wet soil

[badluck]

Got permission to hunt a narrow ridge where 22 houses once stood. It is now a plowed farm field. The farmer has found at least 2 old nickels by eye and I thought I'd give it a go. Went out and the ground was really wet. My detector kept making rapid beeping sounds and I found nothing. Got 2 solid signals which turned out to be malt liquor bottle caps.

This is a big big place and I really didn't do it justice. Going back soon before the next rain.

The batteries probably need replacing, but does anyone have an opinion on how really wet soil will effect the performance of a detector.

The ground is also lumpy, dirt clods making keeping the coil close to the ground next to impossible.

Opinions anyone?

 

[badluck]

OOOHHHH, forgot to mention that there is an old indian village site on this ridge as well and I picked up a pocket full of pottery shards. Nothing fancy, just small pieces. But the potential for arrowheads is high. Many have come from this site.

SB in Ark.

 

[Lowbatts]

Sounds like a dreamy site there. Can't tell you anything about your detector but it is now a farmfield and if there was ever fence around it, there's probably fence bits in it now. Add to that the fertilizer compounds and how they enrich the mineral noise coming from the ground and I it sounds like some of the nastier fields I've hit around here.

Try keeping the sensitivity a bit lower and play with the ground balance. GB can change by the foot in some fresh fields and you'll have to find the best possible setting for the range on the site. Hope you have manual GB!

 

[thompy]

on a site with tons of old nails, i like hunting when it dry, but most of my areas tend to have a gravel base and items dont seem to sink much. i think the moisture tends to effect the iron halo more than coins, so the iron hits a little harder than other items, but moisture will get you more depth

 

[deepskyal]

I agree with lowbatts.

I detect a place that usually has standing water and my detector acts up in that area. The water makes everything a bit more conductive I believe and the mineralization from ground leaching and being disturbed like your field makes it much worse.
Try turning the sens down.

Al

 

[ThTx]

Hey, Badluck,

Were you in the vicinity of Horatio when you found those pottery shards? I ask because a MD buddy and I just recently worked a place very similar to your description. Pottery shards in a low area, hill that used to have houses now pushed down and gone, the hill is now rye grass. Used to be an old post office just across the fence to the east. Familiar?