high mineral content in soil.

[KA1J]

I'm trying to get a handle on some of the things I need to know about to properly set the CTX for the locations I'll be hunting. One of the things I've been reading about is setting it for the soil conditions. One of the issues is "high mineral content in soil".

How do you know the mineral content in the soil and how to deal with your local conditions with the sensitivity and other settings?

Thanks.

 

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[enamel7]

Simple answer, you'll know it's highly mineralized when you turn it on and it acts crazy.

 

[Terry Soloman]

In Connecticut, you are dealing with low, to medium mineralization.

 

[Jackalope]

The FBS detectors process minerals differently than most VLF/IB detectors - so it tends to ignore the minerals better and obtain a better TID at depth. You can assume that if the recommended sensitivity given by the detector's algorithm (the green number on the right) is fairly low, you are dealing with a high mineral response. If SENS30 is the detector's determined setting (right number) - you have zero mineralization. If SENS01 you have the worst minerals ever. Probably average soil minerals would be somewhere in the middle (~15). Whatever the current soil content is doing (when in Auto) will be in the left sensitivity number (or whatever you set it to in manual mode).

So, if the current (left) number is lower than the suggested (averaged channel) on the right, your current soil conditions are worse than the average soil for that area. If the left number is higher than the right (in Auto), the current coil is over slightly less mineralized soil than the average you've been hunting in.

When minerals are not present (talking about only those magnetic minerals, not minerals in general), it is best to use manual sensitivity rather than Auto. In Auto it has to measure the average of three channels - when the average is very low or zero the sensitivity will be set too low in Auto. So on clean beaches use Manual mode to get proper sensitivity and not lose depth on small objects.

john

 

[KA1J]

Thanks for the answers, they help a lot. I'm new here and must not have the thread options selected properly, I didn't get a notice of a reply, just saw the replies.

It sure is a fine detector, there are some areas around here that have been picked over and hoping the new 17" coil might not only help me find something deep below but hopefully older than what was picked from above. Regardless, I need to have the minerilazation adjustment set properly for the soil. Some of the areas I'm looking to check out will be in salt marsh areas and I'm guessing that will have a big difference mineral-wise than more inland.

Gary