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Explorer Coil's ?

tiftaaft said:
So... I have the ctx, and the etrac and the se pro (and for land hunting the se pro is now my go-to)... now I want to experience the explorer 2 to see what I am missing!! Thanks Tony, Steve and Kev. ;) lol.
Click to expand...

It's just a matter of money Tim! Why wait?:lol: Really,it's not INCREDIBLY different from what I've heard from the other Explorers....it's different than the CTX,I'll tell you that. The CTX can be made to sound SOMEWHAT fluty but not a "musical" fluty....with the right headphones(I have some Sennheisers that sound GREAT with it) the EX2 is apparently in a band of its own.
 
Sorry tiftafft! :) LOL!

Yes, Kevin. I agree with you -- I too have always heard from those who have used them all, that the Explorer 2, in particular, sounds the most "fluty" -- the best deep silver sound of them all.

Aside from the cost, what you (Kevin) said about the tones/sounds on the CTX is the main reason I just can't bring myself to even bother. I have spent SO MUCH TIME with my Explorer, and learning how to decipher the nuances of the language, that switching to a machine with a different language just seems pointless to me. I'd be starting over FROM SCRATCH, again, if I went to a CTX. It may be a better machine, but my question is, how long would it take someone who buys a CTX to become a "better" detectorist than an old Explorer user who has truly mastered the Explorer's language? I recall that debate raging when the E-Trac came out. So many said it was the "better" machine. But, I've used them both, and to me, they are essentially the same. If you have mastered the Explorer, you will "recognize" the response of the E-Trac to different targets very quickly. I recall back when I was almost convinced I was going to buy an E-Trac, as a replacement for my SE Pro. I borrowed my hunting buddy's E-Trac, and used it for a couple of weeks (so as to learn to decipher its ID/numbers, etc.) Then, one morning, after I felt like I "got" the E-Trac, I went to my go-to park. I spent a couple of hours locating decent-sounding targets with the E-Trac, which I would have guessed had at least a chance of being a coin, after listening and interrogating each target carefully. I found about 5 or 6 "possible" targets, as I recall, with the E-Trac, ranging from "almost certainly a silver coin," to "could be a good coin," to "it has a chance, but it's really iffy and probably not a good coin." I marked each one, and then grabbed my Explorer. When I listened to each one with the Explorer, again interrogating the target very carefully, I reached the same conclusion on each target with the Explorer, that I did with the E-Trac. The same things I was hearing with the E-Trac that made the "iffy" targets "iffy," I could hear the same things with the Explorer. Likewise, on the "almost a sure thing" targets, it was "almost a sure thing target" with my Explorer, as well. I think I dug two silver coins that day, of those 5 or 6 targets, and they were the two I'd have bet on, with EITHER machine.

Bottom line is, I concluded that while they presented the information a bit differently, I was not convinced that the E-Trac was "better." Hunting side-by-side for years with guys swinging E-Tracs just confirmed that for me. If they found a "good" target, I'd listen with the Explorer and agree that it sounded "good." If they hit a real deep whisper of a target, it would be a real deep whisper on my Explorer as well. And, vice-versa...if I said "I think I have a deep silver dime here," they'd listen and conclude the same thing. If I hit an "iffy" target, but one I should probably dig, and I called them over for their take on the target, they'd agree -- iffy, but they'd dig it if it were them. After doing things like this countless times, I concluded that both machines are equally adept, in the hands of a long-time user.

I would guess the same to be true with the CTX -- except for me, the big drawback is the TONES. Where I was able to swing an E-Trac for a couple of weeks, and just using what I knew of the Explorer's tones and the nuances therein, be very successful/confident with the E-Trac, I would expect that it would take many MONTHS, at least, to become confidently adept with the CTX. Reason being, I'd have to learn a whole new language. And then the question would linger -- would an experienced CTX user be able to consistently out-detect an experienced Explorer user?

I'm not sure...

But, I'm rambling...

Steve
 
Steve,

Good post ! It reminds me of when I went back and forth with the Soveriegn......When I first got one, I can remember getting hit with a barrage of tones that I knew nothing about...Musical? ....WOW !!! Without a meter,I was lost.....Soon after I got an Etrac....NOW I had a great machine with numbers to go with it... Soon thereafter I got pretty good at knowing the tones and rarely looking at the numbers...I was concentrating on the depth and tone more now......It was now easier to go back to the Soveriegn....Dealing with both of these machines is what brought me to the Explorer SE.....The reason for the Explorer SE was to have a machine that I could use on the beach after modding it ......I'm pretty familiar with the tones of the other machines,and now have to master the Explorer SE tones.....Through it all, I don't think I will ever give up my Soveriegn or my Etrac.....Another reason for the Explorer SE is the fact that one of the guys I hunted with was notorious for finding more and better targets than me, in the same hunt ,and I was using my Etrac !!! URGGGGHHHH ! Granted he knew his machine better than I did mine, so with all this said,I can totally relate to your thread......Jim
 
synthnut said:
Steve,

Good post ! It reminds me of when I went back and forth with the Soveriegn......When I first got one, I can remember getting hit with a barrage of tones that I knew nothing about...Musical? ....WOW !!! Without a meter,I was lost.....Soon after I got an Etrac....NOW I had a great machine with numbers to go with it... Soon thereafter I got pretty good at knowing the tones and rarely looking at the numbers...I was concentrating on the depth and tone more now......It was now easier to go back to the Soveriegn....Dealing with both of these machines is what brought me to the Explorer SE.....The reason for the Explorer SE was to have a machine that I could use on the beach after modding it ......I'm pretty familiar with the tones of the other machines,and now have to master the Explorer SE tones.....Through it all, I don't think I will ever give up my Soveriegn or my Etrac.....Another reason for the Explorer SE is the fact that one of the guys I hunted with was notorious for finding more and better targets than me, in the same hunt ,and I was using my Etrac !!! URGGGGHHHH ! Granted he knew his machine better than I did mine, so with all this said,I can totally relate to your thread......Jim
Click to expand...

So Jim... when you say you modded your SE Pro... did you waterproof it? One of the reasons I have been holding on to my CTX is for water hunting. I know I can get the coil wet on the SE Pro, but would afraid of accidentally dropping the control box in the water... would be interested to see/hear how you protected yours.

Plus... there is an Explorer 2 advertised near me... $450. Kevin... I am tempted. :)

Tim.
 
Jim,

Not sure how long you've had an SE Pro, but it sounds from your post like you are pretty new to it? If so, I think you will pretty easily be able to transition from E-Trac to SE Pro, in terms of understanding the language. I find them to be VERY similar. To me, knowing the Explorer's language made switching to the E-Trac pretty intuitive; the biggest change from E-Trac to SE Pro was, to me, that Minelab changed the way the ID system worked (the normalizing of the FE numbers to "12" on good targets). But the sounds/language are, to me, VERY similar. Like you said, once you really "get" the language, you can just concentrate on tone -- from which, you learn to glean not only what the target likely is, but how deep it is, etc Like everyone used to say, when I was barraging people with questions trying to learn the Explorer "it's all about the tones..."

How true that is.

Steve
 
Tim,

I took the control box off the handle set up that was really heavy and was going to mount the control box in the waterproof box, and hip or chest mount the control box and then talking to Charles in New York he was telling me that you can't really add an extension cable without changing the resistance there for changing the numbers that you receive when you were scanning the targets . So I was left with the control box that I put on the straight shaft set up and like you said all that's waterproof really is the coil itself but it's a lot lighter now but it really kind of shot my whole idea in the head when I couldn't add the extension cable . I originally wanted to hip mount or chest mount the control box but by doing that I would've had to add the extension cable now that Idea is not my head anymore . Depending on how the explorer works out if it doesn't work out to my benefit I may end up doing another Soveriegn set up and go with that and waterproof that.....

STeve,

I'm very much aware of how the curve went to a straight line as far as the change went with that ID numbers are like that on the change from the explorer to the Etrac .... The 12 line is pretty consistent and pretty Ez to remember and understand . I agree the tones coming from the explorer are very much like to Etrac track .... it makes the transition easier ... actually for me it was coming from the Etrac to the Explorer ....
 
Steve,

In answer to an earlier question yes I am new to the explorer .... i've had it for quite a while but did nothing with it because I tore it apart to mod it for a water machine .... Life happened and I never got back to it and I'm just now putting it back together again ....... Jim
 
synthnut said:
Tim,

I took the control box off the handle set up that was really heavy and was going to mount the control box in the waterproof box, and hip or chest mount the control box and then talking to Charles in New York he was telling me that you can't really add an extension cable without changing the resistance there for changing the numbers that you receive when you were scanning the targets . So I was left with the control box that I put on the straight shaft set up and like you said all that's waterproof really is the coil itself but it's a lot lighter now but it really kind of shot my whole idea in the head when I couldn't add the extension cable . I originally wanted to hip mount or chest mount the control box but by doing that I would've had to add the extension cable now that Idea is not my head anymore . Depending on how the explorer works out if it doesn't work out to my benefit I may end up doing another Soveriegn set up and go with that and waterproof that.....

STeve,

I'm very much aware of how the curve went to a straight line as far as the change went with that ID numbers are like that on the change from the explorer to the Etrac .... The 12 line is pretty consistent and pretty Ez to remember and understand . I agree the tones coming from the explorer are very much like to Etrac track .... it makes the transition easier ... actually for me it was coming from the Etrac to the Explorer ....
Click to expand...

Thanks Jim... I hadn't thought about the resistance in an extension cord either. Charles is the master... I'm sure you have seen his posts showing the ultralight setup he built... awesome. Tim.
 
tiftaaft said:
synthnut said:
Tim,

I took the control box off the handle set up that was really heavy and was going to mount the control box in the waterproof box, and hip or chest mount the control box and then talking to Charles in New York he was telling me that you can't really add an extension cable without changing the resistance there for changing the numbers that you receive when you were scanning the targets . So I was left with the control box that I put on the straight shaft set up and like you said all that's waterproof really is the coil itself but it's a lot lighter now but it really kind of shot my whole idea in the head when I couldn't add the extension cable . I originally wanted to hip mount or chest mount the control box but by doing that I would've had to add the extension cable now that Idea is not my head anymore . Depending on how the explorer works out if it doesn't work out to my benefit I may end up doing another Soveriegn set up and go with that and waterproof that.....

STeve,

I'm very much aware of how the curve went to a straight line as far as the change went with that ID numbers are like that on the change from the explorer to the Etrac .... The 12 line is pretty consistent and pretty Ez to remember and understand . I agree the tones coming from the explorer are very much like to Etrac track .... it makes the transition easier ... actually for me it was coming from the Etrac to the Explorer ....
Click to expand...

Thanks Jim... I hadn't thought about the resistance in an extension cord either. Charles is the master... I'm sure you have seen his posts showing the ultralight setup he built... awesome. Tim.
Click to expand...

Version 3.0 of the carbon fiber Explorer SE Pro is nearly complete. I even molded a carbon fiber arm cup to lesson the weight. This one is an S shaft :cool:
 
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