Need a few ideas on XL Pro

[Scottowl]

I have one of these in the mail, and hope to see it next week. I have downloaded the manual from Whites, and have been doing some studying.

My background is 5 years detecting with a MXT. I have got fairly proficient with it, and feel I am getting most of what it has to offer.

The coil selection for the XL will be 3.5, 5.3, 8 and 10.5. The hunts will be in parks and ball fields I have already hit with the MXT.

What can I hope to gain over the MXT? I was hoping for:

1) Quieter operation.

2) Better depth.

3) Better nulling out of iron and small shards of aluminum.

4) Seeing through masking junk metal.

Do you think this will be accomplished? I am in North East Oregon, and the ground is moderately mineralized sand.

What mode would I expect to have the best luck in?

I don't like all metal mode on the MXT (although I have used it some in an attempt to see through junk masking good targets), so I anticipate all my time will be in one of the disc modes. Judging from what I have read in the manual, it will be GEB.

The manual is detailed about ground balancing, and says the signal balance is an important factor. Is signal balance the same as gain on the MXT, or does it have other functions?

Once ground balance is achieved, do most people run it in auto trac, ar lock it in? How does the auto trac compare with the MXT?

I am just throwing some details on my situation, and likely advertising my vast ignorance. If anyone has any pearls of wisdom, I am definitely all ears!

 

[margiop]

The coil selection for the XL will be 3.5, 5.3, 8 and 10.5

It is a 9,5 inches, not 10,5. There are also the 5.5. Ferret, the 3x18 Bigfoot, the 11 Hot Head, the 12 Hot Shot, the 15 Magnum Force, the 25 Magnume Force and the 4x6 Shooter (maybe ther is also a 6 inches by Sierra, I don't remember if it is the 6 Eliminator loop).

What can I hope to gain over the MXT? I was hoping for:
1) Quieter operation.

Yes, it is much quieter

2) Better depth

It depends on what you hunt and where you hunt. MXT has the edge on mineralized soils, it also reaches better depths when hunting for nugets.

3) Better nulling out of iron and small shards of aluminum

Yes, iron and aluminium are not a problem for XL PRO.

4) Seeing through masking junk metal

This is a difficult task for many detectors. XL PRO in geb disc with 9,5 coil is not good on this task. But in geb sat with the 6,5 coil (5.3) it is almost perfect.

Do you think this will be accomplished? I am in North East Oregon, and the ground is moderately mineralized sand.

I live in Italy, here we have a lot of mineralization, XL PRO does well in 99% of fields. In moderately mineralized soils you will be very pleased by it.

What mode would I expect to have the best luck in?

Gen norm is deep, in fields with little trash it is deeper than other modes. Geb disc is perfect for cruising large areas, geb sat is perfect on trashy areas and tr disc has its place in other situations (look to previous posts, you will find a lot of useful infos on tr disc).

The manual is detailed about ground balancing, and says the signal balance is an important factor. Is signal balance the same as gain on the MXT, or does it have other functions?

Monte wrote a great thread about the use of signal balance. You use it to increase the sensitivity until false signals (audio and on the meter) appear. But if it is out of Preset value, the coin depth feature will be not precise. So, in order to obtain precision, you should move it to preset, getting in this way a right coil depth value. And, in the same way, you could use it as a depth meter for whatever target.

Once ground balance is achieved, do most people run it in auto trac, ar lock it in? How does the auto trac compare with the MXT?

I think autotrac works better on MXT rather than on XL PRO. You will lock it when the field is full of iron debris, in order not to over balance the ground exclusion.

Forgive my poor English, I have just tried to express my opinion at my best. Monte will certainly be more precise and professional.

Regards, Danny

 

[Wayfarer]

Scott, congrats on your new XL Pro. You will love it. Danny pretty much covered it . I use three coils with mine: the stock 9.5" is good for cruising open areas without a lot of trash and will give you good depth, the 5.3 (actually 6.5") is a perfect match for the XL Pro in trashy areas, the 3.5 is just too small IMHO. With the 5.3 you can sweep slower and really get in amongst the trash and not sacrifice too much depth.

The XL Pro will be much smoother & quieter. It'll be like getting out of a VW Bug and into a Cadillac.

It won't see through trash any better, I'm afraid, BUT the analog circuitry has a language of its own that once you learn, you'll be able to do a great job picking out the good stuff. I firmly believe that this is one of the great advantages to analog over digital: It lets the human brain do the interpreting rather than some already over-taxed processor. Analog has a faster, smoother, and more "honest" audio. It's hard to put a finger on it, but compared to my XLT, the XL Pro seems to really give you more direct feedback on what the detector is seeing. Start learning that XL Pro and you'll see what I mean.

The auto ground balance is not as good as on the MXT. On the XL Pro it is slower and allows more of a change in ground before it self-adjusts. Also it has a tendency to track slightly negative, that is it errs on the side of quiet and smooth rather than deep and sensitive. But overall the auto GB isn't bad and is actually quite adequate for normal turf hunting, just don't expect to hit the AZ goldfields and get max performance. In light to moderate mineralization it's OK, in heavy minerals you will lose some depth compared to machines with better auto-GB. I will usually find a area clear of metal targets, GB, then put it into "lock." As long as the ground isn't changing much, this works fine. Then just recheck/re-GB every so often and re-lock.

Mode: GEB/Disc. was pretty much perfected by the time White's came out with the XL Pro. As Danny said, TR/Disc. is an interesting option, especially in heavy trash. It's somewhat tricky to learn, but once you do, it becomes second nature. TR and the 5.3 coil is a killer combo when the trash gets really thick. Do some searching on the forum to learn more about TR and the XL Pro.

Signal balance is the critical adjustment on the XL Pro. Set it as high as you can while maintaining both stability and ground balance. After some practice, you'll get the feel for it and know when you can turn it up or have to turn it down. Generally, I run mine between 1 o'clock and 3'oclock depending on coil size (small coils can be run higher) and soil. You can fine tune sig bal to your liking: i.e. totally smooth & quiet with a little less depth, or a little chattery & falsing with absolute max depth. Bt don;t worry, you really won't be losing much depth when you turn it down just enough to smooth things out. But I know some guys that will do almost anything for an extra 1" of depth

Overall, the XL Pro is one of the best, if not THE best, coin hunters. In typical soils, it really pulls in the silver. It will not, however, beat the MXT on gold, especially small gold. In a typical park, though, the XL Pro will find the gold rings, just probably not the tiny earrings and thin chains that the MXT will find.

Bets of luck with that detector. It's the best coinshooter ever, IMHO. Do a search for any post by Monte, he's the real guru on the XL Pro. Happy Hunting!

 

[Monte]

respond to your E-mail (all my mail has gotten backed-up. Sorry!) And on top of that, my "vacation" has been messed up as our boss scheduled me to work several days, plus "keep an eye on things". So, while the wife's been enjoying 89's and sunshine in Arizona, I've been squeezing in as much detecting time as I can between the rain and hail and nasty weather we've been having.

So, I have some vacation time coming that I am going to take in April. I'll figure out when after the wife's home on Monday evening. You can E-mail me your schedule of available days of the week and I'll drift over your direction and we can spend some time together. You're going to like the XL Pro.

I have one of these in the mail, and hope to see it next week. I have downloaded the manual from Whites, and have been doing some studying.

Read it and play, read it and play. It is different from the Classic or the MXT, and I think you'll like some of what it offers.

My background is 5 years detecting with a MXT. I have got fairly proficient with it, and feel I am getting most of what it has to offer.

It's always good to have two (or three) models that compliment each other.

The coil selection for the XL will be 3.5, 5.3, 8 and 10.5.

The 10.5 is actually a 9.5, and I personally prefer a thin-profile 8" coil (like the ProScan 800) to the 950 for most open-area "cruising" tasks, and the 5.3 (a 6

 

[Scottowl]

Thanks to all for the tips. I will have my work cut out for me, as soon as the detector gets here.

Yes, I realize the stock coil is 9.5.

Danny, that geb sat mode sounds like something to play around with. I'll probably be in presets for the first month or three, though. I figured on locking in ground balance after getting it set, as you suggested. With the MXT I lock gb in, and, when it starts getting noiser than usual, I find a clean patch of ground and update it by quickly toggling it back and forth. I wonder if the XL Pro responds to that technique.

Wayfarer, the thought of having a great coin shooter is encouraging, especially if you can add the possibility of the occasional ring. Where I do most of my hunting a ring is more likely than a desirable coin. I am not one to turn my nose up at clad, and the MXTs strength is not ID on coins. It's more than adequate, but what's wrong with improvement?!

Monte, you are a wealth of knowledge. I would welcome a couple hours in the park after I get the hang of the XL. We have had some rain here and there, but early spring is our windy season. It is getting warmer every day, though, and we will soon be wishing for one of these 60 degree days when facing triple digits.

As far as silver, it pains me to admit the only honey hole for silver I know about is the Coin Cradle in nearby Kennewick, Washington!

Thanks again to everybody. Fed Ex says I should receive the detector on Thursday. Hopefully I can get a few hours in here and there with it. (The lawnmower, that is. Learning how to use the XL is going to be Job One!)

 

[Bugalooob]

The 6000's are silver plukin machines...I have a 6000di pro and the meter will tell you the difference between a silver quarter and a clad quarter , silver dime and clad dime very easily....The silver quarter will read at the end or a little bit past the quarter writing on the meter, clad quarter will be right on writing...same with dime.....I used to ignore the clad readings and cherry picked silvers...same thing with silver halfs, found a 1917 half at 11 inches..it read just past half dollar ( I knew it was a silver half before diggin)...Recently bought a Minelab Etrac based on the reviews for finding the really deep stuff, this thing cant tell the difference between a silver quarter and a clad one...kindof pisses me off for a new advanced $1500 machine, hell why can a 20 year old machine do it?

 

[jmaryt]

it can do it because that analog meter registers the metal conductivity of the coin!..to explain:..when your pro "hits" silver the meter will "deflect" a little more to the right of the word 'dime",or quarter,or half!..the reason it does that is because silver is a better conductor of electricity than cupro-nickel,so therefore the meter is getting a "stronger" reading on the silver which,of course IS abetter conductor!

(h.h!)
j.t.