Try this set up. Relic mode. Trigger forward. Disc set at #3. Gain as high as you can set it without too much noise, falsing, or overload signal appearing. Barely audible threshold. After ground balancing set TRAC to lock. A smaller coil than the 950 is a definite plus in trashy areas. A widescan DD coil helps in highly mineralized soils. That would be any soil that reads 80 or higher in prospect mode. In relic mode you're listening for the high tones(nonferrous targets) and ignoring the low tones(ferrous targets)
The MXT is a bit noisier than a lot of detectors. If the chatter bothers you turn down thresh hold just until you lose the threshold hum. It's almost a silent search mode. It's noisier because it's got some power under the hood and VERY sensitive to small, low conductive targets. Like small pieces of gold. But also small pieces of foil and aluminum.
Ignore the target icons. Pay attention to the audio, the probability bars, and the VDI numbers. Dig all good sounding, repeatable signals with a positive VDI number. The higher the number and the larger the bar the better the chance of it being a good target. Gold jewelry, nickels, and the dreaded pulltab will fall into the same area of VDI numbers. Usually nickels will be in the 18-22 range depending on soil and nearby trash. Gold jewelry and pull tabs can be anywhere from ABOUT 12-30 VDI. Again depending on soil and trash targets.
The deeper the target and/or the higher the mineral content of the soil, the less accurate the VDI.
Practice pinpointing in your own yard. The VDI is most accurate when the center of the coil is passed directly over the target. So pinpoint and resweep for the most accurate information. Experiment with different modes and setups. Dig the iffy signal if it's deep.
Hope this helps. Have fun.
