I went up to a picket post area today and was hunting with my stock coil and realized I would have been better off with the 6" DD coil. Are there any other tricks people have used with the X-terra 70/705 to get better seperation? This place was a carpet of nails and deep iron. The few good targets one of the guys dug came from 8". He was using an 8" X 14" DD coil on his ACE 250 and he's the only one finding anything. Would be great if Minelab would consider such a coil for the X-terra. I wouldn't dare try my 10.5 Circular DD up there.
Find's Treasure Forums
Welcome to Find's Treasure Forums, Guests!
You are viewing this forums as a guest which limits you to read only status.
Only registered members may post stories, questions, classifieds, reply to other posts, contact other members using built in messaging and use many other features found on these forums.
Why not register and join us today? It's free! (We don't share your email addresses with anyone.) We keep email addresses of our users to protect them and others from bad people posting things they shouldn't.
Click here to register!
Need Support Help?
Cannot log in?, click here to have new password emailed to you
Changed email? Forgot to update your account with new email address? Need assistance with something else?, click here to go to Find's Support Form and fill out the form.
Tricks for seperation in Iron rich areas
- Thread starter Canewrap
- Start date
Not sure why you wouldn't use the 10.5 DD? The 8" X 14" DD coil on that Ace 250 would actually be analyzing more soil than the 10.5" round DD for your X-Terra. I believe any DD would be better than a 9-inch concentric, for separating targets in the type of site you described. Naturally, the 6-inch DD would be a better choice as the smaller the footprint, the less soil there is to analyze at any one time. You might also try lowering your sensitivity to minimize "feedback" from the coil. And I'd set my GB a bit negative to reduce the feedback (click it up a couple numbers after you GB). And remember to sweep very slowly. One other thing I have had to do when I wasn't equipped with the proper coil is to raise my coil a few inches above the ground, while sweeping. Kills the depth. But it does at least allow you to go through the motions. JMHO HH Randy
TURNMASTER
Active member
Man that 6" DD is nice in the really tight stuff. If your friend was having success with a 10x 14 your 10.5 should work at least as well. The other thing I have done is turn the sens down so that targets didn't "bleed" over into one another so much, depth sucks but did get me a couple wheats.
HH
Jeff
HH
Jeff
Digger made the following observation
"And I'd set my GB a bit negative to reduce the feedback (click it up a couple numbers after you GB). "
OK now I'm confused I thought you lowered the numbers to increase the GB. If the GB came in at 40 setting it to 38 would make it negative???
please clarify
Dave
"And I'd set my GB a bit negative to reduce the feedback (click it up a couple numbers after you GB). "
OK now I'm confused I thought you lowered the numbers to increase the GB. If the GB came in at 40 setting it to 38 would make it negative???
please clarify
Dave
Jackpine Savage
Active member
Reducing the sensitivity as Randy suggested is a priority. Why do you think the Ace pulled the only goodie? The stock and 10.5 DD can be used to good effect in those situations by turning the sensitivity down to reduce nulling. As you hunt along adjust the sensitivity up/down as needed in accordance with the amount of iron caused nulls. I prefer this method to raising the coil.
Additionally if hunting in all metal pay attention to the audio strength of the iron signals. If most are weak indicating deep iron, the goodies are probably mixed down in there as well. In that case you may not want to reduce sensitivity too much. But, when the iron signals are strong/shallow drop it down.
HH Tom
Additionally if hunting in all metal pay attention to the audio strength of the iron signals. If most are weak indicating deep iron, the goodies are probably mixed down in there as well. In that case you may not want to reduce sensitivity too much. But, when the iron signals are strong/shallow drop it down.
HH Tom
The matter how to set an X-Terra with a "more positive" or "more negative" ground balance has been an ongoing topic of discussion for a long time. Unlike some other makes and models many are familiar with, to make the X-Terra operate more positive, you must lower the Ground Phase number. Obversely, to make the detector operate with a more negative ground setting, you'd have to increase the Ground Phase number. Here are a couple earlier posts that might help explain the "positive / negative" Ground Phase. JMHO HH Randy
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?55,577496,579821#msg-579821
Ground Balance is basically the detector's ability to compensate for the adverse effects of the ground. The numbers represented by setting the GB do not really represent the actual mineralization of the ground. They might better be thought of as a pre-established number, representing the ground phase required by the X-70 to compensate for the effects of mineralization. The most positive GB setting on the X-Terra 70 is the setting of 1. And, this represents the most highly mineralized ground compensation setting achievable by the X-Terra 70. As the ground phase levels decrease, you will be able to use less-positive GB settings up to a point you might reach the least positive GB setting of 90.
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?55,516096,516258#msg-516258
I think of Ground Balance as the most basic form of discrimination in that the GB setting "discriminates" out the ground effects. Your job in setting your GB is to neutralize the effects of that mineralization. It is a bit confusing in that the words used to describe mineralization and GB settings seem opposite of what you would expect. A setting of 1 is the most positive GB setting you can have with the X-Terra 70. And, the more mineralized the ground, the more positive setting you will need. A setting of 90 is the least positive GB setting of the X-70. And, the lower the mineralization, the less positive setting you will need. So, as mineralization increases, a more positive GB setting (lower X-Terra GB number) will be required to neutralize it. And, as the mineralization decreases, a less positive GB setting (a higher X-Terra GB number) will be required to neutralize the lower mineralized soil. See. I told you it was confusing!!!
Look at it this way..... if you are hunting a site that requires the X-70 to be GB at 45, and you move to another site that requires a GB setting of 30, the mineralization levels of the second site are higher than the first site. Then, if you move to a third site that will GB at 55, it is lower mineralization than either of the first two sites.
GB settings represent the amount "compensation" that the X-Terra requires to neutralize the effects of mineralization in the soil you are hunting. As I said, the lower the number, the more positive the setting will be, as required for higher levels of mineralization. And the higher the number, the less positive the setting will be for areas with lower levels of mineralization. Your objective is to set the X-Terra so that the ground mineralization has no more effect on producing an audio reponse to a target than if you were holding the coil steady in the air. I set my GB with a very low sensitivity setting. Once you properly set the GB, I raise the sensitivity setting so that it is just below a point of becoming erratic. That way I know I have neutralized the sounds made by the mineralization, maximized the depth and sensitivity to small targets, and can concentrate on either digging everything metallic, or setting the discrimination Patterns to reject various ferrous and/or conductive targets. HH Randy
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?55,577496,579821#msg-579821
Ground Balance is basically the detector's ability to compensate for the adverse effects of the ground. The numbers represented by setting the GB do not really represent the actual mineralization of the ground. They might better be thought of as a pre-established number, representing the ground phase required by the X-70 to compensate for the effects of mineralization. The most positive GB setting on the X-Terra 70 is the setting of 1. And, this represents the most highly mineralized ground compensation setting achievable by the X-Terra 70. As the ground phase levels decrease, you will be able to use less-positive GB settings up to a point you might reach the least positive GB setting of 90.
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?55,516096,516258#msg-516258
I think of Ground Balance as the most basic form of discrimination in that the GB setting "discriminates" out the ground effects. Your job in setting your GB is to neutralize the effects of that mineralization. It is a bit confusing in that the words used to describe mineralization and GB settings seem opposite of what you would expect. A setting of 1 is the most positive GB setting you can have with the X-Terra 70. And, the more mineralized the ground, the more positive setting you will need. A setting of 90 is the least positive GB setting of the X-70. And, the lower the mineralization, the less positive setting you will need. So, as mineralization increases, a more positive GB setting (lower X-Terra GB number) will be required to neutralize it. And, as the mineralization decreases, a less positive GB setting (a higher X-Terra GB number) will be required to neutralize the lower mineralized soil. See. I told you it was confusing!!!
Look at it this way..... if you are hunting a site that requires the X-70 to be GB at 45, and you move to another site that requires a GB setting of 30, the mineralization levels of the second site are higher than the first site. Then, if you move to a third site that will GB at 55, it is lower mineralization than either of the first two sites.
GB settings represent the amount "compensation" that the X-Terra requires to neutralize the effects of mineralization in the soil you are hunting. As I said, the lower the number, the more positive the setting will be, as required for higher levels of mineralization. And the higher the number, the less positive the setting will be for areas with lower levels of mineralization. Your objective is to set the X-Terra so that the ground mineralization has no more effect on producing an audio reponse to a target than if you were holding the coil steady in the air. I set my GB with a very low sensitivity setting. Once you properly set the GB, I raise the sensitivity setting so that it is just below a point of becoming erratic. That way I know I have neutralized the sounds made by the mineralization, maximized the depth and sensitivity to small targets, and can concentrate on either digging everything metallic, or setting the discrimination Patterns to reject various ferrous and/or conductive targets. HH Randy
Sir, In my experince, a double "D" coil cannot be beat for target separation. No offense intended, but if you had an ACE 250 beat you, you might seriously think about double checking your ground balance/tracking/noise settings! I have almost always exclusively used the DD coil because of the ground mineralization and trash level where I go to detect is always high. I always do the ground balance, noise cancel and auto-track when I go out. I use the 18.5 khz dd coil. it has served me well. The above mentioned posts are very good advice as well. When I move from a sandy/loamy soccer field to a wood chip filled tot lot, the ground balance varies dramatically between those two conditions. If you don't allow the machine to auto compensate, or at least change the manual settings yourself, you are denying yourself depth and sweep speed. When you have come into a trashy area filled with rusty bottle caps. pull tabs, etc, you will have to slow your swing speed to a crawI to get the separation. Then you will be more likely to determine which of those readings you see might be a ring, a penny, nickle or a pull tab. I have and swear by the use the X-terra 70. It is capable of detecting a "segment" of those little crimped aluminum rings like you might find around the tops of some beer bottles. I might not get as much depth at some times as I would prefer,because I prefer to "speed hunt", but after hunting with some friends whose machines have given those "iffy" signals at deeper depths, I find that by simply increasing my sensitivity I can pick up and verify those same objects up to depths of 6 or more inches. It the target is iron or solid aluminum, (and I am not prevaricating) I have gotten 8 inches or better depending on moisture saturation and soil conditions. BTW, you cannot beat a DD coil for separation from the good stuff and the junk, IMOH. Happy hunting my friend, and good luck~