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General questions from an Xterra user

Pyledriver

Pyledriver

Active member
Hey guys, Merry Christmas! First a few notes, then the questions.. I have an Xterra 705 that I bought because I wanted to 'do everything'. Except for special trips prospecting or (saltwater) beach hunting, the bulk of my detecting is parks, tot lots, old homesites and freshwater beaches. I've had my eye on an Excal for quite some time as my research indicates that it is the best for the saltwater beaches, and anything waterproof always trips my trigger! So I came in here and then started reading the Sovereign posts..dangit. Now I'm leaning towards picking up a Sov. before the Excal...LOL! I really wasn't looking for another general purpose detector but I didn't know anything about the Sovereign and now wonder if I 'need' one.

So here are the questions:

For the areas that these detectors (Sov and X705) truly 'overlap'--beach, parks, old homesites--would the Sov. be a large improvement over my X705? By that I mean depth and seperation mostly. A big question mark for me is also saltwater beach performance. The Xterra has a 'beach mode', but from reading it appears that the Sovereign would probably leave the Xterra in the dust? In my old trashy homesites I already use a DD coil for seperation, would the Sovereign have any edge here? Anybody use the Sov. for hunting caches? My Xterra gets some super depth on my cache 'tests' (mason jar full o'silver at a wee bit over 2'), will this be any different for the Sovereign? It appears coil selection is better on the Sov. than the X705 also?

Will this sickness ever end? LOL.. I've paid for my Xterra with finds so far, but used the dough for a family Colorado trip, maybe I can talk the wife into a beach trip and hopefully dig up a Sovereign? Snicker, snicker...
 
Coming from the 705 to an Excal i noticed the depth increase and for me its simpler to use. I concentrate more with my ears and i have to say im highly impressed with the Excal II! I may pick a sov due to it being a beast of a detector. I love my excal!
 
Good info! I came from a beep/dig background and while I like the TID, it is a little distracting. I've pretty much gone back to listening to tones and deciding when to dig. For that reason, the Excal or Sovereign might end up being a bit faster since I wouldn't feel the need to consult the display. I guess my reading seems to leave me with the impression that those detectors might be more simple and more powerful? I won't get rid of my X705 but a bigger gun is always fun!
 
Those other detectors are not going to be more simple, in that it takes some time to become proficient in the tones they use. As for more powerful, no doubt about it. I recently picked up a Musketeer Advantage and it does get better depth than the X-terra, but the X-terra will give more info when hunting in trashy areas (at least until I've spent a good amount of time learning its language). Personally, I think having both is a real boon as you can use the X-terra to hunt a large area and figure out where the hotspots are and then use one of the more powerful "guns" to pick it clean. When you're learning a beep dig machine, I find it alot easier to dig everything at first if you're digging in an area where you know there's stuff to find (established by using the TID machine first). If you have enough coin to have both, its a great combination.
 
I don't know that I have enough coin for both really. I just can't see getting rid of my Xterra because of the prospecting mode! Well that, and I almost had to move heaven and earth just to GET my Xterra! I traded two detectors and a little cash-all of which I'm very reluctant to let go of! However, I'm getting pretty fired up about what that Sovereign can do for me! I have an old homesite that has been hit somewhat hard by other detectorists in the past, and it seems most good targets come from 6 to 8 inches deep. I've always wondered what must lurk just below the range of my Xterra... As long as we're talking about that old house btw, I decided that the only way to hunt ground that others may have truly missed was to do some work! I've begun clearing away the collapsed porch area on one side of the house, and have also taken a heavy garden rake to most of the yard in order to remove as much crap as possible. Also worth mentioning is that YOU CAN GET POISON IVY FROM THE ROOTS OF THE PLANT! LOL... Everytime I get a good start another rain system moves in that delays me at least a week from getting back! With my work schedule that could mean it'll be a different season of the year if I'm not careful!

So there is a lot of appeal knowing that the Sovereign might yield more for the detecting time I actually have to spend!
 
Having the detectors you mention I can offer my opinion.

I would choose my Sovereign in most cases over my X-Tera 705.
Two exceptions would be prospecting for gold and beach hunting for recently lost jewelry.
With the proper coil the X-Terra 705 is a better choice for these activity's.

The Sovereign is no doubt the deeper detector and when it comes to salt water or salt water beach hunting
nothing works better than the BBS and FBS technology.
The only detector that will get more depth than a Sovereign in wet salt sand is the PI type.

The only advantage the Excalibur has over the Sovereign is that it is waterproof.
The Excalibur lacks the many features a Sovereign has.

Willee
 
Thanks for the info Willee! Before I do anything I'm gonna add the 10.5 DD round coil to my collection and hit the beach to see how I do! I have the 5x10 elliptical which should work fairly well also. I certainly have no complaints about my Xterra so far, and it keeps impressing me as I experiment with different settings, etc. Sometimes I wonder if I'd really like to dig any deeper than what I have in some of the more heavy clay areas we have around here! It's that lure of the unkown and what lies just beyond reach... :pulltab:
 
I've owned Explorers in the past and have used the Quatro/Saffari. I ended up leaving Whites because I can't find a larger coil for my QXT Pro than the stock 9.5". Shame since a low frequency machine like this hits hard on copper/silver, primarily what I hunt. The newer high frequency Whites don't impress me. Only would if I was a gold ring hunter. I considered the XTerra but the lack of a 3khz coil in the 10" to 14" size range means it's not going to go as deep as I want to on silver/copper. Shame, since I think that machine might potentialy be the deepest single frequency machine on the market if so equiped. Not wanting to go back to the Explorers for various reasons, I opted for a GT. It offers the same depth as the Explorer, same large coil selection, yet I can hip mount it where as the Explorer can't. I also didn't care for the jumpy ID and short audio on the Explorer. Made some great finds with them but they are high maintenance machines that always kept me wondering what the best setting was. You also had to stay on top of them at all times and that took the fun out of my hunts.
 
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