I have always been a Minelab fan, starting with my first detector, a Musketeer, and continuing through my last detector, the Safari. I am a casual relic hunter based in Gettysburg, PA and digging in PA, MD and VA on private property and always with complete permission. With our favorite spots getting hunted out I finally took the plunge and bought a CTX 3030. All I can say is the CTX 3030 is a relic finding monster!
The first photo is a selection of relics and coins found at a CS camp site near my home. The site runs from light mineralization to moderate and the targets are deep. The CTX 3030 has performed better than I expected with brass targets singing out with a clear sweet tone at all depths and lead (I am a bullet fan, which you can probably tell by my "leadhead" screen name) consistently reading in the 12-32 to 14-36 range with a nice flutey tone for conical bullets. The two three groove bullets in the photo were both between ten and twelve inches down and read really cleanly. The two silver coins are a 1911 Barber dime and a 1900 Barber half, both were around eight inches down and on edge, and both gave perfect silver numbers and a pretty tone.
Now for my success story. This past weekend I took the CTX 3030 to the dreaded red dirt of Northern Virginia for an organized hunt on a horse farm in Elkwood, VA, near Kelley's Ford and the Brandy Station battlefield. The soil was heavily compacted, rocky and a bear to dig in or hear targets in.
About three hours into the hunt I stepped into some woods adjacent to one of the pastures and immediately got a really nice brass signal. Because it was a horse farm we had been instructed to carefully remove our plugs and to take care to replace them with as little damage to the ground as possible.
I cut a large plug, about eight inches diameter and eight to nine inches deep. As I removed the plug I saw something drop from the bottom and fall back into the hole. I carefully placed the plug on the ground, looked into the hole and staring back at me was a beautiful Virginia Militia Staff Button (Tice VA255A4)! My very first complete CS button and a VA Staff at that!!!
The device is a bit worn on the high spots but the VIRGINIA and SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS banners are crisp and clean as are the fine lines on the background field. There is a good amount of gold left between the field lines and in all the low areas, especially around the rim. The backmark is partially visible and reads "* EXTRA * Quality" between two circles of fine dots and the shank is complete but bent over.
I will be taking my time cleaning and preserving this beauty and will post some photos once it is completed.
Thanks to Minelab for consistently providing us with the best technology available for relic hunters and I have to say that the CTX 3030 exceeds my expectations. It was a pleasure to use in all conditions, from pasture to deep woods and performed like a champ.
Tom - PA, USA
