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Welcome everyone This is my first topic in this wonderful forum It was found a few days ago in Saudi Arabia Weight 2653 grams

I'm a little disappointed in the lack of West Coast Beach Hunter finds. I see the whole coast line getting slammed with storm after storm and high winds. Is this not the PRIME TIME to be out there swinging exposed layers of gravels and hard-pan? I know there has to be crusty black discs (silver coins) and the gimmer of gold beneath the coil. Show us you mighty few & faithful... as we inlanders are snowed in and football season is over. I know there has to be a select handful of hardcore detector abusers out there willing to brave the sharks. I've got me new CA style cowboy boots on and Equinox packed ready to go if the invite comes?

The gold bearing greenstone belts of Sudan and NE Africa which launched the African detector boom roughly a decade ago are also found in southern Saudi Arabia. Same geology, same detector results.

Buddy mine found these turtles last Dec frozen in a farm field. They were smaller than a quarter. They were hibernating but the farm is active and they would have turned it over before they could make it out of there. Don't know what number they showed up as ? Will be releasing them in june.

Image for reference:

They normally wait to drop until some invading Yank shows up. ????

It finally stopped raining for a couple of days and I was able to get to the farm and try out the new ORX on a couple of old tenant house sites. These old sites date from around the 1930's or so based on the coin dates. They also sit on or near older sites so you are never sure what you will find. Coin deep was too sparky for me on these sites due to the massive amounts of iron and nails. I switched back and forth between Coin Fast at 15.2 and 28.8k, standard settings with iron tone "on". I found the 28.8 frequency to be my favorite. Once while running in 15.2k I noticed a small aluminum brad on top of the ground (about the size of a match head). In 15.2 I didn't get even a peep out of it. I then switched to 28.8 and got a nice loud tone. The separation in the extreme trash was excellent! My better finds for the day was 3 Wheaties, 1 War nickel, 2 Mississippi tax tokens, 1 Louisiana tax token, part of a broken spur, a broken tent tensioner, and one D Buckle. Thanks for viewing, MT

Oh, I did forget to mention those giant roachs!!! I really, really hate those the most! fred

Roots are actually a separate issue. Quite a few detectors will detected a large root for various reasons. Thunderstorms create a ground potential. Lightning as much leaps up from the ground as strikes downward. I could certainly see this as possibly creating issues in surface weeds. The GPX and GPZ can detect variations in the earth's magnetic field and lightning strikes many miles away. The receiver sensitivity is astounding. Source

Here you go Fred. (I had no idea how long this would take . . .) Mountain scenery and that beautiful blue alpine sky. We grow tall mountains around here. The time of year when the bees get busy. Some of the ways the water moves around. All shut down getting ready for the move. Speed-panning wonder! This bedrock is heading uphill at an insane angle. My son trying a little high-banking, but he zeroed in that spot and quickly went back to detecting (just because a spot looks good, doesn't mean it is?). This bedrock has a great chance of hiding something . . . My robust, torquey blue mule. That diesel engine is just starting to get broke in (million mile Cummins wonders). My son cutting his teeth on the Minelab GPX 5000 (I hope his wife still likes me as he has a wonderful case of the fever!?). Look what the Gold Racer sniffed out: small stuff, and chunky pieces too! (The Bug Pro and the GPX accounted for a lot of sassy gold over the two days as well.) Some of the meat to go with the smaller potatoes. I think this picture says it all about the clichés about gold and rainbows. (Shot this picture from an excavation after a summer shower.) All the best, Lanny

Love the videos and finds. How you were able to videotape that cow pissing on the Barber made me realize, I need to quit putting my finds in mouth. I need to get some "newbie juice" as you call it and I am most certain the salty shivers will go away.

We don’t like to brag and show off our pull tab and bottle cap collections. Um....I don’t know what to say about those bootdals/sandoots but I’m with Ridge Runner on this one.

Cane toads are nothing. Probably the only thing that freaks me a little while out in the bush is walking into a golden orb weavers web. They're not a little spider and their web is fairly strong so you tend to spend the next 10 minutes looking to make sure the spiders not in your hair or on your shirt. Although I do think they are relatively harmless. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_silk_orb-weaver The big inch ants are the other thing to watch out for. The suckers have big nippers that they use to hold on while they sting you with their tail. And they really hurt! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrmecia_forficata

Dang Pat you shouldnt have brought up the bears down there!!! The limbs are bad enough....

Welcome to the forum - that is some very impressive gold! 2014 USGS Report - The Mineral Industry of Saudi Arabia "Gold.—In 2014, MGBM operated five gold mines in Saudi Arabia and mined 3.86 Mt of gold ore compared with 3.28 Mt in 2013; it produced 4,789 kg of gold in 2014, which was a 15.2% increase compared with the 4,158 kg of gold produced in 2013. Most of the increase was attributed to the entry of the As Suq Mine into production in March. Production by MGMB included about 1,506 kg from the Al Amar Mine, 1,685 kg from the Bulgah Mine, 1,066 kg from the Mahd Adh-Dahab gold mine, 449 kg from the As Suq Mine, and 84 kg from the Sukhaybarat Mine. The Al Hajar gold mine in Asir Province, which produced about 25 kg of gold in 2013, was mined out and closed and MGBM was exploring for copper and zinc in the mine area. MGBM was on track to increase its gold production to 15,550 kg (reported at 500,000 troy ounces) by 2017. Production increases were expected at all the company’s operating gold mines but most of the projected increase in gold production was expected to come from the Ad Duwayhi Mine, which is located in Makkah Province. The mine was expected to produce 2,177 kg in 2015, 4,354 kg in 2016, and 5,598 kg in 2017 (Saudi Arabian Mining Co., 2015a, p. 12, 69–72, 104–105; 2015b). JORC-compliant estimates of gold resources in the Central Arabian gold region of Saudi Arabia were about 272 Mt grading between 0.82 and 8.14 grams per metric ton (g/t) gold. Ma’aden’s Masarah gold project was part of the development in the Central Arabian gold region in 2014, which had a deposit containing about 22.3 Mt of resource at an average grade of 2.19 g/t at a cutoff grade of 0.8 g/t gold according to the prefeasibility study (Saudi Arabian Mining Co., 2015a, p. 104)." Placer gold deposits in the Hofuf Formation The Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia (large pdf report with color photos and many charts. 1981 USGS Report - GOLD PLACER AND QUATERNARY STRATIGRAPHY OF THE JABAL MOKHYAT AREA, SOUTHERN NAJD PROVINCE, KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA

Most of the time its from the added weight of the drop bears waiting to pounce....?

Some got it and some got to go get it . With that foot ware I wouldn’t be caught dead in . Chuck

They seem most likely to randomly drop limbs when it is stinking hot & calm. Obviously in strong winds & storms they come down, but those hot calm days I have been out bush and heard them crashing down. You would be bloody unlucky to get hit with one, but you never know.

When conditions are right then slow swinging wins the day. The silver band is a half ounce! The other silver ring has a nice little amber stone. Mitchel

This NOAA website Interagency Elevation Inventory shows where, and what kind of LIDAR the U.S. government agencies have available. There are links to the mapped data downloads. Most of the green areas on the map are only about 3 foot resolution so they may or may not be an improvement on the existing DEMs. Open Topography is another good source for free lidar data. It's more international in scope. The Tahoe Basin Lidar set is very high resolution as PG-Prospecting pointed out. It looks like there are several nice sets in New Zealand. You can directly download a selected area at this website. You will probably notice that the coasts have some pretty good LIDAR coverage and quality but the west has been pretty much left out of the feds LIDAR efforts. It's always a good idea to check your State's GIS office to see if they have different coverage.

I'm no subatomic particle physicist, but I am a vegetarian, and I haven't noticed any more charged particles than usual in my salad. Sorry Frozendaze, but I just couldn't resist!? Seriously though, I'm in the same neck of the desert and I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary when swinging the Zed through the green stuff.

Threshold blanking or nulling tells you two things if you choose to run the threshold where you can hear it. First, rejected items will blank or null as the coil passes over them. You know you have encountered a rejected item.Too much of this may alert you to a need to increase the recovery speed. On clean ground excessive nulling means you need to check your ground balance and sensitivity setting. An incorrect ground balance will throw off lots of ferrous signals, and if you have these rejected the machine will null constantly. Check the ground balance first. If this does not fix things, you may want to reduce the sensitivity setting. Excessive “blowback” from ground signals can cause target masking. These reasons are why I prefer to have a threshold sound - it keeps me better informed as to what is going on under the coil so I can adjust accordingly. Great post Mitchel!

Finally got a video up that goes over and shows some the uses and benefits of lidar maps for the gold prospector and metal detectorist. I also delve into some drone usage stuff at the end of the video. Let me know what you think, and if your interested in some feel free to contact me. I will hopefully have a website up in the near future, when i do i will let everyone know here. Thanks for watching!

Just returned home from a crazy road-trip. We had a work event in Las Vegas last week, and we had some equipment to haul in.The company said they'd pay my gas, so I decided to drive it, and take a few extra days off and go to one of my old Spanish trail sites to detect on my way home. What a trip it turned out to be! Snow blizzard on the way to Vegas. Then from Vegas to California, was one of the worst rain storms in like 50 years...I was out on a little two lane, twisty, curvy road that routes you though the mountains and it started out as just small oozes of mud filling areas of the road, or wet slicks as water filled the roads, but as I progressed higher into the mountains, it was progressively worsening, now small streams and creeks and boulders were taking over the road, then massive mud slides onto the roads. The road would worsen. The roads were washed out and flooded with white water rivers now taking over, filling the road with a debris field of rocks, small trees and brush, and tons of sand. One one occasion I was blasting through what amounted to a massive river flowing across the road, and while trying to blast though it a massive sand bar under the water attempted to trap the car, but luckily the FJ is a very capable off road vehicle, and it was able to make it though this and many more obstacles to come. So after all this, I get to my destination and the motel had canceled everyone's reservations because they had no water or power. Great, now I'm out in the middle of BFE with no place to stay and I'm not driving back through raging water flash floods. I ended up spending the night in my FJ Cruiser in the middle of the desert. It was a weird night, to be made even more strange by the fact that the only radio station I could pick up out there was playing Indian chants all night - LOL Between storms, I managed to get in a day of detecting, but with an even larger storm system nipping at my heals, I decided to head back before it hit the fan! I managed a good day testing the 15" Equinox coil at a site that's been stingy lately. Tom and I hunted it the last time we were there, and neither of us dug a single coin, but for whatever reason the Equinox lit it up (tu) Enjoy! Flickr account is buggered up, else I'd post a still pic, but here's the video: GL&HH Cal

Was nice enough in the high 30s to look for a spot to dig that wasn’t snow covered, and I wound up at a creek side cellar hole that was pretty clear of snow. I decided to work the side wall to a bridge that used to cross the creek years ago. Not long into it I got a choppy high signal reached into the high 20s. As it was the same from every direction I New I had a high conductor mixed with iron. I had been over this ground many times with several detectors but until I used the equinox with the 6” coil I never hit on this. The pictures reveal a really fine condition 1817 large cent with a nice green patina on it and lots of fine details. One of the nicest large cents I’ve ever found for sure. Went home with a smile on my face

Thank you Mr. Steve for providing this very important information that will benefit me in future searches I hope you have more information I also wish you good luck

I sold the V3 to a guy to hunt his hunting arrows, of all things. Funny thing to want a detector for but he said the arrows were very expensive.

My first GPZ, about 3 years ago had a similar problem. In High Yield, Normal it would run great most of the day. In the afternoon when the battery was around 50% down it would sound off like you describe “detecting over a bed of tiny birdshot”. I could charge it at the car for 10 minutes and it would settle down until the battery was again down around 50%. I think an internal voltage regulator must have been failing. The replacement detector cured that problem. My standard settings are High Yield, Normal and 20 Sensitivity. Most of the time wet grass, mud and water have no effect. But in some areas at times I still experience the same severe effects in wet grass. Chet

I'd like to meet up sometime Dave if we can and compare machines, I couldn't get my GPZ into HY at all, nor above 15 sensitivity, in places I hunted hundreds of hours in 2015 in the same settings you are using. I rarely ever had to go below 18 sensitivity or into general on my 1st machine. I have lots of it on video so I know I'm not simply misremembering, yet the Minelab repair cannot see a problem when I sent my machine in. They gave me a new machine and it has the exact same issue and I'd like to put a working machine on video to compare with mine if I can so I can try to get something resolved and get a working machine again. I am starting to wonder if there is something weird with the new batch of GPZ's now, or at least some of them. HY is like detecting in a lightning storm for me, zipping intensely all the time no matter what part of the country I'm in, even in the exact same washes I have on video from before, like I'm detecting over a bed of tiny birdshot or something even in the most mild, neutral ground. I thought it must be the weeds or the wet soil, but I don't think so now because I've hit some places bone dry with no weeds and same thing.

MarkG .. You can try .. what ID will show Spectra V3?

My note was more generic in nature and not aimed at Beach Mode specifically. That said, I am not aware of any “disabling” of ground balance in the Beach Modes. I would think the regular beach hunters would have noticed such a thing and been all over it way before now. I honestly do not know as beach detecting has been the area I know least about on the Equinox. I just did a "quickie test" and it does appear changing the GB setting while in Beach Mode affects no change in ground response. I will drop a note to somebody that knows more than I do to see if I can get a comment. One of our forum members also commented on Findmall that he thinks Beach Mode is "locked" into a "0" setting. "11. Beach mode -- despite higher frequency weighting -- did not offer improved detection of high conductors, as I thought it might. One reason, I believe, may be that because ground balance is "locked" to zero in beach mode (which I did not know until today), and with my test-garden dirt balancing in the high 40s to high 50s, this was too much of an "offset" from the fixed "0" balance for beach mode to "shine" in this case (my guess)." (emphasis added). This was posted to several forums a year ago. The latest version of the Equinox Owner's Manual still mentions ground tracking as a potential option in Beach Mode on page 41. "Tracking Ground Balance can also be useful when using Beach Mode 2 underwater at the beach (in salt water)." Equinox For Beach & Water Hunting

I need to work on getting an invite to that spot. :)

As a military Veteran myself (USMC) and one who did not know where my DD-214 was, I've learned where and how to get it. There are also other forms of ID that Gerry's Detectors will accept and get you the 15% discount. Each state is a little different but for those who are not sure, call me for details. This is a fantastic dollar amount of savings on higher end detectors (15%) and right now combining the VET $1200 savings and a FREE $1500 19" coil on the GPZ-7000, plus the 3 Days of Field Training we offer...what better way to enjoy ones retirement or getting all your toys purchased for those golden years. Even the very popular Equinox 800 (true multi purpose detector) allows a VET a $135 savings. And don't forget the FREE "Metal Detector Basics Class" I offer to all general purpose and multi use detector sales. 1st class is Saturday March 16th, provided the snow has melted.

https://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records

Ok, here is a black disk; 1859S

I ordered one today from Amazon and I cant wait to try it.

You mean to say I wasn't supposed to mention them????? I don't want to be held responsible for any US injuries on Aussie soil so I was just giving a PSA. For those that don't know - drop bear: https://australianmuseum.net.au/learn/animals/mammals/drop-bear/

A nice chunk indeed that has some serious iron-stained/mineral-stained quartz? I wonder what the percentage of gold is? Something to get the heart pumping for sure if those chunks found their way under a coil! All the best, Lanny

I can confirm that the SoundPEATS “upgraded Q12 plus” do indeed connect with LL - I get the + on my NOX600. They are quite adequate in volume for me, in fact I have had to turn down the volume. These are the ones I ordered and received last week: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KLWS43V/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Happy hunting, Dave

I’m no expert that’s for sure but I’ve noticed it too..... Everyone told me I was crazy, so of course I understood that. That Easily explained it

I make them. The raw data is generally out there for free, but you have to have the right programs and knowledge to be able to turn the raw data into something useful. Took me about 2 years to figure it out and im still refining it and learning better ways to do things.

I ain't gunna push the like button till you finish the story.

Okay Steve, now your going to have to elaborate for those of us with enquiring minds...could be the start of a cool new thread where everyone relates their own scariest desert prospecting story.

New permission finds with my vaquero

Tesoro is on all of the advertisements to be one of the main sponsors for the Quartzite Gold Show next weekend Feb 8th -10th. We'll see........

Hello all! Based on requests from several folks who are curious, I went ahead and did some air testing with my new Minelab 6” coil, attached to my Equinox 800. I wanted to give some idea of the relative capabilities of this coil as compared to the 11” coil. While all the normal caveats of air testing apply – such as air-test results in no way mirror in-ground results, etc. etc. etc., I do think there is at least a little bit of value when doing side-by-side air testing of two different coils for comparison purposes. Anyway, how much value exists in such a test is up to each individual to decide; I simply wanted to provide the data. I also did a Youtube video, which I will post a link to as soon as it is done uploading. In the video, I did NOT record the testing of all the coins; I ran only the silver Roosevelt dime in the video to show you, audibly, what quality of signal I listened for in order to call it a “hit.” In other words, how repeatable of a signal I listened for before I assigned a depth value to that particular coin, with that particular coil. The rest of the video is just some discussion of a few points regarding the coil, and the testing. Anyway, here is the data… Minelab Equinox 800 11” and 6” coils, air-test comparison, done indoors Park 1 Mode Sensitivity 18 Noise Cancel Channel 7 All-metal mode (horseshoe button engaged) Ground Balance 0 Recovery Speed 4 (on the 800, equivalent to 2 on the 600) Iron Bias 2 (on the 800, equivalent to 1 on the 600) Here are the results: After this “apples to apples” comparison, where I tested both coils using identical settings, I then re-tested a couple of coins (specifically the silver dime and the silver quarter) on the 6” coil, but this time bumping sensitivity to 22. I found that I was able to run sensitivity about 3 points higher, as the 6” coil is (as expected) less affected by EMI. Since “18” is a rather conservative sensitivity for a 6” coil, (but that is as high as I could go with the 11” in my indoor testing, and since I wanted to keep it “apples to apples”), I wanted to see how much depth gain I would get on the 6” coil if I bumped sensitivity up some. Here are those results: In summary, you can see that the 6” coil (at 18 sensitivity) loses roughly 1 ¾” depth on each coin, in an air test, as compared to the 11” coil. You can also see that by bumping the sensitivity on the 6” coil up from 18 to 22, you “gain back” most of the loss of air-test depth, getting to within ½” to ¾” of depths achieved by the 11” coil, set at 18 sensitivity. SO…while you DO lose depth with the 6” coil, as expected, you may – in a real-world scenario – be able to gain most of that depth back, due to being able to run it at a higher sensitivity setting. Overall, I am thus far impressed with the coil, and can’t wait to use it “in the field,” where I can begin to get a feel for its REAL value – its ability to separate, in trashy sites. Steve

One stop noxing thanks steve

That is what I thought - looked like somebody trying to make some kind of tool/key.

As I was swinging tonight on the beach I remembered the experiments I had done in the afternoon. I had adjusted Iron Bias for the first time and played with Recovery Speed. I had run through many of the modes and sounds but didn't get out of Multi. This got me ready for the beach. When I got there the tide was coming in but on the way out I had found a 'ring' in the dry sand. It is the electrical fitting ring, not the kind you wear. I got down to the wet sand in the dark and finally had some interesting targets. They were 'easy' to hear compared to my previous uses and a couple of quarters to get started. Then the thought occurred to me that the 800 is like an instrument and I was 'playing the ground' with it. I could make the ground sound like I wanted it to so that is what I did. I experimented and I won't go into all the details but I thought about the base instrument, let's say a piano. I know what a piano sounds like. I also know what some of the sounds an electronic keyboard makes which enhances the keyboard strokes. What is the basic sound of the 800? I went to Beach 2 because I'm not going in the water diving anytime soon and I went to Recovery Speed and put it on 1. I put Iron Bias on 0. Tones are on 5. Now I have done Noise Cancel and Ground Balance. Sensitivity is set about 22. What does the 800 sound like? A cello or bass. I can hear everything because I have a little threshold. I feel like I'm moving a bow over the strings because the ground is moaning. The targets are coming thru in their normal fashion it is just that everything is 'long' and maybe this is was a smooth CTX sounds like because it uses slow recovery. It is nice to know so now I go to Recovery Speed 2. It is a big difference. All this time I'm thinking about the power of the 800 to see into the ground and salt water. All of the adjustments are filters on what we hear. I was pleased to hear it as smooth and I had it on all metal so I could hear the bobby pins. These settings helped me find the Canadian Dollar because it is magnetic and the magnet. There were a couple of jewelry pieces so I was pleased with that also. I'm not going to keep these setting everywhere because there are places where a fast recovery is needed but not on my beach tonight. I felt like it could see deeper but I didn't dig anything over 10 inches. Try the power of turning off most of the presets. As Kevin Hoagland once told me about my 5000 ... take that manual (as he was throwing it across the room) and shove it. Get a threshold and listen to the ground. He was right. I took the power and listened to the ground. Amazing. Mitchel

The main problem with people seeking “magic settings” is that there is no such thing. The settings HAVE to vary with ground conditions and target/trash mix. I always try to run my detectors for maximum audio feedback and listen to what they are telling me. The detector literally tells me I am running too hot or not hot enough, recovery speed too high or too low, etc. I do this usually by running 50 tones with no items rejected, which means I really do not need the threshold tone since I hear everything. If I reject any items then I need the threshold to alert me to nulling effects. My settings vary constantly depending on the ground and target mix plus my mood at the time. Many people find 50 tones too busy or tiring to listen to and I get that. For me a detector running too quiet is like trying to understand a person who has been gagged. Too much information lost and now my detector is not talking to me anymore. I prefer constant feedback and keep volume levels low so it does not barrage my ears. That said for park hunting I am spoiling myself at times cherry picking and running silent or with fewer tones. Very refreshing I must admit! There are dozens of ways Equinox can be run to suit most anyone and no one method is correct. The idea here should be to have fun and enjoy yourself. Or are you doing this to get rich? Good luck!