A
Anonymous
Guest
Since the introduction of the XTerra series, I've been using the model 50 in various scenarios. My first attempt was to take it out without reading the manual. Just wanted to check if it was a user friendly as it appeared. I was able to function at sufficient proficiency to dig a large number of coins. Nothing old mind you, but searching in old house site trash dating back into the 1840s. The large number of coins I dug (mostly clad quarters) lead me to believe someone had lost or broken their piggy bank during the 1970s. I had no problem digging through lots of square nails and trash. Depth only impressed me when I dug a clad cent at 8 inches; in hard, dry, packed red Tennessee clay. Audio tone was 100% correct and so was the 30 ID reading. It only took me 20 minutes to chip down to it...using a Lesche relic hunter shovel. I did manage to find one relic that day; an extractor head from a Maynard carbine cartridge. I was mostly impressed with the ease of operation and light weight. A+ on coin shooting. Since then I have been to the beach in Florida. Wet sand (at the water line) proved too much falsing. I did not attempt to lower the Sens; I just moved back to dry sand. I was totally surprised at the large amount of coins on the beach (early May). Coin ID was 100%, making trash a rare dig. I did find some foil as I pondered "Ring?" on a few lower readings. Depth was excellent, and I did leave a few clad pennies at depths over 10-12 inches. Those are usually ruined by saltwater oxidation. For dry sand (damp included, as the sand gets damp and packed below 4-6 inches) beach hunting; A+ again. Went to the Shiloh Coin and Relic hunt (competition) and would rate the model 50 as very good: A+ The pinpointing works very well for me, and the All Metal target ID works for digging those iron relics. Too bad for me; I rejected all iron as I was told the prize tokens were aluminum. Should have dug those -3 readings. They were tokens! My opportunity to do some serious relic hunting with the 50 is on hold. My attention currently is to the model 70 and another new detector. All in all, the XTerra's are very good metal detectors. I would recommend them to a beginner or an advanced Detectorist in search of a light weight, easy to use detector. Once I get a chance to use the 50 on some Civil War sites, I'll post an update. Good hunting, David@Dixie
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