Minelab Explorer XS
Street Price $800
Number of Reviews: 25
on 3 pages.
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Also in this price range:
Whites Spectrum XLT
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Minelab Explorer XS
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Tesoro Cortes
This Detector is out of production and has been replaced with Explorer 2.
the best
chas in england -
i have been detecing for over 25 years and had all the top detecors that have been made.i had the explorer xs when it fist came out and could not get on with it at all so i sold it and went to the whites xlt which is a great detector and later the dfx which is not as good as the xlt.i had the chance to buy a used explorer about nine months ago and thought i would give it another go.i got some programs of the net for uk ground conditions and went over some of my sites,mostly i search roman and medevile sites.the results were outstanding,i was finding roman ae3s and minims on sites where the finds had almost gone with the other detectors i had used there,and on medevile sites hammered coins are coming up again.when set up right the explorer xs is unbeatable and is the most sensitive detector out there.
Sep 03, 2006
16 Yes
1 No
deepest on salt
Jacques in Netherlands -I ve been using minelabs since they were introduced in Europe, back in the nineties. I used the old sovereign on flooded medieval villages and found tens of thousands of dollars worth of items with it. Unfortunately, these sites are not open for detectorists anymore. I use the explorer on beaches now. I am absolutely sure that the explorer is way deeper then the sovereigns, which were top of the bill untill the explorer became available. I have never seen a detector that is as deep as the explorer on salted soil, and trust me, since there is still a lot of very valuable items to be found, dutch hunters used and tried everything on the market to beat other detectorists. You seldom see someone use another brand for more than one or two times! That should tell you enough.
I never use the multifrequency minelabs on inland sites. For those, I stick to my trusted tesoros on iron littered sites or to the minelab advantage, which is very deep too.
Apr 15, 2006
17 Yes
1 No
explorer XS
Moss in New Mexico -I've owned and used weekly an Esplorer XS for two years. I purchased it used because the owner said it was to complicated. It did take me a couple of weeks to gain some confidence. As for the trashy areas, I routinly hunt old ghost towns that are covered with smashed metal cans, literaly layers of them. I've found by using a sniper coil I can find tons of items because other detectorists and their various detectors won't go near the cans. My friend and I who also uses an XS head straight for the spots people tell us are hunted out. We clean up! It a matter of understinding what the machine is telling you. I have two Garretts which are great detcetors in their own right but for an all around detector it's the Minelab for me! Good hunting.
Mar 12, 2006
10 Yes
1 No
explorer xs
mike b in Lynn Mass -
The first day I got my explorer i read the manual and set up a program for finding half dollars only. I went to a site of an old hotel I had hunted for years and immediately picked up a 1919 half dollar at a depth of about 10 inches.
While the programmable functions are great the
discriminator leaves a lot to be desired. Beach hunting in high trash beaches produce many coins but little or no jewelry unless your willing to dig everything.
I like the explorer xs but it was overpriced.
Feb 24, 2006
5 Yes
1 No
explorer
minelabman in old park -
I have been using an explorer for two years now. I would not recomend it to anyone. I had much better luck with my Fisher, finding hoards of nails and pulltabs. Unfortunatly I find silver coins at great depths in parks that have been "hunted out" and rings in areas with pulltabs and foil everywhere. So please anyone who wants an explorer, don't get it. Keep digging those highly prized rusty nails.
Thanks again
Jan 07, 2006
12 Yes
19 No
Naw
Bill in Savannah, GA -The learning curve is HUGE. Overly complicated. Overly heavy. Thumbs down.
Oct 18, 2005
9 Yes
10 No
Explorer XS
Terry in Mo -I've had same problem as above, go's quiet on iron and just don't seem to get as deep as it should, a CZ5 Fisher really found a lot more old coin's than me.
Jan 04, 2005
8 Yes
1 No
Explorer XS
Joey in USA -In iron trash it was quiet but following behind it with other machines that were a little more jumpy in iron I found coins my XS missed. I believe when my XS sensed any iron it discriminated the good targets out with the iron.
The deepest coin I located was a quarter at 7". Maybe in high mineralized soil things would be different but in my area's low mineralized soil my other machines (Fishers) had several inches depth advantage over the XS. I owned it for 16 months and it was slightly better than my DFX but when I tried some Fishers there was no going back.
I'm not bashing this machine, it's a top end unit and has secured a place above most other machines, but there are detectors that are measurably better.
Nov 02, 2004
17 Yes
2 No
Explorer XS
Neil Jones in ? -I believe the explorer to be the best all round detector on the market,once you understand it and get it set up right, it's the bee"s knee"s. You must use it slow and low but that applies to any detector, too many detectorists swing way too fast. It took me 8 months to learn, but now its just an extension of my body.
I mainly hunt in constant,iron mask 12,audio 3,volume 10,limits 9,variability 9,gain 8.A lot of explorer users search with too much sensitivity, dont be scared of turning it down, i use 14 quite often and rarely go over 22, turn it down till you have a stable threshold then turn it up another 2.
I always use the 15 inch wot coil and never have any problems. Most of my sites are junky roman and medieval. Just go slow and scrub the soil lightly as you do, 1.5 seconds a sweep till you find a productive area then 3 seconds a sweep when you hit a productive area,your finds rate will increase 3 fold.It"s the tops.
Mar 11, 2004
30 Yes
0 No
Explorer XS
SgtSki in MI -The Explorer XS is a great machine and I have found more with it in the last few years of use than I have found with other machines combined.
The Explorer has a huge learning curve and you absloutely MUST give it the time and patience it deserves or you will never be happy with it. This machine functions unlike anything else out there and you have to be willing to forget everything you know about MD'ing and approach it with an open mind. If you're not willing to do this then don't bother buying one. Get one of those "Brand W" machines that big schmedrik has on the TV commercial. Just be sure and email me after you get done hunting an area with it so I can go over it with my Explorer and get all the goodies you missed.
I give the Explorer XS 4 stars because it has a few issue besides the learning curve such as weighing a ton and also being tricky to pinpoint with by virtue of employing a Double-D style coil.
I highly recommend it but only as long as you are willing to take plenty of time to learn it.
NOTE: at the time of this review (3-4-2004), Minelab not longer produces either the Explorer S or XS models. The Explorer II is the current offering from Minelab but I haven't used one very much....I hear it's nice though.
Mar 04, 2004
9 Yes
0 No