does water saturated ground adversely affect depth thru masking?

[toddsant]

I have noticed that with all the rain as of late, that when detecting it seems that my detectors (T2, Land ranger pro) are not locking up on visual id's on targets like they do when its dry. Is the higher conductivity of the wet minerals masking or partially masking targets? Or is the water causing the natural halo of rusty objects more prone to bleed off energy to the point of blinding the coil. My red soil here in middle Tennessee has become mush because of all the rain, and I noticed that even shallow targets, in some instances are giving off garbage vid numbers, and audio also seems to be not as clear, almost like the ground has become louder,or more mineralized.Is this possible? Now, not every target does this, but I believe that saturated soil in my area is actually limiting my depth because the minerals in the soil are now more conductive and therefore masking any coin size targets at depth- that on a dry day i would probably hear.I have tried ground balancing to both the positive and negative with little in finds to show for my efforts. I am hunting a 525 acre antebellum farm, plenty of iron everywhere, but even deeper iron targets seem to bleed into nothingness when the ground is this saturated. thoughts? Maybe I should step away from the crack pipe, or is there something else I am missing?

 

[Elton]

In my experience a wet ground many times will make the target appear larger to the electronics..Thus making it harder for the machine to determine the value.
So the id jumps around as you hit it at different angles.

Sometimes wet ground allows for deeper target readings too.

 

[Furious T]

I think what Elton said is pretty spot on....I'll just add that with the ground so wet as you describe, all minerals in the soil could be magnified, thus making things a bit harder for the detector to cleanly lock onto a specific target...how mineralised your soil is could be making a difference with the water.

 

[Youngted]

REly on the sound of the target rather than the ID number that could help.

 

[Mega]

Audio is far more reliable,i very rarely make a digging decision just by using the screen alone,even then if in doubt it has to come out,that way you will never pass a decent find.