Don't be afraid to buy an Explorer. I haven't even bothered to learn most of it but still I'm finding coins deeper than I did in the 5 years I had a Whites XLT. The manual is pretty good. I have not memorized the manual, but if I want to change something I find the page & make the adjustment before I go out. I haven't attempted to try a custom pattern but have used some disc & I just have been running manual sensitivity. haven't tried auto or semi-auto, & haven't even tried iron mask, I just avoid areas with lots of iron. I found a 6" deep wheat cent & a 7" deep clad quarter. Both had perfect consistent ID in heavily mineralized ground. So you don't have to know/learn much to do at least that good & I haven't had it to any real old places yet & have only had it out 10 times. The last time out I located every coin within my maybe 4" wide plugs without using a separate pinpointer, & many people say pinpointing is the hardest thing about this detector. I still don't dig nickels as I don't want the pulltabs & can't tell the difference, but that is a problem with almost any detector. Still I think I know enough to find silver if I just get out to some old places. HH, George (MN)