Test Results and I'm not real happy

[waseeker]

Since I don't have space for a test garden I decided to go to an old park and do some testing.

First I dug a couple of three inch plugs. I placed various coins at the bottom, replaced the plugs and then checked to see where they showed up on both smart screen and digital. Conductivity numbers were very consistent, but the ferrous numbers tended to move around depending on which direction I was heading when I approached the coil (I checked them out from the 4 main compass points).

Next still using the 3" holes I started messing around with the gain, variability and threshold limits. My purpose was to find a level that would let me consistently distinguish between memorial cents and dimes, and also to get a good (and identifiable by me) high silver tone. I used a memorial cent, clad dime, mercury dime, and a silver washington quarter for this part of the test. I finally settled on gain at 10 and threshold also at 10. That gave me a super high pitched tone on the silver coins.

Next, I dug a 9" hole (Measured), and started experimenting with sensitivity settings. For this series I used a morgan dollar, a franklin half, a silver quarter and a mercury dime.

I figured out real quick that in our ground I've got to use manual sens to get any depth at all. The silver dollar was no problem. The SE locked on to it all the way down to a manual sens of 16. The half dollar was almost as good. I could get to a manual sens of 18 before I started to lose that signal. The quarter was not good at all. I had to get manual sens up to 26 before I could even get a chirp that I might consider digging. Even then it wouldn't lock on and it bounced all over the screen. The merc was a total washout. I couldn't even get a hint of a signal even with manual sens up to 32. I tried it with deep on and deep off. I swung the coil slow and then a bit quicker, even trying the "minelab wiggle" but I never got the dime to register.

I wasn't real happy but at least I've kinda figured out the sens settings and expected depths for this area (our ground is extremely mineralized), and did get to see how a very deep quarter reacts.

 

[mascard1]

what part of us you live in?

 

[Eu_citzen]

You know that newly dug ground is disturbed and as such the coins will not be registered as deep as in "real" conditions since often a coin has oxides around it. (refer to the halo effect)

So go and dig some genuine unknown deep targets and see what you get, I find experience is the most reliable teacher.
Much better then any air tests or what ever. Only thing that comes close is a old coin garden.

 

[Bill_S]

******So go and dig some genuine unknown deep targets and see what you get, I find experience is the most reliable teacher.
Much better then any air tests or what ever. Only thing that comes close is a old coin garden******

Good advice......I had never dug any real deep targets with mine until yesterday. I would find coins down to 7 inches or so but never really dug any deep coins. In the back of my mind I probably thought it was not capable of going deeper than that.

Mine would not test real good on freshly buried targets sometimes either.

Just take it out for some real hunting and dig the deeper good sounding signals. I think you will be suprised at the depth you can get.

 

[Mike Bearden]

Unlike single frequency detectors, the Explorer will not do well in those kind of test ( placing coins in fresh dug holes) ... especially in hot ground.
Might as well be an air test, matter of fact, you would do better to just practice your settings with the coins just laying on top of the ground then what you're doing now.
Gain & threshold set that high to hear fresh buried targets will surely be different than natural lost coins and may even cause a falsing kind of audio bleed over where the finds are under 5" deep.
My ground is hot too, I can dig a natural target here that sounds good before digging it, drop the coin back in the hole and not hear it at all and I can SEE it laying there.

My test garden is several years old and the older it gets, the better an Explorer sounds and hits on the targets.

 

[dewcon4414]

You did say you were new at using the Explorer. Your expectations are wayyyyyyy to high at this learning stage. If you are hunting with the FAST on you may need to turn it off and turn on Cond or you may get choppy tones and ID readings. Very few machines are going to ID coins at 9"... especially newly baried and thats no excuse its fact. MOST machines start wrapping around or target ID begins mineral bounce at 7" or so, after that its experience and patience that makes a difference. What you are getting at 9" now is a learning experience note the changes and take that knowledge into the field with you. Thats why most of us use a test garden thats been there awhile or we adjust our setting based on found targets. Gain for me is a personal prefference... if you want modulation then 6 or 7 is the way to go. For me i will investigate ALL good chirps by looking at the screen and maybe wasting more time than most to get as good a picture as i can of that target. Medal detecting takes work and time no matter what machine you use. Dont get discouraged by what you may be seeing now beleave me this detector will pay off and is as good as they come on the market today.

 

[big-ears]

from the way you talked you reburied your coins one after another and checked each. That won't work. When I bury any coin, and its usually a silver dime(s) because its usually the smallest piece of silver I am going to find and anything bigger will just ring out better. I bury it 1 inch at a time and pound the ground down and then the next inch and pound it and so forth. After I finish I than soak it down. That is the closest I can get to a natural buried coin. And thats not even close, but its the best I can do for some practice. You got a fantastic machine, and right now its "operator error", and some of the guys who are responding to your post have got thousands of hours on the Minelabs, they know what they are talking about.

 

[NealNoIN]

n/t

 

[Dang]

Yup. I went through the same thing when I first got into the hobby.
You'll be pleasantly surprised when you actually take her out to the
real world. Also it;s a good idea to tag along experienced Explorer
user to turn you on to those deeeep signals. Get rid of those cheap
headphones too. I just used a pair of Grey Ghost for the first time
today and OMG! What a world of difference! I had no idea what a
BIG difference a good pair of headphones could make.

 

[waseeker]

what part of us you live in?

I live in the Pacific Northwest near Portland Or.

 

[waseeker]

I was going to respond separately to these different response, but we're having a cold snap here and I guess so many folks are inside and using their computers it is really slowing things down for me.

First of all - A BIG Thanks to all of you who took the time to respond. The information ya'll have provided helps me to remember that I have to be patient and build up time and experience with the minelab.

although I'm new to the Minelab, I'm not new to the hobby, but have always used White's products in the past.

my yard is very small and is covered with a weed barrier and wood chips (low maintenance so I have more time to hunt). So that rules out a test garden that I can let "age". I was trying to do some tests at the local park, but since it still gets hunted by others, I sure as heck wasn't going to leave my own silver coins in the ground.

The 11" Pro coil has helped tremendously and I have more confidence in the machine now. I still have problems with squished up soda/beer cans and also screw caps (I've dug several with the neck of the bottle still intact but fortunately haven't cut myself yet). Beyond that I can pretty much tell when I have a coin up to 5-6" and can tell you for sure when I have a quarter. I do reasonably well on nickels, but separating dimes from cents is still a challenge, especially if I try to do it by tone.

Again, thanks to everyone for your help. I'm sure I'll be back with more questions.

 

[nw1886]

Happy holidays all. I'm new to Find's and really enjoy the site! Just wanted to add my two cents. I've used 4 different brands (top four IMO) of detectors over the years and all units experience this same lack of sensitivity (in most situations). Not a reflection on your unit! Yup...like dang said...real world situations are the only way to judge. I know I'm doubling up on previous statements but...we all went through that self questioning on "new burials". I know some say the "Halo Effect" is unproven but we all know it exists (because we prove it every day we detect.) Matter orientation happens out there in the universe and there is no reason to ignore the fact that that "dirt spot" is part of the same dang universe. We could ask Einstein but he's dead.

 

[RustynailDan]

Hi everyone:
Received my Explorer this weekend and wondering about the pro coil? Is it really that much better than the slim line? I'm using my Grey Ghost deep woods head set, but thinking of swapping to my stenographer

 

[Hombre]

n/t

 

[dewcon4414]

Those soda cans sometimes can be distinguished just by raising you coil if you know you are in an infested area. Now the screw caps.... well at a digital reading of 7/26 i have to dig those just because of indian heads. Depth reading doesnt help alot if they are attached to the bottle neck nor does sizing the target. I can sometimes tell just by how loud the sound is compared to the depth that its not an indian head... but do i dig it? Oh heck yes. If you dont you will always wonder, plus it gets that trash out of there so i dont have to hit it again sometime. As far at dimes and pennies... for me having the variability and limits at 10 an the Th tone at 9 really helped. But on those surface pennies sometimes just raising the coil a little gives a better reading and the tone on a dime is so much sweeter. HH