Extreme Black sand

[powerwalker]

Hi All
i recently got myself the Garret ATX, i got my choice of pulse machine,s down to 2, the White,s TDI SL and the ATX and after watching all the vid,s i could went for the ATX
now here,s my problem one the beaches i detect, the top of the beach after a big storm is pure black and virtually undetectable, now you might ask why i would want to detect the top of the beach
here,s why, part way down the beach is a giant sand dune and people have played on that dune since Victorian times and after a big storm the waves cut into the bottom of the dune which makes the whole thing slide,s bringing down tons and tons of sand and that sand is full of nice find,s
when i took the ATX to try i left every thing in the factory pre sets did a frequency scan then did the ground balance, as i was ground balancing you could hear the mineralization but sure enough the ATX went quiet, happydays i thought until i swung the coil low and slow the ATX started going crazy, i walked down the beach away from the black sand and the ATX was fine walked back up the beach and same as before the ATX would not perform
a friend detecting with me as the TDI SL and he wasnt having any problems, we then tried finding a signal with the TDI then running the ATX over it to see if it picked it up but nothing apart from the machine going cazy it,s as though the ATX is picking up the whole area as one signal
now can anyone suggest anything i can try because i,m a little disappointied it doesn't work a good as the vid,s say it does, i,m not giving up yet because i like the ATX and hope maybe it,s something i,m not doing right
i posted some pic,s of the finds from the area i,m talking about, they where found with my CTX
thanks Pete

 

[DrJoeprime]

Try lowering the sensitivity a few points.

Black sand will decrease depth capability and it'll be noisy..BUT you should still hear the real targets by trying to ignore the consistant black sand target sound.

Hope that's clear.

You might also try burying a coin..at various depths.. under the black sound so you can see what a target sounds like.

Joe

 

[powerwalker]

Hi Joe i,l try lowering the sens and see if that works
when i was out yesterday my friend was using the White,s TDI SL and was pulling coins out of the black sand at 12" his machine was chattery but nothing near as bad as the Garret
i tried running the Garret over some of the signals he,d found with the White,s and the Garret wouldn't pick up the signal,s
thanks Pete

 

[SoCalBeachScanner]

One other thing you can try with the ATX is to do a factory reset and then do a fresh ground balance.

I have found, at least on my ATX, sometime the ground balance function will get hang up at a certain point, and no matter how many ground balances I do, it will not cancel out the black sand.

Once I do a factory reset, the ground balance function will continue on all the way until quiet.



On another note: Find's Treasure Forum member.... Mr. ATX Gold King (dmnz - Dale from New Zealand) just left my home in SoCal with his family while on Holiday for three weeks in CA. We have been in touch with each other and he was looking for a good deal on a metal detector. The prices in NZ are outrageous! He had a dealer in Michigan ship a CTX to my home last week before he left NZ for CA. He got a great deal ($1850.00).
He is a great guy with a nice family.

 

[powerwalker]

Hi i tried doing a factory pre set then doing the ground balance it balanced out ok but as soon as i started to swing the coil it went crazy, i,m going out tomorrow so i will try another factory pre set then try and lower the sens and see if that makes any difference
thanks Pete

 

[SoCalBeachScanner]

I would like to get an idea how Extreme the Black Sand is at that beach.

When you go to that beach tomorrow, bring a good magnet with you and stick it straight down in the black sand and pull it straight up (like in that video if you saw it), or search Youtube for ... GARRETT ATX VS EXTREMELY MINERALISED VOLCANIC BLACK SAND. If the magnet only has minimal to moderate iron particles, the beach should be detectable.

If the magnet looks like the huge fur ball of iron particles like in the last 3-minutes of that video. You may need to use one of these first

Although, that still doesn't explain why the TDI SL does not have a problem with that sand.

 

[powerwalker]

Hi i,l get a magnet and try that, went to the beach today and had another go with the ATX did a factory pre set then did the ground balance till the ATX went quiet this time although it was still noisy it wasnt as bad as the first time i tried it, i experimented with the sens and got a more stable response and actually found a few coins which boosted my confidence no end, as i walked down towards the water the machine then ran very stable and signals where easy to hear then as you moved back towards the top of the beach it became noisy but by swinging slow you could hear the signals so i think it,s going to be a case of getting used to the noise when working in the black sand
thanks Pete