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Ever wonder what you
- Thread starter Digger
- Start date
Jackpine Savage
Active member
Exactly the reason why you see so many posts by individuals that try out new detectors and have poor results..
Blaming the detector is the easy way out.
There are very few "bad" units out there.
Tom
Just ordered a X-70 yesterday, first detector, newbie. From all my reading my brain is already smoking from all the info and it will be a week or more before it arrives. I like your way of thinking about the TID being a circle. Could this explain why gold reads so low, because electrically speaking gold is way more conductive than almost all other metals. With your circle has it just wrapped all the way around and started over.
Or is this newbie thinking to much.
DRL
Or is this newbie thinking to much.
DRL
BarnacleBill
New member
Conductivity goes, silver, copper, gold, then aluminum. But aluminum and gold jewelry are alloyed which affects their conductivity. Size & shape also matter.
HH
BarnacleBill
HH
BarnacleBill
books I've ever read on conductivity and where certain targets register is a book called "Taking a Closer Look at Metal Detector Discrimination" by Robert C. Brockett. Although it was written with the Whites analog meter in mind, the conductivity by which certain targets "line up" is consistent with all detectors. I will attach a picture of the analog meter, and where various targets register. Keep in mind that the X-Terra TID numbers are NOT the same as the Whites meter in the picture. But you will get an idea as how certain gold items read, as well as coins and other items you are likely to find. HH Randy
jeff & Maria
Active member
I hunt in all metal with every detector I own. I can then decide what I want to dig or not dig. Sure it gets very noisy and annoying sometimes but heck I'm married so I'm used to the chatter!
Hi Randy:
Near as I can tell from all the good finds posted by the Xterra users...I am missing most of it !!! Can't really figure out what the problem is unless it's the sites i am hunting and it just isn't there.
I do fine on new money, and pennies, but honestly, have tried several very old sites and found Zilch ( Hows that for honesty)....Tried all metal- dis. 1 and 2..and tried tracking no tracking etc.etc.But the good things just do not come to light.
I have read and reread the manual.Played the how to video, and it's still poor finds results. Maybe I have swung a Whites so long thats all I know how to use anymore. I will keep practicing for sure but I am getting really discouraged with the Xterra 70. Thanks for the great post and keep them coming for us xterra newbies..maybe we can get the hang of it.I don't mean to sound so negative,just telling you how my results are going.
Near as I can tell from all the good finds posted by the Xterra users...I am missing most of it !!! Can't really figure out what the problem is unless it's the sites i am hunting and it just isn't there.
I do fine on new money, and pennies, but honestly, have tried several very old sites and found Zilch ( Hows that for honesty)....Tried all metal- dis. 1 and 2..and tried tracking no tracking etc.etc.But the good things just do not come to light.
I have read and reread the manual.Played the how to video, and it's still poor finds results. Maybe I have swung a Whites so long thats all I know how to use anymore. I will keep practicing for sure but I am getting really discouraged with the Xterra 70. Thanks for the great post and keep them coming for us xterra newbies..maybe we can get the hang of it.I don't mean to sound so negative,just telling you how my results are going.
BarnacleBill
New member
The posts on the forum tend to be self filtering. In other words, people tend to only post when they feel that they have found something worth posting. As far as ease of operation the X-Terras are not difficult and so don't hold a steep learning curve to be surmounted, especially if you have previous detecting experience.
So here's how two of my recent hunts went. Last week on X-mas vacation with my local water frozen I decided to venture to a start park on a very large lake that has a high current flow, and therefore freezes late in the season. It's a 90 mile round trip so gas costs are a factor. The beach is about 800 ft long and has a very gradual slope towards deeper water. This state park does have a pretty fair number of campsites, so one can figure the beach gets pretty constant use. I have been here a couple times before in the winter but have usually found very little. But, I was wading shallow with just knee high boots, and figured that there might be more out deeper that casual detectoristas with land machines may not be getting at. Since the lake in the winter is in draw down by about two feet, I thought my chances are pretty good by getting out deeper.
The day was overcast, late afternoon, steady wind off of the water at 10-20mph, temp around 34degF. I slogged a 1/4 mile in knee high snow to reach the beach before entering the water. Using the 10.5DD HF I hunted in waders for 3 hours with no luck. A clad dime and couple pieces of foil for three hours in very cold conditions. Was it worth it? Yes, got out of the house with scenery of a beautiful lake looking out over gorgeous mountains; learned more about the 10.5 DD HF, toughened me up a little for more for winter hunting.
Todays hunt was wearing waders in a river where there is an old boat launch. Fast moving ice water, air temp around 40degF, lovely day. After 2.5 hours I had enough as my feet were beginning to feel the cold from the fast flowing water. Below are the finds, oldest coin being a 1956 wheatie. The place is trashy and loaded with iron, but I think the 6 inch DD HF did pretty good considering conditions. Was it worth it? Yes, got me out of the house. Do I think there is a strong possibility that a gold ring is hiding there, absolutely yes! But it's going to take more work and more trash digging to find it. Am I discouraged? No, I know the game, I know what it takes to persist until the coil gets over the target.
[attachment 77525 goodies.jpg]
[attachment 77526 junk.jpg]
Here's an example of slogging through it with the X50. I was in a .22cal minefield, I had dug about 30 of them and was really getting sick of it, and then bam! I got the coil over it. One of the more unusual rings I ever found. It is an intaglio of the "Pelican in her Piety", as one knowledgeable poster informed me, possibly used to imprint wax seals for sealing envelopes. This is one that I'll never sell for scrap, and I am willing to dig several hundred more .22 cal cartridges to find something similar.
[attachment 77527 WeetRngLg.jpg]
We all hit hot & cold streaks, and this is one hobby where the Tortoise always wins! Become one with the Tortoise!
HH
BarnacleBill
So here's how two of my recent hunts went. Last week on X-mas vacation with my local water frozen I decided to venture to a start park on a very large lake that has a high current flow, and therefore freezes late in the season. It's a 90 mile round trip so gas costs are a factor. The beach is about 800 ft long and has a very gradual slope towards deeper water. This state park does have a pretty fair number of campsites, so one can figure the beach gets pretty constant use. I have been here a couple times before in the winter but have usually found very little. But, I was wading shallow with just knee high boots, and figured that there might be more out deeper that casual detectoristas with land machines may not be getting at. Since the lake in the winter is in draw down by about two feet, I thought my chances are pretty good by getting out deeper.
The day was overcast, late afternoon, steady wind off of the water at 10-20mph, temp around 34degF. I slogged a 1/4 mile in knee high snow to reach the beach before entering the water. Using the 10.5DD HF I hunted in waders for 3 hours with no luck. A clad dime and couple pieces of foil for three hours in very cold conditions. Was it worth it? Yes, got out of the house with scenery of a beautiful lake looking out over gorgeous mountains; learned more about the 10.5 DD HF, toughened me up a little for more for winter hunting.
Todays hunt was wearing waders in a river where there is an old boat launch. Fast moving ice water, air temp around 40degF, lovely day. After 2.5 hours I had enough as my feet were beginning to feel the cold from the fast flowing water. Below are the finds, oldest coin being a 1956 wheatie. The place is trashy and loaded with iron, but I think the 6 inch DD HF did pretty good considering conditions. Was it worth it? Yes, got me out of the house. Do I think there is a strong possibility that a gold ring is hiding there, absolutely yes! But it's going to take more work and more trash digging to find it. Am I discouraged? No, I know the game, I know what it takes to persist until the coil gets over the target.
[attachment 77525 goodies.jpg]
[attachment 77526 junk.jpg]
Here's an example of slogging through it with the X50. I was in a .22cal minefield, I had dug about 30 of them and was really getting sick of it, and then bam! I got the coil over it. One of the more unusual rings I ever found. It is an intaglio of the "Pelican in her Piety", as one knowledgeable poster informed me, possibly used to imprint wax seals for sealing envelopes. This is one that I'll never sell for scrap, and I am willing to dig several hundred more .22 cal cartridges to find something similar.
[attachment 77527 WeetRngLg.jpg]
We all hit hot & cold streaks, and this is one hobby where the Tortoise always wins! Become one with the Tortoise!
HH
BarnacleBill
And as proof, take a look at this pile of stuff!!!!
[attachment 77536 non-coinX-Terraitems.jpg]
Originally posted December 05, 2006.
Oh, and by the way.....
Posted by: Digger [ Send a PM ]
Date: December 05, 2006 02:37PM
Every target you dig won't turn out to be what you hope it is going to be. This is a picture of the "non-coin" targets I dug while performing my field tests on the X-Terras. Pocket watches, shotgun shell, rifle casings, spoons, knives, tokens, parts of brass lamps, iron rings, lead slugs and even a couple real deep horseshoes. Keep in mind that many of these were dug, even though the TID indicated it wasn't going to be a coin. While others were dug just because I didn't know what it was going to be. Guess that is part of doing a field test. I have rechecked many of those that fooled me with some other detectors. And, for you skeptics, they tell me to dig it too! All in all, it goes to prove that, regardless of the detector, sometimes you really don't know until you dig it! HH Randy
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?55,436315,436727#msg-436727
[attachment 77536 non-coinX-Terraitems.jpg]
Originally posted December 05, 2006.
Oh, and by the way.....
Posted by: Digger [ Send a PM ]
Date: December 05, 2006 02:37PM
Every target you dig won't turn out to be what you hope it is going to be. This is a picture of the "non-coin" targets I dug while performing my field tests on the X-Terras. Pocket watches, shotgun shell, rifle casings, spoons, knives, tokens, parts of brass lamps, iron rings, lead slugs and even a couple real deep horseshoes. Keep in mind that many of these were dug, even though the TID indicated it wasn't going to be a coin. While others were dug just because I didn't know what it was going to be. Guess that is part of doing a field test. I have rechecked many of those that fooled me with some other detectors. And, for you skeptics, they tell me to dig it too! All in all, it goes to prove that, regardless of the detector, sometimes you really don't know until you dig it! HH Randy
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?55,436315,436727#msg-436727
reasons I bought the 70 besides the obvious. I simply wanted a machine that did everything and the 70 does it all and now with the 6" DD coil water is new ground for me as well. To me its a great ALL round detector which can be turned into a specific hunter if needed, how good is that. It may not have the depth of a PI detector but some of the targets I have found I really cant complain. This has been a great read. Great topic!
Cheers!
Cheers!
[quote RLOH]Tom, I wholeheartedly agree on your statement about coil control. I hadley ever hear this part of detector set-up mentioned. In my opinion coil control is the most basic adjustment and one of the most important things any detectorist can and should master. I have seen people whip their CZ's like a XLT, with the coil 4 inches off the ground. Every detector has a different sweep speed and I have seen many that are so sensitive to centering the target, that if not perfectly and I mean perfectly centered, you will not get an accurate target ID with audio or VDI's. R.L.[/quote]
I have not yet found a silver coin, but coin count is 700<> with this being my first machine and first year of detecting. A friend who finds lots of silver gave me a 1920 dime to do air test on. The thing I discovered was not a problem with my settings but my swing speed. I have heard over and over to not swing to fast, but I was swinging a little to slow. The dime sounds off great up to 5" at about any speed, but at the correct speed it would read up to 11" with the dime laying flat. I am now really working on paying attention to what the details are and how fast I am swinging. In the past as soon as I got a target all I thought about was recovering it! Lots of great info on this site. I normally just lurk in the shadows, but wanted to chime in on coil speed since I think it may be hurting me and explain the lack of depth in which I have been digging targets.
cb
I have not yet found a silver coin, but coin count is 700<> with this being my first machine and first year of detecting. A friend who finds lots of silver gave me a 1920 dime to do air test on. The thing I discovered was not a problem with my settings but my swing speed. I have heard over and over to not swing to fast, but I was swinging a little to slow. The dime sounds off great up to 5" at about any speed, but at the correct speed it would read up to 11" with the dime laying flat. I am now really working on paying attention to what the details are and how fast I am swinging. In the past as soon as I got a target all I thought about was recovering it! Lots of great info on this site. I normally just lurk in the shadows, but wanted to chime in on coil speed since I think it may be hurting me and explain the lack of depth in which I have been digging targets.
cb
steelheadfever
New member
Out standing post Randy, as usual !!!!! I for one appreciate the time you take to get this information out to us, Keep it up. HH Dennis in Idaho
opinionatedelf
New member
Digger:
Know that most comment is coming up on two years after your post "Ever wonder what you are missing" I just wanted you to know that as a a person with a 70 due here tomorrow how much I got out of this. My intention is to look on the screen....see what it "might be", and dig it anyway.
Thanks for your efforts.
Elf Albert
Know that most comment is coming up on two years after your post "Ever wonder what you are missing" I just wanted you to know that as a a person with a 70 due here tomorrow how much I got out of this. My intention is to look on the screen....see what it "might be", and dig it anyway.
Thanks for your efforts.
Elf Albert
FooserPaul
New member
My most quoted line when it come to Metal Detecting is from DIGGER:
You'll never know for sure......unless you dig it!
Digger,
A personal thank you as you helped mold me and I've found more goodies thaks to your efforts here in sharing of yourself, knowledge and expierences...
/bow
Thank you good SIR!
Humbly,
Paul
You'll never know for sure......unless you dig it!
Digger,
A personal thank you as you helped mold me and I've found more goodies thaks to your efforts here in sharing of yourself, knowledge and expierences...
/bow
Thank you good SIR!
Humbly,
Paul
Rich in Rocky
Member
Thanks Guys for all your input! Digger is certainly correct.... after owning and using a multitude of units in the past 40 years... I own and use both my old CZ7a Pro and the X-70. These 2 are totally different, that is why I have them! On long winter nights I test! Different coils/different results... coins on end.. etc etc. Take ALL of Diggers advice and others that have thrown in their thoughts. Even I have learned a 'pot full' when reading these reports! Keep it coming! ..best..Rich
See if you can find an experienced hunting partner to tag along with. You will learn much quicker and hopefully pick up good habits.
I wouldn't recommend learning a detector by starting off in ALL METAL unless I really didn't like somebody. There's too much juck out there and I think you would become discouraged by the lack of good finds with the amount of time invested.
Try hunting with your discriminator set down below nickels, in the foil area. Hunt slowly and take notes, either mental or written, of the type of targets found, their VDI reading, depth and what it sounded like. You will start to make some correlations very quickly.
Discrimination is very handy when hunting in trashy areas. But if the area is producing good finds, leaving 'underdesirable' targets in the ground may cover up good finds or actually be good finds themselves. In a nutshell, by discriminating certain values you are playing the odds making your time as productive a possible.
Good luck.
Rich (Utah)
I wouldn't recommend learning a detector by starting off in ALL METAL unless I really didn't like somebody. There's too much juck out there and I think you would become discouraged by the lack of good finds with the amount of time invested.
Try hunting with your discriminator set down below nickels, in the foil area. Hunt slowly and take notes, either mental or written, of the type of targets found, their VDI reading, depth and what it sounded like. You will start to make some correlations very quickly.
Discrimination is very handy when hunting in trashy areas. But if the area is producing good finds, leaving 'underdesirable' targets in the ground may cover up good finds or actually be good finds themselves. In a nutshell, by discriminating certain values you are playing the odds making your time as productive a possible.
Good luck.
Rich (Utah)
I do wonder about what I'm missing sometimes. I really don't care what I'm missing when it comes to iron objects though, and I don't dig them as a rule. I'm not so much a prospector/relic collector as I am out hunting for coins and jewelry. So....if you follow after me I will leave all the iron for you! This is what I like about the x-terrra 70, is that you can null out the iron or those pull-tab infested areas. True, you might be weeding out some nicer targets, but it depends on how much time you have to hunt and maybe one doesn't want to be distracted by those signals which are more often than not, trash. There are some days when I go all-metal mode and then I still dig everything but iron, unless the iron gets in the way of an iffy signal. Long story short......thanks to all of you and your posts, and the wealth of information you all share. I made the decision to get my X-terra 70 based on just what I read on this forum, and have not regretted that since. Thank you all, and happy hunting!
Mike
Mike
Thanks Monte and Digger for those great methods. I am a newbe biomedical engineer and I will learn these things as I go. Is there something on the board that tells exactly what the controls mean? What is discriminate, sensitivity and etc?? It would keep me from analyzing all the circuits inovolved.
Thanks Monte and Digger for those great methods. I am a newbe biomedical engineer and I will learn these things as I go. Is there something on the board that tells exactly what the controls mean? What is discriminate, sensitivity and etc?? It would keep me from analyzing all the circuits involved.