DFX 300 NEWBIE NEEDS ADVICE

[researcher]

Here is my problem. Bought new DFX 300. Read manual and took to beach. I know is more than I need for first detector, but price was right.

First day out. Took to NJ beach after Sandy. Was using preset mode Jewelry and Coin Beach, then tried Coin and Jewelry, and just Coin Preset mode and using headphones. Was getting hits left and right!! First few stopped and found nothing! Either was too much trash on beach, I was not using properly, or this is normal response for this detector. I was getting so many hits that I would not have made it 20 ft down beach in 3 hours.
At first I was stopping at every VDF number with Icon. Nothing. Then I tried only stopping at hits with combination of VDF #, Icon and strong best data bars. I found 2 bottle caps and a lipstick holder. This was entire afternoon's haul! ((
What am I doing right or wrong? I also had problems that Often I can not get detector to balance properly. Says unable and will use default setting. Is this also normal? Way to override this? I thought I did everything right but was disappointed by the overwhelming signals going off of hits, that seemed to be erroneous. Is preset mode set too hot for beach? I chose what I thought was good spot where beach had washed out and there was shell debris field left along shoreline and washout. Perhaps the beach had nothing to offer that day? Or perhaps I just not know how to interpret data to locate finds? Any advice would be appreciated.

 

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[Hemisteve]

Sounds like you were running it too hot for the ground conditions.

 

[marjam]

Hang in there. I have the dfx with a different coil and have never hunted with it on the beach, but if the auto ground balance doesnt work where you are at, move a little and try the process again. Also you might want to try balancing in the dry sand. The dfx tracs the ground as you go, so if you ground balance in one spot, as you move it tracks the ground for changes and balances the detector on the fly.as far as hunting start hunting in the dry sand and work towards the water, then turn around move over a little and hunt back up.

If you are getting tons of signals, dont worry about any signals that arent repeatable. Also listen to how the tone sounds. Hunt in multi tone, and turn vco on. If the tone ends abruptly, it is either real deep or it is very small and shallow. If you pinpoint and it tells you it is 6 inches down, you dig down and the signal disappears, then it was a small shallow target.

If you are getting tons of signals also look for power lines close by. You could be getting electromagnetic interference from them. I would just try to move down the beach until it quiets down a bit.

The key is repeatable signals both ways you swing the detector, and numbers that dont jump around much. You will dig junk regardless, but there will be good stuff sprinkled in. Dig all repeatable signals regardless of the number or icon. People that do this are more sucessful.

Hope this helps. Let us know how you get along with the dfx. Good luck to you..........

 

[Sandman]

The DFX is not a great beach detector except for the dry sand. If you are trying to use it in the wet sand the DFX is responding to the Salt concentrations and maybe the Black Sand too. Also you should turn off your cell phone and only turn it on if you want to make a call as this can affect detectors too as EMI interference. Learn more about beach hunting here........The Golden Olde

 

[researcher]

Thank you Marjam and Sandman for the pointers. Very helpful! I was working in wet area, and did notice that worked better in dry sand, but I figured most of the finds would be closer to tideline. I intentionally did not carry my cell phone with me as to not distract, but was disappointed because at end of day saw a small flock of Oldsquaws diving in surf and wanted to take photo.
I did notice that many signals disappeared on return sweep so I took that as sign that they were erroneous. Thanks again. I'll take out again and try more dry areas and see if I can tweak settings to help.

 

[Escape]

My experience with the DFX on the beach has been good in surf and dry sand.
A few hours at a Brooklyn beach recently yeilded 3 indian head pennies , a silver ring and several old fancy suspender buckles
Beach conditions shuldn't be that different in NJ .

 

[leprechaun]

I've done well on the beach with my DFX in the wet sand in the jewlery beach mode and turned the per amp gain up from 2 witch is preset to three. Three weeks ago got a 10 K gold ring in the wet sand with that setting. HH.

 

[Escape]

You can always try resetting your detector. According to Jeff Foster / Digging Deeper with the DFX. Page 5.
Remove battery while DFX is turned on and reinsert after about a minute . It is equivalent to rebooting a desktop computer.