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I got to spend a day and a half on some claims in the Little San Domingo Wash area north of Phoenix Arizona this week. I also got to meet up with Bill Southern (Nugget Shooter) for a few hours too. Thanks Bill! I mostly wanted to see how the GPX 6000 with Coiltek Goldhawk 10X5" coil and the audio mod would behave. Finding some gold was secondary. The GPX 6000 was super quiet running at sensitivity 7 or 8 with a stable threshold tone and only sounded off on some of the metamorphic magnetite filled schist and gneiss which also tended toward ironstone. Those hot rocks were easy to recognize and kick out of the way. The threshold only got a bit wobbly when aircraft were in the area. I did manage to find a 0.11 gram rough looking LSD nugget. The photo is of the targets that made it into my nugget containers which are 35mm film canisters. The GPX 6000 with the Coiltek 10X5" was super easy to swing for two 6 hour sessions, easy to pack and hit some incredibly small targets. Those are .22 long rifle shell casings which give a good size comparison. I really enjoyed using the GPX 6000.

The librarian from the school contacted me today and apologized for not getting back to me sooner. I told her the fact that she was out last week with COVID was a plenty good excuse. She identified the ring owner. I headed to google. I found 4 supposed phone numbers for a lady with that name and the right age. I was skeptical but thought I'd call them and eliminate them. A lady answered the first number. I asked her if she were the woman who graduated from that high school in 1974. She answered in the affirmative. I then asked, "When did you lose your class ring?" She said, "Over 40 years ago." Anyway, I will ship it to a very happy lady tomorrow.

Field Test: Garrett Axiom By Bill Paxton For those of you who are frequent readers of Western and Eastern Treasures, you may recall back in December of 2021 I did a field test on the Garrett 24K Goldmaster metal detector. An excellent VLF gold machine, the 24K was Garrett’s rebranding of the White’s 24K Goldmaster and a perfect legacy choice to honor the White’s brand that they had acquired in October of 2020. Since the 24K Goldmaster was not a Garrett-developed product, I was very curious as to what Garrett had in the works for 2022. While their competitors were literally leapfrogging each other in the hobby market, Garret was curiously quiet. What were they up to I wondered? A new detector based on the Multi-Flex technology they had introduced in the Apex? Maybe a new water machine? The months ticked by. Still Garrett was quiet. Then came October 5, 2022. That was the day that Garrett revealed to the metal detecting community that their company was all in when it came to one thing. Gold. The 24K Goldmaster was a precursor of things to come. Or to be more specific, one amazing thing to come. The Garrett Axiom. A complete from the ground up redesign of pure pulse induction technology in a package unlike anything that had ever been seen before in the gold prospecting niche of our hobby. Gone were the bulky rigs that required harnesses to swing them and car-size batteries to supply power. No more annoying nobs and confusing settings. What Garrett delivered was a genuinely new and yes, I’m going to say it, exciting metal detector. The first pictures of the Axiom looked like something out of the space age. This was a detector that I wanted to try out and I’m not even a gold prospector. When Steve Moore, the Director of Marketing for Garrett, emailed me and asked if I would like to try one out I couldn’t type the word “YES!” fast enough. Let me pause here briefly and give you a bit of a spoiler alert regarding this field test. As you can tell from the introduction I’ve written above, the Axiom got me pretty revved up even before I held one in my hand. I have used it in the gold fields and at the beach and it flat out delivers. This metal detector is a game changer and I’m genuinely excited to share this field test with our loyal readers. With that being said, let’s get to the field test. The Garrett Axiom The Garrett Axiom There is a great deal to cover on the Axiom beginning with its design. As you can see from the photos, when I describe the Axiom as looking like “something out of the space age” I wasn’t kidding. I’ve used PI detectors for many years, primarily to hunt saltwater beaches because of their inherent ability to deal with high mineralization and find targets at extreme depth. They did, and do, work but at a cost. Due to their often bulky designs, they can beat you up physically. Walking on a beach for several hours with one of those beasts takes its toll and the fatigue factor inevitably shortens your hunts. The Axiom completely negates that negative aspect by its well-balanced and relatively lightweight design. It comes in at roughly 4.5 lbs. depending on the coil you select and features a lightweight internal lithium battery encased in a molded plastic case. An open flexible and very comfortable arm cuff is mounted on the rear of the detector and can be adjusted if required. The hand grip is easy to grasp and topped by a control box modeled after the Apex. A slick carbon fiber shaft that uses innovative stem clamps for adjustment connects to a variety of lightweight coils. All of this means just one thing: you can swing this detector for hours and not suffer for it in the least. One more thing. When you are transporting the Axiom, or if you wish to shrink it down to hunt in close quarters, it easily collapses to a remarkable 25”. The stem clams work as promised and save you the hassle of pushing in those annoying little spring buttons every time that you adjust the shaft. The Axiom Package The Axiom Package Garrett provides a very impressive package of accessories with the Axiom. Along with the detector and searchcoil (this can vary by the package selected), you get: Axiom Booster Pack Soft Carry Case Quick Start Guide Warranty Card USB Charging Cable Wall Charger and Adaptors A set of MS-3 Wireless Headphones with charging cable (Yes, you get Z-Lynk with the Axiom!) A small gripe is that a copy of the full owner’s manual is only available online. I really like a printed copy for reference and wish that one was included. Axiom Coils Garrett offers a large selection of coils for the Axiom: 11” X 7” Mono AND DD 13” X 11” Mono AND DD 16” X 14” Mono AND DD Okay, you are probably thinking that the above listing of DD coils for the Axiom are typos. I can assure you they are not. Yes, Garrett has chosen to offer DD coils for the Axiom. For many PI purists this may be heresy since Mono coils have been the standard for PI detectors for many years. However, I can tell you that the DD coils are a great way to go. My test unit came with a 13” X 11” DD coil, along with Mono coils in the other two sizes. Unlike the Mono coils, which are hotter on the edges, the DD coils react to a target like a typical DD coil and are hotter toward the middle of the coil. I personally loved this because I hunt 100% of the time with DD coils on my other detectors and it made for a very easy and intuitive switchover to the Axiom. In comparing it to the mono coils I found no loss in either depth or sensitivity and the DD coil is now my coil of choice. I would not discount a DD if you are looking into purchasing an Axiom. Axiom Power Okay, say this with me. “Ahhhh.” That is what you will say when you pick up an Axiom and see that there is not any bulky battery to deal with. The detector is powered by what Garrett describes as a “2X LIFE” built-in, high-capacity lithium-ion battery that will run 16 hours on a full charge. I can confirm that the battery is exceptional in terms of holding a charge. While I didn’t hunt for 16 hours straight, I did numerous back-to-back hunts totaling over 10 hours each time and the detector always had two bars remaining on the charge indicator. For those of you who just want to play it safe, a separate booster pack battery powered by 8 – AA batteries is included that will supply an additional six hours of hunting time. Axiom Display Panel When Garrett introduced its first multi-frequency metal, the Apex, it featured a brand-new control box design that users instantly embraced. I was very happy to see that Garrett chose to utilize this same design for the Axiom. The display screen features fifteen different elements in a neatly uncluttered arrangement: Signal Strength Indicator Iron Check Mode Frequency Scan Tone Audio Type Sensitivity Battery Level Speed Ground Track Backlight Wireless Headphones Ground Balance Arrows Ground Balance Indicator Ground Balance Values These display elements will be discussed in detail where relevant later in this field test. Axiom Controls Axiom Controls As with the Apex, the six controls on the display box are located in a unique, user friendly “thumb wheel” pattern below the display. All operations and adjustments to the Axiom are easily accomplished by moving your thumb from left to right in order to press the appropriate button. The controls are: 1. Power ON/OFF and Operate a. Used to turn the Axiom on and off. Pressing and holding this button for five seconds restores factory settings. This button also can be tapped to exit the MENU settings. 2. Volume Plus/Minus Buttons a. Used to increase/decrease volume. 3. Sensitivity Plus/Minus Buttons a. Used for two functions. i. To adjust the sensitivity of the detector. ii. To adjust detector settings within the Menu settings. 4. Menu/Iron Check a. Used for two functions: i. Used to access Menu settings. ii. Engaging Iron Check function by pressing and holding this button. b. Ground Balance i. Press and hold this button to ground balance the detector. 5. Threshold Plus/Minus Buttons a. Really handy to increase or decrease the threshold on the fly as opposed to have to go into some sort of annoying settings menu. 6. Ground Balance a. A “hold and bob the coil” button for ground balancing the Axiom. With all the aforementioned features and controls you might think that the Axiom is a complicated detector to run. On the contrary, Garrett really took its time in designing the Axiom to both offer many features AND be easy to operate. After spending many hours in the field with my Axiom I can attest to this. Axiom Functions and Settings Accessing the various functions and settings is extremely intuitive. · How many times have you owned a detector that needed a factory reset and you couldn’t figure out how to do it? Not with Axiom. Press and hold the Power button for five seconds. Listen for a double beep. Done. · Frequency Scan o EMI is a constant enemy a detectorist must battle so frequency scan is a must with today’s modern metal detectors. The Axiom uses a unique system to locate the quietest operating frequency. To perform a Frequency Scan, just push the menu button until FREQSCAN is highlighted, then press the plus button. The Axion scans through 100 frequencies, rechecks the best five and automatically selects the best one. All of this in 45 seconds. This worked flawlessly for me in the field. · Detection Modes o In my humble opinion this is the Axiom’s finest feature. The Axiom provides four search mode operations, each optimized for specific types of detecting. 1. Fine Mode · The preferred search mode of the Axiom, Fine Mode offers the best sensitivity to all sized targets ranging from fine gold to large items. Fine Mode can be susceptible to ground minerals, hot rocks and salt water. 2. Normal Mode · An excellent choice if noise issues are encountered when in Fine Mode. Normal mode provides good sensitivity to most targets but can be less effective on fine gold. 3. Large Mode · For use when focusing on large targets. This mode also reduces susceptibility to hot rocks and highly mineralized ground. 4. Salt Mode · Designed to allow for use of the Axiom in wet salt environments like ocean beaches. As an avid beach hunter, I was particularly interested in how this mode performed. It delivered excellent stability even in high concentrations of black sand. o Accessing the modes was a sinch. Just press the MENU button until the word “MODE” is highlighted. Then press the “PLUS” or “MINUS“ buttons to select the mode. · Volume and Threshold Adjustment o Not much to say here. Super easy to adjust with the PLUS/MINUS buttons. · Tone and Audio Options o Another area where the Axiom shines. Via the Menu button, the user can change the audio pitch and select from two different types of audio. 1. Tone Adjustment · Pushing the Menu button until TONE is selected followed by pressing the +/- buttons allows for scrolling through 100 available tone shifts. o This feature allows the operator to pick a tone that best fits their preferences or hearing ability · Only active with VCO audio (Audio 01) o Audio type 1. The Axiom has two different and very unique audio types, Audio 00 (PWM) and Audio 01 (VCO, also default). These can be accessed by pressing the Menu button followed by the +/- buttons. Both provide continuous audio that responds proportionally to a target’s signal strength allowing the operator to judge a target’s size, depth and shape. · Audio 00 (PWM) o In PWM audio, audio pitch is fixed at either high or low and only the target’s volume increases with signal strength. Preferred by users who like an active, coarse audio response. 1. Audio 01 (VCO Audio) o The preferred mode of most users (including yours truly). Target volume and audio increase proportionately with signal strength and is a real asset in locating faint targets by changes in audio pitch. o Target Signal 1. The Axiom features a Target Signal Strength Indicator at the top of the display. Utilizing a bargraph, the indicator will display high tones proportionally toward the right of center and low tones similarly toward the left of center. · Backlight o The backlight can be activated and adjusted via the Menu button by highlighting the backlight icon. o The backlight automatically activates when scrolling through the menu, a very handy feature. · Speed o A crucial adjustment for your hunting, made easy by the Axiom’s defined speeds of SLOW, MED(IUM) and FAST. This adjustment determines coil sweep speed and also target recovery speed (often referred to as “reactivity). o As with every adjustment on the Axiom, the Menu button gets you to the Speed Settings. The operator needs to pay strict attention to choosing the proper setting in order to ensure the Axiom performs at its best. 1. SLOW · While the manual suggests using the MED setting for general purpose hunting my preference was the SLOW speed. This setting was the most stable of all three and provided excellent depth and sensitivity. However, it is vital that the user sweep slowly. I always ask the question of fast sweepers “what’s your hurry?” In the case of the Axiom, go slow and you will be rewarded. 2. MED(IUM) · The default setting and a good general-purpose selection for most users. It provides good sensitivity and depth and requires a moderate sweep speed. 3. FAST · This speed boosts reactivity to increase target separation but that comes at a cost. EMI and noise chatter can increase making it more difficult to hear faint targets. · Sensitivity o Unlike most metal detectors, the Axiom offers what I would refer to as “sensitivity on steroids.’ While many metal detectors can be run hot at max sensitivity, the Axiom for the most part cannot. Prior to its release, the previous maximum sensitivity of “8” was boosted significantly to allow certain skilled operators in unique hunting situations to push performance to the maximum. The previous maximum sensitivity now is the number 4 selection. For almost all users (including this field tester), 4 provides more than enough power to obtain excellent results from the Axiom and should not be exceeded for general hunting. · Ground Balance o The Axiom features a very sophisticated ground balancing system that is covered in detail in the manual. While offering standard options like manual ground balance and ground tracking, the Axiom has taken ground balancing to another level with several innovations not previously seen on PI metal detectors: 1. Dual ground balance values displayed with both ground tracking on AND off. · This is a terrific visual reference to monitor ground conditions. 2. Ground Balance Window Feature · After ten seconds of ground balancing, the Ground Balance Window activates and allows the operator to eliminate both mineralized soil AND a hot rock. Pumping over the soil and scanning over the hot rock will eliminate both responses (or make them much smaller). · Iron Check o One of the coolest innovations included in the Axiom. Iron check, which only works with DD coils, will generate an iron “buzz” that is easily recognized. To activate this feature just hold down the Iron Check button until it double beeps. Then scan and listen to the buzz. o While this feature worked best on shallow targets, I found it to be a huge asset for both gold prospecting and beach hunting. If I had a deep, small target all I had to do was activate Iron Check and then scan the pile to see if it was iron or not. This was a real time saver and I used it a lot in my testing. · Quickstart and Owner’s Manual o A Quickstart guide is included with that Axiom. The owner’s manual, which is very well written, is only available as a downloadable pdf. · Other references. o Once again Garrett smartly brought in renowned gold hunter Steve Hershbach to host a series of “how-to” videos explaining the Axiom and its use in great detail. Steve’s easy-going manner and excellent on camera skills, combined with his in-depth knowledge of electronic prospecting, make these videos a must see for anyone contemplating the purchase of an Axiom. I found myself going back to them many times and even after learning the Axiom found they served as a huge, free database of knowledge that made me a more skilled operator of the detector. And now on to the field test… Field Test Historically PI detectors have been at their best when it comes to gold prospecting and saltwater beach hunting. These were the two areas that I focused on for my field testing. But before we get to that, let me comment on one aspect of the Axiom that deserves more than just a passing reference. What is that aspect? Its design. I don’t mean anything specific because to focus on just one feature would be unfair. This detector is flat out one of the best designed metal detectors that I have ever had the pleasure of using. The more that I use it the more I appreciate the time that Garrett put into its design. Notice I said “more that I use it.” Having been a field tester of metal detectors for over two decades I can tell you that this is not always the case. I have never tested what I would call a “bad” detector, but on occasion certain detectors take a toll on you just to use them. For example, the grip angle is wrong. Or the balance is off. Or the menus are confusing. Not with the Axiom. Its performance was excellent as you will see shortly. But what really continues to make my day is that the Axiom is just an easy and enjoyable detector to hunt with. Now let’s get to that field test. In the Gold Fields Living in Los Angeles it is difficult to prospect for gold regardless of your method. Getting to areas to look for gold that isn’t in the form of jewelry is especially difficult, although there are certain places where you might have success that are relatively nearby. However, in my mind I wanted to really prospect for gold with the Axiom so I decided to focus on a place you might have heard of: the Mojave Desert. A few hours’ drive from Los Angeles, this massive area holds many gold claims and a ton of history. Through a fellow detectorist I was able to gain access to a mining claim that was known to still be producing gold. Six buddies and I piled into two pickup trucks and we headed out to the desert to make our fortune on a clear Friday morning. Our detecting site, high up in the Mojave Desert Mountains The site we came upon was several miles up in the hills and showed clear evidence of mining activity. Tiling piles were everywhere. We parked and unloaded out detectors. FYI, I had the only pulse machine; my buddies had both multi-frequency units and VLF’s. After having studied Steve Herschbach’s videos the night before (thank you again, Steve!) I felt pretty confident in my ability to run the Axiom so off I went into the land of tailings. Getting started with the Axiom was a breeze: Power up. Adjust threshold - I preferred a barely audible threshold although at times I went with a negative value to run totally silent. In both cases good targets rang through clear and solid. Ground Balance Run Frequency Scan Pair MS-3 Wireless Headphones (optional) - Being out by myself I liked using the speaker but if noise is an issue the MS-3 Wireless Headphones are excellent. Select Detection Mode - I ran Fine Mode exclusively and was very impressed with its sensitivity to all sizes of targets. In the area I was hunting there was no need to utilize either Normal or Large Mode. Go! Over the course of the next six hours, I covered a lot of ground with the Axiom. Targets were few but when there was something there, large or small, the Axiom found it. I really liked the Iron Reject feature in that it allowed me to locate and ignore several tiny ferrous targets in the pile once they were removed from the hole. Having never prospected for gold with a metal detector for this long a period of time I was grateful for the Axiom’s user-friendly design. The main reason? Gold prospecting is hard work! The constant digging in rock hard ground with a pickaxe kicked my butt. The author working a hillside with the Garrett Axiom For those of you who aren’t PI users, there is an audio adjustment that you have to make when using a PI in order to recognize targets. I would strongly urge you to test targets at home before going out in the field. Thankfully I did this and therefore was able for the most part to locate targets easily. Using the DD coil really helped and I was able to use my VLF skills to center and pinpoint targets with very little difficulty. The Axiom found targets of various sizes that included shell casings, bullets, wire, iron junk (ID’d easily by Iron Reject when in the pile), everything but gold. As those of you who prospect for gold know all too well, gold is tough to find and on this day I did not come home with any. The Axiom will find even the tiniest piece of gold as was evidenced by several microscopic bits of wire that hit hard with good, solid repeatable signals. The Axiom was sensitive to both large and very small targets in the heavily worked area. The irony of the day was that one of our party did find gold and he was the only guy who did not use a metal detector. He filled up two large buckets with dirt to take home and pan out and yes, he had gold in his pan when he was all finished. At the Ocean Beach As an avid beach hunter living in Southern California I was really anxious to see how the Axiom performed in a salt environment. Until the advent of multi-frequency detectors, PI’s ruled when it came to depth and performance at ocean beaches. Nowadays you don’t see a lot of PI’s at the beach but they do still have their place when the mineralization is high and causes problems for conventional detectors. There are still PI purists who will argue that a PI can beat any detector for pure depth and they may be right. I had no intention of reopening that debate. All I wanted to do was see if the Axiom could serve as a beach hunting detector. The Axiom was rock solid at ocean beaches and delivered exceptional depth on targets. A long-buried silver ring with an onyx stone was found with the Axiom after a recent storm. The verdict: yes, it can. Thanks to the SALT mode, a beach hunter can easily navigate “the wet” as we call it and punch right through troublesome black sand. In my hunts at the beach I was very pleased with how smoothly the Axiom ran. I could push the sensitivity up to “6” before I had to deal with any falsing. Targets were recovered at impressive depths of well over a foot. Being a PI, some of these were deep garbage but others were coins. That is the compromise you make when hunting with a PI. My best find was a very old, large silver ring, found at a depth of about 6” in a pocket of black sand. The Axiom hit it with no problem. I might add that the Axiom’s relatively light weight and excellent ergonomics made for easy, fatigue-free hunting, something that I have not found to be true of other bulky PI’s that I have used in the past. Another type of beach gold hunting is one that few detectorists explore, that being microgold hunting. For those of you who aren’t familiar with micro-gold hunting, it involves searching for those tiny pieces of gold that VLF metal detectors can’t find. Items like earring backs, thin chains, gold fillings, etc. Gold detectors can be used with good success when searching for microgold due to their ability to find tiny pieces of gold. This type of hunting must be done on the dry since the salt content of the wet sand will wreak havoc with these types of detectors. It requires a great deal of patience since the dry sand holds many types of small bits of metal that conventional VLF’s will not find. It is not for everyone. However, if you elect to try this type of hunting then the Axiom is a superb choice thanks to its FINE MODE. Be sure to bring your Garrett Pinpointer along because you will need it. The Axiom will hit on microscopic pieces of metal like aluminum that you will not see easily with the naked eye. I did a several hour microgold hunt at a local ocean beach and was amazed at how many small targets the Axiom located. If it had been my lucky day, I’m certain some of them would have been gold. Summary, Due to unforeseen circumstances that I will get to in a moment, I was able to spend a much longer period of time using the Axiom than normal. While its gold prospecting abilities have been well documented by many users since its release, there has not been as much focus on the detector as a general use machine, in particular at saltwater beaches where PI’s historically have always performed well. Being a beach hunter, these extra few months gave me multiple opportunities to use the Axion “in the salt” as the saying goes. Generally, I have avoided using a PI as my go-to beach detector because they can be a pain in the neck to use due to their weight, confusing adjustments (for me at least) and the requirement that you have to dig too much garbage. Not that I haven’t tried almost all of them and really tried to love them, or at least like them. The Axiom changed that for me. It is the first PI that I have ever used that was fun to hunt with and performed and felt like a normal metal detector to me. Each time I used it I came to appreciate its brilliantly designed. As a gold prospecting PI I don’t think you can match its performance and value. For saltwater beaches I found it to be a match for any detector that I encountered during my hunts, including all of the latest and greatest multi-frequency machines. If you are looking for a powerhouse saltwater beach detector don’t write of the Axiom as being just a gold prospecting detector. It is a whole lot more. I cannot recommend it more highly as a multi-use metal detector. You can learn more about the Axiom here: https://garrett.com/sport/axiom. Now let’s get to those unforeseen circumstances. This field test was requested by Garrett Electronics and was slated to be published in the January 2023 issue of Western and Eastern Treasures Magazine. I was due to deliver it for publication when the news was released that the magazine was closing its doors for good at the end of 2022. Despite all the work I had put into testing the Axiom and writing up my field test article, it just didn’t seem right for me to keep the unit. I contacted Steve Moore, Director of Marketing for Garrett Electronics, to arrange for the return of the Axiom. To my pleasant surprise, Steve insisted that I hold on to the Axiom and finish my field test in the hope we could find another method of publishing it. Enter Steve Herschbach of DetectorProspector.com Steve said he would gladly publish this field test. He also added that it would be an honor to have it be the last field test written for Western and Eastern Treasures Magazine. To say I was flattered would be an understatement. With that being said, I hope you enjoy this field test of the Garrett Axiom, the last field test written for Western and Eastern Treasures Magazine.

A couple weeks ago I took the wife gold panning/sluicing. That stuff is hard on my knees so, I fired up the D2 and just went walking down a short washed out road along the creek. Well after a few bullet casings I got a 96 X2 and this is what I popped out. Dumb luck or just lucky I guess. California Mother Lode keeps giving.

I hunted a park that I have hunted many times in the past for a couple of cold, windy hours today. I wanted to try out Depth Tones VCO on the Nox 900 in an area that I have gridded with the Equinox 800, Deus 1, Deus 2 and some other detectors. There is tons of ferrous and non-ferrous trash at every depth along with some older coins. Iron mineralization is 7 to 10 bars on Deus 2 at this park. I deliberately setup my Nox 900, 11" coil, with a Field 1 Multi, trashy park pattern that accepted -7 to 0 for some iron audio, 24 to 27 for US nickels, 55 to 62 for US Indian head, early wheat and zinc pennies, and 70 to 99 for anything else in the high conductor US coin range. The nickel target IDs worked out well for US nickels and also snared a few broken pull tabs and beaver tails with no ring pull attached. I did not hit any Indians or early wheats but I did get some deeper zinc pennies. The high conductor IDs accepted range did great with only two very rusty nails recovered that were standing almost straight up in their holes with the nail head facing up. They were 8" deep and were giving mid to high 90s target IDs along with constant iron grunts as I circled the targets. I was fairly certain they were nails before I dug them but digging them was the only way to know for sure. All of the coins in the photo were in the 6" to 8" range and were very close to iron or aluminum targets and had somewhat iffy target IDs but they were accurate enough to get my attention. I did some back and forth between Park 1 Multi, 5 tones, no notches, -7 to 99 accepted and Field 1 Multi DP tones as described above. The DP tones definitely gave stronger VCO audio responses on the deeper coins than the non VCO 5 tones. I could hear the responses using both types of audio but DP was more obvious. Personally, I have not gotten very used to the audio quality of DP tones through the ML 85s. It just sounds weird to me, but it works very well, seems to separate a bit better and is another tool in the tool box. Another 1919 mercury dime, along with some other silver era coins: 1951, 1959 and 1960 US pennies, 1960 US nickel, and some clad dimes and quarters from the 1970s and 1980s.

First gold in about 6 years of a detecting hiatus. Got it in a little wash Condor showed me (I think) 8 years ago. The rains stirred it up a bit and I got one we left behind. Offroad racing is slowing down for me (getting old sucks) and I’ll be out swinging a lot more. I even got one of my little girls interested 😁 I’m in So Cal, anyone else in here around?

Apart from a few coins, it's been a few weeks since I've found anything worth writing home about.. Not finding anything is not necessarily a bad thing and it hasn't discouraged me from spending a few hours each morning hunting the island's bays.. Getting out and about early to go metal detecting has become such a big part of my life I often wonder what I'd do without it.. Although some people might think of this as a rather boring routine (especially when I'm not finding anything), the adventures that come along when metal detecting keep the early morning hunts from getting dull.. This morning's hunt is a good example.. I was chasing out the tide at my home bay when just outside the beam of my headlight I spotted a dark shape launch itself into the waves.. It turned out to be a huge black dog trying to grab a turtle so it could drag it to the beach.. I waded in waist deep with my little shovel and an immense land and sea battle got underway.. It wasn't a tame dog, this thing was bloody ferocious.. In between dodging my shovel blows it kept trying to grab the turtle's flippers, it wasn't about to give up its prey.. Eventually a large wave dumped the turtle on the beach and I was able to get between it and the dog.. Now it was a standoff.. We looked at each other trying to figure out what the other's next plan of attack would be.. I acted first and rushed the dog waving my shovel and doing my best impression of a Zulu warrior.. To my great relief the dog turned tail and retreated back outside the light of my headlight.. I swam the turtled back out beyond the surf, the poor thing was too exhausted to try and bite me.. Even when weeks go by without finding anything, there's always something happening that makes metal detecting worthwhile.. I might spot a koala, echidna or a possum.. A storm or a high tide might expose a whole new area to explore.. And the sunrises never get old, each one heralds the day in its own unique way.. This is besides the feeling of contentment that metal detecting brings, whether underwater or on land.. I'm not talking about some overwhelming joy or anything spiritual, just a feeling that everything's all right in my little world.. This feeling trumps any disappointment.. Instead it makes me believe that my luck is about to change, that my next great find is only a coil sweep away..

Been getting silver almost every time out with my Manticore so far, even at the park. But I've mostly been on the beach where I have consistently been getting Mercs. Yesterday just a '47 Rosie, but still silver. Today, I got my first gold with the new machine. A very solid two way 25 that wasn't shifting. Just 25, 25, 25 both ways. Showing 6" deep - which is kind of shallow for good targets on this beach and that's about how deep it actually was. I'm pretty sure I've got a nickel down there. Nope! 14K white gold, 6.4 grams - it's tiny, barely fits over the first knuckle of my pinkie, but I'll take it. And just to keep the sliver streak alive I guess, I also pulled a very tiny, ornate little silver ring. Not stamped, but the acid turned red and pretty much all silver comes out of this salt black - the below was after some electrolysis and silver polish to take down the black to more of a gray. It started as a much larger black encrustation that I suspected was silver due to the 80's it rang up and because it was black not green. Until the acid turned a nice blood red I still wasn't positive though. - Dave

At last the legend has found me a 14k gold ring. Was hitting up my usual beaches; all of them were barren, except the last one that I knew would have a coin line at least! (It's the same beach that has given me at least 1 silver ring every visit) Arrived on site and there was already another detectorist in the water, so I bee lined it to my usual side on the left of the beach. Hit a few targets and then this gold colored object popped out. At first glance, I thought it was another one of those gold colored circles that were usually made of brass and had threads on the inner part. Upon a second look however, I noticed the metal curved inwards, which is when I knew it had to be a ring! There was also alot of crud within the band where your finger is supposed to go. (It prevented me from knowing the gold content of the ring until after I cleared it out.) Afterwards, I circled around the area where I found the first ring, and popped out a damaged silver ring! Oh and I also found a 1951 silver dime. Pretty solid day, that beach is a treasure trove every time I go. 10/10

A couple of weeks ago I posted about finding a large college class ring. Now that the ring is on its way back to the owner I can share a few more details about it. The ring is from Texas A&M University and the gentleman lost it in the southern California surf in 2009. He returned the next day with a metal detector but was unable to locate it. 14 years later, on a cold, dark, wet and windy morning I was holding the ring in my hand admiring its golden sheen in the glow of my headlamp. The owner was very surprised and grateful to hear that I would be returning his ring. After speaking with the ring's owner I found out more about the rich tradition of the "Aggie ring". The Aggie class ring just might be one of the most cherished, celebrated and recognizable college class rings in the world. The rings are made by the well known Balfour company and, I believe that, Texas A&M is one of their biggest, if not their biggest, clients. The Association of Former Students oversees a lost and found program and maintains a registry to help reunite rings with their owners. Their website states that there are about 60 Aggie rings reported lost or missing each month! That should give you an idea of how many thousands of Aggie rings are out there. There is even a large bronze statue of an Aggie ring on campus! Now that I understand more about the history and significance of the Aggie ring I am really glad that I am able to return this one. https://www.tamu.edu/traditions/aggie-culture/aggie-ring/index.html https://www.aggienetwork.com/news/tagged/?tag=294

I rarely find anything worth posting here, but I think you might enjoy this. I have a standing permission at an old farm yard here in eastern Massachusetts. I've been over this particular spot six or eight times, and found a Barber dime just before the end of last season. So that's where I started last night. Deus II, Sens FT, square tones. Settings probably wouldn't have mattered as this signal was pretty clear – low eighties, fairly clear tone with a slight scratch on the outswing, and a bit of an unctuous warble. So a bottle cap, or more likely a big screw top from a liquor bottle. I dug it anyway because I wanted to clear the trash out and hopefully find more coins. It was very dark already, so when I flipped the sod, I could barely tell that I had a pocket watch or compass, so on I went. once I cleaned it off a bit at home, I explained to my son that this wasn't plated because there were no flakes coming off, but that silver sometimes comes out gold toned. At that point the back falls off. I got so excited about the inscription that I didn't read the case marks. So it took quite a while for me to realize that this was, in fact, a 14k gold watch!

Wasn't planning on going detecting today, it was cold and windy yesterday, and today was colder. Not much wind. It was supposed to start raining in the afternoon and rain all the way through Monday, windy on Tuesday. The next good day will probably be next Thursday, so I figured I'd try to brave the cold. It was in the mid 30s when I got out here, a farm close to my house. It's 200+ acres. If you've been following me it was also a horse racing track that was pounded by other detectorists. I've only found two spots they didn't know about or find, I've done pretty well there, and there was sort of a third today. One was a house that was there a long time ago, another a barn. This spot may well have been where some betting occurred, you'll see why. I was only out for 6 hours today before it started raining, but all things considered it was a great day. At one point I had to go back to the house to get my heated socks and gloves, they really helped. Unfortunately one of my neighbors tests his hunting rifles here, so at a certain distance there are a lot of bullets, mostly deer slugs that hit the Deus 2 in the high 80's and even low 90's. Dug a fair amount of trash today, even a couple bits of large iron. The green shotgun shell is a live round. Digging a lot of bullets is never fun, but you hope they caused someone to miss something, and today they sure did. I had just got out there, searched about 20 feet from my cart, and got a really nice 84/85 that I thought was either a bullet or a penny. I was surprised when this popped out of the plug: A totally beat up Spanish half Reale, I think the date is 1775, but it's really hard to read. It's off center, kind of normal for these. This is what it looks like in good shape: And the reverse: I'll probably never find one that nice! My first Spanish silver of the year 🥳 At least the were enough marks to ID it. I searched around that area, Chase found another coin there recently. Got another 85 and thought it was a bullet. Again a surprise, and something very interesting: This appears to be a large cent that was used as a "cutting board" for cutting other coins into "change". It has no identifiable marks of its own, but the knife cuts tell a story. Here's the other side: It's 28mm so it's probably a large cent that broke on one of the knife cuts. Didn't find much else but bullets in this area, so I decided to walk along about 20 feet in from the road that bisects this field. Got a 93, and thought I'd found another silver, but got this instead: It's brass and does not appear to have been crushed or damaged. I have no idea what it is. Got another 85 and got this silver plated medium button: It was a bit taco'ed so I flattened it. A little further down the road, after digging a few bullets, all in the 80s and 90s, I got a 91 that turned into a 94, and dug this, my last find of the day: It's a little mangled but hey it's silver! I looked around a bit longer, and decided to call it a day, it started raining as I drove back to my house. For a hunt that I almost didn't go on, it was a good one. 🙂

Had a three hour group hunt today with men and women from our Denver area metal detecting club at a local park. Screwdriver or probe hunting only by order of the city of Denver. I was using Deus 2, 9" coil Sensitive 5 tones, 95 sensitivity, discrimination 10, reactivity 2, silencer 0 audio response 4. Iron mineralization meter was 8 of 10 bars consistently. I was specifically looking for gold jewelry (skunked) silver jewelry (also skunked) silver coins, older coins and modern USA coins. I collected and threw away a lot of trash that I just picked up off the surface of the ground along with detecting and throwing away quite a bit of gold range can slaw. The 1919D Mercury dime was a full Teknetics Tek-Point deep so at least 9". So was the 1947 nickel and the wheat pennies. These targets were whispers but there were enough correct target IDs to dig. I think I could have found more silver coins but I got tired.

Hit a park yesterday...it was fun playing in the mud... came home soaked and dirty but with a smile on my face. Look at the color on that little ring. It holds acid up to 22k for about an hour and I don't have acid that goes higher then that so I'm thinking its between 18 and 20K...it was smashed by the mower so I heated it a little and straightened it out on the mandrel. The wife wants that one so I'll be taking it to the jeweler so he can doctor it up. The pendant is 14k stamped and acid tests. If you have a M-Core dig those 13s and 18's you might get a nice surprise. strick

Decent hunt today at the same place from my last post. Again, using the Deus and 9" coil with an altered Hot program. Didn't know til I got home that I had a key date wheat - 1909s - too bad it wasn't the elusive VDB. That's 2 - 09s's for me now. Barbers are 07s, and 08s. Roached Buff is a 20s, and the little pendant is from the local high school circa 1920.

I broke my S mint streak and added a D mint barber silver. 1908 D. The place I've been hunting has seen many, many detectors over the years. It has seen plenty of use from the early 1900's, and had history into the second half of the 1800s. Simply seems that with new tech and enough patience, there are always a few more goodies to find. I've hit this place at least a dozen times in the last 10 years, and I've rarely found a wheat penny. Finally landed a war nickel last year. Mind you, I do reasonably well with my equipment in other locations, so I had effectively given up on this one as too few targets to bother with. When i started posting a couple of weeks ago, I stumbled into a 1909 barber dime...and a buff nickel and several wheats. This reenergized me to give it a go again in part of the property that i hadn't hit much in years past. It's bare of underbrush, so it's easy enough to hit. Since, I've totaled 4 dimes, 4 buffs, 1 almost indiscernible V just today, 24 wheats (most 1909-1929), and 6 IHCs. Today I added the barber quarter. I've must say that I need to give some of the credit to the Deus. If I'd hit this part of the ground thoroughly with my V3i, I'd have found some of this haul, but I don't think I'd have found all of it. The D1 has been doing a nice job of pulling 8" deep nickels and pennies...which is close to the limit of what i've done with the V3i historically in our dirt (9"). And it's so nice that it is so light. Even the 11" coil I used today was easy enough to swing for 8 hours. Now, I think I'll let it sit for a bit and give both the ground an myself a break before i try it again. The targets a getting much harder to find...but they are still there. Hit the 1918s merc 2 days ago at 8+". Just a faint peep. Have to be more there. Today the big surprise was the Barber quarter at 4". While there was iron on one side and a tree on the other, the 11" coil fit easily in between and the signal was no mystery....but I didn't believe it. Could possibly be a shallow silver quarter left. I just took a quick shover scoop expecting a bottle cap or clad quarter, and out popped one of my favorite coin designs. How on earth did this survive the multitude of detectorists? Nothing to really hide it or protect it. Just dumb luck I suppose. Also added a sterling piece today that may have been part of a fountain pen? It had material inside the cylinder, but i couldn't ID it. Seems to be wood or tightly wrapped paper with some sort of core....but this piece is likely 100+ years old. Get out and hit that permission that went quiet! We never get it all! V below appeared to be an 1892 before a light clean up.

It's 18k, 4.4 gr. Running Toms settings with a litte disc added to smooth it out. This detector is processing very well--very clean. Also the combo of segmented and all tones is a nice gold I D feature--any "transitory" type signals are obvious. I've spent my last day digging rusted foreign coins...Great machine! cjc

I think people overestimate the underlying technology. VLF discrimination is highly inaccurate, and PI discrimination is a joke. The reality is ground signal overlaps with target signals, so simply using ground balance tunes out a certain class of targets. Almost all targets will read ferrous in bad ground under the right conditions, so anyone employing just basic ferrous versus non-ferrous discrimination, even on the best VLF detectors, leaves good targets in the ground that are misidentified as ferrous. This is simply common knowledge among experience gold nugget hunters, and is why many eschew discrimination of any sort. It is also why the engineer nerds at Minelab left off the so-called discrimination on the SDC-2300, GPZ 7000 and GPX 6000. That’s their way of them telling you how well they think it actually works. That said I like having the option to use discrimination, as long as it’s up to me to decide when and where to use it. Even with the SDC, 6000 and 7000 I cherry pick targets based on tone, so I am using discrimination - my ear and brain. But I don’t kid myself that I’m not leaving gold in the ground as a result, and neither should anyone else. It’s a gamble at best. The targets you leave in the ground, well, you’ll never know what they were. I can tell you this though and it’s a fact - I have dug literally ounces of gold that were left by others as being junk, probably over a pound at least. People who leave stuff in the ground because they trusted their detectors have put thousands of dollars in my pocket, so thanks!

Rang up a solid 46 on the Deus2 about 6 inches deep. Only .76g

Found a nice 15 g silver necklace. It is a bit delicate so I'm surprised it came out in one piece. Before cleaning After several cycles of baking soda, salt, thick aluminum min-pie tin.

A few days ago I went to a park in a different part of town to test the ground since parks closer to home are still pretty frozen. It was a really nice day, sunny and almost warm, and I had high hopes since this park has huge sports flields and playgrounds. The fields were still largely frozen but I could see there were small holes everywhere from the parks department aerators. I figured that could be a good sign and maybe that would make the ground thaw quicker. I had been there but about an hour when the park started filling up with people, a lot of people. I wasn't finding much anyway and really just wanted to see how the ground was, so I started working my way back to the car when a got a signal that had a typical ring pull number but it sounded just a little too good so decided to check it out. When I peeled open the small hole I made I saw a greyish curved edge and thought, "Yep, it's a ring pull", but I was wrong. I could see a weird looking part where the tab would be and it had a stone on it. "Holy cow, it's a ring!"' I thought, "but is it real?" Turns out it was .925 silver with a stone of some kind. It looks like the aerator tagged it on the back part, but it's still intact and still silver. Well I figured that made my day and it was time to beat a hasty retreat while more people were piling in. As I worked my way out of the field, I moved into a scrub area near a dirt trail leading off to a creek from the parking lot. I poked around the scrub a little while finding some nails and bits of iron when I hit what I thought was a dime signal. I dug down about 4-5 inches and found a square hunk of metal covered in dirt and mud laying on a rock layer. Well it wasn't a dime so I through it in the junk pouch and called it a day. When I got home and verified the ring was silver, I started going through the trash and got to the square thing. It had some weight to it and as I started to brush it off, an oblong hole appeared. I could start to make out some lettering and figured it is probably a dog license since there was a dog park not too far from where I was hunting. When I finally got it cleaned off I could see it had Santa Fe Hotel , the number 11, and 529 E.PP on it. It was a hotel key fob, and it looked older too. There hasn't been a Santa Fe Hotel in town for as far back as I can remember. I started doing some research and located the probable location of the hotel which has a bank building on the site now, but on 1800s maps of the city it was a large lot with a large building on it on the eastern edge of town and was directly across from the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad depot. That building is gone in maps of the early 1900s and with the help of some of my detecting club members, we have narrowed the date of the key fob down to 1880-1890s. So there you have it. You just never know what you will find in the most unlikely places. And always check your trash, it could be something good, and strangely enough this has happened to me a few times lately.

I had gone into an old past producing mine last week. I had brought my axiom with the 11" mono and my friend had his sdc2300. I had hit a very suttle signal on the wall in a 1" thick blanket seam, my friend scanned it with his sdc2300 and could not pick up a signal. I chiseled out 4" of the wall around the target, the suttle signal turned into a banger. Ended up being a 1 oz pay zone of 3"w 4"L not a crazy amount but no complaints and always thankful. All the gold was thin and laying flat so the detector was only picking up the edges, which makes a huge difference for depth. I took my vlf gold kruzer to clean up all the non pi gold. I replaced my sdc2300 for the axiom im pretty happy with my decision. Incase anyone is wondering is was in "fine" mode, full sensitivity, no head phones, max vaolume, max threshold, tone @ 60, speed on slow. Ground track off, basically default settings except sensitivity, tone and speed. I normally run head phones in which i should have to block out the sound of the coil scraping the walls and background noise but i didnt have my headphones thats why i max out everything as for volume,threshold and sensitivity. I think volume amd threshold are maxed by default. With headphones i run 4-6 on sensitivity depending. I dont notice a difference on small,large, shallow, deep targets from max sensitivity to default except overall volume, youll still hear targets in reach. Good luck out in the gold feilds.

Well I have tried the Coiltek 9x14 and now the Nugget Finder Xceed6000 12x7 and in my opinion the NFXceed is by far a superior coil. I was concerned at first about it's ability to punch deep and I was also concerned about it's depth capabilities in auto 1 & 2. I am not concerned any more. Two days of detecting close to my camp and I hit 7 nuggets. 4 the day before yesterday and 3 today. All 7 nuggets were deep, for each nuggets size. The 2 deepest ones were 11" deep. One of those was a .7 and the other was .9. This coil is a deep punching coil and here is a tiny one my buddy Gold Ryder got with his 12x7 coil on his 6000. Gold Ryder and I are going to kill it on our claims this spring and summer. Video of these nuggets being dug up coming soon.

Did a water hunt yesterday and found this tiny 1 gram 14K ring. It was on the limits of being detected with ID's jumping around, barely audible, and some negative numbers mixed in. Just what I have been reading about how very deep targets can give confusing signals. But there was just "something" in the audio response that said dig me. I was very careful pinpointing where the target was before digging, and it was 3 scoops deep, dug in a very tight hole. Really pleased with the depth.

Beautiful day today, started out a bit chilly but warmed up to 62, little to no wind. Decided to go to my oldest farm permission, I wanted to finish up around a "staff" house, and maybe just poke around a bit to see what random stuff I could find. I never made it to the farmhouse in the distance. 😀 As soon as I got in the field I turned and walked along a hedgerow and a bit into the field, and pretty much got everything I dug today in that area. Guess it was a little hotspot, there was a road running through the farm that was on the 1910 Topographic map, I think the "staff" waited in this area to be picked up for the day, and perhaps a vendor came through. There are bits of iron and stuff everywhere in about a half acre, any good signal is a good find. First thing I hit was this large heavy brass Star, it appears to have been attached to something by 4 clips on the back which are broken, but the star is complete. To show how big it is, here it is next to one of the two 1902 IHPs I dug today: I might try to shine it up using Tarn-X or Brasso or something, it's pretty awesome. Got some buckle parts and a 1900 V nickel in pretty good shape: I don't usually get one that I can read the date on. Went up to where the house was and searched around, didn't find anything but the foundation that had been pushed into the woods. A pile of cinder blocks and concrete, none of these houses are very big. There is another in the property but is owned by someone else, so it's off limits. This was a very large plantation, probably one of the oldest in the region. Decided to go somewhere else, went along the woodline until I got to this little clearing where I got my "thank you for coming" gift from the field. Got a solid 91, and unearthed this pretty minty 1934 Mercury dime. My silver count is off the charts (for me) this year. I was very careful to spray it with distilled water instead of brushing it or rubbing it off. Here's the total haul, lots of brass bits and a couple of small buttons including a Tombac and a small two piece. I'm pretty sure the spoon bowl is aluminum, but would be thrilled if it isn't. Only a handful of trash, I did get a large block of lead, but I didn't photograph it. I have no idea why a pink capacitor was in this ancient field, but there are always surprises. 😀

Last week I did find a nice looking shell.. While I didn't find it with a metal detector, I wouldn't have found it if I hadn't been metal detecting.. So I guess it sort of counts as a find..

Hi there.... yes I did send Calabash a unit. First of all, he is not an enemy because a manufacturer can't see any user as an enemy. Number 2 is, I was messaged by somebody saying that Calabash made a shout out to me in a video he posted couple of weeks ago. So I watched the video and it was true. I posted a comment under the video and told him he could contact me. As a manufacturer, we can't be the side holding a grudge or shut our door to any user in this indutry. He made a step forward and I responded publicly as transparency is very important to us. We will not push a hand away but that doesn't mean we are still not behind everything we say or do.

With the recent tips, tricks, and comparison videos out there regarding unmasking in iron, I've been anxious to try out some ideas in what is my personal "worst dirt on Earth". I call it the Land that Time Forgot. I know that others probably have way worse dirt, but for my area, this is it for me. It is an old coal mining area close to home that is strewn with coal, coke, magnetite, hot rocks, all manner of iron from microscopic to huge, and man-made metal trash of all varieties. It operated from the late 1800s to the 1930s and probably began to be metal detected the week after it closed down. It is the proverbial beat to death, hunted out site. Most people I know won't even go there anymore. I imagine this place is probably what the surface of one of the moons of Jupiter looks like. Of course being only a couple of years back into the hobby, I don't have the good sense to look somewhere more promising, so off I went trying to beat the weekly snowstorm on the only warm-ish day in while. Now I've been trying to expand my repetoire of D2 Programs and tricks to enhance my hunting experience in really difficult ground. For this hunt, I wanted to really explore F350's Relic Reaper program, variations of Fast in Full Tones and Pitch, Sensi FT, Park in Pitch, Relic, and Deep HC in Pitch. Now I didn't take the time to do anything even approaching scientifically controlled testing, I was on the hunt, so I just alternated using Fast Full Tones, Fast Pitch, and G1-F350 (Relic Reaper) to find targets and interrogated them with all of the listed programs. Now this was just my area in my worst case scenario and results will vary in your areas, so take this all with a grain of salt. My main three hunting programs were as follows: Fast Full Tones in PWM and Sens 94, Disc -2.0, Notch 00-00, Silencer & B-Caps 0, Reactivity 1.5, Audio Response 5. Fast Pitch Tones in PWM and Sens 94, Disc 6.8, Notch 10-30, Silencer 2, B-Caps 3, Reativity 2, Audio Response 5. G1-F350 (Realic Reaper) stock, but with PWM audio, Sensitivity 96, and Big Numbers instead of XY screen. FYI, for those interested in the Relic Reaper, contact @F350Platinum. It's his program and he might share it with you if you bribe him with Spanish Silver. 🤣 I hunted mainly by ear, only looking at the TID numbers when a target sound confused me or was very faint in the mix. That actually worked pretty well on most of the programs. I dug anything that sounded good and iffy ones as well. One thing I noticed was that Relic, Deep HC, and Fast Pitch liked to false loud on big iron. So did the the Park program in Pitch, but it was just too filtered to hit many of the targets in the iron matrix. The iron overpowered it, so I stopped using Park after a while. The programs with Full Tones seemed to false to a lesser degree, or perhaps it just sounded lower in pitch and volume, but they worked well to tell falsing iron from a non-ferrous target close to iron. I dug several iffies just to confirm. The programs with square tones made it harder for me to tell misshaped targets from round, in my opinion, so I switched all programs to PWM. That seemded to help quite a bit for me and why I mainly use PWM now. All of the programs seemed to hit good targets well, but for me, The Fast and Deep HC in Pitch hit the hardest even on the tiniest targets. The G1-F350 (Relic Reaper) was designed for use in very mild soil, but did amazingly well in my mineralization. It went deep and was great at separating non-ferrous from ferrous targets and I ended up using it to check all deep iffy targets in iron and it was spot on. I also noticed that full tones in PWM was great at telling deep from shallow and small from large targets. It may be because I tend to run a little hot, from 94-96, and larger targets and very shallow targets would distort in the audio like an overdriven amp. So for my ears, I still like Fast the best, but that's just me. I also tried adjusting Reactivity from 0.5-4 to see if I could unmask targets. Anything over 2.5 just didn't sound off as well in this dirt and under 1.5 was just lost in the mix. 1.5-2 seemed to be the sweet spot in this beat up ground. So to wrap up, try everything to learn what works best for you in your ground. You just won't know what will work best for a particular location unless you experiment. I did manage to unearth one sweet surprise in that scortched earth from hell. While poking around under some tumble weeds, I got a fairly faint 90-94 number peaking through the iron grunts and it remainded the same on all programs that I checked it with. Thinking it was a large bottle cap, I dug it because all 90s come out! It was actually a very weathered 1927-D silver Mercury dime! I coudn't believe it! Coins are scacer than hens teeth at this place, except for zinc pennies which must just rain from the sky in this state! Anyway thanks for reading and I hope my quests help others in some small way on their journey. Buttons, bullets, and such. Possibly Native American or Spanish hair or braid decoration. Non-Ferrous. The Iron. The Glass. The trashy trash.

Beautiful day here in sunny VA, I was excited to get out early this morning to go to a place I haven't been to. Today I used the Deus 2 and 13", but now I have lowers for all the coils so I brought the 9" with me. Little ol' 40 acre farm across from one I have hunted and didn't get much. Followed all the hunting tricks I could, this field must have been cleared and managed by mechanized farm equipment, there was absolutely no sign of anything colonial or even Victorian. Stayed there 3 hours and walked 3 miles, got nothing but some junk and a 22-250 bullet shell. I thanked the farmer for his generosity and left. 🙂 Next up the really big farm, I have to park about a half mile or more from where the farmhouse stood near an old barn and silos. These two fields are side by side, part of the same plantation, and I have permission to both. The big one isn't too far from here but the house and barns are. Well I never got there - again. 🤣 The minute I set foot in this field I got a great target, and I stayed in that area for the rest of the day. Got a lot of trash today from both places, even some iron, as the ground is drying out despite the rain, and iron tends to false more or so it seems. 🤔 Guess I made ya wait long enough for the haul, only got 3 things today, after walking 2.3 more miles over 3 hours. My first target was the Pistareen, a 1/4 cut silver 1720s-1740s 2 Reale: Here's the reverse: You can see the "II". It was an 85, thought it was a penny. This is what the whole coin looks like: Walked along the line between the fields, got a 95 which shocked me, and dig this 1852-ish 🤔 large cent. Here the reverse, certainly enough details on this one but it's not round: Here's this one: I wish it was that nice 🙄 Got a fat flat button last. Keeping the silver streak alive, and this is the first 2 Reale bit I've found.

George, Like you, I've been at this a while (since 1972 to be exact). I also have a departed wife by divorce. And adult kids. I like to think of metal detecting to have been "my time" which I think we all need. While others may like clubs and group hunts and all of that stuff, I've always enjoyed the solitary existence of me and my metal detector out looking for things. Here in 2023 that hasn't changed. It clears my head and relaxes me and in the world today there isn't much I can find to do that does that for me. To answer the question of your subject line "At What Cost Did My Family Pay For My Addiction?" I would say that there was no cost whatsoever. Rather there was the benefit from your detecting that allowed you to be more of who you are in those special moments with your family. Bill

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Hey Everyone, Just wanted to share some of my thoughts/experience with the Axiom so far. Iv got about 14 hrs on it here in AZ. I was on the fence between buying the 6000 or the Axiom ever since the minelab sale.... Tough decision as the feedback on the Axiom is still pretty slim but very promising. Well I got out last weekend and it was a perfect day for testing in my most familiar ground where i usually swing an SDC or 4500. It was windy and the EMI was in full force. There was also some recent rain which had soaked the thick red clay in many areas. So yeah, perfectly hot and variable ground and EMI up the wazoo... Usually this combination will make me choose the 4500 in enhance/quiet tuned down a bit and not even bother with the SDC if the EMI is too bad. I fired up the Axiom for the first time and went through all the settings. In order to get it running quiet in this setting (11"mono) I landed on using normal at sensitivity of 3. In fine mode the wet red clay was too much to balance in any setting higher than 2 In Normal mode both the horrible EMI and ground was mellow enough to run it at 3. At 2 it was close to silent which was great but I did not trust it to find small pieces yet. Within about 15 mins i popped out a .16 g on a hillside! yay, ok it works! So the rest of the day i had a really fun time going Veerrryyy slow, digging every sound, playing with the settings as I went along. Im so used to the sound of my minelabs with the sun ray headphones that it took alot of adjusting the audio tone/threshold/volume and some time to get used to the slightly different character of the Axiom. I did use the WR-1 with my sunrays (thanks for that tip Steve) but it was still a little strange... What I noticed right off was if there was an adjustment to the sensitivity, then the quality of the threshold sound changed. As well it seemed if the threshold was turned up a bit somewhere around 16-18 and the volume was just right, there was a sweet spot where the target sounds seemed to be most clear to my ears. I am curious what other people are experiencing with the Axioms audio and threshold, please chime in! So I kept changing the volume of the machine, the WR-1 module, and the headphones, the sensitivity, and the threshold and there is alot of variation in the quality of sound between settings. Another thing about the threshold was a kind of clipped/echo kind of break when a small/faint or deep target was gone over....almost like when using my equinox with some of the numbers blocked or tuning down the the 4500 threshold way down. I tried adjusting the the threshold higher than 19-20 but it blocked out too much of the target sounds. I had a difficult time getting the volume/threshold/sensitivity just right. I did not try the speaker yet. Ground balance: I did not use the ground tracking at all yet. I found I had to ground balance quite a bit more actively in this variable ground. (compared to 4500) Hot wet clay-dry hillside- hot rocks etc.. but I really like being able to balance out the hot rocks, very handy feature.. again im so new to this machine i know nothing yet. So far so good! Got out the next day to another location. Very little wind/emi, dryer (mostly) ground. lots of ironstone, blacksand, hot rocks, lots of variable hot spots etc. No wind so I happily used the speaker which is great. So this day i was able to use Fine mode but only at about 3 sensitivity. Emi and ground were too erratic and i wanted to get more time in and find more targets to understand more of how this detector works before I try cranking it up too much (again, great advice from Steve on this) I found a couple of faint targets and changed all the settings up and down before digging. In Fine, the small targets sounded off clear, in Normal not so much. I tried cranking up the sensitivity in Normal but it only helped a wee bit. Fine was better for sure even at a setting of 2. At setting of 1 sensitivity the targets were too faint but it sure was quiet! dug up the two targets and gold yay! smallest weighs in at .06 g Im very happy about this👍 I did scrape down to bedrock in the area and went over it with the NOX and didnt find any other targets... Ended up finding a couple sitting ducks, one next to someones dig hole (so sorry) and one about 6ft away. biggest was .4g and was a screamer, thought for sure it was a bullet at first' So, iv only got about 14hrs on the AXIOM but I am diggin it so far! I tried the ground tracking in slow, which seemed to work well on the variable wet/dry ironstone nature of the area. I cant remember if i was using it when I found the tiniest piece. but did find a shotgun bb while using it so it did not track it out. and I dont remember hitting any hot rocks while using it in this area... Geeesh, i didnt mean to go on such a ramble but im trying to share as much as i can to help anyone who is considering trying out this machine. I know I was skeptical but the reports have been really intriguing. Price point, ergonomics, new variables to play with. My only concern so far is durability. It seems well made though only time will tell. I am so far very pleased with my purchase (thanks to a member here!) I do not think it compares to either my SDC or 4500... its somewhere in the middle I think. And with only using the 11" mono so far, im excited to try the other coils. Another observation is the coil is nice and hot on those squared off corners, it really is a bit different than most elipticals. As well the shape of it helps the whole machine stay upright when you set it down, and thats a nice touch. Another nice feature is the layout of the settings buttons. easy to adjust all settings quickly. I was pleasantly surprised how much I like it. I kept treating the detector like my NOX, and kept accidentally trying to turn it off on the side of the screen, which was funny.. and a nod to how light it is.. Anyway, hope theres at lest a helpful nugget in all that somewhere... Id love to hear what others are experiencing with the audio settings especially the threshold and sensitivity variables..

The socal storm came and went but I still decided to go out today. I went out just hoping for wheat back and that was all. The hunt started very slow but I wasn’t surprised since the beach was sanded in. I hunted one spot for about an hour and then call it quits since I wasn’t finding much. I walked south a couple hundred feet and so a few rocks barely exposed so decided to do a little gridding. My second target was the broken class ring. After that I found aluminum and few pennie’s I kept going since I had already found more than I was expecting. Later I stayed finding fishing weights. I got this high VDI (in the 90’s) signal on the manticore and dug a pyramid fishing weight. I checked the hole again and found another fishing weight, a long one this time. I rechecked the hole once more and found a buffalo nickel. I kept gridding this particular area but couldn’t find anything else besides fishing weights and more pennies. I wasn’t feeling anymore here so I decided to go North. I went further north than where I started. This particular spot didn’t have anything special about it but I decided to grid it. I started finding a few coins, some pennies mixed with quarters and nickels. Around an hour later I hit the small 14k ring with 12 diamond chips. As this point a was ecstatic so the rest of the hunt didn’t really matter but just kept going. I spent another 30 minutes there and found two silver dimes (I think one is a barber). After this place I decided to go check out this one spot further north. I walked for a long time doing a zig zag but didn’t find anything. I even stopped at another place showing a few rocks but nothing showed up besides aluminum. At this point I was done so I turned around. I looked where I came from and picked a straight line to detect on my way back. I walked for a while and got this loud signal with a 94 VDI. I shoved my scoop about 4-6” down and pulled it out. Checked the hole and the target was in the scoop. I tossed it and this silver disk popped out. It was a Franklin half and I just couldn’t believe it. I checked the area around it and there were no other heavy targets so I turned off the detector and called it a day. Thanks for looking and good luck out there. I believe this year is the year of the broken rings, I think I have around 7 of them already. Would you counted as a ring or just a piece of gold?

Hunted a old house yard that was built in 1923 and a local park using the CTX 3030.

Went out for another stroll at the beach. One of my first good targets was the broken piece of a class ring (I have quite a few from different beaches this year). The next two hours were just the usual clad and finally I dug my first silver coin for the day. A couple minutes later I dug my second silver. I spotted this low spot with lots of rocks and decided to hit it. I got a nice sound on the equinox and after a few scoops the leaf was laying there in two pieces. Picked it up to examine it and noticed it’s stamped 18k. There’s some hard to read letters on the back and I think it says Tiffany. The leaf tip the scale at 8 grams. Thanks for reading and good luck out there.

How sad. I’ve observed over my career in selling gold mining and metal detecting equipment that it’s very easy to steal from people in this industry. The gold mining and treasure hunting industry is rife with scams, many very large and in plain sight. And apparently somehow legal - consumer protection laws are a joke and boil down to “buyer beware.” A combination of greed and gullibility is deadly, and makes people easy prey for those who have no scruples. I’ve tried to talk countless people off ledges who were ready to jump - throw away money on equipment they did not need or which are complete scams. I saved many, but at times there is a remarkable level of delusion at work that borders on madness. They get locked into unassailable circular thinking on the subject. The main problem for this guy now is he spent $5500 on something literally not worth $10. This requires him to basically admit he was a fool. That’s psychologically impossible for a lot of people therefore the device must work. Also, if one was to admit it does not work, how do you sell it in good conscience? I would not be able to. They have to keep believing the lie for various reasons. At the end of the day these are belief systems not unlike a cult of sorts, and once people are in it can be hard, if not impossible, to extricate them from these deep wells of self-deception. In fact, trying to dissuade them can actually help reinforce their false beliefs as they will work very hard to defend those beliefs. If you try too hard, they will often get angry, so you do have to be cautious. There is a point where just walking away is the best solution. You did what you could Mitchel. Hopefully the seeds you planted will sprout in his mind as doubt and reality might set in some day. Tips For Helping People Trapped In Cult Like Thinking

This makes 10 gold rings and 14 total gold with the Manticore since my first hunt on Jan 15. It is size 4 and weighs 1.38 grams. I also found a 1964 Rosie. Nice to detect my name. LOL I do believe that I am getting the hang of this machine.

For years a place nearby has hosted scads of college students to get away from classes. My wife would take a book and read while I detected after work in the evenings, No idea how many coins I found but it was many. About 6 years ago I had stopped detecting after suffering a heart anurysm but decided I better get back out and start living. o back to the college farm I go, it had been landscaped. But remembering it had been a farms at one time, I started to bring up older coins , A walker a silver kennedy, a few rosies and a few mercs, last week ws the best find from there, a 1918 SLQ, It was about the only target I had, the ground was sloppy and half frozen. Anyway,dig them all

Minelab Manticore vs Equinox 800 vs Equinox 900 for Gold Nugget Prospecting. I’ve been keeping my lips tight on this subject long enough. It’s to the point now I have to ask you the general public for input. After all, we have members on DP from other countries and maybe you can chime in as well? But for everyone reading, what do you think is the better detector for chasing Au nuggets and also do you feel is the best overall vale? Yes this is a 2 part question and it’s just your opinions so nobody is wrong. PROVEN - We all know (well at least my Field Staff Experts and I…as well as most of my customers who’s taken our Field Training at Rye Patch NV, the last 3 yrs) how well the Equinox 800 performs and the 10X of features why it’s a better performing VLF gold detector than the Monster and most other class detectors. Don’t get me wrong, the Monster is a great detector for many and those who like to hand a simple Turn on and Go detector to a friend or family who wants to give it a try on occasion. But there’s many shortcoming on the Monster I wish it had. Brain flash…Oh my…the next detector “The Monster 2000”. Heck maybe that’s why I’m feeling shorted with the Manticore? Again EQ-800 is proven and golden. Proven: Lets back up a few years just before Equinox being released to General Public. Jan. 2018 Dealers were invited to an Equinox Introduction. Minelab had a big meeting in AZ to educate dealers (at least the ones who took the time to show up), how the Equinox series (EQ-600/800) was going to be the flag ship sub $1000 detector. Minelab was on their A game and even brought the big guns from Australia in to share this exciting new technology. Thanks to all of Minelab who helped put that event together. I know most everyone I spoke with was extremely excited for the future. A few of folks were even lucky enough to stay an extra day and go out into the desert and feel, swing, test the NOX to see for ourselves, very impressed. My Staff was all over it and learned a lot. Afterwards the big brass from Minelab USA came to Boise and visited me just to make sure I was totally on board and ready to sell the $hit out of them, which I did. Sadly, we didn’t get such dog/pony show for the Manticore, well not us in the US anyway as of yet? Did any other countries get a red carpet treatment on it and how well it will do for Gold Prospecting? We still have time though, but you’d expect a detector that was shown way back in August of 2022 and now it’s March of 2023, well it’s never to late and I’ll give them a pass as they are releasing a detectors left and right, (EQ-700, EQ-900, Manticore, X-Terra Pro) so their time is limited. Here is why I am a little skeptical. Now folks, I’m no genius and no I’m no more special than anyone else, but I’ve reached out more than once to (I won’t say their names) and have yet to hear back. Realize, I’m just 1 guy and they probably get asked by many. Plus all those other new detectors coming out…back to me being a little skeptic. A simple quick view of the Manticore and what I see missing? EQ-800 and EQ-900 both have 2 Gold Prospecting Modes and the Manticore Only has 1. EQ800/900 both have option of the small 6” sniper coil. Heck the EQ-900 comes with 2 coils including the 6” sniper coil in the box for only $1100 in the US. Manticore does not even give us the option for that small coil. We get a bigger 8” coil option instead for some unknown price yet to be seen? Heck, anyone who knows anything about VLF class gold detectors realizes the importance of the smallest coil possible and there are 10+ proven gold detectors out there proving the small 5 and 6” coils are KILLER on small gold. But not even an option for the Manticore? When I view all the upgrades of the EQ-900 and see the additional $180 sniper 6” coil comes with it in the box, I see value. In fact since the EQ-900 has the same 2 Gold Modes as the EQ-800, I lean again to the “Proven” as well. Not so with the Manticore, or at least yet. Maybe I’m just very cautious of the last 6 months (half a year) of hearing all the great about the Manticore? Maybe in 6 months (or next year) all this will be proven? Or maybe the Manticore is mainly geared toward the masses? I did see and wondered???? The Manti is missing the 4 kHz Setting the EQ-800 and EQ-900 have. Not sure why it’s not on the Manticore? We know the masses are General Purpose Coin/Relic hunters and then Beach/Water swingers. Prospectors, we’re less than 10%, maybe even less than 5% of the general public who detects. Here’s a quick overview I observed without going into each individual feature. Yes all 3 units come with wireless headphones, cables, chargers and screen protectors. Equinox 800 is $900, comes with an 11” DD coil (price dropped a few months ago) and it’s a proven gold detector. After becoming the #1 seller for me and many others under $1000, many folks encounters a few flaws (arm cuffs, shaft wobble, ear cracks, leaks, wireless headphones). The good thing is Minelab provides a 3 year transferable warranty and they take care of their customers. I honestly feel if you take any product and it becomes so popular, most everyone’s uses it, then there will be more people complaining as well, it’s simple math. Minelab has done a pretty good job trying to keep most of us happy with our EQ-600/800s, including me. Equinox 900 is $1100, comes with an 11” DD coil and a 6” DD Sniper coil. Has the upgraded collapsible carbon fiber shaft (like the Manti), has a new improved arm cuff (so does the Manti), better quality Waterproofing to 16” (so does the Manti), better improved wireless headphones (so does the Manti), Vibrating Arm Grip (just like Manti), Night Hunting light (yes the Manti does), twice the Digital ID #’s (yes to the Manti), Iron Bias 0 to 9, like the Manti, Recovery Speed 1 to 8, just like Manti, more segments of DISC = 119, Manti only has 0 to 99. Lighter than the Manti…all this for $500 less. Manticore is $1600 and comes with a single 11” DD coil. Again, no option for the small 6” Sniper coil. One less Gold Mode than EQ-800/900? But we do get the colored LCD screen with 2D readout. Yes there are a couple other small things and one big thing, MORE POWER. Yes, I’m most certain the Manti will get a little extra depth vs the EQ-800/900 and for those who are Coin/Relic/Beach hunters, the Manticore just might be that perfect $1600 detector. For us Prospector Hunters, maybe we might look at the new improved Equinox-900 as our go to VLF class? I don’t know on the Manticore yet, but I do know how well the EQ-800 has done for my guys and many customers for the last 4 yrs. Again, I’m not saying the Manticore is no good, quite the opposite actually as I did find all the gold jewelry in Cancun with it on my vacation in Dec. (update to the bigger diamond ring, appraisal came back at $5400). I've also witnessed there is at least 1 inch more in depth for coin hunting with the Manticore. I seen this myself on a side by side comparison with a staff member who has the EQ-900 (which he loves). I just wonder if the Manticore is geared more towards the masses and us Prospectors need to stay Equinox for the near future? I’m all ears to hear anyone's thoughts and comments and especially from those who have used the Manticore for gold nugget hunting. Maybe us Prospectors should be sticking with the proven Equinox 800 or upgrading to the improved Equinox 900?

Or am I the only one who loves to clean up and hoard their brass relic finds, especially old buckles and horse tack. I dunno, but I love to get these old relics shiny again, just to appreciate their quality and craftsmanship. If you have a collection like me, post some pics.... I would love to see what’s out there. These are just some of mine from South Oz.

Another short, very cold 2 hour hunt with the Legend version 1.11 software, 10x5" coil, G discrimination pattern, Park M1, reactivity 5, iron filter 1, iron stability 3, bottle cap 1, 6 tones arranged for iron and US coins. Hunted a fairly new park with no history of older coins. 7 of 10 bar iron mineralization and multiple trash targets under every swing. The Seagrams and Bud Light steel crown bottle caps sounded really good with some intermittent iron grunts and lots of low to mid 50s (US quarter or bigger coin) target IDs. I was using very low iron bias settings. Ferro Check however, told me these were going to be bottle caps. Squarish pull tabs and US nickels do share the 25 to 27 target ID range with some gold rings so I didn't mind digging them. I have found gold and silver rings at this park in the past. I hunted an area that I hadn't hunted before. All targets were in the surface to 6" range. It's a North facing hillside park that is still frozen deeper than 6". 1944 Wheat and some early 1960s Memorial pennies so silver coins may be present. 3.5 gram sterling silver ring with no stone. Nothing special about these targets but at least for me, clad and scrap jewelry do add up. I am old enough to have worked for 50 cents an hour in the past, so I will take $2.50 an hour anytime!!!!! The Legend can hunt.

Thought I would enter the Coiltek latest finds contest. Low & behold I won. I owe all of my writing abilities to Klunker. 🤣 https://coiltek.com.au/why-you-should-never-let-a-friend-borrow-your-coil/

Well the way it normally works is you use a VLF until there is no more gold left. Then you go back to the same place with a PI and often find gold the VLF missed. Often more than the VLF found in the first place. The only exceptions would be locations with very small gold and no large gold, or extremely shallow deposits with no depth. A VLF can leave little for a PI in those cases. But in many locations a VLF is skimming the surface, leaving the bulk of the gold behind. If the situation is reversed and a good PI cleans out an area, there is usually nothing left for a VLF but crumbs. Many professionals therefore dispense with the VLF entirely. Honestly there is nothing to doubt about that. It’s the experience of many thousands of prospectors all over the world.

So, in my discussion with a person at Minelab Australia which I won't name names as there is no need he said the Manticore should not be any worse than an Equinox 800 for prospecting as I pointed out I'm not quite sure its on par with the Nox 800 on very tiny gold, we are talking 0.00X of a gram type stuff which they are going to look into, hard to judge at the moment without smaller coils though. On slightly bigger gold I see them performing very similar, with the Manticore having the extra sensitivity settings which push it in front of the Equinox if you can run in them due to EMI. At the moment this is based off 11" vs 11" coils. I hope Coiltek comes out with a 5" or 6" round for the Manticore, that'll be fantastic. Having the two Gold modes is just a shortcut seeing you can turn Gold 1 into Gold 2 by adjusting settings, so having only 1 on the Manticore doesn't really change anything and doesn't change my life at all. This is according to the Manticore manual why they didn't bother with 4 kHz as a single frequency. "MANTICORE does not have a 4 kHz single frequency setting. Instead, the All Terrain High Conductors Search Mode provides a Multi‑IQ+ based mode that can achieve an operating frequency even lower than 4 kHz. This provides the benefits of a low frequency/high power mode for detection and discrimination of high conductors, while retaining the substantial benefits of Multi‑IQ+." I guess they felt it wasn't necessary to put it on there seeing it was an add-on on the old Equinox to somehow please Asian buyers, I still don't get that but perhaps the EMI in 5kHZ was a big issue for them and 4kHz moved off that enough. According to Minelab this is why 4kHz exists, "A new Single Frequency of 4 kHz has been added to the existing 5, 10, 15, 20 and 40 kHz options. This new 4 kHz frequency enhances the detection of large deep targets, particularly those found in parts of Asia. As a result of optimising for these conditions, this new frequency may respond differently for users compared to the other single frequencies. " At this stage it's going to come down to coils, and how well the 8x5.5" compares to the 6" when it's tiny gold we are talking, it's possible with the coil getting narrower at the front and back it may exceed the 6" round on tiny target sensitivity I guess, as the Coiltek 10x5" is hot on tiny gold at the tip and tail way more so than the middle and the 6" round is only hot on tiny gold in the very center of the coil. As the Gold gets bigger and larger coils are being used like in tailings the extra sensitivity levels and power to the coil may prove the Manticore to be the better choice, it is absolute fact for me the Manticore is deeper on coins in my soil, that's no doubt, will that translate to gold? I think it will. I've pulled out a 1 gram bit with the Nox at a depth that surprised me due to my milder gold country soils, the Manticore I think would beat it from what I've seen so far. Tried at true is the Nox 800 and now 900 which is so close to the same detector with a better build quality, awesome detector for a VLF gold machine, however I think with time and experience the Manticore will better it, especially if @Coiltekmake a small coil for it, I really hope so, a 6.5 x 3.5 like the Nel Snake, if Coiltek did that, all bets are off, the Manticore is the winner, and sales will go through the roof for the coil.

The beach I was on had a ton of finds but usually only at this one spot in front of a house. Usually the finds were scarce before the house, and there's practically nothing further down the beach either. The first target was the bullet encased in rock close to the parking lot. The next group of targets I hit was the coin line in front of the house. There, I found various coins, including a silver Roosevelt dime. Thinking I had cleared the area, I ventured further down hoping that something about the beach changed, that would allow for coin lines. In the end I found nothing worth mentioning, except the lucky out of place silver ring that just happened to be there. Venturing even further, I found nothing, so I backtracked and was going to check that coin line again just incase I missed anything. On the way back, my detector picked up this low tone 24-26-32 target. I Dug the target and found this folded up coppery looking thing which i thought was a piece of junk. The strip of metal had spiral designs on it and was brown in color with some copper tarnish. At that point I thought it was copper junk jewelry with some gold plating and just tossed it in my finds pouch. When I got a better look at it today, I thought that it might be something of value, so I checked with my detector again and it rang up gold numbers. "Strange" I thought to myself. "This warrants further investigation." So I decided electrolysis would be the answer, and worked on cleaning this item up along with a few other things I found curious. Turns out this "copper" strip of metal was not copper at all, but was so heavily tarnished (and still kinda is) that it hid the gold underneath. This was indeed gold. But just to make sure, I did the acid test and it is indeed 10k gold. Quite a lucky find, but I think there's a lesson in all of this: clean your copper looking jewelry if it rings up as gold. 😉

Well phrunt, it's pretty bloody obvious where the problem lies. Minelab just don't have the calibre of testers that they used to. 😄 Old and proven testers were given the flick in favour of younger 'pretty boys' and yes men. I partly blame Codan because they changed the whole Minelab structure. As an example, the advertising just became total BS and manufacturing went to a country that has one of the worst reputations in the world for slave labour in the electronics industry. To make more profit without any moral or ethical considerations became the new norm. To be a tester for Minelab these days obviously requires little experience or credibility just a blind sycophantic product loyalty. Not the company they used to be. (unfortunately)

This is why Kiwi's move to Australia 😁

Ok, First morning out with the Axiom here in WA. Could only manage a couple of hours due to shingles, (how long does it take to get over this, over 4 weeks now). Am reluctantly posting this as I don’t want to be the butt of a joke such as… ”Have you heard the one about the bloke in Oz who changed his 6000 for an Axiom”.

No, not my retirement -- that happened three years ago. I'm talking about the Minelab Equinox 800, and it's not going on mothballs since it will at least be my IB/VLF backup and probably take the lead when I need a small(er) coil -- Western ghost towning and nugget hunting. My 2022 year was good, relative to previous years, in terms of normalized finds (finds per hour of detecting) but I didn't get out park, school, and permission detecting nearly as much as previously -- only 106.5 hours compared to over 200 hours in each of the previous five (288 hours and 311 hours being my best years for sheer hours in the local 'fields'). I don't count my Western ghost town and nugget hunting in these totals. I've done a bit better this year and expect the rate to pick up considerably.... Since early January I've been preparing for the Manticore arrival by checking out some of my previously detected sites and in some cases varying coils and settings to start "thinking outside the box". My last two hunts are good examples of that. For both I dropped the recovery speed to 3 (based upon some things abenson posted regarding his Manticore). Yesterday I switched from my stock 11" coil (what I use 90% of the time) to the Coiltek Nox 5"x10" and chose a particularly aluminum trashy site to work on my separation skills. Other search settings are Park 1, 5 tones, Iron Bias F2=0, all VDI channels open ("all metal" in Minelab parlance). I use two other modes for target investigation. For possible USA 5 cent 'nickel' coins that aren't too weak signalwise I use Field 2, full tones, recovery speed = 6. For iffy possible deep coins (which might be falsing iron) I investigate with Gold 1, recovery speed = 5. A mental change I decided to make for both of these hunts was to investigate VDI 19 partial tones -- i.e. if the target hits 19 at all, even if that's not the centroid, I'm digging. As you'll see that made a huge difference. Typically I require 20 or above for most coins and 12-13 for specifically nickels. During the first hunt I thought I was detecting an area I had previously hunted, but afterwards was unsure of that. In the first 5 minutes I dug a clad quarter and a 95% copper Memorial cent, neither a recent drop so I should have found these earlier IF I had gotten my coil over them. Moving forward in the direction I should have hunted before I got an odd signal with VDI varrying between 16 and 19, mostly in those lower VDI channels. I checked with Field 2 out of curiosity and saw consistent 16-17 (in only one direction; the Park 1 signals were from multiple directions). The strength indicator in Park 1 was 3 bars -- that's typically about 5 inches deep for a small coin in my local sites. My expectation was a badly deteriorated Zinc Memorial (aka 'Stinkin Zincoln') since although those start out fresh at 21, as the galvanic action takes its course it will drop without limit, given enough years in the ground. At the expected 4-5 inch depth I recovered what looked like a cent, but it was a full disk and I could see some green coloring. Could it be? A few squirts from the water bottle revealed not what I had expected but what I had hoped -- an Indian Head Cent. But why such a low VDI? I set it on the plug before replacing that and ran the coil over it, getting a consistent 20. Hmmm. After replacing the plug I swung over that and got a soft but noticeable iron tone. Likely a small nail was quite close to the IHC and pulled down the VDI in the process. If the coin was on edge, or nearly so, that also might have contributed to the low VDI. Now for a report on yesterday's session. As mentioned I decided to give the Coiltek Nox 5"x10" a workout in a picnic area with lots of aluminum trash. As you'll see I didn't restrict all of my hunting to the trashiest spots, but I figured the 5x10 would be better at separation, and it did seem to be quite good at that. Even with my restriction to 12-13 VDI's for nickel hunting I still dug a lot of pulltabs, especially the (broken off) beavertails. Some larger pulltabs were dug in the corroded Zincoln zone. When I was making my way between picnic tables I got a strong 12-13 in Park 1 and verified a solid 12 in Field 2. Park 1 showed 2 bars so I was thinking a fairly modern, shallow nickel. Well, I was partly right -- it was a shallow nickel -- about 3" depth. But in trying to ID it with careful water bathing I couldn't get any indication of Thomas Jefferson, his monument, nor even an Indian nor Buffalo. It was well worn and finally I saw Lady Liberty's head. Now that's a good find and a good sign. Not more than 1 meter away I heard a mostly 19 VDI with only about 2 bar strength, indicating likely a ~2-3 inch deep Zincoln. Note I was again in an area I thought I had deteted previously. I didn't notice any extremely nearby trash targets, either, but out came the nicest IHC I've ever found! And this one kept its VDI of 19 even out of the ground. I recalled finding an IHC about 10-15 meters from here in late 2020, also about 3 inches deep, with the Tesoro Vaquero and its 5"x9" DD coil (stock on the Super Trac). I now realize this is a hot spot I need to return to. It's become typical here for people to show their trash, and although I'm not promising to do that in the future, here is yesterday's collection: Everything on the right is aluminum; the Stinkin Zincolns are in the middle and to the left of that are the other metals. (OK, one recent drop clad dime and three 95% copper Memorial cents aren't really trash.) Next are the good finds from these two hunts, all but the lower left hand Indian is from yesterday: Centered is the Liberty Head ('V-') nickel with date 1908. Lower left is a 1900 IHC in not very good shape. Lower right is my best ever IHC, conditionwise -- an 1899. Upper left is a toasty 1917 with mintmark, but I can't tell if it's -D or -S. And upper right is a seriously acid degraded 1931 plain (so Philadelphia mint) Lincoln. Coincidentally I mentioned in a thread of CPT_Ghostlight's (when he showed a 1932-D Lincoln in nice condition) that those three early great depression years of 1931-33 show low mintages or no mintages in all denomination USA coins. This 1931 plain is the highest mintage of any USA coin in that three year time period -- 19.4 million. Starting in 1934 and forward to today, only two Lincoln Cents date+mm minted for circulation have lower mintages than this 1931 -- 1938-S (15.2 million) and 1939-D (also 15.2 million). The 1938-D is close at 20.0 million. Even in nice condition this 1931 would not be worth more than about $1. None of the other four coins in the photo are low mintage dates (relative to their peers). So what led to me finding these coins in previously detected sites. 1) You've got to get the coil over 'em. In most cases above I doubt I did. 2) Sometimes my mental discrimination of VDI's is too strict. I may have been over either or both of these IHC's but blew them off from the combination of low VDI and strong signal (implying shallow depth). I hate digging Zincolns and they are usually shallow and can easily fall into the high teen VDI's. Glad I didn't avoid digging these two faux Zincolns. Oh, bonus image 👍 :

I feel like I’m in rut as far as detecting goes. I don’t have any permissions and all of my public sites have been hit hard by me. Yesterday I decided to hit an old ballfield from the 1940s that I’ve been to twice before. Once I got there I quickly remembered why I’ve only detected it twice before. The dirt has been moved around and probably more dirt added as the edge of the outfield is higher than the adjacent field. But even if fill is brought in and moved around there’s still the chance of a coin not getting buried too deeply. Right behind second base is where I got the 1954 rosie. I also got two or three wheats and the two foreign coins. One is 1977 and I can’t get a date off the larger one. As I made my way back to the car I got the old makeup compact in the adjacent field. Once I found that, I randomly detected that field and not finding anything else old, I quit for the day. Yesterday I hit a large park that’s not old although I did find a silver rosie the last time I was there. Today I was in jewelry mode and had the D2 in Sensitive Full Tones. I left it stock other than turning the silencer down to 2 and sensitivity up to 95. I varied the reactivity from 1.5-3. First thing was the compass pendant. It’s stainless and rang up a solid 57. Next was the earring and I don’t remember what TID it came in at, but in the bright sun it looked like gold. Once I got home and cleaned it up it’s marked YGF 925 CHINA. I’m guessing ygf stands for yellow gold filled. I then got the silver clasp and try as I might I couldn’t find the chain. I even used gold mode on the D2 and dug everything in about a 20’ radius from where I dug the clasp. So that rosie puts me at 3 for the year. Unless I happen upon a good permission, I don’t see me getting more than 10-12 silvers this year, but you never know. Lol