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Well with the Thanksgiving Holiday we just had, I was able to jump in the truck for a quick over-nighter to try out the 15" coil on the NOX. Now for those of you who know me, I spent most of the summer/fall testing the new Whites 24K in Oregon and Idaho (with great success) so I did not get to hunt gold this year with the NOX. Actually this was my 1st trip using it for gold nuggets and since my friends had already hunted the site with their NOX and standard 11" round DD coils, I figured there is no use in doing the same thing over. My intuition paid off and to say it bluntly was an understatement. My 1st gold piece (not jewelry as I have found ounces of gold rings so far with NOX) is a dandy. 2.78 ozt or over 3 regular ounce "Golden Oreo" at 16-18" deep. This is by far my biggest Oreo of 2018. The photos show the 15" coil standing upright in the hole and the sun is coming down at an angle and barley shining on the top of the coil. You can see the back of the rock pile is higher than the coil itself. Another factor is I found out the 15" coil is very bump sensitive to rocks so I had to swing it a couple inches off the ground. I typically do not recommend this to my customers and say to keep the coil to the soil, but at times it can't be done. Yes I did drop my SENS down and preferred 19 most of the time. Do you think "Golden Oreo" is a good name and if you have something better, please share it as this masterprice needs its own name. On a side note. When swinging the 15" coil on the NOX for 8 hour days in rough terrain, you need a bungee and I really do like and recommend Docs Ultra Swingy Thingy Harness System. I actually use it with my GPZ 7000 as. Another great thing I like about the harness is it actually clips to the back of my pants to hold them up better and my plumbers crack does not get burnt as often.

Actually, it has been every detector that has this curse attached to it. I'm talking about situations like I had on this week's beach hunt. As I sit there religiously digging every single #1 target ID number, that after digging about 40 of them, I decide to not dig one. I dismiss it! I'm not bending down to dig another piece of minute tin foil. But being me, I decide to just kick the sand with my foot as a gesture to kind of try and not be lazy. I kick the sand and I see what turns out to be a beautiful 18 K earring starring up at me, appearing to say.....You don't want ME? . Now the curse.... I will probably dig every piece of foil on the beach for the next three years before the paranoia goes away. Another lesson learned for me, that I really need to dig that number, no matter how much foil or how many of those little black rocks that read a solid 1, are on the beach. Just dig it!!!! This hunt was all GPX (except for the gold), because the beach still has not received a good storm to clear away some sand. In a peeing contest between the Equinox and the GPX, the winner is easily the GPX. 14" coins do not read well on the Equinox at my type of beaches. I was lucky enough to hit a layer that was pre memorials and that is why I had so many wheat pennies. I wish I had my camera at the beach because the oddest find I had, was the remains of the bottom of a Pringle's (fake chips) can. Some of the plastic coated cardboard cylinder remained with the lower half of the container. It was down a good 15" and my shovel finally pulled it up. What I was not prepared for was the broken chips to spill out and still look fresh as the day it was bought. I know Pringles are not real chips, but I did not expect this!! I used to love those things. That explains what happened to me

The best part was how much fun I had chasing the gold with my son. The two of us really hit some nice stuff this past season. All the best to those of you that enjoy chasing the gold, Lanny

Steve, that is some very nice gold congrats. Your comment about a single lone nugget in a given area makes me smile and shake my head as there are areas like that in Montana. The largest gold nugget ever found in Montana was unearthed by Ed Rissen in the 1800's in Deadwood Gulch. He was digging a ditch to carry water to Snowshoe Gulch when he dugit up. It was a 27 pound solid gold nugget. Everyone abandoned what they were doing to focus on Deadwood Gulch but no other gold was ever found there. It really makes one wonder how in the world did it get there and not have any golden friends with it.

I personally have issues with iron in any machine. Now since the update has come out, the area that I live in has become more precipitous and as a result the ground is more wet. This makes the iron halo more conductive and appealing to the machine. The science behind this is actually pretty interesting. Iron can actually become water soluble when iron oxides (rust) are put in an anoxic (low-no oxygen) environment. What happens is microbes will cleave the oxygen off of the iron reducing the electron charge of the iron. The gain of an electron by the iron makes it behave dramatically different and when they are making algorithms for machines they are probably using Fe(III) and not the reduced Fe(II) when creating the way the machine behaves to a metal in the ground. Makes me wonder if I could take some anoxic ground water loaded with Fe(II) and get it to ring up on my machine. Anyways, what I am trying to say (in a long winded way) is that ground conditions are changing a lot from day to day and I would give it more time before chalking up to the update being bad for the 6".

This year has not been going exactly as I imagined it would. My stated goal for the year was to set a new record for days in the field detecting. So far however, it has been anything but that. No complaint - I have been devoting myself to visiting family and other things that took precedence over prospecting. Weather has also been a bit dodgy this spring leading me to sit out things a little waiting for better conditions. What time I have had for prospecting has mainly been spent in northern Nevada. I am really taken with the desert and am very partial to the sagebrush and grassland country. It reminds me a lot of the time I spent in Australia with huge wide open spaces to wander. I enjoy the idea that gold can be found nearly anyplace, the exact opposite of Alaska, and I love just wandering from valley bottom to hill top because, well, you just never know. There is some old and interesting geology here that leaves nuggets in what might seem to be pretty unlikely locations. I did find one nice little patch that produced about half my gold this spring, but the rest were just strangely random isolated nuggets. I would find one and get all excited, then after several hours of methodically gridding the area wonder why that one nugget ended up there all alone. My largest nugget, at 3/4 oz, was just such a find. I wandered out of what looked to be the "good area" and just lucked into this nugget all by itself on a hillside far above the valley floor. Where did it come from? Why nothing else near it? I like to wander around freely but due to the nature of the gold deposits I am relying heavily on the GPZ 7000 map screen and GPS track to attack areas in chunks. I just start someplace and then use the GPS mapping screen to fill in all the pixels as completely as I am able in a given area. My goal is to completely hunt that area and then write it off forever as being hunted. Each hunt area is dumped to X-Change building my master map of hunted areas. I am approaching it much like building a jigsaw puzzle, each planned hunt taking in a segment and filling it completely. I still like to wander around a lot but the main focus is long term - the many years I have ahead of me hunting these areas. I could just do what I have always done and hunt piecemeal but I decided it is time to switch gears and get more methodical about things. I figure there is a lot of that random "scattered gold" out there and that a slower long term goal to gather it up is a major part of my plan going forward. Using GPS mapping is key to getting good coverage while eliminating the chance I might waste time hunting and rehunting the same locations over the years. The GPZ is also critical to this effort as I have great confidence in its ability to sniff out almost any gold that finds its way under the coil. Small gold, flat gold, wire gold, deep gold - the GPZ is my gold vacuum. All detectors miss gold, including the GPZ. But right now if I have to hunt an area once and once only, and have my best shot at finding what might be there, I do not know of a better option for me than the GPZ 7000. One detector, one coil, one pass over the ground ever - what are you going to use? If gold is found a person of course has the luxury of coming back with different coils and different detectors and trying to find gold missed before. The problem is finding that first nugget. If it does not get found, you just wander on, never knowing that maybe you just missed a great patch, for the lack of finding that first, most important nugget. I am convinced there are many undiscovered patches out there still. The patches with the big easy to find solid gold may be very rare now, but "weak" patches comprised of smaller, or deeper, and harder to find specimen type gold surely exist. They will be found by people hunting outside the commonly known popular areas. That is what I have been doing. Hunting locations where other prospectors are rarely if ever seen. I honestly think I have been a bit lucky as of late but the methodology is sound and it is what I will be doing for as long as I have left to swing a detector. I continue to follow the various posts around the world about the GPZ 7000 and people's experiences with it. Mine are pretty boring. I turn the machine on, maybe do a quick ground balance routine, and go detecting. I may not even go through the ground balance motions. I just turn it on and pick up from where I left off the previous day. I usually run in High Yield, Normal Ground, Gain of 12, Smoothing Off, Ground Tracking On. I leave most audio settings alone. The detector will often run noisy with these settings, especially in alkali locations. I may lower the threshold to 20 to knock out some excess noise, or just lower the overall volume level using my headphones. The GPZ lacks a master volume control that lowers all sounds at once, and so benefits from the use of an external booster with master volume control. The problem for me is that is one more battery operated gizmo, and so I often just use my headphones instead to gain the overall volume control I crave. I tend to run my detectors noisy but like it to be quiet/noisy not loud/noisy. When the ground responses get a bit much, as is the case with ground salt, I react more by slowing down and modifying my swing than changing detector settings. So far I would say about half the gold I found was pulled out of fairly high salt response ground with the attendant moaning/groaning or hee/haw responses the GPZ produces in that type of ground. That seems to be a show stopper for a lot of people but I don't pay much attention to it myself. I have this theory that killing those responses might kill my gold finding capability on this ground to a certain extent, as I know some of these locations have seen other detectors that ignored the salt. They also missed the gold. Coincidence? Maybe. I have plans for more experiments regarding this but have had a hard time tearing myself away from my limited detecting time to do more comparative tests. Later. Anyway, I have quietly picked up just over a couple ounces of gold with my GPZ 7000 so far this spring. The largest nugget is 3/4 oz and there are several other nice pieces I am very happy with. Nice solid, clean gold, my kind of stuff. An odd mix from very worn appearing to rough. I am unfortunately getting waylaid again with things I must attend to before I can go prospecting again and so I decided I may as well post this update now. It could be weeks before I get out prospecting again. Until then, here are some happy pictures to enjoy. More Information on Minelab GPZ 7000 Click photos for larger versions... This post was promoted to an article

As an engineer, I love the science behind this theory, but since I have two Equinoxes, I have purposely kept one dialed back to the original firmware for comparison purposes and while I have not had a chance to do exhaustive, controlled A to B comparisons, I have observed the falsing (or should I say high tone ferrous affinity) associated with the small coil and even the stock coil to be relatively slightly more pronounced with the post upgrade machine vs. pre upgrade at the same site under the same environmental conditions. Again not scientific, I did not walk around my iron field site carrying two detectors at the same time, just observed switching off between the two over the course of back to back multi-day hunts at the same sites and my qualitative observations. The effect you describe, however, is real and affects ground noise feedback, ground phase variability, and the ground balance tracking algorithm, as well. The enhanced halo effect in moist ground can definitely result in more falsing overall, but there is something definitely different in the way Equinox responds in this regard post upgrade. Frankly, overall I have not seen anything that tangibly compels me to go solely with either the post or pre upgrade firmware versions. I like that the known User Profile reset bug has been addressed in the update and low profile, high mass, high conductive coin target ID (aka as the quarter on edge issue) response has been improved but perhaps with the subtle downside of falsing being introduced, but I don't think they "broke" anything. To me, the upgrade is kind of a move sideways from a performance standpoint rather than a full on improvement. Perhaps that is a function of the Equinox performance being pretty damn good and dialed-in out of the gate, so all ML can do with SW performance tweaks is nibble around the edges which just results tradeoffs while fixing fringe "issues" like this low probability on-edge coin thing and depth meter performance which is inherently unreliable outside of dime-sized targets, anyway. Regardless, looking forward to the next upgrade.

Peg, You are an inspiration to all prospectors. Not only are you one of the most Successful Lady Gold Diggers I know of (besides Sue Sallee), your outgoing outdoor personality is tops. You were one of my favorite early customers to train and you still make me proud. I just wish there were more ladies out there sharing the stories, success and golden photos. Enjoy your winter in FL and if I get down there, we'll go bug Gary Drayton for a few days together.

I had seen a movie called "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs" pop up on Netflix and then saw Reg W comment on PA that he had seen it and mentioned there was some 'loaming' in it. Sat down to watch it tonight and it is a series of short stories. 4 stories in so far and they are all 'old west' themed. Some funny, some weird, some sad. Well, the last one we watched was called "All Gold Canyon" and about 5 minutes in I thought to myself "I know this story". I read it here on a thread that JW started - there is a link to the story in his first post. It is well worth a read and the short film does the story good justice too. Enjoy the read and if you get the chance enjoy the film - there is some very nice fake gold in it ?

The only way to learn a metal detector is to use it. I highly recommend you immediately start “aluminum detecting” at nearby parks or playground areas. Aluminum and gold read the same, and the smaller the aluminum you can find, the better you are at gold detecting. As far as Rye Patch do be in the right location.

i know of a guy who last year detected a 4.5 ounce speci. (in the desert) 30 miles outside the nearest mining district. There were a couple old prospect holes in the vicinity but nothing on any map or historical record. He was Jeep'n & prospecting around and decided to stop and check out this spot where float was coming down the side of a steep hill.

Thanks good advice, it is a pick your poison situation when dealing with various setting working against each other, But a marked change of performance before and after upgrade is the subject here and making Minicab aware of the situation a lot of people have rolled back for that reason, I am planing on rolling back and forth when interchanging coils when I find the time to do so in the field. But having Minelab so responsive to issues welcomes the opportunity for us users to seek a possible cure rather than a band aid

Thank you this is great, and on subject, I am in communication with the service in Au and they asked me to do factory reset and do some tests, I welcome any new tests from users with 6" before and after upgrade in Heavy colonial iron nail situations so I can send all feed back to them:

Im guessing here...... but i went back and forth with the updates. The old one to me IS more chatty..... but i equate that to its sensitivity. I did notice beach 2 was closer depth wise in the newer program. So i dont know if they increased some of that power loss the manual spoke of or reduced beach 1 for less chatter near the surf. Im also not a big silver coin hunter, a PPer, and im not sure what the issue was with user profile .... mine seems to work correctly. You cant go wrong with either program if you know its limits and what you want from it for your hunting.

Good morning Mr. pocket.

Great gold Lanny! What was the total weight? I wish I could get my Son interested in gold detecting. Heck, even my wife for that matter. Neither one of them understand all of the benefits those of us who hunt nuggets receives from gold detecting. Especially the memories and family bonding.

Nicely done! Loved the pictures and the narrative. It truly looks like you've got a perfect slice of heaven. All the best, Lanny

Thanks Mitchel I’ll be looking at those links I believe it’s private property east of Montello near the state border, he said he has 75 acres and is planning on grading a little flat camping area with a fire ring of some sort. Sounding like I’m going to check the area out, be fun to spend a night out in some truly remote dark skies probably my first chance will be early next year, might be to cold then the weather will be the main factor on when I can go and look around a little. Seems like the heavy hit areas are north west of this spot I guess the deposits might not have been commercially viable, but something like this could produce a little overlooked placer deposit, or not, only one way to find out.

Some of Nature's golden goodness this fall. Pictures shot on my second-to-the-last outing. Gold-bearing stream that gave up a few goodies. Gold is certainly valuable, but the beauty of the mountains and the accompanying streams, truly priceless! All the best, and thanks to all of those that dropped in, much appreciated, Lanny

Thanks for stopping by, and as for the Racer, I invested a good chunk of time reading and rereading the manual, kept top rod/box-combo by my bedside with the manual, powered it up and practiced all of the various switch and toggle combinations until I had them down cold. So, when I hit the goldfields, I was ready to truly focus on sounds and not have to worry about trying to remember what I had to do mechanically with the machine in changing detecting conditions (more of a learning curve for the Racer than some other machines, but a great machine regardless). I wanted to see how sensitive it was to smaller gold, so I ran it over bedrock I'd already cleared with the Gold Bug Pro and was amazed at the concentrations of small gold the Racer hit on. Of course, it hit on the bigger stuff too, but so did both of my other machines (the Minelab 5000 and the Bug Pro), but by the time I was finished checking the bedrock, I'd recovered half again as much fine gold as the coarser stuff I'd found with the other two machines. So, by reading and rereading the manual (pretty low-tech), by keeping the rod/box-combo handy to power up until I'd learned the various operating steps of the box-unit, and by being able to focus intently on changing breaks in the threshold to find the fine gold, that's what worked for me. Nothing special, yet I should also mention, that once I started swinging the coil, I invested time learning the different sounds the Racer made for various hot/cold rocks; that was important so I didn't waste time chasing strange signals. It's a great little detector that does what it was designed to do well, but there was a bigger front-end learning load for me than with some other gold-getting VLF's. Having said that, if you get it over the gold, even tiny gold, it's mighty handy at sniffing it out. All the best, and good luck chasing the gold, Lanny

Is it BLM land? https://pubs.nbmg.unr.edu/Aeromagnetic-map-index-of-NV-p/m062.htm http://pubs.nbmg.unr.edu/Metal-mining-districts-of-NV-p/m037.htm http://pubs.nbmg.unr.edu/nbmg-s/1844.htm

Heck, I missed a 1/3 oz'er? That my friend is a dandy from RP and just goes to show..."it is never hunted out". I will say this though. If you are not using an SDC-2300 or GPZ-7000, the gravy train left. Yes you can still find an occasional piece or 3, but the amount of time spent drives most folks to craziland and then back. My last trip there (end of Oct.) netted me 34 grams of nuggets myself with the 7000. So YES there are still good days to be had. Thanks for sharing Lunk and thanks again for helping get our customers up to speed. Not sure if you know, but Brian found 9 nuggets with his GPZ after our class. I have a gut feeling he will become a great nugget hunter.

I use single frequency about 50% of the time. I am in Canada and it is really the only effective way of getting modern Canadian coins. It still hits nice deep silver so it is effective for me in a park setting.

I use pinpoint, but it’s less about pinpointing and more to get a bead on the depth and profile/footprint of the target. I use the wiggle off method to actually PP the target (if the target ID confidence is high and I don’t feel I have to interrogate it using PP mode).

Hubby evens the Score! ?Enjoy! Ig X Coil 2021 News

I guess that is a new word! According to Minelab "Detexpert (noun) – those who embrace the thrill of the hunt and know that nothing is ever truly lost, just waiting to be found. They use their thirst for greater detecting knowledge and skill to benefit not only themselves, but all who love detecting." There are already a half dozen "Detexperts" on the Minelab Meet the Detexperts page. You can apply to be a Detexpert yourself although Minelab makes no case for as to why a person would want to do this. Interestingly enough one of the questions is "Why do you want to become a Minelab Detexpert?". Why indeed Minelab? Looking at the pictures presumably a free t-shirt is part of the deal. My guess is they are looking for people who are on all or at least many of the social media outlets and who are interested in representing Minelab in some fashion. Anyway, if you have dreamed of being a Detexpert (even if you never heard of it until now) this is your chance to apply! Minelab Detexpert Logo

I did call Ronnie and he said they still don't make headphones for the monster 1000. It sounded like they may not either. The model you're talking about may or may not go into production. He distributed a few around as test models only.

I'm using Multi about 80% of the time with 15KHz being a solid 20%. I usually always go over the entire ground I'm hunting using Multi and of course, always have luck with that. If time allows, I go back over the ground running 15KHz and always seem to pick up a few coin signals that I either missed using multi, or just passed by for whatever reason. While the update has helped with coins sitting on their side using Multi, I still seem to have better results using a mid range frequency at picking out coins on their side. I just see this as a fantastic feature that Minelab has given to their customers, the ability to switch frequencies and personalize their hunt. If you haven't tried it, you might consider going over a a previously searched yard using a single frequency,, you might be surprised at what you find ? -Bill

what frequency do you find works best for you on our modern coins?

Hey, great to hear from you! Hope all is well at the other end of the globe, and I trust you'll chase the gold and continue to post those great pictures of your golden adventures. My son is in his 30's, and he started chasing the gold with me when he was about 12, but then he got busy with life and took a long break. However, now he's been dedicating some solid time over the last couple of years to learn all about nugget shooting, and he's doing great! All the best, and always great to hear from you, Lanny

All of the well known areas past 30 years have been hammered in NV (among other places). If I was you I'd heard enough to take a chance. Alaska is far, Nevada/Utah........not really

i woudl like a display in my glasses

Lanny, Your gold recovery is amazing and those are some fine looking nuggets. Being able to spend quality time with your son outdoors chasing gold with a good machine (Makro Gold Racer) certainly makes for lifetime memories. Thanks for sharing your photos and success stories. Hopefully 2019 brings more enjoyable dad/son trips of gold.

I hate hate hate buying a new detector that doesn't LOOK new. Pet peeve of mine. Send it back and tell them you want a new one, not one some other customer has returned. HH Mike

An app I use is Evernote...it lets me put as many spreadsheets, pictures, etc into it from PC, tablet, phone, anything...then have access to it on any of the others, even offline without signal, as long as I have synched it prior to losing service. There are payment choices for it, but the standard free version handles anything you would need.

I have this same problem with the 11" coil at the heavy iron sites, but have noticed a few things that has helped me... Pan Head/Roofing style nails with a wide circular head are the worst at any depth. They will give consistent high tones on a 90* swing with a mildly tight TID due to the roundness of the head. Deep square/cut nails tend to only high tone one way and are usually pretty jumpy on the TID. There is most definitely a harmony that has to occur here between Sensitivity, Recovery Speed, and Iron Bias. Without this harmony happening, you are going to get some heavy falsing. Another big thing that has been evident is how wet the soil is. In my dirt, the falsing is amplified when the dirt is soggy. Don't be afraid to lower that sensitivity down to 17-18 when it's wet as you will still get excellent depth when the ground is wet as we all know. I do a lot of woods detecting at old home sites or active farms that date back to the mid 1800s. This is my basic "power-on" settings for these type sites and adjust as conditions dictate: Park 2 - Multi - 5 Tone - Sensitivity 18 - Recovery Speed 5 - Iron Bias 2 - Auto Ground Balance (Pumping) I run wide open Disc, but have some weird break points/audio ranges setup for Gold. Also, I do not use the pinpoint button generally. I isolate the target then approach it both ways to locate it. This will tell you A LOT too. Matt

The CTX 3030, GPZ 7000, Gold Monster, Equinox, and possibly other Minelab models require stereo headphones that are properly wired so that the external speaker will shut off when the headphones are plugged in. Mono headphones will always work, and a mono to stereo adapter will fix stereo headphones that are not wired properly. The Sun Ray Pro Gold CTX version will work with all these detectors but may require a 1/8” to 1/4” adapter.

I used my 6" coil yesterday at the only cellar hole I've found near where I live. I've been through this place with a few other detectors: F70, mojave, compadre and my nox with the 11" coil. My nox has the updated software version. So yesterday using the 6" coil I got quite a bit of falsing with VDI's in the zinc penny range (19-21). This also happens to be indian head penny range and the only coin I found at this site was a 1906 indian head, but I found it with my tesoro mojave. I would get some solid zinc signals in one direction, but always iron grunts in the other and sometimes iron grunts with the zinc signals. I dug these in hope of an indian head with a nail next to it, but it was always a nail and there are tons of nails at this site. I was running park 1, sense anywhere from 16-23, iron bias anywhere from 0-9, recovery speed anywhere from 5-8 and 50 tones.

Hi kjosefy, Sorry to hear that you are not completely satisfied with the Gold Racer. Hopefully others will answer your request too. I had a Gold Racer for about a year and then traded it for the Multi Kruzer. Your dealer is correct that these detectors go through a lot of handling before we get them. The only slightly funky thing about the Gold Racer to me was the external speaker volume control/on-off knob. I usually had to turn it all the way up to get good speaker volume levels. Otherwise, as long as your are in All Metal with good ground balance and at least 50 percent sensitivity and a little threshold hum, you should get a good signal on the ring and a faint but noticeable signal on the nugget if it is .174 grams. If it is .174 grains----maybe not. You can also try a factory reset. I really liked my Gold Racer a lot and if the Kruzers hadn't been released I would still have it. Don't worry too much. If there is something wrong with it Nokta/Makro has an excellent record of taking care of customer problems. Good luck. Jeff

I rarely use any single frequencies. Single frequency as fallback for the worst EMI has been mentioned often. I have also found single frequency operation to help in severe ground by mellowing the responses to both the ground and hot rocks as compared to Multi.

Apparently Minelab was having a social media contest that just ended. Winners who posted Equinox finds on social media were eligible for a couple Equinox accessory packages including coils. Kind of after the fact but if you are interested in seeing who won and what their finds were then visit the Minelab website.

Kiwi is right; if you really want to squeeze every nugget out of an area, it’s best to also come back at it 45 degrees. Althogh it’s usually not much, I do find more gold by cross gridding. Andyy, I’m glad you were able to find more nuggets with my unconventional settings...sometimes it pays to experiment.

I think there are available hardware engineers; but, the company has to be able and willing to put the resources into hiring them and supporting them on projects. If a detector manufacturer reaches the point where it only wants to direct resources to marketing and sales, it's probably in a death spiral. I like Minelab's dry understatement: "An understanding of electromagnetics would be a significant advantage." BTW, I see Whites is also looking to hire a design engineer. https://www.whiteselectronics.com/jobs/

One of the disadvantages of many of the U.S. based manufacturers is that they have been closely held family run businesses. That means that if the CEO makes poor decisions then there is "no replace or fire the CEO". This has also led to some internal family conflicts which distracts and diverts energy/attention from the business itself. Then there is the matter of aging and the transition of management to younger individuals.

Admit it, brother Keith, you are just a plain 'ol gold magnet. Keep up the good work. HH Jim

Wow, great job Lunk! I think you dethroned Lucky Lundy as King of the Patch this season lol!

When I saw a video showing the Makro Gold Racer recovery speed using two nails and a gold ring, it caused me to reflect on the various internet nail tests. Nearly all employ modern round nails, when these items rarely present issues. The common VDI (visual discrimination scale) puts ferrous items at the low end of the scale, and items with progressively increasing conductivity higher on the scale. The problem is the size of items also matters. Small gold is low on the scale, and the larger the gold, the higher it reads on the scale. A silver quarter reads higher than a silver dime, etc. All manner of ferrous trash including medium and smaller nails fall where they should when using discrimination and are easily tuned out. The problem is large iron and steel items, and ferrous but non-magnetic materials like stainless steel. Steel plates, large bolts, broken large square nails, axe heads, hammer heads, broken pry bar and pick tips, etc. all tend to read as high conductive targets. Usually it is just the sheer size pushing it higher up the scale. Detectors also love things with holes, which makes for a perfect target by enabling and enhancing near perfect eddy currents, making items appear larger than they really are. Steel washers and nuts are a big problem in this regard, often reading as non-ferrous targets. Oddball shapes cause problems, particularly in flat sheet steel. Old rusted cans often separate into irregular shaped flat pieces, and roofing tin (plated steel) and other sheet steel items are my number one nemesis around old camp sites. Bottle caps present a similar issue in modern areas. These items produce complex "sparky" eddy currents with both ferrous and non-ferrous indications. Many thin flat steel items produce remarkably good gold nugget type signals in old camp areas. Two general tips. Concentric coils often handle ferrous trash better than DD coils. A DD coil is often the culprit when dealing with bottle caps where a concentric coil often makes them easy to identify. Another thing is to use full tones. Many ferrous items are producing both ferrous and non-ferrous tones. Blocking ferrous tones allows only the non-ferrous tone to be heard, giving a clear "dig me" signal. This was the real bane of single tone machines with a simple disc knob to eliminate ferrous objects. You still heard the non-ferrous portion of the signal. Multi tones allows you to hear the dual ferrous/non-ferrous reports from these troublesome items, helping eliminate most of them. Certain detectors can also show multiple target responses on screen at once, like the White's models featuring the SignaGraph (XLT, DFX, etc.) and CTX with target trace. These displays show target "smearing" that stands out differently from the clean VDI responses produced by most good items. A machine with a simple VDI numeric readout can only show you one number at a time and the only indication you might get is "dancing" numbers that refuse to lock on. Usually though the predominate response overrides and fakes you out. This is where a good high end visual display capable of putting all VDI response on screen simultaneously can really help out. the bottom line is there is not a clear line between ferrous and non-ferrous, but an overlap. Many detectors offer a variable control to deal with this - the iron bias setting. Higher settings eliminate more ferrous, but also runs more risk of missing the desired non-ferrous. Conversely, lower settings reduce the risk of missing desired targets, but you dig more trash. I have been collecting these odd iron and steel items to practice with and to help me evaluate which machines might do best in ferrous trash. The main thing I wanted to note here is contrived internet videos with common round nails often present a misleading picture. Many machines do very well on nails yet fail miserably on flat steel. Steel Trash Testing Tech explanation from Laurence Stamatescu at Minelab:

Also consider beach detecting......its the only gold being replenished "annually"

Here is one more pic to show the bottom loop connection. The point of all of this is to be able to put the GM on and off without taking off the backpack.

Very nice. I have some similar methods of detecting places that are here in northern cal. I also have found those lone pieces of gold. Usually pretty decent size. Then I figure I found a missed patch only after gridding with my pick marks on the ground technique that there was no more gold. Then I wonder the same thing why? Sometimes I actually wonder if it was a dropped piece from an old timer miner passing thru to known nearby diggings. Maybe his poke had a hole in it. Maybe he was chased by indians or a grizzly. Every piece of gold you find waited all this time for you to come and find it. But it is more exciting to find a patch that the whole gold rush missed. Especially a pocket deposit. Then you feel like cristopher columbus discovering the new America or that your the first human to set foot where you found the gold. Once again hats off to your dedication , persistence, and your gold finds