Help picking out a new detector

[VerdeAZcoinhunter]

Help,

I am sort of new to this, but my experience dates back about 30 years. Back in the late 1970's I lived in Western Nebraska along the Oregon Trail. (It was about 150 yards from my house.) My first metal detector was a White's that was my Dads. I don't remember the model, but it had a big coil and it was heavy. I found a few coins but I had to dig over a wide area to locate them. Then I went off to college got married and metal detecting was all but forgotten. That is until 1997 when my two sons were older and we were looking for something fun to do. I purchased a Garrett Treasure Ace 300. It worked better than that old White's but not by much. Still very hard to pinpoint things. Also it could discriminate out most trash but gave 'false readings'

Now I am remarried my kids are grown and my wife and I want to go metal detecting. We found the old Garrett and went to a local high school and found 16 cents in about half an hour.

Now for the question I have looked at reviews for the last month and I am down to three detectors, X-Terra 30, Garrett 250, and a Teknetics Gamma. It seems that the Teknetics is not yet available and only the higher price T2 would be available. We just want to look for coins. Pinpoint them and have a minimum amount of digging. Any suggestions?

R&C in Arizona

 

[Bobbie]

My husband uses an X-TERRA 30 as his land detector. He has had great success with it for the past 2 years. He hits all the local Parks and finds many coins. It is basically a turn on and go with 3 tones and a large digital readout. Ground balance is preset!
12 is a nickel
32 is a penny
36 is a dime
40 is a quarter

These are solid readings on swinging over a target right to left and left to right. If the TID numbers jump all over it is probably junk. Of course large aluminum pull tabs and bottlecaps can give false readings also. Small pull tabs and some bottlecaps seem to give give a reading of 12,16,20, 24 and 28. Pull tabs and bottle caps are a major nuisance. When in doubt always dig the target.It is not a fast target recovery unit but it works very well. Pinpoint feature is awesome. Depth up to 8 inches depending on size of target. The depth gauge on unit is approximate only! Unit is solidly built no wobble.I believe the x-terra 30 has the same horsepower as the x-terra 50 and x-terra 70. those two units have more bells and whistles. In addition to the standard 9" concentric coil there is a 6" concentric coil available for the heavy trash areas. There is a 10.5" DD coil available which he has and uses it at the salt water beaches. The DD coil works good in dry sand and damp sand at the beach. The sensitivity has to be turned down on the unit for the DD coil to work at a salt water beach. On dry land the DD coil should give you a little extra depth. Hope this info helps.

 

[mohayes1046]

Welcome aboard R&C! Verde is not to far south of Sedona is it?
I use the X-Terra 70 and am VERY pleased with it. The X-Terra 30, 50 and 70 are all great machines and with each there are advantages. I like mine because I have the ability to change what I am hunting by changing the coils over 3 different frequency ranges. The 6 inch coil is great for working areas with a lot of trash and pin-pointing good targets in the middle of or adjacent to a trash targets. It has great versatility

Check out the X-Terra forum by going to the top of the page and click on the "jump to forum" it will bring down a list of all forums available and the X-Terra forum is about 4 from the top.

Mark

 

[Goes4ever]

I have the x-terra 70 and love it, I used to use an ace 250 and my finds have really increased since switching to the x-70. It is easy to use, gets great depth on coins, very light easy to swing for hours without fatigue. I would highly reccomend an x-terra

 

[Digger]

Since you've already narrowed down your choices between the X-30 and the Ace 250, I'll give my opinions concerning those two. Both are lightweight, well balanced, notch discriminators. I've owned both and am confident that the X-Terra is a deeper seeking detector. As well, the Ace 250 will not hold a candle to the pinpointing ability of the X-terra. Note, however, a "smaller than stock coil" on either one will improve your separating trash from treasure. The X-30 is more expensive than the Ace 250. But I've seen a lot of "curious" folks lose interest in the hobby due to their choice of detector. If you are "ready to go metal detecting", as you indicate, then I'd consider the X-30 to be the best "investment". JMHO HH Randy