First Time Out With X-Terra 70

[T-Money]

I decided to get a detector for the purpose of hunting my new mining claim for gold here in CA, as well as hunting for coins on my family's farm that I live on here that dates back to the late 1800s. I decided on the X-Terra 70. This is my first detector, I have never even used one before. I Bought the detector this afternoon, took it home and went right at it. The area I was hunting is a old home site where there was a house from the teens to the thirties. There has been nothing else in the area since then. There is a old root cellar in the side of the hill that the house was on that is filled up with their garbage, and there is all sorts of old trash(a lot of bottles) buried around the root cellar. There was a bunch of what seemed to be iron in the area that was all reading from -8 to -2. I dug everything that had a strong reading above 0. I found what looks like an old large aluminum can of some sort that is all bashed up, a shotgun shell, a small ammo cartridge casing of some kind, some wire that looks like aluminum or copper(it's so dirty I cant tell), a small piece of copper, a old bottle, and this large rusty heavy chunk of what looks like Iron to me. It gives a reading on the detector of around 30-34 which kinda baffled me. All the other Iron targets I ran over seemed to have readings below zero. Any thoughts on this? Also- Is there any way for me to tell the non-ferrous trash that I have found from coins? This is brand new to me so any tips are appreciated.

 

[richetts]

I would say to read through the FAQ at the top of the Xterra forum. There is a ton of the best information you will ever read about the X-70. You seem to have done very well so far. You might also do a google for metal detecting farmhouses for some other good information. Persistance is the best advice, you have a great machine, now you get to learn to use it to it's fullest. Kinda like panning for gold, you can have the best pan made, but it will take some time and practice before you are able to use it effectively. Don't give up ever, even when you seem to be finding nothing, an area is never really "hunted out", targets are just more scarce and require patients and patterning methods to find them.

Happy Hunting!

 

[Beale]

Good job on getting out! For sure read the faq faq at the top of the page. It heled me so much. Another thing I would suggest is to try pattern 1 for a while. It nocks out most of the iron targets. Any how good luck with the detector, Beale.

 

[rifleman]

I agree with the above post. Use pattern one until you get more used to your detector. Make sure you are ground balancing correctly. If you are using the automatic tracking, turn off the tracking when pinpointing. You might want to start off using only 2 or 3 tones. The higher tones are usually your coins except for nickels which will be somewhere around a 12. Since it's your farm, don't worry that you might miss some targets at first. You can always go back a re check later. It takes some time to learn what the machine is telling you. Practice and it won't be long before you learn your machine. What ever you do, don't give up. Many people buy a detector, never really get to know it and then put it away because the are not finding what they think they should be. It's really ashame when that happens. You will be amazed at your finds once you and your 70 are one. It's a fantastic metal detector and will find you a lot of good history. Try going to places where you know people may have lost money. Old parks, fairgrounds, schools. Many of these places get hunted pretty hard, so if you don't have much luck, do a little research at your local library and try to find those types of places that are no longer there. Like where an old school used to be etc.
I hunted a lot of schools and older churches in my area. The schools turned up nothing but clad coins. I got permission to hunt a couple of old churches. By old I'm talking 1950's, there are not to many accessible places that are much older where I live that I have found yet. The one church turn up a nice Mercury Dime. I have now got permission to hunt an old 50"s era motor court. It has started producing coins from the 40's and 50's. It has a lot of trash and is a fair size area to cover. I'm pretty excited about it. I'm really getting to know my machine better and am making the deeper, good finds. Hang in there, read the FAQFAQ and other posts on this site. It will give you a big head start in getting to know your machine. Be sure to write down notes about proper start up and machine functions to take with you. It helps you to make sure you have your machine started up properly and set properly. Good luck, the good finds will come soon.

Good hunting, John K

 

[Jackpine Savage]

Large rusty iron like that fools almost all detectors with readings in the upper coin range. Horseshoes broken iron implement parts, axe heads, all of these can read with high positive numbers. It looks like you are doing very good for your first time hunting and especially considering it is an older site where all the iron can make learning tough.

The most important thing at this point is to practice good coil control while sweeping the ground. Smooth slow steady sweeps allow the detector to give you the best most accurate information on what it is seeing. Once you get the proper technique built into muscle memory everything should fall into place.

Good luck and keep us imformed on your finds at the great sounding site you have there.

HH Tom

 

[T-Money]

Thanks for the input everyone! That helps me out a lot. Also, I read through the FAQ and got some good ideas for ways to improve my hunt today. I am going to try to hunt around the old swimming pool today. It has not been used since the forties or fifties. I think this may be a likely spot for coins. None of our property has been hunted before as far as I know, so it is virgin ground. I must say, I am impressed with how easy this machine is to use and how deep it finds things. Even though I am just finding junk so far it is still exciting every time I dig. I just know its going to be an old coin or something sooner or later. Oh BTW, I hear tales that the stagecoach used to travel along, and probably stop somewhere on the old dirt road that follows the back of our property in the late 1800s. I don't know about this because the road could have changed so much and this is farm land, so the dirt has been plowed up so much and pushed around so much it may be hard to even know exactly where the road was back then. Does anyone have any experience hunting old stagecoach roads? There are so many good places for me to look around here its almost overwhelming. I will post what I find later.

 

[TomB]

First of all...WELCOME.. You started off on the right foot by purchasing a Minelab X-Terra-70. Got mine back in Dec. and thanks to all the wonderful people here..the learning curve has been real short. Every question I have posted has been answered in minutes..and always with a smile attached. Also have received a large number of personal PM from members offering additional tips.

And to all you members I want to say THANK YOU... TomB

 

[richetts]

For this question I would say you have two items that will help you. I would start with doing map research on-line and at your local library, if you get lucky to find an old stage map you will be way ahead. The second is overhead maps like the FREE google earth. This will give you some idea of how the land looks from a different perspective, if you have old trees in the area that are big enough you can't put your arms around them, find them on google earth and see if you can't find a pattern for a road cut. You can also sometimes see old foundations in farm fields by the difference in soil composition on the top view. If it's miles and miles of farm field, look for clusters of trees or unplowed area. There could be large stones in that area from an old foundation that the farmer felt wasn't worth cleaning up for the extra bit of field. If you can find an old stage coach map and print it on transparency, you can overlay it on a current map and might get lucky and find something similar on a current map to help you key in. One key part of research that some people forget is talking to family, neighbors, and other older folks who have been around awhile. Older folks love to tell stories about the past, and you might be surprised to find that someone knows where the nearest stop on that stage coach line was. You might even get a treasure tale about your area that isn't public knowledge. Think outside the box and you will be very successful.

Happy Hunting!

 

[T-Money]

Talked to grandpa today and got some more valuable information about the locations of the old 1800's home and buildings. Started hunting the yard that is now around where the old house used to be and I found my first few coins. I found what looks like a standing liberty quarter that is extremely worn. The date is not visible any more. I also found a 1944 and a 1945 penny some sort of jewelery that looks like it could be copper. My dad told me he found a 1800s coin around here when he was moving some dirt around a few years back. I am sure there are more around! Can't wait til my 6" DD HF coil arrives, there is so much trash around here its hard to separate targets sometimes.

 

[rifleman]

Great finds. You are lucky to have an area to search that has the possibility of so many old coins and artifacts. You are going to like the 6" DD coil. That old motor court I have been searching has more trash than one could ever imagine. The 6" coil made it far easier to separate targets. So many of the targets are only an inch or two apart. Some parts of the property are still a challenge even with the smaller coil. The 6" DD coils sensitive area is right down the middle and it pinpoints right under the label in the center of the coil. Please keep posting your finds. Also make a mental note what the reading on the screen is and how the target sounded. This will help you learn to identify objects before even digging them a good part of the time. The thing I love about the 70 is that when you get a good sharp tone and a steady meter reading on an object, you can almost always be sure it's going to be a coin or other keeper. Also, because it's a farm you live on, when dirt is moved around, it's always good to go check that area. Sometimes some deeper objects are brought within detecting range.

Have Fun, John K

 

[Nuggatory]

Don't forget to check the Minelab videos at the bottom of the FAQFAQ (if you haven't already, although, judging by the pictures I'm seeing above, I don't think you're going to have ANY trouble having a LOT of fun with the XT70

Nice finds! I look forward to seeing more of them .