Doing nicely with an X-Terra 505

"I had thinned out my collection of machines and summer arrived with a 'bang' and opened up all the beaches and summer festival sites!
The beaches are 'hit & miss', you'd expect a lot of coinage but there really isn't? You have to fight for it and get up early and hit them before the crowds arrive to replenish again!
The summer festivals are in full swing and I had to get going on those!

I selected an X-Terra 705 and began to hit the sites and soon after a friend wanted to borrow a machine to help look for a lost ring for somebody so I loaned him the 705.

So, I broke out a New X-Terra 505 that I hadn't used and boy am I glad that I did!

It's proving to be an absolutely fantastic performer chasing recently lost Euro coinage!
I'm not after depth here! Just rapid 'accurate Target ID's' with 'clean sounds' (I wasn't getting that with my E600)

The 'modus operandi' is to set the Sensitivity to around 12 - 14 (from 20) (the 705 goes from 0-30 and I don't require any extra sensitivity) scan with the 9" concentric and watch for the 'very accurate TID's'
No need to pin point cos most coins are entwined in the yellowed grass and are hard to see as they are yellow as well!
Garrett Carrott on Vibrate and bang, a precise spot and use the tip of my KellyCo supplied 'Gator digger' (the small one with the orange handle) to tip up the earth if it's last years coins that I have found!

I've found quite a few of them - one afternoon after around 2hrs netted  €25.65 and  €14.00 of that was 'last year's losses'

The beaches are the same: I've found a lot of last year's coins and some from 20 years back in a few spots!
Have found a few small bits of jewellery too but no rings thus far!

I'm not interested in anything else at this time - just modern coins and jewellery: the X-Terra 505 has just amazed me!
In fact, I asked an ex-colleague Australian co-worker: "Just how did we get it to be so good?" He replied: "Because the team and especially one certain individual listened to us and we got a wonderful detector!"

A few other older machines were tested: XP, Ace, Sov, Musk, but none worked as well as the 'older tech' in the X-Terra 505

So, older 'tech' is working for me!

There's just one thing I am looking into. I'd like a 12" coil to cover more total area quickly and am looking at NEL coils - anyone using one with their 'Terra?'

(am having a bit of trouble trying to Upload photos! any experts care to chime in?)



Edited 8 time(s). Last edit at 07/15/2018 02:31PM by Des D.

Way to go....indeed one does not need the newest to excel....heck 20-25 yr. old units are still the favorite of many.

Des I remember back when you were field testing the X-terra prior to it's release how shocked you were with the performance of the X-terra, but you were excited even back then, It's good to see you still got the fire.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/15/2018 05:09PM by auminesweeper.

You've got a good memory!

It's such an easy solid no-fuss dry sand searcher @ Sens 18 (not 20 to reduce falsing from damp sand underneath) and around Sens 14 on grass.

It's also got 1, 2, 3, and 4 Tone: in 4 Tone it's giving the High tone for the coins I'm chasing.
And perfect Low tone AND Low TID's on Foil and of course broken tones on small ferrous.
But, it's giving the [ Right ] ferrous tones on clad copper coins not that I want them but the TID's bounce whereas they're 'minus' on nails!
Even in 2 Tone, it's still giving the High tones on the Euro coins..unmistakable!!!

I'll be on the beach tomorrow morning at 7am again...I just wish I had a 12" concentric coil..."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/15/2018 05:46PM by Des D.

Cool, well maybe you can find a 15 Coiltek or a 14" Detech at a nice low price or maybe someone will lend you one for a couple of weeks.

I am of the same mind as you with that switch on and Go set up, I think people get lost when it comes to machines that have been over engineered and to be honest these switch on and Go machines produce the finds just as well as any of these modern marvels but with these switch on and Go machines there is less risk of selecting the wrong settings, The X-Terra and the Musketeer Advantage put the fun back in to detecting.

Get a mars tiger 10x13

I considered trying a multifrequency Xterra several times over the years, but just coildn't get over what seemed like a ridiculous requirement to have to purchase a coil for each frequency.

Neat idea, just seems like it could get uneconomical, I like the Equinox idea much better.

Des - you live in the land of valuable change. Here in the US, thanks to normal inflation and the odd state sales tax systems making pennies worth retaining (to some people) - a Kilo of current US coins is worth about $26.40 ($12/pound).

Anybody “coin shooting” in the US is either totally wasting their time (fiscally speaking) or looking for increasingly rare Pre 1964 silver coins.

We seem to be fascinated at getting things “to the penny”. when state sales taxes were introduced, some states issued tokens worth fractions of a cent so that you could pay the correct amount of - say 3% on the purchase of 25¢ worth of items.

Rick Kempf
Gold Canyon AZ- where there is no gold

lytle78 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Des - you live in the land of valuable change.

"Started at 7am and took a break @ 10.30am and had close to  € 16.00.

Hit 3 separate beaches: one beach has a sidewalk right next to the sand and it's reinforced with by now rusted beams piled down deep!
It's nigh impossible to detect right up to this edge as the detectors will sound off and null rapidly?
So, I put on a 6" Med Freq and gave it a go?
It actually made the iron more pronounced! So I reduced the Sensitivity to 10 and held the coil about 2" up off the sand surface: with this method I scored another few coins but the iron sounds were there all the time.
Strangely enough, with the 9" concentric, they were mere 'echo' sounds? Figure that one out?

The second beach had the tide right up to the wall except for one area about half the size of a tennis court.
Just a single 2 Euro coin and some foil.
Switched over the E Trac and re-paced my search and found just one more coin from the wet stuff and beer bottle tops! I hadn't 'heard' any with the X-Terra.

Beach 3 was good: a lot of coins and other bits n pieces and again, "I wasn't digging any beer bottle tops! I saw plenty and scanned over them and nada on most and a ferrous / positive bleat on others...Bud & Coors Light.
I have just 2 pixels discriminated out on the Terra's screen...(I should add that all bottle tops / foil junk was picked up)

It was a beautiful morning...heading out again in a while...just taking a break!"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/16/2018 11:49AM by Des D.

I'm actually trying to find an X-Terra 705 for the next stop on my "throwback" tour. There are a bunch of coils for those machines and I've never had the 705...just the X-Terra 70 and 50 with their respected stock coils. I'd like to try one with a couple of coils. Also looking for a cheap Whites DFX for the same reason. I liked the X-Terra 70 when I had it.

Is there a lot of diffrence between the 505 and 70 ?? The Xterra still has a following. Never had one. Prices are fairly low, might be a good back-up.

Thanks to Ozzie & ncwayne for photo instructions

Shown are some of the coins etc and some of the 'non desirables', bear in mind I picked up some of these items to clean the areas...



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/23/2018 12:10PM by Des D.

WTG Des!