A question for mding gurus

[fortunehunter]

I would like your input from your experience!I went detecting at a famous hot spring resort that started in 1840.Due to all of the drilling for oil in the area (the largest drilling site of all time.)It was the beginning of Texaco.The spring dried up.I am having a hard time getting any depth.There is like 2 inches of white powder on surface.It was a mineral spring.A lot of sulphur.Also we have been in an extreme drought in Texas.Anything found to be collectable will be donated to the areas museum.They are really excited to maybe add to their small collection.All around the spring where there were bath houses it is covered with years of deteriorated pine straw.I use a Whites DFX.Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!Happy Hunting.Fortune Hunter.

 

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[Jason in Enid]

Guru I am not, but I will give you my 2 zincolns...

Mineral spring... it could have a lot of salt and other mineralization that is limiting your depth. You could try going in all metal with the sensitivity as high as you can stand. You could try using (or borrowing) a PI detector to hunt it.

As for the deep pine litter, bring a steel-tined garden rake. Rake a section clear and hunt it, then rake the next section into that section for hunting.

 

[TORRERO]

I had issues with my DFX on beaches in Peru....
Until I manually ground ballanced the machine...
It's a bit tricky, but this might be your problem...
see if that helps..

 

[fortunehunter]

Torrero,you may have something there!I could never get it to ground balance.Plus there is a lot of minerals.I don't know how to manually balance.Any suggestions?Thanks!

 

[TORRERO]

Torrero,you may have something there!I could never get it to ground balance.Plus there is a lot of minerals.I don't know how to manually balance.Any suggestions?Thanks!

It's a real headache to manuelly ajust the DFX but if you have the manual it has instructions.

I seem to remember that there is a setting you go to where you you set "auto ballance off" and "manual ballance on" then raise and lower the coil and the threshold changes, you can ajust it a great deal, 1 notch at a time, or a second setting ajusts it a micro at a time....
Like one will ajust it 100 points, the other will ajust it one point at a time...
and you raise and lower it until the threshold is equal up and down....
and it's set....
but once its set, don't pull the trigger to auto ballance or your back to square 1...
a real pain...
But once we figured it out it worked ok...

 

[Dirty Money]

Try "Bob's Super Cache Finder". If you can't find the program posted somewhere, here are the basics:
AC Sensitivity: 75
DC Sensitivity: 40
Ratchet Pinpoint: OFF
Tone ID: ON
VCO: ON
Modulation: ON
Discrimination: REJ -95 to -51, ACC -50 to +94, REJ +95
Recovery Speed: 15
Bottle Cap Reject: 1
Hot Rock Reject: 5
Sweep Speed: 1
Ground Filtering: 6
VDI: 86
Preamp Gain: 4
Best Data: ON

The rest of the settings are standard as I recall. This is a hot deep program, and you may have to play with it a little. In some areas, I have to drop the preamp gain as well as the ac sensitivity.

Hope it helps.

HH

 

[Dwight S]

Once you get that manual balance set, be sure to turn up the volume on the threshold and dig all repeatable "fluctuations" until you figure out what's going on. Could be something good that is deep. The mineralized dirt is going to throw off any VDIs you are used to.