In high mineral soil (high magnetite or hematite or salt) don't expect 8" if your life depended on it. You can get up to 8" in sawdust or wood chips, but that's the end of it. People who live in a different world, mostly east of the Rocky Mountains think otherwise, but that's just a dream, not reality. Usually most detectors top out around 6" in the far west but sometimes they can get 7" in a very few isolated places. The absolute top dog expensive detectors on this side of the US gain from 1" to 2" over the 6 or so inches, but that is very rare. In Texas or Ohio you might achieve 8-9" because the iron content is roughly half what it is over here.
I'm not exactly sure why someone hasn't told you that yet, most decent, well-experienced detectorists know that already.
Oh, and BTW I used to live in Ridgefield and I've detected in Oregon and Washington for almost 40 years.
LL