<p><strong>First let me start of by saying I am now a true believer in metal detectors and especially Minelab.</strong> I live in southern Arizona and I have been working placer claims in the area for several years. I have spent a lot of money on sluices, high bankers, dry washers, and more, but in all my years I had never considered a metal detector until just recently a friend of mine talked me into buying one.</p> <p>After a month of research I decided to buy the Minelab X-TERRA 705 Gold Pack. It came highly recommended on many online forums as well as from several dealers that I spoke to. I received my X-TERRA 705 about 2 weeks ago and spent some time reading the manual and the eBook found in the members section here. Created a test garden in my backyard and learned everything I could about it.</p> [split] <p>After reading all the info I could find and playing in my test garden I couldn't wait to get it out into the field to see how it really worked. We had just got a nice and heavy rainstorm here as our yearly monsoon was coming to and end and I thought what a perfect time to go work the washes up on my favorite placer claim. I called my buddy up that had talked me into buying a metal detector and we took to the hills.</p> <p>I had been working the wash in prospecting mode for about 20 mins when my X-TERRA 705 started to sing to me. I switched to pinpoint mode and narrowed down where the signal was coming from and I started to dig. I dug down a few inches and had not found anything so I passed over the whole again and my X-TERRA 705 was still singing so I kept digging and at finally about 10 inches down there was the most beautiful thing I had seen in a long time.</p> <p>I yelled for my buddy to come over and as he walked up he says to me "What did you find, some old rusty metal like me?" (FYI, he doesn't own a Minelab) I turned around towards him and opened my hand and revealed this beautiful gold nugget and I thought he was going to soil himself. He immediately ran back to the truck and grabbed one of our portable recirculating high bankers and setup shop right where I found my nugget. I told him to have at it cause I was sticking with my X-TERRA 705.</p> <p>When I got home and cleaned up my new found treasure it shined like nothing I had ever seen before. Now for the moment of truth, I pulled out the scale and weighed my nugget. It weighed in at 13.6 grams, roughly $700 worth of gold! It was then that I fell in love with my X-TERRA 705. The first time I had taken it out to my favorite spot and it found enough gold to pay for itself! Needless to say it goes with me every time I go out now.</p> <p>I could not be happier with the purchase of my X-TERRA 705 and if it keeps performing like this I will be able to afford the GPX 5000 in no time at all.</p> <p>Thanks Minelab for making such an excellent detector at a great price, you have a customer for life!</p>