Learning the Minelab Explorer XS - Part 1

[Michigan Badger]

Well I've had this Explorer for a week so I should have it mastered by now---BUT I'm a slow learner

So far I've sampled about ever possible setting.

I'm well into my 2nd charge on the battery pack and today I remove the stock coil and try the 6" Excelorator coil.

How am I doing on finds? Not good. But, in this area that's not uncommon.

In fact in 15 hours of hunting I've found (1) memorial cent and (3) pieces of trash and that's it. So far I've dug 67 empty holes.

I did a large amount of reading online and discovered that many who hunt high trash areas with the 10 1/2 inch coil claim this happens to them too so I don't feel alone.

Yup, I removed the coil cover and lowered the gain, sensitivity, checked coil connectors, etc., etc., etc. The machine is extremely sensitive to iron particles in the soil. Here in our small northern Michigan villages the ground is filled with rust and nails due to the fact most of these towns burned down back in about the 20's.

I tried hunting in the various ferrous tone modes with the stock coil but found out in my coin garden that if a coin is within 4 inches of a square nail the coin is blanked out no matter what setting I use.

I think the stock coil would do very well at normal house sites and places where the trash iron is not so heavy. Here the stock coil is useless. It's not a matter of learning the sounds. All those empty holes had great repeatable far upper right sounds.

The depth potential is there but unfortunately the Explorer is not a iron X-ray machine

I can see already Tesoros are much better at pulling nonferrous signals out from between iron bits. But, the Explorer is very deep if one can get a shot down between the iron.

SO...the small coil comes out of the box

More later.

Badger

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Treasure of Victoria Peak - Grab it through Amazon!

[thompy]

4" thats kind if scarry, you have to try the ______, your arm will love you for it. does the XS handle iron that much different than the sov?

 

[kimsdad]

A week and should have mastered it? I don't think so... Don't be so hard on yourself. From everything I've read, it'll take a heck of a lot longer than that. I got an SE a few weeks ago. Same as yourself - chasing good signals into empty holes, etc. It's very frustrating!

I played around with a dime and a rusty nail. I put the dime on the ground and the nail on a box so it was 2 inches higher than the dime. By moving it around closer and farther horizontally, I could see how the 6" coil reacted to the combo, swinging from all directions. Granted, this amounted to an air test, but it was interesting to see how the closer iron masked the dime.

With the 6" coil, even when dime and nail were far enough apart for the SE to get an audio indicator of something on the good side of Smartfind, it tended to pinpoint on one spot midway betwen the two items. I'm wondering if those empty holes I dug were between iron & silver, and I missed it by that much....

I guess it's true that you have to dig it all to get it all.....

 

[Michigan Badger]

A week and should have mastered it? I don't think so... Don't be so hard on yourself. From everything I've read, it'll take a heck of a lot longer than that. I got an SE a few weeks ago. Same as yourself - chasing good signals into empty holes, etc. It's very frustrating!

I played around with a dime and a rusty nail. I put the dime on the ground and the nail on a box so it was 2 inches higher than the dime. By moving it around closer and farther horizontally, I could see how the 6" coil reacted to the combo, swinging from all directions. Granted, this amounted to an air test, but it was interesting to see how the closer iron masked the dime.

With the 6" coil, even when dime and nail were far enough apart for the SE to get an audio indicator of something on the good side of Smartfind, it tended to pinpoint on one spot midway betwen the two items. I'm wondering if those empty holes I dug were between iron & silver, and I missed it by that much....

I guess it's true that you have to dig it all to get it all.....

Hi, I was just kidding about the mastering thing

But I've been at this long enough to see that basically the Explorer is not that much different from other high quality detectors.

No one machine does it all, right?

The strong points of the Explorer seem to be raw depth and discrimination. It will discriminate iron far better than any machine I've owned except the GT. The GT and Explorers are alike in depth and iron discrimination.

I sure wish Tesoro would put this iron rejection ability into their machines!

But, I think the GT is better in target separation.

Basically what I'm seeing so far in actual hunting and my garden tests is that with the Explorer ones looks for solid definite signals (they can be weaker but solid) from at least one direction. All the targets I dug only gave a signal one way and all where over 6 inches deep.

At the snow plow site where memorials run 10+ inches deep, the Explorer couldn't even lock on to a coin. The surrounding rusting trash confused it and digging a coin would be mostly luck. I'd have to dig all repeatable signals and suddenly get lucky and come up with a coin.

The meter crosshairs are all over the place with no consistency at all. Just way too much trash iron for it to process it.

One reason I think Tesoro does better here is because of a weakness it has. Tesoros don't have near the iron discrimination abilities of the Explorer or GT. Because iron breaks through on a signal one can listen for fine slight changes in the iron signal. By turning up the discrimination on a Tesoro one can corrupt the iron signal and thereby tell it's iron.

The Explorer is rock solid in iron discrimination but unfortunately tends to blank out nonferrous metals along with the iron. In a way you mentioned this in your post.

So you're using the 6 inch coil? Find anything good with it yet?

I read elsewhere that it kills the goodies.

 

[kimsdad]

I found a '37 Merc & a '63 Rosie in spots I had worked with the DFX and its stock coil. They were in a real nail-infested area I hunt. Nothing else yet, but like I said, I still don't know what I'm doing with it half the time!

At least I'm swinging it & looking good. Well, at least I'm swinging it.....

 

[Don in SJ]

Best advice in heavy trash areas, lower sensitivity, or avoid super trashy sites. Hopefully the smaller coil will be much better in your heavily trash infested sites. I preferred the ML 8 inch coil (really a 7.5") at a lot of my sites, but not so much for trash, but for getting into tight areas in thick underbrush.

Don

 

[BamaBill]

Best advice in heavy trash areas, lower sensitivity, or avoid super trashy sites. Hopefully the smaller coil will be much better in your heavily trash infested sites. I preferred the ML 8 inch coil (really a 7.5") at a lot of my sites, but not so much for trash, but for getting into tight areas in thick underbrush.

Don

Wish they made one of those for the Xterras.

I, for one, will be real interested in the kind of depth you're getting with the 6" coil. Is it a DD coil? For relic hunting I'm coming to the conclusion that you have to have a set of coils. My take is that you need a large (11-12") general search coil (concentric or DD) that is as light as can be made for searching out camps, picket posts, homesteads (where there's scant evidence). Where covering a lot of ground to good depth matters. Also a lighter midsize coil 8-10" for hunting a spread out campsite (probably an elliptical DD coil so as make it easier to get through the brush). And finally a 6-7" DD coil to get between the iron in a campsite or homesite (this coil would probably see the most use once you had some sites established). To me its kind of like golfing, you probably could play the game with just one club, but your score will be a lot better if you have all the tools you need.

 

[Michigan Badger]

Best advice in heavy trash areas, lower sensitivity, or avoid super trashy sites.

Don

Good advice!

I just got back from memorial penny city and dug only 1 penny. I had lots of good sounding signals with crosshair upper right but most turned out to be either trash tin or nothing.

On the way back I stopped at a site I was hunting after dark last evening. Just before I left there last night I got a great sounding deep high pitched signal with crosshair in upper right. I didn't dig it because I wanted to return today with the small 6" coil and see if it could detect the target. The 6" sounded off loud and clear with a high pitch signal and crooshair upper right. I was sure I had an old coin. I dug a large square nail down about 6 inches.

The learning continues.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Have you tried going out with a proficient Explorer user (not just a sandbox clad hunter), and having him flag what he suspects will be deeep coin-type signals? Then you can watch the way he swings, criss-crosses, moves, etc... hear what he's hearing, and THEN the lights will go on. It's just that way with a machine like the Explorer, where odd-balls tones tell a ton. No amount of printed text can explain a "sound". It has to be heard & seen.

 

[Michigan Badger]

4" thats kind if scarry, you have to try the ______, your arm will love you for it. does the XS handle iron that much different than the sov?

Hi.

The GT seems much smoother and diffinite. I guess that's the only way I could put it.

The Explorer is like a GT loaded with caffine. It's hyper and jumpy.

The Explorer reminds me of what a doctor once said to a fat man who asked if he should take vitamins. The doctor replied: "You taking vitamins would be like putting rocket fuel in a VW Bug!."

It maybe has more power than it can handle.

One thing I always wondered about my GT was how it was handling iron. I knew it was super deep (so is the Explorer) out in the more open areas. But I wondered if I was missing good targets in the super trashy areas. Maybe I was

It's early and a lot more using the Explorer is in order.

Badger

 

[midmich]

I was curious after reading your posts regarding "blanking out", have you had tried running less discrimination or even all metal? I was wondering if you could pick out the good signals any better.
Thanks.

 

[Michigan Badger]

I was curious after reading your posts regarding "blanking out", have you had tried running less discrimination or even all metal? I was wondering if you could pick out the good signals any better.
Thanks.

Yes, I was doing that tonight and it worked GREAT!

I had a bad day over another issue not related to metal detecting and it had me in a bad mood.

These worked out and tonight the Minelab worked MUCH better.

It really is a good machine.

It takes time to learn but already I can see it's excellent

 

[kimsdad]

BamaBill,
It's a 6" Exellerator DD that I have. I airtested it and am getting about 6 1/2 to 7 inches on dimes/quarters.

I've been hunting in all metal to lessen the chance of a good hit being masked, but I have sens cranked. I'm going to back it off for a while & see what happens.

I'm no expert, but if I had an old site like that where I had a lot of time and could dig, I'd dig everything & clear the iron. Seems to me there's always the chance of a great coin being masked - at least from what I've seen so far.

 

[Michigan Badger]

BamaBill,
It's a 6" Exellerator DD that I have. I airtested it and am getting about 6 1/2 to 7 inches on dimes/quarters.

I've been hunting in all metal to lessen the chance of a good hit being masked, but I have sens cranked. I'm going to back it off for a while & see what happens.

I'm no expert, but if I had an old site like that where I had a lot of time and could dig, I'd dig everything & clear the iron. Seems to me there's always the chance of a great coin being masked - at least from what I've seen so far.

That's the coil I have. I really like it and I think it makes learning the Explorer a lot easier.

I dug a penny and an old model A toy car tonight. The car was in bad shape but it was a cool find.

Badger

 

[Ricardo_NY1]

i think the smaller coil you threw on will make a difference badger, and you'd be suprised at the depth those smaller coils can achieve on an Explorer. What exactly are your settings Badger? What is your iron mask set to?

 

[Michigan Badger]

i think the smaller coil you threw on will make a difference badger, and you'd be suprised at the depth those smaller coils can achieve on an Explorer. What exactly are your settings Badger? What is your iron mask set to?

Hi, yes, in part 2 of this series I mentioned that the small coil was a BIG help in learning the Explorer.

I ended up running ferrous tones, zero iron discrimination, DEEP, 10 Gain, Sensitivity about 27, etc..

I set almost verything maxed out because the 6" Exceleator coil can handle it and because of this I think it's almost as deep as the stock 10 1/2 inch coil.

It works well now so all I have to do is learn the various sound patterns.

Thanks,

Badger