minelab x-terra 70 with pro pack coil

[Marius]

I'm sure some one ask you guys before..but..

Since xt 70 isn't really gold prospecting machine,so it will be wasting of time to go with it to Nevada gold fields?
(i did got that oval coil with should be better for gold)

Any imput ?
Anyone found nuggets with xt70?how deep?

(just got small 3g gold nugget to adjust machine always before prospecting.)

[warsawdaddy]

I haven't tried that yet,but,I have heard that several regulars are using it out west for nuggets.Maybe they will respond here.

[thompy]

it should do well, they like it in Australia for gold

[Keppy]

.... I don't know never hunted gold with the one i had but talked to a prospector from Arizona said he sold his he was not happy with it out there for nugget hunting. He went and bought a Minelab gold detector........But then i see some say they love it for prospecting...........So who knows till you try it your self

[Ray in CA]

Heck, my first gold nugget found was with a $100 radio shack detector. Of course, the nugget was 3/4 oz. and only three inches deep, but it found it!! That's when I got me a Fisher Gold Bug I and started finding more nuggets, LOL. Now I got a Minelab SD 2100 v2 with four different coils and have only got to use it once since last November. But next week I'll be on vacation in gold country so I'll get to fire it up again.

The only way you'll ever know is by just taking your detector out there and giving it a shot. Who knows...you may get lucky like I did with my first nugget.

Ray

[nero_design]

Scanning a creek bed with the X-Terra 70 using the optional 6" DD HF waterproof coil.


Small gold nuggets detected in between the roots of a fallen tree using the Elliptical Coil.

I usually post on an Australian forum but this information might be useful for you if you're considering the X-Terra 70. I must point out that I have spent a LOT more money buying maps and researching my areas before traveling there so bear in mind that the amount of gold I have found doesn't quite come close to paying off these expenses. These pictures may make you think its easy to find good gold but a degree of luck and hard research is needed. Most importantly, you need to read your manual. Next: go where you know others have actually found nuggets... not just the fine granules. Being in the USA makes it a lot easier when it comes to the sort of soils that you are dealing with. Most common detectors have a tough time with mineralized (hot) soils where gold is found but a few detectors can handle it. The X-Terra 70 (AKA X-70) is considered by a lot of Aussies to be the entry level machine for more serious Prospectors. It's not the cheapest Gold detector (and there's plenty of those)... just the beginning of the more serious machines. But it's dual-use and can also be used as a VERY good Coin & Relic or Treasure detector on beaches and elsewhere. They use this machine in the UK to find fantastic and fabulously rare coins and artifacts. A recent find worth several million dollars was found in England recently using the X-70.


The X-Terra 70 works nicely as a Gold detector and both myself and my wife use one myself in Australia ...where the soil is considered to be the most mineralized and difficult to scan through in the world. In fact where the professional dedicated gold machines (AKA Super Gold Detectors) like the GPX-4000 models fail, the X-Terra manages to do the job. Hence some GPX owners carry an X-Terra 70 as a backup. Any machine can detect a nugget close to the surface and the high-end machines will detect the deepest. The X-Terra 70 contains many of the professional settings so it can run rings around a lot of other lesser detectors in hot soils. It's especially sensitive to small gold if used with the smaller 6" coil and you can swing it fairly fast with the larger Elliptical coil.

You'll want to consider two different coils with the X-Terra 70 should you want to use one for Prospecting:
#1: the Elliptical 5x10" DD coil (High Frequency: 18.75khz) - Not Waterproof
#2: the small 6 inch DD coil (High Frequency: 18.75khz) - Waterproof
These coils are both very different from one another. The Elliptical should be your first coil.
If you enjoy prospecting or want to go for submerged targets in creeks etc, then consider the smaller 6" coil.
This one packs quite a punch with extremely small gold or gold specimens in quartz. I can detect a micro-nugget just 0.02grams in size if it's close to the surface
with that coil. Take a look at the pic below which shows just how small that is.


This tiny micro-nugget couldn't be read by the elliptical coil.. but was found with the 6".





Note how different the primary and secondary fields are on each of the above two coils.
The Elliptical coil had a softer, shallower primary field. This makes it ideal for covering larger areas.
Whereas the smaller 6" coil has a sharper primary field yet the secondary (green) field is weaker.
This makes is great for pinpointing VERY small gold but unsuitable for scanning larger areas quickly.

Tip: Purchase a cover protector for the control box to prevent scratches and damage/moisture.

Benefits of the X-Terra 70 include
* Incredibly light overall weight with either of the above coils. Light (for me) means less misery & pain.
* Uses 4 AA batteries lasting about 2 days per set of batteries. Easy to carry spares or find more.
* Easy to use without the long learning curve of other detectors.
* Works great elsewhere as a Relic & Coin hunter's machine.
* Prospecting Mode which masks some Iron signals.
* Automatic Ground Balance and Noise Cancel.
* Automatic Ground Tracking (which adjusts the detector as you move over different soil types).

One good reason why the X-Terra 70 would be ideal in Nevada is that your goldfields have a much easier soil to read through. Our Australian soils are so Hot (Mineralized) that you are wasting your time there with many other models and brands of detector. My friend has been using a generic detector alongside me and he just hates all the false signals that he gets ... he swears he'll get an X-Terra or similar for the next time we do a trip. Most goldfields have a lot of scrap on them and I imagine that Nevada would have its own fair share.

It took me about two or three trips out with the X-70 to get used to it and understand what I needed to be doing.
But it's a good detector and certainly does a great job. In my opinion, it's the best Dual-Purpose detector that I've found. The depth is pretty good - whilst some users claim to pick up targets as deep as a foot down (12 inches or more), I tend to be digging as deep as 9 inches with most targets being about 3 to 6 inches down. On one occasion I dug down 3 feet before I realized that the signal was from a rare form of mineralized water runoff... the VERY same sort of signal that will confuse a GPX. Whilst the top of the line Gold-Dedicated detectors cost a lot more, they have an edge on everything else. But they tend to miss the specimens and smaller nuggets and they're much heavier to carry and use. With deeper detection depth, crowbars, shovels and pickaxes need to be bigger and heavier. Plus you'll want to carry a liter or two of water with you... plus all your other accessories. So I find the X-Terra 70 to be a good compromise.

On another occasion, I dug a deep signal beside a 150 year old gold mine shaft hole, only to dig up a broken pick axe (yes, the signal was wide). But right behind me was a Gold Sovereign Coin from 1884... about 4 inches down and covered in ironstone based gravel.


Some of the gold I found after a couple of researched trips to the local Gold Fields with the X-Terra 70.

I heard on the radio last year that the largest gold nugget found in the US in a long time was detected buy a guy who walked out of a Radio Shack store with a $75 detector. He found the nugget 20 minutes ofter walking out of the store with it. How's that for luck?

* TIP: take that 3gram 'test nugget' you obtained and bring it with you when you go Prospecting. Bury it in the ground about 2 inches down, cover it up and scan the target with your detector. Notice how much fainter the sound is? If you only dig sharp target sounds, you'll tend to just dig nails and cans etc. What you want will sound fainter... unless it's a larger nugget closer to the surface. By switching to Relic Mode on the X-70, you can usually figure out what your target might be before you actually dig it.


Some of the junk and small gold I found on the last trip out. includes a small melted gold "Button" which was melted down by old miners.


My wife with the X-Terra 70.


This is what you get when you only dig the louder, sharper targets: Larger junk.
What you can't see in this picture is the entire car which I detected inside a landfill.
These were found and dug with my Elliptical Coil when I was ignoring smaller, fainter signals. How much gold did I leave behind?



My first weekend away prospecting. I jumped out of the car and spent 20 minutes alongside a main road where I spotted signs of an old road and riverbed. This is what I found in those few moments. Includes two small .66 gram & .36 gram nuggets on the left. The nuggets were dug out of the wall of a watercourse (at face-height) that cuts through an old riverbed.


A nice specimen found with the X-70. Looks good here in the pic but it's a lot smaller in real life.
The iron ore inside the quartz often throws off other detectors which would register this a junk. This one has been cleaned to remove a little ironstone.

[Marius]

BIG THX to NERO... for taking time and give me and some others a lot of info and education,and raising my spirit about my new toy

Today was my first sand beach hunt,very slowly didn't cover much area: got around 30 coins most nick.,and dimes,couple nails and pulltabs,xt-70 did good on rejecting trash,or i did poor on not digging faded signals

I did got that oval coil for gold,shame is not waterproof i was thinking hunt beach with it prospecting mode and beach mode(not sure both will go on),maybe it will find something better then bunch of moder coins.
I got set of old gold mines maps and mineral deposits maps from 1890 and 1910,when im gonna find some Cali partner to prospecting i will hit the road for now need more experience so beach is the way.
I did got cover for control box.
I think stock coil is waterproof
Ive noticed all of coins i dig out from tops 3inch deep.
Well its my first time with new detector already found it easy to use,and got lots of targets on small area so very happy.
I gotta say guys time was flying.

Once again THX to our Australian friend for great post.
Marius
California

[Jim Hemmingway]

July 5/08

Hi Nero Design,

Welcome to this forum Nero. Thanks for an excellent presentation combining instructive text with beautiful photos. A genuine pleasure to get solid technical information along with a sensible perspective wrt to nugget hunting. A number of goldhunters have made favourable reports on the XT-70.

Nero, have you, or others you may know, any experience using the White's GMT or MXT for electronic prospecting in the gold areas? Your comments would be appreciated here.

Hope you will continue to post on this forum, your article made for a very enjoyable read. Thankyou.

Jim.

[nero_design]

Hello Jim & Marius.
Thank you for your kind welcome. After I wrote my above reply and was a bit concerned that I should trim it down or remove a few images but in the end, it made sense to reply with as much detail as I could. I hope I don't stray outside the content limitations of these forums. My images are loaded elsewhere to save the forum's disc space.

Marius: You'll find that the X-70 is quick to learn but it will take you a little while longer than that to force yourself to kick a few habits - like only digging the sharp, loud sounds. The best ones are often the faint ones. The X-70 has a handy feature called Auto Ground Tracking which, with the press of a button, will adjust the Ground Balance as you travel across different types of soil and moisture levels. But if you are Prospecting rather than Coin Shooting: Here's a link to a business card sized quick reference guide I made: http://www.pbase.com/image/93941205/original.jpg

Here's a thumbnail of the image:

Just download the original (in the link above) and print it out... fold it in half, pop it in your pocket and refer to it as needed.

The first time I went out with the X-Terra 70, I neglected to read and bring my Minelab manual. I just figured it would be easy and obvious to use the machine straight out of the box. Wrong! Sure, it worked (to detect metal) but I was forced to reset the machine every few hours and to dig a lot of junk because of my oversight. Over a few months of weekly use, I picked up a slew of tips which made it possible for me to make a pretty good guess as to what I was about to dig up. The Whites detectors are sold where I am but the main preference for our hard to read soils is either Garret or Minelab. I think I've seen a couple of Whites out on the ground and on the beaches but for Prospecting there's only a few choices here due to our soils. If I drag a magnet on the ground here in some places, just about 30% of the soil and pebbles sticks to the magnet. That's how bad it is. Only a few detectors can read through that junk. Now I may be wrong here, but it was my understanding that American "Hot" soils are a lot milder than ours. So there's probably going to be more brands that will work efficiently there which wouldn't work so well here in Australia. I know that a local traveled up to Alaska recently to an area known for nuggets and he creamed the competition with his X-Terra 70. I heard that the other prospectors there were more than surprised with how well he did on such a short visit. We're talking about Ounces too. I believe the reason that he was so successful was that the gold was not sitting near mineralized ground and the moisture in the soil was canceled out by the X-70. The same moisture would have cause problems for the other detectors. But you'll see that the X-70 has a Beach Mode as well as an Auto Ground Balancing setting (called Ground Tracking)... avoid both wet and dry soil or sand in the same sweep of the coil though since it might (possibly) give the machine a conflict of signals. The X-Terra 70 has a great pinpointing capability too and it's VERY accurate when trying to dig a target. You just need to remember that your target almost always looks just like the soil you are digging in. Same color etc until washed or cleaned. I've only recently purchased a Pinpointer from the USA to assist me in quicker recovery. There's been days when I thought my detector had to be wrong and I'd be sifting through the soil in my fingers and sprinkling it over the top of the coil. Eventually it would appear and often it was just a .22 casing. A strange rock the size of the end of my thumb (which I detected with the 6" HF DD coil in a creek on my last trip) was a small, pitted iron meteorite.

When you get used to your machine, you can just turn it on and walk around with it. I like to consult the card above (image) which I still keep in my pocket when I haven't been out in a while just in case I forget to hit the buttons in the right sequence during setup. I prefer to reset the machine when I drive to new areas though. Takes about 1 minute to reset it for the area. Having Ground Tracking is handy. Saves you from resetting your Ground Balance all the time. Again, remember to turn it off when you find a target or your detector will try to mask the target out as part of the continuous re-balance process.

A tip I picked up from another user is that you should switch to Coin/Relic mode if you discover a signal when in Prospecting Mode... then see if the numbers bounce around really quickly. If they vary wildly from one-another rather than hop around two or three sequential digits, it is likely to be iron junk. I have tested this theory and dug the target just to see what it is... the results were Horseshoe (Iron), Nail (Iron), Screw (Iron), Tin Can (Iron), Half Horseshoe (Iron), Screw (iron), Bolt (Iron), Sleeper spike (Iron), Soda Can (aluminum).


My friend & Detecting partner Robert getting his gear on for a heavy day's detecting. My X-Terra 70 is leaning against the car. We traveled about 400km to get to this hidden spot.

Hi Jim: I'm afraid that whilst I've used other machines, the X-Terra 70 is my only machine at the moment. I need two more though: One for underwater marine use and also a dedicated "Super Gold Detector". I haven't used the Whites machines yet.

I bought my first metal detector when I was a kid: my father offered to pay half of the cost of one I'd been eyeing off in a store window. It was expensive too on my limited pocket money. But when I assembled it at tested it out, it did little more than flash a red light bulb when the coil passed over metal. Quite useless on the beach on a bright day. No headphone socket or audio signal. That was a long time ago but I didn't use that plastic piece of junk at all ... and to my parents, it became a warning of sorts for years to come. "Remember the metal detector!" they'd say whenever I showed an interest in something which they thought was worthless or useless.

I worked in the film industry for the last decade or so and left the job recently, quite disgusted with the way people I worked for had changed.
But in my last two years, I was online observing the changes in metal detectors on the market after looking online for one to assist me with underwater work. There's an Island in the Pacific near here with a long lost (buried) treasure worth many millions... and I want to find it someday. At least I hope to. I went there recently for the 14th time but the island was in a tropical storm for almost the entire duration of my stay.

As soon as I left my job, I got to chatting with the staff at my local Prospecting Supply Store and explained my interest in Prospecting but inquired about underwater machines. They suggested a few detectors to me, including the Excalibur but this device was incredibly heavy out of the water. I considered the GPX machines with the higher price tags but they were not really designed for beach use and my folks live by the ocean. Seemed like I needed a dual-purpose machine and one that could handle Australian soils for prospecting and there's only a few machines that are dual purpose. I was on the verge of buying a dedicated Gold Detector but felt the that the X-Terra would be lighter to carry and easier to break down for transit. I don't like being followed around when I'm metal detecting and unfortunately this has happened a few times so being able to break a detector down and to carry it lightly in a backpack is also handy. I am using old maps from the 1800s with modern Government Mineral Maps and Google Earth Maps ...and my own experiences gold panning ...to piece together where the best gold is likely to be. I even use the X-70 with the optional 6" coil to find clumps of gold hidden in the creek bed crevices. If there's enough granules packed closely together, the X-Terra lets me know about it. These small clusters of gold won't show up on the Elliptical coil though. It's not quite that sensitive but it's far better for covering larger areas faster. It's also picked out some very small pieces around a 0.33 of a gram under a few inches of clay. Some are even smaller but that's the lightest I've weighed.

Since I was out in the Goldfields, I bought a few different types of Gold Pan to try out. At first it was just for fun and, after a while, i enjoyed testing creeks to see if there were signs of gold because that would show me (using a magnifying glass) if the source was close or far away - based on how smooth or rough the granules are. Panning for gold has led me to build some interesting devices to suck gold particles from crevices but it also adds to my equipment. A small gold pan is an essential tool though and I always keep one in my backpack. Sometimes panning can be peaceful and on other occasions the time goes so fast in a day that I forget to use my detector.

Whilst Minelab says the 5x10 Elliptical Coil is not waterproof, it is still considered to be Water Resistant and a lot of owners have managed to waterproof it and seal the unit using Marine Silicone around the area where the cable enters the coil case. Look for the gap if there's one visible... where the slender cable meets the flexible junction fitting. I can't tell if adding sealant would void your warranty or not so perhaps contact Minelab and ask their opinion before doing so. I haven't sealed mine.

Something you SHOULD do though (and it won't void your warranty) is to apply a tightly wound layer of plastic duct tape around the rim of your Elliptical Coil. This seal will prevent magnetic sands and similar debris from ending up inside the area that your scuff cover protects. It will also prevent the scuff cover from falling off should you have an accident that causes it to split (say by smashing it against a rock). I assure you it's worth your trouble to buy a $2 roll of this tape and apply it.


You can see the tape wound around the edge of my Elliptical Coil in this image. This protects your detector slightly from rocks but stops the cover falling off if you split it. It also prevents magnetic sand from entering the gap and causing false signals as it moves.

The X-Terra requires movement to detect your target. If the target or the coil is moving, you should get a signal. If you get down to digging a target, you can place the soil directly onto the coil and poke the gravel around with your fingertips. Don't use a hand with rings or a watch on it obviously. When the target is shifted whilst sitting on the coil, the detector will beep to let you know.


My first two days detecting (two hours apiece) without reading my manual yielded junk. Those nails were hand forged in the 1860s.


My friend and detecting partner Robert. We found a nice 9 gram nugget a half hour after this picture was taken using the X-Terra 70. In the 1870s, this hill was covered in Prospectors looking for gold in quartz matrix. It's now populated with potentially deadly ants (Jack Jumper Ants) and Brown Snakes (also lethal). This was my 6th trip out.


My last day out detecting had me digging unfamiliar targets to see what they were. Some were slag from old miner's smelting efforts (rear) and some nails and a 1943 threepence coin... along with a couple of small gold nuggets & quartz specimens containing iron ore, a fired .303 bullet and a .22 caliber case. Expect to find anything like this in the goldfields all over the world. Gold is hard to find anywhere so I try places where it's harder to get to, hence there's better odds that I've dodged the less dedicated detectorists

My experiences with the X-Terra 70 have been memorable. I really LOVE getting out there. However, so many places I want to detect on turn out to be inaccessible or privately owned and I don't realize until I get there. Most days digging for mystery objects can actually be quite miserable. Fly plagues (think 600 flies fighting for a landing space on your face), leaches, snakes, wasps and ants combined with hours of digging in 45 degree (118 degrees Fahrenheit) temperatures and 10 miles walks with all your picks, equipment and water can mess with your head. Then try driving home 600 miles with bug spray in your eyes at night whilst trying to avoid kangaroos with a headache and thorns in your fingertips... ah well, you get the picture. Kangaroos are interesting but they're a very stupid animal. They creep up on me when I'm down on the ground digging a target and spook me occasionally. Here's a picture I took of one on my first trip outclick link): http://www.pbase.com/image/89362502/original.jpg They sound just like another person digging with a pick axe nearby when they bound on the ground.



Scanning the beaches in front of my parent's beach house yielded a number of gold & silver jewellery items and plenty of coins last March. No diamond rings yet.

The X-Terras are all pretty effective on the beaches. It can be a tedious process if others have been there before you because you have to dig the stuff they've missed. Plus a lot of soda cans and junk. But in a short while, you can delete these items from your detector by masking the signals. The X-Terra still drops its threshold tone to let you know you are standing over something.

Some of the gold chains came from boat ramps at low tide and even a few American and Asian coins came up where tourists frequented. The cache of pre-decimal Australian coins I found was in the Mountains. I've cleaned the gold in an ultrasonic tank and buffed some items with a jeweler's polishing wheel on my Dremel. Not sure what to do with all those Pennys and Half Pennys though.


After finding the beaches that the detectorists were visiting, it paid off to scan areas they routinely ignored.

All in all, the X-Terra 70 is convenient for me to use and carry. Depth is pretty good although I've not taken the time to measure depth properly. It never crossed my mind. But if you dig a hole THIS deep (click link for image) http://www.pbase.com/image/91577225/original.jpg then you know you're exceeding your detector's capabilities. Why did I did such a deep hole? Because I picked up a VERY promising signal in Prospecting mode whilst in a small creek directly in the middle of the 1850's gold diggings. The world's largest gold 'nugget' (the Holterman Nugget... actually a 235.1 kg Gold Reef Mass) was found very close in the same district in 1872. So I was sure this new creek had cut through a great spot. Now Prospecting Mode is more sensitive than Coin & Relic Mode. And I couldn't get a number I.D. for the target in Relic Mode... only a strong signal in Prospecting Mode. I was therefore digging blindly. Why was there no Target I.D. number showing when I was in Coin/Relic Mode?

The soil was clay-like and moist but as hard to dig as partially set concrete. I broke my shovel and then a pick before driving home and returning with a new set a week later. I couldn't sleep without knowing what it was. Result: It turned out to be a type of grey clay called "Pipe Clay" which is known for containing gold nuggets... but in this case was host to a mineral deposit which had run down the face of the creek wall and entered the pockets of clay. Apparently the GPX-4000 would have also triggered on this location and signal. So with the best detectors being fooled by this freak mineralization, I don't feel so bad. I filled in my hole (right next to a Quartz Reef!)... but if you look to the upper right hand corner of the image, you may detect a white spider web - courtesy of one of our deadliest spiders. I was hoping the wall didn't collapse and cover me with them. It's a bit faint in the image so here's a closeup: http://www.pbase.com/image/91577224/original.jpg ... I dug out one of the inhabitants last time I was there for the camera. Don't worry, the insects got me as I was eventually stung by wasps when I brushed past a nest hidden on a low tree branch trying to carry a pan of the mysterious clay to a waterhole further down the creek. It seemed like a good idea at the time. No hint of gold though.

Finally, since gold here is often associated with other heavy metals like iron, many of our best specimens can confuse a lot of detectors and get screened out as being iron junk.

Here's an example of what you have to contend with digging or ignoring iron signals:

I'm thinking about the Super Gold Detectors - but if I ever get one, their 2-3x deeper seeking abilities means I'll have to dig holes so deep that you can see the craters from orbit. Not sure if I'd want to do that for the occasional chunk of iron with a hint of gold stuck to it. I'll live longer with the X-Terra 70. But Never Say Never.

All the Best,

Marco Nero

[Jim Hemmingway]

Hi NeroDesign,

Marco, another fine read, the photos are terrific! You've included quite a number of "tips" for electronic prospectors to keep in mind; such as paying attention to the faint signals, keeping a reference guide handy, waterproofing the coil connection, taping the coil cover/coil interface to keep debris out, remembering to turn off tracking once target is located to avoid tracking it out, and the tip on iron identification regarding ID #'s "scattering" more than is the case with non-ferrous targets. All sound advice...thanks for bringing those points front and centre as a reminder to everyone.

It seems to me that especially in areas with significant iron mineralization, while it's interesting to check on target id's to anticipate the target type, the best discriminator should always be your digging tool. Large man-made iron debris may be a different matter where you are quite certain of it's identity.

Finally, the reason I mentioned the White's units, is that I recall reading on one of the forums awhile back, that a well known contributor (BT of Australia) had been using the XT-70 for several years goldhunting, but upon trying the MXT, he made a switchover...remarking on the improved performance. In any case, if you do come across any information regarding the use of either the GMT, MXT, or F-75 in your goldfields, please don't hesitate to post about it, if you don't mind. Always interested in learning new information.

BTW, unless you're notified to the contrary, I would not be concerned about text/photo content exceeding any limitations. I would think that photos would be the big ticket, and we're allowed up to 12 photos currently. No worries mate!

Jim.

[Marius]

Hi Marco

Thx for another great post and great pictures.

Before i did first beach hunt i watch minelab DVD several times,i did took manual book with me in case i forgot some setups.
I use auto ground balance each 20min or if i change soil,i didn't used tracking yet.
So far i got into my second day and 8hours of beach hunts,got a lot of coins.. all modern..nothing exiting,some junk,but i managed to be better in avoid trash.
Couple times i got 40-42 signal and it was alu.foil,very weird.
I try to educate myself about history of sites i hunt on,and its a different side of metal detecting with i like a lot HISTORY.

I tried use prospecting mode on the beach but i think i will be able to find gold rings and stuff using coin 1,2 or 3 mode.
What u recommend for beach? should i stay in coin mode all the time or swith it and check area in gold prospecting mode ?Also can i use double D oval coil on the beach to look for rings?


All best

Marius

[nero_design]

Hi Jim.
I've started to research the MXT based on your strong observations and it appears that this detector is being used in competition to the X-Terra 70 with some very good feedback by its owners. Many users are convinced that it is worth considering and more than one has commented on the Whites machine as being overlooked by many in Australia. It may be that Minelab (an Australian company) pushes their detectors here a lot harder than Whites. Either way, I'm very interested in finding out more about this machine and how it compares to my X-Terra 70. I'm open to getting a second machine and my best friend needs a better detector than the one he's using. I know that the Whites MXTs came in second place compared to the X-Terra 70 on Wiluna's well publicized trip to the Alaskan gold fields at Ganes Creek. It seems the lack of mineralization in that area excluded all the previous advantages of the Pulse Induction detectors and favored the VLF machines like the X-70.

One thing that will have me retaining my X-Terra 70 is specifically its use with the 6" DD HF coil for use under water in creeks and tidal pools. Having used my own to detect impossibly small targets, including a corroded needle that was twice as thick as a human hair (take a look at your own hairs and see just how fine that is!) and just half an inch long, I'm convinced that this coil is astounding in the impossible spots. Bear in mind that this hair-thin needle (it had rusted away to a thin core) was under running water, trapped under a rock ledge and in a crevice that was covered with quite a few inches of packed soil and pebbles which had been semi-cemented over time. There was no apparent mineral leeching from the corroded needle as it still triggered a strong signal when washed and held near the coil field.

Something my friend does with his generic detector is call me over to help ID targets he has found. So far, I've been right almost every time with one particularly strange exception being a large black stone ...which turned out to be a combination of silver and native tin. When I first considered the X-Terra 70, the salesman (a seasoned Prospector himself with a lot of experience) turned the X-70 on and placed it sideways on the counter. He held up each of our local coins and one by one he passed them quickly in front of the coil a few inches from the plate. As he did this, he called out the Target ID numbers (eg 18, 12, 4 etc). I was facing the end of the detector with the LCD display and it was uncanny how he knew which numbers were coming up. Or rather it was uncanny how accurate the X-Terra was at knowing precisely which coin it could sense. That was the thing which amazed me. Of course I realize that you can get different ID numbers based on the angle of approach to any target. Hence the suggestion by detectorists, and also the Manuals, to approach your targets from different angles before digging.

One thing that interests me about the MXT is that one person who uses one wrote online that his friend (who used an X-Terra 70) calls him over constantly to get him to verify targets. So if this isn't just a case of the X-Terra user not knowing how to use his machine, it could be worth a closer look for me.

I've met some other X-70 owners who are incredulous to see some of my finds when we bump into each other. They are long time users of older Analogue machines and seem unfamiliar with the most recent batch of VLF machines. One thing in common with all of them is that they have not spent time to work out how their machine operates and two of them had no access to the internet. I pointed out a few settings I use (mostly default settings too) and this seemed to make them happy. Haven't seen them lately. I could be wrong here but I think one was a Garret user and another was a Whites user. No idea what machines though.

When I first got my X-Terra 70, I was terribly excited and thought I'd find plenty of gold. The reality is that most parts of this earth have been chewed up by all the other detectorists before me. So what most of us have to do today is try to find the fainter signals that other machines have missed. Always helps to listen for the loud targets too... no sense in passing up a good nugget if it's there. I can't believe how hard it is to find gold though. I though it would be everywhere when I first started out. Native Gold is without a doubt one of the most elusive things I've ever sought. But each trip out taught me something new about the detector, the locals, the wildlife and geology. I've grown to love the gold too and I can admire a beautiful tiny specimen or a larger solid mass for its unique character. However, there's a sense of great fun when you step away from the car and start swinging that coil. Regardless of the machine, it's actually exciting not knowing what I'll find - but being there nonetheless. In the end, it helps having a machine that does the job well, regardless of the brand name.

UPDATE:
This is the brand list of detectors offered here in Sydney -

Minelab
Fisher
Garrett
Tesoro

I can't see Whites listed at all and I can't explain why. Perhaps they advertise and sell elsewhere. There isn't even ads for them in the local detecting magazines. As a Relic Hunting machine alone, it ought to be around here and I know there are people using it here since I see them for sale sometimes on eBay.

Marius: I used the Concentric Coil for the beach myself although I ended up with plenty of sand between the coil and the scuff cover! I think you'll find a few people have used the HF DD coils on the beaches here because of their ability to handle the salt water and wet sand. Might help to research it further. I believe the small 6" HF DD coil was also used on the beaches as it has a good ability to separate targets amongst trash. On the beaches, there's actually a "Beach Mode" which you can activate on the X-Terra 70. It has a little beach umbrella on the LCD display. The presets are VERY useful too although you won't need to use prospecting Mode when hunting coins on the beach. Jewellery and Coins will show with the TID numbers and remember that if you repeatedly find certain items that you don't want, just mask them out with the Reject-Accept button. Prospecting Mode is really best for the Gold Fields. Jewellery will show up in Coin-Relic Mode when you come across it and if Prospecting, jewellery will trigger a positive response.

Regards,

Marco

[Jim Hemmingway]

Hi NeroDesign,

Marco, I think that unless you do a side by side comparison, there is no certain way to know which unit performs better in terms of depth and iron resolution in different soil types. It is not easy to sort out various reports of which unit outperformed the others, in terms of how much of a role did the users knowledge and experience come into play while evaluating how well any particular unit performs under any given soil conditions. Generally, I don't place too much confidence into any one report, but rather prefer to arrive at a consensus from a variety of sources.

Keep in mind that neither the XT-70 or the MXT are considered "dedicated" prospecting units, but rather "all-rounders" with good prospecting capability. The White's GMT, for example, is a dedicated unit operating at a higher frequency, and considered by many to be the ultimate for VLF prospecting. Seasoned pros describe it as capable of detecting down to one tenth grain size gold, while still faring quite well on larger nuggets at good depth.

I'm not familiar first hand with Ganes Creek. From posts here and in articles written by well known electronic prospectors of high integrity, the MXT is the number one choice in that area by a considerable margin. That is not a reflection on the XT-70 at all, but more likely because this unit is a newer kid on the block, that is becoming increasingly popular. Most users comment on it's light weight, flexibility in performing all around tasks, both manual/auto tracking capability, reduced power requirements, and overall prospecting ability. I understand that area has a mix of fairly light mineralization, considerable iron trash, and is an area where larger (nuggets of multi-oz range are common) nuggets are often detected. It would seem to be a site that lends itself well to the use of either detector for good success.

I highly recommend that your research include a visit to Steve Herschbach's Alaska Gold Prospecting Forum, where Steve provides a good rundown on commonly used detectors for prospecting; further, also visit Steve's Alaska Metal Detector site, where you will be able to access and read many informative articles regarding the performance of various units at different locations...including Ganes Creek.

Last item, here's a quote:

"One thing that interests me about the MXT is that one person who uses one wrote online that his friend (who used an X-Terra 70) calls him over constantly to get him to verify targets. So if this isn't just a case of the X-Terra user not knowing how to use his machine, it could be worth a closer look for me."

A possible explanation may be with regard to how the MXT presents iron identification in the prospecting mode. Audibly, if reasonably certain of an iron target, it will augment the signal with a "grunt" sound, while the VCO aids with target strength. Visually, it will provide the TID# based on a very broad iron disc/id range from "0" down to minus "95"...which gives a lot of resolution on iron targets; plus, it will provide a % iron probability readout as further confirmation/to be used in conjunction with the TID#. Considerable helpful information when attempting to anticipate whether it's an iron target or not.

Yes, iron targets will "scatter" visual readings on any unit due to iron's magnetism, but the broad iron id resolution on the MXT is helpful with the degree of confidence you can place in it's identification of iron. By comparison specifically, with units having much reduced iron id range (say for example an F-75 with an iron id range of "0" to "15"), the "scatter" effect can wind-up giving readings on one sweep of "6", but on the return sweep give a reading of "23"...or what is referred to as a "false reading". Whereas with the MXT, one swing of the coil can produce a reading of minus "28", while the return sweep gives a reading of say minus "11"; yes, it's still scattered, but there is much less doubt about the targets identity. It still reads as iron, and I have noticed (at least in my test plot) that it does so rather consistently. While not conclusive, that's all the information I have for the moment. I'll know more after prospecting season is done with by early November. Perhaps, others with more experience can give their views here.

That's about it for now,

Jim.

[Marius]

Hi Marco

I have a questions about beach hunt:
so far i spend around 12hours hunting on local catalina island beaches ,and dint found nothin exiting ,bunch of modern coins ,locker key and kids ring.Still it was a lot of fun.
Theres no one here detecting unless they do it in the midnight.And theres thousands tourists during weekends.

So i use standard coil so far,seems to be working ok,and i run pattern 1 on xterra,should i go with all metal setup?
sometimes even really rusty stuff is giving me strong signals in 30-40s if its shallow on pattern one with should reject fer.

Or maybe i can give it a shot with double d gold prospecting coil,and keep far from water?
What setup you will recommend,oh its a set of couple shallow small beaches with bed of rocks under 10-15inch of sand.

Regards
Marius