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Where are all the posts on the................

James/Washington

Active member
MX5 ??? I just picked one up and have watched every vid on YouTube and read just about everything I can find doing an internet search. The MX5 seems to be a very good detector but where are all the posts about them here on this forum? I just had surgery and it will be at least a week before I can get out in the field to really give it a good swinging but air tests in my noisy, emi filled house gives me a good indication that the MX5 will be a very good coin shooter (my type of hunting) and it does seem to have good depth. What say you???
 
The MX5 is one of my main use machines along with my Tesoro Pantera. The 2 tone audio of the MX5 is better at showing how thick the iron is than the Pantera which is 2 tone also. Here is how I set my MX5, Coin mode,,,2 tone audio,,,Discrimination is wide open accepting all metals, Threshold just audible which makes the All Metal mode useful,,,Sensitivity set at 8 bars. This setting is certainly busy & noisy in the iron nails but it can pick out non ferrous really well because of the high tones that are mixed in with the low iron tones. VDI numbers are similar to other White's machines in that the number Zero and above produce high tones. Nickels come in around 18 to 20...zinc pennys in the 60's numbers depending on how rotten they are, Dimes/Cu ¢ at 79 to 80 and Quarters come in at 83/84. The Eclipse 5.3 is mounted to mine all the time except in open field work.
 
I think the MX5 is among the very best machines out there; it's light weight, easy to swing, fast recovery and goes deep. Some at Whites have called it a "hot rod in disguise" and I'd have to concur - it sometimes spits and sputters but punches well above its weight. I think the threshold noise is wonderful, but can't help but wondering if it is the noise that kept the MX5 from being a top seller for Whites.

I usually run mine pretty close to the way Hombre runs his: no discrimination, coin & jewelry program, threshold set so it is slightly above a whisper and sensitivity somewhere around 7 or 8. I mostly run mine in 8 tones though and pay close attention to the nickel and above sounds. A quick press & release on the pinpoint button and it is in pinpoint mode (press the button longer and the machine goes into all metal mode). Once the target is pinpointed, a quick press & release of the power button puts the machine in suspend mode. I like that feature a lot, as my Garrett pin-pointer doesn't play well with the MX5. (Whites says the suspend mode locks tracking - so a quick press & release of the power button puts you right back in hunting mode with no worries about the ground balance being off).

It helps if you ground balance the machine - just find clean ground and pump the coil a few times (until the machine settles down) and you'll be good to go. In tough soil that changes often, it helps to stop and ground balance as the soil changes. The machine is always tracking the soil and is good about maintaining a good ground balance, but doing a ground balance yourself will speed that process up a bit (it takes mere seconds).

On faint (questionable) targets I often switch over to all metal just to see if I can get a better idea of what the item could be (tones are disabled in all metal, but VDI remains).

You can set the machine up to cherry pick* (if you wish) - just discriminate everything out to +50, set one tone, and dig almost everything that beeps. You'll lose nickels doing this - so pay attention to threshold dropouts and the VDI (nickels usually come in at 19 - give or take a bit).

You can also set different discrimination patterns* on the C&J/Beach programs, then switch (with a press of a button) between the two programs to get a better idea of what the target is. (Run open in C&J and a high trash discrimination pattern in Beach - that way you won't lose small gold).

* These two methods of hunting are not my idea. The concepts are ideas mentioned by deolslyfox over on Whites Electronics (their forum). I sometimes cherry pick targets, but I do so by listening to the high tones (8 tone setup) and isolating targets from trash by way of swinging slow and carefully. I will use the 4X6 coil in really trashy areas but mostly hunt with the spider coil that comes with the MX5.

The stock setting (volume) is far too loud for me (using headphones). I believe stock is around 20 - I run the volume around 8 or so. I also turn VCO on in pinpoint mode (press pinpoint button and up/down arrows to change between VCO on/off when pinpointing).

Press power button + Beach button to reset current program to factory settings.

Press power button + Select button to reset all to factory settings.

Good luck. I think you'll love your MX5. I know I love mine.
 
I've been so busy hunting w/mine I never thought about posting. Monte and others didn't seem to like the auto g/b and others seemed to use 8 tone feature very little. Well, I grab mine and 8 tone is my favorite- no need for notch with this feature, as you instantly recognize 4 basic coin tones while hunting. In a trashy area, the only signal I double check with screen is the nickel. 18-20 has the best chance as a nickel, 22-24 statab, and 26 square tab. Any time the audio sputters I just slowly rescan the area to give the auto g/b time to adjust. If I'm seriously hunting, I usually chek all hard hits- found several gold rings at foil and one at tabs. Found a class ring that hit hard at 26! The single tone is amazingly deep and the VID #'s seem to be more accurate- found coins next to trash better this way. Loud warbles in 8 tone can be a coin spill- usually verified by a slow rescan. I literally fly with mine because I know instantly by the tone and most of my areas are mostly weekly/monthly revisits. If I find an old area, it's gonna be either 1-2 tone and slow scan. I'm extremely excited every time I take it out- but I just clammed up when others didn' t seem to share my enthusiasm.
 
The MX5 is my favorite Whites detector. I know many people prefer the stock concentric coil, but I had a SEF 10x12 on the two MX5's that I owned. My ground is hotter than average so this coil was deeper than the stock 9 inch concentric. DD's do have an affinity for rusty bottle caps, but you can eliminate most of the pesky caps by lifting the coil slightly while swinging over the target. If the numbers drop dramatically, it is a cap most of the time. Hombre(Randy) is a long time expert with this detector and he has always helped any new MX5 user get up and going. One tip from my for finding deep coins with this detector. Make sure you run with an audible threshold. If you get a very faint peep with high numbers in the mid 80's to low 90's and the threshold nulls out with multiple sweeps, check this type of signal out. I have dug some ridiculously deep coins with this scenario.
 
RLOH said:
The MX5 is my favorite Whites detector. I know many people prefer the stock concentric coil, but I had a SEF 10x12 on the two MX5's that I owned. My ground is hotter than average so this coil was deeper than the stock 9 inch concentric. DD's do have an affinity for rusty bottle caps, but you can eliminate most of the pesky caps by lifting the coil slightly while swinging over the target. If the numbers drop dramatically, it is a cap most of the time. Hombre(Randy) is a long time expert with this detector and he has always helped any new MX5 user get up and going. One tip from my for finding deep coins with this detector. Make sure you run with an audible threshold. If you get a very faint peep with high numbers in the mid 80's to low 90's and the threshold nulls out with multiple sweeps, check this type of signal out. I have dug some ridiculously deep coins with this scenario.
Great tip--thanks. I hardly ever use the threshold and will try that.
 
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