Excalibur Nulling Question

[fsa46]

With late tides , I took the Excal out for a dry sand spin today figuring with all the rain we had I would get a little better depth. When I got there I could see someone had already hit the beach and gridded it out pretty good. It was still raining lightly but I was already here so I gave it a try.

My setting were Disc/1, Sen/Auto, Mode/Disc. An hour later had 1 quarter, 2 pennies, 1 nickel and 4 dimes. However, all the dimes and pennies nulled when I passed the coil over them. A couple didn't null after a scoop of sand was removed. One of the pennies had the clad coming off and nulled after I put it on the sand and ran the coil over it.

I tried different settings but the same happened. I'm wondering if the person before me had the same experience and missed these targets. Had I not checked a couple null signals ( which always do ) I wouldn't have been checking some of these nulls.

Anyone else have this experience or is this the norm. I hadn't noticed this before, but maybe I wasn't checking close enough.

[dewcon]

I never us auto sensitivity..... possibly it knew it was a target but not what so it nulled. Ive had them disappear in the hole because of depth on their side or it reads the hole and not the target. that person could have been looking for recent targets and was running with his coil just to high at the time. Goes to show you no one gets it all.

Dew

[zeemang]

There was probably iron in the same hole overwhelming the coin signal, maybe a little deeper, happens fairly frequently...On my beaches there are lots of bimetallic coins, the smaller 1 and 2 peso coins i rarely find as the outer steel ring nulls the center brass part of the coin, but i hit the ones with the large centers, 10 peso coins, just fine... I use auto sens alot, and the excal still seems to hit plenty deep for me...

[Hotrod Tom]

I dont use auto sensitivity either. Just click out of auto and if it falses just turn it down a little at a time till it stops falsing and your good to go. I dont use any discrimination. Is it possible that there was also iron with the targets? It shouldn't matter,you should get a null with a tone if you have a coin and iron next to each other. Maybe swing speed could make a difference but im not too sure. Try a bench test with different targets and see if you get nulls when you should get a signal. If it works like it should then take the test to the beach.Good Luck.

[CanSlaw]

Everybody will have their own way to set up the Excalibur, but the method that I use is sensitivity in the 12 O'clock position to start, while swinging turn the knob to the left until it falses, then bring it back one number. This will tune the detector to the ground condition and any electronic interference that might be in the area.

Auto Tune is my least favorite method of sensitivity, I only use it if nothing else works. The Excalibur is a great machine, but it is not a turn and go machine for maximum depth. Try taking it out of Auto and I think your problem will be solved. Let us know how it works.

[Jack Flynn]

Did the null signals have a tiny chirp or crackle during the null? That is the beauty "secret" of the GT and the Excal. It will find stuff in a nulled out spot that others will miss totally and cannot find.

[fsa46]

Thanks everyone for the advice and suggestions.

CS, I'll give those setting a try. Thanks

Jack, Yes they did. In most cases, when I removed some sand I got a good signal and dug. Makes me wonder how many good targets I may have passed on in the last couple months. I do however check a few nulls every time out and as far as I know, this is the first time this has happened.

Although I only had nine good targets, ( I didn't mention the sinker I found ), only two were near the surface, the others were down 4"-8" .

The only satisfaction I got was to know I recovered some targets in a spot someone had just hunted and gridded out what appeared to be a tight pattern. Any one of those targets could have been a ring.

[CanSlaw]

fsa45,
One ting about the sensitivity on the Excal, it is STRONG, more so than other detectors and people do have a tenancy to over drive the signal with too much sensitivity.

If too much sensitivity is put into the Excal it will bottom bounce the signal back to the coil instead of driving the signal into the ground. Very much like the bottom signal of a boat depth finder, too much sensitivity and the bottom is blurry, back the sensitivity down the bottom becomes sharp and clear and you can mark fish laying on the bottom.

That is the reason to back the sensitivity back one full number after the falsing starts instead of just where it stops....no bottom bouncing of the signal and my depth actually improved. One thing about the Excal, less sensitivity is actually better then too much sensitivity. Good luck and share with others if that helped.

[Surf Master]

Most of the time i run all metal,my sensitivity usually is just out of auto,as much as it can take without falsing if it falses just keep backing off till you have found the spot,i have used auto were the condition's change constantly,when i do run disc in high iron,trash,it's usually set a 1 of 2,keep a few thing's in mind,when you run disc,you must slow your coil swing down,your machine need's time to recover,Minelabs -multi freq.machine's are slower in recovery time,example,swing my F75se and it's the difference between night and day ,single freQ.anyway the nulling could have been some iron in the hole with the target,i have noticed, and you will to,that,you can dig up to 2ft on a dang rusty old nail,me running all metal,ive seen plenty ,anyway happy hunting,slow your swing down,run just out of auto,turn back if need be,keep under your coil cover clean ,Earl

[Cupajo]

"----less sensitivity is actually better then too much sensitivity."

Does the GT work the same way as I've been told?

[Lineweed]

subscribing. very interested in this topic as of late, especially with pretty hunted out grounds.

[CanSlaw]

Originally Posted by Cupajo

"----less sensitivity is actually better then too much sensitivity."

Does the GT work the same way as I've been told?

I set my GT up the same way I set up my Excal. I have only tried the depth test with sensitivity setting on the Excal, but I have also been told to set the GT the same way and it has worked for me.

[fsa46]

Originally Posted by CanSlaw

fsa45,
One ting about the sensitivity on the Excal, it is STRONG, more so than other detectors and people do have a tenancy to over drive the signal with too much sensitivity.

One thing about the Excal, less sensitivity is actually better then too much sensitivity.

That may have been one of my problems, CS. When not in Auto, I've been running to hot.