Brand new SE owner & Thoughts

[osros]

Well I got my baby yesterday. I must say I like what I see I now feel like I have a real detector now. I was using a Bounty Hunter Sharpshooter II and as you can guess its like night and day. Before was given limited information now Im bombarded with information and options.

Here are some quick thoughts after a couple hours of use, Im also new to MD very new so some things maybe due to lack of knowledge and experience.

Weight: Yes it has weight but its not heavy, I can see now some of the complaints about its weight but I think it just takes getting used to or if its really bad for you get the Swingy Thingy to help. Compared to my BH SS II it is a big difference but its weight is still very manageable.

10" Stock Coil: The coil works fine in non-trashy areas. I soon saw and heard how it reacts in trashy areas. I was in a heavy trashy area and the readings where all over the place and hard to pinpoint. Still need to play with it more but I had to swap coils where I was. Cannot comment on depth yet.

5" Excelerator Coil: I purchased this coil to help on those trashy areas I know I was going into. It makes a big difference, the size alone allows you to isolate/separate one item from the next that maybe close by. Also pinpointing is easier, which it seems to pinpoint right down the shaft where it meets the coil. The coil looks like a hockey puck on the end of your detector looks strange but it works out well so far. The smaller coil eases up on the weight some also. No comment on depth yet.

Im trying to use All Metal mode & Smartfind as recommended so far no interesting items, I did dig up Pull Tabs, ScrewCaps, & cans. I will need to get used to the cursor & digital readings. I am keeping one of each common junk item to make a custom reject program later on when I dont feel like using AM mode.

Thats all for now.

[DetectorBase]

My advice is go slow, and try to guess the targets before you dig.. that way you get a good understanding of tone and the read out. Try to remember certain tones. I'm starting to really get a feel for the different coins by tone. Penny makes a different sound than dime and quarters, etc. Pay attention to where the cursor is falling, etc.

Also, note the depth. Both on the depth gauge as well as how loud the pinpoint is. Surface items will sound hot and high in pinpoint, deeper stuff will be duller during pinpoint. Remember the old stuff is deep, so pay attention to coin signals that have depth.

The SE likes to move slow, especially in AM. That way you'll be able to hear the good target between the thud tones. Take advantage of the 5" and pick the targets through the trash.

Good luck
DB

[osros]

Went out yesterday for a bit, went to an area away from the main park near the creek/stream wooded area there is also a bridge there. Was using 5" coil because of all the fallen branches and such. I was not using AM mode went with sort of the whole right side open. Anyway just dug up pull tabs & beer cans and one clad dime.

I can see where pull tabs hit on the screen but I just feel the need to dug it up just in case. I can hear the difference in shallow or deeper targets in pinpoint. But the depth gauge Im not trusting at the halfway mark.

In AM mode, Would a keeper ever show up in the Iron range? How does the SE react to a deep target, does it still ID/tone where it should?

Also after 5-6" the soil is very hard/compacted having a hard time with my 12" inch Sawtooth Gator Digger. Any recommendations? Its a park so I did not want to use a shovel, not yet anyway.

[DetectorBase]

Went out yesterday for a bit, went to an area away from the main park near the creek/stream wooded area there is also a bridge there. Was using 5" coil because of all the fallen branches and such. I was not using AM mode went with sort of the whole right side open. Anyway just dug up pull tabs & beer cans and one clad dime.

I can see where pull tabs hit on the screen but I just feel the need to dug it up just in case. I can hear the difference in shallow or deeper targets in pinpoint. But the depth gauge Im not trusting at the halfway mark.

In AM mode, Would a keeper ever show up in the Iron range? How does the SE react to a deep target, does it still ID/tone where it should?

Also after 5-6" the soil is very hard/compacted having a hard time with my 12" inch Sawtooth Gator Digger. Any recommendations? Its a park so I did not want to use a shovel, not yet anyway.

Hello

I agree on the depth gauge. It sucks. Sometimes it'll show items right on the surface, but for the most part it shows them halfway on the gauge. You also have to be careful with tiny targets on the surface. It'll say it's halfway and then pinpoint will sound deep. I usually can tell this is going to happen if the pinpoint cuts sharply after you leave the target. Normally a deep target will lessen in sound. and not just drop off of a cliff, unless its something on or near the surface.

AM. The reason I and others suggest AM if to avoid nulling. Sounds like you're using iron mask to give you some discrimination (and less than factory coin pattern.. this is good), but by doing so, you'll might get nulling. That's when your discrimination kicks in to stop the beep. If you move your coil too fast and your detector doesn't recover quickly, you might miss a good target close to the iron, but under the nulling umbrella. Make sense? So you could do a couple of things. GO SLOW will help.

- The SE processes a lot of data, so response recovery is always slow.
- Trust tone first then display, since display takes longer to process. Also it tends to 'lock' on previous readout... always trust tone first
- Slowly get to the point where IM is 32 (AM). That'll help with speed, plus you get to hear all signals. If you go AM, you need to run in Ferrous tones vs Conductive.

When I started (just a bit ago), I thought AM was crazy, and couldn't figure out how anybody could function this way. Now.. I would never go back.

To answer your specific question of good targets in the iron range. If you're coinshooting, then no.. no good targets will be in the iron range, but we need to go on the following assumptions.

- straight up coins signals are going to sound and be visibily be good
- depending on where you're hunting, all the easy stuff might have already been picked up
- there are a ton of masked targets (iffy signals) that are good. Let the SE find those, since that's what everyone is missing.

Just like in my case, I've been on a great run of coins this week. All of these coins were 'iffy'. They were not obvious, and they had iron near by. I'm using the bad signals to my advantage. I listen and watch for particulars and then go after them. And it's funny, I don't have any 'programs', the SE hasn't 'learned' any patterns, etc. I just run it wide open and go super slow.

I just ordered the SunRay 5".. should be here tomorrow.. I want to go back to the place I've been going to the last few days to see if I can get a few more with the coil. I almost enjoy the trashy areas now.

Do the gator have a foot ledge on the handle? I use a Lesche, that has a place use your foot for more power. If the ground is hard, make sure you make your hole wide enough, so you can cut underneath the coin. Sounds like dangerous soil to scrape your coin... so watch out for that. Be slow and careful removing targets. Handheld pinpointer (Vibraprobe) or inline (SunRay X-1) would be good for this.

Hope this helps. Keep reporting back.. this is great.

DB

[osros]

- there are a ton of masked targets (iffy signals) that are good. Let the SE find those, since that's what everyone is missing.

Just like in my case, I've been on a great run of coins this week. All of these coins were 'iffy'. They were not obvious, and they had iron near by. I'm using the bad signals to my advantage. I listen and watch for particulars and then go after them. And it's funny, I don't have any 'programs', the SE hasn't 'learned' any patterns, etc. I just run it wide open and go super slow.



Can you go more into detail on those iffy signals.

I may have trouble with the iffy signals. Im thinking Im getting a higher cont reading coming off the edge of a iron object and I dont usually dig those. Thats what I consider an iffy signal maybe Im thinking about it wrong.

Just to clear my thinking:

Are you going after repeatable signals only?

Do you dig a high Cont reading off iron maybe one way?


On the digger its a Hand digger a trowel with saw edges, and yes I found myself hitting the object sometimes, good thing it was just junk. I may want to get a relic type shovel so I can use my foot for better digging or the Lesche as you mentioned.

[DetectorBase]

The 'iffy' signal is tough to diagnose and isolate. Each signal has it's own degree of iffy-ness.. that sounds retarded but true.

The 'iffy' signal you're talking about is super annoying. I'll ping a good coin tone, but after pinpointing, it draws me away from my original pinpoint to area away from my original spot by a few inches. I'll pull out of pinpoint and swing the coil, and get the loud thud thud thud. True, iron targets appear hot on the coil edge. That isn't what I'd refer to an iffy target though.

An iffy target in my book is a semi-repeatable signal, with the cursor or display bouncing around. Not bouncing from one side of the screen to the other but bouncing inside a small area. Ferrous readings will fluctuate usually. Also, it might ping ferrous in one directio, then ping coin the other. When I find a signals like this, I'll do a pinpoint check to 'feel' the target. Does the signal drop off suddenly? Does the tone rip my ears off (ie: on the surface), then I verify depth.

if the target is bouncing around in a coin range (or nickel range), and pinpoint sounds good and the depth looks deeper than 4", I'll dig. These are NOT clear 'coin' signals with solid repeatable beeps and reading perfectly in the smartfind or digital readout. These are the signals that people go right over.

You also need to consider the 'halo'. Sometimes coins corrode in the ground causing a 'halo', which is basically mineralization (leaching from the coin to the soil). This will alter the signal.. hence the iffy-ness of it. Pennies and nickels seem to cause this, silver seems to hold up great. I believe the halo is what's causing the ferrous reading to spike up a little higher than it should.

Also, you need to find a what depths coins are in your area. For example, Wheats start at 1.5. Indians are 4-5.5 inches in my area. This is important. If I get a good pull tab tone at 5 inches... I dig no matter what. No pull tabs in 1900. Again, a lazy swinger would pass that up if..

1- they're sick of digging pull tabs and don't even try
2- they have pull tabs notched in their discrimination too tight.

I think opening up my detector has greatly helped my nickel finds. So far, I've found 2 V-Nickels and 2 Buffalos and 3 Pre 50 Jeffersons with the SE. It took me a long time to start pulling old nickels with my XLT, and I'm off to the races already with the SE and nickels.

Hope this helps
DB

[osros]

Thanks for the info! Im still going at it with little luck. It could be just poor sites I choose. I am using AM mode now all the time and I am passing up what seems like the hot edges of iron. When I swing and get a hot signal with iron I would swing at it from another angle and usually its all iron then so I pass it.

I am still playing with the depth gauge and pinpointing. I am digging up alot of pull tabs at decent depth. I find it hard to pass up just in case it could be a keeper. Im also digging up trash items in the silver coin ranges, cans, parts of cans, other metal objects.

The areas Im hunting seem to be very trashy and I find myself using the 5" coil all the time, makes for slow long work.

[DetectorBase]

Are you using digital or smartfind readout?

One thing that helps me with the hot edge on iron.. where it sounds and reads like a good target.. is to do the pinpoint. The pinpoint always draws me to the hot iron. Then I recheck the new position and can verify that it's iron and it just caught my coil edge just right.

I'm asking about the digital vs smartfind, because for me, it was so much easier linking up with smartfind cursor. Anything top right is good. Anything towards the middle right bottom is a good posibility for nickel.

I've been hitting deep nickels lately.. but not digging up very many pulltabs.

FYI.. I just used my 5" for the first time yesterday.. and agree.. makes for a lot of swinging. I was cherry picking with the 8" then I'd swap to the 5" on tough spots at the end of the hunt.

DB

[osros]

Yes Im using smartfind only. I do go digital when I rarely get a solid signal to check the numbers. I understand the top right, and I can now guess pretty much when I have a pull tab and where it is on the screen. The nickels I was not sure, thanks for the tip.

I did have a bottom middle to right bouning cursor like top half of cursor only on screen. I was thinking it was a trash item so I passed it. What you think?

[DetectorBase]

I borrowed this from (http://www.frontiernet.net/~jvokes/exscreens.htm)

He states... "tan would be typical medium gold rings, brown would be small, thin gold rings or "broken band rings"". But this is the cursor position for deep nickels in my area. I've finding V-Nickels and buffalos at this position and a little higher.
http://www.frontiernet.net/%7Ejvokes/explorercladgold.jpg

Extreme bottom right corner are almost always bottle caps. The line where the light blue is.. If I drew a horizontal line from that point going to the middle of the screen.. is where most pulltabs ring up.

It sounds like you might have passed on a nickel. I'm really gunnin' for the nickels since a lot of people pass those ups, and the SE nails them nicely. My XLT would read those deep nickels as bottle caps for the most part (I think due to the corrosion halo), but the SE definitely knows to separate them from pull tabs and bottle caps. This could be related to my area.

Since the SE...
3 V- Nickels
2 Buffalos
2 Jefferson War Nickels
2 Pre 60 Jeffersons

DB

[osros]

I borrowed this from (http://www.frontiernet.net/~jvokes/exscreens.htm)

http://www.frontiernet.net/%7Ejvokes/explorercladgold.jpg
DB

Yes I been using this as a guide. That bottom brown? cursor was alittle further down and bouncing from middle bottom to right bottom may have been iron nearby also dont remember. Next time I will dig it up to be sure.

I got so much iron signals with edge hot spots its impossible to think about digging up them all up to be sure. I dont mind a few here and there but every few inches! :eek:

[DetectorBase]

If I got that signal and it was semi-deep >3" deep or so.. I'd definitely dig that. Bouncing to the right, sounds like iron.. but I'd start digging these targets up to understand what it's seeing.

I would also pay attention to the tone. I start with the tone first.. then goto smartfind. The bottom right in ferrous would be super high pitch tone. So if it was fluty going to high pitch, I would have dug that hoping it was a nickel.

Again, I like to gauge depth on those targets as well. That is something that I factor in. I'll dig almost anything that is >3" and has a quality tone and 'okay' cursor position. This is the trick for digging jewelry, tokens and nickels.

DB

[osros]

Thanks will keep at it. I can see now how the Sunray X-1? can be a great help! I like the Vibraprob 560 would always have it but being able to probe the hole while still detecting what & where the object is would be great!

How much depth you get with that?

I need to choose between the 8" coil or the Sunray X-1 for my next purchase. I just cant put the 10" coil to any good use! I find myself tackling big jobs with the 5" just to be sure Im getting good separation. Besides that my sites so far are a bit rough. I laugh when I see the videos of how to swing your MD and they use a nice clean, perfect park. Im like I wish I had that! Im hunting in woods, tall hard vegetation, rocks, fallen branches etc. :mad: