XP Deus and CTX on natural targets

[CT Todd]

I got out tonight after work for a short hunt. I've been to this field many times over the last few weeks and have done well there. I've been detecting it with the CTX no reason just have been picking up the CTX lately. So tonight I went back but brought the Deus along on purpose. I have been hunting one smallish area hard and gridding it. I've been detecting a long time with the CTX and feel that I'm pretty competent with it. I hunt it with no discrimination. Now there are a lot of things that can affect what you will find or not. From adjacent targets to barometric pressure on a given day to moisture in the ground. Not to mention detector frequency, direction of travel and coil size. Today I hunted my Deus in my normal deep search program that uses 8 kHz I started my detecting in the same direction and place as last time there. I hit a KGII and a CTCopper also a coin sized Rosette.
Now why is it that these coppers were still there for me to find. They weren't over 6". Yes it's possible that I missed these three targets but I really don't think so. It's my opinion that it has more to do with two different machines on the same ground. Almost any two machines.

 

[calabash digger]

hmm interesting post,cant wait to see the comments killer finds btw

 

[JackalopeZL1]

n/t

 

[Lodge Scent]

I sometimes scratch my head Todd, wondering how me and 100 other detectorists could have missed certain targets. I found a copper this weekend at a pounded cellar hole in the small little door yard area that you know everyone and their uncle has gravitated to as soon as they get to the site. These "stubborn" targets are almost always masked with iron, and sometimes surrounded by iron. It takes a high end machine to even have a chance at seeing it. I think it boils down to having your machine tuned just right to be able to hear certain targets under certain conditions. And what may work for you on one day may not work on another, depending weather and moisture etc.

This copper I found Saturday I found using a program that you would have been right at home with. It featured a good bit of notch. It let that peep from the copper sound clear and distinct in spite of all the iron. I switched to a wide open program to see what it would sound like. It was there of course but if I wasn't paying attention, I could have missed it in all the other noise. Can't ignore the human factor either.

I also don't think we cover an area as well as we think we do. When I hunt in the snow, I am always a bit shocked at how much ground I miss. The snow doesn't lie. But, I'm with you....there are some targets that I KNOW I have put my coil over before and missed for what ever reason.

 

[martygene]

Nice post Todd. I use my Deus all the time and hunt wtih a buddy that uses a CTX. Quite often he has a great day and I don't do well and on the next site its vise versa. There aren't many days were we both do well. There must be many variables like you mention to take in to consideration.

 

[Waterdog]

I have gone over areas on private property with one machine many times, only to come out with another machine and its like I had never been there before. I think it is just the way different machines work.

 

[Des D]

IMHO

I would agree with what CT Todd described. I too have hunted with an E Trac, CTX, Deus, X-Terra's all at the same time and there can be variations.
My belief is it's down to coil windings - different amounts of copper windings in for example, a LF (Low Frequency) can be quite heavy in actual physical weight and therefore have the greatest tendencies 'to excite' eddy currents in buried targets. Todd did say he was working in 8kHz which would back up my opinion.
My testing will always see me back at sites hunted sites since the '70's and it's always very assuring to make new finds where other coils passed over without signalling 'anything' or if they did, signals may have been 'garbled, junky, trashy' and dismissed as that. With Meter ID machines if this happens and the numbers 'jump around' I may be too quick to dismiss these as junk. One of my tests sites in particular - probably the very worst one I have for iron contamination has the tendency to do what I just described. Recently, an AT Pro 'unlocked' a few targets where previously, E Trac, CTX, Deus etc "were blind"
I should add the ATP is 15kHz but it's probably the overlap DD's contribute to a more surgical 'sweep' than the others? i.e. more excited targets.

 

[E-Trac-Ohio]

Yes... I've also seen this many times.
When I find a site that gives up some real nice finds I like to hunt the area with the Deus and then go back with my E-Trac to see if I missed anything - it works !
It's a little like getting opinions from two different doctor's.

Good Hunting !

 

[Charles (Sabre)(Tx)]

"It's a little like getting opinions from two different doctor's."

Now that is a cool way of putting it! I couldn't have said it better myself.
Yep...XP Deus and Minelab...a killer combo!

Charles