X-Terra 70 Review and Tips

xlogit3k

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Location
Chaska, Minnesota
Minelab X-Terra 70

I would like to start out by saying that I had a very hard time deciding between this and an MXT because both seemed like excellent detectors but in the end I went with this. My dad might be buying a MXT to upgrade from his so we will have best of both worlds.

On Friday of last week I went to my local metal detecting store, Metal Detectors of Minneapolis and purchased the X-Terra 70 at a good closeout price. I had the dealer assemble it for me so I could get right out and hunt as soon as I got back.

Quality
One of the first things I noticed about the detector was the excellent build quality. I feel like you could throw this thing and it would be fine. There is nothing on the machine that I would change after using it for like 15 hours within a couple days I feel like I have a good grasp on the feel of this machine. The only thing's that some people may not like is the arm strap but this didn't matter to me because I never use one. I believe it weights 2.9 pounds and it is a detector that you can swing all day long.


Features
As an upgrade from the Bounty Hunter 505 I was amazed that I had so many new features and a little overwhelmed at first. The X-Terra 70 has a lot of useful features such as Auto Ground Balance, Automatic Tracking if you want it, Automatic Noise cancel, and a very nice keypad that is easily accessible. It also allows you to manually change all the settings in case your a person that likes to set the detector up themselves. The detector also has a sensitivity and threshold setting, and 2 different hunting modes, Coin and Jewelry and Prospecting. The coin and jewelry mode has 3 different patterns that you can manually edit to your own preferences. My X-Terra 70 came with the Concentric 9" 7.5khz coil which was what I wanted because it is completely WATERPROOF and it's a good all around coil. It has pretty good target separation, from only 15 hours of use I can almost tell what my target is going to be 90% of the time while digging minimal trash. The display is large and very easy to read because of the big numbers and I also like the fact that you can change the tones to 1 tone, 2 tones, 3 tones, or Multi-Tone. Of course the detector has an All Metal feature just like all other detectors out there. One last thing the detector has is an TID stabilizer that makes the numbers bounce around less if you are in trashy areas but I have found with this machine that if its a good target such as a quarter, the tone and ID number will stay the same. The ID number might jump from a 40-42 but usually nothing more. Also a 14k ring when laid flat will read a solid 10 or 12 and the audio tone will stay the same.


Performance
As far as performance goes, I couldn't be happier. It has excellent depth if you set it up right which is not hard, great target separation, great speed for example if the threshold nulls out you can pick up another good target in seconds. The ability to swing as fast or as slow as you want, I would recommend a medium to slow sweep speed to make sure you don't accidentally miss something. The stability of this detector really amazes me, you can set sensitivity almost to max and if you have set it up right, it won't be making any weird noises at all even in pretty bad conditions. When I am out hunting and I get a number from 30 and above I can almost always guarantee its a coin.


Set Up
The detector is a lot easier to set up than I thought. I am just going to say how I set up my detector because it seems to work very well. First thing you should do when you get to a new site is turn the sensitivity down to around 12 or lower if you want. After you have done that press menu and select noise cancel and then select the auto feature and wait for about 15 seconds. After your detector has finished noise canceling you should then go into detect mode and adjust your ground balance. While in detect mode press All Metal and then go back into the menu and press ground balance and select the auto feature on your keypad once again. Hold the coil 4 inches off the ground and move the detector up and down until its done but make sure you don't touch the ground. Once you have finished this you should be all set to go out and detect. Remember to adjust your sensitivity back up until the detector starts to make false beeps, as soon as it makes false beeps, back off the sensitivity until it becomes stable.




Here is kind of a quick start guide

1. Set Sensitivity to 12
2. Auto Noise cancel the machine
3. Auto Ground Balance the machine while in all metal mode
4. Turn up sensitivity until it becomes unstable then back off until its stable once again.



Tips

*Once you get a good target, slowly sweep the coil over the target and I mean very slowly! This will give you the best identification as to what the target is, and if its a good target it will most likely stay the same tone and ID number.

*Always run a slight threshold and use headphones to make the most of it because if you don't use it, you could miss some small targets. If your just coin shooting for modern clad that are not going to be very deep, you don't have to run the threshold if you don't want.

I will add to this more as I use the detector more, I just wrote this so I could lay my own ideas out that I have learned from other people and myself just so I can get a better understanding of the machine and maybe help out a few potential buyers that are wondering about this machine.
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Excellent Review .. Thanks.. I'm waiting for my x-terra 305 ... Anxious :clap:

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The only thing that "irked" me with my new 705 Gold was the fact that the little screw they furnish to lock down the control box to the handle was stripped. Not a major problem, since locking the control box is only an option and actually ended up working out better for long drives out to the gold fields. I can remove the box and place it in a padded bag if I'm going to be off road (99.9% of the time).

Dusty
 
The only thing that "irked" me with my new 705 Gold was the fact that the little screw they furnish to lock down the control box to the handle was stripped. Not a major problem, since locking the control box is only an option and actually ended up working out better for long drives out to the gold fields. I can remove the box and place it in a padded bag if I'm going to be off road (99.9% of the time).

Dusty

Now that you mention it, mine was also. The dealer didn't put that screw in correctly and when I tried to screw it in further it would not move. I took it out and re centered it and now it's fine.
 
I used the x70 for a lil over a year found 110 silver and 57 Indians with it in 2009 I always ran sensitivity at 22 to 25 if I was on a site where I could get sensitivity to at least 20 I did not like it a all, it loses extreme depth when sensitivity goes below 20 in my experience.
 
I used the x70 for a lil over a year found 110 silver and 57 Indians with it in 2009 I always ran sensitivity at 22 to 25 if I was on a site where I could get sensitivity to at least 20 I did not like it a all, it loses extreme depth when sensitivity goes below 20 in my experience.

Yes I noticed that as well. If you keep sensitivity below 20 or 18 it gets like 5-6 inches but once you get to like 24-25 it adds like 3 inches to that number.
 
Glad to hear you like it! The 705 really is a great detector, i really like mine too. One of the ways i always test targets before digging is to switch in to pinpoint mode, if the # on the screen drops in to the negative, it's iron...Sometimes iron can give off a decent VID, this way you'll know.
Good luck and congrats on your new machine! ps, the backlit is nice too....
 
Same coil I have, its great for basically everything you will be doing in parks and it's also waterproof so that's a definite plus.


This coil is original equipment, I bought a coil cover to avoid problems, the soil is rocky, here in Brazil everything is harder.

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Just a little follow up after using it more.

The stock coil is great, I will be using it to cover lots of ground to get the coins. I will also be using it during the summer when I need to go into the water at the beaches because it is waterproof. It hits great on targets and the TID is very accurate with this coil (9" 7.5khz Concentric) This coil will hit targets in the ground at 6-7 inches with sensitivity at 20, and even more as you increase sensitivity closer to 30.

The machine is so easy to use and use all day. I used it for about 5 hours today and I am NOT feeling it at all. I am loving the automatic ground balance and automatic noise cancel more and more everytime I go out, it sets the machine up to run super stable as long as you keep the sensitivity in the right spot. I also love the on board volume control, its a nice feature that I would love to see in all detectors. This detector has a choice of different tones and I usually run in the 4 tone mode.

The only thing I recommend getting is an extra coil such as the 5x10 DD High Frequency coil which I will be getting soon. From what I heard, it's much better on gold items than the stock coil and it keeps the detector light just like the stock coil.

I forgot to mention that the battery life is amazing with only 4 double A batteries.
 
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