CTX finds. Never would have believed it!

[silversweeper]

A few months ago I purchased a very slightly used CTX 3030. Have been an etrac swinger for a few years now. All of my usual sites were hunted out of silver, or so I thought. I've pounded the local park with several different coils, directions, and swing speeds on the etrac. Did quite well finding silver coins that were missed by others but after a while there just wasn't anything left, other than some wheat pennies, zincolns, trash and the occasional clad. I actually had serious doubts that the CTX would find anything I missed, I'd mainly bought it for the GPS mapping feature and the hype I'd read from other users....and I got a great deal on it. Well.... I'm finally getting the hang of the new machine and it is absolutely finding silver that I have been over with the etrac. In the past couple of weeks I've found 7 silver dimes, a silver religious pendant and chain, a handful of wheats, and some other goodies. The wheats I can't claim I wouldn't have found with my etrac, I often skip over them and other penny signals due to time constraints. The silvers however were all deep and/or mixed in with trash and in places that I have absolutely pounded with the etrac. Some of them were faint silver squeaks in between and under trash signals. The ctx may yet save my silver count this year, 2013 was beginning to be pretty depressing for me as far as relic hunting. Lost permission on 2 of my best sites (not due to anything that I did, the owners are just a little odd and I was lucky to get on in the first place. Some yahoo somehow stole a 500 gallon gas tank from one owner and that put the squash on any visitors period!), and just havn't found much worth mentioning anyplace else.
One find in my pictures that does bear special mention is the key tag. It has "Franklin House" and the number 4 stamped into it. I found it on a hill over looking the Mississippi River here and after doing some research it seems to have come from a swanky little hotel that was in Alton, Ill. popular among River Boat tourists. It was only named the Franklin House from 1840 to about 1860, when the name was changed to Lincoln House after Pres. Lincoln stayed there during a debate with Douglas. The building still stands and is now an apartment building....apparently haunted to boot. I guess the key tag was dropped by a river boat tourist who had kept it as a souvenier. I'm going to contact the present owner of the building and ask them about the room number......the haunting is supposed to have been the daughter of a traveler who stayed there.......
OH and the round doughnut penny holder is from the 1904 St. Louis World's fair.

 

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[BadM0nkey]

WOW!

 

[Jeff95531]

Good job and good review! Thanks!

 

[Nirros]

Kinda makes me want to go out and purchase the ctx3030. Would be interesting to hit the places I pounded with my ATPro.

 

[blugotti1]

awesome finds fella..!!

 

[Digger2]

Great finds and Great report.

Roy

 

[Tenspeed]

Nice finds.

Your comments have me thinking too. Going to TTF reopened places for my ETrac and now I am wondering if the CTX3030 will reopen them.

 

[doc-d]

Awesome and thanks for the history

 

[Erik in NJ]

Nice finds! I have an Explorer SE Pro, eTrac, and a CTX-3030 (and two Explorer XPs). Brought the CTX to a place I'd hunted with the SE Pro that had several old coins and relics and I didn't find anything the SE Pro missed. I'll take the CTX soon to the yard where I found my CT Copper a few weeks ago and try it again--try to find any items the SE Pro may have missed. The SE Pro when used right is hard to beat and though the CTX-3030 has a number of bells and whistles I don't think it beats the SE Pro in terms of raw performance. The CTX is a nice looking machine and the GPS and wireless are cool features. I did just pick up the big coil for it, so I will try that too in the hopes of getting a couple more inches of depth...we'll see what happens--for me the jury is still out. Too bad you're not closer--would be fun to do a side-by-side comparison of the two machines and the eTrac too for good measure

 

[CoinandRelicMan]

Think I would go the opposite way and get the small coil, but thats just me. Have never liked the stock coil much myself.

 

[vpnavy]

Nice finds silversweeper.

 

[beau-bc]

Good hunts,nice finding silver.Looks like the CTX is working for you.Too bad loseing 2 good hunting spots,hope you find others that are just as good.

 

[wvwildman]

nice finds congrats HH

 

[testing123]

wow, now that's a nice haul! Question... at this place, did you hit it with the e-trac this year and the 3030?

I've hit some places with my e-trac, and then the next year hit it again and found some good stuff. I knocked 7 silvers out of a place this year that I hit hard last year with the same machine.

 

[njnydigger]

I think the strong point of the CTX isn't so much added depth (IMO, it's on par with Explorer, Etrac, etc.), but rather, it's superior abilities in trash. The recovery speed is greatly improved. It's like an Etrac on crack, lol. Your post makes a strong case for the CTX

 

[silversweeper]

wow, now that's a nice haul! Question... at this place, did you hit it with the e-trac this year and the 3030?

I've hit some places with my e-trac, and then the next year hit it again and found some good stuff. I knocked 7 silvers out of a place this year that I hit hard last year with the same machine.

shucks.....I've hit that park so hard with my etrac for the past couple of years, and again this spring, that I was beginning to recognize some of the same old trash signals like landmarks.......nah, not really but yes, I have been over and over and over these same spots with my etrac. First time around with the stock coil, then the 10x12, then the 6x8, the 5 inch sunray, and also the 13 inch ultimate. The trashiest areas I've worked over in a few different directions with the two small coils repeatedly when I had no place else to go or just a short time to hunt. The last part of last year and this spring I was digging every iffy squeaky signal even though I was sure they were bits of iron wrap around. Dug lots of rusty junk but that was about it. I did dig a few wheaties when I was feeling a need for a coin fix but, like I said earlier, most of those were signals that I'd just passed over intentionally before. I really didn't think there was anything left that I was going to be able to get with a detector unless some ground was moved by the park staff. And I'm definitely not the only one who detects that park either. I've seen another guy with an etrac (was in too big of a hurry to pull over and introduce myself) and know that there are a few others with different machines besides. Back around 5 or 6 years ago the park was also pounded by a couple of guys using explorers. I heard they really cleaned up! But all in all, the CTX has really surprised me and I am definitely not sorry I bought it. It will take a lot more than 6 or 7 silvers to pay for the machine though.....lol.
OH....and my pictures of my finds.....those finds are from several different hunts I'm afraid. This has not been an impressive year for me so far with relic hunting. Has taken me a whole lot of hours to put together any kind of group worth posting about.
Good luck to you all and Happy Hunting!!!!

 

[Sovereignelite]

I'm starting to spend a big chunk of my hunting time in that mode too(or four tone) I have found a lot using it and the iron doesn't mask anything. It is accurate 95% of the time as well.

Nice finds.

Your comments have me thinking too. Going to TTF reopened places for my ETrac and now I am wondering if the CTX3030 will reopen them.

 

[Sovereignelite]

I've had an Etrac for about 6 months, love it. BUT can't wait to get a CTX. Like the target trace feature.

 

[wheatfinder13]

Whoa, great finds, I like the Sherifs badge and the worlds fair token

 

[silversweeper]

I'm starting to spend a big chunk of my hunting time in that mode too(or four tone) I have found a lot using it and the iron doesn't mask anything. It is accurate 95% of the time as well.

When I hunt with my etrac, I pretty much use TTF exclusively unless I'm somewhere that has a lot of newer trash (like my local park). I love TTF for old sites and places where there isn't a ton of trash but when the ground is littered with pulltabs and bits and pieces of a lot of different conductive metals, it just doesn't work well for me and I'd use 4 tone. With the CTX I use a combined mode put together by Evan/Gonehunting and an open screen. Am loving it so far but am still going to use my etrac with the 13 inch ultimate on my relic sites. Going to be hard to beat the etrac on some spots, I can run it in manual close to 30 with that big coil and have found some mighty small buttons very deep.
Happy hunting!