Question and a comment

[NH Bob]

Question first. Mostly for my curiosity, how many of you hunt by digital readout only? Verses cross hairs?
Comment. There has been so much controversy over this Deep on Fast off or Fast on ETC. I get a new machine and one of the settings I do is turn Deep on (only) and never go back to those settings. I have found that instead of spending my time on which one I want on and which one I want off is just that... A waist of time. Fast on and you lose accurate ID and so on but you get faster recovery.
I enjoy hunting and not playing with all the settings once I'm set up. If I get to a busy spot I just slow down and I enjoy trying to find a hidden prize in all that junk. When I've worked my way out of the Trash I simply move on as usual. The Explorer is an amazing machine and is designed to satisfy all our needs. But I think some of us get wrapped up in too many of the technicalities.
Just my thoughts on this great machine.

 

[tomtowns]

Hi Bob, I certainly am not an EXPERT on the Exp. JUST the opposite..I'm a newbie...I switch back & forth from smartfind to digital a LOT...Just to compare readouts...Especially when I get an iffy signal...granted I'm still in the "learning phase" & probably will be for the next few years...but it's so quick & easy to do I actually enjoy doing it...HH..TT

 

[Big Boys Hobbies]

I really like the accuracy of the digital #'s.

Like i said i only use them to confirm the sound that i think the target is, But what do I know? I still use the stock Koss that everyone says are junk. ha ha I'm really gonna have to borrow some new HP to try out.

 

[jeff & Maria]

is digital, I can't say why other than that's how I started. Perhaps it's because it was the easiest transition since my prior machine was a White's. I always liked the numbers on that machine and how they related to what was in the ground.
As far as settings, I turn fast on in trashy areas or if I feel I am moving faster than I should be but I can't honestly say I have found a difference. I did try something yesterday though. I got a weak signal (slight chirp) and decided to turn deep on to see if it changed anything. I do believe it gave me a slightly better signal.
Whan I dug it I found a wheatie, although it was only about 5-6 inches down.

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

I'm with you 100% on that...first thing I did was turn deep on and made sure fast was off. I hunt low and slow and have little need for the fast option. I tried it yesterday with both on and didn't like it. I hunt in digital first and use the quick switch by hitting "Detect" to check the smartfind. I do that frequently to compare and sometime hunt in smartfind for the experience and switch to digital to confirm. It's all good.

 

[Rick(ND)]

I used the Cross hairs all the time, then when I seen the digital was better for IDing nickles I used that until I seen you could see more what was going on while using the crosshairs in areas with many signals. First thing is the tones than the visual ID. Now for the last year I when I get a signals that sounds good I check it in the crosshairs first, then the digital on some of them and some I don't. This took a little time to do sometimes with the Explorer II switching form one to the other, but now with the new SE it is so much easier and much faster and this is one of the many features i like with the new SE.
As far as deep on or off, fast on or off or most other settings I leave them alone other than the noise cancel and the sensitivity up or down depending on where I am detecting, that is something I learned after my second year with the Explorer.

 

[savage]

Well said Mike

 

[Hotcz70]

it fast and simple to switch screens. I do it on every signal and it's just a third reference to go by. Sound first...numbers...crosshairs. OR sounds first...crosshairs...then numbers. It all works.

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

Bob most features have their uses. I never use the digital mode because 98% of the good targets around here are deep enough that digital mode is useless. The target ID bounces around so much you'd get a different number every sweep. But if I were hunting an area where the targets where shallow and the digital ID was highly accurate, AND there was a fair amount of modern trash, then I'd probably use digital mode.

I hunt with DEEP ON, FAST OFF the vast majority of the time because thats just what works best in our local area. The same for the rest of my settings, theres really no reason to change them as they are optimised for my local sites. That said there are sites I have hunted where DEEP OFF is better. Some guy at Minelab let slip once that in bad ground DEEP ON can make things worse boosting the ground signal to the point that DEEP ON is counter productive. Oregon has some soil like that.

FAST ON, that has its place also. When I'm hunting inside the rusty nail zone of an old cellar hole where theres a blanket of nails FAST ON will let the machine recover after coming off a nail quicker and possibly lock onto a nearby good target that would otherwise have been masked by the iron. That said I prefer to hunt the site a second time with a smaller coil versus going to FAST ON with the stock coil because as you mentioned FAST ON sacrifices accuracy for recovery speed and many of my targets are iffy enough already.

Besides, seeing is believing. I have dug so many coins with the Minelab 8 inch coil in areas I have pounded to oblivion with the stock coil to make a believer out of me. And those I missed were hiding up close to nearby trash and iron, no surprise. That Minelab 8 is deadly in the trashy areas.

Charles

 

[Mike Bearden]

And leaving the Fast or Deep settings alone is a good thing for the most part, but not always.
I can see where digital over cross hair readouts will be easier to associate particular targets for some. It's all in what the user feels comfortable with and makes them feel confident.
When I first started using the Explorer I covered the screen and learned to hunt by sound only first. If it locked-on and wasn't obviously a huge ferrous sounding target ... I dug it !
It was tougher to MAKE myself NOT uncover the screen than you can imagine ... but after 4 or 5 months of doing this, Man did it pay off.
Yep, I actually cut out a piece of paper and covered the inside readout target section and left only the outside adjustments and depth, battery, etc., scales visible.
Now after a few years of using the Explorer with everything visible I decided at the beginning of 2006 to dig everything again that locked on as non ferrous because I'd become screen dependent, lazy or whatever you want to call it.
The results were not surprising, dig more targets, get more good loot, yes I dug more trash too but the bottom line was I had become screen dependant. It happens !
Some of those tabs, aluminum pieces etc. that show up the same on the screen will suddenly be treasure when I would have sworn it was another piece of junk by trusting the screen and sound together.
Fast and deep have their place and time for me.
On a site I've never hunted, I start out with Fast, especially if it's a trashy site. For what it's worth, I've experienced times when a coin wouldn't come in clean with Fast when it would on Deep and vice-verse, so it pays off to try both and see what happens.
And I'm talking about getting an iffy target and then trying each setting on the same target without moving a step ... it can be an EYE OPENER

Just my 50 cents worth
Mike

 

[NH Bob]

n/t

 

[NH Bob]

n/t

 

[NH Bob]

That I've always hunted with the cross hairs as someone said with the old models it took too long to switch back and forth. I feel I have and I'm sure some of you have acquired a sixth sense so to speak and you just have to dig it. I have also learned that any part of the top right quarter of the screen is not to be overlooked.
Another thing that helps me as far as fighting this masking problem is I hunt in all metal and if it gets way too noisy I only close it up one notch. In other words, I want to hear everything. And I pull lots of coins out from between the iron drones.

 

[Jack(IN)]

Fast on, Deep on, just how I like it and as slow as I go and as much as I dig I don't think I miss much(an opinion only). I never use digital, but if I find a Seated coin, or something my dad likes finding I hit digital and see where it hits because he uses the Digital. For me, once I set it, thats how it is give or take the sensitivity!

 

[savage]

Well said Charles (Upstate NY) I use the 8" Sunray more than my other coils. Happy Hunting Grounds,

Savage (EX-II)

 

[erikk]

I hunt in digital but I use it mostly as a check. I listen for the tones and check them against the numbers keeping in mind that the numbers are only a guide. If it is remotely close I'll dig it. I also use deep on fast off. The crosshairs are impossible for me to see so that's how I hunt

 

[NH Bob]

I hunted a long time on tone only before I got my first metered machine. I think everyone should break there teeth on a tone only machine. They would be surprised what the pouch held at the end of one days hunt.

 

[Varmint]

several pros have stated there is "good information" hidden in the way the cursor responds to certain objects. "Pulls left towards upper middle" and "goes from far right to far upper left bouncing around" are trends you can SEE with crosshairs, but a bit tougher with just the numbers.

One fellow (my apologies for not recalling directly, SoCentralWi?) mentioned putting a clear overlay on the display window, then placing dots with a felt tip marker for common-object crosshair positions. Sort of like a "learned screen" for quick reference, but without masking off what might end up being verifiably good targets.

Numbers are cool, but there are too many things in the ground (rings, necklaces, etc...) that don't hit on just one area, same could be said for coins on edge, certain states of electrolysis, oversized halos from lawn fertilizer, etc...

Deep on, fast off. low and slow.

DAS

 

[tomtowns]

I believe our minds can process sounds faster than our eyes can focus,read,& process digital numbers...Thats why I have the smartfind on but usually only look at it when I get a good or iffy signal...then check the crosshairs & maybe hit the detect button..

 

[NH Bob]

n/t