Metal Detectors Super Store

I received my X-TERRA 30 this morning and, like many of you, couldn't wait to see how it would compare to the X-TERRA 50. Figuring it is the same technology and same coil, and my ground is moderately mineralized, I didn't expect much, (if any) difference in depth of detection or overall performance. Short answer. . . I was right.

Today is not the best day, weather-wise, as it is 35 degrees and sprinkling at the moment. But, I wrapped up the control box and headed outside for some tests in my old coin garden. The first house on my lot was built in 1855. The site of my test plot has not had a structure on it. The test garden has been buried for many years, and consists of modern coins, older coins, modern trash and some old square nails. As I mentioned, the soil at this site is moderately mineralized, reading high 40's to low 50's on my MXT VDI. I have to admit that I was initially a bit apprehensive about using a detector with a preset ground balance.

I believe, for many sites, ground balancing is a critical element in maximizing the performance of the detector. I have proven that to myself with another brand of detector offering similar models, with the primary difference being preset vs manually adjusted ground balance. With that in the back of my mind, I turned on the detector and adjusted the volume. Same procedure as with the X-TERRA 50 except the scale only goes from 0-10 on the X-TERRA 30 instead of 0-20 as on the X-TERRA 50 That doesn't mean the X-Terra 30 doesn't go as "loud".

It merely means that there are only 10 settings to chose from (to get you from minimum to maximum) instead of 20. And, I will add the X-Terra 30 also utilizes 1-10 on the sensitivity scale instead of the 1-20 scale used on the X-TERRA 50. Again, the X-TERRA 30 has as much "gain". It just don't have the intermediate settings between each of the ten as the X-TERRA 50 as. (making 20) The first thing I did was to try to push the ground balance button. Oooops! Not there! Guess I had already gotten use to the X-TERRA 50 and forgot that this X-TERRA 30 has a factory preset ground balance level. So, I set the sensitivity to the maximum of 10 and started swinging the coil.

I immediately found it to be "chattery" and falsing on each sweep. Common sense took over, and I lowered the sensitivity to 8. I usually hunt with the X-TERRA 50 set at a sensitivity of 15 or 16, so I figured half of that would be 7-8. I noticed a huge improvement and was able to sweep the yard with minimal falsing. I have found in some sites with the X-TERRA 50, switching noise cancel channels will provide more stable sounds. That is not an option with the X-TERRA 30, as it only has one channel.

Something I will mention is that I am not able to scrub the coin on either of the VFLEX units as I have done with many detectors over the past 33 years. As the manual indicates, they seem to work quieter and more stable if I keep the coil about an inch off the ground. Old habits die hard and this is something that I have too keep reminding myself as I hunt. The past few weeks, I have been using the X-50 in all-metal mode quite a bit.

I believe that I can learn as much about a target by what the audio don't say as what it does. In other words, in all metal, I can see if the tone is from a specific target or feeding off the "back side" of an adjoining piece of trash. So, with preset ground balance, fixed operational channel, all metal mode, sensitivity at 8 and volume at 10, I started hunting the garden. One of the first coins I located is an old silver dime, laying at an angle, about 4 inches deep. 6 inches to the south is a pull tab. 6 inches to the north is a wad of foil.

As I passed the concentric coil over the target area, I got a loud, distinct, high tone. Switching to discrimination Pattern One, I still got the solid hit moving perpendicular to the trash. But I found that I had to slow down my sweep to separate the targets by tone in discriminate mode. Those of you who have used the Sovereign will find your "wiggling skills" come in handy! I switched back to all metal and X'ed over the high tone. High tone on a dime is different than with the X-TERRA 50.

With the X-TERRA 50, you have 18 target "notches", each represented by one of 4 audio tones for specific targets. Low tone for the first three (ferrous) target ranges, medium low tone for the next 8 target ranges, medium high tone for the next 5 target ranges and high tone on the 2 upper target ranges. That means on the X-TERRA 50, dimes come in at a medium high tone and quarters come in at a high tone.

With the X-TERRA 30, there are 12 target "notches" represented by one of 3 audio tones. Low tone represents the (ferrous targets) lowest notch, medium tone represents the next 7 target ranges and the last 4 target ranges get the high tone. So, on the X-TERRA 30, cents, dimes, quarters, halves and silver dollars all come in with the high tone. Nickels and most of the gold jewelry I tested came in at the medium tone. Iron, low tone. With the X-TERRA 50, all "notch groups" are in multiples of 3. With the X-TERRA 30, there are 12 target ranges and each "notch" is a multiple of 4.

I suppose that this could be looked at as the X-TERRA 30 having wider notches and not able to discriminate out as "tightly" as the X-TERRA 50. But, remember that the target ID numbers read out in all metal and in the discriminate modes. So, with either detector, you can adjust the "accept / reject" notches to fit your hunting style. The X-TERRA 30 only has one discriminate mode, or Pattern. The X-TERRA 50 has two.

With both detectors, you can adjust the preference modes to accept or reject any "notches" you want. I look at it as the X-TERRA 30 having all-metal and an adjustable notch discrimination mode. The X-TERRA 50 has an all-metal mode and two adjustable discrimination modes. Frankly, I don't use but one of them when I coin hunt. But, I guess there are those who use two. (Tejon for example).

Back to the test plot. As I worked my way around the yard, I was able to quickly detect every coin in the plot. Indian cents rang in with a high audio tone and registered 28 on the LCD. Some of my V-nickels came in at 8 and one at a 12. As well, the shield nickels came in at a 12 too. I forgot the date of the V-nickel that read a higher numeric value. But I would have to guess it is an older one and has a metallic content similar to the shield nickels. The silver quarters all came in at 40. Some of these are 7-8 inches deep. (I say 7 - 8 because when I buried them years ago, they were buried at 7. With the nearby trees and annual leaf drop, there has been additional soil build up over this area.) Even at 7 - 8 inches, I was able to raise my coil a couple inches over them and still get a solid tone. The Barber and Mercs came in at 36 with one exception coming in at 32. Just as with the X-Terra 50 can't explain that one. Apparently the metallic content varies. A 14K gold band came in at 16 and rang a solid medium tone.

All in all, I was impressed with the performance of the X-TERRA 30 In the soil of my old coin garden, it hunted as deeply as the X-TERRA 50. Once I lowered the sensitivity to 8, it was very stable and gave solid "locked on" target ID and audio tones. And, having all the coins hit a high tone made it very easy to "hunt by ear". I made one adjustment to Pattern 1 in that I accepted the target range 4. I found that one small gold chain registered at 4 and wanted to make sure my discrimination program allowed me to detect it.

Again, I found the preset ground balance worked well for me at this site. And, without any RFI, electrical interference of nearby detectors turned on, the noise channel adjust was not an issue. All in all, I am finding the X-Terra 30 offers the same great depth of detection, target separation, sensitivity to small targets and stability as the X-Terra 50. The notches are a little wider. There is no manual ground balance. There is no option to change operational channels.

But, as I said, none of these presented an obstacle for me today. I don't know if the folks at Minelab preset the "fixed" ground balance so it just happens to coincide with what my type of soil requires, or if this is just a much more stable detector than those others I referred to earlier in my post. It is definitely a stable detector. I don't believe the lack of manual GB had any adverse effect at my site today. I was able to adjust the sensitivity to maximize the depth of detection. And, at the same time, maintain excellent stability with the X-TERRA 30.

The temperature is still in the mid-30's and it continues to sprinkle here. If the weather guessers are wrong, I will take the X-TERRA 30 out for a real hunt in the morning. I hope they are wrong as I just can't bear the thought of snow! Oh, I hunt in the snow. It just means that it won't be long until the ground is too hard to dig.