Minelab Xterra 705 Users...

[cwp1979]

I'm headed to Arizona in three weeks and recently picked up an Xterra 705 gold pack. I am interested to hear whether those 705 users out there use default prospecting mode settings or custom sensitivity and threshold settings? My instinct is to crank the sensitivity up the whole way but I'm in PA and have no gold to test on. Thanks.

 

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[dieselram94]

Crank the sensitivity too high and it will chatter. I just got one and I have noticed this just trying it out. Good luck in Arizona, I'm jealous!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Lanny in AB]

There's some good comments about the 705 with the DD elliptical, and the six-inch round DD.

So far, I've only used my 705 seriously as a coin machine, and it does very well in that role. But before I get serious about chasing gold with it, I'd buy the little DD to go along with the elliptical DD that I already have.

As to sensitivity, when I've used it coin shooting, if you crank the sensitivity too much, it false signals like crazy--I'll agree with diesel on that one. If you do a little research, you'll find that people are finding nice gold with the 705 in some pretty highly mineralized ground, with the proper coil combinations.

All the best,

Lanny

 

[63bkpkr]

cwp, if you've no gold to work with at home then plop a nickel down on the ground as it should respond in a similar manner to gold. Of course that is what works as a gold substitute for a VLF machine. Best of luck in AZ............63bkpkr

 

[cwp1979]

I appreciate everybody's tips! I'm going to try a nickel and maybe even pick up a small nugget to test. I only have 4 days of nugget shooting a year so I don't want to waste any time getting my machine right.

 

[Downstream]

I went to the Weaver Mining district last year in AZ with an X-Terra 705. I primarily use the machine for coins and jewelry in UT. I had tested the machine on nuggets and flakes before I arrived there, but what I had never experienced before was the level of mineralization and array of hot rocks. I had used the Minelab videos (links below) to prep for dialing in the settings, but it still took 2-3 hours of swinging there in AZ to get everything working well.

Cranking the sensitivity will just give you unstable results. I ran mine between 15-20 most of the time. Noise cancel and ground balance in the prospecting mode. Keep your threshold set to where you hear just a slight warble of a signal. Any time you change location ie. wash to hillside, or whatever, rebalance your machine. you can use the auto tracking mode as well to counter the ever changing mineralization, but you have to remember to turn it off any time you find a target or the machine will basically cancel it out if you keep swinging over it. Once you hear the distinctive, sharp, wooo wooo of a good target (sorry no zip zip with Minelab) it will be burned into your brain. Another great sign that you are able to find small nuggets is when you start finding small bird shot.

Look for drywasher tailings and washes, walk slow and swing slow. Small targets down more than a couple of inches will be quiet and subtle.

Rest assured your xterra 705 with the double D coil can find gold, even in Arizona. Follow the drywashers and enjoy.



...different machine but many of the principles still apply.

 

[cwp1979]

That's great information. Many thanks for saving me the time of figuring it out. Do you remember if you had the iron mask set to the default of 5 or did you need to increase it?

 

[Downstream]

I kept the iron mask at 5.