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A Little Excal II Loot From Stacey's New Machine I'm Road-testing...

M

Mike (Virginia Beach)

New member
No gold yet, unfortunately, but things have been slow for all but a few lucky folks so far since Memorial Day weekend. Usually by this time it's pretty well slammin', target-wise. Not so right now...you can go a 1/4 mile without a target...worst I've seen for this time of year. When you get lucky and find a little "coin patch" they are so far not giving up any rings, at least for me. I want my MOJO back! :(

Anyway, Karl and I hit the lane the last two days in a row for the pre-dawn low tide. Saw no other hunters except for David from Suffolk Saturday and JT in Virginia today. Here is a pile of coins and stuff from the last couple of hunts, and a pretty unique medallion made from a 1932 1 Peso coin, which is silver.

A pile of coins and a couple of silvers, a titanium band, and some junk...
[attachment 95667 Peso1.jpg]

Here's is the One Peso coin/necklace...it's the size of a half-dollar...
[attachment 95668 Peso2.jpg]

Front side close-up...
[attachment 95670 Peso4.jpg]

Stacey will be here Wednesday and I had been hoping to have bagged some gold with her new machine by then to get it "broke in", but she will have to do the honors now.

Happy hunting and may you all see the glint of gold in the bottom of your scoop regularly! Hopefully I will be posting a bit more now that the season is upon us...been very busy the last few months and not much hunting to speak of.
 
It'll come alive there before you know it! Watch Stacy. Don't you know she'll show you all how it's done? My sister has the darndest luck I have EVER seen. Then she gives me one of those "Doesn't everybody do this well" looks! You know.

Y'all have a blast!

aj
 
I was there in 1989 on Army business (as well as the military part of Virginia Beach) and was always intrigued about what may be out there. I know one thing. That little beach had the best sandwich shop on it and that was treasure in and of itself.

I believe there is a beach or two at Fort Eustis; can't quite remember. You live in a a beautiful area the MOST history...and much of it is still in the ground.

AJ
 
Actually, a few of us did hunt the beach at Yorktown last summer and got a few rings and things...nothing major. But I recall that Ina pulled a nice eagle coat button while detecting the dry sand on the outskirts of the beach. It was in pretty good shape too. Of course we have a lot of that kind of stuff around here, as you know. I have a bucket of minnieballs, musketballs, and quite a many buttons. Definitely a lot of fun digging those things and the old silver and copper coins. But I really enjoy the gold and diamond rings. I think things will pick up on the beaches here very soon. Probably by next weekend we will see a lot of finds.
 
Good of you to test run the Excally for Stacey. I'm not surprised that it hasn't struck gold yet, though. I think Stacey wants that honour!:rolleyes::lol: I give the gal her due, she knows how to hunt but to be fair she's had the benefit of some good advice from Yourself, Mr. B and many others. That's what it's all about, sharing the wealth of knowledge that we learn through hard knocks!:thumbup:

Cheers Mike,

BDA:cool:
 
... I wasn't able to try out my repaired Excal this weekend. I've been busy, for one thing, but whenever I could have gone hunting, it was STORMING like crazy here. It didn't work out, so I'll just have to get reacquainted with the Excal up there and hope for good conditions and good luck. Mike says it's sanded in. I sure hope it changes by next weekend. I don't want a repeat of last year's visit.

It would be really nice to land some gold while up there this time!

Excal II, work for me, Baby! I'm counting on you!

HH!
Stacey
 
I am partial to jewelry nowadays rather that historical goodies. With jewelry, it's the only way I can pay for the hookah and the Excal I just bought. Because of the motor noise of my hookah, I am limited as to when I can hunt the public beaches. I usually dive only during inclement weather.

You guys have a great time and keep us posted, ya looters.

aj
 
The good news is that even somebody that has ZERO experience with the Excal can be "up and running" with it in about 5 minutes.

1) Run the disc all the way down...you want to HEAR everything and you also want to DIG everything, until you get to know the machine and the tones...then you can be more selective.

2) Set the sens to about the 12 o'clock position on the Excal or about "6" on the Excal II. This will give great depth and good stability to start with and when you are comfortable with the machine you can "move up" to 11 o'clock (Excal) or "7" for for the Excal II.

3) Set the threshold to a slight buzz...just enough to hear it. You want to be able to hear it when it stops, basically. Deeper targets can cause the threshold to "waiver" and that can tip you off to a small gold or deep target that needs a closer look. If you get a good repeatable signal out of it then dig it, otherwise move on.

4) Keep the coil to the ground, sweep it wide and low, and did all signals. Pay close attention to the tones. Get to know a quarter, from a penny, from a nickle, from a gold riing, from a bottlecap or foil. It's that easy.

5) Listen to these sounds (sound on your computer turned all the way up!) and get to know them. http://www.findmall.com/read.php?21,405738,405738#msg-405738

That's pretty much it. Dig gold!
 
It is very good to see some loot outa ya Mike! Gold's GOTTA be right around the next sweep! Can you tell any advantage on the new unit or does it appear to be about the same in performace to the old Excal? I've heard some dismal reports on the new Excal II having issues. Do you find this to be the case?
 
No issues that I see...it's a new and improved Excal II. New because of the new name and hot new graphics. Improved because of the NiMh battery and the slimline coil. It is just like the old Excal in that it still has the "threshold shift" feature that you either love or hate. Wherin the threshold takes on the tone of the last target passed over. Which if it were a nulled out target, like a rusty fish hook or something iron then the threshold will go away. Which is fine if you KNOW that, but many newbies or folks not used to the Excals will wind up constantly adjusting the threshold and saying things like "it's unstable" or "I can't adjust the threshold". When in reality, if the threshold is properly adjusted one time it rarely needs to be fiddled with. Sometimes it takes a little fash of your scoop handle near the coil to "bring it back in line", or a tap of the coil on the wet sand...as all us experienced Excal folks know. I think a lot of times the this is the biggest problem for many. That and the fact that some folks don't realize that you can't get your scoop within abouyt 2 or 3 feet of the coil without it reacting. So we hear bogus claims of "falsing" when in fact that is not the case. I believe probably something like 85% of all such "issues" are operator error or lack of understanding of how these things work.

Do I think the Excal II goes deeper? No. Is it more sensitive? No. More stable? No. Lighter? A little. Will get the gold??? Abso-freakin-LOOT-ly!!! :biggrin:
 
Well spoken, from a looter werth his salt, say I! Glad you approve and I'm NOT going to rush out and attempt to upgrade either. Maybe when the warranties are about to go out, I will. Hate paying repair bills, I like it better when Minelab pays, LOL! Stacey should be in good shape now, with a backup. Now, if we can just convince her to maintain them, she should certainly be in the gold!
 
100% on the money, Mike.:thumbup: The longer you use the Excal the easier it is to forget the little things we do out of habit and experience to make the Excal sing out on deep targets and run smoothly. Thanks for the reminders, I caught myself reading your post and thinking 'well of course Mike, everybody knows that'; in actual fact most surf pirates don't know these simple (but important) things.

Cheers,
 
I have two long dives scheduled for this week-end and this little tidbit is gonna save me a bunch of time. Thanks to Mike and the rest of you seasoned Excal pirates.

Have safe and productive lootin' this week-end. :biggrin:

aj
 
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