Delta 4000 on wet saltwater beach?

[Kentucky Digger]

I've heard from numerous people the the delta struggles on the wet saltwater beaches, I was wondering if there is a way to fix this by turning down sensitive or something to that effect. Anything is appreciated.

 

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KD
Most if not all single frequency struggle on the wet salt sand... that`s y beach machine are multi frequency .
Yes turning the power/sens. will calm them down you will lose much depth.
Gary

 

[SouthFLdigger]

I've heard from numerous people the the delta struggles on the wet saltwater beaches, I was wondering if there is a way to fix this by turning down sensitive or something to that effect. Anything is appreciated.

The Delta, Gamma, Omega will not work well in salt water beaches assuming you want good depth. By good depth i mean over 8 inches in the wet sand, coins and jewelry sink quickly in the wet sand ! The Delta will work on wet sand with the sensitivity around 4, which will net you about 5" on a quarter at most, in A2 mode the result is much the same at sens of 5. As Gary stated the depth loss is significant because the Delta often goes down 10" on a quarter in dry sand. There are only a handful of single frequency VLF machines that will have decent depth in wet salty sand. For best performance on the wet salty sand you'll need a simultaneous multi-frequency VLF machine or PI. In other words you will want two machines or a very expensive "do it all" unit. Actually read the forums posts from past till now, you'll learn quite a bit from the great people on here !

 

[vferrari]

+1 on the previous post. Great advice re: beach hunting detector performance. The fact that the dense, valuable targets sink deep in the sand is a key point that separates the lucky ones who find valuable recent drops in the dry sand versus those who make their own luck by finding those targets that have been around awhile but are awaiting discovery in the shallow surf or wet sand. You need the right detector to do wet sand/shallow surf detecting. Multi-freq vlf or PI are optimal for this.

 

[Garrett424]

I used my Delta on a salt water beach last year. Honestly, I didn't do very well. It was just fine in the dry sand but once I got into the damp to wet sand it became a bit of a struggle.
As stated above, you need to crank back the sens and you'll definitely lose some depth.

For what it's worth, it's fantastic for shallow fresh water. I did a shallow water hunt at a lake last summer and pulled a few really nice targets. I know I could have pulled more if I had more time. I thoroughly enjoyed that hunt too. I didn't have a scoop so I was scooping out mud by hand. It's was quite a bit of work but it was really fun. There's just something about hunting in that water. To me there's a bit more "thrill of the hunt" because your targets are not only down in the mud but under the water as well.

I found this cool old St. Gabriel medal that day; among other things.



Unfortunately I'll probably never be able to hunt that particular site again but it's surely not the only fresh water beach around.

So yeah, salt water with the Delta; not gonna' be a depth monster and can become frustrating knowing you're probably swinging over treasures you may never find. Fresh water; knock yourself out, dig all day long and enjoy the ride.

 

[hopeful_digger]

South Fl, why would there not be a better result with the Gamma and Omega, as compared to the Delta? I would have thought that the ability to manually ground balance would have resulted in more usability. I understand they are not designed to as salt water specific, but thought they could handle it a bit better. I'm just trying to learn more about the hobby. Thanks.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

It is still a single freq detector even with the manual ground balance....

 

[SouthFLdigger]

I used my Delta on a salt water beach last year. Honestly, I didn't do very well. It was just fine in the dry sand but once I got into the damp to wet sand it became a bit of a struggle.
As stated above, you need to crank back the sens and you'll definitely lose some depth.

For what it's worth, it's fantastic for shallow fresh water. I pulled a few really nice targets a around. I know I could have pulled more if I had more time. I thoroughly enjoyed that hunt too. I didn't have a scoop so I was scooping out mud by hand. It's was quite a bit of work but it was really fun. there's just something about hunting in that water.

I found this cool old St. Gabriel medal that day; among other things.

View attachment 1301606

Unfortunately I'll probably never be able to hunt that particular site again but it's surely not the only fresh water beach around.

So yeah, salt water with the Delta; not gonna' be a depth monster and can become frustrating knowing you're probably swinging over treasures you may never find. Fresh water; knock yourself out and dig all day long and enjoy the ride.

Even with ground balancing the Gamma and Omega have deplorable salty sand filtering to deal with salt. Furthermore when you approach a GB point of 0.0 to 10 which is the case in most salt beaches the depth is severely reduced even in air test. Try this trick at home, set GB to 0.0 on an Omega set sens at 70 which is the most quiet in salt and watch your airtest depth..its pretty low. The problem becomes compounded with a non optimized salt mitigating circuit that wont yield the necessary SNR to see deep coin sized objects in the wet salty sand. Falsing will also occur in high salt pockets areas even with a GB of 0.0. I live on the beach ive exhausted salt water tests with all ny units. On dry land however the Gamma, Omega, Delta are my go to machine, they are fast and deep(can hit a nickel in my test garden at 10 to 11" with the 8" con). For the beach get a simultaneous multi freq unit. There are only 3 single freq units that will go "deep" in salty wet sand and be quiet stable: XP Deus, Fors Core and Racer.

((((Reply was meant for Hopeful Digger))) Darn smartphones lol

 

[hopeful_digger]

Thanks guys. I have a Platinum, (BH version of the Omega) which has ground grab but no full manual. It does not handle the wet salt even at very low sensitivity. Its squawking will drown out the seagulls. For some reason I was thinking the Omega would do better.

Thanks for y'alls responses.

 

[Garrett424]

Thanks guys. I have a Platinum, (BH version of the Omega) which has ground grab but no full manual. It does not handle the wet salt even at very low sensitivity. Its squawking will drown out the seagulls. For some reason I was thinking the Omega would do better.

Thanks for y'alls responses.

I believe the Platinum is the BH version of the Gamma. They have almost the same interface but they're not quite the same detector. There are a few minor differences; including the price tag. I've never used either but from what I have been told they're both pretty nice machines.

But again, neither are ideal salt water machines. They're just not designed for that type of hunting.

 

[hopeful_digger]

Oops. Yes. You are correct. The Platinum is the BH version of the Gamma, not the Omega. Sorry about the mistake.

The Gamma has a couple of added features, but they are quite similar. I wish I could fine tune the discrimination and manual ground balance, like the Gamma. Those are probably the most noticeable differences. I even use a Cors Fortune coil, which is designed for the Teknetics "frat brothers".

Definitely not a salt-water detector.