Excal II Auto Sensitivity

[John(Tx)]

I run my sensitivity around an 8 most of the time and my hunting partner runs his on auto sensitivity. I always score more coins but he gets more gold rings, is this just coincidence? I noticed today that my threshold was a little unstable and switching to auto would settle it down to smooth. Also noticed that the tone on the hits that were closer to the surface made a warbly sound but when I upped the volume from about 3/4 to wide open the sound would not have the warbly sound, don't know why my excal was doing this, never done this before. I've had this excal for 2 years, should I contact Minelab and maybe ask about sending in the excal for a tune-up and replacing the O rings? My excal has found me many rings and has paid for itself so not complaining, just want to make sure nothing is going wrong. thanks and HH

 

[Buried Crap NJ]

Threshold smoothness will certently help with finding gold that is deeper than a few inches. I Rarely run in Auto. I have noticed that changing the volume changes the tones. Remember that volume is only for targets and nothing else. Volume should be a set it and forget it knob. That is is your discriminating with your ears. if your going to dig every target you hear, than you tones are not important to you.My excalibur is about 2 yrs old and its sounds nothing like when new. The other item here is I hunt the same beaches with friends and they can get there settings to around 8 and i can't get past 6. I find as much as they do or some times more. Each machine is its own person and one can vary from the next greatly. Run your machine and don't worrie about your buddies setting as they will always be differant than your. IMHO

 

[Critterhunter]

The other guy is probably skipping high tones for coins and only digging lower stuff, so he gets less coins and more rings. There are of course some rings, even gold rings, that will read as high as a coin, but they are far less common than ones that read below copper penny all the way down to low foil.

Remember that gold rings will sink MUCH faster than coins due to their weight and having less surface area for the sand to catch. Best thing I read was if you are finding the fluffly light stuff like aluminum in the sand then move to areas where you are finding coins or lead sinkers at a certain depth as the gold rings will fall to those levels and not be up near the shallow layers where the light aluminum and stuff ended up resting. Of course a freshly dropped ring might be that shallow, though.

 

[John(Tx)]

n/t

 

[Tin Fin]

Thanks for the post - this is good.

 

[otlew]

The other guy is probably skipping high tones for coins and only digging lower stuff, so he gets less coins and more rings. There are of course some rings, even gold rings, that will read as high as a coin, but they are far less common than ones that read below copper penny all the way down to low foil.

Remember that gold rings will sink MUCH faster than coins due to their weight and having less surface area for the sand to catch. Best thing I read was if you are finding the fluffly light stuff like aluminum in the sand then move to areas where you are finding coins or lead sinkers at a certain depth as the gold rings will fall to those levels and not be up near the shallow layers where the light aluminum and stuff ended up resting. Of course a freshly dropped ring might be that shallow, though.

So I guess this means that if hear something that is deep and sound like a pull tab then I should dig. Seems to make sense.

 

[Critterhunter]

Yes, unless you think your in an area with fresh dropped rings, then key in on the deeper stuff, as gold rings will sink much faster than tabs or even to some extent coins. So, if you're in an area with shallow fluffy stuff and there isn't much chance of fresh drops, then key in on the deeper stuff. Of course if the area is devoid of signals then dig everything anyway, as you never know if the shallow stuff might be a fresh dropped ring or something. If the area isn't loaded with signals then I dig everything, but if it's loaded with stuff then I'll start to key in on the deeper signals on the beach. But, if the area has obvious signs of erosion then there might very well be deep and shallow light stuff mixed together, so dig everything there then. Gold rings are much heavier than other light trash or even coins (and have less surface area than coins) in terms of weight and surface area, so for sure if you are finding coins (or in paritucular lead sinkers) then key in on stuff that deep or deeper in areas of a lot of trash like that. I don't always do it, but the key is using your head and thinking the site out. Now, at say towel lines on the dry beach I'll dig it all, as it could very well be a fresh dropped ring, but in areas where there isn't much activity and no erosion to put light stuff and rings at the same depth, then I'll look for the deeper signals. Now, on the other hand, if the area I'm hunting isn't loaded with signals then for sure it's dig it all. Several of my beaches are pretty devoid of signals, so I scoop it all, but there is one particular beach where it's trash city all over, so then I look for the deeper signals in low activity areas...But my favorite tactic on this super trashy beach is to not roam and hunt, but rather to grid off say a 20 x 20 foot area and dig every signal out of there above iron, shallow or deep.

 

[Jack Flynn]

My personal thoughts are dig every crackle and peep that the machine makes. Even in a nulled out spot. The machine is telling you something is there. You won't find some good targets if you don't period. I've dug many good targets that the hole after the crackle and pop target was removed and in the scoop just nulled the machine. Sure you can tell foil and can slaw some of the time but I have been pleasantly surprised more times than not. If you had no trash and no minerals you might be ok but would still miss good targets. The labor is worth it. My Excal ll sounds nothing like my brand new one I just got. I really think it the headphones. Still works great but sounds different.