Is something wrong with my Excal II?????

[BootyHunter]

Hey everybody. Got a new Excal II a couple weeks ago and am planning on using it at the beach this spring and summer and to hunt the fresh water lakes near my home this summer. Anyway I had the day off this past Friday and wanted to metal detect but it was misting rain so I didn't want to risk my Etrac so I thought good opportunity to learn a little about my Excal. So I took it out to a place and started hunting. I dug all kinds of junk, and 1 Zinc cent. I did not expect to find all kinds of coins or anything, just wanted to get an ear for the sounds so I dug most signals. I found several screw caps and bottle caps and several pull tabs, no problem I expected to find those, however I dug an amazing amount of RUSTED objects, ie nails, rusty tin cans and so on, I had set the machine at 6 sensitivity, disc at 1, threshold barely audible and volume all the way up. I thought that the Excal would null over Iron? I was getting a positive audio response on all those iron targets. Please help with your expertise. Thanks PS This is a brand new machine, battery was fully charged and this was the very first hunt on it.

 

[Beachcomber]

Sounds like you were in Pinpoint Mode rather than Discrimination Mode as an Excalibur will normally null over iron. Did the Iron and nails still give a good tone once they were out of the ground? If you were in Discriminate Mode and the iron gives a good positive response then there probably is something wrong with it.

 

[BootyHunter]

Sounds like you were in Pinpoint Mode rather than Discrimination Mode as an Excalibur will normally null over iron. Did the Iron and nails still give a good tone once they were out of the ground? If you were in Discriminate Mode and the iron gives a good positive response then there probably is something wrong with it.

I was in Discriminate mode, I didn't check them once I dug them.

 

[Beachcomber]

I would try running a few pieces of iron by the coil and see if the Threshold Null or if it gets louder. I have seen Excals where the knob had spun and indicated it was in Disc Mode when it was actually in Pinpoint. In Discriminate mode the target responses are much louder than in Pinpoint and you have Audio ID which you don't have in Pinpoint. SO you have a few more things you can check.

 

[BootyHunter]

I would try running a few pieces of iron by the coil and see if the Threshold Null or if it gets louder. I have seen Excals where the knob had spun and indicated it was in Disc Mode when it was actually in Pinpoint. In Discriminate mode the target responses are much louder than in Pinpoint and you have Audio ID which you don't have in Pinpoint. SO you have a few more things you can check.

Thanks, I will check that, the unit is brand new so I don't know how the knob would have spun but crazier things have happened I guess. Thanks for taking the time to give me a suggestion. HH

 

[BootyHunter]

****UPDATE***** I finally got the chance to experiment a little more with the Excal and I think it's ok. I took some silver coins, a silver necklace, a junk ring a gold ring and copper coins and a rusty fastner and ran them over the coil after I had set the threshold to just audible and all the other controls as recommended, discrimnation at about 2 1/2. It did null over the rusty fastner and did sound off on all the good targets. I also was able to tell a distinct difference in the response when over the silver. The other objects sounded pretty much alike and this included my 18k gold hs classring. I guess I will just have to get an ear for the difference in the other tones. I also heard the difference in the return of the threshold after going over various objects and that is something I have read mentioned in various posts before, I will have to learn those differences too. Maybe I had the threshold set too high or something the other day, I don't know but it was sounding off on iron in discriminate mode, I am sure I was not in pinpoint mode. Maybe I had the sensitivity set too high also, but anyway it is working as it is supposed to now and I appreciate the suggestions. Thanks and HH.

 

[Art (NWOH)]

Your detector is going to sound off on some iron objects. Sometimes it will only be when they are in the ground, and other times they will always sound off.

Iron that is large, circular ring shaped, bent, large and long(hits on the ends), rusty cans/lids, has a hole in it or a sharp point will sound off very often. Many times there is a "mushy" feel to it. The exact location seems to move around, and the tone is not responding right in relation to coil movement.

You should be able to swing the coil over hundreds of iron objects like nails without getting anything more than a null. If you are hitting on nails a lot of the time, then you need to back down on the sensitivity a little. When you run too much sensitivity the nails start hitting, and at the same time you will start losing depth. The "problem" objects I described will hit just about any time. You will get a feel for them after a while and just walk on. Same for aluminum cans....they have their own kind of response.

HH

 

[BootyHunter]

Your detector is going to sound off on some iron objects. Sometimes it will only be when they are in the ground, and other times they will always sound off.

Iron that is large, circular ring shaped, bent, large and long(hits on the ends), rusty cans/lids, has a hole in it or a sharp point will sound off very often. Many times there is a "mushy" feel to it. The exact location seems to move around, and the tone is not responding right in relation to coil movement.

You should be able to swing the coil over hundreds of iron objects like nails without getting anything more than a null. If you are hitting on nails a lot of the time, then you need to back down on the sensitivity a little. When you run too much sensitivity the nails start hitting, and at the same time you will start losing depth. The "problem" objects I described will hit just about any time. You will get a feel for them after a while and just walk on. Same for aluminum cans....they have their own kind of response.

HH

Excellent information, I really appreciate that and I was not aware of those facts. Those were the exact type of Iron targets mine was hitting on the only time I have had it out. Now I am completly relieved, Thanks for taking the time to reply and HH.

 

[Art (NWOH)]

Iron can drive you nuts in some places.
Often a new user assumes that iron will always be ignored or properly identified. Under certain conditions it will not be.
Strangely enough, many detectors have the same problems with the same kind of iron junk......to different degrees.

HH