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I've had my Explorer XS for about a month now.I am an experienced user of Garrett's GTI's and Fisher CZ's.I am not finding the things I expected .I have been using Mike Moutray's settings plus a few silver programs I set up myself, I don't have any problem with iron ,but the clads are everywhere.My problem seems to be mostly with Aluminum which seems to show up regularly in the top right hand area where I expect noble coins to be .I enjoy reading this forum every day and keep hoping some of it will rub off on me.Any help with this would be very much appreciated.
 
Just keep at it, you should soon be able to tell those bigger pieces of aluminum that read up in the coin areas.. generally its only a whole can or large piece that will read up top right.. although those deep lids only can mess you up no matter how good you are with the explorer.. Aluminum also seems to have a pretty irregular tone from more than one direction unless round or square.. As for clads theres not much you can do but get them out of the way in case of deeper stuff under them.. you can ignore the shallower stuff, but they will hide good stuff beneath them.. What you need is a few clad hunters using other machines to start hunting your sites to get rid of them <img src="/metal/html/smile.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":)">
 
Hey Jim,
Agree about the clad hunters. Awhile back I suggested a match up service- get people who love to dig clad hooked up with those that don't. I think Brian jumped my A$$ on that one.
I know of several sites that are absoulutely littered with shallow clad and from what I see posted on some other forums (non-explorer) there are people who would be tickled pink to clean it all up.
"Hey Baby, you want to come to my place and dig some Lincoln Memorials?"
Chris
 
Hey Dennis,
Here is my interpretation of your Problem: Aluminum is reading like a coin, so you dig and find aluminum. You are only finding clad coins and no old stuff.
Turn your MANUAL sensitivity down in trashy areas. Keep coins with you in the field so you can compare signal pitch to mystery targets. Make little sweeps within the main sweep while in trashy areas. Don't use the crosshairs to identify targets (I have found barber dimes where the crosshairs register iron).
It is easier for me to use sound instead of the screen. If I am looking ONLY for silver coins and I get a big nice coin hit sound that sounds like a shallow hit (big strong beep), I get out a wheat penny and see what the penny sounds like. If the mystery signal sounds lower than the penny, I do not dig it. I assume it is aluminum pulltab and do not dig. This method is not %100 effective because large aluminum items such as screw caps sound high like a penny. But this method will screen out most smaller aluminum items.
By the way, if you go by sound only, you will be able to make a more accurrate decision on target composition and depth rather than if you use the screen. I never use the screen to decide on target composition and depth--ever.
If you are only finding clad coins and no deeper old stuff, you may be operating in a trashy area with your sensitivity turned up too high, thus not getting very good depth. Your threshhold presence will indicate how low you need to be turning down your manual sensitivity setting. If I am in an area where there are so many targets that my threshold does not return intermittantly in between SOME of the targets, then I will lower my threshold until it does return intermittantly. I don't go below 15 usually, but sometimes I may have to lower it to 10. Lowering sensitivity reduces the area of influence that shallow trash targets have. This helps you to see inbetween the targets a little more. Also when I am in a real trashy area (targets are about 4 inches away from each other, I double sweep 4 inch distances along my main direction of sweep (like little sweeps within a sweep).
If you are worried you are not getting the proper depth out of your machine, do an air test where there is no interference by ground targets or electric equipment. Place a silver quarter on the ground an see how high you can wiggle your coil over the quarter and still get a response. It should be about 9 or 10 inches at a manual sensitivity of 27. If it is, your machine is doing just fine.
Mike
 
Hi Again:
I forgot to add that you are doing the same thing that I was doing when I had my XS for 1 month--finding clad and not much else. I was pretty depressed. I tried to detect mostly in non-trashy areas and that helped with signal isolation and signal study with respect to sound. I made a test garden in my backyard with trash items and good coins buried at depths of 2,4,6,8 inches. Eventually I started finding isolated old coin hits and learned little things about them each time I dug them. The same thing will happen for you only if you STICK WITH IT and keep reading stuff. My friend thinks that there is a problem because he is not finding stuff while another guy is (they both use explorer XS's). The only difference is that he has about 20 hours of experience, and the other guy has about 230 hours of experience. Another difference is that the 20 hour guy does not use the X1 probe. The Sunray X1 probe helps you immediately locate the target and decide if you've dug a trash item without ever seeing the target. This probe reduces the amount of time you spend digging the hole. The 20 hour guys digs gigantic holes and becomes discouraged. Also, the 20 hour guy was using the stock coil to detect trashy areas when he should have been using the 7.5" coil.
Mike
 
Hi Mike,
Many thanks for your reply.Your interpretation of my problem is right.You have given me some good ideas to try and I will follow through.
Dennis
 
Thanks Jim ,
I will keep plugging(literally) away .I think I will get it eventually.
 
Mike, you wrote:
<span style="background-color:#ffff00;">If you are worried you are not getting the proper depth out of your machine, do an air test where there is no interference by ground targets or electric equipment. Place a silver quarter on the ground an see how high you can wiggle your coil over the quarter and still get a response. <STRONG>It should be about 9 or 10 inches</STRONG> at a manual sensitivity of 27. If it is, your machine is doing just fine.
Mike </span>
What if my machine gets a strong hit at 6-7...almost 8 inches air test and gets very iffy beyond that? Would you think something is wrong?
 
Hey Tony,
On my machine, while using a silver quarter, the machine responds at 9 or 10 inches with broken, warbling, simple tone clusters. I have my machine set on Mike Moutray's Settings as well. So yea, I would expect an iffy response at that altitude for an air test. I was also using the "wiggle" swing method. If the coin were under nicely-packed and undisturbed soil, the signal may be better--or at least that's what I have read.
For those iffy deep signals you come across out in the field, listen to see if the "coin" tones sound like they are poking out thru threshold tone, or if they are being chased very closely by threshold tone. If this is the case, I would dig the signal. But if the "coin" tones sound like they are poking out of silence, it probably is a rusty nail (using Mike Moutray Settings).
It sounds to me like your machine is fine. Imagine having a nice, strong signal coming from a standing liberty quarter laying horizontal at 8 inches deep. That is awesome! Now if the quarter were vertical, you may get an iffy signal.
Mike
 
i agree 100% with mike about using the sounds rather than the screen to identify targets! as far as i am concerned the crosshairs just aren't reliable enough, since they won't even move until a threshold returns. that makes no sense to me, definitely a design & development error in my opinion. the sounds will always be true though. if it's high tone, small and repeats, you'd better dig it! yes you might dig a few buried beer cans, but somebody's gotta get 'em out of the way. (i remember a post by charles of new york where he was kicking cans out of the way - he kicked an aluminum can and found a silver coin under where it had been!) let your ear be your guide! hh.
neal, UT
 
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