Beware of Black Sand

[Big "D"]

I bought my new V3 a few weeks back and also joined the local metal detecting club. We all headed to lake Tahoe,Nevada this morning to hunt the beaches near Zephyr Cove.

I thought my new detector would shine, But the "Black Sand" on this clear water lake rendered the V3 useless. I tried every program and 2 hours of tweaking in the expert menu.

I was unable to get any use out of my new detector. Does anyone have any thoughts, Thanks !!

 

[The Beep Goes On]

Did you reduce your Gain and Sensitivity, or try Frequency Offset, or discriminate out areas most prone to falsing...and did you vigorously ground balance? I haven't hunted in those conditions, so I'm not sure what would work the best. Maybe a smaller DD coil would help. Hopefully others will chime in.

 

[Big "D"]

Thanks for your reply. Yes I did reduce the gain. that did help a little bit. I tried adjusting the discriminate to both extremes and many points in between. I tried all the programs and did a 7 to 10 pump ground balance. I started out in the custom "sweet 16" correlated program this is outlined in the V3 forum, that has worked very well for me in city parks. I started detecting in the custom program but was getting no hit's junk or otherwise. I placed a dime on the sand and swung the coil. There was no indication at all from my detector. When I got of the sand everything was fine. I drove almost an hour to get to Lake Tahoe and was determined to make the day a success. I raised and lowered almost everything there is to adjust, but I could not find a combination that would even begin to work.

 

[Snake Charmer]

same thing happened to me recently.... despite what all have said my machine would not ground balance in the black sand....

 

[The Beep Goes On]

Did any of your fellow hunters have a problem? What were they using?

 

[Snake Charmer]

No fellow hunters.... and a new V3i.... no not sure with 100% that it was not a detector settiing.... I tried everything even RX to 1 and AM and DX very low.... just would not manual balance even with 20 or so pumps.... felt like wraping it around the nearest telephone pole I was so frustrated... this new V3i is a very touchy machine however and it may not have done well wrapped arount the pole... I was in a spot where there could have been many rings...

 

[Big "D"]

Yes, Other people in the group were also unable to use their detectors. The lower end machines would not work. One guy was doing O.K. with a older MineLab Sovereign.

Another fellow using a White's MXT found a silver earring and a couple of dimes. I love my V3, it has done great in all other applications. The point is the V3 on this outing was no

better than a low end detector.

 

[Rob (IL)]

I will ask a friend who is a big beach hunter. I can tell you if the MXT worked so should the V3. I own a MXT. I'll sent him a PM today. I do know he hunts with both Salt compensate and salt ground together (V3i) on the worst beaches. ROB

 

[Mike Hillis]

Black sand is fun stuff. I hunt areas of high concentrations of black sand pretty often. From reading your post you were relying on the computer assisted ground balancing feature. You should learn how to manually balance the V3 as there are places, one of which you've just found, that the computer doesn't work. But if you had performed the ground cancel manually I'm pretty sure you could have got a workable setting. Another thing you will find once you start working in that type of ground is that all your target id's will be off. You high coins and large silver will get bumped up and around to the iron range. There is a very real possibility that your test dime was discriminated out because it was no longer reading in the non-ferrous range. That was pretty common for me and the DFX in the really hot ground. I should get a lot of experience with the span control of the V3.

Jeff's post about the effect of the ground vdi affecting target response plays in here too. All fun stuff to figure out to be sure. Mine should be here by this coming Friday and I'll get to experience it all first hand very soon.

If you think you are going to be hunting in this type of soil very often I'd recommend picking up a good nugget hunting book as they help teach you how to hunt area's of high mineralization. I like Larry's Zip Zip books.

I'd also recommend picking up a F5 as a backup unit. The F5 has a highly expanded ground cancelling range on the high end that allows for precise ground cancelling to the worst mineralization. It's a sweet unit (shameless plug )

Good luck,
Mike

 

[Big "D"]

Manual ground balance is the only method I use. I never rely on the computer to ground balance.

I use the following method:

* Pull/hold the trigger, then press/hold ENTER
* Bob the loop a few times over the ground until the threshold sound is pretty constant
* Release ENTER, then release the trigger

To solve the "black sand" problem you have give me the best advise yet...................... Get a Fisher F5. Thanks !!!

Don

 

[Snake Charmer]

hows about a MXT as a backup unit?

 

[Mike Hillis]

I was reading the manual tonight and see there is no way to manually balance the V3. Or if there is there is no info on it.
Looks like we are stuck with the computer.
Hmmmm.
HH
Mike

 

[tony (Orlando FL)]

MIke,

Simply put the V in track lock and adjust the offset to get your GB set the way you want it. Raise the coil, pull the trigger and lower the coil to see if you have enough GB set or not. I use this method. Push pad instead of a knob.

Tony

 

[nw1886]

Many of us here use manual ground balance a lot of the time.

 

[cvs]

Many of us here use manual ground balance a lot of the time.

So true, I run with manual ground balance (Locktrac) 99% of the time. In fact when I got the Vision back from its upgrade to the "i" I was having problems on my first time out with it and when I realized it was in Autotrac and changed to Locktrac the V3i settled right down.

 

[Larry (IL)]

Gotcha beat by 1%..............100% of the time for me.