CTX3030 First time out

[denwag]

Spent 2 hours today only had the CTX3030 for one day. Went down to a permission that I have burned up with a V3i and a 13" coil and hit with an At Pro to. The last three times I went out the picking were getting pretty slim.

Went over the same areas today and found 6 wheats and a Merc. Using the default coin program. Only dug repeatable 12-36 to 12-45 hits and there they were. Only one piece of trash and a fork. One wheat was almost 7"dp.

Normal Pinpointing mode is really nice and very accurate.

Me Like A lot.

regards

 

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[jerry93]

I'm trying to decide from a ctx. 3030 or a V3i

 

[beerguy]

Denwag, I just got mine a few weeks ago. I have a similar opinion.

Did you get the big 17" coil?

I have not tried it out yet, still getting a feel for it, but I cannot wait to hit my favorite sites!

 

[denwag]

I'm trying to decide from a ctx. 3030 or a V3i

I have them both. My opinion The V3i will save you digging some trash that you might dig with the CTX. Bottlecap, some small pcs of metal about the size of a coin V3i will tell you not to dig them with the spectrograph.

But and its a big but. The CTX does so many things in the background that the V3i does not . In one day with the help of some videos and the Andy Sabisch book have learned all there is to know about the menu structure. I probably will never learn every thing I can change on the V3i. With the V3i you are always fighting EMI and Ground Balance by changing settings. With the CTX you do an assessment with one click of a button and you never have to worry about EMI again at that site. Ground balance is also simple and works very well. With a few clicks you are done on creating a new Mode.

Does it find coins better. Not sure today it found good coins in a high trash environment and in a quiet environment that I could not resolve with my V3i and 13" coil but again after 5 months of using he V3i I still do not know quite what I am doing to get the best performance in different environments.

But I wiil say this the CTX if Fun and is very will built and at the very least it is as good or even better than the V3i at Finding treasure. Only time will tell for me on that one.

 

[denwag]

Denwag, I just got mine a few weeks ago. I have a similar opinion.

Did you get the big 17" coil?

I have not tried it out yet, still getting a feel for it, but I cannot wait to hit my favorite sites!

Yes I got the 17" coil but right now all of the fields are to muddy to get in. I might put it on and play around in the front yard tomorrow

 

[beerguy]

Cool. I got the 'package 2' from Bart, so I also got the Coiltek 5x10, so I am anxiously awaiting the new lower shafts from Anderson, and making a proper sand scoop and floating sifter. I am ready to hit the lakes this spring! dug a few plugs and had them fill up with water, so I figured I may as well switch to lake hunting while things dry out.

 

[Jason in Enid]

..... Ground balance is also simple and works very well. With a few clicks you are done on creating a new Mode.

.

First, welcome to the world of the CTX! If you are happy now, wait until you get some hours under your belt and you really have a solid understanding of it! Just FYI, 7" is nothing to the CTX. Expect to get solid hits from dimes in the 9 - 10" range (as long as they are there)

Lastly, about the GB. There is a LOT of confusion, incorrect use of the term when dealing with the CTX. I hope that you are leaving the GB turned OFF unless your suggested sensitivity level is in the single digits. Enabling GB when it's not needed will actually hurt your performance and depth abilities.

 

[denwag]

First, welcome to the world of the CTX! If you are happy now, wait until you get some hours under your belt and you really have a solid understanding of it! Just FYI, 7" is nothing to the CTX. Expect to get solid hits from dimes in the 9 - 10" range (as long as they are there)

Lastly, about the GB. There is a LOT of confusion, incorrect use of the term when dealing with the CTX. I hope that you are leaving the GB turned OFF unless your suggested sensitivity level is in the single digits. Enabling GB when it's not needed will actually hurt your performance and depth abilities.

Yes I have so much to learn. I did manage to create the Dr. Tones Patterns and modes in Xchange 2 and upload them to my CTX this morning. I was alternating between Dr. Tones Coins and High Trash modes finding coins in places I cound not get repeatable Hits on the V3i. Im very happy with it.

 

[denwag]

Religated to 2nd place now

I hate to say it but as much as I love my V3i I am afraid its going to set a lot more after spending just 2 days with my new CTX3030. I created and uploaded some of the modes in Andy Sabisch's CTX manual. I created an Old US Coins for Deep and High Trash modes as well as the general Dr. Tones modes and Dr. Tones High Trash. Went out in my front yard tonight. I have been over the same area probably 15 times in the last four months and was alternating between Deep and High trash US Coins modes depending how close I was to the house. Our House was build in 1961 so there might be a few silvers here but I have never found one UNTIL TONIGHT. Was swinging along and get a 13-45 consistent 4" dp. Must have been on its side because It was not as strong as the wheats at the same depth I have been picking up at a permission. Dug down and at 4" a 62 rosie poped out. That's after 15 minutes of swinging!

This FE-CO thing is really unbelievable. I really love how the display build a valid target as you sweep over it and it also shows you what around it at the same time.

regards

 

[MrMikeJackie]

I hate to say it but as much as I love my V3i I am afraid its going to set a lot more after spending just 2 days with my new CTX3030. I created and uploaded some of the modes in Andy Sabisch's CTX manual. I created an Old US Coins for Deep and High Trash modes as well as the general Dr. Tones modes and Dr. Tones High Trash. Went out in my front yard tonight. I have been over the same area probably 15 times in the last four months and was alternating between Deep and High trash US Coins modes depending how close I was to the house. Our House was build in 1961 so there might be a few silvers here but I have never found one UNTIL TONIGHT. Was swinging along and get a 13-45 consistent 4" dp. Must have been on its side because It was not as strong and the wheats at the same depth I have been picking up at a permission. Dug done and at 4" a 62 rosie poped out. That's after 15 minutes of swinging!

This FE-CO thing is really unbelievable. I really love how the display build a valid target as you sweep over it and it also shows you what around it at the same time.

regards

Wait till you're eyes are fully open, I too was a Whites guy for a long time. Watching me and my finds triple in numbers caused many around me to make the switch.

 

[Jason in Enid]

When I hunt parks and other public spots, many of the silvers I dig are deep and on-edge. I have dug silvers that had gouges from other hunter's diggers hitting them and knocking them sideways. Don't be afraid to dig those funky, uneven, bad FE-CO signals. Some of them can be silvers missed all these years. Pay attention to exactly how the it sounds, how it pinpoints, how it responds, then note what you dug. You'll be a master at it soon and digging coins nobody else would touch!

I want to give you an example from Friday. I had to travel to a town I used to live in, so I decided to get in some detecting while there. I decided to hunt one of my old hot-spots. A Buddy an I pounded the heck out of this place 20 years ago, and I guess we did a pretty good job, but we didn't get it all. Last target was pretty funky. The VDI (in high-trash) was really jumpy and kept jumping from 01-45 to 01-50, 12-38, 10-48... You get the idea. It spent a lot of time up in 01-45 spot though. When I tried to pinpoint, the signal just kept getting stronger as I moved away from the target in one direction. I changed to a Fe-COIN and it was still there, still jumpy, but it spent a lot of time around 12-45. There was a lot of iron grunting around the spot too. What it was really acting like, was a large iron rod, pointing slightly upward in the ground.

Here is why I dug: Even though the VDI was all over, I was getting a solid TONE in the exact same spot every time. It was better one way than the other, but still there. There was something in pinpoint at the exact same spot as the high-tone, even though the target got stronger as I moved away. This combination should always be dug!



That was in the hole, 8 inches deep! Although, I initially dug a 6-8 inch wide plug and didn't get it. The pinpointer indicated in the bottom-side of the hole, so I dug out that side and found the target. Even though this should have been an easy, obvious target, here is what I think was going on.
1- this was deep at about 8 inch. That is too deep for many detectors, including the 1980's detector I last hunted this site with.
2- this WAS next to iron. I didn't dig it out, but it is what kept drawing my pinpoint away from the target.
3- I am almost positive this was on-edge in the hole. Highly angled and on-edge coins always pinpoint away from the coin. The deeper they are, the more it throws off the pinpoint. I think it being on-edge is also what was causing a lot of the signal jumpiness. It was getting some of the whole-coin signal, and some the on-edge signal, and a little of the iron bleed-through signal.

Now, I was expecting just large iron but I felt that IF it was a coin it would likely be a silver dollar. Dollars read on the FE-01 line in high-trash, but on the FE-12 line in FE-Coin.

Hopefully that will give you a little insight into how to be analyzing and thinking about those not-perfect signals you hear.

 

[denwag]

Thanks a lot for input I have already come across a few targets very similar to what you described. In fact I also dug a 1940 walker that pippointed almost 12 inches away from the discrimination target. But that was with the V3i. Andy Sabisch's book says a half and larger silver will jump up to the 0-46 area when using Low Trash or High Trash. I got some hits today that were bouncing around in the 12-45 to 12=46 and also 01-45 03-45 pin pointing said 8 dp but I never found it. Perhaps I should go back to that hole with a big shove and do a little more excavation.

 

[Jason in Enid]

Some times those targets are large non-ferrous junk that is really deep. If the depth said 8, it should be pretty close to that. I would go down to 12, but if you haven't found it, you need to check the sides of the hole with a pinpointer. When that fails me, I with begin widening out the bottom half of the hole and checking the sides with the pinpointer. I have found a number on-edge coins like that.

Sweet Walker there. Those are one of my favorite coins!

 

[denwag]

Yes from my few experiences with edge on coins and air testing neither the disc location or the pinpoint location is correct but the actual location is always somewhere between the two.

 

[Pointman]

I enjoyed reading this thread because it give input from different viewpoints, Andy's book, experienced and not as experienced. I wanted to mirror a few of the comments.

I've been using the CTX extensively since late 2013 and after using almost all the machines out there, it still is probably the best machine that I have used, so much so, that you can learn to rely TOO much on what it is telling you and not dig many targets that appear to junk. That machine will spoil you and this is why I also like using machines that offer less information (Tesoro for example) to go back over my old sites. Generally, if I detect a site with the CTX and either cherry pick, or do a semi-cherry pick of the area (rely too much on the VDI) I will sometimes pass low conductors or miss deep (8+) wheat cents. Doing a check later with a deep tone-only machine has enabled me to pick a few more keepers out, but this is what works for me.

I recently purchased Andy's new book and I built Brandon Neice's (Dr. Tones) program into my machine. Except for notching out the extreme right side of the pattern, he had a very similar program as what I had in my machine down to the tone frequencies. I only lowered the sounds of the nickels (12.13 or so) and to what I am used to hearing and the tones for things lower than coins. Whatever you register the sounds at the the tones need to be different enough in your mind in order to be able to train your mind toward what they could be registering.

I agree with Jason concerning signals that jump about. I quite frequently dig very iffy signals. I would say that only 2 out of 10 silver coins I dig read/act/sound like a silver coin. I am almost always surprised when I dig a silver coin because my readings will not usually be higher than a 12.42-43. Wheats and copper pennies are really bad about their readings jumping around. If you get a coin reading even for a split second and it sounds good for just a split second, slow way down and try and move and get it at multiple angles to pinpoint. Slow your coil down to 1-2" swings and push the pinpoint button and if you have to re-tune it by letting off and immediately push it again (I use normal pinpoint). I believe it is true that good signals almost always read/register in two directions, but I have seen a lot of times that they only register in one and usually there are nails or some sort of ferrous junk in the same hole. Learn to look for the red cross hairs when this happens and it will give you a better idea of what is going on below the surface. Lastly, I rely on the sounds first (my ears) and then how they are appearing on the screen and THEN what the VDI reads. This is where I like using the target trace because you can have a decent sound with a terrible VDI reading and an icon that is all over the place, but the target trace will show you where the high tone is reading on the screen.