Minelab CTX 3030 Detecting Forum

I noticed I had been digging bottle caps (rusted and new) that hit in the med conductive coin range. The CTX seems to like them more than the E-Trac. I got a few of them on film and also some findings on how to avoid this, at least something that we should look at further. Curious as to what you all have found in areas with bottle caps. Short 3 minute video demonstrating at bottom.

Basically, I noticed the following:

- With no discrimination bottle caps often hit in the 23-30 ish range. Sometimes they break up but sometimes they are clean sounding.
- With minimal disc in the lower right hand corner this signal is usually erased or broken up greatly.
- Splatter of the target on the 2D screen. (Not solid and round like a coin, not usually).
- Target Trace will sometimes jump all over with no real target (no cross-hairs).





Albert

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Detector - E-Trac
Pro-Pointer w/ Sidekick (supertuner)
Lesche Knife

"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering."
Yoda

good vid Albert..

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CTX3030
E-Trac sold
AT Pro
AT Gold
Garrett ProPointer

Thanks for posting that, it's right in line with what I've seen so far.

Great video and post!

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Bart Davis
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That video is scaring me away from combined audio with not discimination. I don't like to dig bottlecaps.

Not at all Reese. Remember you have two patterns for every mode. Further you have two modes at your disposal at any time because you can make a shortcut to last mode via the user button.

So, you can do the following:

1. Second Pattern Screen - Try hunting in combined with no discrimination. If you get a signal in that bottle cap range, just press the detect button and in that screen pattern screen have it set up for a minimal disc pattern. Like I said in the video, it warrants some digging still. The findings are early on and we all don't really know how things will turn out once we throw other conditions into the equation.

2. Switch between Modes - regarding the second mode - I check EVERY SIGNAL when running Combine (mode 1) with a 50 CO mode (mode 2) - via the short cut user button. Doing this is going to eventually start to help us find the best mode for our conditions, style, etc. (I really do like the warble in 50 CO - I hope they eventually add an iron bin tone!).

3. Setting shortcut - Almost forgot, you also can press the menu button and it will take you to your last changed setting. So, if you turned ferrous coin on, check a target with it, then press menu again and change it to high trash - then press detect. You can really play with settings quickly.

All of the above is quick and kinda fun.

If I may so so it's important to probably try a lot out as we don't really know what the machine is capable of and we are likely to discover some neat and beneficial stuff!

Albert

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Detector - E-Trac
Pro-Pointer w/ Sidekick (supertuner)
Lesche Knife

"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering."
Yoda

As long as they don't hit as silver then that is fine with me!

I can speak only from 70 plus hours beach hunting dry and wet sand. that at the very beging I was digging alot of them, I have found that in the sand
(Not Rusted) bottle caps will hit on the first sweep then they become hard to find so long as you don't allow the coil to get too far away.If you reset the coil then it will hit again 12-15ish if you force it to become good you can. Just like you can with other detectors. Now for the rusty caps they come in strong and only after you see the rust you know. Hope this helps.

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CTX 3030
Excalibur II
Minelab GT
Compass XP Pro
White's Classic III
Fisher 1210x

Quote
earthmansurfer
it's important to probably try a lot out as we don't really know what the machine is capable of and we are likely to discover some neat and beneficial stuff

Absolutely! Even if we have a good understanding of what the CTX 3030 is capable of doing in our own hands, at our own sites, it is difficult to communincate specific "techniques" to those who have not had the opportunity to "see it" for themselves. During the first several weeks of this forum, that is exactly where I found myself. Folks would ask questions and I tried to respond in an honest and thorough manner. But without having witnessed the performance capabilities of the CTX 3030, I'm sure there are some who felt my responses were "hype". Now that the CTX 3030 is also in the capable hands of many others, and with the advantage of having video to demonstrate "techniques", the "hype" has become reality. Thanks for taking the time to make the video, and for sharing it with the forum. HH Randy

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You'll never know for sure......unless you dig it! HH "Digger"

Great video The more I use the CTX and the more I read I am wondering if not using the Discrm on the CTX is a disadvantage the target id and trace works better I have found with some discrm. Just some thoughts I have had I maybe way off base but very intresting information thanks for the post.

What about the stock coin program like on the E-trac? On the E-trac in the stock coin program you don't hear them at all in the ground and dig coins in the same hole with them as I'm sure some on here know that have used the E-trac.

mtwolf2270 - I made a note of that an will check it out. I liked running minimal disc on the E-Trac over TTF, but the CTX seems to like combined with ferrous coin in my ground. I miss the 50 CO mode and will play around with it and minimal disc VS. Combined. The clear disadvantage with running an open Combined Mode imo is audio masking. You have to train your ears to hear those high tones. Easier said than done. I constantly cross check targets with the modes and different patterns (disc vs. no disc) and will report back when I have some findings or any good videos showing it.

Harold - I ran the stock program on the E-Trac the first two weeks and then went minimal disc. The minimal disc pattern helped me to get the bouncy Fe numbers in my iron mineralized ground. If you ground is sweet it might not make much of a difference. Basically, depending on your ground, coins can hit in the 18 to 24 Fe range. If that is disc'd out you will get chop hits on some coins and might miss them.

Thanks guys,
Albert

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Detector - E-Trac
Pro-Pointer w/ Sidekick (supertuner)
Lesche Knife

"Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering."
Yoda

Thanks for the reply as I'm one of the lucky ones with sweet mild dark top soil that is a pleasure to dig in!

Albert I switch between combined and 4 tone ferrous and noticed that the rusty bottle caps bounce to the top of the screen.. not sure If im on to something..

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CTX3030
E-Trac sold
AT Pro
AT Gold
Garrett ProPointer

albert, you might also try this: when going over suspected bottle caps, try momentarily altering your sweep speeds. Eg.: a hair faster clip, then a hair slower, etc.... I believe you will find that bottle caps start to give different characteristics, than a coin would, when doing this trick. This trait was VERY pronounced on the old 6000d's of the late 1970s. And even though, of course, that's world's different technology, yet I have noticed that even today, this trick of trying different swing speeds, flushes them out, as they start to take on different sounds, verses coins in the same test. And I noticed, in your video, that you did not do this. When you were in disc, you repeatedly tried it (with your diff. settings) at the same swing speeds.

I may be wrong, and explorers and CTX may have no tell-tale audio differences, with altering speeds. But ..... can you check it anyhow, in your next video. And test it side by side with a "coin gimmee" (un-disturbed natural in the turf, not planted). And see, for comparison sakes, how the coin, vs the suspected cap, responds to the variety of speed.