COMPARE METAL DETECTORS ONLINE
FINDS
(John, Jacob, Chuck, Al)
"In Memory Of "Peter Allan Nei"
July 31, 1932 - October 11, 2003
"He Detects Streets Of Gold Now!"
CHUCK’S FIND OF THE YEAR 1989,
LOST TREASURE MAGAZINE
WASHINGTON INAUGURAL BUTTON
GEORGE WASHINGTON INAUGURAL BUTTON
FOUND 9” DEEP, WITH A TESORO ELDORADO DETECTOR, CAMP NELSON, KENTUCKY.
IN SEARCH OF THE US CAVALRY
Western & Eastern Treasures Magazine Article
April, 1989
HERE IS A TESTIMONIAL JUST RECEIVED FROM A RECENT MINELAB X-TERRA-70 CUSTOMER, AFTER GETTING THE MACHINE HOME, AND HAVING SOME TIME TO GET FAMILIAR WITH AND TEST IT.
CYRIL SMITH IS AN EXPERIENCED HUNTER, IN ALMOST ALL PHASES OF THE HOBBY
Here is a little bit of a run down on the detector so far.
I spent some time air testing the X-Terra's Coin/Jewelry mode on a lot of known targets, including a few nuggets that I have found. I have also used the X-Terra in the field hunting several times. The audio response from Minelab detectors is significantly different than say Garrett, Tesoro and White. It takes a little time to learn the detectors language.
So far I have found well over 100 coins (all modern) a nice sterling silver ring and bracelet and a old Colo. Retail Tax Token. I don't think any of the targets were much over 4 inched deep. As I learn the sounds and ID readings of the deeper targets I know my target recovery depth will get a lot deeper. It has plenty of sensitivity to get down deep.
The mineralization here in the parks and schools in Colo. Springs is really not very high and I find that I can run the sensitivity in the 20 to 24 range and not get a lot of falsing most of the time. I really like the wide range of the sensitivity control. I have been hunting in pattern 1 almost all the time.
The detector ground balances very well. The Auto ground balance works well but I normally ground balance manually. The Track setting also seems to do a good job.
I typically operate in Fixed ground balance just to insure that the Track does not balance out a deep weak or tiny target.
I tested the Prospecting mode out in my back yard using some of my gold nuggets. I buried them in the dirt in my test area. I was surprised to find that it would pick up my 1.2 grain test nugget at almost an inch under the dirt. It picked up my 4 grain nugget at about 3 inches deep and my 12.8 grain nugget at almost 6 inches. I was using the stock 9" concentric coil, Fixed ground balance and the default Prospecting mode Sensitivity and Metal Mask settings. I really expected the metal mask to take out the small 1.2 grain test nugget.
The Double D coil at 18.75 khz should improve this a some and it should make a very respectable gold nugget detector. It might even be as good or better than some of the dedicated gold nugget detectors on the market. We will see about that later this summer here in Colo and in AZ next fall.
Hi Chuck,
Here is an interesting story involving the use of my X-Terra 70 with 5" x 10" DD, 18.75kHz coil attached..
While having lunch with Bob, our club president, he mentioned that he had received a call from someone that had lost a hearing aid. He asked if someone in the club might be willing to help him find it. Bob asked me if I thought a metal detector would find a hearing aid.
I said that the battery is probably the largest metal component in the hearing aid and that it would be the most likely thing for the metal detector to locate. I said that I was willing to help locate it. Bob gave me the persons name and notified him that I would contact him and set up a time to see if I could locate the lost hearing aid.
I made arrangements to meet with Jim on Thursday evening after dinner. I went over to Jim's house and we discussed every where he had been in his yard that day and I used his other hearing aid as a test target to set up the X-Terra 70. I had to set up the detector in the All Metal mode to detect the duplicate hearing aid to the one he lost. The hearing aid was very small and the battery was smaller in diameter than the diameter of a pencil eraser. I ground balanced the detector and since the battery was so small I ran the detector in fixed Ground Balance mode instead of Track to insure that I would not balance out the small target. I noted the detected low tone and the target ID number which were -6 and -8.
These numbers are consistent with the iron in the battery so I felt sure that is what the detector was detecting. I told Jim that I would only investigated target signals with the low tone and those target ID numbers. I also knew that the target would not be buried so I did not need to do any digging. He said the hearing aid had been lost for about two weeks and that he had visually searched the area very carefully at least twice. I was able to locate it in after about 15 or 20 minutes of searching. He was very thrilled to recover the hearing aid since it cost around $1,900. He offered me a reward but I told him it was not necessary but if he really wanted to he could get in touch with Bob our club president and make a little donation to the club.
It is always a thrill for me whenI can help someone recover a valuable lost item.
See the attached picture!!!
I though this might be of interest to you. God Bless
Cyril
Hi Chuck,
I thought I would show you another neat find. I often use my gold nugget hunting detector to hunt for very small gold targets in the sand, bark and gravel in parks and even on beaches. Doing this I have found tiny gold pearl and diamond ear ring studs as well and fine gold rings and chains.
These tiny gold targets have very low conductivity and come in just above iron in the lower foil area. Since the X-Terra 70 tested so well with my tiny gold nuggets I decided to see what it would do. With the X-Terra 70 in the discrimination mode, in pattern 1 and with the sensitivity running 24 to 26, it would detect my 4 grain nugget at a depth of 3"+ using the 10"x 5" Elliptical DD 18.75 khz coil. In the prospecting mode the depth on this same nugget is 4"+. When I got to the park play area that I was going to hunt I decided to start out hunting in the discrimination mode to eliminate most of the tiny iron targets and used Pattern 1.
I set the sensitivity as high as I could, which ended up at 26. Since I normally slow down my sweep speed when looking for these tiny gold targets, I ground balanced the detector did not use the track mode to insure it would not reduce my detection depth by trying to tune out the target. I was using the 10"x 5" Elliptical DD 18.75 khz coil. I have been using that ever since I got it.
There was evidence that someone ease had hunted the park play area before I got there. The bark in the play area was dry on top but wet underneath.
There were numerous indications that someone had been digging targets and exposed the wet bark. I found a few deeper coins that were apparently missed in the 6 to 7" range right down against the ground cloth under the bark. The at the end of a slide I got a medium strength signal with a 4 to 6 ID number. I had dug several small pieces of foil with these ID numbers but this one sounded smoother and was less ragged. Down about 4" I uncovered this small thin 14k gold ear ring.
This ear ring is not as small as some I have found but it also produced a pretty good signal at the 4" depth.
You have to hunt for these tiny gold targets just like you would for nuggets.
PROSPECTING THE CITY FOR SMALL GOLD ITEMS WITH THE
X-TERRA 70
The attached picture shows the smaller of my finds from a recent City
Prospecting outing. I was hunting in the prospecting mode, with the sensitivity
set at 28. I found some coins, a pocket knife, numerous iron items including a
staple, and ear ring clasp. The staple took the most time to recover. I had a
hard time getting it into my scoop. The three dark round objects are rusted
steel ball bearings. Who knows where some of this stuff comes from. I did not
include numerous pieces of foil and some larger iron bolts and nuts that were
also found.
The real find that I was prospecting for is the tiny 14 K Gold Ruby drop in the
center above the pocket knife. It was about 3" deep in the sand. The signal was
solid and clear. One target like this can make your day. It could just as easily
have been a diamond or pearl ear ring stud or a nice Tiny 14K gold pinky ring. I
thought I just might find the broken chain that the drop came off of but it
didn't show up.
Most general purpose coin and jewelry detectors are not going to find this tiny
jewelry. The X-Terra 70's Prospecting Mode makes it a real killer on this kind
of target.
Have a good day and God Bless. Cyril
FIELD TESTING THE NEW MINELAB 6", 18.75KhZ DD COIL FOR THE X-TERRA 70
By Cyril Smith 09/18/2007
Chuck,
Greetings, I hope all is well with you up in the Mile High city.
I have spent enough time with Minelab's new 6" DD high frequency coil that I
think I can make a fair assessment of how it performs. My evaluation is below
and I have attached a picture of some of the jewelry finds. Feel free to edit
what I wrote as needed.
I have been using the new Minelab 6" DD 18.75 KHz coil
extensively on my X-Terra 70 for almost a month now. I have primarily used it at
park play areas, under stadium seating and in locations where it was necessary
to operate in close proximity to steel and iron support structure and play
equipment.
When setting up the detector, I operated my X-Terra in a modified
version of "Pattern 1" the entire time. I reduced the Iron discrimination in
Pattern 1 one notch to allow -2 iron items to be heard. I have found some tiny
gold targets fall in the threshold between -2 iron and +2 and I can hear these
tiny gold targets better with this setting. I use the 3 tone target ID setting
and I operated the detector using my normal sensitivity range of 22 to 26 most
of the time. I also evaluated the difference in operation between "Fixed" ground
balance and "Tracking" ground balance. I detected in ground conditions with
ground balance numbers between 12 and 38 (12 being the lowest mineralization and
38 being the highest).
First you should know that I operate my detectors using the
highest sensitivity that I can for depth reasons and thus am willing to tolerate
a little noise. I had no trouble operating the X-Terra with the 6" DD HF coil in
the same sensitivity range that I normally operate between 22 and 26. In quiet
ground I was able to increase the sensitivity to max (30) with only a slight bit
more random noise than the Stock concentric 7.5 KHz Mid frequency coil or the
5x10 DD 18.75 KHz coils that I used for comparison. Second, under the conditions
I tested the coil I found no difference in noise or performance between Fixed
ground balance and Tracking ground balance as some have indicated. I opted to
operate in the Tracking ground balance mode most of the time. I have not found
tracking out targets to be a problem with the way I pinpoint.
I found that the 6" DD HF coil pinpointed very accurately which
made target recovery very easy. Most of the targets recovered were from the
surface to 4" deep. I did recover a few that were in the 5" to 6" range. These
were at about the max length of my recovery probe. I also found a few that were
deeper than I was willing to recover. All the targets sounded off with a solid
repeatable response and stable target ID numbers. ID numbers on lower conductive
targets like nickels were right on when compared to the other two coils. High
conductive targets like quarters had ID numbers slightly higher that the other
coils.
Now for operating in and around iron equipment and structures. I
found it necessary to reduce the sensitivity down into the 10 to 12 area to work
these areas. Some might not know this but it is best not to sweep the coil
across in front of an iron pole but to sweep in and out like spokes on a wheel.
Sweeping across in front causes the coil to come in proximity with the target
and the pole about the same time and will normally result in only one beep.
Sweeping in and out from the pole like spokes causes the coil to come in
proximity of the target first then the pole usually resulting in 2 beeps.
This is a sure sign that a target is in close to the pole. The Sterling silver
ring in the picture was found close to a pole on a playground using this
technique. Several coins were also recovered in very close to iron structures.
These targets were in close enough to the pole that larger round coils could not
have detected these targets even at reduced sensitivity. I found the sterling
silver bracelet under a metal bench in a play area and also recovered coins that
had been under these type benches for a long time. Obviously other hunters were
not be able to recover them. I am very pleased with the way the coil performs in
and around iron structures and I recovered targets that could not have been
recovered with larger coils.
The picture shows the sterling silver and gold jewelry that I
recovered using the coil. I also recovered a handful of costume jewelry not
shown and close to 200 coins. I have not used the coil in the gold fields but
hope to take it on a trip in December to AZ and use it to work places the are
next to impossible to get larger coils into. If the trip works out I will let
you know how it does.
God Bless,
Cyril B. Smith II
Chuck,
We are back from our trip to TX. Due to seeing relatives and other activities I only got to hunt one of the two lakes that I had planned to hunt.
It was a private lake in the gated community where my wife's sister and brother in law live. As a result it does not have the people traffic of a public lake and beach.
I used the Garrett Infinium LS PI Detector with the 8" mono coil. I worked the swimming beach and in the water to a depth up to my chin. I had the detector clipped to a harness so I could let the detector go without it sinking to the bottom of the lake.
This allowed me to use both hands to recover targets with my long handle scoop. The detector ground balanced beautifully. I ran it in the Lock Mode with no discrimination. It ran very smooth without any falsing. The sensitivity with the 8" Mono coil is fantastic.
I found a couple small metal beads that were smaller than a BB and several tiny silver split rings off of jewelry, all were several inches deep. The Infinium LS with the 8" Mono also has excellent depth on coin and jewelry size targets as well. I had to did clear through the sand to the mud and clay bottom on several occasions and that was between 10 and 12 inches down.
I always fill all my holes and I had to do the same in the water to keep someone from stepping into one and going over their head. Filling holes under water is no easy task, especially that deep. The Infinium LS control housing has slight positive buoyancy. While it doesn't float, it does allow the detector to stand up vertically with the coil resting on the bottom. This is handy, especially when wading in deep water up to your neck.
I found 3 rings, 1 gold and 2 silver, a silver ankle bracelet, a silver charm, 11 Quarters, 14 Dimes, 15 Nickels and 42 Pennies. The (low conductive) Low/High/Low and (high conductive) High/Low/High target ID tones worked very well on most targets. There were a few exceptions as expected.
Long this Iron targets like wire, nails and bobby pins typically gave a double target signal. I dug all targets but the double signal of nails, wire and bobby pins was never wrong. Well, that is my report on the Garrett Infinium LS under fresh water hunting conditions. It performs as advertised and I was well very impressed with it's performance. Have a great day and God Bless, Cyril
Boobie in PA
A Very RARE Civil War Belt Buckle - "Philadelphia Home Guard" - Found By Boobie, 12" deep, at Brady's Run, PA . The Plate was found in what is now a park, but what was, during the Civil War, a Union Army camp.
See More Of Boobie's Finds At