New SE User

[Yooper]

I am new to the explorer. Recently purchased an SE and have about 12 hours on it. I know of only one explorer user in my area (he is a rookie too), most have DFX, so there is no one to directly learn from.

I noticed that snowy posted a wave file in the other forum. If some of you guys could post wave files of deepies and also faint targets next to iron, that would be awesome. I have been trying to figure this out on my own in very trashy parks. It is brutal to the newcomer. I have a constant whump whump whump sound from the iron or iron in the soil. I am in clay here. I run the sensitivity at 20 for now. I have dropped this down to 10 just to see if the whump whump is still present and it is, so I run 20 most of the time in these trashy parks. Have yet to pull out a deepie in this particular park that is about 140 years old.

Also I run AM at 30 and listen to almost all the sounds. 30 does cut down on most of the whump whump of iron and is more tolerable at this point. Figure I might as well learn that way. Have used Garretts in the past.

I have read these forums until my eyes were bleeding and it helps. My settings are fine, just have trouble identifying deepies or targets I should dig. I am listening for the flute sounds, but many targets sound like that to me. I want to dig more, but lack of a probe makes this difficult I find. Remove the plug and then cannot find the target.

I finally dug a deeper target yesterday in a well hunted church school playground. A wheetie at 6-7 inches, so that was nice. The tone id bounced around a little bit, but not much. I use a combination of smart-find, digital, AM, and pinpointing to try and identify the target. The pinpointing helps with the sizing I think. Still learning though.

The sounds are the toughest part of the Garrett to Explorer transition for me, but I am patient.

I use an 8" Minelab coil.

Any tips for identifying sounds would be great.

I have played with air testing to try and simulate a deepie, but I don't know if that is realistic or not.

 

[tomtowns]

Like you I'm new...I'm about 2 hrs. into the transition...ROUGH HUH??? I was playing with the controls yesterday...(Just got it) & did something that caused it to start to WHOMP WHOMP Too...I can't remember what I did but I did manage to get it to go away..What do you have recovery set at??? Today I'll be working in a test garden I'm putting together...Rusty nails with coins, pull tabs with coin, Silver, clad etc..at different depths...Should help in learning how to better pinpoint...I don't have a probe either & would prefer not to have to use one...

 

[SNOWY]

I had the whump whump when I was detecting amongst a lot of iron recently.
I was in Iron mask set to All Metal ~ way tooo noisy for me.
So I re-set I.M. to around 28 and things quietened down heaps.

HH

Snowy

 

[Yooper]

That's what I did Snowy. I tried 30 or 28 and it quited down quite a bit. So the whump whump must be normal in iron infested areas.

 

[Steve(MS)]

is run a little iron mask, whatever is tolerable to you and use the iron mask button to go to the program screen. Now what you can do with the program screen is clear it so that it is wide open, that way when you get a signal that breaks thru using iron mask, just press the iron mask button and listen to the signal you are getting. After doing this, you can "hear it all" and after some practice and time can make better informed decisions on whether to dig or not. Upon getting a iffy signal, watch your depth meter as it will give you clues to what the target is, say it is a really loud signal and shallow then that could mean that the item is large junk, also while scanning make a note of how wide the signal is. Larger items also tend to have what I call a "wind up" on the tones, that is they may start out on lower tones and increase dramatically, at least that will give you something to listen for. The high broken silver tones are the hardest to master as some iron can mimic similar responses but you know you are starting to get the hang of it when you are only digging bent nails or nails that have lumps on them, you will always dig some of these if you take chances to see if you can pull out something deep or in the trash. The lower conductors are easier to recognise from iron so you should have less problems with them.
On the problem of pinpointing, it will be in your best interest to get the in-line or a hand held unit so that you can find the target easier, it's just the nature of the Explorer.
Finally, don't give up, I got my Explorer 5 years ago and rehunted many areas that I had gone over with another unit and my finds have been older, deeper and better since, one thing to your advantage is that no one else is using an Explorer in your area,hope this helps,hh
Steve(MS)

 

[tomtowns]

When it happened to me I was just playing with the controls...

 

[tomtowns]

Yes all-metal seems to work pretty good with the smartscreen, ferrous,normal...wide open sens 23 gain 7 ...I'm gonna try to avoid a pinpointer if possible...I read an earlier post about pinpointing in all metal and it seems to work pretty well...practice practice practice...HH...Tom

 

[Yooper]

Thanks for the insight Steve.

I thought when you have Iron Mask on that it will override any discrimination you have selected? I go to iron mask and select my setting, then jump over to smart-find or digital and hunt.

 

[Steve(MS)]

Yes, iron mask on will overide the program but if you press it again it will go back to the program screen. Iron mask is actually one form of disc so you can toggle between the 2 and adjust each to what you like, you can clear either one and run it wide open.

 

[Steve(MS)]

One thing to try also is what is called audio 1, I don't know what it is called on the SE. What that does is give a continuous signal while the coil is passing across the target. I use audio 1 full time, most users use normal audio though, so that is something to experiment with..

 

[Yooper]

Ok I am sorry that I didn't understand your first post on the topic. So, clear the discrimination in the select screens and running iron mask in 28.

So with Iron mask on I will only be discriminating the high ferrous out. Turn Iron Mask Off and I will be running wide open because of clearing out everything in select. That sounds about what I was trying to accomplish last time out, but I just kept adjusting the iron mask number. This will help a lot Mike, Thanks Buddy!

Although I am not sure when I will get to try this again as we got blasted with some snow yesterday

 

[Yooper]

That feature is called "Long" on the SE. I plan on hunting in Normal to get started, but then try the Long later on.

 

[Arturo de Zorro]

n/t

 

[sunzabeach]

I really do not understand why you would prefer not to use a probe. I can not imagine hunting without one. Most targets take on the same color of the dirt your digging in and can be a real pain to locate without a probe. Even though silver and gold do not tarnish or blend in, a thin layer of dirt can hide it. Hunting without a probe just takes too much time. I believe a good probe is just as important as your detector. HH

 

[raptro5618]

I agree on the opinion above about the pin pointer. My last find was dime that I am not so sure I would have found without the pin pointer. I was down to just a small bit of dirt and the dime was virtually invisible to me. I also found a coin that was coated in cut grass even though it was several inches deep. They would have been virtually impossible to find without a pin pointer.

It also is a big help when the target is deep.

 

[Hard Nosed Dave]

Yooper,

Getting the sound that tells when you are over iron is the best part of the IRONMASK AM FERROUS. That