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Hunting Burned Areas With Makro Gold Racer


KatAU

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Hi Steve, I googled the Makro Gold Racer for hints and settings advice and came across your review and this forum. I just purchased the large coil and when I first put it on it went crazy flashing numbers like it was possessed. It was unstable. The manufacturer said to bump the sensitivity down a notch. I did and it seemed to help, but it still freaks out every so often. On one hot day I couldn't get it to settle at all. Have you come across this and if so, what is your solution? I am searching in mineralized red dirt that has been turned by dozers due to recent fire. 

Settings: Sensitivity 30, Threshold 25, ISAT 10

Thanks for advice, I know this is an old thread...

Katherine

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On 9/23/2017 at 9:53 AM, KatAU said:

I am searching in mineralized red dirt that has been turned by dozers due to recent fire. 

Welcome to the forum Katherine!

Worst stuff in the world, and even the best most expensive detectors struggle in burn areas. The heat bakes the surface rock and soil and converts many of the rocks into maghemite, a particularly severe form of hot rock. Charcoal in the ground also creates cavities in the mineralization that causes problems. Breaking the surface seems to make things worse. I can get a detector running decent on undisturbed burn areas, and then when I dig a hole to soil exposed causes the detector to go nuts.

Frankly, a large coil on a hot detector like the Gold Racer SHOULD freak out on ground like that! I have no advice except lowering sensitivity and increasing iSAT which you appear to be doing. Smaller coils should be more stable - the big coil really is for milder ground. The sad truth is some places just do not suit hot detectors running at relatively high frequencies. A lower frequency VLF or a PI is often the only option, and even a good PI struggles in burn areas.

Separately I can't discount the possibility there is a hardware issue here but in general it just sounds like what I would expect in a burn area. Now if you have the same issues on milder ground that is another story.

Gold Prospecting with a VLF Metal Detector by Dave Johnson, Chief Designer First Texas Products & Fisher Research Labs

I gave your post a new thread to get more attention.

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Hi Steve, Thanks for your reply. I just got back from two hour hunt and it stayed pretty stable, only freaked twice! So maybe the lower sensitivity will work. The area I am searching was not burned. The burn was about 300 feet away.  The firefighters had turned the soil to create breaks. The earth has lots of broken up rocks all over though and very fine dust. I will keep clearing the area and I am sure I will find a clue to what makes it go crazy every so often. Maybe some burned material was mixed into the dozer lines. The target ID was very accurate overall. Goal is PI but until then I am happy working area with a VLF. I actually found half a staple ! 

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