Anyone Still Swinging An X-Terra Vflex 30,50,70,305,505 or 705?

[bigtim1973]

The original Minelab Xterra 50 was one of my favorite machines to date. I loved the big screen, stability and the simple platform of it. It is actually the very first metal detector that I truly enjoyed. It was well made and the control rod was very sturdy. They are also more stable than these newer minelab units. Maybe it is because they are single frequency and not multi-IQ but whatever it is, it does not sound like an electric chicken cackling in an urban environment and city parks!!

I tried a 505 and I do not know for sure but, it did not seem as sensitive of a detector as my original 50 did.

Anyways, I know they sometimes have issues with the pushpad buttons sometimes but I have bought a few Xterras here lately and am enjoying them again!!

So anyone else still out there swinging one of the pre equinox style xterra units?

[Dug D]

I was new to detecting when I bought my x-50 at the time it was light weight and has both TID and VID. I found a lot with it, and at the time people were still actively loosing change in the parks, so shallow stuff was good practice for learning the machine. EMI was an issue and I seemed to not find much that was deep, but I still relatively new to detecting. (sold it) I eventually upgraded to a x-705, learned more found a lot more.  Then came the Nox 800. Still have the 705 but resale is not so good even though it works well, side by side tests often surprise me.

[bigtim1973]

I never had a problem with emi....but then again I stay away from metropolitan areas for the most part. 

 

 

I do really enjoy this machine and yes it is not the deepest unit out there but it certainly does get the goodies within reach. 

 

It is deeper than the whites m6 for sure. 

[Bill (S. CA)]

Interesting that you would bring up these detectors.  I field tested the 30, 50 and 70 when they were introduced.  I liked them all, though the coil switching was what I would call a "learned behavior."  I did really well with the 90 and the HF coil on gold.  At the time there was supposedly serious talk about Minelab putting the Excalibur electronics into a waterproof X-Terra pod.  Too bad they didn't do that.  I prefer that pod shape to the current cell phone on stick configuration and I think it would have been a great change to the Ex calibur.  The S rod was also very easy to swing.  Funny to think of a Minleab nowadays with a concentric coil, isn't it?

Now you've got me wishing that I still had one of them!

Bill

[bigtim1973]

Very interesting, yes they did come with a concentric as the stock coil. 

I actually bought my xterra 50 back in 2008 from Gerry in ID that I believe is still a dealer here on this forum. Super nice to deal with too. 

He told me I would like it and would be digging less iron trash and he was right.

I found a seated liberty quarter on my first outing with it. 

Yes that control rod set up was a very well designed format. It is a shame that they did not continue with that design.....much better ergonomics and made much better than their current design in their equinox. 

It would have been very interesting to see an Excalibur inside of an Xterra design.....that would have been a good one.

 

 

[DSMITH]

One of the first detectors I purchased back in 2009 was the Xterra 705

there was times I wanted to wrap my 705 around a tree or telephone pole, it took me a bit to understand what the 705 was telling me but I stuck with the 705 until the light bulb turned on and once the light's turned on the 705 became my favorite detector to use, I still own my Xterra 705 and still take it out and occasionally swing my Xterra 705, and still to this very day it is my favorite detector to swing out of all the detectors I own, have never had any issues with it and it is still a very capable detector, located my first silver with the Xterra 705 (a 1941 Merc), as well as located my best find to date with that same 705, its one detector I will never part with

If I had to sell every detector I own for some unfortunate reason the 705 would be the very last one I would sell.