Minelab CTX 3030 Detecting Forum

There so much I want to ask about this topic. It migt take me a month of Sunday’s to do
Does the 3030 go that much deeper then say the excal or equinox
Besides setting the sensitivity higher is there other ways to make the3030 go deeper
I live in the north east and I no it all depends on ground conditions
With all these bells whistles how to do make the 3030 superior on the beach over the other machines
I mostly use this machine on wet sand at the oceans but occasionally take it in the water
What I really want to do is make the machine go deep as possible and want to no if there more to adjusting the sensitivity to make go deeper

When I took mine beach hunting , I used the standard program that came with the machine and I had my 17" coil.
I’d set the sens on auto and just go.
Just like in dirt I beleive the coil size delivers depth, and I dug a lot of stuff over a foot.
I had a heavy duty plastic scoop and just put the coil by the dig and scooped and checked until I got a signal and then shook it out, I little more work but very effective
I did not get in the water much, the 17 is thought to move in water, for this old guy anyway. So I was mostly dry sand and at the waters edge.
Now when you get in the water you want the saltwater switch on and off in dry sand.
I did a lot of ground balancing and had some fun.
In a couple hunts found a couple nice rings and some trinket jewlrey and a ton of clad.
After awhile it was easy to figure foil and deep cans, but deep pennies drove me nuts. I’m talking 12+ . It if you leave those pennies unchecked you may just miss a ring.
Good luck and give a report back
BT

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stateguyt
There so much I want to ask about this topic. It migt take me a month of Sunday’s to do
Does the 3030 go that much deeper then say the excal or equinox
Besides setting the sensitivity higher is there other ways to make the3030 go deeper
I live in the north east and I no it all depends on ground conditions
With all these bells whistles how to do make the 3030 superior on the beach over the other machines
I mostly use this machine on wet sand at the oceans but occasionally take it in the water
What I really want to do is make the machine go deep as possible and want to no if there more to adjusting the sensitivity to make go deeper

No, the CTX doesn't go any deeper than either of the other detectors you mentioned (at least in the caribbean beaches I have hunted).
The best depth would come from making sure the saltwater setting is on, its been ground balanced (if you have black sand), you noise cancel, and then set the sensitivity until it just begins to false a little bit. Too much sensitivity will make it harder to determine real (and deep) targets from the constant falses.
There aren't any tricks to make it "superior". The multi-freq design that lets it run stable in salt water is already doing 99% of the work. Just know your detector and dig EVERYTHING that isnt iron. If its broken and you think it might be a junk target, dig it anyway. Unless your beach is super trashy, put it in 2 tone ferrous with a low (numerically high) iron tone cutoff.

Edit to add- since you mention the equinox, I will say that the EQX is much more sensitive to low conductors than the CTX. For most rings, the CTX will hit those loud and clear, but chains and pendants or broken rings will be much harder targets. The CTX is a low frequency dominant silver slayer, the EQX is a nickel killer than can drive you nuts with foil and aluminum bits in trashy spots.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/2018 07:08PM by Jason in Enid.

The salt water setting reduces the dept with 2-3 inches - that's a lot!
The deepest setting is: - 17" coil, Manual Sensitivity!!!!!, Manual ground balance( if you can get away without the salt water setting do it, if not - use it, it still deeper than auto+3 and automatic GB0.
Use the ground coin or low trash separation mode.
Switch off fast and deep settings!
Use smooth or long tones to distinguish easier the falsing from the good signals.
Good luck!

Thank you guys for responding
I never tried the ground balance the machine will give it a try

One thing Ive mentioned before about the ctx 3030 on beaches with black sand and salt. if you get a good target signal, decent sound, and ID showes a nice tiney red dot and the numbers are on the items your looking for AND IT SHOWES Deep say 7 or more inches and you dig a scoop out, and ....nothing. no beep pop click or hum. IM telling you if you had a good signal and you lost it then KEEP DIGGING even deeper than you first saw the numbers and a bit wider. I have been surprised that this happens so oftenl maybe due to depth or off pinpoint with the 17 inch coil but If i like the signal, and id, and dig. and its not there...I DO NOT GIVE UP. 9 our of 10 times it there just deeper.

I just spent (before evacuation) two 3 to 4 hour hunts in Myrtle Beach with the 800. I can only remember 1 time I dug a target deeper than the 14" that my Stealth scoop goes and that was a can. Most targets were 6 to 8 inches. Sensitivity was running at 22 to 23 out of the 25. Ground balance made no difference whether set at 0 or after balancing.

With the 3030 digging that second scoop deep was common. Sensitivity usually at 28. Unfortunately the mandatory evacuation hit so I did not have the chance to run the 3030 with the 11" and 17" coils.

The 3030 will amplify the signal sound from deep targets while the Equinox will not, at least from what I am aware. Maybe that is why this is happening.

I've put my 100 hours in now on the Equinox and while it is great machine for the money it is going to be a backup for me.

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vladorado
The salt water setting reduces the dept with 2-3 inches - that's a lot!
The deepest setting is: - 17" coil, Manual Sensitivity!!!!!, Manual ground balance( if you can get away without the salt water setting do it, if not - use it, it still deeper than auto+3 and automatic GB0.
Use the ground coin or low trash separation mode.
Switch off fast and deep settings!
Use smooth or long tones to distinguish easier the falsing from the good signals.
Good luck!

Ive been running w/deep and saltwater enabled for years now and never complained about depth - never saw a difference way back when. What do I do to validate what you say? Will an air test prove it? Why does a deep enabled not help depth - that doesn’t make sense.

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vladorado
The salt water setting reduces the dept with 2-3 inches - that's a lot!
The deepest setting is: - 17" coil, Manual Sensitivity!!!!!, Manual ground balance( if you can get away without the salt water setting do it, if not - use it, it still deeper than auto+3 and automatic GB0.
Use the ground coin or low trash separation mode.
Switch off fast and deep settings!
Use smooth or long tones to distinguish easier the falsing from the good signals.
Good luck!

I know this has been brought up time and again, but GB on the CTX, when should it be 'checked' and when should it not be 'checked'? It seems to me to go back and forth on what to do.

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unearth

The salt water setting reduces the dept with 2-3 inches - that's a lot!
The deepest setting is: - 17" coil, Manual Sensitivity!!!!!, Manual ground balance( if you can get away without the salt water setting do it, if not - use it, it still deeper than auto+3 and automatic GB0.
Use the ground coin or low trash separation mode.
Switch off fast and deep settings!
Use smooth or long tones to distinguish easier the falsing from the good signals.
Good luck!

I know this has been brought up time and again, but GB on the CTX, when should it be 'checked' and when should it not be 'checked'? It seems to me to go back and forth on what to do.

Minelab has always said that GB is basically a last resort option on the CTX. If your auto sens selection is always in the single digits, you should probably consider using it. Otherwise you run the risk of degrading performance, not helping it.

Can't answer your question about how deep as compared to other detectors, but I am extremely happy with the CTX 3030! With the 11 inch coil, I've detected things that were about 16" down. So even at 9" deep is very challenging to recover in the surf! I used the 11" coil one time at the beach. This was detecting things way too deep in the surf. I couldn't recover these. I can see the 11" being useful on the dry sand and wet sand out of the surf though. I have quite a few other posts about using the 3030, and how it has held up under different conditions. Concerning its waterproffness, it has worked well for me however after every trip, I clean it completely! ...and take out the o-ring and make sure not one grain of sand remains.

YIKES! In the above message I mean 17": "I used the 17" coil one time at the beach. This was detecting things way too deep in the surf. I couldn't recover these. I can see the 17" being useful on the dry sand ..."

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Jason in Enid


The salt water setting reduces the dept with 2-3 inches - that's a lot!
The deepest setting is: - 17" coil, Manual Sensitivity!!!!!, Manual ground balance( if you can get away without the salt water setting do it, if not - use it, it still deeper than auto+3 and automatic GB0.
Use the ground coin or low trash separation mode.
Switch off fast and deep settings!
Use smooth or long tones to distinguish easier the falsing from the good signals.
Good luck!

I know this has been brought up time and again, but GB on the CTX, when should it be 'checked' and when should it not be 'checked'? It seems to me to go back and forth on what to do.

Minelab has always said that GB is basically a last resort option on the CTX. If your auto sens selection is always in the single digits, you should probably consider using it. Otherwise you run the risk of degrading performance, not helping it.

This hammered quarter silver penny was picked up by my CTX 3030 at 8 inches depth on a ground with recommended sensitivity of 12 while I was using 21. The VDI were 12.09. The automatic ground balance tracking of the CTX was tracking this minute silver quarter out. I could only here it with the manual ground balance and it gave a weak but clear non-ferrous sound. If you use the automatic ground balance trcking you will track out deep small non-ferrous targets!

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vladorado
The salt water setting reduces the dept with 2-3 inches - that's a lot!
The deepest setting is: - 17" coil, Manual Sensitivity!!!!!, Manual ground balance( if you can get away without the salt water setting do it, if not - use it, it still deeper than auto+3 and automatic GB0.
Use the ground coin or low trash separation mode.
Switch off fast and deep settings!
Use smooth or long tones to distinguish easier the falsing from the good signals.
Good luck!

I was about to say the exact same thing. 99% agree with above, but I do use Deep most of the time. Don't use ground coin on beaches here as we have very little black sand.