No right or wrong answer...

[Dan-Pa.]

Seems like there is a difference of opinion in sensitivty settings and manual or sem-auto.....A lot depends on your mineralization so do experiment as to what works for you..Got the the subject answer from Minelab U.S.A. so debates are futile, but experimentation is in order..

 

[Steve(MS)]

There are so many variables in metal detecting and that makes most answers subjective but those of us who have put in a lot of hours can share our opinion for what works for us. So it may be better to refer to those as the "rule of thumb". I also take an analytical approach by burying coins,etc in my test plot and change settings to see how my detectors respond on shallow/deep targets. In the field, I change settings to see how it responds also. I feel that a test plot is a valuable tool and encourage all to have one to do some scientific research as to how the detector responds to given circumstances. In the end each must decide for themselves what works best and what suits their own personal preferences. For the ground I hunt in, it is necessary to use a high manual sensitivity setting to punch deeper for extra depth, that may not be true everywhere. Maybe some of the others here can post a response to their experiences.

 

[Dan-Pa.]

Gee my test garden is 15 years old and one wonders if it equates to a coin buried say 5 times that amount...Of course all mineralization situations differ, but try dropping your sensitivty to around 20 or so and might be surprised. Sometimes high settings hurt instead of help strange as it may seem. Then again an Explorer is not your normal detector....at least not in my mind and over the years have tried a bunch....

 

[Steve(MS)]

The sensitivity control on the Explorer does not regulate the transmit or receive power on the machine, it only regulates what is heard from the amp and past on to the circuits to be analysed. I think that is also true of most detectors on the market. I know of only a few detectors that will allow changing the transmit or receive power levels I personally will keep my sens. as high as allowed by conditions because it works better that way for me and I ain't going by what someone else has said. I have had the Explorer for 5 years and mainly used it during that time and have many hours using it. The response that I made was to the effect of getting fringe target signals. I realize there are a few exceptions when lower sens. may work better but that is the exception and not the rule. If higher sensitivity will not result in better performance then Minelab made a mistake by allowing it to have higher sensitivity settings, maybe they should have stopped the setting at 15. Some think that by lowering sensitivity then it will allow them to hear signals that are masked by higher sensitivity, well if the transmit and receive power are preset that cannot be true, only if by knocking out noise could that be true, and by lowering sensitivity masking is not helped either because I have done a lot of testing in that regard. The lower the sensitivity is set, the more deeper signals are ignored, this can be observed by lowering it down to the lowest number then steadily increasing it and observing the increase in depth. On the idea of the test garden, it doesn't have to be exactly the same as naturally buried items, it is nonsense to think because one cannot exactly reproduce field situations that all tests are therefore useless, it does represent what to expect when in the field with similar sized items at the same depths, without all the other variables.

 

[Dan-Pa.]

Mineralization differs from State to State and imagine thats why Minelab has the sensitivty paramemeters it has,of course running it as high as you can while keeping a stable unit equates to more depth.
As far a recently buried coins certainly will give you a ballpark idea but coins that have developed a halo over many yeas surely can be detected deeper..Heck an indian head penny buried over 100 years might have a halo the size of a golf ball so you can get much deeper to give an example. In any case I feel you are doing well and thanks for the input...