Bad ground!! IRON on the VDI with MXT - help!!

[Gen. Breckinridge]

I went detecting today with my buddy to a town about 25 miles away and really had a bad day. The ground reading was about 67 in the prospecting mode, here at home it runs around 35. The VDI display was IDing iron all the time I was swinging it. Although the yards we hunted should have had lots of good stuff, not previously hunted, houses have been there since the late 1700s, still we found next to nothing. I did find a Hopalong Cassidy good luck coin and a zinc penny. Anyway when I went over a possibly good target the VDI would immediately change back to an minus Iron target. The ground must be full of iron ore, fragments, etc. Is there any way to hunt an area like this or is a lost cause?
Thanks,
WS4V

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Minelab PRO-FIND 35 Waterproof Pinpointer Metal Detector for Experts with Tone ID & Adjustable Sensitivity - Grab it through Amazon!

[Sandman]

When you hunt an area with bad ground like this the detector loses lots of depth when it has to fight the minerals and then report on a target in range of the coil. Almost like trying to pick up a coin on the hood of a car. About all you can do is turn down the sensitivity some an see how it goes. There also might not have been much in the area like you think or it was hunted before too.

You could try a Minelab with BBS that ignores iron, not discriminates it or has to be ground balanced and see if that helps.

 

[Gen. Breckinridge]

Sandman, thanks for the input. That is about what I expected but many reviews of the MTX says it will handle ground like this (right!). I am lucky that here close to home the ground is around 35 and I have no trouble at all. Thanks to the limestone instead of the iron minerals. I sure can't afford another detector so I'll continue with the MXT which has proved to be an excellent detector for relics and coins. I have owned several and none have been as satisfying as the Whites MXT.
Ken

 

[slow sweeper]

Which coil are you using? A DD coil handles "mineralized" ground better than concentric. Using a smaller coil than the 9.5 will also help. White's 6X10 DD will handle the ground better without much loss in depth at all. The 4X6 will handle the bad ground even better and search between junk targets better. But you will lose some depth. How much? Can't say. Too many variables involved. Every location will be a little different.
Be sure to find a clean spot of ground in prospecting mode before ground balancing. Also, if you didn't try it already, after ground balancing set the ground toggle to "lock." This allows the MXT to ignore the rusty nails and other man made iron junk that is common around many old houses.
If you didn't before, try hunting in relic mode with trigger at center position. Relic mode uses more filtering and thus is a little more stable.
Threshold barely audible and gain set only to 9, or maybe even 8, while hunting. Then to check "iffy" targets you can turn up the gain bit by bit.
And if you already did all this sorry, I have no other answers.
Good luck and happy hunting.

 

[Gen. Breckinridge]

The problem is that is no ground that doesn't contain the iron. Every swing of the detector says iron so there is no place to ground balance without it showing up, I tired to find clear ground and lock the tracking but no luck. It has to be naturally occuring iron in the soil, not junk such as nails, etc. I'm just glad that around where I live there is no iron in the ground, thanks to the limestone soil. The ground around here shows about 35 in the prospecting mode, at the other (bad) site it runs about 65. Strange. I can live with it, just not hunt the town where the iron is present. Thanks for all the input on the problem. I may call Whites and see what they say. Also I'm ordering a 4X6 DD coil.

Thanks,
Ken