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Trash and Treasure will definitely be a mixed bag with Your MD. Partially in response to George(MN)but for evieryone in general ( MXT Tech please read

A

Anonymous

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About 60 percent of the time when my MXT sounds off on a nickel I am digging a pop can top pull tab. I wish it was different. With all the experience on this website I have come to the conclusion that this is a matter of fact with all detectors to this point. There are things you can do to make your odds of making better finds. #1 is making sure your detector is tuned correctly for the ground you are working. I wish if there was a surefire way for this detector to I.D. more proficiently a mxt tech who originally designed this machine would fill us in. A graph for setting up your machine in different ground readings would be extremely useful. I am a little tired of so called professionals trying to make excuses for the MXT's shortcomings. If there is a way lets here it. I dont want to here "well if you hold the detector at this angle, and shake it this way." blah blah blah - Dah dah dah. Oh well if this doesnt make me popular. Lets here some answers.
 
.... a pal of mine was detecting at an old campsite that was used by California gold miners in the summer of 1850. It had seen no prior use (by Europeans), and also no substantial subsequent use. He had his detector's discrimination setting high enough to reject all small iron, and accept all non-ferrous. He got a nice signal, which repeated passes of the coil caused the VDI meter to "peg" on "quarter." Cool, he had found a quarter (hopefully) lost in 1850. Digging carefully, he found that his "quarter" was nothing more than a lousey 3/4 ounce gold nugget. It just so happens that a quarter, AND a 3/4 ounce gold nugget, have the SAME net discrimination characteristics. The point is, TWO different targets, possessing the SAME net discrimination characteristics, will be "seen" by ANY discriminating circuit (or VDI meter) as the SAME target. Pull tabs come in a wide array of shapes, sizes, and metallic composition. From my experience, the "pulltab range" runs (about) 16 to 28 on the MXT VDI scale. Most nickels hit between 18 and 22, smack dab in the middle of the pulltab range. And, when you consider that there are likely MANY TIMES as many pull tabs out there as there are lost nickels, then your "take" of 1 nickel for every 1.5 pulltabs is not such a bad ratio. Now, if you want to totally forego digging pulltabs, reject everything under 30 on the scale. But then doing so means you will miss all nickels, and most gold items. Worth the trade off? Only you will have to decide that. Remember, discrimination is ONLY a tool, that helps you REDUCE the amount of "unnecessary" digging. As a nugget hunter, I dig perhaps 75 pieces of lead for every nugget dug. There is no way you can differentiate an irregular gold nugget from an irregular bit of lead, since both gold and lead are virtually identical on the discrimination scale. I do not get unduly concerned about digging lead, because I know that doing so will ALSO get me gold. A thought to consider: Babe Ruth is known for his home run record. But, what is not so well known was that he ALSO had another record: strike outs. The "home run king" was also the "strike out king." When we dig a nice target, great; when we dig a bit of junk, oh well, don't let it bother us. Hope this helps; HH jim
 
the deepest coins that I have found did not register anything solid on the VDI. Just a faint audio signal with a little number flutter if anything at all on the screen. I keep the discimination at 3 and dig anything deep in old areas. Only digging things with a solid VDI will get you some missed coins. After getting to know the MXT, I use it almost exclusively, and keep my DFX as a backup.
Rich
 
Jason, I not a professional detectorist but rather a hobbyist. I've has my MXT a couple of months now and have found 1320 coins totaling $56.71! I just got back form the park with 84 coins. I only found three pull tabs. The most I've found in a two hour period. This is because I followed some advice given on this forum. Since I bought my MXT I've logged all my findings, day by day, and found that 72% were pennies, 8% nickles, 11% dimes and 8% quarters of those 1320 coins. This is in a park full of trash and has been hunted by everyone and their dog! If your MXT is not defective I would suggest that you read, read, read, and try others suggestions. I'm learning more and more everyday about my MXT and finding more and more because of it! Ron
 
I like the part about discrimination is just a "tool" to help you do "less" digging! I really never thought about it that way. Ron
 
Yes Certain common items do register as treasure. Most often a nickel hits a high tone and a pop tab hits a low tone (not VDI). Large Iron will sound off as treasure. My Detector is working Fine as far as I know. It makes noise when I get near metal and doesnt when I dont. The displays up and running. It sees deep like its supposed to. I have found coins 9" deep and even deeper. And I have found many coins and some jewelry with my detector. I understand that the problems the MXT faces plague other detectors and probably many more. I have read everything I can get my hands on about the mxt including the forum. I know lots of tricks to make my finds more successful. I have always looked at the many I.D.'s on my machine as tools. I had hoped they were good ones. I was brought to believe by many magazine articles and reports that the MXT had surpassed many of these MD problems of the past. Thank you for all of your responses. I do appreciate them, and respect your many years of experience. I am just going to keep reading what I can and following the forum. Still hoping for a MXT tech. Hey, Jim McCuloch you have always been a big help, Huge Help and I dont wish to start a huge controversy. Post whatever you need to guys. Funny, Im still enjoying my MXT. Aint gonna stop. Im sure some of you are like "Please Do." Oh well, Nuthin but luv for ya. HH Jason.
 
Most often a nickel hits a reject low tone and a pop tab hits a high tone (not VDI).
 
I’ve had my MXT for a month and I’ve also noticed that nickels tend to fall in the 18-22 range. The number of nickels I have found since getting my MXT has jumped a great deal.
I don’t think there’s a machine on the market that’s 100% spot on when it comes to nickels and pull tabs. That just comes with the hobby.
Just slow down and enjoy the hunt, it will come to you.
Penny 25.30%
Nickel 4.82%
Dime 7.83%
Quarters 4.22%
Misc 1.20%
Trash 34.94%
Pull Tabs 21.69%
 
The MXT with a mini-shooter coil is hands down the best nickel machine I've ever used. I hope you aren't going by the readout in C/J mode where it says "5 cents" as it is not accurate. In my hunt areas, nickels will read 18-20 on the VDI with shallow nickels at 20 and deeper ones reading 18 or jumping between 18-20. The picture shown is of my coins from a 90 minute hunt just outside the fence of a local pool. Other people hunt this area and as you can see they don't find many nickels. My nickel count for the last 7 days(I was on vacation) is over 100 and last year I found over 1000 nickels using the MXT. I find that pinpoint mode is important when hunting nickels as there are several common trash items that give a similar VDI reading. On most trash items the nickel hits harder than the trash item at a similar depth reading. Trash items that give similar VDI readings include beavertails from old style tabs, some bent square tabs, and the metal holder for erasers on pencils. There are probably some pieces of trash that I can't think of right now. If we lived close enough I would be glad to give you a little help. The MXT is probably my favorite all around detector though I use several other brands also.
 
<img src="/metal/html/smile.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":)">
 
You say I need more experience which I am sure I do. But my experience along with many others remains true. That the MXT recognizes many junk metals as certain treasured items including but not excluded to nickels. In fact many times the MXT will recognize treasured items as junk on every ID. I look forward to reading Montes write up on Iron Junk. I take no offense but at the same time I must reiterate that what I have stated is true. I have found tons of nickels with the MXT but They have almost always been luck of the draw and have 99% of the time given a reject low tone. I do thank you for your incite to the responses of trash and nickels in these VDI parameters. Your post only solidifies the truth of my posting. If you have to put this much thought into the classifying of junk versus nickels than the mxt is not accurately identifying the target. Isnt the pull tab vdi range specified to be at a different vdi location on the MXT? Look close. Food for thought. HH Jason
 
... that is largely a determination made by the detectorist, not the metal detector. A $5.00 gold piece registers right in the middle of the screw cap range. A serious bummer, because, at a pre-1930 site (pre-1930, i.e. when gold coin circulated) we'd have to dig all screwcaps get that elusive $5.00 gold piece. Yes, it is certainly true that junk targets CAN mimic good targets. No doubt about that at all. It never ceases to amaze me how wide a variety of "junk" metal items masquerade as "good" stuff. But, we have to sometimes dig the bad, to get the good. HH jim
 
Thanks for clarifying that Jim. There is an infinity of good things to be said for experience and intuition, and lots of evidence to prove it. I would love to have a machine that can see and I.D. Everything and that may be way ahead in the future. But the MXT seems to have come the closest to that reality. Hope all is well with you. HH Jason
 
Nickels are a definite 18-20 VDI. Most nickels will actually swing 18/20 giving both readings. This is close to the small double pull tab that usually reads a solid VDI of 22. But depending on how decomposed and in the ground this same pull tab can read a 30!
This is also the range that many detectorist error when using machines that notch pull tabs out, they leave all those nickels, and possibly gold rings behind. All three of my "cheapy" gold rings read a solid VDI of 20.
HH,
Johnny B
 
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