The CTX 3030 forces History to repeat itself

Julian Evan-Hart

We have been searching a large Roman site for the past 16 years now. When we first discovered it and gained permission hundreds of coins came off it as well as many artefacts. Of course such losses are finite and over the years finds declined in number.

Back in the old days of our group I was the very first to get a Minelab Explorer and almost immediately my finds rate as I learned the machine`s capabilities rapidly escalated. I was easily achieving 100+ coins a day whilst varied detector owning colleagues were struggling to get 25-35. This went on for a few months, but my joy and top position was short lived and soon ousted as all my colleagues went and got Minelab Explorers too.

CTX 3030 – The best treasure detector just got better!

Nenad Lonic

Since its release, the CTX 3030 has quickly earned a reputation as being a true all-purpose treasure detector, but in an effort to enhance its performance further, Minelab’s engineering and field test team have done a lot of work behind the scenes to make “the best even better!” Sorry, but I couldn’t resist that, because as a CTX 3030 user I am quite excited about having some new features to play with! This is the first CTX 3030 software upgrade with some great new features, to give users better performance and more versatility. So what’s new?

Shallow water hunting accessories

Gary Drayton

In this blog I will explain a few accessories that will compliment your CTX 3030 and make shallow water hunting much easier, starting with water hunting apparel.

I personally like to wear a wet suit when shallow water hunting for safety and comfort. Wet suits come in different styles from ‘shorties’ that just cover the torso with short sleeves and legs, to full suits covering the whole body. The thickness of the wet suit required will depend on the temperature of the water that you intend to search.

CTX 3030 Threshold blanking

Gordon Heritage

One of the best things about FBS and FBS 2 detectors is their superior discrimination. Not only can you discriminate targets on their conductivity, you can also discriminate by their ferrous content simultaneously.

One of the things I’ve recently been reading on a few forums, are comments stating the new CTX 3030 has “still got the nulling problems of the E-TRAC”. I agree the ability to null, or blank the audio as Minelab refer to it, is still in the new detector… however, this is a feature not a problem.

Going to the next level

Mark Williams

Layer upon layer

Have you ever wondered when you are consistently digging coins at a certain depth, maybe that’s the limit of your detector’s ability, or is that as far as the coins have been able to go? The answer to this is yes and yes in some cases you are definitely hitting every target, but other times you are at your detectors full depth and there are coins below. Sometimes after I have been over and over an area until it stops producing, I have sat back and imagined if there is another level of coins lying just out of reach, maybe even just millimetres away.

Right place, wrong time. No, right place anytime!

Julian Evan-Hart

No doubt we can all think of a situation where we have been in the right place, but at the wrong time, or even perhaps wrong place at the wrong time. Several days ago I got a call from a farmer to say one of his fields was ready for us. In my sheer enthusiasm and in thanking him I forgot to ask just what "ready" actually meant.

Arriving there we found it wasn’t quite "ready" as we would have liked. The field in question which is a huge Romano British settlement site was covered in stiff yard broom like stubble.

An educational day out with the CTX 3030 and its cousins

Julian Evan-Hart

Having a day off work simply meant a trip would be planned to detect somewhere. The question was where exactly? With harvest in full swing ploughed fields or even rolled ones are a scarce commodity as the farmers struggle to get the crop in before the next rain storm. For readers not living in Britain we have just had our wettest "Summer" since records began and that was I believe in the 18th Century. Anyway we found a suitable field, it was a field we knew well.

Searching rivers and streams - Part 3

Gordon Heritage

With the CTX 3030 on the market, river detecting has never been more accessible here in the UK. In this third blog I’ll run through my setup, settings and extra tips for using this great metal detector.

CTX 3030 or Excalibur II – Which is best for me?

Tony Diana

"Should I sell my Excalibur II and buy a CTX 3030?" A friend had just called me and was asking me this question. For me the answer is easy....I keep my Excalibur and add the CTX 3030 to take advantage of its added features and benefits. I have a strong affinity for the Excalibur. I know the detector very well and when I turn it on it is like wearing an old pair of comfortable shoes and I know I am very good with it. But back to the conversation... I answered, "it depends what you want out of the detector?" I then asked "What were the three most important things for him to get out of the detector?" His answers were... 1.Waterproof, 2.Durable 3.Critically important to discriminate out selected coins.

Basic CTX 3030 shallow water hunting tips

Gary Drayton

Here are a few basic tips to help you get the best out of your CTX 3030 when treasure hunting in the shallow water. Before venturing into the shallow water to metal detect, I suggest that you first learn how to use your CTX 3030 on the beach and become comfortable using the CTX 3030 in the basic preset beach mode.