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Published on Apr 21, 2015 - Found this 3.8oz beauty in the goldfields of Victoria using the GPZ 7000. It was nearly dark but I couldn't resist a few more minutes detecting. It gave off a strange signal because I believe it was standing upright. Pay close attention at the 7:45 mark, you can actually see and hear the nugget as its dropped inches from the coil!!!

So I have a Tesoro Mojave that I love, it made me put the "all mighty" AT Pro down and never pick it up again. But ever since I got it I couldn't use it on the "Low" ground condition setting because it would false like crazy. I finally decided to have a serious look around and see if anyone had this problem and had fixed it and I couldn't find anything. I posted on treasurenet to see if anyone could help with at least some knowledge of the trim pots on the circuit board but i didn't get much help. Then I remembered about a website I saw a while ago, TreasureLinx, that had some diagrams of Tesoro mods on it. So I emailed Sven, the owner and asked if he could help out. He told me which trim pot controlled the ground balance and I fixed the problem, at least so far I think it's fixed. I'm going to copy and paste the posts I made to treasurenet and the email to Sven here... (POST 1) Hey all. I've searched around google but I can't really find any information about this. I bought a Mojave on eBay a year or two ago and I love it. I found my first and best gold ring with it and i even ditched my AT Pro in favor of it. The problem is it's always been pretty hot and falsed a lot in the low setting of the GB. In southern CT I had to run it on the high ground balance even though I'm pretty sure the ground there isn't that mineralized. I love in Costa Rica now and the few times I've taken it out it likes to false on the high GB setting and the low is basically unusable. I've tuned the ground balance on my compadre that ran hot when I got it too but from what I can see there's no GB potentiometer screw on the Mojave. Does anyone know of anything I can do tune it a bit so it doesn't run so hot? (EMAIL TO SVEN) Hi, my name is Josh. I have a Tesoro Mojave that runs hot in high ground phase mode and I was wondering if you knew if either of the trim pots on the board are for adjusting the ground balance? I'm trying to ask on treasurenet and on the Facebook Tesoro group but I'm pretty sure it was you who put a manual ground balance on your Mojave. I've adjusted my compadre because when I got it it would false on some basalt rocks and now it runs perfectly quiet. But the Mojave has been chattery since I got it. Here's a picture of the board, I don't think you need it but I marked the two trim pots and the two wires coming from the ground phase toggle. Thanks! (EMAIL BACK FROM SVEN) Hi, one towards the PCB center should be GB pot, the other will be disc bias- don't touch it. Tom has reworked his Mojave with full mods, contact him thru Findmall Link deleted since Findmall Forum update broke all old links Sven (EXPLANATION OF MY SOLUTION ON TNET) Ok I fixed this one too (I'm referring to the almost same problem I had with the Compadre that is documented on this forum also). I emailed Sven from treasurelinx, hoping he'd see the email and get back to me at some point in the next couple weeks...it was less than 12 hours before I had a reply. I asked him if he knew which trim pot, if any, controlled the ground balance. He informed me it was the one on the left, the innermost one that did. The one on the outside controls the discrimination and should not be touched. Here's what I did. I opened up the control box and exposed the board. I made sure the disc was set to the lowest position in iron (basically no disc), the sensitivity was on 4 and the ground condition was on low. I took the coil and pumped it at the ground and it falsed. I then turned the trimmer all the way CLOCKWISE until it wouldn't turn any more. I did this very very easily and lightly. If you attempt this remember, easily and lightly. I then pumped the coil to the ground to make sure it wasn't falseing still and it wasn't. Then I started turning it back COUNTER CLOCKWISE a tiny bit at a time until it started to false and then turned it slightly back CLOCKWISE to where it didn't false any more. Remember, the movements are slight when turning the trimmer. I also noticed that when I touched the yellow wire coming from the ground condition toggle, it made the machine false also. Knowing why and being able to fix it is probably beyond my knowledge and comfort zone so I made sure that when I put it back together it was snug and didn't move. I'm guessing some of the falseing was for that wire and other falseing was from the ground balance being off. Again, this was the solution to my problem. It might not be the same for everyone but it worked for me. I hope this helps at least one person with the same problem since I couldn't find a solution for it myself, or even a good picture of the board Here are some pictures of the Mojave board for reference

I briefly mentioned my problem with the GPZ 7000 14" stock coil. The problem was I dragged it behind the Rokon completely unaware of doing so and wore through the plastic cover exposing the copper windings inside. I contacted Friendly Minelab Dealer "Rege in PA" about getting a replacement. He put in the order but as time was drawing near for the OZ trip, there was no sign of a replacement coil in the pipeline. Rege was able do some gently encouragement and the Minelab Repair Center stepped up and found me a coil. I got it last week and have been using it all this week for my practice sessions for the Summer of OZ trip departing this Sunday. It seems they sent me the "super" coil because I'm having some incredible good luck this week on the local Yuma gold. Minelab, you have saved me from my self-inflicted misadventure. Gold photos of the last 2 mornings of detecting. I've been detecting some heavily hunted areas and finding gold around old dig holes. I'm using pretty standard settings, HY, Normal with Sens 15. I've gone back to the high dollar Etymotic in-ear monitors (earbuds). The Ety 4S model has much higher inpedance compared to typical earbuds.

So I titled this as such because when it gets especially hot (here in Arizona) I start my hunts at midnight and go thru until the morning until about 8am. For me, this offers multiple benefits. There is more time with the family on weekends, which for me is #1; I cherish this more than gold. And secondly, if it is hot out, I cannot keep my ground balanced, as some put it. When it starts getting hot, I would tend not to look as hard and rush through areas. Anyways, back to the gold. I was in a wash last week when I ran into some pretty good gold. I found 11 small pcs adding up to almost 4 grams. Now, for my night hunts, I won’t go every weekend, I usually skip 1 or two so that I get my sleep cycle working again. But then there is Mother’s Day coming up and so my wife briefly mentioned that I should go this weekend, too. An hour later I am charging batteries. She walks by and says, “wow, you really have the fever don’t you”. I just laughed. She knows me. She has seen me prospecting for 5 years and put up with it for 5 years. One of the best decisions I made was marrying her. I explain all of this because it was nice to come home and show her the source of the fever. So I went back to this area with my GPZ and started walking through more washes I had marked out on my gps. Nothing for the first one, but the second one, I got a nice strangely shaped 2.75 grammer. Now, I can kinda see a patten on my gps when I look at my finds. I finish the wash and go to a wash that is in the direction of the gold distribution. Good topography … I am in. First couple of minutes of slow hunting in this wash yields, nothing. And then I start focusing on a bench that is maybe a foot higher than the rest of the wash… and I get a signal. A clear, still loud, but smooth signal. My heart jumps as I begin to dig. The dirt just fell away until 15-16” I hit gravel. By now the target was booming. I scrape the gavel back with my pick and I see a large piece of gold flip out! It replays in my mind over and over. Needless to say, you may have heard my scream at 2:15 in the morning (Arizona time). LOL. From there the gold kept coming. I got a couple more pieces farther up the wash and then came back and placered the area for a couple more little ones missed by depth. Wide range of sizes. THAT is why I love the GPZ. And it was nice to see my wifes face change to a smile when she felt the .86oz chunk fall into her hand. Priceless. All in all, my findings came to just over 1oz. Who needs sleep ... Andyy

SteelPhase, as far as life is concerned, the journey is far preferable to the destination.

Now I'm spending at least the next two nights in the Wedderburn Goldseeker Motel because the caravan park was full or at least didn't have a room for me. I went straight away to the power lines as Trent had suggested and there was the first guy I've seen detecting under them with his Eq 800. I chatted him up a bit but he was reluctant but told me he had not found anything with the 800 yet. He did say his largest nugget was 1.5 oz he found with a 4500. After he left the powerline area I went in with my 7000. I was not expecting a problem but there was ... depending on the ground and not the powerlines it seems. There are actually two sets of lines. When I got near a guy wire or the pole I got interference but I kept detecting and it got really smooth at around 8 or less sensitivity. One time I looked up and I was directly under the powerlines. I walked away from that area and up towards Quartz Hill about 100 yards and I got some hits. The first one had me taking pictures. I didn't have my glasses. The weight was right but not the color ... and then another one confirmed it was a smashed round. The 3rd target in the area was booming when I got down 6 inches. I have the volume limit set low so it didn't blow my ears off. I got it out of the hole and looked at the depth and said ... oh, a coin and then a button. More on it later. That was it. There are some campers around a little pond there and they are actually having open fires! haha It is another reminder of how things were for me 30-40 years ago in the states. Some of this ground reminds me of Sierra County, California but it is not as steep. Just some of the soil colors. Gold country soils seem to be the same. I'm here in Wedderburn for a few days.

We've been out every morning for a few hours since Sunday practicing for the summer of Aussie Gold. Today was my day on the big gold. I was detecting a desert wash bench zone, and got what the Aussies call a Zed Warble. Down here in Sunny Yuma the Zed Warble usually means an old rusty bent nail. A bit of digging down to the hard pack maybe 15 or 16 inches. I switched detector down to Sens 1 to try and pinpoint, bit it was still overloading with the warble tone. Dennis and I took turns breaking up the hardpack and scooping out the hole till this nugget rolled on out. The small stuff I found over the past 2 mornings, I think I'm going to throw them back for seed on the big ones.

Knowing that my coin would never be graded as a very expensive coin although very desirable, I decided to make it look better for my personal viewing. I looked at a lot of U tube videos and read several things about cleaning silver without damaging the object. Just wanting to know the outcome before trying the method on my coin,. I tried it on other objects. I settled on using cotton balls, Q tips and non abrasive Carnuba oil auto polish. This didn't seem to leave any scratches, only cleaned and polished it. As you can see, all of the scratches and marks from being in the ground for about 140 plus years are still there.

A friend and I spent a couple days swinging around a couple junk filled ghost towns. I am very familiar with the Xp deus. I had also brought with the new to me Xp ORX. I spent my time swinging both the deus/ORX with the 9 Hf, 9x5Hf and my LF 11x13 coils. I found some good stuff and was really able to put the new ORX to work. I kept the ORX equipped with the 9x5hf coil. Deus with 9Hf coil. Also have my 11x13 on a straight shaft to easily switch to that. These site have been hit hard over the last few years by me and a ton of other people and have seen 3 to 4 large group hunts. Heres a few pics

Good one Phrunt! Many of you may not know that I give pool/snooker lessons on occasion. It is a sport I've been doing all my life. I'm trying to draw some analogies to that and looking for nuggets and this is what I come up with. When I instruct a new student we have to spend time on the basics. The swing, the eyesight, where to hit the cue ball and where to aim at the object ball, the rail, so on and so forth. Similar basics have to be learned about nugget detecting before you can 'play the game.' Once you get the basics out of the way then you begin pocket balls (unless it is billiards). Then you start to develop favorite shots and learn how to use those in making runs (making several shots in a row) and then you develop some sense of gamesmanship rather than it all being luck. (Stick with me here I'm almost to my point.) You become a skilled player and not just an amateaur. The next level of progress has to do with being able to perform and go back to basics and produce shot after shot accurately. Some days this is easier than others. Some days the head wants to take a 'walk about' rather than concentrate. I refer to this as General Direction Shooting. I feel like I am General Direction Detecting right now. I know the basics and I know some of the game theory (find gold where it has been found before) but I don't know the geology that lets me get to the next level. (Next level you say ... how about just finding A NUGGET?) Nugget hunting does have a bit of competition involved. I'm trying to 'beat the earth' and find a nugget that the other expert detectorists before me missed. I'd like to repeat a pattern and 'shots' but some shots I don't see and you never see the same shot twice in nugget hunting. Somehow the oldtimers found lots and lots of nuggets. I need to tap into that gamesmanship. Time to swing.

I hunt mostly in city parks, public beaches, National Forest, and BLM land. I never ask permission to hunt public land. I know the rules permit what I am doing so I don’t have to ask. I do get a metal detecting permit to hunt city parks if such a permit is required. I almost never hunt private land but if I do it is with the property owners permission.

I'm guessing you are correct. I'd guess the TDI's changed over time, as components fell to the discontinued status, substitutions were made. I'm doubting White's will provide any information but I'd still like to know why there are so many variations with the machine.

Hi mate. Not necessarily. Has two meanings here in Australia. Yes the one you said but also for us from the VLF days it was common for us to go out on moonlit nights when the ground was, especially in hot areas, cooler and quieter because of that fact. It was common to do so in WA and in other states in the Summer. In the bush, not going where we shouldn't, but just because the ground was quieter and just too hot in the day. Moonlight detecting. Also at night industry and many common daytime comunications cease causing less interference as well as the all too common these days with PI machines Solar interference. Very quiet at night mate. Originally thats what it meant, and still does. But yes, there are the unscrupulous that go out and detect where they shouldn't at night.

Thanks Steve. You host a great forum here. Just thought if my post helped someone else decide on how to spend their money and time it was only right as Phrunt and some others helped me decide on the Nox.

Ok, the update. I got up and went to Bendigo Regional Park. On the way I stopped at a McDonalds and the goldfields are 7 minutes away. What a place to live. It could have been the area where the 20oz nugget was found. Here are some pictures. I wish our politicians would let us use the land rather than lock it up in a National Monument. Bendigo and Victoria honor the struggle of the miners and keep it open for the entire world to 'have a go' at finding nuggets. No one will ever get them all in this part of the world. There is lots of exposed bedrock here and I could see where there had been some panning since the rains. I used the Equinox 800 with 6 inch coil for about 3 hours before off to the once visited Wedderburn.

Here is a happy medium. Hope she finds you some gold today ?

Holy crap, you're all over the place. You have to decide if you are prospecting or sight seeing. You'll need at least a couple of days in each of those spots just to get your head around what is going on. Spend the first part of the day looking around and trying to understand the ground and what is going on. Then in the afternoon go for a swing and get the excitement out of your blood. Then the following day, slow down and concentrate on working the area properly. Gold has had millions of years to learn how to hide from us. Cant expect to find it in one day. Ok lecture over - looks like your having fun though. If I didn't have so many backorders to get through before the weekend, I'd join you (and maybe hobble you a little to slow you down lol). Good luck for todays adventure and I do hope you get on to some yellow. regards Pat

Target Tone allows you to divide the Target ID range into separate Tone Regions. Therefore, you can hear more or less target information. The Target Tone setting has the options of 1, 2, 5 and 50. Target Tone adjustment is local; only the current Detect Mode Search Profile will be affected by changes to this setting. Gold Mode (Equinox 800 only) has a Target Tone setting of 1 only, and cannot be changed. Selecting the Number of Target Tones 1. Use the Settings button to navigate to Target Tone in the Settings Menu. 2. Use the Minus (–) and Plus (+) buttons to select the number of audio tones of 1, 2, 5 or 50.

Been doing MDing a long time with a Whites XLT. Just purchased a Equinox 800 and WOW!!, What a difference! Still carry the XLT as my back up. Love that Tool as well. Well,....Just wanted to say Hi.

It started in July of 2018. Took my new Nox to Mexico and even though I did testing at home before leaving it was disappointing to find that my Black Widows would not work, nor my Sun Ray pro golds. I did do some detecting but the wave noise on my beach made it difficult to really get into the machine. Fast forward to January, armed with the correct connector to use my black widows I starting learning the Nox. First impression was, chatty, difficult to PP, and issues with moving water and black sand. After the third time out I installed the update. WHAT A FAIL! I had a new machine alright but it was working way worse. I consulted a few people with the machine and was told that the update may not always take. I uninstalled and checked performance [seemed ok] Then put the up-date back on. What a difference! The machine seemed to perform better! Off to the report card! Saltwater Beach, Beach 2, GB auto. Dry Sand- [N/A] The dry sand is not worth my time where I hunt. Wet sand grade: [A- ]: I found the machine to work the wet sand well [no water]. With light black sand I could work in 21-22 sensitivity. Very little false signals, worked recovery between 4-6, iron bias 2-3. Even though I did not make any great recoveries in this part of the beach by the end of the season I felt confident there was not much getting by me. Wave Trough [moving water] grade: [ F] This is where I really like to hunt. To put it bluntly the Nox is a complete failure in moving salt water. It is like the moving salt water makes the machine blind to detect and see targets. The beach is rough where I hunt. At any point water could be over waist deep, then 50’ or more of wet sand to the water. If I were to stay in the wave zone completely I would have to significantly de-tune the machine do to the moving water causing the machine to false. When the water would drain out and I would locate a target the next wave is right there. When the wave would come through, repeated sweeping where the target was produced no sound at all. When the wave pulled back, re-sweeping showed the target was present. This happened over and over for 100’s of targets. Another drawback: It was clear there was two different set-ups needed. One for wet sand, another for moving water. If I had the machine set for moving water that meant every time the wave swept out I was WAY under matched for wet sand only. Mainly I found I had to run around 17-18 sensitivity and 5-6 on recovery. Other issues comments. EMI grade[ F] I have over ½ mile of the beach where I need to back off the sensitivity by 1-2 regardless of other conditions or controls. Pinpoint Mode grade [F] The worst functioning I have ever used, Especially on a beach! All metal mode grade [A] Or as I nick named it the “truth mode” Almost every jumpy target I had would lock in somewhere, once put in all metal mode. Recovery of targets grade [D] Well part of this grade is due to the pin-point mode, but make no mistake there are other issues, Even though I had the target out of the hole, many time the detector was still sounding off. Also it seems to be easy to bury targets or make them undetectable after missing them in the scooping process. Thanks for listening. Please do not tell me how it works on land, in fresh water, or gold mode [I don’t hunt land] This is my honest review. Sure I have a few more things to learn, but I doubt my grades would change much. Over-all grade C+

Fantastic finds!! The button is in great shape.

I somehow missed this post. Well done Andy.

Thanks Steve, I've said it before and I'll say it again, I hate looking for solutions for problems and seeing the op say, ok I fixed it, thanks for the help, and there's zero explanation on how it was done. Noah, I think you may have given me a few pointers before with my compadre when I was having a problem with it falseing on basalt rocks. My AT Pro ground balanced around maybe 80-87 when I was in CT. From what I remember I think that was the preset ground balance for normal non mineralized ground. I'm in Costa Rica now and I don't have that machine any more but I'll see what my equinox balances at in a little bit. I think even from when I got it before I adjusted it, it was still a little off.

Great finds, and I loved the story that went along with your adventure, nicely phrased. All the best, and thanks for the pictures as well, Lanny

I'm measuring mine with a digital multimeter set on A/C volts. On the frequency, I'm seeing, with the 14.5v pack, 6.05v on the low, and 6.54 on the high. MIddle was 6.29. I'd be surprised if your coils have much difference in inductance, but it's possible. EDIT: I just did the inductance test on the 12"DF and got the exact same reading of 1.4 microhenrys. I assume that is the design inductance for the coils for TDI's. and probably the other brands of PI's. But, I don't know this to be fact. Jim

Simply find a canyon with course gold in it and name it yourself. There are numerous "course gold" canyons, ravines, gulches, creeks and so on and the name is more useful to me as an indicator of of a good prospecting area as opposed to a specific X marks the spot. best of luck to ya!

Assuming we are talking Western USA; The only Rabbit Hole (Placers)(Northern Nevada), next to Rabbithole Creek, and that is West of Rye Patch (4x4 only dirt roads), and over the hill (Majuba Hill mine), a few miles - due West of the commonly hunted Rye Patch placers areas. Use the APP - “Digger’s Map”, to help in your search. Good luck!

Mitchel, I think you’ve found gold already so many friends and supporters cheering you on in the wonderful land of Oz. I wish I could offer some small clue but lost I’d be And site seeing I’d be doing probably more than you are I’m sure. Anyway great thread and I’m excited to see that first nugget and then all the others. There’s a lot of positive energy focused in your direction best of luck.

As long as you are enjoying yourself Mitchel. I have to admit that I'd probably be doing the same as you. Lets face it, with any adventure, the journey is often as good as the destination. Enjoy and good luck.

I just tested the voltage output on mine, and it tracks perfectly with the battery pack voltage. With the 4 cell pack at 14.53v, I got 6.29v of output to the coil, and with the 3cell pack at 12.03v, I got 5.3v of output. So the higher battery voltage does push more current through the coil on mine. Thus a stronger magnetic pulse going into the ground. I figured out the correct terminals by using my inductance meter to see which terminals showed a coil across them. Looking at the connector, with the gap at the bottom, the correct terminals are the second from the left, and the second from the right. Inductance on both the NF Sadie 8 x 6, and the Super Pulse 350 14 x 9 showed 1.4 micro-henrys. Jim

NICE job, Dan! Very nice digs; I love the Dragoon button! Those don't turn up all that frequently, in my limited experience... Steve

Sorry for the mistake, the first post had the 7 1/2" coil only getting 7 1/2" but it's actually 11" with a nickel.

I think you should call on that fantastic luck you had before you knew what you were doing... forget everything I ever said and use that magic... make me proud, Mitchel. And, even if you don't find a nuggie you have seen the elephant! fred

Well Jim mine would not see an 0.17 gram bit which is equal to just over 3 Grains with the 12" DF coil or the 7.5 DF coil not even with it sitting on the coil, regardless of the battery voltage.

Guys, guys ... you gotta see a place before you know if you like it. There could have been nugget suicide on one of those places where I swung. As a matter of fact at least half were pointer spots (someone else did the research and found gold there before me and shared the spot). Thanks, I'll try more. One more today before camping on a spot in the cold. I'm not dragging a trailer around so I can and will go back. No matter where I stay I'm about an hour back to any spot I've been to so far and I assure you if I would have found gold I would have stayed. Fun would be finding lots of nuggets. Enjoying myself I am. I've done a little sampling of foods, a little souvenir buying and seen lots of things I've never seen before. One of the things I've realized is that Australia is just one big kangaroo graveyard! I'm off soon to tickle some more bones with my coil.

Excellent find, not only large but great character - congratulations! The challenge is on now - can Oz put a larger nugget in your pocket?

Watch a few more of your videos last night and enjoyed them, thank you for taking time to do and post them. You folks find some nice gold!

Thank you Curtis! I was running recovery speed at 4 for some extra depth the last time just to test it out. We normally run it 6 because of the unreal amount of debris here. I hit a spot that was extra noisy and bumped it back up. I changed my disc because I got tired of chasing lead balls and bits of percussion caps. Some days you just have more patience to handle more hits, today wasn't one of those days ?

I saw it in action in OZ considering that it is doing very well on Europe beaches i think it has proven it can cover a large aspect of metal detecting. I think i would have bought one during my trip if i wasn't already loaded with machines................. RR

Great report Mike! You have demonstrated how viable EQ is in hot goldfield conditions. Were you using either of the Gold modes in factory settings or did conditions require some adjustments? Whichever the case, would you mind sharing your settings? Thanks, Curtis

Thanks for the report Mike.----I have been wondering how the Equinox would do nugget hunting (with the 6" coil).

The closest existing spiral wound coil for GPX's is the 12x8" Evo, so be good to compare to that one.

For what it’s worth I think the Minelab GPX 4500 does represent the best “value proposition” going in a prospecting PI at this time. I nominate it as the “Gold Bug Pro” of the PI world, proven safe and reliable, fabulous coil selection, great price. If it was me I would probably spend the extra on a GPX 5000 just to have the “Fine Gold” setting which the 4500 lacks. That’s a big premium for one setting but “Fine Gold” shuts up hot rocks better than anything I have ever used. If a person is not going to get into hot rocks severe enough to require the Fine Gold setting then the 4500 is an obvious winner.

That's excellent. Well done.

If I was as unhappy with my Equinox as you are with yours I would use a different detector. Life’s too short for me to bother with a detector that is not meshing well with me.

Got out to my (lately) best producing site for 2 1/2 hours last week -- a permission which I still have only covered less than half the area. I thought I had hit the garden spots initially but that has turned out not to be the case. One of the reasons I wasn't high on my current spot is that it had been backfilled with gravel. When? I don't know but based upon aerial photos I was thinking in the 1960's. I've been pulling up keepers the last half dozen times and in that time I've only covered an area about four swings wide by 30 m long. "Low and slow" is paying off. The area is moderatly trashy with both iron (mostly nails and screws) and aluminum (all kinds, especially foil but some square tabs and the always present can slaw). I was running the Eqx 800 in Park 1, ground balanced, custom 5 tones, gain of 22 (high for me since I usually suffer from EMI in my town), recovery = 4, and iron bias = 0. For iffy targets I had programmed the profile channel with Park 2, 50 tones, recovery speed = 6, iron bias = 0. I can't seem to get my brain to hunt in 50 tones, but using that to verify good/bad targets works pretty well. If I get repeatable tones and TID's which match the 5-tone signals then I dig. Sometimes I get completely different TID's in 50 tones, other times I can't lock on a tight tone range from any direction. When I've dug those they are some kind of iron. Ok, back to the hunt. I mentioned above the gravel backfill, which is in the neighborhood of 2-3 inches in thickness. There is a soil (sod) layer above that which varies in depth from about 2 to 5 inches. When I get down to gravel and haven't recovered I start to feel more positive. Most of my good finds in this area have either been at the top of the gravel layer, in the gravel layer, or below it. Recovery is a bit tricky since it's not so easy to dig in gravel. (BTW, this is true rounded river gravel, not sharp limestone chunks which some people call 'gravel' and which is even more difficult to dig in.) I was using the standard Lesche hand tool (well, my toothless modded one) which does pretty well in gravel and stone. The key is to hand pinpoint (TRX great for that), keep the blade away from the find and try to leverage it out with soil/gravel as an insulating buffer. I do this when in regular soft ground as well but it's even more critical in gravel or stone. I always have a plastic scoop to remove the loose ground (hopefully also containing the target). The dime hit in the penny/dime zone. I'm not one of those detectorists who can tell the difference betweeen copper penny, clad dime, and silver dime. All, under the right conditions, will ring up anywere in the 24-29 TID range for me, and I've even seen pennies hit 30 (but not staying there). Interestingly I didn't find a single Wheat penny on this hunt, but I've found quite a few in this area. Both nickels rang up where nickels typically do -- 12-13 with possible slides to 11 and/or 14. The Buffie in particular was not a clean 12-13 but good enough! The deeper the coin, the more likely it will be bothered by nearby iron. And, no, I still haven't found a Warnick with a high TID. So far I can't tell them from regular nickels (nor some evil size&shape aluminum). This one is in the best condition of any Warnick I've found. Unfortunately it's overexposed in the picture. 1942-P. The Merc is a 1937 plain. The Buffie is 1936-D. None of these is scarce but I'm always glad to get silver and Buffies with dates.

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.

I am mainly listening for tone duration, intensity/purity, clipping, distortion, and stability. I would be lying if I told you I could discern the TID by tone alone but, to me, 50 tones helps the characteristics/attributes I describe above stand out better than 5 tones. TBH it is really something that defies words and comes more of experience. When I am interrogating a target, I am integrating the tones, display, and coil motion all at once, perhaps shifting between two different modes, all metal, and pinpointer depending on what I am hearing.

Dear Mr. Beatty (JR in the future): Thank you for your recommendations, especially about the campervan rental. Where would be the best place to obtain one? Now, as to my hygiene, I'm bringing 4 pairs of undershorts for the trip. That means I will have a clean pair for each week of the trip and a couple of extras if I include the pair I'll be coming with on the plane. You never know I might need an extra in case I get one pair wet or something. If I plan it right I should have a 'clean' pair for the trip home. ? As far as a shower in the bush is concerned, I've noted that there will be a fair amount of rain while I'm there so I should be fine. If that is not sufficient I can dampen a paper towel from my drinking water and get clean. Mitchel PS: Is there an extra charge for getting the stink out of a car when it has been in the bush for a few weeks? ?

Ta as was trying to work that out the other day too but as usual if all else fails read the manual AGAIN