I have some questions...............

[Anonymous]

When I use my Explorer, I sweep at a slow speed. I still get the threshold blanking/nulling out quite a bit and can't seem to get it to change much by lowering the sesitivity. It is hard for me to maintain a steady threshold. Is it OK if it does that or am I potentialy going losing a lot of targets because of the nulling and blanking out? It is doing this out in an open field with very little trash. I should also mention that I hunt mostly with a "coins only" descrimination. I keep it on the first audible number of threshold so I can easily hear what the threshold is doing. What is a good way to set the threshold for optimum manual performance? Another question...From time to time when I swing the coil I will get a good tones on the first sweep, then when I go back to try to get a good repeatable tone, the original tone is either gone or very very iffy. I may hear it again if I swing a few times from different directions, but nothing consistant. What's going on there? I am hunting some places that I can't believe I am no finding some older coins and things. My depth gauage doen't seem to work much at all. It varies from 2-6 inches consistantly. I also can't seem to tell the difference between a quarter and larger piece of metal. To me it isn't hitting any harder on the large metal. Can someone tell me what I am experiancing and help me out with their settings and experiences. I would appreciate it. Sorry for the long post.
Chris
It also seems like most everyone says they hunt in iron mask. What is the advantage of iron mask over any onther non iron mask setting? Iron mask sure seems to make a lot of noise. How does iron mask relate to the decriminate and digital modes?

 

[Anonymous]

Well, first off you need top understand the MORE discrimination you run the more you will hear Nulling as it goes over rejected targets.
If your concern is always wanting to have a Threshold as much as possible run IM at -16 which is 0 discrimination. In an Field it shouldnt be that much more noise anyways.
No it is not necessary to have a Threshold, accepted Targets will still come through if you are going Slow.
But the more you discriminate the more chance you have of missing a good target next to a rejected target.
I personally hunt at -16 no discrimination. I have found Silver that hits farther left surrounded by Iron, I doubt Coins only would have made it so clear and easily defined.
Also I generally run my Sensitivity at 19-25 Manual depending how high I can go before the machine starts getting chirpy.
A large Piece of Metal should give a much much wider Footprint in Pinpoint then a Quarter btw.
The depth guage is only designed to show approx depth of a Quarter size object. So anything bigger or smaller will not be 100% accurate.
Hang in there GO SLOW, REAL SLOW and you will find the oldies.
Best of Luck <IMG SRC="/forums/images/biggrin.gif" BORDER=0 ALT="">

 

[Anonymous]

Can anyone answer the second part of Chris' question ( Below ) Thanks....IT is a concern of mine also. Does the setting in iron mask affect the search in non-iron mask modes? Thanks
Chris
It also seems like most everyone says they hunt in iron mask. What is the advantage of iron mask over any onther non iron mask setting? Iron mask sure seems to make a lot of noise. How does iron mask relate to the decriminate and digital modes?

 

[Anonymous]

Hey Chris and Bill
I'll take a stab, most of the questions you ask are interrelated. Like Mike says, less discrimination is better, I also run open screen and ferrous tones 95% of the time. There are many people out there who rely way too heavily on the machine's discrimination abilities; such as blacking out the whole screen and "learning" in a few coins. I can guarentee that they are missing 90 percent of coins they pass the coil over. Using discrimination such as the preset coin program does work.... In perfectly clean ground. If there is no junk around a good target the icon will almost always display in the non-discriminated out area and you will hear the signal. The problem is that clean ground is almost impossible to find. If you are out in a field and the machine is nulling constantly then you are in a ton a trash. The explorer is very sensitive to small pieces of iron. Most places you hunt will almost always have a target of some sort under the coil at all times.
So... In trash the machine will average what is under the coil and often it will average a good target and trash into the discriminated out area and you will not hear the target, or get a "iffy response" or "lose the signal" where the icon is jumping in and out of the discriminated area each time you sweep the coil over the target(s). Alot of us that run open or minimal discrimination like to be able to see where the icon is jumping, this gives you a better idea of what is surrounding the target. And, as everybody says the tones are more accurate than the screen. Usually one uses the screen to double check what you are hearing. In ferrous sounds if I hear a good high sound I'll check the screen to see that the icon is predominately high right rather than low right in the bottle cap area.
So if you are starting out. Use a small coil- smaller coil means less targets under coil and more accurate response from the explorer. Don't worry about depth, that's the least of your problems now and it's suprising how little you really lose. Try finding some houses from the 40s and 50s. Most of them have not been detected, and they have seen less reroofs and residings and probably didn't have a trash burn pile. They will still produce silver coins and wheaties. You won't find much old, but it is much easier than working junkier old home sites or heavily worked public parks. Try getting rid of all discrimination... Open screen, iron mask -16, different names for same thing. It may drive you nuts at first but at least you won't get any nulling and you can see where the target icon is at all times. Dig almost everything that is not nails (extreme left side) of display. Pretty soon you'll get a feel about what is junk and what is not. The whole key to learning the explorer is figuring out what is iron falsing and what is a good target mixed with trash. And it takes month or years. You can go back to some discrimination later.
And the depth meter does suck. I've found it to be reasonably accurate with the 10.5 in nice wet soil. With smaller coils, drier ground, wet grass, tall grass i.e most of the time it is not accurate, it does seem to be more consistant on the bottom half of the meter than the top half.
Hope this helps
Chris

 

[Anonymous]

I have the same question and I still am not sure if you answered it above...maybe I am just stupid. DOES THE IRON MASK SETTING affect the operation of the machine while you are in coins discriminate mode?

 

[Anonymous]

when you have it selected, by pushing the touch pad.
I run a pattern that I have made up for coins and gold rings, when I get a signal i can't make out I then recheck in Iron Mask (- 15) useing ferrous tones.
Charlie

 

[Anonymous]

Hey Gary,
Guess I missed part of the question. Iron mask does not affect the other discimination settings. You are in iron mask or you are not. Iron mask is just another discrimination pattern that allows you to easily vary the amount of discrimination. You could custom build a similiar program(straight up and down) in the learn and edit mode, that would behave exactly the same as iron mask. The factory coin program is essentially an iron mask program that is tilted a little to the left.
What we are cautioning is that coins mixed in with iron will often produce a response that will register in the discriminated or iron masked (black part of the screen). You will not hear this signal or see it on the screen.
Hope this helps
Chris

 

[Anonymous]

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