My Journey with the new 705

[greg755]

Every time I go out I will post the results of the 705 on this thread.

I just got the 705 in on Thursday and spent a couple of days playing with it in the back yard. It came with 3 coils the Elliptical HF coil and two 9" concentric coils in both MF and LF.

On Friday I went to the minelab site and registered the machine and the coils, all went smooth.
I also printed out diggers book and re-read it, then spent a couple hours watching you tube videos. I also spent another couple of hours playing around in the yard with it.

On Saturday 10/20/12 I went to a small park. The park is loaded with trash and has been hunted to death but I just wanted to see how the machine reacted.
I put on the MF coil and choose program 1 to hunt with. After four hours I had 14 aluminum cans and several other pieces of junk. 1 clad quarter and two memorial pennies. I noticed on the newer pennies that the tone was solid and strong but the TID numbers jumped around. On the big aluminum cans both the tones were strong and the TID were consistent at TID 45.

On Sunday I spent about five hours at a house that was built in 1910. A company here bought the property and they are tearing it down to make a parking lot. They have removed all the windows and doors and are in the process of getting all the asbetos out of it. There is a small basket ball pad and a built in pool in the back of the property and there are railroad tracks just past the edge of the property. Also there were two house next to the property that were tore down in the seventy's and those two lots are part of this property. It is located on a main road next to a very old Pump manufacturer so I am sure it has been detected many time before.

I set up with the MF coil again and started out in program 1. To my surprise this place had more trash than the park that I did yester day did. I just took my time slowed down and did my best to try to separate items the best I could. In the end I found 2 clad quarters and 4 memorial pennies. That is exactly double of what I found at the park. Very strange that I didn't find any dimes or nickles.
I noticed that in certain areas that I had to readjust the sensitivity and or the ground balance. I don't know if this was because of all the trash or if the ground had pockets of mineralization.
I dug up a total of 62 trash targets all had great sound to them and most of them were stable on the TID readout. The other third had great sounds but the TID was all over the board.
A small 5 0r 6 inch coil would really be handy... I also took off my wedding ring and laid it on the ground in several place just to see how it read. There is so much trash or minerals in the ground that I always got solid tones off the ring but in some areas the ring would bounce around on the TID even though it was always laid flat right on the suface.

In a couple of days they will start tearing the house down so I plan on going back over with the 705 set up with the HF coil and see how that goes. I am hoping I will get a little bit better trash separation with the elliptical coil. I will keep you posted. After they get the house down the will bring in a dozer and grade the whole thing off. I will have about 2 days to hunt before the bring in the gravel to lay the foundation for the parking lot. This will be a great time to hut it again. If I cant get to the areas where the dozer has taken of 2 to three inches of the top crap that would make life a lot easier as most of the foil,tin,screws,nails etc etc will be gone. In addition there is a large garage with a dirt floor that I am dying to get at but right now it is full of trash and the roof that has fallen in. When they get that cleaned out I am going to have a hey day.

 

[7centsworth]

It takes some time to get used to all the tones. I use a 6 inch coil in high trash. And when you think you are going to slow slow down some more. I have pulled coins out of yards that I thought I had hunted out by slowing way way down. Houses that have been tore down are always loaded with trash. But you have to dig alot of trash to un mask some of the good stuff. If you are not digging trash you are missing sme goodies.

 

[DirtAngler]

The DD coil will be a much better choice for trash seperation due to its search field. Unless you're relic hunting, disc. out iron and go from there. Also, while first learning the machine I'd suggest hunting in 4 tone and do some air testing with different coins and trash. Later you can try multi tone but I still don't use that as much as I should and mostly use 4 tones just because it isn't as busy sounding. JMHO.

 

[greg755]

7cents. I dug up 8 coins and over 80 pieces of trash, so I hope I didnt miss anything.
Dirt Angler I am only using 4 tones, I cant handle the 99. I also have the smaller DD on order.

My main interest is gold and silver jewelry I am really trying to take my time and to learn how this detector reacts to multiple targets and to get proficient at separating them. But to be honest even with good tones or solid TID readings I still will dig up trash 10 to 1. Most of my time has been spent cache hunting and i have just gotten into the habit of digging just about every signal.
Now that I am a little older I decided to cut down on the long travels and digging large holes. So my plan is to really hunt for silver and gold jewelry things that are missed by the coin shooters using a lot of discrimination..
I

 

[chuckciao]

Sounds like you are giving your new 705 a good workout. Regarding trash targets, what helped me immensely was digger's (Randy Horton) article in Minelab's Treasure Talk section on their site. It is excellent and deals with listening for harmonic changes in targets in order to eliminate trash. It helped me a great deal and eliminated about 75% of trash targets.
Check it out
HH
Chuck

 

[DirtAngler]

Your problem lies in the fact that what you are hunting falls in the trash range. If you take a bunch of different gold jewelry and air test them, you'll see that gold mostly falls in the trash ranges and covers a wide array of numbers. There is not a detector made that will allow you to hunt gold jewelry and not dig trash, the numbers are just too close and wide ranging. Silver jewelry is different, it mostly will be the higher numbers.

 

[Digger]

Thanks for the thorough post. The folks have given you some good advice regarding the separation characteristics of DD coils being better than concentrics. As to multiple tone mode..... 99 tones sounds overwhelming. But with only 28 notch segments, you'll find that 99 tone is actually only 28 tones. Having one tone per notch segment allows us to "hunt by ear" and be fairly confident in knowing what passes under the coil. One comment you made that has me scratching my head.... "On the big aluminum cans both the tones were strong and the TID were consistent at TID 45 ". I'm stumped at how big aluminum cans would provide a consistent TID of 45, knowing that the X-TERRA 705 only displays "even" numbers. Regardless, if you use Sizing Pinpoint or the Prospecting mode, you can obtain a fairly accurate "size" of many targets. Aluminum cans will have a wide field of detection, compared to coins or jewelry. And if you are able to raise the coil above the target a foot and still get a signal, it is more than likely not a coin. JMHO HH Randy

 

[greg755]

Hi Digger. That's a good catch on the TID in reality they always hit 44 or 46 but my brain just basically went into "average mode" ha ha I didn't even realize I put 45 until you pointed it out. On the large cans that I dug up they were all either perfectly flat (like a piece of tile) or they were all perfectly crushed down (resembling a hockey puck) none of them were partial cans or ripped up cans. I didn't size the cans because I wanted to get them out of there so I could go back over the spot to make sure they weren't masking anything below them.

As far as tones go the reason I got rid of my explorer years ago and used my Excalibur as a back up to my fisher (water machine) was because of all the tones.
I hunt by ear but it is more of how strong the tone is or how soft/hard/sharp it hits. For me it is all about the consistency and strength of the tone rather than the actual "key" of the tone.
Being older I have also lost some hearing at different ranges so they don't do me any good. 4 tones is plenty for me to have as long as I pay attention to the consistency of how the tone is presented.

With that being said I dint realize that in reality the 99 tones was really 28 tones, so maybe I will try it out. Thanks for pointing that out.

I suggested to Minelab to make the tones user programmable to the individual TID, that way I could assign the tones I can hear to the TIDs that I am looking for. It would be a great addition and would help a lot of people. It would really help with the deeper softer targets. If you go to a hearing specialist they play a tone and keep turning it up until you hear it. If you cant hear it after they turn it up pretty high they now know what sounds range you a deaf in. Well if Minlabe had lets say 30 tones and I could only hear 15 of them then I would disregard the 15 I didn't hear and program the 15 that I could to the TID. Also I have constant ringing in my ears at a high pitch (my doctor says its from the loud mchinery but I say it is from wearing metal detector headphones for forty years) so I prefer the medium and lower tones.

Any ways I will be ordering a 6inch dd coil but for now I am having fun going over the same area with the three coils I have and learning how differently they react and how differently they sound and show on the TDI. When I learn how the machine is reacting to each coil and get comfortable, then I will move on to the other programs.

If I am in a place with just a little trash then I am usually in all metal mode anyways, but right now I am purposely hunting trashy areas to learn what the machine is telling me.

 

[Old Longhair]

Given what you're up to and where you're at with the 705, it might behoove you to pay particular attention to pages 76 and 82 in Randy's book.

 

[greg755]

Angler. I realize that gold jewelry is mostly in the trash and nickel range. For now I am just practicing with the coils to learn how the machine reacts.

But with that being said gold coins should be pretty specific/consistent on the TID scale since they are solid, of the same shape and almost pure gold, unlike jewelry.
If I had a small gold coin sitting next to a tin can or a nail I want to be sure that I can depend on the detector to let me know if there is two targets close together.

Theoretically if the detector is fast enough it can do a good job of it, unless the coin is under or over the trash or touching it. Nothing is perfect, but there is a reason why people don't find many gold coins. They either discriminate to much, or they don't dig questionable targets, add to that a detector that is slow on separation and/or poor on depth then it is very easy to pass up a gold coin even though it is 99% gold.

I am sure that you have found plenty of coins and/or gold rings that others have passed up because the others have discriminated to much or because the coin was very close to a trash object and they didn't get a reading on the good target.

In the last 40 years I have been lucky enough to find 18 gold coins (none of them a double eagle or anything small than a $5) all but two of these coins were at 7 inches or deeper those two were at 3 inches or less. 13 were in the water. So my theory is that there are plenty of them on dry land but they are deeper and surrounded by more trash so they are being passed up. JMHO

 

[Old Longhair]

If I had a small gold coin sitting next to a tin can or a nail I want to be sure that I can depend on the detector to let me know if there is two targets close together.

Theoretically if the detector is fast enough it can do a good job of it, unless the coin is under or over the trash or touching it.

You also have to understand that to give you as much information as it can as accuratly as it can, the machine needs time. You will likely find that you have to adjust your swing to match the target density at any given site.

 

[greg755]

Longhair. Sometimes if i move any slower I'd be walking backwards... I try not to get in a hurry. I will be going back over to the house in a little bit for 2-3 hours of detecting with the HF 10x5, will post and let you all know how that turns out. It rained a little bit this morning so the ground should be a little moist.

 

[DirtAngler]

I agree with everything you just said. That's why you're going to have to dig trash, because you have to dig the iffy signals that others let behind. Like you said, others left them thinking they were trash. Majority of the time, it probably is trash, it's the few times when those trash signals are the good targets you're looking for that gets you the reward.

 

[greg755]

Longhair - Thanks I will read those pages again, now that you bring that up I am beginning to wonder if it is possible that sometimes I am going to slow (is there such a thing?) most of the yard I am in around 25 sensitivity, there are some spots that I have to back down to 22. Because of all the trash I am not using the auto ground tracking. If the machine gets a little erratic and I have to change my sensitivity, then I re ground balance it as well.

Angler - Last night I decided to dig everything regardless of what the TID said or if it had solid tones or not. I dug up 47 trash targets and two memorial pennies. The 2 pennies were just like the rest of the coins I have found here, that is they were 1 to 2 inches deep. All the trash was at various levels down to about 6 inches except for one group in particular. The deepest target was a garden hose sprayer (those small brass ones you twist to open/close) at about 9 to 10 inches deep

I found 21 of the old aluminum Pepsi screw off caps. All of them were around 8 inches deep all of them bounced around giving multiple readings much like the memorial pennies did. In addition on one side of the house I hit gravel at about 4 inches down and it is about 2 inches deep it is the #2 gravel that you would find in a driveway.

So what I think is going on here is that sometime after the 80's (when those crew caps were popular) that over the years about 5 to 6 inches of gravel/soil has been added to most of the yard.

On one side of the house there was a line of spruce trees, yesterday they cut them down just leaving the stumps. This left an area about 60 foot long by about 8 ft wide that had previously been covered up by branches and heavy weeds. It is now exposed so I will be doing that area later today.

Some where on this property there has to be at least a couple of Wheaties if nothing else... The hunt continues.

 

[hitchhiker]

Thanks for the thorough post. The folks have given you some good advice regarding the separation characteristics of DD coils being better than concentrics. As to multiple tone mode..... 99 tones sounds overwhelming. But with only 28 notch segments, you'll find that 99 tone is actually only 28 tones. Having one tone per notch segment allows us to "hunt by ear" and be fairly confident in knowing what passes under the coil. One comment you made that has me scratching my head.... "On the big aluminum cans both the tones were strong and the TID were consistent at TID 45 ". I'm stumped at how big aluminum cans would provide a consistent TID of 45, knowing that the X-TERRA 705 only displays "even" numbers. Regardless, if you use Sizing Pinpoint or the Prospecting mode, you can obtain a fairly accurate "size" of many targets. Aluminum cans will have a wide field of detection, compared to coins or jewelry. And if you are able to raise the coil above the target a foot and still get a signal, it is more than likely not a coin. JMHO HH Randy

Hi! im new to the forum, im 99% sure ive had a tid of 37 come up on my xterra705 on some silver coins when in the ground now ive tried them out of the ground they will only tid at 36 or 38 thats realy odd that i cant get it to show a odd number now.Next time i get a odd number im going to capture a picture of it, having said that ive started to doubt myself a little.Happy hunting Greg755 the 705 is a good detector and very sensitive for its standard 7.5khz frequeny

 

[greg755]

OK just my luck... For 2 days it has been raining so I haven't been able to detect the hedgerow. They finally got the house brought down and the garage is now gone. This morning when I drove by on my way to work I noticed they were removing all the debris from the house and garage into dump trucks. I thought "man ant wait to get back here after work, it is going to be a nice sunny day".
Well I get home and everything is cleared from the garage the dirt floor is now exposed. Just one problem. They parked the excavator and the bulldozer right on that spot and to top it off (just to annoy me) there is 6 big piles of sand where the hedgerow was... Son of a Biscuit eaters.... Well tomorrow is another day.