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Probe question/ Frustration

A

Anonymous

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Probe question/ Frustration
I hunted a well hunted Seminole Indian war Fort site on Friday morning. I dug two musket balls in the first hour with the XS. I had been to the same site the week before and had lots of trouble pinpointing and had many
 
I have been using mine for quite some time now and still loose targets when I dig. I makes me leary of any machine when you have to buy another brand accessary to make it work right. Whats the trick I am missing? or is it just me. I can use my MXT to pinpoint and recovery what the Explorer has, makes me wonder why Minelab hasn't come up with a FIX for this problem.
 
Many people complain about pinpointing with the explorer but I use the stock 10 in coil even in high trash areas and have no trouble. the main thing is to turn at 90 degree angles when pinpointing and do not use the pinpoint mode. After some practice with a marked buried target you can generally pinpoint to within a 2 to 3 inch hole. I just recieved an X-1 probe and it is fantastic addition in that it allows you to find a shallow targer within the diameter of the probe, one inch or so and on a deep target cut a three inch plug dig to aprox depth then pinpoint exactly where the target is even with the halo broken. Also works fantastic on multiple targets in the same hole and lets you know and identify most targer with very good accuracy. Biggest thing with explorer or any dd coil is practice by going on the ninty degree angle. Espically when you first start using it go all around the hole several times checking at 45 degree intervals. You can also put a colored dot in the center of your coil to help. Just listen for the strongest and clearest signal. Hang in there and HH. lilfox. hope this helps.
 
I have found that not using the pinpoint mode and pinpointing off the front of the coil seems to work best for me.
 
As far as pin pointing I have no trouble with the Explorer. It's hard to explain how to do it all I can say is go to a clean spot in your back yard and swing your coil over that coin and watch were it makes the beep then swing 90 degrees to it and do the same! I can cut a 3" plug and it's there 95% of the time. Now if a coin lays in the ground on a 45 degree angle then it likes to throw the pin point off a bit that is were a probe comes in hand! & IT DON"T MATTER WHAT MAKE YOU HAVE!!! I have a good friend that has been selling whites and detecting for about 20 years and he uses a vibra probe!!! I seen a post somewere that said
PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE!!!!
Mike
 
Mike,
You are right that the Ex does not pinpoint like the MXT or any other concentric coil machine as it is uses a Double D coil. The up side of course is it detects at depth the full diameter of the coil instead of the cone detection pattern of a machine using a concentric coil. Therefore your Explorer is looking at everything in the ground for the full 10" width of the coil at say 10" deep in the ground as apposed to say only seeing 3" of ground coverage at 10" with a concentric coil. The DD coil therefore offers a very obvious and distinct advantage.
Pinpointing takes a little practice but can also be made easier by certain techniques here is one that works.
When you have a rough idea where the target is move the coil off to the right side and push pinpoint. Slowly slide it right back to where you think the target was. When you get a steady tone stop on top of it, then pull or slide the coil back toward you until the tone just disappears. Mark the spot under the red Minelab label with you eye. Turn 90* and repeat the process , the hot spot on the coil is the red M the target will be right under it . You can practice outside on top of the ground.
After you practice this method a few times you can do it very quickly and cut a 3"or 4" plug. Of course you can sometimes have iron or trash near your target that the pinpoint mode may see as it runs in all metal but that can happen with any machine, thats why I only slide the coil off to the side 6" or so then push the pinpoint button and slide it right back to the suspected target site and you can usually tell if it is giving the solid tone where you thought it would or not.
Practice it outside on top the ground and it will work for you. Good luck Rick (Mo)
 
Read Rick(Mo) post. That's exactly the way I pinpoint and it's really an accurate and easy technique. A 3' or 4" hole will get you your target almost every time.
Chuck
 
mikel, i think you're mistaken when you say that the accessory (probe)is needed to make the machine work right. the machine works fine without the x-1 probe, but people have found the probe speeds up target recovery so they can move on to the next target, which results in more finds in a given amount of time. many people use independent handheld pinpoint probes with other brand detectors for the same reason. it's just that the sunray x-1 is a great marriage with the explorer, and it's hard to do without it once you've used it. i used to use a tinytec probe before i got my first sunray probe (with my sovereign), but now the tinytec just sits in my bag because the x-1 is so much better. hope that doesn't offend tinytec users, as it's just my opinion.
pinpointing with a DD coil is sort of an art. using the 90
 
Hi Lilfox,
Glad to see you're having some success 8^).
One caution about "never" using the pinpoint mode is that sometimes, in the analysis process, it can help eliminate trash.
I usually hunt in the iron mask mode until I get an indication of a target I'm interested in. I'll pinpoint as close as I can in that mode and then I'll do the same in the pinpoint mode (which is the Explorer's only non-motion mode so it can be pretty accurate). I then compare these two points ... if they are very close together (within an inch or so) I'll dig but if they are different by much more than this the odds are that it is trash (this seems effective in eliminating problem targets, such as, iron nails, etc. that frequently sound like good targets).
Usually pinpointing becomes difficult when there is more than one target (either good and/or bad) in close proximity. I think that this factor and the different method required due to the DD coil are the main reasons people have problems pinpointing with the Sov & Explorer.
Have a great 2003 and make tons of good finds!
Gord.
 
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