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Nokta Scores Spectacular Gold Specimen


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Hi Tom,

Water, ultrasonic cleaner, a soft toothbrush and a toothpick. And tweezers to pull out little roots that were woven through it.

The secret to photography is take 100 photos and toss 99. The beauty of digital is in not spending a fortune on film doing it. I take LOTS of crappy photos.

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WOW, nice specimen Steve, you sure put your time in. Rita closes her doors at the end of January and we plan on working the claim more to see what's there. Also work some new areas to see if we can find another patch.

I am sure that we all could learn from you and the first item is to quit my favorite beverage, just quit Pepsi so am heading in the right direction.

Good luck Steve!!

Steve

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Steve another amazing find, as you said its all about putting the coil over the target and very likely any quality VLF's would have found those nuggets, but amazingly two of your best finds have come to you in the last few months with the Nokta FORS Gold in your hands.

Steve of the VLF's that you have kept in your MD lineup while deposing of others, on this particular trip why did you reach for the FORS?

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Good question!

I have accumulated too many detectors in the last couple years, and have some old ones I never use anymore, so time to clean house. Part of the problem is when I get down to the last few I like them all. To narrow it down I have to use them, and the FORS Gold I have not used much compared to my other "keepers". I was using it precisely because I am still learning with it.

The two or three that are really bugging me are the F75, Nokta, and one I have never used, the F19. Having used the Gold Bug Pro though I have a good idea what the F19 is like. The F75 has a big edge in that I prefer its ergonomics over any other detector I have ever used. I am looking for a unit to sort ferrous from non-ferrous as efficiently as possible, yet still cover certain practical check marks that mean a lot to me. I could go on for hours about the ins and outs of these few detectors as they matter to me.

The lesson here is I use what I use not for sheer performance always but because of things like how the detector feels, how it sounds, what batteries it uses, and how robust it is physically. How many coils are available for it? Frankly, the top end detectors all perform so closely I can use any of them and do well, so it is the sum of other factors that often tilt my decision one way or the other.

Another machine that would get my interest is one that does not even exist. If Whites stuffed a full fledged MXT in the MX5 box, especially if it had manual ground balance, it would perk me up. I love the MXT but want it slimmed down. Which in many ways is what you get in the F75.

I do a huge amount of detecting that never hits the forums of course, much of it at a nearby park I favor. Right now I am hauling detectors there in pairs and alternately finding a target with one, checking with the other, recover, then switch. It is very hard with stock coils to find anything with the Nokta that the F75 can't find and vice versa. Suffice it to say I will be wringing the best out of these detectors for some time to come. I had to remind myself I have no gun to my head making me get rid of either. It will sort out eventually.

Personal preferences count for much so you always have to be careful relying at all on what you read on the Internet. To cruise the forums you would think the DEUS obsoletes all other detectors. And a very fine detector it is. The only problem for me is it just does not float my boat. I prefer AA batteries and I like more coils than I can get for a DEUS. Yeah, it's a great detector, but I think there are lots of great detectors. Detectors are only third on my success list:

1. Location. Being on good ground for whatever I am after is paramount. Job 1. Everything else pales by comparison.

2. Hard work. Many hours of giving it the best I've got. The only way I know to find a lot detecting is to detect a lot. I spend a huge amount of time detecting nobody hears about. It may look like I am going out and making finds every time I go out - far from it.

3. Decent detector. Have a machine reasonably capable of the task at hand and know how to use it.

The more attention I pay to 1 and 2 the less important 3 is. If I really was inclined to do so I could probably make a Garrett Ace 250 look pretty darn good as a nugget detector. I would just have to work harder at it. Hard work makes up for detector deficiencies. The bottom line is I am finding the gold, not the detector. It is just the tool I am using.

Hopefully my passing on my thoughts and ideas about detectors helps people but to use any detector just because it is what I use no more guarantees success than my using the same golf clubs Tiger Woods uses will make me a great golfer. People ignore the fundamentals because it is easier to think just having the right detector will make the difference.

Obviously I have a bit of time on my hands at the moment so you got me in a blabbing mood! The last thought here is that I am passionate about detecting on a whole different level. I just like the machines, like trying them out, like learning about them, like trying to learn what they do best. They almost all shine in some way if I can just figure it out, and then use that to my advantage. It is my idea of fun, a good time. I could just get a good machine and always use that one, and be better served by getting to be a true expert with it. I am like a jack of all detectors but a true master of none. But for me, using the same machine all the time would be no fun.

And that is why I was using the FORS Gold!

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Hey Steve, its been very interesting following this and other threads particularly seeing your train of thought on various detector scenarios as you publicly work your way through your own personal reasons behind why you like a particular metal detector. I think you and I are very similar in this regard, or to put it more bluntly "super fussy about our kit" :rolleyes:. At the end of the day a detector needs to be comfortable to use for long periods, I think in the past we've put up with a lot of discomfort purely because the performance is what makes us use some detectors. Imagine a world were a metal detector had grunt as well as being light and having good ergonomics? Bliss!!!

On a side note have you ever spent time with the Xterra 705? They are pretty neat in the way you can just change coils to suit the type of operating frequency required to suit the location and targets sought. I'm partially interested in the concentric high frequency coils for gold nugget searching but have not had time to experiment with them much. Maybe an Xterra 705 and MXT/MX5 shootout is in order?

JP

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Hi JP,

Just a kid playing with toys still, that's me.

The 705 has an awesome VLF all metal mode. But switch to Coin Mode to get a dual tone ferrous/non-ferrous response and the machine goes all kinds of gutless on me. I actually really like the 705 as an all around machine but let my last one go a year ago. Like always though wish I still had one to fuss with. Nenad tells me I need to trust Iron Mask in Prospect Mode more, but then says Iron Mask on the Eureka works better yet.

The MXT is just good, really good. Chris has one and I think I will borrow it to bump heads with the F75 and Nokta. I really have never found anything yet that clearly works better than an MXT but ditched mine for the F75 due to the F75 weighing less. But I am seeing some things on the F75 response to extreme low conductors that bothers me, though the new F75 update addresses that very issue so I need to get my hands on one. Latest word is I will have one on the way after the 1st.

Crazy true story today I was out with the Nokta and F75 trying to make myself not like the Nokta so I could ditch it for the F75 but the darn thing just works real well in my ground. The physical layout of the machine leaves a bit to be desired but fact is just turn it on and go, and it does very well.

The main problem we have JP is that it is almost a sure bet what works best in my milder ground is not going to work very well in your horrible ground. It is aphard enough just to get a VLF to work at all in Australia in all metal mode. Getting a detector to somehow identify gold accurately when the ground itself is iron ore is near impossible. I think less hot, lower frequency or multi-frequency will handle the ground batter, and you have to just resign yourself to finding the bigger nuggets in the midst of the trash. But find one nugget, and that is the place to put PI coil on ground and work out from.

Ask Bruce why he can't make an extremely high power multi-frequency detector that gives us better depth in bad ground than the CTX seems able to deliver. The answer always seems to be that putting all the punch into a single frequency gets better results. Why not just boost the punch across the board in all frequencies?

Yeah, I know. Layman asking silly questions that make no sense to people who really understand how things work!

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 5 months later...

That's A Beautiful Specie/Nugget Steve, Congrats WTG.

After seeing my mate bring out An MXT and Put my Detectors to Shame Got me Interested in the MXTs and when I read your posts back on AMD 5 years ago Convinced me even more so,

Then A Minelab Official Told me that They reversed engineered the MXT when they were Building the Xterra Machines Confirmed how good they Are, I still Can't find Anything that Equals It, And Like Many Here How can you Judge A machine that Finds Gold the First Time Out with It.

Since then I have Had the MXT 300, The MXT Pro and Now The MXT All Pro, I don't know if it is the Coil, But this One Seems to Be the Hottest One to Date and to the Point there is Not much difference between it and my GMT, And I have of 2 or 3000 hours in with the MXTs and I am now at the Point where If I can't have an MXT then my Kit is Incomplete,

But Like you Steve, I have been thinking about Whites Putting On The + & - Buttons for a Manual GB and then that would Be As good as any Machine could Get

Thanks again Steve,

John

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Now that is a great find Steve!! Much better than the stuff I found at moore creek the year you sold it. LOL

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