Need help

[tonysullivan]

Anyone have a suggestion on what detector to buy , I currently have a minelab xterra 705 and I swear it doesn't know trash from coins whatsoever , and I also owned a Garret Atx Pro and wasn't really impressed with it ,other than being waterproof , it seemed to only get about 6 inches in depth. It's hard to make a choice because you see a ton of good reviews on a machine and then you see a ton of complaints , I'm looking to spend up to 1200 and need some good advice on which one to get. I know etrac is highly rated but after investing almost 1000 in this crappy 705 I'm a little weary of minelab products .

 

[detectingMO]

I'd still say Etrac or CTX. You won't get a better coin hunting/discriminating detector than those two.

 

[rreahard]

XP Deus?

 

[tnsharpshooter]

I haven't used every detector made known to man,,,but etrac or Minelab CTX both will aid a detectorists in separating the junk from the good targets.

Etrac IMO for the $$$ the best here.

Some things an etrac will let you do\not do.

You won't dig steel crown craps,,,,they I'd as iron,,you won't hear with typical settings.

You won't dig pull tabs,,,now if you are trying to find gold,,yes,,but not copper and or silver coins /jewelry.

Disc pattern is easy to understand after just playing with detector a little while and some junk targets.

With stock coil attached and using some settings for better depth,,,user can expect to locate dimes in the 8.5-9.5" depth ranges

Detector does give good ID also on nickels,,but sometimes balls of tin foil can read the same similar.

Etrac is a professional coin detector,,,for the loot,,,,this model unit has a strong following,,,a good history for few malfunctions.

I at one time had 2 etracs,,,running stock sized coil on one and smaller coil on another.

Btw,,aftermarket coils are plentiful,,and not to espensive.

Never have to worry about ground balance.

Unit performs superbly compared to most others in areas typically riddled with EMI.

When using an etrac vs many other Vlf detectors,,,,what is generally the rule,,,overall percentage of holes dug vs good targets in them---- far higher.

All this I talk about here,,,is no sales gimmick,,,but rather my experiences while using.

Whatever you decide,,best of luck.

 

[Oldsjunkie]

Don't know man. Seems to me if you expect the detector to be able to separate trash from coin instead of you doing it with the information it gives you, it doesn't matter what machine you have. If you couldn't do any good with the AT Pro and you can't do any good with the 705, despite people all over the world finding tons of spectacular pieces with both daily, I can see you on here in a couple months saying the Etrac, F75 or MXT is a colossal POS...

 

[MrNovice]

There are settings, you can adjust and on better machines programs, that can help sort the trash from the good, but anytime you use any discrimination you are going to be missing stuff, whether that be the bad stuff you wanted to discriminate or possible something good that falls right in that range. If the machine is detecting metal, it's doing what it is supposed to do. It's up to you to filter the info it gives you and decide if it's worth digging or not. Better machines can provide some better info, even graphs of the conductivity of all the metals it's targeting (like a dime being masked by iron, it can show traces of both) but really you can practically do the same by learning the machine and recognizing what it's telling you from previous targets and what they were. This isn't always exact, but neither is depending on the detector for a sure thing.

More information is always good, but I learn so much more hearing everything and discriminating myself instead of depending on the detector to do it for me.

 

[coin pirate]

I haven't used every detector made known to man,,,but etrac or Minelab CTX both will aid a detectorists in separating the junk from the good targets.

Etrac IMO for the $$$ the best here.

Some things an etrac will let you do\not do.

You won't dig steel crown craps,,,,they I'd as iron,,you won't hear with typical settings.

You won't dig pull tabs,,,now if you are trying to find gold,,yes,,but not copper and or silver coins /jewelry.

Disc pattern is easy to understand after just playing with detector a little while and some junk targets.

With stock coil attached and using some settings for better depth,,,user can expect to locate dimes in the 8.5-9.5" depth ranges

Detector does give good ID also on nickels,,but sometimes balls of tin foil can read the same similar.

Etrac is a professional coin detector,,,for the loot,,,,this model unit has a strong following,,,a good history for few malfunctions.

I at one time had 2 etracs,,,running stock sized coil on one and smaller coil on another.

Btw,,aftermarket coils are plentiful,,and not to espensive.

Never have to worry about ground balance.

Unit performs superbly compared to most others in areas typically riddled with EMI.

When using an etrac vs many other Vlf detectors,,,,what is generally the rule,,,overall percentage of holes dug vs good targets in them---- far higher.

All this I talk about here,,,is no sales gimmick,,,but rather my experiences while using.

Whatever you decide,,best of luck.

Thanks for that review, I plan on keeping my F5 unit, but when I can afford one of the big boys, I'll consider this one now more seriously myself along with the Deus

 

[Longhair]

Don't know man. Seems to me if you expect the detector to be able to separate trash from coin instead of you doing it with the information it gives you, it doesn't matter what machine you have. If you couldn't do any good with the AT Pro and you can't do any good with the 705, despite people all over the world finding tons of spectacular pieces with both daily, I can see you on here in a couple months saying the Etrac, F75 or MXT is a colossal POS...

^^This^^
The 705 is the most user configurable single frequency detector out there. Even the CTX utilizes technology and features developed for the Xterra.

A magical machine that can distinguish between trash and treasure doesn't exist. It's really up to you. They can provide a myriad of information, both visual and audio, but in the end it's your decision to make based on your interpretation of the information whether to dig or not.

 

[tnsharpshooter]

Thanks for that review, I plan on keeping my F5 unit, but when I can afford one of the big boys, I'll consider this one now more seriously myself along with the Deus

You are welcome.

I have a bud who uses F5 detector.

 

[tonysullivan]

I understand that no machine will tell you exactly what's under the coil but lately I have been getting a ton of good signals , sometimes a solid 42 which should be a quarter , and when I dig , it's not a quarter six inches deep it's iron about 12 inches deep . It falses on iron constantly even when I discriminate iron out I am still getting high thirty to 40 signals and digging iron trash. I have had the machine for over a year and I have tried every tweak and every coil possible . Don't get me wrong it finds coins too but it is wearing me out digging iron that I am for sure is a coin.

 

[DIGGER27]

I understand that no machine will tell you exactly what's under the coil but lately I have been getting a ton of good signals , sometimes a solid 42 which should be a quarter , and when I dig , it's not a quarter six inches deep it's iron about 12 inches deep . It falses on iron constantly even when I discriminate iron out I am still getting high thirty to 40 signals and digging iron trash. I have had the machine for over a year and I have tried every tweak and every coil possible . Don't get me wrong it finds coins too but it is wearing me out digging iron that I am for sure is a coin.

I have an F70 and hunt areas with red clay mineralization galore, extra iron particles infused into most of the soil plus iron pieces that range from tiny nails and wire pieces up to larger objects like old iron pipes and othe bits left over from old houses knocked down around here long ago.
Every few inches with every move of the coil I get those high tone, high number false signals, I needed to learn to live with them and figure out the good from the false...so I did.
We talk about learning your detector and learning its language all the time, dealing with high number iron falsing is part of that no matter what brand you use.
I still dig some iron from time to time, some of the better more solid ones that mimic real coins, but most of the time I don't have to, I learned to recognize the differences and still manage to pull out choice targets here and there.
Just yesterday I dug a very well hidden and masked buff in just such an area infested with iron and dug very little iron doing it.

You complain about this tool, you complained about the AT Pro also...
http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=131255
How many others use these same detectors and have had totally different experiences with them than you?
Those ton of good signals you get are not all good, there are ways, indicators and behavioral clues to tell the differences on most of them using most detectors.
You do too much complaining and not enough learning in my opinion.
Detectors are not magic, the magic is the the relationship and understanding we eventually have when we put in the work to learn them and their languages.

 

[sllingshot47]

My lowly Ace 250 picks up this iron at about 8". My Compadre picks it up. My MX5 picks it up as a quarter. My Royal Sabre hits with a high tone. My BH Lone Star Pro registers a quarter! So I figured out that if the signal was too broad, or stayed after raising the coil, or pinpointed too broad it wasn't a quarter! Or a dime. Or a...well, whatever.

 

[MrNovice]

My lowly Ace 250 picks up this iron at about 8". My Compadre picks it up. My MX5 picks it up as a quarter. My Royal Sabre hits with a high tone. My BH Lone Star Pro registers a quarter! So I figured out that if the signal was too broad, or stayed after raising the coil, or pinpointed too broad it wasn't a quarter! Or a dime. Or a...well, whatever.

It's the same with all detectors. I dug 2 cat food cans out from the park yesterday at about 8 inches giving a perfect quarter reading at 2-3 inches. Dirt was so dry/hard I was looking for very shallow targets and only running sensitivity at 50%. I should have raised the coil about 3-4 inches and sweeped again. If so, I'm sure they would have hit again and said 5-6 inches which still would have put the target at 1-2 inches deep. After that and digging down 3 inches and not finding the target, I would have known it was a can buried deep.

You not only have to learn the machine, you have to know certain tricks to deal with certain situations. There are tips/tricks every detectorist has to keep in mind to deal with certain targets and not be fooled by them. OP still has some learning to do. Please don't take offense to that OP, I'm the guy that dug the 2 cat food cans last night, so I have more practice to do as well!

 

[MrNovice]

I understand that no machine will tell you exactly what's under the coil but lately I have been getting a ton of good signals , sometimes a solid 42 which should be a quarter , and when I dig , it's not a quarter six inches deep it's iron about 12 inches deep . It falses on iron constantly even when I discriminate iron out I am still getting high thirty to 40 signals and digging iron trash. I have had the machine for over a year and I have tried every tweak and every coil possible . Don't get me wrong it finds coins too but it is wearing me out digging iron that I am for sure is a coin.

Just because the detector is giving off a good signal, does not neccessarily mean it is a good target. You're figuring this out, but it takes a lot of practice to distinguish the two.

Here's an example of such with bottle caps: http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=15664

 

[xoned]

I understand the frustration of digging trash when your detector is telling you something different. I've dug my fair share. Granted it still happens but not as often.

My lowly Ace 250 picks up this iron at about 8". My Compadre picks it up. My MX5 picks it up as a quarter. My Royal Sabre hits with a high tone. My BH Lone Star Pro registers a quarter! So I figured out that if the signal was too broad, or stayed after raising the coil, or pinpointed too broad it wasn't a quarter! Or a dime. Or a...well, whatever.

I do this with my F2. Also, if pinpointing indicates 00 and I can't find it with a screwdriver, its usually a deep piece of something that I'd rather not dig for. Half the fun of this hobby is being one with the machine and making an educated guess to dig or not to dig.

I'm looking forward to an upgrade and a whole new level of learning and frustration.

 

[MrNovice]

You complain about this tool, you complained about the AT Pro also...
http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=131255

WOW, I just read this. So you going to buy every detector and just bash it because you don't know how to detect properly or even read when others are trying to help you?

Dude, just buy a CTX 3030, use it for a week, write a raving mad review about how much it sucks and what a chitty company Minelab is, sell it used at a huge loss, and be done with detecting already. No machine can compensate for user error or ignorance.

 

[MathieuTN]

One thing in life I've learned with an awful lot of mistakes is it takes time to become good at anything. I'm brand new to the art of detecting. I figured I am due for at least a good solid year of digging nails as I learn my machine. Give it some time and you will find the sweet spots.

Off to find some nails.....

 

[MrNovice]

One thing in life I've learned with an awful lot of mistakes is it takes time to become good at anything. I'm brand new to the art of detecting. I figured I am due for at least a good solid year of digging nails as I learn my machine. Give it some time and you will find the sweet spots.

Off to find some nails.....

You have a good attitude, MathieuTN, and good expectations on what it takes to be a successful hunter. But this guy seems to have been at it since 2012, blames everything except himself for failure, doesn't ask the right questions to help steer him toward any answers even though he's been through several different detectors already with the same results and given great advice from many other members here and just seems to want to moan and groan about the same exact problems he's had since 2012. What was the definition of "insanity" again? Yeah...

MathieuTN, take a note from this guys book about buried cans and large iron objects buried deep because he's definitely not using them. This is a newbie problem that everyone will come across within 2-3 weeks after beginning detecting. Remember the tips here to help you identify these deep buried objects, and 99% of the time...they are not worth retrieving. The only ones you would want to retrieve, would be if you were relic hunting in historical areas.

Hint: his problem is not any detector. The detector is actually working and doing exactly what it was made to do.