1st day hunt Excalibur 2

[atomicwayne]

I got to use my Excalibur 2 for the first time today.What a difference .I was a PI guy thinking that the added depth would offset the annoying iron targets.Boy was I wrong.The Excalibur ignored the iron which allowed me to hunt and cover more ground with a incredible detection depth on my targets that I dug.Pinpoimting was easy and I did most of the locating in disc mode.I dug black quarters really deep in a area that I thought I covered well 2 weeks ago with the Sea Hunter 2.I spent so much time digging iron crap with the PI detector it was not funny.Today ,not one bobby Pin or fish hook or piece of crab pot.all my targets were keepers..The Sea hunter would false with the wave action getting loud then going silent.I found that very annoying.The Excalibur operated with a steady threshold that was smooth as silk ! What a great experience it was today, I found my ultimate metal detector for the water.I wish I had made the change sooner.So if you like warer hunting and you like yourself I would recommend this machine!Good hunting,Wayne

 

[Gerry]

Now you know why we hunt with the Excalibur or a CZ 21

 

[OldBeechnut]

Sounds like you converted with ease, More will come, My Opinion, Excalibur is the only way to hunt the water and it has so much more potential when Modified. Good Luck and Be Safe..

 

[scoopjohnb]

It is a great machine, has gotten me more gold than any other machine I own.

As OBN says,... it needs a few mods.

 

[Ron Lord]

the excel 2 is a good detector but ,I will hunt wright behind you and show you all the Gold that you misted. I may dig up Bobby pins ,but I know it's a bobby pin or a bottle cap just by the sound it makes.

 

[atomicwayne]

well you're more than welcome to have all the bobby pins and bottlecap .All the falsing and fish hooks was just no fun anymore for me.I like the fact I now have a machine that runs smooth and quiet with good target id.The PI machines have their place unfortunately I am not in that place now so I needed to make a change.For me and what I want to do ,I am happy with what I have. Good luck to you and hope you will find anything I miss.Wayne

 

[SonnyFl]

May your new experience with the Ex reward you. I'm an Excal junky!

 

[RobbieP]

Would not be without mine, always goes with me on holidays and never disappoints, good luck it is a great machine.

 

[Grilled Scallops]

I am glad you have found a detector you like. So you know, the sea hunter mark 2 is a very relatively shallow PI, especially with the stock 8 inch mono. Also remember that with the excal you will start to lose detection on gold pretty fast when you turn up the discrimination knob (you can watch some videos for more in depth demonstration). So, get rid of the fish hooks, but don't over do it. By the way, the sea hunter should give a double tone on fish hooks and bobby pins the vast majority of the time. You did try scanning your targets from more than one angle, right? Often times iron is easy to sniff out with a PI if you scan from more than one angle and just listen. I am the opposite of you - I favor a deep seeking pulse machine since our beaches have some of the worst sand conditions in existence (salt, pillow lava, crude oil and sulfur) and our outrageous tides make targets very deep. The excals give me the stink eye, because they know...oh yes, they know how deep I'm going on those low conductors. GL and HH

 

[atomicwayne]

The /Sea Hunter is a good machine.I just could not stand the loud rise and fall of the volume when a wave came in or when I swung to the left. I fond more than enough to pay for it a few times over. A pulse machine is still on my list after I find enough with the excal to pay for itself and another machine. I had the Infinium for a while but the radio and cell towers seemed to interfere with. It.I did find more platinum with it though than I have with the other machines I have had. Well the wind is blowing and the tide is low so I am heading to the water . Good luck to all of you and HH.

 

[landman]

My sentiments exactly.

 

[Tony]

I am glad you have found a detector you like. So you know, the sea hunter mark 2 is a very relatively shallow PI, especially with the stock 8 inch mono. Also remember that with the excal you will start to lose detection on gold pretty fast when you turn up the discrimination knob (you can watch some videos for more in depth demonstration). So, get rid of the fish hooks, but don't over do it. By the way, the sea hunter should give a double tone on fish hooks and bobby pins the vast majority of the time. You did try scanning your targets from more than one angle, right? Often times iron is easy to sniff out with a PI if you scan from more than one angle and just listen. I am the opposite of you - I favor a deep seeking pulse machine since our beaches have some of the worst sand conditions in existence (salt, pillow lava, crude oil and sulfur) and our outrageous tides make targets very deep. The excals give me the stink eye, because they know...oh yes, they know how deep I'm going on those low conductors. GL and HH

Not sure what a "very relatively shallow PI" means but if you are referring to it's depth ability then there is something wrong with your Sea Hunter or you don't have it set up correctly.

I wanted to like the Excal but I dug too many deep nulls only discover it was gold.....and depending on ground conditions you need to kick away more than just a few inches of sand to determine a true null.

OP: As for the rise and fall of the Sea Hunter threshold from passing waves, etc then you simply advance the Elimination control....until things settle down. You will still get the small gold rings.

 

[Rainyday101]

Gotta admit I have always been tempted to go for an Excal. I have a Tiger Shark and am a freshwater hunter, no oceans anywhere near me. My problem with getting the Excal is will it gain me enough advantage over the Tiger Shark to justify the cost? The Tiger has no problem with small gold and the depth in all metal mode hunting with a slight threshold is unbelievable.

Any comments or experiences?

 

[atomicwayne]

"I wanted to like the Excal but I dug too many deep nulls only discover it was gold.....and depending on ground conditions you need to kick away more than just a few inches of sand to determine a true null."By Tony
HAS ANYONE ELSE NOTICED THIS ?Now you have me wondering about some of the nulls.After using a PI machine I kind of miss not digging everything.Yes i know the sound of double beeps of bobby pins and wire.It sure has been quiet not hearing everything that I pass the coil over.And its not like i was digging a100 targets.Is the excal the lazy mans detector or will it punch down and get to the gold?With the sand replenishment this year at the beaches i hunt ,depth is top priority.

"Not sure what a "very relatively shallow PI" means "I got great depth with the large coil on my Sea hunter so not sure what he ment by that unless he turned the disc up to eliminate the falsing and was losing depth.I have to get use to the nulls or the silence of the hunt i guess.Hunting in all metal mode may be the solution to missing gold to nulls signals.Still learning this machine so thanks for all the input and advise.Wayne

 

[Grilled Scallops]

I meant what I said, they are *relatively* shallow PI detectors. As in relative to other PIs. They are swamped in depth and adjustability by machines like the ATX, GPX, TDI pro, etc. They are also slow recovery, swing a little too fast and you're going to lose depth and sensitivity. The sea hunter is not the deep seeking, monster PI that other machines are. That is what I meant. I have used an infinium extensively with the 14 inch mono. I never used the discrimination, never needed to. After a year of hunting with some nice gold and silver jewelry, I still knew that there was plenty of loot down farther. I got a TDI pro and it is a machine the infinium will never be able to match depth or sensitivity wise. I still smile every time I get it out. I would never have bought an excal for the beaches I hunt because 1. It is not deep enough for me, period and 2. We have the worst sand in the world - salt, pillow lava (black sand), sulfur, natural tar and agricultural runoff from a nearby river. That's right, we have all those things in our sand, I dare you to try and find worse conditions and I have no idea how anyone would ever find anything with a VLF on our beaches but they do it. How can you really believe what a VLF tells you about a target when it's working through sand like that? Forget it, I decided a PI was going to be best for me and I found a detector I really liked, one that I believed would bring me gold. It's a great feeling and I'm glad Atomicwayne can share in this feeling with me. BTW, I'm not trying to bash one type of detector over another. It sounds like Wayne will be kicking butt with that excal and I hope he finds many rings. As it so happens, there is one guy at our beaches that uses an Excal. He is the luckiest man in the world. He runs circles around the rest of us, literally, including the other excals, swinging this way and that, everywhere at random with no discernible pattern whatsoever, you might even laugh if you watched him...and he gets way more gold than the rest of us. It's not his detector...if it were than the other excals would be half as successful as him...the man was just meant to find gold...some things are out of your hands...

 

[atomicwayne]

I forgot what an awesome machine the Dual Field is. With the Xcal in for repairs I put a new gasket and batteries in the DF this weekend. I got in a three hour hunt Sunday morning with just some coin, dog tag and trash showing up in the scoop.
This mornings sun-up till noon was much more rewarding with a 750 3.7g pendant ( anyone know what "alla mamma" is?) and silver chain. Also neat but junk, was a heavily decorated lady pirate skull, and some other junk jewelry.
It didn't take long to get back in tune with the DF single tone target ID. A PI single tone MD might sound intimidating but their is a distinction that is learned that I still retained after a year of not using it. listening for the short, sharp and crisp tones I was finding the deep quarters dimes and nickles. A lot of those coins were faint but short whispers that shouted out in the headphones after the first scoop was dug.
Had a good time today, not many people in the water now that school is back in session. I wasn't in the water more than 30 minutes when a manatee came up from behind while I was looking in the scoop and passed within a foot or two...got a startled holy crap laugh out of me!! Got another good laugh later when I came up on a couple of ladies in the water......,as soon as they realized what I was doing they looked like they were doing the "Macarena" checking to see if their jewelry was still intact. hope you dont mind my copy re post Bob.could this be a good example of the difference between vlf and pi?
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[atomicwayne]

Bob do you think the excal would have found the pendant?Or did you find it because you dug everything ie bobby pins and other iron that were in your pictures?Or is it the pendant was just ment to be found that day becauue you put the time in.A comparison of the two different detectors and the depth they have with the conditions of the beach.If i remember right the sand was fluff back in August.
Thanks for the feedback Scallop,wish you all the luck in the world .Just as a note the excal didnt find anything yesterday it just sat in the corner of my room.