maxxkatt
Forum Supporter
Seven years ago I got back into detecting. My previous detecting experience was a Fisher Gold Bug looking for gold nuggets in North Georgia in the late 1980's. Followed by buying a Fisher ID Edge for coins and relics.
Back then no Internet, no forums just treasure hunting and metal detecting magazines which I did not read. I naively thought all there was to metal detecting for coins was just turn on the metal detector adjust a few knobs and hunt.
I knew and learned nothing about metal detecting physics and coil physics or the thought of doing site research never crossed my mind. You can probably see why I gave the hobby up again after a few months. Shows you how much these interactive metal detecting forums help the novice detectorist.
I live in North Atlanta. Prior to 1970's most of North Atlanta was farmland. Yes there were lots of Civil War sites still really producing back then but I was after silver coin. After a couple of disappointing months I gave up detecting for the 2nd time.
So Seven years ago, kids grown and with more time on my hands I decided to get back into metal detecting. My research which detector to buy was rather limited. Decided to go with a proven winner at the time, the Garrett AT Pro. And it was a good decision. Easy to learn and a good machine and tons of people used it and made videos of great finds.
Three years later the Equinox was announced and in Spring of 2018 I got my Nox 800. Yes it was a wild beast and took a lot of time for me to learn to tame down in my uber junky hunting sites in Atlanta.
But my problem was to quiet the Nox I had to reduce the sensitivity and reduced sensitivity put me right in the pull tab, pop top, can slaw and bottle cap layer and deeper older coins were masked. With a later update adding 4k this helped a lot unmasking the older coins hidden under the junk layer.
I was about to either give up or buy yet another detector the XP 1. But a trusted friend over on Treasure Net (vferrari) told me and XP1 and Nox 800 were very similar and I would probably still have the same one.
I had noticed a few guys making some good metal detecting videos were sill using the CTX3030 which started shipping in 2012. How can that be? I generally had and idea that guys using seemingly outdated detectors like the CTX or Whites or Fishers were just way behind the technology curve.
But these guys were cleaning up on finding silver and old coins with these old boat anchors. I just figured these guys were just really good detectorists who were fixed in their ways.
I wanted to stay with Minelab since I had the 800 and Vanquish 540, 440 experience so I was rather focused on the CTX3030. Plus Lance used one and Andy used an XP1 and always found the priced gold items. Poor Andy mostly found hot wheels cars.
So I sold the AT Pro, my Vanquish 540 to add to my budget for a new detectors. And in the back of my mind I was convinced that the CTX was the one for me.
I sent a series of email messages to about 120 Minelab dealers and informed them I was in the market for a used CTX3030. Got four or five responses of used CTX3030 they had for sale but out of warranty.
Then a couple of weeks later got a call from a dealer. He had a widow selling her husbands brand new CTX3030 with full 3 year warranty for $1,400. He bought it but found it too heavy and it sat in his closed for several years in the original box.
I jumped on the offer and have been happily using it for the past 6 months.
Yes I need a swing harness to hunt with the stock or 17" coil. The 6" coils is pretty easy to swing without a swing harness. Tried the Minelab Pro swing harness but that felt not so good. Bulky, stiff and and just not natural feeling.
Finally got Doc's Swingy Thing harness and it is a perfect match with the CTX.
The CTX has a handful of controls that will allow you to quickly match your detector to your site. The magic is in the FBS software and of course the CTX hardware. The real magic is in the CTX CO/FE grid screen that tells you a whole lot visually what is under your coil. On the 17" and stock coil when you are over two targets it shows you both targets on the screen, unlike other detectors without this FE/CO screen will just give you an averaged TID of the two targets which tells you ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about what is under your coil. With the CTX if you pass over a silver coin and a pop top, you will see clearly on the screen both targets in their respective areas on the grid clearly identified as two separate and distinct targets.
If you are over a bunch of scattered junk, it shows up as scattered little red/yellow dots not a clearly defined ID.
My junk finds have gone way down to almost nothing hunting coins. Using the 6" coil on my really junky parks is a joy. They really pick out the good targets from the bad targets. When I say junky parks one of them gives up constant junk TID's on every sweep. So when using the CTX and 6" coil I am pulling out wheats that others have missed and it is a heavily hunted small park along the river. It is about a 20 acre park that is slammed every weekend in the spring, fall and summer. It dates back to the 1950's but only since the 1980's with tons of immigrants flooding in Atlanta does it stay so busy.
Since this park is 5 min from my house, it is my go to practice park. The CTX3030 with the 6" coil really performs using a program from IDX monster for hunting coins.
I don't really think I will be buying another detector.
And I change my mind about the guys still using older Minelabs, Whites and Fisher detectors. They knew a good detector when they got it in their hands.
Back then no Internet, no forums just treasure hunting and metal detecting magazines which I did not read. I naively thought all there was to metal detecting for coins was just turn on the metal detector adjust a few knobs and hunt.
I knew and learned nothing about metal detecting physics and coil physics or the thought of doing site research never crossed my mind. You can probably see why I gave the hobby up again after a few months. Shows you how much these interactive metal detecting forums help the novice detectorist.
I live in North Atlanta. Prior to 1970's most of North Atlanta was farmland. Yes there were lots of Civil War sites still really producing back then but I was after silver coin. After a couple of disappointing months I gave up detecting for the 2nd time.
So Seven years ago, kids grown and with more time on my hands I decided to get back into metal detecting. My research which detector to buy was rather limited. Decided to go with a proven winner at the time, the Garrett AT Pro. And it was a good decision. Easy to learn and a good machine and tons of people used it and made videos of great finds.
Three years later the Equinox was announced and in Spring of 2018 I got my Nox 800. Yes it was a wild beast and took a lot of time for me to learn to tame down in my uber junky hunting sites in Atlanta.
But my problem was to quiet the Nox I had to reduce the sensitivity and reduced sensitivity put me right in the pull tab, pop top, can slaw and bottle cap layer and deeper older coins were masked. With a later update adding 4k this helped a lot unmasking the older coins hidden under the junk layer.
I was about to either give up or buy yet another detector the XP 1. But a trusted friend over on Treasure Net (vferrari) told me and XP1 and Nox 800 were very similar and I would probably still have the same one.
I had noticed a few guys making some good metal detecting videos were sill using the CTX3030 which started shipping in 2012. How can that be? I generally had and idea that guys using seemingly outdated detectors like the CTX or Whites or Fishers were just way behind the technology curve.
But these guys were cleaning up on finding silver and old coins with these old boat anchors. I just figured these guys were just really good detectorists who were fixed in their ways.
I wanted to stay with Minelab since I had the 800 and Vanquish 540, 440 experience so I was rather focused on the CTX3030. Plus Lance used one and Andy used an XP1 and always found the priced gold items. Poor Andy mostly found hot wheels cars.
So I sold the AT Pro, my Vanquish 540 to add to my budget for a new detectors. And in the back of my mind I was convinced that the CTX was the one for me.
I sent a series of email messages to about 120 Minelab dealers and informed them I was in the market for a used CTX3030. Got four or five responses of used CTX3030 they had for sale but out of warranty.
Then a couple of weeks later got a call from a dealer. He had a widow selling her husbands brand new CTX3030 with full 3 year warranty for $1,400. He bought it but found it too heavy and it sat in his closed for several years in the original box.
I jumped on the offer and have been happily using it for the past 6 months.
Yes I need a swing harness to hunt with the stock or 17" coil. The 6" coils is pretty easy to swing without a swing harness. Tried the Minelab Pro swing harness but that felt not so good. Bulky, stiff and and just not natural feeling.
Finally got Doc's Swingy Thing harness and it is a perfect match with the CTX.
The CTX has a handful of controls that will allow you to quickly match your detector to your site. The magic is in the FBS software and of course the CTX hardware. The real magic is in the CTX CO/FE grid screen that tells you a whole lot visually what is under your coil. On the 17" and stock coil when you are over two targets it shows you both targets on the screen, unlike other detectors without this FE/CO screen will just give you an averaged TID of the two targets which tells you ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about what is under your coil. With the CTX if you pass over a silver coin and a pop top, you will see clearly on the screen both targets in their respective areas on the grid clearly identified as two separate and distinct targets.
If you are over a bunch of scattered junk, it shows up as scattered little red/yellow dots not a clearly defined ID.
My junk finds have gone way down to almost nothing hunting coins. Using the 6" coil on my really junky parks is a joy. They really pick out the good targets from the bad targets. When I say junky parks one of them gives up constant junk TID's on every sweep. So when using the CTX and 6" coil I am pulling out wheats that others have missed and it is a heavily hunted small park along the river. It is about a 20 acre park that is slammed every weekend in the spring, fall and summer. It dates back to the 1950's but only since the 1980's with tons of immigrants flooding in Atlanta does it stay so busy.
Since this park is 5 min from my house, it is my go to practice park. The CTX3030 with the 6" coil really performs using a program from IDX monster for hunting coins.
I don't really think I will be buying another detector.
And I change my mind about the guys still using older Minelabs, Whites and Fisher detectors. They knew a good detector when they got it in their hands.
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