MXT with 5.3 eclipse coil on gold.

[B.T]

Took the MXT out yesterday with the 5.3 eclipse coil on it to some old diggings. I now have to eat my words from another forum where I said the X Terra 70 had no rival amongst VLFs in Australia. Damn, the MXT cruised through some absolute mongrel ground where the Terra would have trouble tracking it out.
I purposely tried three spots where the 70 would pick up lots of false ground noises and couldn't believe it when the MXT just took it in its stride. Now thats what I call "aggressive tracking". The MXT has been a sleeper over here in OZ but I think that will change. I tried the standard coil it comes with and couldn't stand it. Catches sticks in its opening, hard to locate really small targets on(virtually impossible) same as the Terra's open coils, I got rid of them the first chance I had, but the 5.3, that rocked. Being so used to the 70 I kept going to press the screen looking for a push pad, felt weird at first but I am now going to give it a belt on a few of my old good Terra gold nugget spots. It did find gold too by the way. One small .1 gram bit and two specimens. Only funny thing was that when you would sweep across rocky stony ground, because of the coils bottom shape not being flat, it would draw the stones in and cause the coil to sort of bounce up as they made their way under it. Id love to see it flat because of that reason. Wasn't a major hassle in any way but was funny when it first happened. But what a great little coil though on gold.
Tomorrow to another old spot, cant wait.

 

[steelheadfever]

Thats great to hear B.T. Do you have the 6x10 coil? I would like to know how it does down there. I follow you posts on the X-Terra forum and its wierd to see you here on the MXT forum. A nice kind of wierd mind you. Good luck with your MXT. HH Dennis in Idaho

 

[Nancy-IL]

B.T, Thanks for sharing and enjoy that MXT. GOLD....can't get much better than that. I've heard so many good things about the 5.3 Eclipse coil. Don't tell anyone, but I think I'll put Larry's coil on my machine and see what all I can find. HH to all, Nancy

 

[Sunny Jim]

Thanks BT for the honest report and it is exciting to read your discovery's as if they were our own.
I have heard much about the 10x6 and it is the one stock coil I do not have apart from the new 12" coil.
If you do not have a probe and have a deep recovery the small coil in hand works great with all the features of operation.
Tell us what kind of numbers you are digging on. Small targets can read in the iron range and jumpy upward. There can even be negative # nuggets though very rare.
keep us posted!

 

[dc4kkc]

Ok, my head is spinning.....6X10 DD, 5.3 or ???? I hear so many things good about the 6X10, then all of a sudden I read something negative. I am looking to add another coil to my MXT-300 and have been told to get the 6X10 DD. I know it all depends on where it's going to be used and what for. I'm kinda looking for the all around Gold Prospecting and multi all around coil. I will add the 5.3 to the list of have to haves, but try to explain that to my wife when I had hard enough time explaining the metal detector in the first place.....lol. I do know I plan on buying the Sunray Pro Headphones. Nancy seems to love them and I have read nothing but good reviews concerning them. I will be going on vacation and plan on buying only one coil prior to going and have been looking at the 6X10 DD. Any ideas? Help !!!

DC

 

[Hillbilly Bob]

If you put the 6 X 10 DD coil on the MXT that is the best combination for gold prospecting, because that basically gives you the GMT with is designed to find nuggets. Now there are allot of coils that will find gold and are great for certain people. But to have a machine that is set up as close to the famous gold finding GMT then you need the 6 X 10 DD. I have used the GMT from creeks of N. CA to the deserts of AZ and the hills of Colorado, there is no detector [ unless you want to spend 2000 to 3000 for it ] that finds gold as good as the GMT except the MXT with 6 X 10 DD the main reason is it's designed for highly mineralized soils, the kind your going to run into while prospecting. The only difference in the two machines is the GMT uses a 48KHz and the MXT uses a 14KHZ with means you can find smaller nuggets or flour gold at deeper depths then the MXT. Now when I go prospecting I like the MXT because I'm looking for shallow gold deposits in creeks, and nuggets in dry washes , and when I have it with me I can also relic hunt around old mining sites. But when the nuggets are being found deep I pull out the GMT. If my son goes with me we have both machines working. To sum it all up MXT + 6 X 10 DD = GMT.

 

[robert roy]

I have the 5.3/6inch coil but I have to admit since I got the 6x10DD I don't use the 5.3 much.
The 6x10DD really seems to work well for me. I don't even use the standard 9.5 coil much anymore.
RR

 

[dc4kkc]

Thanks Robert and RR. You slowed the rotation of my head....lol. I will be looking for the gold, but will also be hunting around an old miners cabin from the 1800's that has NEVER been hunted around. I am hoping they put some gold in the ground and missed a jar or two.....lol Thanks again for your help, I'm new to detecting and look to all of you for knowledge.


DC

 

[B.T]

As of today my X Terra 70 is up for sale. I know the MXT has been around for a few yeas now but down here in OZ it has been a sleeper. The previous Whites dealer didnt do much to promote anything as he got older and has now retired so I never got a chance to use it. I now work for the new Aussie Whites dealer and have since been giving the MXT a bit of a workout. To say I was shocked when I found out it actually smacked the 70, and as the ground gets worse even more so, is an understatement! Ive seen enough to more than convince me that this is the machine I should have been running for gold, and to think I could have had bought one 4 years ago makes me want to kick myself. But, better late than never.
I absolutely love the little 5.3. I have taken it to three places where I found gold with the 70 and the MXT has found more in each place. Especially around the wierd changeable ground areas.
Three days ago I took it to an old quartz gold mining area and found 4 bits. One clean 1/2 gram, two quartz gold species with about 1/4 of a g in each and a bit of iron oxide which looked like a bit of rusted iron but turned out to be full of fine gold about another 1/2 g. Two days ago I took it out to one place that I had considered "done to death" with my 70 and within 1 hour found one small bit of 1/20th of a gram lying right beside a large peice of mineralised rock which was the direct opposite in ground balance to what the actual ground itself was. Not far from that I then detected two species of gold in quartz right next to, within 6 inches, of where I had dug a hole with the 70 and found gold before. I had been over this ground at least 10 times in various weather and temp condititions previously. As of now I am convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that the MXT is a superior Gold detector to the 70 and am absolutely hanging out for the Pulse scan to hit our shores.

 

[robert roy]

Why not keep the x-70 as a back up or do you need the money?
RR

 

[Sunny Jim]

WOW!
So tell me one thing BT

How does the speed of the MXT compare?

 

[B.T]

The 70 goes, its been a good machine and payed for itself several times over in gold found. But I will have two machines, the new PI when it comes out and the MXT. When something I have owned has run its race, it goes. I wouldn't buy a machine that weighs twice the weight to replace a feather lite unless it performed noticeably better.The MXT does. In mild and tame ground, or doing an air test (though I place very little value on air tests) there is not much between them. But, hit the bad and changeable ground and the MXT's tracking makes it shine, showing a noticeable increase of performance. Its tracking is much more efficient than that of the 70's. That and the SAT control make it a formidable VLF in bad ground. You can find a small target with the 70 in Track, dig it out and place it on the coil and move it around and the signal stays solid and hardly changes, just a tiny bit. Do the same with the MXT in Track and its fast track diminishes the signal markedly. I also noticed that many small iron/rusted fragments after one or two passes of the coil also greatly diminish in response with the response changing from the original, whilst still in the ground, whereas gold seemed to stay solid. That said though I wouldn't use multiple passes over a target though at any stage but that was a thing that stood out. I noticed too that a dug out target, gold, can and does at times also diminish in response a bit. But the manual notes that anyway.
But I guess most of you guys know all this anyway so don't think I'm trying to tell you all how to suck eggs. The 70 goes, MXT stays. It can be hard at times to compare machines, one does one thing better in a particular circumstance and another machine another thing better. The ground where I hunt though has shown clearly that the machine of choice should be the MXT.

 

[Sunny Jim]

Thanks BT.

I am a bit thick here and wonder if you could expand on a few points you made.

"Its tracking is much more efficient than that of the 70's. That and the SAT control make it a formidable VLF in bad ground. You can find a small target with the 70 in Track, dig it out and place it on the coil and move it around and the signal stays solid and hardly changes, just a tiny bit. Do the same with the MXT in Track and its fast track diminishes the signal markedly."
Why do you favor this function of fast track with the MXT and what diminished signals are good?

I also noticed that many small iron/rusted fragments after one or two passes of the coil also greatly diminish in response with the response changing from the original, whilst still in the ground, whereas gold seemed to stay solid. Are you saying that the tracking feature is tracking out unwanted responses and keeping the good? Can you give an example?

That said though I wouldn't use multiple passes over a target though at any stage but that was a thing that stood out. I noticed too that a dug out target, gold, can and does at times also diminish in response a bit. But the manual notes that I apologise but can you clarify this first sentence please, I am missing the point.

I know this is in response to my question about speed of processing targets, (faster?) I gather you are finding the MXT superior?


Thanks
Sunny Jim

 

[B.T]

No drama Jim. I find that many mineralised ground responses track out pretty fast after one return sweep. The gold I have been getting though stays rock solid.
When you dig the target out though and the ground matrix has now been disturbed, repeated passes over the target can now cause the response to diminish a bit (as the manual states). Thats if you leave it in Track though and as the manual says after you dig out the target put it in the Lock position and halt the Tracking, or hold the trigger towards you to do the same. This same target response diminishing also takes place if you leave it in Track and try to locate the target on your coil, you would Lock for this too.
It could be possible for the Tracking after multiple repeated passes of the coil over the target, which is not advised with any Tracking detector whether it be Whites, Minelab, Tesoro or whatever,
but possibly more so with the MXT due to its agressive Tracking, which is good dont get me wrong in my explanation of its workings over here in Oz.
It tracks like a beast, super fast, I love it and its a great thing in our bad changing ground. Many areas of bad ground where my 70 had problems tracking out the minerals the MXT IS tracking them out. Strangely I have seen some iron rusted targets change their response, diminish in strength after a couple of coil sweeps whereas the gold has not. Im not saying you could pass the coil over a deep nugget 30 times and it would stay the same but that for the normal way of doing it, a couple of passes before choosing Lock, it doesnt alter.
So yes, I am saying I am finding it superior. Much so, especially the bad choppy changing ground. I am planning another run tomorrow with it in another place where the ground was like this.
Hope that helps, have a good one Jim.

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

I think that your boss (friendly fellow BTW) will be a much happier camper. I'm sure that he will look forward to your future articles in Gem and Treasure.
Mick Evans.
P.S. I had my first descent crack at the 70 today. Top little machine. I've also had a bit on an eye for the MXT from time to time. Got the literature from your boss several months back.
Mick Evans.

 

[B.T]

G,day Mick. You should really like the 70 it was a great machine to me and found plenty of gold. For coins and relics it would still be my list topper but the MXT has proven itself on the gold to be better as the ground gets worse. I had tried one before but only with the supplied coil and the 10" DD and never really much of a proper go at that. But when the boss said to give it a real good slash I chose the 5.3 coil to see how it went. On specie gold it is a ripper and more than holds its own against the 70. Thing is though with the SAT control it opens up whole new doors as far as total control goes. In ground where I had to turn the 70 down to 2/3 sens I can run the MXT hotter by just giving it a bit more SAT and hardly touching the sens.
Have a good one Mick and good luck with the new machine.

 

[Mick in Dubbo]

n/t