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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.....

Possibly my last beach hunt until fall. They don't allow detecting while the public is using the beach, once they open for the season. Today I tried 2 beaches, but quickly left the first one to go back to a more reliable one. It was a good move. The gold streak continues with 2 (possibly 3) gold items. I found some nice silver too, including a beefy .925 Academy ring. Great day to be out detecting and I finally found my first gold chain with the Equinox!

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?

After work a quick 2 hour hunt with the Nox 800. I hunted in Field 2 . It ran really steady. The last time I was there I had 3 or 4 non ferrous items in 6 hours of hunting. I feel that if I had had a full day I would have had a heap more targets with the Nox. Guy's with the few hours I've had with the 800 I am already impressed. The very smallest button was a 9 on screen and I can safely say that I would not have found that with my explorer %100. The tone was low and soft and deep! The circular bronze item is a first for me here in the US. I've found these before in the UK. I believe it is part of a specific kind of woven button. Another Wow moment was the shell casing. It was a high number mixed in with a pile of iron sounds and numbers. There was so much Iron in that spot I knew again I would not have detected the target. Back out again on Friday after work ? I'm not going to lie, its a learning curve but I think I did ok for the first couple of hours. All the best Sillllvar

The Ferrite is needed to accurately calibrate the detector, the ground holds varying degrees of Ferrite like signals called X. In Auto mode the detector will slowly measure any X component in the ground but can be adversely affected by Salt and Saturation signals. If there is no Ferrite available then the detector can be used in Auto mode and hopefully the ground conditions will allow for a reasonable X measurement. When Quick-Trak is triggered the X balance and G balance track really quickly then throttle back to their respective speeds, in the case of Auto mode the X balance is really slow with an active G balance when Quick-Trak is released. In Semi Auto mode the X balance is FIXED once the Quick-Trak button is released. If you do not have a Ferrite then with Quick-Trak engaged used the "Walk and Detect" method shown in the Minelab YouTube tutorials. Ideally it is better to use the Ferrite at all times using Quick-Trak in Auto, Semi Auto or Manual mode. Using the Ferrite is far more accurate than solely relying on there being enough X signal in the ground. Hope this helps JP

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.

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!

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!

Hi Dave. Obviously JP is the best bloke to tell you in his own words but what I have gleaned off him over the past 18 months is... The GPZ in AUTO should be ground balanced to the local ground and also to the supplied ferrite ring. In AUTO , as you use the GPZ, it will slowly become set to the local ferrite and will need to be re-ferrite balanced often during a detecting session. The GPZ works best when ferrite balanced to the ferrite ring rather than the ground ferrite. Now that SEMI AUTO is available JP has suggested that SEMI AUTO is the better option as it locks the ferrite and it will take much longer for the detector to slowly work its way from an optimum ferrite ring balance whilst continuing to automatically ground balance to the local ground conditions. Please correct things if I'm wrong JP. Dave, it's worth going back through all of JPs posts about the Z and cutting/pasting them into your own little extra special manual. It doesn't take too long and you can shift things into sections like noise cancel, ground balance, gold modes, etc, etc.. This is what I've done and it gets referred to every few months just as a reminder. There's a lot in my manual that isn't in the Minelab manual Cheers.

Wow , I just got a notice that my nox 800 will be here on Monday the 21st. Now I feel like a little kid waiting for it.

just got a notice , my nox will be here on the 21st...Monday....yea , can't wait . Feel like a little kid .

Hi all, My name is Joseph and am a lifelong resident here in Fairbanks, Alaska. After about 8 years of searching for gold with a pan, homemade sluice and 2" suction dredge, I'd decided to take a leap (after reading a few spectacular in-depth reviews here) on purchasing Minelab's Gold Monster 1000 at the beginning of April. I have a older Bounty Hunter tr/bfr detector and a older Fisher 1212x I'd found at a pawn shop although I learned they are both ok for finding decent size metals like keys/coins and hot rocks on the surface and the Bounty Hunter has helped me find black sands a few times, but not so good on the small sub-gram gold I normally find. The snow is still on the ground here, maybe 1ft in my yard and still around 7 feet in the area I like to spend the summertime prospecting. This past week I'd taken a short drive to one of the local fishing lakes to see if I could find some ground to get a little practice in and luck was in my favor. Not being to familiar with detecting non-ferrous metals, I thought it would be a good idea to chase after some of the tin foil and lead sinkers that had been scattered all over the beach from years of people that like to hang out there. With the large coil on, I'd held the machine off the ground to power on, let it complete the air test and started out in "All Metal Mode" at "auto plus one" sensitivity and was about 30 seconds before I'd heard the first loud beep with the meter slamming to the right, it took a few moments to find out it was the first small split shot lead sinker! So on to the next few targets I'd noticed plenty of beeps with the meter going the other direction (ferrous) I'd dug them anyway to make sure and turned out being single fish hooks. What got really annoying was how overly sensitive the GM1000 is on tiny pieces of foil and I mean tiny! It screamed like it was a large target until I turned the sensitivity to manual to the 6th bar which calmed things down and helped me focus on some actual large targets. After about an hour went by I had 14 lead sinkers, 5 hooks and a few pennies, I just had to check out the 5" coil. Round 2: I'd returned to full auto plus one sensitivity and found what cherry picking really was by simply lifting the coil up just a little to see if I could make any difference in the sound getting lighter response from the smaller targets and seemed to do the trick of avoiding some (not all) of the tiny foil pieces and continued to score some good size lead, a few dimes, nickels and then my first silver which looked to be a part of a bracelet or?? Didn't matter so much as it made my day! I was happy to then try out the "gold mode" for a while as I felt really comfortable with the full auto/all metal settings. I did not like the beep..beep sound it made while ignoring the ferrous targets after hearing a more wha-zip sound I had gotten used to and doubt I'll ever use it in that environment again. (maybe in the hills?) Although the meter seemed to be spot on still. So back to it, I got to dig a few more hooks, sinkers, 2 fly's, more coins, a broken cheap ring, some tiny shotgun pellets, a few bullets, a pellet gun pellet and then the magic happened, a beep like I hadn't heard yet... My first gold with the GM1000, first with a metal detector and first gold of the year was a 1" tall pendant (brass plate) with gold flakes and is my first Initial! A true blessing as the silver was a great find for me, it still blows my mind and if I never find another flake with this machine, I couldn't be happier with how my first experience went! Thank you to all who have posted about this detector and other forms of prospecting knowledge, I hope I can do the same as I get more familiar with the gm1000 and will do my best to help contribute to any info I may provide in the future! Joseph

Did some testing with my new Gold Monster. The GM1000 is easy to use and has a perfect user interface. While it can be quite compact using custom parts, I wish Minelab would provide a telescopic shaft. A better shaft would really make a big difference for usability while hiking and biking with the monster. The hard part with the Gold Monster is learning to find the tiny targets it detects, digging staple-size targets is challenging. Now I am hoping to find both huge and tiny meteorites with the Gold Monster.

It is rare I would dig a nickle on a hunt let alone 3! Was a quick 3 hour hunt in a very small 1800s park I have hit for many years. Most of this stuff had to have been previously masked by screw tops and iron. More than a few of these had a nail come out of the plug first or after I retrieved the target. One wheat has iron oxide on the obverse from where it has been resting on a nail, cant get a date off of it. I had such a great time! I had to share, thank you for your time and looking! What a day! 1941 Jefferson 1909 V Nickle x2 1916, 1919, cant see date Wheat 1903, 1893, 1890 IHC Sterling Ring 2 piece great seal button 1951 Canadian Cent and other tiny non FE stuff!

The new Fisher F-Pulse and Teknetics Tek-Point pinpointer are the same basic unit - the F-Pulse is red and the Tek-Point is green. First Texas is giving away a free F-Pulse and a free Tek-Point each month until the promotion ends. Details from facebook/YouTube below. May Fisher F-Pulse Giveaway! May is our first month of giving away one F-Pulse pinpointer to a lucky winner. We will be doing this on the 15th of EVERY month!!! But be sure to act quickly as the contest will be over and a winner will be selected on the 18th! How to Enter? There are 2 ways to enter or you can do both for more chances. Option 1. Subscribe to our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/FisherResearchLabs - Subscribe to SouthernDiggers YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHYTOnxvMhgQLU483YWte2w - Leave a comment on SouthernDiggers video on YouTube. Option 2. Like this post and leave a comment on this post. Please consider liking our page and sharing this post, however it is not necessary to enter. This contest is open worldwide. Good luck!!! May Teknetics Tek-Point Giveaway! May is our first month of giving away oneTek-Point pinpointer to a lucky winner. We will be doing this on the 15th of EVERY month!!! But be sure to act quickly as the contest will be over and a winner will be selected on the 18th! How to Enter? There are 2 ways to enter or you can do both for more chances. Option 1. Subscribe to our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/TekneticsT2 - Subscribe to TheHunterGT's YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/user/thehuntergt - Leave a comment on TheHunterGt's video on YouTube. Option 2. Like this post and leave a comment on this post. Please consider liking our page and sharing this post, however it is not necessary to enter. This contest is open worldwide. Good luck!!

YES!! To be able to switch between different setting combinations would be great. The GPX is good to a point, but you still have to switch mode and timing, so two switches and maybe a menu tweak. With the GPZ interface you could as an example have: 1. General search mode: General/Difficult/Low Smooth/Sens 9/Ground Smoothing Off etc etc 2. Low mineral mode: HY/Normal/Smoothing Off/Sens 6/Patch etc etc 3. Z19 mode: Extra Deep/Normal/Low Smoothing/Sens 8..... Be a lot easier to flick between 1, 2 & 3 than it is to go through and make all the changes individually

NICE job on your first hunt, sillllvar! Sounds like you will get along just fine with the Equinox! Steve

I ordered it on May 1st from cabela's. It arrived to the local store on the 8th. Now I didn' get it till today. This is because the store didn' check the box to see if it was a in store pickup. And the online didn't send me updated tracking stuff. They made it right. Gave me a gift card from each department, so two 50 dollar cards. Plus the store matched my minelab military discount. So in all it worked out.

Good news about Louisville: been there since the 18th Century. Bad news: md'ing in city parks is forbidden. ? Enjoy the graduation.

I don't think that is correct, Dave.... the ferrite is needed with all modes...IF, I have understood Jonathan Porter correctly.

Your silver material is probably arsenopyrite. Unlike pure pyrite it is very conductive, very detectable. And very common in south central Alaska. Nice nugget!

Been out only twice the last week including yesterday and made ~ 12€ Some fresh coins, but I'm still digging plenty of old coins on the same beaches again and again.. crazy! Also found another cartridge - I think it's the third within 5 weeks on VERY well hammered small beaches. There were 2 other detectorists yesterday and that beach is only approx. 250mx30m. No wonder why I don't find heaps of money ?

DAYTON DAILY NEWS, TUESDAY, MAY8, 1945 So you think pellets are a problem. Lyons den, 1st column

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. ?

Steve there is a Patent pub date April 19, 2018 for Bruce Candy/ Minelab. It looks like the continuation/ improvement to the GPZ 7000 I believe. I wonder if there is another mod coming out?? Link to patent Dave

Yes, I know the finder and I have not asked her what I can say about it so just go there for now. They don't come to this forum or at least not very often. Mitchel

I spent a day and a half last week in Franconia searching the Yucca Dense Collection Area. I used the GM 1000, the Equinox 800 and the GPZ. The heat was intense in the 108 range, and I did cut my trip short. I have only modest skills and can not give an in depth comparison the way Lunk will next winter but here are my preliminary observations. All three machines can easily find meteorites. The two small ones I found (2gm and 4gm) were loud and clear. Both were down less than one inch and maybe were on the surface. I boot scraped them before looking. The GPZ covers the most ground because of its larger coil and handles the hot rocks best, but the weight is a real issue .... especially in the heat. The GPZ is also difficult to get under and around trees, dips and larger rocks. I ended up using the Equinox most of the time. I preferred it to the GM 1000. I felt the Equinox handled the hot rocks better and did not false. On the Equinox you can program the one-click user-defined button to switch frequencies to help eliminate hot rocks. I also found the Equinox discrimination valuable. Most lead and brass shell cases were correctly identified by the Equinox. The size of the non-ferrous “junk” influenced the target ID numbers but the meteorites strongly registered iron (i.e. negative target ID’s). I used Field 1 and Field 2. I am not yet comfortable enough to ignore the non-ferrous targets, but I might get there. A day and a half is not much of a test. More hours are needed. I look forward to hearing how others compare the different detectors.

I have not used an auto ground tracking detector that doesn`t track out some gold, the Z auto tracking is miles ahead of the SDs-GPXs which I found you could not trust to run in auto tracking, but even the Z tracks out some, not much but (unless as Fred suggest there missed?). Most signals it tracks out are mineralisation, just a very odd one gets through. Set your user button to manual GB and switch to it each time you hit one of those iffy signals easy to do and soon you`ll gain confidence and go mostly with the repeatable signals. This is one of the features that sets the Z out from the PIs, it allows you to cover ground without being held up checking too many iffy signals. Now if only ML`d get rid of that pesky quick track button and replace it with a GB alternate between manual/auto button as per the PIs they`d make it even better, give us the option of taking that crappy process out if we wish.