Sometimes I feel like I've been tied to the whipping post!

[Anonymous]

I have a question for you pro's out there who really really really know the Explorer xs...
When you are detecting do you listen for the super faint sounds that give a super faint beep?
Is this why they tell you to wear headphones?
In other words, sometimes (often) I get these super faint beeps (I have super good hearing by the way) but when I try to locate the object by the pinpoint button the pinpoint cannot find it, maybe due to the object being too deep?
Maybe I'm passing up alot of nice coins but I'm afraid of digging up a hole the size of the 8" coil.
Any ideas?
Thanks
Tony

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Tony,
Saw your posts over on the main forum too. Sounds like u r getting pretty frustrated. I get that way too at times with the Explorer. Not sure where u r from but when it comes to park hunting and learning signals, it's best sometimes to <b>not</b> head straight for the most heavily trafficed portions of the park. Head for the areas on the fringes where signals aren't so numerous. It's a good way to train your ear for shallow and deep targets, the differences in tone between targets good and bad [but u do have to dig them]
The ones you seem to lose in pinpoint may be a case of the coil just brushing the edge of iron. If the <b>edge</b> of the coil passes over a nail or iron buckle etc it may give a high silver sound. See if there is nulling in the general area. If it is an old coin, the tone will be constant not broken and chirpy. [At first just go for the good tones as iffies will drive you crazy] Good deep targets will have a good repeatable sound but may be very narrow in width so you have to do the little side to side wiggle over top.
Also not sure what kind of machine you had before but you don't swing this Ex. coil like yer swatting flies or like a whites machine. It's a slow sweep and listen for a chirp as you are scanning an area. Then narrow down your swing to locate the chirp again and see if it breaks up, nulls or sounds good. Even deep good signals will pinpoint well but the tone may be raspy and short.
But my advice:<ul><li>do some research and find out if the park is old<li>find out what the land was for before it was a park<li>detect the far reaches of the park where signals aren't so overlapped<li>take the time to learn pinpoint so yer not digging craters [i still do sometimes and will leave targets if things get out of hand]<li>swing slow, overlap and cover less ground than other detectors<li>don't dig the shallow surface targets<li>don't overamp on the discrim patterns till your ear is trained...then the Explorer comes into it's own and the deep stuff left by all the others will wind up in your treasure pouch, soaking in olive oil or Hyd. Peroxide or worn by yer significant other... <IMG SRC="/forums/images/smile.gif" BORDER=0 ALT=""></ul>
I'm still trying to get a handle on my Explorer but those are some of the tips that made sense to me that were posted here. I didn't go into settings and such as you can start tweaking the EX too soon and that hinders the learning process.
Best of luck in your hunts Tony and don't get discouraged, we've reserved the 'whippin' post for those who knock the Explorer... <IMG SRC="/forums/images/smile.gif" BORDER=0 ALT="">
Thomas in Niagara

 

[Anonymous]

Thomas, Thanks for the good ideas.
Question about sweep, you mention a slow sweep...When I sweep with the Explorer I do something (if you were to count) like this:
When the coil is completely to my left or right I count sort of OneThousandOne OneThousandTwo OneThousandThree and that complestes one left to right or one right to left. Does that make sense? Is that too fast?
The one park I know for sure was used many many years ago when they had an old band stand on it and people would come from miles around and listen to the bands. One old man that I spoke with used to listen to his dad play there when he was a child who played I think a trombone or some such instrument. That park is only about 30 yards wide by about 70 yards deep.
The other park I'm not sure of. Need to do more research.
The one vacant field which is about the size of a football field used to have a whore house (ahem...I mean a motel) there in the 1800's. One guy in town still has tokens for it for the whore house! There was an electric train that came up from Detroit and and train that came from Port Huron and ended up here. I wonder if it was all for the three whore houses...(ahem...I mean "motels"?) <IMG SRC="/forums/images/smile.gif" BORDER=0 ALT="">
If anyone wants to come up and shoot that field I would be happy to take you to it. Might even find some of those tokens for the ladies of the night?
You said: <b>don't overamp on the discrim patterns till your ear is trained...</b.
Are you saying for me not to use the accept and reject part yet?
I love the Explorer. I just feel left out when I see everyone else on here finding such wonderful coins all the time and I'm just getting modern pennies and clad crap.
One positive note: This morning I got a good signal so I dug about 6". Then I detected it again and lost the signal. So I dug some more anyway and out came a screw to my riding mower that I'd lost years and years ago that holds the upper stuff to the deck. I know it goes to the mower cause it still had the red paint on it and is the same size.
Now if I can just find those little philipps and flat head bits to my screw driver kit I lost years ago!

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Tony,
Sounds like your sweep speed is about right. Being right handed, I don't usually sweep too far left as it coincides with my left foot forward and I keep detecting the metal eyes in my boot. Resulting in 'Hey..oh...'...'Hey...oh' <IMG SRC="/forums/images/smile.gif" BORDER=0 ALT="">
As for the learn reject...I'd let that go for a while. A rejected target that is just at the outside edge of the coil will sometimes respond with a chirp that if there are acceptable targets in the same area can give you that flute like craziness that drives me crazy. I relic hunt a lot and have found some incredibly tiny items [buckshot from buck and ball rounds a little bigger than a BB] that sound like a million bucks but don't always ID on the meter in the same place all the time. Sometimes down the right side of the meter and sometimes along the bottom. [i run with ferrous tones, a clear screen with just a small portion disced out in the upper left corner - nails] But I would rather hear a target and let the tone decide than disc out or learn in.
Later on I might change my views but for now...
Have you tried iron mask? That is the only tweak [?] you could try at this point. There are so many variables with this machine it's hard not to tweak it till it or you are just a twittering wreck... <IMG SRC="/forums/images/smile.gif" BORDER=0 ALT=""> I had mine for about a week and wound up going back to the default setting. "Let's try this setting...that setting...tweak this..rasie the level on that..geesh!"
Sounds like the cathouse park would be a great place to detect at a slow pace digging only those chirpy or solid targets that show up halfway down the depth meter or deeper. Look for those and I hope the ground isn't like concrete for ya. Work em slow and be sure to try them from different angles. If they don't solidly repeat...heck dig em anyway.
Best of luck to ya Tony!
Tom

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Tom,
Did you see my most recent post on the main minelab board?
After I read your post to me I went back to the old park. I first went detecting with my special program with the coins accepted and junk I didn't want.
But when I switched it back to the basic setup I found my first Buffalo nickel! Then the wheat back penny.
I think my main problem though has been that I have not been where the coins are!
I need to call Psychics Hotline and ask where the coins are! he he. NOT!

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Tony,
Yea I did see it... congrats! That is the big <b>'X'</b> factor in this hobby... putting your coil over the coins in the first place. <IMG SRC="/forums/images/smile.gif" BORDER=0 ALT=""> I've found a bunch of Buffs and Canuck nickles and they always hit in the same place just up from the bottom. Pull tabs hit a little higher and foil hits along the bottom in the same spot but nickles always seem to lock into that one spot. I've dug alot of wheaties that I'd swear were silver and I'm always surprised and more than a little disapointed when I dig way down in rock hard soil and find out they aren't the dime I thought they were.
Oh well...gotta take the good with the bad in this hobby. Good for you, Tony! Keep at it and I'll keep watching for your Seated Half that's in that same park.
Tom

 

[Anonymous]

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