Copied this program information from a website
So I can't vouch for it's accuracy yet. If anyone tries these settings, please post effectiveness you achieved with it. Ground soil will vary a lot region to region, so settings effectiveness will surely vary state to state. Here it is and hope that its ok to post this here. I removed a hyperlink to another part of the authors site from this copy/paste document.
Scott
My Program For Minelab Explorer XS and Explorer II For Deep Search
How To Detect The Oldest Coins And Relics Buried Deep
Beginning of My Program
The current Metal Detecting Program, a combination of parameter settings, on my Explorer XS is a result of Try and Error process that have been continuing for past four years. My goal in creating an optimal program was to be able to metal detect successfully under any condition that I might encounter at different geographic locations.
Even though Explorer's 28 Simultaneous Operating Frequencies of the Full Band Spectrum (FBS) allow me to detect without a trouble anywhere in the world, I still would like to detect the deepest targets while hunting under toughest conditions. The following program enables my Explorer to detect remarkable finds at the locations where other treasure hunters quit searching long time ago.
The picture on the right shows the deepest hole that I'd ever dug up at the "hunted out" site, and recovered a large coin, circa 18th century. You can read my full story on Detecting "Hunted Out" Site pages.
The changeable parameters are divided into two groups for better understanding of their utilization:
Group A includes the parameters that I don't change every time I encounter different Metal Detecting conditions such as the type of soil, concentration of junk, and type of the top cultural layer.
Group B includes only two parameters, Sensitivity Level and Discrimination Pattern, that I change even a few times during the treasure hunt according to the site conditions. I operate my Explorer XS only in ADVANCED Mode with Sensitivity set up on MANUAL, and with Tone ID.
Group A Settings:
DISPLAY CONTRAST--at 10
AUDIO VOLUME--Max Limit at 10
NOISE--at 5 (if interference from the power lines, other metal detectors, etc. is absent)
RESPONSE--Audio 1
RECOVERY--usually a combination of both FAST and DEEP (otherwise according to site conditions)
GAIN--at 8 (even a deep target produces a loud signal)--Sometimes I lower the Gain level down to 7 when the junk concentration is high.
TH (treshold) TONE--at 3
VARIABILITY--at 10
LIMITS--at 10
SOUNDS on FERROUS (medium size ferrous targets don't respond with a high pitched tone as if of silver)
Group B Settings:
SENSITIVITY--usually as high as possible--a notch below a setting that makes my detector unstable, which is allowed by trash concentration, soil mineralization, and the search coil's size.
Sensitivity Settings for different sizes of Double "D" Waterproof Search Coils:
15 inches WOT Coil--10-20
10.5 inches Standard Coil--up to 28
7.25 inches Coil--up to 32
Learn Your Metal Detector's Language and Its Full Potential Through Understanding The Manual, Practicing, and Experimenting
DISCRIMINATION paterns vary greatly. I utilize IRON MASK for all types of metal detecting: I always keep IRON MASK at -16 and OFF and switch it ON only when I need to check a questionable signal. I usually utilize the Explorer's Discrimination factory settings to create desirable Discrimination paterns. Occasionally, I use LEARN and EDIT option programs in ADVANCED MODE to adjust Discrimination pattern for a particular target.
My basic Discrimination paterns:
For Relic Hunting and Cache Hunting--REJECT: "Nail", ACCEPT everything else
For Coin Shooting --ACCEPT: "Coins", "Jewelry", "Foil", "Pull Tab", "Screwcap"; REJECT: "Fe Coins", "Crowncap", and "Nail"
? Hmmm, what have I been passing over?
