EXCAL IN PIN POINT

[River Hound]

A whole different animal.Yesterday was the first day I felt like I was using a great machine.Didn't find anything cool but I let the detector work instead me swinging a detector.I know I wouldn't have the patience to use it like this all the time unless I truly felt theirs deep gold beneath my feet but it was very cool finding targets that small at depth.I hope gold sounds like nickles with this machine because it was the cleanest, short and solid signal I heard not like a pull tab.Happy excal user
The piece on top does that look like one of those old bathing suit clips Ive heard about. Thanks

 

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[hamiddetecting]

Always nice!!

 

[Buried Crap NJ]

Pinpoint is really the only way to hunt with the excalibur. The information received from the detector is great. If you stick with PP and use Discriminate as one of your tools you be happy you did. I will tell you it will be a long lenghty learning curve.The depth is uncarepairable to Discriminate.Very deep! Many start off with Discriminate and later try PP and feel its not as good. Truth be told those posting lots of gold finds are hunting in PP and reverse discriminating. Many have taken the time to put grip switches to switch between the two with out wasting time. there's a reason they do this. I have mine set up this way along with a very good pair of headphones. Research this with others.
BCNJ

 

[OBN]

A whole different animal.

I agree, many don't know the PP mode is much like a PI...Lots of info from the target in PP, ramp ups/downs, depth/faint disruptions, double chrips on nails/longated iron, run higher/more sensitivity, more depth, size out the target...and the list goes on....and just think if you could push a button to check in discriminate..then back into PP...with in a split second....Yea Baby.. the excal rocks....

 

[bigscoop]

It's funny what necessity can teach us sometimes. I was forced to start using the 8" coil VS 15" WOT that I was use to and I am completely amazed at just how deep and how sensitive that small coil can hunt. Today I have no doubt that I was missing targets with the larger coil while water hunting (saltwater). And in the class of water machines, the Excal's versatility is rivaled by none.

 

[Buried Crap NJ]

It's funny what necessity can teach us sometimes. I was forced to start using the 8" coil VS 15" WOT that I was use to and I am completely amazed at just how deep and how sensitive that small coil can hunt. Today I have no doubt that I was missing targets with the larger coil while water hunting (saltwater). And in the class of water machines, the Excal's versatility is rivaled by none.

Some of us that have been doing this along time thinks a 8 inch coil is a big coil! More is not always better, a few need to learn, along with more ground means more chance of treasure,
again not true! You can lead a horse to water.... Sometimes it takes change and seeing with ones own eyes to become enlighten! It has for me, and Bigscoop its seems you found out too!
Great hunting to all.
BCNJ

 

[firemac]

excellent information from everyone, the excal is on my list to have next!

 

[bigscoop]

I find, or catch, myself switching between pp & disc a lot more often these days. It wasn't a conscious effort, but rather something I just naturally started doing whenever I encountered questionable responses, or really faint responses and threshold changes, etc. Over time I've gotten to where I notice a lot more of the subtle differences that each mode can present in the way they respond to potential targets. I'm starting to pluck a lot more small gold and silver from the sand, and some of it from surprising depths considering the size of the items and size of the smaller coil. I never really felt a need for a scoop with much smaller holes before, now I feel it's becoming a requirement.

 

[bigscoop]

Prime example: This is a glass bead bracelet I found the other day in about 6 - 8" of sand while water hunting. The tiny charm and two small metallic beads test silver. By switching between pp & disc I could actually separate these tiny, closely positioned items. At first I was hoping it was a silver chain/bracelet or something of that nature, ended up being this glass bead bracelet with just three small pieces of silver. In disc I thought I was looking at a single item, in pp I could clearly i.d. at least two different sources, which I guessed were clasp, or clasp and pendent. But I felt it was probably silver and I was able to gather a pretty close picture as to what I was looking at. I'm still learning and it feels good!

 

[MBbeachrat]

One thing I know for sure is, every target I hit in disc. I could hit when I pinpointed it. So pinpoint can't be any less in depth.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

What ever your comfortable with. I will never go back to 8" coil. I get a lot more depth from my 15 inch wot and 12x15 inch sef butterfly. I have pulled targets from over 15-16+ never got that from small coils.

 

[bigscoop]

Personally, I've not noticed an actual difference in depth between the two modes, but I have noticed an increase in my ability to locate deeper and smaller targets simply because I'm listening for, and hearing changes, I wasn't noticing or hearing before, if that makes any sense.

 

[bigscoop]

What ever your comfortable with. I will never go back to 8" coil. I get a lot more depth from my 15 inch wot and 12x15 inch sef butterfly. I have pulled targets from over 15-16+ never got that from small coils.

For sure not going to get that kind of depth from a small coil, unless it's perhaps a large silver brick.

 

[bigscoop]

I'm learning that I was at a big disadvantage when I started learning the Excal. I say this because I jumped right into the larger WOT coil right out of the gate. This is my first experience with the smaller coil on the Excal and the learning curve/difference is like night and day. I might feel differently had I learned on the smaller coil first because I'm learning a lot now that I simply couldn't learn with the larger coil. I still plan on using the larger coil a lot, but for now I am happy with what I am learning by using the smaller coil. I think all of this will make me more effective with the larger coil in the near future. I can tell you this, a lot of the targets I'm recovering now "I" simply didn't possess the skills to recover with the larger coil. The smaller coil makes learning these skills a lot easier, at least for me.

 

[Mainelypulltab]

Great discussion River Hound and great post by everyone else. Started off with the Whites Prism V and then went to the V3i and a good man up here showed me the excal II. I now have two and would not trade them for the world. The tone is outstanding as I can not hear out of one ear to well or at all. Having said that, one of my concerns with PP is will the tones be similar to the Discriminate mode? I usually hunt with zero discriminate, sensitivy around 4 or 5, volume as loud as possible, threshold to where I can just hear it and in the discriminate mode. There is so much iron even in the water, I worry about hearing the iron in PP and think I will end up digging a lot of iron. I do understand I am losing depth, which is not the preferred method. Can anyone tell me if the PP mode gives different tones for different metals or is it one tone for everything? If you have already stated this, please excuse me for not comprehending it. Thanks for your help, I do appreciate it.

 

[OBN]

There are many advantages to PP hunting and to make the most of it is to have good hearing, and good headphones.

 

[Mainelypulltab]

OBN, thanks for sharing the video. Think I saw it awhile back when I bought my Excal II. My hearing is most likely going to limit my ability to use PP. I was just wondering if in the PP, does the machine still give different tones for different metals. Thanks again, I just realized I have seen a few of your videos, great work, I appreciate it.

 

[s1u2r3f4]

I was told by some well respected hunters to never search in PP. Just trust disc. because you're going to double check it anyways. I did bury a ring and heard it in PP but not in disc. Frustrating trying to learn the tones in PP. Iron fakes me out a lot.Mine is still under warranty, but a soon as it is over, I'll do the switch on the handle, different headphones.

 

[OBN]

Basically all tones are the same in PP, but there are Deviation and Variances on each target. The standard for this are objects like flat coin, solid ring (no brakes), and small chunks of iron, a quick ramp up and a fast decay of the signal from different angles...all others have D's n V's. Everything from double beeps, broken, drawn out, louder then normal, raspy decay..but the deeper the target these become less noticeable. It's more ear/hearing discrimination then the machine doing it for you. Best thing to do is if you are getting very few targets is to hunt in PP and guess each target before you dig or check with a switch over to disc...and this is called reverse discrimination. One little thing that really helped me was to reverse the control pod, this puts the PP/Disc knob at your finger tips. And this type of huntiing is only good where there are few targets, and the big advantage is you can crank up the senstivity to the edge. Where as in disc you have to run normal....normal is 6 on the excal 11, 12o'clock on the old...Cranked is just out of auto...9 to 10o'clock. And all have to remember, surrounding conditions control how much you can get away with, like water temp, salinty of the water, coil size, knowing the target history of the area, matrix of the sand all play a big part on how all works.
Double beep of a long piece of iron or junk...

 

[surfnturf]

Basically all tones are the same in PP, but there are Deviation and Variances on each target. The standard for this are objects like flat coin, solid ring (no brakes), and small chunks of iron, a quick ramp up and a fast decay of the signal from different angles...all others have D's n V's. Everything from double beeps, broken, drawn out, louder then normal, raspy decay..but the deeper the target these become less noticeable. It's more ear/hearing discrimination then the machine doing it for you. Best thing to do is if you are getting very few targets is to hunt in PP and guess each target before you dig or check with a switch over to disc...and this is called reverse discrimination. One little thing that really helped me was to reverse the control pod, this puts the PP/Disc knob at your finger tips. And this type of huntiing is only good where there are few targets, and the big advantage is you can crank up the senstivity to the edge. Where as in disc you have to run normal....normal is 6 on the excal 11, 12o'clock on the old...Cranked is just out of auto...9 to 10o'clock. And all have to remember, surrounding conditions control how much you can get away with, like water temp, salinty of the water, coil size, knowing the target history of the area, matrix of the sand all play a big part on how all works.
Double beep of a long piece of iron or junk...
YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUuZ7K8A_TY

Grasshoppah one must listen with their minds Eye in order to shape the image of your target! As a wise old leprechaun taught me You must dig all good solid repeating sounding targets Then and only then you will learn what you Are digging! Pinpoint mode definitely goes deepest Especially in Blacksand! Remember listen to the shape and texture of the sound your ex-Cal is telling you! Practice practice practice!

SnT