Have fun !!!
Second, try to not get frustrated. If there is nothing worth finding in the place you are hunting... you will make no good finds. A good site is very important. Ask business acquaintances for permission to hunt places, ask your friends. Look for good places and if you get in one ask if they have any other places. Parks are good for practice and old parks are good for some decent finds but most will have already been hunted. However the ET will find targets that the others missed. Old ballfields and new ones are good for practice. The strips between the sidewalk and the road are public property. Vacant lots in town are usually good and i've never been run off one. In fact i've never been run off the lawn at a vacant house. Older homes that are being marketed now as a place of business are good and there is usually no one around who cares as long as you are careful with the lawn. Never cut all four sides of a hole, Three sides will still leave abrown spot but it will green up again. In lawns where it really matters you can get a knife, cut a slit and then widen it a bit and use a coin popper or a large screwdriver to keep the place looking nice.
You do not have to have a test garden to learn to use the ET. Just throw some coins out in the yard and go find them. Buried is better but just in the grass works too for learning.
Conductive sounds and multi tones may be a little overwhelming at first. If it is too much for you switch to ferrous and 2 tones. Especially if you are hunting relics or if there is not a huge ammount of trash. The ET and the SE both will give you a bunch of tones, at once, on a shallow target if you are in conductive and multi tones, a slightly deeper target is more likely to give just one tone. 2 tones will not do that. Shchho yards are good places to hunt on a Sunday or a holiday.
Remember, it is going to take some time to learn. Read the manual more than once and practice, practice, practice... the more you use it the sooner it will "click" and when it does... then you'll really love it. I'm not saying that you wont love it from the start but usually it takes some time before you really understand a machine like the Explorer or the E-TRAC.
Remember the first point... have fun, and the second goes along with it because if you don't have a decent place to hunt it isn't going to be near as much fun.
The best potyential for a good place anymore is private property... old yards. Parks are good but they have all been hunted and the easy stuff is gone. The ET will find the hard stuff but it will be easier for you to find it once you have learned the machine and have experience on it, so go find some old yards and you'll both have fun and learn your machine.
I expect to see some pictures of the great stuff you are going to find !!!
Julien
