salt water beaches

[Patchoguefrank]

HI, Whites detector useres,

Has anyone used the XLT on salt water beaches? Not necessarily getting the coil WET, & with what setting, & success, if any??? Also, which coil did you have


at the time?? Thank's

 

[utahshovelhead]

Hi Patch,
I was not able to use the stock coil on the beaches with black sand but I switched up the coil to a favorite of mine the "Bigfoot Coil" and it did much better. I do not know how deep it will get there as I dont hunt enough on the west coast. Im sure not as deep as the Double D coil on other detectors but I found a lot of good keepers several silver rings and a gold pendant. I also used it on the Lajolla cove beach which is very deep sand not as much black and it worked well there last time I was down there and I was getting about 7 inches down.
Good luck,
utahshovelhead

 

[ronaldj2]

I usually use the beach/jewelry factory setting. You can do your air and ground balance in the wet sand. If you get a lot of falsing or chatter try to tweek the sensitivity. I never really had to do that, but have had problems in the past with too much falsing and chatter. All in all the xlt is pretty good in wet and black sand. My xlt is 10 yrs old but I have found rings in the edge of the water and in a foot of water with no problems. Recently sent it to White's for service, its on the way back. They installed a new lcd assembly, an xlt lcd window,a spectrum xlt pcb, and a new 9.5 xlt loop for $67.24 plus $15.00 shipping. Not a bad repair for having had the machine for 10yrs. Its still a $900.00 machine. Ron

 

[gilfordberry]

I use it at the beach here in Ca all the time. I have two custom programs, one a modification of the "jewelry and beach" program, and the other using mixed mode. Mixed mode is a bit of a noisemaker, but it adds some depth when hunting in the wet mineralized sand. Like a previous poster, I prefer using it with the bigfoot coil. The standard 9 1/2 inch coil will work, though, but it's a bit harder to get rid of the false responses and still keep a decent depth. Don't know why this is the case because the standard coil is a deeper seeking coil in non-mineralized soil conditions. I use the XLT with the bigfoot mostly in the dry sand. If I'm going to do any serious wet-sand detecting, I'll opt for one of my pulse induction machines. So, will it work? Yes. Is it the best machine for saltwater beaches? Definitely not. But unless you are into the hobby enough to have invested in a stable of detectors to cover different situations, the XLT is, IMHO, the best all-around detector available when you consider functionality, reliability, availability of different coils, and price.