First Day On The Beach With My New Skull Digger (Skullies)

bigscoop

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Well, today was my first day on the beach with my newly created “Skull Digger” by OBN Custom Detectors, (I’ve lovely come to name my new Excal hybrid, Skull Digger.) First, the beach conditions today were very sanded in, and while this was entirely expected the seeing is believing was still quite disappointing. I had been silently hoping for a fantasy cut but so much for that notion. But back to the machine.

I gotta tell ya, that remote switch is the best thing since chocolate, and I absolutely love chocolate. No more reaching around and then back again, all it takes is a finger now and suddenly PP mode has become my best friend. You hardly have to break stride to check a target in both modes and the quick and convenient switch is the cat’s meow when investigating those nulls, faints, whispers, and when rooting out those deep uncertainties. I can’t believe this isn’t standard feature of every Excal. If you’ve never used one you don’t know what you’re missing.

As for the “Skullies”, took about an hour to adjust the threshold & volume to where I wanted them, the first couple of targets blasting through like trumpets but a little tweaking took care of this rather easily. And speaking of blasting in, the first thing I noticed right away was that the usual tics were now thumps, a lot crisper and cleaner to the ear, even the very tiny ones. And those threshold whisper breaks, nearly impossible to miss now, the edges at both ends being much sharper and cleaner. Which brings me to depth.

Today I got a very slight threshold break and so I took a scoop of sand off the top of the target, switched to disc and stuck the coil in the hole but got no response, so back to PP and the threshold break was still there. Again I removed another scoop of sand, a full scoop this time, and again I stuck the coil into the hole and shook it a bit, now just the faintest of tics so I switched to Disc but got nothing. One more scoop removed and now I’m getting a slight broken null/tone thing going on so I switch to PP and there it is, a very small but sharp tone. At this point I’m guessing something really large, like a huge chunk of iron or a very large piece of chromed or steel & copper mixed something? One more full scoop which was now becoming a bear and I nearly decided to give up on the piece of crap, but new machine so why not keep going, and so I did. A few more scoops and a couple of wrestling matches later and I was looking at a small sterling cuff bracelet. There is no doubt in my mind that I would have completely missed this extremely deep target prior to the Skullies and remote switch. And this same act was repeated at least another half-dozen times today, the ability to here those really deep faints and slight threshold breaks now dramatically improved, and it was even quite windy today. I must say I couldn’t happier with the machine and I can honestly say today was first time I’ve felt that I actually had a profession machine in my hand. I actually walked away from the beach today with a great deal of confidence in spite of the mounting sand that was already on the beach and with little fear of the sand yet to come. I simply can’t believe the difference in the before and after. Very impressive! Thanks OBN! :headbang:
 

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OBN

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Man, I want to pack my car and head for the beach after reading that.....

Bigscoop, Glad you enjoyed. You will find, she will change the way you hunt, Quick & Lethal.
I have worked on several excaliburs over the last couple years and yours is, much like the old sword models....one of a kind....Good Luck my Friend...joe
 

S.S.Tupperware

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Sweet, I made it out, yeah deep the targets were... managed a lil.
 

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bigscoop

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The full range of tones is different and they're going to take some getting use to but it wasn't quite the dramatic change that I was expecting so I don't see it taking too long before I'm comfortable with them. Probably going to do as I've done in the past and take a handful of goodies to the beach so I can play around with things a bit.

The other big difference that I noticed was how clean the threshold breaks were in PP mode. I think this is because the threshold itself is much cleaner/crisp.
 

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bigscoop

bigscoop

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Here's the take from yesterday, even found one of those missing planes from the Bermuda triangle. :laughing7: A lot of deep stuff. Note the pyramid sinker that's all crusted over, that was a really deep hit.

hunt.jpg hunt2.jpg
 

OBN

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That B52 looks like it's been under sometime...:icon_thumright:
 

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bigscoop

bigscoop

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skully test.jpg
Here's a before and after air test on the Skullies (click to enlarge image)
 

dewcon4414

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Those depth difference arent to far off from what mine were. How did you find the sensitivity to small targets? First few times it gives you the feeling you arent getting any depth.... it just hears them that good. Really should be an advantage for you and that small coil on those chains you been finding. Wait till you get out there on a windy noisy day..... huge difference when you take them off.

Dew
 

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bigscoop

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Those depth difference arent to far off from what mine were. How did you find the sensitivity to small targets? First few times it gives you the feeling you arent getting any depth.... it just hears them that good. Really should be an advantage for you and that small coil on those chains you been finding. Wait till you get out there on a windy noisy day..... huge difference when you take them off.

Dew

Funny you should mention, "the feeling that you're not getting any depth". The first day out with it I was like, "that's just a tiny piece of surface scrap.." when it was actually something more. That first day was a real trip to say the least, especially the first couple of hours. I don't think I ever stopped so much to checkout faint threshold responses of simple sediment deposits before. :laughing7:

PS: Now that usual threshold wavering is even producing clean/clear distinguishable breaks, that first day I actually turned my sensitivity down until I was somewhat use to things. :laughing7:
 

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Sir Gala Clad

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No way OBN: The Buf (Big Ugly Fellow) has jet engines.
It may possibly be an Aro Lacaster British four engine WWll Heavy Bomber
 

Midas_touch

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OBN thinks he can get mine in and down around may. I can't wait for the headphones. I have a remote switch on mine already and it's awesome.
 

OBN

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Yes, Midas. I have another order of the custom made Audiosears 2463's, along with some with suppressing varistor's to mellow out the shallows. If in anyway affect the full audio output, they will not be used, unless someone requests them. Order should be here in May...and they are USA made...Audiosears of New York

Bigscoop, I love that chart. Something I have wanted to do with the skullies....thank you....:icon_thumright:

One of the oldtimers over on the other forum posted this years ago, and since reading I have worked to find those missed unheards...first with Doc's amp, and now Skullies....

Vlad...........There is an old maxim in Stereo that to double your audio volume you are increasing power output by 8X. The detector still sees the small deep target-you just don't hear it.
 

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bigscoop

bigscoop

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Yes, Midas. I have another order of the custom made Audiosears 2463's, along with some with suppressing varistor's to mellow out the shallows. If in anyway affect the full audio output, they will not be used, unless someone requests them. Order should be here in May...and they are USA made...Audiosears of New York

Bigscoop, I love that chart. Something I have wanted to do with the skullies....thank you....:icon_thumright:

One of the oldtimers over on the other forum posted this years ago, and since reading I have worked to find those missed unheards...first with Doc's amp, and now Skullies....

The chart, when I say "good/strong" repeatable tones, I have to include even the faints with the skullies because there really isn't a faint anymore. They're there, it's just they are much sharper and easier to hear now. I've always said these machines are hunting a lot deeper then we realize and that they just lack the means to tell what they're finding down there. If I can locate a beer can at 2 feet then those send signals are indeed getting there, it's just the returns are too weak to on the smaller items to tell us about them.
 

lorraine

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I like that airplane find, Big Scoop.

Would love to see a pic of it all cleaned up.

Good luck on your next hunt.

Lorraine
 

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bigscoop

bigscoop

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The exact cause of the crash is still under investigation. :laughing7: But we expect that "China" had something to do with the aircraft.
pl1.jpg pl2.jpg
 

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