New settings might be workin, Opinions needed

[diggingfix]

Very trashy fairgrounds,Some snow on ground,
Ferrous sounds
Nails x
Crown caps X
Everything else open
Deep on
Sweep kinda slow
Threshold barely audible
Normal response
Gain 7
Variability 10
Limits 10
Manual Sens 24+
I Have previously pulled merc dimes at 7+inches at this spot in factory presets with Semi auto sens high but it was tough bein new to Ex and the trashy conditions.Kinda lucky.
I went back with the above settings and got little+squeek 11+ inches.. but very tight conditions with trash within centimeters,
MY Question is.. could the 2 inch deep pulltab or other junk (bent nail,piece of wire etc. that was all around be givin me false hope, I did not dig as it was almost dark and I was unsure.
I will dig tomorrow and find out and let ya know but, since there were loud hits on both sides (high and low)(deep and shallow) I almost think the junk is pullin another fast one on me.BUT dimes at 7+ what could be squeekin at 11+... Quarters or better I hope.. Also very near impossible to pinpoint with the big garbage selection

 

[Steve(MS)]

Your list looks ok to me, add audio 1 as that will give you more info about the signals you are getting. I would also turn off deep and turn on fast since you are in heavy trash. Turn down your volume because it will be busy with audio 1. You may have to go to a smaller coil if there is so much trash that you cannot pinpoint.

 

[diggingfix]

Ok my deep signal was the dredded iron,I think I'll save the dump for my more experienced days.Also think audio 1 will have to wait but I see the logic, it just gives me a headache in trash.
Can anyone tell me the difference of sound on a deep dime/shallow dime other than the loudness??? I'm mostly goin by sound and shallow coins are very easy to distinguish.

 

[mattockman]

set up looks like mine except I prefer variability at 8 cause I think silver sounds better and more easy to tell it is silver, that is just a preference...I dislike fast on cause it chirps too fast and doesn't give a good solid tone..I would not suggest fast on...I also use a 7.5 minelab coil...it does not pick alot of targets up at once...which brings to the sensativity part...most targets at my fair ground are not very deep...I tried to start low and work my way up, it will be a process...low definately quiets the mutiple targets down and is a good way to zero in on the good stuff...I started at 8 and worked up to 18...I also tried to learn all trash targets with the learn progam and that worked well...but I noticed I missed some certain Indians which fall very close to screw caps...nothing will ever be text book readings...being close to other object with slurrrrr the smart screen location of target...also copper coins can be far over to iron left side (ferrousness) but in the right height(conductivity) also with nickles to...I have seen that happen...we have a lot of iron here in the ground so if target is deep all that iron in the ground will pull icon to the left but will be about the right height on screen...I hope this makes sense...I know what I want to say but not always good at explaining it.

 

[Cody]

The is a graph of the gain setting in the Manual. The gain setting works in an interesting was. On some detector there is a control for Boost and on other Modulation. Boot will audio amplify all signals to a high level so they sound LOUD. Modulation increases a signal at some ration based on how far the target is from the coil. Modulation allows the user to get some idea of depth based on how loud the signal sounds. DEEP on the Explorer performs a BOOST function. The problem is the electronics cannot distinguish between small bits of metal on the surface of the ground or very shallow and deep targets. DEEP ON will constantly create difficulties in that it is difficult to pick those little trash shallow and surface sounds from deep good ones.

If the gain setting is at 5 the moderately deep targets, shallow and very deep targets are somewhat modulated. From 5 down the user will get a modulated sound that is more clearly represented by how far the target is from the coil. I use 3 most of the time and with good headphones have no problem picking deep good targets from trash. Once we get above 5 then more boot is added to the signal strength. You will notice in the illustration that the amplification levels off so all signals start to sound the same.

I then use Ferrous sounds so deep iron gives a ultra low sound. To make that sound even lower adjust the threshold sound to the lowest level. Iron will not have an ultra low sound. I then set Variability and Limits on a piece of iron, nickel, and silver dime. All I want to hear is a clean sound on each.

An ultra low tone will sound as if it is not as loud as a high tone even if both are at the same level. Low tones are therefore in the background and the higher ones stand out.

A piece of iron that is ultra deep co-located with coil will often "play a tune" as the multiple targets generate a sound. Iron will also often give a broken low sound if we sweep the coil from several direction. This is important for this reason. There is a depth level where coins and iron both give a low tone. This critical level exists on all detector I have used no matter what you may see claimed. It is the depth that a target can be detected in all metal vs discrimination. An ultra deep target that has defaulted to the low tone that is a coin will often generate a constant low tone if we sweep the coil from several directions. We will often hear a high tone peep through the low tone. If using digital we will see high conductive peep through.

These target that are in range of the all metal and just out of range of tone or visual discrimination have been walked over for years for the reason I mention. Discriminator will default to a low tone or we would be digging all kinds of holes and quickly give up. Knowing which to dig is an important key to finding those ultra deep coin and other good targets. I think you will find the above suggestions to work nicely but takes a little practice.

MattR point out that the display is not as accurate as the tones and I agree. Frankly, I don't bother with the display other than for a rough indication of depth in conjunction with modulation and digital readings of ferrous and conductive content. We many overlook that the conductive reading is actually conductive/size and not just conductive.

One other precaution is that a tubular target shaped like a nail will give the deceiving silver sound. Ferrous sounds will almost always ID them correctly with a low tone. The difficulty with conductive is the size of the target is also a factor.

FAST ON and an NORMAL audio is a nice combination for working in heavy trash or if one likes the quick response of a two filter machines. I prefer Fast OFF and Audio1 but that depends on how much trash and user preference. The best settings are obvious that ones that work for each individual.

Have a great Sunday. I got to get ready for early Church. I will edit this later in the day.

 

[Steve(MS)]

After certain conditions arise like ground mineralization,trashy areas, closely located targets, maximum detection depth with ID, we have to make a decision on which signals to dig. Here is what I believe is true about which targets to investigate further, that is the further to the left a target hits on the screen and/or the more broken up the signals the more likely it will be trash. Yes I know I have dug some that were good targets that were as described above but the percentage of good finds to junk are going to be low. How much one digs of these low percentage signals/ID's will have to be of his own choosing.Wildly bouncing target VID's and chirps in high iron trash areas in the ground I detect will be junk a high percentage of the time. If a signal stays in the -16 area of the screen and only wildly bounces out for a very fast chirp then it will most likely be trash. The signals that are more than a very fast chirp and the target ID is somewhere on the screen other than at the -16,it may be worth further investigation. Either sweeping in more than one direction and/or digging to see what it is but if there is a small area where one has made good finds in and they were deep then by all means go for those lower percentage signals. You have to trust what the machine is telling up to a point otherwise clear the screen and then dig all signals or might as well get the deepest all-metal unit made and deep everything. You can't out guess after the maximum detection range of tone/visual IDing is reached, only those on the fringe are the ones that are worth further investigation. What I generally do is when going to a new site is dig some of those fringe signals just to see what the machine is telling me and then from that I will determine what is worth taking a chance on or not but if after I have done that and I make some good finds then I will be willing to change my judgment and dig more lower percentage type signals. Oh, on the deeper dimes, the signal will be faint and usually a very abbreviated type signal but it will sound diff than iron. I have found that if the target crosshair is in line or to the right, between the "v" and "a" of the word advanced at the top the screen and the target crosshair is mainly moving a little to the right then it is a signal worth investigating, this may not apply where you detect. Hope this helps,HH.
Steve(MS)

 

[mattockman]

Too keep it short, I have learned if it ID'S 2 ways or more(90 degree turns) anything but dead on iron(which is high left tight corner)giving depth a thought(keep in mind if shallow maybe junk, but mid to below mid range, DEEPER,there is a good chance it maybe a good target with lots of minerals in between distorting the curser. The conductivity is usually more accurate than the ferrus reading. So if it is same height as a nickle but way over to the left then it could be heavy mineral and deep but once you start digging curser gets better and sounds gets better....and sometimes you just loose total sound and curser, cause halo is gone...always dig one or two more scoops out ...and it may just be in dirt or hole...I learned this the hard way cause of dismissing it at first...and then digging them cause I got bored and curious....yes the explorer is good but its only real good in perfect ground, experiment and you will be able to dig some good stuff.