Excal II first Hunt

[darksky]

I went with the 8" coil. I sold my original Excal because I really wanted to go into the water and submerge. My second hand unit had worked well on the shore and I found a lot of clad coins and some non-valuable jewelry, but I was very hesitant to submerge it, and wanted an Excal II anyway for snorkeling.

Well, I walked a Delaware beach for almost 2 hours with virtually all nulls. I found several copper bullet casing parts that gave good tones. I will say that for a beach with 1000s of tiny iron wire bits at every step, the Excal II worked amazing well in nulling. I used disc 1, I could run at almost max sensitivity out of Auto, and the Threshold was very steady.The disc 1 setting gave me at least equal response for targets as All Metal / Pinpoint did when I switched back and forth to listen to a "good" target. That was really great because I was not getting any real disadvantage in depth using Disc 1 on a very wire-ridden beach. Now all this was out of the water along the shore, maybe wet sand and into 12" deep water. No problem moving from wet sand to shallow water with tuning.It was rather consistent and usable without any real falsing. I was really impressed. Had I used a PI on this beach, Id have gone crazy with all the darn wire! I am sure PIs are great on somewhat cleaner beaches. Had I used All Metal and checked in Disc 1, this too would be way over top for frustration. too much junk there, all iron and all over.

It was getting late and while I could tell the machine was preventing me from digging 99.9% or targets ( and yes, I dug up a few "bad" targets and indeed they were bad), I was getting frustrated at not even finding clad coins. I decided to change strategy. I will say I dug up some aluminum stripping that was near 18" deep too. So the machine was working but I wanted to see some good targets come out of the sand!!

In the water I went. I was wearing a wetsuit and also Neoprene waders from Dicks over the wetsuit, 5mm dive gloves, and 5mm dive boots over the wader sock portion. I found a cut that happened to be right were the waves were breaking in, and walked along it. Finally, a dime. I knew it would be too, using Tony Diana's Ear Training CD. I was really surprised at being able to call it since it was the first coin in 2 hours. It had that nice even tone throughout and the pitch was right. Maybe I got lucky there calling it. Then a metal tag from a bathing suit I believe "Jantzen". Nice gold color but seems its just a metal tag. Then a ring. Junk ring with stone missing. Soon a Nickel, some more bullet casings That look to be copper and I figured "penny" when I heard the signal due to a slightly flatter note than the dime. No penny but it was copper.

I was getting hit shoulder high with waves that finally washed over the wader chest area and it was getting dark. I need a full day now to use what I learned
about where the good stuff might be. I will say this: Winter Gold may have to be worked for and I mean in the water. I found squat on the shoreline and had it been there, Id have found it. I was digging those copper bullet casing parts quite deep and the signals were sweet so had there been coin or gold on the shoreline, Id have found it with the Excal II.
Wow, I am in love with this machine. Gave me no problems at all. I'd be glad to post pics of the finds tomorrow and also the "flotation" I added to my digger and my Excal II that allowed me to let it go when I had to, for a dig. I was using a 10" X 8" Beach Brute and bringing up the full load for sifting can be tough after 25 times so Id let the machine go when I had to to use two hands. Turned my back on the sea once and sure enough, a wave went over my head. Onlookers enjoyed that one I think.

All in all, I felt very prepared to use the Excal II and I am glad I did my homework. I can't speak for anyone else but I wonder if negative comments from some other newbies about the Excal II result from winging it and maybe not having a basic understanding of how best to use the machine. I did a lot of of studying beforehand and having had the original Excal 800 helped too. Both work great, being in the water is my thing though. Not easy. I labored today out there but all my equipment and the apparel for cold water worked very well . Summer will be fun. Coming home with basically non value items is a bit depressing but I am learning and paying my dues. That's how it is sometimes. But I really have a lot of confidence that I am using great equipment!

More soon,
Russ

 

[kered]

I don't mean to teach grany how to fry eggs but did you try digging any of those constant iron nulls to see if anything was there? its just that your remark of "I could run at almost max sensitivity out of Auto" and "almost 2 hours with virtually all nulls" leads me to the suspition that maybe you have too much sens, too much sensitivity will give constant nulls as the excali2 seems more sensative to small mineral particles. When not in a null the threashold will seem steady, unlike the slight pulsing i used to get on the older machine but as soon as you start to move the nulls set in.
The highest i have been able to run the excalibur 2 on any beach is about 11 o'clock and in the water between 12 and 1 o'clock and quite often lower, much lower than the old excalibur 1000 i had.

Maybe it was just small wire and your lucky that the beach is that nuetral, but in the salt water i'm very surprised at those settings

 

[darksky]

I haven't tried at a beach where there is a lot of black sand. We have that further south.I checked my machine and actually have it set at at
7 Sens which equates to near 11 O'clock. The nulls I refer to were real nulls, often starting with a little "burp" that was eliminated on subsequent
passes of the coil. I'll check sensitivity next time out and lower it in an area like this and see if it makes any difference, but my few good targets
were fairly deep and small pieces of bent copper, a few bullet casing parts too. When I found the spot with good targets, the signals were loud,
clear and no problem. I did move Sens to a lower setting later because in the water there was a little falsing at the hotter setting. Not constant falsing
all over the place but I wanted to steady the machine as much as possible. Hey, If you see any problem in what I was doing , by all means please
post! That's what it's about. I am still new at this. I'll keep it in mind regarding the nulls and maybe some came from the ground but the nulls
I refered to were repeatable. I am sort of big on testing for repeatability to distinguish actual objects from ground background. I'd get a little quick "blip",
then pass the coil several more times and it dissapeared. The Iron mask was working great.
I dug several nulls here and there and they were small wire or rusted iron. Any anomaly and I dug.
Brought up some strips of aluminum too. They were good sounding, but large signals. I dug them anyway.
Russ

 

[JOHNMARKHAM]

yep your doing it just right..just get used to the learning curve a bit...
good luck..

 

[vfr800]

Darsky............Your post is one of the best i,ve seen in awhile in regards to a new machine. Some people get a new MD or a better one then there last and don't take the time to learn the machine or the basics of detecting, but instead reinforce there bad habits and get frustrated. I can relate to your experience i got my Excal II Feb. of 09 so in about a month it will be a year and so far just my ring count is about 130 and plenty are gold. You are on the right track Tony's CD is great.
When your in alot of iron go very slow and pick in between the nulls, I cant tell you how many rings i have found going slow when it nulls constantly that is were others do detect well or go over it fast. Once you find an area without much trash try to learn all metal hunting it will pay when the beach is sanded in or there are few targets here is a video my friend Brian(Surfdigger) makes. At about 4 Min's in you will see me dig a target using all metal very deep.
Good Luck.......HH

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2h9JXqY9OE&feature=player_embedded#

 

[vfr800]

Also you said that you made some sort of flotation for you Excal. I might want to be careful with that you dont want to keep pulling on the cables in the long run it will be a problem.............