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X-Terra 70 & X-terra 705 As Nugget Detectors?


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Since we have a wide range of experienced people from all over the world here, I was curious about after the fact thoughts about a relatively old detector - the Minelab X-Terra 70 or newer X-Terra 705.

In my experience the coin discrimination modes on the X-Terra 705 rated as “very good” whereas the threshold based all metal prospecting mode is “top notch”. It was interesting to watch at Ganes Creek, Alaska the shift in the latter years. For a long time it was White’s MXT ruled supreme.

In the last few years though the X-Terra models came on strong. The main reasons cited were:

1. Light weight 2.9 lb design

2. Superb ferrous discrimination

3. The ability to compensate for interference from nearby detectors (an MXT Achilles Heel)

The main reason I bring this up is the recent price decrease to $499 (from $699) made me replace the Fisher Gold Bug Pro ($649) on my short list of Steve’s Picks as a recommended entry level “do it all” detector also suitable for finding gold nuggets. The X-Terra 705 is far more than just a nugget detector, with all the features of detectors that literally cost nearly twice as much. The X-Terra series is rather unique in that you can change the detector frequency by using different specially tuned coils (3 kHz, 7.5 kHz, and 18.75 kHz)

It is the nugget prospecting part I am most curious about, having never really employed the X-Terra as a prospecting detector myself outside of field testing. Does it work at all for gold in Australia or does the mineralization slay it? Any other commentary from people in Oz, the U.S. and elsewhere - likes, dislikes - all welcome. What is it best at and where does it fail? I will link to this as a feedback thread later, assuming you all have some responses. Thanks!

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The 705 was very popular in oz for its all round ability for those who wanted to do a bit of weekend detecting for nuggets and it has found some nice pieces here , ground  tracking was as good as you could  get for  vlf  and it was a great coin and beach detector so it dominated the part timer market here when a lot of people couldn't afford the runaway prices of the Minelab PI machines, its mid frequencies meant it wasn't overly sensitive on the small gold. But it's light weight , good battery life and choice of coils ( frequencies ) made it a winner here . I know of some nice size nuggets found with the 705  allthough most where near the surface and could have been found with any detector.The 705 was clearly a detector made to appeal to the masses and succeeded . I think the equinox is aimed at the same demographic with ( chirp ) technology so it will be interesting to see how that all pans out.  

  PM??

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I started with the 705 and did not like it at all.  I had a lot of difficulty on many types of ground in Arizona.  Much of the shallow ground I have gone over with the 705, I later found gold with the GPX 5000.  I definitely was not an expert on the 705 machine but I studied everything I could on it.  But take my opinion with a grain of salt. It was the first machine I ever used.   But it misses A LOT of shallow gold. 

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Yeah, a PI will normally make any VLF look bad in mineralized ground. The direct equivalent machines to an X-Terra 705 Gold (18.75 kHz) would be the 19 kHz Fisher Gold Bug 2, 18 khz Garrett AT Gold, 14 kHz Makro Racer, 19 kHz Nokta FORS Gold+, 17.5 kHz Tesoro Lobo, and 14 khz White's MXT.

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I've always used the MXT in prospecting new areas with lots of trash and potential for iron artifacts.  I've been trying the 705 in the same way but miss the vdi when in prospecting mode and when in the relic mode the 705 will give a beep at each side of a large target, like a horseshoe, while the mxt will overload or give a broad sound, which I like better.  In any case once I've found gold its off to the races with a GMT, gold bug 2, ML4500 or other dig it all gold detector.  So I don't know the answer to witch is better on gold, but both detectors are alot of fun.

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Hey Kiwi, do you have the 6" DD coil and the 15" DD both in HF? If you don't then you really should get them these two coils are my main go to coils for the 705. I find gold with the 5x10 but the 6" DD HF will hunt circles around the 5x10. If I need depth then I go straight to the 15" HF. The 15" is surprisingly stable with this detector. I will hunt an area with sensitivity around 20-24 then go thru the same ground with it set from 26-30. I will make a third pass with it set very very low until all chirping is gone and the threshold is very faint but steady. You may think that you will loose too much depth but don't worry as you will have retain more depth than you think. I have learned to trust this detector and what it is communicating to me. Also set your threshold to where it is a whisper but steady. As you increase the sensitivity the threshold will increase in volume. I truly believe they work hand in hand.  If you run it hot you will just have to get used to chatter and distinguish between a good target and ground noise except for loudest of targets.

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I'm using the MXT & 705 looking for gold, copper and silver specimens in old lode prospect dumps.  The 705 doesn't seem to allow me to tell rusted cans from iron tools and other heavy iron relics like the MXT does.  I don't think this is a concern to most people, but if you have any suggestions on what the 705 can do with iron I'd be interested.  I'm liking the $500 extera 705 more as I use it, but the MXT has set a high mark to surpass.

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So here are some of my finds with the 705. It is kinda hard to comment on the strengths of the 705 if no questions are asked but I will give it a try. I am experiencing problems with my computer so I will post these and switch to my phone for the info.

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  • The title was changed to X-terra 70 & X-terra 705 As Nugget Detectors?
  • The title was changed to X-Terra 70 & X-terra 705 As Nugget Detectors?

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