My FIRST hunt with my new SE AND my surprising settings...fast/deep..etc..

[tomtowns]

I don't drop anything when I switch to the probe & I have NEVER experienced falsing with the probe...Your area may be different though...I would suggest that if you are having a problem, Simply raise the probe up off the ground until the falsing disappears.

 

[Arturo de Zorro]

In this Texas clay dirt older silver coins can be found at any depth so at sensitivity 14 to 16 I dig coins at 10" plus in undisturb ground at old river parks which are my favorite hunting sites. Yes I get them at sensitivity 13 and 12 but the ID doesn't lock on as good and yes I get the coins at sensitivity 17 and 18 and 19 and 20 and so on but the ID start to jump around alot. I was told by Minelab I had the first Explorer XS shipped to Texas and since then I have lost count but the ones I have hand picked for myself were selected for their ability to ID correct with depth at low sensitivity, at 20 or higher you can't tell the difference between them. Where I find the big difference is in coils of the same model, you may have 4 that seem the same but then you get one that just is hotter. I lost my best 10.5" coil about a year ago after sticking it in about a foot of salt water I won't do that again I now use my back coils when I hunt the beach.

 

[Hotcz70]

but I was just curious. I never had to on my
EX2 but the SE is completely different...but still the same machine as we are all finding out. It is fun though learning and trying new things. Well it's up to 37 degrees here now. Was supposed to be mid 40's but oh well. I'm gone for an hour or so to try some settings.

 

[Arturo de Zorro]

If you have the gain at 7 or more and when you stick the probe in the hole the coin will have a bigger foot print which means you are not dead on top of the coin and you might scratch the coin if your hole is only 5 to 6 inches wide. If your at a site that the holes can be 8" or wider then leave it set at high gain, the bigger foot print won't matter. People that use shovels dont need X-1 probes any cheap probe or fingers will do. Happy trails 2U

 

[Hotcz70]

Hopefully my probe will arrive soon.

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

Yeah man, right on! That's exactly what I do...try to gauge each site and adjust as the situation dictates. I've done that with pretty much every machine I've had until I felt like I had a good feel for how it would act. The two machines where that has paid off the most was with the DFX and the Explorer. When you have so many variables that affect one another you have to be willing to "think outside the box", because while a particular choice of settings may WORK just fine, they will definitely NOT work as well as they could from one site to the next.

 

[tomtowns]

Also from day to day...I'm not sure what causes it but in the area I picked up the barber dime, I go back to on a regular basis & have picked up other coins...No more real good ones but a couple wheaties...I'm not sure whether it could be atmospheric conditions or what...The moisture content will definently affect it but back to back days with no rain & pretty much the same moisture content in the soil & different results...I know that dry cool air will cause a buildup of electrostatic charge sometimes & wonder if it may have some effect on detectors???? Or maybe it has some localized effect on the earth??? I'm puzzled...

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

I think sometimes it's really as simple as slight changes in sweep angle and sweep speed. Some targets if you don't hit them just right they aren't there. There are certain places I've been back to 25 times and sometimes I will find a nice silver coin, bullet, or button that I KNOW I had to have gone over before but for some reason, me and numerous others had SOMEHOW missed it. Weird, but it happens all the time.

I have an old house site that has turned up more good targets over the years than I can count. From Colonial to CW to late 1800's, early 1900's...and a lot of Barber coins. We call it "The Barber House" and I've taken every new machine there to see what one would turn up over the others. I must have hunted the place 50 times if I hunted it once. When I got the Quattro and then the Explorer II it was one of the first places I went. Same with the SE. Each time it has turned up SOMETHING. With the SE it was a Merc and an Indian. The last time I took the SE there, nothing. Once again I have to call "Time of death" on that site. And yet I know that at some point I will get bored and go out there again and it will turn up SOMETHING. I have other sites like that too but I prefer to hunt fresh sites because they are much more fun. The old pounded to death sites can be very unforgiving. But the often repeated "no site is EVER hunted out" does seem to be true.

 

[tomtowns]

I went to my first & only CLUB meeting a few months back when I was useing a MXT...I do plan on joining & being an active member but sometimes my schedule doesn't fit with the time frames of meetings... During that meeting a lady got up & spoke of her trip with a few other detecting buddies to a small beach on Lake Tahoe...About 100 X 30 ft. They had been at it about an hour when a thunderstorm developed on the other side of the lake(about 10 miles)...They thought about leaving but decided to stay because it looked like it was gonna miss them....well prior to the lightning they had just done so-so but when the sky started popping bolts, they started popping silver....The way she put it was VERY convinceing & she swore that much of it was over ground they had previously gone over...she had no explanation but asked if any others had ever had such an experience. The two other women with her agreed it was the strangest thing they had ever been a part of while detecting...That particular thunderstorm was also a killer....three people on the other side of the lake got hit...I am clueless myself, Any Ideas????

 

[tomtowns]

My holes are usually not much wider than about 4" unless the target is more than 8" down & then I widen it on the sidewalls & not the top...The PINPOINT on the SE is pretty accurate (as you know)& the X-1 on top of it just seals the deal...On My X-1 if the target is on the sidewall it will give off multiple signals as I'm lowering it into the hole & it doesn't sound like that if I'm right on top of it...

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

Well, I sure wouldn't want to purposely go out in a thunderstorm so that I could get some extra depth due to some kind of "Frankenstein Effect" from a lightning-induced electromagnetic charge.

But I also wouldn't be surprised if there were possibly SOME truth in it. I do all my beach hunting in the summer at night. And I've been out there on many a night when either a storm approached or there was lightning in the distance. And anytime there is lightning in the area, my Excal does some funky stuff. You can hear every strike in the threshold and in signal falsing. So indeed it could be responsible for some extra sensitivity. Although my feeling was that it was simply making the machine less stable as well as putting me at risk of getting smoked. And I can't say I ever found a gold ring due to lightning. But I can't say I haven't.

 

[James N.D.]

I have seen this myself. I was detecting a Balldiamond that is located in an old Park with Rick(ND) and his wife once and it started to rain a little on us and there were Thunder and Lightning also, so we waited it out until it passed. It passed after about 10 Minutes and Rick(ND) and his wife had to head back home and I headed right back out to the area that we were working previously before the small storm struck. I was finding a few deeper Wheat's that day and as soon as I turned my detector on, there were DEEP COINS everywhere that didn't give signals before and I had just Patterned this area. I dug a lot more Wheat Pennies along with a Barber Dime and a few Mercs before the charged ground went away. This is the best time to detect! When Lightning strikes, it Charges all the Metallic Items in the ground and you would be amazed at what is deeper that the detector can't detect, but it can get the signals when the Ground Is Charged. If you get the chance, Do Not Detect when there is a Thunderstorm in the area but if it passes and is a ways off in the distance, then give one of your spots a try and see what you find for results. Good Luck and HH.

 

[Hotcz70]

I used to see ads for these in the Lost Treasure magazines. It was almost like an electrical fence setup. You would pick a section of ground and square a certain footage section off and stick a rod in the ground at each of the four corners. This was supposed to "charge" the ground and magnify deep signals that your detector would not previously pick up. Anybody else remember this setup??...or ever try one?

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

Well I guess if it can make the hair on your arm and head stick up then a strong static charge could also make the halo on a deep coin "stand up" as well. Does make some sense. If I had a dollar for everything I hadn't seen or didn't know, I'd be a rich man.

 

[James N.D.]

And the reason is this. Now think about it. I have heard people say that they have tried some but they didn't work but a little if any. And the reason is this. How many times more powerful is a Lightning Strike compared to a Battery Powered or Electrical Powered Device. Probably a few thousand times more powerful. I think you catch my drift and can see why the Lightning would indeed be the only true way to Charge the ground. Hopefully, if you get lucky enough to have a short Thunderstorm go thru your area sometime, make sure the Lightning is a few miles off in the distance and give it a try, you will be amazed at the results.

 

[James N.D.]

n/t

 

[Hotcz70]

Not with my SE or ex2...but with my CZ70 which I still have. I did honestly get a lot of deeper signals...but I also experienced a lot of falsing as the storm came nearer.

It seems to me that if the ground is charged and signals get amplified...then each and every piece of trash will be "supercharged" as well. I know what you mean though....I definately noticed a depth increase and many good signals that had previously been hidden.

 

[tomtowns]

In my old job with the Air Force as a civilian, I recieved training in inspection of munitions & sensitive electronics...One thing that was ALWAYS STRESSED,ESD. Electrostatic discharge...Especially when the air was cold & dry & windy... I know that I pick up a charge in those cond. & quite often get shocked when touching grounded metal...but don't know if it has any effect on the surface of the earth itself...I wonder if THIS might also have an effect on detecting....GOOD or BAD??? Just wondering out loud...HH...TT

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

Hmmm...I wouldn't think that would have too much of an effect. I spent hundreds of hours out in the freezing cold and wind on the piers at the naval base in Norfolk, loading and unloading Tomahawk missiles, Harpoon missiles, and torpedoes on submarines and the safety precautions were the same then as during the summer when it was windless and 100 degrees out...don't drop 'em, don't catch 'em on fire!

 

[tomtowns]

Depending on what the AFTO (Air Force Tech Order) specified for the specific munition. Most care was exercised on electrically initiated stuff...got to see some pretty graphic films on the subject...Most care was taken on flares & HEI (High Explosive Incendiary) rounds for aircraft...a lot of it is fired by an electrical impulse...Much of the inspections we would perform would be a "Hands On" physical inspection of a specified percentage of the rounds...Depending on what was specified...this would be done at an established ESD work station...HH...TT