atomicscott
Bronze Member
- Aug 18, 2011
- 1,564
- 1,055
- Detector(s) used
- Current: Nokta Makro Simplex+, Teknetics Patriot, Fisher Gold Bug (original), GP Pinpointer (Garrett Clone) Lesche. Owned: Omega 8000, Minelab X-Terra 505, Fisher F2, Tesoro Vaquero, & Compadre, Whit
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
Hi Everybody!
In no way is this meant as an endorsement or recommendation for any particular brand or model, just my personal experience.
I've taken the X Terra 505 on 4 hunts so far as well as doing some testing in my small backyard.
These are some of my impressions so far:
I used the 6" 7.5 khz concentric coil for the majority of the time.
Today I was at a park built in 1921. It has been hit HARD by numerous detectorists with high end machines, so I wasn't expecting to find any real old coins.
Settings: I was able to run it wide open, max sensitivity alot of the time. The lowest sensitivity used was 17.
I used 4 tones for some of the time, but much of the time and on todays hunt, I used 19 (99) tones and notched out -9 and 48 for the duration of the hunt. GB was at 17.
Depth: At a school that I have hit hard with other detectors and had thought it was cleaned out (other than zincolns), I found 1 clad dime at 7", and 1 clad quarter at just under 7" (in additon to several other clad coins that I had missed). The deepest targets were both solid tones and ID#s locked at 42 on quarter and bounced 36-39 on dime. I also found a small .925 sterling necklace pendant at 2" or so. It was a solid 39, bouncing up to 42 a bit.
Sensitivity: I planned to do occassional prospecting with the X Terra, and plan to purchase a 18.75 khz dd coil for that purpose.
Just for the heck of it, I air tested the 505 with a small piece of lead shot that weighs 1 grain. With the sensitivity at 17, threshold 5, I was able to get a good signal at about 1.5". I had to remember, this was with the 6" 7.5 khz coil! I have attached a pic of the lead shot next to a dime for scale. I actually got a little better signal on the lead shot when I backed off the sens from 19 to 17.
Today in my backyard I found a smashed lead pellet from a pellet gun at 2" deep and it came in at a solid 6 ID# every time. One interesting note: I also tested on a rusty bb about 2 times the size of the 1 grain lead shot. No signal, just a droput in threshold at 4+". It really does not seem to like the small iron! This should really help in the gold bearing areas! I can only imagine how well it will work with the high frequency dd coil.
Separation: this is where the 19 tones (other than my notching out -9 & 48) really starts to make sense. You get the nice song of the multi tones, and realize just how much metal is under the coil, but whenever there is a higher pitch mixed in with the negative iron tones, you can slow down and actually pick those higher tones/numbers out of the surrounding iron. I was only able to do this succesfully with copper pennies so far. Today at the park, I have a -6, 30, 33, -6 pattern that repeats consistently. So I dig the target and find a copper penny about 3" down. I rescanned the area after recovering the penny and I get -6, -6, -6! Very impressive IMO. I recovered the coin, but left the iron behind.
Target ID accuracy: Any target that jumped more than 3 digits, turned out to be trash. One exception was a badly corroded zinc penny that bounced up to 33, from 27-30 a couple times. I did have some problems with 27, 30 ID#s that ended up being bottle caps, rather than zinc pennies. This was not too bad as I always end up passing alot of zincs up (maybe not a good idea but...).
One thing that was nice is when there was a coin spill, the ID would lock on standard number like, 42 and there would be 2 quarters and 1 penny. Or I would get a 36, and it would be a dime and 2 pennies, etc. On some of my other detectors, the ID#s would combine and come up with a srange combination like #27, for a #68 dime and #32 nickel in the same hole. This saved some guesswork when confronted with a pocket spill of multiple coins. I am VERY impressed with this detector, and have only begun to scratch the surface (pun intended, lol.) I have only used a few detectors in my short time detecting, but this one has been the best (for my applications) so far. Thanks again to all who recommended it.
In no way is this meant as an endorsement or recommendation for any particular brand or model, just my personal experience.
I've taken the X Terra 505 on 4 hunts so far as well as doing some testing in my small backyard.
These are some of my impressions so far:
I used the 6" 7.5 khz concentric coil for the majority of the time.
Today I was at a park built in 1921. It has been hit HARD by numerous detectorists with high end machines, so I wasn't expecting to find any real old coins.
Settings: I was able to run it wide open, max sensitivity alot of the time. The lowest sensitivity used was 17.
I used 4 tones for some of the time, but much of the time and on todays hunt, I used 19 (99) tones and notched out -9 and 48 for the duration of the hunt. GB was at 17.
Depth: At a school that I have hit hard with other detectors and had thought it was cleaned out (other than zincolns), I found 1 clad dime at 7", and 1 clad quarter at just under 7" (in additon to several other clad coins that I had missed). The deepest targets were both solid tones and ID#s locked at 42 on quarter and bounced 36-39 on dime. I also found a small .925 sterling necklace pendant at 2" or so. It was a solid 39, bouncing up to 42 a bit.
Sensitivity: I planned to do occassional prospecting with the X Terra, and plan to purchase a 18.75 khz dd coil for that purpose.
Just for the heck of it, I air tested the 505 with a small piece of lead shot that weighs 1 grain. With the sensitivity at 17, threshold 5, I was able to get a good signal at about 1.5". I had to remember, this was with the 6" 7.5 khz coil! I have attached a pic of the lead shot next to a dime for scale. I actually got a little better signal on the lead shot when I backed off the sens from 19 to 17.
Today in my backyard I found a smashed lead pellet from a pellet gun at 2" deep and it came in at a solid 6 ID# every time. One interesting note: I also tested on a rusty bb about 2 times the size of the 1 grain lead shot. No signal, just a droput in threshold at 4+". It really does not seem to like the small iron! This should really help in the gold bearing areas! I can only imagine how well it will work with the high frequency dd coil.
Separation: this is where the 19 tones (other than my notching out -9 & 48) really starts to make sense. You get the nice song of the multi tones, and realize just how much metal is under the coil, but whenever there is a higher pitch mixed in with the negative iron tones, you can slow down and actually pick those higher tones/numbers out of the surrounding iron. I was only able to do this succesfully with copper pennies so far. Today at the park, I have a -6, 30, 33, -6 pattern that repeats consistently. So I dig the target and find a copper penny about 3" down. I rescanned the area after recovering the penny and I get -6, -6, -6! Very impressive IMO. I recovered the coin, but left the iron behind.
Target ID accuracy: Any target that jumped more than 3 digits, turned out to be trash. One exception was a badly corroded zinc penny that bounced up to 33, from 27-30 a couple times. I did have some problems with 27, 30 ID#s that ended up being bottle caps, rather than zinc pennies. This was not too bad as I always end up passing alot of zincs up (maybe not a good idea but...).
One thing that was nice is when there was a coin spill, the ID would lock on standard number like, 42 and there would be 2 quarters and 1 penny. Or I would get a 36, and it would be a dime and 2 pennies, etc. On some of my other detectors, the ID#s would combine and come up with a srange combination like #27, for a #68 dime and #32 nickel in the same hole. This saved some guesswork when confronted with a pocket spill of multiple coins. I am VERY impressed with this detector, and have only begun to scratch the surface (pun intended, lol.) I have only used a few detectors in my short time detecting, but this one has been the best (for my applications) so far. Thanks again to all who recommended it.
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