AtomicScott
Full Member
Hi Everybody!
Before I purchased my 505, I wasn't able to find many reviews on it. I thought I would share my own experience after 12 hours or so of use.
I've taken the X Terra 505 on 4 hunts so far as well as doing some testing in my small backyard.
These are some of my impressions so far:
I used the 6" 7.5 khz concentric coil for the majority of the time.
Today I was at a park built in 1921. It has been hit HARD by numerous detectorists with high end machines, so I wasn't expecting to find any real old coins.
Settings: I was able to run it wide open, max sensitivity alot of the time. The lowest sensitivity used was 17.
I used 4 tones for some of the time, but much of the time and on todays hunt, I used 19 (99) tones and notched out -9 and 48 (thanks longhair and digger) for the duration of the hunt. GB was at 17.
Depth: At a school that I have hit hard with other detectors and had thought it was cleaned out (other than zincolns), I found 1 clad dime at 7", and 1 clad quarter at just under 7" (in additon to several other clad coins that I had missed). The deepest targets were both solid tones and ID#s locked at 42 on quarter and bounced 36-39 on dime. I also found a small .925 sterling necklace pendant at 2" or so. It was a solid 39, bouncing up to 42 a bit.
Sensitivity: I planned to do occassional prospecting with the X Terra, and plan to purchase a 6" 18.75 khz dd coil for that purpose.
Just for the heck of it, I air tested the 505 with a small piece of lead shot that weighs 1 grain. With the sensitivity at 17, threshold 5, I was able to get a good signal at about 1.5". I had to remember, this was with the 6" 7.5 khz coil! I have attached a pic of the lead shot next to a dime for scale. I actually got a little better signal on the lead shot when I backed off the sens from 19 to 17.
Today in my backyard I found a smashed lead pellet from a pellet gun at 2" deep and it came in at a solid 6 ID# every time. One interesting note: I also tested on a rusty bb about 2 times the size of the 1 grain lead shot. No signal, just a droput in threshold at 4+". It really does not seem to like the small iron! EDIT: THIS WAS WITH THE -9 AND 48 NOTCHED OUT. This should really help in the gold bearing areas! I can only imagine how well it will work with the high frequency dd coil.
Separation: this is where the 19 tones (other than my notching out -9 & 48) really starts to make sense. You get the nice song of the multi tones, and realize just how much metal is under the coil, but whenever there is a higher pitch mixed in with the negative iron tones, you can slow down and actually pick those higher tones/numbers out of the surrounding iron. I was only able to do this succesfully with copper pennies so far. Today at the park, I have a -6, 30, 33, -6 pattern that repeats consistently. So I dig the target and find a copper penny about 3" down. I rescanned the area after recovering the penny and I get -6, -6, -6. Very impressive IMO. I recovered the coin, but left the iron behind!
Target ID accuracy: Any target that jumped more than 3 digits, turned out to be trash. One exception was a badly corroded zinc penny that bounced up to 33, from 27-30 a couple times. I did have some problems with 27, 30 ID#s that ended up being bottle caps, rather than zinc pennies. This was not too bad as I always end up passing alot of zincs up (maybe not a good idea but...).
One thing that was nice is when there was a coin spill, the ID would lock on standard number like, 42 and there would be 2 quarters and 1 penny. Or I would get a 36, and it would be a dime and 2 pennies, etc. On some of my other detectors, the ID#s would combine and come up with a strange combination like #27, for a #68 dime and #32 nickel in the same hole. This saved some guesswork when confronted with a pocket spill of multiple coins. I am VERY impressed with this detector, and have only begun to scratch the surface (pun intended, lol.) I have only used a few detectors in my short time detecting (3 years), but this one has been the best (for my applications) so far. Thanks again to all who recommended it.
Before I purchased my 505, I wasn't able to find many reviews on it. I thought I would share my own experience after 12 hours or so of use.
I've taken the X Terra 505 on 4 hunts so far as well as doing some testing in my small backyard.
These are some of my impressions so far:
I used the 6" 7.5 khz concentric coil for the majority of the time.
Today I was at a park built in 1921. It has been hit HARD by numerous detectorists with high end machines, so I wasn't expecting to find any real old coins.
Settings: I was able to run it wide open, max sensitivity alot of the time. The lowest sensitivity used was 17.
I used 4 tones for some of the time, but much of the time and on todays hunt, I used 19 (99) tones and notched out -9 and 48 (thanks longhair and digger) for the duration of the hunt. GB was at 17.
Depth: At a school that I have hit hard with other detectors and had thought it was cleaned out (other than zincolns), I found 1 clad dime at 7", and 1 clad quarter at just under 7" (in additon to several other clad coins that I had missed). The deepest targets were both solid tones and ID#s locked at 42 on quarter and bounced 36-39 on dime. I also found a small .925 sterling necklace pendant at 2" or so. It was a solid 39, bouncing up to 42 a bit.
Sensitivity: I planned to do occassional prospecting with the X Terra, and plan to purchase a 6" 18.75 khz dd coil for that purpose.
Just for the heck of it, I air tested the 505 with a small piece of lead shot that weighs 1 grain. With the sensitivity at 17, threshold 5, I was able to get a good signal at about 1.5". I had to remember, this was with the 6" 7.5 khz coil! I have attached a pic of the lead shot next to a dime for scale. I actually got a little better signal on the lead shot when I backed off the sens from 19 to 17.
Today in my backyard I found a smashed lead pellet from a pellet gun at 2" deep and it came in at a solid 6 ID# every time. One interesting note: I also tested on a rusty bb about 2 times the size of the 1 grain lead shot. No signal, just a droput in threshold at 4+". It really does not seem to like the small iron! EDIT: THIS WAS WITH THE -9 AND 48 NOTCHED OUT. This should really help in the gold bearing areas! I can only imagine how well it will work with the high frequency dd coil.
Separation: this is where the 19 tones (other than my notching out -9 & 48) really starts to make sense. You get the nice song of the multi tones, and realize just how much metal is under the coil, but whenever there is a higher pitch mixed in with the negative iron tones, you can slow down and actually pick those higher tones/numbers out of the surrounding iron. I was only able to do this succesfully with copper pennies so far. Today at the park, I have a -6, 30, 33, -6 pattern that repeats consistently. So I dig the target and find a copper penny about 3" down. I rescanned the area after recovering the penny and I get -6, -6, -6. Very impressive IMO. I recovered the coin, but left the iron behind!
Target ID accuracy: Any target that jumped more than 3 digits, turned out to be trash. One exception was a badly corroded zinc penny that bounced up to 33, from 27-30 a couple times. I did have some problems with 27, 30 ID#s that ended up being bottle caps, rather than zinc pennies. This was not too bad as I always end up passing alot of zincs up (maybe not a good idea but...).
One thing that was nice is when there was a coin spill, the ID would lock on standard number like, 42 and there would be 2 quarters and 1 penny. Or I would get a 36, and it would be a dime and 2 pennies, etc. On some of my other detectors, the ID#s would combine and come up with a strange combination like #27, for a #68 dime and #32 nickel in the same hole. This saved some guesswork when confronted with a pocket spill of multiple coins. I am VERY impressed with this detector, and have only begun to scratch the surface (pun intended, lol.) I have only used a few detectors in my short time detecting (3 years), but this one has been the best (for my applications) so far. Thanks again to all who recommended it.
