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Spent the last 5 days in Nevada dodging the rain, snow, sleet, mud to save a few goodies. Here are some of the pictures. Now it is time to Train Customers on their detectors.

I hunted a 20' x 30' site 5 years ago using CTX-3030 with small 6" coil and pulled 2 Barber Quarters, 1 Seated Liberty Quarter, and 2 Barber Dimes. I hunted the exact same 20x30 spot 2 days ago with EQ-800 and stock coil, as Lunk had my 6 sniffer. Here is what the $2500 CTX-3030 missed. 1903 V Nickel, 1883 Indian Head Cent, 1897 Barber Dime and 2 early Wheat Cents I didn't take pics. The only thing I can contribute is the Multi IQ Technology and faster recovery of Equinox is superior for this type of site, high iron trash content.

The pipe was approx 36 inches and the coins were placed in it in groups. The first 12 inches were all morgan silver dollars. Many were dated in the 1880's. The next 12 inches had walker and franklin halves and the top 12 inches were all barber, merc's and rosie dimes. It was such a cool feeling to see the coins pouring out. Lot's of mixed emotions amongst us. For the gentleman's daughter(grandma) it was getting to reconnect with her dad again, to realize that even though he was gone and passed away he was still looking out for his child. The adult great grand kids were amazed that all those stories about grandpa turned out to be true and as for me, I got a chance to help return what was lost and possibly lost forever as the house and property is for sale. Finding someone's ring is great especially when they're thinking all is lost but this was another level of great.

goldEn is back in town for a couple of weeks and managed to get out my place for a couple of days. Today we went to a Ironbark forest where there was a little bit of surfacing so goldEn could use the 2300 and I detected in the forrest with the 7000. I got one of those really iffy signals that I thought was ground noise and when I approached it at 90º I couldn`t hear it at all.I scraped a bit of dirt and same thing, could hear it one way but not the other. As the hole got deeper the signal seemed to move in the hole. First it was in one spot, then in another spot and it never sounded like a real target. When I finally got it out of the hole I couldn`t hear it at all, but I move a bit a bit of dirt and I can hear something, move a bit more dirt and I couldn`t hear it again. From when I first detected it to holding it in my fingers was about 15 minutes and it goes a whopping 0.12 gram and is about ¼" long. Good to see you again goldEn ?

One of my Field Staff Experts stopped by an old site yesterday with his Equinox. In the Bottle Setting (Advanced Option) he finds this little purple beauty. POMPEIAN MASSAGE CREAM. My question is. Was this made for guys or girls? Also found these 2 old buttons and a cool Colgate shaving cover.

Hello everyone. I've been off the web as it relates to metal detecting for much of the past year. Let's just say life has gotten in the way, it's just been one of those years. I'm a member of ringfinders and I got a call this week I just had to share with everyone. I got a call about about a buried stash of silver in a backyard. According to what I was told, Grandpa had buried a stash of silver coins in the backyard and had only revealed that he had two weeks prior to his death. I was given the areas to hunt (1.8 acre property), but no idea what if anything was containing these coins in terms of container. I was pulling beer can after beer can and nail after nail I got a solid 16 tone on the Nox and I dug it. Turned out it was a 36" pipe that made the tell-tale sound of having something in it. Long story short we had to cut the pipe open and when we did it was awesome. A find of a lifetime, a cache of silver coins.

Finally got everything cleaned up from this week's amazing hunt. Ended up putting in a little over 10 hours in three separate hunts. Unfortunately after the first 6 hour hunt that netted the most, by the time I could get there the following day they had already spread a layer of base coat over the vast majority of the lot. But I was able to pull a few more keepers out of the area that they had not covered up to that point. I may go back in a day or so and chase every iffy deep signal to see if there's anything left in that small area. Turned out to be one of my best hunts ever. I was able to double my silver count for the year which brought me to 38 silver coins year-to-date.

Hey Guys, Moores Creek was always fun. I sure miss taking groups of electronic prospectors up there to see Steve and others. I think I did 2-3 years worth when it first stated. Here are a few pictures to share, unfortunately I never got a real big one up there. The last picture was from Gaines Creek.

In English....

Hello All! Afer getting a new EQ 800, searching on the net brought me here - great info! I'm up in Yacolt WA, on the E Fork of the Lewis river. HH all!

My favorite detector Welcome to the forum!

Hey Reg, Thanks for the question. Yes, I'm a dealer, but I think you might know I have been swinging a detector for 25 years now around the Southwest US, Alaska and Mexico with good success. That being said, I have used just about everything when it comes to detectors and coils and have my preferences. The larger 19" Super DD searchcoil is heavy, but then again I'm not a bungee cord or harness fan. I have always tried to detect without them, but over all the years my shoulders and lower back are starting to feel the strain. I guess I'm not spring Chicken anymore! There is one spot here in Arizona (old nugget patch) that I test almost all my detectors on, including new searchcoils. This spot I ran over very extensive with the GPZ 7000 with the stock 14x13 coil. I worked this spot back and forth a handful of times, always picking a few bits up deeper than what I found with the SD/GP or GPX series with moderate sized coils. Most of the nuggets I found were in the range of 1-3 Grams at deeper depths. I figured this spot would be ideal for the 19" coils, as it was pretty open and minimal obstacles. I worked this area for approx. 4 hours the first run before my arm just tired out. I ended up with 4 nuggets, biggest was 6 Grams and it was where I found 2 small pieces with the 14x13. I just flat out missed this piece by a few inches in depth. My first attempt with the 19" GPZ coil yielded about 10 Grams of gold that was missed. There is no question it will go deeper on nuggets 2-3 Grams and larger from my testing. I have only used this larger coil probably 4-5 times, maybe 20 hours worth of detecting and have well over 1 1/2 ounces of gold from it. I can say it has at least paid for itself and some. If anyone is on the fence about a GPZ 7000, I would honestly say this is the time to jump in. You have 3 days left to lock in and get the FREE $1500 coil. If anyone is interested in doing business with us, Rob's Detector Sales, I will promise you will get the best customer service and support beyond the sale. Keep in mind, Minelab has awarded us the "Customer Care Award" & "Customer Care Champion Award" a handful of times over the United States. We didn't win these awards for overall sales, but taking care of customers like we would personally want to be taken care of. We would love to earn your business! Rob's Detector Sales 623.362.1459

Just keep an open mind and don't expect too much, especially early. You likely already know there are no magic detectors, just incremental improvements. Enjoy the ride!

Welcome to the forum! Best of luck with the new 800.

Crikey, KL it seems you are blessed with few family members who are normal. My mob are near all normals, who are cursed with very few prospectors. However I am no where near positive that I am more blessed, could we do a trial swap to sort this out for a bit or maybe if I send my lot upover to bless you in that snowed in cabin for a winter or two.

Finally got to hunt an old home site yesterday evening. The elderly gentleman had given me permission to hunt all his property and he had kindly given me a little history of the different home site that were on the property. I listen intently to every word to obtain as much information as possible of each locations. One of the sites was a home assembled using wooden pegs. He proceeded to explain that he tore the home down and burned the balance then proceeded to get a dozer to grade the property and fill in with dirt. He did explain that anything there would be over a foot deep and he was correct, I couldn’t find anything that would date the property to the early 1800’s. The second site I hit yesterday and even though I didn’t find any nice relics I had a lot of fun just hunting. Moving around in the area I noticed a section where the Equinox would give many false high tones. Knowing this usually meant iron I opened up the screen and every sweep revealed multiply low tone iron signals. After a while I decided to start digging these low tones that gave an ID of -3 and found my answer, cut nails. Wow, that means I’m on an old site, yes, excitement overwhelmed me for a few minutes. Noticed the Ole man walking up the field to where I was I waited for his arrival. Knowing he would have more to say and the very first thing out of his mouth was, “have you dug any cut nails yet?” My answer, yes sir and handed him one and the story unfolds more detail of the site. He said when he was a child there was only a few foundation rocks left of this house, no wood but only the rock foundation. That was 80 years ago and he estimated the site may have been 200 years old. At that point I got extremely excited at what might be here until the very next statement from the gentleman. “Mark, I had the site leveled many years ago.” “But I pushed all the dirt to level the lot in one direction and I would guess your best bet of finding anything would be along the banks of the hill.” Well, yet another let down, a site dozed, that destroys the originality of where and what could have been found. But I’ll continue to hunt while I can and digging cuts nails is still fun. "Nails provide one of the best clues to help determine the age of historic buildings, especially those constructed during the nineteenth century, when nail-making technology advanced rapidly. Until the last decade of the 1700s and the early 1800s, hand-wrought nails typically fastened the sheathing and roof boards on building frames. These nails were made one by one by a blacksmith or nailor from square iron rod. After heating the rod in a forge, the nailor would hammer all four sides of the softened end to form a point. The pointed nail rod was reheated and cut off. Then the nail maker would insert the hot nail into a hole in a nail header or anvil and form a head with several glancing blows of the hammer. The most common shape was the rosehead; however, broad "butterfly" heads and narrow L-heads also were crafted. L-head nails were popular for finish work, trim boards, and flooring. Between the 1790s and the early 1800s, various machines were invented in the United States for making nails from bars of iron. The earliest machines sheared nails off the iron bar like a guillotine. The taper of the shank was produced by wiggling the bar from side to side with every stroke. These are known as type A cut nails. At first, the heads were typically made by hand as before, but soon separate mechanical nail heading machines were developed that pounded a head on the end of each nail. This type of nail was made until the 1820s. By the 1810s, however, a more effective design for a nail making machine was developed; it flipped the iron bar over after each stroke. With the cutter set at an angle, every nail was sheared off to a taper. With the resulting nails thus all oriented in the same direction, it became possible for the same machine to automatically grip each nail and form a head in a continuous mechanical operation. Nails made by this method are known as type B nails. Cutting the nails leaves a small burr along the edge as the metal is sheared. By carefully examining the edges for evidence of these burrs, it is possible to distinguish between the earlier type A nails and the later type B nails. Type A nails have burrs on the diagonally opposite edges, while the type B nails have both burrs on the same side because the metal was flipped for each stroke. This kind of evidence can be used to establish the approximate period of construction or alteration of a building. Type B cut nails continued to be the most common through most of the greater part of the nineteenth century. With the rapid development of the Bessemer process for producing inexpensive soft steel during the 1880s, however, the popularity of using iron for nail making quickly waned. By 1886, 10 percent of the nails produced in the United States were made of soft steel wire. Within six years, more steel-wire nails were being produced than iron-cut nails. By 1913, 90 percent were wire nails. Cut nails are still made today, however, with the type B method. These are commonly used for fastening hardwood flooring and for various other specialty uses."

Steve, I can't say how helpful I find your discussions on mineralized ground have been. living in the PNW. Thank you!

TN....have you done a video yet with deep faint squeaker targets? I hear enough of em on my Nox and retrieve all sorts of targets from silver to relics. I'd like to hear you digging the deep stuff with not-so obvious signals/tones. I enjoy your videos very much.

Hi Strick, I understand your nervousness. I am not willing to wind up after a 150 mile drive to the goldfields with a WM12 that might crap out on me. Didn't want to take a chance even though I know I can just go direct into the 7000 with my speakers or headphones. BTW I never had it run down during a detecting day and I usually go for 8 hours or so. So that's good, but still just not willing to let one of the few things I can control, have a problem. Hope you're doing well.

What happens when a telemarketer calls? You know just when you think you have a good target......

We are still snowed in here in the Northern Sierras so I have no new adventures to share with you all so I guess I'll have to reminisce a bit. My cousin seems to have escaped the family curse of the prospector and is a member of normal society as long as he avoids bad influences -like me. I told him about an interesting spot on an old map that I would like to go find and ask if he would like to go along. He readily agreed but he didn't have much time so we decided to take his rig instead of my old Jeep because it was much faster. We left out of town and very quickly took a steep path that took us up several thousand feet. I was able to direct him to where we could look down on the prospecting spot but but it was obvious that we would need my Jeep to get all the way into it so we turned around and headed back to town. Well, My cousin got to playing around in his fancy (and expensive) rig, going way too fast and tipping it way to one side and then way to the other side then he ask me if it made me nervous. "Not in the least I replied". I was not nervous- I was terrified. He tipped the rig WAY up on it's side again except this time, OOPS , it rolled completely over but fortunately it came back upright. In the interest of keeping the story brief I will just say we made it back to town ok but I now know that my old Jeep is a much better prospecting rig than a North American T28.

Normal cousin - maybe when he is walking? But ahhhh, if from your point of view THAT is normal, then Klunker, to maintain your crazy prospector status, you must think your Jeep's roll bars are there to take fall line shortcuts to your prospecting sites instead of those pesky rutted roads. Good story btw.

They`ll come fully supplied, beer, extra, tucker, blankets etc, would be also wise to you hide your old Jeep keys and of course the T38`s as well.

Hey Reg, I have heard of them and been trying to follow the field testing and reports on them. Keep us updated if you hear anything more about them. The aftermarket coils sure do give us more options on the metal detectors.

The new Russian coils are very interesting as testing here in Australia seems to conclude that they surpass the ML GPZ coils in depth and are lighter. Some are already in the field here and people that I have spoken to who are using them are certainly singing their praises. Initial testing of the prototype GPX coil indicated superior performance, although a bump sensitivity problem has seen the coil returned to Russia to have this problem resolved. The coils are branded X coils, and although not cheap, they are less expensive than ML.

Hey Flakmagnet, Minelab Americas has been really good on getting warranty items back to the customers pretty quickly. I remember years ago it would take 4-6 weeks to have something fixed and returned. Thanks Minelab for the great Tech Support.

If you Google hand made nails there is a old video showing how the nails were made. Stick.

Well done Phonix. Is has been a while since i went detecting in Aussieland. Was keen for a long long time. Finally back in Australia for Easter and had a great trip with you.Always cheerish our trips together and i am amazed what you do with that 7000. Sure you are not leaving much behind it. Its a great nugget and great detecting skills to get it. I was not into it mentally yesterday but day before had a nugget and specie so happy with it. Wish you great gold hunting trips and until next time take care and stay safe. Thanks for another great trip and lunch in the Best Bush setting in the world. Dig everything. GoldEN

Last post on this, I was wrong and BeachHunter was right. I thought it was pewter and when I was comparing the acid test on the cross to another piece the acid turned a bright red which means its higher than 925. Being silver it then it had to be lost wax cast and not sand. Still can't seem to find any more info on it since the local coin dealer doesn't touch religious artifacts. Not sure if he would burst into flames handling it or not so I guess I have to keep looking around. Any idea when they started to use steel or iron jump rings? About the only clue I have.

Awesome read, now I guess I have to search some old areas all over again and get an idea of what might had been there! Guess ill scout by looking for small iron first than get an idea of the area to pick through. Some old foundations near me that have been picked through but there were older buildings that were taken down way before the better documented structures.

Reg, My Field Staff Experts and I all agree, the 19" coil runs really smooth. The depth on large gold is true, but I would only recommend using it in ground you know has big gold. The swing arm and bungee is a must. To be able to get this $1500 coil for Free right now is a no brainer. Sure it is a coil you'll only use in certain situations, but you sure don't want to miss a big one. Gerry's Detectors in Idaho has them in stock too. With the additional 15% military discount and our 3 days training...it's certainly the best time to get one.

Rob Allison, just wondered if you have ever used the said 19" coil and what are your impressions? I realize you are a dealer, and therefore have a vested interest, but your opinion based on experience would be appreciated.

Just a quick follow-up (Thurs. evening). The replacement WM12 is already in the mail back to me from Minelab Americas. I overnighted it to them and they turned it around immediately. Pretty cool Minelab.

I meant that in a nice way too. If you don't have your sluice dumping back into the river, I don't think anyone would bother you. I've done it right on 49 at a roadside claim several times. officials don't even slow down, they can see me from the road, and I see them.

Ganes Creek and Moore Creek were my most favorite places to go nugget hunting in Alaska. I met Steve in Vegas once and then again on my first trip to Ganes while visiting his store with the Whites rep Steve Houston. Found many, many ounces of gold detecting at both places. Hospitality and comforts for the clients was their first priorities, next came the Gold....As Steve says the "golden age" of detecting is over at those places which is really sad. I have been trying to make a trip up to Alaska every year and in 2018 a friend and I went to AKAU in Nome, found closer to 10 ounces and had a great time. We will try again this year. Thanks Steve for the memories..

Hi in the USA in Oklahoma we find Barite crystal formations with sand coatings that are called Barite Roses. Selenite (gypsum) and Calcite crystal clusters can also form under similar circumstances with sand coatings and inclusions. Jeff

Extreme enjoyment. This might not seem like much but this small school (built in the late 30’s) has been hunted for over 10 years. With machines like the: Tesoro Tejon Garrett AT Pro White’s DFX, V3i Fisher F75 and LTD Minelab Etrac, and CTX 3030 And now the Equinox 800 Countless hours hunting from three guys including myself. Now I will say we’ve found some nice stuff from this site over the past 10 years and we all thought it was cleaned out but surprise, it’s not, yea I know they never are. But I was not expecting this many nickels and some over 6” deep. Then the silver nickel at maybe 5” and tilted to maybe a 45 degree angle. I will say this machine has a very good audio response but one has to listen and learn. I did the usual noise cancel and started off with park 1. I wasn’t really happy so I tried each of the park/field programs and ended back with park 1 with one change, I set the iron bias to 0. It didn’t take long and I knew this was the settings for the day. Numerous times I tried park 2 and the two field programs but it seemed like park 1 was the very best at both a good audio and stable ID on located buried targets. After a while I started wondering why these targets had been missed. Taking my time, I stared rotating around each target and I was quite amazed at how stable the audio/ID was. These were absolutely dig, dig signals, no doubts about it, with the exception of the silver nickel. If the silver had not given a double beep I might have walked away but I’m glad I didn’t. Well, toward the end of the hunt I purposely moved to the trashy area of the school and wow this machine, even with the 11” coil separates very well. I might add, the old Minelab wiggle I used with the Etac and explorer works with the Equinox too. Found a somewhat nice signal that I thought might be a nickel. Did the wiggle and marked the spot. Called my buddy over to check the spot. He gave no indication it could be a good target but at 5” comes another nickel (gave a solid ID of 13) and surrounded by heavy trash. Well, we had to leave and to be honest I felt sorry for him because he had not dug anything but trash. Now I’m beginning to wonder if I should buy the 6” coil and hit the trash again. Extremely satisfied user

Ok.. gotta throw mine in too... this is from Steve Herschbach, Jeff Reed and myself. I think this was our first trip in there(?) Maybe you'd remember Steve.

M/L, Harolds (with a jumper from CTX), GG Amphibians (not terrible) and TE's (best). cjc

Actually I seem to do better on the gold when I forget my scoop, or forget my gold bottle. The gold gods must look down at me scratching in the dirt with my fingers and then wrapping up a tiny point something in a bit of tissue paper and have a bit of a chuckle between themselves and say......"alright, give this loser a decent bit to take home" ?

Nice nugget Bob! Ah, the good old days... from my last visit to Ganes Creek... 36 nuggets and 2.86 ounces total

I've lurked, and even posted a few times, I guess I should introduce myself. I'm Allen and I contracted gold fever in March of 2018 . I'm 56 years old and a computer analyst for a local law enforcement agency. I enjoy this and a few other forums, there is so much good information that is helping me in becoming both a better metal detectorist and prospector. Hope everyone is having a great day. Allen

A high threshold and a loud threshold are 2 different things although you may not have meant what I am reading into it. Most take their threshold down to a point of where it can't be heard and then raise it up a notch at a time until it is a nice steady hum. On the GPZ this means starting at about 23 and usually ending up about 27 (which is also the factory default from memory). It means a 6' 6" person is standing in 6' of water. Their head is just out and they can hum. If you set your threshold much HIGHER then you are likely to miss small targets as they can't breach through the higher level. It is the same 6' 6" person but now you've put them in 7' of water - they just can't get high enough for you to hear them - even if they stand on their toes. If you are lucky enough to get a big target that is fine because the person then jumps like a madman and gets his head above water. Once you have your water (threshold) set at the right height you can use your booster to take that steady threshold as LOUD as you like - make them whisper, make them talk, make them yell. A lot of that depends on your surrounds. Noisy water, noisy leaf litter, busy road, quiet expanse of the outback. And, of course, you can use the detector to change the pitch of the 'voice' to suit your hearing. I know most old people I see at work can understand me because I have a low pitch voice - and I talk slow because I'm a dopey ruckman ? I hope that analogy makes sense and I hope I'm not telling 'Grandma how to suck eggs'. Also happy for someone to poke holes in my analogy if it is a bit off the mark. As you have an SPo1 Phrunt, it would also be interesting to hear from SteelPhase where the settings other than volume come into play in that analogy - if they do at all? NE.

Volume control on the B&Z is not stepped. Volume is set to suit local ambient noise so generally there is no favourite level. The key is hearing a smooth stable threshold which is then controllled by the booster dependant on external noise levels. In the case of headphones, the booster can also help but depending on the amount of volume the headphones can achieve determines the level of volume you need to put out from the detector, I generally recommend lowering the detectors volume then using the booster to increase the volume to a comfortable level. Some headphones do not reach this critical point no matter how much volume you use on the detector, hence needing the B&Z to get the volume loud enough without increasing/elevating detector noise. I am not a fan of the Volume control on the 7000 or the Target Volume control on the GPX series, they are too steppy and lift the noise floor to unacceptable levels without really improving the fainter targets. Best bet with headphones is to have a reasonable sized target that gets the detector to reach Max volume when the coil is right on the target and adjust the Volume of the booster there (in the case of the GPX and GPZ start at Target Volume of 8 and be prepared to go lower), then listen to the threshold and confirm if you can hear it clearly, especially any faint variations in the threshold. I usually increase the booster volume a touch till a close to coil target is bordering on slightly uncomfortable, especially if I am working deep ground with minimal trash signals. Adjusting the Target Volume of the detector one point at a time can also help a lot to even out the threshold without affecting the outright max volume. JP

Well Simon, there will be many who don't agree with me (nothing unusual) but like Norvic I don't use them these days. As pointed out by a well known Australian prospecting personality, boosters cannot create a signal that the detector has not already recognized and audibly responded to. In earlier days of the VLF detectors, some had a volume that seemed a bit soft, so signal enhancers were widely used to boost the response, however the latest generation of pulse induction machines have more volume control, and generally do not require further enhancement. I prefer to have noise reduction to eliminate distracting outside sound, and even 'white noise' that is not even noticeable until noise cancelling is switched on. Most of the WiFi systems, which I favor have, have a volume control, with the Sennheiser system having volume control on both the transmitter and the headphones. (These H/phones are not noise cancelling, but very good) With TX volume control and N/C I find I have as good a clear and unobstructed audio as I could wish for. It's a 'different strokes for different folks' scenario, and I've had situations where I have picked up a mates detector to have a listen to an uncertain signal he has picked up, only to think, "my God how can he run a machine like that?" Threshold way up, with the machine 'screaming its tits off', the pitch so high its deafening, and running a booster as well. The perfect way to go deaf. Maybe some people are partly deaf and need a booster. The way I like to run is with threshold only just there, tone way down low, noise cancelling on, and cordless.

Using the WM12 on the GPZ is akin to using a Booster/Speaker just with less control. I too use the WM12 but I plug my B&Z into it, so I also can enjoy the benefits of being wireless. JP

Firstly I believe boosters and their use is a personal thing thus we probably all have varying opinions on their usefulness, from believing they are of little use to believing they are the bees knees. I`ve gone from the last extreme to the first over the years. Currently not using one, nor headphones, Using the wireless speaker system of the Z, CTX and the Pro-sonic on the modded SDC. Love the freedom these give, no headphone, no wires, although I must confess took me awhile to go away from the headphone, thought that`s just that young fella JPs fad. Am I leaving gold, crikey of course I am, would a booster/enhancer change that, no of course it wont. Dug around in the "old can`t throw away stuff" and gathered what I could find as per below.

Ok, time to out myself. I am self declared promoter and cheerleader for all things metal detecting. I may appear at times to promote a certain brand, but simply Google me and study a bit and you will see I promote all reasonably good brands. It has nothing to do with brands. Ultimately, I am a consumer advocate and do what I can to foster competition and innovation in the marketplace. It is all for very selfish reasons - I want the best metal detectors possible to be put in my very own hands before I get too old to use them anymore. I have always tried to the best of my ability to treat all the manufacturers fairly and with an even hand in commentary because I very much want to influence them if possible. Being too much on any one team would hurt me by limiting my access to the other team. Bashing anyone at all in an unreasonable way is self defeating, so the trick is to try and offer critical commentary without being rude about it. You are all part of this. This forum had a specific goal by design of trying to attract the most knowledgeable detector users possible. Hand in hand with that is an insistence on polite, reasoned discourse. I can tell you for a fact most manufacturers look on the forums as a Wild West show at best, and it you are honest the behavior exhibited on many forums should embarrass us all as a community. Why should manufacturers listen to a bunch of bickering children casting insults at one another? Or those who say that they, the manufacturers, are stupid dull idiots? I am sure this forum gets watched by more manufacturers now than most, purely because there are some smart people here providing some smart commentary. That means that you, the forum member, have a certain degree of influence, but only if you present yourself well as a person who can put two sentences together to make a logical argument. Do certain things about metal detectors frustrate you? Are there things you want improved? Competition is now heating up to unheard of levels and the only manufacturers that are going to win are the ones who start listening to their customers more than they ever have before. Be part of my plan and get on my team as being a person to provide and offer commentary on what detector products do well and why. What do you like, what don't you like? Do it in a professional - that is the key - as professional a manner as possible, and I believe I can promise your desires and concerns will get seen by people who can make a difference. You do have a little power here. Please use it responsibly.