It is somewhat difficult to guess what is going on with your test garden observation but I will try to answer the best I can. First of all, you should get considerably more depth on a 58-cal minie ball than 7 inches under typical conditions. I suspect your X5 is working correctly since you are able to find all the targets by lowering the DISC to a point of minimum discrimination (all-metal discrimination) unless your DISC control knob is not calibrated correctly. To check the calibration, turn the knob fully counter clockwise into the Battery Test mode. The white marker on the knob should be pointing directly at the yellow "dot" in Battery Test.

What you observed from your test is the typical results you should expect from one of several factors or possibly a combination of them. Your test indicates the X5 is having difficulty penetrating the soil conditions in your test garden while using discrimination but is not having difficulty when operating without discrimination. Here are some of the most common factors that will cause this result with any detector. 1) Soil has high iron mineralization, 2) Soil contains other unknown metal object or objects that is causing a masking effect, 3) External metal object such as boots with steel toes or steel shanks etc that is causing masking. 4) Ground Balance control not set correctly 5) Fresh test garden and soil was not packed tightly around the test target 6) Strong electrical interference. All-metal operation will always penetrate deeper than Discrimination under the above conditions.

The setting of "8" on the SENS control is recommended because this setting can be used in most situations and locations. For maximum depth a higher setting should be used. We calibrate the X5's to start internal circuit noise at a setting of "9".

A DISC setting of "3.5" is recommended when hunting in heavy iron trash, but for maximum depth it should be "2.8 to 3" depending on the individual detector. To determine the best setting for you, place a square nail on the ground and adjust the DISC level to the point where the nail produces a slight broken signal when swinging the coil over the nail with a slow to moderate speed. (Check the ground first with minimum DISC to ensure the ground is target free.) When increasing the sweep speed over the nail, the audio response should disappear or produce an intermittent popping sound, which indicates a small iron target.

The reason we recommend adjusting the Ground Balance control ¼ turn positive for searching in the discrimination mode is to reduce the ground effects (noise) when searching in bad soil conditions. For maximum depth, especially in light mineralized soil, a setting of 1/8 turn positive or less can be used.

If I read your observation correctly, any detector running smoother with little to no discrimination makes no sense me???

I hope this information will be helpful to you.

Thanks,

Troy