very frustrated with whites mxt

[bullshrink]

so i couldnt wait any longer and took new detector out today.i set the mode to coin and jewelry, set the disgrim to recommended set point and set the ground to recommended point also.now we dug about ten targets .on some of the targets the tone was loud and the vdi#s jumpy. i notched out iron and pull tabs and we still dug foil and nails?one target got a non jumpy signal and kept reading 25 cents and we dug and it was a iron loop?i got back to the car and we dug a hole tossed a dime in and covered it back up. i switched between coin and relic mode and vdis went into the 80s and in coin mode it said quarter.though the discrim notched out iron and foil thats all we dug?my son said dad you shouldve got the garret.lol .....

 

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[bullshrink]

Re: First time out today with new White mxt

i know its only a hand full of targets but what am i missing here?

 

[Swartzie]

Re: First time out today with new White mxt

one target got a non jumpy signal and kept reading 25 cents and we dug and it was a iron loop?

Iron loops or rings (harness rings) will signal high regardless of detector. It has something to do with the ring shape of it.
-Swartzie

 

[bullshrink]

Re: First time out today with new White mxt

went out again today. i am not happy. went to old field with wife this time. dug about 20 holes. notched out pull tab range. ran it in coin and and relic modes. out of about 20 hole 4 produced. i dig a huge hole and the signal disappears. i scan the hole and dirt pile if i get anything i get hot rock or big item.?i dug high tone with vdi numbers anywhere from 50 to 90 and dug old iron and shotgun shell, pulltabs.i dont get it .just looked at kellycos return policy and i will lose money with the return.i should have went with my gut on this one.i dont mind digging junk part of the fun.it just seems that why bother having screen and two tone if so far it doesnt matter. i then stopped at a local freshwater beach. dug about ten holes most produced nothing. at first it gets a solid signal telling me a coin or button . i pinpoint dig mabey three inches. i scan the dirt pile and hole .three times it turned out to be foil.and the rest the signals just disapeared after i dig a hole. a few times it tells me non ferrous and i dig then check and it switches to iron or hotrock.i am pissed and frustrated.

 

[bullshrink]

i wish i didnt dig holes that the detector tells me with high probability that's it not iron and turns out to be nothing?if i dug every consistent signal id spend my whole day digging. and why have a discrim knob only to dig crap ive notched out and it tells me something else. ive read the unofficial guide to the mxt . ive read the manual,and watched the cd.i might return at a lose if the at pro doesnt beep at everything ive notched out.mabey i am just being a idiot. wouldnt be the first time.lol any help would be great.

 

[TORRERO]

I have a DFX and it's basically the same, just more mojo...
But it seems to me that you just got this and it sounds like a lot of new people with high end
machines, what you may need is just a few months of walking with this to be able to tell the good
from the bad.
As the old saying goes....
A minute to learn, a lifetime to master...
It's a good machine, but you have to learn what it's telling you...
There are many, many guys out there that have a MXT and if they walked where you walked would
get the same signals, but they also know what they are listening to, and will know what sounds good
vise what does not.
I suggest you notch out everything from 65 and below, and just hunt like this for a week, and just dig
the strong clear signals that land from 65 and up, and anything that fluctuates and jumps around
just leave.
you have plenty of time and no rush to dig tons of stuff or strike it rich...
As you learn what your hearing, slowly decrease the numbers and you will have a better idea what your digging vise not.

 

[Frankn]

I will tell you a secret. No detector knows what is down there. It guesses based on the ratio of return signal to sent signal. When you set it to coin Don't discriminate or notch, you mess up the presets in the program you selected. Lighten up and have fun. No detector guesses right all the time. Frank

 

[bullshrink]

i got home and grabbed a bunch of coins from my collection. i waved everything from a Indian head to my wifes platinum ring in front of the machine. i wrote down all of the vdi #s. i am not frustrated with the junk. i love just being out there. but why do i get a high tone good signal and i dig and nothing. i dig and dig then i check my dirt pile and then the hole and nothing. i walked the edge of a old field and we dug only the strong non iron vdis, all with high tones. i would switch between the relic mode and coin just to see the difference.i would pinpoint and the average was 5 inches. we would look at the bars and listen to the tone.we would dig. i would wave handfuls of dirt in front of the coil.i would dig more then get up and wave the coil over the hole and the dirt pile.then no signal or it would indicate iron or hotrock? i just grabbed a gold ring and a buffalo nickel and adjusted the discrim to accept them and nothing below. i just dont know why i am getting soooo many hits and digging nothing or a chunk of iron, a pulltab, and a 22 casing? and a bunch of holes after ghost signals.and at some times the pinpoint is way off and i dig three inches out of the coils center to find my target? the ground is still frozen. i took a hand ax out and chopped the first three inches to dig.could frozen ground have anything to do with my weird readings?

 

[treasurehound]

I got the MXT PRO and love it but I had the DFX before that so I am pretty used to the signals. I have been hunting for over 30 years and every time I get a new machine it takes time to get to know that machine. Your post is missing some info. What type of coil do you have? How long have you been hunting? Have you ever metal detected before? How close are you swinging to your shoes? You will get a high tone if you get too close to your shoes (eyelets). I am guessing you are pretty new. I can tell you that you have one of the best machines that White's has ever made. I got my MXT in March of 2011 and I am still learning it. I may buy another machine but I will never let go of my MXT PRO. There is no way you can buy a machine you have never used before and expect to go out and understand all of the machine's potential. There is no reason to be upset that you should have gotten another brand. The results will be the same. You just have to take the time to know your machine no matter what brand it is. Trust me you have an excellent machine. Just give it time and learn from what it is telling you. Also you mentioned about waving handfuls of dirt over the coil. A pinpointer will save you a lot of time. And there are instruction videos online you can watch as well. We are all here to help you. Just keep at it.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

No insult, but your biggest problem is inexperience. You have to learn your detector and that takes more than a couple trips to the back yard or a few trips to the park, it takes time....

You dont say how much experience you have or if your just starting out. Remember it is a detector, it will pick up metal, that includes metal in your shoes as well as on and in the ground. You will also get electricial interference from overhead wires. Iron that completely rusts away will still give you a signal in the dirt where it rusted away, it will be too small to see but it will still give you a signal, you can lose that signal if you complete disturb the dirt it was in by breaking it up enough to spread the rust particles.

Frankn is correct, all the screens do is give you a guess of what is there based on the input given....

My suggestion is to give it more time and try to be patient, it takes time..... I have only been doing this 6.5 years, I am still a newbie compared to most here.....I still learn something everytime I go. I still sometimes lose targets in the ground, and even more times in the water when I am saltwater hunting...

Good luck and keep swinging, it will come easier..

 

[extractor]

Most machines give you their best guess on the targets . Some help that with assinging #s to the guess also. Combine that with the tone in the headphones, the detectorist needs to make the final desision to dig or not yo dig. Ive went through a bunch of headphones before I found the different ones that work for different type hunts. Try some different headphones. You need more swing time to inturpate the MXT's signals . It is a good Detector , I used one for years.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

bullshrink, glad you are doing a bunch of air tests, with a variety of coins and household objects. Play with swing speeds (speeds with which you wave your hand) too.

But as for the in-field actual outdoor hunting trials, you should try to hook up with someone proficient in your area. Is there a club? someone from an on-line forum to buddy up with? Even if it's just a place prolific in clad (just for experience sakes in the short run), because the MXT should be quite able to effortlessly pick up clad, and should reliably disc. out foil, for instance, if you so desired, etc...

When you buddy up with them, have them flag targets, both good and bad. Ie.: "I'd pass this one" or "I'd chase this one", and so forth. In this way, you can actually hear what they're listening for (albeit with your own machine's audio). Because there is simply no way in printed text, on a forum like this, to describes "sounds" in printed text. And no way for us to know exactly what you're doing, etc..

For example: when I first got an Explorer, I had the same type complaints as you are now saying. I hated it, and wished I'd got something else. But seeing that my buddies were finding stuff with theirs, deeper than my whites, I stuck to it, and painstakingly went out to places where my whites used to get silver and wheaties (certain there must be more deeper stuff there). But time after time it just made no sense, quacked all over like a flock of sick geese, and didn't give accurate readings IMHO, and so forth. So these friends would try over email to describe to me how to swing, what I was supposed to be listening for, and so forth. To no avail. I was about to pitch it. Then one day, one of these guys who was an expert explorer user, took me to a particular park in his town where he'd been getting silver. We took turns flagging targets, going over the pro's and con's. I watched how he swang, what he was trying to isolate, etc... Likewise anytime he passed a signal, I'd press him for "why?". In 20 minutes the LIGHTS WENT ON, and I've been hooked ever since. See? No amount of printed text could do what an actual in-field trial with a user who can flag signals, can do.

Preferably someone with a MXT. But if need be, just someone who is proficient with whatever they use. And don't try to be a hero going to a heavily hammered place for this: pick a spot that is just prolific in targets, even if they're clad. And also not too junky either. The progress to slightly older yards from the 1940s/50s, for instance. And so forth.

 

[Twisted One]

I have an MXT Pro, and I have only been out with it three times now. I can say I completely understand what you are talking about. I get the same stuff.

I have been told repeatedly, if you get a signal that you are not sure about, dig it. So I do.

My hunt yesterday I would get sporadic signals, I would scan over an area at it would say Foil/Ring, go back over it and it would say Screwcap.
I would dig just to see, and come up with nothing, wave all the dirt over the coil and nothing, use my pinpointer in the hole, and get nothing.

If I put the detector back over it, the signal will reappear about an inch out side of the hole, so I move over an dig there. After chasing the signal a few times I came up with a lead ball, like a small caliber black powder rifle.

It did the same thing over a few old iron square nails.

Watching one of the older more experienced detectorist in my area, he gets the same things on his DFX and knows when to pass over the majority of them. So I think with experience we will eventually be able to tell more then the machine is telling us.

 

[XL-PRO PRO]

A lot of what you are considering to be junk signals I often consider must digs.For instance,most small gold rings will often fall into the foil/pulltab range.Notch nothing and use the vdi to tell you whats in the ground.Learn to size your targets in the pinpoint mode and raise your coil to determine if that strong coin signal is a coin or a flattened aluminum can(if it rings strong with your coil 10" off the ground it's not going to be a small coin).Remember that most keepers will give the same signal from all angles.

 

[Twisted One]

Great tip. Never even thought about raising the coil to see if the signal changes. Most of the signals I get are Hot Rock, Foil/Ring, and screwcap.

Being new, I typically dig everything.

 

[WheatbackDigger]

Metal detecting has a learning curve. No detector in the world will tell you what is in the ground, though White's commercials seem to portray that they can. Whites make fine detectors, just need to learn how to use them. My advise, dig every signal for awhile, learn what the machine is telling you. Learn to discriminate with your ears, not what the screen is telling you

 

[GreenMeanie]

Some of my best finds was with a non metered machine.
I learned the tones and got pretty good at guessing what was in the ground.
I could tell when I hit Silver with it and would tell my friends or wife and out would pop silver.
Funny thing is it was a Tesero Golden Sabre.
Sounds like you fell for the hype and commercials like most new detectorist do. Hell I even keep buying the new ones and end up selling them later.

 

[Nevada Coyote]

I am not lucky enough to own a MXT, or a newer detector. I do have a Whites Gold master V/sat, a Fisher Gold Bug, and a cheapy gold digger (this one is fun). It is not an easy detector to learn on, but through persistence, and patience I have learned to use it marginally well. I'm still learning, and this is after two years or so. I have managed to clean out most of the nails and crap out of my front yard and drive way. Made some interesting finds too.
Patience is the key to learning a machine. Hang in there and dig everything and quit relying on what the computer says is there. Use head phones and learn the sounds.
Nevada Coyote

 

[bullshrink]

twisted one you described exactly whats happening to me. i swear the target moves after i dig!i am very inexperienced and i know that. i felt that through reading and watching videos i would have had a better understanding of the machine than i did in the field.i will just put more into it. i am really excited about getting out and i love the history that i will be digging. i just hope i made the right choice.i guess i just got frustrated with my inability to understand what i am doing wrong.i will put a bunch more time into it before i really lose it !lol ....the other issue is its January and here in Massachusetts i shouldn't be digging anything, but we have had a freaky warm winter. thank god! so testing it out is limited. i will just give it more time to learn this detectors new language and decipher whats its telling me.i didn't expect all the confusion with so called good solid high vdi signals to still be deciphered as possible trash.

 

[XL-PRO PRO]

My biggest rookie mistake was thinking more signal balance would help me find deeper targets.I usually run mine just a tad below preset and I don't think I miss many targets,my detector runs so much smoother and my good targets are dead on.Too much reflected signal will make your machine unstable and actually cost you depth.