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I haven’t been able to get away and hunt very much this year due to various reasons and last week I finally found a little free time so I headed to the hills for a few days of hanging out with Zed. In anticipation of getting away for a hunt I called Rob and had him send me one of those new SteelPHASE enhancer/filter’s and wow fastest shipping I’ve ever experienced, Rob must have jumped on a plane and stuffed it in my mail box, or could have just been overnight shipping anyway it was really fast. Gold was very scarce nails, tiny bits of rust, tacks and bird shot were a plenty the tiny piece of gold weighing in at a whopping 1.95 grains I did find this trip gave a clear indication down under around 3” of forrest mulch and soil, this is the smallest bit of gold I’ve found with the 7000 to date. I’d attribute finding this piece to the sP01 it made the zed a little more stable and tightened up the target response it was easier to tell the difference between ground noise and targets and I was digging some deep small bits of rusty nail and other itsy bits of trash. The sP01 was comfortable to carry too, I was a little concerned about adding another gadget to the mix with more cables to get in the way and after getting my enhancer I was thinking the cable used for connecting to the wm12 might be a little long. Wrong, everything was perfect and if not for the fact my detector was running great I could forget anything was different in my setup. With the sP01 clipped to my zed harness on the head phone shoulder side and the wm12 on the other shoulder the cable ran perfectly over the wm12 shoulder around my back and under the arm on the sP01 side. Once plugged in the cable never hung up or got in my way was comfortable, really great product engineering. I also bought a SpotX satellite device, so many (most) of the remote areas we go into alone have no cell service and help is a long way off. In short it’s good, but not great an evolving technology. In a nutshell it works although on its own schedule at least with non-emergency texts, most of mine were sent, some did not and I think there are limitations on how soon one text can be sent after another I’m still figuring the little quirks out something with traffic limitations and the system needing to reset...but, don’t ask cause I don’t know. The service has nine different rates based on 3 different plans, a basic, advanced and an unlimited service ranging from around $14 a month to $40 a month for the unlimited flex plan. The basic plan monthly payments gets you 12 texts a month, the advanced plan get you 100 texts a month plus more frequent satalite access and unlimited is well... the three tiers are repeated except when you pay the year up front you get all your available text limit for the year and they all are good for the entire year plus it’s a couple bucks cheaper, the three levels are again repeated as flex, this has slightly higher rates and no one year commitment you can start/stop as it fits all the plans come with an $100 activation fee. I chose the advanced with 1200 texts for the year. I also added rescue insurance, roadside assistance and replacement insurance for an additional $85, the rescue insurance provides $100K/$50K per occurrence, roadside 50miles towing free, off road ok and winching service available at the push of a button that also sends the tow service your gps and a map with your location pinpointed, you can also send the gps data and map with a text. All in all The device, tax, fee and service for the year set me back roughly $750, cheap insurance I think. There are also other tracking and social networking features, it’s actually a great device and gave me some comfort knowing if I needed I could get help and also it was great being able to send my wife a note and let her know everything was good.

I just got my 6” coil, and a dedicated lower rod is on the way. To make on-site coil changes fast and easy I came up with the following system. Each lower rod and coil have the cord fastened near the bottom with just enough slack to flip the coil flat for my carry bag. Then I made the straps shown with adhesive backed Velcro from the $ store. The soft part goes around the middle rod by it’s adhesive backing. But then it extends 2” and the hard part of the Velcro goes on the sticky side of it so one side is hook Velcro and the other side is loop Velcro and then it is trimmed narrower with scissors. I have one of these on either side of the folding mechanism I installed on my box shaft. What saves time in the field is that these straps stay on during coil change and securely fasten the coil wire. Also, in my case with the folding shaft I used zip ties to make a loop in each coils cord to go where the folding mechanism is where the cord never interferes with the folding or unfolding of the shaft. I will keep the other coil in my detector bag so I can change the coil during a detecting outing it the situation warrants it. No big deal but easy enough that others may consider doing this method of strapping. A

It's been a very busy summer/fall, so I was dying to get out to the beaches to see if the Equinox would still be kind to me. These pictures are from 5 of the 6 beach hunts. It's early in the season and the beaches are not shedding sand yet, so the finds are slimmer than last season. I did include a picture of one clad hunt that yielded over $17.00 in change in a 5 hour period. Most other clad amounts were much lower. Total clad after 6 hunts is $31.54 (average of $5.25 per hunt). It's going to be a long season and I hope to get out more often than once a week, but time will tell. So far I'm thrilled with 4 pieces of gold and the decent amount of silver I've found. I have been experimenting with Gold 2 mode, but so far with only a one tone option, all signals (including falsing from wet and mineralized sand) make a audible response. Can't figure out how to stop that. Wish it had 2 tones. I even ran a tight disc pattern, but the falsing was still reading in the low gold range. Anyone having success with the Gold 2 on wet sand??

I like to see the 13 "-13.5" coil....somewhere I read that for 50eurocent coins it gives 5cm more, and big coins is more ....I'm curious., know how the big coil will detect all coin sizes ...The weight of this 15x12 coil should be about 650 grams ...- it's a light coil...

Here it is. I used your keywords. Equinox Sound 3030 Gordon Heritage

Going to Quartzite area for two weeks starting next Friday the 19th with two friends. Be the first time spending that much time round there. Temperatures are getting cool enough, hope to find some gold.

Hi all. I thought I would post this here. Had a few hours off work today and thought more about this 16.8v project. ---- (Having experienced the CTX3030 LIION battery bay leaking (on that machine I only use the AA NIMH 1.2v tray when detecting in fairly deep water). NIMH has less current in the event of a salt water leak). I have not had this machine submerged yet, so unsure if to trust the housing! -----; I wanted to be able to use the stock NIMH pack in the TDI BH and also the LI ION 16.8v pack for the beach when extra depth is needed! In the end I decided to undo the previous method with the screws on the battery terminal. I wanted a "stock" 16.8v battery tray! Given the NIMH tray is only about 13USD on Amazon I decided to sacrifice the NIMH tray that came with the detector! A) remove lid B) remove all metal connectors C) Dremel the chassis empty. You need to take away some of the thickness of the bottom of the tray, otherwise you won't be able to get the LI ION cells into the detector. You will need a thinner lid also! Be careful not to damage the exterior of the tray. D) as this was a trial, I used some old 18650 cells, a 4s balance lead, and a deans plug. (Final version will have. Built in balance board, and charge connector so the lid won't need to be opened for charging) D1). Three cells side by side. One on a 45 degree angle. Fits fine! E) wired in series for 16.8v. hot glued into original battery chassis. The result - a LI ION pack that I can "change out"with the standard pack! Trial completed. The next one will be more tidy!! ****After 3 hours of detecting, still above 14v****

The rest of the trip was nice though clouds kept threatening to move in. They would clear out however and the sun would appear again. With time running out I got back to detecting with the GPZ 7000 plus a little bit here and there with the Equinox. All in all I was only averaging about eight nuggets a lazy day of detecting, getting about 1/4 ounce a day average. Hand stacked rocks and bedrock - nugget detecting heaven! I have mentioned I have never found a nugget weighing even a half ounce at Gold Hill, though they are mentioned in the old records, and I know of some found more recently by others. I really thought I had one this trip however. I was in a bedrock gut leading into a mined pit that was producing nuggets. I got a deep signal in a bedrock pocket right in the bottom of the little gully. Whatever it was was wedged down in deep and tight, and when I first laid hands on it I thought "Aha!" but it was not to be. I found the largest copper nugget I ever found though there is very little copper exposed on the surface. I will treat it with acid later and post a photo someday, but for now here is what it looked like fresh out of the ground. Large copper nugget - should have been gold! The last couple days of this great trip were dedicated to some serious camp cleanup and so this adventure finally came to a close. My detecting had exceeded expectations. I am certain I could have found more gold had I worked more single-mindedly at the task, but the fact is this trip was a near perfect balance of relaxation and finding gold. I finished up with just a hair over 3 ounces of nice chunky gold. Three ounces chunky gold found by Steve with GPZ 7000 The Equinox 800 had proven itself to be an excellent tiny gold sniper on this trip. It was the GPZ 7000 that made the day however, literally making it feel like cheating compared to what the other guys were able to do. Dudley and George both got gold but it was the GPZ that impressed us all. I have long known how powerful the machine is, but this is the first time I have run it on ground I know very well. It was amazing at how easy it was for me to do well just one more time at Chisana and Bonanza Creek. Dudley had been hoping to find a couple nice pendant nugget for his daughters but the dredge kept finding smaller gold. I gave Dudley what I considered to be the best pendant nugget I found at 5 grams and traded a second 3.5 gram nugget for some fine gold he got dredging. Pendant nuggets 5 grams and 3.5 grams Again, just a fabulous trip. Thank you George and Dudley for the invite and a great time. I have learned never to say never, so I don't know if I will ever return to Chisana and Gold Hill again or not. I am grateful I got this last trip in however as it ended my decades of visits to the hill on a somewhat brighter note than the last time. I hope you all enjoyed this trip down memory lane and a rare look at places and times in Alaska that few will ever see or experience. I am very lucky to have been born where and when I was. I have seen Alaska transition from true frontier to modern civilization in my lifetime and this is just a small part of what I have experienced. There are many people in this tale who have not been mentioned at all out of respect for privacy issues. My thanks to all of them. Thanks again for riding along on this long thread! One last look at Gold Hill below.... Steve Herschbach 2018 Herschbach Enterprises Gold Hill at Chisana, Alaska

Well it looks like I will get out to Gold Basin AZ to give the new Whites GoldMaster 24K a try and see what it does. Going to head out there on Wed the 17th …..going to hunt tailings piles to start...see how good it is on the little stuff. Will report after the hunt.

How many of you have had an itch that no detector can scratch? Is there a set of features out there that haven’t been combined yet to make your dream detector and you think about it all the time? I constantly think about this hole in my detecting life that has yet to be filled! I’m posting this in the Nokta-Makro forum because they like and respond to these kinds of threads. Heres the dream machine that would obsolete a lot of detectors for me. Dream Beach Detector General idea: -A waterproof pulse induction detector -ground balance available with on and off -internal coil cable? -collapsable for diving -changeable tone to suit hearing <5lbs -hard wired headphones (reliability) loud headphones! (Comfy!) -12” DD great coverage, weight and size(hardwired if necessary) -some form of ferrous rejection! -EMI tuning for quieter use in suburbia -li-ion rechargeable with gold contacts (or something with no opening required) and 10hours+ battery life. -membrane style buttons for durability or something NOT a knob! -10m+ waterproof -overall reliable beach and water unit I know Steve still wants a lightweight ground balancing PI that can preferably go in the water for his Hawaii holidays, what does everyone else dream of?? :)

I just watched a Youtube video on the equinox masterclass by Derek Mclennan . He said something that is really quite true! He said that he feels like the equinox "forces" one to dig targets that other machines would have you not. This is effect increases your finds rate. I've been at this a long time (1990) but it's you guys from the late 70's and 80's that must remember those early machines that made you dig more targets right? HH sillllvar

Today I went to another spot. I went here in particular because this place owes me some gold lol. It started off tough, it's really not that big of an area and it was almost full of soft sand on the move. There was some sand starting to pile up though, so I thought I would stick around and look for some low spots. There is a river that drains dark organic material into this area, the wind held it against the shore so the visibility was essentially zero, I had to walk around to find any low spots. The first important indicator target was a dog tag from 1979. This is a little different then a coin in the sense that the dog tag had to have been lost around 1979 or shortly after. A few minutes later I had my first pice of jewelry, a copper ring. I got my first cache today. I've found many coins, many bits of of tin, but never a coin in a tin. It's a "Murrays Erinmore" flake tobacco tin with a Zincoln in it. I know you're jealous. The tobacco tin rang up in the 30s, not long after I got a couple more 30s side by side, turned out to be a fairly hefty one ounce sterling silver bracelet. Nice blue tarnish. Yoink. After that, i got another good hit in the 30s. This one was a big target but the numbers were good, it's fairly easy to avoid iron using the Gold 2 mode, so what the heck lets just see what all the racket is about....a antique fire extinguisher at almost 18 inches. You know how sometimes you leave a huge deep target thinking it sounded like a high conductor, well I guess sometimes they are. This site has quite the eclectic finds. I have to be careful about being too greedy, this place can fill my pouch with junk in no time lol. It's full of soup can rings, caps etc. so I have to focus on coin sized objects and unfortunately blow off some of the single digits on account of excessive foil and fly-by-foil.

Yep it's salt. I detect mostly on the wet part of the beach, that also has fine layers of black sand mixed in. I'll figure something out or I'll just stick with the 2 beach modes. Thanks for the reply.

I want one too please

PM sent.

One of the Equinox testers in England had a 'program' for that. I read it and posted so let's do a search and see if I can find the thread. Mitchel

Good in-depth answers. Thanks Steve.

Nice finds. I assume you are in salt? If so I can't help ya. In fresh I run threshold of 5 or 6 and sens of 22. No noise cancel or GB. Machine will make audio if I pump the coil but rarely enough to trigger a TID response.

I don’t think Tesoro’s warranty has never been transferable or otherwise extended to other than the original purchaser. Here’s a quote for the users manual for the Tesoro Mayan - from 1983. “This instrument is warranted to be free of defects in material and workmanship as long as it is owned by the original consumer purchaser. This warranty is not transferable, and is valid only if the warranty registration card has been completed and mailed within 10 days of purchase. During the first two years, TESORO will, at its option, repair or replace any instrument covered by this warranty, without charge, except for transportation charges, at its factory in Prescott, Arizona, or at one of its authorized repair centers. After two years from date of purchase, TESORO will replace defective parts at no charge except a nominal labor change and transportation charges.” http://www.tesoro.com/info/manuals/older/mayan/mayanmanual.html By the time of the introduction of the Lobo Super Trac in 1997, it had been improved slightly to read... “This instrument is warranted to be free of defects in material and workmanship as long as it is owned by the original consumer purchaser. This warranty is not transferable and is valid only if the warranty registration card has been completed and mailed within 10 days of purchase. TESORO will, at its option, repair or replace any instrument covered by this warranty, without charge, except for transportation charges, at its factory in Prescott, Arizona.” They were previously pretty easy about fixing any old detector that showed up under warranty, but that ended a number of years ago - I know this by my own experience with used machines I have sent for repair. http://www.tesoro.com/info/manuals/current/lobost/

Here's that hardy young character again. Brilliant detector operator but junk this time. He was shyly courting the "Chicken burger lady" who ran a takeaway stall at Laverton, WA, hence the banter. I wonder whether the relationship flourished into permanence :) Featuring Jim Stewart and prospector Ian McMaster's better half, who's name now escapes me. Shot at Hawks Nest north, Laverton, WA mid 90's You certainly meet some characters outback ?

Today was brisk to say the least, it was only 2°C / 35°F out there today. It was tolerable because the wind was calm. Once the wind picked up, I pulled chute. No gold today, but I did hit a bit of silver, a 1951 George the VI. Tonight I am printing an arm cuff, but tomorrow looks alright weather wise. I might give this site a rest for a bit and try somewhere else. It's a tough call but you have to keep prospecting, it also gives the sand a chance to move around a bit, potentially exposing more desirable targets.

Actually your chances of finding a meteorite worth money are far greater than your chances of finding a ten pound gold nugget. I realize you were not considering the financial aspect. That is why I lead with other reasons. But if you are going to ask what the draw is, why eliminate one of the main draws?

Daniel I couldn't agree more I am in East Tennessee and same thing vlfs and even fbs machines struggle past 6 inches. With the nox I can punch down with accurate id to 10 inches that's a true pinpointer deep target. The 6 inch coil can hit 6 to 8 inches with soild id as well. So for me if I gain any depth with large coil in my soil it's a bounce I suspect I will, which may bring things just out of reach within reach. Plus just covering a large field abit more effectively is a welcome addition.

$239 internet price and supplies are now shipping to dealers. Time to order if you have not already. It’s so light it may replace the 11” as my stock coil. I don’t have any more problem pinpointing with it than the stock coil. Unreserved thumbs up on my part!

Oh praise the lord!!! ? Lets sing! Itsssss a haaappy happy happy happy happy song, sing the happy happy happy happy happy song.......sing boys sing. GREAT NEWS.

Maybe I'm lucky, -the" big" coil on the Equinox is on my way home to me, when it's a weekend so I get it on Monday 15,

I bet you could hear a shovel head if you rubbed it on the coil!

Snake chaps always make me feel more comfortable, better safe than sorry. Never been struck but had a close call or two, at least our poisonous snakes can rattle, vs a nasty brown or mamba..lol

Yes, be afraid, very afraid....just teasing! Snakes may not be in their dens in Oct or Nov; most Western Rattlesnakes are very small and very difficult to see. Scorpions are common but mostly semi-harmless, unless you are allergic... Tarantulas are big, harry and harmless...unless you handle them in a wrong manner... Good luck and have fun fred

I happened upon this site 3 years ago researching detectors. Six month later I figured I had enough knowledge to start contributing. I've never belonged to another detector/treasure site because I haven't found the need. Everything I could possibly want is right here (and that includes links to other sites when those have important information). Just the vast quantity of accurate info on detectors here makes it worthwhile reading. On top of that we get posts by many individuals around the world on finds, techniques, etc. This series (and similar recollections/chronicles of your adventures) are the icing on the cake. I'm one of the many who for as long as I can remember (since pre-adulthood for sure) has fantasized about Alaska. For people living in the lower 48, especially those of us who live in urban areas away from mountains, the romantic life of times we've missed growing up at the wrong time/place has a nostalgic, even melancholy feel. You bring all that back to our imaginations (in a good way). Thank you. I'll finish with a quote (more of a paraphrase) from a tourism TV ad from years ago: Once you've visited Alaska you never come all the way home.

5 years younger than you!

How old were you when this was taken?

Seems like you are doing fine with swing coverage with the 11", Andy (3 hammered's). I would not get too emotional over it, frankly. The price is what is probably going to make you cry more. Lol.

The late Jim Stewart near Grays Reef Moliagul, with a 7 0z piece. Mid 90's

Iron bias is a finds killer. I spent some time seeing if I could pick up a few more targets at an old pounded site that is loaded with iron and rotted tin etc. Running the 11" in Field 2 with sensitivity at 17 recovery 8 and IB 1 I got a repeatable soft warble buried in the iron noise. Before I dug dropped the recovery to 7 and the signal was not as obvious and probably would have walked over it. Increased the sensitivity to 18 reset recovery back to 8 dropped IB to 0 and there was a big improvement vs the original hit. Ended up being a small brass buckle only 5 to 6" deep. A lot of high conductive metal in that buckle but shows just what we are dealing with when it comes to iron masking. Wish now that I had played around even more with the recovery and IB settings.

Ive always said never look for a reason NOT to dig a target. With a lot of the water machines i can almost tell you what im digging........ but i still dig anything that isnt a shallow bottle cap or iron. Those are the two targets i test and learn quickly. Another thing....... never sell a new machine until its paid for its self.

I understand what Derek is saying. Iffy targets where some aspect of it said dig me and I have been rewarded as a result. Problem is the cynics will say that is one step from essentially a dig it all machine which of course ups your gross finds rate, but lowers your keepers to trash ratio. I do not disagree with what Derek is saying, but it is one of those things the naysayers can easily flip around and portray as a disadvantage.

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.

Gordon Heritage came out with an artictle in The Searcher Magazine where he gives specifics on settings for the Equinox 800 on making it sound more like the 3030. He tells the specific settings he changes from factory default. You will gain confidence by just reading the article. I paid $2.99 to read the digital edition of the April issue. There is much, much more in the magazine. Here is the link to read the 3 pages of the article and get your March issue: https://www.mymagazinesub.co.uk/searcher/back-issues/details/searcher-mar-2018/ Mitchel

Here are 2 large Happy Camp Vesuvianite boulders on display in Mount Shasta.

Not Jade. Nephrite jade is Actinolite an Inosilicate amphibole. Not related to Californite. Californite is massive Vesuvainite, a Sorosilicate. The more gemmy varieties are commonly known as Idocrase outside of Northern California. I've cut some of the better material from Happy Camp and it tends to undercut adjacent to the color changes. I had luck finishing with cerium oxide but my material was darker green and translucent, your material will probably cut different. It's often a pretty stone with sometimes unusual colors. Interesting to note that free gold is sometimes seen in specimens from Happy Camp. You might want to journey across that river next time you stop by. A Californite deposit with gold would be worth claiming.

Strewth Beatty, those were fun days. I never laughed so much since Granny got her tit caught in the wringer.