Depth in highly mineralized soil

[jyblood]

I have an E-trac that I bought new three years ago and a CTX3030 that I bought new this past spring.I am a retired electronics technician so I feel that I understand to some degree the technology of metal detecting.I mostly detect for coins and think that I have the best detectors made for medium to low soil mineralized.However,in highly mineralized soil about 2-4 inches is the best that I can get.When in auto+3 the sensitivity runs 6-12.I am satisfied that no settings can help get more depth.I know that PI machines get more depth but what I have read is that they have poor to no identification of the target and poor discrimination.I think that the technology is coming but has yet to get to where it can cut through bad soil with good identification and discrimination.My question is,am I missing something? I would prefer to here from experienced users that have detected in bad soil that can relate to my problem.I have found alot of good coins in moderate to good soil,if you have only good soil you may not understand.If there is a detector that can hit a dime in this soil at 6-7 inches,I would like to know.If not then should I try a PI detector and just dig everything deep?Help appreciated

 

[G. E. Edwards]

Hi there jy,

I detect Southern California beaches where the black sand is really bad. I cant use auto at all it will drop all the way down to one sometimes. I us manual and I can run my CTX at 22 on most of the beaches. I have found dimes at a foot, quarters up to 14''. I also have the dual field PI and it goes even deeper, So try manual and see if you get much better depth. Gene

 

[jyblood]

Thanks for the reply Gene.I have tried manual 20-24 but find that in coins discrimination I lose the threshold even while swinging very slow.If I use an open screen I can keep the threshold and can hear targets through all the noise but my finds are still only 2-4 inches.Mineralization at beaches I believe is different than iron and other metals in the soil that I have here in central Alabama.The CTX manual says that most beaches are devoid of metallic minerals and that it is best not to try to run auto sensitivity.Thanks again