Wet ground vs, dry ground

[lookingharder]

As I sit here healing up, I'm reading a lot of post of members out hunting in the rain. Just wondering, does wet ground hunt any different than dry ground? Does it effect how deep you can pick up a target? Target ID? I'll be the first to admit that I know nothing about all the technical stuff about metal detectors. I'm pretty much a turn it on, tune it and go guy.

 

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[Roundness]

I seem to find targets a little deeper with a little better ID when the ground is saturated vs dry ground with any detector I have used. Not a lot but noticeable.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Wet soil has better conductivity so you will see deeper on land. At the beach a hard rain delutes the salt out of the wet sand above the water line and allows you to detect deeper as well.

 

[cudamark]

Wet soil has better conductivity so you will see deeper on land. At the beach a hard rain delutes the salt out of the wet sand above the water line and allows you to detect deeper as well.

Except for using a single frequency machine. Those work fine in the dry sand, but, once it gets wet, they start to false like in the normally wet sand.

 

[smokeythecat]

I do best in wet or partially frozen ground.

 

[FingerChili]

In the park when I want to limit hole size I noticed in the wet that I run a little less sensitivity than the dry, (3 vs 4-5 on ace 350) and the pinpointing accuracy of targets deeper than 2" is pretty good compared to dry. Dry accuracy has always been a little off. The beach is odd though, since I use a scoop instead of a spade or screw driver, it's hard to say since the scoop size is within the margin of error. I have found big stuff like soda cans, rebar or bolts and cut off sign posts 12"+ deep. I don't go past the high tide line though because it becomes unsearchable.

Target ID for ring pulls was really good, but most other stuff was sort of accurate to inaccurate. Steel bottle caps are coins, aluminium bottle caps are coins or pull tabs, modern soda can tabs are coins, brass shells are coins, coins are other coins, foil, nails and wire are everywhere, iron relics are usually iron.

 

[dave_e]

You can generally detect deeper targets when the ground is wet.

One caveat to that though is hunting iron infested sites. It seems that very wet ground amplifies the halo affect there and good targets get easily masked by it.

I prefer to hunt those iron riddled sites when it's bone dry, as depth isn't a factor there and it's all about target separation.

 

[Carolina Tom]

The moist soil is more conductive, the machine just plain works better on it, it goes deeper and the targets seem to hit harder. The other upside is that digging is a lot easier, our ground is mostly red clay, when it dries up, it's as hard as concrete.

Some of us dig plugs in the turf, when it's wet, the plug comes out better, and the grass doesn't die off, leaving a yellow spot.

I can think of other things that are better when moist, but I will just show myself out now.

Best of luck to you sir!

 

[releventchair]

Spring is prime detecting time here when snow melts.
Wet soil ,iron is an issue. When water shows in plugs I've had zinc cents ring up as iron.....Not 7ncommon to have high iron content in water itself in some areas.
Damp soil though ,(when below just the surface and reaching a foot or more) has allowed my deepest recoveries ,unmatched in later dry summer soils. A heavy summer rain only dampening soil a couple inches,depending on type and area.

Try it! Just expect readings to be off a little if real wet. Dig some iffy's to get ideas.

 

[Rookster]

No doubt after a good rain the conductivity is better. I've also noticed sensitivity can be reduced some making the machine run smoother.

 

[lookingharder]

Thanks guys for the reply's. Very informative. So dealing with the signal issue, do you guys dig every target or can you discriminate enough to rule out iron nails and other trash? I have a ATGold and am trying to learn how to fine tune it a little better. FingerChili's post "Target ID for ring pulls was really good, but most other stuff was sort of accurate to inaccurate. Steel bottle caps are coins, aluminium bottle caps are coins or pull tabs, modern soda can tabs are coins, brass shells are coins, coins are other coins, foil, nails and wire are everywhere, iron relics are usually iron." is why I'm asking

 

[dave_e]

Some of the old home sites I hunt have SO MANY signals, it would be destructive and disrespectful to the owners to dig everything. It’s a popular saying with some detectorists, but is really site dependent. In a plowed field or on a beach I’d dig everything above nail signals though.

 

[HighVDI]

I have mixed feelings on the iron halo falsing and deep non ferrous signals. I definitely noticed more falsing recently since our soil is like a wet sponge right now.......but I also got a phantom high tone large cent in between a bunch of iron.

So I guess in my case it can be a double edged sword.

 

[Carolina Tom]

Digging all targets is site dependent. Our latest site had a lot of "good" signals, easily identifiable high tone "coin" signals. The property owner said that we could tear the place up, since bulldozers would be there at some point. We still fill the holes and try to keep it nice looking. After several of us dug holes for a few weeks, the good signals were few and far between... so we started digging all repeatable signals. Of course we dug a TON of trash, but we got a lot of good targets from bad signals, and some coins that were masked.

I like to try to dig all the repeatable signals. Sometimes it's just not possible though.

I hope you heal quickly, and get out digging soon!

 

[Ammoman]

My past two hunts have been in Soggy soil. I find all targets to have the halo effect where the object tends to sound larger than it is. Its a different kind of hunt where digging is easy but locating the target can be troublesome. Mud sticks to everything, your gloves get wet and trying to pull a coin out of a hole with mud stuck to them is like picking up a penny with boxing gloves on. It takes some finesse to do this and more times than not, you find yourself pulling the gloves off in order to pick up the item. i prefer moist soil but i will take what i can get. Here is a picture of one of my holes from yesterday.

 

[against the wind]

Yep,, moist is better but mud can be tough.