BarnacleBill
New member
Let me first say I did not seek out the opportunity to test the X-Terra 30. I have never owned, nor used a Minelab machine. In examining the reports and experiences related by other detectorists, I have never felt a compelling need to purchase one of their products. Therefore when I was contacted and offered the opportunity to test the X-30, I immediately asked what was expected of me, and if there were any strings attached? And I was told no, relate what you feel good or bad in your test. If I had been restricted in any way from relating my opinion, then I would have refused the machine. But at the same time with no restrictions on what I say, I feel obligated to do as thorough and balanced a review as possible.
Like most detectorists my buying decisions are related to where and what I hunt for, therefore this field test should be viewed in that light. I spend 90% of my time freshwater hunting both in dry sand, and wading. The rest is spent at the ocean, and on a very rare occasion I will land hunt. So my hunting objectives revolve mostly around gold jewelry hunting and any old coins I happen upon. I have the good fortune to have private access to areas containing thousands of non-ferrous targets, most of them being trash. Those areas also have good targets co-mixed with beds of nails that have been in the sand for up to 300 years.
Therefore the most important machine characteristics for my type of freshwater hunting in order of importance are:
1.Clean rejection of iron, while
2.maintaining good sensitivity to low conductivity items and,
3.very precise ID of targets.
4.Depth while important at the ocean and in less trashy areas, serves little purpose if the machine does poorly in heavy iron.
Good precision in Disc capability and stable ID are also extremely important to me. For example, being able to eliminate micro-foil while maintaining good response on larger pieces of foil is a prerequisite. Or another is, the ability to ID trash items such as .410 shotgun brass, and still have the other items just above or below on the conductivity scale correctly ID
Like most detectorists my buying decisions are related to where and what I hunt for, therefore this field test should be viewed in that light. I spend 90% of my time freshwater hunting both in dry sand, and wading. The rest is spent at the ocean, and on a very rare occasion I will land hunt. So my hunting objectives revolve mostly around gold jewelry hunting and any old coins I happen upon. I have the good fortune to have private access to areas containing thousands of non-ferrous targets, most of them being trash. Those areas also have good targets co-mixed with beds of nails that have been in the sand for up to 300 years.
Therefore the most important machine characteristics for my type of freshwater hunting in order of importance are:
1.Clean rejection of iron, while
2.maintaining good sensitivity to low conductivity items and,
3.very precise ID of targets.
4.Depth while important at the ocean and in less trashy areas, serves little purpose if the machine does poorly in heavy iron.
Good precision in Disc capability and stable ID are also extremely important to me. For example, being able to eliminate micro-foil while maintaining good response on larger pieces of foil is a prerequisite. Or another is, the ability to ID trash items such as .410 shotgun brass, and still have the other items just above or below on the conductivity scale correctly ID
