X-Terra 305 First Drive

[SkiWhiz]

Hi folks to my Xterra 305 out for the first time today. It looks like your rich neighbors Ferrari - nice red color good looking meter/display. But drives like your Grand father's Buick. I took it to a school that I have hit many times before. It is very stable, I ran up almost full sensitivity. I ran it in pattern 1 with the second icon knoched in (I would call it foil setting with no iron). I experimented using different threshold settings, no sure what works best but I like a silent search in disc. mode. so most times I had threshold set at 0. I am not one for reading the display but when I did it seemed very accurate. I dug about all targets, very very few iron targets. I found the depth to be alright, nothing super but about the same as the Tesoro's I have had. But maybe a change of this or that setting would gain me a bit more depth I don't know. I found pinpointing with it easy but different, almost like it nulls out a bit. I think I have the ground balance thing down but not 100% sure. It seems to either go to a sound (when lowering coil to the ground) that sounds like you are in a tunnel or a sound that sounds like you are hitting a good target (higher tone) or a sound that doesn't change hardly any. It is hard to explain unless you have done this. I was either in a place that nickels are not plentiful or the 305 is not hot on them, but man this thing is hot on quarters. I have never had a machine that hits quarters like this did. Yes quarters puts more $$$ in your pocket but my feeling is if you don't hit nickels you won't hit jewelry. I did find a pin as you can see in the picture - it says trails end gourmet popcorn & I found a skeleton necklace. I would say the 305 is a good detector for someone that is serious about detecting but more for a type of person that wants to grab a detector to take to the park with the wife and kids. I don't see it as a detector for a hard core deep seeking old silver coins hunter. It is nice and lite but not cheap lite, very well made from head to toe, even the coil is very nice, no rough edges anywhere. If I was a teacher and had to grade the 305 I would give it at least an 85 for now. I liked it but need some more time with it. Just thought that I would give my hoest first review for anyone wanting to know. Thanks! Steve.

P.S. This is kind of weird - I have a fellow that keeps in touch with me through pm's we kind of chat to each other about trading this detector and that detector, etc. what we are using and what we would like to use. He said to me the day before my 305 arrived - isn't it like being a kid the day before Christmas waiting for your new detector to arrive. My detector came late in the afternoon and I tossed some batteries in it and went out in my lawn just to see what the display loked like and what it sounded like. I scanned my yard got a beep dug it up and believe it or not it was a bulb , a Christmas bulb that must of came off one of our trees in the front yard. From time to time we decorate them with lights. I found it the perfect thing to find on the first beep.

 

[joe dirt_1]

hi steve, looks like you had a nice hunt with the new xterra 305. thats a pretty good haul for the first time using a new machine. everything i have read about the machine is very positive, only complaints seemed to be the pinpoint on the machine. how is the weight and balance of the machine compared to a tesoro? if i remember right the weight is about the same. nice looking machine, very good reviews, looks like you have a winner in the 305. good luck with the new machine.............roger

 

[Digger]

Looks like you are off to a good start Steve. I know you are fairly new to the X-Terra, and trying too many new things right off the bat can become discouraging. But if you don't mind, I'l like to offer my opinion on a couple of your settings. I would not run the 305 in Silent Search. I'd run it with a barely audible threshold and expect more depth. Here is why..... a "slight background tone" allows us to determine "target blanking" (on rejected targets), when running in the discriminate mode. Threshold tone also allows us to hear an (accepted) target's audio signal when that signal rises above a faint threshold tone. As mentioned in previous posts, setting it too high will create too much sound, not allowing you to hear a subtle rise on small or deep targets. Conversely, setting it too low can create a situation where the target tone will not rise above the (negative) threshold far enough to be heard. Our objective is to set the threshold at a point that we hear it in the background. But not so high that it gets in the way of hearing that subtle change in tone. My rule of thumb would be to set it as low as you can, while maintaining a constant hum. If you are not using mulitple tones, I'd encourage you to try them. Each notch segment has it's own tone and those nickels might just jump right out at you. Lastly, a properly GB X-Terra will provide a blended tone when you lower the coil to the ground. Check the ground in all metal to make sure there is nothing to interfere with your setting the GB. Press the GB pad. Raise the coil about 6 inches in the air and bob it toward the ground up and down, up and down, stopping short of actually contacting the dirt. If the tone is a high pitch while lowering the coil, raise the ground phase setting. If the tone gets lower in pitch as you lower the coil, lower the ground phase setting. When you have the ground phase set properly, the pitch you hear when bobbing the coil will be a blend of both that high tone and low tone.

One final comment....... If you decide to add an accessory coil, consider the 6-inch DD at 18.75 kHz. It will enhance the signal of nickels and gold jewelry. It will separate targets better than any other X-Terra coil. And the depth of detection has surprised everyone who has used one. JMHO HH Randy

 

[SkiWhiz]

Thanks for the reply Roger. Randy when you said -

If the tone is a high pitch while lowering the coil, raise the ground phase setting. If the tone gets lower in pitch as you lower the coil, lower the ground phase setting.

Are you sure you meant to say this, I always figured if the noise gets louder/higher when lowering the coil to the ground you are suppose to lower the ground balance setting. And if the sound gets lower or has a louder sound on the up stroke of the coil when ground balancing you should set the ground balance higher/more positive. Thanks! Steve.

P.S. Yes I run it in 3 tones, if you meant 99 tones no I didn't, how could a man women or child ever listen to 99 tones??? Thanks again.

About the nickel thing, I wouldn't think it should matter if I ran the 305 in single tone 3 tones or 99 tones if I dug everythting that beeped above iron (which I did) & on the ones I did get it didn't seem to be like a nice smooth "coin" hit.. Maybe not a nickel hound, we'll see.

 

[Digger]

Some people confuse ground balance with Ground Phase settings. I should have stated that if the audio response is a high tone when you are lowering the coil, press the - pad. If it is a low tone when lowering the coil, press the + pad. Actually, to set the ground phase adjustment more "positive", you need to lower the number representing the GB. And to set the ground phase adjustment more negative, you should raise the number indicating GB. I know that sounds backward. But setting the ground phase more positive would be in an effort to "fool" the detector into thinking the ground has more mineralization than it actually has. Here is a post Barnacle Bill made in reference to what the GB numbers actually represent. http://www.findmall.com/read.php?55,566150,567211#msg-567211

99-tones....... there are not actually 99 tones. There can only be one tone per notch segment. Therefore, Multipletone Mode on the 305 would have 12 separate tones.

About the nickel thing..... I don't know what Tesoro product you used prior to the X-Terra. But I agree that the Vaquero, Cibola or Tejon will hit nickels deeper than your 305 with the stock coil. I know when I Super-tuned my V,C or T, it would pick off a nickel at over a foot. However, in addition to instability problems in rough terrain, if I forgot to turn down the threshold and Volume before pressing Pinpoint, it would blow my ears off! I guess there are tradeoffs with all detectors. The point of my comment is that the higher frequency 18.75 coils will provide a better audio response to the lower conductive targets, such as nickels. HH Randy