Recommendeations/Tips for detecting with Minelab Explorer SE and other Explorers

[TreasureGrabber]

Hello Friends,
The following recommendations are from my practice and also from some expert detectorists found online or offline.
Hope the tips to be useful for newbies and not so newbies...

• Use always All Metal and detector will be faster, deeper, will avoid threshold nulling and recovering times when you may miss good targets.
• Sweep Slow( 4-8 seconds per sweep) and Sweep Low(barely touching ground, grass ).
• Fast Off – Deep On, fast on – deep on doesn’t make better.
• Investigate questionable targets from different angles, 90 degrees, 120 degrees, 180 degrees… and one way signal will become two ways, when the sweeping angle is correct.
• Investigate questionable targets by the front edge of the coil bent down to lower mineralization effects on the whole coil, and investigate from 4 sides.
• When the detector becomes erratic, stop detecting for a moment and when it becomes stable again continue detecting.
• Decrease sensitivity when iron is falsing besides good target, and good target signal will remain.
• Must achieve stable Fe Co reading at least Co reading.
• Stable (changing 1-4 digits)Co reading is very reliable signal to dig.
• Horizontal and diagonal traces, especially on the right part of the screen -> Good Target
• No traces, (No directional moving of cross hair), scattered signal all over the screen-> Junk
• Pinpoint and look at the traces and FE CO numbers, if there are stable CO numbers dig.
• High-><-Low CO numbers(changing more then 5 digits) on the right edge of the screen --> Rust
• 00 31, 01 31, 00 00 is usually iron or “Hot Rock”, especially when it is moving back and force to 31 31.
• Usually left then FE 22 is iron, but sometimes there may go some silver/copper targets too in bad ground conditions.
• When “cross hair” is playing on the right part of the screen is good target.
• When “cross hair” is playing from left top to center and right bottom is iron.
• CO number in the ground are very consistent to the numbers in air tests, study your potential targets before you go to the field.
• When cross hair and FECO digits are not constant but there is stable, repeatable audio signal of good target, dig.
• Use variability 8 to distinguish falsing iron and hot rocks(they should have highest tone) from good targets.
• If the sound is weak (near the bottom of depth meter) and cross hair is playing -> coin.
• If the sound is strong (near the top of the depth meter) and cross hair is playing ->junk.

Feel free to add your tips/recommendations!
Also feel free to criticize any of the tips, having in mind that they keep only recommending character and all the tips may have "side effects" too!

 

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[TreasureGrabber]

Any comments?...

 

[Igyjastabay]

I always use the pinpoint button when i suspect iron just to make sure. I iron will project a false signal to the right of it, sometimes up to 6 inches in wet soil. This the ghost signal that fools many.

I always determine depth / good target by lifting my coil.

I lower my gain in trash where most people lower their sens. I find the the gain has more influence than sens.

Sure I'll come up with a few more later.

 

[TreasureGrabber]

Igyjastabay,
Great Tips!
Can you write more about this "I always use the pinpoint button when i suspect iron just to make sure. I iron will project a false signal to the right of it, sometimes up to 6 inches in wet soil. This the ghost signal that fools many." ?

Do you have any idea what is the reason for this?
What bad targets can be eliminated by this tip (old rusty iron nails?...)?

 

[Deadlift]

Great stuff! I noticed last weekend if you have a high tone amd the cursor moves from the right corner horizontally left a bit, DIG IT. I was rewarded w/an 8" merc this way.

 

[TreasureGrabber]

Deadlift,
Congrats

 

[TreasureGrabber]

Here is the reply to my questions, which I got in PM from Igyjastabay.
I'm publishing it with great thanks to him for great tip:

"Rusty iron can sound like silver. If I get a signal that sounds like silver but it is somewhat choppy, I will change to pinpoint mode and run the coil over where I think the silver might be. If I hear nothing then I move the coil to the left of the hole and find the iron (still in pinpoint mode). This happens mostly when it is wet soil, the kind I like to hunt in. I think the false signal derives from a polarity issue when old rusty iron is near an electromagnetic current (your coil). For me iron is 9 times out of 10 to the left of that false signal."

 

[jhen999]

I hunt with my SE with the screen wide open, with ferrous tones, limits 10 gain 10 var.10 when I hear a good high tone, I look at where the curser is, I look at the fer-co number is with the pin point on, 90% of the stuff I dig are good targets, I still dig pull tab and bottle caps...but not as much as I used to...

 

[TreasureGrabber]

one more tip for newbies or not so:
step 1. when you are on the new area switch to semiauto mode on sensitivity 32 and listen the sound...
step 2. now switch to manual... and decrease sensitivity until you hear the same sound you heard on semiauto...
step 3. look on your sensitivity bar and here it is... the most comfortably sensitivity level for the machine...
step 4. now increase the sensitivity by +1, +2 or +3 and you will have the machine in the hottest mode available for the area!!

 

[TreasureGrabber]

Actually the mentioned above is what etrac does automatically...

 

[TreasureGrabber]

I have come to one conclusion from my practice...
Mainly it is useless to chase after top of line metal detectors every year...
Just study your detector...Understand what it tells you and become expert with it...
You will do miracles with your current one!

P.S. Minelab Explorer (II, SE, SE Pro) is really excellent machine!! Not speaking about E-trac!

They will be useful quite a long time...

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Very informative thread! Thank you for sharing.

 

[LI Tom]

The Explorers are are great machines and I've used them for many years and I still have an XS and II.I've had a 3030 for the last 18 months and its a bit better in trash but I still I still grab the II when I need a small coil which I have on the II.BTW great tips with experience one can learn the to tell the high tone of iron from a coin with no problem.

 

[TreasureGrabber]

with experience one can learn the to tell the high tone of iron from a coin with no problem.

Yes, you are absolutely right! high tone of iron is "shorter".

 

[TheSleeper]

Very good suggestions, ty for posting them.
To reply to a few of these suggestions: Disclaimer these are my personnel opinions, I agree with 90% of the ops posted settings and tips.
These suggestions pertain mainly to those deep iffy, very faint targets only:

Use always All Metal and detector will be faster, deeper, will avoid threshold nulling and recovering times when you may miss good targets.
By setting the detector in Const sound (singular sound transmitted for any metal) you will also speed up the detector and gain a slight advantage in depth. Mainly for those times I am digging everything, relics, beach etc.

Fast Off – Deep On, fast on – deep on doesn’t make better
Seldom have I ever used both "on" at the same time, BUT sometimes on a faint iffy signal fast on deep on will clarify the signal enough to warrant digging it.

Decrease sensitivity when iron is falsing besides good target, and good target signal will remain
On shallower targets agreed, but on those deep iffies I hunt, sometimes decreasing sens you'll loose the target.

step 1. when you are on the new area switch to semiauto mode on sensitivity 32 and listen the sound...
step 2. now switch to manual... and decrease sensitivity until you hear the same sound you heard on semiauto...
step 3. look on your sensitivity bar and here it is... the most comfortably sensitivity level for the machine...
step 4. now increase the sensitivity by +1, +2 or +3 and you will have the machine in the hottest mode available for the area!!

This is my personnel feeling, I totally agree with what you are saying though.
For the best depth, I always run manual and adjust to the point of falsing then back off one or two, until she is stable. It gives you the greatest depth, but sometimes she will chatter on u. (EDIT 1)Actually its more complex than this, I adjust as high as I can go till she chatters, then I noise cancel to see if that settles her down, sometimes it will sometimes not, if it does I add a # or two until she chatters again then re noise cancel until she is absolutely running as hot as she can. (Edit 2). Remember you have 11 channels so realistically you could adjust- noise cancel, adjust- noise cancel, 11 times searching for the highest sens and quietest channel for that setting. (Edit 3). sorry for all the edits but trying to make sure I do not mislead anyone, this is for those times you are hunting alone, as other hunters will make several channels noisy thus limiting your ability to up the sens and noise cancel. With this setting yes sometimes she will chatter at you, instead of adjusting sens try re-noise canceling, if that doesn't help then drop sens. Some soils, electro magnetic interference you just have to run in auto.

I have come to one conclusion from my practice...
Mainly it is useless to chase after top of line metal detectors every year...
Just study your detector...Understand what it tells you and become expert with it...
You will do miracles with your current one!

P.S. Minelab Explorer (II, SE, SE Pro) is really excellent machine!! Not speaking about E-trac!

They will be useful quite a long time...

I totally agree.....

 

[TreasureGrabber]

TheSleeper,
Thank you for your useful comments
Great addition to this thread.

 

[TreasureGrabber]

Another good tip from TheSleeper here: http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/minelab/447419-secret-se-se-pro-depth.html