Wet Ground Observation/Pro and Con

[Jarl]

I have found that hunting in well watered ground can be nice, because of the halo effect. But I have also found that if the ground is really saturated like it has been here lately due to so much rain fall, my machine really yelps at the iron. I was getting a little concerned thinking that my machine was malfunctioning because a lot of good sounding targets turned out to be nails or some other nondescript slug of ferrous. I am pretty sure it was because of halo, but maybe more like 'overdrive halo' to be more precise. Anyone had this issue when the ground was really really saturated? It's annoying...I hope it dries up here soon.

 

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[Msbeepbeep]

I hear what your saying, but wouldn't there be some slight difference like the numbers displayed?
I have a different detector. I am looking forward to some rain to help find a target I'm pretty sure is there but haven't been able to find yet.

I'm sure some AT Pro owners may know.

 

[DDancer]

When soil has high water content the salts and minerals in the soil will alter target responses for most machines. The salts and minerals create a more conductive environment for more reactive metals like iron or copper and the machine will often interpret this reaction with higher VDI numbers or expanded audio response~ ie your nail now looks like/sounds like a quarter. The higher conductivity of the soil will also limit the responses of less reactive metals like silver and clad and in effect alter your ground balance to null out deeper targets due to the overall conductivity of the soil.
The same situation exists on beaches when you compare detector responses in dry sand verse's wet sand.

Pro's for digging in wet conditions~ Easier to dig and the grass has a better chance of surviving disturbance.
Con's for digging in wet conditions~ hard to keep my tools clean Expect limited performance from my machine.

Best conditions to dig are when the soil is moderately moist but not dry in my experience.

 

[Jarl]

DDancer, yeah, that about nails it...oooh, sorry for the inappropriate detectorist pun. Anyway, we have had a lot of rain fall here...in fact, it had 'just' stopped raining toward the end of the night Sunday, that's when I was able to hunt a particular yard, so, go figure. And, I have never hunted in really wet conditions with my current machine yet, so it's a learning experience. But I have observed exactly the same that you have laid out above. Around here at least two days of no rain 'after' a rain, the ground is damp and easy to dig, not sticky and the signals tend to bang.

Msbeepbeep, yeah...one would hope that the numbers would help out more, but just when the ground is soggy...the machine gets too excited I guess...like a throwing chunks of meat on the floor and the dog freaks out sniffing and licking the floor...he just doesn't know which to eat first so he eats part of the rug instead. The numbers on my machine were a bit jumpy(more than usual), even showing pre-zinc pennies as 2-28s to 3-28s with solid screams...which is what I'd expect a silver dime to sound like...but each time...penny. In normal/desirable conditions my machine hits pre-zincs at 4-28 and zincs at around 7-27 ish. I have an AT, but I didn't use it that day.

 

[Ocean7]

yeah Minelab Explorer II loves iron esp. when ground is wet. Sometimes when not saturated, you make some pretty good finds. However, if too wet you end up moving to a dryer spot because you start to get false signals from the water or even motor boating over very wet areas.