Excal 1000 (old blue) settings recommendations?

[lost items recovery]

Hello excal users I've recently picked up a excal 1000 ( old blue) and have been running the settings as recommended by the book for beach hunting. Been running the same settings for dry, wet sand and shallow water with no complaints but am wondering if there is any advanced settings or do and don'ts that you may like to share. Still very new to this machine and absolutely love it! Main concern is the sensitivity setting, been running it in auto but I've heard people say not to run it in that mode. I'd really appreciate your recommendations and your experiences. Thanks for any help!

 

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[bigscoop]

I never run my sense in auto, I always set it at whatever I can get away with and still remain in a stable condition. The threshold I adjust to where I can just barely hear it and I run my volume just a tad bit on the high side so I can more easily hear any interruption (I've got good hearing but some guys run their volume really high). It's best to set the threshold by turning it one and dialing up until you get a good hum, then slowly back it down until you can just barely hear it, this is how I do it anyway. I'm always adjusting my sensitivity setting dependent on the conditions and the coil being used. Turbulence and strong currents often require me to turn it down, but when the water is flat and calm I crank it way up, I do the same over the wet & dry sand. When in PP mode, or what I call the creep & crawl mode, I hunt/swing much slower then when hunting in disc mode as this is where you'll start to encounter those really faint interruptions in the threshold, and, the better the headphones the more easily you'll be able to detect these interruptions. Whydah and others call this "micro hunting" which is actually a pretty good definition because that's basically what you're doing, hunting at the machine's most extreme performance levels so you'll be able to detect those "micron-like" responses/interruptions. But this is very tedious hunting and my hat goes off to those who can continually do it day in and day out. Me, I have to be inspired or in a really laid back mood. But if you can master it you'll be surprised at how many good targets you can pull often from those heavily hunted areas. I know when I'm in the right mood, and when I'm swinging the 12x15 SEF, I'm constantly amazed at how deep many of the targets were. The other day I dug what was perhaps the deepest silver ring I have ever dug, easily beyond 18" and it wasn't a large ring at all, right at 2.2 grams and it was just a whisper all the way. But be prepared to dig "a lot" of deep pull tabs and other crap as well when hunting like this as there's just no escaping them because disc mode won't be able to respond to many of these targets. Hope this helps.

 

[lost items recovery]

Awesome! Thank you very much for the info.
I can tell these machines are serious business compared to what I have been swinging in the past just not to sure on how to find the settings that are right for me yet. What I mean is I don't think I've got things dialed in correctly for maximum depth yet but have certainly been digging deeper then I have been.
Found 2 rings in 2 days with it but unfortunately they're both Junkers.😢
I've been experiencing a problem with the disc/ pp knob as it maybe stripped. It will turn to both positions and even make a change in the threshold but maybe 1 out of 20 times it will go into pin point.
Because I love it so much I don't really care to much and I'm good with digging iron for a while after swinging a pi for about a year.
I definitely want to fix the knob and will soon but right now I'm just enjoying its awesomeness!!
Thinking about and trying to work up the courage to do the pinpoint/disc toggle switch mod because it's an old blue 1000 out of warranty anyway but I'm so scared if something went wrong and I lost my new buddy.
Oh I would never forgive myself and wouldn't be able to replace it again for a while.
I'd be back in bobby pin hell to burn for all eternity and I would deserve it! Lol!
Seriously though it looks like something I'd be totally comfortable doing but just don't know if there's a way to solder the contacts where it would cause permanent damage. Just don't know that I trust 1 YouTube video enough yet.
Thanks again and good luck out there!

 

[CSMPEREZ]

Confirm Bigscoop, he's spot on. That's how I run! By the way, I have an Excal II as my backup. Like my 1000 better! Ray

 

[lost items recovery]

Confirm Bigscoop, he's spot on. That's how I run! By the way, I have an Excal II as my backup. Like my 1000 better! Ray

Thanks for responding. Glad to hear the good review on the old blue!
Good luck to ya!

 

[bigscoop]

Awesome! Thank you very much for the info.
I can tell these machines are serious business compared to what I have been swinging in the past just not to sure on how to find the settings that are right for me yet. What I mean is I don't think I've got things dialed in correctly for maximum depth yet but have certainly been digging deeper then I have been.
Found 2 rings in 2 days with it but unfortunately they're both Junkers.
I've been experiencing a problem with the disc/ pp knob as it maybe stripped. It will turn to both positions and even make a change in the threshold but maybe 1 out of 20 times it will go into pin point.
Because I love it so much I don't really care to much and I'm good with digging iron for a while after swinging a pi for about a year.
I definitely want to fix the knob and will soon but right now I'm just enjoying its awesomeness!!
Thinking about and trying to work up the courage to do the pinpoint/disc toggle switch mod because it's an old blue 1000 out of warranty anyway but I'm so scared if something went wrong and I lost my new buddy.
Oh I would never forgive myself and wouldn't be able to replace it again for a while.
I'd be back in bobby pin hell to burn for all eternity and I would deserve it! Lol!
Seriously though it looks like something I'd be totally comfortable doing but just don't know if there's a way to solder the contacts where it would cause permanent damage. Just don't know that I trust 1 YouTube video enough yet.
Thanks again and good luck out there!

That's why I let OBN do mine up, he's done so many he can do them in his sleep. And you certainly won't regret it.....as OBN says, "it will change the way you hunt." This addition, along with the headphone upgrade, and you'll start sleeping with the thing. Heck, mine has it's own pillow!

 

[lost items recovery]

Lol! Where is he from?

 

[TheSleeper]

Seriously what bigScoop said, if your coming from a PI go into pinpoint mode and stay there, but crawl, and the headphone mod will really help. I am the slowest hunter you will ever see, most hunters pass me, go down the beach out of sight and come back and I'm like maybe 10 feet away from where I was when they passed me the first time. But ya know what, I find the junk, the good and the bad junk that is.

The excal in pinpoint mode is really like a PI unit, it hits deep as cxxp no major tone difference, minor tuning but you have to hunt slow to find those deep dark secrets, and as he said its not just about them banging out at you its also when the threashold goes silent.