My 1st Day With the Explorer

[Michigan Badger]

NOTE: This is an UpDated post!

Okay, my Explorer XS arrived a couple days ago and I've been reading "Mastering the ME XS & S" by Sabisch.

I started this morning at a site that produces wheats and lots of copper trash. My count as of (3) hours hunting and 17+ holes is (1) large square nail.

Lots of holes with nothing. I'd get screaming solid signals so I dug the holes wide and deep and sifted the soil...nada.

Finally up from the depths of 4 inches came my big nail.

-----------------------

I went back to my land fill area where new coins can be very deep. It's due to snow removal and plows pushing dirt with the snow.

This time I learned something.

The Explorer will sing-out sometimes with a constant repeatable signal over certain ground (give a 30+ readings) but it may not be a diggable target.

The targets one is looking for may be weaker but they have a certain quality that one must learn by doing.

It's hard to explain in words but the two signals are very close but there is a difference between the false and true signals and sensitivity settings don't always help. I ran mostly in Quickstart at 14 sensitivity and dug better than 20 empty holes with the detector screaming and reading 24-32. After sifting the dirt I came up with nothing. A classic case of falsing over mineralized soils.

So, I began to listen for more solid signals in at least one direction. After passing up a few dozen screams and high readings (but false signals), I came upon a weak but smoother signal. It sounded just one way. I dug the plug and the signal greatly improved. Down 8-10 inches was a memorial penny. My 1st Explorer coin!

I continued along and dug an old dime-sized zinc bottle cap at a good 6-7 inches deep. The reading was about 24 as I recall and the signal was loud and solid.

Next I got a good signal near the old sidewalk. It was only good one way and broke up the other. It was very deep. I dug down a good 10-12 inches and found a shotgun brass.

Okay! So at least now I know it works!

I had hunted this very site over many times before with other machines and none detected these things.

I can see already the Explorer truly is very deep and it does get the stuff others miss.

But due to it's power it's also prone to extreme falsing. But with a little effort the false signals are somewhat easy to sort out.

The secret in part is the quality of the sound of the signal. But I'm not really surprised; that's the way it is with all machines

So the bottom line is this, the Explorer guys are NOT windjammers.

 

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[Iron Patch]

Sounds like you are on your way to successful XS hunting now, I do know that I have only ever had success once with FAST ON and that was an long ago, and the many times I have tried it since than I just cannot stand the false high tone readings of the iron hits in the ground.

OK, I needed a new coil since all my other coils are beat from the rough hunting conditions I put my body and detectors through. I do believe the SE Pro Coil is an improvement, first off, it is lighter, and does pinpoint a tad better. But, my stock coil, despite its weight has been a great coil over the years.

Crosshair locations, well, that will take time for you to decide if you are not in the mood for digging every good reading, by that I mean a good hit in both directions, and even then, you will get fooled. Shotgun casings, range usually just above where a nickel registers, but it seems that different brands and different soils cause those casings to move up the scale all the way to where a Half Cent might read. Now since I love buttons, they can be anywhere from a copper coin reading area to lower left, lower right, you have to get used to what is found in your area and based on experience you can tell a lot of times what is in the ground before you dig, just by the way the crosshair acts, besides its position.


Mike Moutray who is a member and poster on this forum, quite awhile ago posted a crosshair location charts that help newbies to the XS. Here it is on this website: http://www.frontiernet.net/~jvokes/exscreens.htm


Here are my basic settings I have been using for years:

SETTINGS MY SETTINGS

DETECTOR MODE ADVANCED

SENSITIVITY SEMI-AUTO, BUT ALSO MANUAL- Depends on stability

SENSITIVITY VALUE AS HIGH AS POSSIBLE-28-32

THRESHOLD NONE, ONE CLICK BELOW AUDIBLE (Sometimes as low as possible if my headphones are acting up)

DISCRIMINATATION MODE IRON MASK

IRON MASK SETTINGS -14 TO -16 WHEN I WANT TO HEAR THE IRON HITS (mostly wide open to accept all)


NOISE CHANNEL AUTOMATIC

DISPLAY TYPE SMART ADVANCE

DISPLAY SIZE NORMAL

AUDIO VOLUME MAX (10)

AUDIO VOLUME GAIN (10) SOMETIMES 9

AUDIO TONE VARIABILITY 8

AUDIO SOUNDS FERROUS

LIMITS 10

OPTIONS RESPONSE NORMAL, AUDIO 1 IS TOO FLUTEY FOR MY EARS

OPTIONS RECOVERY DEEP ALWAYS ON
FAST OFF FAST IN FERROUS MODE GIVES TOO MANY FALSE HIGH TONE SIGNALS OF IRON
SO I SELDOM USE IT IN IRON AREAS

Don

I noticed after about 7 hours of hunting the detector seemed to not respond too well to targets. Could this be the rechargeables getting too low?



Badger

Not really, if it's on, it's on.

 

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[Michigan Badger]

Not really, if it's on, it's on.

Iron, what settings do you use?

 

[bazinga]

Sounds like you are on your way to successful XS hunting now, I do know that I have only ever had success once with FAST ON and that was an long ago, and the many times I have tried it since than I just cannot stand the false high tone readings of the iron hits in the ground.

I hunt about 99% of the time with FAST ON, DEEP OFF. I've tried both on, deep on, and both off. Once I switched to my current settings my finds increased significantly.

 

[Michigan Badger]

Sounds like you are on your way to successful XS hunting now, I do know that I have only ever had success once with FAST ON and that was an long ago, and the many times I have tried it since than I just cannot stand the false high tone readings of the iron hits in the ground.

I hunt about 99% of the time with FAST ON, DEEP OFF. I've tried both on, deep on, and both off. Once I switched to my current settings my finds increased significantly.

I know what you mean but I thought it was just me.

I started with Fast on and found more. I haven't found a good target sense going to Fast off.

Actually I did my best with the Explorer default settings with sensitivity up to 24. The machine was noisy though. But I just listened for the more solid hits.

But nearly everyone tells me to turn Fast off. I know it's supposed to be deeper but the Fast was made for ground loaded with iron and that's exactly what I have.

I've thought about trying my 6" DD. In some areas the iron junk is like inches apart.

Thanks,

Badger

 

[Iron Patch]

Not really, if it's on, it's on.

Iron, what settings do you use?

SETTINGS MY SETTINGS

DETECTOR MODE ADVANCED

SENSITIVITY MANUAL 27

THRESHOLD ONE CLICK ABOVE AUDIBLE

DISCRIMINATATION MODE IRON MASK

IRON MASK SETTINGS -14

DISPLAY TYPE SMART ADVANCE

DISPLAY SIZE NORMAL

AUDIO VOLUME MAX (10)

AUDIO VOLUME GAIN Max (10)

AUDIO TONE VARIABILITY Factory setting (whatever that is)

AUDIO SOUNDS Conductive


LIMITS Factory setting (whatever that is)

OPTIONS RESPONSE NORMAL

OPTIONS RECOVERY DEEP ON (Fast off)

 

[rmptr]

Really sounds interesting... fun!

Good thread...

Thanks for the post MB

Really miss out on all that electronic challenge stuff using Tesoro machines, as you know...

Best

 

[Tom_in_CA]

The only thing I can add to this is, that the absolute best way is to go out with an experienced Exp. user, and have him flag deep coin signals, for you to criss-cross over and "hear what he's hearing". And I'm not just talking about a person who hunts sandboxes for clad, but find a person who is consistently coming in with the turf deepies (silver, IH's, etc...) and see what kinds of sounds they are chasing. Because no amount of printed text, program lists, etc... can substitute for the actual sounds and swing speeds/wiggle techniques. To ask a book to "describe a sound", is like asking someone to "describe the key of A minor". It just can't be done in printed text. It has to be heard.

I watched a guy digging deeep silver that I couldn't even hear on my whites. So I was compelled to give it a try. But the first 2 or 3 times, I absolutely hated it, as everything sounded the same. Deep, shallow, low conductor, high conductor, it all sounded the same: like a flock of sick geese. It wasn't until I went out to a stretch of turf where, this particular Exp user was able to flag several deep silver-type signals, that the "lights went on". The minute you hear that deep fluty-tooty, and compare it to nearby cr*p, will the lights go on and you'll begin to know how to max out the potential. In the meantime, no amount of reading the internet, or books, will compare. It's kind of like drivers ed: No amount of classroom/book learning prepare you for the actual driving experience.

 

[Iron Patch]

The only thing I can add to this is, that the absolute best way is to go out with an experienced Exp. user, and have him flag deep coin signals, for you to criss-cross over and "hear what he's hearing". And I'm not just talking about a person who hunts sandboxes for clad, but find a person who is consistently coming in with the turf deepies (silver, IH's, etc...) and see what kinds of sounds they are chasing. Because no amount of printed text, program lists, etc... can substitute for the actual sounds and swing speeds/wiggle techniques. To ask a book to "describe a sound", is like asking someone to "describe the key of A minor". It just can't be done in printed text. It has to be heard.

I watched a guy digging deeep silver that I couldn't even hear on my whites. So I was compelled to give it a try. But the first 2 or 3 times, I absolutely hated it, as everything sounded the same. Deep, shallow, low conductor, high conductor, it all sounded the same: like a flock of sick geese. It wasn't until I went out to a stretch of turf where, this particular Exp user was able to flag several deep silver-type signals, that the "lights went on". The minute you hear that deep fluty-tooty, and compare it to nearby cr*p, will the lights go on and you'll begin to know how to max out the potential. In the meantime, no amount of reading the internet, or books, will compare. It's kind of like drivers ed: No amount of classroom/book learning prepare you for the actual driving experience.

There is a lot of truth to that. I was the first one around here with an explorer so was on my own, but 6 months later when my tectin bud got his I taught him in a day what took me a month to learn.

 

[bazinga]

The only thing I can add to this is, that the absolute best way is to go out with an experienced Exp. user, and have him flag deep coin signals, for you to criss-cross over and "hear what he's hearing". And I'm not just talking about a person who hunts sandboxes for clad, but find a person who is consistently coming in with the turf deepies (silver, IH's, etc...) and see what kinds of sounds they are chasing. Because no amount of printed text, program lists, etc... can substitute for the actual sounds and swing speeds/wiggle techniques. To ask a book to "describe a sound", is like asking someone to "describe the key of A minor". It just can't be done in printed text. It has to be heard.

I watched a guy digging deeep silver that I couldn't even hear on my whites. So I was compelled to give it a try. But the first 2 or 3 times, I absolutely hated it, as everything sounded the same. Deep, shallow, low conductor, high conductor, it all sounded the same: like a flock of sick geese. It wasn't until I went out to a stretch of turf where, this particular Exp user was able to flag several deep silver-type signals, that the "lights went on". The minute you hear that deep fluty-tooty, and compare it to nearby cr*p, will the lights go on and you'll begin to know how to max out the potential. In the meantime, no amount of reading the internet, or books, will compare. It's kind of like drivers ed: No amount of classroom/book learning prepare you for the actual driving experience.

That's how I learned. And that's how I teach new explorer users.

To many, the sounds all sound the same. But now I seem to be to the point where I ignore shallow clad and start pinpointing the deep targets before I even look at the depth of the target. It's just something that has evolved over time.

Basically, you will be in the dark with the machine and then one day something will turn on that light bulb and you will be looking at the machine in a whole different manner. My lightbulb was the first time I found a deep indian head on my own. That really changed how I detected with the machine.

 

[hollowpointred]

hey Badge, you may already know about this site but even if you do maybe someone else will see this thread and check it out. this link is to the minelab owners site.lots of minelab specific info there, and tons of other XS users. as far as the DEEP FAST thing...I'm not sure if it is different on the XS or not ( shouldn't be), but on the SE Fast makes the recovery speed a little faster for hunting in trash. the trade off is that the target id is a little less accurate. DEEP is for hunting in fairly clean areas and lengthens the recovery time and also helps the machine to recognize faint signals better by giving it more time to analyze them. the trade off is that the machine reacts slower. as far as i know, actual depth shouldn't be affected so much other than the fact that the DEEP setting has more time to analyze and ID the info. in both settings the machine should be able to detect a signal. apparently with both DEEP and FAST on at the same time, the machine becomes confused and runs more unstable. you may already know this stuff and it might not pertain to the XS but i figured i would mention it.

here's the link http://www.minelabowners.com/forum/index.php

 

[Michigan Badger]

WOW!

This is what makes this site so superior to all the other forums

I learned something new today...

I learned the sound when the rechargeable battery pack is dead.
Right after that happens the Explorer shifts into silent rest mode.

QUESTION: Isn't there a sound thing online somewhere that plays the various sounds the Explorer should make over certain buried targets?

As I recall back when I bought the Ex.II somebody sent me a link to it.

Badger

 

[Michigan Badger]

hey Badge, you may already know about this site but even if you do maybe someone else will see this thread and check it out. this link is to the minelab owners site.lots of minelab specific info there, and tons of other XS users. as far as the DEEP FAST thing...I'm not sure if it is different on the XS or not ( shouldn't be), but on the SE Fast makes the recovery speed a little faster for hunting in trash. the trade off is that the target id is a little less accurate. DEEP is for hunting in fairly clean areas and lengthens the recovery time and also helps the machine to recognize faint signals better by giving it more time to analyze them. the trade off is that the machine reacts slower. as far as i know, actual depth shouldn't be affected so much other than the fact that the DEEP setting has more time to analyze and ID the info. in both settings the machine should be able to detect a signal. apparently with both DEEP and FAST on at the same time, the machine becomes confused and runs more unstable. you may already know this stuff and it might not pertain to the XS but i figured i would mention it.

here's the link http://www.minelabowners.com/forum/index.php

Yes, you're correct.

And thanks for the link

 

[pinebarrens1]

i'll say this once for you guys about the xs ...............it is the best all around machine out there . its deeeeeeeeeeeeep and easy to use once you get used to it . i would not trade it fore anything out there . to me the orignal xs is the best and i tryed them all .............pine out

 

[Iron Patch]

i'll say this once for you guys about the xs ...............it is the best all around machine out there . its deeeeeeeeeeeeep and easy to use once you get used to it . i would not trade it fore anything out there . to me the orignal xs is the best and i tryed them all .............pine out

That's a fact Jack!

 

[Michigan Badger]

Sound files are at the bottom of the page.

http://www.geocities.com/treasureport/charts.htm

Thanks much for the link!

I just learned something new. Coins can register far left with the crosshair. Somebody told me coins are always on the top right (or near it).

Oh boy! Yesterday I passed up a dozen high tone far upper left signals.

Much to learn!

 

[Iron Patch]

Sound files are at the bottom of the page.

http://www.geocities.com/treasureport/charts.htm

Thanks much for the link!

I just learned something new. Coins can register far left with the crosshair. Somebody told me coins are always on the top right (or near it).

Oh boy! Yesterday I passed up a dozen high tone far upper left signals.

Much to learn!

Heavy masked signals might not even show on the screen.

 

[Michigan Badger]

Heavy masked signals might not even show the on the screen.

So then the sound is the most important thing?

 

[hollowpointred]

Heavy masked signals might not even show the on the screen.

So then the sound is the most important thing?

i don't know about IronPatch, but i rely much more heavily on tones. i have learned that the target id is not to be trusted.

 

[Iron Patch]

Heavy masked signals might not even show the on the screen.

So then the sound is the most important thing?

i don't know about IronPatch, but i rely much more heavily on tones. i have learned that the target id is not to be trusted.

The only time I need the screen is to put my settings in after a restart.

 

[Michigan Badger]

Okay, so basically it's like all other meter machines as far as trusting it's readings go. It may be better than most meters but still can't trust it completely.

I can already see that I can't trust air tone tests either. Nearly any coin I dig at my sites will come up with at least one nail or piece of roofing tin. I'm looking for repeatable signals and dig them all until I began to learn the various targets. Right?


I think I'll put that 6" DD coil on and set the machine to max and see what it can do in our iron soaked ground.