A question about GROUND BALANCING

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Flowerpot

Flowerpot

Kerrie
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Greetings to all.
I was told just recently that when I swing over a signal a few times, I should then ground balance right on top of the signal as a true target will still be there afterwards and if its ground noise/interference etc. it will be gone?
Is this correct, as I havent had a practice run yet to test this out? Thought Id just ask anyways.
Using GPX 5000 with 14inch coiltek elite mono.
Ta Flowers :flowers:
 
No don't balance right over a signal. Especially a faint one!
Go to the side of the signal & ground balance there.
And yes you can balance out very small gold or deep faint signals.
This can occur more readily when using tracking but using the quick track button also initiates a very fast ground balance for a short time. This essentially has the same effect as being in tracking on the front panel albeit for a short time.
Minelab said:
Repeated sweeps over a metal target may result in the detector balancing to the target instead of the ground; thus diminishing the target signal and increasing ground noise. Therefore, it is important to use Fixed when pinpointing or when investigating a potential faint signal with repeated sweeps.
Click to expand...
IMO using the quick track button to ground balance over a suspected target is the same as continually sweeping over a signal while in tracking & could balance to a real target instead of the ground.
 
This is a very good question Flowers.
There are two sets of contradicting opinions, not only in this post but in the detecting fraternity in general.
In my experience it depends on the situation of what sort of signal you have.
In short I'd imagine you are ground balancing over a signal response to try and confirm if it's ground noise or a real target.
If it's a faint signal I wouldn't ground balance over the signal response spot because you may indeed ground out a potential target. In this situation I'd ground balance to the side, or circularly around the spot. If the signal remains Id dig until you get a strong response.
Once you have a strong response I feel you can ground balance over the spot. If the signal goes away I believe you can be confident it's ground noise.
Patrick1 and I tested this with a 0.5g gold nugget just a few weeks ago. We buried the gold and tried ground balancing it out in fixed and pressing the quick track button. We could not ground balance out the gold.
We did this because we were getting very strong signal responses from very localised pockets of mineralised damp ground in the Vic GT. When we ground balanced over the spots of mineralised ground the response disappeared.
So in short I feel it is safe to do so if it's a strong signal but not to do so when it is a week signal.
However, I'm happy for others more experienced than me to suggest otherwise.
I use this approach on all occasions I encounter it.
Cheers
 
From Minelab Gold YouTube:
[video=480,360]https://youtu.be/j2mXD4jhOb0[/video]

Another thing to try is if you are getting a faint or iffy signal go off to the side of it & give your GPX a good ground balance (if using tracking put it in fixed & use the quick track button). This can brighten up an iffy or faint signal especially when your ground balance may be out a little bit but not overly noticeable.
 
I always detect in fixed. I have tried both methods and always balance off to the side of the target. If I suspect ground noise I will GB again while moving the coil over the target noise, if it disappears I am happy concluding it's ground noise. I have dug way too many ground noise holes to worry about if I have left gold behind. I have never been able to balance out a nugget either by the way. Bottom line, do whatever best suits you and your detecting style.
 
Dignit said:
This is a very good question Flowers.
There are two sets of contradicting opinions, not only in this post but in the detecting fraternity in general.
In my experience it depends on the situation of what sort of signal you have.
In short I'd imagine you are ground balancing over a signal response to try and confirm if it's ground noise or a real target.
If it's a faint signal I wouldn't ground balance over the signal response spot because you may indeed ground out a potential target. In this situation I'd ground balance to the side, or circularly around the spot. If the signal remains Id dig until you get a strong response.
Once you have a strong response I feel you can ground balance over the spot. If the signal goes away I believe you can be confident it's ground noise.
Patrick1 and I tested this with a 0.5g gold nugget just a few weeks ago. We buried the gold and tried ground balancing it out in fixed and pressing the quick track button. We could not ground balance out the gold.
We did this because we were getting very strong signal responses from very localised pockets of mineralised damp ground in the Vic GT. When we ground balanced over the spots of mineralised ground the response disappeared.
So in short I feel it is safe to do so if it's a strong signal but not to do so when it is a week signal.
However, I'm happy for others more experienced than me to suggest otherwise.
I use this approach on all occasions I encounter it.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Thanx Andy. You explained it better than I could have.
 
Hy.i am new
I have gpx 5000 and 15x12 commander mono coil ,any one tell me all setting for deep searching for golg and any thing.i ll try to search but not going to 12 inches i need search more deep.

Moderator Edit.
Do you have a brother with the same problem. ??
 
Just stick with the 11 coil until you are formilular with the detector what state are you in ,just make shore that its running in special on the front switch and fine gold on the lcd screen regards john
 
I have ground balanced out targets a few times when experimenting.

What I tend to do is dig down a few inches over target - if you are still not sure if its ground noise then ground balance over the spoil you have removed from the hole. Then swing over the target again.

If its hot ground, generally target response will have reduced or disappeared.

And I always run in fixed.
 
I've been detecting in areas with lots of hot clay pockets that sound sweet as well as small gravel pockets that also sound sweet depending where my GB is, I run in fixed and finding that I ground balance a few inches away from the signal then if the signal is still strong I scrape about 1-2" off the top layer (after the overburden has been removed) and if the scraped spoil signals as well as the hole it is 9/10 times just ground noise, GB over the spoil and the hole signal will almost disappear, only once have I had a piece of gold that was in the hole while the spoil coming out also signalled, my smallest piece to date @ .1g that just had that something about the signal that wouldn't go away.
On the other hand, if I get a sweet signal and scrape a couple of inches off and that spoil doesn't signal then I get excited when working very hot ground like surfaced areas.
I also find areas that have a few inches thick of rotted leaf/bark litter in a small pocket tend to sound off as well, once you scrape the overburden away the signal is gone.

I detect in motion Very Slow which helps makes the detector more stable but also makes ground noise and small gold/bird shot targets very very similar, not sure if Slow or Normal motion speed helps with separating the difference in signals?
 
mbasko said:
From Minelab Gold YouTube:
[video=480,360]https://youtu.be/j2mXD4jhOb0[/video]

Another thing to try is if you are getting a faint or iffy signal go off to the side of it & give your GPX a good ground balance (if using tracking put it in fixed & use the quick track button). This can brighten up an iffy or faint signal especially when your ground balance may be out a little bit but not overly noticeable.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I have found it can also brighten up ground noise too.

A few scrapes and swinging over the target from different angles will usually expose the fraud :)
Hot rocks on the other hand will see you chasing phantoms for days :lol:
 
Ground balancing is important and I'm with the majority who do it away from any target.
Why would you want to test a signal anyway by ground balancing directly over it?
Dig every target What's the hurry?

The direct ground balancing must be the reason I have dug nuggets up to 18 grams in holes that have been left open.
My mate signaled me to come over to him one day. In front of him was a small diameter old hole over a foot deep, he had scraped out the leaves and a layer of dirt to clean hole. He poked his elliptical coil into the hole and there was a positive faint signal. Opened the hole up and the signal was screaming. He joined the ounce club that day. :pickshovel:
Some silly sole walked away from $1500.00 probably because he ground balanced over the target or he was too damn lazy to keep digging?
 

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