Mike (Virginia Beach)
New member
Ok, well I'm just posting this here for the benefit of any others reading this, since I already resonded to your PM. Here is basically a cut-and-paste of my answer to you.
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Well, I don't know about all that...being the BEST and all. I do OK. I do have a good bit of Explorer II and SE experience and have made some great finds. And I'm comfortable with the machine, but it takes a while to get there. You have to get out there and put in the time. In the factory mode, it's tough to learn.
Here is the advice I would give you. First, you need to practice on the Explorer with known targets. Like OUTSIDE, never in the house...too much electrical interference. So lay out a blanket on an area that you have tested as "CLEAN" and lay out various coins, rings, maybe some trash, etc. and practice sdcanning over them in both Smartfind and in Digital. I personally prefer digital, because I'm a numbers guy. When I see a deeper 00-29 or 00-28 signal that's nice and clean and has good repeat and nice tone, I can be pretty damn sure it's a nice silver quarter or a large cent or something similar. That said, don't get too hung up on ideal numbers or Smartfind cursors either, because coins at depth, colocated with iron, on edge, etc. can give readings that are off a little and still be good. Experience with the machine will determine what you like best...tones, digital, or Smartfind. I use all 3 and will frequently switch between digital and smartfind to see how they stack up. And you also need to practice and master PINPOINTING. Otherwise you do too much work and not enough "play".
Once you are feeling confident with those things, here's what I say about the factory program and Semi-auto sensitivity. Ditch them...they're not worth spit. Set the sensitivity to manual and start at 20. Very first thing when you turn on in manual is it will go a little snakey for a few seconds but unless you're in an iron pit or under some power lines, it settles right out in 15 seconds or so.
SECOND thing you do is to hold the coil still about 18" above the ground and run noise cancel. EVERY TIME. If you're with a hunting buddy, have them turn their machine on first and do whatever setup they need to do and then when they're ready, run your noise cancel and be sure that you are just about exactly 15 to 25 feet from them...no more, no less. This will ensure you have a stable machine when you get near them. If you get near a source of power and the machine gets tweaky then run it again. As for the other settings, run with fast off, deep on, ferrous tones, and set the limits and variability to 10. Set the volume to medium...depends on the headphones you have...it should be audible but not annoying. Set the threshold the same way. You want to make it audible on threshold and volume but you want a gentle threshold...enough to hear it well so that if it's interrupted you will know it...that's all you need. Now in this mode, it will not be nulling out all the time. And it should be stable. It will also be a bit "busy" in trashy or iron filled spots, but the iron will clearly SOUND like low-pitched iron and the good deep coins will sound high-pitched a to the right in Smartfind or 00-27/28/29 in digital. You will be able to hunt along at a fairly decent pace and if you have a silver dime near a rusty nail you will likely hear BOTH instead of missing the coin due to iron nulling your machine out. This is how I hunt pretty much EVERYWHERE and so do ALL the successful Explorer folks. It takes some getting used to but once you do it will seem like the only way to fly. And at sites like the woods, farm fields, and other fairly "clean" areas, this setup is a JOY to hunt with. On the beach too...places where you want to dig it all and there's little trash...killer setup. Now that doesn't mean I dig it all. But you LISTEN to it all. And with experience, you know what TO dig and what NOT to dig.
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Well, I don't know about all that...being the BEST and all. I do OK. I do have a good bit of Explorer II and SE experience and have made some great finds. And I'm comfortable with the machine, but it takes a while to get there. You have to get out there and put in the time. In the factory mode, it's tough to learn.
Here is the advice I would give you. First, you need to practice on the Explorer with known targets. Like OUTSIDE, never in the house...too much electrical interference. So lay out a blanket on an area that you have tested as "CLEAN" and lay out various coins, rings, maybe some trash, etc. and practice sdcanning over them in both Smartfind and in Digital. I personally prefer digital, because I'm a numbers guy. When I see a deeper 00-29 or 00-28 signal that's nice and clean and has good repeat and nice tone, I can be pretty damn sure it's a nice silver quarter or a large cent or something similar. That said, don't get too hung up on ideal numbers or Smartfind cursors either, because coins at depth, colocated with iron, on edge, etc. can give readings that are off a little and still be good. Experience with the machine will determine what you like best...tones, digital, or Smartfind. I use all 3 and will frequently switch between digital and smartfind to see how they stack up. And you also need to practice and master PINPOINTING. Otherwise you do too much work and not enough "play".
Once you are feeling confident with those things, here's what I say about the factory program and Semi-auto sensitivity. Ditch them...they're not worth spit. Set the sensitivity to manual and start at 20. Very first thing when you turn on in manual is it will go a little snakey for a few seconds but unless you're in an iron pit or under some power lines, it settles right out in 15 seconds or so.
SECOND thing you do is to hold the coil still about 18" above the ground and run noise cancel. EVERY TIME. If you're with a hunting buddy, have them turn their machine on first and do whatever setup they need to do and then when they're ready, run your noise cancel and be sure that you are just about exactly 15 to 25 feet from them...no more, no less. This will ensure you have a stable machine when you get near them. If you get near a source of power and the machine gets tweaky then run it again. As for the other settings, run with fast off, deep on, ferrous tones, and set the limits and variability to 10. Set the volume to medium...depends on the headphones you have...it should be audible but not annoying. Set the threshold the same way. You want to make it audible on threshold and volume but you want a gentle threshold...enough to hear it well so that if it's interrupted you will know it...that's all you need. Now in this mode, it will not be nulling out all the time. And it should be stable. It will also be a bit "busy" in trashy or iron filled spots, but the iron will clearly SOUND like low-pitched iron and the good deep coins will sound high-pitched a to the right in Smartfind or 00-27/28/29 in digital. You will be able to hunt along at a fairly decent pace and if you have a silver dime near a rusty nail you will likely hear BOTH instead of missing the coin due to iron nulling your machine out. This is how I hunt pretty much EVERYWHERE and so do ALL the successful Explorer folks. It takes some getting used to but once you do it will seem like the only way to fly. And at sites like the woods, farm fields, and other fairly "clean" areas, this setup is a JOY to hunt with. On the beach too...places where you want to dig it all and there's little trash...killer setup. Now that doesn't mean I dig it all. But you LISTEN to it all. And with experience, you know what TO dig and what NOT to dig.