auto versus manual sensitivity

[greedykind]

I was reading a thread posted by ronfin and he is convinced that auto works better for him than manual.What are everyone's thoughts on this.Do you run auto or manual in certain situations.Do you basae your detecting patterns on your previous detector etrac,explorer?Thanks charlie

 

[ronfin]

What works for me may not work for everyone else due to the variations in mineralization in the soil, amount of trash, etc. I'd like to see more input on this subject, and see some people run Auto only over some areas they have hit in the past. When I had my ETRAC a good portion of the time I ran it in Auto +3, but there were times that I ventured into open fields that had been re-sodded for sports, and the soil was less trashy, and a lot softer. I would run the ETRAC in Manual 26-28 without a lot of falsing. Soon as I ventured back over to the older, more compact, and heavily trashy areas I would switch back to Auto and let the machine adjust to the constantly changing patches of dirt. I'd go from red clay, to black patches of hot rocks, to dark brown concrete-like dirt that were all within 10 feet of each other. I don't think one is always better than the other, but lately I've been having more success letting the CTX do it's thing, and trusting it to adjust accordingly. It's tough to relinquish control and allow the machine to run on Auto, but it's been working pretty well for me. Hope you have some good experiences with it too and report back on your findings. -Fin

 

[jtalley007]

So far for me in my bullet patch where targets have been recovered from measured in the ground 14", I have found Manual to win hands down. I feel there are at least two reasons at this place.

1) low minerals allows me to run Manual as high as 28-30 so I am getting up to 100% of the machines capabilities.

2) there is an underground power line or something near here, could be the railroad tracks. In Manual I can hear some EMI from upwards of 28-30 but in Auto +3 I think it dials the detector down to 20-23.

I have repeatedly gotten a really deep target in say Manual 28 for example and getting some target ID. When I go back to Auto +3 I can't hear the signal.

So for relic hunting in this particular area which is mostly where I have been so far Manual wins on the extra deep marginal targets every time.

I did some testing years ago with the explorer and found it to be the same. I would get one of those 12" deep hits in a pounded place in manual as high as I could run it and tolerate the noise.

Switch to Auto with it set on 32 and I would lose the target every time.

That being said for land this is what is working for me but at the beach it is a different story. So far Auto runs smoother and will actually dial up the sensitivity on its own higher than I can run in Manual and I think Digger explained why? I will have to be around 20 in Manual but in Auto the detector dials itself up to as high as 31 which I did not know even existed?

All I know is hands down Auto is better for the beaches I have been to. Wish the conditions were better on the OBX while I am here but think we will have to evacuate 3 days early and the detecting will probably be the bomb when I am back in Virginia (figures?)

 

[grouser]

I wish ML would put the option to switch the sens from auto to man on the user button for a quick comparison hint hint !!!

 

[Atlas]

Interesting thread. I've been hunting a park and Auto +3 has is only running up to 17 or so. I switched to manual and set it to 17-20 and things seemed O.K. Over 20 and more erratic. Anyway I'm wondering if anyone knows if a sensitiviy of say 17 in Manual is any deeper than Auto +3 at 17?

I'm a little concerned about the sens at 17 cause I'm thinking I'm not geeting deep enough. Deepest coin so far is 5.5" which is O.K. but it was a copper penny and I think the older stuff will be 5-10' here

 

[Jason in TN]

Auto 100% of the time at the beach salt beach that is have done a lot of testing there and it is better hands down. Dirt digging I need to do some testing have not hunted in the dirt enough to know yet.

Jason