Can someone explain why my Gold Racer will not ground balance in certain areas

Bigauman

Jr. Member
Mar 23, 2015
20
36
Took the new racer out to an old mine dump near Forrest Hill Ca. The ground is mostly bed rock on top of the canyon at the dump with quartz taklings everywhere. The racer would not GB at all on top of the hill but as soon as I desended off the top into the canyon only about 30 feet it would GB just fine. I know this is a new detector but am curious why this problim exist.
 

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IMAUDIGGER

Silver Member
Mar 16, 2016
3,400
5,194
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
GR GB

You should be able to always ground balance the Gold Racer on low mineralized ground.
You may not always be able to use the auto ground balance feature.

You should learn how to manually ground balance so you can keep detecting through patches of ground like that.
Before you know it, you will be in ground that you can utilize the auto GB.

Several things you might try to get it to auto ground balance.

1.) Return to factory default settings.
2.) Lower iSAT, ground balance, then adjust iSAT.

I have found that the auto ground balance works in most situations.

Per the manual...

5. If you cannot ground balance, in other words, if no beep sound is produced, it means that
either the ground is too conductive or not mineralized or there is a target right below the search
coil. In such a case, retry ground balance at a different spot. Perform manual ground balance if it
still fails.
2. If the ground mineralization is too low, automatic ground balance may fail to work. Try manual
ground balance in such a case.

In cases of extreme ground…
In order to search without ground balancing, restart the device . If you hear a sound when you
swing the search coil over the ground, switch the device to DISC.1 or DISC.2 mode, adjust the ID
Filter enough to eliminate the sound and start searching. Since the ID Filter is not active in the
ALL METAL mode, you cannot perform a search if you can’t reduce the sound.
6. In some cases where the iSAT value is set high, the device may not be able to ground balance
automatically. In such a case, first lower the iSAT and after ground balancing switch it back to its
previous position.
 

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meMiner

Bronze Member
Jul 22, 2014
1,047
1,176
Port Perry, Ontario
Detector(s) used
Minelab 800,
Fisher CZ21, F75SE, Gold Bug 2.9 & Minelab GPX 5000
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I don't use that detector, but have noticed with others that sometimes you can overcome by lowering the sensitivity, changing to a smaller coil or (forgive me for suggesting it) turning on sight discrimination.
 

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Bigauman

Jr. Member
Mar 23, 2015
20
36
Thanks for the replies. After reading my instruction booklet over and over with detector in hand I think I got it figured out.
 

TrinityBigfoot

Full Member
Aug 20, 2012
120
69
Detector(s) used
Whites V3i, Gold Bug II, Whites TRX Pointpointer
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
First I don't have that detector. I have a 2 other VLF detectors. There is a claim nearby that I have gone to and have had some similar issues. The area has a ton of spotted rocks that signal for every swing. I have reduced the sensitivity and found numerous lead bullets and nails. One of my detectors required sensitivity of 4 with the machines highest available sensitivity of 15. From what I have been told, PI detectors handle these rocks much better.
 

IMAUDIGGER

Silver Member
Mar 16, 2016
3,400
5,194
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
The PI's do run pretty quiet for scanning such a large area of earth.
I do not have very much time swinging one, but every time I used one, I came back with larger gold.
The only hassle was digging and filling deep holes with nails or teeny tiny pieces of iron at the bottom of them.
 

californiagold

Sr. Member
Aug 7, 2014
314
761
California goldfields
Detector(s) used
Makro Gold Racer, Nokta Fors gold plus, Makro racer2, Nokta fors gold, minelab gpx5000, fisher gold bug pro and many many others
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Both the Gold Racer and Fors Plus seem to not ground balance at some places. I think it was mentioned but turn down sensitivity and isat and try again. Also if it wont balance while pumping coil from a few inches down to an inch off the ground, try pumping it vigorously from an inch off ground to a foot off ground. Has worked for me many times. The auto ground balance dont work unless you pump the coil. Sometimes I think gold racer dont get the idea that you are pumping the coil unless you do it rigorously. Good luck
 

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