Hi Bob...
Have always enjoyed your posts.
I too have a couple of Shadow X-5's (which I'll never get rid off) and recently bought my first Minelab, an SE. I've found precious few silver coins with the SE, mainly because pickings are pretty slim hereabouts, so I can't comment on really deep finds...deepest being a silver dime at 6". I did nail a clad quarter at a measured 9", so I think I'm in the ballpark.
Since you hunt in all metal and that produces fewer/no nulls, I'm confused. I've observed (at least in normal response mode) that the machine will have a short null after swinging the coil over even a desirable target . The chart on response modes in the manual shows this null as a break in the signal after a target sounds off. Have you observed that this null goes away in all metal, or, are you hunting in "long" or "smooth" mode, which does away with the nulls after a target sounds off?
Also, how do you get to your "all metal" mode...through iron mask with the screen entirely clear, or in normal mode with nothing checked or x'd (another way to get the clear screen). I would assume both ways would give the same result. I'm a little leery about all metal as I've had some very deep rusty nails (especially those bent like an "L") sounding off like a good deep coin. Those signals aren't super consistent, but to me, sound "iffy" so I dig them (lots of time spent and a deep hole is the only result). Haven't logged enough hours on the machine yet to have mentally noted all the signal variations yet.
Getting the manual sensitivity to the right setting is still a bit trying too. Too high, and there is a lot of chirping and falsing. But I always wonder when I get it set just so the signal starts to stabilize, i.e. at 20 for a lot of soil here, (still a little on the hot side), whether that is really deeper than say, auto sensitivity set to 27, which still sounds smooth. Kind of wish I knew exactly how much the machine was compensating under those conditions. So, I'm trying to stick with manual sens. and hope that I'm not losing deep targets by not going to auto sens. at a much higher number.
Thanks for your input!
Knipper