Just bought a lightly used Sunray X-5 and it arrived last week. As luck would have it, I was down sick in bed and had to just stare at it on the end of my E-Trac for a couple days before I could get out. Finally, I was well enough to get out yesterday and see what it could do. I decided to head to a section of my favorite park that I have absolutely beaten to death with not only my E-Trac and it's stock coil but also with two other machines as well. I've also had others out there that have hunted it with an AT Gold and a CTX 3030. The last time I was there the signals and finds were scarce and I only found one Indian and a flat button. I figured this would be a nice test for the X-5.
I was running an open screen with everything FE 24 and higher taken out, Auto +3 and Multi Conductive. Due to it's hockey puck size, you have to go at a snail's pace and it does take time to cover an area but I really love that kind of hunting. Really enjoy the challenge of going slow and pulling something good out of a beaten spot. I figured I would get a few signals with the X-5 but right away I started getting lots of signals. This was going to be fun! I was digging up many pull tabs and shotgun shells that I had missed and then I got a solid and loud 15-19 signal. Digging down five inches, I was surprised to see a worn nickel laying in the dirt. Turned out to be a 1910 V nickel! Twenty feet from that hole, I got a solid 15-17 signal and dug down 7 inches to find a nice 1918 Buffalo! Next good target was a 12-44 and 5 inches down pulled out a nice 1955-D wheatie. I was really starting to love this X-5. A little while later a nasty thunderstorm started heading in. I starting swinging towards where I had set my camera case down to grab it and book it out of there. Just three feet before I got to it, I heard a nice 12-15 signal and after quickly digging down, pulled out a 1925 Buffalo at 5 inches. I was thrilled with so many keepers emerging from such a small area of a heavily hunted spot. At the end of a 4 hour hunt, I ended up digging an incredible 70 plus targets out of the ground that were masked by trash and the tons of iron and nails that are prevalent there. I ended up leaving with an amazing total of 16 coins including a V nickel, 2 Buffalo nickels, one wheat, 3 Jeffersons, 3 clad quarters, 6 Memorials and an old copper ID bracelet.
The X-5 is awesome and it really gets down deep. I also noticed that while running in Auto +3 with the X-5, the E-Trac would hit 26 on the sensitivity and stay there pretty much the whole hunt. It seems with less soil to deal with, it allows the machine to really run hot which would account for the great depth the little coil gets. I also noticed during my air testing while waiting for my fever to break, that the ID numbers were a bit off especially as it got deeper. I also encountered this out in the field but I dig every signal anyway so it wasn't a big deal. Once I have gone over the area pretty well, I plan to do it again with a wide open screen and TTF to see if that squeaks anything else out of there. After that I plan on doing it all over again with a NEL Thunder coil. That should be fun.
I was running an open screen with everything FE 24 and higher taken out, Auto +3 and Multi Conductive. Due to it's hockey puck size, you have to go at a snail's pace and it does take time to cover an area but I really love that kind of hunting. Really enjoy the challenge of going slow and pulling something good out of a beaten spot. I figured I would get a few signals with the X-5 but right away I started getting lots of signals. This was going to be fun! I was digging up many pull tabs and shotgun shells that I had missed and then I got a solid and loud 15-19 signal. Digging down five inches, I was surprised to see a worn nickel laying in the dirt. Turned out to be a 1910 V nickel! Twenty feet from that hole, I got a solid 15-17 signal and dug down 7 inches to find a nice 1918 Buffalo! Next good target was a 12-44 and 5 inches down pulled out a nice 1955-D wheatie. I was really starting to love this X-5. A little while later a nasty thunderstorm started heading in. I starting swinging towards where I had set my camera case down to grab it and book it out of there. Just three feet before I got to it, I heard a nice 12-15 signal and after quickly digging down, pulled out a 1925 Buffalo at 5 inches. I was thrilled with so many keepers emerging from such a small area of a heavily hunted spot. At the end of a 4 hour hunt, I ended up digging an incredible 70 plus targets out of the ground that were masked by trash and the tons of iron and nails that are prevalent there. I ended up leaving with an amazing total of 16 coins including a V nickel, 2 Buffalo nickels, one wheat, 3 Jeffersons, 3 clad quarters, 6 Memorials and an old copper ID bracelet.
The X-5 is awesome and it really gets down deep. I also noticed that while running in Auto +3 with the X-5, the E-Trac would hit 26 on the sensitivity and stay there pretty much the whole hunt. It seems with less soil to deal with, it allows the machine to really run hot which would account for the great depth the little coil gets. I also noticed during my air testing while waiting for my fever to break, that the ID numbers were a bit off especially as it got deeper. I also encountered this out in the field but I dig every signal anyway so it wasn't a big deal. Once I have gone over the area pretty well, I plan to do it again with a wide open screen and TTF to see if that squeaks anything else out of there. After that I plan on doing it all over again with a NEL Thunder coil. That should be fun.
