A 6 year absence from detecting - introduction

[Ashtro1969]

Howdy all! I thought I would introduce myself to the Explorer forum. I recently got back into the hobby after about a 6 year unplanned "hiatus". I used to hunt with a White's Explorer XLT, but it was stolen. I had other financial priorities at the time and did not want to "downgrade" to a cheaper detector so I had to wait until I could afford something equivalent in price/performance to my XLT (I loved that machine). Anyway, flash forward, and I finally bought a new detector. I decided to go with a Minelab because of the research I have been doing. I bought my Explorer SE Pro about 2 weeks ago, and have put about 5 hours of hunting on it. I will admit, it has been frustrating the heck out of me, but I am trying to be patient. I have been reading this (and other forums) trying to pick up tidbits as I go, and I plan on buying the handbook by Andy Sabisch also. I have found a ton of trash with it so far and very few coins. I will give the Explorer props on it's depth though! I found a small 1/2 inch long piece of copper tube (think ice maker line) at about 10 inches so I know it will find stuff! My biggest problem thus far is learning it's tones/language (as seems to be most peoples problems). I have hunted two parks so far on factory settings and it's tones seem so garbled and all over the place. Anyways, enough of my rambling. I will keep reading this forum for tips, and if you want to share any, please do. Oh, and I live in Jacksonville, NC, and am always looking for places to hunt.

 

[Dan-Pa.]

First and foremost heres your big problem....XLT is a fast swinger...Explorer series are slow swingers and imagine your swinging it too fast...

Forget all the sounds of an XLT and run a dime and nickel under the coil until you get the warble ingrained in your brain.

Use quickstart and raise the sens. into the 20's and of course threshold to your liking and once you get the hang of it...move forward.

A local as a mentor is a big help and of course any questions the forum has a lot of good people.

Unfortunately they are both different beasts and it will take some time to become proficient. I speak from experience as I can program an XLT blindfolded and feel am also capable with the Explorer series.

In addendum as good as the Explorer is...its not for everyone and if after a while you are not comfortable XLT although no longer made is an excellent unit in the right hands...

 

[Elton]

n/t

 

[matthias]

Welcome back. Yep, swing low and slow. GL and HH. Matt

 

[Ashtro1969]

Thanks for the advice so far, I have put it to good use. I have sloooowwwwwed way down and it seems to be helping quite a bit. I also have been digging almost every target that sounds even remotely close to sounding good to see what it is. In doing those two things, I have started finding clad coins at the park I have been hunting and I think I am making progress. Also, I have started to be able to pinpoint coins close to the surface using just the coil sweep. Slowing down really helped with that and I think that I will be able to pinpoint them even better when I get a smaller coil for the trashy areas. I do have a question about the pro coil and the area it detects though. With my old XLT, it seems like the detection area did not start until a target was past the coils edge, and then intensified towards the center of the coil. With the Pro coil, it seems like it will detect the target up to an inch from the edge of the coil. Is that the case? With the XLT I always pictured the "cone pattern" from the coil edges inward and into the ground. Is that the way I should picture the Pro coils detection area or does it extend out from the edges so to speak? Another issue I have been having is that I have had some targets sound pretty sweet through the headphones and look good on the target id (both smartfind and digital). However, when I dig them they turn out to be old aluminum screw type bottle caps or rusty pop offs caps (or some other metal). Some of the caps have been pretty deep too, 5-8 inches in some cases. Am I just misinterpreting the sound of the target or is that a pretty common thing that happens? Thanks

 

[Dan-Pa.]

For the most part old aluminum screw type bottle caps or rusty pop offs caps seem to cover a larger area than the coins they imitate. Certainly not a proof positive method but usually this is the case..