MX-5 Love at First Swing

Yep it's marked 18K GE. And stones are not real. It was still a fun time and better than a pocket full of zincolns. I only managed 1 wheatie and 5 coppers besides the junker ring
 

Got one I like it and find things regularly at the 6 to 8" range and have found things a bit deeper have a medallion to honor civil war soilsiers who had died and that was in my parents backyard a hundred feet into the first twenty min of owning it
 

Well done! What was the vdi reading?

It was a solid 76-77 if I remember correctly. Besides the lightweight the high ID was the first tip that it was a junker. I scanned my wedding band and it rang up at 35-37
 

Well I like my mx5. On the wet sand it has worked fine, but one beach I was on had a lot of black sand running in thick streaks that had made me turn down the sen two notches from the preset.
I just bought a 5x10 DD coil, detech brand from metaldetectors.com I like this coil over the standard concentric that came it.
I have an area next to my driveway that I checked with the concentric coil found five targets, then changed over to the detech coil and rechecked it and found 11 targets one being a nice little broch. Max depth is about 10" inches for quarter concentric, 9" for dd but better coverage. My MX5 with the 5 x10 Detech coil is a real killer. I ordered it on Tuesday and had it on Saturday. Free shipping from east coast to the west coast.
 

I used mine for the first time last Sunday, my buddy uses a minelab explorer 2 so before I dug any targets I had him scan the target also just as a comparison, and I scanned his also just for comparison, and we found the mx5 to be more accurate than the explorer, I found a Morgan which rang up in the silver dollar range, his rang up it as a junk signal and he said he wouldn't have dug it, he found a walking liberty half which rang up on mine at 89 to 91 which is dead on and it rang up as a dime on his. The mx5 is a bit more chatty than I'm used to but dang I can used to that, I ran threshold around 5 and sensitivity two notches below max and the machine was happy to do it, a very easy machine to run hot, especially once you get the threshold right, I love this machine already, nickels rang up between 18 and 20 on all three of the ones I found. Awesome machine first time out, can't imagine how awesome it will be once I've learned it really well
 

I have had my MX5 for 6 months, and I learn something almost every time I take it out on improving my number of finds, and this month improving on silver coins and ring finds, while eliminating about 98% of all trash including zinc cents, which I do not like finding. Silver coins are my #1 goal and #2 is saving time digging. So I run extremely high discrimination notching in only 70 thru 90. I miss some good gold targets and nickels, but I save my knees, after over 44 years doing this, it works for me right now. Please let us know your future comments and finds with your MX5.....Good Luck.

HH
Bill

 

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I have been running mine either wide open 2 tone or with the bottom 3-4 segments blanked out and 8 tone in cleaner areas. Haven't found anything worth digging from 0-20. I know some small rings will fall there but like you said, is it really worth digging all the foil and trash! I like the goose sound it makes mid conductive targets.
 

Fletch ...did you give up on the f19? Do you like the mx5 better? What do you like better? I looked at a mx5 about a year ago but hadnt heard enough about it.
 

Keep us abreast of how well it performs lad, on another note, I need some input from those of you that have these, I am torn between getting a Fisher F75 or a Minelab ETrac....I am in Virginia and I do beaches, parks, and civil war areas......need some info on which of these would be the best. Thanks
 

Fletch ...did you give up on the f19? Do you like the mx5 better? What do you like better? I looked at a mx5 about a year ago but hadnt heard enough about it.

Well I didn't give up on it but decided to sell it to fund a MXT-Pro which I have only used briefly.
 

Keep us abreast of how well it performs lad, on another note, I need some input from those of you that have these, I am torn between getting a Fisher F75 or a Minelab ETrac....I am in Virginia and I do beaches, parks, and civil war areas......need some info on which of these would be the best. Thanks

If you had not have said beaches I would say the F75 (or T2) and if you only do salt water beaches occasionally I still may. The Etrac runs very good on wet salt sand but it lacks ground balance and some of the highly conductive soil in parts of Virgina may not be ideal. The CTX has manual ground balance and is waterproof. I tried my MX-5 for just a few minutes on salt and was not impressed. I was using a Concentric coil though, which is not ideal for salt water hunting with a VLF.
 

Outbacker, you may look at the Fors CoRe and Makro Racer. They supposedly do pretty well in salt and are good relic machines.
 

I detected this weekend in a wet sandy marshy area and I wasn't having any luck at all, so i decided to try beach mode and lo and behold I started making some finds, I ended up with some wheat cents, all in all I'm very pleased with the mx5
 

I would have to agree with fletch....the etrac is a great coin machine but struggles on deep relics here in VA. The f75 does well but isnt a beach machine. The forscore would be worth checking out....seems like a great machine.
 

Hi Fletch88, I have noticed you have tried quite a few detectors over the years, I have been interested in picking up a MX5 and very much value your opinion. Glad to hear the praise for the MX5. Have you, or anyone compared the MX5 to the Minelab X-Terra 705? Thanks

Scanman
 

I tested a 705 for a few months and it is a good lightweight machine. It has all the features of the MX-5 plus a good prospecting mode if you ever plan on nugget hunting.
 

How did your MX5 compare to your Sovereign and not beach hunting just inland hunting ?
 

Keppy, I like the MX-5 a lot better for inland hunting. The recovery speed is much faster, lighter and of course all the controls are at your fingertips. In any kind of trash or iron the ability to hunt with zero disc in 2 tone gives the MX a much better advantage. I think the depth is about equal with the 9" concentric spider on the MX compared to the Sovereign with the 10"DD. As you know you cannot accept iron with BBS machines so masking is a huge issue.
 

I was at one point considering the MX5 but was discouraged from it since others stated that it was not a good machine and my CZ5 was a much superior detector. Like you said the controls on the unit was at your finger tips, it has a great interface, and I really liked the tones. Now I am considering the Makro Racer and it does seem impressive but your point of view has me back to the MX5 again. Quite the dilemma! What do to???
 

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