1) I just got my new MXT. I am wondering what should I do first?
One
of my High School teachers was often fond of telling students with questions –
"Read the directions carefully!" That saying applies just as well to
the new MXT owner. Read and re-read
the owners handbook before you take your MXT out for its first use. It
contains many helpful suggestions that can prevent unnecessary problems. The Engineering Report, written by the design
engineer for the MXT, also is worthwhile reading,
and contains some useful information which the Owners manual does not. Both the Operators Manual and the Engineering
Report are available over the internet on the White’s web site, or can be
purchased in print from Whites. Take a
look at the MXT video too, if you have a
copy. It doesn’t have a lot of critical
information that can’t be found elsewhere, but its worth watching.
After
watching and reading, take your MXT out into your yard and do
some testing. Put a coin on the grass
and see how it responds to it. Look
around your own yard - many older homes have older coins in the grass. If you damage your own lawn while digging,
well, at least you know who to complain to.
2) I am ready to take my MXT out into the
field. Any suggestions on how I should
practice with it?
Plant
a couple of coins in the sand at a park and practice finding, pinpointing and
digging them. If you are new and having
trouble with pinpointing and finding targets, try digging in the sand or wood
chip areas of the playgrounds. If you
have to dig a 10 inch diameter crater to find the coin, you will find it easy
to fill in and no grass will be killed if you dig in the sand. Usually there is a lot less trash there as
well. Later when you
are more experienced and can dig small holes to recover your targets, try out
the grass. Always fill in your
holes - I have been accosted by a local park ranger simply for possessing a
small hand trowel (and a detector) at a local park. Someone else had been digging big holes and
killing grass a week or two before, and as soon as he saw me, I was
automatically guilty of the same crime. They go to lots of effort to keep a nice lawn
at the park. We all need to be mindful
of the disturbances we make and take due care not to make a mess. Its important to do
what we can to stay in the good graces of the local park staff.
When
you are new with the MXT and find a good target take
your time with it to learn how the machine reacts to it. Listen to the sounds. See what the ID says about it. Once you have learned the machine and are
comfortable with it, you don’t need to analyze the target to death, but when
you are a newbie, there is a lot to learn from testing things out. Learn all you can from each find! Try
flipping the unit into another mode (try going into Relic or prospecting if you
are normally hunting in Coin/jewelry) to see how that mode works.
Here
is an valuable secret on how to become a productive
detector operator (even if it seems obvious): The big key to getting the most
out of your MXT is practice. Studying the manuals and other information
will help shorten your learning curve, but it just takes time. There is no substitute for practice time -
experience allows you to know exactly how your machine responds to certain
kinds of targets. You will be much
better after digging your 2,000th coin that you were when digging your second
coin. So read all the information you
can get your hands on, and then get out there put in the time to learn your MXT. Practice, practice,
practice - the more time you spend, the more confident and comfortable you will
feel with your detector, and the more good stuff you will find..
3) Does the meter really help
much in deciding whether to dig a target or not?
The
MXT has an excellent target ID system. Learning to use it is one of the first
priorities of the new MXT user (See the VDI score ID
chart in this document a few questions down).
The most important thing to remember is that the ID systems only are
accurate when you are passing the middle of the coil right over target (or very
close to it). So use the pinpoint to
find the target before making a final ID (and decision to dig or not). Sometimes in trashy areas the effects of
nearby targets can be misleading. Many
iron targets have a halo, and if you pass the coil a few inches away from the
target, not over the center, you can get a false "good" response -
even to the point, at times, of getting a full probability bar. Finding the true center of the target and
then passing the coil over it for an ID will give far more reliable
results. Also, when pulling the pinpoint
trigger to locate a target, be sure the coil is not over another target at the
time. Being over a target then pulling
the pinpoint trigger can give weird and unexpected results, so pinpoint over
clean soil. Unfortunately, in spite of
all these efforts, a few types of iron targets just seem to be especially good
at fooling VLF ID systems - this goes for all brands of VLF units, not just
Whites. Iron washers and steel bottle
caps are the chief culprits among these bad boys.
Its also important to note that the target ID is not accurate to the
full depth of detection. The engineering
manual says the ID is only accurate to about 3 inches. I have found it to go far deeper even in my
mineralized soil, and my experience is that it is accurate to at least 5
inches, but it is not reliably accurate to the full depth the MXT can reach. In some areas,
the iron content of the soil can cause a shift of the target VDI numbers on
deeply buried targets, usually dropping them lower than would be expected. Nickels can shift to the foil range, cents to
the pulltab/screwcap range, etc. It is also important to note that the target
ID will not work as deep as the detector will detect. In areas where there are likely deep, older
targets present, it is probably necessary to dig all deep non-iron targets - or
miss good finds. This especially
includes deep targets that are repeatable, but give no VDI reading at all. Because the very best finds are often the
deepest ones, deep non-iron or even no VDI targets should be investigated and
there is a good chance that these targets might produce old coins, or other
valuable finds. Deep targets that do
produce a VDI score can bounce around significantly,
and they often do not "lock in" as well as targets nearer the
surface.