A question about the SE, and gold jewelry responses

[JASONSPAZ1]

The other night I,onducted an airtest between my Explorer SE, and my Garrett GTAx-1250. The targets where a small gold girls high school ring, and a mens thin gold rope chain with a small Italian horn. I was shocked to see that the Garrett at7.5 kHz responded louder and further away from the coil than on my Explorer SE. I know airtests are not accurate, and I know or have heard that the Explorer series needs the ground matrix to be present in order for true and best results. But I was disappointed to see that I had to bunch up the chain and scrub it against the SE coil to get an even slight response. Both machines where in factory preset. I hope someone can elaborate on this for me, and put my mind at ease over thinking that the SE isn't that great of a jewelry detector. I know it is hot on the silver. And I know on the wet sand it excels with no falsing.
Thanks in advance
Jason

 

[Boony]

Hi Jason,

I have found the same thing on my Explorer II and on my new SE they both seemed to respond better to the clasp on the chain than on the chain itself. While I have not done a comparison test with other detectors, my SE and EX II both worked well on gold rings, but neither of them were very good on fine gold chains.

All the best....Boony

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

Factory preset is mostly coin mode. I wouldn't expect a lot of gold jewelry, particularly chains, to hit in preset mode. I would try it in All Metal, since that's how any serious beach/jewelry hunter hunts.

That said, gold chains are tough for any machine and as you said, air tests mean little. And that's true. And there is also the fact that some machines will hit better on SOME things and not so well on others. So the Garrett and it's paticular frequency may be better suited to that chain. But try the Explorer in AM and maybe 22 manual sens and see what it does.

 

[James N.D.]

Here's the deal with the Explorer Series Detector's and Gold Chains. The Explorer's are trying to see the small links but there just is too many holes in a chain so the Detector tends to just see thru them. That is why the Explorer isn't very good for small Gold either. It takes a larger Gold Object (like a clasp) to make the detector sound off. Even when you bunch up a Gold Chain, the Explorer will not give off any signal due to the holes and the size of the links. I think it tries to see each link individually but can't because of the size. I noticed it too with Gold Chains. The Explorer might pick up Heavy Gold Chains since they have more mass to them. Even though the Explorer's have a problem with Gold Chains, they do well on Gold Rings and boy, they sure are hot on Silver. So I wouldn't worry about it too much. The only other thing you could do is go out and buy yourself an Excalibur if you are wanting to find Gold Chains. Let's hope someone with more experience hunting for Gold Chains can comment on this and Good Luck and HH.

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

Well I have found several gold chains with my Excalibur and I don't hunt the beach with the Explorer, but I do believe that he might do better with the machine out of preset mode. That said, there are MANY detectors that will pass right over a gold chain under certain circumstances, Excal included. Unless balled up, the Excal will only hit the clasp on a smaller chain as well.

 

[Mike T]

Oh boy evey time I offer my opinion on this contraversial subject I get hammered, well here goes;
After speaking with many design engineers and scientists it is clear that ground matrix, or wet soil or whatever you want to call it will not increase the depth you can detect to. A detector has a fixed limit of power it can produce by moving the target deeper you can't increase its power, thats Pseudo science.
Whats happening is a decomposing targert is larger easier to recognize and can give a louder signal, many times you can walk over a target that gives a subtle sound you don't react to, it rains and you go over it again and hear it, your detector isn't detecting deeper only louder. A matrix may help you pick up a target you may not pay much attention to otherwise but it has to be with in the fixed ability of the detectors power. No detector will detect deeper in the ground than it does in an airtest, its impossible. A target must fall within a detectors maximum range.
Check out this website:
www.garysdetecting.co.uk/hoard_test.htm

 

[James N.D.]

But the Explorer's have a tough time even when set to advanced. It might sound off in AM but it better have a clasp on it. Very tough item to pick up. The Excalibur will work better I would think since it is a water detector and is meant for finding Gold.

 

[Mike Bearden]

Keep in mind that in the detector world, frequency kHz ratings mean a lot.
The lower rated kHz machines will certainly run better in high mineralized dirt than most higher rated kHz detectors.
Now there are a boat load of different internal configurations & software that makes the difference in how a particular unit will react to gold, lead, brass or any ferrous or non ferrous object ... but for the most part the higher kHz rated machines do the best job on gold and even small chains for that matter. Most of those higher rated kHz detectors were designed especially for finding GOLD nuggets and all the way down the spectrum to flower gold.
Although the Explorer is a multi frequency machine that constantly measures & filters the ground per se, it doesn't have any real dedicated high kHz frequencies that will lock on and stay there as needed to detect small gold consistently.
Now ... if we could select any single frequency we wanted of the Explorers 1.5kHz - 100 kHz range and make it lock into place .... well the rest of competition could start handing out pink slips and say goodbye to their employees

Good Hunting
Mike

 

[savage]

Well said Mike, you hit it right on time. AM mode and adjust the sensitivity up as high as you can go, and still be stable.
Happy Hunting Grounds!

Savage

 

[SNOWY]

Quote...

Now ... if we could select any single frequency we wanted of the Explorers 1.5kHz - 100 kHz range and make it lock into place ....
well the rest of competition could start handing out pink slips and say goodbye to their employees.

Mike, that would be really something eh!
With all the whizz ~ bang technology at Minelab,I wonder if that could be done?
Just select,and lock in a single frequency,
maybe extremely low for deep old silver,
and a very high frequency for small gold targets...

Imagine!

Great idea...

HH

Snowy

 

[Mike Bearden]

They could just call it The Magic Wand

 

[Tony N (Michigan)]

Maybe that is what it does automatically?

If you darken your whole screen and have just a teeny window open for a silver dime, would the detector select the best frequency for that teeny silver?

 

[Mike Bearden]

it's computing the ground information through the software first and foremost to achieve good stability.
Now if we could indeed go into the menu and select any particular kHz ... test it on the targets we're after and save it as a special program .... we would be in BUSINESS.

 

[BarnacleBill]

the purpose of the V-Flex system. No you cannot just push a button, but do so by changing coils, 3kHz, 7.5kHz, & 18.75kHz. Now what is lacking is dual freq ability for saltwater beaches. But I believe that is the main concept behind the X-Terras, choose your own freq.

HH
BarnacleBill

 

[Mike Bearden]

And the X-Terra 50 & 70 is pretty darn good on gold chains to not go any higher than 18.75 kHz.
I guess it still doesn't hurt for us grown men to still have a dream machine to look forward to

Mike

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

Mike,

I never thought about that for better gold response but have often wished we could go through and turn off certain frequencies for noise purposes. I think I would rather give up some of the multi frequency if I could crank the sense higher under power lines and other noise sources. Maybe it would not make a difference, seems that most report even single freq detectors still have problems in noise.

Still it would be a neat option and think it would not be that hard to implement.

Chis

 

[SNOWY]

We tried the X-Terra 50 and 70 on fine gold chain at the shop when we first got hold of them, and we were really impressed that we got such a good response.


And that was before the 18.75 khz coils came out.

Snowy

 

[Steve(MS)]

try out in the sand, it's amazing how deep those dang alum screw caps are, making the statement "no detector can detect deeper in the ground than it does in an airtest, it's impossible" is going way out on a limb. Too many variables to deal with and Gary isn't the final word on the subject either.

 

[Arturo de Zorro]

n/t

 

[Rudiger]

I wanted to add my support for Mike because it's a controversial subject. I'm more of a gold prospector than a coiner, and for years after the SDs came out, the vast MAJORITY of people would claim they could go deeper in ground than in air. It was due to wishful thinking (why is a matter of human psychology!) and faulty digging and measuring. But finally that view is disappearing. There is no reason coin etc detecting should be different from gold in that respect.