Excalibur Learning curve

[smkunder]

OK this is my second year with the Excalibur, my first season I did not do all that well. I am on the learning curve and have read all of Clive Clynick's books on the subject. I am so used to the visual cues of the Etrac, screen that maybe I am blocking all the audio cues from the Excalibur. My question is should I start using this machine more on land to learn it, or get in the water. Have others had trouble making the transition from a land machine to this and what tips, can you give me.
I am determined to master this, but wondering if my love and feel for the Etrac has made it more difficult for me to get used to this machine. I know time and experience is probably the only teacher, but also wonder how others have overcome this?

Thanks

 

[Ron from Michigan]

For the beach water environment the Excal is a great choice.You have the same problem most new Sovereign users have,these BBS detectors require a few hours in the field to learn.Once you learn the tones your finds will improve.I would make it a priority to get out on the beach and get some search hours in. Good Luck Ron

 

[dewcon4414]

First off on the beach dig everything but a shallow bottle cap and iron. There isnt many machine that hate iron as much as an Xcal. To me the blue 1000 has more condensed tones and can be harded to learn than the Xcal II. At first on the Xcals all the tones kind of sound the same...... but like learning the ET or an Explorer once it clicks they are very distinct on various metals or density. I personally dont think using the Xcal as a dirt digging machine would help you. It recovers very slow loosing your depth because of the coil shut down..... and you would be skipping over targets. Its a simple machine designed for beach use where it excells. Remember..... like most machines at depth if you arent over the target or it is really deep it doesnt sound the same as that same target shallow. Thats likely the thing that confuses people at first.

Dew

 

[OldBeechnut]

I went from Explorer, SE Explorer, then Excal...How did you hunt with the Etrac, Digital screen, ferrious tones, smart screen?

 

[smkunder]

I use the digital screen and conductive tones, listen for high pitch then check screen. I still use the Etrac, bur want to add the Excal to my toolbox for my lake and beach hunting. Just trying to get a grasp on the different sounds.. Right now the pennies sound the same to me as a dime and even similar to my gold ring. I think I will get it with time, but not having the screen to verify is where I find my self doubting, so I dig everything.

 

[oneon]

Im new to the GT and am assuming the pennys and dimes would sound very close. Digging deep targets I think all bets are off as far as making any identification via the audio. Im having a rough time also. I am used to using my V3I on the beach I only used the screen to check frequencies when pin pointing. The sounds on the V3I are very distinct. I know I'm digging deeper with my Sov in PP mode. I'm going on my second week without any significant finds. I am getting 12-14 inches on Quarters and some larger brass pieces are coming in at PI depth. Im also digging like I did when I use my PI. Learning is a Bitch I keep thinking Im missing stuff. Hang in there.

 

[bootyhoundpa]

my excal use is very seasonal,but all i can say is dig ALL repeatable signals especially the softer smaller ones....ive found that alot of good things sound off with less than impressive sounds...dont be afraid to dig some trash-even foil... sooner or later it will pay off.. if you have a safe beach to hunt at night i would also suggest that .. the signals sound much crisper at night and since you cant see anything anyway all of your attention will be focused on the sound.... also -work the nulls- when your machine nulls over a target go over it again at varying sweep speeds and different angles..some times good targets will sound off after a second sweep.... im in no way saying i have mastered the excal,but i have gotten much better with it and can always find something worth keeping.... there is a lake i hunt that has alot of competition there ... one little trick that has scored me some small gold is to actually scrape the coil against the soft sand bottom....you would be surprised at how many times ive gone behind someone and picked up a keeper just cause i was willing to brush away a thin layer of sand with my coil..... practice makes perfect or close to it...happy hunting...

 

[dewcon4414]

You arent looking for a reason to NOT dig on a beach. Thats a mind set you have to change from dirt digging. Believe me its an advantage to NOT have a screen if you want to find deeper gold rings especially with stones..... they sound like junk.

Dew

 

[tvr]

Right now the pennies sound the same to me as a dime and even similar to my gold ring.

I cut my teeth on beep and dig dirt detectors and then a few years with a CZ20 for the beach so I came to the Excalibur from a different direction than you. After many hours on the Excal, I can't really tell the difference between a penny and a dime either.

For me, a little bit of time with three targets laying on a clean spot of dirt or on the beach gave me some useful ear training. The three targets I used: a small iron nail (not plated, a tack works well), a nickle and a quarter.

Set the Excal for minimum discrimination in the discrimination mode. Listen to the null over the nail and how it comes out of the null (tone may not always come out of null smoothly, depending on direction nail was approached and sweep speed, it may grunt and sputter at the start or end of null, but notice that it does null.

Listen to the relatively low tone of the nickle and the relatively high tone of the quarter and you can start putting targets into ranges; not precise ranges, but relative ranges.

Like others have said, at the beach I dig pretty much all targets that aren't a definite iron null. The first gold I got with the excal was a fairly thin white gold men's band that had patterns in it. It sounded scratchy with grunting tones splattered all over the low end and like it was trying to null; pretty much like a bottle cap. With a very slow sweep it was not actually nulling but grunted a lot, so the target got dug, expecting it to be a small foil ball. Glad I dug it.
Good luck to you!
tvr

 

[sonnar28]

I have had my Excalibur for 6 months, I was really having trouble in the beginning as I did not know how to listen or what to listen for. I bought Tony Diana's Basic Ear training CD for Excalibur. It taught me what to listen for and how to listen, and the concept of fresh ears and ear fatigue. I would listen to part of the "training run" portion just before bedtime to imprint the info the night before I would hunt. When I would hunt I would guess what a target was before I dug it. The CD certaintly speeded up my learning curve significantly. I guess I could have eventually learned most of it on my own, but with working fulltime/overtime then family time, it is hard to find blocks of time when I am refreshed enough to really learn. I think it is still available from Kellyco.

 

[jyt2017]

Takes a while. When in doubt, dig. Pivot, and see if you get a consistent signal, dig. I might pass large aluminum sounding objects. Either because I can't reach them, or because I have a good feeling its a beer can. I know I am missing a goodie here an there doing that.

Using wet sand, on maybe shoreline, set up a series of targets. I also suggest standing the most common coins up, and laying flat on the ground, just to see what your up against in terms of the machines limitations. If you have a decent phone, record, save, and listen while taking walks...etc etc. I made a few for myself and it helps.

Hardest thing for me to learn was how to weed out falsing. The only way your gonna get used to switching from a screened machine to knobs and tones is repetition. ...in the environment you intend on hunting. Sure, if you just wanna go real quick, 45 minutes or something, and take it on land no biggie.

Id really try practicing where you intend on using it. Are you using auto sensitivity or manual? That can be tricky, but once your comfortable with machines stability, it should be set an go. ... should be.

...on large objects, sometimes I raise my coil...6 to 10 inches off ground. Before I break my balls anymore, I decide then if I want to try for it. Usually, I leave it. I know, I will miss big things like watches...but they are far less common drop.

...last I very rarely hunted in pp mode. Always used disc.

 

[smkunder]

I have to agree, I have been using it in my own yard, with some set targets. I will adjust to not having a screen it is just a matter of time and patience, thanks for all of the responses. I keep thinking I might even look for a used Soverign just to get more seat (ear) time with this style of detector. It is a different mindset in detecting I must say.