JIm,
If you just got your Explorer I would stay in the factory presets until you get to know your detector a bit more, will make the learning curve a bit easier. Maybe the only thing I would change is the sensitivity if need to be.
On iron mask some seem to like to run it at factory preset, some at a -10 to a -14 and some even like to run it to a -16 which would be total open. I have one guy here that likes his at a -4 which is not even open as much as factory preset. This has to do with personal preference and how much iron you want to reject, but I will tell you the more iron you reject the harder it will be to see those coins close to junk that are deep. If you run the iron mask less than the -12 you will find you may want to run in the ferrous tones as much of the iron will sound just like coins do untill you really know those tones. With iron mask open to a-15 or -16 you will be hearing a lot of tones and may have to go slower to hear any of the good tones of a good target.
Now what I have been doing is runing one of my many patterns that are open I built that will copy iron mask, but reject some of the real common trash that is more on the left side of the screen and the bottom right and keep the top left open so I will hear the nails and small iron close to a good coin. Another one I will use for coin hunting is I have the top open up untill where -13 would be with the medium curssor, then learn in the nickles with the learn mode (make sure when using the learn mode you turn your sensitivity to the lowest setting so you get no stray signals in your pattern). Now I will get my coins and if I get a iffy signal I switch to iron mask which I have set to a -16 so I can hear everything that is close to my target. Sometimes in some areas i run in the iron mask at a -16 and hear everything if I am in a ares with a lot of nails, kind of nosie, but with ferrous tones the iron is low tone, so I listen for any tone that is not low and do good this way.
I have my best hunter use my one pattern, the one with the top open untill where -10 would be and the nickles learned in and was doing good, got over 200 silver last year. Now I have told him about this iron mask being he knows his Explorer well and he didnt like it, so I told him to use it only on signals that were iffy. He uses the -16 in ferrous tones and can hear these iffy signal much better now and can tell if there is a nail beside a coin now and his finds have increased. He even been hunting with it in the -16 and getting some signals that are deep and switching back to his pattern and gets nothing and when dug is a good coin. This showed him that some of the deeper targets and those with iron around will be missed unless you run a open or close to open pattern in iron mask. With using this iron mask to check out targets or to hunt in has done well for him as he is now over 300 silver this year with 14 halfs (7 of them barber) from many of the areas most considered worked out.
The problem with all of this is you will have to learn your Explorer first or it will only confusse you about the Explorer I feel and why I think before you start looking for those coin that are problem ones you should spend the time to learn your Explorer first so you know what a good tone is and how some trash acts that can copy a good target like those licence plates you got a good signal on. On them the signal should have been bigger and louder so I would have picked up the coil and see how high you could raise it while swinging the coil and getting a good signal on it. If you raised it 5 or 6 inches and the signal stayed the same I would have known it was a big target and not a coin size target as the signal would have changed quite a bit. I pulled out a couple of halfs in with crushed alum cans a couple of years ago just by lifting the coil up 6 or 7 inches and those that didnt change much were the cans, the signals that changes quite a bit where the coins.
Good luck and spend the time to learn the Explorer well as it is worth it. If you have a copy of the newest Western Eastern Treasure look in the club news and you will see a sample of our finds under the Minnesota Artifact and Recovery Group article. The 1916 D merc found was at a construction site that was only a inch or 2 down with a Fisher, but all the other top of the month finds most were found with the Explorers and a few Sovereigns at depth many will not beleive and places many thought were cleaned out years ago. The secret is having the patience to learn the Minelabs well.
Rick
