More depth on the XLT???

[ICE ADDICT]

OK folks, I know this may be considered somewhat cliche' but I'm just hoping someone might give me a quick fix to my inquiry.

I NEED MORE DEPTH!!! I have been using my XLT for two years now, and while the finds are good I can't seem to get it to pick up deep small objects. By deep, I mean over 6 inches. I have my AC sensitivity cranked as high as 75,and the Pre-amp gain as high as I can get away with, depending on the site,usually around 6 or 8.
ANY suggestions GREATLY appreciated.

 

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[mastereagle22]

Yep one suggestion.

Buy a Minelab Explorer!

Seriously I don't know anything about the XLT other than my buddy hunts with one and I find stuff all the time that his won't even beep on.

 

[ICE ADDICT]

I was affraid you were going to say that!!

HOWEVER, I do find LOTS of good coins, just nothing deeper than 6" or so.

 

[mastereagle22]

He finds some really good stuff too. Actually until I really learned my Explorer he was smoking me.

There is NOTHING wrong with your machine.

A bigger coil will help, if they make one for the XLT. Other than that I cannot help. I know BB, the guy I hunt has adjusted his machine's pre-amp gain and other settings but still the only really deep things he gets is big iron.

I think Whites makes a fine machine but for me the Explorer is the way to go.

Good luck and HH.

 

[ICE ADDICT]

Thanks Master!!

Problem is, DEEP means OLD!!

 

[mastereagle22]

While I agree with that I have YET to find a DEEP old piece of silver but that is because I am doing something wrong.

10 inches on a 1943 Silver Florin is the deepest Silver I have recovered to date, using the Explorer.

 

[ICE ADDICT]

Thanks for all the advice Master, I guess I'll just keep on swingin' the top 6-7" and stop complaining!!

MAYBE part of the problem is I'm hooked on detecting a certain WELL hunted park,but I've recently found 4 Indians dating back to the early 1860's and just can't figure out why I cant flip over any old silver. I did find a dateless SLQ but that doesn't exactly qualify as "old".

 

[Sarge]

Ice,

I've found coins & jewelry much deeper with my XLT, deeper yet with the DFX.

Do you have Modulation turned off?

Are you accepting everything above -60?

Are you properly Air/Ground balanced?

Do you ever have +95 displayed? Besides hot rocks +95 will show on targets that the detector can't ID. If you can pinpoint it & it's deep, dig. You might be surprised. If it stays silent or has a weak broad signal while pinpointing then it's probably a hot rock or other anomaly.

These tips might get you deeper.

Are there any targets deeper than 6"? Are you sure? I've found many coins from the 1800s not much deeper than that. I detected a park where I found several dimes from the 1940's at 4-6". I was disappointed until I discovered it wasn't a park until the late 40s but rather a farm field.

 

[ICE ADDICT]

Thanks for the suggestions Sarge.

I have experienced the +95 thing several times, but have yet to recover anything good.(never deep)

I do regularly air/ground balance.

I do NOT accept everything above -60, perhaps I should?

I haven't toyed with the modulation yet, maybe that would help??

I usually start in a pre-set program, such as coin/jewelery, and adjust from there.IE: ac sens,pre-amp,VDI sens,target ID and thats about all that I change. When I first started using the XLT I tried to set some custom programs that I found on the net, but it created nothing but confusion...

 

[Sarge]

All Modulation Off will do, Ice is to make deep targets as loud as shallow ones. In the old days a person could tell a deep coin by the whisper you'd get instead of a loud bang. The deeper the coin, the quieter it was. That's why many guys who have been detecting for years turn Mod Off. I like signals to be loud regardless how deep they are & I have good hearing yet despite 27 years of bang-bang in the military. Now that we have depth indicators on our detectors there's no reason for us to use sound as an indicator.

Something else that I neglected to tell you. I thought of it yesterday while out detecting. Use a Track Offset of +1. What that'll do is give you a slightly positive ground balance. If you hold the detector at waist level & squeeze the trigger & lower it to the ground you should receive a slightly higher threshold sound.

A slightly positive Track Offfset will be more sensitive to small targets in the ground like coins, small jewelry & gold. Jimmy Sierra uses +1 all the time & some people even go to +2. I wouldn't stray too far from perfect ground balance, though & normally stay at +1.

On my XLT I normally have my AC Sens set above 70, usually 75-80, Preamp Gain at 3 or 4, VDI Sens at 86 Transmit Boost always On. If the detector runs unstable I'll lower the AC Sens first keeping the Preamp Gain on 4 for as long as possible. If I get down to AC 70 & it's still unstable I'll lower the Preamp to 3. I normally run my detector so it's just slightly unstable in the air but stable as I sweep.

Adjusting sensitivity is always on a case-by-case basis. I could run mine wide open in my area but in your area I might have to drop everything 'way down.

This might be a good time to plant a test garden. Take careful measurements of various coins & make an accurate map. Don't expect immediate results. Freshly buried coins won't read as deep as those which have been in the ground long enough to develop a halo. White's high end detectors are halo lovers.

Once you can get down to the deepest ones you can experiment with various settings to determine the best adjustments.

 

[ICE ADDICT]

Thanks for all the advice Sarge, I will put it to the test!

 

[BuckleBoy]

Hunt with TID on.

 

[Duane B]

Want more depth? Hunt in all-metal! The following technique may not work for you, in your park, but it works good for me, in my plowed field. First, turn all the bells and whistles off (like TID), they just take processing time away from other things you need. Turn AC gain to max, transmit boost on, accept all signals from -95 to +95. If you don't hear slight changes in mineralization as you sweep along then your pre-amp gain is probably not high enough. If the machine is too unstable for you then lower the pre-amp gain. By getting a positive audio signal on all targets you will need to use the visual display to discriminate. You can estimate the depth of a target by the audio response. Shallow coins will produce an abrupt loud sound. Very deep coins will produce a mellow, quite sound, sometimes hardly perceptible. Note: the very deep targets that produce a hardly perceptible audio response in all-metal will not produce a sound at all with any amount of discrimination. Very deep coins will often produce an iron ID with target ID machines. If you have a very deep target then you can scrape some of the dirt away from the top of it (if you're in a plowed field) and check the visual display again. If the ID got worse then it might be a small piece of wire or similar, if the ID got better then it is probably a non-ferrous artifact and you need to dig it. The above is my technique, and it probably wont work for everyone, especially in the local park. It has worked good for me though. The XLT is an excellent machine. I have used mine for 12 years and have never thought for one moment of trading it in on a Minelab, or any other machine!

 

[ICE ADDICT]

BB, TID would that be Tone ID??

Duane,

Thanks for the advice, I know I would NEVER get away with those settings in parks,but I'd like to try your all metal technique.

 

[BuckleBoy]

BB, TID would that be Tone ID??

Duane,

Thanks for the advice, I know I would NEVER get away with those settings in parks,but I'd like to try your all metal technique.

Tone ID, yes.

 

[Sal]

OK folks, I know this may be considered somewhat cliche' but I'm just hoping someone might give me a quick fix to my inquiry.

I NEED MORE DEPTH!!! I have been using my XLT for two years now, and while the finds are good I can't seem to get it to pick up deep small objects. By deep, I mean over 6 inches. I have my AC sensitivity cranked as high as 75,and the Pre-amp gain as high as I can get away with, depending on the site,usually around 6 or 8.
ANY suggestions GREATLY appreciated.

I use mixed mode audio with tone id on you get 2 channells all metal and disc at the same time preamp i run 3 to 4 sens depends from 72 to 88 i think this is the deepest mode out of all has found silver for me in areas i had gone over with my xlt,if you get jeff fosters book he has a few nice mixed mode programs even one with reverse discrimination by accepting all lower numbers and rejecting all higher numbers there are so many ways you can set this up its amazing great to have all these options in my opinion........

 

[Dimeman]

OK folks, I know this may be considered somewhat cliche' but I'm just hoping someone might give me a quick fix to my inquiry.

I NEED MORE DEPTH!!! I have been using my XLT for two years now, and while the finds are good I can't seem to get it to pick up deep small objects. By deep, I mean over 6 inches. I have my AC sensitivity cranked as high as 75,and the Pre-amp gain as high as I can get away with, depending on the site,usually around 6 or 8.
ANY suggestions GREATLY appreciated.

What coil are you using?? I can't believe that you can't detect more than 6 inches deep, with even the 5.3 (6inch) coil.
You should get at least 6 inch depth on the 5.3, and at least 8 inch or more on the 950 coil.

You might just be hunting in an area that no deeper coins are there.

 

[ICE ADDICT]

OK folks, I know this may be considered somewhat cliche' but I'm just hoping someone might give me a quick fix to my inquiry.

I NEED MORE DEPTH!!! I have been using my XLT for two years now, and while the finds are good I can't seem to get it to pick up deep small objects. By deep, I mean over 6 inches. I have my AC sensitivity cranked as high as 75,and the Pre-amp gain as high as I can get away with, depending on the site,usually around 6 or 8.
ANY suggestions GREATLY appreciated.

What coil are you using?? I can't believe that you can't detect more than 6 inches deep, with even the 5.3 (6inch) coil.
You should get at least 6 inch depth on the 5.3, and at least 8 inch or more on the 950 coil.

You might just be hunting in an area that no deeper coins are there.

Very good possibility Dimeman, I haven't found anything good below the 51/2 to 6" mark,but these finds are 1860's indians, I have been searching this pretty historic park for a number of years and have made some great finds, none of which have been silver coins older than say the murcury or washington/rosy years.Except for ONE dateless standing liberty,which isn't really considered old in my book. The fact of the matter is,if this place has been well hunted (which it IS!) why are the only old coins I unearth Indians? I just figured the Silver must be deeper and out of my reach. I am using the stock 950 coil.I didn't feel that I've used the xlt long enough yet to try experimenting with different coils, cause like I said I'm not even sure I have it set up to get the most umph out of it.

 

[Sarge]

If you can dig Indians than you'll be able to find silver. Figure out when the last Indianhead was minted compared to the last silver coin ('64). The silver should be even shallower. Many Indians are passed over because of the lower VDI so you probably have more of an opportunity finding them than any silver coin.

 

[minton7]

I dis-agree with all the logic here.... think of this... how many people would cherry pick that park and dig only silver signals? Those IH's come up as screw caps for alot of users and many wont mess with taking the time to dig them......... It seems to me that you are hunting a place that you have been fortunate to pull out the IH's etc.... someone or many have cherry picked all the higher tone signals I would say

Randy