I have been looking at the Explorer and find the technology behind it to be quite impressive, but I cannot seem to find any comments or claims about its capability to find gold nuggets. It seems like with all of the bells and whistles, they may have forgotten the whistle; is that true?
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Prospecting and the Explorer
- Thread starter IdahoJP
- Start date
Minelab hasn't forgotten.--The Explorer wasn't designed to be a nugget detector.--If you want to find gold nuggets--get a nugget detector. Minelab & other manufacture's make these specialized machines.--Actually the "bells & whistles" that you mention (in the Explorer) are not just hype. I guess some of us are protective of our "baby"--but don't try to make a machine do something it never was designed to do in the first place.
D&P,
Thanks for the response. My intent is not to place anyone on the defensive or to insult a product, but to make an honest obsevation. Just how difficult would it be to make it capable? The X-Terra has a coil at the ideal frequency, and out of 28 frequencies on the Explorer, it would seem to reason that with a correct coil and setting it should be able to do close to the same.
I understand that many machines are dedicated to a task, and that a "jack-of-all-trades" would be the master of none. But it seems odd to me that less capable, lower priced one frequency machines seem to claim all-around cabilities that this one doesn't. I would have thought that you could program the Explorer to be at least functional (though not the best) in this arena. The White's DFX has a "prospecting" program and apparently can be functional with one of only three available frequencies.
I tried a DFX and did not like it. I was hoping to have an outstanding all-around machine with better coil options. The Explorer appears to be that machine with the exception of one oversight. I was hoping to hear that I could program it and select a certain coil to achieve that result. I just scratch my wooden head trying to figure out why it can't be done.
Thanks for the response. My intent is not to place anyone on the defensive or to insult a product, but to make an honest obsevation. Just how difficult would it be to make it capable? The X-Terra has a coil at the ideal frequency, and out of 28 frequencies on the Explorer, it would seem to reason that with a correct coil and setting it should be able to do close to the same.
I understand that many machines are dedicated to a task, and that a "jack-of-all-trades" would be the master of none. But it seems odd to me that less capable, lower priced one frequency machines seem to claim all-around cabilities that this one doesn't. I would have thought that you could program the Explorer to be at least functional (though not the best) in this arena. The White's DFX has a "prospecting" program and apparently can be functional with one of only three available frequencies.
I tried a DFX and did not like it. I was hoping to have an outstanding all-around machine with better coil options. The Explorer appears to be that machine with the exception of one oversight. I was hoping to hear that I could program it and select a certain coil to achieve that result. I just scratch my wooden head trying to figure out why it can't be done.
dewcon4414
Well-known member
Ive hunted with both the DFX and Explorer SE for raw gold. They arent EFFECTIVE gold hunters. The DFX's ground balance will wander and isnt as good as the MXT. Both machines will pick up nuggets at the size indicated in the book, but dont expect them to be much more than serface nuggets. Get yourself a SAMPLE gold card and try the machines. The sample card will give you an indication of what to look for in the field. What i found was that the response i got would be iffy in the field and likely passed over unless you worked a small area that you KNOW has gold. The MXT would be a better machine than either the DFX or the Explorer. The MXT is designed from a gold machine and has more power in the box. Id go with a used gold bug.
Dewcon,
Thanks for the information! I planned on testing and tuning the Explorer on a test bed to determine the moste likely settings. I appreciate your review of the different models. I suspected that just because one has a "prospecting" program did not essentially mean that it would be effective at doing it. I was holding out hope for the Explorer, for its coin and relic capabilities are praised by everyone that has used one.
A Gold Bug is perhaps the best way, or hold out to see what the new Whites TDI will do.
Thanks for the information! I planned on testing and tuning the Explorer on a test bed to determine the moste likely settings. I appreciate your review of the different models. I suspected that just because one has a "prospecting" program did not essentially mean that it would be effective at doing it. I was holding out hope for the Explorer, for its coin and relic capabilities are praised by everyone that has used one.
A Gold Bug is perhaps the best way, or hold out to see what the new Whites TDI will do.
IdahoJP---I know that you were only trying to get an honest answer to a question you have-and I respect that.--I've done considerable nugget hunting with a few different detectors and let me tell you-the DFX "sucks" as a nugget hunter.--The Xterra 70 that you mentioned has a "prospecting" mode (a hybrid of sorts) as is the White"s MXT.--The Tesoro Lobo is a pretty good little coin/relic/gold machine. The Minelab Eureka Gold could be mentioned here as well-there's other's--I haven't covered them all by no means.--Then the question a person needs to ask one's self---do I want a VLF or PI machine for gold hunting?--And on & on.----Again-if you are really serious about nugget hunting-get a nugget detector.---If you want to do a little of both-the Xterra 70, MXT or Lobo will do you fine.-----Del
D&P,
Thanks for the added info! Right now, the PI machines are out of reach, and the right VLF does do some finer surface detection better (if I read it right). I wanted to be able to use the VLF for more than one thing if possible, and add on a PI at a later date once prices and options become a bit more competative. I have an old White's (cir. 1985) which is capable still today. I also have a same era Fisher that while it has the ergonomics down flat, it experience quality issues that the Whites has not. I wanted to upgrade while being capable of trying prospecting on a small scale for fun. I hope to have both a PI and a top of the line VLF, one this year, and one the next if economics allow me to do so.
Thanks to all for your patient answers!
Thanks for the added info! Right now, the PI machines are out of reach, and the right VLF does do some finer surface detection better (if I read it right). I wanted to be able to use the VLF for more than one thing if possible, and add on a PI at a later date once prices and options become a bit more competative. I have an old White's (cir. 1985) which is capable still today. I also have a same era Fisher that while it has the ergonomics down flat, it experience quality issues that the Whites has not. I wanted to upgrade while being capable of trying prospecting on a small scale for fun. I hope to have both a PI and a top of the line VLF, one this year, and one the next if economics allow me to do so.
Thanks to all for your patient answers!
Good comments so far. D&P is right. The explorer is a coin/relic machine, not a nugget machine. And any machine on the market that is made to be a "cross-over" will excell at neither. Ie.: there will be "better" coin machines and there will be "better" nugget machines. The reason for this is that the goals of each venue are almost diametrically opposed to each other. For example, a coin/relic guy does NOT want to find every single piece of birdshot, every staple, etc... But the nugget guy WANTS a machine that excells at those teensy targets. To design a machine that can simply switch back and forth between desired goals, is apparently no easy task. The coils and machine innards have to be designed from the ground up to acheive those very separate goals. So anything that can do both, is apparently compromising a bit on each end.
What is strange is .... you would THINK that a machine that can find a grain-of-rice sized nugget down to 3", must therefore be able to kick b*tt on larger coin sized targets, right? But that is not the case. Most nugget machines (certain Minelabs excluded) can indeed find teensy nuggets deeper than a coin machine could find them (if the coin machine could even pick them up at all!), yet they won't pick up a coin deeper than 7" or so. Contrast that to a good coin machine, like the explorer, which can find a coin to 9 or 10", yet won't find the pinhead sized nugget, even if you're touching the nugget to the coil
What is strange is .... you would THINK that a machine that can find a grain-of-rice sized nugget down to 3", must therefore be able to kick b*tt on larger coin sized targets, right? But that is not the case. Most nugget machines (certain Minelabs excluded) can indeed find teensy nuggets deeper than a coin machine could find them (if the coin machine could even pick them up at all!), yet they won't pick up a coin deeper than 7" or so. Contrast that to a good coin machine, like the explorer, which can find a coin to 9 or 10", yet won't find the pinhead sized nugget, even if you're touching the nugget to the coil