as 42. The pennies (normally 30-32 just like the book says) were reading as high as 40. The tones were LOUD and clear as a bell and the only jumpy ones were on the surface (or very near).

Is what I am experiencing normal for really wet ground?

I've only been doing this for a month or so, so I'm still learning.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[Old Longhair]

In a word, "yes".
Whether you're talking about radio waves or conductivity, the laws of physics dictate that water definitely makes a difference. Saturated ground, depending on the specific minerals present, often does exactly as you describe.
And when everything is baked hard/dry, the direct opposite is often true.

 

[atexaspete]

Thanks,
At least I now know that what I thought I was experiencing was valid. I also noticed that I could really "fly" over the area even with the Digger coil. I covered a lot of ground fast and when I hit targets, I quickly identified them and dug them quick and moved on. I'm not saying I really picked it clean, since I passed over a bunch of what I thought were pennies after I slowed down enough to evaluate them and never looked back. I did, however, take the time to dig a few really good sounding pull tabs since there was that chance to snag a ring even in a fairly new era park. I was in disc 1 and even moving fast, I could hear the machine null over the iron signals.

Thanks again,
Mike

 

[BillF]

Having saturated ground isn't fun, but my best days are after a couple of days of rain. Not enough to make everything squishy but enough to dampen the ground several inches. Coins that may have been out of reach or weak enough for me to miss, 'pop' like you said.
Happy hunting!

 

[Dirt Hound]

I have a small park that I pounded HARD last year... had one of my best days detecting ever in the spring, just after the ground thawed. It was completely saturated. I was hitting old silver and copper deep... with accurate TIDs. Ended up with 5 silvers, and 2 old coppers within a few hours. I've found something nearly every time I've gone back, but never had THAT kind of luck there since. It was a pretty dry summer and I just couldn't hit as deep as I was that day. It just seems that the saturated ground gave me the couple of extra inches that I needed. That was with my Teknetics Gamma... now that I am very familiar (and loving!) my 705, I plan on cleaning that place out again in the spring when the ground is completely saturated It's muddy work... but totally worth it in my books!

 

[benzoflex]

What was the depth and what size and
frequency coil were you using?

 

[atexaspete]

Various depths, but most less than 5-6". Coiltek 6" digger coil (3KHz).

Mike