Say hello to my little friend! First time out with se.

DFX-SE Gregg

Silver Member
Feb 6, 2007
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Detector(s) used
Equinox 800 SE and DFX

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john37115 said:
Congrats on your first SE hunt. It'll take a while to get it I'm sure, heck the Explorer2 took me 2 years and many hours of frustration to get to where I could really know the actions and sounds and pretty much pull the old deepies out consistently. Of course I didn't have the good folks from T-Net to steer me in the right direction back then I'm sure that's why it took me so long. The key ingredient to Minelab I have found, is don't overdue the sensitivity and go slow, a snails pace compared to the whites. Looks like your taking to it well already.

When I went out today I told my wife...I am taking out the knew detector I got last week... She said thats not like you...(I just started reading manual today) you have not read everything yet...I said well I am not much into pretending in the yard..so I will finish the manual tomorrow...knowing this might be the only warm day for a while.... And I agree with you 100% without help in these forums I would not have bought the se...But after seeing Dan's (Captain SE) video's and the depth...it was time to go
"Digging Deeper with the SE"... :D
 

Well Greg if it helps take some heat off you ;) I am adding an Excaliber II to add to my family mainly cause I want a good water machine that I can dive deeper with and I am getting a really good deal on it. I hear it is a good land machine too, but time will tell.
I really am looking forward to what you feel are the difference of your new se verses your old dfx in your enviroment up there.
 

bridgeendfarm said:
Well Greg if it helps take some heat off you ;) I am adding an Excaliber II to add to my family mainly cause I want a good water machine that I can dive deeper with and I am getting a really good deal on it. I hear it is a good land machine too, but time will tell.
I really am looking forward to what you feel are the difference of your new se verses your old dfx in your enviroment up there.

Thanks we go from frozen ground in winter to mush in spring to hard ground in summer...most areas have clay around 4-5 inches down here....which compacts in summer..Will be interesting how se reacts...
 

I'm still very new to my SE too. The tones do overwhelm at first. The first thing I did was find all of the advice and tips, and print them out to study. Those helped more than the manual.

The best thing I did was change from conductive to ferrous. Then, the tones suddenly made more sense. The amount of signals the SE gets is still quite a lot, but the learning curve is getting to be fun now.
 

blw said:
I'm still very new to my SE too. The tones do overwhelm at first. The first thing I did was find all of the advice and tips, and print them out to study. Those helped more than the manual.

The best thing I did was change from conductive to ferrous. Then, the tones suddenly made more sense. The amount of signals the SE gets is still quite a lot, but the learning curve is getting to be fun now.

This is fantastic advice and is the same way I learned my dfx....I have a hole punch and make copies and use a 3 ring binder.... I have already started receiving charts, graphs, and explanations in private messages here and on other forums...thanks! :)
 

whispers said:
How about DFXPLORER?

kind of like what I was thinking...but I better just listen, learn and read first...then the name change...
 

yeah the "ol boys and girls" will do their best to school you up quick on a new machine and help you rope her it
 

By the way, Gregg. I think I solved your user name dilemma. Take the first part from the Minelab (SE)and the last part from the Whites DF(X), and you get SEX GREGG!!! ;D
 

The best thing I did was change from conductive to ferrous.

IMHO, if you hunt park turf mostly, going into the FERROUS setting is one of the "worst" things you can do. Stay in CONDUCT, with a minimal iron mask when park turf hunting. You will find much more deep coinage. Some of my buddies used to hunt in FERROUS at parks, but when they saw me pulling lots of oldies out of the turf, they made the change, and are very glad they did. Their change to this setting wasn't easy for them though. It took a while to learn how the tones changed for the different items in the turf. It's hard to change to CONDUCT on the machine if you've been using FERR for a while....it takes time to relearn. I have many reasons why CONDUCT is better for parks. FERROUS will give you mixed lows and high tones on deep silver targets, confusing you even more. Thats because the target ID of a deep silver will tend to bounce across the top of the screen, from left to right. Leftmost targets in FERR will sound low, while rightmost targets will sound high. In CONDUCT, every signal whose ID is at the top of the screen(no matter if it's far left or right) will give off a nice high tone. So even when a deep silver coin bounces across the top of the screen, you will always hear a nice fluty high tone...love that sound!!

You have to also consider what types of signals you encounter more of in parks. By far there is a majority of aluminum foil, pull tabs, ring tabs, beaver tails, screw caps. In CONDUCT, you're able to "pick" out the higher tones of coinage better than you can while in FERR. That's because most of the trash targets are down at the bottom of the target ID screen, while the old coinage is near the top. In CONDUCT, there's a better separation of tones between the trash and the old coinage. This is desirable....you want to hear the widest range of tone from deep coinage(mid-high tones) amongst a sea of low tone targets(trash, foil, tabs, etc). In FERR, the difference is much narrower...some trash items actually will sound high while in FERR. Not the case when in CONDUCT. I believe hunting in FERR will cause you to have to look more at the screen to see where the target hits, while in CONDUCT, you can hunt more by sound, with very little time spent trying to find out where the target hits on the screen or what numbers (FERR/COND) you have. The Explorer is a "Tone" detector. Learn the tones it makes, and be a master hunter with it!!

Now, if you're not hunting parks with your Explorer (demos, old homesteads, areas ladened with iron), then FERROUS will be beneficial because the majority of trash in the ground will be iron (signals that hit far left on the display).

I think this is the one setting which has helped me the most to find lots of old, deep coinage in the turf.
Secondary is not trying to hunt in max sensitivity. Dropping down to 21-23 (manual, never Auto) on the SE will still give you great depth, with minimal overloading of your signal.

HH,
CAPTN SE
Dan
 

Captn_SE said:
The best thing I did was change from conductive to ferrous.

IMHO, if you hunt park turf mostly, going into the FERROUS setting is one of the "worst" things you can do. Stay in CONDUCT, with a minimal iron mask when park turf hunting. You will find much more deep coinage. Some of my buddies used to hunt in FERROUS at parks, but when they saw me pulling lots of oldies out of the turf, they made the change, and are very glad they did. Their change to this setting wasn't easy for them though. It took a while to learn how the tones changed for the different items in the turf. It's hard to change to CONDUCT on the machine if you've been using FERR for a while....it takes time to relearn. I have many reasons why CONDUCT is better for parks. FERROUS will give you mixed lows and high tones on deep silver targets, confusing you even more. Thats because the target ID of a deep silver will tend to bounce across the top of the screen, from left to right. Leftmost targets in FERR will sound low, while rightmost targets will sound high. In CONDUCT, every signal whose ID is at the top of the screen(no matter if it's far left or right) will give off a nice high tone. So even when a deep silver coin bounces across the top of the screen, you will always hear a nice fluty high tone...love that sound!!

You have to also consider what types of signals you encounter more of in parks. By far there is a majority of aluminum foil, pull tabs, ring tabs, beaver tails, screw caps. In CONDUCT, you're able to "pick" out the higher tones of coinage better than you can while in FERR. That's because most of the trash targets are down at the bottom of the target ID screen, while the old coinage is near the top. In CONDUCT, there's a better separation of tones between the trash and the old coinage. This is desirable....you want to hear the widest range of tone from deep coinage(mid-high tones) amongst a sea of low tone targets(trash, foil, tabs, etc). In FERR, the difference is much narrower...some trash items actually will sound high while in FERR. Not the case when in CONDUCT. I believe hunting in FERR will cause you to have to look more at the screen to see where the target hits, while in CONDUCT, you can hunt more by sound, with very little time spent trying to find out where the target hits on the screen or what numbers (FERR/COND) you have. The Explorer is a "Tone" detector. Learn the tones it makes, and be a master hunter with it!!

Now, if you're not hunting the turf with you're Explorer (demos, old homesteads, areas ladened with iron), then FERROUS will be beneficial because the majority of trash in the ground will be iron (signals that hit far left on the display).

I think this is the one setting which has helped me the most to find lots of old, deep coinage in the turf.
Secondary is not trying to hunt in max sensitivity. Dropping down to 21-23 (manual, never Auto) on the SE will still give you great depth, with minimal overloading of your signal.

HH,
CAPTN SE
Dan



nice post dan,

everytime i read yours (or watch your videos) i seem to learn something new.

thanks - kevin
 

Congrats on getting your SE and know you had problems with someone who was lets say less than honest in the dealings, but looks like it worked out for you in the end!! Not too bad for that nasty weather you've been having and things can only get better. Sure hope to see some great silver this year from you, along with those 10,000 other coins!!
 

I changed to conductive after i tried the ferrous for about a month and was glad i did, made a big difference in hearing the coins for me and didnt have to look at the sreen all the time ;)
 

Good luck on the Explorer Greg.I've seen from my hunting cronies what great machines they are,especially on silver!However you are getting major Diss'ed on the Whites Forum.LOL
 

Captn_SE said:
The best thing I did was change from conductive to ferrous.

IMHO, if you hunt park turf mostly, going into the FERROUS setting is one of the "worst" things you can do. Stay in CONDUCT, with a minimal iron mask when park turf hunting. You will find much more deep coinage. Some of my buddies used to hunt in FERROUS at parks, but when they saw me pulling lots of oldies out of the turf, they made the change, and are very glad they did. Their change to this setting wasn't easy for them though. It took a while to learn how the tones changed for the different items in the turf. It's hard to change to CONDUCT on the machine if you've been using FERR for a while....it takes time to relearn. I have many reasons why CONDUCT is better for parks. FERROUS will give you mixed lows and high tones on deep silver targets, confusing you even more. Thats because the target ID of a deep silver will tend to bounce across the top of the screen, from left to right. Leftmost targets in FERR will sound low, while rightmost targets will sound high. In CONDUCT, every signal whose ID is at the top of the screen(no matter if it's far left or right) will give off a nice high tone. So even when a deep silver coin bounces across the top of the screen, you will always hear a nice fluty high tone...love that sound!!

You have to also consider what types of signals you encounter more of in parks. By far there is a majority of aluminum foil, pull tabs, ring tabs, beaver tails, screw caps. In CONDUCT, you're able to "pick" out the higher tones of coinage better than you can while in FERR. That's because most of the trash targets are down at the bottom of the target ID screen, while the old coinage is near the top. In CONDUCT, there's a better separation of tones between the trash and the old coinage. This is desirable....you want to hear the widest range of tone from deep coinage(mid-high tones) amongst a sea of low tone targets(trash, foil, tabs, etc). In FERR, the difference is much narrower...some trash items actually will sound high while in FERR. Not the case when in CONDUCT. I believe hunting in FERR will cause you to have to look more at the screen to see where the target hits, while in CONDUCT, you can hunt more by sound, with very little time spent trying to find out where the target hits on the screen or what numbers (FERR/COND) you have. The Explorer is a "Tone" detector. Learn the tones it makes, and be a master hunter with it!!

Now, if you're not hunting parks with your Explorer (demos, old homesteads, areas ladened with iron), then FERROUS will be beneficial because the majority of trash in the ground will be iron (signals that hit far left on the display).

I think this is the one setting which has helped me the most to find lots of old, deep coinage in the turf.
Secondary is not trying to hunt in max sensitivity. Dropping down to 21-23 (manual, never Auto) on the SE will still give you great depth, with minimal overloading of your signal.

HH,
CAPTN SE
Dan

Hehe... pretty sure I'm the one Dan was referring to that had to eventually make the change from FERROUS to CONDUCT. That was an excellent explanation he gave, and I can agree that the change makes an enormous difference on the turf. I used FERROUS for quite a while and the change was very noticeable; I'm pretty sure my silver totals increased noticeably afterwards, and ended around 250 for the year.

On the other hand I'm glad I still have the FERROUS sounds in my head as they come in extremely handy in iron laced, demo, relic and other sites where you want to dig almost everything. (Or Pennsylvania fields where those lucky Bonedry &#*$*s get to hunt!) It's amazing how often you'll head a squeek of that sweet high tone come directly through a low blurble, then dig a plug and remove 2 pull tabs before you get the silver you knew you heard.

Oh yeah, and the lower sensitivity has seemed to help greatly recently as well. Many times I've got a deep whisper and played with the sensitivity only to find it still picks up the signal strongly anywhere as low as the mid-teens. I think I've had mine at 23 consistently for the past 5 months, only lower if there is interference...

Gregg, I think you'll really come to enjoy the machine. I started with a DFX, which was great in its own right, but found myself using it less and less. But I think its worth keeping for other factors - i.e. covering a lot of ground with a light weight when super-slow, picking through the trash of your local pounded park, depth isn't the most important factor.

Jayson
 

The big learning curve is what has kept me from moving from my Whites to a Minelab-plus the price difference! For that much money it better go deeper! ;D I still think they sound like a broken pinball machine. Dont get me wrong they are great if not the greatest machines but if I listened to it for a few hours I think my ears would explode. Good luck Greg I hope you get the depth you are wanting out of the Minelab. If you do put your DFX up for sale let me know. I want to move up from my XLT I have swung for the last few years. I wish my old coils would interchange with the DFX. Bummer! Good luck!

KFB
 

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