Detecting on land with Excalibur II- Ideas on settings

[oxbowbarefoot]

So I received my new Minelab Excalibur II last week. I used it for about an hour on a beach in Newport, Rhode Island with some pretty good success. I dug some really deep quarters (10-12") and dimes around 10". I used it for a few hours in knee to waste deep fresh water and found targets that I have missed with my Ace 250. On land I have also found many coins and items in my lawn that I had gone over with my Ace 250, including some older wheat pennies and a 1936 dog tag. I was wondering what settings people use when hunting parks with their Excals. The parks I hunt haven't been too heavily detected but are loaded with can slaw and other trash. I have had a decent amount of success with my Ace 250 in these parks, finding both a gold ring and several sterling items, but only one silver coin (war nickel). I was thinking about doing a quick scout for silver with the disc cranked all the way up. I know I will miss gold by doing this, but I will be hunting these parks again.
I'd appreciate any thoughts, thank you.

 

[Sandman]

Most won't use the Excal in parks because of the weight and lack of good pinpointing mode. You end up doing to much damage to the grass with the Excal. Park hunting is best done with a total land detector with a zero motion pinpoint mode. However for settings plain old Auto works wonders and a disc setting of no more than 2 since it ignores small iron anyway. It pays to check out the disc settings on clean ground to see where each drops off.

 

[oxbowbarefoot]

Thanks for the info. The weight is not a concern for me. It saves me from having to do shoulders and external rotations at the gym
I haven't run into any problems pin-pointing targets up to 8", but once I get over 8" I usually am off by an few inches in my pin-point, which does lead to a bigger hole than I would like to dig. My Garrett Pro-Pointer helps to solve that. I am very good at pin-pointing with my Ace 250, and will use that one sports fields that are still in use until I get better with the Excal. I'll stick to the edges, tot-lots and woods with the Excal for now.

 

[sgratrider]

I set my volume full blast, threshold humming, disc. right below 13, say 12.5, sens as much as ground allows to run smooth, i tweak the disc up or down, and i mean tweak, just a tad once i find pull tab, and i can get em to be scratchy and still find gold. Good luck, I love running mine on land, and have found lots of keepers.

 

[dbsmokey]

Most won't use the Excal in parks because of the weight and lack of good pinpointing mode. You end up doing to much damage to the grass with the Excal. Park hunting is best done with a total land detector with a zero motion pinpoint mode. However for settings plain old Auto works wonders and a disc setting of no more than 2 since it ignores small iron anyway. It pays to check out the disc settings on clean ground to see where each drops off.

I use only my TDI and my excal to hunt land. The weight can be handled by buying or making a straight shaft. Pinpointing is simple and VERY accurate. I cause no damage to the grass. In fact, I find it quite easy to pinpoint in both all metal and discrim modes. Just watch the front of the coil and note where the signal quits. The target will be directly in front of the coil.

 

[oxbowbarefoot]

The learning curve for my new Excal II has been not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. I have found my favorite land settings for my area. I adjust them slightly based on conditions and trash. I keep my disc set at about 11 o'clock, sensitivity at 12 o'clock and volume at about 75%. I know a lot of people like the volume on full to hear and difference in tone, but I seem to hear the tone differences just fine at a less annoying volume. I keep the threshold just barely audible. I have grown confident enough in my ability to tell pull tabs, can slaw and bottle caps without digging them. Silver stands out very clearly and I know the one gold ring I have found so far was gold before I dug it.