I am posting this here because it more relates to beach hunting?
Then just a review of a detector.
This is my take on the Minelab CTX 3030. Having own it for over 6 months and having well over 350 hours of use. And while I had problems Its still almost paid for in finds.
This may be of use to some but not to others.
I hunt beaches 99.9% of the time.
I have a little time hunting the dirt with this machine and I can say in the slower pace dirt hunting this machine shines, trash to good targets is low.
A little back round on myself I have been hunting since 1974 starting out with a Bounty Hunter II BFO Detector.
I was 14. During the next 19 years I would own every major brand of detector,in 1993 I setteled in for a 16 year period with a Compass XP Pro and a fisher 1280x for the water. In 2009 I sold the 1280x for my first Minelab Excalibur II(should have done it earlier) followed by a Minelab GT 3 months later.
Later I would get a used Excalibur with an 8in coil.
I had the CTX 3030 ordered the day the anounced them.
Having never owned a computer based detector I feared I would be lost. I turned it on and was out to hunt.This is how things unfolded for the next few months.
The first few hunts were very unccomfortable to me.The threshold was not present with any strenght, all targets had the same strenght.
To me it seemed like a beep and dig machine?Nothing was the same the from Excalibur.I went looking for help on the internet.
I grouped up with some E-Trac dirt users coming over to the 3030.There were only a few E-Trac beach hunters. I started to push buttons!
Using setting not intended for use on the beach I struggled, yes I was digging targets and gold, but it was just different. Knowing from the Excalibur louder threshold means lost targets I was confused. I was alternating between machines to make sure I wasn't wasting time hunting. This was was key to my learning process. Why? Feeling I was not finding as much as I was use too, was quickly answered with a hunt with old trusty.
The results were compatiable, what a relief that was. I continued to read and tweek the controls.I had made it a point to myself to continue to use the machine faithfully. I found some beach hunters with simila problems. We kept contact with our efforts to use the 3030, though forums.
As time would pass we all would learn by trial and error. After the first 80 hrs of use I wanted to throw it in the ocean
Gray Drayton would soon write a book that was so very helpful to all. As I used the 3030 I became to have a better understand at what was going happen when I changed settings. Remembering,I have no computer detector based exsperience. I had begun to think the ability to change
the tones on targets was a great option. I don't now! Not for beach hunting. I had been using a combined tone program for most of the first 80 hrs.
The results were good with lots of good target coming from the hunts, including gold and silver.
I have since changed to the 50 tone mode and here's why. In a combined mode your grouping targets with the same electrical signature together.
What this means, was reguardless of what the target was it was going to sound off what you tell it to sound like.Your lower range gold targets were set at a low tone and mid range a little higher and so on till silver based targets were the highest tone,sounded good to me.
Well it wasn't, I was digging all repeatable targets as one would do on the beach and my trash to good target ratio was poor.
I used the features the CTX 3030 has to help me learn why this was happing. The 3030 allows the use of two patterns with a touch of a button, one could be set in a discriminate pattern and the other wide open or just different pattern. With a second touch you could have a completely different set up of two patterns.
This is what I did I ran combined vs. 50 tones and took the time learning during the hunt,I stopped at each target and examined the results with many of the options the 3030 had to offer.(the reasons why my opinion changed during my use) not coming home with not much to post,but to me it was a necessary evil. I was either going to learn or be defeated by technology.What I learned was that in combined it didn't matter if it was a nice gold ring reading 12-16 or the more often then not pop top!It was going to be grouped in the same tone.
But in 50 tones and seeing the same 12-16 a million times and digging that 12-16 always has the same tone every time,except when they were bend or broken! So now I was comfortable in skipping those 12-16's that
always resulted in a pop top unless they sounded different.Really nothing new hear. The same was true of other pesty trash items like clad pennies,they will always read the same area depending on corrosion with the same digital wobble but the big fat gold ring that reads uncomfortbly close to 12-38 doesn't have that wobble. Its strong and stable and solid. What an eye opener these test proved both on the beach and air testing in the garage with a
hundred pieces of gold and coins and trash help me along. I would later learn how to set the threshold and find those breaks so comonly heard with the Excalibur most often points to a deep target which results in a great find.
I was struggling with PinPointing.
I still struggle if I don't use the detector regularly.The problems with beach hunting vs. dirt hunting is reovery time. Its not uncommon to dig 300 to 400 (Beach)targets each hunt. With the Excalibur you could recover the target dump, kick and reaquire with just a tip scoop. The 3030 has a PP button NOT in the best place
for constantly being held! The 3030 smart coil will pick up a target from 16 inches from center when out of the hole! That's a 32 circleI would push targets around the beach for 6 or 8 scoops having as much sand as before the dump. This just killed me.(learning Curve)
(The good news is Minelab listens to issues, soon they would write a program to lock the PP on with one touch and one touch again to disable)
A simple download and this one issue was fixed.In the dirt the PP is a killer being spot on and small hole to recover.
Now while this may not be new to those that have used computer based discrimination screens,however this is way new to me.
I have always loved the use of notch along with discrimination. But now this detector has opened to me a whole new way to hunt. This is why the 3030 will be an important tool in my arsenal for beach hunting.We have always been able to discriminate by ear when hunting for treasure rather than clad, Its always been a know
fact that if your digging clad your not digging gold. Many hunters have tuned there ears to comfortably pass the penny,and dimes and dig lower nickle tones and those that most closely mimick gold. But now with the use of this discrimination sceen and TID the 3030 offers along with being waterproof, a formidable weapon to go in with
the competition and dig only gold sounding items while being fooled by a few stray targets.You don't have to even hear any clad if you choose not to, and still be comfortable not missing gold
Its no wonder to me some have mastered this option already, and have boat loads of gold to show for there efforts!
Why did I write this, I wrote this because of my experience with my learning curve of the CTX 3030 coming over from an Excalibur. I have been contacted by manyothers wanting or having the CTX 3030 some asking question I wasn't able to answer. Some were calling me out because I filp flopped during the last 6 months.
Lots of us are getting older and have not kepted up over the years with technology. Me!This could be a bad thing. It can scare some away from buying this machine because of the fear of re learning.There will always a learning curve this one was steep for me, it might just be steep for others as well, but it can be achived.
I am hoping that this will help others see how I became to like the CTX 3030.
But its not an Excalibur and won't replace my Excalibur. It will however become another valuable tool in the quest to find treasure!
I hope this helps anyone who reads this!
Steve
Then just a review of a detector.
This is my take on the Minelab CTX 3030. Having own it for over 6 months and having well over 350 hours of use. And while I had problems Its still almost paid for in finds.
This may be of use to some but not to others.
I hunt beaches 99.9% of the time.
I have a little time hunting the dirt with this machine and I can say in the slower pace dirt hunting this machine shines, trash to good targets is low.
A little back round on myself I have been hunting since 1974 starting out with a Bounty Hunter II BFO Detector.
I was 14. During the next 19 years I would own every major brand of detector,in 1993 I setteled in for a 16 year period with a Compass XP Pro and a fisher 1280x for the water. In 2009 I sold the 1280x for my first Minelab Excalibur II(should have done it earlier) followed by a Minelab GT 3 months later.
Later I would get a used Excalibur with an 8in coil.
I had the CTX 3030 ordered the day the anounced them.
Having never owned a computer based detector I feared I would be lost. I turned it on and was out to hunt.This is how things unfolded for the next few months.
The first few hunts were very unccomfortable to me.The threshold was not present with any strenght, all targets had the same strenght.
To me it seemed like a beep and dig machine?Nothing was the same the from Excalibur.I went looking for help on the internet.
I grouped up with some E-Trac dirt users coming over to the 3030.There were only a few E-Trac beach hunters. I started to push buttons!
Using setting not intended for use on the beach I struggled, yes I was digging targets and gold, but it was just different. Knowing from the Excalibur louder threshold means lost targets I was confused. I was alternating between machines to make sure I wasn't wasting time hunting. This was was key to my learning process. Why? Feeling I was not finding as much as I was use too, was quickly answered with a hunt with old trusty.
The results were compatiable, what a relief that was. I continued to read and tweek the controls.I had made it a point to myself to continue to use the machine faithfully. I found some beach hunters with simila problems. We kept contact with our efforts to use the 3030, though forums.
As time would pass we all would learn by trial and error. After the first 80 hrs of use I wanted to throw it in the ocean
Gray Drayton would soon write a book that was so very helpful to all. As I used the 3030 I became to have a better understand at what was going happen when I changed settings. Remembering,I have no computer detector based exsperience. I had begun to think the ability to change
the tones on targets was a great option. I don't now! Not for beach hunting. I had been using a combined tone program for most of the first 80 hrs.
The results were good with lots of good target coming from the hunts, including gold and silver.
I have since changed to the 50 tone mode and here's why. In a combined mode your grouping targets with the same electrical signature together.
What this means, was reguardless of what the target was it was going to sound off what you tell it to sound like.Your lower range gold targets were set at a low tone and mid range a little higher and so on till silver based targets were the highest tone,sounded good to me.
Well it wasn't, I was digging all repeatable targets as one would do on the beach and my trash to good target ratio was poor.
I used the features the CTX 3030 has to help me learn why this was happing. The 3030 allows the use of two patterns with a touch of a button, one could be set in a discriminate pattern and the other wide open or just different pattern. With a second touch you could have a completely different set up of two patterns.
This is what I did I ran combined vs. 50 tones and took the time learning during the hunt,I stopped at each target and examined the results with many of the options the 3030 had to offer.(the reasons why my opinion changed during my use) not coming home with not much to post,but to me it was a necessary evil. I was either going to learn or be defeated by technology.What I learned was that in combined it didn't matter if it was a nice gold ring reading 12-16 or the more often then not pop top!It was going to be grouped in the same tone.
But in 50 tones and seeing the same 12-16 a million times and digging that 12-16 always has the same tone every time,except when they were bend or broken! So now I was comfortable in skipping those 12-16's that
always resulted in a pop top unless they sounded different.Really nothing new hear. The same was true of other pesty trash items like clad pennies,they will always read the same area depending on corrosion with the same digital wobble but the big fat gold ring that reads uncomfortbly close to 12-38 doesn't have that wobble. Its strong and stable and solid. What an eye opener these test proved both on the beach and air testing in the garage with a
hundred pieces of gold and coins and trash help me along. I would later learn how to set the threshold and find those breaks so comonly heard with the Excalibur most often points to a deep target which results in a great find.
I was struggling with PinPointing.
I still struggle if I don't use the detector regularly.The problems with beach hunting vs. dirt hunting is reovery time. Its not uncommon to dig 300 to 400 (Beach)targets each hunt. With the Excalibur you could recover the target dump, kick and reaquire with just a tip scoop. The 3030 has a PP button NOT in the best place
for constantly being held! The 3030 smart coil will pick up a target from 16 inches from center when out of the hole! That's a 32 circleI would push targets around the beach for 6 or 8 scoops having as much sand as before the dump. This just killed me.(learning Curve)
(The good news is Minelab listens to issues, soon they would write a program to lock the PP on with one touch and one touch again to disable)
A simple download and this one issue was fixed.In the dirt the PP is a killer being spot on and small hole to recover.
Now while this may not be new to those that have used computer based discrimination screens,however this is way new to me.
I have always loved the use of notch along with discrimination. But now this detector has opened to me a whole new way to hunt. This is why the 3030 will be an important tool in my arsenal for beach hunting.We have always been able to discriminate by ear when hunting for treasure rather than clad, Its always been a know
fact that if your digging clad your not digging gold. Many hunters have tuned there ears to comfortably pass the penny,and dimes and dig lower nickle tones and those that most closely mimick gold. But now with the use of this discrimination sceen and TID the 3030 offers along with being waterproof, a formidable weapon to go in with
the competition and dig only gold sounding items while being fooled by a few stray targets.You don't have to even hear any clad if you choose not to, and still be comfortable not missing gold
Its no wonder to me some have mastered this option already, and have boat loads of gold to show for there efforts!
Why did I write this, I wrote this because of my experience with my learning curve of the CTX 3030 coming over from an Excalibur. I have been contacted by manyothers wanting or having the CTX 3030 some asking question I wasn't able to answer. Some were calling me out because I filp flopped during the last 6 months.
Lots of us are getting older and have not kepted up over the years with technology. Me!This could be a bad thing. It can scare some away from buying this machine because of the fear of re learning.There will always a learning curve this one was steep for me, it might just be steep for others as well, but it can be achived.
I am hoping that this will help others see how I became to like the CTX 3030.
But its not an Excalibur and won't replace my Excalibur. It will however become another valuable tool in the quest to find treasure!
I hope this helps anyone who reads this!
Steve
,when they finally loose bussiness, and beam back down to earth,then only, i might buy another Minelab,untill then,the other manufacturer's get my bussiness,thank's for the view,good luck with your machine,earl
