Mick in Dubbo
New member
Just after I discovered how to pinpoint with the standard coil a couple of months back (using the 12 o'clock position on the inner coil as the point of location) I bought the large coil. Although I haven't been too active with the 30 this year, I decided it was time to go hunt with it, with the standard coil again.
Just as the pinpoint method I adapted from Ace proved to be very effective; today, while hunting with the X-Terra, when I was pinpointing, I discovered that not only does it give off good VCO information, it also HAS an EFFECTIVE PINPOINT FADE!!! What is the big deal about that you might ask. In simple terms, it gives you a very powerful discrimination technique! This is one of the reasons I like the Ace so much.
How? To start with, instead of trying to get the target located into the centre of the coil, pinpoint the target under the edge of the inner coil. To do this, centre the the target as you normally would and then, when you have it centred, slide the coil back toward yourself.Listen for the moment when you lose the target and then slowly slide the coil forward till you reacquire the target again. Once you hear it again, giving small side to side movements till you lose the target again. At this point, it will be directly under the 12 o'clock position of the inner coil. It is very accurate. I use a screw driver, so that is important to me.
Now for the interesting bit! While you are sliding the coil back toward yourself, listen very carefully to how quickly the signal disappears!! A coin (rings too) will have a fairly distinct sharpish drop off on the audio. Non coin targets will either hang on, or give a weak signal for a bit around it's edges! Today, I even had a tightly crushed up screw cap, sound good on normal pinpoint, but once I slid the outer edge of the inner coil over it, gave itself up as a piece of junk (it gave a weak signal around the edges). I dug it up to confirm it. Even deep junk does the same thing. I had one target read as 32 and only 2 inches down, but when pinpointed using the sliding technique,the signal hung on. I double checked by raising the coil 12 inches ( the point at which the signal finally broke with the depth metre still showing only 6 inches).
I picked up $7.10 today and had 100% accuracy on picking what was good and what was rubbish. That is better than I can do on the Ace. Although it is still only a beginning using this technique on the X-Terra, so time will tell. I'll only have it till the end of the week, as I'll be loaning it to a mate till Feb, so if anybody else has discovered this, I'd be interested in your results. It sure looks promising and I'll miss the X-Terra while it's gone, but will hunt with it a lot more next year.
Mick Evans.
Just as the pinpoint method I adapted from Ace proved to be very effective; today, while hunting with the X-Terra, when I was pinpointing, I discovered that not only does it give off good VCO information, it also HAS an EFFECTIVE PINPOINT FADE!!! What is the big deal about that you might ask. In simple terms, it gives you a very powerful discrimination technique! This is one of the reasons I like the Ace so much.
How? To start with, instead of trying to get the target located into the centre of the coil, pinpoint the target under the edge of the inner coil. To do this, centre the the target as you normally would and then, when you have it centred, slide the coil back toward yourself.Listen for the moment when you lose the target and then slowly slide the coil forward till you reacquire the target again. Once you hear it again, giving small side to side movements till you lose the target again. At this point, it will be directly under the 12 o'clock position of the inner coil. It is very accurate. I use a screw driver, so that is important to me.
Now for the interesting bit! While you are sliding the coil back toward yourself, listen very carefully to how quickly the signal disappears!! A coin (rings too) will have a fairly distinct sharpish drop off on the audio. Non coin targets will either hang on, or give a weak signal for a bit around it's edges! Today, I even had a tightly crushed up screw cap, sound good on normal pinpoint, but once I slid the outer edge of the inner coil over it, gave itself up as a piece of junk (it gave a weak signal around the edges). I dug it up to confirm it. Even deep junk does the same thing. I had one target read as 32 and only 2 inches down, but when pinpointed using the sliding technique,the signal hung on. I double checked by raising the coil 12 inches ( the point at which the signal finally broke with the depth metre still showing only 6 inches).
I picked up $7.10 today and had 100% accuracy on picking what was good and what was rubbish. That is better than I can do on the Ace. Although it is still only a beginning using this technique on the X-Terra, so time will tell. I'll only have it till the end of the week, as I'll be loaning it to a mate till Feb, so if anybody else has discovered this, I'd be interested in your results. It sure looks promising and I'll miss the X-Terra while it's gone, but will hunt with it a lot more next year.
Mick Evans.