Some Notes On The X-Terra Pro For Nugget Hunting

[phrunt]

Probably for this reason

I don't think I'd do better with my Gold Bug 2 than I would my Equinox, and if I do it's because the Gold Bug 2 has a better coil size and type with it's tiny little concentric more than the frequency being used.  I really don't think the GB2 is going to find much smaller gold from what I can see based on it's kHz. It probably has the ever so slightest advantage, but how much of that is coil based? That we don't know as Minelab don't make that size coil for their detectors, it's a brilliant little coil on the GB2 and really is the secret to that detectors success, it's not so great with the 10x5", put it with the 10x5" up against the Equinox with the Coiltek 10x5" and see which is best, I'd take the Nox any day.

The Deus 1 goes to 81 kHz on it's 9.5x5" coil and It isn't keeping up with my Nox on tiny gold, admittedly the Nox has the smaller coil.

I'm not saying I wouldn't want a higher frequency multi-IQ type machine, I'd love one but I think on paper for the engineers its probably not staking up as worthwhile.  We'll see when the Gold Monster 2000 comes out I guess.

[DudeDoubloon]

On 3/24/2023 at 11:11 AM, RONS DETECTORS MINELAB said:

The stock 9 X 12" with factory settings of 15Khz. Park 2 mode could hear the .03 Gram but on the coil only and the .05 Gram could be heard off the coil. With further adjustments I could get a better response on both though. 

Hi Ron!

New member here excited to be joining the community. Any updated thoughts or adjustments you'd make for the X-terra Elite. I'm in Yucca Valley, California for a few weeks and wanted to take a swing at some nugget hunting while here.

Current plan is the V8X coil. Field 2. Multi-Frequency. Recovery Speed 1 and take my time. FE -1. Five Tones. All Metal Mode. Would running threshold offer an advantage out there? Let me know if you'd change any of the above. 

[RONS DETECTORS MINELAB]

5 hours ago, DudeDoubloon said:

Current plan is the V8X coil. Field 2. Multi-Frequency. Recovery Speed 1 and take my time. FE -1. Five Tones. All Metal Mode. Would running threshold offer an advantage out there? Let me know if you'd change any of the above. 

All your setting mentioned above should be good for nugget hunting, Multi- should give a little better sensitivity and running a threshold is preferable for nugget hunting as you can hear the faint nuggets better through the threshold breaks. 
 

Hope you’re successful and look forward to hearing how it goes.

 

Ron

[Greenhorn]

On 3/23/2023 at 3:48 PM, RONS DETECTORS MINELAB said:

My first impression was that this is a completely different detector from the previous 705 model and much more similar to the Equinox 700 pod configuration but without Multi-IQ. I have used the older X-Terra 705 with the 18.75Khz. Gold Pack coil and was curious to see how the new  X-Terra Pro would perform on some smaller nuggets. I also liked that this detector had a manual ground balance and the Equinox 700/900 VDI numbers.

So, the Equinox 6" coil was used for this testing using the 15Khz. Park 2 mode on both the X-Terra Pro and the Equinox using nugget sizes of .03 and .05 Gram. The X-Terra Pro and the Equinox could easily hit on both nuggets. As suspected the X-Terra Pro did have a decrease in target sensitivity when compared to the Equinox when I tried it in the Park 2 multi-frequency mode. Ground handling capabilities on both detectors were as usual for a VLF, no new breakthrough in this regard.

I'll will have to admit I was surprised that this detector at it's price range could be used also for prospecting.

I would like to hear any feedback if anyone else has used the X-Terra Pro for nugget hunting with any success.

If this detector had a small coil and a selectable 18, 45, and 71Khz. frequency option I would call it a Goldmonster 2000.

Yes, it would also be a waterproof fully submersible GM2000. 

A relative beginner's impression: I ran it for a year with the 6 in equinox coil before trading it away. Mostly had younger friends use it. Found it to not be as sensitive as the gold monster 1k I used to have. It could not detect the really small pieces the gold monster would. Overall tho they had fun with it and we found the target ID useful although jumpy. Saved us a lot of digging. Fully waterproof was a big plus and had planned to use it in rivers in Oregon and the beach. I thought it was a pretty good detector for the money, even more so if one has a 6 in equinox coil laying around. Otherwise I think the 6 in coil acquisition can make it kinda pricey for what one can get now. 

[RONS DETECTORS MINELAB]

On 3/24/2023 at 4:21 PM, Chase Goldman said:

 

On 3/23/2023 at 3:48 PM, RONS DETECTORS MINELAB said:

If this detector had a small coil and a selectable 18, 45, and 71Khz. frequency option I would call it a Goldmonster 2000.

Yeah but then ML would have to charge $2000 for it.  

 

Chase, 

I think Minelab saw your quote from 2 1/2 years ago.

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