Experience MT PRO Users

[Reddog777]

I am looking for an all around detector to do some coin and relic hunting. I live in the southeastern part of NC but I am not to familiar with my soil type . ( I only beach hunt.) Will someone with experience tell me about this machine? Advice, tips or whatever. I am patient and is willing to learn it. Any positive input is greatly appreciated. Thanks Herb in NC.

 

[Reddog777]

I am looking for an all around detector to do some coin and relic hunting. I live in the southeastern part of NC but I am not to familiar with my soil type . ( I only beach hunt.) Will someone with experience tell me about this machine? Advice, tips or whatever. I am patient and is willing to learn it. Any positive input is greatly appreciated. Thanks Herb in NC.

 

[Reddog777]

n/t

 

[Flintstone]

Hi Reddog, I have been using the MXT for about 14 years, i got one when they first came out. I have tryed lots of others and still have my MXT. I just find it is easy to use, works as good as all the others, has lots of coil choices. I don,t know about your soil, but it will track to most soils and work very well. I love my Whites, and have had no trouble with it all this time, still works as good as it did the day i got it. If you get one i think you will be happy. Flintstone

 

[Nauti]

Hi Herb,i've got to agree with everything Flinstone said.The mxt is a great machine with excellent performance that will cope with most ground conditions.If you want the same performance in a simpler package,the M6 is also worth a look,another brilliant whites machine.I've owned both machines and found a lot of stuff with them,whites quality is also a big plus point which makes them reliable and long lasting.If you want to do a bit of beach hunting as well,especially on the wet sand,i would go with the M6 as it's beach mode seems to work a lot better than that on the mxt.

 

[Reddog777]

Thanks for the replies. I use different detector on the wet sand so the Mxt Pro with be used ocasionally (if any) on wet sand. How does the Mxt perform in an iron infested area in coin and jewlery mode? Will it detect good targets next to iron? I've done some research but didn't see too much on the subject. Thanks.

 

[Aarong81]

Separation is largely subject to the choice of coil. Recovery, however, is determined by the circuitry of the detector and the MXT does a superb job in that department. Back to separation, There are quite a few options when choosing a coil that specializes in separation. I can recommend the D2 for both 'separation' and 'coverage'. However, If you do not value the 'coverage' so much you could get even better 'separation' with a smaller DD such as the 6x8 SEF or the 4x6. Many people also use the 5.3 concentric for separation in heavy trash. I don't use mine much due to the lack of coverage but everyone finds their own preference. I'm pretty sure you know this already but concentric coils do not have very good separation(aside from the 5.3), elliptical coils such as the 6x10 are slightly better than concentrics for separation. I suggest that you choose a couple or three coils that specialize in their categories and you won't feel like you are expecting more than your setup can provide. If you use a concentric coil around iron, you would NEVER know what you are missing and you would not meet the MXT's potential.

Let me go back to recovery. Recovery is very important when separating targets because if the detector does not recover from one target before it detects the next it does not matter how good of a coil that you use. For example, if you have an iron target 1 inch from a silver dime and you swept over the iron target first you would HOPE to hear an iron signal and a high-tone back to back in quick succession. A detector with a slow recovery speed cannot ID two targets in such a quick succession.

Keeping that in mind, consider this example.....
A concentric coil has a signal width almost as wide as the coil. A DD coil has a signal width MUCH narrower and as far as the detector is concerned they are both speaking the same lingo. If you sweep both coils at the same speed, they will not send the same info simply because the DD coil sends a FULL width of signal info for every couple inches it is swept. However, a concentric coil sends a full width of signal info for every 10 inches(assuming a 10" coil) or so that it is swept. Which one requires a slower sweep speed?.............................................................The DD coil because it looks at all new ground every couple inches it is swept. It is above a given target and then completely past that target in a VERY short distance. Sweep it too quickly and it is sending way too much info too quickly. GOOD separation requires a slower pace and that is not dependent on recovery time alone because the MXT can handle that part. The problem is that a faint good signal in between iron targets is hard to notice if you don't spend enough time over it so your ears can tell it is there.

A concentric coil hovers over a given target MUCH longer so you can sweep it faster, with more nulling, masking of course and very poor separation.

 

[Reddog777]

Good info.

 

[Nancy-IL]

MXT all the way. Wouldn't be without mine. Easy learning curve and very reliable. I've had mine shortly after they came out. The White's MXT was first introduced in 2002. That's the year I started loving this marvelous machine!. HH, Nancy

 

[Nancy-IL]

Hi Reddog, I have been using the MXT for about 14 years, i got one when they first came out. I have tryed lots of others and still have my MXT. I just find it is easy to use, works as good as all the others, has lots of coil choices. I don,t know about your soil, but it will track to most soils and work very well. I love my Whites, and have had no trouble with it all this time, still works as good as it did the day i got it. If you get one i think you will be happy. Flintstone

Flintstone,

The White's MXT was first introduced in 2002.

HH,

Nancy

 

[Nauti]

Hi again Herb,i used the sef 6x8 coil on my mxt which is brilliant in amongst the iron.You will also find that using a coil like this will give the machine an amazing ability to find the tiniest items,i could'nt believe how small some of the stuff I found was.It's a great machine that has'nt really been bettered by the latest detectors.

 

[Reddog777]

Will it discriminate hot rocks?

 

[Aarong81]

Hotrocks are a challenge and gave me fits for awhile. There are a few places I detect that have nearly ran me off because of hotrocks but I was persistent and I was able to find some silver right in the hotrocks. It's definitely not easy, the biggest thing to overcome is figuring out how hotrocks sound/look different than any other target. At first they just seem like a REALLY good target, high VDI and all. But the subtle difference is that when you sweep over the hotrock and you hear the response then you sweep over it again it will respond in a different spot. Rotate your body position slightly and it will respond at even a different spot. The beep happens at a different spot depending on whether you sweep to the left or the right. I compare hotrocks to silver worms that move around underground. Even though hotrocks sound REALLY good you can still tell what it is before digging.
No, you cannot disc hotrocks with the MXT. I'm not sure if any detector can disc hotrocks without discing everything else too. The best hope is a coil that can distinguish the difference, I'm not sure if there is a coil that can do that or not. The more time you spend in the hotrocks the better you can detect around them. At first, it can drive you crazy.

 

[Reddog777]

Thanks Aarong81. They don't seem to much of a challenge once I get to know the MXT PRO. Will be ordering one soon.

 

[TNreb]

I love the MXT PRO. I mainly hunt relics but will hunt old coins every now and then. Here are a few tips I found helpful. For deep targets you will have to go slow. Coil choice is very important. I have tried all the coils and the best for me is the 10x12 SEF coil. I have a small area in a park that I gridded and picked clean with the D2 and 6x10 coils. I went back with the SEF and found several very deep wheats and a few silver dimes. Again I mainly hunt for relics and I hunt by tone only. I attend the DIV hunts in Virginia and the soil there is very hot. Bullets and buttons will sound like iron (low tone). Here in Tennessee in good ground the tones are high. I dug my ID tag last year that was 12" deep. For coins I do use the VDI readout. Nickels have been very easy to identify. Pull tabs will give a different VDI on each sweep over the target. A nickel will remain the same usually around 20 on each sweep. I also run my machine pretty hot. I want the most I can get out of it. I run my gain about +1 or +2 and my discriminate at 0 ( I want to hear everything). If I am coin hunting and in a pretty trashy area I may raise my disc up a little. The SEF coil separates extremely well in trashy areas so I don't need to change coils. I love the MXT PRO and have found tons of great stuff with it.

 

[nevadamxt]

Nevada is a way different picture if my srceen says hot rock it is one(99.99%)of time ,i run mine on trac lock ,relic mode ,0 descrimb. i honestly think this was made for highly mineralized soil of western states.i run a dd or in real barren (not trashy) areas the 300 mm .its funny how different parts of the country think about hot rocks ,Nevada's will stick to a rare earth magnet.i have had my mxt light up on sage brush from such high alkali content in them on dry lake beds.will switch to jewelry mode once in a while to see if i should dig . i have dug 10,000 hot rocks to prove myself wrong hasn't worked yet.best Nevada m.d. to date in my opinion ,basically detecting at the bottom of a dryed up ocean

 

[Aarong81]

Nevada is a way different picture if my srceen says hot rock it is one(99.99%)of time ,i run mine on trac lock ,relic mode ,0 descrimb. i honestly think this was made for highly mineralized soil of western states.i run a dd or in real barren (not trashy) areas the 300 mm .its funny how different parts of the country think about hot rocks ,Nevada's will stick to a rare earth magnet.i have had my mxt light up on sage brush from such high alkali content in them on dry lake beds.will switch to jewelry mode once in a while to see if i should dig . i have dug 10,000 hot rocks to prove myself wrong hasn't worked yet.best Nevada m.d. to date in my opinion ,basically detecting at the bottom of a dryed up ocean

It sounds like you have mostly Magnetite hotrocks. They are a Negative VDI hotrock and easily ID'd as you stated. Something a lot of people don't know is that the same rock/mineral, Magnetite hotrocks, is the same thing that "Black Sand" is made of. That's why black sand is a challenge to detect in. Since it is magnetic, some gold prospectors had had some luck separating black sand from gold using a magnet, a very challenging chore since it is the last thing to pan out before you lose gold.

Maghemite hotrocks, however, produce a Positive VDI and are extremely annoying as they can show up as ANY high VDI and seem like the perfect signal to dig.
I come across both on occasion and most are like you describe and can be skipped over easily. But the areas with the latter type, Maghemite, will try your patience.

Some SOURCE material for the curious readers.

 

[Aarong81]

Since Hotrocks and gold are found in the same areas, it is a good place to do some nugget hunting. Here is a magnetic hotrock that was nearly tossed just before turning it over.....
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s122/nightjar3/AUFE002.jpg
http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s122/nightjar3/AUFE003.jpg
Photos by 'Nghtjar', found in 'NE goldfields of WA'.
SOURCE

 

[nevadamxt]

Nevada is a way different picture if my srceen says hot rock it is one(99.99%)of time ,i run mine on trac lock ,relic mode ,0 descrimb. i honestly think this was made for highly mineralized soil of western states.i run a dd or in real barren (not trashy) areas the 300 mm .its funny how different parts of the country think about hot rocks ,Nevada's will stick to a rare earth magnet.i have had my mxt light up on sage brush from such high alkali content in them on dry lake beds.will switch to jewelry mode once in a while to see if i should dig . i have dug 10,000 hot rocks to prove myself wrong hasn't worked yet.best Nevada m.d. to date in my opinion ,basically detecting at the bottom of a dryed up ocean

It sounds like you have mostly Magnetite hotrocks. They are a Negative VDI hotrock and easily ID'd as you stated. Something a lot of people don't know is that the same rock/mineral, Magnetite hotrocks, is the same thing that "Black Sand" is made of. That's why black sand is a challenge to detect in. Since it is magnetic, some gold prospectors had had some luck separating black sand from gold using a magnet, a very challenging chore since it is the last thing to pan out before you lose gold.

Maghemite hotrocks, however, produce a Positive VDI and are extremely annoying as they can show up as ANY high VDI and seem like the perfect signal to dig.
I come across both on occasion and most are like you describe and can be skipped over easily. But the areas with the latter type, Maghemite, will try your patience.

Some SOURCE material for the curious readers.

i learn as i go ,great advice i mostly m.d. old wagon trails for caches but my wife is a gold hound