Anyone use an MXT in house sites?

[RelicDigger1]

We mostly hunt Colonial house sites where the iron content is phenomenal. My gf just won a brand new MXT at a competition hunt. Anyone use an MXT at house sites loaded with iron? Just looking for setup suggestions. I'm not new to detectors, just new to the MXT.

Any ideas are most appreciated. We're going to try it Sat morning in our worst site for iron we have. We'll keep you posted.

Richard

 

[Rob (IL)]

First I think a small coil would help get between the nails .etc. I would hunt in the relic mode and move the coil very slow. The MXT can be moved much slower than many detectors. You should be able to hear both the ferrous targets and the close good targets. I like to hunt old sites with the gain set just to eliminate rusty surface nails. That's a little above 2 on my MXT. If you have never used a high gain unit like the MXT you will find it noisy. You also haven't picked an easy site to try out a new unit. Rob

 

[RelicDigger1]

Yeah, I thought a Colonial house site would be a bit of a challenge. We have the standard 9.5 coil, I believe. We don't have but a few hours to spare in the morning so we're going to hit this site. It's close to home but is a real obstacle course. I'll try the gain set above 2 and see where it goes. We may have to think about a smaller coil. Appreciate the tips, Rob!

Richard

 

[Rob (IL)]

I couldn't see how to edit my reply. It should have said set the disc to 2, not set the gain to 2. Rob

 

[RelicDigger1]

I thought that might be what you meant. I have 3,000 hrs on my previous machine and maybe 15 mins on the MXT. I wasn't going to argue.

Richard

 

[EROK]

I have several house sites I hit. You might want to try taking a 10 X 10 area and fill buckets with shovels of dirt. Build a sifter and sift that. Then you need a small coil. 4X6 DD coin shooter would work wonders. The idea is smaller coil and better target/trash separation. You should experiment with the coil swing speed. Go very very slow you will be amazed at how the little coil can separate the targets. If you think you are slow. Slow down even more with your swing speed. The idea with removing the shovels of dirt. The better targets are almost always deeper. You will eliminated a lot of Crap signals that way. Time consuming but worth it!! To pick the 10 X 10 area figure the front and back doors saw the most traffic to and from. Just picture where the most people had travelled around the site. Good luck!!! This works Great for me!

 

[RelicDigger1]

Appreciate it, Erok. Might give that a go. I know some buddies who do that exclusively with little surface hunting and they come back with some amazing finds.

We hit the house site yesterday with some understanding of the unit as a result. In a house site where the iron is super thick, you have to go very slow as Rob said. The unit seems to separate targets far better that way. One, a modern rifle shell casing, was down about 10 inches in between two large pieces of iron. It wasn't a relic I was looking for but I was a bit impressed with the unit getting in between the iron targets to pick it out.

More practice, I think. A smaller coil probably.

Just my two pence on a three hour hunt.

Richard

 

[laserfocusguy]

Excellent thread! Thanks to all for the suggestions....I live in LeSueur County, MN, and it has a pretty old history....and I have permission to hunt some old abandoned farms around here. The iron content at some of them is amazing. I hunted them last year with a BH detector, with no real success....lots of iron junk and shotgun shells. Can't wait to get in again with the MXT/5.3 coil, and a little less discrimination, and like you guys say....slow sweeps.

I think it may be a good place for IH's.

 

[RelicDigger1]

Hi Laser, I think you're on the right track. The smaller coil should do you wonders in a site loaded with iron. I tried the stock coil and while it held its own, I could tell a smaller coil would have been the order for the day.

Good luck on your farm site!

Richard

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

And the best advice I can give you is to utilize the "lock" feature. Before you get into the heavy iron area, ground balance your MXT in clean ground, then immediately switch to the "lock" mode. This will dramatically improve stability as the automatic ground balancing feature will be locked and will not attempt to track the rapidly changing conditions that it will see once you move into the bad ground. You should also turn your sensitivity down a bit as well. This will definitely increase your ability to make finds in the trashy housesite areas. If you use the small shooter coil you'll see even more improvement. Also, any questionable non-ferrous tones should be investigated regardless of how iffy they may be as some of these will turn out to be buttons, coins, etc. Moving the coil slowly will help too, especially if you're using the 9.5" stock. Just dig every positive signal until you get a good feel for things. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with the results. Also, I hunt in relic mode with toggle switch in center position. Give it a try and report back. Good luck and HH ..... Bill

 

[RelicDigger1]

Hey Bill, appreciate the guidelines. I'm considering a smaller coil, something along the lines of the 4x6 DD. It makes sense that the locked GB would give you a more stable platform from which to listen to the threshold.

This machine is new to me and I'm trying to figure out its language.

I'll give a report as soon as I pick up a smaller coil. I do have an 18 coming in (hopefully) this week. We'll see if it can do anything in an open camp area.

Appreciate it, Bill!

Richard