Minelab Explorer II
Street Price $1200 - Coin, relic
Number of Reviews: 58
on 9 pages.
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Minelab Explorer II
Explorer II, a great machine !!!!
JJ McCOY in OHIO -
I bought a used Explorer II last week, prior to this I used a Fisher CZ-6. It took a little getting used to the audio response. My first 3 finds were silver, in one hole I found 2 silver walkers and 3 inches from these a standing liberty quarter 1926. I love this machine, it's great on silver.
I found a shield nickel 1868 at 12 inches down. Today in one hole I found a silver war nickel, a 1935 buffalo nickel, 1892 indian cent and a 4 wheaties from the 30's. It's a little heavy, but stick with it. Once you learn the curve, you know what you have before you dig. The audio never lies, the 2 dimensional display varies by depth, but close and confirms your audio response.
Feb 24, 2008
8 people found this review helpful.
Explorer SE..... Complex , But Logically designed
rrwerdt@comcast.net in Harrisburg, Pa -Yes, The Minelab Explorer SE has a lot of gadgets, bells and whistles. Some may not actually help you find what you are looking for. However, I have programmed telelphone systems for the last 25yrs. So I really like all the software adjustable options. It makes me feel more in control. And after all it is a toy. The SE is my first detector (purchased 10 months ago)so I don't have a comparison. I have found hundreds of coins, Oldest 1818 Matron head penny. Nothing of much value but Great fun ! It takes a while to discern all the rapid tone changes when you encounter mineralized soil or multiple metal. You get a tremendous amount of audio and visual data rapidly. The Explorer SE is a sleek and beautiful machine but somewhat heavy or possibly misbalanced. Overall I like this instrument very much now that I've forgotten the price pinch. RATING: BUY
Oct 09, 2007
8 people found this review helpful.
Don't Give Up
JCFresh in Pittsburgh -When I first got my Explorer SE I thought I was going to go out and just start finding coins every swing. When I turned it on for the first time and heard long nulls and flute noises as oppossed to the beeps i was used to hearing and it just sounded like a bunch of noise, I had buyers remorse and wanted to send it back. But since i just paid 1200 bucks for this thing i figured I might as well give it a chance. Well I stuck with it, and before I knew it I got the hang of it. I always hunt in All Metal Mode so the nulls don't bother me and you can hear everything in the ground. At first all the different flute tones will drive you crazy, but after awhile you brain will just kinda block out the low Iron tones and just process the good high tones. I have found dimes at around 10 inches, but they won't read out as dimes that deep, but the digital numbers will be pretty close and jump around a little bit. Anything shallower than that this machine is almost dead on what is in the ground. Only time i ever have problems with ID is when Iron is near the coin....Ferrous and Conductivity numbers will be off some, but the tones will still let you know there might be something there. Also at first pinpointing is a nightmare with this machine, but once you get the hang of it you'll know right where the coins are under the coil. This detector is really really heavy, but hey, it gives you a good workout.
You do have to swing it slow cause its response time sucks. If you hear a high tone in ferrous mode you have to swing the coil for like 4 or 5 seconds to get the digital numbers to update. This i wish Minelab would do something about cause it's a pain. Anyways, If you get this machine and have buyers remorse, just keep at it for a few weeks and you'll be changing your opinion of it.
Sep 28, 2007
10 people found this review helpful.
Explorer One Good Machine
Bert in Hawaii, USA -I have had my Explore II for 2 years. I do mostly beach hunting.I found that by placing the audio to FERROUS and using the detector for all metal, not using any discrimination including iorn mask.
What you do use as discrimination is your own ears. A very high pitch is Ferrous and lower pitch is iorn. When I hit rings and coins, I get excited knowing what it possibly might be. With This setup I also increase my sensitivity to the highest value without getting too much noise.This way it is able to find things very deep. I find coins in areas worked for many years that are deep and by looking at the condition of the coins one can tell it been there for ages. I like this this machine sooo much I would buy another Explorer.
Aug 29, 2007
7 people found this review helpful.
Not what its hyped up to be
Peter in Australia -
First up, I've been metal detecting for a lot of years and used a lot of different detectors. I have used the Explorer on the beach and inland and will say this about it.
If you want a machine to use on the beach that will go deep and handle salt conditions, then buy the Explorer. It is a great beach machine with a reasonable learning curve, take your time with it.
However, If you want a machine to use on old house sites and parks etc, I would not recommend the Explorer. It does not perform well in high trash areas. The response of this detector is too slow, even with the fast recovery switched on. Also, It does not handle all ground conditions well. Another problem with the Explorer is the weight, too heavy on the coil end.
In my opinion there are better detectors out there. Maybe Minelab should spent more money on R&D and less on advertising. Has the potential to be a good detector.
Aug 11, 2007
12 people found this review helpful.
Explorer Detectors are good - over priced though.
Silver hunter uk. in uk -The explorer detectors are probably the worlds most over hyped metal detectors in living history. No question about this. They are good detectors yes but are not as good as the hype makes you believe. My deepest coin so far has come from 6 -7 inches , no 14 inch deep coins as yet , some have claimed 14 inches is possible on deep coins but i have to say i have not got past 7 or 8 inches on a coin as yet with either explorer 2 or the se. The discrimination abilities of the explorer detector are fantastic though if set right, you can teach the detector to detect only certain coins , if set proper this feature is honestly deadly accurate and you can detect and dig virtually just the coins you have programmed in and dig no virtually no junk at all. This is a feature that i love on trashy sites and gives me the abilty to cherry pick coins out from trashy sites or any other coin shooting site- speeding up finding lost coinage. The explorers are nice detectors but are over priced . Minelab must be rich from just selling this detector range alone!.. All in all its a great coin shooter but is massively over priced which is a shame. The batteries soon get flattened too - no matter how powerful your batteries are - these detectors are very thirsty for battery power (and that incluseds the se).Always fully charge your battery pack before going out detecting because the battery voltage will drop off very fast once your battery level indicator gets to 50% down. Good points :- The explorers will find coins on sites you thought you had worked out with your old xlt or dfx or other detector, especally silver coins , the explorers are superb on silver coins - really good. Watch out for bad SE coils , they go faulty quite often. The se is not quite as deep as the explorer 2 and lacks about an inch depth on coins compared to the explorer 2. On smaller targets the se will beat the explorer xs and explorer 2. Iron rejection on the explorer xs and 2 is excellent but not as good on the se. Heavy on your elbow so don't say i did't warn you, you get arm ache from the elbow with these detectors which makes detecting for more than an hour really uncomfortable. I have arm muscles like a gorilla but i still get aches pretty quick honestly..
Jul 21, 2007
15 people found this review helpful.
Now we are talking
paul in linc uk -Fabulous whatever way you look at it, loads of programmes to choose from. ok its heavy for some.but what you gain in performance more than makes up for...i run iron mask at -6 just becoz i havent got time digging iron,and this baby still hits the hammereds..just swing slow its a thoroughbred pure and simple..and its deeeeeeeeeeep.loads of programmes you can use or mess around with,or just stick the one you want in and leave it alone,then its just switch on and go,remember this always press noise cancel now and again as soil conditions change in all a world beater.
Jun 22, 2007
7 people found this review helpful.