I’d say so. Went across the road to my churchyard I’ve been beating up for years,and about two hours later here’s my results. Nothing majorly worthy but nothing there is less than 6 to 7 inches anymore.The explorers a nickel hound too,pulled 7 tonight that were deep,spot on ID...just wanted to show the trash to coin ratio, This is where fbs excels I’m my opinion.
I bought a used Explorer II at the beginning of March. I spent a few hours reading the manual while testing it in the backyard alongside my Equinox over various test targets. I had already watched forum member IDXMonster's Explorer videos on YouTube and they were really helpful.
I took it to a 1 acre permission I've hunted over 50 times and have found many great coins. Hours and hours with the AT Pro and Nox on that site over the past year, plus I've invited two other detectorists to join me and they made good finds. But it's drying up. 1 mercury dime in the most recent 14 hunts. Clad quarters became rare long ago. I keep going back because I'm still digging older nickels, copper and relics.
From everything I had read about FBS technology I thought this was an ideal property for the Explorer due to the trash mostly being composed of mid conductors rather than iron, and the presence of deep coins.
Here are the first 5 hunts with the Explorer on that property:
Hunt 1: Silver quarter (GW) @ 10 inches; 5 wheats
Hunt 2: Silver dime (Barber) @ 6 inches; 2 wheats
Hunt 3: Silver nickel (1944) @ 5 inches (in a hole with a clad dime); silver heart charm; 4 wheats
Hunt 4: Silver dime (Mercury) @ 6 inches; 6 wheats
Hunt 5: no silver; 3 wheats
Plus, I dug more clad dimes and quarters than I had in awhile at that property. The other remarkable thing was the low trash to coin ratio. On the third hunt I dug 27 plugs containing good targets and 3 with only junk. The two dimensional VDI allows you to really focus in on those high conductors.
Some other early reactions:
-- I can't say what signals the Nox hit that the Explorer couldn't beacuse I didn't test that out and have already pounded the place with the Nox. I do know I found a lot of great coins with the Nox on that property. Any time you're using a different detector, or just spend more time withe the same detector, you're going to open up new signals. But the Explorer's performance can't be written off that easily.
-- I did bring along the Nox to compare some Explorer-found signals pre dig. The Nox (Park 1 and Park 2) hit some of them and not others. I simply missed some of those signals but in a few cases the Explorer hit them from more angles. Obviously, the more angles you can hit a target the more likely you are to find it. That can't be overstated.
-- In some cases where the Equinox (Park 1 and Park 2) couldn't hit the Explorer-found target, I could get a hit by adjusting settings. Going to 5 kHz was particularly effective. This really wasn't a great solution because the Nox in 5 kHz gives off plenty of high tones in mid-tone trash. My early sense is that this is the core strength of the Explorer. The frequency blending in the Explorer allows it to not throw high tones from mid tone trash (as well as rusty and large iron if it isn't too dense). Not just discriminate, but to seemingly see through it to hit those deeper coins.
-- I also took the Explorer to a demolished old house site that is carpeted with nails and iron. The Explorer was a disaster, but I admit I didn't fool with the settings from the earlier permission and I didn't have much experience. The Nox picked through that iron and sniffed out solid, repeatable coin signals.
-- It seems pretty common to use the Explorer with fairly strong discrimination (the default coin program) and not feel like you're missing anything. Turning on the iron audio usually just confirms an already good ID. My typical hunting with the Nox and AT Pro has very little discrimination; I only use "coin program" type discrimination for specific reasons otherwise I feel like I'm missing signals that can be teased out.
--- I can consistently pick nickels out of mid tone trash with the Nox without looking at the screen. I haven't figured out how to do it as reliably with the Explorer. I need to get it over some dirt with enough nickels still left in the ground to get some real world examples to get a feel for them. It's not clear to me it can hit deep, difficult nickels in mid tone trash the way it can hit higher conductors in those conditions .
--- The coin is in the middle of the coil pretty much every time with the Explorer. I don't have the pinpointing issues other people report with the Nox, but I've been pretty impressed by the Explorer.
-- I don't swing or move very fast to begin with, but at first I wasn't too thrilled with the slow screen refresh speed of the Explorer. It's a much slower process of scanning promising targets a few times each, but it's usually just confirming the first reading and not an attempt to tease or average out tones. But, when you aren't wasting time digging junk, I suppose it all evens out.
---Still, I have no doubt I can survey and pick apart a new permission with the Equinox much faster. The Equinox will remain my main detector, but in some parks and some yards, the Explorer could come out first.
-- The Explorer is heavy, the battery cartridge is clumsy and a pain, I have to use aftermarket solutions for wireless headphones, the shaft wobbles, it's not waterproof, the screen is slow and not brightly lit, and it just has an outdated plastic-y feel. So, it says a lot that people still put up with all of that to scoop up silver.