Minelab XT 17000 tips, settings, questions

Andy62 said:

Hi guys ,a couple of questions concerning the XT17000.I have had the old girl for along time,my dad gave it to me,never found gold with it but haven't done any detecting for a long time.I have found plenty of junk big and very small ie boot tacks bits of lead and so forth.I always said i would never get rid of it until i find a bit of gold, which i will find one day.Firstly i was wandering if anyone had an old coiltek 6 inch to suit the XT for sale ,i realize its a big ask but you never know,and secondly any advice on running on 32khz for small stuff or general info would be greatly appreciated .I guess i am appealing to the older folks out there who once owned one ,and i do realize that i would stand a better chance of finding something with a new more modern detector,but i am not doing that just yet, i am a stubborn bugger.I have panned gold from the local creeks so it is around,i live out around Kilkivan Qld ,just gotta find it? Thanks for reading.

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Mate had one and he loaned it to me for a while just before the SD2000 came out. 32 using an 11 inch utterly surprised me and I almost pulled the trigger on one with that combo as it caned every other combo VLF at the time then the 2000 dropped and the rest is history. Forget 32 being for small with the 11 inch, its the best overal coil setting with the 17. It pulls in the good deeper bits better than being set on lower frequency. Used it, in the field and saw it in central Vic. Small coils dont waste your time unless your scrubbing through the tightest of scrub. Then they are worth their weight in gold. Otherwise all you will get is small gold. Logic.
Dont get me wrong. Sometimes here I may seem to contradict myself but I try to give honest advice from my early VLF days till now. If I had the choice of VLF vs PI id take PI every day. But if I could only afford a VLF like a 17000 then every day from my experience id throw an 11 on it and run it on 32. And go really really slow in tracking.
Oh, and if there is anywhere you'll have any advantage it'll be in junk infested gold areas using dic. Lots of PI users now use Mono coils, and although they rock for depth and sensitivity, they are dumb as a brick for Discrimination.

:Y:

Thanks very much guys for the reply's,i guess i should have also said that its got the 8 inch coil on the machine.I have looked everywhere for a small coil but no luck.I have also got an old GT1600 in perfect working order, it also has the 8 inch.

I had an XT 17000 , it was my first detector , had it back before all the pi machines were released . Did a lot of panning back in those days and did ok , remember seeing a gold gem and treasure mag with JP on the cover holding a nugget and an Xt17000 . Didnt have a lot of spare cash back then as I was building my first house, went halfs with a mate and we bought one . Didnt know what the hell we were doing so we went on a miners den course and then on a Doug Stone expedition. Still didnt find much but lots of relics and it got me hooked . Our best find was a gold plated brooch that had I think red gems of some sort and holes where a dozen more would have been . It was 6 inches down and very close to a mine shaft, and had been in the ground for a very long time . The gold was flaking off . We wondered was it the miners wifes or girlfriends who had come to tell him to get out of that hole and come home for dinner :lol: We thought we had hit the jackpot and we had , to find lost jewellery from the gold rush is rare and truly lost treasure . That friendship broke down years later over other matters the detector was sold . Ill never see that treasure again but still good memories. Didnt get another detector till the 3500 and then the 2300 and the 4500 now many nuggets later Im still hooked but it was the XT17000 that got me there.

Hi Andy re Kilkivan it brings back memories of years and years ago, we were touring around Qld towing a 24ft van, told Kilkivan was a gold possibility, drove around town looking for an oldish house, came across a double story and heard the sound of finches ( kept finches when i was a teenager), owner told me about mines/tunnels in the foothills but at the time was not safe to go there. Then told me about a mine some distance from the Kilkivan Bush Camp I should ask for info there which I did. Mine owner suggested driving way past the Camp to the end of the road and there was a small field there.

Drove down the road then track, then bushes heavy on either side of the track, so took my 250cc Honda trail bike off the A frame of the caravan and went further to investigate. Another couple of Km on came across the Chinamens grave that I had been told about and the (5) diggings on the hill. Getting onto dusk rode back to the van, loaded the bike onto the A frame and drove down to the clearing in front of the grave. By this time it was quite dark and large trees around us gave limited view of the sky.

Had tea and showed SWMBO the night sky and mentioned the grave., after a heated discussion, we had packed up and prepared to move on as we were not staying in such an eerie place.

Going past the Camp ground at around 9pm noticed some lights still on, was directed to the 3rd van owner was a gold prospector and inquired about gold in the area, great bloke he showed me $100K of opal he had swapped for his Boat, had a beer/talk and left since SWMBO was still out in the vehicle waiting. We drove back to the main road and overnighted.

I still use a Minelab Xt 17000 myself I have the eight inch coil and a crevicing coil for it , I have had great luck with it and the main thing is to get to know the machine, they are very capable and can be used on the beach as well yes use 32 kHz setting

G'day

Saw one of these this morning advertised on Bumtree for $1200? :lol: , maybe the seller needs to either do some research to see what they are currently going for, or maybe they already know and is just trying their luck, I also saw one for sale by a pawn shop think they wanted about $750 for that one, great detectors in their time but dated technology by today's standards.

cheers

stayyerAU

Don't expect to find much at 0.01g. That's too small to find consistently with the modern detectors although we sometimes get lucky. Mostly if we are finding as small as 0.05g in the ground we are doing well.

Bluecurrant said:

I'm after some advice on my xt 17000. I finally paned my first bit of gold. It is 0.01grams!!. https://www.prospectingaustralia.co...s/9605/1491887189_rps20170411_150554_123.jpgI haven't picked up any gold yet with the detector accept junk. So I thought I would place the gold on the pan to see if could pick it up. It picked it up on 32khz. But not on 6.4 ghz. I also Burried it a couple of cm's down, only a little sound change on 32ghz but still nothing on 6.4 ghz. The settings are Sound normal. Soil difficult. Disc all metal. Threshold a little back from full colckwise. Sensitivity full. Volume full. I retrieved these info from the owners manual. The coil I'm using is a 8 inch minelab gold search coil. https://www.prospectingaustralia.co.../9605/1491887401_1491887371069-1905433485.jpg. I'm only new to detecting. Is it worth taking it somewhere to see if it is working or is it my lack of experience understanding the detector. Any advice

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My experience using the 17 was this. It did its best on the 11 inch coil in 32khz. It went deeper on the biggest sized nuggets I tested and used it on. My memory isn't so decayed as to recall this....even Maurice Cappolla...Doug Stones mate did very very well using that combo when the 17 was King. Will run stable and punch deep. Dont listen to the Mlab blurbs by the guys that sat behind the desks and parroted the dribble. Most I know used bits of aluminum foil rolled up or sinkers and lead shot and tested them on beaches, yep they were Minelab guys and still are around trying to be legends. What a joke. 17 using the 11 on 32 was fantastic in its day. :Y:
The dimwits had no idea what it could do. Im convinced they still have no idea about the real world detecting.
Hilarious.... rolled up chocolate foil as a test on a beach in the sand .. :lol: