Anyone Else Dissappointed in XTERRA 50-(North Jersey)-advice-keep it-v-upgrade

[dlugosmi]

Picked up an Xterra 50 a few months ago and have spent a few hours with it in the backyard. Not absolutely terrible performance but, in light of what I had heard about it before my purchase, I am certainly dissappointed.

Created a small test area with pocket change--items burried at a depth of 4-7 inches. Machine was ground balanced properly. With the sensitivity settings on low I could hardly get any signal at all many of the deeper ones it would passover with no response. With sensitivity turned up to 20 and volume cranked the responses were still very weak and the accuracy was okay at best. I then proceeded to detect around the entire yard and only picked up a few nails within an inch of the surface.

The ground in my section of North Jersey is mostly orange clay and perhaps this machine doesn't work well with that. I also planted a penny in 6inches of woodchips and was successful in finding it, but te signal was weak and accuracy was questionable on that one too. I haven't decided whether or not to ditch the machine yet (i'm leaning towards yes) but I figured I'd ask first, has anyone else had a poor experience with the Xterra 50---does anyone have suggestions for upgrades (possibly outside of the Minelab product line)--or suggestions in general?


Best Regards All,
Mike

 

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[Charlie P. (NY)]

Normally I'd say give it time and lots of practice but "a few months" should be plenty. That's discouraging, for sure. You might try in the Minelab forum further down in the owner's area and see if some XTerra-50 users will chime in with some tips. Very possible you got a dud coil or it's out of tune and Minelab will remedy it. (I think they go a year on the coil & two on the electronics for warranty).

Here's the link to the Minelab specific area http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/board,211.0.html

 

[vegas247]

on the minelab DVD for the GP3500 you cant truly testa machine by burying coins bucuase the hole sorounding the coin planted convuses the machine as a coin that had been there would so to speak blend into the ground which the detector reads. Just a thought I tried it and my ace 250 woul'd perform well with planted coils at all but would perform great at 6" on coins. just tryin to help as I ran into this myself. Grant ( vegas247)

 

[BIG61AL]

I think it may be a defect in your system...I have an x-terra 70 and it can read everything, it picks up all the trash and treasure. it works just as well as my whites prizm V. It's better at finding nickles than the whites..which I like cuz that is the same range as gold rings....contact minelab I am sure they can remedy the problem

 

[thompy]

ive read the 10.5 DD round coil7.5 khz coil is way better for depth and target sepperation, than the stock coil, going to get one for my 50

 

[vegas247]

I have one coming within the next week hopefully I can figure it out and help you out as well along with the learning curve we go! I have all three coils coming as well. the only 3 things I can see that would be a problem is proper ground balancing ( I'd triple read the guide on that I always screw up on that with all of my detectors and learned that was usually my problem but I'm not yet familiar with the GB on the X70) # 2 you might have caught a one in a 100 machines that were malfunctioned but that rare. and 3 planting coins just doesn't work it never will give you a signal as a coin in the ground naturally will. I hope once I get mine I can help you out if I can help myself! LOL Grant