Coin Hunting Detectors - Good Or Great?

[vanursepaul]

Sounds like now would be a good time to clean the closet and post the unused stuff on the classified section. Looking at it the other day and well it is lacking items. You know the holidays are coming.

And of course you can always donate your unwanted stuff to me. Little known fact, I am a non-profit prospector.

 

I did that with my MXT and never did hear how it came out-???-- hope the professor didnt find a big nugget and have a heart attack or something!!!!

 

anyway .... i will plug my Minelab X-terra 705 that is going to be replaced by another toy soon--- keeping it real at 475.00.... will post it on the classifieds where it is supposed to go now...(grinning)

 

paul

[1515Art]

thanks, Steve

[Steve Herschbach]

Great article on hunting park strips... http://kcofortc64.dlinkddns.com/TheAnatomyOfAParkwayStrip.pdf

[strick]

Another thing to consider. El Nino is coming (so they say)......this is an outdoor sport.

 

The MXt and CTX ready for battle.

 

strick

 

 

[Monte]

These are the kinds of questions I get most often, by mail, phone, in person and when doing seminars.  Steve's provided very good basic answers because while many makes and models might work okay for "Coin Hunting," it really boils down to the individual, their types of sites selected, and patience level to put in adequate time to learn the detector and coils they have.

 

And, as a very avid detectorist, I do encourage anyone who takes this sport serious to own at least two, and possibly three (or more), different types of detectors to complement each other.  Also, to make sure they own and use the best search coil for the task at hand.

 

 

You know, I would like to know more about coin machines(park hunters). What makes the good ones good, and what makes the great ones great.

Urban 'park hunters' who concentrate on typically grassy, manicured sites, definitely need to do their best to master their target recovery techniques.  For maintained sites, this is equally as important as learning how to hunt the coins up in the first place.

 

I would guess than in my fifty-one years of detecting parks, schools, private yards and other grassy places, 90% or more of my targets have been recovered using a screwdriver with a rounded-off tip.  Most coins and other lost and discarded items are within the upper 4" so it can be done more quickly and with less time spent and a messy appearance from 'plugging' the target spot.

 

After that it is also important to find a detector and coil combination that works best for you and the types of sites searched.  Then it is a mater of whether a person wants to find most desirable targets at a location, or use a more selective approach to employ visual and audio TID features and limit their recoveries to only the most likely-to-be targets signals.

 

As Steve suggested, there are many makes and models that can get the job done when it comes to finding 'coins.'  As we use them and learn them, we can discover that some seem to be a better 'fit' for what we want and need, or maybe they provide a little better end result than others, and that let's us make our personal decision.

 

I know that for over five decades now, I have owned and used a lot of detectors that can find coins, and along the way I let some go when I have too many hanging around, or when I notice I seem to prefer one or two far more often than many others.  It  doesn't mean I get rid of detectors than can't find coins, although some are less spectacular than others, it means I just find more pleasure in the features and performance of something different.

 

I gave up "park hunting" many years ago, but when I used to work grassier areas a lot, some models I favored were the White's XLT and XL Pro, the newer MXT Pro and Teknetics Omega 8000 a bit towards the end of my 'park era,' and several favorite Tesoro models, such as the Bandido, Bandido II, Bandido microMAX and Silver Sabre microMAX.  I did use others, but these were the primary units during the '90s and into about 2011.

 

As for what made some models 'good' and some models 'great' for me, was how they felt, how they worked, the search coils available, and the results I had and enjoyed.  I like to enjoy the sport, find stuff, and have fun.

 

 

let me make my question more specific, I'm up in gold country often, highbanking , I am also slowly learning to md for nuggets. I have done some research, I know of an area that was a gathering spot for miners during the glory days. I have a gmt,(thanks to info from your site)(many thanks for that), what detector would you swing in that situation, searching for coins from that era, and maybe relics?

Being "up in gold country" and "often high-banking," and slowly "learning to metal detect for nuggets" has little to do with your Coin Hunting detector selection, unless you wanted a multi-purpose detector that can effectively be used to chase gold nuggets as well as search for coins.

 

The fact that you "have done the research" is good because you found "gathering spots for miners during the glory days," and it is very good to get involved in doing research.   Research should help you learn the era, when a location was active, learn what type and amount of activity there was, the population or transient population and business activity, and the general size and placement of any dwellings, businesses, churches and schools, etc.

 

I hunted my first ghost town on May 4th of 1969 and obviously remember the experience well as I learned a lot that day and even more since then.   If I'm stuck in an urban environment, I prefer to look for renovation work, old older neighborhood vacant lots, building tear-down sites, etc., because I am mainly after silver and other older coins.  I also work heavy use playgrounds where I have averaged twelve gold rings a year, plus other gold and silver jewelry, for the past quarter century.

 

But if I am not limited to 'city shooting' available locations, I have headed out to hunt any older-use site.  Ghost towns, logging and mining camps, pioneer and military encampments, homesteads, and all sorts of other places man has occupied for a while.  And one thing I learned in early May of '69 was iron, especially nails, can be one of the biggest challenges we can face.

 

So, if you plan to seek older-use locations, in search of silver coins, the rare gold coins, and all sorts of early mintage coinage, then I believe you need to select a detector(s) and smaller-size search coil(s) that will help provide you with the best overall performance when dealing with a lot of iron trash.  Oh there will be an ample supply of non-ferrous debris to hear and recover as well, but it is the nails and other ferrous junk that can cause you more grief and good-target masking.

 

Finally, if you are implying you want a detector to "do-it-all" and also work reasonably well should you also encounter a gold nugget at such a trashy site, or just extend your coin search off into some gold nugget potential areas, then you have to be a bit more selective in what detectors and coils you will consider.

 

The MXT Pro, in my opinion, is probably the best all-purpose detector in current White's offerings.  I have used it with success for old coin hunting as well as some nugget hunting, and almost all of that was with the 6½" Concentric search coil.  About on par with the MXT Pro for old-site/old-coin searches I used the Teknetics Omega 8000 w/5" DD coil.

 

There are other makes and models you can consider from Teknetics, Fisher, Garrett, White's, Tesoro and other makers foreign to the USA,   I have my own assortment of favorite detectors that I use for 'Coin Hunting' in urban settings, but when I am away from tot-lots and manicured lawns, I shift my think-mode to 'Relic Hunting' techniques.

 

In short, that means I use a detector and coil combination best suited for the location, and with settings that allow me to hear any-and-all non-ferrous targets, and never use a Discrimination level higher than just enough to reject a common iron nail.  With some models I set the Discrimination low enough to hear most iron present, but rely on the Tone ID feature to let me listen for any possible non-ferrous target close to iron junk that might be partially masked.

 

There are many makes and models out there to choose from and we should all try  them out, if possible, to learn them and know what works well for use and out needs.  My current 'working arsenal' might serve as an example, not as a suggestion to use what I use, but an example of what might work for you.

 

From oldest offering to newest it includes these: A Tesoro Bandido II, Bandido II microMAX and Silver Sabre microMAX that each has their own 6" Concentric coil mounted.  A Teknetics T2 'Classic' w/5" DD mounted and the stock 11" BiAxial (DD) coil along should I need a bigger coil for an open, sparse-target area.  Nokta FORS Coin & Relic w/4.7X5.2 DD 'OOR' (Out-Of-Round) mounted more the majority of my searches and a 7X11 DD for the occasional open area needs.  Makro Racer w/'OOR' coil mounted as the only coil I enjoy on this model for the sites I use it.

 

Best of success to you in hunting any of these older locations you are researching.  Be patient, be methodical, keep the Discrimination low and use a slow sweep in and amongst the trash.  You'll recover a lot of targets, some desired, some interesting, and some junk.  All the while, be alert to learning more about your detectors and search techniques.

 

Monte

[Steve Herschbach]

Great post, Monte, thanks!

 

You mentioned what I think was one of the great park hunting machines, the White's XLT. Really ahead of its time, and a real shame White's did not take the concept and head into smaller and lighter units. Instead they went for more complex. I can't really say my DFX was any better per se. And the V3i is just feature overload beyond what most people will ever comprehend. At 6.59 kHz the XLT was running an excellent frequency for coin detecting, and the Signagraph to this day provides what I think is one of the best, most intuitive displays of target information ever made. Just a real sweet, clean operating detector, very good for park coin detecting.

[Monte]

Steve,

 

I definitely agree on the XLT comments.  It is one of my all-time favorite White's detectors for Coin Hunting.  It actually had a few adjustment functions it didn't need and could have been 'simplified' and still been a top-end performer.  A proven operating frequency and very good product advancement for that era.

 

And you're also correct that the Signagraph was also very functional.  I prefer it to most of what White's offers on their upper-end models today.  Finding a clean, proper working XLT can make a very good companion model to anyone's detector arsenal, if they want a good urban Coin Hunting model.

 

Monte

[Quick]

I also agree with you Steve I own a DFX and a XLT.

I'm selling the DFX and I don't think I'm missing out by getting rid of it over the XLT.

For me the DFX just seams jittery compared to the XLT.

[Steve Herschbach]

The only thing the DFX really did for me is I have a Big Foot coil that is made for the DFX or MXT. There is a different version for the XLT. I now have the V3i and the Big Foot works with it but can't say it is any better, and kinda funky with the frequencies. Long story short things got more complicated but can't say they got better, except for those who want to run on salt water beaches. Then the DFX or V3i have an edge in theory at least.

 

I should never, ever discuss old machines I used to have and like. Nostalgia kicks in and I start wanting to track one down! Clean used XLTs can be had for only $200 - $300 bucks. If you shop hard under $200.

 

No doubt about one thing on the V3i though. Easily the most gorgeous color screen ever on a detector. Puts the Minelabs to shame.

[gambler]

wow, thanks monte, and steve, and everybody else. I have no problem having more than one machine. I just want to save time and shorten the learning curve vis a vis which machines are worth it and which aren't.

 

I've found alot of nails with the gmt, but I mostly know they're nails when I dig them. I don't mind digging, I just don't want to miss anything. I go prospecting often, so I can hit the same place many times.