DetectingWales.com

With the recent dry spell , i have found that its harder to find the goodies.
The other morning after a nights rain, i found the signals where loud and clear, plus more frequent.
Coins also came up at greater depth.
As the ground dried up through the day, due to great drainage on the farm, finds where few and far between, you really had to hunt for them.
So just wondering what type of conditions you would rather detect in  ???
Ace  ;)

I'm with you on this one Ace, I'm no expert but I've always had a better day after a nights rain  ???

Well I would prefer to detect in hot sunny conditions close to a Bar and swimming pool surrounded by a bevy of scantily clad Tahitian dancing girls :P. But, my detector on the other hand (and all others for that matter)  does work better with some moisture in the soil.

i love it when wet and cold i go home to was it worth it dear yes yes yes 8) 8)

cant abide this time of year grounds usually bone dry and there are crops everywhere and the best we can do is hard pasture,,,,i have wellover 3000 acres to tect and even im struggling as most of my land is arable,,,,,,rolll on autaum ;D ;D 

i have being giving the subject a lot of thought and still cant work it out, i use a goldmaxx power and generally find the best conditiond to be damp, copper etc seems alot easier to find, BUT i have a small field that i detect on regualy, and in the middle there is a tree, i have thougly done the area around it many times useually in damp/wet ground i thought i had cleaned it up.
 the last time i went to the feild conditons were dry as a bone, i wasnt finding much so i had a smoke in the shade under the tree and had a quick scan when i finished, to my surprise i found 3 very small silver objects quite deep. one was a tiny george silver groat, with a hole in it that was now a charm or pendant, a silver shilling, and some other tiny broach type thing with a glass front and the picture of a delicate lady in it.    Now i have only found 3 other silver iteams in the whole field over 3 years.
so my conclusion or lack of, is its something to do with conductivity,,,, water is conductive as is copper(hence the reason electric cable is made from it) and silver isnt as conductive, ask people with explorers as they have a conductivity reading.
 so when its wet conductive targets get amplified by the water, hence easyier to find. but at the same time the conductivity of the water masks less conductive targets like tiny silver hammered coins. So when its dry less conductive targets give clearer signals due to lack of interfierance from the water in the ground.
If anyone knows any more on this subject i would love to know

Kaister there is logic to your argument and I'm sure your right. One other factor that may effect depth is the make up of the underlying soil, ie peat shrinks as it dries ( as does clay to a lessor degree) and the ground level can actually drop by a few feet in places, this will compress all the underlying layers and bring finds closer to the surface.

ahhh but does this apply to sand matey ?  ;D

interesting point chef. something i didnt mention is that i didnt find any copper in the area just those three silver items, i would have thought if it was down to ground movement as such it would have also bought other items such as copper closer to the surface as well.

another thing i was thinking of is.... density of water, most of us have detected on ground in the frost where the top 2 inches is frozen, and had different results. water increases its volume by 10% instanly when it freezes(burst pipes in winter) and water  is at its most dense when at 4% celsious. so maybe the best temerature for finding highly conductive targets is 4 degrees celsios, and maybe we have a better chance of smaller conductive signals when frozen in water.

its facinating to me, and would love to hear of any experiments people have done, cos this is just therory at the moment.

In my experience as long as the wet weather does not waterlog the ground

then the shortish period when the rain water has leached the minerals out of the soil

and before they have re established to previous levels is best ...a lot less depth can be

achieved in very long dry sunny spells ...depth loss can be phenominal

But by and large it depends on the mineral content and P.H. levels on any given site.

Regards PaulB. IMHO

so soft or hard water makes a differecnce, and whether its acid rain or not?