Detecting in the wet

How effective is a detector working on wet ground, or is dry ground better for signal penetration and response.

Hi Goldbait,

Good question, i found a little patch in Vic recently and the ground was well soaked i got over an Ounce all up with my 4000 ( SMALLER BITS NUGGS & SPECIES ).

Bye the time it has dried out i will be swinging my 5000 over it. Will be interesting to see what comes out, thought i might have my 5000 this week.

That`s fun of being self employed. The old story the Cheque is in the Mail.

Cheers Mick,

Gday Goldbait


I have found that when the ground is really wet in some places it is extrememly noisy, sometimes to the point of having to give it away, the added water seems to exaggerate the ground noise, apart from that it gets really sticky so it clings to everything like your coil and pick, and your boots become clods of mud.

Also the moisture and mud can make its way in between the coil cover and the coil causing it to make some odd noises so you will end up having to clean it all out.

The best time I have found is about three days after heavy rainfall, when the water has had enough time to penetrate and cool the ground, the ground is quieter and more easily dug, I have heard people say that they will sometimes mark a target and go back after rain as the digging is easier, its ok if you are camping on the spot but in my experience if I did that I would go back to an empty hole.

Dry ground is easier to work as far as being more evenly mineralised but can be a lot harder to dig, particularly if it is very very dry and compact it can get the texture of cement and can be a challenge for any pick to penetrate, and some places are more inclined to be like that then others.

cheers

stayyerAU

G'day Goldbait.

The best ground to swing a detector over,is not wet,moist or very dry ground,but damp.Not only do the machine/coil combination's run more stable on damp ground,but also in my opinion,achieve max penetration on positive targets at depth.
As Stayyer stated;detecting over wet ground,you can expect the reverse of the above,eg more ground noise/false signals etc,in turn leading to less depth on targets also.

Cheers kon61.

G'day Goldbait.I have always found detecting in wet ground better than in dry.I have done my best detecting in wet ground.One season of was killing it wherever I went,(this is in the Triangle),but when the weather dried up my take dwindled to a dribble.My theory is that wet ground conducts electromagnetic radiation more than dry as water is a conductor.As for extraneous noise ,I've always found my 4000 quieter in the wet.Funny eh?