My Report: X-Terra 705 at Mt Crawford Goldfield SA

[Gemangi]

Hi Folks,

I took my 705 up to the Watts Gully area in the Mt Crawford Forest Reserve today and although I didn't find anything of value I was able to give the machine and its DD coil a work out.
The ground up there is heavily mineralised and someone on this forum questioned whether the X-Terra and Mt Crawford  could be a compatible combination. That's what I took it to mean anyway.

The first thing I did was to put the machine in prospecting mode.
Then I held the coil out straight in the air and selected the tone control and went through the 30 different tones and selected the one I thought sound the loudest to my ears. I got this idea off of a minelab video I watched. Even though there is no volume adjustment on the tone control, our ears are all different and one pitch may suit our ears better than another.
Next I used auto ground balance and set the ground balance.
Threshold I set just above audible.
Set the sensitivity at 23.

Off I went over the mullock heaps keeping the coil very low and slow. The ground mineralisation was very evident and I stopped and rebalanced every 10 meters or so and in the end I was manually ground balancing as I seemed to have better control.

I also tried it with tracking ground balance and that seemed to work well but I preferred to check it myself from time to time.

The ground noise was evident but no where near as bad as I had experienced with the Garrett Deepseeker, so was very manageable. ( I'd expected that after 30 years or so that this technology would have improved.)

I detected a few bits of nail some very small, custard tart cups & bits of cups that had been broken up into shall bits and buried at different depths, on purpose I'd say, by someone who had nothing better to do.

Very tiny pieces of rusting sheet metal, I must get myself a rare earth magnet. I wasted a lot of time trying to locate them.
Oh by the way, when I got home this afternoon my pinpointer had arrived. I could have used it out there today.

The thing that did surprise me was how the detector screamed as I past over some of these bits and pieces. Also now and then there was a fairly large piece of rusted sheet metal lying on the surface and I past my coil a metre in the air over them and they still made the detector scream.

So my opinion of my X-Terra 705.

I'm absolutely rapt with it. I reckon I can handle the ground mineralisation and keep its effects to a minimum and manageable level.
There are still suspect targets that I play around with before rejecting them.
Generally in both prospecting and coin mode if it is a genuine acceptable target the signal does not vary very often. I still dig iffy signals but most of them turn out to be trash.

Well there's my opinion, I know that I've still got a lot to learn and to attune my ear to the more subtle signals that I receive but I feel me & the Terra are becoming good friends,

Happy Hunting.
Gemangi
 

[ian059]

Thanks for the report gemangi. I am envious.
If we learn something every time out it was worthwhile, despite the lack of valuable targets.
I'm looking forward to trying out some of the old gold areas up here in QLD. It looks like the DD coil is the best way to go.

IanC

[AUStealth]

 Gemangi.
What a great report and a lot of hints for my 705
As soon as all the missus weddings,  alterations to the house , body parties   and such are done we will be out west for the weekend to try a bit of "fossiking" .


Ian
I hope you have a good 4x4, the last old diggings I went to last month really tried the car out. ( no hi-jack intended Gemangi)

[bigpud]

Good on you Gemangi, very informative post on the 705 and reckon it wont be long before we see a pic of the golden stuff from you. 

[NewSouthCroweater]

G1,

Thanks for all the info mate.
What coil did you use ?
Sounds like you had a good day and you and the Terra are getting along nicely.
Phil found a ripper 30 something gram nugget the other day with his Terra and was good enough to post it for us all to see.
Maybe you will be next ?       ...you deserve one after that medal return.

I guess what got me thinking about whether I ( and I stress "I") was effective with the Xt70 or not was  testing on a mates small test nugget placed on top of the ground...his 4500 would get 18" or more, my 70 with the 5x10" DD HF coil got 2-3" then dropped out.
For me, to know that could be passing over gold 7-8" underground and it not registering was a minus. Knowing that someone with half decent PI would pick it up what I couldn't  pee-ed me off I guess.
Alas, about the only thing that I was getting good depth on lead slugs and rusty iron
Mind you that was in a part of the Vict. golden triangle where the ground is very heavily mineralised.

I reckon the Xt70 may of gone a little deeper at Jupiter Creek when I went there - not as mineralised ?
If a BIG nugget like Phils 30 odd grammer was under there I would hope any detector would scream.
Lots of people use the Xterra to search mullock heaps and trashy spots using its discrimination capabilities to advantage by switching over to coin mode briefly to see the TID no....and that part works well except if you have ironstone and gold mixed together in the nugget - I believe it will register a minus no.(because of the ironstone content) and most people will pass it up as just another piece of rusty iron.
Heaps of yanks use Xterras with good success over there on their mild soil conditions.

I am not trying to rain on anyones fun, all the above is just what i reckon and my experience, lots of people have success with them, and I wish you and all Xterra users  the same.
Us Xterra-ites should stick together and help each other and I love hearing and seeing the success stories and posts eg. Phils lovely goldie.
Golden luck and fun prospecting mate.

Croweater

[Gemangi]

Hi Croweater,
Yes I did have a good day up there yesterday and am learning more about my machine each time I go out.
Phil's nugget is a beauty and it was good to hear he found it with the X-Terra.
I use the same DD coil as you Croweater. I'm not sure what differences there are in the 705 as against the 70. I must look it up. Not much I expect maybe a bit of tweeking here and there. Probably a bit like the upgrades to the PC I can't tell the difference in them.

Now Croweater, old mate! A 4500 against a 70! Your talking Rolls Royce against a Mini Minor. $6000 against $1000.  18 Inches  against 3 inches. Chalk and cheese.

I purchased my detector knowing full well that it was a composite choice, and an each way bet, as I wanted a detector that is duel function and that I could afford.
You state that the only thing you were getting a good depth on is lead slugs and rusty iron. I'm sure if those items had have been gold you still would have detected them. I don't know but I'd expect to hear a nugget the size of the one Phil found at around 8 -10 inches. I think that if the gold nugget's big enough you'll hear it. The problem is that they are not that prolific.

Yesterday up at Mt Crawford I detected on the top and around mullock heaps and the best I was expecting is that perhaps, maybe,
there is a tiny nugget in there that the thousand people before me had missed. Ya gotta be optimistic. I find it hard to discipline myself to a spot and detected it thoroughly. When not much is happening I move about another 5 metres or so and repeat the process. God knows how many nuggets I walked over as I crossed over that ground in between. LOL.

We should meet up some time and you could show me how you get all those goldies each month.
And I can teach you much ado about nothing. 

Happy Hunting, Croweater.
Gemangi

[NewSouthCroweater]

Gday again G1,

Yeah fair enough mate...at first glance the 4500 to Xt70 comparison doesn't seem fair.
Just happens that the guys I go with swing 45's only.
..rich buggers ? yes, one is ..and,  no - one bloke had a personal loan for his - now thats confidence and commitment for you.
However, the same basic result would occur should it be compared to an old 2nd hand sd2000 which can be got for $1200 or so.- unfortunately the Xterra will be outgunned on small stuff.

I did say that that the test piece was  small , I would guess about a gram.
Using my 0.7grammer with Sensitivity at maximum 30 the Xt70 gets 3" sitting on the surface of nice quiet non mineralised ground...and yes I found it so others can find one too. 
IMHO anything under 3 or so grams will have to be close to the surface to pick up.
It just so happens that a lot of gold found is quite small nowadays, the big stuff has been thinned out considerably.

I did say that any m.d. should pick up Phils beautiful 30 odd grammer.
It makes good sense to me that as the nugget size increases the deeper the Xterra will pick it up- up to a maximum point of say 9 or so inches.
I have also heard that the newer 705's get slightly better depth ...maybe an inch.


My comments are not to upset anyone but just to inform them.
If a fellow detectorist is walking behind you with a PI machine you on the goldfields picking up small nuggets at 5"  that is why.
To me knowing that the Xterra won't punch deep unless the nuggets are big has it plus' and minus'... lots of people might say "we mostly only want the big stuff anyway" right ?
As I said yesterday , hopefully you will find that nice one soon.

Croweater

[ian059]

Gemangi.
What a great report and a lot of hints for my 705
As soon as all the missus weddings,  alterations to the house , body parties   and such are done we will be out west for the weekend to try a bit of "fossiking" .


Ian
I hope you have a good 4x4, the last old diggings I went to last month really tried the car out. ( no hi-jack intended Gemangi)

Don't worry AUStealth, my Forester goes anywhere!

IanC

[AUStealth]

Don't worry AUStealth, my Forester goes anywhere!

IanC

Great will keep my Grand Vitara or the old Hilux happy when we go out bush one day.

Tony