Minelab X-terra 705 General Tips, Advice, Questions

Hi VicGold have a try with your sensitivity down and see how you go you can always turn it back up

I ended up getting the 705 dual pack, was on sale , it will arrive sometime next week, then I need to find places around the bega Valley to try

Hi kindu you will love the 705 they are a good little detector and you will not be disappointed with it.
Roy

kindu said:

I ended up getting the 705 dual pack, was on sale , it will arrive sometime next week, then I need to find places around the bega Valley to try

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As I am a fellow 705 owner I have to post this link for you to have a look at.I found a t very helpful when starting out especially the SAbogan videos on how to setup the 705.Welcome to the forum Kindu.
Edited because I forgot to post the link.whoops.
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=15568

Kindu, the 705 is a great little park/paddock/beach detector that you can easily swing all day, but very limited as a goldfields unit.
If you have access to wide open ground get a 15" coil for it, frequency to suit your purpose, tho the 7.5khz is a good all-rounder.

Ive come across this a couple times I get a target and it will start off as a positive target ID then jump between non ferrous and ferrous. Usually its just junk. Should I always dig those targets? Also if Im getting a target that say is a solid -8 should I even bother digging it?

When I have a target am I meant to turn auto ground balance off?

And whats with some targets that just disappear then come back again after a few waves of the coil?

Also when do you use discriminate settings? I used it in heavily junk areas and it seems to work pretty well but will still go off on what seems like iron junk sometimes.

VicGoldHunter said:

Ive come across this a couple times I get a target and it will start off as a positive target ID then jump between non ferrous and ferrous. Usually its just junk. Should I always dig those targets? Also if Im getting a target that say is a solid -8 should I even bother digging it?

When I have a target am I meant to turn auto ground balance off?

And whats with some targets that just disappear then come back again after a few waves of the coil?

Also when do you use discriminate settings? I used it in heavily junk areas and it seems to work pretty well but will still go off on what seems like iron junk sometimes.

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I don't trust descriminating detectors thats why i use PI machines, you can get gold in ironstone that your machine will tell you is ferrous so i prefer to dig everything.
False signals can come from a loose coil lead, i wrap my leads tightly around the stem only leaving enough at the coil end to swivel the coil.
On a PI machine auto ground balance is always on just push the green button, don't know about VLF, It's been too long.
The targets i like on a PI machine are the ones that wobble i can't pinpoint, mostly gold at a medium depth.

If you are referring to prospecting, then generally you should be digging all targets due to some gold possibly falling within the iron range.

If talking about coin/jewellery/relic hunting, then wildly fluctuating target ID's can indicate iron, often sounding good on one swing though offering a disproportionately lower ID on the return swing, or vice versa. Tone from large iron should be quite forced and not be as consistent or mellow as for smaller/deep non-ferrous or coin type targets.

Also high tone falsing usually occurs within the extreme top of the conductivity scale, which can make it a bit easier to dismiss. That's where pinpoint mode is a good tool for dismissing a high toning target - if it pinpoints as a foot wide target, walk away, if the response is only brief, it could be a coin sized target. If you get two distinct peaks when pinpointing, it may represent a coin co-existing with a larger iron target.

If you are having issues with targets disappearing and reappearing on consecutive swings of the coil, it could be either ground mineralisation, or iron randomly breaking through the discrimination. This is where it pays to work around a target with the coil to check how consistent the tones/ID's are.

Bottom line is that larger iron will always tend to break through the discrimination, even with it set to knock out all targets within the iron range (ie: lower ID numbers).

Unfortunately there are some targets that can sound crap but turn out to be pearlers, and vice versa for good sounding targets. If in doubt, dig it out, it's the only way to learn. Rely primarily on your tones and use ID's as a cross reference for what the potential target could be. Tones will always give you a more accurate picture on what is happening beneath the coil, long after the ID's have degraded on the deeper targets.

Yes I know the detector struggles but Im really trying to make do before I spend $3000+ on a PI unit.

In prospecting mode with the 10x5 18.75hz coil on it makes noise on every swing changing tone like a target. Ive tried everything, very slow swinging, turning sensitivity down nothing seems to get it a stable hum it picks up every rock imaginable. It makes me think how much i might be missing because I only dig targets Im certain are something I can now tell the tone as its much louder. Im picking up tiny bits of metal, small screws nails etc.

Ive been going along a dried up creek bed which was a huge spot back in the old timers day.

Any tips?

BYO Gold!! Just joking... :goldnugget:

VGH, you can't win Bathurst in a VW Beetle.
So many here have tried all forms of cheaper detectors, unfortunately you get what you pay for.
Many, Many threads on this great forum on this subject.
Just read the Gold prospecting Show and Tell thread and see what machines people are using to find gold.
https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=6453

you can drop the sens down a bit but as redfin said you have a Shetland pony in the Melbourne cup you will find that the 705 will false on most ground and will send you nuts top coin machine but minilab should of never called it a gold machine good luck :Y:

Your experience is a mirror image of mine using a Xterra 70 a long while back when they first came out, using a DD 18.75hz 10x5, could pick up every hot rock in the creek as well as every piece of rubbish, noisy as, I guess if there was a nice nugget in the creek it would pick it up. but not the stuff the miners were getting, it didn't have the goods to sort thru the smaller nuggets or specks vs the rubbish, mineralisation was also a problem & we have plenty of it, the coil couldn't cope, worked well in america where the soils are quieter, I think that's who this coil was designed for(might be wrong), there might be someone in OZ who got on top of it(I never did), findmall.com has an xterra section which could help, an american site, the sdc 2300 i have went over the exact same spot a couple of years ago & got NO hot rock hits, plenty of junk, 1/4"barbed wire tines at 8", no gold, so maybe try the river bank for coins the miners have dropped just to get a good target, it's what the xterra was designed for.

is anyone using NEL multi-frequency (either the 2 or 3 freq) coils on an XT705?
what do you think of them in performance, & build quality/reliability ?
Im thinking of getting a NEL Thunder 14.5x10.5 in 3 frequency (beach, jewellery, coin, relic) to use on the beach & farmland

Id sell the 705 and buy an equinox, second hand ones are very reasonably priced

goodaye Kai, I plan to get a Nox at some stage ... waiting to see where the new Vanquish fits into the picture too.
meantime the 705 is a great little machine (was my 1st intro to coin & relic hunting so a bit sentimental with it) & 1 of my grandsons is getting interested & its light & fairly easy for him to use once set up.

Ah ok, I still have my 705, still a very trusty machine, love the equinox 600 that I upgraded to.
Like you, the kids and wife can use the 705 now.
Cant help on the nel coils, I looked into them awile ago but opted to go genuine minelab coils instead.

the main reason Im looking at the NEL coil is for switchable frequency on the run without changing coils.
there are times, especially on the beach where it would be good to do a quick re-run over an area by switching between say 7kHz to 18kHz without having to go back to the vehicle for a coil swap

Hey, Ded Driver, I use a 705...percerveered with the standard 18 Khz...but never felt really comfortable with it. It just didn't 'feel' or sound like a serious goldseeker...then I was in Mudgee last Tuesday, and went to Central West Prospecting there in Church St,...ended up coming out with an NZpick, small clean up pan and a brand new 15inch
'Xterra' coil... took it back to camp...and Oh my god!...what a HUGE difference it's made...no gold but boy o boy what a deep seeking humming beast it is now!...hehe suddenly I'm picking up smallish targets left, right and centre I kid you not....some targets like a fragment of a copper jacketed bullet had to be 9-10 inchs down...and everything about the machine seems somehow more easily interpreted...incremental changes to sensitivity etc, are much more discernable and general feedback from the sound led me to believe I had a much better connection with what was happening ...'in the ground'...if that makes any sense. The 705 is a much-underated machine IMO and the new coil has made it a real player in the detecting quest despite it's imminent demise to the Equinox.Anyway mate that's just my little take on it

hey Reefer, what brand/freq 15" coil are you referring to? the ML 18.75kHz??