DirtFlipper
New member
Howdy,
After using another brand for several years, I finally took the plunge and thought I'd try my hand with an SE (have the Pro coil on it though). I'll confess to not having read the manual all the way through, nor have I read Andy's book(s) yet. But I have watched lots of videos of folks using SEs, and did a fair amount of reading online on specific topics. I had a window of time today, the weather was nice, so rather than do more reading I thought I'd just jump off the pier and start swimming. I finished putting the SE together out of the box, got the Sun Ray probe mounted, loaded the batteries, and headed out. (I found that the cable from the Pro coil needed to be stretched more than I would have expected, to allow for coil movement - had to tie down the cable fairly tightly to keep slack in it. Any tips there?).
I'm used to running a detector fairly hot, with minimal discrimination, so I for initial settings I opted for semi-auto sensitivity set at 26-28 (I fiddled with that a bit, but left it at 28 most of the time), gain at 8, variability at 10, limit at 10, threshold down around 11, normal response, coins and jewelry in the disc, fast off, deep off, iron mask off, and everything else at defaults (the latter few being defaults I think anyway). I had sounds in conduct.
I was anxious to try the SE out at someplace I've hit hard before, so headed to my nearest park that has shown age before, but where the finds have slowed down a lot. I was braced for a barrage of sounds, based on what I'd read online, and initially that part wasn't dissappointing. The machine has lots of information to convey. But knowing this park, I'm aware that there're a few spots where some EM interference seems to be strong, so I used the noise cancel. That seemed to help.
I would say it took about 20 minutes to get used to the initial sound spectrum. I was in SmartFind view, and I was mainly listening for the high flutey tones I'd seen on folks videos (thanks, folks!). But I did recovery a few conductive targets that weren't in the upper right corner, just to see what they were. I gained a fairly good sense for where the tabs are. I was also looking for targets that showed depth of about halfway down on the meter. I know from previous finds here that the older stuff is fairly consistently 5 inches or more, and I've previously recovered up to 7 inches or so. I wanted to see what lay beyond.
My first decent recovery was a Wheat, and I made note of the very narrow, but high-pitched chirp it made, but was repeatable at angles (hey, just like my other detector - some experiences transfer). Now having a template sound, I looked for more.
Knowing what I've covered at this location before, and how, I must say that I'm a believer. For a first time hunt, and not really being familiar with the machine yet, finding five wheats, a silver dime, and a ring is all right in my book. All from ground I've been over several times before.
The only bit of strangeness I encountered, for which I need to try to understand further, is that the threshold would null for long periods of time (like whole swings or more). The place is trashy, yes, but should it null that much? It was almost like searching with no threshold. To help learn the machine, I did move farther out away from higher trash density, and then slowly work my way back in. The nulling didn't seem to prevent it from finding higher conductive targets though, so I just worked through it. I didn't try the fast on setting to see what change it made. I didn't want to stop to fiddle around too much with it, and I figured I could research the nulling behavior later when I got home.
All in all, a very satisfying first time with a Minelab. Knowing the site well I think helped a lot, and running a bit stronger setup but in less trash, and then working into the trash also helped I think. I did try popping sensitivity up to 30 once just to see what it would do, and I'd ahve to say that I didn't notice a great difference. A bit more sensitive to coil strikes perhaps, but the ground at this location is very forgiving.
Anyway, I hope to increase both my finds and my posts as I go along.
HH,
DirtFlipper
[attachment 137548 2009Aug30003.jpg]
[attachment 137550 2009Aug30008.jpg]
[attachment 137551 2009Aug30007.jpg]
[attachment 137552 2009Aug30014.jpg]
After using another brand for several years, I finally took the plunge and thought I'd try my hand with an SE (have the Pro coil on it though). I'll confess to not having read the manual all the way through, nor have I read Andy's book(s) yet. But I have watched lots of videos of folks using SEs, and did a fair amount of reading online on specific topics. I had a window of time today, the weather was nice, so rather than do more reading I thought I'd just jump off the pier and start swimming. I finished putting the SE together out of the box, got the Sun Ray probe mounted, loaded the batteries, and headed out. (I found that the cable from the Pro coil needed to be stretched more than I would have expected, to allow for coil movement - had to tie down the cable fairly tightly to keep slack in it. Any tips there?).
I'm used to running a detector fairly hot, with minimal discrimination, so I for initial settings I opted for semi-auto sensitivity set at 26-28 (I fiddled with that a bit, but left it at 28 most of the time), gain at 8, variability at 10, limit at 10, threshold down around 11, normal response, coins and jewelry in the disc, fast off, deep off, iron mask off, and everything else at defaults (the latter few being defaults I think anyway). I had sounds in conduct.
I was anxious to try the SE out at someplace I've hit hard before, so headed to my nearest park that has shown age before, but where the finds have slowed down a lot. I was braced for a barrage of sounds, based on what I'd read online, and initially that part wasn't dissappointing. The machine has lots of information to convey. But knowing this park, I'm aware that there're a few spots where some EM interference seems to be strong, so I used the noise cancel. That seemed to help.
I would say it took about 20 minutes to get used to the initial sound spectrum. I was in SmartFind view, and I was mainly listening for the high flutey tones I'd seen on folks videos (thanks, folks!). But I did recovery a few conductive targets that weren't in the upper right corner, just to see what they were. I gained a fairly good sense for where the tabs are. I was also looking for targets that showed depth of about halfway down on the meter. I know from previous finds here that the older stuff is fairly consistently 5 inches or more, and I've previously recovered up to 7 inches or so. I wanted to see what lay beyond.
My first decent recovery was a Wheat, and I made note of the very narrow, but high-pitched chirp it made, but was repeatable at angles (hey, just like my other detector - some experiences transfer). Now having a template sound, I looked for more.
Knowing what I've covered at this location before, and how, I must say that I'm a believer. For a first time hunt, and not really being familiar with the machine yet, finding five wheats, a silver dime, and a ring is all right in my book. All from ground I've been over several times before.
The only bit of strangeness I encountered, for which I need to try to understand further, is that the threshold would null for long periods of time (like whole swings or more). The place is trashy, yes, but should it null that much? It was almost like searching with no threshold. To help learn the machine, I did move farther out away from higher trash density, and then slowly work my way back in. The nulling didn't seem to prevent it from finding higher conductive targets though, so I just worked through it. I didn't try the fast on setting to see what change it made. I didn't want to stop to fiddle around too much with it, and I figured I could research the nulling behavior later when I got home.
All in all, a very satisfying first time with a Minelab. Knowing the site well I think helped a lot, and running a bit stronger setup but in less trash, and then working into the trash also helped I think. I did try popping sensitivity up to 30 once just to see what it would do, and I'd ahve to say that I didn't notice a great difference. A bit more sensitive to coil strikes perhaps, but the ground at this location is very forgiving.
Anyway, I hope to increase both my finds and my posts as I go along.
HH,
DirtFlipper
[attachment 137548 2009Aug30003.jpg]
[attachment 137550 2009Aug30008.jpg]
[attachment 137551 2009Aug30007.jpg]
[attachment 137552 2009Aug30014.jpg]
