SE vs. Previous Explorers

[Mike Bearden]

Big Fang touched on something below and I'd like to put in my 2 cents worth.

Fang ... I have to agree with your post but I also agree with some of the others too.

For me the XS and EX II .... although a tad bit slower on reset time between close targets, I also noticed they don't give me nearly as many false wrap around tones in the thick iron.
Since I hunt mostly in wide open iron mask anyway, I don't hear the nulling and that helps to recover any speed lost when compared to the SE series.

Learning the Explorers language is 99% of the battle and I absolutely hate having to look at the screen to help decide on good from bad targets and got the same results you did with the SE.

But .... SPEED is the key word here ... when working in between iron looking for good targets ... who in their right mind cares about SPEED, especially in hard worked over sites where good targets are known to exist? I can stay within a 50 square feet site like that for hours as long as the coins keep coming up.

I've always felt that one of the primary reasons Explorer users find what others left behind is that they take their time within the iron and let the Explorer do what it does best.

Now you SE users don't get your feathers ruffled ... I know the SE is faster, more user friendly and overall ergonomically designed better than it's predecessors, that's a given and it's still a great machine.

But ... whatever Minelab did with software changes to accommodate the faster processor speed of the SE sure didn't make it better in the iron

You usually have to give up something to gain something else and in this case I agree with Fang ... it may be entirely coincidental but I seriously doubt it, the XS and EX II always seem to give less false signals when hunting by tone than the SE did.

Sure .. I dig a few false iron tones with the EX II but not nearly as many as I did with the SE.

Early last year I purchased a EX II in a SE housing ... LOVED it ... best of both worlds ... but I didn't have it a month before some thief broke in to my truck and stole it along with a XTerra 70

Good Hunting
Mike

 

[utahshovelhead]

I would be interested in knowing 1. What coil Fang and Mike B. use on the SE and 2. If the new E trac has the same falseing problem around deep iron. I use the EX II but would very much like to see the recovery speed improved in those conditions but not at the risk of more falseing which wastes my limited time in one of my favorite areas to hunt. In some areas I dont care about speed but time is short my freind and If the proccessing speed can be increased and stay accurate im all for it.

 

[Mike Bearden]

on a borrowed Etrac I couldn't give a FAIR assessment of it in this scenario.
I do like the overall feel, speed and balance of the Etrac from what little time I used one.
Those folks on the Etrac forum are loving it though and for the most part are saying it's by far the BEST all around detector Minelab has ever produced !!!
The ONLY reason I don't own one is the $$$$ factor.
As with others, times are tough for me right now.

About my coil choices, I've owned just about every coil produced for the Explorer series and can accomplish anything I need to on a site with the Minelab 8" and the SE Pro coil ... all others are just icing on the cake.


Mike

 

[dewcon4414]

Mike it might have something to do with the FAST recovery ON with normal sounds. I know you get a clearer complete sound with fast OFF and Deep OFF. But dont you think you can normally tell that distinct sound you get coming off iron? Also, i noticed several people now are using AUTO sensitiivty. I did some test bed tests and for me what i noticed was manual gets better depth with very unreliable ID, but auto give me very good tones and ID. Manual also seemed to keep trying to id the target where as auto has a distinct dead cut off depth. I know Bryce uses auto 26 because any higher and the falsing gets worse. Then we go back to cond vs ferr sounds when in trashy iron ridden areas. You are right about slowing down... too many people get used to wanting to cover more ground and want a fast recovering machine. Even on the DFX which is a fast recovery machine you can pick thru some pretty trashy areas IF.. you slow down.

Dew

 

[Big Fang Coin Biter]

Sometimes I feel like I am the only one that thinks this way about the SE (although I know many others). First off for dewcon, I am talking about the teeny-tiny hits - the ones that, if coin sized, will be down 9 to 11 inches. It is very hard to determine an iron false on these weak signals (and impossible on my SE in conductive tones). I have tried quite a few settings to no avail. Utahshovlehead, I used the Sun Ray 8" coil almost exclusively, but did use the slimline a few times. It is not a coil issue.

Mike, with my EII if I dig up a nail that has been giving a good signal in both directions (north-south being one direction and east-west the second direction), then it is either bent or has a non-ferrous target in the same hole. I dig up ferrous hits that just sound too good from one direction and null from the other. Usually it is a ferrous target, but once in a while it is something good. Here is a picture from back in 2000, this gave a great signal in one direction only. The small nail was in the back of the hole at about four inches the dime was in the front of the hole at 5 inches and the large nail was down around 7 inches right in the center of the hole. I could not believe my eyes!
Thanks again and HH - BF

 

[Mike Bearden]

and WHY I like to hunt with a wide open IM screen and TRUST what I'm hearing over anything else.
I have more than a handful of coins that show iron stains on the them that I guarantee most other detectors simply would not give a good signal on.

WTG ....
Good Hunting
Mike