5.3 Eclipse and VDI help

[jzwillia]

I am a new MXT user. I took to heart a lot of the good advice and bought the 5.3 eclipse coil. I had it out today for several hours. I tried to go slow and pick my way thru the trash. Here are a couple questions.
Does anyone use the VDI? If you get -negative numbers and + numbers have you found it to be trash mostly? I mean I had a few +70 +67 +72 +58 and then a couple -90 numbers all on the same target. I dug it and it was trash. Rusted metal.
Any tips and pointers are greatly appreciated thanks.

 

[Nancy-IL]

Hi jz, It sounds like you have your discrimination set too low. I would set it about 3 and as for the VDI numbers, I do use them but not all the time. Usually the deeper the target, I will mostly dig it. But then there's times with a jumpy signal, I will look at the VDI. Remember, the VDIs jump around when you've got a deep Indian cent. Good luck and I'm sure others will chime in also and give you their input. HH, Nancy

 

[plidn1]

First off, without knowing where you live and hunt, what your hunting for, and the kind of ground, etc. etc., it is hard to give you any advice that can help.

But I can tell you right now, you are running your gain TOO HIGH.
Run it at preset until you really know your detector.

Too high of gain will give you inconsistent VDI's on deep targets.

 

[jzwillia]

well that's good advice. I know the MXT is noisy but I may be making it worse than it needs to be.

 

[ramairnut]

When I swung Minelab X-terras, Randy "digger" Horton (the X-terra guru) wrote a very eye-opening analogy in his e-book " Understanding Your X-terra " that cranking up the sensitivity, (gain for the White's machines), can net the same result as driving your car in a heavy fog with your brights on. The car representing your detector, fog representing mineralization/ground, and the brights representing the sensitivity/gain adjustment. I believe this applies to all metal detectors and I always apply this method when hunting. Sometimes, less is more.

 

[pescadore]

I agree completely on the gain control and discrimination at 3. When you are new to any machine and try to run it too hot (gain or sensitivity too high) you will have a difficult time and get jumpy signals. The MXT has very good ID and if you run the Gain at the Preset and the Disc at the 1st Preset, you will find it easier to use and not near as noisy. The detector will still find deeper targets at these settings. You might also try sweeping you coil over the target from different directions while circling the target. Junk targets will often break up using this method and it can be helpful especially until you get accustomed to the detector and its language. Take it slow and dig solid signals for a while until you learn how the tone sounds with different targets and then when you are feeling confident in the machine and your abilities you can increase the gain. You are going to dig some junk, that's just part of detecting and digging those iffy jumpy targets will sometimes pay off with a nice find. I find the VDI on the MXT to be pretty accurate but I will dig iffy signals especially the deep ones.

 

[PSS1963]

I'm new to the MXT too. I've put in about 9 hours hunting a small strip of grass along side the house where I live. This is very trashy ground awash in rusty nails, small pieces of aluminum siding and zincolns - every sweep of the coil sounds like Morse code. I tried running in "relic" mode first . . . iron ID, 1-tone and 2-tone and found I was just looking at the display too much. Then I tried C&J . . . tone ID "off" wasn't any better than "relic" but tone ID "on" was liberating, despite my earlier prediction that it would be sensory overload. I set gain to preset, discrimination to zero to avoid nulling anything out and just listened for the high-pitched tone. I was rewarded with 4 wheat cents and my first ever silver quarter - a 1963-D in XF - woo hoo! I still intend to try the "relic" options in a less trashy environment but this was good for this one.

BTW, I was running the 9" spider - the 5.3 should be even better in the junk.

-pete

 

[Bryannagirl]

From what you said sounds like you have MXT Pro - if you do you can put it in C&J select tones and then switch to relic do not touch any buttons on display. You now have relic mode with Tones.

In trash I like two tone relic - you can dail up the the Discrimination and only items above your discrimination setting high tone everything below = low tones. So you raise it to just below nickel or if you want to kill foil just below a copper penny then only dig high tones. Remember to check your GB every once in a while. Also if you get a lot of high 90 readings try lowering gain or just raising coil if it is iron raising coil a bit should get you iron tone or VDI. Also if still not sure go to prospect and check iron probability as you circle target.

Good luck.

I'm new to the MXT too. I've put in about 9 hours hunting a small strip of grass along side the house where I live. This is very trashy ground awash in rusty nails, small pieces of aluminum siding and zincolns - every sweep of the coil sounds like Morse code. I tried running in "relic" mode first . . . iron ID, 1-tone and 2-tone and found I was just looking at the display too much. Then I tried C&J . . . tone ID "off" wasn't any better than "relic" but tone ID "on" was liberating, despite my earlier prediction that it would be sensory overload. I set gain to preset, discrimination to zero to avoid nulling anything out and just listened for the high-pitched tone. I was rewarded with 4 wheat cents and my first ever silver quarter - a 1963-D in XF - woo hoo! I still intend to try the "relic" options in a less trashy environment but this was good for this one.

BTW, I was running the 9" spider - the 5.3 should be even better in the junk.

-pete

 

[PSS1963]

That's a great tip - Thanks! I'll try that next time (yes I do have the pro). Sounds like a firmware bug that works to our advantage.

-pete

From what you said sounds like you have MXT Pro - if you do you can put it in C&J select tones and then switch to relic do not touch any buttons on display. You now have relic mode with Tones.

In trash I like two tone relic - you can dail up the the Discrimination and only items above your discrimination setting high tone everything below = low tones. So you raise it to just below nickel or if you want to kill foil just below a copper penny then only dig high tones. Remember to check your GB every once in a while. Also if you get a lot of high 90 readings try lowering gain or just raising coil if it is iron raising coil a bit should get you iron tone or VDI. Also if still not sure go to prospect and check iron probability as you circle target.

Good luck.

I'm new to the MXT too. I've put in about 9 hours hunting a small strip of grass along side the house where I live. This is very trashy ground awash in rusty nails, small pieces of aluminum siding and zincolns - every sweep of the coil sounds like Morse code. I tried running in "relic" mode first . . . iron ID, 1-tone and 2-tone and found I was just looking at the display too much. Then I tried C&J . . . tone ID "off" wasn't any better than "relic" but tone ID "on" was liberating, despite my earlier prediction that it would be sensory overload. I set gain to preset, discrimination to zero to avoid nulling anything out and just listened for the high-pitched tone. I was rewarded with 4 wheat cents and my first ever silver quarter - a 1963-D in XF - woo hoo! I still intend to try the "relic" options in a less trashy environment but this was good for this one.

BTW, I was running the 9" spider - the 5.3 should be even better in the junk.

-pete