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Many thanks to forum member Rege in PA (Minelab Dealer) for holding the Equinox 6" coil for me. I was in and out of cell coverage for over a month and Rege held the coil for me despite having numerous other buyers making inquiries. Anyway, it's still too hot here in Sunny Yuma for any serious detecting so I took the NOX and little coil out for some early morning practice. At sunup it was 79 degrees, heating up to 105 in short order. I decided to hit some old drywash tailings piles that are easy to reach, moderately flat with no brush cover at all. The ground is relatively mild, with some hot areas of red clay and alkaline grey volcanic ash down deep. After playing with the settings a bit, I settled on Gold II, factory presets then added a little threshold up to 10 and sensitivity at 23, running with no discrimination. I used my usual corded in-ear monitors(earbuds) plugged directly to the machine. That much sensitivity is a little too hot, but I just slowed way down which suited my body in these temps. I dug everything that gave a threshold flutter just to see what the NOX was capable of. I hadn't gone 10 minutes when the first truly sharp signal and a positive VID number, ranging from +2 to +4 came through. I scrapped off the top layer of loose gravel maybe an inch worth and had the signal in the red clay. Luckily I had my cheater reading glasses and a good plastic scoop because this nugget is supremely tiny. I found the second one nearby, again a consistent positive VID number at +4. If I hadn't had my glasses, there is no way I would have believed those bits were gold. I dug a number of other - (minus) VID targets just to make sure the NOX VID wasn't getting fooled. Hot rocks were a consistent -8, -9. Tiny scraps of metal sometimes reached +1, but no higher. I had one screaming positive target that turned out to be about .5 gram of lead bullet fragment down about 4 inches. The VID on that ranged +7 to +10. The coil was pretty stable given those conditions with flat ground and no brush with little to no falsing. My standard detector is the Z7000, but I have off and on over the years used VLF including Gold Bug II, Gold Bug and quite a bit of the Deus with the High Freq coil. I am truly amazed at the capability of this NOX. Under my conditions today, it would lose nothing to a Gold Bug II. Minelab Equinox Rocks!

3 rings within 1h on the dry-sand - that deserves an extra thread for me, even if they're "just" silver Here's the first one (925): The second one has a mark, but I can't read it clearly. I think it's silver, too: And just when I thought the 14g was the most heavy one I've ever found, I found this lump of 925 : 37g .. holy smokeria Tone-wise I first thought it is a big lump of iron, but it was too small for that..

I have to give a little background on this area we are pushing. Detecting, and dryblowing... It was supposed to be flogged to death years ago..it's only 15k out of town. Anyway, Trent has been scraping for dryblower dirt, and I get to detect in the evening. We keep finding gold...after the third time scraping it is still giving up bits. I have to jackhammer 90% of them but I love that because I know for certain they are gold! I have been using the 5000 with a 16 nf the cherrypicking the first pass. Then the EVO and the 2300 after that.... The last few days I have been using a 5000/ 17x13 evo and a 2300 I traded for my 7000 . I really like the combo for this work. The last two days I have pulled up 1/2 oz with that combo. 8.01 today...? Carry on!

So.. after a few months of learning/practicing the gold monster, thousands of targets, a pack of wolves, a beast of a grizzly bear, a broken pan and close to selling all my prospecting equipment and just being happy I'd had the chance to ever find a flake of gold... Dig everything! (pardon the black and white I'm saving a few photos for another article about how the monster paid itself off, and made the dream of owning the GPZ7000 a reality!) Thank you all so much for the precious info this site has provided.

I was tricked by nature once. I got a beer can like signal at the base of a tree. It turned out to be a horse shoe about six inches above the ground the bark of the tree completely covered the shoe.

Been there a few times with the Zed, Reg. It does love water filled gum tree roots unfortunately. And Jin, I've played the 'metal in a hollow tree' game before as well. All the fun and games of detecting I guess ?

Dug a big hole at the base of a tree with the 7000, when I came to a large root. Dug around and below the root. Had a pretty major excavation which took some time to accomplish. In frustration I dragged out the GPX with a small coil to try and pinpoint this illusive signal. Discovered that the root was giving a signal on the Z, but nothing on the GPX. An annoying fault with the 7000 is that for whatever reason it sometimes registers a signal from tree roots. That machine came very close to being modified with a pick.

Ah! Jin. The old hollow stump again - - - Even extremely experienced prospectors can get fooled sometimes. The late Jim Stewart once confessed to me how he wasted an afternoon chasing an excellent deep signal in the roots of a tree with one of his big loops - only to find it getting fainter as he went deeper. Finally he looked up and saw a short length of chain wrapped around a large limb - - -

I feel your pain, Andy. Living in Indiana, you may have a fantastic day detecting and then a few days (or more) of just digging up iron and garbage. I've felt let-down a number of times since starting this hobby only back in Feb of this year, but I always try to keep the perspective going that "Maybe tomorrow will be the big day". Often that's not the case, but I keep finding interesting things and plenty of clad to keep the hobby fun and interesting ? For me, just finding a silver coin or even a few wheat pennies can equal an outstanding day. My town has been picked over pretty hard (minus permissions) so it doesn't take much to make me do the happy dance ? A typical good day for me is finding a good amount of modern change, maybe a few interesting older relics and meeting new people will out detecting. I don't think I've had "bad" days detecting, just getting fresh air and exercise keeps the feeling of bad away. Moderate for me would be finding less clad change and a lot more iron, aluminum, pull-tabs, bottle-caps and other random rubbish. It happens and I just chalk it up to being part of the hobby. Just keep thinking that tomorrow could be the day you find that awesome diamond ring or huge silver coin! That keeps me going ? -Bill

Pure Platinum has a specific conductivity less than iron, but metal mass not just conductivity and of course total target alloy composition and orientation of ring targets will affect VDI and the latter especially can cause VDI variations during recovery.

Any detecting day is a good day.

Ok everyone, today I got a chance to go out to hunt for nuggets! It was a cool day and I took the 7000, Nox and 2300 as we were going to hit a couple of old places and one new one. I started just after daylight with the 7000 and a head full of suggestions from this thread. I was going to listen to the ground by golly. I was going to set up the 7000 so it was smooth. I was going to listen and hear those faint sounds by turning up the booster. I did all of those things and it sounded great! I was one with the ground and the location and my detector. You know what came to mind first? I set this up as a hearing 'problem' or a 'sound' problem of sorts. The first thing that came to mind that this is really a WRITING PROBLEM! (What?) I mean, all I have to do is cross my t's and dot my i's. The sounds will take care of themselves. haha The mind is a funny thing. I had a great day out. I heard and listened to a lot of ground and even tho I didn't find any nuggets I left the gold fields satisfied that if I got over a nugget I would have heard it. Mitchel

ML yellows are Piezos so are much quieter and do not have great sound isolation (compared to the Pelso's). The Pelsos require me to turn down the volume as the Dan said. Not so with the other WP headphones I tested. To be fair though, the others being Piezos will work better if you are detecting with your head submerged or diving, which is not what I do. I am looking for heaphones that will survive a dunking but I am generally keeping my head above water. Pelso fit the bill. I did a side by side volume comparison test linked below:

I tested the 11" coil last winter with some test nuggets and a couple undug targets I located with the Z7000. They were in the .5 gram range and rang up consistently in the +8 to +10 range. As you may recall the bump sensitivity of the 11" drove me batsh__t crazy so I really didn't use it much after that. I did test a .5 grammer this morning with the 6" coil. I laid it on some fairly hot ground, but still was not much more than an air test. It screamed loud and clear, consistently showing +8 VID at about 6" above the target. I should be able to get out for a couple hrs over the next few days. I'll try to find a good target with the Z then follow up with the NOX.

Howdy fellow detectorists, So....After gaining permission on a historic site (yada yada yada) , and especially finding my silver 1400 penny last week, i was finding myself getting a little complacent and unrealistic in my hopes for a days detecting. And so it transpires...that......Yesterdays detecting was somewhat of a let down, and i found myself walking home rather disappointed. I told myself that good finds are fairly rare, but still i felt disappointed in spite of my logical and grounded part of my brain saying its all good and to be expected So i was wondering/pondering on my way home what you guys would consider: 1. A bad days detecting 2. A moderately good day detecting, 3. A good day 4. And a outstanding days detecting. I understand that different locations and countries will provide better finds, but hypothetically if you were on a ploughed field, what would your expectations be? Short of giving myself a good slap, perhaps your expectations of a days detecting will give me a clearer perspective on the matter. Appreciate any input with thanks! Andy.

I almost forgot with all the posts and news of the update on the forum. Found me an Injun behind second base of a men's league ball field on the site of a former fairgrounds. First time I actually ran the Noxie hot as I was using sens 23-24 recovery 4 to 5 and IB 1. First Indian and first old coin found here in ages. Of course I got ran out again by rain. Barely made it to the car before it started pouring. 1898 Indian Head penny

For the longest time since I purchased my first metal detector in 1997 I've been either using my pockets or those cheap pouches that come when you buy a new metal detector. Today I bought a couple $10 pouches and used my wading belt for fly fishing. A tool belt will probably work just as good but I have my tool belt full of all the stuff that I need and I didn't feel like emptying them out ? I also bought a dandelion tool to help me dig around some of those deep targets and not ruin them. I also put a folding saw on order with a 7-inch blade because sometimes you run into a root. It is tough when you know it's a really good find and can't get to it or worse yet, put a gash in an 1875 IH that was in mint shape. Believe it or not I've had to walk away not having the proper tools and not made it back. I also put some extra dry paper towels in a plastic bag and paper towels soaked with vegetable oil in another bag the preserve relics. I have an old retainer case for good finds and also a couple Airborne containers for coins. You can separate the coins with bits of paper towel if you want. It would be cool to see what other people use for their detecting tools. I think I'm only missing a spray bottle of distilled water. Feel free to post pics or share what works for you.

Got permission to hunt two really good sites today. Going to wait until the first frost to hit them. Mostly woods but the benefits should be good.

Over time, the elliptical wording has been dropped. Same with the CTX large coil, people refer to it as the 17" coil, although it too is elliptical at 13x17. Andy -- Between the Nox and Multi Kruzer it has been a fun test. The Kruzer is built much better overall than the Nox. For depth...In my test garden, the Nox with 6 inch coil is overall deeper and more accurate in ID vs the Kruzer with the 7 inch coil. But most people aren't going for depth with small coils attached. The game there is in how much it seperates. Over the past two weeks I have hunted some nasty trash areas...iron trash. I've hunted areas with one machine and marked signals. Then checked them with the other machine...then dug those and rehunted with the other machine to see if I had missed anything. I have yet to locate a target with one that the other couldn't also detect. The difference has came in ID. The Kruzer has an expanded ID range so it tends to shotgun the ID and tones on a target....a scattering blend if you will. It is never locking or sure of itself...it can just basically say there is SOMETHING non ferrous in the ground. The Nox has a more compressed ID and therefore doesn't jump as much in tone or ID numbers. I feel you might NOT be able to differentiate between a copper penny or dime...but you know it's probably a coin and that is fine with me, cause its getting dug anyway. The Kruzer may give a range from aluminum to coin range and all in between. I also seem to get more noisy operation from the Kruzer and more falses...especially off iron in the 19khz mode. I don't ever dig mis IDing iron with the Nox (iron that reads as non ferrous...like iron buckles and such) but this is common with the Multi Kruzer. Some like that though.

Equinox is specifically a detector with very good signal processing, it is very strong on the 11 "coil and also very strong on 6 "coil- and low sensitivity 14 ...- if you work as an analog detector only 2- tons ... without ID -incredibly deep.. .... today I compared the sensitivity and depth of allmetall mode and discrimination .. If you compare SEF12x10 with 10dd to Spectra V3 ... so I can not believe the coil 12x 15 for equinox will be deeper than standard 11 "-that will mat long window of scan ...

But your detector is water proof.... Nice score on the IHP!

That's a Greek Key design, which seems more likely to be Victorian era vs Colonial IMO.

Nice gold, Paul! Why did you trade the 7000? just curious? fred

This. I was going to add, if I find anything that's not trash then it's been a great day.

A good day starts if you can get out of bed. But first and above all is when you look around you’re waking up on the green side of the grass . Then and only then do you know it’s going to be a great day for detecting. Chuck

My point was it's not a 15 inch round coil. Folks were not adding "elliptical" so 15 inch coil (implying round) and 15 inch elliptical coil are two very different coils from a depth perspective. Just wanted to clarify that. I think the 15x12 is a great compromise between depth, coverage, and weight. Would like to see a similar elliptical at the low end too, like 8x12 or 6x10.

real nice Paul .

A good quality belt is essential IMO. Nice kit FT.

This happened to me the other night at the beach. Feint, choppy signal (deep), so started scooping frantically as I was in the wash zone of the beach. Lost the signal at one point, but, using pinpoint, a couple of deep scoops later the target must have moved up in the sand (but not in the scoop, just off to the side) and gave a solid 12 signal. Before I could get the scoop back in, the waves/wash hit and the signal got softer and softer, then disappeared (unfortunately the waves didn't).I couldn't scoop quick enough in the loose, wet sand and lost it. Bugger! What could have been! ?

Generally yes, our sandy soils don't hold a lot of water and drain fast so at times leaves coins in very good condition. I have actually dug a few clean brown IH's which is a real treat. It was in the 7" to 8" range but was in a patch of iron mixed with some burnt remains from a fire. A spot I intentionally hit because it had gave up some old coins in the past. I was pleasantly surprised to get this one for sure. Yes, this site is very well known and has been hunted by every local and probably many many other for years. High conductors are almost non existent, really only hoping for a nickel now and then.

I get those faint choppy tones in fresh water quite often. What experience has taught me is that if it initially reads a fairly consistent set of numbers as yours did this is a must dig. They may very well be targets that are at the edge of the machines ability to give a non-ferrous TID because of their depth and the act of scooping moves them just enough to fall out of that range. As others have noted, quite often there are ferrous indications in the tone as well but the numbers usually don't lie.

Some people talking about disappearing target on Findmall forum Equinox page I hope its OK to refer to that and put a link...if not please feel free to delete this Steve ? Link deleted since Findmall Forum update broke all old links and another from Gary Draytons site http://hardcoretreasurehunting.blogspot.com/2015/08/disappearing-signals.html

I see dredger tailings in the photo so it must be a gold area. Doesn't look like any mining in the river there. If more of the surrounding area was shown, might lead to a conclusion.

Hi, Nice ring, congrats.? Signal gone : I think a lot of beach and soil hunters have have this happen. I can put my hand up. I think they call it " disturbing the coil inductance" and sometimes also "the halo effect" Once a hole is dug in moist ground it upsets the way the detector reads the ground and the target disappears Basically, as you found - the target is still there and to keep digging deeper I remember reading a properly explained answer to this recently but I now cant find it...maybe Steve can help ? Negative numbers & Jumpy numbers (on good non ferrous targets) you often get right at the edge of the detectors depth capability Happy swinging ?

37 g is worth about $15.50 US just silver content. That's about five of JW's nuggets! ?

I have the same canvas bag. Looks like you been to Lowe's. That's where I purchased my bag and belt.

Here is a possibility from Advanced Nugget Hunting With the Fisher Gold Bug Metal Detector by Pieter Heydelaar & David Johnson, page 36: "DIAMAGNETIC MINERALS Most minerals which contain absolutely noi iron exhibit a very weak "negative" magnetism known as diamagnetism. The Gold Bug is probably the first metal detector sensitive enough to "see" diamagnetism. QUARTZ. The only common mineral you are likely to encounter in gold mining regions which will exhibit noticeable diamagnetism is white or clear quartz.The compensation point of quartz is between 7.0 and 8.0 but its effect is opposite in polarity to that of magnetite. Since diamagnetism is a weak effect, it will usually be masked by the effects of iron-bearing minerals and will not ordinarily be noticed except perhaps when crossing a vein of "clean" quartz. In this circumstance you may notice a very weak "positive" signal which will be broad and impossible to pinpoint. You are not likely to confuse it with a signal from gold, which is usually more distinct." I have encountered this myself exactly as described above. I was detecting on a dark rock and came across a nice white quartz vein in the bedrock. It signaled faintly. This can be diamagnetism but is more likely that the detector is ground balanced to, in this case, a different rock type. The quartz then stands out because the ground balance is way off for the quartz, which is tuned to the surrounding rock mass. This would not normally occur just with a quartz cobble, but I thought i would mention it just in case.

You got that right...it is really a lot of work here in the UK...I hope we make people happy! Thank you guys!!! Dilek

In my experience, the choice of scoop highly depends on the ground conditions, the targets you're after, AND personal preference. I have 3 different scoops for the beach, and I'm still not 100% happy If I were you, I'd wait and see how the on-site conditions are and make my decision afterwards, if that lake is going to be you main hunting spot. For me the scoop is as important as the detector itself! I regularly have to giggle, when I see them lubbers beach-detecting with a shovel and maybe a pinpointer - what a waste of time... but good for me, so I don't bother

When I started using the 19 on the Z I followed JPs advice and throttled back my settings, this I believe lead to better distinction between ground and gold signals. I`ve carried this over back to the 14 and believe my hearing is better able to handle at these more conservative settings, in fact am using normal rather then difficult more often now. But this is an individual thing and as we all concur each to their own.

"Beer Can sounds are my favorite" Not for me, was detecting in an old dozed areas (red streak gully- Dunolly) a while back. Thought it was futile to detect the dozed areas so I concentrated on the bits around the trees that the dozer missed hoping that something may have been missed. Put on the 18" Elite and went into normal timings with the gain flat out. I then got this great sound up against a half rotted stump. I should have known better as the ground was not that hard in this spot as it was around most of the other trees. But as I went deeper it got louder so I kept digging. After 10 minutes I couldn't work out where the target was among the stump roots so came at it from the other side. It didn't take long to work out it was actually in the middle of the hollow stump. A little disappointed when a beer can appeared.

I have had several forum members contact me wondering if I would be out for the event. The truth is I have done countless numbers of these things as part of my job over the last 45 years so it's not something I dream about! Still, it would be nice to put some faces to names and so I just volunteered to be a helper for Tom all day Saturday. I will be helping demo White's detectors and answering questions about them and nugget detecting in general. I do know the coin machines also so whatever you want to know about White's detectors, I am sure you will find answers at Rye Patch! Just posted - My Detailed Review Of White's New Goldmaster 24K White's Goldmaster 24K

I’ve been watching for you to post something about your trip this summer. I feel very fortunate to be one of the few guests to actually mine on these Historic claims. To see pictures from the early 1900s and now your early pictures of when you mined on the claims is aw inspiring. And to be able to say I recognize that spot is great. Only detected a few hours this year found gold but nothing big.

Hi Steve On handbooks, I see that we've got V2 of the instruction guide out. Can you tell us how much has changed, and is it worth us all printing out the latest copy? I've done that, but could not see any changes (not a thorough check). Is there a corrections sheet, could save the planet a lot of paper and printer ink!, Cheers Clive

I really like the equinox in the water, I’ve been struggling with the speaker type Hungarian phones under water but I’ve put together some piezo waterproof headphones that are actually pretty good in an out of the water. This is everything gold (and platinum) that I’ve found in th water with the equinox ?

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!