Am i missing something on the 705

[jhen999]

Am I missing something as far as the 705 goes, I see where a lot of people that buy them have them up for sale within a year or so....

 

[Longhair]

Mostly, they do so well with it, and being their first Minelab, they start thinking about how well they'd do with an E_Trac.
The smart ones keep the 705 and just add the E_Trac.

Others try to get by with it where a muli_freq is more suitable because they're cheaper.

And others yet see the finds we post, and are under the mis-impression that it's a magic wand.

 

[happycamper08]

My wife uses one and I haven't found anything with an etrac that the 705 couldn't hit. It weighs half as much and costs half as much and if you don't hunt in a ton of mineralization than they are just as good IMO.

 

[dirtscratcher]

For me I was not impressed until I got the 10.5 mid freq dd coil. Minelab should change to supplying it as the stock coil.

 

[Fletch88]

For me I was not impressed until I got the 10.5 mid freq dd coil. Minelab should change to supplying it as the stock coil.

My soil is neutral so the single freq works great. I'm really impressed with the 705 and the stock concentric coil, much less the DD's. I worked the other way from Etrac to CTX and decided to try a 705 because I get tired of lugging around heavy machines. Anyone who thinks they need to upgrade to an Etrac or CTX, do not sell your 705, you will have sellers remorse. The audio on the 705 is as good if not better than the Etrac and combined with the prospecting mode, very simple controls, and significant weight difference, I'm liking it more than the FBS machines.

 

[Mach1Pilot]

Before becoming a dealer, I didn't know much about the X-Terra series and didn't think they performed. The Etrac was my machine of choice at the time, and the X-Terras didn't interest me one bit.

Becoming a dealer made me look at them... and I'm impressed. Its a real performer! Light weight, great performance and much more capability than most people realize. The entire series but the X-Terra 705 in particular truly is an excellent bang for the buck. I usually use mine in prospecting mode when in the relic field...ones where any non-ferrous target is desireable. But hunting in the multi-tones is great for picking out good targets too.

I do agree with dirtscratcher - too bad its not available with the MF 10.5" DD as the stock coil.

 

[Fletch88]

Keith, I would love to see an 8 or 9" DD 3khz waterproof coil from Coiltek for the Xterra. That would be a great coil IMO, but so far I love the stock 9" CC in the neutral soils in my area.

 

[Mach1Pilot]

No doubt about it Fletch - a mid-sized 3 kHz DD would be an awesome addition to the lineup!

 

[jhen999]

I hunt in a lot of mineralized soil here in the gold county of California , in parks and school , the parks are pretty bad when you use the multi tone 4, its like a music box it your ear, its hard to pick up a good tone with all the things you hear , so I find myself hunting in the 2 tone more and more , I do fined that I get a lot of good hits. vary deep , deep enough that I cant get most of them out of the ground without using a shovel...I did get a 6" DD 18.75 from Keith and it seams to work around most of the trash in the parks pretty good , but not much ground coverage....What do you think a 9" DD 7.5 coil might work a lot better in parks..

 

[atomicscott]

I hunt in a lot of mineralized soil here in the gold county of California , in parks and school , the parks are pretty bad when you use the multi tone 4, its like a music box it your ear, its hard to pick up a good tone with all the things you hear , so I find myself hunting in the 2 tone more and more , I do fined that I get a lot of good hits. vary deep , deep enough that I cant get most of them out of the ground without using a shovel...I did get a 6" DD 18.75 from Keith and it seams to work around most of the trash in the parks pretty good , but not much ground coverage....What do you think a 9" DD 7.5 coil might work a lot better in parks..

Also realize even though its a smaller coil, you don't need to overlap swings like you would with a concentric. I use the HF 6" DD only unless its a wide open area with little trash. That type of hunting is very rare for me though! The sites are so trashy, I know the 9" would be masking things much more

 

[Mach1Pilot]

I hunt in a lot of mineralized soil here in the gold county of California , in parks and school , the parks are pretty bad when you use the multi tone 4, its like a music box it your ear, its hard to pick up a good tone with all the things you hear , so I find myself hunting in the 2 tone more and more , I do fined that I get a lot of good hits. vary deep , deep enough that I cant get most of them out of the ground without using a shovel...I did get a 6" DD 18.75 from Keith and it seams to work around most of the trash in the parks pretty good , but not much ground coverage....What do you think a 9" DD 7.5 coil might work a lot better in parks..

The most popular coin hunting coil for trashy areas is the 6" Coiktek Digger. If the trash isn't too bad, there is a lot of love for the 10.5" DD MF coil. Much better ground coverage, with better seperation due to the DD design. Have you checked out Randy Horton's blog about coil choices?

Which X-TERRA coil is best for me | Treasure Talk
Which X-TERRA coil is best for me? | Treasure Talk
Which X-TERRA coil is best for me? - Part 3 | Treasure Talk
Which X-TERRA coil is best for me? - Part 4 | Treasure Talk

There are a lot of good blog posts on the X-Terra series on the Minelab page:
Treasure Talk - Minelab's Regular Metal Detecting Blog

 

[glabelle]

Am I missing something as far as the 705 goes, I see where a lot of people that buy them have them up for sale within a year or so....

You are not missing anything. I bought the 705 thinking that with a 3KHz coil, I could go as deep as an eTrac for silver dimes and wheaties, but a lot lighter. I was wrong.
I tested it in highly mineralized soil, as we have here on the west coast, and it failed to deliver. Either there is a hardware design error, or firmware error with it. As you reach near maximum depth on a silver dime, it reads +48, which is generally notched out for hot rocks. At the very limit of sensitivity (about 7.5" in my soil) a silver dime "wraps around" to -8 (iron!) on the detector. If you were to hunt with only -8 to -2 notched out to discriminate iron, a really deep silver dime would give you a negative hit! What good is that?

I've had an email into Minelabs engineers about this for a month now and no response. This behavior has been confirmed by at least 3 others in different parts of the country. I sold mine.

Another huge negative with this machine, is the lack of an 8-10" DD 3KHz coil. Concentric coils, simply cannot separate targets at depth.

George
Aloha, Oregon

 

[atomicscott]

You are not missing anything. I bought the 705 thinking that with a 3KHz coil, I could go as deep as an eTrac for silver dimes and wheaties, but a lot lighter. I was wrong.
I tested it in highly mineralized soil, as we have here on the west coast, and it failed to deliver. Either there is a hardware design error, or firmware error with it. As you reach near maximum depth on a silver dime, it reads +48, which is generally notched out for hot rocks. At the very limit of sensitivity (about 7.5" in my soil) a silver dime "wraps around" to -8 (iron!) on the detector. If you were to hunt with only -8 to -2 notched out to discriminate iron, a really deep silver dime would give you a negative hit! What good is that?

I've had an email into Minelabs engineers about this for a month now and no response. This behavior has been confirmed by at least 3 others in different parts of the country. I sold mine.

Another huge negative with this machine, is the lack of an 8-10" DD 3KHz coil. Concentric coils, simply cannot separate targets at depth.

George
Aloha, Oregon

Very interesting, George. Many detectors have problems with accurate ID at the end of detection range, some move the id/tone higher, some just blip, and others give one-way signals, etc... Not many detectors will accurately ID a 7.5" silver dime in bad ground. With the XT it is best to not notch ANY targets if you want the best depth/performance from the machine.

 

[dirtscratcher]

You are not missing anything. I bought the 705 thinking that with a 3KHz coil, I could go as deep as an eTrac for silver dimes and wheaties, but a lot lighter. I was wrong.
I tested it in highly mineralized soil, as we have here on the west coast, and it failed to deliver. Either there is a hardware design error, or firmware error with it. As you reach near maximum depth on a silver dime, it reads +48, which is generally notched out for hot rocks. At the very limit of sensitivity (about 7.5" in my soil) a silver dime "wraps around" to -8 (iron!) on the detector. If you were to hunt with only -8 to -2 notched out to discriminate iron, a really deep silver dime would give you a negative hit! What good is that?

I've had an email into Minelabs engineers about this for a month now and no response. This behavior has been confirmed by at least 3 others in different parts of the country. I sold mine.

Another huge negative with this machine, is the lack of an 8-10" DD 3KHz coil. Concentric coils, simply cannot separate targets at depth.

George
Aloha, Oregon

A buddy of mine bought the 705 around four years ago and we hunted together quite a bit, with the concentric coil it struggles in our soil. I would show him signal that my explorer would see easily as deep coins and again with the stock concentric he would call them iron trash. We would dig and find a coin and then he would get on his phone and call someone from minelab and they would tell him that the 705 will not show negative numbers on a coin, but it did over and over. So he gets back on the phone and talks to who ever and adjusts this or that and same results. To make and already long story short he started digging those types of signal and finding a lot more old coins. After reading alot I bought one and ordered the 10.5 mid freq dd and it does quite well IDing coins easilt 2 to 3 inches deeper than the concentric in our higher mineralized soil. Another surprise was when one of our friends found a silver eagle and the 705 disced it out in one of the coin modes I think opened up it read 48. Again I'm not bashing I'm saying this detector is so easy to overcome problems by just changing your approach.

 

[Longhair]

I'm saying this detector is so easy to overcome problems by just changing your approach.

Exactly!
Anyone that buys one should know up front that they are going to buy additional coils if they wish to exploit what the machine can do. The ability to change frequencies, manipulate GB even in Tracking, the various modes you can select, coupled in a threshold based machine that has great audio, make the 705 more versatile than many people ever realize. But just to take it out of the box with the stock coil and expect to go gathering pockets full of goodies is a pipe dream.

When I first got my 705 I wasn't impressed. Then I got a 7.5kHz DD and decided that I could like it.
After that, I picked up a 10.5" HF DD.....big mistake here. In my ground it had me suddenly digging every crown cap I swung over. I sold it.
In the mean time I read Randy's book, found a 9" 3kHz, and fell in love. The only time it came off was where I needed the better separation I had with the 7.5kz DD.
Since then I've picked up 15" Coiltek All Terrain coils in 3kHz and 18.75kHz(a killer at the beach), and a 3kHz 6" Digger. Now there's nothing I hunt for on land that I'm not geared for. And having put a couple thousand hours on the machine, I know it well enough to be successful (at least to some degree) anywhere I've been.
I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again.....If what you're doing isn't working, change something!

 

[jhen999]

I got the 6" dd 18.75 kz and it have used it in trashy parks and it works real well with the separation of targets...but like Longhair says...I can see myself buying more coils for the 705...like I have said before I have about 50 hours on the machine now and seeing some of these post, I have a long ways to go with it...dam its a pull tab killer..

 

[Chuxter]

I've had my 705 for about a year now. I knew I would have to figure it out, and basically tailor make it to suit my adventures. I now primarily use a 3 khz coil to seek the silver coins I crave. Stick with it, listen to experienced folks (especially Longhair) , and you will end up loving it, just as I do.

 

[atomicscott]

I've had my 705 for about a year now. I knew I would have to figure it out, and basically tailor make it to suit my adventures. I now primarily use a 3 khz coil to seek the silver coins I crave. Stick with it, listen to experienced folks (especially Longhair) , and you will end up loving it, just as I do.

Chuck, that is the great thing about the XT. I've had mine just over a year as well. It can be 'optimized' for the particular type of hunting you prefer. I usually hunt in very trashy areas with 10 targets per swing or so. I really like using the 18.75 khz 6" coil in these sites, but it loves tiny objects like shoe eyelets, little foil and pieces of zippers, etc.. I am grabbing a 10.5" 7.5 DD coil, so I can get some more depth in my bad SoCal ground and better coverage.

 

[chopperdog]

I think that the 705 is a great detector, but not really a 'turn on and go' detector. I do not think it is a good detector for someone new to the hobby. With all the settings available, (and very useful), it can be quite intimidating to a new user. Not that it is any harder to learn than other full featured detectors, but very complex and complicated when compared to an ACE series Garrett, an F2,F4, Tesoro Compadre, etc. --- A good understanding of detecting basics and some hands on knowledge is a must. ----- I purchased 3 - 705's over the years before I finally 'got it' . --- and like most other learned skills, you suddenly say 'what was so hard about that?' ---- IMHO

 

[chopperdog]

I got the 6" dd 18.75 kz and it have used it in trashy parks and it works real well with the separation of targets...but like Longhair says...I can see myself buying more coils for the 705...like I have said before I have about 50 hours on the machine now and seeing some of these post, I have a long ways to go with it...dam its a pull tab killer..

I very seldom dig a pull tab, most always the TID # will jump around quite a bit. If it jumps around such as 25/45, 30/40 or similar, 99.9% of the time it will be a tab. Pinpointing will be a little difficult and move around also. -----Screw caps seem to have a bit of a choppy / clunky sound. Probably not anything you didn't already know, but just in case........... HH / C-dog