steve herschbach
New member
Hi,
I thought the XT50 and XT70 were basically the same units, and for coin hunting that is basically true.
But the X-Terra 70 has the Prospecting mode, and I have found it to be substantially more powerful than the Coin discrimination mode. I was hunting some loose pack pea gravel around playground equipment that really is tough to detect in. All detectors I have tried lose depth in this stuff and almost all convert deeper non-ferrous items into ferrous readings. It balances out at 78 on an MXT and 11 on the X-Terra 70 and 3 on the X-Terra 50.
I found that the X-Terra 70 in Prospecting mode easily got VERY STRONG signals on targets that gave absolutely no signal from either the X-Terra 50 or the X-Terra 70 in Coin mode. I'm not talking the noral little bit more depth thing. I'm talking black and white, night and day kind of stuff. No comparison, the Prospect mode blows the doors off the Coin mode, or at least under this particular set of conditions it sure does!
I have to do some more work with this, but as a long time nugget hunter familiar with a lot of machines running in all metal mode, I can tell you the X-Terra 70 is a very powerful machine indeed in Prospect mode. The Coin mode is "pretty darn good" for depth and target accuracy. But the Prospecting mode is exceptional for depth and sensitivity. The difference is far more apparent in bad ground than in air tests. My air testing left me wondering if there really was much difference between the two modes. Now I know for sure there is.
The downside is the Prospecting mode is an all metal mode. It has an iron mask function, but all I can tell you is that even set at max it will not disc out paper clips at all. So it only works on certain ferrous targets... maybe rusty stuff? So you pretty much dig it all. But for hitting the pea gravel this is acceptable and the results I saw were so dramatically different between Coin and Prospect mode I went with Prospect mode. It would be the way to go for all easy digging areas, and very possibly for relic hunting.
You can switch from Prospect mode to Coin mode and back at the touch of the pad on the X-Terra 70, and so you can check the id on shallower targets. But for many deeper targets there is just no signal, even in the non-discriminate "All Metal" Coin mode. Other deeper items end up giving a strong ferrous reading in Coin mode but end up being non-ferrous when some soil is removed. Unfortunately, the X-Terra does convert deeper items to iron, like most other machines I have used.
I'm not sure yet what is up with the Iron Mask setting, but it was giving strong signals on paper clips in the ground that are easily rejected in air tests with the same dug up items. Something about the pea gravel seems to render the Iron Mask ineffective, even at max setting. I need to do more work on this to find out what is up.
If you just into coin hunting the X-Terra 50 packs the bang for the buck. But if you have situations where using an all metal mode would be acceptable, the X-Terra 70 is worth the extra bucks for sure in my opinion.
Steve Herschbach
Alaska Mining & Diving Supply
I thought the XT50 and XT70 were basically the same units, and for coin hunting that is basically true.
But the X-Terra 70 has the Prospecting mode, and I have found it to be substantially more powerful than the Coin discrimination mode. I was hunting some loose pack pea gravel around playground equipment that really is tough to detect in. All detectors I have tried lose depth in this stuff and almost all convert deeper non-ferrous items into ferrous readings. It balances out at 78 on an MXT and 11 on the X-Terra 70 and 3 on the X-Terra 50.
I found that the X-Terra 70 in Prospecting mode easily got VERY STRONG signals on targets that gave absolutely no signal from either the X-Terra 50 or the X-Terra 70 in Coin mode. I'm not talking the noral little bit more depth thing. I'm talking black and white, night and day kind of stuff. No comparison, the Prospect mode blows the doors off the Coin mode, or at least under this particular set of conditions it sure does!
I have to do some more work with this, but as a long time nugget hunter familiar with a lot of machines running in all metal mode, I can tell you the X-Terra 70 is a very powerful machine indeed in Prospect mode. The Coin mode is "pretty darn good" for depth and target accuracy. But the Prospecting mode is exceptional for depth and sensitivity. The difference is far more apparent in bad ground than in air tests. My air testing left me wondering if there really was much difference between the two modes. Now I know for sure there is.
The downside is the Prospecting mode is an all metal mode. It has an iron mask function, but all I can tell you is that even set at max it will not disc out paper clips at all. So it only works on certain ferrous targets... maybe rusty stuff? So you pretty much dig it all. But for hitting the pea gravel this is acceptable and the results I saw were so dramatically different between Coin and Prospect mode I went with Prospect mode. It would be the way to go for all easy digging areas, and very possibly for relic hunting.
You can switch from Prospect mode to Coin mode and back at the touch of the pad on the X-Terra 70, and so you can check the id on shallower targets. But for many deeper targets there is just no signal, even in the non-discriminate "All Metal" Coin mode. Other deeper items end up giving a strong ferrous reading in Coin mode but end up being non-ferrous when some soil is removed. Unfortunately, the X-Terra does convert deeper items to iron, like most other machines I have used.
I'm not sure yet what is up with the Iron Mask setting, but it was giving strong signals on paper clips in the ground that are easily rejected in air tests with the same dug up items. Something about the pea gravel seems to render the Iron Mask ineffective, even at max setting. I need to do more work on this to find out what is up.
If you just into coin hunting the X-Terra 50 packs the bang for the buck. But if you have situations where using an all metal mode would be acceptable, the X-Terra 70 is worth the extra bucks for sure in my opinion.
Steve Herschbach
Alaska Mining & Diving Supply