I enjoy the threads and conversations that have to do with someone trying to UNDERSTAND how to get more “performance” out of their machine immensely. Being an avid student of the hobby,I am always trying to pay attention to how those fringe/weaker/not definitely something I want to dig targets respond. In many of my sites,common sense tells me that there are coins deeper than what my current skills allow me to retrieve. I know this because a bit of construction here and there takes away some soil and magically,now I can reach a few coins,tokens,etc. The issue I’ve always had with Manual Sensitivity on my Explorer2,especially if I’m able to run it stable above 23-24,is that the junk items that the machine would normally simply disc out or alert me with a broken/raspy/don’t dig me up signal start to sound and act very much like a coin. Even using the Smart Screen they start creeping up the right side of the screen,or creeping to the right from the far top left. I do not have the luxury of spending hours upon hours digging EVERYTHING with ANY kind of indication,which is WHY I’ll normally run Manual Sensitivity at 22 or below if I do run it,no matter if I CAN run it higher and still be stable. 23-24 seems to be where the “turbo” kicks in and the processor really starts letting stuff through. The problem is...very very VERY rarely have I found an abnormally deep coin that wouldn’t hit in Semi Auto,when I cross checked. Unfortunately,that hasn’t been very often,so scientific findings are hard to come by in this post. Sweep speed for ME has been a critical issue,on a 9” dime not all speeds will get it every time. Sometimes it’s rather slow,other times it might take a pretty fast sweep to make it respond in the way that I know it’s not just a false. I just use 2 coils on the EX2 now when I take it for a walk,the X-8 and Ultimate 13. I have said before and continue to say...the X-8 for FBS is quite possibly the best overall coil made for any machine at any time by anyone anywhere. For one,it does everything very well...depth,separation,maneuverability (yes,I have spell check ON,I couldn’t spell that by myself),accurate crisp audio response,accurate ID.....it’s ALL good. But even when I crank the sens too high with IT...bad targets have a habit of starting to sound better. That’s why I said,Semi Auto nets me more COINS,and quite possibly all the coins Im going to see in that particular area with that machine. Running “hot” for me has been detrimental more than once! When I’m listening for those deep coins...the telltale “chirp” and the proper duration,having a machine that’s going helter skelter isn’t going to help ME one iota. There really is an art to hunting deep with the Explorers and eTrac,a friend of mine does it SO well that when I’m with him using my CTX, I know I have very little chance of out hunting him,all targets being the same or very similar in composition,depth and such. He has many years of constant hunting to thank for what he can do,and that’s using the stock coil. The key is...if you are to become very experienced at hunting very deep coins,it must be all but absolutely CERTAIN that the site holds these coins! You must have multiple targets in the span of time which allows you to remember how that coin reacted,what the audio was like,readings,etc. There must be a base to build on. If every target is a “one off”,there is no continuity in the learning process,and it’s all basically brand new when you do happen to run across a deep target every other week. It must be more consistent than that,and it starts with the proper site. Once the skills are engrained and automatic...the site matters less and less.
Just my rambling thoughts and experiences with this topic....
