Never Too Old To Learn

[RLOH]

I recently got my second Explorer 11 from Ron in Ca. and I have been having a blast rehunting some of my old spots. I have had two 11's and two xs's over the years and I always sold them because of their heft. I went on a disability retirement last year and my arthritic wrists have stopped hurting since I quit working. Being pain free, I decided to try an Explorer one more time and I am glad I did. Though not a lightweight by any means, I can now swing the Explorer for 4 or 5 hours pain free.My line of work kept my hands and wrists in constant pain. I have probably over a thousand hours on my different Explorers and I hardly ever strayed from the settings that brought me much success, but recently I read a post about adjusting the gain higher on smaller coils. I have a Sunray x-8 that when the gain is set to the 5 or 6 that I usually use, I can't seem to hear the targets over 6 inches. Yesterday I put the x-8 on and took it to a very trashy picnic area, but this time I set the gain to 8 and gridded a 60 foot by 80 foot area off. I have found many wheats and 30's silver coins from this spot, but not too much recently. I took my time and hunted very throughly and in two hours, I found 14 wheat pennies from 6 to 9 inches deep and the trash was BAD. I was disappointed in the lack of silver and when I was about ready to quit, I got a signal just off the base of a small tree. 1935 mercury dime. After I dug this coin, I was thinking that I had put a coil here before or at least I thought that. I worked a small circle around the tree and I found two piles of coins on the opposite side. One pile had four wheats stacked together and the other pile which was 7 inches away had three more mercury dimes stacked together. All coins were frome the early 40's. Apparently a kid must have hidden his treasure away on a family picnic many years ago. These coin piles were both easy to find and I have no doubt a 200.00 detector could have detected them, but the other coins were a different story. Deep and surrounded by trash. Raising the gain made the deeper ones possible as I had the x-8 in the same spot a couple of weeks. Who ever wrote the post about the gain, I thank you. I always raise the sensitivity with a smaller than stock coil, but I never thought to raise the gain. I have seen some people poke fun at some silly questions, but these idiots are a minority. No matter what your level of experience, don't be too proud to ask questions. Just my opinions. R.L.

 

[Ron (CA)]

Glad you are getting out and finding the goodies!!

Yep-- I always increased the gain with the smaller and even with the WOT Coil. I usually run 5-6 but bumbed it to 7 with the other non stock coils. I like to hear the depth.

I find that the depth metter converts to a 10" scale with the non stock coils too!

Good luck

Ron

 

[mattockman]

Very Good Point....I usauly run my coils at 7 gain...any lower I am afraid I will never hear the whispers....but I never thought of running gain higher on smaller coil....I have experimented a few times with higher gain in my yard and found it to be worthy....I just got to spend more time with it....I don't get out as much as I use to...I think a lot of people stick to one setting and never get the full potential out of the Explorers....too bad because it is an awsome machine. The one thing that helped me out was when I discovered how changing the threshold tone also changed the target tone...and from there I discovered a better seperation of clad to silver....also learned from charles(upstateNY) that when in a noisy ground due to elec.lines or minerals...by lowering gain a little and turning off deep but keep sens. up...it will quiet down and be more stable....I keep learning....thanks for posting....

 

[D&P-OR]

Good points guys--thanks.-----I'm 69 & I'm still learning.--I ask questions all the time--don't always get 'em answered but I ask 'em.--Appreciate you guys input.------Del