Staring to get the hang of the Explorer SE; Trip 2

Slow down. (see my sigline ↓)
It's the best advice for any new MineLab owner, regardless of the speciffic machine. They process so much information, that to accurately interpret and convey that info to you takes a moment, especially in busy ground.

In clean conditions, you can go a little faster, until the machine sounds off. Then you'll need to go back for a slower sweep to get a good ID.

I think people starting out with these machines should do so in a cleanish park that has plenty of surface clad coins, and only dig nickels, copper pennies, dimes, quarters, and higher, to learn the machine. Standard settings, coin pattern open for halves, and dollars. Autosens +3. You should not rush off to the junkiest site you can and dig for deep silver, first few weeks...

The main differences between the Explorer and the Etrac is the orientation of the graph, most good targets on the etrac are at FE 12, where the Explorer varies in the low FE range, and the default tones are different, but adjustable.

The worst mistake I see made is turning manual sensitivity too high, hunting in a very junky site, and complaining about how the machine beeps incessantly.

Minelab Technology Training Center, Dewey, AZ

CopperMinerAZ said:

Hey guys!
Thought i would post this because it may help out any new Explorer users. So today was the second day out with the Explorer sense i switch to it from the BH Lonestar. I was told on this forum that my upgrade was like goin from a VW to a Ferrari; No joke there! I can say this is alot more machine to learn then i expected, but i think i am starting to get somewhere. The first day i went out, i dug alot of those Houdini holes; the one that give you a good signal, then you dig the hole find nothing and the signal disappears.

Well, for day 2 i went out to a different site i have never been. The biggest mistake i think i was making was changing setting, but not understanding what they did. So, after the first hour i scratched all the settings i had and started over. Making small changes and noticing the differences it made in the machine. Within another hour i was digging less and less trash and making smarter choices on what to dig. What a difference!

Understanding the numbering system is my next task, once i got that down i think it will be clear sailing! For now, i am listening and watching for a "clean" signal. one that does not change pitch much and a number that does not move around all crazy. When i have a better understanding of what those numbers are telling me is when i will have this thing down!

Any advise or suggestion would be awesome! I think this week i will spend alot of time in the test garden.

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Just to let you know, Kevin Hoagland runs the Center and they do training seminars all the time. You should take advantage of this since you live right there! I have been to the Center, and know several Minelab dealers (Bill Southern, Chris Gholson, Rob Allison) that give free classes there.

Minelab Technology Training Center
1191 Old Chisholm Trail Suite B
Dewey, AZ 86327
630-401-8164

Terry Soloman said:

Just to let you know, Kevin Hoagland runs the Center and they do training seminars all the time. You should take advantage of this since you live right there! I have been to the Center, and know several Minelab dealers (Bill Southern, Chris Gholson, Rob Allison) that give free classes there.

Minelab Technology Training Center
1191 Old Chisholm Trail Suite B
Dewey, AZ 86327
630-401-8164

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Great advice Terry! If it's free why not?

Best advice I can give is slow down, get Andy sabisch Minelab book, slow down, don't look at the #'s and learn the tones, slow down.

Holler if you have more questions!

Having been in your shoes about 11 years ago I could probably say a lot, but will keep it short and to the point.

Forget the numbers! I know you won`t so that`s too bad.

Crank your gain to 10 and learn the detector that way, and never change it.

Use Iron mask and gradually lower the number and raise the sense as you get to know the detector more and more... maybe 1 notch a month if you are detecting a lot. If you try and do this too fast it will just turn into noise and defeat the purpose. Programs are a joke, and remember the higher discrimination you use generally finds you less.



Sweep length depends on the amount of trash. Might seem weird to adjust it because most don`t, because they didn`t on their previous detector, but that`s how to use an Explorer

Little to no trash - big as sweep as you want, and a little faster if you want.

Med. trash - med. sweep length and med. speed.


Heavy trash, very short sweep aka the wiggle. Swinging from many directions is also just as important as everything else. If you don`t know what the wiggle is, figure it out.

Use good headphones. The cheap ones like the Koss leave out so much.


That`s what comes to mind off the top of my head.... oh yeah, you`re pinpointing problem is probably from changing from a concentric coil to a DD. Make sure when you PP you use a series of both side to side and front and back motions to narrow it down. If you`re only using side to side like many do with a concentric coil you`re definitely going to have problems. You`ve probably also realized by now trash PP`s off center which is why a pinpointer is such a great tool.

Keep at it, no detector will do more once you know it, and you will continue to learn, at least little things, for a very long time. (probably years)

Wow! thanks for all the help guys! I will try changing sensitivity little by little again to see if that helps more. I got the book recently. I had a lot of down time at work today so i went over alot of stuff. What do you guys think about starting out woth semi-auto sen. ? They seemed to talk alot about that in the book as a good way to start to learn. Also, the section about hot rocks helped out alot with the digging with the sensitivity up to high.

So where is this center with these awesome classes? I would love to go to a class to help out with the learning process. I am very new, sorry if that is a dumb question lol

If you're not careful about staring too much, your eyes will get the hang of it too!

i'm just kidding

Are we talking an SE PRO here? I'm right there with you my friend, keep on posting your thoughts and experiences! There are tons of peeps who can help, but I for one would like the information they can offer too!

I am also looking to purchase a new minelab ferarri

CopperMinerAZ said:

Wow! thanks for all the help guys! I will try changing sensitivity little by little again to see if that helps more. I got the book recently. I had a lot of down time at work today so i went over alot of stuff. What do you guys think about starting out woth semi-auto sen. ? They seemed to talk alot about that in the book as a good way to start to learn. Also, the section about hot rocks helped out alot with the digging with the sensitivity up to high.

So where is this center with these awesome classes? I would love to go to a class to help out with the learning process. I am very new, sorry if that is a dumb question lol

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Yes, that's fine, and probably a good idea because then you can just focus on dropping your ironmask every so often. You'd probably be hard pressed to find many targets that you can get in Man., but not in auto... and even if you did there's other things that can trump it, such as using lower disc. I switched from auto about 2 years in, but my digging bud never did and still uses it today the odd time he gets out. We both started somewhere around 2000.

Andy Sabisch book is my bible!!!!!!!!