Ground Balance Question - Is this normal?

Hey Tom,

I've had my CZ-6A out to a neighborhood park for a couple hours last night and then again a for a couple hours tonight. I am using the eight inch coil but it is pretty trashy and I realize that the smaller one would probably be a better pick. But my question is this:

Last night when hunting the sand lot I ground balanced, using the bobbing method. I am pretty comfortable with that method. Anyway, the ground knob was right around 7 or 8. Then tonight I when I ground balanced in the same lot, the ground knob wanted to be around 3. I even went back to the exact spot that I hunted last night and tried ground balancing there, yep, it wanted to be at 3 there too.

So, it seems like a big difference to me, too big. All of the other settings on the detector were roughly the same. I did re-wrap my coil wire last night, but I am not clear on whether or not a difference in the coil wire position would cause a difference such as this.

Being a rookie still, I was careful to check my ground balance several time last night and tonight. I am sure that I had it correctly ground balanced on both nights. Just really surprised about the big difference. Furthermore, there is no cover on the coil. I have read that sometime material can get trapped between the coil and the cover and cause issues, but this would not be the case.

Anyway, very curious to hear your thought on this. Thanks in advance!

Best

Maybe your rewrap is the problem. I would not mess with that.

LowBoy

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If you don’t dig it, then how are you going to know what you’re missing!
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Coil wrap makes no difference..........unless the coil wire was 'in motion' whilst Grnd Bal'ing. Yes, that's a big difference in Grnd Bal numbers. Your problem was (MOST likely) a very small piece of iron under the coil (in the dirt) whilst Grnd Bal'ing that 1st time. The small piece of iron was hardly........or NOT detectable (would not produce a audio report in headphones).......BUT....was enough 'interference' that caused this fairly substantial GB differential. I have had this happen MANY times. Some were deliberate ..... for demonstration purposes....... and some were natural. This is why it is not a bad idea to 'sample Grnd Bal' in a few areas....... to ascertain a 'overall aggregate' average......as to what the ground is truly representing. Now.............. if you already know the approximate intended/predicted GB settings (because you have hunted there before)............and you achieve this approximation the first time you Grnd Bal.............then it's a safe assumption that you were in a 'metal free' area.....and ascertained a correct Ground Balance this first try.

Thanks Tom. Makes very good sense to me. It is a very trashy area, in fact, I am just about to pull the trigger on the smaller coil and my experience with this spot has been the catalyst.

Best,

I strongly recommend the DD coils.......especially if you want a smaller one.

Could the moisture content of the soil change the ground balance? Seems like water would change the conductivity between the minerals, trash, and targets in the soil. In a park where an irrigation system may have run at an unknown time maybe?

I was thinking inexperience played a problem but Tom's answer seemed plausible as your ground balance numbers differed greatly..Have been in very isolated areas and when hunting in autotune its surprising how much junk is in the ground..Another thought using units that measure mineralization from one end of a football field to the other end found the ground mineralization to change several times..Put this all together and you can see an experienced hunter will ground balance frequently for max performance. Remember keep that volume and sens at 10 when ground balancing so you can hear the subtle audio changes and all will fall into place whereas a couple of bobs and you are on your way...CZ's are user friendly in many respects but may take, weeks, months etc to use them for max proficiency...In addendum when done balancing just move volume and sens.to settings you are comfortable with...

Great subject....I do grand bal alot unless I am finding that my detector is running like a razor and finding alot of history then I stay in the zone..but yes dew on the ground water from rain...Can that change the GB.

LowBoy

TAKE A LITTLE TIME KICKBACK AND WATCH SOME OF MY DETECTING VIDEO'S BELOW ON YouTube

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If you don’t dig it, then how are you going to know what you’re missing!
How can you have your pudding if you don’t eat your meat!

Moisture content can change/enhance/activate the mineralization in the ground; subsequently requiring a different Grnd Bal setting.......different from dry ground GB settings. This is especially evident in dry salt/sand. When it rains.....the salt becomes 'wet salt'. Now......it must also be stated for the record......if the sand is simply dry silica.......and no salt covering......rain water will have no salt to 'activate'.

......With all of this; it's a 'Catch-22'. Moisture can give greater detection depths......... UNLESS the ground is high in mineralization.....or....too much iron (usually nails and rust flakes) exist.

NASA-Tom Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Moisture content can change/enhance/activate the
> mineralization in the ground; subsequently
> requiring a different Grnd Bal
> setting.......different from dry ground GB
> settings. This is especially evident in dry
> salt/sand. When it rains.....the salt becomes 'wet
> salt'. Now......it must also be stated for the
> record......if the sand is simply dry
> silica.......and no salt covering......rain water
> will have no salt to 'activate'.
>
> ......With all of this; it's a 'Catch-22'.
> Moisture can give greater detection
> depths......... UNLESS the ground is high in
> mineralization.....or....too much iron (usually
> nails and rust flakes) exist.
I was suspecting this could be a reason for the GB numbers being so different. After going to a local park with a friend that is using a MXT, when we started to dig targets, I noticed different levels of soil saturation in various locations in the park and at differing depths and that's when it hit me that the sprinklers had probably ran not too long before we got there and may explain the tiny foil we kept getting as dime readings. Very frustrating but all in the learning curve.

Quote: "may explain the tiny foil we kept getting as dime readings. Very frustrating but all in the learning curve".

Perhaps due to the moisture content may be getting these reading from deep edges of junk and the like along with small foil in the ground..

Wet ground is a two sided situation stands to reason if it accentuates coins at greater depths does the same for junk and may be your problem.
With time you will know by the audio to dig or not to dig or at least cut down the odds... Yep sure is a learning process and to become proficient spend a lot of time in the field and do some reseach on the net..

"Fringe-depth" foil can ID with a up-avaraging effect......into the penny/dime region.......on some detectors.