Explorer II question about I. D. read outs ...

[JBTN]

I have been testing my explorer on how acurately it will ID coins at different depths in my coil garden. I live in TN and the minerals are high. On the DFX the ground phase is -92 to -94.

I found out that with a setting of iron mask 15 it will ID coins up to 6.5" with a high tone we all love to hear. After that it could read anything. For example a dime at 8" will give a signal but normally reads 29-0 with a medium tone. A quarter at 10" could read bottle cap, iron at far left with a low tone. At the above depths, without the high coin sound and poor ID I realize I probably would not dig thinking it is iron or thrash targets.

I would any help on how to improve on the ID and tone of response on targets over 6.5". My settings are smart screen digital, gain on 7, sensitivity 21 to 26, deep on, and tone conduct.

Jim TN

 

[Captain Kirk]

I am confused with a medium tone in Conductive mode at a reading of 29-0. The digital reading is ferrous-conductive. 29-0 indicates a conductive component of 0 and should produce a very low tone.

HH,
Glenn

 

[Arturo de Zorro]

Looks to me that in your area you need to go to a large coil when you hunt sites with deeper coins. My 7.5 coil is accurate down to 7" any deeper the digital jumps around to much and when I start getting hits below mid scale on the meter I switch to the 10" coil to read them accurate down to 8 to 9 inches, any deeper than that and they will run me out of the parks. The MXT phase reads -65 to -70 in my area.

 

[JBTN]

I'm confused too. It doesn't stay on 29-0, but jumps around on the screen. It does not sound the high coin tone. I think as Auturo mentioned, in my ground it would take a bigger coil to get a good ID.

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

Jim,

Only suggestion other than using a larger coil like the others have mentioned is make sure you are in manual sensitivity. In Semi-auto the machine can detune itself considerably depending on conditions. In 99% of conditions higer sensitivity means greater depth. Crank it up until it is almost unstable and see if you can get an ID.

Also doing the minelab "wiggle" fast short sweeps over the target may give a better ID. Contrary to popular belief the minelab does better depthwise at faster sweep speeds. (Unfortunatly it does much worse for target seperation and you can't use this in most of the trashy areas we all hunt.)

After a certain depth detectors lose the ability to id targets, it all looks like iron. In mineralized ground this happens more at shallower depthss.

I always hunt using the smart screen and watch where the target cursor bounces. It will not be very consistant on deep targets but generally has something of a pattern which determines whether to dig or not. I think this is more helpful than relying on numbers.

 

[JBTN]

N/T

 

[Arturo de Zorro]

If you are trying this at a coin garden that is less than 1 year old your reading will be jumpy on the deep ones.