Need Mineralization Advise Please

[reddirtfisher]

Hi All, I need some help with something. I have limited experience with ground balance machines. All three of my Tesoros have pre-set ground balance which works perfectly in Texas & Oklahoma where I use them most. Thats why I never bought one with manual ground balance. Now when I was in the Colorado mountains on vacation I tried to use my Silver Saber uMax in some gravel and also on some mountain slopes. It beeped like crazy every few inches of swinging. I tried reducing the sensitivity to 2 but it didn't help. Does threshold settings affect this or is it just useless to try to use this unit here? Also would a manual ground balance machine work even better where I live in Oklahoma? Any ideas or advise would be helpful. Thanks.

 

[BarberBill]

IMHO a manual ground balance machine will always give from a bit more to considerably more depth depending on the makeup of the ground. A preset machine detecting ground that is a close match to the preset setting will perform quite well there, but will lose performance in relation to how far the ground balance is off in other areas. For this reason, if a person is going to own just one detector, I'd recommend one with adjustable or true auto ground balance, preferably IMO, manually adjustable so the user has complete control. Never hurts you (if properly adjusted) in the easy ground and a great help in the more minerlized ground. Manual ground balancing is an easy thing to learn and takes very little time after a bit of practice

That said, another thing that may help to some degree in the situation you've described is upping the discrimination to help cancel the ground. This may eliminate some targets, but make the detector more usable. If you're going to hunt that area regularly you could have the interal adjustment on your presets tweaked to match that soil. Hope this is helpful.
BB

 

[Dan-Pa.]

Most preset ground balance units are set slightly positive and will work under most conditions...If you want to get the best depth and stability out of a unit buy yourself one with manual ground balance and learn to balance well..Might note your units may be working well without much instabiity in preset ground balance but are you getting the depth and stability you would be getting with a similiar unit that could be manually ground balance comes to mind...

 

[BarberBill]

Dan-Pa makes a good point. I use several preset detectors over ground that is fairly mild and they work great for the type of hunting I'm doing. However, I haven't gone out of my way to see if I could do even better with a manually ground balanced similar unit to see if there was noticable improvement as I've felt no need.
BB

 

[Dirtdigger33]

I live in southern Utah and my 1st Tesoro was a Compadre. I still own it and now 3 other Tesoros. I read about someone pulling a buffalo nickel at 9" and other such items from depths that may or may not be accurate with the silver Sabre Umax. I found one for sale and bought it. When I got it however, it had about the same depth in some soils as my Compadre. I ended up sending it into Tesoro to have it checked out. They said the detector was just fine and it was because of the mineralization in the soil that I had loss of depth and more chatter. I still found stuff with it, I just can use it for covering a large area and picking up shallower targets. They said with the soil being milder in other areas this detector performs well, but for my area with minerlization, a manual ground balance detector would work better. I have since acquired a Bandido II Umax and an Eldorado Umax (both have manual ground balance). I have not had much time to go out and detect, but I have found more in areas I hunted pretty well and I have gotten more depth with the manual ground balance. Hope this helps. HH.

 

[reddirtfisher]

Thanks for all the replys. I don't do much detecting in high mineral areas but it seems like it may be worth it to get at least one more unit with a manual ground balance. Happy Hunting, RDF.

 

[BarberBill]

That's what I did, in fact, over the years I picked up several clean, used units at decent prices.
BB

 

[Monte]

Hi All, I need some help with something. I have limited experience with ground balance machines.

Understanding and learning what Ground Balance is, and how it relates to your detector(s), can be quite important.

All three of my Tesoros have pre-set ground balance which works perfectly in Texas & Oklahoma where I use them most. Thats why I never bought one with manual ground balance.

I would think it safe to say your Tesoro's work OK in your Texas/Oklahoma soil, but I would say they work perfectly unless you know for a fact that the Ground Balance is adjusted for peak performance for the search mode you are using. Do I use factory preset GB detectors? Yes, at times, but I prefer more operator control that lets me be sure I have the best GB setting possible. With some preset models, I like to tweak the internal GB trimmer for my more mineralized ground just to get the best performance.

Remember, there is no such thing as a 'perfect' detector. The closest we can come to having 'perfection' is to have more operator control and know how to use it to achieve better performance. Therefore, I prefer to have a good automated or manually GB'ed detector. The "turn-on-and-go" models are fine for many applications, but for all-purpose versatility, GB control is important.

Now when I was in the Colorado mountains on vacation I tried to use my Silver Saber uMax in some gravel and also on some mountain slopes. It beeped like crazy every few inches of swinging. I tried reducing the sensitivity to 2 but it didn't help.

On occasion, reduction in the Sensitivity setting might help, but that's usually if the cause for the 'noise' is nearby EMI.

Dealing with gravel, almost anywhere, can be a problem, IF the gravel's mineral content (mainly referring to iron-based mineral) is greater or more intense than the surrounding matrix. If the ground nearby is low mineral (or where you are in Texas and Oklahoma) compared to more intense mineral bodies such as some gravel, or relocating to a more iron intense ground make-up (such as Colorado or many parts of Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, etc., etc.), the the abrupt difference in mineralization can cause you to have 'noise' due to falsing. The cause? The preset model's GB setting is often too negative to cancel out the mineralized ground.

Does threshold settings affect this ...

No, not usually. However, if you have 'Hyper-Tuned' the Threshold setting to a very high level, far above a 'proper' Threshold audio 'hum', then you might get more noise or enhancement of the spits and crackles from being just slightly out-of-balance.

... or is it just useless to try to use this unit here?

No, it isn't useless to use a factory preset GB model in a more intense mineralized location, IF you have the ability access the internal GB trimmer and adjust the detector's Ground Balance for the existing conditions.

I often have at least one (1) factory preset GB model in my personal arsenal to handle certain applications. In the past it has been mainly for hunting wood-chip playgrounds, or those with lower-mineralized sand. I have also kept them at-the-ready to use as a loaner for friends or family who don't usually go detecting, and to let a property owner use when I gain access to their private property. From Tesoro, my all-time favorite 'turn-on-and-go' model was the Silver Sabre

 

[ryanchappell]

It the mineralization is really bad, like where I live in an iron mining community, or just worse that say the mountainous regions of Nebraska, like Northern MI, and the Appalachians, which would probably compare to Colorado, then ground balance is not going to matter much.

I stick almost exclusively to a smaller 8 inch coil, and just go for separation over depth. Out of 50 silver coins 45+ of them have been shallower than 4 inches deep. The deep ones are just out of reach. I have to look for areas where the dirt gets washed away almost as fast as it accumulates.

People here don't even complain. They just accept that a coin can't be found deeper than 5 inches. I complain.