GEE

[BOWSER]

After bieng in this hobby,for more than 6 years now ,i would like to point out that most of these companies will sell you a detector and claim that you can use thier product on both wet and dry salt sand beaches.I find that after reading posts for a long time, There is no such detctor in the mid price range,as a matter of fact, i think you are bieng mis led by these companies.It may be just east coast beaches ,but i will bet it's not. If there is a machine out there i would like to know the name of it. Thanks JIM

 

[Jason in Enid]

A company over-stating thier product's abilities? :shocked04:

They probably, legally, able to advertise that because it could locate a metal target on top of a saltwater beach.

Ability to do, and the ability to do it well are too different things.

 

[Dimeman]

That old IDX I had was better at the beach than the M6 - with a beach mode. It didn't false as much as the M6 and seemed to get a little deeper with the 9 1/2 inch coil than the M6 did--same size coil.

And they were land detectors not water.

 

[wingmaster]

I've heard with the single freq. detectors if ground balance in the wet sand stay in the wet sand, then if you want to hunt the dry sand ground balance in the dry sand and stay in the dry sand. I've not got any beaches here but went to Florida once when I was pretty new at detecting and done fairly good with my MXT.

 

[Lowjiber]

I agree that VLF machines are better suited for dry land. The best VLF machine I've ever seen on east and west coast beaches is the Minelab Excal. However, MXT's do just fine if you are willing to reduce the Gain Control somewhat...reducing Rx gain, disc sensitivity, and VCO voltage.

We have a member (SeabeeRon) who regularly hunts the beaches of northern California with an MXT with much success. Those beaches are so mineralized that the black sand is visible in bands as the tide goes out. Perhaps Ron will chime in with some of his tips. (I've hunted with him and he's pretty darn good.)

Regarding ground balance and tracking on the beach...Your MXT has a very fast tracking system and can usually keep up with the rapid changes in mineralization under the coil. However, you can help it out by doing two things:

1. Hunt perpendicular to the water line. Minerals in the sand are heavier and have a tendency to move in and out with the tide. If the detector swing crosses the water line, one side of the coil's arc may have more mineralization than the other and you'll get a lot of falsing on one side of the swing.

2. To help the tracking keep up with changes, slow down your swings. That's never a bad idea anyway.

If you regularly hunt salt water beaches and don't want to be bothered by reducing gain and sensitivity, get a pulse induction machine. PI's are absolutely unaffected by minerals in the sand.

 

[russellt]

yea what he said .. other wise i think you are just paranoid J :->

 

[BOWSER]

is perpendicular anything like serpinteen or walkin crooked towards the water :dontknow:

 

[SeabeeRon]

Thanks for the props John, but you said it all very well in your post!! |)
The MXT does work great out here, but when I really want to hit the wet, I switch to the PI!!