Does anyone use their Explorer to wet beach hunt - if so, is it any good?

[locusman]

I guess my main question, can the Explorer (either II or SE) id coins sufficiently well to separate a zinc
penny from other coins reliably? The beaches i hunt are loaded with 1000's of crusty zincs and
it would be nice to notch them out, while still getting other stuff. I'm sure that since it is a multi-frequency machine,
it handles the salt/minerals well and the depth should be comparable or better than the Sovereigns.
Also, is is reasonably good on detecting small gold like the Sovereign?

Any opinions are wanted.

Thanks in advance.

Mark

 

[dewcon4414]

A large part of your question depends on the user. I use the SE and it does an excellent job with coin ID as well as transition from wet to dry sand. Yes, its a deep machine... not as good on really small gold pieces like earring studs unless you pay attention. With the Explorers you can hunt with either Ferr or Cond sounds and you dont have to ground balance every time you go from wet to dry sand. The Explorer has a LEARN on it so just reject the coin... your problem is deep crappy coins change sound at depth.... but if you learn the smart screen you should have no problem. I prefer to dig those just because ive picked up silver rings in the same range much like you might gold in the pull tab range. You can make an excellent pattern program just for jewery as well. This is a great all around machine and is very suited for the beach. Add a pro or SEF coil and you have a killer machine. I dont believe the Sov can do anything this machine cant.... except be hipmounted.

Dew

 

[NealNoIN]

n/t

 

[dewcon4414]

Ive never really had one that was gold register there Neal.... now silver will.... somewhere around 07-26. Right around the bottle cap and IH range. I put in a LOT of rings to make the pattern i use, even the heavy 18K rang in around 11-08. Silver is a little more consistent than the gold ones.

Dew

 

[Tom_in_CA]

First, to reply to Neil: Yes, there are a few very large gold rings (like men's college class rings, etc...) that can possibly read up as high as zinc penny. But this is rare. They would represent a VERY small fraction of the rings on people's fingers. So for example: If you go out in a junky blighted urban park, and dig 1000 zinc penny signals, I can guarantee you that probably all of them will be .... zinc pennies Now if you're talking about rotten zinc pennies, where the TID has dropped down to sometimes nearly the thick square tab area, then yes, a few more gold rings can read up that high as well. But again, you're talking a small percentage of the overall gold rings out there. There has been many studies done on this topic, for people who have tried to devise "ring enhancement programs" over the years. They take hundreds and hundreds of sample gold rings (they must have a friend who owns a jewelry store, eh? ) and make computerized records/notes of where they all read. The majority of gold rings read low, from tab on down. Yes a few read higher, and some even as high as zinc. But if you're strictly "playing the odds", and don't want to dig 1000 zinc pennies for each gold ring..... well then it's like "holding" in Blackjack when you have 20 in your hand. Yes the next card MIGHT be a one card, right? But the odds are, it won't.

If I'm at a beach after storm erosion, where mother nature has taken all the light stuff out, and left only the heavier objects (yes, even zinc pennies washed out, leaving only copper and silver), then in that case, zinc and corroded zinc signals pique my interest But if it's "all things being equal" (junky turf, for example) situations, then there are times in life where we must choose to play the odds.

Yes, the Explorer is an excellent beach machine. Its ability on small gold jewelry would be about that of the Sov: you won't get a teensy tinsel-thin chain, or an earing stud, but will get the rest. To get the super teensy earing stud type stuff, you'd need a nugget machine, or pulse beach machine, each of which will have its drawbacks in other regards (poor TID, poor iron disc, etc...). I used to use the Explorer for land, the Excal (which is like the Sov) for the wet beach storm-hunting. But when my Excal broke down, I never replaced it. I just use my Explorer for the wet salt beach, and keep up perfectly well with Excal and Sov. users (as the depth and TID is comparable). The only downside is, if you expect to get splashed or dunked or rained on, you gotta wrap it up good in plastic before such days/outings.

 

[Bayrat76]

Works great just don't get the control unit wet. ID is great, plus depth.

 

[muggsc]

I use mine on the beach with a platypus coil. I always end up digging a lot of zincs. They hit all over the place depending on condition, depth etc. I guess you could notch them out but I've found some very nice things when I thought geez another zinc.