PICKING A MINELAB MODEL - HELP

[candotha]

I AM LOOKING FOR A NON PARTIAL SITE THAT COMPARES THE MINELAB MODELS. OR I WOULD LIKE TO HEAR FROM SOME OF YOU FOLKS ABOUT MINELAB. I LIKE TO COIN HUNT AND TO USE AROUND LAKE SHORES WHEN THE WATER LEVEL IS DOWN ALONG WITH SEARCHING OLD HOMES AND CACHE HUNTING.

 

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[jeff of pa]

Have you Looked Here ?

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php?board=211.0

Alot Depends On How Much You Want to Spend.

And Whether You want ALOT of Bells & Whistles,

SOME Bells & Whistles,

NO Bells & Whistles.

 

[neilo]

Try www.minelabowners.com there are some good write ups and answers to peoples problems and info on different models available.
Have you looked in Metal Detector Reviews by owners in the teasurenet forum? Seeya Neilo

 

[Tony (Michigan)]

If I was you and you were me, I'd get the Explorer XS used or an Explorer II new. I've had an explorer since early 2000 and hunted religiously with it.

You can make it as simple or as difficult as you want.

Drop some batteries in it, throw some different coins down on the yard, run the detector over them and see where each one hits. Listen to the sound and see where they hit. Then go out and swing the coil looking for similar hits in the ground.

Next, if you want to graduate to a higher level hunt in Iron Mask -14; set sensitivity to the edge of instability, take it off auto sensitivity and listen for fainter hits.

It is a heavy detector. Well worth the money. I use other detectors too but found most of my goodies with the Explorer. Just got a Fisher CoinStrike but gotta wait till snow melts to see how good it is.

Minelab Advantage is a DEEP detector too which I also use. Very simple, can be hip mounted and very good.

Tony (Michigan)

 

[Dallas]

Be pretty hard to beat the X-Terra 50 for the price..I have a like new used one...Email me at? [email protected]?

 

[Sandman]

Neilo is right. Check out the site he recommended and read other posts. The X-Terra mentioned is a fine detector for coin hunting and the edge of fresh water, just don't get the control box wet. A lot depends on how often you plan on using it or how serious you are about finding coins in the dirt. If you just want a profit, get a part time jpb. Detecting should be fun....


HH,

Sandman

 

[jbow]

Hi...
I was in the same situation as you are just three months ago and I compared everything, thought about it, asked questions, thought some more and bought a Soverign GT with several accessories... I bought it with the stock 10" coil and added a Sun Ray 5" coil, a Sun Ray inline probe, and a Digisearch meter mounted on the little side mount that David at Dixie sells. It is slightly heavy imo, with the 10" coil but not painfully so. It is a very powerful and really sensitive machine. I was choosing between the Quattro, the Explorer II, and the GT. The reason I bought the GT is that with the added meter it is about as good as any detector that you could want.
We do some of the same kinds of hunting and I can highly recommend the GT. The coil is waterproof, you 17 different frequencies, multiple tones, and it just rocks... You do need to swing it slow but once you learn it you will find it to be like an old friend.

I'm sure the Quattro and the EX II are fine machines too and I will probably one day buy an Explorer II for myself but I am glad that I bought the GT first. It does gold prospecting, it is good on the beach, and it excells at relic hunting and coins cannot hide from it!!!

HTH and HH,

Julien

 

[tgravatt]

Hello!

I think that you are on the right track for the Minelabs. I got my first one in 2000. It was the Explorer XS. It does take some time and learning to get the machine to work better then I would have ever imagined.

In the Advanced mode, I take my collection of things that I care to find, (1 gold coin currently its a $2.50 indian head, 1 morgan dollar, 1 Eisenhower dollar,1 walking liberty half, 1 barber quarter, 1 barber dime, 1 mercury dime- wouldn't want to miss that 1916D!-, 1 standing liberty quarter, 1 early washington quarter,1 early indian head cent, 1 later indian head cent-because of different metal in the mintage, 1 buffalo nickel, 1 V nickel (I bought one, later that afternoon, found my first one), 1 shield nickel-oldest found so far is 1866 w/rays-, 1 1909 lincoln wheat cent, 3 different types of gold rings, wedding band 14K, 14K w/gold coin & diamonds, and 1 14K w/emeralds/diamonds, 2 different types of silver rings- 1 with turqoise, and another just a silver band, and finally, some gold 14K religious medallions - people always seem to lose these- found three in one day in a park in OK City once, one nearly as large as an egg!).

In the Advance mode, Learn mode, black out the entire screen, then select the Check mark, using the medium block, start waving these items back and forth in front of the coil, (be sure and have no other metal anywhere near the coil), it may take several times, but you can see that a white area is blocked out from the black screen. Continue until all items have been blocked in white in the learn mode screen. Finish by pressing the Check mark again and then on the right, save the program to a location (one of 6 possible).

Then press the detect button and either use the digital screen or the smart screen, both have advantages, depending upon where/how you may be using the detector.

I certainly do take the time after programming to document what each of the above items register in both the digital screen and the smart screen. I have found that it does make a difference on weeding out the tons of trash that are out there. For example, a mercury dime will register as a 3 (ferrous) & 29 (conductivity), and an indian head cent will register 8 (ferrous) & 13 (conductivity).

At first, when detecting, be sure to set the detector on the ground and press the noise cancel button, without moving the detector, be sure there is no metal under the coil, let the noise cancel finish it's cycle, and then you are ready to start the real learning process. Even in fairly small parks, its a good idea to do the noise cancel every so often.

I start with the manual sensitivity at 21 and either work it up or down depending upon how much trash is in the area. You can tell trash because it mutes out the threshold tone.

When ready and swinging, dig all signals at first, when finding trash- its nearly impossible to weed out or discriminate trash if you want to find the good stuff-, as each trash item is found, go back to the learn screen, select the "X" USING THE SMALL BLOCK, wave the trash item in front of the coil and teach it not to find this trash item. When finished, press the "X" button again and save this to either a new program number or the same as before. It is handy to keep the first learned medium block as is and keep modifying and saving in subsequent programs. For example, save the first learn in program 1, then as you go along, create milestones when something works well, save it to program 2,3, etc. That way, if something goes wrong, you can sort of back up by reloading a previous program and start again. I have learned that some trash items, especially when deep in the ground, can trigger a good signal, and are right on the edge of the good stuff-metal property-wise that is, so with the small block, you can get past these trash items. You can also specialize programs, like say just for silver dimes,quarter,halves, and one program just for gold items or something like that.

Just be sure that you check now and then to make sure that the programmed stuff still sets a good signal. You must continue this process until you have basically weeded out all the "edge" trash, as I call it, and then you will only find the good stuff after that. Takes time, but brother its worth it!

Also, in either the digital screen or the smart screen, I have learned that when the numbers jump around, or the crosshairs move when swinging, usually its a trash item. I good target will normally stay solid in both the audible tone as well as the crosshair position in the smart screen and the digital number in the digital screen. Also, when a good target is near trash, I often just keep circling the area, testing, listening, trash does often cover up good stuff, but keep circling and swinging. Last week, doing this, I found a 1906 Canadian quarter, with a nail, and a pull tab in the same hole.

Old rusted steel and alloys rusted, are a trick, since they can trigger a false reading which is similiar to something solid silver, like this forget-me-not silver bracelet I found. Just remember that the solid signal, unchanging, not bouncing is the key here, but I have found old silver coins and good stuff right in there with the heavly rusted stuff.

One thing for sure that I really like about the Explorers, is that there is a different pitch in tone for different signals. Now, without a doubt, I can pretty much tell exactly what is in the ground just by the tone.

The depth that these detectors can go is amazing. When I first started with the XS, I found a lid for a 50 gallon drum about 5 feet deep. Later, as I got better at it, I found a walking liberty half at about 18 inches. Lately, it isn't unusual to find coins a foot or better deep. I once found a silver religious medallion,which was pretty small nearly 14 inches deep. Using the headphones really helps to hear the faint signals.

I also boosted the gain to +7, which helps to bring in the faintest of signals.

Its always a learning process, but I can tell you for sure, its fun, and some of the things I have found completely amaze me!

Now, I dig everything. Last Friday, found a Pope XIII Leo Silver medallion, big as a silver dollar, which is from around 1904, since this pope died in 1903, in a supposedly hunted out park!

Yes, you can spend less for a metal detector ( The first XS was around $1,100, the second Explorer II, I got off of ebay for $900- I think the guy couldn't deal with the advanced stuff- and the last one, just a couple of weeks ago, another Explorer II, from a dealer for around $1,135), but certainly, with a cheaper detecter, most people get frustrated by digging trash all the time and end up using it for a coat rack or somthing. I say spend as much as you can possibly afford, get the best, and in a short time, you will be digging up some real treasures, and thus ensuring a great detecting experience.

Take care,


And Happy Hunting!

T.G. Creations