Input On Large Coil For Minelab X-Terra 70

[Goldinmyear]

I have had this detector since last Christmas, as a back up to my GPX5000, Which recently has been hijacked.so now its old faithful. Is the Coiltek 15" 17.75.KLH. Worth my time ? I'm just a prospector looking for that pot of gold.

Thanks for looking..HH.

[phoenix]

Huh???

[RickUK]

Must admit i am finding hard to understand what you are asking ?? are you saying your GPX was stolen ?? and you are having too use a X-Terrible 70 instead of and you want advice on the Coiltek coil ??

[Steve Herschbach]

I edited your post title to be a bit clearer. If I get it right, you are wondering about using an X-Terra 70 as a substitute for a GPX 5000, if employed with a 15" coil? There is no 17.75 kHz coil option for the X-Terra, only 3 kHz, 7.5 kHz, and 18.75 kHz. You are asking about the 18.75 kHz 15" coil option on the X-Terra 70?

The X-Terra 70 in my opinion is not a bad all around unit for coins, jewelry, relics, and maybe some nugget detecting. But even as a coin detector it is not a powerhouse. It does not even remotely compare to the GPX 5000 in my opinion; the X-Terra being a VLF and the GPX a high power PI.

Putting a very large coil on a VLF might help you on larger targets in mild ground. In bad ground a very large coil can work against you, and even hurt performance as the large coil on the VLF can "see" too much ground, requiring a reduction in the sensitivity level. Unless the ground is quite mild, I am personally not a fan of very large coils on a VLF when looking for gold nuggets. Nuggets are usually small, and VLFs can excel on smaller gold with smaller coils. If big coils are the goal, PI detectors really are better suited to the task. If it is your only option I guess you could give it a go but better to save the money and maybe sell the X-Terra to fund another PI, even a used one if money were the issue.

I would ask people on this forum to avoid making fun of, putting down, or otherwise denigrating other people's metal detectors. We lost one decent forum member awhile back for feeling like his ownership of a less powerful detector was not being respected. People have what they have - sometimes it is all they can have for various reasons. The goal here is to help them out as best we can. Plenty of gold got found with Garrett Ground Hogs back in the day and I dare say I could go find gold with an X-Terra 70 were it all I had.

Some commentary on the Coiltek 15" coil options here.

[klunker]

 Mr. H. Your telepathic mind reading abilities are astounding. But you put my thoughts in writing much better than I. The 705 is a hoot to play with but if I'm seriously hunting gold  I'm not playing. But if a 705 was all I had that is what I would use but only until I could get something better rather that try to improve the 705 with accessories.

[scoopjohnb]

There is nothing wrong with an X-terra. Trying to grasp all the different coils abilities and using them to your advantage is a work in progress. Mild neutral ground and it's honest down to earth disc or the great prospecting mode is pure fun. I've picked some very nice jewelry off the dry beach with the 10.5" inch DD 18,75 Khz coil.

The larger the coil, the larger to targets need to be to give a respons above the ground signal. So it's more a clean ground coverage thing or not caring about the smaller stuff.

The best detector is the one your swinging wright now! Not the super expensive one collecting dust in the corner of the garage.

 

[fredmason]

I gave my son my x70...I found some very small nuggets with it. That was out in the Dale District...the ground is not very friendly out there. I used the elliptical dd-if I remember correctly. I could not get into small coils and vlf...but if that was my only beeper that is what I would use!

fred