How can you tell if you hunt in highly Mineralized soil?

[Bagman13]

Can someone tell me how you know if the soil in your hunting area is "bad ground" or highly mineralized? Will you get crazy beeps and false signals, or will your detector just stay quiet because it can't "detect" anything because of the minerals in the ground? I haven't been able to find an answer anywhere??

 

[Hosensack]

This is not an answer to your question, but it might ease your concern, I have highly mineralized soil and the Tejon is fantastic in it. It loves hot rocks though.

 

[Bagman13]

This is not an answer to your question, but it might ease your concern, I have highly mineralized soil and the Tejon is fantastic in it. It loves hot rocks though.

Thank you very much......I have heard so many mixed reviews concerning the Tejon in soil with high mineralization. Tesoro and others say that the manual GB eliminates the interference and it shouldn't be a problem.......but I have also read so many posts that claim the Tejon fails miserably in bad ground/and that the Vaquero will fare better in that regard because it runs at a lower frequency than the Tejon. Hopefully the people that are posting the "bad ground-epic Tejon fails" are simply having difficulty properly ground balancing their machine.

Thanks for easing my mind.....I was thinking for a minute that I should have went w/ the Vaquero. I have already purchased my Tejon, and love it so far, but I have not had a chance to hit my CW site yet......only park/clad hunting. I live in NW AR.

 

[Hosensack]

It's definitely a harder(more delicate) process in that ground condition but once you learn it it's simple...I just keep one hand on the dial and pump the machine up and down while slowly turning the dial...it is very sensitive and will miss being balanced with the smallest of turns, that's why I chose that way it works very well. I assume that is why many have trouble they miss the balance window and figure it can't be done.

Tom

 

[Sandman]

Any detector that has a ground balance can be set to work in mineralized ground. The problem arises when the minerals change within a few feet, but it is one of the things we learn to live with. It is the guys that own the preset GB detectors that don't know what is going on. The other ones that the manufactures advertised that their detectors were "auto" balanced when in fact they were set at the factory. Setting the Tejon's GB is easy as Tom explained by pumping the coil up and down. Try to keep the coil level while doing this or the results won't be accurate.

 

[luvsdux]

BE SURE TO GROUND BALANCE OVER AN AREA THAT IS TARGET FREE!
luvsdux

 

[LuckyLarry]

You can tell if your soil is "bad ground" or "highly mineralized" by pulling all the iron filings (with a magnet) out of it and measuring the filing's volume. More than a thimblefull and you will start to have problems with the noise. High gain detectors have an even rougher time with it too.

www.tesoro.com/info/faq/generaldetecting/

Here is the info from Tesoro Electronics to explain why the Tejon (or other high gain detectors) can become hard to balance. Please pay close attention to the sections called;

#1 "What is Ground Balancing", and especially the last sentence about reading small changes in the ground (AKA "noise", or "interference").

#2 "What is the Difference Between Preset, Manual, and automatic Ground Balance"?

#3 "What is the best type of Ground Balance"?

And the section about high gain or high output, or high amplification, mentioned midway in..

#4 "What is high output Technology", and that it will cause the signal to become "unstable" (AKA "noisy").

In this article it is strongly suggested that unless we tune and watch our manual GB like a hawk we are also losing depth, good discrimination, AND good overall performance. See section #3 "What is the best type of ground balance", and read the first sentence. Unless you are highly skilled and very attentive you will likely benefit more from automatic GB than manual, the words of the very Company who makes Tesoros. Don't take my world for it, take theirs, they know more about it than any of us do.

HH folks.

LL