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Showing content with the highest reputation on 11/07/2017 in all areas

  1. Just returned from my annual trip away (that's another story for another day), I've been out 3 times detecting since getting home and two of those were training sessions. Yesterday morning it was my turn to do my own thing for a few hours before the heat beat me to a pulp. A few minutes later and I had a plucky 1 gram nugget on a continuation of a spot I detected with my son Timothy back in July (got AU$800 worth off there for the session, much to the delight of his pocket book). There is a fair amount of trash and the obligatory shot gun and 22 bullets along with the added hassle of a high voltage power line, so I had to concentrate on the wide broad deeper sounding targets mixed in with the Sferic and 50 Hz noise, 3 hours of this and you find yourself needing a little lay down. This location is also problematic because it is on a slope above a straight flowing gully so the coil is opened up to even more interference dependent on where you are working on the slope. Long story short I plucked some nice gold for the effort which made the little lay down later on justifiable. Interestingly I pinged a solid 5 gram chunk in my old scrape from the 5000 days, a boomer signal for the GPZ and not that deep so can only assume the quieter running GPZ 7000 was clearly an advantage in a high EMI area. Just below it I got a nice deep warble that made my skin goose bump and sure enough 16 inches down a 13 gram slugster came to light pushing the mornings total to 23 grams of 97%-98% Clermont golden goodness. Considering I spent 2 weeks in WA this year without a piece of gold this was pure heaven especially since I have more signals to investigate over the next few days. The GPZ still continues to amaze me, if only it was lighter and more manageable so that other people could tap into its potential more fully. The weight really does detract from good detecting practices with this technology. The Super D coils really do need to be kept above saturation effect for maximum depth on the deeper pieces, the coil sweep also needs to be evenly controlled, all vital methods that are are adversely impacted upon due to too much outright weight for the average user. JP
    6 points
  2. Patch and Salty Ground Smoothing modes will always sound a bit jittery, this is due to faster filters. If the jitteryness is noticeable then it suggests the ground your in is not salty. Also you need to allow at least an hour to familiarise yourself to the way the audio sounds, your brain will eventually smooth things out for you similar to getting used to running the Audio Smoothing on Off. I've not noticed the audio sounding different with the various upgrades; Things to Try: Change the WM12 channel Change the detectors Frequency via the manual tune control Try plugging in direct to the detector rather than using the WM12 to see if there is a difference Make sure the ferrite balance is correct, poor ferrite balance can result in a jittery threshold Turn off the GPS especially the Breadcrumb trail Perform a hard reset Re-install the software (similar to a hard reset) Lift the coil away from ground effect with coil held parallel to the ground (between knee and waist height)and listen to the threshold, does the audio still sound the same? Lift the coil away from the ground to above shoulder height, is there a loud response as the coil transitions through the arc? If so this is salt signal Hope this helps JP
    5 points
  3. Corfu brings back memories, I found a beautiful 1/4 oz further down the drainages just off the edge on some surfacing back in 1995. The piece was in red clay which just fell off when I put the nugget in water, leaving a bright polished piece of gold behind. Amazing place Victoria.
    4 points
  4. Also, the real benefit of the Ground Smoothing is seen when operating in saline soils - the higher the salt content, the better. You won’t see any noticeable improvement in non-saline soil types.
    3 points
  5. From Tiftaafit: Speaking for my reasons for choosing the Vaquero over the Tejon... I liked the pinpoint button option, but honestly, knowing now what I didn't know then... I rarely use it other than setting the ground balance... the Vaquero pinpoints easily without it... even with the 11x8 coil, and especially in AM. ... Tim, the Pinpoint button on the Vaquero is a very functional feature and one that I have enjoyed on a Silver Sabre µMAX since they were introduced twenty years ago (October of '97). They had the button on the earlier Sidewinder models since early '94, but those models had some glitches in circuitry design so I didn't keep them around. I was pleased to see the Pinpoint Push-Button included on the Vaquero & Cibola models and it was one reason I liked the Vaquero. And yes, the Tesoro's can pinpoint quite well even in the silent-search Discriminate mode, especially with a Concentric coil over a DD design. Also, I was sold on the weight difference between the 9V and AA's.. though it probably wouldn't make that big a difference when swinging. When I got the Vaq, I was swinging an Etrac with a 15" WOT on the end... so a couple AA's over a 9V wouldn't make that much difference. ... The Vaquero's 6" coil is a bit heavier than the 6" coils I use on the general-use series, but any coil on a Tesoro has to be less fatiguing than a Minelab FBS device sporting a 15" WOT coil. I guess the biggest deciding factor along with those rather minor differences was that I am mostly a turf hunter for coins, and hopes to get better and jewelry hunting. So I was looking for a nice marriage of targeting higher conductive items, while being decent at hitting on shallowish gold.... The 14.5 kHz Vaquero is a very good unit so far as frequency is concerned. I tend to prefer most detectors to operate somewhere in the 10 kHz to 15 kHz operating frequency, although there are times I will make use of a lower frequency or some models at a higher frequency. All the Tesoro's in my Regular-Use Detector Team are in that 10 to 15 kHz range and all perform quite well for my Coin and Jewelry Hunting needs (and also tackle Relic Hunting sites just as well). What I didn't know when I bought it, but found out when I started using it... I switch back and forth between AM and Disc to try and get a target id more than I thought I would, so the Tejon switch would be handy... but as I understand the supertune option better, the Vaquero might give me a combination of both AM and Disc, (though understandably less depth than AM and less accurate ID as in pure disc mode... but it is a trade off).... I do switch between All Metal and Disc, to check a target, but that is really easily accomplished by simply making use of the All Metal Pinpoint feature rather than making a mode-change switch from All metal mode to Discriminate mode. In time, however, especially when comfortable with any detector and especially the Tesoro's, I just take the 'Beep-DIG!' approach to success. With any detector I keep my Disc. level low where I am just accepting iron nails (when using a multi-Tone ID detector like my Nokta CoRe, Relic or Impact or White's MX5, to a setting where I am just barely rejecting iron nails (which would be at the minimum Disc. setting with ED-120 Disc. Tesoro's or just increasing the Vaquero to barely reject common iron nails) and I might only use a higher Discriminate level once or twice in an entire year for a specific application. I never "thumb the Disc. control" or do other things to try and capture any sort of Target ID with a Tesoro. I adjust for a proper slight audio hum Threshold setting, Ground Balance spot-on to just slightly negative, run the Sensitivity as high as tolerable w/o noise and chatter, use my preferred lower Disc. setting, then start hunting. When I get any good or reasonably iffy target response (Beep), I Pinpoint the target and recover it (DIG!). No messing around with sizing-and-shaping most targets, or tinkering with controls to try and identify or classify the object. The ONLY way to know for sure if it is a good or bad target is to take a look at it. (Read my signature below.) Having said all that, and having the Vaquero in my possession... it does everything I hoped it would do, and more (much better depth than I expected while in AM). However, I admit, I might have the same exact comment if I had the Tejon in my possession rather than the Vaquero. As CSN&Y said... Love The One You're With. :) And I do.... Just keep on putting in time with the Vaquero to learn and master it. It can make a great complement to what your Minelab detectors can do for you since their all have their own strengths and weaknesses. Monte
    3 points
  6. From GB Amateur:This thread has been based upon the Vaquero with mention of other models. From what I can find online, the Tejon seems to have a lot going for it as well, --... All of the 'better' Tesoro models have "a lot going for them" and it is just a matter of each individual deciding what it is about a particular Tesoro detector, current production or one from the past, that qualifies it as being 'good' or 'better' Tesoro that does what they want or need. There's no such thing as a 'perfect' detector which is why I have a few models in my personal detector battery that serve my needs well and are a complement to other models in the team. Having owned, used, sold, and evaluated almost every land-based Tesoro model since July of '83, working them in a wide range of challenging environments for Coin & Jewelry Hunting, Relic Hunting, Beach Hunting and even doing a bit of Electronic Prospecting, I have narrowed down my all-time favorite models. Today, that list of my top favorite Tesoro's include the Bandido II µMAX, Mojave, Silver Sabre µMAX and Vaquero (in alphabetical order, not by favorite pick). If I had a larger den to display ALL the Tesoro models I have enjoyed, it would include the Inca, Bandido, Bandido II, Silver Sabre II, Pantera, and a really nifty nugget hunter the Diablo µMAX. But I have settled on keeping 3-5 of my favorites on-hand for frequent use that are also lighter-weight compared with most of the earlier designs. Note, if you will, that the Tejón is not in my list of favorite Tesoro models. (For those not familiar with this unit:) Apparently on the plus side it has dual discrimination, which allows you to set one in all-metal and the other in some kind of discrimination (for example, cut out iron) and then switch back and forth using the 3 position toggle switch beneath the control box (3rd position being pinpoint mode). If I understand correctly, you get higher sensitivity in all metal so you could search in that mode and easily flip over to discriminate to check the target's conductivity (above/below your set threshold).... I don't consider the *Dual Discrimination* feature to be a plus. I will replace the Bandido II µMAX (microMAX) that was among the stolen detectors from me last month because there are times that I like to hunt in the Threshold-based All Metal mode then quickly shift to the motion-based Discriminate mode to check a target. A Bandido II µMAX has that toggle-select function. Most of the time, however, I search in the Disc. mode and only use the All Metal Pinpoint function to isolate a target, or maybe to size and shape a target. That can be accomplished with a momentary function of a pushbutton Pinpoint mode using my Silver Sabre µMAX or Vaquero. With most Tesoro models, the Sensitivity control is only a function of the Discriminate circuitry and the All Metal mode is designed at the highest Sensitivity setting and isn't adjustable. You can see that with the Vaquero as the gain adjustment doesn't effect the All Metal mode depth like it does the Disc. mode. Since the Fisher 1260X, introduced in '82 as the first popular slow-motion Discriminating detector, featured the *Dual Discrimination* function, I have not had anyone show me a really practical way to use that type of set-up that would be useful to the mass market of detecting hobbyists. One of the design testers of the prototype was a big fan of the 1200X series from Fisher and I believe was instrumental in encouraging Jack Gifford to design a model to try and rival that Fisher series. But there was a problem with that introduction. The Tejón was introduced in 2003, I believe, and by then Fisher had pretty much parted ways with that old Dual-Disc. concept because the industry, as a whole, wasn't using it. The 'traditional' approach of using one Disc. mode was totally functional and even Fisher had gone away from what they brought to market. Remember, Fisher's first 1260X came out in 1982 and the Tejón in 2003. Unfortunately, as much as I really enjoy my favorite Tesoro models, they just haven't seemed to keep up with industry trends, and the Tejón's 'new' features came along 21 years after Fisher's introduction. On the minus side, it's about 3/4 lb heavier (some of this being due to the batteries: 8 AA vs. single 9V). It runs at a higher frequency (17.5 kHz vs. 14.5 kHz) but I wouldn't think that is a big minus. It also doesn't have the +/- 0.2 kHz frequency shift/tweak option of the Vaquero. ... I like using AA batteries and all of my detectors are so powered, except for my Tesoro's and my Nokta/Makro Pinpointers. I had three Tejón units after they were first introduced and I didn't mind the 8-AA battery housing at the rear of the package, especially when using the standard 8X9 Concentric or a larger-size search coil. It provided a little counter-balance for a bigger-size or heavier coil on the far end of the rod. As for operating frequency (initially stated as being 17.5 kHz but the Owner's Manual says it is 17.2 to 17.6 kHz), the Tejón works OK for general hunting needs, and in theory the higher frequency might give it an 'edge' for lower conductivity objects such as gold nuggets, gold jewelry or US 5¢ coins and the like. But in-the-field, I compared all the Tejón's I owned as well as the few people brought to a seminar, and I had better overall performance, including depth-of-detection, from the Vaquero using the same search coils. Is the Tejon's dual mode just not useful in practice or is there something else that users have found that the ads aren't telling us?... Ads are just that ... ads. Advertisements, usually by a manufacturer, to try and promote what they feel might make a product sellable. The most useful feature on the Tejón, in my opinion, is the variable Tone Control, yet they have failed to incorporate that useful feature on any other model I feel that dollar-for-dollar, feature-for-feature, the Vaquero is by far the better investment over the Tejón. Just my opinion, of course, but it is based on personal experience and detecting time afield. Monte
    3 points
  7. I found this a little while back with the Omega 8500. I don't use the Omega very much but I had it out standing behind the door for some other activity and it was the one I grabbed when I headed out the door. Not very big, only 4.05 grams of 18k gold. Took the picture with my Fire tablet so the detail isn't the best but hey, we all like looking a gold even if the detail is a little fuzzy. HH Mike
    2 points
  8. Great to see you posting again JP, and better yet to see you getting the gold! If anyone is wondering about this comment from JP "The Super D coils really do need to be kept above saturation effect for maximum depth on the deeper pieces" here are two previous threads that address the question in detail: Minelab GPZ 7000 A Super VLF ( Saturable Soil Tips ) and Minelab White Paper - GPZ 7000 In Difficult Ground
    2 points
  9. Thanks JP, I was hoping you would comment on this thread; your knowledge of these machines is always most helpful.
    2 points
  10. To be clear - I do not know when the Equinox will be available to actually have and hold. Until Minelab makes an official announcement everything else is just speculation or wishful thinking. How many detectors do you have anyway Chuck? Something tells me you will survive. Take the time like I am doing to do a little house cleaning maybe? The Deus, Tek G2, CTX and Impact all found new homes and the Gold Bug 2 is looking for one. I am down to just five models: Minelab GPZ 7000 - the big gun for big gold Minelab Gold Monster 1000 - clean up the tiny bits the GPZ misses Garrett ATX - backup for GPZ, ocean and lake detecting White’s V3i - runs my Bigfoot coil, jewelry detecting Makro Gold Racer - because I always wanted a detector like this and I feel like Makro made it for me Add the Equinox 800 to that and I am done!
    2 points
  11. Certainly not my first finds but have been out today and might as well start an album. Especially with these beauties!! Now with a thread name like this you might think it will rival the Reg Wilson album?? Sadly you will be disappointed at present but don't worry as my plan is to start small so the gold in the album can do nothing but get bigger. A cunning stunt if ever I saw one Off an old area where the gold has been washed/rockered/something. Have found quite a few other little bits there but the one to the right of the echidna's nose would have to be the smallest. To give the non-Aussie's an idea the 5 cent piece is our smallest coin and on another Aussie gold forum really small gold is often measured against the nose of the echidna. Amazing to think the 14 inch coil can pick this stuff up. High yield, difficult, sensitivity 15, volume 1, B&Z booster working nicely Retirement.......a long way off at this rate.
    1 point
  12. In anticipation of cold weather dredging I decided to spend some money on new dive gear. I was able to get a great deal on a Bare Pro D6 dry suit off Ebay. Turned out to be an excellent purchase. The suit was brand new with tags still on it and came with a new set of gloves and hood as well for 499 shipped. The size was an extra large short witch is perfect in length and the chest is a 44'' also perfect, but a bit large in the mid section at 35'' witch actually turned out to be a blessing as I was able to wear my heavy Filson wool gear under for some extra warmth. The boots are an xxl size there again I was able to wear two pair of wool socks for a perfect fit. My old suit is a Bare Pro D6 in large regular, bit too long for me but a good fit with out too much under gear on. Had that suit about six years and it is in need of a new neck seal and a good checking over for pinholes. Rite now its more of a wet suit than dry. LOL. I was out dredging last Saturday in the new suit. Fist time in a while I was warm and dry. Pretty excited about that considering the temp was 22 F and the water dam cold. I also purchased a full face mask, instead of going with goggles and a mouth piece. Ended up getting the new OTS Spectrum mask for 399.00 witch is cheap for a full face mask. It comes with out a regulator so you need to supply that, but most any will fit it. I did come to find my cheap Oceanic regulator is not a good cold weather/water dive regulator. I really like this mask a lot but fair warning, OTS claims one size fits most with the double seal, but if you have large face best to try it for fit as I have a small face and I cant see it fitting comfortable on a person that needs a large. As far a my head I wear a 7mm Bare dry hood and 7mm three finger mitts with Kevlar palms for my hands. Here is a pic from Saturday. Sure wish that sunshine could get down in the canyon a little bit. If you look close at the picture you can see steam coming off the river, that water is about 38 Deg. F. I think the air temp was about 18 Deg. F. Stayed nice and warm in the new gear but as I mentioned my regulator was my problem. Keep freezing up in the cold water and cut my dredge time short. I did manage to clear out a yard or so of pay dirt for a total of 1/8 ounce of gold for the day but I was having to surface about every 5 minutes and put my mask in front of the exhaust on the dredge and that was a bit much for me. Funny how you plan really carefully but overlook one item and that negates all the planning. So - I'm in the market for a good cold water regulator any one got suggestion? Heading back to town coming out of Turnagain Pass I snapped a picture of the Chugach Mountains over by Girdwood. Enjoy!
    1 point
  13. Had a few days to detect out at Rye Patch, Nevada before the 3-day detector training class put on by Gerry’s Detectors. The weather was perfect - sunny and low 70’s. I was keen to see how the new update would handle the alkali-rich soil in conjunction with the GPZ-19 coil. Although the ground was dry, there was still a fair bit of moaning and groaning ground response with the large coil, but Locate Patch smoothed it out quite well, and favoring a faster swing speed allowed for increased ground coverage. After 20 minutes or so of operating in the Auto Ground Balance mode to allow the detector to get a good ferrite balance to the local soil, I switched over to Semi-Auto, as there didn’t seem to be much ferrite present. I was impressed with the depth and sensitivity to the small nuggets I was finding, the deepest at 14 inches gave a reasonable signal response from the get-go. All up 9 grams between 20 nuggets. The two thin bits in the lower left were found with a quick detect using the Gold Monster 1000 on an old patch.
    1 point
  14. The information here is derived from commentary by Minelab representatives in this video... plus from these prior threads.... http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/topic/4303-minelab-equinox-multi-iq-and-search-modes/ and http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/topic/4488-minelab-equinox-multi-iq-technology-part-2/ For starters it is stated both the Equinox 600 and Equinox 800 feature Park, Field, and Beach hunt modes, that correspond to the three icons shown on the Equinox 800 screen above. Each mode has two saved settings options “1” and “2”. The Equinox 800 offers a fourth mode, the Gold mode, that the Equinox 600 lacks. It is stated that 20 kHz and 40 kHz are not available as single operating frequencies in Equinox 600. The Multi-IQ frequency range (5, 10, 15, 20, and 40 kHz) applies to both Equinox model multifrequency modes. "20 kHz and 40 kHz are not available as single operating frequencies in EQUINOX 600. The Multi-IQ frequency range shown applies to both EQUINOX 600 and 800." It can therefore be surmised that the Gold mode on the Equinox 800 exists as a way to offer both 20 kHz and 40 kHz single frequency modes that are lacking on the Equinox 600. Further “Both models also have simultaneous multi-frequency options that cover a much broader range of targets than any one single frequency can – and they’re different across the Detecting Modes!“ So we have four different modes each one specifically tuned for each of the four scenarios - hunting in a Park full of modern trash, hunting in a Field with all manner of non-ferrous coins and relics plus lots of ferrous trash, hunting at the Beach which may entail saltwater and mineralized soils, and hunting for Gold which can mean tiny gold in highly mineralized ground. If Minelab does this trick right the Equinox will be more than just a general purpose detector that can be tuned for most any detecting. Instead, each of the four modes may be, through changes of the actual base programming, more like owning four different detectors in one housing. And not only can you switch on the fly between the four modes, but each mode has two saved setting options. Now we are talking four different detectors, each set up with two different sets of tuning options. Certainly Minelab is not the first to offer different operating modes and saved options. As soon as you start looking at only detectors that are waterproof however, this sort of thing is few and far between indeed. This is just another way in which the Minelab Equinox is setting the stage for being one of if not the most versatile detectors ever made.
    1 point
  15. Note: I use quotes here but I'm just paraphrasing what I heard, so please keep that in mind. I listened to the show last evening. There wasn't much new info regarding the MX7. One of the questions asked was "when will it be available?" and Dominique said "2 or 3 weeks". When pressed further with "is that a firm timeframe?" she said 'yes'. Now, she's a member of the field team living in the Northeast US, not in Sweet Home. But at the same time, I hope she wouldn't say that without some pretty strong indication from the main office that what she is saying is accurate. Another comment that caught my ear regards the weight. D.J. (also a field team member living in the East) said something about "a pound lighter than the MX-Sport, an maybe a little more than that." At least I think that is what he said. I looked for specs on the WWW and found something more in the range of 3 1/2 lb. Does the MX-Sport weigh 4 1/2 lb?? Dominique stated more than once that it is very well balanced, so that is obviously a key plus. When pressed for its performance the White's team members kept comparing it to the MX-Sport, saying it's basically the same guts (my word) and thus very similar in performance to that already existing detector. The price ($600 retail and $550 MAP) makes it more attractive than the heavier (but waterproof) Sport for dry land detectorists. Oh, and there were questions about depth but Steve H.'s annoyance at those kinds of 'measurements' is rubbing off on me now. Even independent of ground mineralization, the uncertainty around depth measurements has to be pretty significant for a lot of reasons. And there's always the bias that (some) people want to claim deeper target recovery which affects their reports in a non-random way. Even test garden depth demos aren't ideal, IMO. You know exactly where the target is located and what it is, so there's zero chance you miss swinging over it dead center or recognizing it (although not necessarily getting a valid TID). (Starting to ramble and get off topic so I'll end now.)
    1 point
  16. 57buick, just a few questions and comments. We all have different opinions when it comes to site description. You said the following: "... a very old site that used to be a school but now is an old church" - "... an old wooden baseball diamond back stop thats falling down ". My question is, what do you consider very old or old to be? I know many people get into the metal detecting hobby in recent years and consider an 'old site' to be something that dates to the 1970 or even 1980 era. For me, any dated location would have had human activity in the 1940s or '50s if it was a school or church, but more preferably sites that date from the 1800s up through the 'Depression Era' here in the USA. You also said: "So been hard to get my coil to the ground." Just a reminder, you don't want to get a search coil 'to the ground' or 'on the ground', just work it close enough to the ground to achieve the best performance. Most manufacturers will caution detectorists to stay off the ground by working the search coil at a height of ± 2" off the dirt. Get the coil too close, especially in black sand, pea gravel or other highly mineralized conditions, and you can have a negative impact on performance. Therefore, the actual coil-to-soil distance might not be that bad if the grasses are matted down really well. It sounds like pinpointing a target and target recovery would be more difficult in a dense, matted grass and weed environment. I have encountered that in abandoned ghost towns, old church and school sites, and even old homesites that are in-use, but an adjacent field or garden area had a very weedy or grassy growth, yet that was where the original homestead cabin used to be. In those situations I have done the following things, depending upon the site, or gaining permission from the property owner: 1.. Grid or progress through an area by trampling the grass/weeds down. 2.. Grid or progress through an area using a flat piece of wall-board, plywood, Plexiglas or other object that you can stand on and detect through. 3.. Maybe hold off until a better time of the year when some weed and grass growth is minimal or almost gone. In many places that might be very early spring, just coming out of winter, especially if you live in an environment that endures a snowy season. 4.. Use a weed-eater to clear an area to be searched. 5.. If the place of interest is still used and just not cared for, ask to mow it. That's what a friend & I did since he had a riding mower and made quick work of the overgrown weeds and grass. Before I went to any significant effort, however, I would first search parts of the site that would be more likely to hold lost keepers and determine if the site is really worth the effort. Time might be more wisely and productively spent search other places, or doing research that might lead you to another potential site to hunt that is accessible and grass/weed free. Monte
    1 point
  17. GB, I am just speculating when I say the additional price is justified by Tesoro by the addition of the easy switch between modes (Disc and AM). Speaking for my reasons for choosing the Vaquero over the Tejon... I liked the pinpoint button option, but honestly, knowing now what I didn't know then... I rarely use it other than setting the ground balance... the Vaquero pinpoints easily without it... even with the 11x8 coil, and especially in AM. Also, I was sold on the weight difference between the 9V and AA's.. though it probably wouldn't make that big a difference when swinging. When I got the Vaq, I was swinging an Etrac with a 15" WOT on the end... so a couple AA's over a 9V wouldn't make that much difference. I guess the biggest deciding factor along with those rather minor differences was that I am mostly a turf hunter for coins, and hopes to get better and jewelry hunting. So I was looking for a nice marriage of targeting higher conductive items, while being decent at hitting on shallowish gold. What I didn't know when I bought it, but found out when I started using it... I switch back and forth between AM and Disc to try and get a target id more than I thought I would, so the Tejon switch would be handy... but as I understand the supertune option better, the Vaquero might give me a combination of both AM and Disc, (though understandably less depth than AM and less accurate ID as in pure disc mode... but it is a trade off). Having said all that, and having the Vaquero in my possession... it does everything I hoped it would do, and more (much better depth than I expected while in AM). However, I admit, I might have the same exact comment if I had the Tejon in my possession rather than the Vaquero. As CSN&Y said... Love The One You're With. :) And I do. Tim.
    1 point
  18. Certainly pretty gold at the Corfu, JP. One of Jim Stewarts favourite places and he found a lot of bits in the surfacings over the road from the dam. Got my last bit there (a 3 grammer) following the burn off a couple of years back. It's another one of those areas where you were once sure to find something, having suffered a goldless day elsewhere Speaking of Jim, Robyn is scanning his gold album over coming weeks and I'll be able to post it shortly. Sorry to derail your topic Phoenix, feel free to reciprocate on mine any time you wish!
    1 point
  19. Steve Tell me where it’s written on the number of Detectors a guy can have? Ha I’m like you I sold off my Deus sometime back and some others too. I’ve got two true coin machines and three nugget Detectors. Two others are deep water coin or beach if the need be. That’s beyond 10 feet is what I’m saying. I left one off and that is a two box detector by Fisher. So if you ever need one I’ll loan it to you. I don’t sell a friend that’s been in the family a long time as it has. Believe it or not I do understand that you don’t know anymore than we do about when the Equinox will be out. Thanks for putting up with my bull. Chuck
    1 point
  20. Orange Roughie patch Post Script 2 On the day that the Roughie was dug up a car drove very slowly past on the nearby road. We were aware that the secret was out, and it was obvious we were being watched. Shortly after, we arrived one morning to discover a number of fresh detector holes that we had not dug. We had been 'moonlighted'. Checking these holes we discovered that although some were very shallow, only penetrating the top soil, others were deeper, going down through soil, gravel, to the clay beneath. These would most likely have yielded gold. From the position of the holes it was obvious that someone had closely observed us and knew exactly what area we were successfully detecting. To put a stop to this I hired a caravan (trailer) that day, and parked it on a section already detected and overlooking the area we were currently working. I then camped there, setting my alarm clock to ring every few hours, whereupon I would take a flash light and check the area. This was not an ideal way to get a good nights sleep, but it did work, and we had no further problems with poachers. I suspected that the car that drove slowly past was the culprit, and two years later I believed that this was confirmed. I had just recently teamed up with John and Ian on the Pulse Induction prototype project, and we had only been in Dunolly for a few days when I recognized the suspect car pulling up outside the Railway hotel where we had booked in for what turned out to be a years stay. I had met the two brothers that alighted, and knew them only slightly. They were a pair of notorious 'moonlighters' from Ballarat. "G'day fellas", I said, "long time no see", and I invited them in for a beer. Over a cold one, and after a bit of small talk, I asked, "look, it's all water under the bridge now, but just how much did you blokes pinch out of Carr's Paddock?" They looked at each other and laughed. "Aha", I said, "so it was you buggers". One said, "well you're half right", we did go down to Rokewood with the intention of doing a bit of night time detecting. We parked our car right up near the old tip (rubbish dump) and walked all the way down Frenchman's creek , but just as we got to the paddock, a car came up the road, and as it went around the bend its lights swung out into the field, there was a guy out there with a detector, so we decided to give the whole thing a miss. "You didn't happen to see what sort of car that bloke had did you"?, I asked. "Well yeah", was the reply, "we returned via the bridge, and his car was parked down there in the bushes". From their description, I knew that car quite well.
    1 point
  21. You know, looking at the gold in your post. I wouldn't hesitate to use my 4 inch sub surface dredge there. I bet my subbie only weights about 100 LBS and it will keep up with any standard four inch dredge. Adding air to any dredge will give you added ability. But its still a two inch and moving overburden is tedious. Something to think about. As far as getting sick from the water, that's never happened but I have had the swim ear thing, I use a 50/50 mix of rubbing alcohol and hydrogen peroxide to keep that at bay. Lastly gold is where you find it. My claim has been worked off and on for the last 100 years or so, a lot of the experienced prospectors tell me where they think I should dig, a lot of times that is the obvious spots like low pressure zones (inside bends and behind boulders) so I try to look for the spots that wouldn't be first on the list of most people. Seems to be working fine. Have fun and be safe.
    1 point
  22. Minelab has already put out two short technical articles on the Equinox and Multi-IQ. That far exceeds anything I see anyone else doing prior to a detector release these days. Kudos to Minelab I say.
    1 point
  23. mn, interesting that you should ask about Bruce Candy, as he is probably one of the most talented and enigmatic people I have ever met. I first met Bruce in the early eighties, when I was detecting in Wedderburn with a Garret Deepseeker. From memory he had produced with the early Minelab team what I would describe as a copy of the Whites Coinmaster, but perhaps a little smoother. From what I recall it was in a silver box about the same dimensions as a Whites with similar lay out and called a Gold Seeker, but I can't recall the designation number. John Hider-Smith had tipped me off that this young bloke from South Africa was pretty cluey, and that Minelab were about to release a new machine designed for Australian conditions. ( able to handle high mineralization) American machines tended to struggle in areas of high iron content, and the new Goldseeker 15000 would be able to handle this problem. The use of the double D coil was a major factor in the stability of this detector. To get one of these machines, one had to pay a deposit and pre order it. I did so, and when it arrived was very happy with the results. I then appeared in various news papers and magazines showing the gold that the 15,000 had enabled me to find, and proclaiming what a great Australian made machine it was. During this period I met Bruce Candy and we became friends. In 1987 Bruce contacted me and asked if I would be interested in testing a new machine he had developed that would automatically ground balance, and keep balanced while detecting. He called it 'ground tracking', and it was a major step in metal detector development. Naturally I jumped at the opportunity, and the Orange Roughie patch proved what a great detector the GT16000 was. 1988 saw me taking a trip around the world, and it was while in London that I happened upon a newspaper article describing a new development in metal detecting called pulse induction. A chap named Foster and a company called Pulse Induction Technologies just south of London had developed a detector that would penetrate far deeper than the current VLF machines, and had been used to recover Celtic treasures. I phoned them and gathered as much information as I could. As soon as I arrived back in Australia I jumped on a plane to Adelaide where I relayed what little information I had managed to collect on pulse induction to Bruce. I recall him saying that it would be a bit tricky getting it to work on gold as the 'halo' from gold may die too quickly for the coil to pick it up as it changed from transmit to receive. I told him that they were finding gold as treasure with it in England, so it must be possible. Bruce said" leave it with me, and I'll see what I can do". In 89 he came up with the prototype PI predecessor to the SD2000, and the 'unfair advantage' was born, and with it a whole new adventure for me. Bruce was never really interested in prospecting, and I can't recall him ever swinging a coil. As a matter of fact, metal detectors were never his greatest passion. Hi Fi was of much greater interest, and he developed some incredible amplifiers from what I have been told. Once when I visited his home in the Adelaide hills he showed me his awesome collection of replica skulls of pre humans and their close relatives. Anthropology is a great passion of his, and his knowledge is exceptional. Maybe this relates to his South African heritage. Bruce Candy in an extremely unique human being.
    1 point
  24. sub ouncers???? I wish. I`m talking sub grammers
    1 point
  25. Tarnagulla has never been kind to me either Dave. Best I ever scored there were a couple of sub ouncers years ago.
    1 point
  26. JW anybody can find multi ounce nuggets that are just laying around, but it takes real talent to find the point oners.. At least that`s what I keep telling myself. cheers Dave
    1 point
  27. Quite a few years ago I was present when an 8" washed away during flood. It was tied off with ropes but the dredge was huge. It broke the ropes and washed roughly a mile down stream. Since then I have been paranoid so use a cable on the front end either to trees or to dead men made out of old axels. When I tie off to trees I connect the cable to polyester straps as to not damage the trees. I always tie one end of the back off with a rope to hold the dredge in place to manage tailings. On the running end of the cable I use a haven grip to adjust the length of the cable.
    1 point
  28. This is what I would expect. The Equinox is shaping up to be four detectors in one, with four completely separate operating modes each tweaked for the specific use - Groomed Parks, Farm Field, Beach, And Prospecting. The Equinox at 20 kHz and especially 40 kHz should at least match the X-Terra 705 in its Prospect Mode. And in my opinion the all metal Prospect Mode on the X-Terra is as good as it gets at 18.75 kHz. I ran one extensively testing against other machines and for me it came down to a push between the 705 and Gold Bug Pro. Basically identical performance. The ONLY thing that made me lean Gold Bug Pro was that while in threshold based all metal mode the Gold Bug Pro also displays the target id on screen via the separately running disc circuit. Best of both worlds - all metal and disc. The 705 in Prospect Mode has an iron mask function but no target id. Gold Bug Pro vs AT Gold vs X-Terra 705 Gold vs Lobo SuperTRAQ vs MXT That said just hearing that the Equinox might match the 705 is good enough for me, but I would expect a small edge at 40 kHz over the 705 at 18.75 kHz. There are however genuine reasons why a detector made specifically for one use can have an edge over any general purpose detector. The Equinox must run well at 5 kHz through 40 kHz and at multifrequency. That means the coil is not tuned for specific use at each of those frequencies but is more generally tuned to operate across a spectrum of frequencies. In my opinion the Gold Monster 1000 is as highly tuned as any single frequency machine can be with both the gain and audio boost pushed to the absolute limits of the hardware - maybe a step beyond. Trying to tune a general purpose machine like the Equinox to run like that in the 40 kHz mode would almost be sure to result in instability and performance issues in the other modes. Running in multifrequency normally offers no particular benefit when detecting small gold nuggets - you can pack a lot of punch into a single frequency detector for specific uses. However, if one wanted to use the multifrequency to prospect it would be as simple as changing to a mode tuned to do just that. Beach mode for instance is bound to be tuned to run in multifrequency to eliminate both salt and mineralized beach soils and could be a secondary mode for extreme alkali ground conditions. The bottom line in my opinion is there is no reason - yet - to think the Equinox is going to replace my Gold Monster 1000 as my gold prospecting unit for the smallest gold nuggets in mineralized ground. If it does match or exceed the X-Terra and if it does offer on screen target id while in Prospect Mode it would however stand to replace my Teknetics G2 (Gold Bug Pro variant) and even Gold Racer as a general purpose but also hot on gold detector. Just my take knowing what I know about how detectors and coils are tuned. Now what would be interesting is if Minelab or the aftermarket guys came out with a 5” x 10” or even better yet maybe 4” x 7” coil specifically tuned for the E800 at 20/40 kHz. Note added 1/20/2019 - turns out Multi as implemented on the Equinox is very strong on small gold.
    1 point
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