🌨️🌧️☔️ scientific quick question💦🔥

[Jorgeke]

Is it better to Metal Detecting when rain than when is dry?

In terms of reach more deep target?
Easier to detect?

If yes, what is the science behind this?

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Thank you in advance for your opinion and sharing experiences on this

 

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[Hbot37]

Moist soil is ideal as it is more conductive. You will be able to reach deeper in wet soils. Water can cause some falsing if youre touching wet plants though.

 

[Jorgeke]

Moist soil is ideal as it is more conductive. You will be able to reach deeper in wet soils. Water can cause some falsing if youre touching wet plants though.

Hbo137

Thanks

But how conductivity plays on thi?

 

[robertk]

Wet soil is also a whole lot easier to dig.

 

[DownEast_Detecting]

I’m not sure about the more depth thing. I know people swear by it. Maybe plant something in your test garden that is just beyond the reach of your detector. No beeps. Then wait for a rain storm and check again. If you get a beep I guess it’s true.
But just for digging plugs it’s way better wet. They actually stay together and don’t crumble to dust.

 

[oldmxrat]

The natural salts in the ground are dissolved by moisture and salty water is very electrically conductive, just ask anyone that uses electrolysis to clean their finds.

 

[TORRERO]

Wet soil is also a whole lot easier to dig.

Me and my partner agree completely !!

 

[TORRERO]

Here's what I will tell you, water is highly conductive, like don't drop your hair dryer in the bathtub, conductive... and I would guess that a wet metal object would sound better than a dry one, (machines measure the conductivity of an item) That being said, if your digging a coin or target 3 inches deep and ANY machine will find it, what advantage does that give you ? On the flip side, if it rains for 3 days and nights ... how far into the soil does that water actually penetrate ? If your digging coins at 8-9 inches, does the average 1-2 hour rain shower actually penetrate that deep ?
Also, copper, brass and iron will corrode or tarnish over time and this type of thing leaches into the soil surrounding the item and can give it a bigger halo effect to your machine, but I doubt that this works for Gold and Silver as these metals generally don't tarnish or corrode underground..
My two cents, hope this helps..

 

[ArfieBoy]

My experience has been that, yes, moist and wet ground is much more conducive to more sensitive detecting.

 

[Carl-NC]

Dry soil compresses. wet soil expands, so based on that you would expect better results in dry soil.

However, metal detectors work by inducing circular eddy currents in targets, and eddy currents do a funny thing: they tend to push themselves to the outer perimeter of the target. The bigger the target, the bigger the eddy current, and the stronger the signal. If the target is buried in moist soil then the slightly more conductive soil can allow the eddy currents to push out slightly beyond the perimeter of the target and make it look bigger than it really is. In most soils it won't be by much, but may be enough to be noticeable. It is especially noticeable in salt beaches.

 

[Jorgeke]

Dry soil compresses. wet soil expands, so based on that you would expect better results in dry soil.

However, metal detectors work by inducing circular eddy currents in targets, and eddy currents do a funny thing: they tend to push themselves to the outer perimeter of the target. The bigger the target, the bigger the eddy current, and the stronger the signal. If the target is buried in moist soil then the slightly more conductive soil can allow the eddy currents to push out slightly beyond the perimeter of the target and make it look bigger than it really is. In most soils it won't be by much, but may be enough to be noticeable. It is especially noticeable in salt beaches.

Carl-NC

Very ilustrative

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Keep in touch

 

[Ism]

In my experience, the effect Carl described is greatly amplified on iron targets when the soil is wet, making it much more difficult (and sometimes impossible) to detect smaller non-ferrous targets amongst ferrous. It's better to search for non-ferrous targets while in iron infested areas, when the soil is dry.

 

[Carl-NC]

Iron targets have both an eddy response and a magnetic response. Moist soil can cause the same eddy expansion but iron targets can also corrode and leach ferrous oxides into the surrounding soil. This will increase the magnetic response.

 

[bc5391]

I was always told to stay out of the rain. When I was living/working in Florida, I saw a telephone pole that was 50 feet from me hit 2x's in 3 years. That is a lightening rod you are carrying
as far as wet dirt/ or dry dirt, here in Arizona, wet dirt is easier to dig, I would rather spend 3-5 min recovering a target rather than 30 - 50 min. Last year while prospecting I had a real deep target, after digging 24 inches and 2 hours, I gave up, it may have only been 90 F outside, but I was drenched and worn out.

 

[ARC]

Heh... love rain detecting... that's why i only own wet detectors... but don't do it on open sand.
I am in lightning strike capitol... and it aint no joke.

 

[pepperj]

Definitely moist ground will give better detecting conditions.
There is something else just before a thunderstorm I have had some really great experiences. Digging lots targets, hearing the rumblings going on over/near me and having to leave becauseof the rain.
Then returning to the same spot the next hunt and nothing.

 

[Groundhogg]

Heh... love rain detecting... that's why i only own wet detectors... but don't do it on open sand.
I am in lightning strike capitol... and it aint no joke.

I'd like to add, for all y'all relic hunters, that standing in the middle of a field is not a good place to be either.
In the swimming pool business we used to say "if you can hear thunder you can be struck by lightning."
Hunt safely.

 

[Bucketfreak68]

Back starting at the end of June and staying this way until almost the end of July of this year it was just bone dry in my area.
What little and few rains we got was not enough to change the conditions the soil was like concrete and was a desert camo brown color.
At the same time I was experimenting with settings changes with my Legend as I had not had it very long and wanted to take notes on audio and visual target I.D.'s.
I was also experimenting with the differences between the 11 and 6 inch coils as well.
We are now back to somewhat normal conditions now and the differences are night and day.
My visual readings were just slightly off between the dry spell we had for about 5 weeks in comparison to what they are now.
The best way I can describe it during the that dry spell all my audio sounded digital and once we got back to normal soil conditions here my audio tones sounded more analog with more nuance to it.
Now all of this is based on one location and targets that I am 99.999% sure due to the fact that I know how those targets were deposited over a 12 year time span.
But I could expect that if I drove to a town only 5 miles away from me that I would more than likely hear different tones and a slight difference in visual I.D.'s,the differences might not be extreme but they would still be there.
That's just my 2 cents worth.