Detecting frozen ground?

signal_line

Silver Member
Nov 14, 2011
3,601
1,835
Detector(s) used
XP Deus
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I was out deteting and the ground was frozen about three inches down. I noticed something was not right. Coins at four or five inches were reading "06" sometimes and I could barely detect some coins. The ground mineralization bar was about half way up the scale. The Deus was hitting more targets when I switched from GMP to DEEP. I probably should have tried to run GOLD FIELD. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Kinda wonder if I should have turned the Tx power down to "1". I was still finding quite a few coins but I know I wasn't gettig them all.
 

vferrari

Silver Member
Jul 19, 2015
4,910
8,377
Near Ground Zero for Insanity
Detector(s) used
XP Deus with HF/x35 Coils and Mi6 Pinpointer/ML Equinox 600/800/ML Tarsacci MDT 8000 GPX 4800/Garrett ATX/Fisher F75 DST/Tek G2+/Delta/Whites MXT/Nokta Simplex/Garrett Carrot
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
What coil and frequency were you running? I have found that running a higher frequency (25 khz) sometimes works well in mineralized or frozen ground (my ground is typically mineralized so I have not seen it change to more mineralized when frozen), but I am typically going after relics not just coins. Note that switching to Deep ups TX power to 3 on non-HF coils. I now typically run Gold Field (called Gold mode on Orx) almost exclusively since switching from Deus to an Orx.
 

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NHBandit

Silver Member
Feb 21, 2010
3,470
3,279
Formerly NH now East Tennessee
Detector(s) used
Garrett GtaX1250
Boy I sure don't miss that. Born & raised in New Hampshire and lived there until about 8 years ago when I came to my senses and moved to Tennessee. I can remember many an early Spring day heading out to the woods to do a bit of detecting because it was warm & sunny only to start digging a signal and finding that the ground was as hard as a rock. Not an issue here. It did seem like I got better signals on the deep stuff though when the ground was frozen. Maybe the water content ? No clue but it was an obvious difference.
 

OP
OP
signal_line

signal_line

Silver Member
Nov 14, 2011
3,601
1,835
Detector(s) used
XP Deus
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Thanks for the info. I was using 9" X35 coil. I switched the frequencies usually between 12 and 18 KHz looking for something better. Never tried 25 KHz so next time. Gold field, too. My brain was rusty and in a bit of a whirlwind as this was my first outing. I didi a web search and only could find "Lower the senitivity" but the explanation was so you don't detect deep targets. In years past I have attempted to detet frozen ground (at 6.59 KHz) and figured out the depth is lacking. I was kinda hoping some magic setting would help. Right now I think Gold Field and a higher freq. is my best chance. So will do some more experimenting once it warms up
 

OP
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signal_line

signal_line

Silver Member
Nov 14, 2011
3,601
1,835
Detector(s) used
XP Deus
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
It's possible some of the weak signals were coins on edge that other detectors had missed. But i was getting a lot of them, I don't know. A lot of corroded zinc.
 

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