considering selling explorer II in exchange for sovereign: opinions?

[dbsmokey]

I currently have an excalibur 800 and minelab explorer II as part of my 'arsenal.' I have used both for approx 2 months. I hunt mostly parks and school grounds. There is not a lot of silver in the Pacific NW compared to the east coast, so I mainly focus on jewelery with hopes of finding silver. I have found the excalibur more intuitive, easier to use (but heavier) and have found WAAAY more jewelry and coins with the excalibur than with the explorer. I have read many posts about the depth, silver seeking, iron mask capabilities of the explorer vs. most other machines. I don't doubt them.

I am considering selling the explorer II in exchange for a sovereign gt. I think having the gt, more like the excalibur, one that I seem to understand better, would be a good move. I don't want this to be a downgrade, however. Should I give the explorer more time? Should I go with my gut? Does anyone else think that finding gold rings is more of a challenge with the explorer than the excalibur/sovereign? Opinions are welcome!

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

How to Research for Treasure Hunting and Metal Detecting From Lead Generation to Vetting - Grab it through Amazon!

[Joe(TX)]

.......dbsmokey..........I am doing the opposite of what you are doing.......I have a Sovereign Elite and although it is good and I have found a lot of goodies and relics......I follow a bunch of guys who swear by the Explorer..........so I am basicly just curious and have decided to keep my Sovereign .....until I can decide that the Explorer is the best??.....the only thing that really bothers me is that several people have told me that the Learning Curve for the Explorer may take a year or so.........I had no Learning Curve whatsoever with the Sovereign..........I think that the Sovereign will be more versatile than your Excal.........I am a bit tone deaf so I got the 180 meter and it really helps me to differeniate the good objects from the bad ones..........HH....Joe

 

[dbsmokey]

What are the explorer gurus telling you? I have many finds with the explorer II, just no silver yet. I wonder if the technology is better with the SE or E-trac than on the older explorers. I almost always can tell a penny, nickel, quarter, before I dig, but everything else jumps around. I sometimes feel I would be better off without visual and use only audio, hence my potential move to a sovereign.

 

[Joe(TX)]

....the Explorer Guru's are telling me that they can bypass the surface junk and concentrate on the deeper signals....some can tell when the target will be silver....also some tell me that every once in a while they get fooled by a deep nail that looks like deep silver......Joe

 

[Iron Patch]

.......dbsmokey..........I am doing the opposite of what you are doing.......I have a Sovereign Elite and although it is good and I have found a lot of goodies and relics......I follow a bunch of guys who swear by the Explorer..........so I am basicly just curious and have decided to keep my Sovereign .....until I can decide that the Explorer is the best??.....the only thing that really bothers me is that several people have told me that the Learning Curve for the Explorer may take a year or so.........I had no Learning Curve whatsoever with the Sovereign..........I think that the Sovereign will be more versatile than your Excal.........I am a bit tone deaf so I got the 180 meter and it really helps me to differeniate the good objects from the bad ones..........HH....Joe

If you had no learning curve on the Sovereign it means you are a beep and dig guy and pay little attention to other small tidbits of information about the signal. So you will not have a learning curve on the explorer either.

 

[Iron Patch]

As for the Explorer II vs Sovereign, I have never used the Sov. but have every reason to believe the Explorer is a better all around better detector. That being said, it's a tough one to answer because I'm very big on just using one detector and knowing it very well. For a good part of the last 10 years I have owned 2 detectors, an explorer and another explorer. It's my personal opinion you can't tune your ears perfect to one detector if your using two on a regular basis that are different. I'm talking about using it on the highest possible level you have within you.

 

[dbsmokey]

As for the Explorer II vs Sovereign, I have never used the Sov. but have every reason to believe the Explorer is a better all around better detector. That being said, it's a tough one to answer because I'm very big on just using one detector and knowing it very well. For a good part of the last 10 years I have owned 2 detectors, an explorer and another explorer. It's my personal opinion you can't tune your ears perfect to one detector if your using two on a regular basis that are different. I'm talking about using it on the highest possible level you have within you.

IP, I was hoping you would chime in on this. Do you feel the newer explorers outdo the explorer II, xs in any way? How about the newer coils (ie pro) vs stock coil? How do you feel about accuracy of the digital readout and depth? I find the depth meter on my explorer II horribly inacurrate: not just for clad dimes but for just about any target. Depth seems to ALWAYS read deeper than the actual target (even with accurate pinpointing (which I am now able to perform)). I also feel that the digital readout is often inconsistent with any target besides clad coins (with the exception of nickels (they jump around)).

Am I just too novice at the explorer? Is my machine malfunctioning? Both? Do you find gold rings?

 

[Iron Patch]

As for the Explorer II vs Sovereign, I have never used the Sov. but have every reason to believe the Explorer is a better all around better detector. That being said, it's a tough one to answer because I'm very big on just using one detector and knowing it very well. For a good part of the last 10 years I have owned 2 detectors, an explorer and another explorer. It's my personal opinion you can't tune your ears perfect to one detector if your using two on a regular basis that are different. I'm talking about using it on the highest possible level you have within you.

IP, I was hoping you would chime in on this. Do you feel the newer explorers outdo the explorer II, xs in any way? How about the newer coils (ie pro) vs stock coil? How do you feel about accuracy of the digital readout and depth? I find the depth meter on my explorer II horribly inacurrate: not just for clad dimes but for just about any target. Depth seems to ALWAYS read deeper than the actual target (even with accurate pinpointing (which I am now able to perform)). I also feel that the digital readout is often inconsistent with any target besides clad coins (with the exception of nickels (they jump around)).

Am I just too novice at the explorer? Is my machine malfunctioning? Both? Do you find gold rings?

The SE is probably about the same (or the same) as an Explorer II, definitely not better. The E-trac I can't say as I've never used one, but if I thought there was any chance it was I guarantee I would have one. As for coils I bought the pro coil didn't like it as much as the old heavy stock coils so sold it, and was lucky enough to find two white stock coils (must be 6-7 years old now) that were both brand new. What a score that was to me.

I never use the screen because it's just not my nature now, and I hunt around iron a lot at early house sites and as soon as you throw masking into the equation all bets are off for visual ID being accurate. For where I dig the screen provides no extra info. over the sound for me... it's more about digging every non ferrous target no matter what it is. (big or small) I have found a few gold rings, but my limited numbers is not about having the right style to find them, it's where I dig. Not much gold to be found at 200 year old sites. The ones I have found have been decent though, especially a nice Victorian snake ring.

 

[jeff of pa]

Can't tell you what to do,
Everyone is different.

Personally, I Had Explorers Twice, Both times
I ended up going back to the sovereign.

Now when my sovereign needs repair,
I don't hunt, no matter what type detector
I am offered on loan.

 

[dbsmokey]

Can't tell you what to do,
Everyone is different.

Personally, I Had Explorers Twice, Both times
I ended up going back to the sovereign.

Now when my sovereign needs repair,
I don't hunt, no matter what type detector
I am offered on loan.

Why did you go back to the sovereign? What was special about it? I hear what IP is saying, but I don't have the opportunity (yet) to hunt the old, private spots similar to which he has access.

 

[jeff of pa]

Can't tell you what to do,
Everyone is different.

Personally, I Had Explorers Twice, Both times
I ended up going back to the sovereign.

Now when my sovereign needs repair,
I don't hunt, no matter what type detector
I am offered on loan.

Why did you go back to the sovereign? What was special about it? I hear what IP is saying, but I don't have the opportunity (yet) to hunt the old, private spots similar to which he has access.

Lack of all the Bells & Whistles.

Every time I went out with the explorer,
Except once, I Kept thinking what am I missing
with the explorer because of the way I Have it Set ?

Only one trip I Remember finding silver
I Missed with my Sovereign
because of Depth.

I Like the Turn on & Go of the Sovereign
without all the Bells & Whistles urging me
to Play with them.

I can Turn on
set Sense to Auto
turn my Disc all the way down,
& Go.

Havn't been Disappointed with it yet

 

[Iron Patch]

Can't tell you what to do,
Everyone is different.

Personally, I Had Explorers Twice, Both times
I ended up going back to the sovereign.

Now when my sovereign needs repair,
I don't hunt, no matter what type detector
I am offered on loan.

Why did you go back to the sovereign? What was special about it? I hear what IP is saying, but I don't have the opportunity (yet) to hunt the old, private spots similar to which he has access.

Lack of all the Bells & Whistles.

Every time I went out with the explorer,
Except once, I Kept thinking what am I missing
with the explorer because of the way I Have it Set ?

Only one trip I Remember finding silver
I Missed with my Sovereign
because of Depth.

I Like the Turn on & Go of the Sovereign
without all the Bells & Whistles urging me
to Play with them.

I can Turn on
set Sense to Auto
turn my Disc all the way down,
& Go.

Havn't been Disappointed with it yet

Not sure what you were trying to do with the explorer because the basics is what works best! (and it's definitely not complicated) I can say your detector did work fine, as I think I bought it, and it found me lots. (If it was you who sold a big package deal including a monster 18" coil)

 

[jeff of pa]

Can't tell you what to do,
Everyone is different.

Personally, I Had Explorers Twice, Both times
I ended up going back to the sovereign.

Now when my sovereign needs repair,
I don't hunt, no matter what type detector
I am offered on loan.

Why did you go back to the sovereign? What was special about it? I hear what IP is saying, but I don't have the opportunity (yet) to hunt the old, private spots similar to which he has access.

Lack of all the Bells & Whistles.

Every time I went out with the explorer,
Except once, I Kept thinking what am I missing
with the explorer because of the way I Have it Set ?

Only one trip I Remember finding silver
I Missed with my Sovereign
because of Depth.

I Like the Turn on & Go of the Sovereign
without all the Bells & Whistles urging me
to Play with them.

I can Turn on
set Sense to Auto
turn my Disc all the way down,
& Go.

Havn't been Disappointed with it yet

Not sure what you were trying to do with the explorer because the basics is what works best! (and it's definitely not complicated) I can say your detector did work fine, as I think I bought it, and it found me lots. (If it was you who sold a big package deal including a monster 18" coil)

Yep that's the first one I had IP.

as I said too much Temptations
to try & Learn everything
& too much worries by Trying,
I worried I was set wrong.

All I Could think while Hunting
at the points I wasn't finding anything
was "I wonder what I'd
have so far with my sovereign"

Brain Power

a few years later, with the 2, decided to try again.
ended up with the same Results in my head.

Firefighter is getting all types of goodies
with that one these days

 

[OBN]

Got the Se and the 800 & 1000 Excalibur's, these are my first choice detectors. I hunt Almetal with all three, checking the tones in discriminate with the excals {reverse hunting}, With the SE...{Dry sand & land}......tones and using the digital screen, and depth meter, switching between the two is no problem The Sovereign is a great machine but I feel the SE is better, The excal is a sovereign in waterproof wrap, did a compare on the excal'ss, SE, DFX, LS, and CZ20...SE {10inch coil} won hands down on Land, excals rules the wet sand/surf, CZ20, LS better in calm waters of the Chesapeake Bay. My advice, give your EXII a chance, It's just a matter of where you hunt, knowing every detail of your machine and using it to it's fullest.GoodLuck..joe

 

[johnnyboy25]

both are great machines, but explorer gives more target info (dig less trash)

 

[MonDak]

I'm with Jeff on this one.
I had some ground that I found a lot of barber dimes, V nickles, IH's
and good for tokens that I found with the Sov.
Bitten by the Exp. hype I bought one thinking I would really find a
bunch more. After spending two summers going over the same ground
with the Exp II, it only enhanced my finds with a couple more coins.
I still have the Exp II, but I hardly ever take it with me any more.

 

[TheTreasureAddict]

Hey all,

Heres the bottom line. The ETRAC is Better than the SE, the SE is better than the Explorer the Explorer is better than the quattro but just barely. Now this might not make some of you happy to hear(Mr.IP especially) this is the ranking by someone that has actually owned and operated these machine for more than 10 minutes and gotten bored. The machines all have slight ups and downs but if you are thinking of going with and EXP series, just skip the crap and go with the ETRAC, It dominates the series. The sovereign is an amazing machine to, although I do not own one the difference between it and and EXCAL is the ability to turn off masking and a speaker and not much else. The machine excels on the beach and i have several friends that are very succesful with them on land as well, but IMO if you are serious about land hunting you will use the machine with the fastest recovery time and the best depth, not to waste that precious time effort before the wife drags us home by our shafts. The EXP series if you use the machines right and take the time to learn them will identify the target much more than a Sov will and be a much more versatile machine in the future in all land situations. Again this is my opinion, now its not my opinion that the NOISE CANCEL actually works, thats a fact! But we can save that battle with IP in a later post.


Explorer 2- IMO improvements with depth and definately target Identification
SE- Depth is rediculous but recovery time for targets after masking is terrible after using a ETRAC.
Quattro- ID and depth were close to the SE but the machines target delay was quite slow making recovery of targets a bit slow.
ETRAC- Depth, ID and mask recovery are amazing, Machine is very light. The stated issue above about the rusty nail be mistaken very silver is a recovery issue. Practice using deep recovery and go slower over the target a better more clear ID will be shown, also switching to all metal mode will give a proper ID also of the target.

Now its time for my question of the post.

If IP's house was on fire and he could only save one thing which would it be?

A. Wife
B. Noise Cancel
C. His Explorer
D. His other Explorer

Just messin with you IRONPATCH!

Crackbadger out!

 

[dbsmokey]

Hey all,

Heres the bottom line. The ETRAC is Better than the SE, the SE is better than the Explorer the Explorer is better than the quattro but just barely. Now this might not make some of you happy to hear(Mr.IP especially) this is the ranking by someone that has actually owned and operated these machine for more than 10 minutes and gotten bored. The machines all have slight ups and downs but if you are thinking of going with and EXP series, just skip the crap and go with the ETRAC, It dominates the series. The sovereign is an amazing machine to, although I do not own one the difference between it and and EXCAL is the ability to turn off masking and a speaker and not much else. The machine excels on the beach and i have several friends that are very succesful with them on land as well, but IMO if you are serious about land hunting you will use the machine with the fastest recovery time and the best depth, not to waste that precious time effort before the wife drags us home by our shafts. The EXP series if you use the machines right and take the time to learn them will identify the target much more than a Sov will and be a much more versatile machine in the future in all land situations. Again this is my opinion, now its not my opinion that the NOISE CANCEL actually works, thats a fact! But we can save that battle with IP in a later post.


Explorer 2- IMO improvements with depth and definately target Identification
SE- Depth is rediculous but recovery time for targets after masking is terrible after using a ETRAC.
Quattro- ID and depth were close to the SE but the machines target delay was quite slow making recovery of targets a bit slow.
ETRAC- Depth, ID and mask recovery are amazing, Machine is very light. The stated issue above about the rusty nail be mistaken very silver is a recovery issue. Practice using deep recovery and go slower over the target a better more clear ID will be shown, also switching to all metal mode will give a proper ID also of the target.

Now its time for my question of the post.

If IP's house was on fire and he could only save one thing which would it be?

A. Wife
B. Noise Cancel
C. His Explorer
D. His other Explorer

Just messin with you IRONPATCH!

Crackbadger out!

Thanks Crackbadger. You kinda confirmed what I had theorized. I am selling the Exp. 2, getting the sov., and will save $ for an e-trac.

 

[Iron Patch]

Hey all,

Heres the bottom line. The ETRAC is Better than the SE, the SE is better than the Explorer the Explorer is better than the quattro but just barely. Now this might not make some of you happy to hear(Mr.IP especially) this is the ranking by someone that has actually owned and operated these machine for more than 10 minutes and gotten bored. The machines all have slight ups and downs but if you are thinking of going with and EXP series, just skip the crap and go with the ETRAC, It dominates the series. The sovereign is an amazing machine to, although I do not own one the difference between it and and EXCAL is the ability to turn off masking and a speaker and not much else. The machine excels on the beach and i have several friends that are very succesful with them on land as well, but IMO if you are serious about land hunting you will use the machine with the fastest recovery time and the best depth, not to waste that precious time effort before the wife drags us home by our shafts. The EXP series if you use the machines right and take the time to learn them will identify the target much more than a Sov will and be a much more versatile machine in the future in all land situations. Again this is my opinion, now its not my opinion that the NOISE CANCEL actually works, thats a fact! But we can save that battle with IP in a later post.


Explorer 2- IMO improvements with depth and definately target Identification
SE- Depth is rediculous but recovery time for targets after masking is terrible after using a ETRAC.
Quattro- ID and depth were close to the SE but the machines target delay was quite slow making recovery of targets a bit slow.
ETRAC- Depth, ID and mask recovery are amazing, Machine is very light. The stated issue above about the rusty nail be mistaken very silver is a recovery issue. Practice using deep recovery and go slower over the target a better more clear ID will be shown, also switching to all metal mode will give a proper ID also of the target.

Now its time for my question of the post.

If IP's house was on fire and he could only save one thing which would it be?

A. Wife
B. Noise Cancel
C. His Explorer
D. His other Explorer

Just messin with you IRONPATCH!

Crackbadger out!

Hey, whatever works for you on your sites, and ranks highest in your opinion, makes no differece to me. I would bet we don't hunt the same type of sites, find the same targets, or especially use a detector in the say ways, so it only makes sense we would disagree on some things.


And for the record...

If the house was on fire I don't have to worry about a wife (not married) so that would give a little more time for the other stuff. I'd probably throw all my display cases, as well as my other coins etc. that aren't finds into a garbage bag, shove my 3 watches in my pocket, grab my wallet and an arm load of clothes, and call the dog on the way out. Oh yeah, and the cordless to call 911.

PS... When I was 21, early one Sunday morning (drunk and like 5am) I got home to see my apartment building had been torched. I didn't really lose anything, and didn't have much to lose anyway, but it was still a relief after walking by my neighbors units seeing their TVs etc. either burnt of soaked from the water. If the fire doesn't get ya, the water does, and if you escape the water, everything still smells like smoke. That was many years ago now but the smell walking into that place will never be erased from my mind.

 

[crazyman]

I can't join in on the debate on which of the Explorer models is better. I've never even held one and have never had a desire to even try one but as a fellow Pacific Northwester I can tell you that you won't be disappointed in the GT. It has easily outperformed just about every detector I've used in the past 30 years for depth in nasty mineralized ground.