Monte, among many other XLT hunters, swear by the Royal 800 coil for general hunting, it's a thin profile 8" coil. That could be the reason your machine was a bit chatty when using his program, if you have the 950 coil. As with any of the programs you encounter, tinker with the sens. and/or gain until it's stable enough for you to hunt. I should back up and say make sure you have a good understanding of the options/controls before messing with them. You can easily decrease your depth and finds by making adjustments... The 5.3" coil is great for trashy areas and was one of my favorites. The 4x6 dd shooter coil hasn't faired well with the XLT for some reason, but that's just hearsay. I haven't personally used one on the XLT. I've only had one on my MXT, and it worked well, but that is a whole different machine, ie freq. controls, etc....