For many people, beginning their adventures in metal detecting start right here with Minelab Xterra 305.
The Xterra 305 is lightweight, easy to use with audio/visual ID and 12 point discrimination. This machine let you choose what target that you want to dig.
The control panel
Contents
Power button – on and off
The pattern button – scrolls through discrimination patterns. It has 2 preset discrimination pattern as well as the all metal pattern that doesn’t reject or discriminate any metal.
The accept reject button – Used to accept and reject certain targets that Xterra 305 detects them by turning on and off the individual discrimination segments and display.
All metal button – Toggles between current discrimination patterns and the all metal pattern. All metal means that the xterra 305 will detect all metals regardless of what they are.
Ground balance button – Activates ground balance function. This is use to adjust the detector to compensate from mineralization and different type of soil.
Menu button – use to enter the main menu at any time of the detectors is turn on. The menu button also use to scroll to all the settings of the Xterra 305.
Pinpoint/Detect – This button has 2 functions. It turn the pinpoint on and off and the button also use to exit out of the main menu and back to the main detecting mode.
Plus and minus button – adjust the settings in the menu and also scrolls left and right through the discrimination segments on the LCD screen.
Now that you are familiar with the control panel, let’s go with the quick start guide to get you up on the detecting right away.
Right after you turn on the machine, first thing you need to do is choose the discrimination pattern. If you are new to detecting, we always recommended that you start out with pattern 1. You will see the 1 or 2 on the left hand side of the display screen.
Again, as you are new to detecting, let start out on pattern 1. Next step is to set the sensitivity and the volume. From the factory pre-set, your sensitivity is already set at 6. The factory pre-set is just perfect.
To set the volume, go to the menu again and choose the volume section. We always recommend you turn it all the way up. 1 of the unique features of the Xterra detectors is that when you plug in a headphone, the volume automatically lowers to a comfortable level and then you can make an adjustment from there.
Noise cancellation of the Xterra 305
Noise cancelling is use to lessen or eliminate electromagnetic interference. Noises like from other detectors or any other things from the environment.
By using the menu button, you are going to pick the noise cancel icon and then use the plus and minus button to pick the quietest channel.
How to ground balance the Xterra 305
Hold the machine about 3 or 4 inches of the ground and press the ground balance button. As you pump the machine up and down, you will use the plus and minus button to change the pitch of the detector and listening to where it changes from a high tone to low tone, or to where the detector has the same tone going up and down.
The coil
Xterra 305 comes with 7.5 hertz all metal type coil and it works very well on dry sand but not really well in a very mineralized soil and also in wet sand. There is a few different type of coil that you can put on the xterra 305 such as the VFlex Technology coil or any other Xterra coil instead of the stock coil.
I recommend the DD coil for this machine because it works a lot better with the mineralized soil.
The shaft
The Xterra 305 is part of the minelab adventure series, features the family pack which includes 2 lower shaft, the standard, and the more shorter shaft for kid making the Xterra 305 a perfect choice for everyone in the family to begin their adventures.
The shaft of this metal detector is really nice and strong. Its not flimsy compared to the most other cheap entry-level metal detectors.
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