Hey Guys,
I haven't posted here in years, so for all intensive purposes I'm a new member of the board. Chris from NY here, nice to meet you all.
I've been detecting both land and water for years, and recently bought a used Excalibur (thanks Gulf Hunter) as it felt like time to try something new. I had a Sovereign for years so I am pretty familiar with the basics of the machine, but not it's behavior in fresh water.
Today I spent 4 hours at my favorite fresh water swimming hole for the Excal's first real hunt. I've been detecting this place forever and it always turns up something decent. I gotta tell you, for the first hour I had to stop myself from going and getting my 1280X out of the truck. The stuff here is deep...really deep. There's also a lot of nails, iron, bobby pins, etc. - typical stuff you find at an old freshwater spot. The Excal was a little confusing at first. I had the disc at 1, Sens at about 12, volume all the way up, threshold on the verge of silence. The first few signals I dug produced nothing. Now, when i am hunting here with the 1280 I am listening for and digging basically the tiniest little pops. Sometimes I lose those really deep targets with the 1280 as well...but I learned a long time ago that if I'm a scoop of two into the hole and the signal disappears, the target has often been dislodged and is now somewhere at the bottom of the hole in a position that the machine misses. One more good scoop usually does it.
Well today with the Excal that didn't work. I dug many iffy signals that simply vanished at some point. After the first few whispers disappeared I decided I better try a few better ones and get the hang of things.
After a while I started to do a little better, but I still lost quite a few. One target was a nice, clear high coin sounding tone. No doubt about this one. About 2 scoops down and I have no more signal in the hole, and nothing but rocks in the scoop. I take another scoop - nothing. I scan around the hole and over the material that came out of the hole - nothing. Now, this signal was not iffy when I started, so I know the target is here somewhere. I moved some of the silt around the hole with my foot and rescanned it, and there is my signal. One quick scoop and a Merc dime is looking up at me.
All in all I did pretty well for my first real hunt with a new machine. I got a older wedding band, two silver rings, 3 silver dimes, 2 wheaties, 4 nickels and some junk. I'd appreciate any tips on the ghosts I'm chasing.....and maxing out depth.
Thanks,
Chris in NY
[attachment 120473 IMG_0872_1.jpg]
I haven't posted here in years, so for all intensive purposes I'm a new member of the board. Chris from NY here, nice to meet you all.
I've been detecting both land and water for years, and recently bought a used Excalibur (thanks Gulf Hunter) as it felt like time to try something new. I had a Sovereign for years so I am pretty familiar with the basics of the machine, but not it's behavior in fresh water.
Today I spent 4 hours at my favorite fresh water swimming hole for the Excal's first real hunt. I've been detecting this place forever and it always turns up something decent. I gotta tell you, for the first hour I had to stop myself from going and getting my 1280X out of the truck. The stuff here is deep...really deep. There's also a lot of nails, iron, bobby pins, etc. - typical stuff you find at an old freshwater spot. The Excal was a little confusing at first. I had the disc at 1, Sens at about 12, volume all the way up, threshold on the verge of silence. The first few signals I dug produced nothing. Now, when i am hunting here with the 1280 I am listening for and digging basically the tiniest little pops. Sometimes I lose those really deep targets with the 1280 as well...but I learned a long time ago that if I'm a scoop of two into the hole and the signal disappears, the target has often been dislodged and is now somewhere at the bottom of the hole in a position that the machine misses. One more good scoop usually does it.
Well today with the Excal that didn't work. I dug many iffy signals that simply vanished at some point. After the first few whispers disappeared I decided I better try a few better ones and get the hang of things.
After a while I started to do a little better, but I still lost quite a few. One target was a nice, clear high coin sounding tone. No doubt about this one. About 2 scoops down and I have no more signal in the hole, and nothing but rocks in the scoop. I take another scoop - nothing. I scan around the hole and over the material that came out of the hole - nothing. Now, this signal was not iffy when I started, so I know the target is here somewhere. I moved some of the silt around the hole with my foot and rescanned it, and there is my signal. One quick scoop and a Merc dime is looking up at me.
All in all I did pretty well for my first real hunt with a new machine. I got a older wedding band, two silver rings, 3 silver dimes, 2 wheaties, 4 nickels and some junk. I'd appreciate any tips on the ghosts I'm chasing.....and maxing out depth.
Thanks,
Chris in NY
[attachment 120473 IMG_0872_1.jpg]
