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You are welcome! It would be wise to wait anytime a new machine is just days away. Seriously, the key to detecting success is know whatever machine you have, good locations, and hours. Detectors are all so good these days that trading one machine for another, unless what you have is totally inappropriate, will make little difference. Most detectors can find the same targets and only in extreme instances do differences show up. I often take two to four detectors at a time to parks and cross check "found targets", and it is quite rare to find a target where one machine really stands out from the others. You have three options. 1. Get a different detector 2. Find better locations and 3. Put in more hours. Of the three, getting a different detector is usually the least productive. Ten hours with this machine or ten hours with that machine - I am not making any bets as to which gets the best results. But all other things being equal, ten hours with this machine and twenty hours with that machine - I am betting on the hours. New locations can be the real game changer, but finding new locations that are good is a challenge in and of itself. Sometimes people only have an hour or two in their busy lives to detect, and so locations are limited to what is near at hand. I have found if I want to find more coins (or jewelry, relics, or gold) I have to make a point of actually making it a habit (three days a week, or whatever) or at least committing to and scheduling more time to detect for coins. It really is that simple.

Giddiup, you can always dig to see if there is any deep gold in this particular area. What i will do is pothole my patch! With a pick and shovel i will dig down about a foot or to bedrock in an area roughly four feet by four feet all over my patch or sometimes in just the richest area. It is hard work, but well worth it. Good luck. Brian.

Nice work Clark! Now go find Confucius.... strick

The MXT is a powerful and easy to operate coin detector. There are no "best" detectors although some do have small edges over others in certain performance areas. Everybody has favorites and the more people you ask, the more different answers you will get to your question. Is there some specific way in which the MXT is failing you? If not, simply getting out and using it more will produce more results than trading it for another detector. The two basic types of coin detectors: Single Frequency - processes one optimized frequency. This allows the machine to have a slight edge on specific target ranges by focusing all aspects of the machine at a single frequency. In general low frequencies favor highly conductive and/or large items. High frequencies favor low conductive and/or small items. A few machines allow you to change frequencies but still operate at just one frequency at once. Strengths: light weight, lower cost, fast recovery time between targets. Weaknesses: target id not as good as multi frequency machines, limited salt water capability. Current production examples - Fisher F75, Garrett AT Max, Makro Racer 2, Minelab X-Terra 705, Nokta Impact, White's MXT, XP DEUS Multi Frequency - process two or more frequencies at once. Targets and ground respond differently to changes in frequency. By comparing results at different frequencies, multi frequency detectors achieve the highest levels of target ID accuracy. They also can more effectively deal with the combined effects of both salt water and mineralized beach sand than single frequency detectors. Strengths: target id accuracy, salt water handling. Weaknesses: heavier, more expensive, slow recovery time between targets. Current production examples - Fisher CZ-3D, Fisher CZ-21, Minelab Safari, Minelab E-TRAC, Minelab CTX 3030, White's VX3, White's V3i Extra features to consider - waterproof, wireless headphones, availability of accessory coils (cost per coil and number of coils), screen backlight (for dim and dark conditions), firmware bug fixes via internet. One extra feature needs a little explanation. Discrimination Options. Most detectors identify targets by either a tone or a target id number, or both. A few machines can display multiple target id information simultaneously. The two best examples are the White's Spectrum series (XLT, DFX, VX3, V3i) and the Minelab Explorer series (Various Explorer models, E-TRAC, CTX 3030). People who prefer to hunt by ear should look at the type of tone scheme offered and how it can or cannot be customized. People who are more visually oriented may want to take a look at machines with more sophisticated display options.

It's finally cooled down enough here to get out and hunt a little, temps have been up around 106 and staying in the high 60's overnight. Yesterday was warm and humid and most of the time the sun was hidden by the overcast, me and the French girl hit one of my regular parks late afternoon for a couple hours of trying to find the elusive silver coin I know is hiding someplace there. I've found a dozen wheat's and beaver tails are plentiful, to rub salt in the wound one of the neighbors has told me his story of finding a seated dime in his front yard next to the park, he keeps forgetting he's already told me the story...I'm sure I'll hear it again. I've been playing with a customized Deus fast program running the disc at factory preset GB slightly negative, sensitivity at 95, 14khz, reactivity at 2 1/2 silencer -1, iron vol 1, audio 4, 4 tones with the highest frequency threshold break point elevated to 89 and the frequency set at 800 as a set hunting program and an alternate same settings with full tones to switch back and forth to help with audio discrimination. I've been playing with multi-notch and only searching display numbers 50-78 and 87-99 I'm digging a higher percentage of targets and trying to limit some of the foil while still having a chance at a gold ring, although it seems to make the audio a little Chirpy, that's where switching to the unnotched full tones gives a better second look. The locals were showing up and I was working my way back to the car when I hit a very solid tight target locked on at 90 with the round hf coil 14 kHz, down about 6" out popped what I thought was an high voltage pg&E connector, when I rubbed the dirt off it was a little Buda. Thought it was a lead token/game piece at first but after a rinse and brush the metal is much to hard, weighed almost 28g and the specific gravity is around 10.14, almost silver? My guess based on where it was found it could have been made in something like a high school jewelry class, back when I was in high school we did stuff like this and everything was mixtures of what ever silver scraps the kids collected at home plus/or bought from the teacher at class. Almost everything all the work was cast or sheet silver it was cheep and easy to work with, we used nickel silver too but the SG is much lower I think. Hard to say how he wound up buried in this little park but I think it's has to be good luck to liberate him.

Geeze I'd hate to upset the bloke who can swing that 8 hours a day,

Well at least you guys and especially gals, could shoot it if it doesn`t perform, here in AU we`d have to beat it with a stick..............

Sounds Half Horse so I should be able to get along with it. Hopefully it's not too stubborn.. strick

Our coast isn't exactly a surfers paradise.... Water temp is around 55 degrees F. and the summer air temps average in the 60s range. So surfing and sunbathing aren't high on the list of activities here.

Rumoured to be at least 50% deeper.............

http://md-hunter.com/minelab-announces-sensation-new-2017/ Here is some info, looks like magnetic field generated from the coil. Sounds cool as hell.

We have a Chevrolet by the same name already and spell the same way, Chuck

Only nine days left for speculation and rumors. One thing is a fact however - Minelab applied for and received a trademark on the word Equinox this year.

Is it touch sensitive?

Cost you what around an ounce to buy a 19 coil, you know how much you`ve scored with the 14. If you suspect there is more at depth and you can maintain the 19 just off the surface go for it. But that is from my experience with the 19, tis a magic coil for me. I usually prefer using general, no audio smoothing, rather then HY, even going to extra deep at times, but settings, like everything in this game, tis wise to keep an open mind and experiment. Myself I swing from JPs conservative through Lunks to Steves insane, with Bogenes thrown in at times. My settings are basically what gets the gold on the ground on the day, with coil size is basically the same as long as you can keep good coil control with even height, which is really the controlling factor along with ground depth that determines coil size to use. The 19 is not far behind the 14 in sensitivity, just gives extra depth on just about all sizes especially from 2grams up.

Those are dangerous nasty surprises ........ We here on the coast have our version too, they are called sneaker waves.

I would think they are talking about the SDC2300, i.e. it's an old article that is being recycled, as it says Minelab are at Torrensville, which they haven't been now for some years.

You need to check this out - great story with some excellent photos! Every cloud has a silver lining – Discovering a Medieval Coin Hoard (Part 1)

I read the article and thought to myself - This is from the perspective of a diamond cutter - only they call the dodecahedral faces "grain" - and sure enough I looked at the author's name and it said "master diamond cutter". There is nothing wrong with the article but it fails to note important things a layperson would use to identify a diamond, including hardness. Sapphire is hardness 9 and will easily scratch quartz at hardness 7. It will do nothing to a diamond. Note that all the crystals in the Fake diamond picture are all quartz crystals. Years ago I had a guy bring me a quartz crystal he acquired. It was the size of an egg and very clean and clear. He was convinced it was a diamond of great value. I told him it was quartz and he refused to believe me. I explained to him the characteristics of why it was a quartz crystal. He still refused to believe. I told him he could think whatever he liked but if he wanted me to identify it, I had already done that and he left.

The winter is the best time to beach mine... the winter storms clean the blond sands of the beach. Summertime is when the blond sands start stacking up and the overburden just becomes too much. Whales head beach has a good amount of black sands and there is another creek about one hundred yards south of the main creek that can be pretty good as well. Port Orford has a couple of areas that produce also.... In fact Hubbard creek is a historic beach mine. and Gold Run has a bit in it as well. Seven devils has some history but you have to watch the tides and is just north of Whiskey Run which has a lot of history, last time I was there it wasn't too impressive but that can change with a tide. Don't know much about Nesika, the times I have stopped there I haven't seen much concentrations of black sands. and there isn't much water to use. Arizona beach has some history and there seems to be good water supply as well as Humbug creek. All in all you can find gold almost anywhere on the coast. I would like to make a trip up to the northern tip of Oregon and check out the beach an the Cloumbia.... Benson beach over on the Washington side has some real good gold and you can use power on the beach in Washington. A couple pics from Benson beach and the gold below. I generally go to a little beach a few miles north of me, it isn't a big producer but it is close to home and I have pulled a couple grams off of it.

OK got it cleaned and dried....... drum roll please.. 1.36 grain.... nope won't be quitting the day job...... There is a tiny bit of magnetics left so it actually comes in at about that 1 grain I estimated.

The notch filters I was looking at were like $250 (I happened to be looking at them already but for a different purpose coincidentally), at which point I could just buy a cheap spectrophotometer instead. Which is what I did. Should be able to see all the elemental lines in it. Looking ahead to potentially experimenting with building a Raman spectrometer (hence the notch filter) or maybe even LIBS if I can find a cheap portable laser powerful enough to ablate any kind of rock or metal. It's something I've always wanted but never had enough reason to buy, so I figured why not. This is for general use. Concentrating on all sorts of minerals, not just lithium. For lithium prospecting in particular, I see that lithium carbonate is inversely soluable (if that's a term), it drops out in high temperatures. My idea to "pan" for lithium is to mix a soil sample in water just below freezing to saturation, filter, then heat to just below boiling and filter again since it should be mostly the carbonate dropping out of solution at that point. Then test that filtrate. If nothing precipitates out, then move on to the next sample. Not sure how big the sample size would have to be though, it might be infeasable, or require a microscope. The flame test with the notch filter sounds reasonable too, I hadn't thought about using the filter like that. But it sounds like the boom is on for lithium already, I was wondering about stuff that is underappreciated right now. There is enough competition from paper stakers in gold prospecting already. I still think REE's are where I'm going to concentrate. They contribute to the same green economy that is driving lithium, and there are zero claims on them in the areas I'm interested in right now.

Maybe, maybe not. I took one year of my lease payment on my claim and bought stock. It seemed like a pretty good bet. My claims are alongside a known ore body just to the west of it, and the original mining company did not drill beyond but just a little ways onto my claims. The new mining company had done surface samples and found good indications of mineralization. They were going to drill my claims, and I figured the increased ore found would up the value of the stock. Not very much ore was found and today, with the way the price of gold and silver have gone down since I bought the stock in 2012, the stock is worth about 15 cents on the dollar. Another friend I know had several mining claim leases and took a lot of stock. His stock was worth over a million, and he retired, figuring that plus cash he had would last him a long time. The million + of stock is worth less than $50,000 now. So yes, while some have made much on penny mining exploration stocks, still others have lost much. My preference is to take cash over stock.

Is that with the 19cm coil...???