Seems like lots of new Explorer users around these days so I thought I would post some tips.
Note there are a great many opinions out there on how best a new person should setup and use the Explorer, this is only my approach. Good luck with the new machine!
Below is my standard tips sheet plus various recent emails I sent to a couple guys who contacted me recently looking for tips, they are in no particular order and in some cases overlap areas covered in the tips sheet but the emails represent my most current thinking on the topics.
Charles (Upstate NY)
MY STANDARD EXPLORER TIPS SHEET...
I had never used a detector before when I purchased my Explorer so I started from ground zero with this gadget. It took me about 2 months to figure it out but it was like flipping on a light switch, one day I was fumbling around not finding much, the next day I was finding silver and Indian head cents all over the place. Hopefully these tips will help you over the learning curve so you can start making finds the first day.
My approach is different, I will give you a setup which will let the Explorer flex its muscles right from the start verses the wimpy factory settings. I hunted today for 5 hours and found 10 wheats, 12 indian heads, 2 mercs, and 3 barber dimes (including a nice 1892-o) in a patch that's been detected already by another other top brand. Using these settings and this approach over the past 2 seasons I have found over 400 silvers, getting close to 400 indian heads, a pile of silver quarters, about a dozen large cents, 2 barber halfs, a WL half, and gobs of other stuff and jewelry. All from parks that have been hunted hard for many years.
Update 04/21/2004: Well I'm now in my 4th season and have since lost count of the silvers and coppers.a bunch. Been hunting for about 3 weeks so far this season and have a pile of IH's, a pile of silvers including a seated (I always like getting the season's first seated find out of the way) a couple large cents 1803 and 1851, and a super 20k gold ring that's at least 100 years old. All from the same old detected to death parks. After 3 seasons of being pounded with Explorers its getting more difficult to find a coin but the machine is still performing well.
The advice below assumes that there are coins in your area in the 6-10 inch range like there are in my area, this approach is for hunting deep coins and coins on edge.
Ok lets get to it...first if you want to go deep for the older coins forget the factory settings they won't get the job done. The factory sensitivity setting of 16 is 50% of possible, semi-auto mode can drop it further so you might as well use your old detector as far as depth goes. Plus WAY too much of the screen is blacked out, the deeper the coin, the less accurate the ID on the screen though the tone will be accurate for the most part. Don't' miss that point, if it sounds like a coin but is ID'ing way off the mark on the screen dig it, could be a mixed coin/trash or coin/iron signal. Worn silver will not hit in the textbook area of the screen. I found a worn reale that hit way over to the top left in the iron area, I found IH's that hit from upper left to upper right to lower right, again we are talking deep targets. Then you have to understand that a lot of the good coins that are left, especially silver quarters, halfs, and large cents are near other trash items that have masked them for many years. I have found many silver quarters up near and even under trash, most often a big rusty nail or a rusty crowncap. These trash items will pull the signal off the textbook location on the screen BUT you can still here them (the tone ID is highly accurate) if you have not discriminated that area of the screen out which the factory startup screen does.
Don't worry about programming the detector this thing is easy, once setup I rarely change anything other than bumping the sensitivity a few points up or down usually due to nearby power lines.
Here are my settings, just stay out of my town with them as I have enough competition from Ed the Explorer aka Ed the coin vacuum, I should have kept my mouth shut and he'd still be swinging that other brand and clearing all the clad out of my way. ;-).
Sensitivity = Manual mode as high as it will go and be reasonable stable, I rarely will hunt at less than 25 and I'll put up with a bit of instability in exchange for the depth a higher sens gives you. I almost always run 26-28 with the stock coil, 30 if the conditions are very good. I NEVER hunt in semi-auto, thats a feel good setting. Semi-auto will give you a nice stable machine but it too often over compensates for the condition and you lose a lot of depth. Adjust the sens manually.
Threshold = personal choice, I like it just barely audible.
Volume = 10 max, might be too loud for some.
Gain = 7, I have found this to be the best all around setting for my area. Deep targets still sound deep (different) from shallow targets yet they are not so faint that you have to strain to hear them. Be on the lookout for those fainter signals that repeat though, I found many a silver dime on edge with this machine and they don't give the more robust signal you get from a coin lying flat. Some guys hunt with the gain at 10, I get too many false signals that high. One quite successful hunter uses 6 but I nearly missed some on edge coins at 7 so 6 isn't for me. 5 is much too low.
Variability = 10 Max, this gives you the widest variation which I like, like having 100 possible tones verses 80, or 50 at lower settings. You can actually hear the difference between a merc verses a barber/seated dime, even the difference between a worn silver and one in good shape.
Limits = Max which is the recommended Minelab setting. I like the high pitch scream of silver!!!
Sounds = Ferrous, (gasp!) yes this is an excellent advantage the Explorer has over other models. Silver still sounds high but iron sounds low. We have tons of iron around here so this makes it quite easy to hear silver mixed in with the iron. The down side is that rusty bottlecaps will sound high like silver but I have some tricks for that below.
Noise = if you have the XS just hit the Noise Cancel button after you startup the machine, if you have the S adjust manually.
Response = Normal, a few have experimented with the other options but most find this to be the best overall. I would not experiment until you have this machine down pat.
Recovery = Fast Off, Deep On, this is very important. This combination gives deep coins a nice wide, robust signal which sticks out like a sore thumb compared with trash signals. But if you turn Fast on it will chop the signal off short and the coins will sound more like the short chopped off trash signals making learning the detector much more difficult. It should only be turned on in heavy trash conditions and my advice is avoid those areas until you are confident with the machine in medium to light trash conditions and you have learned what the coins sound like.
UPDATE 04/21/2004: I have noticed the new Explorer II has a sharper response than the original Explorer. This means the target as you sweep across it is not quite as wide as it was on the older model. Its still more robust than a trash target, and wider, just not as wide. It still has the fluty sounds, but I just wanted to mention this, there is a difference.
There's a good solid program, again I rarely change anything other than the sens a few points up/down so this machine once setup is pretty much a turn on and go machine.
Now lets setup the screens, you basically have two machines (screens) which you can switch between quite easily. The Smartfind screen and the Iron Mask screen. I recommend that you set up the Smartfind screen with Nails and crowncaps discriminated out. This will leave 95% of the screen open and yes you will here a lot of trash signals but remember you are listening for that distinctive coin/round target ring and the wide signals. If this is too difficult at first then you might disc out a few more trash objects but nothing like the factory setup.
UPDATE 04/21/2004: When I'm in heavy trash I'll give up on nickels and black out the bottom 40% of the screen, that gets rid of 90% of the trash targets in my area while allowing in the iron and coins. Then I go super slow through the trash and have found a number of silver and IH's this way. Wide open all metal is not an option in heavy trash like this where there are maybe 2-4 signals per swing. I'll hunt the trash heap for maybe an hour then go find some better digs.
Next go into the iron mask screen and back off the iron mask to -16, this is wide open allowing in all target signals, there will be no black on the screen i.e. all metal. Now here's the trick, hunt using your smartfind screen and when you think you found a good target, switch to your iron mask screen and sweep it again. Notice how much more robust and clear the signal is, notice how you can kind of see (hear) where everything is around your target, there might be a nail to the left or a pulltab. In your smartfind screen the items blacked (discriminated) out cloud the signal, it distorts it and makes it more difficult to pinpoint when iron or trash is nearby. I especially use this trick when I'm working an iffy signal.
Now some tips...
1. Coins and round objects in general give a nice wide, robust signal as you sweep across them, often they sound fluty like several notes playing on a flute as you sweep across. This is very much different from trash items. Trash targets tend to give you a short, chopped off signal compared to a coin and the tone is generally a flat, mono-tone signal verses the fluty sounds. If you picture sweeping the coin, it may give a singal 6 inches wide across the ground where shallow trash might only be 2-3 inches wide. Once you learn this distinctive characteristic of coins and round objects you can wade right through the worst trash heaps and pick out the coins without much effort. Trash items are like my threshold now, I just mosy along until I hear that rinnnngggg fluty bicycle bell like ring go off, then I dig. Once this clicks you will start hammering coins left and right, Ed did.
2. Slow down, don't fan the Explorer back and forth like a DFX for example, not too slow mind you, I'd say medium slow. Also slow down your pace, overlap your swings 50%, pick at the ground and around trash objects, expect to find some coins and you will. There are many good coins left near and under trash that the older detectors could not lock on, the Explorer will get them but not if you are moving too fast. Every time I get to racing across the park I stop finding coins. I found a barber half directly under a rusty crowncap, I found another barber half right up next to a big chunk of iron, I could only get a signal from one very narrow angle, if I turned a few degrees either way it vanished. I found a barber quarter, barber dime, and a V nickel in a single plug in a spot thats been detected 50 times including a couple times by me with the Explorer...only this time I was overlapping my swings and guess what, I could only get a signal with the front 3 inches of the coil, any further forward and it vanished amongst the pile of nails that surrounded it. Turn left or right, it vanished.
3. Starting out you should only dig signals which repeat from two directions, if you get a good signal turn 90 degrees and sweep it again...did it sound low like iron? Did it move from where you thought it was? Its probably iron. If it repeats good from both directions dig it! But you are probably wondering about those single direction signals I just spoke about, yes sometimes the single direction signals should be dug, my rule is if they hit real good from a single direction, near textbook, I'll dig them but you will dig some iron too as a rusty nail can give a pretty good signal especially this time of year when the ground is so wet. I'd save the single direction signals for later after you have some time on the machine so you don't ware yourself out digging nails at first.
4. Scrub the ground with the coil, the Explorer does not like air spaced between the coil and the ground, you lose depth. This thing goes deep but it likes ground between the coil and the target, air seems to be a problem. I see a lot of guys who are used to other detectors holding the coil off the ground, this is a mistake.
5. Pick a day, as I did one day where you will set a minimum depth and dig every single target of that depth or greater with the exception of rusty iron of course. For my area that was 6 inches or deeper, try this exercise and you will be very surprised at what you dig up and how far off the textbook screen areas a coin can hit. I have dug many a nickel for example that hit mostly bottom right of the screen verses the textbook. If you pick a depth of 6 inches and you are finding too much modern trash go to 8 inches. If older coins are found in the 5 in range in your area pick 5.
6. Lastly beware of the fainter very deep high pitch signals which are often a small rusty nail, stick with the more robust signals for now or if you get a fainter signal know that it will repeat generally from more than one direction and even though its fainter, its generally solid verses iron which always sounds a bit mushy and foggy to me.
UPDATE 04/21/2004: If you do not already own one stop whatever you are doing and order an X1 probe from Sunray. If you have any doubts at all go to the Findmall.com Explorer forum and ask about the X1, nobody that has purchased one will hunt without it again, the product is that good. Not only do I recover coins in a fraction of the time it use to require (e.g. I find more coins per hunt) but I'm much more likely to dig an iffy signal when I know its not going to cost me 20 minutes of frustration in 90 degree heat to find a nail off in the side of the plug. Recovery will be under a minute. I used to avoid the iffy's for that very reason and too bad because many of my oldest finds today with the probe are iffy signals. Plus guess how many coins I now scrape, cut, or otherwise ruin during recovery? Close to zero, before it was more like 30%. If you ever cut a huge gash into a nice cc mint mark seated dime or any of the many coins I used to mutilate you know how disappointing that can be. This probe has super depth, a good 3 inches and so you can cut your plug shallow, then sneak up on the coin without damaging it.
Well I hope this helps, good luck.
Charles (Upstate NY)
MY SETTINGS...
Sensitivity - Manual 99.9% of the time adjusted so the machine is reasonably
stable, not rock solid. Sens = depth on this machine
Threshold - I lower it fromt he factory setting to just audible so its not
annoying
Volume - Max Limit - 10
Gain - 7 (you have to watch this with hot ground, 7 works good just about
everywhere, 8 is sometimes usable, 9-10 produce too many false signals and
you also lose the ability to "hear" deeper targets verses shallow ones, all
signals are amplified to the same level. At 7 you need to pay attention to
fainter high pitched signals that repeat solid from more than one direction.
Beware the deep small rusty nail which can also produce this high signal,
though it will ID lower on the screen and not be as solid. Sometimes really
deep silver or silver on edge give you this quieter tone, take a silver dime
and turn it on edge and notice how it gets weaker.
FAST = OFF almost always. Its good in heavy trash where targets are shallow
but thats about it. The machine is less accurate in ID'ing targets with FAST
ON, and its not exactly accurate on deep targets to begin with so this makes
things more difficult. It also chops the length/size of the signals off
short and so coins sound a lot more like trash, normally with my settings
and fast off, "deeper" coins have a nice large wide response as you sweep
them unlike shallow trash which is shorter. Shallow coins also have shorter
signals as you sweep them. Hence this is one nice clue to a deep target,
that wider more robust signal.
DEEP = ON I always have this on. Its gives me that wider more robust
response from coins and round targets. Its more pronounced on the Explorer
XS verses the Explorer II. Some guy prefer the older XS for this reason.
Variability - Max 10, I like to have as much tone/pitch difference between
different targets as I can get. With this setting even a merc dime will
sound slightly different than say a barber or seated which both sound the
same by the way. Mercs will sound slightly more wheat cent like though they
will be ID'ing up in the silver and have ample amounts of silver tones.
Wheats can sound very much like silver from one direction, but if you circle
the target sweeping from other directions the tone gets lower like a wheat
should be, >>>silver rarely changes pitch from different directions<<<.
Limits - Max 10, again I like silver to scream high in pitch.
Sounds - Ferrous 95% of the time. This is a huge advantage if you are
hunting an area where there are rusty nails. Nails will sound low in tone,
silver high. This lets you open up the screen to allow in more iron, thas a
good thing. You learn to ignore the low iron tones though it was annoying
for a while. Anymore all that iron fades into the background, its like my
threshold. The more iron you allow in, the more cool finds you will make
that are hiding near iron and from all those other detectors. Most of my big
silver coins have been snuggled up to iron, silver halfs, multiple silver in
one hole, stuff that should have been found 20 years ago.
Descrimination - You have quite a bit of flexibility here, digital mode, any
pattern of desc you can think up, iron mask. I try to use them all, no sense
wasting perfectly good features. Keep this in mind, the more descrimination
you use, the more good targets you will miss, its that simple, you don't get
something for nothing. But even I don't hunt all metal all the time, most of
the time, but it gets tiring in trashy areas after a while so I have a few
simple smart find desc patterns I run. I >>>always<<< have the machine open
to iron because...in my area iron is the most common trash target and
because using ferrous sounds lets me easily ignore it. Sometimes I will
notch out rusty bottle caps, sometimes I will notch out the entire bottom
40% of the screen, that elimintes about 85% of the trash and lets me
concentrate on high conductive targets when I'm in that mood.
If you are still learning the machine, thats a good place to start, edit a
screen so that the bottom 40% is blacked out, plus the left side about equal
to iron mask at -10. I think you will want to concentrate on high conductive
coins at first, learn those then later you can open up the bottom and start
picking off the "round" targets hiding in all that trash. Round targets like
coins behave differently from most trash, they have that "round" shape to
them. The tones do funny things as you sweep across the coin because the
coin isn't square, the sound kind of goes medium/high/meduim as you sweep it
with pitch going high/higher/high, it often gets fluty with a few notes
hitting in rapid order. This is verses your average trash target which tends
to sound flat and monotone as you sweep it. Shallow coins do not sound
nearly as good, this fluty stuff is very common for deeper coins though. If
you are hunting an area with shallow coins you want to dig, you might try
digital mode and rely on that for your dig/keep walking decisions.
In and around Portland you do have that nasty black sand. Unfortunately the
only advice I can give you to help you punch through that stuff and get some
depth will make your detector quite a handful to operate. Well theres two
things you could do, get the minelab 8 inch coil, it will be less effected
by the soil because its simply gulping less of it than the stock coil. I use
it on a regular basis, its not going to go 10 inches deep but you can get
6-7 easy. It will also pick off coins the stock coil won't, it seems far
more coins are still there to find because they are up close to iron or
trash than there are coins that are still there because they are 10 or 12
inches deep. Take any spot that has produced in the past and has some trash
or iron, crawl through there with the minelab 8 inch going very slow,
working around the trash and iron and you are likely to make some finds.
Once you get the machine down pretty good the other thing you can do is, use
a bigger coil like the WOT. I dug a pretty deep wheat at one of your parks
with the WOT that Mike could not get a signal on. The other thing you can do
is crank your sens to 28-30, lets the machine go nuts and you will get some
more depth but I can only hunt like that for maybe 30 minutes before my ears
go. I don't recommend even trying until you really have what a coin sounds
like, or you won't be able to hear that amongst the machine going crazy on
the black sand.
Above all...slow down, overlap your swings about 30%, creep along, this
machine likes to go slow. You will also get fewer falses on the iron that
way. I find a LOT more going slow and sweeping slow. Don't sweep too slow,
toss a coin on the ground and practice, you will see if you go too slow you
lose depth, you want to swing just a little faster than that.
Well thats all for now, I have to run and grab some lunch. Good luck and let
me know how you make out, and lets hook up with Mike next time I'm out and
do some hunting.
EDIT MODE...
Read up on the Edit mode in your manual for the details as I would be repeating only what they wrote for the most part. In simple terms, you have three paint brush sizes, small, medium, and large. You move these around the screen with the arrow buttons. If you select to paint ON discrimination the brush will leave a black trail wherever you move it and the center of the brush will be black. Targets that hit in the black area will result in a null e.g. rejected. You can also select to erase descrimination, the center of the paintbrush will turn white verses black, now wherever you move the brush it will erase discrimination. The brush is a three way toggle, black, erase, and do nothing. The brush moves across the screen much faster when you are in do nothing mode so if you need to move way over to the other side say, select the do nothing brush and move it over there, then turn it back on.
You can combine this editing with any of the standard Select/Reject targets like Crowncaps. What I have is 1 screen with just the crowncaps rejected. I save a second with both crowncaps and the bottom 40% of the screen rejected. Thats my high conductive target only screen. You can create all sorts, I have some like I just mentioned but with a small hole opened up where nickels and gold coins appear.
Zero targets rejected gives the best results but even I tire of listening to all that racket at times. One tip though, if you find that you cannot paint the edge of the screen (sometimes a single pixel line will remain unpainted) the trick around that is to select the medium or small sized paintbrush, move it to the edge of the screen, then select a larger sized paintbrush. Part of the brush will now be off the edge of the screen and so you can fill in that last line. Normaly the machine will not allow you to move a paintbrush off the edge of the screen. This might only be an issue with the older Explorer XS.
DEPTH...
Max sensitivity plus zero descrimation = max depth. The closer you can run to this state the better, crank the sens, zero the descrimination. I don't think anyone can learn the machine setup this way so continue as you are for now but take maybe 30 minutes of each hunt and practice running with zero descrimination and the sens cranked up there 27-30. The machine will be a handful, it will be noisy and unstable, but if you have learned the distinct coin tones they will stick out from all the noise.
Did you know the Explorer transmits at max power all the time regardless of your settings? Lowering the sens just eliminates the deeper signals already in the computer, I have had semi good signals at 28 that vanished when I backed the sens off to 22. I think it helped me never having detected before I bought the Explorer. A lot of guys were trying to help me and most said lower the sens. It seemed clear to me that raising the sens should provide more depth at least thats what the manual said so as a newbe I was like, well hell should I lower it or raise it. So I began experimenting with sens in the field. Like the target above, I got a semi good signal with the sens at 28 and the machine fairly unstable. I began backing off the sens sweeping the target, at 22 it was gone, the machine was stable but there was no hint of a target. The target was a barber dime about 9 inches down.
No rule of thumb is 100%, I have had iffy signals that improved a bit when I went from sens 28 to 26 but on average the majority of targets give a stronger response with the sens higher than lower. Certainly I would avoid running my sens as low as 22. It would be better to switch to a smaller coil which all things being equal will allow you to run your sens higher at a given site. Heres a tip when you are running the machine hot and unstable, when you think you found a target, hit the semi-auto sens button, this will make the machine stable and sweep again. Sometimes it will clear up, sometimes it will vanish or get worse. Then dig it. Thats what I did, I have dug some pure crap signals that turned out to be nice coins, I was like what the hell??? I have dug large cents like that and they are huge copper coins. But nobody can tell you this, you just have to dig some and prove it to yourself just how crappy a coin can sound and ID on the screen. lol
Zero descrimination is again not a 100% rule, I have found big silver near rusty bottle caps that sounded pretty good with caps notched out, but when I switched to zero descrimination it locked right onto the rusty cap with no hint of the silver underneath. Same for rusty nails, at times a signal which is pretty good with nails notched out will sound like crap when you go to zero descrimination and allow in the iron. But I would say zero descrimination will net a lot more coins on average. Its rare to find a coin that will not sound good with zero desc, the reverse is not true. The same for rusty bottle caps, the exception to the rule is rare.
Where are older coppers going to hit on the screen...that very much depends on their depth, and as I recall on the soil conditions up your way. If the coin is in the 1-4 inch range it should ID near textbook on the screen. Its best to get a sample and do some air tests, noting mentally how they sound and where they ID. Note this varies from machine to machine. An indian head on my explorer might ID on the screen a bit further to the right than on your machine. This is something we documented a couple years back. Obviously there is something variable at the factory resulting in this. So its best to do your own air tests.
At the 5-6 inch range the crosshair will begin to jump around on the screen, the sound will actually improve, becoming bigger as you sweep across it and more fluty. At the 7-9 inch range the crosshair may never settle on the same spot twice. That is why a tight desc pattern for deep coins is mostly useless and why zero desc nets more deep targets. At say 8 inches the crosshair represents a combination of soil, iron, coin, and any nearby trash signal. The machine will average them together and place the cursor. I have dug deep indians that ID top/left of the screen (not way up in the corner where nails are) top right, top middle, bottom right, all over the place.
The point is...if you find a target at a greater depth, you have to be REALLY forgiving of the screen ID, if its deep and the crosshair is "hanging around" the top/right 1/4 of the screen on more sweeps than not, and its repeating from more than one direction then dig it up.
The "best" tip anyone ever gave me was to just go out and dig everything that was 8 inches or deeper, except for nails of course. I was "shocked" at what I dug up and where it ID'd on the screen and what it sounded like. That will fast forward you through the learning process.
ADVANCED EXPLORER TIPS 101
Explorer Advanced Tips 101 - when you are ready...note these require ferrous tones
Edit a smartfind screen to emulate IM -10, use the edit mode and cursors to paint about the same amount of the screen black as you see in IM -10. Why? Two reasons, first you can notch out pesky items like rusty beer bottle caps which you can't do in IM mode. But more importantly, this lets you set your IM mode to -16 wide open. One of the very best things you can do right now is, hunt using your IM -10 desc, then when you think you might have a good target, switch to IM mode set at -16 and sweep the target again. Often things become a LOT clearer when there is zero descrimination mucking up the signal. Nearby iron and trash do undesirable things to the signal, not the least of which they can pull your pinpoint off center just enough so you plant your digger right into the coin. A nail trying to fake you out will be easier to figure out, likewise good targets can become great targets and iffy signals solid. I have found semi-iffy coins that flat vanished with any amount of iron mask due to nearby iron. Thats why it was still there, hiding among the nails for all those years. Its also much easier to pinpoint just about anything with the zero descrimination of IM -16.
Beware of the moving target, if you think X marks the spot and you turn 90 degrees and it moves on you...and you were thinking maybe that was a nail, it probably is. Try again, if the location keeps seemingly moving depending on which direction you are sweeping it from its very likely a nail. Coins stay put as you circle them, nails to do not. They cast a signal out, down their length, this can travel out beyond the end of the nail several inches depending on the size of the nail. The lone exception seems to be those damn clad dimes on edge, they can toss a signal off sideways a considerable distance. I hate them! lol
Bounce Patterns - If you have not already noticed the cursor is only reliable and steady on more shallow coins. When coins are deep the machine is trying to see through a lot more black sand and maybe nearby iron or trash, when you start getting down there 7, 8, 9 inches the cursor will start bouncing around on you. You sweep it, it hits in the coin area, you sweep it again, still sounds decent but the cursor moves left, sometimes just a little, sometimes a lot. Generally a coin will not bounce out of the top right area of the screen, say 1.25 inches across by 1 inch down. If its bouncing in that area, sounds like a coin, and its deep, dig it. You have to be forgiving of the cursor, its 80% tones and 20% cursor on deep ones, especially in that soil they have up your way. Now lets talk about the classic iron bounce, you come across a high pitch signal, pretty solid, sounds really good but its bouncing (I'm assuming you have switched to IM -16), if its bouncing from top/left corner to far right edge of the screen, cursor half off the right edge, about 1/4 inch down from the top, that is a classic iron bounce pattern. Its the cursor dropping down 1/4 inch that gives it away, silver doesn't do that nor does it bounce top/left corner, every now and then an indian head will hit over there (half off the right edge) but it bounces from there only about maybe an inch left, in extreem cases maybe mid screen, it also doesn't have that real high pitch tone, its more cent like, but the nails jump all the way over to the top left corner.
Total Crap Signals - I don't usually give people this one until they get pretty good with the machine but your soil is so ugly I know you have plenty of these. Just how bad can a coin signal get both in tone and screen ID...pretty bad I'm afraid. But thats a good thing, its yet another level you can learn to reach and you will recover some additional coins once an area has been cleared of the good signals. I once had a target ID way up in the iron zone, about IM -14 zone down about 1/4 inch from the top, it stuck right there for the most part, every now and then it would move to the middle of the screen but then jump right back. Iron doesn't do that, it gets right up there in the top left corner. Now here's the odd part, it should have given off a low iron tone (ferrous sounds) but it didn't, it was high like silver. Target was a very worn 1/2 spanish reale. I have dug a few Indian heads over there also, and buttons and odd stuff. On the big bouncers I have dug silver and coppers which sounded 80% iron and only 20% coin but once you get that deep coin tone down it will get your attention. Mind you I'm hunting wide open -16 for these. One should assume the target was iron and move on but for one clue...even though it was sounding like iron it did not have the classic iron bounce as I describe above. If you pay attention to the bounce its bouncing from the iron side to the coin location, wheats and silver get the cursor up there half off the top of the screen. Indians a bit down from there, but it wasn't going over to that far right, half off the right edge, 1/4 inch down location like iron does. I don't recommend that you dig to many of these, and only do so if you have an X1 probe. Thats the thing about the X1, it gives you the freedom to dig some very iffy signals without worrying about wasting a lot of time chasing after a bad target, cut a quick plug, go in with the probe, it if says iron you move on quickly.
Sneaky Signals - a good reason to creep along slow and pick at and around iron and trash is, there are plenty of signals out there that will only hit from one narrow angle, or with just the front tip of your coil. Its amazing how bad they can be. Here's two examples, I once dug a silver quarter, dime, and indian from a single hole. Now that should have blasted my headphones off but I could only get a signal with the front 3 inches of my coil, any further forward it was solid iron. Turn left or right, solid iron. Turns out there were nails on 3 sides of this pile. But from that one angle it sounded great. About the same for a...well how good do you think a barber half dollar should sound at 7 inches? About like a pop can right. And I was using the minelab 8 inch coil, along a sidewalk. All of a sudden I get this whopper of a signal, screaming silver. Move a little forward solid iron, again turn left or right, solid iron. There was a chunk of iron about 2 inches across right next to it about 4 inches down.
The same goes for trash targets, if you are going slow you can often hear that trash-coin combo, pick at it from different angles using the front of your coil. Again once you learn the "coin" sound these will stick out like a sore thumb. You go...huh trash but I hear coin. Hey dig that trash target out of the way, theres nothing like doing so and sweeping and locking on solid to a coin thats been hiding from everyone else. You are not always rewarded of course but I'd say my ration is 3 coins for 5 of those dug on average.
One last tip, its one you should use starting now if you don't already. The Explorer is a hot machine, it will pick up near surface targets well out in front of the coil. And since the depth is only accurate when you are centered over the target, clad at say 1/2 inch in front of the coil will sound great and read maybe 5 inches deep. So its a good idea to check a coil sized area around your target before you dig. I personally like to know where everything is in relation to my target. I want to know theres a nail left, a beaver tale right, etc.
Well thats all for now, let me know how you do.
DEALING WITH IRON...
We have square nails dating back to 1660 so I feel your pain. A suggestion and a question, okay several suggestions. First the question, when you got this iffy dime signal did you switch to IM -16 and sweep it from more than one direction e.g. sweep, turn 90 degrees, sweep again, circle the target like a shark sweeping it? If you did this did it sound like a dime from every angle you swept it from? I'm going to guess that most did not.
Here's an "avoid the rusty nails" strategy you can try on your next hunt if you want to.
Do...dig "only" signals that repeat when swept from two different directions e.g. if it sounds good turn 90 degrees and sweep it again like a "+" sweep pattern. If it still sounds good dig it. If it sounds like a nail keep walking.
Do...trust the Explorer when it says the target is iron, I myself had the hardest time putting my trust in this and as a result I dug a whole bunch of nails in the early days. When I decided to stop doing that, guess what, the number of coins I found per hunt increased a LOT because I was covering 4x the ground per hunt by not wasting most of my time digging nails.
Now there is a tendancy among Explorer users to try to "make" a nail sound like a coin. I'm as guilty as anyone of doing this. We sweep and get this super high tone signal, we think awesome, half dollar, but then we turn 90 degrees and it sounds like a nail. There is nothing more disappointing than that so we procede to sweep the crap out of the nail, often sweeping it faster or moving off center of the nail trying to make it give us a coin tone and if we sweep it just right, just fast enough, or move off center just enough low and behold it will false high from that direction also. But we are kidding ourselves and wasting time on a nail we could otherwise have avoided. I find that I'm most willing to engage in this mental game when I have not had a decent signal to dig in like an hour or more.
You are probably thinking sure Charles but didn't you just tell a story about the barber half that only gave a signal from one direction. Thats a fair question, here's the answer. Real coins do not sound like a nail that is falsing like a coin. They are distinctly different, there is a purity in the coin signal that nails do not have. I would say this is nearly 100% true of one way signals, if I sweep it and I say thats a coin, it turns out to be a coin even if it sounds like a nail from every other angle. And if I sweep it and I say thats a high tone but I think thats a nail, it turns out to be a nail. I still dig a couple from time to time just to prove it to myself again for the 500th time. lol
BUT here's the thing, you have to first get your ears trained on the difference between a coin and a nail trying to fake you out. The quickest way to do that is to only dig signals that repeat from both directions, such signals will almost always be a coin. Since you waste no time on the nails, you are going to come across more coins per hunt, trust me just two way signals for now. At some point guess whats going to happen...you are going to be going along and get a good tone, you will turn 90 degrees and get a low iron tone and you will say bull #####thats a coin and dig one up. Thats how it will go, you will have reached the next level and people will stop inviting you to hunt their hot spots! lol
The exception to the rule - yes nothing is 100% unfortunately. Here's the type of rusty nail target that will fake me out, first a bent rusty nail. Nothing I hate worse than a big old bent rusty nail. Because it is bent it will false high from both directions. It will still sound like a nail falsing only better, it will still act like a nail so I'm pretty sure its a nail before I dig but if its repeating from 2 directions I dig. The other is two or more nails lying across each other in an X pattern, that also defeats the sweep from two direction approach and will false high from both directions.
Important Question - do you have an X1 probe from Sunray? If you do not then obtaining one should be HIGH on your list. In my opinion that probe should be considered as required as your battery to hunting with the Explorer. Here's a link to a testimonial I wrote for them.
IMPORTANT TIP...
Hunt using the big L smartfind screen we setup BUT when you think you found
a coin, switch to Iron Mask mode and sweep the target again, often the
signal will be stronger and sweeter. Remember we set iron mask to -16 e.g.
zero iron mask, the entire screen is clear which means you will hear
everything, iron, trash, the coin, everything. Because the machine is not
trying to null on iron, trash, or the ground signal you get the best
possible response from the machine. An iffy signal sweeping with the big L
descrimination might clear right up and be solid in iron mask mode at -16.
There is a second very important reason to switch over to iron mask before
you dig...one of the biggest complaints about the Explorer when people first
buy it is that it doesn't pinpoint for shit. Mostly this is due to running
descrimination. A nearby nail for example can pull a coin signal off center
so you think you have it pinpointed only to find out its 3 inches left or
forward from where you thought. With no descrimination in iron mask you will
have a much more enjoyable time pinpointing, you will be able to see (hear)
everything around your target.
It is a VERY good idea to check a coil size area around where you think the
target is, another common issue for new users is, the coil is hot, it will
pick up a near surface clad coin a few inches out in front of the coil. The
depth meter is only accurate if you are centered over the coin, I'll say it
again and save you the frustration I had when I first got this machine, the
depth meter is only accurate when you are centered over the target, if the
target is 2-3 inches off center the meter might say its deeper than it
really is. A clad dime at 3 inches might read 6 if you are not centered over
it.
The common pinpointing technique is, check a coil size area around your
target in iron mask, this tells you what is is around the coin if anything,
then sweep the coin, when you think you have it centered, turn and sweep it
again from 90 degrees. Is it still where you thought it was? If so dig, if
it seemed to move, turn 90 degrees and sweep it again, coins stay put once
you are centered over then, you should be able to circle the coin and have
it stay put.
Oh so many tips but I have to give you this one too, its a big one. Dig only
two way signals for now, that is when you get a good signal, turn 90 degrees and
sweep the target again, if it still sounds good dig it. But if you get a
nice high tone and it ID's upper right corner of the screen, say about 1/4
inch down from the tip with half the cursor off the right edge...this will
be either a silver half dollar or....more often than not a rusty nail
falsing. The trick is to simply turn 90 degrees and sweep the target again,
if the tone goes low (iron mask mode) or it nulls/goes silent (big L mode)
thats a huge clue that its a rusty nail falsing, make tracks to the next
target leaving that thing behind. If the target seemed to move several
inches from where you thought it was, thats another big clue. Nails shoot
signals out sideways along their length. Often when a nail fools you, you
will find the tip pointing out from the side of your hole.
Later, once you get the basics down and are confident in digging two way
signals we can talk about how to ID one way signals that seem like a nail
falsing but are not, thats an advanced technique you should hold off on
right now.
MISL 1...
You will learn to avoid the alum in time, keep digging coins and alum and
pretty soon you will start "calling your shots" before you dig and be right.
Part of this is about building up your own confidence with the machine.
Nails can fool me also, if a nail is bent or two or more nails are lying
across each other that defeats the sweep it from two direction rule of
thumb. I still think its a nail because to me they just don't sound like a
coin but if its repeating from two I will dig it.
NOTE: If you get what you think is a great signal, but then turn 90 degrees
and it sounds like a low nail signal...it IS possible to then sweep the crap
out of the nail and get it to false from that direction also. There is
nothing more disappointing than to turn 90 degrees and hear a low iron tone
but we are only fooling ourselves and wasting time on a nail we could easily
avoid. If you sweep a nail fast enough, or move off center just enough, it
will false high from that direction also. I mostly fall for this mental
breakdown after I have gone say an hour without any decent target to dig. In
such cases I "always" dig a nail.
On the less obvious signals here's whats going to happen to you, by being
disciplined and only digging signals that repeat from two directions right
now you are training your ears to ID coins verses iron, whether you realise
it or not. Its coin, iron, iron, coin, iron, coin well guess whats going to
happen in short order? You are going to sweep a target and hear coin, you
will then turn 90 degrees and hear low iron BUT this time you are going to
say bull #####thats a coin and you will dig up a coin. You will have then
graduated to the next level, you can pick off one way signals, and people
will stop inviting you to hunt their hot spots. lol So give it some more
time, wait for it, wait for that one way signal where things just click and
you say no way man, thats a coin. Then dig it up.
The classic Indian Head signal, here's the secret...for some reason you will
hear some high silver like tones mixed in with the lower indian cent tones,
they like to do that, you hear both at once. How does this differ from a
wheat cent, well first off wheats don't ID down there where Indian cents do
so thats one clue, and wheats have a habbit of ID'ing and sounding high like
silver from one direction, but from 90 derees they will sound and ID lower
like a wheat cent. Wheats can get the cursor right up there half off the top
edge of the screen just like a dime, though they are often left of the dime
area.
So wheats only sound like silver or sound like a wheat depending on the
direction you sweep them, but you don't get a mixed wheat/silver signal.
Indians give you the mixed signal of both lower indian and silver in the
same sweep. By the way worn silver can do also do that, they can get some
wheat/indian lower tones in them mixed with silver, but will ID generally up
near silver rather than near the indian. VERY worn silver WILL ID lower in
the indian zone, so will half dimes and 3 cent silvers, but will still have
silver tones.
Get yourself a few indians and test them to see where they ID, be sure to
test them both at say 4 inches, and also about 7-8 inches. Notice how the
signal changes and watch them bounce around the screen. You need to do this
on your machine because they are all a bit different. Some machines out
there ID indians significantly left from where the ID on my machine. There
was a discussion on this some months back. Also know that how the balance
your particular coil can effect to a lesser extent where the ID and how they
sound. Not all coils are balanced the same as I have seen on my
oscilloscope.
MISL 2...
The Explorer is more like a musical instrument tone wise, lots
of notes, chords, volume goes up and down as you sweep across round targets.
When I hear guys say, "Charles I finally "got" what you were saying I know
they have progressed beyond just listening for a high pitch, they have
caught onto the "shape" of the tones, they are hearing the cords, the volume
warbles, dude you are just not going to be able to hear that via the built
in speaker. Do yourself a favor and take a screwdriver and poke several
holes in it so you are not even tempted to hunt without headphones. lol
Here's the good news, an $8 set of cheap walkman headphones will get you by.
When you get the Sunray stand find a Minelab dealer and buy a set of
Explorer II headphones, they are good Koss headphones, they work fantastic,
the cord is a touch short is all. They are only like $30 to $40. Don't do
what I did...I bought one of those fancy set of GreyGhost headphones and
dang if my cheap stock Minelab Explorer II headphones don't sound better.
That figures!!!
On the XS verses the II, I much prefer the XS tones over the II, the XS
gives a far stronger and easier to identify coin signal than the II. The XS
is just as deep and is no more or less stable than the II. I have used both
machines at the same sites where there is bad electrical interference and
bad ground and did not notice any difference.
My advice, get the headphones and put the Minelab 8 inch coil on. That coil
will go deeper than you think. Just remember to mentally subtract about 2
inches from the depth meter, depth is calibrated to the stock coil, smaller
and larger coils are both off about 2 inches for some reason. To be clear
they read 2 inches deeper than the target really is. Also pick a target
depth, 5 inches, 6 inches, 4 inches, depends on the site. If you are digging
memorial cents at 4 inches set your target depth to 5 e.g. don't dig
anything that is not at least that deep or deeper. This will get you
concentrated on paying attention to what deep targets sound like, its
repetition, if you listen closely to one deep target after another after
another you train your ears to be on the lookout and you also train your
ears to ignore the more shallow targets which are mostly clad and trash.
All deep coins jump around, don't be looking for them to lock onto a single
position. Even a large cent will jump around if its deep enough. I have dug
some very crappy sounding large cents from depths and was in shock the
target was a large cent, I dug it because A it was deep and B it was jumping
around the coin area, and the classic coin tones were peeping through all
the lower iron noise it was making. Now imagine what a half worn bust dime
sounds like at depths.
Now don't get the wrong impression, plenty of targets will sound great and
ID pretty solid where they should like that Barber quarter I dug out there.
No question that was a coin. So its not all hard work, learning to know what
those iffy coins sound like though thats the long term goal, theres only so
many super good signals out there, you guys found most of those easy targets
over the last 20 years. You do come across them, mostly with the Explorer
its because it can get in there closer to the trash on lock on coins that
were hiding from you 10 years ago. Both Ed and I often find coins near trash
and iron.
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