Night detecting with the Explorer SE Pro

[Goldpick]

I thought it was probably about time to start a new thread for the Explorer, and keep the former one dedicated to the Ace. Tonights hunt was back to the beach to finish off detecting the same area where I had previously found the three rings and spendables. Turns out even more erosion had occured over the last few days, so I was keen to hook in. All up a not too badder night, a few more decimals, several sinkers, keys, a piece of gold plated copper that looks to have been off some jewellery, and a nice little 925 silver ring.

I pretty much just spent the night gridding up the concerned section of beach, and the drain which was full of rocks. The decimals always pop up in front of beach entrances and well frequented areas, and pretty much nothing in between, as you can see, none of them are recent drops, simply a layer of settled coins that has been exposed.

So far I am loving the Explorer, very simple to use on the beach, has excellent depth and runs very stable at high sensitivity. Best detector I have used on the beach so far. If I do have one complaint about it, some of the smaller buttons (menu/backlighting/threshold/sensitivity), are quite hard to locate at night, especially with the control box cover on. On the upside, you can pretty much set and forget the Explorer from the outset. I tend to also leave the backlighting on all the time, and despite being a drain on the batteries, the Explorer only uses about a quarter of the battery over 4-5 hours.

 

[Coyote]

Looks like you two are getting along fine. Sinkers must have been the theme for yesterday . I got to the beach for about 45 minutes yesterday for 3 sinkers.

Today's weather looks like it will move some sand. blowing a gale at 7am. I hope it drops off a bit for you tonight.

Cliff

 

[Guest]

Goldpick you can do 2 things.

Buy some fluro tape and attach a small piece
On that button or put some silicone over the
Button and wait till it dries then when you touch
That button you know its the button by feel.

Looking forward to seeing some of your finds.

 

[Goldpick]

After the last few outings, I was getting tired of having to clean up the mud and sand off the Explorer each night, so I've invested in some sexy camo covers to help add some protection, also to prevent scratches and retain some resale value. I was especially after something to cover the battery compartment from light rain. The set also came with a camo control box cover, but the Minelab one already provides pretty good protection, and overlaps on the rear cover giving total coverage.

Meanwhile, I am still waiting to receive my Pro-find from warranty repairs, so will hopefully see that in the post in the near future.

 

[Sa_bogan]

sweet cover. i thought about getting one for my ctx but then thought i think that by the time i upgrade she will be well used. how do you like the ur 30 headphones? i have found them to be 50/50 some days, they are a good fit but i wish they didnt fold up in half as i find they slip off my head sometimes. Its too bad your detector doesnt use the wifi speaker unit, its great not being connected to the detector with a cable

 

[Goldpick]

I really like the Koss headphones, very comfortable and seem to quash any background noise very well. But as you mention, they have a habit of gradually slipping off your head when the detector is placed on the ground, the cord needs to be a tad longer.

 

[Goldpick]

Back to the same beach spot as above, reckon I've cleaned the area out pretty much for now. Oldest coin was a very corroded 1948 penny, and a few bits of jewellery, including a very small 925 silver cross, and a part of a necklace with a few stones in it.

Tell you what, my hands are damned frozen, only 3 degrees here at the moment. Might head back to the parks next trip, do a few tot lots with the Ace, and chase a bit of silver with the Explorer.

 

[Goldpick]

......I'm busy studying to improve my understanding of the Explorer, great book so far, highly recommended.

 

[Goldpick]

Headed for the hills tonight, even colder than the beach, just not as wet. Not a too badder run, the area detected is very junky with more iron and aluminium targets than you can poke a stick at, but was happy to be able to pull out a couple of pre-decs and some spendables.

The best coin of the night is probably one of the oldest I've come across so far, an 1884 Victoria half penmy with some real nice detail and a fantastic green patina, pity about the small scrape on one of faces (not my doing). Other coins include a 1914 King George half penny, a 1919 King George Penny, and lastly a 1944 Roo penny. I'm off to my scratcher and electric blanket!

 

[Paulmarr]

Ok- Goldpick is nominated for the 2014 Detecting Badge of Courage - it was the coldest August morning in Adelaide in 126 years!

To be out looting parks in this weather surely shows dedication! (Or a obsessive compulsive disorder)

The 1884 penny is a beauty!

 

[Goldpick]

Obsessive compulsive disorder. Loving this andy sabisch book. With some of the tips learnt over the last few nights of reading, I'm sure I can screw some more pre-decs out of these sites now I have some insight on how to pick up good conductors from the iron rubbish.

I see Yunta had an overnight temp of -5.8, unbelievable!

 

[Goldpick]

Another local park hunt tonight, I reckon the place is held together by aluminium junk, the coin to junk ratio was a killer, but still managed to weed out a couple of older coins. The one unmistakable tone of the night came from a 1917 Shilling, so that made my night.

 

[Paulmarr]

Bagging a silver makes an otherwise miserable hunt a gem! It is in pretty good nick for 98 years old - and a Shillie to boot!

 

[Guest]

Goldpick how does the new machine handle metal beer bottle screw caps?

Does the machine have an ability to id the target by size?

Nice shilling BTW.

Thanks for sharing..

 

[Decado]

Following with interest Goldpick

I ordered one of the last Explorer SE Pros on Saturday and am eagerly awaiting delivery.

Regards
Dec

 

[Goldpick]

Goldpick how does the new machine handle metal beer bottle screw caps?

Does the machine have an ability to id the target by size?

Nice shilling BTW.

Thanks for sharing..

You can discriminate out metal beer bottle caps, but in the process you also risk discriminating out $1 coins and pennies, hence I only have crown caps knocked out, and not the screwcaps.

The way I can ID targets by size is usually by looking at the ferrous/conductivity figures, and then cross check them with the depth reading. If you have a very good conductor with low ferrous reading, and the depth is very shallow, most of the times it a large piece of aluminium junk, get the same figure deep, chances are it is a silver pre-dec, both might read 00:28. Plus you can also check in VCO pinpoint mode to get an idea of the physical size of the target, anything with a broad but high conductivity signal is usually a flattened can or the top section.

That last hunt I did had a lot of smaller aluminium pull tabs and ring pulls due to having jewellery accepted in the discrimination pattern

I think the CTX can actually display the target size, but not 100% sure on that.

 

[Goldpick]

Following with interest Goldpick

I ordered one of the last Explorer SE Pros on Saturday and am eagerly awaiting delivery.

Regards
Dec

I don't think you will be disappointed, it was a great buy considering the Safari still sells for $1300, a no brainer for a more advanced detector. Make sure you get some covers for the Explorer, cheap insurance to protect your investment.

 

[Decado]

Thanks for the feedback Goldpick

The Explorer arrived in this mornings mail and is assembled behind me with the battery on charge. I ordered it with the control box cover for a start.

I am looking at some 3 piece covers in camo pattern on ebay from Ukraine for around $55 Australian delivered.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Rain-Dus...etal_Detector_Accessories&hash=item3ce373044d

There are some other covers listed from the U.S. in multiple colours.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/MINELAB-...t=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item19e1668746

To be honest the ones from the U.S. look less neat and like they would snag more in the brush so as much as I get a little twitchy about ordering fromt he former Soviet Republics I think I'll be going that way.

Regards Dec

Edit

I just had another look at your pictures and I see you went for the Ukraine ones yourself XD

 

[Goldpick]

The Ukraine ones fit nice and snug, but not too tight, the main difference being no cover over the rubber end cap, but that is reasonably weather resistant anyway. The main selling point behind the US ones was the loose fit helped inhibit condensation buildup, especially around the control box. If that were the case, why is Minelab's cover so damned tight?? The Ukraine cover does just fine, and is good value for money, mine didn't take long to get here.

 

[Goldpick]

One other thing Decado, you need to take it slow with your swing speeds on the Explorer. Compared to a single frequency VLF, swing speeds are much lower to allow the detector to process the multiple frequencies, and to help pick out those nice high tones amongst the buried junk. I have found the beach is the best place to learn about target responses and vdi numbers, as you have less junk to deal with, mainly iron targets. Heading to a junk laden park can be intimidating, with the sheer amount targets passing under the coil at any one moment.

Stick with the factory preset to start off with until your confidence grows, then you can start to fiddle with discrimination and settings based in where you are likely to detect.

The Andy Sabisch book posted above is an excellent insight into the Explorer, and describes various setups from people all over the world and why they use them, bets the heck out of the Minelab instruction manual.