MXT issues

[David_J]

Hi all, new to the forum and wanted to say hi and ask some questions. I have an MXT that can find the heck out of everything but what I am looking for. I have read the manual, been to a few sites and tried some of the settings, but I am missing something. Here is some info so maybe someone can point me in the right direction....I live in Illinois and the places I mostly hunt is moderate to high mineralization and trashy, and I am usually coin/jewelry hunting. While I have found a bunch of clad, the only other finds of interest are an old car token and a 1863 Indian head. No matter what I do I seem to be missing the signals/VDI readings or I just have not ran across anything that would produce even a somewhat repeatable/stable response to dig. Any tips on settings, coil change from stock or? Thanks for any and all help.

Dave

 

[Rudy]

For both high mineralization and trashy areas you need a good DD coil. The White's 6x9 is a great coil for both circumstances and if really trashy the 4x6 DD is just the ticket.

 

[David_J]

Thank you Rudy, I have heard somewhere that a DD coil for the MXT is a no-no, and the 5.3 concentric (or any concentric) is a better choice, although there was no info to back it up. I will look into the 4x6 DD! Is it good at target seperation? Tahnks again.

Dave

 

[Rob (IL)]

I live in Illinois and the places I mostly hunt is moderate to high mineralization and trashy
I live in Illinois also, where are you located, and how do you know you have have higher mineralization?

I have heard somewhere that a DD coil for the MXT is a no-no, and the 5.3 concentric (or any concentric) is a better choice, I hunt mostly with a 6" and 10" DD coil and have had great success.

While I have found a bunch of clad, the only other finds of interest are an old car token and a 1863 Indian head. No matter what I do I seem to be missing the signals/VDI readings or I just have not ran across anything that would produce even a somewhat repeatable/stable response to dig. You say you have not found anything that will produce a repeatable signal. I don't understand, you said you have found a bunch of clad. How did you find the clad without repeatable signals? You had to have had a good signal to find the indian head.

Maybe I don't know what you mean. Explain a little more or send me a PM, I'd be glad to help. Rob

 

[David_J]

Rob, sorry for the confusion. I am in Morris IL. I know I have moderate to high mineralization because I make sure I am not over a target with the machine on and put it in prospecting mode and it tells me in the upper right corner what the mineralization is of the ground. Is this accurate?

On the clad, since it was on the surface or only an inch or so down did give a more solid response, it is the deeper targets I can not seem to get anything stable. The Indian head did give a 1 cent reading when I x-crossed it, there was a few others mixed in there as well, but at least it had 1 cent on multiple passes in multiple directions. Does that help out little more? If not let me know so I can explain it more. Thank you for the help.

Dave

 

[Coinseeker 78]

When detecting trashy areas specially with the bigger coils you will have trouble getting a constant signal reading because your coil is seeing to many targets. the smaller coils will help to narrow down individual targets. DD coils although normally not as deep seeking as a concentric coil will do better than concentrics in highly mineralized ground. Be sure to ground balance over trash free ground which you can locate with the pinpointing mode.

 

[Larry (IL)]

David, you are in a location that is a good candidate for higher mineralization and the DD coils will most likely be your best bet. BUT, by no means, is the stock coil a piece of junk either. Nancy will come to your aid on that subject. She has found plenty with the stock coil, while I like the DD for this area. (Central Illinois) . You are more than welcome to come and hunt with us and you can try an assortment of coils that we have. Send me your Email with Club in the subject and I will get some info off to you.

 

[Monte]

Hi all, new to the forum and wanted to say hi and ask some questions.

Welcome to the MXT Forum.

I have an MXT that can find the heck out of everything but what I am looking for. I have read the manual, been to a few sites and tried some of the settings, but I am missing something. Here is some info so maybe someone can point me in the right direction....I live in Illinois and the places I mostly hunt is moderate to high mineralization and trashy,

How do you determine it is "high mineralization" and what do you describe "trashy" to be? Are you referring to modern junk like you'd find around a picnic table, or a lot of iron-based stuff like nails you might encounter at a demolition site?

... and I am usually coin/jewelry hunting.

Well, that narrows it down because now all you have to do is search any site that is likely to have had activity that might generate lost coins and/or jewelry.

While I have found a bunch of clad, the only other finds of interest are an old car token and a 1863 Indian head.

Okay, so where, might I ask, did you find the Indian head 1

 

[Rob (IL)]

David as you see we actually live quite close to each other. Sometime you might want to get together so I can see first hand how you are hunting. I've got several of the coils Monte talked about including the 5", 6", 8" and 10". Rob

 

[Rudy]

Don't know where you heard about DDs and MXTs but it is patently untrue. The MXT thrives on DD coils.

The ground phase reading that is displayed in Prospecting mode is just that, the ground phase.
It is not an indication of how strongly mineralized the ground is. It just tells you wether it is primarily
conductive salts or ferromagnetic, but not how strongly it is.

 

[David_J]

Wow, thank you all for the responses so far. Let me see if I can answer some more...Monte, by trashy I mean misc. iron, aluminum cans or pieces of them, pull tabs, hot rocks....all the places I have gone so far are littered with this stuff. The clad I find at the high school, can't believe how much they throw at each other. The Indian Head came from a site here in town that had a school at one time on it that was built in the 1800's. Wont have a lot more time to detect that place since they are going to be moving the police station there in the empty lot. I want/need to understand all of what my detector is telling me, as far as stable what I mean is if it is a good target should it read say 5 cent on the VDI when I run the coil over the target in two directions? From the sounds of it I may need to make sure I am getting the GB done correctly. As far as digging the all the good sounding targets....unless I am losing my hearing, in the coin and jewelry mode I do not hear any difference in tone at anytime, so there is another thing I have to figure out. If I remember right it was in the zinc cent range.

Rob, it would be great to meet up sometime so you can see where I am messing up and help me get things straightened out. It seems to be a good detector, I just need to get it straight on my end to use it properly. Thanks again everyone.

Dave

 

[Hillbilly Bob]

Don't know where you heard about DDs and MXTs but it is patently untrue. The MXT thrives on DD coils.

The ground phase reading that is displayed in Prospecting mode is just that, the ground phase.
It is not an indication of how strongly mineralized the ground is. It just tells you wether it is primarily
conductive salts or ferromagnetic, but not how strongly it is.

[size=x-large]This is true, very well said....................[/size]