All Activity

What you just stated about audio quality is spot on appreciate Jeff doing the Video but honestly would anyone have got down and investigated that target, based on the audio or target IDs, with these analogs when they lock onto a non ferrous target there is no clipping with an occasional good tone the tones from these analogs is a good solid hit with no clipping, it is all in the audio for me, I do not have to try to decipher what they are telling me as Jeff stated I also am not against the fully digital detectors at all, and yes I would also be very interested in a SMF Vista X also I guess it all boils down to which type of detector gives someone the most satisfaction and makes detecting the most fun for someone and for me personally that is the beep and digs right now

Good test, thanks for showing at least one of these newer detectors can kind of pull non ferrous targets through crap like that, I still have my fully digital detectors but with the Analogs I am having fun and as I have said for me personally that is what detecting is supposed to be fun, not frustrating.

This one's dedicated to my good friend Conor.

A bit ... when you are PUBLIC with a Stock Price there are forces at work that require PROFITS and sometimes the strategies for profit have adverse consequences. Customers can buy other products if it isn't a monopoly.

May 6 2003 A Blood Curdling Cry We all got to working on the trail early this morning. We are making good progress. Around noon we stopped work to have lunch. Paul pointed up in the direction of the canyon and told us no one had ever worked an entire Summer there as far as he knew. As a matter of fact, he said he hadn’t heard of anyone working or exploring there for years with the exception being himself. He admitted that even he could not bring himself to stay in that canyon for more than a week without getting out for a break. Between the heat and the critters it was more than most could handle. Paul did say there may be people going in and out of the area in secret. We would have to keep our eyes open for any trouble. Unfortunately we are used to that. By dusk we were tired and ready for supper. As we headed back towards camp we all of a sudden heard the most blood curdling cry you could imagine. It came from the direction of Dreamwind Canyon. I couldn’t tell if it was an animal or human. It made my skin crawl. Clay asked Paul what he thought it was. He shook his head and said coming from there it could be damn near anything. Whatever it was it sounded like it just got murdered. It creeped me out knowing Paul and I were just in there yesterday. When we got back to camp Jacob had supper ready once again. We told him about the cry and he didn’t make much of it. He just flatly stated that’s why we carry guns out here. I just have a bad feeling about this deal. I can’t get that sound out of my head. TO BE CONTINUED ............

Oceania gold, is now in a battle with a large number of New Zealand music artists trying to prevent it from mining gold under conservation land. OceanaGold Corporation (OceanaGold) is a gold mining and exploration company based in Vancouver, Canada and Brisbane, Australia. OceanaGold operates the Haile Gold Mine in the United States, the Didipio Mine in the Philippines, and the Macraes and Waihi mines in New Zealand. It is publicly listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker "OGC" and was formerly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. A fight over mining under conservation land is heating up in the Coromandel between Oceania Gold and Martin Donoghue who leading a cohort of musicians into the fray. A video on the story can be seen here. And the News story on it here. This is the area here, the big hole in the ground towards the bottom left is the existing Waihi gold mine that Mitchel visited recently, and they want to underground mine the spot at the end of the access portal under the national park area, must be very productive ground as it looks a very expensive operation. They claim 1.5 million ounces of gold is there. I don't know much about it all, but a big fight is going on over it by the sounds of it.

I have a near Mint GTI 2500 that was donated to MD4V.org. If anyone is interested in giving a tax deductible donation for it, please message me. Thanks!

Yes, real life is the real test. I actually have some hope that DeepTech will consider a SMF unit. Whether it gets produced depends on a lot of things, including the possibility of being sued. DeepTech listened to user suggestions for a lower frequency machine and coincidence or not, introduced the Abyss.

D4AU, I`ve weakened and swung over to the dark side, should have a brand new non defective 6K in my mits Monday. Need trouser braces this week. 😉

I hate to love em, if their gold detectors weren`t so bloody productive, I`d boycott em. 😉

What I found interesting was they were saying the ground was really hot, and I have no doubt's it likely was, but the Algoforce barely needed balanced, in fact when he did balance it went to 50/51 or 51/50, so basically neutral with 50/50 being default, looks like he could have ran all day in that spot without balancing at all, unless its variable but it didn't seem to care, never did I notice in his video the balance numbers changing. It's surprising the ground the Algo can handle without ground balancing often. I expected it to be like the QED where you need to regularly keep it adjusted but it does tend to handle ground better. This is it on extremely salty soil, the balance reads 50/00 I could run it in this area even though the salt levels change dramatically without constant ground balancing, although it would likely benefit on tiny gold with regular balaicng it wasn't getting ground feedback after doing the initial balance to the area. I'd been messing around with coils so this one wasn't calibrated so I have to calibrate it in the video, hard to hold two buttons down with one hand with the other holding the phone to record 🙂 I'd like to see the Algo at work in highly variable ground in OZ to see how it goes, I think it'd be pretty good at handling it without throwing the balance out too much, as the two bars at the top show you when you need to balance as they expand out, you'll notice in Ed's video that's not happening, he doesn't need to balance often at all. The reason that larger pellet he found had the 7 ID was highly likely because it was not a lead pellet. It's the lead pellets that ID at 00. He did quite well with that video, and what he demonstrated was a typical experience a new user to the detector would have. Everything I saw in that video was genuine, the only slight thing was he lifted the Algo on their air tests over the 3 bits of gold, he ran the 6000 right over them not lifting showing the air depths just the response near touching them, the 6000 would have won in that if he lifted it but it's obviously a much more expensive detector.

Is Codan to blame for this? D4G

As to whether the video I made is a 2D test or not…. I would label it a 2.5. Some of those targets are on the same plane and some aren’t. The hot rocks at that video site can sound off from several inches below the surface and so can the nails. I am swinging my coil more than inch off the surface so I won’t bump into anything. The penny is almost an inch below some of the nails. So, definitely not exactly on the same plane. I too would be very interested in a Deep Tech SMF.

I should have my 9" Tuesday. I'm looking forward to using it a few places. Should be a great gold nugget coil IMO. Good middle of the road coil for most anything from parks to relic hunting.

ahh yes, the battery is high up on the shaft too with a long cord. That could destroy that idea, I forgot too.

Perhaps the thing they haven't taken into account was dealers helped build their product popularity, they had it good to do this as Minelab was generally ahead or in some types of detectors well ahead of all other brands Now, dealers that they're kicking to the door can easily sell other brands and help build them up, not many people now believe Minelab are the top dog with any VLF model, their gold VLF I believe is behind the competition with the Garrett 24k, their high end SMF's have two other major brands with XP and Nokta that are either as good if not better and hopefully a new Storm from Garrett soon and even more brands doing them now too from other lesser-known manufacturers like Quest that appear very good also. The proper gold detectors now have cheaper alternatives like the Axiom and Algoforce soon to be in the US that are getting closer and closer to being real competition especially the Axiom for much cheaper prices, with another big one to come shortly from Nokta. I see this as an opportunity for dealers, they could embrace the other brands, build up them like they did Minelab. Quite easy for VLF's as they can sell other brands knowing full well, that they are selling detectors equal to or better than the Minelab's. The high-end gold machines not quite yet but they can sell cheaper detectors that will still get the job done most of the time and help bring new customers into it with the cheaper pricing. The cheaper machines maybe half or less of the price but they're not half or less of the performance. If someone still wants the Minelab sure, they can have it, but there are options on the market now they can look into as alternatives with another big player hopefully releasing theirs soon too. So, If I was a dealer, I'd be speaking to these other manufacturers and starting to focus on their products instead. Dealers already selling multiple brands just need to shift their promotion, any Minelab exclusive dealers need to ditch that and embrace the alternatives. Minelab may notice how valuable dealers actually were.

When I run the 11" coil, headphones in AT General, Gold or ATLC which are the modes I use the most. I'm getting about 8 hours out of the Manticore. I've run my battery down to the low battery warning quite a few times as I generally hunt 9-10 hrs when I'm out. I almost always have to switch over to another detector on these long hunts.

It sure is nice to see older coins like those in good condition. They are such classically beautiful designs.

Hi mcjtom, I lower the Recovery speed to the minimum (1) to get maximum depth. In saltwater the targets are rarely so close to each other, don't need more. I usually start working with a sensitivity of 12-13 and if conditions allow I go up. Rarely above 17-18. A couple of friends have arrived at the XTPro...

Good video Jeff, of a common, but often unnoticed situation. What I call 2D orientation. Same for Ziggy's video. This is, on the surface, Monte Berry's nail board type set up. It is, in fact the easiest of scenarios to have success with using most any decent detector & coil. But what about what cannot be seen under the surface? The 3D or so called 2.5D target orientations. This is where detectors have to perform to be considered top unmaskers for me because that is what I hunt in the majority of the time. I have both, hybrid analog(Vista X) and full digital detectors. I really like both. They each have strengths that are just enough different to keep them in use. The game changer for me is not analog vs digital, it is Simultaneous Multi Frequency. SMF just handles my ground soooo much better. It also handles iron trash better in terms of false responses. Does it unmask better? Maybe. But it unmasks easier. I don't have to listen thru a barrage of noise. I can do it with the Vista X and my Single Frequency digitals that have open gated audio like the Anfibio, but it is demanding. SMF is much less chaotic and allows me to listen better and deeper for much longer. As far as pure depth on isolated targets, it again boils down to how well the unit handles the Ground. I think the debate is on the wrong subject. Audio quality, as subjective as that is, is the focus for me. Any TID or screen display is always secondary. In the end, it is all between your ears, in more ways than one. ps; what I would really like to try is a SMF Vista X. That might be the best of both worlds.

What is being described here is a different 'counting system' on behalf of Minelab USA. It's clear when talking to the different dealers that Minelab is focused on the NUMBER of sales and not HOW the sales are being made. It is hard to measure loyalty on the bottom line. They have seemingly abandoned relationship selling. Minelab USA has lost a relationship with many of its dealers and the Dealers prefer to work with distributors rather than being stocking dealers any longer. Minelab has created other direct purchase routes and big box stores which has broken the relationship between some customers and their dealers. Detectors are more of a product sale and less of a device sale that requires training and additional support. It should also be stated there are a few customers out here that have broken their relationship with their dealer and give Minelab an earful about that too. All part of sales. I've been to several customer sales events put on by Minelab in the past. They can put on a pretty good dog and pony show for a weekend. I've won some Minelab products. I've purchased my detectors through dealers. Margins for Minelab USA going through the old dealer network must be lower than other channels now. The year-end bonus for Minelab USA employees is probably calculated in a different way. Unit sales? Sales volume? When a potential customer would call Minelab in the past they would be referred to a local dealer. Where do they get referred now?

Online sales and how-to videos are the present and future of most industries, so, better get used to it. The younger generation is glued to their smart phones and they are what will drive the market. I went to get some new hiking boots of the type I like before I was to leave on a trip. Went to Dick's Sporting Goods, REI, etc.....nope, nothing in stock.....you have to order them......7-10 days they will come in. WTF?

Nice! Is that a Liberty Cap in the middle of the pile?

Love that gold in the scoop!!!

I'm running the stock 11 inch with a BT transmitter plugged into the head phone jack volume at 20, not using ATHC and after 6 hr I have about 25% left. I'm guessing, the headphones might have some extra draw going on.