Second Deepest Coin For Me

[RLOH]

I know everyone is always wondering about depth of a detector and there is much debate on which detector is deepest. I bought an Explorer XS about six months after they came out and I had a terrible time getting it to "click" I had just got on the internet and I stumbled on Mike Moutray's settings and believe it or not, I am still using those settings give or take a couple of numbers here and there. My first extremely deep coin was a 1844 large cent from 13 to 14 inches deep. I have usually had an Explorer of some type since those days, but I have never got a coin even close to that depth. I routinely dig 8 to 10 inch deep coins, with most of my oldies coming from about 8 inches deep. Today, I was at a place where my oldest coin was a 1865 Indian Head and I was about 20 feet away from the spot of that old coin. I was using my trusty Explorer 11 with the Pro Coil on it. I got a signal that pegged the cross hair upper right and would repeat from most all angles. I am digging deep jumpy signals and to be honest, most of these are deep rusty square nails. I know before I dig that they are more than likely junk, but I dig them anyway. I dug a large rusty bolt about three inches away from the sweet signal and when I rechecked the hole, the signal was now perfect, but deeper. It hit from all angles. I knew I had a coin and was thinking large cent. I purposely dug softy and used my hands to scoop the loose dirt out. I finally felt the coin in the dirt at about 13 inches and it was a large copper. I immediately realized that it was not a US large cent and what I could see in the field was some kind of house that sort of resembled the White House. I threw it in my pouch thinking I had some kind of token and continued hunting. I just got around to cleaning the coin and saw a date of 1842 and "half penny" on one side. I googled 1842 half penny and came up with a Canadian half penny. Bank of Montreal is on one side. Nothing worth a whole lot, but it made my day. On the way home from detecting today I was pondering just how deep an Explorer will go. I do know that this was not a super weak signal and I have no doubt my Ex 11 will do a little better. R.L.

 

[Hobo lobo]

What were the settings you used?

 

[D&P-OR]

R.L.-----Congrats on those finds---that's some REAL depth!-----The deepest coin we have ever found with a Minelab (or any machine) was a Morgan dollar at an honest 12".-----It was found using an Etrac, you just can't beat the Explorers/Etracs for being depth hogs on old silver/coppers.------------Del

 

[dewcon4414]

Those are cool ole coppers to find. Ive found a few of them. Are you using Mikes lower gain as well? Some dont like it but it works pretty darn well in open areas for me. I get that kind of depth at the beach.... but our soil here in Indy with the minerals rarely allow targets deeper than 10 inches.... well unless you count the occasional BUD LITE can lol. Good hunt.

Dew

 

[RLOH]

I hunt in the iron mask screen at factory preset(-6) manual sens of 22, gain at 6, conduct, fast off-deep off. Factory default with other settings. I have tried hunting with other settings, but after many hours, I just found that these settings work for me. I am not trying to say my way is the only way, but I do some things different. I hardly ever noise cancel. If I get in an area where the detector starts chirping I will cancel. Most people cancel every time they start up. As Bryce says"whatever works for you". Another thing I do is concerning auto-manual sensitivity. I hunt in manual 22 90%of the time, but if I get into tough ground like cinders and such, I always go to auto and it works perfect. To be completely honest, sometimes I forget when I am in auto and hunt for a period of time and I seem to find deeper coins with auto on. Again, my preference is not cast in stone, but it works for me. Sometimes I wish I would experiment more, but it gets me out of my comfort zone and I start thinking I might miss something.

 

[Doctorcoinz]

The deepest i ever found a coin was 10 inches (explorer se) the explorer 2 is just as deep as well. The signal was pretty weak but still got enough of a buzz to say dig! This was in pretty bad ground too , in better ground i could have squeezed maybe 2 inches extra depth.

 

[JohnAndersonUtah]

I live in Utah and have been using the Explorer SE for over a year and not had much much with coins deeper than 5-7 inches. I know they are there but am just at the edge of digging wheat pennies.
1- Do you know where I can get a good recommended settings for the SE? I will be looking for CW relics and colonial coppers in VA.
2- How much better is the Etrac over the Explorer SE? I will be hunting places in Winchester I have previously worked hard with my Explorer.
Thanks
-John

 

[sgoss66]

Amazing R.L. Now way can I get that depth in my soil, but that's a great find from an awesome depth!

By the way, interesting that your (Mike Moutray's) settings are very similar to Bryce's -- excepth that Bryce maxes his gain at 10 instead of 6 and uses 26 instead of 22 sens. One of the things Bryce stresses is super important to him, though, is IM 22 on his SE Pro -- which is the same as Mike's -6 on the older Explorers. Very interesting.

Anyway, GREAT job!

Steve