If it took 12 batteries, but got twice the depth would you still complain????????????????????????? I have a hard time understanding people whining about how heavy the Explorers are, if you don't like it, buy something lighter. And I hope the next Explorer is twice as heavy, cause I'm not swinging it for comfort, I swing it to find stuff and you will never hear me whine unless it stops finding stuff, then and only then will I complain. Mine lab..... make it better...... make it deeper, and if that happens to make it heavier, well that's a cross I'd love to bare.
Now that that's said, 1. Make sure your lower rod is not too far extended.
2. Buy an 8 inch Sun Ray coil (way lighter, easier to handle, almost the same coverage) and build your muscles up to the ten inch. Search for my post about 4 or 5 months ago about keeping your arm straight, I went into it in pretty good detail and it will help you allot. And I'm not picking on you specifically about complaining about the weight, but in two months when your used to it, you're gonna wonder what would the machine be like if they gave it twelve volts and every time they think about improving it, someone in the room says "that will add too much weight" and hence, you are holding less of a machine then Mine lab could achieve if they didn't have such constrictions that this, your post, and other posts like it entail. Eat ya Wheaties and good luck to ya.
Suck it up and be thankful that nobody has come up with a better machine than Minelab has as far as I am concerned. HH.