Moisture content and depth.

[grumpysrb]

It's been very dry here. Even with the small shower the other day, which didn't even seem to wet the soil. The soil is either VERY hard or dust foe and inch or two, then very hard, except in a few spots like under clumps of trees. There it's just dry, very dry, and crumbles to small chunks.

Anyway, I haven't found anything below 4 to 6 inches for months. I was wondering if the lack of moister in the soil is the reason? I had been finding items as small as a Penney at 8 to 10 inches.

 

[grumpysrb]

n/t

 

[firstring]

It sounds like you live near me here in Northern California. As I understand it water and moisture being fairly conductive affects detector signal performance. So it stands to reason the drier the ground gets, the less depth. That's the downside. The upside is nothing is being "leeched" back into the ground when the ground is dry from nasty things like bottle caps and iron. And being a highly mineralized area, with no bad minerals putting a curtain on it, target seperation becomes a bit better for those shallow type targets like small gold.

 

[grumpysrb]

Nope, the Texas Gulf Coast. The mineralization can vary that much at a single site, usually where soil has been added and or moved around.

 

[William-NM]

It's been very dry here, too. Not a trace of moisture in the ground. I am just holding off on areas that are hard packed until the monsoons start in a week or two (I hope - normally, we get a quick afternoon shower in July/August).

Moisture content has a big impact on depth - I can usually pull good targets out of well-hunted areas after a good soaking. The dust and ash can make you crazy, too - I just got a 500 pack of dust masks - great, because they're only 4 cents each at that qty. and these are the accordion type that loop over the ears, medical style, so they are flat and save lots of room in the pack. That dust and especially ash can kill 'ya (silicosis aka: black lung), and I used to be a potter, so reasonable precautions are in order, heh.

 

[mudpuppy]

Yeah it does! I don't pretend to understand it, but I have noticed hunting targets in snow is different than hunting targets on dry sand, a little frost on the grass effects depth and readings too, when we get rain up here on the beach, sometimes only the top inch or two get wet, and the rest underneath is dry, and that has an effect...best depth I get is in wet sand, like at the waterline or out in the water, really wet dirt, or wet woodchips. I've only been doing this for a few years, but I have noticed seasonal and moisture effects that a fellow learns to live with and hunt certain sites for deep silver targets when the conditions are just right. Might be why sometimes we pull a great silver coin from a "hunted out" park just because we were there in perfect conditions?
Mud

 

[John-Edmonton]

I have noticed better ID, better depth and more targets show up after the spring thaw or after a good rain soaking.