F44 and wet sand

[CaptChip40]

Went to the beach for the first time. I've got about 40 hours on the unit know and am doing okay but still learning. I did alright on the dry beach sand finding targets and scooping them but once I tried the wet sand it was a disaster. Kept getting constant reading and chatter that was all over the place, I tried GG when transitioning from dry to wet without much success. Any tips? What was I doing wrong? I'm hoping it's operator error and not the unit.

 

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[Treasure_Hunter]

Went to the beach for the first time. I've got about 40 hours on the unit know and am doing okay but still learning. I did alright on the dry beach sand finding targets and scooping them but once I tried the wet sand it was a disaster. Kept getting constant reading and chatter that was all over the place, I tried GG when transitioning from dry to wet without much success. Any tips? What was I doing wrong? I'm hoping it's operator error and not the unit.

Wet salt sand will do that, the F44 is not designed to handle the salt minerals on salt beaches, it us a single freq detector with no salt water program.. Did you manually ground balance it on the wet sand..?

You will need to lower the sensitivity to about 10 or less..... Problem is you lose depth when you lower sensitivity.

 

[adamBomb]

Went to the beach for the first time. I've got about 40 hours on the unit know and am doing okay but still learning. I did alright on the dry beach sand finding targets and scooping them but once I tried the wet sand it was a disaster. Kept getting constant reading and chatter that was all over the place, I tried GG when transitioning from dry to wet without much success. Any tips? What was I doing wrong? I'm hoping it's operator error and not the unit.

The machine wont work on wet salty sand. You need a multifrequency or PI machine to detect the wet beach.

 

[CaptChip40]

Thank you for the replies.

 

[Phantasman]

GG only goes down to 40 on the mineral scale for soil. Manual ground balance can take the balance down to 1. Since a soaked saline soil is anywhere from 1 to 15 in mineral amounts, you have to read and use the manual ground balance feature to match the soil. Even then, the ground changes from spot to spot. But manual might get you into a 3" to 4" depth by blanking out most of the salt, but not all as the amounts fluctuate. GG is useless in areas below 40 ground mineralization.

 

[Mike Hillis]

In wet salt sand you will need to hunt in All Metal. And you don't want to ground balance perfectly. Try to keep the ground balance setting at or above 10. As far away from 0 as you can go and still maintain some stability. Between 0 and around 10, the F44 severely deadened to gold jewelry responses. That is pretty normal on most all metal detectors. So spend a little time and see how far above 0 you can get the ground balance setting and still keep a fairly stable detector.

In All Metal mode, the sensitivity setting will adjust your threshold response. Hunting in all metal isn't as hard as you might think. Once you get the ferrous audio response down, the non-ferrous will catch your attention (Zip zips) Also, you still have target id on the screen so that will help train your ear.

Perhaps you will be pleasantly supprised with a nice piece of wet sand gold.

Good luck!
HH
Mike

 

[Phantasman]

That's interesting, Mike. Last time I was at the beach was Ocean City, MD and had the F5. I seemed to remember GB of like 8. I'll have to try your idea as I wasn't aware of the more positive setting working as well.

 

[CaptChip40]

Thank for all the responses. The manual is a bit confusing on the manual ground balance procedure, at least it is for me it is.

 

[Metal Detecting Stuff]

From the Fisher F44 manual -set manual ground balance from the All Metal Mode -

"After selecting Ground in the Menu selections, perform the coil pumping described above, and listen to the audiosounds.

If the Ground setting is incorrect, there will be a difference in the sound as thesearchcoil is either moving toward or away from the ground. It sounds like youare either pulling the sound out of the ground, or pushing the sound into theground.• If the sound gets louder as you raise the searchcoil, increase the Ground setting.• If the sound gets louder as you lower the searchcoil, reduce the Ground setting.Repeat this process of adjusting until there is no sound as you lower or raise the coil."

IN Texas gulf coast beaches the manual Fisher ground balance is around 17.

Wayne

Metal Detector Sales Rental | Treasure Hunting | Metal Detecting Stuff

 

[ColonelDan]

GG only goes down to 40 on the mineral scale for soil. Manual ground balance can take the balance down to 1. Since a soaked saline soil is anywhere from 1 to 15 in mineral amounts, you have to read and use the manual ground balance feature to match the soil. Even then, the ground changes from spot to spot. But manual might get you into a 3" to 4" depth by blanking out most of the salt, but not all as the amounts fluctuate. GG is useless in areas below 40 ground mineralization.

This is right in line with the tests I conducted for Kellyco using the stock tear drop coil on our central Florida beaches.

I then re-tested the F44 on the same beach using the 7x11 DD coil. The improvement on wet sand was significant. By that I mean, I still had to manually ground balance the F44 to the very lowest range and adjust the sensitivity in order to quiet the chatter but the detection depth was about 2 - 2.5 times better than with the tear drop coil.

As the manufacturer states, the F44 was not designed for use on saltwater beaches. However, with proper coil selection, GB and sensitivity adjustment, you can improve your chances of success. On land, the F44 does well but if you plan to detect a lot on saltwater beaches, I suggest you look at a second machine designed for that purpose.