Explorer SE nulling

[Kapok]

I have been using the Explorer at a park (I live in West Michigan very near Lake Michigan) and encounter a lot of nulling--where I have to sit and wait for like 5 seconds for the threshold to come back. I'm running across big patches of ground where this happens. The area is an oak woods with about 2-3 inches of dry silty dirt on top of heavy orange sand, so I'm wondering if it is iron in the sand that makes it null out. I don't find many nails or scrap iron here to speak of, but there are a lot of huge low ferrous signals. Increasing iron mask makes it null more, so I guess the thing to do is run it in almost all metal maybe? Just wondering if anyone had ever experienced anything like this or had any advice.

 

[IDXMonster]

Maybe experiment a bit...select Manual Sensitivity and turn it DOWN to see at what point this problem goes away. Can you maintain a threshold in Auto Sensitivity? What I would personally do,and I've run into this scenario a few times...select Ferrous sounds and clear your screen,no discrimination. The background sound it'll likely now make will effectively become your "threshold". You can try turning your Gain down too in the midst of experimenting, but I wouldn't ever run anything lower than 6-7. I'm sure running in Ferrous and wide open will cure your nulling, but you'll have a bit more to listen to. No worries,Conductive targets will grab your attention IMMEDIATELY!
Good luck,there are some tough hunting conditions out there. Luckily the Explorer will navigate MOST of them with relative ease.

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

What do you hear in all metal? There are no nulls in all metal, technically that's only 99.99% true but the one exception is an ultra rare silver coin spill, other than that no nulls in all metal.

 

[Kapok]

IDX, I'll try what you suggest and see how it goes.

Charles, I haven't tried all metal. I guess I should have. I will next time and let you know.

Do you guys think it's the mineralization in the sand?

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

Its hard to say, all metal will tell the story. I once attempted to detect a swimming beach on a river in our area, the black sand was so thick it was undetectable even with an 8 inch coil the beach was like one giant target. My guess is either there's a ton of iron and trash there, or its mineralization similar to the river beach. Maybe it used to be some kind of industrial site or they dumped something there?

 

[IDXMonster]

Even though I'm a relative newcomer to the hobby I've had the unfortunate hunt a couple of times where the ground was a null,even with minimal disc. One was an area where school bonfires with lots of pallets were burned and the other a VERY old school site where they threw their old burnt coal out the back door. I THINK that's what was causing the machine to blank out,I didn't spend much time at either...there are better places to hunt. Unless...things have been found nearby that you want.
It'll be interesting to see what you find to be the solution!

 

[Tony N (Michigan)]

In All Metal, you may hear a constant deep constant beating if it's a lot of iron. But even in that situation, a coin will pop out of the background noise like an opera singer
with a nice high sound.

 

[Kapok]

Is the FBS Slimline coil that comes with the SE a good enough coil? Any significant advantage to upgrading to the SE Pro coil perhaps?

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

Is the FBS Slimline coil that comes with the SE a good enough coil? Any significant advantage to upgrading to the SE Pro coil perhaps?

NOW we are getting somewhere, that is a horrible coil. Many were defective, the coil wires nearly poking through the epoxy on the bottom and they falsed like crazy. Remove it, take 2 big steps and punt it into the woods never to be seen again. You want the SE Pro coil which is 'the' best coil I have ever used on an Explorer AND about as slim and lightweight as a coil could be made ML really did an outstanding job on them. Plus they are tough, mine has held up to multiple years of beach hunting without a scuff cover.

 

[Tony N (Michigan)]

I thought the regular SE that I had was rather good. Maybe there were some bad coils and some good ones?

 

[Kapok]

Is the FBS Slimline coil that comes with the SE a good enough coil? Any significant advantage to upgrading to the SE Pro coil perhaps?

NOW we are getting somewhere, that is a horrible coil. Many were defective, the coil wires nearly poking through the epoxy on the bottom and they falsed like crazy. Remove it, take 2 big steps and punt it into the woods never to be seen again. You want the SE Pro coil which is 'the' best coil I have ever used on an Explorer AND about as slim and lightweight as a coil could be made ML really did an outstanding job on them. Plus they are tough, mine has held up to multiple years of beach hunting without a scuff cover.[/quote}
No kidding.... I'll shop around and see what I can find.

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

I thought the regular SE that I had was rather good. Maybe there were some bad coils and some good ones?

I returned the first two machines due to bad coils and whacko electronics. I demanded a much later serial number SE and that one ran fine, but the coil was still lame. I remember guys posting pictures of their slimline coils with wires poking out the bottom.

 

[IDXMonster]

Is the FBS Slimline coil that comes with the SE a good enough coil? Any significant advantage to upgrading to the SE Pro coil perhaps?

NOW we are getting somewhere, that is a horrible coil. Many were defective, the coil wires nearly poking through the epoxy on the bottom and they falsed like crazy. Remove it, take 2 big steps and punt it into the woods never to be seen again. You want the SE Pro coil which is 'the' best coil I have ever used on an Explorer AND about as slim and lightweight as a coil could be made ML really did an outstanding job on them. Plus they are tough, mine has held up to multiple years of beach hunting without a scuff cover.

"Punt it into the woods..." I do like a sense of humor! I've also heard that's a real hit or miss coil...more miss than hit.

 

[Kapok]

I thought the regular SE that I had was rather good. Maybe there were some bad coils and some good ones?

I returned the first two machines due to bad coils and whacko electronics. I demanded a much later serial number SE and that one ran fine, but the coil was still lame. I remember guys posting pictures of their slimline coils with wires poking out the bottom.

What did the wacko electronics do?

 

[Tony N (Michigan)]

My SE was a step up from my XS. I've found a lot of goodies with it. Maybe mine was a later serial number.
But I doubt 100% of all coils and machines were bad in the early batch. I doubt no even 5% were bad. If they all were bad, we would surely have heard about it from other detectorists.

My XS was bought new too and it was picking up too much interference from electric lines in town. I sent it in and they fixed it. But that was rare among XS's.

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

I thought the regular SE that I had was rather good. Maybe there were some bad coils and some good ones?

I returned the first two machines due to bad coils and whacko electronics. I demanded a much later serial number SE and that one ran fine, but the coil was still lame. I remember guys posting pictures of their slimline coils with wires poking out the bottom.

What did the wacko electronics do?

The screen would go BOING and jog down about an inch, the bottom inch of the display jumped to the top of the screen. But even when it 'appeared' to be working properly I know how Explorers perform, it wasn't. The 3rd unit with a later serial number ran fine.

 

[Tony N (Michigan)]

The best way for Kapok to tell is to use his on a coin garden. Of course Minelabs don't like recently disturbed soil.
The SE I sold Kapok never once gave me any problems. Maybe it is a later serial number? The coil also seemed
to not give me any problems either. How can you know which serial numbers are early and which are later?

 

[Kapok]

The best way for Kapok to tell is to use his on a coin garden. Of course Minelabs don't like recently disturbed soil.
The SE I sold Kapok never once gave me any problems. Maybe it is a later serial number? The coil also seemed
to not give me any problems either. How can you know which serial numbers are early and which are later?

Tony, I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong with it, maybe the Pro coil will just be smoother in my particularly difficult soil.

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

Kapok did you try that site again in all metal to see if it was targets causing the nulls or soil?

 

[Tony N (Michigan)]

The best way for Kapok to tell is to use his on a coin garden. Of course Minelabs don't like recently disturbed soil.
The SE I sold Kapok never once gave me any problems. Maybe it is a later serial number? The coil also seemed
to not give me any problems either. How can you know which serial numbers are early and which are later?

Tony, I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong with it, maybe the Pro coil will just be smoother in my particularly difficult soil.

If you are going to spend money on a pro coil, might I suggest you instead get the Detech Ultimate 13" coil? I got one and put it through its paces this morning.
The bad boy is light, covers a lot of ground and I got several coins in trash with it. I could hear the coins in the trash then walk 360 degrees around it poking the tip
of the coil in and swinging just little back and forth trying to get the coin to pop out.
I couldn't be happier with mine. I thought the Pro coil was good but this Detech coil is gooder . I could also run the sensitivity up to 28 to 29 and it was still stable!