samuel -- what you are describing is the part that takes time, with the Explorers. It took me almost a year to really, really get a handle on what are the "iron false" high tones and what are the "good" high tones. I
started to clue in much quicker; some falses became obvious very quickly, those "empty" "airy" high pitched, monotone "squeals; however, it has taken until the last month or two for me to be able to fairly confidently know, most of the time, how to discern the "better sounding" falses from the high tones. Again -- the obvious ones were easier to learn, it's the ones that sound more like a coin that are tough (and, I STILL get fooled sometimes; I think you HAVE to be "fooled" on some of the tough ones, or you are missing good targets...you are being "too restrictive" on what you dig, if you don't have a few bent, rusty nails in your pouch at the end of the day...some of those sound TOO MUCH like coins to pass on, unless you want to miss stuff!
Anyway, the point is, hang in there, and DIG DIG DIG. Pay attention to the tones, the nulls, what the target does as you circle it, and then CALL YOUR TARGET, in your mind, before you dig it, and then see how often you are right. I think, for me, doing this really helped to "lock" into my mind, over time, the sounds and tendencies of the machine when it hits a target, TOGETHER WITH what the target
was that I had just dug, that
made those sounds and acted that way. Over time, you learn what types of targets typically sound like what (but, all bets are off, of course, in the trash, with multiple targets co-located). Case in point...I dug a Barber dime today that was reading LOWER than a zinc penny, roughly 270 degrees circling the target...from ONE angle I could get decent numbers and a pretty good, warbly high tone. From the other angles, it was a mid tone. BUT, the key for me, and why I dug it, was, it was REPEATABLE all the way around, with a high tone mixed in for about 90 degrees worth of the circle,
as opposed to a NULL all the way around for 270 degrees, with 90 degrees worth of good tone. When it's the NULL all the way around, or else at the 90 degree and 270 degree points, with high tones at 0 degrees and 180 degrees, that's most often a NAIL. Point is, you will learn, with time. It takes digging hundreds and hundreds of targets (but, don't worry, it's not SO bad, SOME of those targets along the way will be really good ones!)
Enjoy the journey; learning the machine is fun (albeit frustrating at times). Patience is key (along with going REAL slow!)
Hope this helps,
Steve
