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x-terra/explorer question

silverfix

New member
didnt want to post this on the normal forum but was curious if any of you had noticved a depth difference between the explorers and the x-terras.
My buddy is having problems with the weight of his machine and is considering the x-terras. Ididn't want to ask the question on the xterra forum so i hope someone can let me know what they think. Thanks Kennon.
 
Hi Silverfix,

Any Minelab will find the goodies.I have an XT-70 and the SE, and like them both.The sounds are dif on the XT's, and the screen has one number(lot bigger).
It will definitely find silver or gold.It is pretty adjustable,has good noise cancel and auto ground bal ( as well as auto tracking)I have found silver, gold.
Might not be as deep as the explorer, but by no means a dog.It is my backup machine.He's gonna love the weight.You can hunt all day long.That little 6 in. coil is a killer at tot lots, around the equipment
I have found some nice jewelry.When I go out I keep the XT-70 with the 6 incher on for such situations.Also, if your friend is on a budget,you can find the old Xt-70 for a good price.I'm not sure what they did to the new 705 to justify a new model,probably not much dif from old 70 as far as performance goes.
If your friend decides to get one,make sure he's aware of all the good info at the beginning of the XTerra forum.
Whatever he decides, he will have a big smile on his face when he starts pulling silver out of the ground.

Good Luck,
Ron
 
What Ron said I can only agree with.
My hunting buddy has a XT-70 and we've done some side-by-side tests.
 
I also have the 70 along with my Explorer XS. The 6" HF coil (XT-70) is a killer in trash as I have rehunted trashy areas where I used many other detectors and came up with some good finds.
It is necessary while in disc mode to run all metal to get really good separation, for me, any disc would kill separation.
I run mine in 4 tones, high sens. and all metal, listening for something more than the iron chirps, with slow sweep speed.
My opinion is that the 70 does as well as other single frq detectors I have tried as far as depth but I haven't used the new Fishers or other newer offerings by other brands
The 6" HF coil does better than the stock coil at telling the diff. between pulltabs and nickels.
The prospecting mode which is similar to non-motion mode is real deep but it has very limited disc.
Since the newer models have been released, prices have dropped on used 70s so that might be a good choice.
But for me the Explorer is still #1, yes is it heavy so it is good to have a lightweight model if there is a lot of wide open areas to detect.
 
To clarify, the "all-metal" is a term that usually means a static non-motion mode like on older detectors but with modern detectors it can also mean
using no disc in motion mode. One still has the benefits of the ID meter and tones to discipher between signals received.
So I was referring to motion mode without using any discrimination.
Detector technology is not at the point where we can ignore all pulltabs and be 100% sure we get all the nickels.
But for casual detecting, we can cut down on the number of pulltabs and still get some nickels.
Since pulltabs have been made with various alloys and sizes over the 40 or so years, they register down a little below
the nickel range and some will read almost as high as the zinc range.
Generally speaking, larger rectangular pulltabs and pulltabs with beaver tails read higher on some of the better ID detectors than nickels do.
Some of the newer pulltabs read very close to what nickels read so some of them can be a problem but some detectors with practice
one can ignore a lot of them if they decide to.
Depth and ground conditions also factor into how accurate a detector can give a right on reading of what's in the ground.
Now I am going to get into whether to dig all pulltabs or not, that is for each individual to decide how he wants to detect but if someone so
decides on playing the odds on digging less pulltabs then there are detectors that can accomplish this.
Using too much discrimination or discrimination either a little higher or lower than what nickels read, can cause a detector to give broken
or not give a signal at all on a nickel.
That is the reason many use low or no disc and go by the ID system, tone and meter reading of the detector to make a decision whether to dig or not.
Note I mentioned "casual detecting" because serious detecting takes on a totally different mindset.
Like if I am relic hunting, I don't use any disc(or in the case with the Explorer a low iron mask setting) and usually dig all signals that give me a clue there is a non-ferrous item present.
Now there is no way I am going to do that at a modern park that is full of aluminum trash of all sorts, I generally will select conductive ranges do dig.
In other words, in such situations, I don't dig foil or lower conductive pulltabs if I am mainly going for silver coins.
While it is true that anyone who digs every signal will get more finds, time is always an issue for all of us so we can pick and choose what to go for.
Those looking for gold like on beaches generally dig all pulltabs and foil to find jewelry and some who do this ignore the higher conductors, such as
quarters, dimes and pennies.
Detecting is an individual thing so everyone has their own way to go about it.
Hope this has somewhat answered your question, if you have the 70, feel free to PM me and I can give you more info about that particular detector.
You may also want to read some of Andy S. books on this subject because he goes into details about selective digging.
HH
 
I used the X-Terra's for quite a while and found lots of silver with them but when i switched to the Explorer last November I immediately notice way better depth and stability, I had the 70 as a backup then the 705 as a backup but quickly got the Safari as a backup and never looked back. I was pretty good with the X-Terra's and liked them allot and still think they are great machines, but after using the FBS detectors its just to frustrating to go back.
 
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