Find's Treasure Forums

Welcome to Find's Treasure Forums, Guests!

You are viewing this forums as a guest which limits you to read only status.

Only registered members may post stories, questions, classifieds, reply to other posts, contact other members using built in messaging and use many other features found on these forums.

Why not register and join us today? It's free! (We don't share your email addresses with anyone.) We keep email addresses of our users to protect them and others from bad people posting things they shouldn't.

Click here to register!



Need Support Help?

Cannot log in?, click here to have new password emailed to you

PI for highly mineralized soil?

A

Anonymous

Guest
Most of the PI detectors appear to be recommeded for light to moderately mineralized soil. Are there PI units out there people would recommend for the heavily mineralized soil we seem to have here in North central Arizona? Appreciate the info. Ken
 
Ken,
Have you ever tried the Minelab SD's--the 2000, 2100, or 2200? They work in exceptionally hot, or bad, ground. I've never tried the GP Extreme, but it's supposed to be a bad ground puncher as well.
I've found a lot of nuggets in terrible ground with the 2100--ground so hot that VLF's couldn't even run in it.
I have a little Sand Shark, made by Tesoro, that runs extremely well in terrible ground, and I've found nuggets with it as well.
All the best,
Lanny in AB
 
Hi Kenneth,
Lanny is correct, the Minelab SD series works very well in really bad ground because these detectors do have a ground balance system.
However, what constitutes bad ground to a VLF is not necessarily "bad ground" to a PI. In other words, there is areas people call bad ground where a PI without a ground balance system will work quite well.
A VLF simply doesn't like magnetite, or heavy black sand deposits, while a PI, even without a ground balance will produce little if any signal from this type of mineralization. This is where a PI really excels.
Now, I am not sure where you mean when you refer bad ground in North Central AZ, but I just got back from AZ. While there, I hunted in the general vicinity west of Mayer and found the ground to be quite quiet on my PI. Yes, there was a lot of black sand in many areas, and the sides of the hills were rocks or mainly decomposed granite. In this area, my PI was very quiet. So, one such as the GQ should be fairly quiet. There will be some ground response, but nothing like one can expect in other areas. BTW, this is the general area where I found my two smaller nuggets.
I have a DD coil on my PI and that really helps, but have hunted similar areas with a mono coil and found the ground conditions to produce minimal response even with a mono coil.
Where I have experienced a much stronger ground signal is out on the flats just south of Octave where the ground is quite red and has a heavy composition of clay. At this location, the ground signal can be quite strong if you are using a mono coil. In this area, a ground balance system would definitely be better, but a DD coil really helps also.
In a nutshell, it is really difficult to answer your question specifically. Also, one should realize that a very sensitive PI will produce at least some ground response in most areas. Just how much is difficult to say. What I have found is the more clay in the soil, the greater the response. The more gravel or black sand, the less the ground signal.
Even with that in mind, one shouldn't expect a PI lacking a form of ground balance to be as easy to use as another with ground balance. Of course, there is a significant difference in costs between the two also.
Reg
 
Top