Ground phase vs. Fe3- what's the scoop?

I recently posted on Steve Herschbach's Detector Prospector forum here- [www.detectorprospector.com]
So often I see detectorists' using ground phase numbers as an example of hot ground instead of expressing a Fe3 value/pie slice/bar number. Steve's reply really nailed the answer as to what constitutes bad ground to a detector. As I state in the post I think knowing how mineralized your ground is important info that can affect your coil selection(size and type), the amount of discrimination you may choose to use, and the mode(all-metal or discriminate) that we run in.
HH,
Merton

That is a great thread, thanks for showing it to us! I was detecting today with my Nokta Fors Core and noting the "magnetic mineralization level" on the display. Never really noticed it or knew what it was till a few days ago. But hey, its on the box under my arm I never even look at that screen while I'm swingin haha

Anyways, in North AL we have red clay soil in most places. Here's the readings my Nokta displays in this dirt most of the time:

GB: 46-51
"Magnetic mineralization level": 76-85

And my Tesoro Bandido II uMax gives me this reading:
GB: weeeeeeeuuuuummmmmmweeeeeeeuuuuuuuummmmmm
Mineralization level: ?

A challenge to all you guys down south that have red "clay" soil.

Take a quart mason jar and fill it half way with soil then fill it up with water. Shake the heck out of it so that it breaks down into the finest particles. You might have to crumble it up by hand first if its rock hard.

Now at 2 mins after shaking draw a line where the sand drops out (sand will drop out a 2 min since its the heaviest component of soil) then draw a line at 2 hours, this is the silt component. Clay is the lightest and will suspend in the water for a long period of time, it can take up to 2 days for the water to clear.



Still think it's clay?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/2016 12:42PM by Jackpine.

It may be made from moon glitter for all I know, but it can sure give a detector a hard time. Plus, "red clay" is a lot easier for us simple southern folks to say than "ultisol soil".

[en.wikipedia.org]