Explorer dirt question

[Bell]

I have an se pro and have no troubles in most types of soil, but there is a certain type of loamy clay that you seem to find here in texas in areas that have been used for cattle grazing for long periods of time even if its not recently. It turns the ground into this hard thick stuff that is almost like digging in wet slightly decayed wood. I would swear that my machine simply can not see through this stuff and whenever I get into it I know I won't dig anything deeper than two or three inches. Am I crazy or has anyone else experienced this? Any insight?

 

[Bell]

For further insight its the kind of dirt that even though its wet you can't just dig in it, you have to sort of pry it up in chunks

 

[dewcon4414]

Sounds a little like you get in some tote lots. I think its kind of like diggng a hole putting a coin in and wondering why you cant locate the coins. Likely because the detector isnt seeing the dirt... its seeing the hole. Cinders give us a lot of problems in Indy. Go across those things you get no depth and really have to listen to anything in them. You problem may be an air gap problem. Ever ran over a golfer hole? does kind of the same thing.

Dew

 

[Buddysox]

Here in Arizona we often have a situation where Irrigation was put on a park area but due to to the extreme dry and heat the top inch or two drys rock hard very fast. Just underneath that it will still be wet. I have found that this condition just kills my depth. If the wet is on the surface and extends down without a dry level I get outstanding depth. Seems like the dry level acts like a "shield" of sorts. Also I have noticed that the detector doesn't like loose dirt. After pulling a plug on a target I always make sure to scoop the loose dirt out of the bottom. The x-1 just works better that way. Loose or spongy soil, like Dewcon says, may be the problem.