Gonehunting
Bronze Member
- Jan 1, 2007
- 1,027
- 206
- 🏆 Honorable Mentions:
- 3
- Detector(s) used
-
CURRENTLY USING: Minelab Go-Find 60, Nokta Fors CoRe, Macro Racer, Whites MXT All Pro, Fisher F19, Garrett AT Gold, Minelab CTX3030, XP Deus.
USED: Garrett ATX, Garrett AT Pro, Minelab E-Trac, Minelab
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
I had been having problems with the CTX because of the way it was not doing what I thought it was capable. So I contacted a CTX tester and got a lot of advice. So I have been hunting quite a bit since the advice and was asked what settings I was using.
First I picked the coin mode and heavily modified it. Don’t worry because you can save it to a new mode when finished. I then took out all of the discrimination, much like what you would do to set up two tone ferrous on the E-Trac. I then went to Tone ID profile and switched to Combined. My frequencies are my own preference the Ferrous line I moved to 24. The first conductive box I made it 310 hz and the sized it from 1 to 14, to cover nickels and lower targets. The Second box 495hz from 15 to 33, for aluminum, gold and some older Indian heads. The 3rd box 660hz from 34 to 42 to try and cover the most copper coins. The last box at 880hz from 43 to 50. to be my silver tones.. Now these might not be the best but it is what I have been using and I like.. The good thing about the CTX is you can set it up just like you want it..
Now some are saying set it up with auto sensitivity +3. In my hunts +2 was enough anything higher and it was a little unstable for my tastes. Now every so often I would quickly switch to manual and run it up to around 24 just to see if I could strengthen the iffy signals but it didn’t help.
I have the response on normal, Recovery Fast off because it seemed a little unstable in some trashy spots. Recovery Deep on, again a matter of preference.. Deepest coin was a buffalo nickel at a true 9 inches and it sounded and responded like it was 5 inches.
Now I think the most important setting is the Target Separation, I have it on Ferrous-Coin. You will notice when using it the Conductive targets will be red yellow and the ferrous targets blue.. Pinpoint on normal. At first I was having issues using the DD wiggle back to pinpoint, the reason was because I was trying to dig trash.. and I will explain what I mean later.
Once you have set it up like you want instead of saving it to the original mode and overwriting it, go down to Save as new.
One thing that I am seeing is if the CTX gives an iffy signal, good tone/target/bad signal or a good signal only on one side then it is usually bad. I tested this thought yesterday and documented 32 iffy tones, where there was only a good signal on one side of the target. Now I scanned a full 360 around the target, and still only could get a half signal. Out of the 32, 0 were good.. I quit writing down the results at 27 and counted five more nails and trash when I was done. I made sure that there wasn’t any good targets in the holes by digging extra large plugs and pulled every piece of metal out of the plug and hole before moving on.. the biggest resulting target of the half good tones where very large rusty nails, that once out of the hole would hit low iron. I did notice that the half tones were only on the conductive 38 and up targets id’s. The lower signals 37 down to 03 were almost never iffy.
What I have now been noticing that even at 9 to 11 inches the good targets hit very solid and they most of the time sound like they are only a few inches deep. This even in very trashy plugs..
Now I was having problems pinpointing using the wiggle back method. Now with these settings and knowing what to listen for, it is much easier. I have noticed that sometimes, I am guessing because of heavy trash, when pinpointing using wiggleback that I have to double check by backing up an additional 11 inches (size of coil) to make sure the target isn’t hitting on the back of the coil.. I occasionally had that problem with the E-Trac but not like on the CTX. It really isn’t a problem once you get used to checking it.. Its just as easy as coming in at 90degrees and checking it that way too.
Since changing to this setting my success rate has gone through the roof, especially in hunted out spots.
Now this is probably not the best setting or even worth reading, but I have had really good success since changing to the combined. I haven’t even messed with any of the other extras, I want to get settled on the basics before moving on to the others. I know there is more to this machine, but I wanted to get the basic of the machine down and become proficient before trying any changes to the modes.. I hope this helps. As soon as I move on with this detector I will post what I am doing..
I also made a video where I set it up using the Exchange 2.. again hope this helps..
thanks for reading
Evan
Gonehunting for History
First I picked the coin mode and heavily modified it. Don’t worry because you can save it to a new mode when finished. I then took out all of the discrimination, much like what you would do to set up two tone ferrous on the E-Trac. I then went to Tone ID profile and switched to Combined. My frequencies are my own preference the Ferrous line I moved to 24. The first conductive box I made it 310 hz and the sized it from 1 to 14, to cover nickels and lower targets. The Second box 495hz from 15 to 33, for aluminum, gold and some older Indian heads. The 3rd box 660hz from 34 to 42 to try and cover the most copper coins. The last box at 880hz from 43 to 50. to be my silver tones.. Now these might not be the best but it is what I have been using and I like.. The good thing about the CTX is you can set it up just like you want it..
Now some are saying set it up with auto sensitivity +3. In my hunts +2 was enough anything higher and it was a little unstable for my tastes. Now every so often I would quickly switch to manual and run it up to around 24 just to see if I could strengthen the iffy signals but it didn’t help.
I have the response on normal, Recovery Fast off because it seemed a little unstable in some trashy spots. Recovery Deep on, again a matter of preference.. Deepest coin was a buffalo nickel at a true 9 inches and it sounded and responded like it was 5 inches.
Now I think the most important setting is the Target Separation, I have it on Ferrous-Coin. You will notice when using it the Conductive targets will be red yellow and the ferrous targets blue.. Pinpoint on normal. At first I was having issues using the DD wiggle back to pinpoint, the reason was because I was trying to dig trash.. and I will explain what I mean later.
Once you have set it up like you want instead of saving it to the original mode and overwriting it, go down to Save as new.
One thing that I am seeing is if the CTX gives an iffy signal, good tone/target/bad signal or a good signal only on one side then it is usually bad. I tested this thought yesterday and documented 32 iffy tones, where there was only a good signal on one side of the target. Now I scanned a full 360 around the target, and still only could get a half signal. Out of the 32, 0 were good.. I quit writing down the results at 27 and counted five more nails and trash when I was done. I made sure that there wasn’t any good targets in the holes by digging extra large plugs and pulled every piece of metal out of the plug and hole before moving on.. the biggest resulting target of the half good tones where very large rusty nails, that once out of the hole would hit low iron. I did notice that the half tones were only on the conductive 38 and up targets id’s. The lower signals 37 down to 03 were almost never iffy.
What I have now been noticing that even at 9 to 11 inches the good targets hit very solid and they most of the time sound like they are only a few inches deep. This even in very trashy plugs..
Now I was having problems pinpointing using the wiggle back method. Now with these settings and knowing what to listen for, it is much easier. I have noticed that sometimes, I am guessing because of heavy trash, when pinpointing using wiggleback that I have to double check by backing up an additional 11 inches (size of coil) to make sure the target isn’t hitting on the back of the coil.. I occasionally had that problem with the E-Trac but not like on the CTX. It really isn’t a problem once you get used to checking it.. Its just as easy as coming in at 90degrees and checking it that way too.
Since changing to this setting my success rate has gone through the roof, especially in hunted out spots.
Now this is probably not the best setting or even worth reading, but I have had really good success since changing to the combined. I haven’t even messed with any of the other extras, I want to get settled on the basics before moving on to the others. I know there is more to this machine, but I wanted to get the basic of the machine down and become proficient before trying any changes to the modes.. I hope this helps. As soon as I move on with this detector I will post what I am doing..
I also made a video where I set it up using the Exchange 2.. again hope this helps..
thanks for reading
Evan
Gonehunting for History
