Black Sand on a XT 705

[Zakurie84]

I just moved to the Caribbean for a year, and brought my XT 705. The beaches here are beautiful, and its not a touristy area, but it is an area that has had a lot of naval/pirate/trade commerce in the past. The beaches, however, are all black sand. Not the typical light sand on top, with black underneath, but volcanic black sand. I tried going out and using beach mode, I cranked the sensitivity down to 15, and it wasn't working, so turned it down to 10, and was still having some problems but was able to dig a few targets. What I am wondering is, although I know its a long shot with this type of detector, what could I do to maximize my ability to detect a challenging beach like this, or am I stuck to sites inland?

 

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[HighPlainsHunter]

I would probably take a couple of the items you are trying to find (coins and jewelry) to test at that beach. I would also try to raise the discrimination to the point of minimizing the effect of the black sand (if at all possible), and see which, if any, of the test targets will still be detected. If that seems to help, then you might also try to raise your sensitivity while still minimizing/eliminating the volcanic sand.

Again, all of the above is just something I might try, and may not even come close to helping the situation, but it might be worth a try. Hopefully, some of the more experienced hunters, in those conditions, will have the right answers for you soon.

Good hunting...

 

[Longhair]

What I would probably do, is switch to Prospector Mode and incrementally increase the Iron Mask to where it knocks out the effect of black sand. Keep in mind that even cranked all the way up (20), the Iron Mask will not reject non-ferrous targets unless they're really teeny tiny. The worst part is that you lose the VID in Prospector Mode, but that shouldn't be a big problem unless the beaches are trashy.

 

[Zakurie84]

Ah, I never even thought of that longhair. This is all great advice, i will let you know how it works!

 

[Longhair]

That's why we're here. Sometimes there are things that we're not aware of, and sometimes it's just something that we knew but simply didn't think of.
I'll be interested to see/hear how it works for you.