Terra 70 V 3500 in OZ

[OZAshley]

Well not sure if it is a good thing or a bad thing. Here is my story...

I wanted to make sure I knew how to get max use out of my Xterra70 so I booked in with Coiltek from the golden Triangle

It was a present from my wife last year for Fathers day, a 2 day tour on how to find gold and how to use my detector.
Finally I booked in for this weekend, when I got there they said they only do 1 day tours.
So my voucher was worth more than the 1 day, I said I would buy something to the value at the end of the day.
After a few hours of the shoulds and should not's of detecting we hit the ground.
I found a few .22 bullets and heaps of old nails, but now I am in love with the machine, even if I only used it for about 2 hours.
I am going Camping in the Golden Triangle next weekend ( Long weekend for Aussies )
Friends have land that have old mullock heaps and mines than have never had a detector run over it.
I am not real confident in using the Xterra 70 to find gold when I have not even given it a chance, now that I have used the 3500.
Have I got a toy or should I have the confidence in being able to find gold, just not at the depth that the 3500 would find..
And by the way I ended up buying a small scale and a small nugget 1 .1gram because we found nothing and I had to spend the voucher.
Although the day before they found a 7 gram piece
So my question is should I hit the triangle with confidence with the 70 or just go along and have some fun. ??

Take Care

Ashley...

 

[kraken14]

YOU SHOULD HIT THOSE MULLOCK HEAPS AND THE SURROUNDING GROUND WITH GREAT CONFIDENCE MATE.
the xterra 70 is a wonderfull machine, it is capable of great depth and sensitivity, one very experienced prospecter tells us the heavy duty minelabs only get around 1/3rd more depth--- so that should tell you the xterra 70 is a very capable detector, and can find gold that the top of the range $3500-$4500 minelabs wouldant even sound off on., plus the xterra70 is a lot lighter ect. so get out there and find those nice little niggetts and pieces of gold, and then if by chance you pass your coil over a nice large nuggett be assured your x-terra70 will find it.read your manual-then read it again and again and again untill you know the functions of your detector backwards this is the secret to a good starting point with all detectors-- BUT SADLY NOT DONE BY A LOT OF DETECTORISTSAND THEN THEY GET DISCOURAGED WHEN THE DETECTOR DOESANT DO WHAT THEY THINK IT WILL.. MY SUGGESTION FOR STARTING OUT IS
PROSPECTING MODE--- AUTO TRAC-- IRON MASK 2-----SENSITIVITY MAX YOU CAN HAVE IT WITH YOUR DETECTOR RESPONDING NICE AND QUIET AND STABLE-- VOLUME MAX -- THRESHOLD AROUND 14.. TRY THAT AND SEE HOW YOU GO.regards ken+marg also in aus.

 

[nero_design]

The X-70 should be good for the goldfields since it has so many of the settings which normally feature on the top of the line detectors like the GPX 4000.
The only difference will be that your X-70 will occasionally give a rise in pitch when you go over certain ground types that the GP series detectors wouldn't normally react to.
Rather than dig targets which may not yield anything worthwhile, lear to use your machine and read the forums for suggestions, hints and tips.

Many people who own the high end gold machines will keep an X-70 as a backup and to help them clean up small gold which their own machines would normally ignore altogether.
Take your time. When you use the X-Terra 70 on goldfields, move slowly and listen for the fainter signals which are audible yet defined. By 'defined', I mean they should be a bit abrupt as you pass the coil over the target. Loud and sharp sounds on the other hand usually mean there's an iron target VERY close to the surface. If you only dig the sharp, loud sounds, you'll only be finding objects close to the surface and this is the sort of material that virtually any detector can find. Your machine has the ability to detect nice targets that other machines may have missed.

Kraken41's advice is sound. You can, and probably should, use "Tracking" as well ...just press the button and leave this feature on.

Don't go out there without spending some time reading about your new machine. That's a mistake many people (Including myself) have done. The 3500 is a good gold detector although it can't handle the beaches like your X-70 can. So if you like to detect for Treasure or Relics, the X-70 is the way to go as it's the very best of both worlds. Remember that the X-Terra 70 is also good for finding specimens and many of the great gold pieces from the Triangle include Iron Ore along with the gold and quartz. With that in mind, it may be worth your while to use the X-70.
And bring that 1g nugget with you. This is an ideal way to find out what the nugget will sound like under a few inches of the very soil you intend to detect on.

Take it with you in a plastic film container or even a tiny ziplock baggie and bury it in the first hole you have already dug for a nail or somesuch. Fill in the hole with a little dirt after putting your nugget in it and then try your X-70 over the new target. It should not be as "sharp" as the iron nails when you hear it. More like a raised, yet confident, pitch rise. And this is what you should expect to hear when you pass over a similar sized nugget with your coil in the same region.

Remember also that with a bunch of people using a bunch of detectors in that same area, they found a 7g piece. So unless someone brought the nugget with them (alas, that often happens when people can't handle failure or hope to show up a friend), you have a good chance there too since you know that gold is there. But likewise, since it took a bunch of people with a bunch of detectors after a bunch of trips to find that 7g nugget, some luck and a little effort was probably involved. Most of us need an abundance of both as most trips are used to chalk up experience with success being a little sporadic at times.

All the best! Be sure to tell us how you go!

Cheers,

Marco

 

[nugget71]

I found my first specie with my 70 on the very first time I hit a well known gold field. I couldn't believe it as it took me nearly 4 weeks of prospecting to find my first piece when I had a GP Extreme back in the day. Call it luck.........maybe but the 70 will have no trouble sniffing out even the smallest of nuggets (rice grain....even smaller). I also found a beautiful gold chain (14k) with a Canadian quarter oz gold coin on a local beach........I could not wipe the smile off my face for the next 2 weeks after that. Brother like any sport or hobby luck does play a small part but let me say this, if you happen to put that DD coil of yours over a prime target even with the factory settings your 70 is gonna buzz its little ring off!! Even with the sensitivity turned down some shes still HOT so don't worry. Just take your time with a nice moderate to slow swing. My setup is.....................DD Elliptical 18.75 KHz coil / Prospect mode / Iron mask 1 / Sen between 20 to 30 depending on ground type / Sony ear plug ear phones with volume control. Best of luck Ash!!
Cheers!

 

[B.T]

Right where I live and use a Terra 70. You probably got told by the guys there that it is only good for coins and relics, I know because I hear people getting told that by them on a weekly basis.
When I first started finding gold with my 70 and a mate told one of the guys there they laughed, told him i was full of BS, said I didn't know how to use any detector at all, and bagged the life out of the lessons I gave at Finders. I now have a pic of my kitchen table covered in species and small nuggets found with the 70 in the Golden Triangle. I sent it to one of the knockers via MMS and never got a reply.
I wont lie, the GPs are mighty machines and in hot ground nothing comes within a bulls roar of them but there are plenty of places where the 70 more than holds its own.
Trust it and back it in, get to know it which like anything in life doesn't take place within the first 5 mins.
You just need to learn from trial and error where it likes it and the type of gold occurrence's where it rocks and then your off.
ps: trying to compare a GP PI detector to a VLF Terra 70 is like doing the same with a 4wd vs a V8 sedan. Each can make the other look lam'o in their own suited enviroment. Testing them out against each other will not show you anything in reality. You can take a 70 to its home ground and make a PI look ratto, you could do the same with a PI in its home ground and make the 70 look ridiculous.

 

[Grant]

Biggrin, You seem to know your stuff about the X70 I just got mine two weeks ago At every turn or change in setting I'm getting worse off! I finally found a deep penny 8+"S but lately everything is 3"s or lower : ( MY XL pro can do that.) I have two coils the 6'DD 18.75kHz the 10X5' 18.75kHz elliptical DD and the stock coil I'm hunting in moderate to sum what higher mineralized ground as the Parks are next to rivers and I've dug black sand 200' from the river! an a lot of area with no gound noise anyway I've tried was skunked today until I switched to tracking with beach mode on and got 8 pennies immediately good right? well they were on the only at 1" I know I'm missing coins. and just haven't come up with a good setting VDI ( just sumps unless target is under 3"S) GB NC thresh hold all together I've been hunting on pattern 1 with threshold at 13 and sensitivity at 20-27 problem was I didn't record or pay attention when I dug my deepest coins. I'm getting allot of faint signals with no VDI an I'm digging a ton of trash simply bcuz I'm unclear if I'm missing something. any suggestions would be great.

 

[OZAshley]

Thanks Guys appreciate the positive feed back.

I will hit the Triangle with more confidence now.

Take Care

Ashley...

 

[Neilo]

I own both a 3500 and a 70, In the highly mineralised ground for depth and larger nuggets the 3500 is the machine to have. The 70 excels when looking for tiny nuggets and specimens which the bigger machine misses. the secret of using the 70 in mineralised ground is to swing very slowly this gives the machine a time to its adjust ground balance in the harsh conditions. When I say slowly I mean very very slowly around 8 seconds per sweep. Otherwise you will be drowned in ground noise and will miss targets. Going so slowly is tediuos but it works try it. good hunting seeya Neilo, Sth Aust.

 

[David]

Look at this for a XT 70 and a GP comparison...

http://www.jacksgold.com/articles/xterra70.htm


I wonder if a person was working in 2 man teams. One using a 70 and the other a GP. Once a signal is found with the GP then the other person with the 70 can pinpoint and then read on the VDI number scale if it is gold or trash. If it reads as gold, keep pinpointing and digging while the other person keeps detecting with the GP marking signals with orange bean bags to be checked later with the 70. (I realize some signals will be out of reach for the 70 but do what it takes.) What do you think of this method?

 

[Grant]

Used both detectors small stuff specimens the Terra except the 14X NF for GP coil will hit those targets. To quote the article 60% depth loss in mineralized area all gold bearing areas are highly mineralized so for small gold to med gold at a minimum depth uses the X-Terra large small medium gold and a 12''= the GP 3500 thats just my opinion but I did use this method with the GMT3500 combo if I found a small nuggets With my GMT in an area I'd rake it down use thee GMT again the pull out the 3500 this Method d got me the small ones you see in my pick and a few 1/2oz- a 2.1 oz specimen piece with 78%Au gold. Grant BTW the iron bars on the GMT were pegged in this area! I'd Love to get the xterra back out there but I'm 1200 miles away now! grant

 

[OZAshley]

G'day Guys

Well I hit the Triangle over our long weekend.
The property where we camped was 50 acres, with 3 old homesteads.
I was excited, so started detecting the next morning, but was over run with rusty metal everywhere.
So I thought I would try the state forest ( Muckleford State Forest ) where I could see 2 recently refurbished quartz ovens.
After about 2 hours I had approx 8 rusty nails and 2 rusty old chisel heads that must have been used on the slate.
I spoke to a local that said there would not be much, if any gold where I am looking, but I am not so sure.
A local lad took me down to a few old mines that I will detect near next time, But the way I see it, if there was no Gold, why are there mine shafts all around ?

The next day I was going to go back out and detect but the weather was terrible with big storms predicted so we packed up and went home.
I will go back to the same place again, with a bit more research and see how I go.
It would have been nice to have found the smallest piece of Gold for all the digging I did, but hey maybe next time.
Thanks again for all the Encouragment and Advise given.
It is Appreciated.

Take Care

Ashley...

 

[kris]

Ashley keep at it, I`ve found gold in that area with a modded 2000 [small gold] like to get back with the 70 and give it a run.
kris

 

[robert roy]

Whats stopping you from doing both?
RR