Where To Start?

[MkeBlack]

I've had my X Terra Pro for a week no and I suspect that I'm hooked. Turned it on and went with the factory default settings. Good fun. Found lots of trash 🙂

Where's a good place to start exploring the features. Lots to learn and I'm finding, initially, that its a bit overwhelming. What feature would you suggest that I first start experimenting with? 

Mike

[TexHunter]

Start with Park 1, and leave the settings alone until you understand the detector better, and what it's telling you. Lower the sensitivity to around 18 to settle the machine down a little, and listen for solid targets that don't sound "scratchy", or "clipped". Dig a lot of targets. You will dig trash, but you will also learn what the trash sounds like. Keep your coil close to the ground, and don't lift it at the end of the sweep. Keep it "flat". Overlap your sweeps by about half the length of the coil. When you get a target you want to investigate further, circle around it and listen to the tone. If it stays pretty much the same, dig it out. If it "breaks up", or only sounds off from a couple of angles, it's most likely junk, or a masked target. Don't worry about masked targets when starting out. You need to learn the good sounding targets. Once you get more experience, then start investigating more of the "iffy" signals. Keep your coil moving at a constant speed, but not too fast. Around 2 - 3 seconds for a complete sweep left to right, or right to left, should be about right. Did I mention to not "lift" the coil at the ends of the sweep?

Hope this helps. You've chosen a great detector that will find you many great things, but you have to learn it's language first. I only wish I would have had such a capable instrument when I started in 1972. Good luck, and keep at it. It will come...

One more thing. Make sure you fill your holes, take the trash with you, try to leave the site looking like you were never there...

[Dug D]

look on this forum for a VID cheat sheet of both good and bad targets ID#s. Carry it with you, knowing that you will still dig trash, but it will help you skip some common trash signals, especially if you are in a park. 

[MkeBlack]

On 8/22/2023 at 11:01 PM, TexHunter said:

Start with Park 1, and leave the settings alone until you understand the detector better, and what it's telling you. Lower the sensitivity to around 18 to settle the machine down a little, and listen for solid targets that don't sound "scratchy", or "clipped". Dig a lot of targets. You will dig trash, but you will also learn what the trash sounds like. Keep your coil close to the ground, and don't lift it at the end of the sweep. Keep it "flat". Overlap your sweeps by about half the length of the coil. When you get a target you want to investigate further, circle around it and listen to the tone. If it stays pretty much the same, dig it out. If it "breaks up", or only sounds off from a couple of angles, it's most likely junk, or a masked target. Don't worry about masked targets when starting out. You need to learn the good sounding targets. Once you get more experience, then start investigating more of the "iffy" signals. Keep your coil moving at a constant speed, but not too fast. Around 2 - 3 seconds for a complete sweep left to right, or right to left, should be about right. Did I mention to not "lift" the coil at the ends of the sweep?

Hope this helps. You've chosen a great detector that will find you many great things, but you have to learn it's language first. I only wish I would have had such a capable instrument when I started in 1972. Good luck, and keep at it. It will come...

One more thing. Make sure you fill your holes, take the trash with you, try to leave the site looking like you were never there...

Brilliant! Thank you so much. Very helpful Tex.  Thank you.  Mike

[MkeBlack]

On 8/25/2023 at 12:32 AM, Dug D said:

look on this forum for a VID cheat sheet of both good and bad targets ID#s. Carry it with you, knowing that you will still dig trash, but it will help you skip some common trash signals, especially if you are in a park. 

I'll do that now. Thank you Dug. Mike