Ground Balance Question for Xterra 705/70

[Waterman]

Last year I used and X-Terra 70, sold it last winter and purchased the X-Terra 705 a week ago, my question may have been answered before in the FAQ's above but I can't locate my answer there. The question is, when setting the auto-ground balance does one set the sensitivity to a single digit, say 9, then ground balance, once that is done go back into sensitivity and increase the sensitivity up to 22 or higher? Or does one set the sensitivity at 22 or higher to start with and increase or decrease after the auto-ground balance? Thank you for your help on this..

 

[BarnacleBill]

If I'm in an unfamiliar area I'll set sensitivity to 15, Auto Noise Cancel, then turn Tracking on and walk around a little bit while watching the GB screen. This gives me an idea of what the general GB number will be, how quickly & much the ground changes. I'll also switch to All Metal every couple seconds to see how many targets are in the area I'm GB'ing over. If targets are real thick I'll wander a little further till they thin out and I think I've got a pretty stable GB. After I see the GB is stable, I'll stop over a target free spot, turn off Tracking and start increasing the sensitivity in All Metal while bobbing the coil. At a particular point the machine should start to spit.

From the above point you then have a couple of decisions to make on whether to increase the sensitivity further. If you're going to be hunting in heavy trash then no need to push it any higher. If you're in mild consistent ground you might try to push it higher if after deep coins or relics. If you're in hot gravels you might want to hunt for a couple minutes and see if it's going to be spitting too much for your liking.

If I start start out in an area I've covered before and have an idea of where I'm going to end up on the sensitivity setting then I'll throttle her back a little initially just to cover possible new sources of interference, atmospherics, & ground moisture content. i.e. If I normally could push her to 28 then I'll GB at say 22-23 then immediately dial up 28. If I get any noise then I'll back her down one number at a time till she settles into a groove.

Keep in mind that some of this depends on your hunting style and noise tolerance. I usually don't hunt in All Metal, so that I might be able to run the sensitivity higher since I'm not going to be listening to a lot of low iron grunts that are caused by ground noise. Coil size/type & swing speed also factor in.

HH
BarnacleBill

 

[Dan-Pa.]

Once you have ground balanced I imagine you can lower your sensitivity but if you raise it do you have to ground balance again...Very easy to reground balance but inquiring minds would like to know....to get Max. out of your unit...