Minelab Explorer SE
Price: $1200
Avg. Score: 
4.44
Based on 25 reviews
4.44Based on 25 reviews
Avg. Durability:
5.00
Avg. Ease of use:
4.00
Explorer se
June 20, 2017
Sold mine, not for being a bad unit, it is deep and quality built. Just not
for me, the tones, flute tones drove me nuts. Also very strange balance
while swinging. For some reason it was just not feeling reliable and
comfortable hunting with it.
The absence of a abrupt tone most of the times let me in doubt... and as they say, when in doubt, dig it out. So handling a high end expensive machine which most of the time let me doubt about the target... for 250 dollar I can do the same. But truth must be told about his performance on the wet sand, the wet salt sand. With his fbs system he eats the wet sand and runned like a pro. No falsing, extremely stable, deeep, and very reliable.
At the wet sand you will get way less hits then in the dry beach sand... and there you will dig any signal, it is there where he really shines.
In iron fested sites or trashy parks it is useless (for me) OK you can swap coils, but even then it would not be my choice (anymore) as far as looks and built quality... Very good, great.
The fact the cable is inside the stem is very nice as well as you can easily short him up or make it longer if needed (the detector lol) anyways, the menu is OK, a little slow maybe but workable.
I very much wanted to like this machine more but it not turned out that way. I think for very silent ploughed fields, wet sand (salt), it can be a thrue killer dough. Take care!
Max Depth: 12 inches on US quarter
Overall Rating
Durability
Ease of Use
Would you recommend this to a new user?
No, it's too complic
Explored from
Netherlands
134
The explorer se is my number 1.
October 02, 2016
I think this is probably the best detector ever made for coin hunting. The
tones and screen tell you a hell of a lot about the metal underground. The
depth is unbeatable. The prices on these machines are holding up very well
as the years tick by, minelab produced a classic with the SE and SE pro, I
have used and owned a CTX 3030 but it does not come close to the tone ID
that the explorers have. I laugh at people who claim the Se is rubbish,
they don't have a clue what they are on about. I rate the SE at 9.5 out of
ten.
Max Depth: 12 inches on US quarter
Overall Rating
Durability
Ease of Use
Would you recommend this to a new user?
Yes, absolutely!
Bonker Man. from
United Kingdom (northern)
271
Amazing DETECTOR !! So simple!
June 05, 2011
I've used my Explorer SE for more than 6 years and my conclusion is....
That it is an amazing machine no doubt! First I began to use it in a Smart find mode,,,,, After years I change to DIGITAL MODE to see the numbers that it shows.... The result was amazing better. I could improve the targets, also the Digital mode is so accurate that it is able to show you a gold ring 100% sure.
With time and DIGITAL mode, I know the value and the size of the coin before dig it..... I know, this review looks like a fantasy..... But it´s true. I Hope that my Explorer with 6 years old, will be perfect for another 6 years more please! I love it.
Believe or not I went into the water 1m deep with the Explorer SE, Of course,,, the machine out of the water, I found several golds rings. So what else..... Thanks to Minelab for give to me an extraordinary machine.
Overall Rating
Oscar from
ARGENTINA
4418
John in Virginia
September 23, 2010
I've owned the SE PRO for about 12 months and am well pleased with the
detectors performance. It takes some time to learn the capabilities of this
detector, if you stay with it you will be well rewarded with what it can
find for you. In about twelve months I have found approximately 200 hundred
silver coins, 100 dollars in clad, 3 to 400 wheat pennies and memorial
pennies. Also in the mix have been several pieces of sterling jewelry. It's
the best detector I have ever owned.
Overall Rating
John from
Northern Neck of Virginia
3715
The best machine
June 25, 2010
My first detector was Whites Spectrum. Not bad but treacherous machine with
very annoying habit to not detect even good targets near to the surface and
to decrease its efficiency with every next sweep. My next machine was
Garret gti-2500. Its perfect for demonstrations if you are selling such
brand of detectors. And I loved this machine till the moment when I grab
the Minelab Explorer se. At first I was disappointed. In the control tests gti 2500 seemed better but in the field there was quite different matter. I sweept multiple searched areas and was surprised. In areas where I and other detectorists were confident that they were fully empty the Minelab with easiness found more than a hundred coins. It seemed as other detectors were going in a giant slalom between the targets. Do not be mistaken, the targets were not much deeper than other detectors similar to gti-2500 could find but all the same they couldn't manage with this task. I think that multiple 28 frequencies of explorer se in addition to DD-coil are the main reason for such a success. In other word Minleb explorer se was like a magic device.
Minelab explorer se is more effective in areas where other detectors like whites spectrum or gti-2500 simply can't work. Hot rocks, trashed with iron and ancient ceramic areas. Explorer se is extremely good in sands and can force you to dig almost a meter for an aluminium can of beer.
In rubbish in mortar and bricks it succeeded to detect a bisantinium folis in 30sm (15 inches). But it is mostly because of the residual magnetic field of the bronze made for almost 1500 years in the calcium mortar. In other case Minelab explorer se detected piece of broken roman golden coin 1,2g which was out of range of detection of other detectors even in air conditions.
All the same, do not expect much miracles from your explorer se. It is the best detector in the market and I have no doubts about that. But exploits like 15 or 20 inches for tiny coin are too doubtful. In many cases the detectorists claimed for such miracles because they make 15-20 inches holes to dig the finding but the bitter truth is that the finding often roll over to the bottom of the hole again and again and leave false impression for the real depth.
In reality with speed of sweep of 1m per second in common soil you will be lucky to find a coin under 12-15sm or 5-6 inches. With lower speed depth is increasing but then you will not be able to cover sufficient ground for serious hunting.
There are possibility for additional acceleration of the depth with 20- 25 percent if the machine working in "Iron mask" factor of rejecting of the iron 1 or 2. Detection is quite good in this position but then you will dig more trash but no more than if you are operating with garret gti-2500 or whites spectrum in their best efforts and glorious options. And in the same time the deal of the good targets is much and much greater with using of Minelab explorer se.
Overall Rating
Rougd from
Bulgaria
6711
Explorer SE air tests: Sensing vs. Correct ID
May 13, 2010
I heard that the Explorer SE was great for silver and gold. I just ran an
air test with the stock 8" coil, set at maximum sensitivity.I haven't seen much discussion of the sensing of the target versus the correct ID of that target.
I found for example, that you can sense SOMETHING at a much greater depth than you can sense something with a correct ID.
My air test results show two measures - the first for sensing anything,
and the second for the point here the response is consistent, repeatable and correct.
. . . Any response . . .. Correct ID
Zinc penny . . . 5-1/8" . . . 3-5/8"
Copper penny . . . 5-3/8 . . . 3-3/4
Clad dime . . . 4-3/8 . . . 3-1/2
Silver dime . . . 7-5/8 . . . 5-7/8
Clad quarter . . . 6" . . . 4-3/8
Gold ring . . . 7-1/2 . . . 5-1/2
Silver ring . . . 7-1/2 . . . 6"
Overall Rating
Vince from
Folsom, CA
3037
Minelab Explorer SE AMAZING!!!!!!!!!
March 16, 2010
Just AMAZING, discrimination almost exact. I made a mistake buying the 12 x
15 SEF Antena, the original 11" if much better it goes deeper than the
12x15 beleabe or not.I made records in beach in parks. whit one month experience 90% targets COINS and JEWELERY 10% aleation metals (imposoble to discriminate) like some cups of liquor,Fernet or Whiskies. also Batteries and some aluminium staff.
100 per cent is my concept on this wonderfull detector.
Minelab Company made a great detector over the others beleave me.
I had Garret ACE 250 but it looks like a toy besaide Explorer SE. Minelab is serius detector
sorry for my granmar i´m spanish speaker
Overall Rating
Oscar Sanchez from
Argentina - Sañta
388
Buy it and ignore reviews...make your own decision?
December 28, 2009
Used the ace 250 for 1 year..... bought a second hand se 'dead cheap' went
over the same ground as the ace and found more?????Not for those that don't like tech stuff.....but I love tech stuff, technology, computers and learning to use them.
Overall Rating
Dig it all from
Poland
1325
Good detector but not for everybody
October 03, 2009
I bought explorer se few months ago second hand. The seller was an old man
maybe he didn't have the ability to learn how to use it because as I
expected this is not a turn on and go machine.This is my first metal detector, I downloaded a book from a russian guy specially for this model which helped me alot to learn how to use it. I bought a sef coil from detech also 18x15. As a newbie I thought the bigged the deeper. It's true but for bigger targets not for coins. For coins this coil not gives good results. But it's not true that this coil is not detecting smaller objects it detects everything but with smaller coil will be deeper. I'm thinking of buying a 12x10 or the 8x6 one. This coils are really good you can detect at 32(maximum) manual sensitivity in almost all grounds.
Only on some hard terrains with bushes and grass I go to sensitivity 22 because of the false signals. I go after my friends and still find coins even after they searched there allready. One big disadvantage of this coil is that it's big and heavy and sometime hard to pinpoint the target but I'm thinking of buying a pinpointer to save time. I tested it mainly with the bigger coil for now not tested enought with the small one yet. Giving 4 stars because of the pinpointing problems.
Overall Rating
Prp from
Bulgaria
2914
A keeper
February 19, 2009
I have owned the Minelab eplorer se with the pro coil for about half a year
now. Here is what I can tell you..It can become easy to be overwhelmed by all the tones at first. Experience with the Machine will sort this out though. A smaller coil would be advisable in heavily trashed areas with lots of iron bits floating around.
I purchased a smaller 5 inch coil and am very happy with how the machine quieted down.
There are many options but not as many as on the DFX
The machine is a bit slow at registering target id's but if you take your time this should not present a problem.
I have dug penny's at almost 10 inches with this unit.
the unit presents information on targets in a number of different ways so be sure to read the manual.
Hunting with lots of discrimination often results in loosing the threshold so I have learned to hunt in all metal allowing my brain to do the discrimination.. it works faster and you can seperate things out better
The pinpointing can be a little difficult in trashy areas with a large coil but I imagine this is the same with whatever detector you are using. Other than that the pinpointing has always been spot on and seperation between targets is good once you get a knack for all the different tones the machine throws at you.
The key with this machine is REPEATABILITY of target signals and making sure your sensitivity is set right.
Also, unlike the whites machines, this unit gives you a matrix type target identification scale rating the targets on two axes (conductivity and ferrous) so knowing what the target actually is requires experience with the machine. After digging the target and then noting where it had fallen on the screen (called smartfind) allowed you to become familiar with how the machine responded to different tagets.
All in all I like the machine depite what others say. Yes it can be a bit unstable, but usually those problems can be overcome by changing sensitivity settings or coils.
I do not find the unit heavy, but unlike other reviewers I have not put a seperate probe on the machine and when using the 5 inch coil it really is like pointing a stick as has been mentioned by others.
That having been said the unit does take practice to use. Many have said if you learn the machine then you will have a great unit. There seems to be some truth in that.
Of course this opinion may change if I purchase the DFX 300 and find it to be a superior unit! My parting words:
You will either love or hate this machine when you first use it. Probably the later, if you stick with it though it will grow on you and you will begin to realize all the information that this instrument is capable of presenting you with
Overall Rating
Still-looking from
New York
776