Minelab CTX 3030 Detecting Forum

Looking for advice from salt water beach hunters concerning depth. What would be your average depth with the 11" And 17" coil? I've used the 17" on the beach and won't be trying that again until I can become more familiar with the 11" and the ctx in general.
Testing on the beach I could get 8" on a 14g 24k ring using the 17" coil. I know I'm scratching the surface from reports from other users.
With air testing (Yes I know) I'm easily achieving 14" on the same target inside sitting on my couch. I know the capabilities of the ctx, just trying to find the keys to unlock them
Any useful advice would be greatly appreciated

Stephen--Pretend its your TDI and balance the signal--not too open, not too weak, not too strong. And lots of trial and error. Also, in keeping with the signal to noise differences, with the large coil expect the deep ones to be that much fainter. Especially with the big coil im sure anyone who has learned to really get the depth out of this machine will tell you it took months and months of testing--did me. There's no "Caramilk Secret" here.

Stephen,

A little more information would be very helpful here. Are you hunting dry sand, wet sand or are you in the surf? Are you in course sand or sugar sand? Is there black sand? Are you running in open discrimination or do you run with a lot of discrimination? Are you in Ferrous coin, ground coin, high trash, low trash? Are you running in combined, ferrous, or conductive? Are you running in Auto sensitivity or manual? Do you have seawater check? Are you running deep or fast? Is there a lot of ambient noise? How is your coil control? Just what are your intended targets, gold rings, chains, coins, all of the above? The 11 is much easier to control than the 17, especially in the surf and rough vs smooth sand. Lots of variables that differ from beach to beach. Turf and surf are two different animals and call for different settings and tactics. I have mainly hunted turf with the 3030 since 2012 and usually run PIs at the beach but am in transition to add the 3030 to beach hunting and know that there are lots of differences. I routinely can dig 12 inch dimes in the turf but conditions in the sand can add 6 inches or take it away depending on those conditions. You have to step back and look at the variables to determine just how the best way to set up the 3030 for your conditions. Salt water and black sand seem to be two of the biggest factors from what I see. Maybe Clive can chime in again after you answer some of the questions above. He has been surf hunting a long time and knows how the variables can kill depth and what to do to combat them.

some really important things to think about,
PCJ

That's exactly it PCJ--it's all about assessing and matching the conditions--a lot of variables.
cjc

Right now using it for wetsand only. Auto sensitivity was 11 to 14. Manual would get much deeper but the id was erratic. I thought it was clean sand until I saw that. Looking for rings and pendants only. All the coins where I am register in the bottom right corner.
Running a mode I made. Bottom right corner blocked and the bottom 2 lines blocked. Top 1 line blocked. Tried both hi/low trash and fast/deep. Still trying stuff out.
I also noticed that when a target was hit it was only like a little chirp sound. It would be very easy to miss. I need to adjust that.

sounds like you are on the right track, Stephen. Slow it down if the responses are clipped.
cjc

I’m not a beach guy but one thing I’ve noticed with the Explorer2 and CTX on land is that EVERY INDIVIDUAL TARGET has an “optimum” sweep speed to get it to respond as well as it can. Getting the initial hit can sometimes be an issue,but you’ll never know it cuz you didn’t get it. It continues to sound like your beach is contaminated with SOMETHING. But what that is may be anyone’s guess. Clive and the others would be your best help in this realm,but I’m just emphasizing that once you DO get a signal no matter how weak,trying various sweep speeds may help to decide if it’s a worthy dig,on the beach OR on turf....if you haven’t been doing this already.

I think if Auto was down to 11 you can forget trying to do better than 8”on a ring. If I set mine down that much I’d be happy with 8”. If manual higher gain is too noisy it is your beach that is the issue and you might be better off with a TDI or the like.

Quote
bklein
I think if Auto was down to 11 you can forget trying to do better than 8”on a ring. If I set mine down that much I’d be happy with 8”. If manual higher gain is too noisy it is your beach that is the issue and you might be better off with a TDI or the like.

Planning on using the ctx during fresh drop season. Hitting "pay dirt" now with the tdi at depths i can't get with the ctx. However, I think that's due to my inexperience using it.

Try bumping up your gain a few notches. It helps magnify the deep ones on the beach for me. On land however I turn it back down to hear depth differences.

---

Bart Davis
Bart@BigBoysHobbies.net
Findmall Sponsor BigBoysHobbies.net
Email, call or text for best deals. 405-206-9010
Minelab USA Partner of the year award 2012. Minelab customer service award 2012.
Authorized Minelab Metal Detectors Fisher Metal Detectors Whites Metal Detectors Teknetics Metal Detectors Garrett Metal Detectors XP Deus Dealer.

I do 2 days (12 hrs) per week with the CTX 3030 on the west coast of Florida, including Tampa area, where a cross-section of undisturbed beach sand could reveal multiple (5-10) thin layers of black sand built up over time. The disturbed sand on popular beaches looks fine, but don't let it fool you since you don't see all that iron mixed in. Most of my CTX 3030 hunting is on dry sand or wet sand; only recently started trusting it for the surf. On average, I find a gold band/ring every 30 hrs or every 300 coins. Recently found a brass and glass large ring at 12-15" in wet sand and rocks. Dimes are numerous at 12"; seems most detectors aren't able to hit them at that depth. Cents can go as deep as 15-17" or so depending on how degraded and dispersed their content. Can tops can be detected up to 24-30"...some are never unearthed, believed to be somewhere in China. I agree less (discrimination, processing, filtering, etc.,) is more (gold, silver, unusual items). Just enjoy.

Almost each time I hunt I come across a target that kills me. Comes in like maybe a zinc penny but higher ferrous number. I’ve dug a hole at least a foot deep and a foot and a half wide and the CTX says it is 2” down. The sand keeps trying to fill in the hole at this depth. Seawater starts saturating the bottom. I bought a 920i scoop to get these and all I managed to do is to trash my left forearm. The signal is strong and pinpoint says its right there - but I keep digging. I my pinpointer, a garrtet ppro, sounds off if it gets in water (not waterproof). In the past I too have dug can tops at 30”. And sunglass frames. I’m kind of wondering though if the target moves horizontally down slope as the sand gets water saturated from my digging. You may ask why I keep trying. Its because I have found rings near rocks that were almost the same trouble. If its not a ring or can top its often something you don’t want to step on - like a steak knife.

I had the same experience on beaches around Phuket when I first stated detecting. Once I had my head and shoulders in the hole trying to dig deeper. The tone would be high and ID around 12:44 to 12:45, both the same as a 5 Baht coin, or even some silver targets. Even when I’d dug a hole 18 inches deep I’d pinpoint the target to the center of the hole, and the depth would say 2 to 4 inches. On the few occasions this happened I aborted the dig due to seawater bringing fresh sand into the huge holes I’d dug.

One night, higher up the beach while hunting with my Mrs, I got the tone and ID for a 5 Baht coin at around 8 inches I think. We dug but couldn’t seem to get the target out of the hole. By this time we’d dug a hole about 2 feet in diameter, and 18 inches deep. Swinging over the hole was still giving me the same tone and ID, but the size of the target seemed about the size of a trash can lid. Although now swinging over air in an empty whole, the depth was showing 2 or 3 inches. Confusing. Because we were higher up the beach, and because we had a decent shovel as well as the scoop, I decided to persevere and keep digging.

At a depth probably a shade under 2 feet, we reached the target, which was... an old car tyre. I assume car tyres have some kind of metal reinforcement integrated into them. They probably end up on beaches when they fall off the sides of boats, where they’re often tied around the sides of the boat to protect them when mooring at piers or alongside other boats.

Now I know to avoid digging them if the target seems around the size of a car tyre or bigger, when initially swinging over the target.

In surf, aluminum can top/bottom signals are just as described. Because the CTX3030 depth estimate is "normalized" on coin size, large targets real deep will give a strong signal and indicate a shallow coin. The distinction is that the signal is always strong and remains strong as you dig deeper. I have learned from digging whopper holes in the surf that a strong signal from a target more than about a foot or so down is junk and a signal to move on.