coin and relic day with the MX7

[dfmike]

I think I'm starting to get a grasp on this machine.

I went back to an old schoolyard this time. I wanted to check out the relic and prospecting mode more specifically. Some users on another forum mentioned that it was more quiet (as in no false signals) than the C&J or high trash mode. Tried both, didn't like it so I put the machine back in C&J initially and then when the false signals became a bit much, I set it to high trash, sens 6, rejection volume zero and discrimination up to +10. Ground balance numbers were between 87 and 90 so yes, difficult soil and lots of iron around. I used the six shooter concentric coil. There are some things I really like about this machine and some things not so much. The constant false signals /sound clipping/ghost signals (call it what you like), is the major irritant and makes me slow down for double and triple checks when I shouldn't have to... BUT, I find goodies and that's the main thing.

I found another crotal bell with inner ball intact this time (pictured in the middle). This is my third crotal bell in a month with the MX7. The big one is in a sad state unfortunately. I also found my first horse shoe !!! I found a 1957 silver dime that was tightly wrapped in some type of foil. The foil preserved the dime as if it was just minted but I couldn't take all of it off the coin. The King George 1920 large penny was found just beside a soccer goal post. The brooch seems to be made of brass and has 1964 inscribed on it. There is another inscription but I can't make it out. There are two 1947 pennies, a 1944 wheat (not shown), an unexpected Asian coin or token and a Swiss coin with 20 on one side and a figure with the words Confederatio Helvetica on the other. I'm not sure what the object shaped like a baseball bat is but it seems to be made out of brass as well. The silver ring was found earlier this week with my F19 on the beach.

 

[ohio fred]

In cj .mode high trash mode. Turn thresholds off and rejvol.off machine is quite.In any mode deep threshold on or off.Tested in test garden coins at seven inches.Hit them easy at 6 or 7 sensitivity.Depends if I cut grass or not over targets.Same when out hunting .Still hit . deep targets.Beach mode is quite to.Use this for break from relic mode.But machine will find stuff.Love and hate game.

 

[dfmike]

I have never turned threshold on with this machine. I started turning rej volume off only recently. Even at that, my machine is never quiet. I find hi trash keeps the false signals to a sane level. I think it does something else internally besides just raising discrimination levels. C&J can get crazy at times. I should not have to use beach mode anywhere but on the beach IMHO. It does quiet down the machine somewhat as does using salt track but I find the machine doesn't hit good targets as confidently as in the C&J or hi trash modes.

My MX7 will be checked by Whites soon. Maybe I have a weird one or I just have to get used to a chatty detector. I have to get the battery holder fixed anyway.

 

[cal]

I have not had any unusual falsing problems with my mx7, but the majority of my sights are in mild ground. I try the six shooter coil next, but not for a while because all the wide open sports fields that I want to hunt this fall and winter. To be sure when I get the six shooter , I will probably never take it off.

 

[Monte]

What's with the 2-out-of-3 you might wonder? Well, I just thought I'd throw that in because your signature shows you have 3 detectors. A Fisher F-19, a Nokta FORS CoRe and White's MX-7. I like 2 of them.

I have 10 detectors in my Detector Outfit this morning, and will have two more arriving this week to bring me to an even dozen modern detectors. Some I will have duplicates of, such as 2 FORS CoRe, 2 Bandido II µMAX and 2 Omega 8000 models so I guess these 6 might only be considered 3 different models. To complement these 6 I have another 6 new or proven favorites, to include a FORS Relic, XLT, modified Classic ID, MX-7, Silver Sabre µMAX and Anfibio Multi. Humm, I just remembered I'll be up to a "baker's dozen" since #13 will also be here soon, and that will give me a 2nd FORS Relic.

Anyway, you don't see an F-19 in my Outfit so I'm only in agreement with two of your three. One of them is absolutely the best when it comes to dealing with a dense iron nail infested site with a smaller coil, and the other gets high marks for searches for high-conductive coin 'caches' when either is in a Discriminate mode. Both provide impressive depth-of-detection, and both are very well balanced, easy to use, and absolute top value for the dollar.

Yes, the F-19 is an okay detector and works fine for many people, but I've owned three of them and compared them afield in many environments as well as conducted several tough side-by-side comparisons for both Coin Hunting and Relic Hunting applications and it's no match for the CoRe or MX-7 as an all-around, general-purpose detector.

I might be biased a wee bit, but I just happen to prefer versatility and performance, combined with simplicity.

At one time I did have 2 of the MX-7's and plan to put a 2nd back in my Detector Team soon, and that will be to keep either the 7" DD or the stock 950 mounted for times when I might want to use it or as a 'loaner unit.'

Glad to see you're getting out and enjoying the MX-7 before wintry weather hits. That might happen soon now that we've moved into Fall and in some locations Winter can arrive way too early.

Monte

 

[dfmike]

Yes, the F-19 is an okay detector and works fine for many people, but I've owned three of them and compared them afield in many environments as well as conducted several tough side-by-side comparisons for both Coin Hunting and Relic Hunting applications and it's no match for the CoRe or MX-7 as an all-around, general-purpose detector.

I might be biased a wee bit, but I just happen to prefer versatility and performance, combined with simplicity.

At one time I did have 2 of the MX-7's and plan to put a 2nd back in my Detector Team soon, and that will be to keep either the 7" DD or the stock 950 mounted for times when I might want to use it or as a 'loaner unit.'

Glad to see you're getting out and enjoying the MX-7 before wintry weather hits. That might happen soon now that we've moved into Fall and in some locations Winter can arrive way too early.

Monte

We can agree to disagree about the F19. I think all three have their strong points and weaknesses and that's why I don't want to get rid of any of them in the foreseeable future.

I intend to use the MX7 a while more before sending it in to Whites to have it checked. If I could stop it from giving me false signals or at least diminish them to a more tolerable level, it could easily become my favorite detector. What I find puzzling is that I've read many posts here and elsewhere about people having the same issue with it and the MX Sport and others say that theirs is perfect and doesn't exhibit this behavior. One thing I can say for sure: Neither my F19 nor my CoRe nor any other detector I have had does this with the exception of a Fisher F44 I once had.

 

[Monte]

.. because I have 2 of those 3 in my Regular-Use Detector Team, but that's because I know them and enjoy what they provide me. I have owned three of the F19's, and the first one had a spot in my outfit for a while, but not now. It offers a 2-Tone audio with VCO enhanced high-tone, but so do my two Teknetics Onega 8000's and a T2 [size=small](coming)[/size], two Nokta CoRe's and two Nokta Relic's, and a Nokta-Makro Anfibio Multi. In addition, all of these models offer options other than only a 2-Tone function. Also, in locations were I might encounter deeper-positioned coins and other similar-size keepers, all of these provide me with better depth-of-detection than the F19. A third reason is that other than a Version 6 Omega 8000 which shares a very similar Discrimination circuitry to the F19, all the rest of the models in my Outfit provide me a more functional Discrimination rejection in the ferrous range.

The F19 is light weight and balances okay, but right now I have a very ample supply of detectors to select from. And for the most part I do not have a detector that is too noisy to use as I can easily adjust to counter any EMI caused unstable function.

As I mentioned, I did have two MX-7's, and matter-of-fact I had a third unit briefly. I kept the 6½" Concentric on my primary-use device, the 7" DD on the 2nd, and put the stock 950 on the 3rd. I did some field comparisons on both naturally located targets and on some test scenarios to see if there was much difference in performance between any of the three. There wasn't. I matched all the settings in each mode for a fair comparison and discovered that they all worked virtually identically. In locations were I had some EMI induced noise I simply reduced the Sensitivity level and that took care of the problem.

So using the same settings but different search coils, I didn't have any particular specimen out of three MX-7's that I considered to be too noisy and unstable. No detector issue and no search coil issue. They are sensitive and in some EMI challenged locations I did need to reduce the Sensitivity quite a bit, but most of my other brands/models also required a reduction to be stable, too. I traded or sold both of the 'extra' MX-7 and regret doing so with the 2nd and plan to replace it. That's because with models that are my favorite to use often, I like to keep two of each at-the-ready with different search coils mounted so I can just grab what I want to use, ready-to-go, and not have to do any in-the-field coil swaps.

Monte

 

[Wayfarer]

Monte, just curious, but how does the MX-7 stack up against the old MXT? Doesn't the MX-7 still have some of the "DNA" from the MXT? Hearing that it's a little chattery and very sensitive, makes me think it shares at least some of the desogn and performance characteristics of the MXT. Can you swing the MX-7 slow and still get good response and depth like the MXT? And how about the two-tone relic mode. Nice and responsive, I hope? I'm thinking of getting an MX-7 when I return to the States from my overseas duty next summer as a treat to myself. As of now, I'm liking my MXT and wondered how it compared and if it would be an upgrade.

I don't mean to hijack, but since the thread is about the MX-7, maybe you could expand a little on what it is you like about the MX-7 and what are the improvements over an MXT.

And nice finds dfmike. It looks like you are starting to learn the machine, and I appreciate your reports.

 

[dfmike]

So using the same settings but different search coils, I didn't have any particular specimen out of three MX-7's that I considered to be too noisy and unstable. No detector issue and no search coil issue. They are sensitive and in some EMI challenged locations I did need to reduce the Sensitivity quite a bit, but most of my other brands/models also required a reduction to be stable, too. I traded or sold both of the 'extra' MX-7 and regret doing so with the 2nd and plan to replace it. That's because with models that are my favorite to use often, I like to keep two of each at-the-ready with different search coils mounted so I can just grab what I want to use, ready-to-go, and not have to do any in-the-field coil swaps.

Monte

Local AT pro users tease me about my underachieving F19 as well... That is until I pass right behind them when they are gone and pick up stuff that they leave behind on the beach ! I must say that I picked up a few deep and oldish pennies with the MX7 as well and everybody thought there were none left at one particular beach. The MX7 is deeper on most targets. I'm surprised at how deep it is with the small 6 inch coil. I seem to lose almost nothing to the 950.

Maybe I'm just not used to a detector that talks so much. Sometimes it's difficult to really know if there is something under the coil or not. It beeps one way once or twice and then the target suddenly vanishes never to return. It does this very often (every 5-6 swings perhaps) and no matter what coil I use. On the upside, I know I really have a good target when it beeps twice without the sound clipping or disappearing and from at least 2 angles. I'm still amazed at the pin pointing accuracy. It doesn't matter how deep the target is. I usually dig a 4 inch horseshoe or square plug and right smack in the middle is my target. No need to dig a bigger plug ever. The concentric coils have something to do with this but there is something about the pin pointing tone of the MX7 that just tells you exactly where the target is.

I'll know for sure if something is wrong when I send it in.

Thanks for the comment Wayfarer. I hope to post more finds soon.

 

[Hombre]

My MX7 is very noisy at one particular old torn down house site, nails and iron bits everywhere. I have used the Tesoro original big box Bandido at this site before and it chirped some on the iron and gave positive signals on deep big iron. The Bandido is the best detector in small iron that I have in my collection, it works well at this nasty place when used with the 5.75 concentric coil. The MX7 is just as good in the small iron but has more audible information. The Tesoro is more quiet but the MX7 gives you more audible information on the site.


Settings for the MX7: Coin & Jewelry program...Disc. accept -10 through +95, Sensitivity 4 in the noise to 8 in cleaner spots. Threshold just audible. Ground Balance, I check for clean ground in Pinpoint mode, then press Track and pump the coil over the clean spot and then "Lock " the GB. I use the SIX SHOOTER coil most of the time, very deep coil when detector is set up right.