Keeping my Explorer or switching to X-Terra 705???

[Riggs04]

I have owned an Explorer xs since it has came out. I haven't detected for over 5 years but really want to get back in to it. I mainly hunt at parks/old homesteads/etc but would like having a detector I can also nugget shoot with. I like my explorer because I can get silvers 8" plus and can distinguish from silver or clad. Can the x-terra also do that? Explorer has the SEF coils and Pro Coils, are there many options for the X-terra? I guess im just wanting the depth and target information that my explorer has given me. I just dont know if I want to keep my XS and add a few coils or switch to the X-terra and get the gold pack coil also. Any info would be greatly appreciated, its tough to get rid of my explorer and would rather not spend money on two machines.

Thanks so much,

Ryan

 

[DirtAngler]

I'm not going to get into the arguement about being able to differentiate between clad and silver, it's just that I had an Etrac for that reason and found that they are too close to be able to tell. They read the same and sound the same at least on my Etrac and the one my buddy has also. Anyway, I ended up selling mine mainly due to my physical impairments and the weight and required slow swing speed and repurchased a Xterra 705. With the 10.5" DD coil, they go deep enough, dime at 10". The TID readings aren't quite as accurate but neither were the Etrac's that great on 8 to 10" deep coins. Is the Etrac better,yes. But in comparing the 2 in testing, you had to dig iffy signals if you don't want to risk missing potentially good targets regardless of which machine you use, so a lighter, faster sweep speed detector works best for me.
Of course, this is just my opinion and probably Etrac and Explorer users will disagree.

 

[TURNMASTER]

I can not distinguish clad from silver. Of course I struggle with that on my SE too. The Xterra is much faster to swing and reset. The only aftermarket coil so far is the 15" Coiltek (7.5khz). The ( factory coils will go a long way though.

Jeff

 

[pescadore]

I hunted Explorers for years and had to give them up due to RA. I stayed out of detecting for around a year and then tried different detectors to try to find one the performed at the level I was accustomed to and yet light enough for me to swing. I started using a White's Prizm 6T which was a good machine but I did not like the lack of coils and I felt it could be deeper. I recently purchased a gently used Minelab X-terra 705 and all I can say is WOW. The detector is light as a feather and the performance is great !! I have only had it out 3 times and have already found coins deeper than with the 6T. The ID is right on the money and yesterday I dug a nickel at 8 plus inches. I think you would like the 705 but it is a different machine than the Explorer. It is a lot faster and I have the Gold package which comes with a really nice 10 X 5 DD high frequency coil. It has auto tracking and pinpoint sizing.

 

[johnmusk]

Well they are two different technologies and X-terra does not target the pricey "feature-rich" market that your Explorer did. You have a multi-frequency machine that allows you to hunt almost anywhere especially in mineralized beach sand. X-terra may offer similar performance on land but it will never perform on the beach as well as your FBS Explorer will. From what I hear (I don't own one) it has faster recovery time and weighs a lot less.

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

I'd tend to stay with the XS. It's a pretty sweet detector.(Had one for a couple of years.) The only real advantage of the X-Terra over the Explorer, is weight and faster recovery speed.The Explorers have one of the largest selections of coils on the market. I've currently got an X-Terra 70 ans an SE Explorer. I simply enjoy them for what they are. The tones on the Explorer are definitely better than the X-Terra though, although I really like the tones on the X-terra's. I find the TID on the Explorers to be more reliable.
Mick Evans.

 

[Mtnmn]

I doubt if the 705 would be nearly as good as apparently your XS is in distinguishing between clad and silver. Although when it comes to gold the 705 with a HF coil on it would be more sensitive to small gold nuggets than the XS. Depth-wise there shouldn't be much difference between the two with any edge going to the XS. In regards to coils there are approx. 8 or 9 different coils available for the 705 which should pretty much cover all your bases. There are several advantages to owning a 705, (# 1) it is still being produced while the XS isn't, (# 2) is battery usage, the 705 takes half as many batteries and gets nearly twice as many hrs. on a set of four as the XS gets on a set of eight, (# 3) weight-wise the 705 is over a pound lighter than the XS and like previously mentioned has a faster recovery speed. The problem is you already own and know your XS which is an excellent detector in itself and would there be enough improvements in performance to justify buying a 705. I own two similar types of Minelabs (XT and FBS) and they are similar enough in performance that it might be hard to justify the additional cost of a 705, but its your call...