Salt water hunting with MXT

[DeeCal]

Hi all, I'm new to this forum and it looks like a good place to look around and learn a thing or two. I gotta question about hunting beaches with the MXT. Does anyone hunt beaches sucessfully with it? I tries to but it falses and chatters constantly. Is this normal? I am getting to know the machine and really like it for dry land hunting with the stock coil. Do I need a dd coil ar can I hunt salt water beaches with the stock coil? If so anyone have any set up tips to use with stock coil? Thanks in advance for any help. And Great forum!

 

[Rudy]

Dee,

A DD will definitely improve things. Fundamentally though, the MXT is not a good salt water machine. Specially on the beaches we have here in the San Francisco Bay area.

With the DD it does a great job in the dry sand and less so in the wet sand. Highly mineralized black sand will really make it chatter.

Your best bet is to set up a search pattern where you GB for the dry sand, lock it and go to it. Then, when you go into the wet sand, GB again and lock it. You probably will have to back off on the sensitivity to about 7-8 to get it stable. If a wave hits the coil, don't be surprised if it starts falsing like crazy.

 

[DeeCal]

Thanks Rudy. Although not what I really wanted to hear, I guess I'll have to live with it. I will try lowering the sensitivity and get a DD when my budget will allow. I did manage to find a gold and a silver band in wet sand at low tide. So I guess rings can be found if the chatter doesn"t drive ya crazy first! If anyone else has any tips ,I'd love to hear em.

 

[Big Boys Hobbies]

Have you tried hunting in relic mode with trigger forward so that only the good targets make a high pitch noise to reduce noise?

 

[n5pip]

Hi DeeCal,
I use my MXT on the wet sand & very shallows at the beaches in Daytona Beach, Fl. I usually run in the relic mode, Gain at the preset or just above (you may need to play with the gain a bit depending on your location),ground lock AFTER balancing in the "SALT" mode, "Dual" dial at about 2.5, Threshold JUST barely audible, and the trigger in the forward position. While not as good as a "underwater" detector I have no problem finding targets down to abt 10". If you are hunting the surf line, lift up the coil above the water when the waves come in. If you don't you WILL get the "OVERLOAD" alarm & it WILL definitely get your attention !!! When changing from dry sand to wet you will need to ground balance in SALT & then switch to Ground Lock. Do the same when going into the water. Note that the MXT is a bit "noisier" than some others but quite tolerable. I love the MXT and think it is one of the best and most sensitive detectors out there. I'm quite pleased with its performance. In just one month of using it on the beach, I've found abt $30 in clad, 5 silver rings, 1 gold ring, 2 gold braclets, watches, etc.

HH,
Stirling, N5PIP
Daytona Beach

 

[DeeCal]

Thanks for the tips guys! I guess I'll have to practice more in the Relic mode. I see that a lot of people like the r/m over the c/j mode. I just can't seem to get used to it. I start out in r/m mode till I find a target, than switch over to c/j to check it out and thats where it stays.

 

[Jeff in MI]

n/t