Land hunting with excal II

[jyt2017]

I was curious if anyone did land hunting over dirt or a field with the excal II? I went to a field the other day and the machine appeared to behave a bit erratic with lots of blips.

I can attribute most of that to trash. And lots of it.

I was just looking more for tips then anything on land hunting with this machine. I am 95% water hunter...but well I live near a civil war site. I can see buying a land machine mid summer...shhhhh don't tell old lady.

HH-Joe

 

[Finderskeeper]

Now that I am back in Ohio, I do lots of land hunting with my Excalibur II. On land it depends on where I hunt if I use all metal or discriminate. If it is really trashy, then I use discriminate. If trashy, I use the 10 inch coil instead of the WOT as the WOT covers so much ground and detects almost everything.

In schoolyards, I use the WOT almost always as covering the area with the WOT is so fast.

I had an E-trac but found at least for me, the Excalibur was a better machine for the areas that I detect. Here in northern Ohio, there was a lot of backfill put in during the early to mid late part of the 20th century...1900---1970, from the steel mills of Cleveland. The backfill has tons of iron in it and causes lesser machines to go bonkers. The Excalibur nulls out iron just fine. But it also will detect any good targets in with that iron. It takes some practice listening to the signals but it does work.

The Excalibur II is a very capable machine for land and it is the only machine for me. Plus by using it every time, it makes me better with it when in the water or at the beach.

 

[dbsmokey]

I do tons of hunting with my excal 800. I made a straight shaft for balance. It is, right now, my favorite land detector. The sounds are great, the stability is good and it has great depth.

 

[hershey1]

All the above. The Excall is a bullet magnet. HH

 

[Tony in FL]

The Excalibur II functions as my land machine, although I have done relatively little land hunting thus far. Most of my hunting is in the wet sand and water. I had an E-trac for a while but it just did not seem to fit my hunting style. I was chased in by the tides and had to worry about getting it wet. Plus with how little I was using the E-trac I felt that I may be just as well off (or perhpas even better off) with the Excalibur on land as my understanding of its tones is so much stronger than my understanding of the E-trac tones. Don't get me wrong I think the E-trac is an amazing machine. I did read the manual and Andy Sabisch's book, experimented with the E-trac emulator, used it on some hunts, and even found a gold ring with it. However for me I felt like the Excalibur was just a much better fit.

 

[Tony in FL]

I do tons of hunting with my excal 800. I made a straight shaft for balance. It is, right now, my favorite land detector. The sounds are great, the stability is good and it has great depth.

Just curious - are you saying you prefer your excal 800 over your GT for land hunting? Since I like my Excal so much I have considered getting a Sov GT as it would allow the additional flexibility of changing coils/headphones and adding a meter.

 

[dbsmokey]

I do tons of hunting with my excal 800. I made a straight shaft for balance. It is, right now, my favorite land detector. The sounds are great, the stability is good and it has great depth.

Just curious - are you saying you prefer your excal 800 over your GT for land hunting? Since I like my Excal so much I have considered getting a Sov GT as it would allow the additional flexibility of changing coils/headphones and adding a meter.

I actually DO prefer my excal to my Sov. GT. That's why my GT is up for sale. I find the excal more stable in the PacNW soil (although I don't understand why), just as deep as the Sov on land AND in don't have to worry about hunting in the rain in Oregon (it rains a LOT here). Also, I don't like all of the cords necessary to have a pinpointer, meter, etc on the GT. The cords hanging, dangling cords are a pain in the butt. I like it simple and have found the excal to be wonderful. Someday I will probably try an etrac, when I can afford to buy one. Some will disagree, and rightfully so, but it is what works for me.

 

[dbsmokey]

I will also add, you do give up some versatility (easy coil changes, etc.) but I would also argue you gain versatility with the excal by being able to use it in or near water without the fear of metal detector water destruction.

 

[bootyhoundpa]

i got a used excal 1000 and have been using it in fields ive previously worked over with gt wot set up ..... so far in my opinion the excal seems to have a slight advantage over the gt.....i only say that because the excal found 2 half cents and a large cent that the gt did not at the same spot 2 weeks earlier... also it seems that i can get a better signal at a slower sweep speed with the excal....... the best settings for cherry picking the colonial sites in my area has been volume half and sensetivity in auto on the excal and for the gt volume about three quarters and sensetivity about 2 oclock...... those setting seem to handle the trash pretty good while stiill letting flat buttons and coins sound off.........

 

[Neil in West Jersey]

As I stated in my post a few weeks back, my regular detector is a White's V3i, but I picked up an Excalibur 1000 a few weeks back for the beach. My only outing with the Excal so far was to a farm field that I have had a lot of success at in the past. The Excal performed like a champion, and here were some of my relics from the hunt.

No coins and no precious metal this time, but it did as well as my V3i does on a typical day in the field.

 

[Critterhunter]

I've used a friend's Excal on land prior to owning a GT and found an 1835 bust dime and a large cent in the same hole. However, in stock configuration the Excal is way too heavy and unbalanced to hunt with on land for very long IMO.

 

[Tony in FL]

I've used a friend's Excal on land prior to owning a GT and found an 1835 bust dime and a large cent in the same hole. However, in stock configuration the Excal is way too heavy and unbalanced to hunt with on land for very long IMO.

Agreed! It boggles the mind why Minelab does not provide a more balanced straight shaft right out of the box for the Excalibur.

 

[bootyhoundpa]

i made a hip mount contraption out of an old broom stick handle,3-1/4 -20 nuts +bolts, used 3 thin strips of sheet metal to make belt loops and bought an over sized belt at the thrift store....it works great and only cost me $2 to make.... only thing is if i ever use it in water i believe the wood might swell ....

 

[Tony in FL]

This is turning out to be a very interesting thread. For some time I had thought about getting a GT to compliment my Excalibur. But at the same time I wondered if it really made sense because the machines were so similar.

 

[Neil in West Jersey]

I just purchased this over/under rod from my local Minelab dealer. (I spent more on the rod than I did on the Excalibur )

It is balanced much better this way, but still heavy in comparison to my land detector... The hip mount may help a bit more.

 

[dbsmokey]

This is turning out to be a very interesting thread. For some time I had thought about getting a GT to compliment my Excalibur. But at the same time I wondered if it really made sense because the machines were so similar.

I thought the same, hence I bought a GT. I wish I had saved for an Etrac instead. The GT isn't bad, but I find the excal can do as much (or more) for me in my locale. I would spend a few $ making or buying a straight shaft. I don't think you will be disappointed.

 

[jyt2017]

I might hip mount. I am thinking of a few ways to reinforce failure points. Its usually connections to the unit and headphones and at coil. I was thinking of taking rubber tubing ...cutting it down the middle...and surrounding those areas with it and filling it with silicone. Warranty comes to mind.

Another thing is how delicate is it...really? I am sure plenty hip mount no problem and use machine for years. I know one thing I got a 1280. That thing is heavy too but there are no know hip mount issues that I read about.

Anyway...thanks all for replys. And as always...HH -Joe

 

[Tony in FL]

I thought the same, hence I bought a GT. I wish I had saved for an Etrac instead. The GT isn't bad, but I find the excal can do as much (or more) for me in my locale. I would spend a few $ making or buying a straight shaft. I don't think you will be disappointed.

I bought the over/under shaft (pictured earlier in the thread) and it was a vast improvement over the factory shaft. However that configuration still becomes heavy over time. I am looking to pickup a straight shaft with behind the elbow mount as I suspect that is even better.

 

[Rob in (Ca)]

GT comes in at 4.8 Pounds........ excal II 10'' coil 5.1 pounds......... excal II 8'' coil 4.6 pounds............ Etrac 4.8 pounds ............V3i 4.5 Pounds

a excal II 8'' coil and pluggers hip mount harness (He's got all the stress points worked out) and spend time to learning the tones, would work for my hunting style...... as I just cherry pick sports fields and some local beach hunts

something to ponder on

 

[KyleinSac]

I found some wheaties in my yard (house built in the 40's)
It's a good machine land or water