Minelab X-Terra 705. Do you need to sing slower?

[deepclaw]

Minelab X-Terra 705. Do you need to swing slower?

I was - until recently - set on buying the Minelab X-Terra 705 Gold Pack Metal Detectors - Minelab Metal Detectors - for metal detecting, gold prospecting, treasure hunting, pulse induction and countermine operations. . Now I am undecided.

question
A couple of comments in the forums have suggested that you have to swing the unit side-to-side more slowly with the Minelab models in comparison to other brands. Is that true?

needs
I am interested in excellent sandy/wet sand beach performance and finding small specks of gold in parks & nature too. Is the Minelab X-Terra 705 Gold Pack a good choice or should I be looking at other models and/or coils? Should I be looking at 2 separate detectors instead?

budget
My budget is around $1000 Australian dollars (around 800 USD). Can go up if the need calls for it.

2 units?
I have also wondered about buying 2 separate units. Everyone on these forums seems to have more than one! Would buying 2 separate units that specialise in certain tasks be better / cheaper for coils / offer more performance for a particular task (such as beach) or be more flexible or more enjoyable to use rather than going for a single model with multiple coils?

Happy to receive all suggestions.

 

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[cudamark]

An Excalibur is better (waterproof and goes deeper) for a salt water beach and a Gold Bug is better for "small specks of gold". The 705 is a fine compromise, but isn't the best for either task. Now if you're just using it on dry sand, it will work almost as well as an Excalibur, and if you're after bigger nuggets, it will go deeper than the Gold Bug. In your price range, with only one detector, it would be hard to do much better for both types of hunting, than the 705 IMO.

 

[deepclaw]

I thought it might be a bit of a 'jack of all trades' model and probably not he best in each area.
I noticed I made a mistake above. I didn't mean to say the Gold pack but the Dual Pack with 2 coils in it. http://www.minelab.com/aus/products/adventure-detectors/x-terra-705-dual-pack Not sure if I should be considering this rather than 2 separate models, but I guess it would be a little cheaper than buying 2 decent models that excel in each area.

Can anyone comment on whether you need to swing or pan the unit side-to-side the unit slower than other models from other brands.

 

[Longhair]

A jack of all trades it's not, nor is it intended to be. What it is, is the most configurable machine on the market, intended to be tailored to it's desired purpose.
Mark is correct, in that a multi-frequency machine would be more suitable for hunting wet salt sand, but on dry land/sand it's a different story. In Prospector mode, it is capable of finding surface/shallow gold pickers as small as .02g with a small 18.75kHz coil. And in the same afternoon it can hunt in C/T mode with a 3kHz coil and slay silver.

As for the sweep speed.....
Minelab's great success is due to their machines not necessarily being slow, but rather that they can go slow. They have the ability to detect, respond, and lock on to deep and partially hidden targets because you can work them slow enough so as to not miss them, where a machine that requires a faster sweep will skip over them.

 

[Mach1Pilot]

Longhair as usual is spot on. The X-Terra series is arguably the most adaptable detector on the market in that you can pick the coil for the conditions/target desired. Yes, coils can get pricey, but they sure are cheaper than buying another detector!

For the type of hunting you are describing, the X-Terra 705 sounds like a great choice.

 

[deepclaw]

Thanks all.

Is the Dual Pack worthwhile or is there a better choice of coils I should be going for?
Dual Pack

 

[Longhair]

I wouldn't bother with the dual pack, as the MF concentric that is included is one that you're least likely to use. Just get a Gold Pack and then get a lower frequency (either MF or LF) coil of your choosing.

 

[JrMack]

I use the 505 and would love to upgrade to the 705- good choice for the versatality and automatic ground balance. As for swinging they go pretty fast but once ya get the hit you can slow down to identify what you found. The 505 is a great machine but the 705 would be a nice upgrade.

 

[Pointman]

I like Longhair's response that the machine isn't necessarily slow, but it will go slow.

A good comparison is the Deus where it will work best with a fast sweep speed rather than a slow sweep speed. I have found this to be one of the things I have to adjust to between the CTX and Deus. I am used to a slow swing speed and working slowly enough to hear targets that other's miss. When I use the Deus I have to remind myself to work faster and more confidently (as they put it on the Deus videos) when I sweep.

 

[deepclaw]

I wouldn't bother with the dual pack, as the MF concentric that is included is one that you're least likely to use. Just get a Gold Pack and then get a lower frequency (either MF or LF) coil of your choosing.

I was going to go with this suggestion...then looking at separate coil prices scared me a bit. I think I am going to get the Dual Pack and see how I go with the manufacturer bundle, for now. I like that the bundled concentric coil is waterproof and is bundled for less than $100 extra. I will probably end up buying a third coil (3KHz probably?).

It's reassuring to know that you guys are satisfied with Minelab. The swing speed talk was bothering me a bit but it sounds like I have made a bigger deal of it than I needed to. It's easy to scare a newbie. The coils are still expensive, which is worrying...but as far as I can tell they seem to be similarly-priced in the Garrett line-up too.

 

[Longhair]

If you want to be scared of coil prices, look at the Deus.
Really, the price of new coils is more than for a Fisher, but when you consider that each frequency is almost like a different detector it's not that bad. And since there are no redundant authorized coils, each coil can significantly alter the character of your machine.

 

[Bart@Big Boys Hobbies]

A jack of all trades it's not, nor is it intended to be. What it is, is the most configurable machine on the market, intended to be tailored to it's desired purpose.
Mark is correct, in that a multi-frequency machine would be more suitable for hunting wet salt sand, but on dry land/sand it's a different story.

Agreed! Great machine but better options in highly mineralized salt water.