Gbonus uralias

Haha!!! I just repeated that whole scenario this afternoon! North end of Zuma at low tide following the rocky cobble line in the wet sand, pushed up from the last high tide.... But I did 16 cents.... I had a couple times when I got good repeating single reading in my gold range just at the waters edge and I was playing tag with the waves as they chase me away and come back to the hole as she receded. But after I went a foot and the depth gage kept saying 4in....I walked. Lots of little clams everywhere too. Over the last couple years I got some nice rings in the north end, same low tide Coble piles, but better storms last year....so far. Oh well. Beautiful day at the beach! Cheers

Hey phrunt and thanks. A fun relaxing day overall even with all the work... I've been using ol blue (705) exclusively as of late and forcing myself to go with no discrimination. Its tough in trashy sites but I would've missed the Canadian nickel otherwise. Goldie is great too but I wish she had tone variance vs just the one sound ( I call it the crazy quail sometimes). I like to look up and around while swinging and still know what a target might be just by tone.

I also got one of these.....Canada 5 Cent piece. This thing is all over the place on Target ID. It never gives the same read out on every pass.... and it's magnetic. If I was using discrimination, I would've flew right over it.

Nice job Skate. Our shores have been getting replenished lately and I need to hit the beach too. G

"near mint" Haha! Still cool to pull out a big coin like that from time to time. And yes I sure do need a vacation!!! thats no joke!!

This last month has been crazy with no time for self-mental preservation. I told everyone to pound sand on Sunday as I'm going out hunting. I decided to do a little prospecting as well as some coin/jewelry hunting - both in one day. So I packed it all up and headed out. Got to a beautiful area that has a little Au if you're lucky and had a few crevasse areas I've been wanting to clean out. Spent about an 1-1/2 hrs cleaning it all out and panned it down. It looked SO promising as I was digging, but alas only some lead buck shot and a .22 slug. Had a sandwich and enjoyed the views and packed it up to go higher in elevation for some coin shooting. Hiked down into a great little campground that was closed for the winter and hit it for about 3.5 hrs for a total of a little over $8 in clad. No Silver or wheaties nor rings. I did hit a pocket that had these little gold plated charms that were all attached to a bracelet at one time. Each one rang out like a nickel, so I was getting excited after each one, but closer look showed plating wearing off.......wah,wah,wah. But I did get my outdoors/prospecting/treasure hunting jones out of the way for a little bit. the campground I went to had 30+ sites and I hit maybe 7 of them for the day. So I know there is more to go back for another day. My 6" coil would have been a better choice for the trashy sites, but still good practice picking good signals out between the trash. Cheers all!! G

I was going to suggest Keene as well.

Good point on how sometimes doing a personal recon to areas you are investigating, open up potential areas that you would not see via computer images. Also talking to the older folk at places like the Historical Society etc. who have a plethora of info in there heads and most enjoy sharing it too. Sweet find on that belt buckle!! if it could only tell us it's story.....

From one newbie to another - welcome.

UPDATE.. Well we made it to our destination of Carrizo Plains Nat monument, but the detectors never made it out of the bag. We had another rider with us whom is not a detectorist, so to make him stop and sit while we check spot out, was not going to happen. Too much road time and only enough time to set camp, and camp ground was full. So even if we wanted to hit camp spots in the dark.....no go....So it ended up just being a ride and no MDing. Sorry about that. Probably shouldn't even post this since there is no MDing involved. Cheers and happy TG to all. G

Cool! Here is a pic from our last trip up in Sequoia Nat. forest above Kernville. Big fire north of us, kind of smoked us out the whole weekend and the pickings were slim. No rings. No silver. I managed 1 wheatie (1945). Plenty of Quarters, dimes and nickels and zinc. Still a great ride and camp trip and detecting new areas. I will elaborate a bit more detail on this next trip. We plan on visiting Carrizo Plains national Monument as well, more than likely we won't do much detecting there, but we have some spots to recon on our way there.

Hello all! This weekend I am heading out for a Motor Cycle Camp trip (Adventure Bikes) and we always take our detectors. Hoping to find some nice out-of-the-way areas that have not been hit too hard. Camp Grounds have been a good source of hunting for us in the past and we have made about 5 trips this year on bikes, some are local day trips and others are over-nighter's. I love doing this and it has gotten me out to some really neat/old places. Just curious if anyone else out there has done this same type of hunting - MC/camping etc. I'll post the adventure here if anyone is interested.

You beat me to my follow-up question GB! Thank you for the well written and detailed answer. I must admit that I am still a bit of a gorilla when it comes to extracting targets and your points on potential coin values remind me of that. My cleaning and handling methods will be modified accordingly. Thank you. Most of the time I just drop the coin into my pouch and move on, looking at them more closely, later at home. But getting them into the pouch can be a little ugly and I need to work on my removal finesse and clean up. What if that wheat was a 1955 Double D - and I scratched it and or gouged it with a digging tool??? I'd be a little P-O'd. I was considering a sonic cleaner.... yes? no? maybe?

Well I guess cleaning with the scrub pad side of the kitchen sponge is the wrong thing? Haha still new at this I guess. The ring was fairly clean as was the dime, so I take blame on the penny only.

Good post GB. I too forced myself to try something new and out of my comfort zone and get the heck out there and do it!! Picked a new I place I've been staring at on my screen and saving for that "full" day I may get some time. And yes the usual excuses dribbled into my head as I am contemplating going.... yup - it was a long drive and not prepared for the cold. I had to hike in a few miles and I had to go alone and barely got out by dark.. blah, blah, blah.....and it was freaking AMAZING and can't wait to go out again. And for my efforts, I was rewarded with my first piece of silver in the three years I have been doing this. Needless to say, I drove home with a very big sense of accomplishment. Nugget hunting is on my list now to get out there and DO IT!! Cheers G

Hello all and happy Monday. I was able to get out for the day yesterday and decided to tackle an area I have been researching in the local forest. An old trail camp site with no car access. This place has a lot of history even before the Forest service took it over and made it a public camp. I hiked in and brought my X705 with the Elliptical coil - I should have brought my 6" DD for where i was at, but the Elliptical worked OK. I just focused on two sites with the 2 hours I had to hunt. I was stoked to score my first piece of Silver - 1940 Merc. and then a nice 1955 Wheatie. Kept going and what was ringing out like a solid Nickel, ended up being a nice Titanium ring!! Also lots of Pennies, Dimes and Nickels with most dating in the 60's and 70's. As I was hiking up and out of the Canyon, I came across this.. I was very happy on my drive home and I feel confident that I have found some virgin ground that I can go back to again. I want to back-pack in some time and spend the night for a real good hunt. that would be fun.

GB I am using the 18.75 - a little better on the smaller gold items etc. I too have a little dialing in to do, but I think it will be a good weapon for the right situation. I also have a little 6" DD in the 18.75 - perfect for tight areas with lots of trash to sift through but also very sensitive! Salt water has no mercy..... not sure how long that takes though..

Great post! I've got silver on my bucket list and sites to explore as well. so good read for that. But the jewelry tips as well!! I can't be on this site while at work!! the reading here is too good and I get sucked up into it all! Darn you all !!

Thanks Mike and good points. I am adjusting accordingly for the 705 reaction time. And I have determined that I am not in a competition either at least for speed or quantity (but still a best find comp with my buddy) . I'll do my own hunt and enjoy it - but always learning and make some necessary changes too! Cheers and thank you. G

OK I got out yesterday at lunch and hit the nearby beach for a half hour. Gridded off an area about 100 sq ft and went to it. Every solid hit went into my scoop, the chatty ones I passed up (and if it WAS a deep keeper - I didn't have the right tool with me to get it anyway). So stuck with scoop-depth targets. I' used the new 15" WOT I acquired (thanks Tim) on my X705. She is indeed very sensitive and noisy running over the wet sand, and since at that moment I forgot how to activate the Beach-ground mode and I should have maybe tried the auto ground track too - but didn't....., I just dropped sensitivity down and stayed in dryer sand. But she was quite easy to use when discerning multiple targets next to each other and I picking one of my quarters out of some junk. So I felt good about that - And I also was calling out the target before viewing, and the lead weights had me going for sure! Everything my detector said to dig, I dug. and went in my pouch. here was my findings (trash and all) for that 30 mins.

Great read! And real good points to keep in mind on my next hunt. G

Thanks Folks!! Boy I have some serious reading to do here during my lunch break. Most excellent responses - Thank you all so much! As GB said, I will be re-reading these again for sure! I also noticed that this post of mine could almost be combined with my other post on this forum, so I do apologize for the redundancy . I have had this 705 for a little over a year now, but hunting maybe 1 to 2 times a week and sometimes a month goes by without (and I'm trying ti rectify that as well) But this X705 is a great machine for sure and as you all say - I need to learn it - and trust it too! Time in the saddle is what it takes. Cheers all and thanks for your patience with a relative noob. G

Hello and thank you all for your detailed and thoughtful responses. You all hit the nail on the head on all your points. Steve, He does indeed have more experience and he hunts almost every morning compared to my maybe 2 times a week. And he's not much cherry picking either. He dig's it all if it's giving him the right number - even deep ones. AND he is the luckyest SOB I know on top of it all! And I think you have a good idea. Tag along with him and listen to his machine and pay attention to his technique on what he digs, when he digs, etc. It may help me out as long as I apply it to my machine. Cabin fever, Goldpick Johnedoe, You are also correct on all your points and I will run your words of wisdom threw my head on my next hunt. I too am not in such a hurry and I enjoy looking up from time to time just to taking the surroundings. When I hunt alone, I really do enjoy ALL aspects of it.. The Hunt, The outdoors, blah, blah, blah, and keeping that in mind as my buddy is 100 yds ahead of me, will help me not let that get to me, and just focus on my own hunt. Thank you all again, and this really is giving me the affirmations I've been telling myself - but needed to hear from like minded, as well as more experienced peers such as yourselves. Cheers and happy hunting. G

Hello all, Over the past few hunts with a buddy of mine, there are a few differences that stand out between us in our results. I am using an Xterra 705 and he is using an AT pro. Both of us using a 9" to 12" double D. The first thing I notice is that he covers FAR more ground than I do. He walks real fast and his swings are very broad with no overlap. Sometimes a 2 ft gap or more between his swings. Me, I seem to miss targets when I try and keep up with his pace. I have seen my machine miss some altogether on a sweep, then show up on a slower pass. So I then slow my swing and back to my overlapping. He is also quick with his Target ID . He doesn't spend a long time deciphering the target. Me, I seem to spend a lot of time on false singles - never a solid, consistent signal - but a coin number or ring number faintly pops up quick, in the trash clatter. So I spend the time, coming at it from different angles and slower and faster swings. And it is usually nothing of course....or so deep, I'm not digging anyway. And at the end of the day, he usually has double the finds, plus a ring or two (and usually no ring in my pouch is due to my impatience with trash and not digging everything). My first reaction...Buy a bigger coil. And this will indeed help me in gaining more ground coverage. But I still need work on Target ID and as in my other post, know when to walk away. I also question the machines and each ones reaction times? Are AT pros a "quicker" machine than an Xterra 705? Just the nature of the beast? Any advice on technique would be very much appreciated. Especially related to the Xterra. Cheers G

Hello all, I find myself spending - what I think - is too much time on chatter with my X705. Trashy areas that within the chatter of tones/numbers from trash, a diggable tone/number pops up. But it is never consistent, even after changing my direction and speed of swing etc. Yet I still seem to spend too much time and energy on that signal that turns up as nothing. Now I have gotten better at picking targets out of clutter, and of those times I do note that the signal was indeed "Consistent" . So I have proven to myself - the solid signal means target and warbled-inconsistent tones are not. I keep telling myself to leave it and keep moving, but tend to second guess myself wondering if I'm walking away from a good target and the proverbial "What if". So is it best to keep my first thought and spend that extra time? Or good for the odds and better to move on and spend time on known targets. Cheers G