Ground Balance Question

[dping]

About a week ago I bought an X-Terra 705. This is the first detector I have ever owned. I've been practicing with it almost daily, even though I haven't yet ventured off of my land with it. The areas I've been hunting has been auto ground balancing in the low 20's. I did find a couple of spots that will balance in the low 40's, but I have attributed that to being an area where fill dirt from another location was brought in when I built my house. The ground has been very hard and dry. It also has some clay mixed in with it. Last night we got a nice rain and the ground is now fairly wet. I went out for a while this morning and I noticed the same area's where the ground has been auto balancing in the low 20's is now auto balancing in the high 40's to mid 50's. Is it normal for moisture to change the ground balance this much? Does the moisture affect anything else such as TID, Depth, etc.

Thanks for the help. I'm still a newbie trying to figure this metal detecting thing out.

Doug

 

[BH_Landstar_]

Yes, the wet ground will produce different results.

The wet ground will increase the depth of finds in most cases.

The wet ground will also allow the detector to see objects that could not be detected in dry ground.

The wet ground will also enhance the detector in such a way that it will see coins on edge. I've been using the stock coil (I have the Gold Pack) and the 5 X 10 coil works really well for me here when the ground is wet.

 

[elrodcod]

I notice the same thing in my yard. The ground balance varies with the moisture content of the soil.

 

[dping]

Thanks guys. Like I said, I'm new to this. It was quite a surprise for me to see such a variation and I started second guessing myself thinking maybe I had been doing something wrong.

Doug

 

[Old Longhair]

And I've noticed that higher ground balance #'s yeild higher TID's.
I hunted one place yesterday where GB was about 17 and TID's were pretty normal (copper memorials @ 3, then went to another location where the GB was 35 and suddenly copper memorials were comming in @ 40-42 (noise cancel & GB were done auto both places).