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Too much trash

A

Anonymous

Guest
I just got my explorer xs on Saturday. I used it all weekend and most of the day on Monday (I dont work Mondays) The problem I've been having is distinguishing between crushed beer or pop cans and large coins. Maybe its just that I dont know all the tones yet, but I dug up 5 cans over the weekend and each time it was a slightly different sound. Almost every time, 28 would come up on the advanced digital screen when it ended up being a can. So then I thought, "okay, I wont dig up 28's anymore." Then I took the detector home and scanned some of the coins from my collection and found some that were 28 as well. Plus, Nickels dont always come up under the same number; pennies, dimes and quarters are so close together, and indian head pennies come up with the same number as half or silver dollars.
I can see now that the digital number really isnt something to pay attention to. I read in some other posts that the crosshair will come up on the screen in a certain place when its a nickel, a certain place when its a dime, and so on. I didnt see that in the book, but maybe I missed it. When I get home today I'll look again.
I'm wondering if anyone has any "solid" information or hints that I could use to identify the target before I dig it up.
I also have a garrett gta500, an older detector that I've had for a few years. The thing I like about it is that it tells me exactly what coin it is, and how deep the coin is to the half inch. Occasionlly it would tell me its a nickel when it was really a pop can or an old beer can pulltab, but otherwise it was pretty accurate. The minelab explorer just has this "bar" that pertains to depth, but there are no digits, so you just have to guess about how far down the target is. Some claim that the detector sees down to 2 and a half feet or more, when the book says that an "empty bar" is 12 inches. So which is it?
So far, with all the trash I'm digging up with this minelab, I'm getting very discouraged and frustrated. I thought it was supposed to be the most accurate detector you can buy.
I spent all weekend looking, and I all I have to show for it is 3 nickels, 2 pennies, and a bunch pop/beer cans, pull tabs, and crushed aluminum. The oldest coin is in the 80s, too! <IMG SRC="/forums/images/frown.gif" BORDER=0 ALT=":(">
If someone could just give me some advice...
Thanks
 
cans arent too bad, you will get used to the coin signal being crisper and much less narrow than a can.. the aluminum tops at depth can be a pain though, but you just can't leave signals like that.. most times cans will sound very spread out.. I suggest fast recovery and normal audio to make it easier to tell.. pinpoint mode should be able to size them up as well
 
You aught to see my side back porch step...it is almost covered with trash.
That is one weeks worth of learning the Explorer. Now you aught to see how much I've dug that's trash in a week since. Hardly a handful.
That is just part of the learning. After a while your ear is trained...not that I'm perfect at it yet! I still have a long ways to go.
During that first week I hardly found a thing. Then I found a mercury, Buffalo, and tons of wheat backs. I just wish I could get some seated dimes and gold coins. Oh and found a ring today.
I should take a picture of all the junk I dug just so you can see what I went though the first week.
So don't give up! It is a great machine!
Think of it this way, if you had a screwdriver for a coin detector how hard would it be to learn to use that? Not very hard at all. It would be easy to probe the ground with it. Just push it in and feel for a coin. Would you get many coins? Probably not. But now you are using a very high tech machine that is poking into the ground for you with radio waves (I think) and now you have to learn how to use this high tech machine.
Of course you already knew that. But I'm just trying to help you not give up.
 
If you are going to be successful, you are going to occasionally dig aluminum, nails, and other trash. First of all deep aluminum will fool you, when digging iffy signals and the like, nails and other trash will fool you too.
If you really want to learn your machine, hunt in iron mask set at 8 and dig ALL repeatable signals. Listen to the tone of each targeet and the position of the crosshair bullseye before digging.
In addition, when two or more targets are close together, your tone and bullseye ID will average the reading so I REPEAT... DIG ALL RPEATABLE SIGNALS... ALL OF THE TIME.
Good Luck and email me anytime!
Jim Vokes NY
 
If I get a signal that reads high and right on the smart find screen that hits hard and sounds more"flat" the first thing I do is lift the coil maybe 6inches off the ground and see if I'm still getting a signal.I've found that most soda cans can be detected with the coil way off the ground.Also I find the coins have a more chirpy type of sound.Hope that helps some.
Eric
 
Like Jim says, coins & cans will have different size beeps in pinpoint. If a beep is as wide as the coil (or wider), its probably a can or other large object. A coin beep in pinpoint would be much smaller than the width of the coil. HH, George (MN)
 
Is raise the coil up about 5 or 6 inches and if the signal dont change much it is a alum can as a coin will get weaker sounding.
 
yeah I'd dig the cans....... hate to leave a nice cache behind for someone else to get <IMG SRC="/forums/images/smile.gif" BORDER=0 ALT=":)">
depends on where exactly you are hunting though I guess......... but you never know or will ever know unless you dig <IMG SRC="/forums/images/smile.gif" BORDER=0 ALT=":)"> mind you I've dug plenty of cans but have no caches to show for all the work.... one day.......
 
I as well was digging my share of junk, and no coins what i did that helped me out a lot was, I put a piece of laminate over the xs screen, got all my coins and a few from a buddy, and did a air test on them, i used advansed smart screen, set the sens. at 1,and put the screen in zoom mode, cause you get a better differential in zoom mode, and ran the coins over her, I then put a black dot with a marker where each cross hairs hit for the coins, then i took my pile of junk, including 20 different pulltabs, cause they all read different, and put a red dot for all the junk, and a green dot for all the rings, and this works exelent for me. give it a try.....ya cant miss... I use the zoom mode to hunt in, ya can always switch back easy to check depth, i dont use the depth meter sinse i got the x-1, i just cut a plug, and dig to the target.hope this helps...H.H.
 
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