Detecting In Really Cold Weather

[Rick N. MI]

Nice photo! I only did that once at a cellar hole in a pine plantation where there wasn't any snow yet.

[Tometusns]

2 hours ago, Rick N. MI said:

Nice photo! I only did that once at a cellar hole in a pine plantation where there wasn't any snow yet.

Rick we’re kinda silly here sometimes. That was a wet snow and it really collected on the coil so that hunt didn’t last much more than an hour. The ground hadn’t froze yet so digging wasn’t a problem. 
 The coldest I’ve detected was 19 degrees and the wind was blowing like crazy. There were three of us. The ground did have a small layer frozen that day but we were finding some old coins and relics. lol 

 I will say on that particular day the my machine did start to act funny after a while out there. It must have been time to quit. lol

 

[DOOGY-MD]

Glad to see a hardcore detectorist at work, good stuff!!

[phrunt]

I've been detecting in below freezing temperatures quite often, I actually prefer detecting in colder times as I hate heat.  One particular very cold day I was detecting with my Gold Monster and it was having trouble ground balancing in an area that should provide no ground balance issues so I thought I'd take my skid plate off to see if there was black sand under it, I'd never cleaned it before so there was possibly a mess under there. 

I removed the cover and from my thumb pressing on the plastic of the coil I can only assume I caused a crack in it, I didn't notice the crack before removing the cover.  Either way, the cold temperatures caused the plastic to become brittle and it cracked far easier than it should have.  It was either my thumb pressing on it or from it hitting a rock while I was detecting caused it, but certainly abnormal for it to crack in that situation.  The coil's skid plate did not crack, just the edge of the coil which was under the skid plate.  Minelab were fantastic and replaced the coil for me no questions asked.

I did some research on it and found plastic does indeed become brittle in a frozen environment, take your freezer at home, if you use plastic containers in it you'll often find they can crack.  While I don't know what plastics coil's or their covers are made out of, it's something to be aware of so you can be more cautious with impacts to the coils in the cold.

"All plastics have a minimum temperature rating. At this temperature the material becomes brittle and its impact strength has been significantly reduced causing it to be susceptible to cracking when under stress or pressure. ... Polypropylene and PVC are both plastics that are brittle at temperatures below freezing"

[wltdwiz]

cold is why i moved to AZ

heres me hunting lake Michigan back in the day brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

thats ice in the background

& im in a survival suit lol

Edited January 17, 2022 by wltdwiz
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