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This is 10grams from a hillside with multiple sources. This is some specimens total weight about 12g(Cleaned)from a single deep hole below the reef line.Found with the 5000+14"round Elite.

Was working one of my go to areas in the Southern Calif desert and managed to get 4 little ones for one gram total. Just as was packing up my gear I almost stepped on this little guy out for a later afternoon crawl.

It was part of the GPX 5000 "first 100 buyers get special promotional shovel" deal. Given the price of the detector I imagined a gold or chrome plated shovel engraved with Bruce Candy's signature. I admit I was vaguely disappointed when it turned out to be a common garden spade that had a Minelab logo embossed on it. Very rare, probably worth a million dollars on eBay in pristine condition.

Took the Deus to my beaten jewelry patch at a park and decided to relic hunt for deep squeakers instead. There used to be a farmstead on the land and a road bisecting the park...both long gone. Hunting slowly 18khz, 0 discrim, silencer -1, reactivity 3, notch 0-38, I caught a signal nearly at the edge of detection. Two directions two different tones and faint. Pinpointing was difficult wiggling-off. I switched to 8khz, and dropped reactivity to see what's up, something I don't normally do. Loud and clear two directions two different tones...hmmmm? Stabbing into the soil I'm stopped dead at 1-2 inches by a hard object. Move 90 degrees, damn, same thing. On the fourth stinking try I see a brick and think, I'm not digging that up it'll leave a crater, but the pinpointer is flipping out saying dig. I found another brick below that one and both bricks sat at 45 with the signal coming between them. Stabbing between the bricks with just enough space for my screwdriver it's a wonder I didn't scratch it as I was kind of wildly flicking soil out. Must have been near 7 to 8 inches and it was on a 45 degree angle. I didn't even know what it was except United States and a number 2. I knew it was my oldest coin found though. I've hit a few silver dimes and several Indian cents in this unasuming park but never did I think it would give up a coin like that. I've taken it to a coin dealer and he says it's too worn to ID the variety and to soak it in oil...where it still sits. Keep on swingin'!

thanks for letting me know I have such a valuable shovel. I had never seen anyone mention it so wondered where it came from. New never used--for sale 1/2 price--half million

Jewelry section needs more posts. I can do that. Nothing spectacular, but he coolest thing about this post is that the lead panned out for once. I was reading some vendor reviews for an event that recently took place, an arts and crafts show, when a participant mentioned sudden high winds and a storm caused some damage. Bemoaning their's and a few other's losses got me to thinking about checking it out. So after a bit of planning I set out to search over the area and see what was left behind . It was pretty clean ground, and after three different two hour nights with occasional clad and foil, I hit onto this 7 foot area with scattered jewelry. A watch, then earring, then ring. By the third score I was so excited! Surface finds right at the base of the grass for easy picking. Whoo hooo! Cha-ching! I went home on air. Was a hell of a good time. After cleaning them up in my early Father's day gift that my boys couldn't wait to tell me about , an ultrasonic cleaner.... every one is junk. Here is my face as that progressed. The gold drought continues... thanks for nothing you cheap, starving artists! I was so bummed I took almost 5 days off from detecting instead working around the house and just cleaning past finds I don't want to tumble as I sorted them out of the buckets. Put me in a detecting funk, but we're out now. New quarter has begun! The time is near... I can smell that gold! Come to papa! Stay motivated and keep swinging.

I just purchased a brand White's V3i from the factory as noted on another thread. The brand new machine much to my surprise comes with new new redesign of the White's D2 10" round DD coil. I say surprise because I ordered a scuff cover for the coil, and although it went on the scuff cover is larger than the new coil, especially along the inner edge of the right side and so there are large gaps between the edges of the coil and the scuff cover. The new coil has been shaved here and there for a thinner more modern appearance versus the older squared off look. I looked and have seen no change in the part number on any sites nor any mention of this new coil anywhere. White's needs to make this known and hopefully a properly fitted scuff cover is available or in the works. It could be it just happened and I am one of the first with this coil and so jumped the gun a bit while dealers clear old stock. The old D2 coil has been quoted at 17.9 oz or 498 grams which I have to question as my new coil weighs 1 lb 2.6 oz (18.6 oz) or 526 grams on my postal scale. Can anyone get get an accurate weight on the old D2 coil? Include the cable as I have done - I hate it when cable weights are excluded, as if we are going to swing the coil without a cable. That may account for the discrepancy as I find it hard to believe the new coil weighs more than the old coil, unless the internal windings are different/heavier. This coil is also compatible with the White's VX3, all versions of the MXT, the MX5, M6, and DFX.

I am going through one of those periods where I load up a bit on new detectors and let it all sort out. Darwin's Survival Of The Fittest Detectors! This winter a number will not survive and will be looking for new home. This is the only way I have found that works for me. Detectors that serve a good purpose for me get used, others end up sitting. If they sit long enough, they are no longer needed. I have my nugget detecting fairly well sorted out. The GPZ 7000 gets used 90% of the time. I might pull out a VLF for a really trashy place, or for where the gold is smaller than the GPZ can hit (really small!). I do keep a Garrett ATX around to handle salt ground or oddball hot rocks the GPZ has trouble with but those situations have proven quite rare so far. So the GPZ is an obvious keeper. The ATX does double duty as my favorite water hunting machine so there is another. In the land of VLF however it is more complicated. I have this idea that a good selectable frequency detector might really do the trick in replacing two or more other models. The key there however is what I am going to go ahead and call "frequency spread" for lack of a better term. What do I mean by frequency spread? Simply put, the number of kHz between the lowest and highest frequency the detector can operate at. The lowest frequency is basically the "large item" frequency that more easily handles bad ground, and the high frequency is the "small item" frequency that tends to have more issues with mineralized ground or hot rocks. The high frequency option is critical for a person like me who nugget hunts. To really be able to replace machines like the 45 kHz Minelab Gold Monster 1000, 48 kHz White's GMT, 56 kHz Makro Gold Racer, or 71 kHz Fisher Gold Bug 2, the highest frequency option of the detector needs to be 30 kHz or higher or as close to that as is possible. Low frequencies in the single digits are great for coin hunting or very large gold nuggets in bad ground. Frequencies in the teens are a great compromise. Some examples: Nokta Impact 5 kHz, 14 kHz, and 20 kHz (15 kHz lowest to highest) XP DEUS Low Frequency Coil 4 kHz, 8 kHz, 12 kHz, and 18 kHz (14 kHz lowest to highest) Rutus Alter 4.4 kHz to 18 kHz in 0.2 kHz steps (13.6 kHz lowest to highest) White's V3i 2.5 kHz, 7.5 kHz, 22.5 kHz (20 kHz lowest to highest - bonus - runs in multifrequency mode) I am still waiting on the XP DEUS High Frequency Elliptical Coil 14 kHz, 30 kHz, and 81 kHz (67 khz lowest to highest). The XP HF 9" round running at 14 kHz, 30 khz, and 59 khz (45 kHz lowest to highest) is currently available. In theory the White's V3i is a real winner here but I have just never really taken to the V3i as a prospecting detector. I have to be honest and say that so far the Impact floats my boat more in that regard due to its more traditional approach to a detector interface, all metal modes, and ground balancing. The problem with all of them though is they just don't reach high enough to be used both as coin and jewelry machines and yet still be capable of retiring the high frequency nugget detectors. And that is why I am still patiently waiting for that XP Deus V4 high frequency elliptical coil. At 81 kHz (or 59 kHz in 9" round version) the Deus HF coils on paper at least could in theory make the high frequency nugget detectors redundant. I have to admit I still have doubts however. So far dedicated specifically tuned single frequency detectors have always won the day. For a lot of people however, a selectable frequency machine might prove to be "good enough". The downside with the Deus is that to get the deeper seeking lower frequency large coil option you have to wrap up quite a bit of money into two coils. The 9.5" elliptical is just not going to reach real deep due to its small size. I have the 11" round low frequency coil which can run as low as 4 kHz, so together the two coils make a pretty formidable package. The other machines however can run both much smaller and much larger coils, and at considerably less cost than what DEUS coils cost due to each one being a self contained metal detector. It may be that the XP HF 9" round running at 14 kHz, 30 khz, and 59 khz (45 kHz lowest to highest) is the better compromise option for most people than the 5.5" x 9.5" elliptical. The Impact does suit me as far as the way it functions and I like the excellent inexpensive coil selection. It is a shame it weighs twice as much as the DEUS, but that may actually be a benefit when it comes to balancing large coils. Overall at the moment I am really liking the Impact - I just wish the frequency had topped out higher. I really wanted more like 5 - 15 - 30 kHz. Going from 14 kHz to 20 kHz is not quite providing the extra "pop" on tiny gold I would like to see.

Nice. I have been thing about taking a break from gold prospecting and picking up a decent relic machine, I think your post just pushed me over the edge.

That is a good post, Deft Tones. I like the way you tracked down the lead. I wish all those rings would have been 18 kt for your sake. HH Mike

Talking shovels, any of you Minelab guys ever seen a shovel like this?? 28 inches long, just a baby round pointed shovel. Was given to me by a guy that had several Minelab detectors.

I was really hoping while he took the time to examine it. Maybe it will improve enough by soaking for him to ID. I found out this coin is the first time a reference to God was part of the design on U.S. currency...that's what I read, anyway. Thanks, and good hunting!

Hey that's exactly what I thought too!?

Same as Lunk, Minelab sent me one, when the gpx5000 first came out, and I purchased one, still have it somewhere ?

Minelab sent one to me after I purchased a GPX detector a while back - was a total surprise. I use mine at the soils and aggregates lab here at Allwest Testing & Engineering, where I work during the summer months.

Nice.... But as far as the looks of a coil....... I would use an old bent up clothes hanger if it performed well. By the way I like the D2 coil and it has worked very well for me. So has the 6x10, and the 950, and the 4x6..... It's all about using the right tool for the job at hand...JMHO

Remember middle of april and may 8th release dates=BUZZ KILL just saying Heres hoping Mike C...

I have been laying fairly low with the Nokta Impact so far. Part of that is I have been busy on other things. The main reason however is I quickly zeroed in on how I think the Impact will best serve me as a detectorist. In general I think I can speak for most people when I say we all like lighter weight detectors. However, one area where lighter is not better is when you use large coils. Balance is every bit as important as weight as it determines the amount of torque applied to your wrist as you swing the detector. A large coil on a very light detector creates a very nose heavy detector, one that will put more strain on you when you detect than a heavier but better balanced detector. It just so happens that the Impact with the rear mounted battery power/speaker module is a good design for a large coil from an ergonomics standpoint. This is especially true when in my experience Nokta has designed large coils that are quite light for their size. I was probably one of the first people that really zeroed in on the new IM40 15" x 14" DD coil when it was proposed for the Impact by Nokta. I got on an early wait list for the coil, and just received mine. Nokta Impact IM40 15.5" x 13.75" coil with scuff cover The IM40 DD coil measures 15.5" x 13.75" and comes with a fitted skid plate/scuff cover. The coil weighs 1 lb 13.0 oz or 822 grams as pictured with skid plate and cable and weighed on my postal scales. Yes, I had to say that as some people exclude cable weights from coils! For comparison the stock 11" x 7" IMP29 coil weighs 15.7 oz or 446 grams. I like the flat blunted ends on the IM40, which does help the Impact stay upright as the trailing edge of the coil acts as a flat bearing surface when the detector is at rest on the ground. I am not usually a fan of larger coils and in fact tend to lean to smaller coils for a lot of my urban metal detecting. Large coils "see" more area which can work against them in highly mineralized ground or in areas with lots of closely spaced trash. However, large coils even if they do not get more depth in highly mineralized ground can cover more area faster, and often ground coverage is every bit as important if not more so than depth. In medium to lower mineral ground a large coil can also offer that magic thing all detectorists crave - more depth! The Nokta Impact has another trick up its sleeve that favors large coils; the ability to change operating frequency on the fly. High frequencies offer more sensitivity to small items and quicker separation in dense trash as well as extended battery operating time. The main issue with higher frequencies is they also "light up" highly mineralized ground and hot rocks more so than lower frequencies. This can work against machines that are locked into higher frequencies when attempting to employ large coils in highly mineralized ground. Lower frequencies give up some of the high frequency "hots" on small targets but also are less sensitive to ground issues, including salt mineralization. The ability of the Nokta Impact to run at 20 kHz, 14 kHz, or even 5 kHz makes it very well suited for running very large coils. This is accentuated by the plethora of all metal modes available on the Nokta Impact which can deliver extreme performance when coupled with a large coil. The bottom line is I think the Nokta Impact and IM40 coil may be one of the very best options available for a person wanting to run a large coil on a VLF detector, with depths in all metal modes and milder ground that will challenge many PI detectors. For a lot of what I personally do, like gold prospecting or beach detecting, I will first attempt high frequency, high gain operation and then back off as ground or EMI conditions require. One thing it is important to know when running the Impact with large coils is how the Gain control works. If the Impact is running at Gain levels that are too high, the OVERLOAD message will appear on the screen. Note: You can increase or decrease the overload volume with the on/off button. When the volume of the device is at maximum, the overload volume will be low. As the volume of the device is lowered, the overload volume will increase. The electronic Gain has at least three distinct levels. There are distinct boosts between settings of 39 and 40 plus again between 69 and 70. Setting over 90 are a sort of hyper-Gain region only obtainable in low mineral/low EMI environments. Therefore I may attempt to start out in 20 kHz and a very high Gain. If overloading occurs I will lower the Gain for smooth operation, paying particular attention when I get down to 69. From there on down I need more field time, but at some point it will be better to drop to a lower frequency than to continue to lower the Gain setting. So in theory if at a setting of Gain 39 I still have issues at 20 kHz, it is time to go to 14 khz and run the Gain back up high. If conditions are still not amenable to running at 14 kHz and high Gain settings, I would then drop to 5 kHz and again attempt to run higher Gain levels. Note: people hunting larger, higher conductive items like silver coins and brass relics may very well just start out at 5 kHz. My focus is usually on lower conductive, smaller items i.e. gold. I so far have only done a small amount of detecting in a local park. I first tried Di3 and while it was working well enough the trash density was high and interpreting signals with a large DD coil can be challenging, especially when the coil generates multiple signals on very shallow items. I finally went to the unique GEN(D) mode and it was night and day. The GEN(D) all metal mode combined with the VCO effect makes sizing targets and identifying shallow targets a breeze, even in a trashy park situation. Shallow ferrous is easily identified also using GEN(D). There are several all metal modes a person can employ on the Impact as well as the extended range ground balance available in the COG (COnductive Ground). While the Impact performs ground balance in the range of 20-90 automatically in the other discrimination modes, it ground balances in the range of 0-90 in the COG mode. This enables easier ground balancing on conductive grounds where normally ground balance cannot be performed at all or performed with difficulty, such as salt water beaches. Remember that ground balancing to salt conditions always comes at the cost of reduced sensitivity to small gold items. There is more I could mention about this subject but I really need time to get the hours on the Impact running the large coil to get more into specifics about how to get the best performance out of it. Large coil VLF hunting is not for everyone and is not a magic bullet in any case, but it does offer possibilities for the more adventuresome detectorist. I will close with a picture of my Nokta Impact with new IM40 coil. The detector with this coil is only slightly nose heavy (keep the rod as short as possible) and weighs with batteries 5 lbs 2.0 oz (5.13 lbs) or 2322 grams.

I have always been a people watcher. I enjoy it. Reading what they are thinking by body language, and on occasion predicting events just before they do happen as I foresee. From my observations and experiences while detecting in the not to distant area at peak times and while with my own kids anytime, I'll share. Around the tot lot from 3-9 feet from the edges proper, that's a magic area for me. If you observe adults here at peak times you'll see them mostly in this zone, probably because it's close enough for safety and reacting quickly for most parents comfort. 0-3 feet is mostly reserved for kids running around it, playing chase, goofing, or resting. Adults may also sit or rest here but I consider it a transition zone within the play area. So when I get there I hunt them in order of priority by zones. Zone 1 is 3-9 feet. Zone 2 0-3 feet. Zone 3 is in the playground. Zone 4 is 9 feet and beyond. I find great things in every zone, but I'm after expensive things adults lose so where they spend the most time is where my focus is. If I only hit a park and have one shot at it, you can bet I'm hitting zone 1 at the tot lot before moving to other zone 1's elsewhere in the park. Just how I do it... YMMV

Jayray posted this on Bill Southern's meteorite forum...pretty cool Franconia Hunt http://www.nuggetshooter.ipbhost.com/index.php?/topic/30577-latest-video-sort-of/

Minelab welcomes John Wilson "kiwijw" to Treasure Talk I look forward to reading his first blog entry!

14" elite has been good for me. if you find a patch that you can run in sens xtra along with the elite coils 14" and smaller it is amazing on how small of gold you can pick up. good luck