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Had a great time hunting the old 1850's site again today. Found a lot of fired lead along with a bucket lister and my oldest silver coin to date, an 1852 seated half dime. This is the first silver coin to come out of this place since we've been hunting it for the last few months. We both knew there was one hiding in there somewhere :-). Running the 800 with the 11 inch coil. My settings were as follows:. Park 2, recovery speed set at 6, iron bias 0, this time I performed a manual ground balance, sensitivity set at 18, 2 tones .

Ok, today started out with rain during the night and into the morning. Fred saw me up at 4 AM. The neighbor at the hotel got up and out in the rain and his partner ended up at the gas station when I was there. They didn't invite me along so ... While raining I said I would make my way down to Maryborough so I went back by way of The Hand of Faith. That area is quite different. They say it has been rehabbed so maybe that is why there are not the big dig holes as in many other places but this was relatively flat. Someone who owned the property next to the park was digging it up with a back hoe. I'm glad I saw the monument out in the woods. It stopped raining and I drove around to the other side of that park where it was found on my way down here and I went in to detect. Over in the field next to the road were hundreds of kangaroos. They were all jumping about. When I got to the end of the fence line I was following I came upon a tragic scene. One of the roos had broken both of his haunches I think you would say. He could no longer hop. He was in the road so I had to park and hunt there. I started out with my rain gear hoping I would find a less detected spot but it was found also. There were a couple of areas that I wanted to cover completely so I started a new coverage technique. I took the rain coat off and decided to 'coat' the area. I circled and gridded based upon the coat on the tree. When I left there the roo was still beside the little park dirt road but there was nothing I could do to help the situation. (I didn't want a picture of him) What I decided was to go to the house across the paddock. When I got there I honked and this huge man came out of his garage. He had a long beard and his teeth were missing and poor. We chatted a bit and I told him my business and I said I didn't have anything to put him out of his misery except the pick. He said 'Don't do that ... they can grab you and really hurt you!' He said he would go and take care of it. It seems that these thousands of roos like to go into this field he wanted to buy. Someone else bought it and put up a fence that catches some of them when they jump. He had found some already dead in this new fence. Then we discussed gold. He knew the guy who found the Hand of Faith. He met him after the discovery because he did work for him. He told me that the property he owned was without gold because it had flowed around it from the direction of Kingower. He would have let me hunt it. There is a bit more to the story but that is enough for now. When I left I came across this historical marker. I came down to Maryborough and worked an area that was also a bit different. It has workings on top of the ridge and at the bottom. I switched my settings to manual GB and it improved my response to targets. Here is what I found minus a few more bbs. I swung almost until dark and checked out my first place for tomorrow. It will be workings on a hill!

So today I thought it was about time I took my 2.5 year old daughter out to my gold claim. The claim is in reasonably rugged country with steep slopes and dense vegetation. Most of the gold is found as small nuggets on or near bedrock. There was one spot I could think of that was within 100m of the road where a river bank had been washed out and bedrock was exposed. That said I knew I'd have to cut a bit of a track through the vegetation to get the little girl through. We got to our location after a bit of a scramble down a short but steep slope with the aid of a rope. Was a bit of a performance with a backpack on my back and carrying my daughter. I set her up on a grassy bank next to where I'd be digging and surrounded her with snacks with which to entertain herself. As luck would have it I managed to uncover three small nuggets by clearing the gravels off the bedrock and detecting it. After about an hour she'd had enough and we clamberd back to my car. Needless to say, I'm very proud that she's now big and patient enough to take gold hunting! Oh, we got 0.8g total. However in this case the memories (at least for me) are priceless.

Paul wouldn’t know hard work if it smacked him in the face, that’s my hand ?

Haha I didn't even have to mention a name and ya'll got the reference. For me, it is more of the over posting fatigue that gets me. I can't stand a whole lot of talk that doesn't go anywhere. Like spinning tires. Asking questions for the sake of hearing yourself talk. I'm definitely interested in the new machine but until I get one in hand, I don't have anything really to say about it. A lot has been fretted over due to an imaginary price...I really don't care. I say, the people that want one are gonna find a way to get one. If it does what they say it does, it wont take long of seeing their buddies who have one torching them every hunt...they'll find a way to get one too. Some people also just need to swallow their pride and come to grips that they can't afford everything they want in life. I love to fish. Would love to have a new 18 foot aluminum boat with a 60 hp 4 stroke on it. Those are about $25,000 now. I drool over the Trackers every time I go to Bass Pro Shops. But I can't afford one of them right now. Maybe some day. But right now my budget is more inline with a sit on top fishing kayak haha. I'm good with that though. I'm not on the manufacturer's forums whining about how the price should be more inline with my budget.

Here’s a few more today... we have little over 1 ounce on 8 days ... That suits me considering We got 8ozs total last year.. pretty good start. Smoko is over, time to finish up for the day.... so far in one hour today...5.1gm

Yeah that’s not my hand it Trent’s.... he never lets me handle the gold.... afraid I’ll lose it I guess ?

Gold is detected from old pushed areas around Meeka. Probably going to take the big dry blower out next week to try it out after the recent upgrades. ?

Yeah, That’s even better than a tether

Last beach I was on I started to pick up bobby pins. Never encountered one until I started to use a PI. Thinking I should start hitting your beach as it appears to be bobby pin free now ?

Paul ... where are you? This one is worth a bit less than $100,000. That won't change your lifestyle much. https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/aussie-man-hits-the-jackpot-finds-100000-gold-nugget-004212339.html

First rings with the Gold Kruzer. The anchor ring is rose colored 925 silver. The white ring is costume but the stone looks to be real. It is very pretty. The camera just doesn't do it justice. Everyone I show it to tries to keep it. HA. A fun couple of hours. HH Mike

Sad about the kangaroo, just have to accept that's life sometimes. Kudos for going out of your way to find help. (put it out of its misery)

I'm looking forward to it. I found one of those Phoenix types of nuggets today (I think). It looks different than the bbs but it is so close in shape ... I need more than my glasses to confirm. I've got more spots for the next few days and I want to get down and see Ballarat. This is where I've spent my time ... 3 days in Maldon (getting training, adjusted after the flight and rain delay), 1 day at beach, 3 days in Wedderburn, 1 day Inglewood/Kingower, 1 day in Bendigo, 2 days in St Arnaud and now at least 3 days in Maryborough and then the rest of the trip. I've been messaging Adam and he has been giving me advice also. Thanks Adam.

5 days starting Friday we are going to catch up with Mitchel. Myself, Elusive (from this forum) and hopefully my wife's cousin from Bendigo will be hitting some spots and hopefully all finding some colours. We are also catching up with Reg Wilson on Friday and heading to Maryborough for a bit of QED fine tuning and testing a few machines on the Coiltek test site and then Reg may continue to join in our hunting over the weekend if he wishes. I have been getting targets with the QED but have been hitting flogged patches and not getting deep targets. Testing some known targets at known depths will hopefully give me some confidence re: the QED and its different settings and, possibly more importantly, confidence in the coils I have. Hopefully some company this weekend for Mitchel will bring some yellow as well ?

There are two fried eggs and they are cooked...they are just a good orange color because they aren’t mass produced. They come from healthy Aussie chickens. The tomatoes are under the bacon ? Fred, I use a spoon all the time camping.. one spoon.,and one bowl..that covers any food. It can be liquid to solid food and I can eat it with a spoon and bowl. Besides, forks are harder to wash , I always think I have missed some two day old crud between the tines ....whereas with a spoon all you have to do is lick it off swipe it on your shirt and you’re good. Maybe I should write book on camping hacks ? Norvic.... I had barramundi last arvo and according to what they charged me for that 4x4 portion....that beauty we caught at the hut should have been a 1000.00 catch!!!!!——and by the way ur bird is a much better cook! ? And just to fess up —and let everyone know that the world is still in perfect order—I realized yesterday that I had left my mini-iPad back at my apt in LA on the back of the couch....I should have known it would be something? Nice to know my trip is back to normal......lol I’m going to try to board a small plane today for Meekatharra . I have maxed out baggage from the international rules, but I may have some ‘splaining to do when I hand them my carry on handbag that has an added 10kg alternator in it? Well....man they got a little concerned because my bags were 36kilos overweight for the puddle jumper from Perth to Meekatharra...but we agreed on paying for 25 kilos and I was happy for that update....got my first pieces today small stuff but I guess I’ll take it?

First day in country and a rough one it had already turned out to be... First of all i didn't lose anything on the way over so that left me with a whole day to kill in Perth, instead of calling baggage handlers as per the normal first days here... So i started up with a classic Aussie brekkie... 1000 carbs... but delicious! I do have orders from the Taskmaster to pick up an alternator for my fourby.... at first i couldn't figure out how he knew it was bad since he doesn't drive her..??? Then the answer was there, clear as a bell.... he'd worn the alternator past it's useful life of service keeping my 2 fridges full of cold beer down to proper temp....?

I got the word that Jim Straight has passed away in recent days. I last saw and spoke with Jim a bit over a year ago. He spent several hours on both Saturday and Sunday in the ICMJ booth with me at the Pomona GPAA show. He was a good man and wrote many articles for the ICMJ. It is sad to see him go. Jim was a great pioneer in the world of metal detecting for gold. He was on site for a great many famous old gold finds with metal detectors. Yet ye was very tight lipped about those locations. A lot of great secrets passed with him. It was always great to chat with him as we traveled a lot of similar paths - we both graduated from the Mackay School of mines, but about 30 years apart. We both spent a lot of time prospecting around Randsberg, CA and the northern Nevada placers of Pershing and Humboldt counties. I will miss our talks, as will so many other prospectors.

I couldn’t resist the good weather and one final beach hunt. First beach I hit was invaded by 3 bus loads of teenagers and a small pack of little kids. I think it’s one of those religious outings. One minute it’s quiet, the next minute it’s total chaos . So, I left to another beach and finished the hunt. This one is all GPX, as my metallic cuff for the Equinox was not in yet. I found a little bit of clad, with a decent amount of copper Wheats/Memorials and some nicely toned nickels. The good finds were limited to a Mercury, silver Roosevelt, silver wave ring, and a silver earring. No gold this time. Not a spectacular hunt, but a good way to end the season. Next week starts the archaeology detecting season that should go right into November. The last two pictures are from 2 seasons of CTX, Equinox and GPX hunting of beaches. I know a lot of people dread pull tabs, (especially park hunters) but on the beach Bobby pins and tent/canopy stakes kill me. Nothing like digging 16” looking for a stake that is really on the side of the hole at about 10” But I guess we all do our share of cleaning the trash from the beach.

Nice batteries can be found in used laptop battery packs. I found 6, nice batteries inside a HP laptop battery pack. All test good and can provide some nice project batteries. Some of the best on the market can be found in laptop batteries. A trip to the local computer repair shop can usually find some nice discarded batteries cheap. Brand: LG Model: LGEAS318650 (ICR18650S3) Capacity: 2200mAh Rated Voltage: 3.60V Nominal Charging: 4.20V Maximum 1075mA Standard 2150mA Maximum Discharging: 3.00V Cutoff 430mA Standard 4300mA Maximum Description: Blue Cell Wrapper White Insulator Ring 18650 Form Factor

I was sure hoping would have some new friends show you around a bit. That what I understood was going to happen when you rocked up. I could never have found the gold nor developed the friendships I have without actually camping, fossicking ,and fishing together. But I could have been reading my experiences in to the beginning of your thread and just assumed you had people lined up to take you for a swing.... Sounds like you are having a good time and that’s good! ?

Looks like the forum has been made invisible except to registered members. Not a wise decision in my opinion. http://forums.whiteselectronics.com/

I know Fred. I have some pointy finger spots left. That is how I found the gold I have now. The object here is like the object there of getting your coil over a piece of gold that has not been found of course. Research here is like going to My Land Matters or a similar map that shows past workings (Doug Stone's Maps) and throwing a dart at it and going. And going and going or working and working ... I've done a little of both. I need gold within a foot of the surface if I'm going to find it. Now there is a light rain. I get a map and go (since I don't have a local or guide) or I use the pointy finger. Life is a choice. I'm ok with the results now. I've got a couple of pieces. I know what it is all about again. Thanks for sticking with me. We've had this 'where do I go' discussion about many places. I can think of Yuma, Gold Basin, Rye Patch ... did I leave any out? haha I'll report at the end of the day.

everyone can give their opinion or ask questions / it's not a problem it's just that I'm a little tired to always repeat the same thing ... a scoop for the forum the latest changes now allow detect a 24 carat ring weighing less than 5 gr (no ring 24k heavier to test ...) under a big nail / or several small nails if you have a ring 24k try with your detectors it's impossible / even tdi (modif Reg Sniff) can not do it (22K is its limit ) it will be a very specific setting that I would explain in video this extraordinary feat detect the 24k under the iron gives you an idea of the level of separation, gold / iron

I never had the pleasure of meeting Jim. He did correspond with me a few times, and without fail Jim went out of his way with kind commentary. A real gentleman for sure... Rest In Peace.

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+

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

I haven't detected in a long time and was thinking of starting up again. Was thinking of subscribing to Western and Eastern Treasures magazine, which I used to get, but see they stopped printing hardcopies.

Most big ones are found at shallow easily detected depth, therefore lighter more maneuverable detectors are quite adequate when it comes to being in the 'right spot'. You won't find too many large nuggets in 'flogged' ground.

Outstanding, Dan! Nice finds, overall, but you KNOW I love that Seated half-dime! Steve

Discover Magazine Some of you might remember a publication called "Discover" that White's Electronics used to publish. It featured customer finds, treasure stories, and all-around good info on metal detecting. Back in the 90's we stopped making it, much to the disappointment of some of our long-time customers. Well... we realized missed it too! So we're proud to announce the re-introduction of Discover magazine. As a part of our mailing list you have exclusive access to a free digital copy, which you can read online, print out, and share as you see fit. Get your free copy here. We'll try and send one out every 2 months. Thanks for supporting an American brand, and know that we will always have your back as a valued customer. This publication is just one small thing we can do to show our appreciation! Discover Magazine May/June 2018 Discover Magazine March/April 2018 Discover Magazine January/February 2018 Discover Magazine November/December 2017 Discover Magazine September/October 2017 Discover Magazine July/August 2017 Discover Magazine May/June 2017 Discover Magazine March/April 2017 Discover Magazine January/February 2017 Sincerely, White's Electronics

That’s it. wonder is “the contraption “ will have “the force” ?

Fantastic set of finds! Congrats on the old silver.

We can swap beaches, so I can rid yours of them.

Accumulator is a battery. Bit of an old fashion word.

Good on yas put him on a short ether ?

WOW nice congrats

I want one now

Exceptional these days in AZ, I'm looking forward to hearing how you do in OZ.

way to go you guys and good luck in Oz

If you are going to Meekathera there should be plenty of Oz Hot Rocks to thrill you and Dennis... I love Western Oz most. have a great adventure and say hey to Paul... fred

Have a great trip Steve and Dennis, I hope your good luck continues! Norm

I see they were warned about giving you sharp tools to eat with... scrambled egg with one very undone egg and bacon...where's the tomato and beans? welcome to your adopted home fred

Hi Dave, I am not even going to try to give any hints (not being a beach hunter, you have already said you don't want to hear anything I have to say). I am going to make a general statement which is that default Beach 2 is by far the most chatty of the Park, Field and Beach modes in my high EMI detecting areas. Like Steve and Chase, my remaining productive detecting time due to my age is too short for me to even consider using much less owning a detector that doesn't suit me for the majority of my detecting scenarios. If I can't trust it or if it has as many shortcomings as you have described, it's gone.............. Jeff

There was a lot of free Minelab advertising came too. The people involved automatically wanted to know what kind of machine I was using and the cost. One gentleman asked several times to buy my machine. He stated it was a lucky machine, imagine that. Well, if Minelab sells a couple extra machines because of this recovery, that is good too.

10 hours until wheels up for ..... Queensland goldfields...(lol) yeah thats it Queensland or Victoria--not sure which, but i do know thats where the gold is---- laying on the ground in heaps after that last tectonic plate shift !!!! I heard rumors of gold squirting up out of the ground and landing like pillow lava.... be sure and get a good ute or you wont be able to carry the nuggets back... Too bad they also said that tectonic shift causedd a major dip in WA and all the gold there is now 300 met4ers deeper than it was before-- Guess i can get some beach hunting in and then go seemy new fillapina wife if I get bored.... May have to hook up with Norvic and DaveW to get any real gold this year...... See ya all around -----?----Cheers you lucky dogs!

I was hunting directly under power lines yesterday evening...backed down on the sensitivity 4-5 ...did another noise cancel and the machine ran nice and smooth while still hitting deep coins. I'm sure you will have no trouble selling your machine on the used market. strick

I’m going to tell you what little I know from a friend from a friend of his that is saying very little as in next to nothing. It started out this guy wanted to get into coin hunting. He looks around and find himself a used Teknetics. Now remember all this is new to him. He’s out there just swinging his new used detector and he gets a signal. Well like all good American boy he starts digging. He gets a hole dug about a foot down and hits a brick. Then he makes the hole bigger and low and behold there is another brick next to the first one. The thing is the two bricks are not next to each other but has a space in between. He’s thinking I didn’t detect the bricks and he didn’t because here is this tin laying in between the two bricks. I haven’t got the straight of the type of tin but maybe that will come later. Here he is with this so called tin in his hands trying to pry it open. Now hold on because this is the things that can dirty your pants. Okay now he’s got it open. He pops it out into his hand and there lays a Double Eagle better known as a twenty dollar gold coin. Of all things it’s a walking Liberty with a flying Eagle on the backside . Oh yes I did leave the date out didn’t I. This old girl is carrying a date of 1907. If you look in a coin book none of them come cheap. He told the guy I know that he knows that it’s worth no less than 6000. My friend wanted his to send a picture on the phone but the guy said no and he wouldn’t say where he found it. Because it’s a rare coin he just wanted to keep it under wraps at this time. If can at a later date I’ll give you the rest of the story. Chuck

Just wanted to give a picture so everyone would know what coin I was talking about. Chuck