My brother inlaw and I are considering buying Excals for wet sanding and water hunting. I've only used two water detectors for 7-10 years (both with very fast recovery), a CZ-20 (always in all metal) and an Aquasound (with modified Nautilus board), and also use an Explorer II for land. My brother inlaw is a newbie. Many of the guys in S Fl have done quite well over the years using the Excal but recently I was told by a couple of very experienced hunters that the Excal has a slow recovery and needs to be swung slowly to be effective. That's generally not much of an issue for water hunting but is a concern for wet sanding. Even if it's true that the Excal has a slow recovery does it really matter 99% of the time because of the sparsity of the targets? Wouldn't an Excal pick up a lone target just as deep no matter what speed the coil was swung if the target signature was strong enough even if the ID was incorrect, or would a slower swing actually produce a deeper target? Since target ID accuracy declines with target depth in nearly all if not all VLFs, how if any is the Excal different than other water detectors with a faster swing speed? Also, would being an experienced Explorer user help shorten the Excal learning curve? Any help would be appreciated.
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Excal speed question
- Thread starter garyflal
- Start date
The Excal needs to be swung slowly to get the most out of it. If you want fresh drops you can race down the beach with it. If you want to get the deepest signals slow swing is what it is all about. Why are you in a hurry? The Excal will null on iron and needs time to recover. I swing the Sovereign in the wet sand and it is basically the same detector. I swing the S-12 coil at a nice slow pace and I find stuff. I try to punch as deep as I can and that just requires time for the detector to do that.
Thanks for the input. Most of the time conditions aren't optimal so covering more area should result in putting the coil over more targets which is essential for those of us who only get down to Fl once a year. Your correct though that going slow is best especially with optimal conditions. The main reason I've considered an Excal was do to it's ID capability. I hate wasting time digging zincs and bottle caps with the CZ and the Aquasound is basically ferrous/non-ferrous tones.
Neil
Well-known member
If you can you should try an excal first and see if you can seperate a zinc from some of the larger rings. Very tough to do unless youve got a meter and the excal doesnt have that. You will be able to do better on IDing bottle caps so its a help in that way for you.
The tones on the Excal are in steps and there are alot of them. Its not like on your CZ where in disc youve got the three tones(I think its three, been awhile since Ive used one.) and you can just dig the middle tones. I know you said you hunt the CZ in autotune(like that mode myself on them) but just so your sure about how the Excals tones work.
I dont know how the aquasounds coil works but your gonna get better coverage at depth with the Excal than on the CZ because of the coil(DD vs concentric).
Thats something to think about also.
Both are excellent detectors, the excal is loved by many and hated by many also
The tones on the Excal are in steps and there are alot of them. Its not like on your CZ where in disc youve got the three tones(I think its three, been awhile since Ive used one.) and you can just dig the middle tones. I know you said you hunt the CZ in autotune(like that mode myself on them) but just so your sure about how the Excals tones work.
I dont know how the aquasounds coil works but your gonna get better coverage at depth with the Excal than on the CZ because of the coil(DD vs concentric).
Thats something to think about also.
Both are excellent detectors, the excal is loved by many and hated by many also
Thanks Neil. While wet-sanding can you distinguish a zinc from clad most of the time, and how often does the excal mis-ID steel bottle caps? The percentage of wrong IDs would probably depend on the depth of the target, but overall, do you feel the excal IDs accurately if swung slowly? From reading a few posts, it sounds like the excal can give similar tones for zincs or steel bottle caps as for good targets but that the user has to interpret the quality of the tone to discern what the target is. Any guess as to how much depth if any is lost when the coil is swung fast as compared to slow?
With the CZ in autotune, I don't think any depth is lost but when checking with disc (I use a spring loaded quick trigger set up that allows hunting with max sens then checking quickly with disc) and bobbing the coil, the CZ is off a large percentage of the time, especially with the newest zincs. Did it take you a long time to discern zincs and steel bottle caps with the excal? No detector IDs correctly all the time but I'm thinking the excal or sov should have a better average than anything else available for salt beach detecting. I would like to be able to move quickly when needed, hear a target, then recheck it carefully for an accurate ID. Also, does the excal false as coil speed increases or would that depend on the amount of mineralization? S Fl has little to no mineralization and that's where it would be primarily used.
With the CZ in autotune, I don't think any depth is lost but when checking with disc (I use a spring loaded quick trigger set up that allows hunting with max sens then checking quickly with disc) and bobbing the coil, the CZ is off a large percentage of the time, especially with the newest zincs. Did it take you a long time to discern zincs and steel bottle caps with the excal? No detector IDs correctly all the time but I'm thinking the excal or sov should have a better average than anything else available for salt beach detecting. I would like to be able to move quickly when needed, hear a target, then recheck it carefully for an accurate ID. Also, does the excal false as coil speed increases or would that depend on the amount of mineralization? S Fl has little to no mineralization and that's where it would be primarily used.