Whites mxt 300

[okla. prospector]

I have a question about my whites mxt 300. I was at the lake using it on a beach in the off season. I had the gain set on 9, the dual control set on first arrow around 3 1/2, and in coin & jewelry mode. My switch in the forward position to help cancel out pull tabs (which didn't seems to help). As I was swinging the unit looking down I see a gold necklace and swing over it nothing! I pick it up and look it over to find it is 14k, so I try it again nothing! Is this normal? Do I need to turn it down even lower? I was using a eclipse 5.3 high trash head. I look back on all the places I have been with this unit and wonder now how much I have missed.

 

[okla. prospector]

 

[Tom_in_CA]

reply

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Well correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the "switch in the forward position" meant for when you want to "lock" it into "all metal" (aka pinpoint). If so, then no, of course you can't knock out pulltabs that way. I'm not too familiar with the MXT, but isn't there a progressive disc. knob where you can choose what level of disc. you want? And even if not, you can accomplish the same thing by looking at the display, and picking and choosing which items you want to ignore. But be aware, that by passing tabs, you'll miss some gold rings.

As for the chain your machine couldn't pick up: Welcome to the harsh cruel reality of metal detecting for tinsel thin chains ALL machines have fits on those smaller chains. The reason is, the machines tries to see each individual link as a separate component, rather than as a lump sum of metal. This will be especially true if you've got your machine set for coins and jewelry mode. However, if you put your mxt to be set up for prospecting (nuggets), then you might get a signal off such an item.

But you'd probably not want to try to hunt the average park or beach in "nugget" mode, lest you go crazy hearing every single staple, straight pin, birdshot, nail, etc.... Perhaps on some touristy beaches guys have been able to use nugget (or various beach pulse machines which have a fighting chance at such chains). But for any beach with nails and such, you'll probably give up, and go back to standard machines that pass up nuisance teensy stuff like that. Yes you'll miss those chains, but ....... oh well. Also earing studs and other teensy stuff. But such is the cost of being able to pass pinheads and other such common litter of beaches and parks.

 

[ArizFlash]

Okla -

On the standard MXT (not the MXT Pro) the the forward lock on the trigger notches in nickles and rejects pull-tabs. To pick up the gold necklace you would need to be in near zero disc or in the prospecting mode.

 

[okla. prospector]

Yes it is the pinpoint trigger, but on this unit they say you can push it forward to help cancel out just pull tabs. I do dig all targets in hope of finding that gold ring. It looked about how it was on the ground in my hand was thinking with a target that big it would pick it up.

 

[okla. prospector]

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Yes it is the pinpoint trigger, but on this unit they say you can push it forward to help cancel out just pull tabs. I do dig all targets in hope of finding that gold ring. It looked about how it was on the ground in my hand was thinking with a target that big it would pick it up.

Ok, for starters, I see now that your forward lock on that machine is not like all the other Whites machines I've had over the years, where "forward lock" was simply "locking" it in all-metal pinpoint. I see that yours has some sort of notch disc. function (knock out tabs, while accepting nickels). Ok, to comment on that: There's still a lot of tabs (bent and chopped ones, for instance) that come in at around nickel. And the beaver tail off the older style tabs will read nickel. But you should have been able to pass the square and full tabs, I would imagine.

But back to the question of the chain, when you say: ".... a target that big", you're going by the visual size, in your hand. Heck, if that's the case, then so-too is a big fat men's gold band "smaller" than how that appears in your hand too, right? But it doesn't work like that. The machine isn't "seeing" it the way you and I "see" it. As I say, it's seeing it as individual links, NOT as a whole. If you were to melt that necklace down, so that it's a contiguous blob, then yes, you'd have an easier time getting a signal. Perhaps it has the cumulative weight of a ring, for instance. But when made in a hundred links (of which each link is feather weight), then no, that not a "big" target. That's a whispy thin target.

 

[okla. prospector]

Thanks for clearing that up! That makes sense. I didn't think of it that way.

@ arizflash
Would that be for all gold? At or close to zero

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Would that be for all gold? At or close to zero

okla.prospector, I'm not understanding this question. What are you trying to ask here?

 

[okla. prospector]

My question was if I was running my unit at 3 1/2 in dual control shouldn't it pick up gold? But you answered my question as well with the necklace. I was second guessing the mxt 300 after the necklace and thinking that I had missed any of my gold rings.

 

[jcCALIF]

Hello Okla.,
Chances are if you discriminating out pull tabs, you are discriminating out gold rings. If I am hunting a park for gold rings then I am hunting in the nickel and pull tab range. Yes, I pull alot of pull tabs but that tells me no one has hunted that particular park. The other day I pulled a ladies 14k diamond ring which rang exactly in nickel/pull tab range (19vdi). I believe that your MXT runs at 14khz. That higher khz should have no problem pulling gold. Happy hunting from CA!

 

[okla. prospector]

I'm not really discriminating out pull tabs. The mxt has a extra function on the pinpoint that if put in the forward position will help discriminate just pull tabs. Yes it runs at 14 kHz. In the forward position for just pull tabs it's not going to miss the nickel and gold rings. The one thing I was wanting to see is if I'm running in the right range for my gold rings because it missed a 14k gold necklace. Like I said before after missing the necklace it had me start second guessing the unit or my settings. I have watched the video that came with it from the dealer and was hoping to talk to more people with the same mxt 300.

 

[NW Digger]

How exactly was the necklace laying, was it stretched out, in a clump, etc?
I have never used the mxt, but know that most detectors have a hard time seeing thin chains unless of course its in a clump so to say.
Most of the small chains I have found have been in tangled balls etc, I don't think I have ever found any that were stretched out in a line.

I know that was a bit a rambling, hope it made since!

HH!

 

[okla. prospector]

It was in a clump at one end and the other half was in a line

 

[Tom_in_CA]

reply

How exactly was the necklace laying, was it stretched out, in a clump, etc?
I have never used the mxt, but know that most detectors have a hard time seeing thin chains unless of course its in a clump so to say.
Most of the small chains I have found have been in tangled balls etc, I don't think I have ever found any that were stretched out in a line.

I know that was a bit a rambling, hope it made since!

HH!

well, ...... sure .... a machine has a *little* better chance if it's balled up, verses stretched out. But even when "balled up" in a wad, they're STILL the dickens to find. The machine still treats them as individual links, even when in a wad (because there's no way they can be scrunched tight enough together to act "as one", unless they were melted together (or perhaps squeezed REAL hard together when held as a wad?)

 

[RobRieman]

I'm not really discriminating out pull tabs. The mxt has a extra function on the pinpoint that if put in the forward position will help discriminate just pull tabs. Yes it runs at 14 kHz. In the forward position for just pull tabs it's not going to miss the nickel and gold rings. The one thing I was wanting to see is if I'm running in the right range for my gold rings because it missed a 14k gold necklace. Like I said before after missing the necklace it had me start second guessing the unit or my settings. I have watched the video that came with it from the dealer and was hoping to talk to more people with the same mxt 300.

I don't think you have that correctly stated. If the forward position is discriminating tabs it's also discriminating anything with a similar VDI. There is no magic pull tab only mode. If gold or any metal falls in the range that you are discriminating with the switch you will miss it.

 

[okla. prospector]

You maybe are right idk just going by what I seen on the video and what I have be told. This is why I wanted to talk to other people with the whites mxt 300

 

[RobRieman]

You maybe are right idk just going by what I seen on the video and what I have be told. This is why I wanted to talk to other people with the whites mxt 300

You doing the correct thing my friend that's how you learn it! There are a ton of great people on here that I have sucked as much information out of their posts as I can. You will be a pro in no time if you stick with it! Good luck and ask away!

 

[okla. prospector]

Well I have to say this is a coin finding machine but have yet to find a ring, or anything gold!?

 

[Tom_in_CA]

I don't think you have that correctly stated. If the forward position is discriminating tabs it's also discriminating anything with a similar VDI. There is no magic pull tab only mode. If gold or any metal falls in the range that you are discriminating with the switch you will miss it.

Well, there's a lot of gold rings that don't fall in the pulltab TID range. But that's a loaded statement. Because you'd have to define "pulltab". There's the classic kind that lasted for a few decades that are the classic ring with beaver tail. Most often when a machine or person is talking about "pulltab", they're talking about those. And assuming they are unbroken, unfolded, not-bent, etc.... they are pretty constant TID on the scale. And to be honest with you, not a lot of gold rings fall in that scale (unless you have one of those p*ss-p**r TID machines which lumps everything into only 5 or 6 broad range quadrants).

There was studies done back when the very first TID machines hit the market in the early '80s. And assuming (let's say) that the classic pulltab read "33 to 35" (unbroken and un-bent), then if you were to air-test 1000 different gold rings, only a small percentage of them ALSO read 33 to 35 (something like only 10% or something like that). There's a lot of gold rings that read lower (like in the foil or nickel range), or higher (like bigger men's bands).

But the subject gets muddied even more, because those classic ring/beaver-tail tabs have long since been replaced with square tabs. And as we all know, even though they're supposed to stay on the can, yet there's no shortage of them out in the ground, doh! Those read a bit above the classic tab, but it all depends on the brand of soda. Some of them (a certain type of beefier sturdier tab from a certain brand or type can) actually read up around 46-ish on the Whites scale (which is approaching corroded zinc or $5 gold piece).

So when this MXT has a pre-calibrated "tab reject" notch, it would all depend on "how tight" that was pre-programmed to knock out. If it was fairly broad (to even inc. everything above nickels up to square tabs), then yes, you'd miss a good percentage of gold rings. But if it was calibrated very narrow (to just pass the ring and tail classic tab) then you would be missing less.