Got out today 1/1/2010 still have Excal ??

[Buried Crap NJ]

Ok everyone I am still batting 1000 I am at hrs three four and five. This the second use of this new machine. First 2 hrs some clad and a silver dime this time much more clad and a silver toe ring and one piece of gold maybe a ring or charm? I wish I could post a picture but they are always just a little too big I need to find out how to make them less then 420??
The toe ring I was looking down the beach when it sounded in my ear. I saw the target, thought it was a coin but it turned out to be the ring I did not have to dig it. I was very close to the water a wave was coming I just grab it. The gold was almost the same I saw it before It sounded I grab it as the wave hit. Today there was a nice gutter about 3 ft deep 10 feet wide, I had targets but they were hard to recover as the current from waves entering from down the beach were every few minutes.Now some questions.
I am not sure of what I am hearing? I call it a burp I am not always looking at the coil and I get a good sound but quick and short. I stop to check, gone? A couple of times I worked the spot and got it to repeat I scoop,sometimes it was a deep piece of Iron (large) sometimes it disappeared? I think one or more times I dug a dime at 12 inches but they were signals that repeated softly?
I am hunting a very old ocean swim beach that has been in use since 1840's It is littered with iron of all kinds, all metal mode is not a good choice here. You can see bolts and washers ever few feet on top of the beach. The other problem is its also littered with bronze screws and nails from old boats. Makes for a hard time recovering them as they fall though the scoop.
I hunt here as It has produced my best beach finds for the last 20 years I have hunted it.From 1872 coins to the best rings I have found. Any help on those ghost signals would help. steve

 

[Gulf Hunter]

Hello Steve,

WOW, sounds like the targets are shallow, if you are eyeballing them! Better stay on it out there.

This is how I keep smaller items from falling through my scoop holes here. The magnet is kind of a POS, but there are some good ones out there. The theory is it attracts bobby pins and nails, should you scoop one. I very rarely ever do running the Excal though. Here is a source for magnets: http://www.kjmagnetics.com/categories.asp
[attachment 149089 scoopbucket.JPG]
[attachment 149090 scoopwire.JPG]

As far as the falsing, could be too high of sensitivity, or an iron blip. Hope you have an 800 in that trashy area, sounds like the 1000 would be a poor choice there, as you need better separation. If you have a 1000, you will need to sweep slowly and cross-grid, should still be able to pull some keepers. The earlier Excal II 1000s had coil issues too, which cause the issue you describe too, could be a last and final possibility. Keep us posted and you MAY want to call Minelab and ask to speak to a tech and describe the issue, if all else fails, you MAY have to send the unit in.

 

[kered]

Sounds to me like too much sense as GH says(he's not often wrong) that would be my first thing to check, turn it way down and slowly work your way up again see if it helps, if its the same on low sense start thinking about coil problems.

 

[Buried Crap NJ]

GH, and others Thanks I have a new scoop and Have not yet done that stuff I know better. I was just very excited to get out and use the new machine, that portion slipped my aging mind. I did turn the sense up just a tad this time from the first time from about 5 to 6 I also did not hunt the same beach but one next store which is a very quite beach with few targets. I will get out Sunday to try out the lesson's ;earned here. steve

 

[erikk]

Another tip on the KJ N........... magnets. If you encapsulate them in epoxy they will last a long time otherwise the salt will make them swell and fall apart

 

[tvr]

Sounds like you are coming up to speed with the Excal quickly!

For picture sizing, I use Paint; the one that comes with just about every MS OS as one of the standard bundled applications.

Just open the picture, pull down the options under "Image" select "Stretch/Skew" Then change the size the same percentage for vertical and horizontal. For pictures that are about 1 Mb size, I do 50% on both horizontal and vertical and get files about 250 Kb size that show up well when posted. If your files are just over the size limit, try 95%. Can always try smaller. if still not there.
tvr