Depth question....

[Anonymous]

Had about an hour to kill today so I hit an old yard which I haved hunted for years..Got 3.. 10 inch targets one 1919 wheat penny which I knew what it was, plus an old piece of small plumbing
and part of a military emblem of some type which both bounced around in the dime range..It seems
after about 10 inches you hit hardpack and thats just abou how deep coins will fall. Hit this yard
with many top models and never went this deep so I
didn't know the hardpack existed. Seems to me the
Explorer just went deeper than the others. Well heres my question if you indeed go from the standard screen and discriminate out junk will you indeed lose depth. Lots of targets and noise
but surely went deep...is it a trade off or will the depth capabilities stay the same...

 

[Anonymous]

Based on my conversation with Minelab yesterday, there should be no difference in depth, between the two modes. However, they did say that while running with a discriminate program (coins, etc.) you would want to sweep a bit slower than in the Iron Mask mode. He used the word "creep", rather than slow.

 

[Anonymous]

No air gaps on the end of your swings... Guvner..

 

[Anonymous]

...but hasn't made any appreciable difference in my results. The Memorial-backs are coming from a bit deeper, and today I got some nice old ziptabs at about 5", while looking for Nickel readings.
Speaking of scrubing the ground... at first I thought the 10.5 coil was heavy, but now that I'm just slowly dragging it across the ground, it doesn't seem heavy at all.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm fairly new to this so am on a steep learning curve. A knowledgeable, experienced and successful XS user, who I greatly respect, explained the following:
Using either Iron Mask or your own Discrimination pattern will not effect the depth of the Xs.
You could in theory black out all the screen except for a test coin, you will detect this coin at the same depth as when the screen was all white.
All Discrim actually does is minimise the amount of signals that come through positive.
This can be proved with an air test. Get a good target coin, turn off Iron Mask (ie: Use a Smart Screen Discrim Pattern) and wave it in front of the coil. Then turn on Iron Mask and set it high Minus - 8, wave the coin in front of the coil and you will see you detect to the same depth.
Sensitivity, on the other hand - will effect Depth
The above helped me to better understand....The more you discriminate, the less you hear, the less you hear , the less you dig...and the less you dig.....the more you miss
I now see why those who are consistently successful always use the minimum of Discrimination, or hunt in Iron Mask - 15 or -16.It takes getting used to...relating what the chorus means in terms of what the coil detects.
I hope this helps other new to the XS as much as it has myself. I am indebted to the Guy who passed on this wisdom.

 

[Anonymous]

By nature am a slow moving person and the slow creeping speed is just my style. The way I look at it am covering more ground than the concentric
coil user who looks like he is weedwhacking due to
the Double D coverage. Don't know what the fuss is about pinpointing am doing very well. Of course using a Sov. several years back was a big help..Hopefully going to an old chapel location tomorrow. My buddy and I have pounded it and I got a l839 seated dime and he got an 1850 large cent. If I pull an old deep silver will know this baby is a winner...
is a winner...

 

[Anonymous]

It may not affect depth in perfect conditions, but in high trash it will average targets, so by using patterns a deep coin near trash may not register at all, or at least the first pass, which can cause you to miss the target. this is especially true in high iron or iron mineralized ground.. if it averages the target and reads as one of the disced out targets the explorer will still see it, but you will not hear it. thus it gets as deep in both modes, but if you dont hear them you sure wont dig them..

 

[Anonymous]

I've even seen my depth disappear going slow at times. Even tested this one day with an 8 inch coil. Almost like an XLT losing depth until you whipped it. There's a lot of conditions out there you have to adjust to... Guvner..

 

[Anonymous]

<i>"...I've even seen my depth disappear going slow at times..."</i>
Hmmmm... that's interesting. Do have any sort of guideline that you go by to know <b>when it's time to "creep" with the coil, and when it's time to speed it up</b>???
Sorry... but you're making this sound like a Catch-22, or a "damned if you do, and damned if you don't" type of situation.
I really hope that's not true. If it is, anyone who complains that they are not getting the expected depth could be told to slow their swing speed down one day... and the next day be told just the opposite. Bit of a conundrum, wouldn't you say???

 

[Anonymous]

As with other machines while swinging you may hit the fringe of a target and go back and investigate.
Discriminate too closely and this fringe is not there so you won't get the original noise and reimvestigate. Explorer is no different than any other machine relative discrimination. I plan to
hunt with the preset screen until I get the feel of it and then perhaps discriminate moderately.
Not one to go too fast when trying to learn a new machine. May be a little noisier but then again
may get you that good coin one may have missed...

 

[Anonymous]

Actually think its a good question and you may finally be falling into place. Perhaps Guvner has an answer...myself would feel it would take experimentation. I have been getting deep targets
going slow, but perhaps their is Merit in Guvners post and experimentation is in order...Never did like the fast swing for depth of the XLT so for me is a welcome change..

 

[Anonymous]

No, there is no free lunch, and there is no putting silver back in the ground where it once was; no matter what kind of swing speed you use.
Yesterday, I tried the "creep" method of swing speed, and actually got some memorial-backs at perhaps 4" in depth (and less). I uncovered some nice zips at about 5" and some odd pieces of pot metal at perhaps 6". <i>Hmmmmm....</i>

 

[Anonymous]

That sometimes a given area that has finished giving it up otherwise has a few targets that react to the faster swing. Especially with the smaller coil. If that makes you think it is too hard for you I sure don't know what to tell you. I kind of like it. I know slow works for most everything. Maybe not nearly as slow as say a Sovereign. If you don't like experimentation you may not like detecting. Otherwise experiment.
Good hunting... Guvner..

 

[Anonymous]

That way you will have a control subject of sorts. You never know if you actually were in a deep area. Otherwise I would do the thing where you lift the coil to where it barely starts to lose the test target on the ground, memorise the sound and then just dig that sound for the day until you trust the machine. You can always go back over the area and get the easy ones... Guvner..

 

[Anonymous]

Using slightly different sweep speeds is nothing new as there's been many posts about it in the past.
I thought the Sov was a little more sensitive to it than the Explorer. There is usually an ideal sweep speed (which is considerably slower than most other detectors and, initially, may cause some frustration when people switched to the ML's). New users are invariably to go sweep real slow but this may sometimes be overdone.
I've found that at some locations it is advantageous to make two sweeps in a specific piece of ground... a little faster in one direction and, a little slower in the other. There are times when the slightly faster sweep will respond a little better especially on the deeper targets but other targets (which also can be deep) respond a little better at the slower sweep speed. There's usually not a big difference between the two ... just enough to affect the response somewhat.
The main thing to realize is that while it is a good practice to sweep a ML slower than a traditional detector there is a possiblity of sweeping "too" slow in some cases.
HH ... Gord.

 

[Anonymous]

Rosario:
There is a popular saying--No Site is Ever Completly Worked Out-- probably true. The question
that no one has asked on this forum, is it worth
spending three or four hours at a location to find
a Wheat penny? I run into these type of sites all the time here.My answer is-- NO --. The Explorer is probably the best detector around today: but
no amount of tricks,settings,speeds,depth,with it is going to help one,if the Oldies are gone.They are gone Forever; You can not find something that isn't there,not even with the Explorer XS. Boy, I can feel the flak coming this way now.Oh well!
John in Mn.

 

[Anonymous]

I have been working an old church since I got my Explorer. It has a lot of iron debris in the front, an area with hot rocks and cinder to the rear, and a huge spot gives a constant hum when you get into it. Just to make things even more fun, it has been detected heavily over the years.
The long and the short of it is that I worked it for close to 20 hours for maybe 5 coins. Then I finally "got it" and dug 6 good targets in a couple of hours. And you know what - there are still good targets lurking there, I am sure of it.
That old church has helped me to become a lot better detectorist with the Explorer. I am in no hurry to go back there anytime soon, but if there should be old coins at a site, chances are that you can find some IF you have become sufficiently experienced with the machine.
My point is that I absolutely refused to leave that church alone until it coughed up what the Explorer was supposed to get for me. I went to a lot of other places, too in order to find something to restore confidence and cheer me up, but I always came back to the church. I think that Rosario is like me in this respect - he knows that old stuff should be there and he is going return until he squeezes something out of it.
Tim

 

[Anonymous]

I must like to experiment... I bought and still own a <IMG SRC="/forums/images/ml.gif" BORDER=0 ALT="m~">XS didn't I???

 

[Anonymous]

<i>"...I think that Rosario is like me in this respect - he knows that old stuff should be there and he is going return until he squeezes something out of it..."</i>
Trouble is... so far it just ain't happening, and you'll never convince me that it's totally a <i>cockpit</i> problem.

 

[Anonymous]

is I let my threshold be the guide.If I can't get a threshold,at least one most of the time,I slow down till I do,even if it is just a slooooow creep.If I get a good threshold I speed up to where it starts breaking up some.Don't know if this is right,but it works for me.I can't stand hunting with out a threshold,just me,I know it will still ring through on coins through a null,but I still want to hear what I am not digging.Even after all that I still have never swung as fast as Keith does with his 6000.
Then I come across those *%@^ *&^@ &#*_ areas that I get nothing but solid nulls or solid non-ferrous junk signals,I can't pick out anything in those areas unless I go super slow.
Just my goofy thoughts on it. <IMG SRC="/forums/images/biggrin.gif" BORDER=0 ALT="">