I got an xterra 505 for christmas this year and ive had the ability to go out detecting three times since. I feel like Ive got a good feel for this detector and was wondering if anyone used the same machine and had any tips. The thing Im most concerned about is how accurate the target ID chart I found on here was. I havent found much outside the normal clad coins one might find, and was curious if anyone could either offer me a better list or clarify that this is indeed a good one.
Here is a big tip....these numbers on your machine are indicators, not gospel.
I have the same kind of list for my F2 and I know the numbers pretty well by now...but I don't believe them for the most part.
Nickels on that machine should be a solid 33, but I have dug plenty that are higher and lower.
Tabs usually come in at tab numbers, but not always.
On my Tesoros, there is a discrimination knob that points to what they think you are scanning.
Turn past this point and the signal goes away.
Do I think this is accurate?
Well yes, sometimes, but every time...noway!
On all these machines I have dug coins all over the place, tabs way above and below that tab mark, and all kinds of things that did not fall in line with any of these "numbers".
Those disc knobs and screens can't possibly take everything into account we have to deal with in this hobby.
Soil conditions, depth, moisture, how the target is laying, proximity to other metals like trash or even other coins all will affect your readings.
Heck, sometimes it seems like even sunspots, temperature and even the color of the socks you are wearing that day affects our machines, too.
Now I know we are talking about coins here but you also have to realize there is other metal that comes in all over the place, metal that we love to find, and those disc knobs and screens can't possibly tell you everything you absolutely need to know about a hidden target.
The only thing that can is X-Ray vision or digging that target up and looking at it.
In the last year I have been lucky enough to dig up 3 great things that lots of other hunters that have hunted for decades were not as fortunate to find.
One is a very large and rare token that there are known to be less than 5 in existence, and 2 large 10k gold class rings that total 31 grams between them.
All three of these targets were absolutely 10 ways from Sunday a solid for sure zinc signal, and they would have been the same on every detector in existence...but they weren't zinc pennies, a coin that many hunters avoid digging..
I am a huge advocate for digging it all...or most stuff anyway, even the trash, no matter what machine I am swinging.
Lots of very successful hunters here, coins and otherwise, but ask them about their trash pile.
Nobody believes these numbers 100%, you shouldn't either.
Just use common sense, learn your machine well as you seem to be doing, and take every signal with a grain of salt and you might end up digging more trash, but at the end of the day you will also dig more treasure.
I have seen your finds and you can find that silver, and I see you can find gold too, that's great, just don't fall into the trap of cherry picking everything because you think your upgraded detector is so super duper accurate...more than your first.
It is, but you still never ever know what you have 100% till you dig it.
HH
