Went out w/MXT Today and Found......

[Anonymous]

.....nothing but trash.
I haven't been out much with the MXT for coins & relics, actually this was the first time, I'd only been nugget shooting before.
We went to an old, long gone school house site my wife's parents know about. We found remains of the foundation, started searching and soon found LOTS and LOTS of nails, pieces of iron, old stove parts, bed springs, bricks, glass shards, etc etc. Because the site is in the middle of 400 acres with no other buildings in living memory we're certain it was the old turn of the century one room schoolhouse.
Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of great coin or jewelry finds, but the discrimination of the MXT was great. My father in law was using a cheap detector and digging every beep, my wife was using my GMT and able at least to discriminate the iron out, and I was learning about the VDI and stuff. Cool - I dug stuff the MXT said was iron just to verify. I found some large pieces of what I think was tin - it was about the only stuff that didn't ID as iron - and once I had the ID of it down I knew just what was going to be in the hole as I found 5 or 6 more of the "tin" stuff.
I don't know that we'll go back to the site - very overgrown, no real idea of the layout of the building or play area might have been, tons and tons of trash, not sure what the potential might be in any case.
Still, it was fun, I bought the MXT for nuggets and tried out it's other talent.

 

[Anonymous]

You're describing the exact conditions that I found the 'gold rush' ring in. I also found many Indian heads, V nickels, a barber dime, and some buffalo nickels latest date 1917. I spent at least 2 days searching with some neat finds (carbide lamps, old toys etc.) but no coins until I dropped my gain to 7-8 and disc to 9 o'clock and dedicated my time to cleaning out as much iron as possible. I pulled 37 nails and nail pieces out of a 3'x'3' area with no good signals until the 38th 'nail' was a 1912 wheat penny.

 

[Anonymous]

the mxt is a great machine.. stick with her.... you just have to learn the language.......

 

[Anonymous]

What coil did you use?

 

[Anonymous]

In Scotland we have very mineralized soil and have a few heavy Iron sites..One of which my friend uses an Minelab Explorer which she thought was not working the soil was so bad.
I switch it on to Relic, run with the trigger forward
then it cuts most iron and rubbish out and the other day it picked out a nice gold buckle ring under the above conditions. So stick with it I read the manual over and over, even lock your setting if its so bad and the MXT is at its best in bad ground stick with it..

 

[Anonymous]

[No message]

 

[Anonymous]

I only hunt relic, switch in the middle. This is the second time I heard someone mention switch forward. I'll try it, but the way I've been going at it I've gotten alot of older U S coins.

 

[Anonymous]

Trigger forward will notch out pull tabs and maybe some gold. If you are after relics it will save digging some trash.
If you think yoiu will go back there or want to really hit it hard, leave the trigger in the center and dig everything. You never know if the trash is covering some treasure.
Just so you know. You make the call.

 

[Anonymous]

I've noticed some deeper good targets won't signal as clearly when the trigger is forward.

 

[Anonymous]

As my subject line suggests I have very little experience. Total coinage with the MXT = US$.53 to date most of which came from my own front yard, but I read a few posts here that related to my experience so far and felt I would comment. One point that came to mind that I think would be helpful to the entire discussion would be if users would relate the GND number they typicly work in as measured in prospecting mode and the particular coil they were using when relating their own experiences. There are so many variables to consider on HOW to best use this machine that to do a true comparasin of technique and accessories requires some knowledge of the conditions in which certain techniques/accesories prove favorable. I believe the most important and easily relatable variable as far as that is concerned would be the ground conditions. Is it high iron or salty beach sand? And the easiest way to guage that would be by relating the GND# as reported by the MXT in prospecting mode.
Next consideration is the coil because what may be accurate advice for the stock 950 may be contradicted to observations in different ground conditions using a 5.3 excelerator. So I think every comment should start with GND# and coil description.
The conditions I work in using a 950 show a middle of the road 50 on the GND display in prospecting mode. It is red dirt, high in oxidised iron which can be found in the US Majority of New Mexico, N Arizona, S Utah, NW half of Oklahoma, Northern Alabama and Southern Georgia, much of the Australian Outback to name a few. I havent sampled with the MXT to verify the particular GND# in these various locations, just going on general visual likenesses of soil compared to areas of Oklahoma where I have tested the MXT.
One important thing that I wanted to comment on based upon a previous post is that when I first set out with this detector the preset gain at about 9.5 was difficult to distinguish one target from another. An adjacent reactive element in the soil affects the accurate determination of a valid sought after target and it appears to me that this negative effect extends far beyond the detector's ability to seperate the effect of two different reactive targets. In other words a chip of aluminum "trash" affects the target response of a solid copper penny to some decreasing effect from as far away as 2 feet or more, much further than the reliable linear detection distance that triggers a positive response by the system.
I dont know where the dividing line would be between an area described as "high trash" and not but I will say that before this residential area was developed in 1964 this was likely a cow pasture or minimally utilised agricultural field which had few human footprints on it before 1910 or so. I learned quickly that reducing the gain to about 7 allowed me to pinpoint and identify targets more accurately. Beyond that I will state that after I had searched the entire front yard of about 50 X 75 feet I was able then to run the MXT at a higher gain setting because some of the shallower targets that had been confounding the ID system now were more accurate and the second pass at a higher gain setting was more productive. The experience I gained from this is that you should go over an area at the highest stable gain setting and retrieve ALL targets. Once an area is cleared go back over the same area at a higher gain setting and pick up some more. If the increase in take-home is significant the second time around go another round.
In "high trash" or "multiple target" areas I need a smaller coil to reduce the occurance of having 2 or more reactive targets within range of the coil/gain of the coil at the same time or reduce gain until I have cleared some of the trash or valuable targets then go over the same ground at a higher gain setting and/or larger coil for increased depth.
Simply put I have decided that sooner or later you will have to dig every target then go back over the same ground again until you can run the highest gain that the soil itself will allow so that if there is a pulltab within 8 inches of a barber dime you will not have missed it. It would be a crying shame to know that you had walked right over a beer can and missed a $20 gold peice as result. There has been a lot of pressure in certain localities, complaints of yahoos with metal detectors digging holes in parks but if we all emphasize the value of our doing a cleaning service we may extend the unimpeeded pursuit of recovering riches.

 

[Anonymous]

[No message]

 

[Anonymous]

that 950 coil in typical conditions is terrible for seperation and target averaging is a big problem. Why? the MXT with the 950 coil is one of the most sensitive "stock" combos I have ever used. The combo works so well that going to smaller coils adds little if anything to its ability to see small stuff.
See Monte's post below on his new "favorite" coil for the MXT its a good read.
Tom

 

[Anonymous]

I read some of your posting on GRN numbers in prospect mode. I did not even realize it did that. So I've learned something new. I have hunted with the MXT for 1 year. I like the white DD nuget coil in relic mode, get most of my coins with that. I hunt in Wisconsin, sidewalk tear ups and old house torn down sites. I get alot of coins old ones. Oldest last year 1860 Indian head. I like relic mode and dig all high tones. Coin/jewerly mode I have to look at the display, I learned to sound hunt with my old machine. But my keeper coins went from 65 for the year to 169 by getting the MXT. 53 to 124 pre-1900 coins, old machine is my back up now. Later

 

[Cliff60]

You said DD nuget coil, was that the DD for the GMT or for the MXT?

 

[Groundshaker]

To Me, It sounds like the perfect place to detect. I think,with all the trash,that most people will say "Heck with it" and move on. You never know what you will find there. Good Luck.

 

[mcinmich]

Correct me if I am wrong but trigger forward in relic mode and zero discrimination on the knob does not eliminate iron, it only makes a grunt noise. Conversely with trigger forward in coin and jewelery mode does it discriminate the pull tab range (and the bottom range at which you have the knob set). I don't use any thing else but the relic, trigger forward. I like the two tones in that mode.

 

[arizonaames]

Get used to the C&J mode and the VDI numbers. You are not looking for the possiblity of a % chance of iron. You are looking for jewelry, coins, and relics....Ironically, with the SAT set at full and the gain at +1, even in very bad ground, gold comes up at 10 to 20% iron. The VDI in C&J for a diamond ring on a gold band had a VDI# of 10. You will soon learn that a pulltab is 22 and a nickle is 20, A dime 80 and a penny 72 to 80. A quarter is 86. Practice, Practice, Practice. In Relic mode, if you have an iron object the same size as a quarter, the quarter will overide the iron sound. The SAT is now the gain in C&J and Relic mode. That is why it is called a dual indicator. In Prospecting Mode you have no pinpointer. In C&J and Relic Mode you do.....Practice, Practice, Practice. I found the diamond ring on a lake beach that was nothing but pull tabs and screw tops but when I saw that VDI 10, I knew that it was a gold something and probably not a nugget in mid MI.....I was beating a pro prospector with a Minelab 4000 with my MXT. It is probably the best gold machine out there and I did not have to dig 2 feet for a wee nugget......The grounds in NV, AZ, CA, and OR are a lot worse than what you have been used to.....

 

[arizonaames]

Correct me if I am wrong but trigger forward in relic mode and zero discrimination on the knob does not eliminate iron, it only makes a grunt noise. Conversely with trigger forward in coin and jewelery mode does it discriminate the pull tab range (and the bottom range at which you have the knob set). I don't use any thing else but the relic, trigger forward. I like the two tones in that mode.

It is depending where the gain is set. If the gain is set to off, there is no discrimination and you will here a low sound.......Conversely, if you turn the gain up, you can discriminate to whatever you want to discriminate against......except people please.....