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Showing content with the highest reputation on 05/16/2018 in all areas

  1. I went out this morning to a beach that I call zinc beach because that's what I generally find there. Today was a minus tide and I got up early to try it one more time. I'm glad I did! The beach has high sand and a sharp slope about 25-30 feet to a mucky bottom at low tide. Right where the slope stops I have found some clad coins, a wheat penny that looked brand new and some aluminum bits. Farther out on the flat muck I probably dug 10-15 zincs in the couple times I had been there before. Today I walked out right where I had found some coins before and was heading right to the edge of the water. First target was a 1950 wheat that looked like it fell yesterday. The second target got my heart going! I saw a copper/gold colored edge and I thought it was another penny that rang low, I can't remember for sure what it rang up as but I think it was 10/11. I picked it up and realized it was a ring and right away started looking for marks. 18k and a C with a diamond above it as a makers mark! Awesome! I made my way to the edge of the water and walked back and fourth along the edge of the water moving back up towards the slope in a crescent shape (the water was higher on one side and I stayed right on the edge). I got a couple coins, another wheat and I dug some small trash. On one of the passes heading back down the side I got a 31 and thought it might be a quarter or a silver quarter. I was surprised when I saw the spoon and immediately rubbed the muck off the spine to see if it said sterling and sure enough! It came out bent like that, I wonder if someone was using it for something other than eating! My alarm went off for 7am and I started making my way back and got a quarter right near the hole I dug the ring from and thought to myself let me check around here a little more because I've found some heavy things right around this area. The next target I think was a 14 (I was hunting by sound more than by VDI numbers) and I dug a hole and checked the sand and muck I pulled out...nothing. Then I looked back down in the hole and saw it sitting there, another ring! Gold with a red/dark pink stone. It is cracked at the bottom and not a closed loop but still rang up pretty solid. I checked for a mark in this ring and all I saw was was looked like a weird sideways 8 and a K. I came to work (conveniently right down the street) and I washed it off and I saw the mark is a diagonal anchor with a K. I knew then it must be an old ring but my question to you all is how old and where could it be from? I'm thinking England. My town was settled in 1639, could it be from the 16-1800's? What about the C makers mark on the other ring? Any ideas?
    8 points
  2. GB_Amateur -- I was running my normal (thus far) Park 1, sensitivity 21, Recovery Speed 5, iron bias 2, horseshoe button pressed (no disc), 50 tones. Yes, they usually come out fairly clean here, though there are some places that the old ones can be pretty bad/crusty/scaly. It IS interesting how different ground affects things. No, nothing exciting. The wheats ranged from 1936 to 1955 (and a 1929-D) on the first night. Nothing of any special value. For me, the most "special" part of it was the learning experience I got -- that little section of that old country club site turned out to be like a little "laboratory," in terms of digging partially masked coins. If you would have told me how many coins I'd recover in that little area, AFTER having pounded it with the Explorer, I'd have told you "no way." Priceless experience, for me, in terms of moving along the learning curve... Steve
    3 points
  3. Seems none of the local area dealers had a Nox 800 so I saw that Cabelas did , so I ordered one. They said 4 to 7 working days for delivery....We will see. Looking forward to hunting with it.
    2 points
  4. Hi all! I have been out doing some night hunting the past few nights, as this is the time I have available right now due to my shift schedule! The first picture (of the UGLY war nickel and the wheat) is from my local park that after too many years of hunting it WAY too much, it's become VERY stingy at giving up good finds. The second, is from the following night, from a site that was an old golf course. I've hunted one small part of this site heavily with my Explorer (a sidewalk next to where the pool used to be), as this small section gave up a large number of wheats -- probably about two dozen, but never a silver coin from this part of the site. However, there are a lot of nails in this little area as well, so I thought that maybe with the Equinox I might be able to scare up another wheatie. Well, I underestimated the Equinox's ability to find partially masked targets! Nearly every one of those coins (plus several Memorial pennies not shown) had at LEAST one nail in the hole with them, and the ones that didn't, had nails nearby enough to foul up the signal, to varying degrees. After several of these digs, the Equinox and I got on the same page, and I became really confident in what I was hearing -- and when it was trying to alert me that there was a coin hidden in the iron. Let's just say I'm EXTREMELY impressed. EVERY one of these coins was passed over with the Explorer, multiple times. To say I am a bit shocked, is an understatement... Steve
    2 points
  5. some noogies since last post and I also got some coin shootin in last weekend for about 3 hrs. Gold has been slow with a few skunks including today plus I got rained on and soaked....lol. First time I've had the etrac out for coins in over a year...wished the gold was as easy as coin shootin!!!!! Gold was got with the monster.... Coins were 1921s/1935 wheats,1919s Merc, 1899 V nickel,1898 Indian.....
    2 points
  6. They're the ones GB. Can't recommend highly enough -and a good price too!
    2 points
  7. Participating in a forum and sharing detailed information takes a bit of effort. We all lead very Busy lives today. Our lives are full of distractions from work, family and all kinds of other things. My Nox 800 is due to arrive with me tomorrow and I can safely say that I have gained some very helpful and interesting tips/information here on this forum. I thank all you posters that have shared their experiences. Wednesday after work I have 2 hours to hunt in an old area that saw a lot of activity from the early 1920's. I'm trying to stay away from cellar holes until I can somewhat master the beastie! Ok well maybe as long as Saturday lol. Wish me luck..I'd love to be one of those guys with sillllvar on the first outing ? HH Sillllvar
    2 points
  8. Hi Ya'll! We're leaving Obion County tomorrow and going to Louisville, KY. My baby girl's getting her Master's Degree on Friday! Then we're finally heading west. The Polaris and the 800 can't wait. Check out my throne on the back. ?
    2 points
  9. Thanks for the pics and the details of how you pulled those goodies out of the iron. Which mode(s) were you operating in? Your pennies come out of the ground pretty clean (discolored, but not scaly). I wish mine were like that. It's really interesting how much variation there is in soil conditions throughout the US. I couldn't read some of the dates+MM's. Anything exciting? Two silvers is excellent in my book, regardless.
    2 points
  10. Geoff -- YES, a lot of nulling with the Explorer (I ran with iron mask set at 22). The Explorer was able to pull a bunch of wheats out, but it missed ones that were in the more nail-infested part of the area, within a few feet of the sidewalk. And YES, I slowed my swing speed, even though running a moderate (5) recovery speed on the 800. I was trying to listen carefully, and a decent-sounding chirp of a high tone, I'd investigate. If I could isolate something semi-repeatable (especially if I could coax a good two-way hit from even one angle), it was something worth thinking about. One telltale sign is this -- if you get a high-tone chirp, and you start working it, and you can get decently repeatable 20s numbers, but then as you gradually rotate, those 20s numbers start rising in a small sector, and now you are getting, from a small sector, really high-pitched, high 30s IDs (and then you rotate your body JUST A TAD, and those high 30s go away), those have been iron 100% of the time, for me. Anyway, a bunch of these coin digs, after I'd pop the plug, I'd lose them, either in the plug, or in the ground. Changing the orientation of the coins and the nails, relative to each other, often resulted in complete masking of the coin. Recoveries were taking much longer than normal, as a result... Steve
    2 points
  11. ..it finally arrived - happy like a little boy Will probably hit the beach with my son for some first tests this evening
    1 point
  12. I detected a couple parks this weekend for a total of about 5 hours. One of the parks I have found a gold men's band at before. This time I found a class ring. While it's not gold (Lustrium), it's still special. It rang up a strong 3-4. I Googled the person's name which was in the inside of the ring and was able to track him down. He lives out of state but has family close by. Glad to be able to get it back to the owner. He could not believe that it was found after so many years. He was a 2009 graduate. Park 1, 50 tone, recovery 7, GB, and tracking on. The earring and other ring are silver.
    1 point
  13. We just went through a few years on constant releases of new prospecting detectors. And now the flood has subsided, with almost nothing on the horizon. There is the “any moment now” Makro Gold Kruzer, running at 61 kHz and waterproof to 15 feet. After that however it gets pretty thin. First Texas has new detectors in the works, but nothing rumored that is aimed specifically at prospecting this year, but maybe later. Right now a PI beach detector appears to be up next. Garrett - maybe they are working on it but personally I have given up waiting on a lighter weight ATX. Tesoro - nothing going to happen there obviously. Minelab still “owes” us GPZ owners a smaller coil but with Equinox occupying all their efforts....? Nok/Mak outside of the Gold Kruzer has been working on a PI for years, but absolutely no hints on it getting any closer to market. XP I thought might bring a version of the low cost DPR 600 to first world markets but no sign of it happening. And White’s? Who knows. Maybe we will see a repackaged GMT but the shine has worn off of repackaged detectors these days. Long story short is it often takes new detectors to stir up activity on forums. For now at least the future is looking pretty quiet. The good news is we can just focus on using what we already have to best effect without being tempted or distracted by new shiny toys!
    1 point
  14. For fast and easy, the EQX manual suggests; turn it on, choose a mode, noise cancel and go detecting. In my particular case however, I've found adding the auto ground balance step enhances the performance of my EQX in this particular area. I get deeper, clearer target hits in my test garden anyway when I add that one additional step: Turn it on, choose a mode, noise cancel, auto GB and then go detecting works best for me. Admittedly, your area and ground conditions may be or will be different than mine here in central Florida but give it a try and see if you get similar enhanced results. I'd be interested in reading your opinion after including that additional step to "fast and easy". Just the view from my foxhole...
    1 point
  15. Well done on some nice goodies The anchor symbol is the mark for Birmingham Assay Office, England K is the date letter Go to Birmingham Assay date letters (Google search) and match your K with the various font styles listed When you have the exact font style match it will tell you what year that was.
    1 point
  16. Today i took the Nox out again and only the Nox "mistake" ! I went to the beach at around 12 noon so i could work the tide out then do the tops for the fresh losses and i am sure there would have been some . The machine behaved mostly lower down the beach between the tides where i found all the finds for today . I didn't have any gems this time , considering the conditions of the beach i am surprised . It looked good . But like i said it was a mistake to only take the Nox , normally i would take the Terra and change the machines over on the Anderson shaft. When i tried to use the Nox on the dry tops like the last trip i had nothing but interference from something . Maybe EMI from the clubs again or maybe mobile phones ?? plenty of people using them on the beach today . It got so bad that the headphones kept tripping out and the machines main speaker would go on , then the machine would just go silent like when the ET or Explorer's would nul on a target of Iron or something . I noise cancelled several times but it made no difference at all. So i gave up at around 4pm and headed home . My finds for today were £15.03p and 2 foreign coins . It is an understatement to say how bad the conditions of the beaches i search are , and many think i am being negative . I'm not . From now i will only take the Nox out with the Terra 705 , it will mean more weight in the rucksack but its the only way to make sure i have a machine for all areas of the beaches i do . The Nox works in the water and up to the ridge where it gets level with the tops but on the tops its hopeless . I will have to visit another beach elsewhere at some point . Tomorrow i am thinking using the ET so i can go on the tops and do a little in the tidals too , on that beach that and the Explorer 11 are the only machines i have that can do all areas without trouble . Except for some nulling on Iron and bonfire markings , that will be early in the morning at 5am till 10am if i go . Tuesday is a definite due to 6 days working after that. Very frustrating !
    1 point
  17. I have not tried tracking yet...I find myself auto ground balancing often which seems to make the machine run more stable. Yesterday I was hunting a beach for a couple hours here in the Delta...full of black sand..I could not get the machine to GB at all. Still found lots of targets as there was lots of erosion present. Small coil needed please Minelab! strick
    1 point
  18. Oh I quite agree Jeff. Brad’s photos could depict a number of common sulfides / arsenides and there are other possibilities. For example, I have a few ore samples exhibiting native silver ‘horns’ and veinlets protruding from oxidized surface niccolite embedded in a light brown carbonate rock, that look very similar to Brad’s sample. But I seriously doubt this is what Brad has found in his area, as these are quite rare. We make our best guess based on the info provided and what we think we see in the photo. The one photo appears to depict some foliation, but there’s no way to be certain. This is why I included a schist photo for him to do a comparison. It ensures that he’ll know if his sample is schist or something else. Jim.
    1 point
  19. Thanks guys! So far I'm up to a pound of lead in sinkers, bullets and birdshot, a few lures/flys and found a decent size rock that the gm1000 screamed non-ferrous on, so I brought it home, busted it open and found a shiny silver layer in it. first thought was pyrite, but had read in here that its unlikely to detect. Then off to get X-Rays and turned out being 98% iron? I'm guessing its a common type of hot rock here, but the area I found it is normally under about 10ft of water so I won't have to worry about it until next spring since the water was only down for a few days. I did however finally take a quick drive to see how the snow looks out in the northern goldfields. It's melting way too fast but is still a few feet. I found my way to a spot I panned a few times but was really hit or miss and requires hauling pay about 500yds to the creek. In less than 20 minutes I scored my largest flake yet and first with a detector. weighing in at 3.15g and my runner up was .49g. Not another piece to be found after about 3hours of omg I found a nugget and not being patient while swinging.. Looks like the Gold monster has struck GOLD in Alaska!
    1 point
  20. Nice job Steve! Good write up as usual.
    1 point
  21. Nice finds....The Bell looks like it could be brass
    1 point
  22. Finally, they have arrived, now I can put the snorkel back on..... Extra long cable, 41" of straight cable from connector allowing you to Velcro under the arm and still have plenty of cable to the headphones. No cable having to dangle in front of your face! Loudness is good, preliminary garage tests show constant mid 70's decibels on a target with full volume on the machine settings. Fit is typical Koss yellows and can be improved with gel ear pads which will be on order shortly. Cliff
    1 point
  23. I phoned my dealer today . They have my second Nox 800 . So tomorrow i will have it . Whether there are issues with the machine on my beaches makes no difference , i want 2 of them . In due course i will hunt other beaches and see what it does in less trashy / Irony and electrical disturbance rife beaches . I didn't go out today , wanted to service my car but being unable to get the oil filter off meant that had to wait . 6 days till my next day off .
    1 point
  24. Went to a place that I knew had lots of trash, bits of metal and square nails and I've hunted this place out I thought. I had found a seated quarter and V nickel back in the day but nothing for the last couple years. This is why I got the equinox for places like this. Mostly shallow Target surrounded by iron.
    1 point
  25. Hi Bado, In the wood chips I use the F75LTD with DST and the little 5x10" DD coil. HH Mike
    1 point
  26. Very nice , Mike! Were you using your E-TRAC? I did the same thing and only found a small silver ring and a silver crucifix with the 800. No gold. My Nox must be faulty! Dean
    1 point
  27. GBing is just part of the process for me as well. If the ground is too trashy and I can't find a clean spot to GB I just put it in tracking and let the machine figure it out. It seems to settle down after a short period and all is good. Dean
    1 point
  28. Fast and Easy Start in the manual actually includes a recommendation (side note) to GB if you are experiencing excessive ground noise that manifests as ferrous range falsing (bouncing -8, -7's) when you invoke the all metal pushbutton. Otherwise, Multi IQ is very forgiving to a less than optimal GB setting. Since Auto GB is relatively easy to accomplish, I routinely Auto GB at sites with any level of mineralization present. Otherwise I just use the default GB setting, especially at a white sand beaches (i.e., beach with non-existent black sand) where there is little for the Auto GB to grab on to, which could actually result in a worse GB setting because the auto circuit is just guessing without a solid mineralization or salt reference. In the surf, I use tracking which is recommended due to the constantly changing salinity levels. HTH
    1 point
  29. found these little guys and had fun! thanks RT for all the help and info!!!!!!!!!
    1 point
  30. Hi Brad… your photos are a bit blurred, but your sample appears to be a “schist”. Schist is a generic term for a foliated metamorphic rock. It displays well-developed foliation (leaves or sheaves of leaves), often through inclusion of mica. It represents the ultimate stage of metamorphism. A schist is usually derived from fine-grained sedimentary rock such as shale that has been exposed to some combination of heat / pressure. Individual minerals in schist have grown during metamorphism so that they are easily visible to the naked eye. Foliation takes place when pressure squeezes the flat or elongate minerals within a rock so they become aligned. These rocks develop a platy or sheet-like structure that reflects the direction that pressure was applied. Schists are named for their mineral constituents, for example, mica schist is notably rich in mica such as biotite or muscovite. From what I can see, that is what is depicted in your photo. Below I’ve included a close-up depiction of a mica schist so that you can compare your sample to it as a confirmation. Hope this helps. Jim.
    1 point
  31. Thats fine. Frankly I don't need to spend any more money on detectors...what I have seems to find stuff to my liking any ways... finding the time to detect and getting the coil over gold seems to be the problem... Hopefully I'll get to the high country soon for some fun in the Pine forests. I'd better charge up the GPZ as I have not looked at it in months lol strick
    1 point
  32. Thanks Steve and Jonathan...nothing I do has been earned. Rather it is the wonderful work of Steve and Jonathan and of course many others that get me running somewhat correctly. If only I had days, weeks and years of continuous experience; rather than the odd week or day... fred
    1 point
  33. Nice find Joseph....and you found a gold "J" pendant, how neat is that? Neal
    1 point
  34. Congratulations oneguy… those “little guys” look awfully good to me!!! Moreover, you spent the weekend outdoors enjoying the hobby and obviously having success with your Gold Monster. It doesn’t get any better than that IMO. WTG Jim.
    1 point
  35. Hey Love2dig, There's a camp on that island called Isola Bella that started in the early 1900's. It's still used as a camp/school for the deaf. Anyways, they have a page on their site with extensive history of the island: https://www.asd-1817.org/about-isola-bella.
    1 point
  36. Very cool! It would be super to learn the history of that piece! Steve
    1 point
  37. It's cool because it's so specific to an individual. Hope you can date it and nail down the event.
    1 point
  38. Nice find. I wonder if it's custom / one-of-a-kind. Makes me think of a scout trip (expedition) where someone was either assigned the job of cook or voluntarily took on the task. I vaguely recall at carnivals and street fairs that you could walk up to a stand which had a machine to stamp out custom tags. Not sure about that, though. Have you searched Google for 'Twin Lakes'? In particular, try and find one in the region where you found the tag. I know of two places in Indiana with this name but I'm sure there are a lot more.
    1 point
  39. 27APR18 approx 15 minutes of sniping with pin pointer at son’s school, and yes this f-pulse works as a stand-alone detector for fresh drops anywhere.. I love this thing. I
    1 point
  40. You can get an aerosol can of rubberised coating from auto shops that is very hard wearing. Used it in the past to coat the underside of the coils that had no skid plate, don't think I ever had the need to recoat them from memory. Initially picked up on the idea when some beach hunters were using it on their coils for increased longevity.
    1 point
  41. My first Gold Coin! I was working my way back to the truck today while hunting an early 1900s city park when the unimaginable happened.. I had about 5 minuets left to hunt and got a nice solid, deeper sounding 18-19.. I had pulled Indian Head cents out of this area of the park before, and I’ve had a couple on the Equinox bounce down and touch this VDI region in the past, so I thought I might be on to either an Indian or very early Wheat cent.. Little did I know my Indian would turn out to be a 1910 Indian Half Eagle Gold Coin! When I first opened the plug I went down about 5” and found a small piece of junk.. Its an old snap cover or something unrecognizable.. I put the plug back together and and gave it another sweep figuring the target I pulled didn’t really match the signal.. Back came the solid 18-19 signal, only better. I reopened the plug and started scooping out the dirt when a nice chunk of round gold appears in the hole! It looked good, but without my readers on, and being fooled a million times in the past by gold foil and such, I wasn’t sure.. It looked good enough to get my heart racing.. I don’t normally talk out loud to myself, but I blurt out to who I don’t know.. “You Better Not Be F***ing With Me!!” I put on my glasses, picked it up and instantly felt the weight.. I then knew it was gold! To say I was shell shocked is an understatement.. I don’t consider this area to have great potential for a gold coin, so I never really thought I would find one.. Thankfully, I thought wrong.. Equinox 800 - Park 1 - 50 Tones - Recovery 4 - Iron Bias 3 Approximate depth 7”.. Bryan
    1 point
  42. That is so awesome! I know you give a lot of credit to the Nox but you had to choose to dig it. The only problem you have now is topping it. I've been passing up those 2 numbers as they've always been junk. Time to go back.
    1 point
  43. Talked with a customer yesterday who ordered a Detech 8in DD for Gold Basin, he has been using the 15in Ultimate Spiral DD GPX coil and has been ( killing it ), his words, on nuggets and meteorites. Said he follows after others and picks up missed gold.
    1 point
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