Xterra Question

[Rainyday101]

Quick question for you Xterra guys.

If you put a pulltab, nail, or bottle cap on top of a 1-2 inch wide book and put a penny or dime below the book, directly below one of the three items I mentioned, will get a high tone hit on the coin?

Okay atomicscott I know you are going to read this, and yes I haven't made my mind up yet.

 

[Mark in S.E. IA]

Ok I just went out and did your test you asked for and I pretty much knew what the out come would be before I did the test.

I was using the X505 with the 10.5 MF DD coil and I pretty much only hunt for old coins so I used a silver Washington Quarter, a Merc dime and a IH penny and I was not able to pick up any of those coins when I had a rusty bottle cap, a rusty 16 penny nail or a pull tab right over the top of any of those coins. But if the cap, nail or pull tab was as lil as 2" off to the side of the coin then I was able to get some kind of a signal from the coin. Enough of a good signal to get my attention.

Now, I do not know of any MDer in the same price range of the Xterra's that would be able to pick up the coin when the nail, cap or pull tab was right over it.

if you want to know just how good a Xterra is then go back in my post's for the past 8 years and you will see just how good the Xterra is.

.

 

[atomicscott]

Yes, Mark has kicked some serious ass with his XT 505! Listen to him! Here are my results: With the 18.75 khz DD 6" coil in all-metal, 99 tones sens at 18 using a silver franc (same size as a quarter) with a pulltab directly on top of coin, I got solid mid-high tone (27-30 ID#s) that bounced up to high tones (36-42 ID#s) as I circled the target. Definitely something I would dig. A pulltab alone would normally be a much lower tone and only register about 15 on the ID#. With the 1.5" rusty nail, the tone bounced from iron to high tones, but not a definite 'dig me signal'. Placing it next to the nail the coin about 2" away I had same results as Mark. It's really very impressive how the X-Terra's are designed. I can not possibly compare the beep and diggers to it, it's a different animal. You can be in all metal and still have every ID# and tone at your disposal, so no need to use disc, you just disc with your brain when you hear/see the different tones/ID#s!

 

[atomicscott]

Ok RainyDay, I just tried the same test with a 1962 silver Rosey. Same results pretty much although the dime locked onto a mid-high tone (27 ID#) and rarely bounced as I circled the target. This is a bit of a revelation, as aluminum bottle caps and some zincs (depending on corrosion) also hit a 27, so I don't dig a lot of them. I think I'm going to start now! The rusty nail was not a great signal as with the quarter. Have you read Digger's ebook "Understanding your X-Terra yet"? That really put's it into perspective why the XT series is so great at discerning trash.

 

[BillF]

Scott, do not rely on numbers. They are a nice reference, but sometimes they lie. The merc I got last week was 44-46. This was with the Digger coil, and old bottle caps give a consistent 46 so I almost didn't dig it. You have to dig 'em to make sure of what they are. I know we bought these because of our frustrations with "that other brand", but by using tones we are doing so much better than before.
I you dig a thousand of one number on your ID and its junk, you can probably figure they will always be junk, but you just proved to yourself that that may not always be the case.

 

[Rainyday101]

Thanks everybody. And yes I have read the Digger's book and find it very interesting and a great in depth look at the performance of the detector. I knew that would be a tough test that only a great detector would do well in. My Silver uMax does about the same with the trash above, an iffy signal to dig that I would pass on everytime. With the target 2" off to the side of the trash I get a solid hit, provided I sweep it real slow. That tells me Xterra is has good separation. Some of the old areas I hunt are only yeilding modern clad and you can't go 2" in any direction without hitting trash. I have assumed that there are probably old coins under the trash and I am not getting good hits on them due to masking from the trash above. This area is a 100+ year old beach area where the beach is not sand but rather sod.

Have looked at a lot of detectors for another land use detector and keep coming back to the Xterra 505. My little Silver uMax is one amazing detector if you like beep and dig. I do really well with it but like anyone you always end up looking at an upgrade. The new Whites MX5 has caught my attention also, but there is not enough info available on it. My only concern with Minelab is that if I buy an Xterra they will come out with something new right away and no longer support the Xterra. Minelab, as good as machine as they make, seems to have a history of doing this.

I haven't read anything bad about the Xterra yet on the net, and I have spent hours researching it. At the end of the month I will be out of town in an area that will surely have a metal detector shop and hopefully I can get one in my hands to try out.

Thanks again for taking the time to do the test, I really appreciate it.

 

[Goodbaja]

Try using 2,3, and 4 tones instead of the 99 tones and see if the pieces can be put closer together. I heard using less tones speeds up the recovery. Don't know if that's true but I run 4 tones in high trash areas and it works great.

 

[Old Longhair]

Try using 2,3, and 4 tones instead of the 99 tones and see if the pieces can be put closer together. I heard using less tones speeds up the recovery. Don't know if that's true but I run 4 tones in high trash areas and it works great.

Sounds to me like somebody is trying apply their own analog rationale to your digital machine. Don't believe everything that you hear.

 

[atomicscott]

Try using 2,3, and 4 tones instead of the 99 tones and see if the pieces can be put closer together. I heard using less tones speeds up the recovery. Don't know if that's true but I run 4 tones in high trash areas and it works great.

Sounds to me like somebody is trying apply their own analog rationale to your digital machine. Don't believe everything that you hear.

Yep. I was thinking the same thing LH. I believe the more tones the better if you don't want to miss much! I've been over spots using multi tones and found things I missed with 4 tones. That's why I no longer use 4 tones.