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Showing content with the highest reputation on 04/04/2019 in all areas

  1. This year is starting off pretty good for me. Nine v- nickels, only one buffalo. 25 Indians, one 1866 2 cent piece. That war nickel is the high number one(I'm proud of it.. lol) I'm feeling pretty good about the silver. Three rings and quite a few coins. Still hunting pk1 iron bias 3 recovery 7 and 5 tones. My user profile is set up for trashy areas the same way in pk1 but it's got stuff notched out and depending on the location it may get tweaked (more notched out) lol.
    8 points
  2. Here ya go...... 1.52 gram. Not bad for the material I actually moved.
    5 points
  3. Day 3 i yes i managed to find gold with the guidance of Neil with his SDC,Peter had everything in his car so the heat was bearable and a selection of hot drinks was offered while in the bush on the menu: -CAPPUCIANO -FRAPPUCIANO -EXPRESSO -LATTE -HOT CHOCOLATE But no Afugato has the vanilla ice cream was sold out.........? Later that day we went to a spot were i could see mine shaft by the dozen,and we did a metal detecting session on an hypothetical Ghost town (name will be kept secret).And it was time for me to head back to Melbourne,stopping a last time in Dunolly and taking a shot of the famous anvil. I would to thanks again Peter and his wife for the very very warm welcome i received ,amazing food,amazing mentor,a GREAT man!!!! and Steve for the forum as nothing will have been possible without. I will cherish those moments for ever. And i will be back RR aka Regis STARBUSH Break not really always on the look out for a new spot Chinese shaft The famous Anvil in Dunolly Another shaft My Oz gold 0.11gram On my way home Following Peter L200
    4 points
  4. As Steve say you better do it yourself has I compare the deus/ORX(or any othertop end machine) as a sport bike ,same bike same lap distance and different rider=different time/lap. The round coil is on my opinion less sensitive to big rusty bits.The elliptical coil need to be restricted(lots of discri ) to excel in high trash (Ferrous) area.But I guess it will be more sentive to small gold bits.the 9" is I think the best coil ever made for the Deus. I am testing it at the moment in full blast with success.Same settings different scoils differents targets I wont even start to talk about the frequencies it is another subject Hope that help RR
    3 points
  5. Klunker, I got your metal free shoes on order. The beaver is almost finished with them. Size 17 correct? I'll drop them by soon.
    3 points
  6. Daniel not only does cow urine mess up a site for detecting, it also heavily corrodes a lot of metal objects, including silver coins. I've observed this phenomenon several times. I just detected a site that has heavy alkali soil. I've done well there in the past with my Racers and Impact, but they struggle, you have to try to coax a signal out of any little tick of audio you get from the detector to try to bring up a signal. Last week I was able to detect there with the Equinox. For about the first half of the hunt, I fiddled around trying to get my go to Field2 to work, but it wasn't cutting it. Finally I switched to Beach1 and what a difference, it started lighting up targets with clean clear audio whereas Field2 was getting tons of falsing, audible ground mineral feedback, and unless an object was practically on top of the ground it wasn't finding much.
    3 points
  7. The only way to get good, accurate metal detector comparison videos is to do them yourself. The Orx just came out so expecting tons of videos delivering the exact kind of content you desire is probably premature. And nobody has ever considered the Orx to be a “beach detector” anyway so that’s about the last video I would expect to see. My own opinion is the saltwater beach, if you are halfway serious about it, is the place for a multifrequency machine or a pulse induction detector. The Orx will be just as poor on a saltwater beach as any detector running at a single frequency. It is inherent in the technology.
    2 points
  8. I had a chance for a beach hunt this afternoon. Conditions are not ideal but a bit of energy did move the sand a bit. I didn't see many clues so I just hunted the expected and unexpected spots. The quantity of targets was low but they turned out to be very interesting. The first ring (16g) has a hand on it and an opal?/plastic stone. It has no markings but appears to be stainless. The second ring sounded like a quarter and a little higher 31-32 and it is 9 grams of silver and stone. It is uncleaned. The final good target was barely audible even tho it was more shallow than the rings. It was a garbled sound that was a chain I thought. Its a dagger with some rust on it. The top is broken off but the detail and the feel of the plastic is above average. It almost looks like carved ivory but it is not. The good finds had all been in the water at high tide.
    2 points
  9. UPDATE: Got the little 3 piece earring thru the ultrasonic cleaner today and it popped up 925!!!!! Silva baby!!! Went to the beach with Mitchel, Lu and The BIG BOY......Curtis After a little class on beach hunting we headed out--- First hour I got a corroded penny....?---but hey we were at the beach on a beautiful day----there were some other sights to enjoy also...? Anyway i digress,,, next stop somewhere near Venice Beach----- we attacked again,,, I finally locked in to a quarter and then started gridding, picked up some jewelry stuff and then a dime.... then i found the big one!!!! 1 ouncer and a half ouncer and a 3/8 ouncer!!! Fishing weights that is!!!? But those weights slowed me down and got me gridding even slower... and i got a faint weird hit that was deep....but it was junky sounding Off and on with numbers going this way and that way every time the waves came in and filled up the hole. grrrrr So the next time i got a break from the waves I dug like Trent King after a gurgler!!!!! hahhaha Turned out to be my first ring of the season! Yes... And I definitely got the heaviest poke today!!!!! Go Team USA !! https://photos.app.goo.gl/vK1knmSm1cjLczL8A
    2 points
  10. We then drove around and look for different spot and end up the day with a FANTASTIC Diner prepared by Pete s wife. I found no gold on day one but i spend a very good day despite the heat , thanks God Peter had a fridge in the car and chilled drinks were a blessing. Another bit of Gold for Peter heavy weight this time 0.015 gram.......Equinox i unreal HOT!!!!!!!! Day one lead Peter day 1 gold My new friend!!!!!
    2 points
  11. I am primarily a gold prospector but I do enjoy all things metal detecting. The thing is I really like finding gold (or platinum, silver, etc.) so my focus is always on precious metals. That being the case relic hunting has not particularly appealed to me, especially given the laws surrounding finding true artifacts in this country. Many relic hunters are at least technically in violation of federal law if they are recovering items 100 years or older and in many places 50 years or older can get you in trouble. I don't need that kind of problems in my life, and so even though the actual risks involved tend to be overblown, it is not something that excites me. I have the law firmly on my side when prospecting for gold on land open to mineral entry. Eight years ago some friends suggested I might enjoy hunting ancient artifacts and gold in England. The UK has laws regarding the recovery of antiquities that are far superior to ours. They actually support metal detecting and have proven so successful that museums are being overwhelmed by the numbers of exciting finds being made. I always wanted to find a gold coin anyway. My friends suggested the operation that centers around Colchester, England. Colchester is the site of the earliest Roman occupation in England and has history extending far earlier. The Celtic tribes in particular were active in the area, with many Celtic gold coins found by detectorists. The gold coins found span the millenia though including hammered gold coins and milled gold coins of more recent vintage. Just browse the website finds page for an idea of the types of finds made every day in this area. All photos in this story may be clicked or double clicked on for larger versions. Just one field of several at this one location. I could have spent the whole trip here. The hunts are limited to a couple times per year when the farm fields have just been harvested or planted, so Feb-March in the spring and Sept-Oct in the fall. The limited timeframe and limited openings means it is hard to get your foot in the door with this club unless you apply a year or more in advance. 2019 is already filling up and people are booking 2020 now. Long story short I made the trip for two weeks back in 2010 as told at Metal Detecting Ancient Coins at Colchester, UK. I refer you there for more details especially photos of all my finds. The hunt was amazing with finds ranging over a 2000 year span. Finds that would be world class in the U.S. are not only common but considered "new" by comparison to the finds I made almost every day I was in England. Yet I did not score that gold coin. There are many found, but when you consider the number of people hunting 12 hours a day the reality is that you have to be very lucky to get your coil over one, even given a full two weeks. I came away better educated on that reality. It was a fabulous trip but I was in no great rush to return knowing what I learned, plus it rained half the trip, and UK farm field mud is as sticky as it gets. It is far easier to find gold nearer to home and I went back to prospecting and jewelry detecting as my main focus for finding precious metals. Nostalgia does creep up however, and as time passed I thought I should give it another go. I booked a slot with two of the hunt managers, Minnesota Mindy and Chicago Ron, figuring that I had a shot at maybe at least one of them. I had never met Mindy but we knew of each other from Ganes Creek days, and Ron I took a photo of making his first Morini Celtic gold coin (see story above). A year went by and then suddenly Mindy had an opening, which I jumped on immediately. Just a few days later Ron had an opening. I was going to decline, then saw by some miracle his week started when Mindy's ten days ended. I really hate making trips of any magnitude for less than two weeks. This is low odds stuff and the costs also do not justify short hunts in my mind. I booked with Ron also and suddenly had seventeen days in England on my calendar for October 2018. By sheer coincidence it turned out that a forum member unearth (hi Gary!) was booked for Mindy's portion. Field with view of the River Stour I got a ticket with United for $1250 round trip to Heathrow from Reno, NV. It is a pretty easy flight really. Afternoon flight out of Reno to Los Angeles, and then 11 hour overnight flight from LA to London. Overseas flights coach class is more like domestic first class, and if you can sleep on planes you can sleep most of the journey away and wake up in England. My return was the reverse but routed through San Francisco with a longer layover in order to deal with customs on re-entering the U.S. No real issues for those used to navigating large airports. It could be exciting for novices however but just relax and ask for help the minute you have any problems. The trips to a certain degree are like an all inclusive vacation with most everything covered, but may include nights out at English pubs for dinner. I did none of that my first trip so looked forward to seeing a little more local flavor this time around. I must be mellowing with age because it is not all about the hunt these days - I am making more effort to smell the flowers along the way and just enjoy. Accommodations on the trip are in barns that have been converted to apartments, which is why these types of hunts are referred to as "barn hunts" but there are other options. Rooms are normally shared - my room for the first ten days. Art was a great roommate. I got far more lucky with weather this time much to my relief. It makes everything more pleasant for all involved. Groups consist of seven or eight people including the host, who busses the group to different fields each day or twice a day. All morning hunting takes place on one farmers fields. The hunt may continue on that farmers land in the afternoon, or switch to another famers land. The farmers are paid by the number of people on their land each day so for logistical purposes it is one or two landowners per day. The amount of land available is mind-boggling vast. There are fields that have been hunted for the 16 years the club has been in existence, and good finds are still being made. This is part due to the sheer size but also the fact that the famers deep plow and turn the land. Targets that were too deep or on edge get brought up or reoriented, and so areas thought dead come back to life on a regular basis. I proved that myself this trip. New fields are also added on a regular basis for those who like that feeling of being on less hunted ground. I took two Equinox 800s on the trip, one outfitted with the new 15" x 12" coil that arrived just before my departure. This is a fantastic coil, very light for its size, and just the ticket for covering huge areas. There is a depth bonus also on most targets but to me that is just a bonus. That extra 4" coverage per swing is far more important in improving the odds for finds than another inch of depth. I will get more into my settings and how they evolved during the trip as a follow up post. United wants $100 for a second bag, and I was able to bring two complete Equinox and everything I needed for three weeks on the road in a single 40 lb bag plus small satchel carry on. Nice! I could drag this out as a blow by blow accounting of each day but let's cut to the chase. Just a couple days into the hunt one of our group found a Celtic gold coin, always a good sign. Five days into the hunt Gary (unearth) scores part of a medieval gold ring with a red stone, possibly a ruby. A great find and Gary was very pleased to find gold - who would not be? Congratulations Gary! I and the others were finding various old coins and artifacts similar to what you would see in my story from 2010 - lead seals, hammered silver coins, watch winders, buttons galore, musket balls, etc. Gary scores gold and a gemstone - jewelry finds are very rare October 16 dawned nice and sunny, and we went to hunt some of the older ground in the club and so few people want to hunt there. Yet I was immediately busy digging "gold range" targets with my focus being on target id numbers from 7 on up. I will explain the reasoning there later. I made a few passes back and forth digging all manner of small lead bits when I got a nice little 7-8 reading no different from hundreds already dug in the last few days. I turned over a spade full of dirt, and out popped an oddly shaped piece of gold! Celtic "Votive Offering" fresh out of the ground! I knew it was gold but I was not sure what it was. It looked like a small torc, normally a band worn around the arm or neck. This was too small, maybe 5-6 inches long, so it would barely loop around a wrist enough to stay put. More like the size of a ring really. Whatever it was I knew it was great and my emotions soared sky high. I reached in my pocket for my iPhone to take a picture.... and had an emotional crash. My phone was gone! I went from elation to panic almost instantly. I left the find and detector where they were, and proceeded to backtrack my trail. I had not gone far and the ground was rolled flat, so I determined I must have left the phone in the van with Mindy. So I got on the radio and announced my find of a "mini-torc" and explained I had lost my phone. New Minelab Equinox 15" x 12" coil helps make once in a lifetime find Mindy was excited and said she would be right there. She did indeed have my phone, so we rushed back and took photos of the find. Everyone gets excited when gold is found and this time was no different. Now that I had my phone I got excited all over again, quite the rollercoaster! Happy guy! Photo courtesy of Mindy Desens Celtic gold, the find of a lifetime for sure. Many of the Celtic gold coins found here date from around 50 BC to 25 BC and so it is reasonable to think this find is of similar age, though that cannot be determined for sure without further testing. Gold dropped around 2100 years ago - simply amazing! Equinox and Celtic gold! The find has since been labeled as a gold "votive offering". The ancients lived for the harvest, and offerings were made to the gods in the form of gold tossed into the field to insure a good harvest. At least that is the theory that tries to explain why nearly all the farming land seems to have at least a few Celtic gold items found in them eventually. The truth is nobody really knows for sure as there are no written records from that time. For all we really know this might be an ancient gold hoop earring! That's half the fun, imagining what this stuff is and why it is where it is. The club has been hunting these fields for around 16 years, and while many Celtic gold coins have been found this is the first item of it's type, making it a particularly rare and satisfying find. It is really hard to get my head around the fact that somebody last held this gold over 2000 years ago. Celtic gold "votive offering" closeup All gold or silver that is not a coin is immediately declared as treasure to the museums. I actually got to handle the find very little before it was whisked away to a safe. The museums will evaluate it, and possibly bid on it. High bidding museum gets the find, and the money would be split between me and the property owner. If the museums decline, I will pay the property owner one half the value and eventually get it back. This normally takes about a year but can take two or more years depending on the backlog. Every item found that the finder wishes to keep must go through this process, and there are only so many experts who can identify and catalog all this stuff. I live for the hunt and the photos. It's not like I haul gold around to show off to people - it all resides in a safe deposit box. So for me the only real value is in making that adrenaline rush happen and then having photos I can easily share with others. I won't mind therefore if it sells at auction and I get half the cash. Clean and easy. If I get the opportunity to get it back however I may very well have my find fashioned into a ring. There are not many people in the world who can claim to be wearing jewelry fashioned before Christ was born. I could sell it myself no doubt for over twice whatever I pay for it, but I don't need the bucks that bad to part with such a find. Celtic gold details - actual age unknown but BC, around 25 to 50 BC if in range of coins found in area The Equinox with 15" x 12" coil did a good job making this discovery. As a classic open ended "broken ring" type signal it was reading 7-8 and was detectable to only about 4-5 inches in air tests. I am guessing it was about 4 inches deep. The Equinox is exceptionally hot on gold and while you can never say for sure it is very possible that this gold item was left in this heavily hunted area because it is such a poor signal on most detectors. Needless to say I am very happy with both my Equinox and the new 15" x 12" coil. It is the perfect coil for this type of large field detecting. Speaking of Equinox I was surprised at how many were already in use with this random cross section of hunters from around the U.S. About three-quarters of the hunters were swinging the Equinox, most having switched from the Deus or CTX 3030. Other than the typical minor quibbles people were unanimous in liking the machine and there was constant talk about how well it was performing. The Equinox really loves round items in particular, and people were reporting noticeable increases both in depth and target id accuracy at depth. Ferrous identification is almost 100% accurate under these conditions. I dug only one ferrous item in nearly three weeks that just clearly fooled me, a very deeply corroded steel spike of some sort. There were a handful of other ferrous targets I dug that I figured were ferrous but were borderline enough I figured "just dig it". Better safe than sorry, but in each case they were the expected ferrous items. Lots of Minelab Equinox plus a Deus and CTX The next day we were back in the same general area. There was one small plot Mindy wanted to hunt and nobody else was interested, so I decided to hunt with her. I was at one end of the field and Mindy the other. I was hunting fast, trying to cover area, when I got one of those showstopper signals and dug a nice 1737 George II milled silver sixpence. I had no idea what it was - kind of looked like a Roman emperor to me and so Mindy had to take a look. I found I was best off not speculating on finds as I was usually wrong though I am learning. The "George" I know now is a dead giveaway that this is a "recent" vintage coin. A real beauty though and I was quite pleased with it. 1737 George II milled silver sixpence It was only 15 minutes later that Mindy calls out on the radio that she found a full Celtic stater, the larger of the Celtic gold coins. It was her twelfth gold coin find on these hunts over the years, and a real beauty at that. I am one of those people who get nearly as excited as the finder when a great find is made - I love seeing people do well detecting - and this was very thrilling to witness. Although I was in no position to complain this was exactly the sort of find I had hoped to make myself, and it is nice to know these targets still remain. I had walked maybe ten feet past the coin as I headed for the far end of the field. Just a stunning coin, and looked almost brand new even though it had been in the ground for around 2100 years. Gold is just amazing in that regard, whether nuggets, jewelry, or coins, they pop out of the ground like they were dropped yesterday. Mindy scores a Celtic gold stater - her 12th gold coin 45 BC to 25 BC Addedomarus - Trinovantian tribe 5.58 g.16.90 mm Can you imagine, twelve gold coin finds, including a hammered gold noble, some sovereigns, and Celtic gold? Mindy is amazing. Here I am looking for my first gold coin and she gets her twelfth - now you know why this hunt attracts people. The next day we were hunting some of the newer, less hunted ground, but after some high speed scanning I wandered off to an area that has been hunted a lot before because two gold sovereigns had been found there recently. There are areas where there are lots of targets, and also vast stretches of fields where targets are few and far between. People tend to like the idea of new fields, but they often have very few targets to dig. I kind of prefer older target rich zones that have prior gold history because even after years of hunting I have no problem digging lots of gold range targets in these locations. This does usually mean lead but I am happy to dig lead targets all day as opposed to being in an area where there are only targets once every 15 minutes or more. This was one of those locations, and I was in gold hunt mode digging lots of tiny signals in the 7-10 range with 9 being particularly prevalent. This almost always is an oblong little bit of lead, but I dug another nice 9 signal and up popped a large gold flake! It was not much different than something I might find gold prospecting, but is either a fragment of a hammered gold coin that has been worn to oblivion or maybe a portion of a blank gold sheet. I don't know but it was my second gold find in three days and so very nice to see. Just making one gold find is exceptional, and two in a week is harder yet. The flake only weighs 1.03 grams and is 15.05 mm long and 0.80 mm thick. Truly just a flake of gold, and another testament to the gold ability of the Equinox even when running the larger coil. I was pleased with the find as much from a technical aspect as anything else, since I have already found countless similar flakes of gold while prospecting. I went all the way to England to find a flake of gold! It finally came time to say goodbye to Mindy and the group and get handed off to the new group incoming with Chicago Ron. Ron is an incredible hunter with a real nose for making finds. I really enjoyed watching him - an artist at work. In fact there are many people on these hunts that are amazing detectorists (Scott and Scott, and Mike, I'm looking at you) and there is always something to learn by observing good detectorists in action. What makes Ron special is he just wanders around in an apparently random fashion, yet consistently wanders into some really great finds. He has one of the best noses for detecting I have ever seen. My luck dropped off in this final week but no complaining here - nobody would sympathize anyway! I had my trip in the bag and was more relaxed and I was admittedly cherry picking a lot more now, focusing on the gold range and round targets. Most people are hunting hard for hammered silver coins, but for me those were more accidental bycatch. I just hunt for gold and let the rest happen. I had the chance to eat out a few times with Ron's group and enjoyed seeing more of the local flavor than I did on my first trip to the U.K. There was a dinner night out with Mindy's group (I bought dinner and drinks for all celebrating my find) that was a good time. I just love the English people and these nights out gave me more chance to interact with them. I even took time out from a hunt to go shopping in town with Mindy just to see the town of Manningtree close up. Again, one of the benefits of making a great find - the pressure was off and I did not get so crazy about just detecting. Manningtree, England One pub in particular out with Ron and company was directly across the street from where the captain of the Mayflower lived. The history everywhere you look is just stunning. Ron like nearly everyone in his group is was swinging an Equinox, and early on one day of the hunt he made a find that is rarer than the gold coins - a huge 1653 Commonwealth hammered silver half crown (30 pence). This is one of the few English coins with no king on the front because England was a Commonwealth without a king for a brief period of years. How this 14.39 gram silver coin was still sitting in the middle of a hunted area is a mystery, but as we all know if you do not get the coil right over the spot finds get missed. The coin is 34.66 mm or 1.36 inches in diameter and 2.0 mm thick. I got a great photo of Ron with his first Morini Celtic gold on my last trip, and here he is again doing his magic. What fun! Chicago Ron and 1653 Commonwealth hammered silver half crown Ron's 1653 Commonwealth hammered silver half crown I added to my collection of hammered silver, 1700 and 1800 copper coins, and milled silver coins with the remaining time I had. I tended to wander off in oddball directions away from the group, doing the "go big or go home" thing by hoping to get into some little corner or hotspot overlooked by others. Given the size of these fields there are limitless opportunities for this sort of wandering, and it often means fewer finds. It is however how spectacular finds like a horde happen so I do enjoy giving it a go. It ultimately is my favorite type of detecting, being alone in some place wandering around doing my own thing. Gridding target rich zones is probably more productive, but it has a mechanical work aspect to it. Wandering is more freestyle and also more conducive to the sort of meditative mental state I achieve while metal detecting. I am one of those types that lives in my head and some of my best thinking is done while wandering around detecting. I get so into "the zone" that hours flash by in apparent minutes. Whether I make finds or not I find metal detecting to be wonderfully refreshing. For me at least there are few things more relaxing than metal detecting. The trip ended with a spectacular bang by another new Equinox owner who recently joined the forum. Tim was kind of frustrated with the Equinox when I met him, but I did what I could to help him gain confidence in his detector, and the finds started coming. The very last day he made a find that exceeded my own in some ways, but that is his tale to tell so I will leave it for now. It was so awesome again to be around when a major find was made, and come to find I had walked about 30 feet away from it the previous week. Miss it by a foot or a mile, and you miss it. Usually you never know what you miss, but in this case I got to find out. It may be hard for people to believe but I am happier that Tim made the find than me. I am getting a bit jaded these days whereas Tim nearly fainted from the excitement. I get a real charge out of seeing that in people and Tim is just a really nice fellow. He really worked hard for that find and it was an awesome way to have the adventure come to a close. I am sure we will hear the details about Tim's amazing find very soon. I could not be happier with my 2018 UK adventure. The weather this time was really great. I actually got a farmers tan while in England! Mindy and Ron and his wife Gretchen are all great, doing everything they can to insure people have a good time. The folks I got to visit with in both groups came from all over the country, and I could not ask to meet a nicer and more upbeat bunch of people. I really am going to have to give this another go because I finally came home without that gold coin. Even that is ok because what I did find is even rarer, and I made two gold finds on the trip. Eight years ago I went home with a pouch full of great stuff, but I think my pride was a bit wounded that I had found no gold. I am supposed to be the "gold guy"! I am constantly competing with myself at some level, and this trip really left a warm glow. Again, my thanks to all involved for making this one of the best experiences in my now very long detecting career. Just awesome!! ~ Steve Herschbach Copyright © 2018 Herschbach Enterprises Many more details and pictures later in this thread plus the settings I used so do follow along ! Here is a partial selection of some of the finds I made on this trip. I won't be able to post a complete listing until I get the museum documents back - may be a year or more from now! A few finds made by Steve Herschbach in England, 2018
    1 point
  12. I had a high speed blowout on one of my detecting boots yesterday but due to my amazing physical abilities and fast thinking I was able to maintain course and continue detecting. I'm a pretty even tempered, mellow kind of prospector and I keep my cool ,even when the world is collapsing down around my ears. So back to the subject at hand------------ WHY ^%(&#@^!!* CAN'T SOME ^&%+)$&@& COME OUT WITH A ^%_)$!* PARE OF %&$#(#@ DETECTING BOOTS THAT WILL LAST FOR ONE &%$(%#!@ SEASON!? Thank you Dr. Herschbach for the therapy session. I feel much better now.
    1 point
  13. Bertha Creek Gold Panning Area An early prospector named Bertha Creek after his daughter. Hand placer and hydraulic mining began in 1902 and may have yielded up to 600 troy ounces of gold. Most gold came from the alluvial fan below the canyon. Bertha Creek crosses the Seward Highway 2.6 miles south of Turnagain Pass. Lower Bertha Creek lies within a withdrawal that extends for 1,300 feet on either side of the Seward Highway from Turnagain Pass south to Pete’s Creek. Bertha Creek is available for recreational panning from its junction with Granite Creek upstream to the powerline crossing (Map). Granite Creek, however, is closed to recreational mining because of its salmon spawning habitat. Bertha Creek south of Anchorage on the Kenai Peninsula Bertha Creek’s upper portion flows through a glacier-carved valley. Slate bedrock is exposed for 850 feet along the creek, beginning 150 feet above the Seward Highway’s Bertha Creek bridge. A rough trail leads up the east side of the creek. The tan-colored clay layer on bedrock is a good bet for gold that ranges from flaky to nuggety. Single pans have produced gold pieces up to 1/4 inch long. The rust-colored quartz float in the stream bed occasionally contains pyrite cubes and may be the placer gold source. Another trail leaves the highway 250 feet north of the bridge, leading up the northwest side of the creek. At mile 0.2, it passes a bluff overlooking the site where Bertha Creek exits from a narrow steep walled canyon. You can get good colors from stream gravel and fractured bedrock in this area. You can also get gold from nearby Spokane Creek (Map) and Lyon, and Tincan creeks north of Bertha Creek. The withdrawal includes the lower creek portions that are open to recreational panning. An informal pull-off where the Seward Highway crosses Spokane Creek provides parking for 1-2 vehicles. Access Lyon and Tincan creeks from the Turnagain Pass rest area. Parking, camping, and picnic sites are available at Bertha Creek Campground. No motorized vehicles off established roadways in this area. Bertha Creek Public Mining Site Here are a few simple rules and guidelines that all recreational gold panners must know: Recreational gold panning on the Chugach National Forest consists of the use of hand tools, panning, sluicing, and suction dredging with a 4-inch or smaller intake hose. You must follow all National Forest rules, such as camping limits, discharge of firearms, and use of trails. You can find regulations in Title 36 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), with general prohibitions in part 261. Review these regulations before you go gold panning. You can find copies of these regulations on the Internet and at Chugach National Forest offices in Anchorage, Girdwood, Seward, and Moose Pass. You can use gold pans and hand tools-fed sluice boxes year round in the streams listed in this booklet. No hydraulic mining or use of earth-moving equipment is allowed. Work only the active stream channel or unvegetated gravel bars. Do not dig in stream banks! You are not allowed to build structures, cut trees or dig up archaeological, historical, or paleontological objects, nor are you allowed to obstruct others in their recreational pursuits. If you find those objects, please report them to the Chugach National Forest. Suction dredges (4-inch nozzles or smaller) are permitted from May 15 to July 15 only. Remember that permits are required. The Kenai Peninsula is home to brown and black bears. Stay alert and avoid bears whenever possible. For more information, get Bear Facts from the U.S. Forest Service or Alaska Public Lands Information Centers. The water is cold and you can expect to get wet— after all, the gold is in the water. Wear insulated waterproof boots and gloves. Wool clothing can keep you warm even when wet. Bring extra clothing and dress in layers. Keep Alaska green, do not trash or litter. Many places have a $1,000 fine for littering. Follow Leave No Trace principles. Good luck and good prospecting! Bertha Creek, Alaska in 2014 Most of the information above was derived from GOLD PANNING, Guide to Recreational Gold Panning on the Kenai Peninsula, Chugach National Forest, Alaska (2018) found here - See the full text for more information and details.
    1 point
  14. I recently treated myself to a metal detecting holiday to the area around Colchester, England. This was a reprise to a trip I made to the UK in 2010 in search of Celtic gold. Gold was not in the equation for that trip, but I did find the oldest coins and artifacts I have ever found.... as in 2000 years older than anything I have found before! Colchester has history reaching back into prehistoric times, and is generally acknowledged as the location of Britain's first city. Celtic tribes were active in the area, leaving behind many Celtic gold coins to be found by modern day detectorists. The Romans were also very active in the area, as were other invaders, leading to finds from many cultures across the centuries. I made a return visit to Colchester in 2018, this time relying heavily on the new Minelab Equinox metal detector as my detector of choice. I also had the opportunity to use the new Minelab Equinox 15" x 12" DD coil while on this trip. Not only did I have a very successful trip, but I got to observe other great finds made by the other detectorists in the group. All in all this was a very exciting metal detecting experience that I enjoyed thoroughly. The links below outline both my own experiences and the same trip told from the perspective of another person on the same adventure. Steve's 2018 UK Adventure by Steve Herschbach My UK Trip .... Double Ancient Gold! by Ill Digger Steve Herschbach finds ancient UK gold!
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  15. I finally did something with this ugly specimen that I found during a 2004 trip to Ganes Creek. Thought I would put a bail on it and sell cheap. Then I thought about my ultrasonic cleaner. WOW price just went up!! Been wearing it myself at times. Weight 18 dwt, can't find a before photo
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  16. Hello to all i managed to find a bit of time to share my experience and trip in the Goldfields.So here we go: I managed to escape Melbourne for 3 days as wife was working there and i was doing the driving.Was hot very hot and i understand now why there is time to prospect and time to stay in an air cooled house. Anyway as a result of a post on the forum i contacted Goldrat (aka Peter) and after some very good chat and instruction we met in Maryborough .The drive from Melbourne for me was epic as : 1)i loved the scenery 2) i get lost very easily (But thanks to Peter instruction and a capricious phone i reached my destination without problem). So we head up to Talbot for bnb and to pick up a SDC2300 complimentary of my landlord Neil.We then headed to our first spot ,and while Peter was narrating the tales of mountain of gold retrieve from the area i was taking as many pics as possible as this was completely new to me Peter found the first bit of gold using his faithfull Equinox with the 6".......for the setting ask him . My bnb road SPOT 1 Wasn't me!!!!!!!! Scoooooore Peter first gold ,he gave it to me lost it in my suitcase.......
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  17. Got out again today with my Equinox 800. Did not find a lot of coins, but did pull 1942s wheat penny and 14k gold ring. Stones in ring tested as diamonds at least according to my diamond tester. I used my usual Park 1, with recovery speed lowered to 4. Ring came in at solid 12 at about 5-6 inches. Excellent day.
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  18. Reality, for those that can't stand drugs... They still found it and none of us did...that is something! fred
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  19. I purchased the Pro-Find 35; can't wait to see how it does.
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  20. Thanks GB, nothing special on dates so far. I got an 82 Indian that will go in the book and one of the merc's I didn't have yet. The quarter was a 29d which happened to be the year my dad was born so that was cool. Ya just never know what the rest of the year will unfold but I'm hoping my luck continues. Our winter here in SW Mo. wasn't bad at all so I was able to get out quite a bit. Tom
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  21. Gol Dangit Sourdough!! The last pair of those that I tried were made out of Iron Wood. Size 17 is ok if they're extra wide.
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  22. You’re having a great year so far! Congrats!
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  23. Not finding much on beach performance on the orx, only bit I saw was some videos was some guy in the UK on a gravel beach and some deus videos with poor performance and god knows what khz they were using (guessing the highest they could based off the falsing and inability to gb them. Very frustrating to get honest comparisons and tests on any machine. Are people just complete twits or they always show a bias on machines? What ever happened to apples to apples?
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  24. Great finds! Thanks for sharing.
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  25. Horst, Any ring save is a good one. It does not look to be silver to me either. I would think if it was gold, there would be more yellow and shine, plus the # would be less on the EQ readout. It looks like you have cleaned it with something? Maybe one of the late 1800's copper rings so many of the poorer people would purchase and wear? Either way it is a start to your collection.
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  26. phrunt, you could have found it with a pointy stick mate. The EXCAVATOR found it. If you like those sort of programs (totally staged) then you are easily entertained. I can't watch them. REALITY TV!!! Yeah, right. Just embarrassing.
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  27. Having an excavator helps. You need to find gold when running expensive equipment.
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  28. Its been all over the local tv here in the Golden Triangle, it was found just out of Dunolly on the old lead, also called the German diggings, that were extensively worked during the rush years.
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  29. Gerry's Detectors is taking $1000 deposit to lock in the GPZ-7000 Promo that ends April 15th. You'll still get the $1500 Deep 19" coil for FREE as long as you pay the remaining balance off by May 15th. PayPal occasionally runs No Interest for 6 months, as another option. I just need to make sure we lock you in by the 15th. Yes I'm still offering the 15% Military Discount to those who qualify. Photo is the last hunt I did at Rye Patch, NV in 2018 with my own 7000. Over an ounce of nuggets and a couple higher dollar chevron pieces too.
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  30. Well I finally got the preliminary cleanup done... just letting it dry so I can weigh it later, also there is still more but it is extremely fine so I will probably just do a borax firing in the furnace.
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  31. Three days and you found gold, good on you! fred
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  32. Wow, that being the case a person should check any huge pieces of bed rock when every they are hunting. Wonderful story.
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  33. For those of you that don't know me I recently had a severe volume spike in my tinnitus due to my 50% bilateral hearing loss. I've had the ringing for the last 10 years at a very very low tone that was only noticed if I listened for it, now it's on a whole other level. To explain the ringing, it pretty much sounds like the threshold of a GPX on full blast in your head. This weekend I tried to go swinging the Monster and GPX 5000 and found it to be very difficult to concentrate on listening to the machines as my brain was affixed to the ringing in my ears. Im hoping new hearing aids this week with a better masking tone will help. Any suggestions from anybody else who has tinnitus on what they do to enhance there detecting time to make it more enjoyable? -Mike
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  34. Indeed, I was just starting to attempt to measure the output from my 800. The analyzer I was using didn't go up to 40KHz, which negated the validity of the test in the first place. The 800 was also in 15KHz mode, therefore the 1 freq. on Park 1. I thought I'd publish this as an April 1st measurement as I figured it might freak some out ? Anyway, I did get a reasonable test configuration setup and measured the transmit field. In Multi-IQ, it does put out multiple frequencies in ALL modes. Obviously, the magic and "weighting" takes place in the SW of the receiver. The graph included is the output for all the detecting modes.
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  35. Day 2 and i decided to metal detect with my faulty Xterra 705( was a dodgy gift i guess) which i brought from the UK managed a few bits,which i gave to Neil (bnb owner) to be framed for his collection.No gold for me on day 2 but pellets and the usual gold fields junk.Managed to get lost after heading to Maryborough to refuel and went around for an hour and half in the Australian countryside,managed to spot 30 "roos" in a field and later 1 managed to jump 30 yards from the car but in 2 hops he was gone. Day 2 started early and metal detecting as a warm up Vue from my room SDC2300 the heavy beast Poser..........
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  36. I got tired of putting my pinpointer in my pocket so I snagged a piece of Velcro 12" long x 2" wide, stuck them back to back and made a quick strap for the holster. Even holds my digging gloves.
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  37. Between work and projects I've managed to get out on a few hunts. I bought my buddy an equinox 800 since he has been kind enough to let me run all around his ranches as if I own them myself. He has showed some interest in detecting...he thinks he's going to find a 1 pound gold nugget . After spending some time showing him how it works...I'd mark a target and then have him go over it and then dig it...he started to get the hang of it. So on our second outing he goes and finds a 1855 seated quarter (like Deathrays) but not in nearly as good condition. He was stoked and I wish i had brought my camera with me so I could get a pic of him smiling and holding the coin. Been hitting some other locations near where I live. Old homesites and street tear outs. Day before yesterday was a quick but pleasant hunt. Dug the standing liberty and put it in my pocket so it would not get banged up in the pouch. I never look at items much in the field but wait till I get home. I was glad I put this coin in my pocket. I'm going to have to get it looked at just to make sure but I think it's the real deal. If anyone knows what the sun god thing was? kinda cool digging it and have that smiling back. HH to you all strick
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  38. I thought you meant this kinda of renourishment.. I guess I was thinking replenish lol!
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  39. Bethany, There is not a lot I can offer, that Chase has not already said. Two things that confuse me are, 1. you say you are getting very good depth with a coin buried in your test garden, and 2. you say you had good luck digging many silver coins with a Bounty Hunter 3300, but not with your Equinox. These two things seem confusing. While you may have "hot soil," and you sound pretty certain that you do, if you were digging silver coins in large numbers at 6" deep with your BH 3300, you should be easily able to equal that, at least, with your Equinox. YES, it's a more sensitive detector, and thus can be more "noisy," but you should be able to run your sensitivity down to a lower level (mid teens), and still equal or exceed the depth capability of your 3300 -- while at the same time, reducing falsing/noise that you are receiving. I would think that these "solid high tones" you are getting are chunks of iron -- and iron will, of course, often report as high tone several inches away (off to the side) from the actual location of the target. I suspect that you are hearing nails, etc., that are probably 3-4 inches offset from where you are digging your holes, and that's my guess as to why you are "digging to China" and not finding the target -- it's off to the SIDE of the hole, not deeper down into the hole. I would suggest this -- take a silver coin (or your penny) along with you, to one of those sites where you are struggling with high tones that seem to be "ghost" or "phantom" tones. Then, dig a hole IN THAT DIRT, and bury the coin about 8" deep. I suspect you will be able to detect this coin. If so, perhaps this will give you some confidence that even in these sites where you are getting high tones that you can't seem to locate when digging, you will still be able to hear a coin, if there's one there. Also, I'm curious what you mean, when you say "repeatable" tones. Do you mean "repeatable" when you swing left-to-right over a target? OR, do you mean "repeatable" as you rotate your body 360 degrees around the target, sweeping the coil over the target from ALL angles, and listening to how the target reports/changes as you rotate around it? One big "telltale" sign of iron, is a target that may "sound good" with left and right sweeps from ONE angle, but then the target's tone begins to sound degraded/poor (and often changes in location) when you turn your body 90 degrees and sweep over it. If you are rotating all the way around the target, while sweeping the coil over it, and you are STILL getting solid, consistent high tones, then there may be something else going on. But, I suspect that the soil issues you are mentioning are at least somewhat of a "red herring," right now, and that what you are mainly dealing with is ferrous trash, that is "falsing" -- giving you a high tone -- especially when running fairly high sensitivity... Not sure if this helps any, but that's what I suspect you are dealing with. If you are getting good depth in your test garden, and had no trouble digging silver with your Bounty Hunter, there is NO REASON that you can't accomplish the same with your Equinox (unless there is something wrong with the unit itself -- which I tend to doubt given the good results from your test garden). Steve
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  40. Allow me to think out loud here because there are alot of things going on with your post that are unusual, perhaps contradictory, yet very interesting. First of all, the Ground Balance reading on the Equinox cannot tell you anything definitive about how "hot" or mineralized your soil is. You need a separate reading of magnetite levels in your soil (usually called a mineralization or Fe3O4 meter) which only certain detectors (not Equinox) have built into their displays. The GB number on Equinox is just a RELATIVE ground phase reading to the internal baseline reference and that reference can change depending on what mode you are using because it varies with frequency and how the detector processes target signal phase changes. That is why you can get a ground phase reading in one mode (e.g., Park 1) that is completely different than the ground phase reading in another mode (e.g., Field 2) - on the SAME patch of ground and why you should always ground balance each mode you use, separately. Second, I am not a soil expert, but it IS unusual to see significant salinity levels and high mineralization AWAY from salt beach areas. Obviously, not impossible since much of the ancient US was covered by ocean (with the great lakes being a remnant of that inundation). And that unusual soil combination you describe certainly can play into the high crop yield you describe. Third, your test garden results have me scratching my head. If your soil content is relatively constant in the region you detect, including your home test garden, then there is no reason you should not be able to replicate your test garden depth results in the field. The test garden results are actually what I WOULD expect when comparing Park 1 to Beach 1, but your depth detection capability is MUCH MORE than I would expect in super hot/mineralized soil. Do you get a reliable Target ID at those depths, or just a repeatable signal that you discern as your penny because you know it is there? I detect in regions where magnetite levels peg the mineralization meter, and your ability to punch to much more than 6 to 8 inches to get a repeatable signal is really limited using a VLF machine. In addition, getting a reliable TID beyond 4 inches is also iffy. So basically, where I usually hunt for CW relics, you are lucky to get a signal at depth on a VLF, and if you do, you typically have no idea what it is until you dig it. You also might want to try to see how it does on a higher conductive silver coin vice a penny, since that seems to be your main target of interest as copper is slightly less conductive than silver. But, like I said, if your test garden soil is the same as your hunt site, then depth should not be an issue, especially Park 1, which should be the go to silver slayer mode. Fourth, you say you often get a repeatable signal, but you find nothing in the hole in the field. That is typically something you also see on salt sand + mineralized sand beaches. It can also be due to individual hot rocks. If you are not even finding falsing ferrous junk, like flat iron or bent corroded nails, then something else must be at play. BTW - does the repeatable signal typically come up with the same Target ID or does it vary across the range? Is the repeatable signal choppy (indicating that it might be clipped by discrimination or recovery speed setting)? Fifth, one aspect of your settings also has me scratching my head. Specifically, you have recovery speed cranked to 8, which greatly limits depth but it also results in the least ground feedback noise primarily because of the sweep speed it forces you to use to acquire a target signal. What happens when you lower recovery speed? Are you hearing more ground noise, forcing you to lower sensitivity? That combination of sensitivity 16 and high recovery speed means you are GREATLY limiting depth. Why do you say those settings are giving you the best results? Can you describe the targets you ARE recovering at with those settings and their depth? All that being said, I will take you word for it that your soil is highly mineralized and has higher than usual amounts of salt content as you seem very knowledgeable about your soil makeup. So based on the information you provided, primarily the unusual combination of salty black sand like soil, I am going to make an unusual recommendation for inland hunting. Specifically, the Equinox has a mode that is set up to "make the best" of the soil situation you describe. You were almost there by trying Beach 1. But as you noticed, you needed to run with lower sensitivity for stability. If your have properly noise cancelled and ground balanced your machine and removed other sources of EMI (e.g., cell phones) then the issue can be the nasty combination of salt and mineralized soil. The mode best set up to handle that is actually Beach 2. See if you can run Beach 2 stable at a normal level of sensitivity (i.e., 18 to 22). What Beach 2 brings to the table is stability under black sand + salinity conditions, but it is not magic and there is no free lunch. The Beach modes are set up to handle the salinity using the multifrequency signal processing component of Multi IQ (that is why you cannot run beach mode in single frequency). But unlike Beach 1, Beach 2 provides stability in salt + black sand conditions by sensing the mineralization level (even though it does not display it on a meter) and then dialing back TRANSMIT power accordingly. The impact is somewhat of a depth hit but you gain a lot of stability which lowers the noise floor enough that the resulting weaker detect signals at least can be heard above the reduced level of chatter. When the Equinox goes into this reduce transmit power mode, it flashes up a warning symbol on the screen. Typically, when that warning does appear, it will not disappear unless you are completely away from the source of mineralization. I wouldn't worry about it though. Especially if you find it has a beneficial effect on your performance. The other thing you should do if the mineralization level or Ground Phase reading is highly variable at your sites is to use TRACKING Ground Balance vice periodic manual or auto ground balancing. This prevents you from having to constantly rebalance and can help smooth out ground phase variations. So give that a shot in your test garden and on some of your hunts. and see what happens. Another suggestion, is to use Gold Mode. Gold Mode does not have tone ID but uses a variable pitch and threshold tone, the combination of which allows it to be very sensitive to small mid conductive targets (I know, not your target of interest), but it tends to punch through mineralization better than the lower frequency weighted modes. You can use either Gold Mode, not much difference between them except for recovery speed. I would suggest using Gold 1 with the higher recovery speed and then see if you need to adjust lower or higher to trade off depth for ground noise (MORE DEPTH with a LOWER recovery speed, but the resulting lower sweep speed results in MORE GROUND NOISE, resulting in diminishing returns. Increase the recovery speed if ground noise is an issue and also try TRACKING ground balance with this mode (which is the default GB mode). Finally, I would experiment with single frequency. If EMI is NOT a problem, see what you can do with 5 or 10 khz in your test garden (use Park 1) and see how it compares to Park 1 multi. Park 1 multi (preferred) or 5 or 10 khz are what you want to use if you are going after DEEP silver. You can try to go to higher frequencies to punch through the mineralization (at the expense of raw depth on all targets) but frankly I don't think mineralization, per se is your problem, at least not in your test garden based on the depth you are seeing. Try varying recovery speed too, to see how that affects your test garden signals. Other less likely possibilities: Are you sure EMI vice mineralization is NOT the issue or perhaps you might have a faulty Equinox coil/head unit? Perhaps EMI is low near your test garden resulting in less noise chatter and false signals. Do you get chatter with your coil in the air AFTER noise cancelling and with default sensitivity, especially in the field. If so, then either you have an EMI problem or perhaps and equipment problem with the Equinox or Coil, especially if it is intermittent or only happens after you have the Equinox powered on for some time (indicating a possible internal component thermal issue which usually results from a bad component or solder connection). Your sites are played out. Silver is one of the easiest targets to cherry pick under ANY conditions and just about any detector, like your capable, but entry level BH 3300 will find silver. I suppose you were using the stock concentric coil on your 3300 also, which is also not a coil type that is know for having good depth under mineralized conditions (which along with your test garden results also makes me wonder if your soil is truly highly mineralized). You recovered A LOT of silver for one year. I do not believe any area can be truly ever be totally played out (either the targets are deeper than technology can reach today or they are shallow but hiding amongst iron or non-ferrous junk). Are you still finding silvers with your BH 3300 but not with the Equinox at the same sites? As I asked previously, what types of targets are you recovering with your Equinox. You say you can find "anything" with the Equinox, yet you arrive at the settings that give you the "best results" supposedly because you have manged to recover SOMETHING with the Equinox, plus I cannot explain your good test garden results and your poor field results. So let us know what type of targets you are managing to recover and at what depth. Anyway, hope I gave you some food for thought that you might be able to use to diagnose the issue or improve performance with your soil conditions.
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  41. Another one of those "I've got to bookmark this and reread it many times" kind of post for me. I"ve never seen anyone go into such detail on the 'why' of choosing settings. In fact, most don't ever say why, just "here is what I did" (or worse, not even reporting settings). This will help me with all my hunting -- coins, relics, natural gold. A great example of "give me a fish and I'll eat for a day; teach me to fish and I'll eat for a lifetime." Thanks, Steve!
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  42. Finally.... Here are the settings with an explanation of my rationale for using them... EQUINOX and a visit to the UK February 04, 2019 03:57pm I made my first visit to the U.K. in 2010 in search of Celtic gold. I attended a Minelab conference just prior to that visit and was asked what detector I was going to use. A Minelab was not on my list. Why? At that time, Minelab was synonymous for “low and slow” detecting, with slow being the main problem. The farm fields I was to hunt in England were huge, and in my mind, ground coverage was paramount. I wanted a detector that I could swing fast all day long, something light in weight and with a fast recovery time. Fast forward to 2018 and a return trip to England for another go at those huge farm fields and Celtic gold. This time I was packing two Minelab Equinox detectors, one with the stock 11” DD coil, and the other with the new 15” x 12” DD coil. My first trip had not produced the Celtic gold I was seeking, and this time I was going all in with the Minelab Equinox in the hope that it would do the trick for me. How does a person determine what settings to use on a detector when going to a totally new location, one where both the soil conditions and trash/treasure mix are unfamiliar? It appears that most people seek settings on the internet that serve as a starting point at least. This is certainly one approach and one that can work well lacking any other way to go. I personally rely on my detector telling me what settings it wants to use. Rather than tell it what to do, I listen to what the detector is telling me and go from there. I do this by seeking to balance two different aspects of the detector that matter most to me. First, there is the amount of noise or chatter I want the detector to generate in response to the ground. The number one choice I need to make up front is in determining what Field Mode I wish to use, i.e. Park Mode, Field Mode, Beach Mode, or Gold Mode. In general, I would rate the modes going from “hottest” to “most well behaved” as follows: Gold Mode Park & Field Mode 2 Park & Field Mode 1 Beach Mode 1 Beach Mode 2 The Gold Modes on the Equinox 800 (not available of Equinox 600) are the most powerful modes, but also the hardest modes to tame. Beach Mode 2 on the other hand is designed to deal with both saltwater and mineralized soil, which in turn means it is a very well behaved mode. It also is the least powerful mode in terms of its ability to find small low conductive targets. Choosing the proper mode is a matter of balancing how sensitive you want the Equinox to be to the very smallest and very deepest targets against undesirable characteristics like ground noise, electrical interference, and sensitivity to small trash items. I was going to be detecting large fields in England, and so my focus went immediately to the Park and Field modes. Gold Mode was likely to be too noisy and require too much target analysis for efficient hunting. Beach modes on the other hand are best reserved for the worst ground conditions. Park Mode 1 and Field Mode 1 Multi-IQ processes a lower frequency weighting of the multi-frequency signal, as well as using algorithms that maximize ground balancing for soil, to achieve the best signal to noise ratio. Park Mode 2 and Field Mode 2 are using a higher frequency “weighting” that makes those two modes more sensitive overall and in particular on smaller low conductor targets. It also means that Park 2 and Field 2 tend to have more inherent ground response, which in turn makes those two modes a little more prone to background chatter. I did some brief experimenting and determined that Park 1 had all the sensitivity to small items I could wish for while being smoother/less noisy than the Park 2 and Field 2 alternatives. As far as choosing between Park 1 or Field 1 there is in my opinion no discernible difference between Park 1 and Field 1 except for those inherent in the differing presets. The same goes for Park 2 and Field 2 – once differences in the presets are accounted for, to me they are as near to being the same as to not. Once in Park 1 it was a matter of getting the sensitivity and recovery speed to where I wanted them. In general, I try not to stray too far from the presets unless there is a very good reason. I experimented with the ground balance, recovery speed, and iron bias settings. I could not convince myself that manually setting the ground balance was any better than using the factory default, and so I went with the factory default. In theory lower recovery speed and lower iron bias will both add sensitivity and better define targets audibly, but again the factory defaults worked well. My goal was not to create a detector that was operating at its most powerful. In order for this to work, I have to slow way down to accommodate things like a slower recovery speed and analyze lots of weak signals. No, my desire was not to create a super powerful detector, but an efficient detector for covering large areas. This means setting the detector up to give the best signal possible on desired targets, while reducing unwanted signals and interference. The one item that required the most experimentation and thought was where to set the discrimination control. I solved this by digging all non-ferrous targets (target id 1 and higher) for the first day and a half. For U.K. purposes, I decided the discrimination control is mostly a size and roundness filter. Target id 1 did turn up some coke, a hard, shiny coal like material. Target id 1 though 6 in general produced all manner of very small metal targets, mostly lead and small copper bits, but also occasional aluminum bits. What was interesting was that items of equal size produced very different target id results depending on how round the item was. This is most apparent on hammered silver coins. These coins come in all sizes, and many were cut into halves or quarters to “make change”. A pie shaped quarter hammered will produce a lower target id number than an identically sized but round coin. This “roundness bonus” can easily add five to ten target id numbers to targets, moving items that would normally read in the single digits into double-digit target id numbers. I rapidly determined that digging target id number 6 and lower produced vastly larger amounts of small lead and copper targets with the most common possible good target being a quarter or an eighth of a thin silver coin. There are other small possible good targets that could be recovered in this range, including small gold targets. My time was not unlimited however, and so I decided that I would notch out target id numbers 1 though 6 and only accept 7 and above. This was to be my normal setting for most of my field detecting. However, I also like to hear everything a lot of the time. That includes even the ferrous response, because very often I am looking for places with increased target density, and ferrous indications can reveal an old habitation site worth paying attention to. Switching to all metal response is as easy as hitting the “horseshoe” button, so that when desired I could bring target id 1 – 6 back into the equation, along with all ferrous responses. I prefer most of the time to hunt in 50 tones. However, I did go into the advanced tone settings, and lowered the T1 ferrous tone from 12 to 4 to make the ferrous responses as quiet as possible but still audible to my ear. It is impossible to adjust the non-ferrous tone volumes independently while in 50-tone mode, but the T1 ferrous tone volume can be set as desired. To sum up, my settings were the Park 1 defaults with a couple modifications: Park 1 Frequency Multi Noise Cancel 0 (adjust as needed) Ground Balance Manual, 0 Volume Adjust 20 (adjust as needed) Tone Volume 12, 25, 25, 25, 25 (Steve 4, 25) Threshold Level 0 Threshold Pitch 4 Target Tone 5 (Steve 50) Tone Pitch 1, 6, 12, 18, 25 Reject –9 to 1 and Accept 2 to 40 (Steve Reject -9 to 6 and Accept 7 to 40) Tone Break 0, 10, 20, 30 Recovery Speed 5 Iron Bias 6 Sensitivity 20 (Steve 22 to 25) Backlight Off I generally hunted with target ID 1 through 6 eliminated, but often opened it back up in areas with sparse targets, or for areas where I just “had a feeling” and wanted to sample the lower target id range. My main goal was Celtic gold, and tests I performed on a few Celtic gold quarter staters (a small gold coin) gave readings as low as target id 9 but most in the “nickel range” of 12 – 13. A full stater tested out at a solid 20 – 21 reading. I was not worried about missing gold coins or any coins for that matter that were fully round in shape by accepting target id 7 and higher but I was passing on piles of very small and hard to find targets. This is purely a gamble and a judgment call on the part of the operator. In any circumstances where time is unlimited I advocate digging either all targets, or at a minimum all non-ferrous targets. The problem always revolves around limited time and how many targets a person can afford to dig in a limited period. In other words, I am not presenting these as my “magic settings” for the U.K. and in fact, this is just the opposite. I hope that by explaining my rationale for the settings I chose and why I chose them, that you will see that settings are very much an individual preference. What are technically the “best” settings from a pure performance standpoint may not be the best settings for a person with a bad back, for instance. We all have differing physical limitations and differing ability to dig large amounts of trash without becoming discouraged. The controls on our detectors allow us to adjust not just for maximum performance but also for maximum fun, and we all have to determine for ourselves where the lines are drawn, especially as regards discrimination settings. Halfway into my trip I got a nice little 7-8 reading, at the lower end of my discrimination range. There was nothing special to indicate that this was not yet another small piece of lead, and so you might imagine my shock when an oddball piece of gold popped out of the ground. It was gold all right, but not the Celtic gold coin I was half expecting. Instead, it appears I found a much rarer item, a possible “votive offering” to the gods for a good harvest. This open-ended 6.8 grams of gold gave a weaker signal than one might expect, because it is not round and responds more like a gold ring with a broken solder point. My settings were still good enough to make the find, but if the weight had been less or the shape a little different I may have missed it. In the end, I made the right call, and my faith in the Minelab Equinox was rewarded with Celtic gold! To sum up, these settings are a good set of well-behaved settings for an Equinox beginner in the U.K. The settings minimize noise and reduce the digging of hard to locate smaller items in favor of more substantial targets. Yet these setting will find plenty of very small items also. I offer them merely as a starting point, to be adjusted as the operator sees fit to find their own preferred settings. When in doubt hit that horseshoe button to hear all targets. This works well to better define targets reading ten or lower or any “iffy” targets that seem to have a ferrous component. Such are the risks and rewards of metal detecting. At the end of the day, it is up to each of us to decide where to draw the line between trying to dig all metal in the ground versus our available time and physical limitations. I hope this article helped clarify how at least one detectorist makes those choices in order to help you make yours. Happy Hunting!
    1 point
  43. The phone replaces the user interface. the detector is in the coil, just like the Deus. I think a cell phone would make a lousy interface for metal detecting. Dirty or wet hands, gloves, hard to see in full sunshine, thermal overload if exposed to full sun for hours in hot climate, flaky Bluetooth mating, the lis could be extended. Unless all the signal processing is done in the phone, it seems a poor trade-off.
    1 point
  44. Agree. Soft kneepads (cost $5 a pair at my local big box lumber/hardware) make a huge difference. Another thing my hard head found out the hard way. How about everyone, newbie or seasoned expert? I'm to the point where I don't want to watch comparison videos anymore. An expert uses a detector for 6 hours, compares it to one he's used for hundreds of hours, and we're supposed to trust the comparison? True, someone who has done this a lot with multiple detectors will pick things up faster, but also run the risk of missing subtleties based upon trusting that experience too much. A year from now I expect many (including me) will look back and say "wow, how naive I was...".
    1 point
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