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I get a call from a friend who owns a farm in upper Westchester County, New York, who tells me his wife lost her wedding ring feeding cattle, and would I come up and detect for it. So I'm in the area where Shannon thinks she lost the ring scanning, and I get a hit that is way too big for a ring and deep. Curiosity got the better of me and I dug it. What was left of a tin, or thin metal (Lunch?) box had this in it wrapped in a rag. Any ideas? My wife thinks it was some kids art project. I'm not convinced. Still looking for the ring. Scheduled to go back up tomorrow. Thanks for looking!

The Toltec 100 was a standard model here in the U.S. in the early to mid-1990s. From the catalog (click or double click for larger versions):

I never had major issues with the original one. I bought several of them when they were still available here in the US because I knew they would run out at some point. Looking forward to trying Doc's new version. The hipstick has made all the difference for me and I can swing the 7000 all day long without major pain at night. So, I can recommend this to anyone. GC

If you haven't noticed detectors like the Manticore are very slow at charging their tiny little battery, when they're capable of charging much faster, slower charges are better for the battery, and are far safer than fast charging. I doubt you'll see an exploding metal detector. 🙂 Cars on the other hand.....

The Faraday shielding measurements probably wouldn't help much. I've measured the resistance between nearly every 1" section on their coils and the values are all over the place. Also end to end, top to bottom, no pattern. It's like someone just painted it by hand with a brush (yes, there are brush strokes) which is NOT going to give consistent results. And this is also likely why three of the exact same coils perform completely differently from each other. I have coils set aside as backups because they are not stable or the detection field is not consistent. If anyone is failing at making an aftermarket coil for the Axiom that works well, they are likely just matching the inductance, shielding how one would shield a GPX coil, and not checking anything else like matching frequencies or capacitance. The Axiom is far more sensitive to the capacitance of the coil winding more than the GPX.

The real ones not even expensive, I don't see why people buy the fakes other than they're not even aware there are real and fake ones which is highly likely. As for the elastic, it's just a hair tie which you can buy a pack of 25 for a couple of dollars so that's a non-issue really to have a few spares of that available.

That is a very nice find to break in a new detector. The Vista X is a fun unit.

I would only suggest that if you're going to get either a Hipstick or Doc's Dalas, that you get the actual product and not some ripoff. Yes the real thing may be a touch more expensive, but out in the field the last thing anyone wants is for the thing to break. I have used a Hipstick since its inception. Yes maybe the little elastic breaks every once in a while, but big picture, I have never had an issue that has stopped me from using the Hipstick as intended. That is worth paying for.

I run them all. I used to almost exclusively use the 11" mono. But now it's the 11" DD-FC. If I'm hunting boulderish bedrock, 11" mono. For peeking down into deep cracks I'll use the DD-FC. Open fields, 13-16" DD-FC I have not found gold bearing ground that is suited for my 13" - 16" Mono coils in the Sierra Nevada motherlode. The 16" DD-FC will find sub gram gold. I dug a 0.4g piece from about 8" deep. When hunting open areas with a lot of hot rocks I will often run on medium pulse timing, slow to medium ground tracking. Target depth on a 1.5oz nugget is about 15%-20% deeper when using the 16" coil even with medium timing on. The 16" coil is less sensitive to the pulse timing changes. Switching out of fine mode with the 11" coil neuters the field of detection significantly. 16", not so much. 13" DD-FC, also not so much. 11", you're missing gold.

yea, that's some sort of home made thing, well they all are really except Doc's version which is a custom-made product from parts exclusive for the purpose, not just repurposing other stuff to make a hipstick. This would be my choice if I was getting one, it fixes up the flaws with the original version along with improving the entire design. Doc's shipping to our part of the world can be very reasonable too, he's got it all worked out.

Nice ring Chuck and keep at it there should be more to be found.

*top of the coil core (not cord)

BTW, if your Axiom coil has a core that moves when you shake it, warranty it. If it's not under warranty for whatever reason, I can fix it for a fee just to cover my time and shipping, a courtesy to my fellow Axiom users. You'll get a coil back with several patched holes on the top. All removed carbon paint will be replaced as determined by running a bore scope across the top of the coil cord, and drilling a hole to reapply shielded paint and complete the Faraday shield. The foam core will be secured in place with expanded foam. If any wires are damaged I will not be fixing them. Or not guaranteeing a fix.

I do have full specs for their coils as well as full teardown pics. They are not chipped. They are built on a blue foam core with carbon paint Faraday shielding. They are weakly attached to the coil top with some dots of adhesive. When this breaks, the coil becomes highly knock sensitive and it also rips off part of the conductive shielded paint which leads to even more issues with stability. They use litz wire for the TX coil and fine stranded non shieleded for the RX on their DD-FC. These are the only details I'll be sharing publicly. Here are some raw notes from my measurements with known good and known defective coils. Garrett 11" mono LCR Readings for inductance / quality between pins measured at 1 kHz 1-2 - 212 uH / 0.107 APO Q 1-3 - 12.26 uH / 0.239 APO Q 1-4 - 12.224 uH / 0.240 APO Q 2-3 - 12.224 uH / 0.240 APO Q 2-4 - 12.28X uH / 0.239 APO Q 3-4 - 226 - 245 242 uH / 1.56 2.43 APO Q Resistance Between Pins 1-2 - 12.7 ohms 1-3 - 2.227 Mohms 1-4 - 2.225 Mohms 2-3 - 2.145 Mohms 2-4 - 2.224 Mohms 3-4 - 0.8 -1 ohms Garrett 11" DD-FC (Defective) LCR Readings for inductance / quality between pins measured at 1 kHz 1-2 - 560 uH / 0.455 APO Q - 555 uH measured from inside coil 1-3 - 615 uH / 0.027 APO Q (Possible short) 1-4 - 615 uH / 0.027 APO Q (Possible short) 2-3 - 615 uH / 0.027 APO Q (Possible short) 2-4 - 615 uH / 0.027 APO Q (Possible short) 3-4 - 314 uH / 1.56 2.81 APO Q - 305 uH measured from inside coil Resistance Between Pins 1-2 - 8 ohms 1-3 - 0 1-4 - 0 2-3 - 0 2-4 - 0 3-4 - 0.95 ohms Coil housing was carefully opened to ensure no damage was caused during disassembly and the following measurements were taken. Resistance from connector to inside coil housing Pin 1 to bare wire - 0.5 ohms Pin 2 to bare wire - 8 ohms Pin 3 to green - 0.83 ohms Pin 3 to white - 0.25 ohms Pin 4 to green - 0.27 - 0.4 ohms Pin 4 to white - 0.85 ohms Pin 4 connection to white / green bridge Pin 1 Black Pin 2 Red Pin 3 White Pin 4 Green Resistors off white/green wire both measure 0.9-1 ohm but should be: 1 ohm (brown/black/red/gold) +/- 5% expected range for tolerance rating should be 0.95-1.05 ohms (Within tolerance) 1.5 ohms (brown/green/red/gold) +/- 5% expected range for tolerance rating should be 1.425-1.575 ohms (Potentially out of tolerance, need to double check) Litz wire on TX side, about 0.2mm, strands count unknown. 30 turns, ~24" per turn, ~60' total. 305 uH measured from inside coil Very thin black wire on RX side, 38 windings, length measurements not yet taken for RX, but there are several inches of additional wire in a single twisted loop in the center of the focused core underneath a piece of tape. 555 uH measured from inside coil. Resistor on black wire 1.20 kohms +/- 5% tolerance (brown/red/red/gold). Focused core foam measures 4”x2” with TX winding overlapping RX winding. Control unit to coil cable length ~4.5' Black/Red 20ga or 22ga? Green/White 18ga? Copper stranded shielding around the entire cable group, but individual wires do not appear to be RF isolated from each other. Frequency listed as 1500Hz from one online store. FCC filings only list the wireless headphones. Measured frequency of white and bare wire is 1.4 kHz, and 2.5 kHz - 2.6 kHz for green wire. Red wire disconnected breaks iron check. Coil still surprisingly functional & stable even with large portions of graphite paint shielding removed and red wire detached. Note, this is taking into account, and comparing to the performance of the coil prior to being disassembled. Resistance across graphite paint on inner foam coil surface at 1” distance. Measurements taken at various spots to get full coverage 133 ohms 13 ohms 21 ohms 56 ohms 96 ohms 27 ohms 22 ohms 48 ohms Conductive paint is really thin on the nose of the coil and varies in thickness. Application is quite inconsistent and I see no pattern to explain the varying thickness. I believe this is a place that can be addressed for more consistent detection across the entire surface of the coil and may explain why my 11” mono coil is hotter on one corner than its neighboring corner. End to end on RX side, full length of coil: 0.3 kohms to 0.4 kohms End to end on RX side, 1cm from edge of coil: 67-69 ohms Garrett 11" DD-FC (Separate Coil That Doesn’t Have Moving Coil Core) LCR Readings for inductance / quality between pins measured at 1 kHz 1-2 - In line with expected values from other coils 1-3 - ~67 H In line with expected values from other DD-FC coils 1-4 - ~67 H In line with expected values from other DD-FC coils 2-3 - ~67 H In line with expected values from other DD-FC coils 2-4 - ~67 H In line with expected values from other DD-FC coils 3-4 - In line with expected values from other coils Garrett 13" DD-FC LCR Readings for inductance / quality between pins measured at 1 kHz 1-2 - 555 uH / 0.395 APO Q 1-3 - 67.X H / 20.X APO Q 1-4 - 67.X H / 20.X APO Q 2-3 - 67.X H / 20.X APO Q 2-4 - 67.X H / 20.X APO Q 3-4 - 278.5 uH / 2.42 APO Q Resistance Between Pins 1-2 - 9.22 ohms 1-3 - 0 1-4 - 0 2-3 - 0 2-4 - 0 3-4 - 1.13 ohms Garrett 16" DD-FC LCR Readings for inductance / quality between pins measured at 1 kHz 1-2 - 597.5 uH / 0.394 APO Q 1-3 - 67.X uH / 47.X APO Q 1-4 - 67.X uH / 48.X APO Q 2-3 - 67.X uH / 47.X APO Q 2-4 - 67.X uH / 46.X APO Q 3-4 - 305 uH / 2.424APO Q Resistance Between Pins 1-2 - 9.75 ohms 1-3 - 0 1-4 - 0 2-3 - 0 2-4 - 0 3-4 - 0.95 ohm

For Nokta to get sales anything like Minelab they need to expand their market reach, having their products in with a few dealers in many countries is not going to bring in the sales they could get with bigger market reach. It's currently Minelab's focus getting their detectors into as many big retailers as possible as well as selling direct from their own website, far more exposure. Nokta have great detectors suitable for big box stores in price and quality, yet they're not there. Let's look at Australia for an example seeing they're the home of Minelab, Nokta's Australia dealer network is small, you have to want to buy one to buy one, you have to know you want a Legend and look up which dealers' shop in your city if you're in one of the main cities that sells them although not all big cities have a dealer. If you live in the smaller cities you're ordering online unless you're in Detect ED's Wollongong. You can't just be walking around your local shops or city center mall and see them on display in shops and impulse buy, yet you can Minelab. Australia's Dealer Network, and it looks to me like Detect ED has become the Aussie importer which then distributes them, I could be wrong and it's someone else but it sure looks like it's him, seeing both the "distributor" and Detect ED are in Woolongong, an usual spot for a detecting distributor to otherwise be., it's a smaller provincial city of about 300000 people. If you happen to live in Tasmania, you need to go to a Trophy shop to buy a metal detector, and said shop has no website, and in a small town of approx. 19000 people, not even one of their bigger cities so you're really seeking out the product at that point. Their Bundaberg dealer Extreme Gear doesn't even have any of their detectors listed on their website. The Byron Bay dealer extreme underwater only sells the pulse dive. They have a very small market penetration in Australia, and are never going to get lots of sales this way from people other than those actively seeking them out. If they want to grow and be like Minelab, they have to fix this.

Hello for sale on ebay uk ,rarer than a Pantera,a diablo umax or a scout with metal box drum rolls: TOLTEC 100 UK Version https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285870513370? I guess it was the last attempt from Tesoro UK to breed with Tesoro before the brand Laser was created. RR

But I was out trying this Vista X metal detector and my first target was a James Avery 925 silver ring. The house that was there burn down and the lot is almost downtown of what I call my home town . My son bought the property and so I can hunt as I please. I started hunting it yesterday but at 95 degrees I didn’t last long but plan on going back early one morning. The guy next door said the lady who lived there lost a lot of gold jewelry but did find some after the fire . The only problem they had a front in loader came in to clean up and the gold may have went with it. Chuck

When someone says they getting too old to detect anymore then maybe you need to go on down to the funeral home and check in . I got my father in law interested in detecting and I think he was in his mid 70’s then. The first thing he ask and I told him this city has thousands of bus stops just let me know when you’re finished hunting them. I told him about one bus stop he should hurt at this mall . The area was about 15 X 30 and later he told after a while he just sat on the ground digging up pennies. He found them more than other coins. The total for pennies was in dollar amount was 13 dollars he told me. He didn’t say how long it took him to clean it out. Sometimes you got to think as I say outside the box . I meet one guy he like to hunt along sidewalk between it and the curb if it had grass. People getting out of their car drop all kind of things and it gets lost in the grass. A lot of us have hunted school yards over the years. The first thing we hunt the play ground area like swings. If it’s got trees around them can be good. Just hunting along the fence has been good. If it’s got any kind of bush around it the kids get in behind them and lose money. Heck when I die I want a metal detector put in the coffin with me plus extra batteries. I just don’t like it when I get somewhere and find out the batteries in my detector is dead. Chuck

Are they trying to beat Minelab or be Minelab?

I like the site-terrain pix, and the "fresh reveal in-situ" pix.

Ha, i just told my brother a week or two ago that if i could take what i like best about the xtpro and the vanquish and put them together, i would have my perfect all around detector. Is minelab about to make that happen? If so i gotta start grabbing more clad out of the ground.

I’m a dealer for Chris at Nugget Finder U.S. and all the Evo coils 15” and under and Exceed coils have been in stock as of recently. A while back there was a shortage of the Z-search and Exceed coils, and still no 10x16” Exceeds as of yet. If Chris or myself don’t have it Rob usually keeps some inventory also.

No they do not. Garrett ATX has AA batteries as just one of many examples. It is true you may not want newer metal detector models coming out as nearly all top end models including VLF models will have built in batteries. It is not just a PI thing, but the way many electric devices are headed. Exploding phones, exploding lawn mowers, expoding metal detectors - it's a minefield out there!

Have you tried Chris G at https://arizonaoutback.com/search-coils.html?p=2 At one point he was the US Distributor for Nugget Finder. Still may be??