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My God, what a big mistake I made with the weekly average! I didn't realize what you meant in 5 years. Quite right. What I did not deviate from was the calculation of the profit, which luckily did not carry the error of the first calculation. In any case, you have superb numbers and significantly better than those of the average mortal. Congratulations!

Sweet! Love looking at the old stuff you guys recover, and that looks to be real old. It looks like it could be silver??

Gang, here is a device invented by a buddy of mine in Australia. He really put a lot of work into it. This is about his 5th generation. I gave him some input on it and he made several modifications. Does it work? Would I use it? Is it over-engineered? Is it expensive? The answer to all of the questions is "YES." Is it practical? DEBATABLE. If you were going to swing the 19 inch GPZ7000 coil all day long. I'd say give it a go. However, I would suggest you have someone else along to help you dig. Because this is not the rig you want to be wearing when you are banging away at the ground with a pick and getting down on your knees. Also something that really freaks me out is that sharp metal leaf type metal right next to my face. So I would probably only use this on the flat, to try and avoid any possibility of suffering a slip and fall. I really admire the work and ingenuity put into this device. But for the average detector prospector, I would think this is a bit much too much. By the way I took the picture with the entire pool in the background so Gerry and Michelle will know there is plenty of room for Michell's floating lounge chair and Gerry's little inflatable arm floaties. 😅 Doc

Great little thread Doc, lots of entertaining stories, and thanks for the pictures. All the best, Lanny

Howdy Diggum and welcome to the forum. Thanks for sharing your outstanding ring find with all of us and please keep us posted if you learn anything further about it. Not to sound silly but IMO that is a very important historical artifact that you lucked onto. Doc

Glad you're still coming up with inventions to make detecting more comfortable Doc, good for you. All the best, Lanny

This is good to hear. My next purchase will be a Blu3 Nemo or Nomad for local swimming holes.

Great that you found some gold, congratulations! All the best, Lanny

I went with the yellow Koss.

Any reports of the Equinox 900 leaking (water hunters)?

This was a Confidential Memo that I wrote to make a thorough examination of what the history of metal detector support devices have been, and what the positives and negatives of each design were. This was, in essence, my blue print to design a new device that addressed all the shortcomings of the predecessors of Metal Detector support devices. It is marked Confidential because until now the public never seen this document. This is my process when developing a new product and determining whether or not there is a need, and whether I can "build a better mousetrap" so to speak. -Doc CONFIDENTIAL FOR YOUR EYES ONLY Common Metal Detector Support Devices, what they attempt to do. • Claim to redirect weight to alleviate stress on arms, shoulders and neck. • They attempt to do this by redirecting the weight to a larger area of the body, usually the waist. Why Common Metal Detector Support Devices fall short of their intended purpose. • Some units are too bulky and constricting. • Some systems attempt to mitigate the weight by directly transferring the weight to your waist without re-directing the weight. This means you have to wear a tight belt to keep your pants up. • You have to select a fixed size with no ability to adjust the length if it is not perfect. • Some adjustable systems do not give you enough of an adjustment and are too short to function properly. • Some adjustable systems pull apart even when they are adjusted to the longest adjustment. • Some systems require an adjustment to switch for right hand to left hand use, which is not secure and tends to come apart when used. • Most systems are designed to attach to the “D” ring of your harness or are dependent on being fixed to the harness “D” ring in some way. If you are unable to adjust the device to the perfect length, the system pulls on the “D” ring. This then transfers the weight to your shoulder instead of your waist. This completely defeats the purpose of the proposed advantage of the system which is to transfer weight. • Some “Over the Shoulder” devices are so large, heavy and cumbersome, most users find them unusable. In addition to which the “Over the Shoulder” device puts the bent support strut with “D” ring over your shoulder and right next to the side of your face. Not only is this distracting, but it could cause serious injury and a severe laceration if you were to fall and your face landed on that support strut. • Some systems do not come with a fully adjustable bungee cord or any bungee cord at all. How should the perfect Metal Detector Weight Support Device be Designed? 1. Unit should be easy to wear. It should be lite weight, minimally intrusive, and not make the user hot. 2. Unit should truly “REDIRECT” the weight NOT just transfer the weight “DIRECTLY”, so it is unnoticeable and very comfortable. 3. Unit should be fully adjustable for all size individuals without compromise for a perfect fit. 4. System should be firmly secured at any joints or areas of adjustment to prevent the unit from coming apart when being used. 5. System should be easily adjustable for right handed or left handed use, with the adjustment point being totally immune to separating when in use. 6. Support device should be completely able to move freely even when attached to a harness or “D” ring. There should be no impediments to unrestricted movement from the point of ORIGIN, where the weight of the bungee with the detector is attached to the “D” ring and where the weight is redirected to an unnoticeable area of the body where the weight redirection is TERMINATED. This design should prohibit the device from ever pulling down on the harness and transferring the weight onto the shoulder, neck, upper arms, or any part of the body other than the weight redirection termination point of the support device. 7. Support System should not pose a significant risk to the user. System should not be made of metal. They should be free of sharp edges. It should not be necessary to wear the system close to the side of your head. Direct weight transfer systems using a strait support rod should be avoided. If the weight is directed straight down. In a fall the force of the fall could drive the rod straight up causing injury to the user. 8. Support System should come with a fully instantaneous “On the Move” adjustable bungee support rig with multiple ways to adjust your detector to the perfect height. Bungee should be adjustable at the attachment point of the detector rod and at the shoulder clip and be ambidextrous. Bungee cord should be of superior material, Dacron Polyester UV protected Marine Grade with a 50% stretch. Either end on the bungee should be able to be attached to the detector. The bungee cord should be easily detached or reattached with one hand to either the “D” ring of the Weight Support Device, or to the attachment device on the metal detector rod. The DALAS™ • Detector Air Lift Assist System Features 1 through 8 listed above! CHECK!

Even white sand can be black sand.. This is on Magnetic Island.. The island was formed 275 million years ago when molten granite pushed through the Earth's crust to form on dome shaped blob.. This blob has been eroded into the steep hilly island it is today.. There's huge granite boulders everywhere.. The island has 8 gold mines up in the hills.. Some bays have deep layers of black sand covered by white coral sand.. In those bays I've been using my Equinoxes with large coils, but my black sand is no where near as bad as yours.. In really bad patches (for me) the GPX5000 also worked well..

Lots of my customers are going back to analog detectors.

Nothing gold or silver but I believe the stone is Jade. Recovered from an old home site in TN.

By the way, I am getting the question, How Much? This is not carved in stone, so give me a little grace. I never know what Customs is going to whack me. The DALAS rod by itself, not including the strap which will be an optional accessory I am anticipating, $129.95. Yet another difference between the Hip Stick and the DALAS. You can buy three Hip Sticks for the price of one DALAS™. Doc

I've known of them for years. It's been on my trip list for a long time. The gem is the Oregon State gemstone. There is also a "pay" mine there. That deal wasn't open when we were there. Apparently they don't open until May 15th Jim

Those fears are a thing of the past. There are hardly any reports of Manticore flooding. I've been dunking mine for 17 months now and you wouldn't catch me using any other detector in the water. Check out "Detect Florida" on youtube....he rarely hunts sand, is always in the water. I'm in the water 75% of the time. If by some weird defect yours leaks (doubtful) there's always the warranty. Don't be scared! 🙂

Thanks, Tom and all! I just joined, and I have a massive update... I noted what looked like a hinge in one of my "dirty" photos, and had noted that the top seemed a little loose after its time in the sonic cleaner. I thought, "What are the odds...?" So I took closer pics of the cleaned up ring, and sure enough there is a very delicate and tiny hinge on one side, and a nail nick on the other. Opening it up, I found a photo! Seems like this would put the ring pretty solidly in the 1850s timeframe... Any other thoughts? Cheers!

Cool, nice finds, never heard of these before.

Let me first preface my comments by saying this. Chris Porter is a dear friend of mine. He has purchased many of my Swingy Thingy's over the years and bungees to sell with the Hip Stick when a customer needed them. There has been thousands of Hip Sticks sold, and detectorists love them. So they have helped the industry tremendously. However, Chris no longer produces the Hip Sticks and he sold the rights to Jonathan Porter. I was a dealer for the Hip Stick. These things I am going to point out are not a slam on the Hip Stick, they are just facts. The fact that things evolve is just historical innovation and development. We still have cars today, but they look nothing like the Model T. What does a car do today that a model T didn't do. They still get you from point A to B. The question is, how do they get you there? As you have said, "How is it an Improvement?" My Original Swingy Thingy is not as good as the Ultra Swingy Thingy. Does that mean the original is no good. No, it is still available. It just means the design has evolved and been improved. I have been through many improvements of the bungee cord. The Quick Adjust Bunge, then the Qweegle, now the Qwipple. So let me tell you the things that make the DALAS different than the Hip Stick and a significant improvement. So on to the IMPROVEMENTS of the DALAS™ over the Hip Stick 1. Every part of the DALAS has been custom designed with original parts. We do not use any existing items that we have tried to adapt to be used for a purpose they were not designed for. 2. The Hip Stick is notorious for the ball jumping out of the pivot, and to that end many people have tried to modify that short coming. The DALAS does not have that problem. 3. The Hip Stick is stiff and it can restrict movement when bending over. I know, I use to use one. The DALAS rod moves with you, you'll never know it's there aside from its amazing ability to transfer weight. 4. You must guess what length of the Hip Stick you need. If it's too short, you have to send it back to exchange it. I can't tell you the number of customers that had to swap out the Hip Stick for a different size because they one they ordered just was not working. Get it too short, and it pulls on the shoulder strap instead of transferring the weight. Too high and it's right next to your face. The DALAS is fully adjustable. There is no need to guess what size you need. It is fully customizable to your weight and height. 5. The Hip Stick connects directly to the "D" ring on your hydration pack or back pack. It is FIXED. It has no ability to move with you. It is FIXED at the "D" ring it is FIXED at the waist and those two points are joined by a straight inflexible tent type fiberglass rod. The DALAS has a unique SLIDE CLIP. It allows the DALAS rod to move freely up and down. It does not restrict movement because it moves with you. It does not use a straight rod do a direct transfer of weight. It uses ergonomically designed curved struts that redirects the weight similar to a block and pully system so you never notice the weight. It pushes the back of your waist band away from your body parallel to the ground. The Hip Stick directs the force at a 90 degree angle towards the ground. It works with the force of gravity to push your pants down. 6. The Hip Stick directly transfers the weight of the detector to your waist. You feel the force. This pushes your belt or waist band down. If it transfers the weight directly down, if you were to fall and manage to hit the bottom of the Hip Stick just right it would transfer the force directly up and could cause injury. The DALAS transfers and redirects the weight back. If you fall you would be hard pressed to figure out a way the DALAS rod would ever injure you because of the Slide Clip. The place the force is transferred to is your back. in use, the paddle pushes your waist band out and away from your back. If you fall on it, it does nothing but go back to the resting position flat against your back which does not transfer the force back towards your face. 7. The DALAS comes with a High Tech Bungee system. The Hip Stick has no bungee included. 8. The difference between what a Hip Stick does, compared to a DALAS rod does it like asking, what if I take a rope through an eye bolt mounted in the rafter of my garage and hook up a 500 lb load and try to lift it. vs What if I use a block and pully system that redirects the weight of that 500 lb load? It's a matter of managing the weight in a more productive and efficient manner. Other than that they are exactly the same. 🤣 Doc

Quick, not sure if you’ve swung a GPZ 7000 with the Hip Stick on extended hours and combined days on a hunt! The Hip Stick does pull on your Shoulder. Doc’s DALAS transfers that stress to the Waist Line Clip. As a beat up old guy, I’m looking forward for that Slow Boat! Rick

Which waterproof Headphones did you go with? Thanks

Well done guys, Reese is a good guy and hard charger.

The ATX new with warranty does have advantages, but I like the light weight of the hip mounted Infinium.... and that coil! Garrett still services the Infinium which is good as I don't know that they are a particularly reliable detector. I owned quite a few and most seemed to develop one problem or another. This one was serviced a couple years ago, costs are reasonable but in your case the shipping might be more a worry. I have considered getting another new ATX but I keep hoping Fisher or Nokta or anybody will come out with a newer lighter waterproof model. The options new with warranty for waterproof ground balancing PI detectors is remarkably limited at this time. ATX is pretty much it.

Maybe they had the the discount because sales slowed for it and the main competitor to it (Deus II) is ~$1300. Also since the sale is now over I see that its gone back to its original price so maybe they used the 35 year anniversary sale as a test for a lower price. I got mine Dec 2022 even though it was expensive its been a really good detector so far. I feel that if minelab keeps putting out updates giving new features (mineralization meter, etc) then I'll consider the extra money I spent worth it.