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Gidday All, Managed to get two hours in today before rain chased me home with the 17 inch Russian X coil. Blew me away just how good this coil is ! I purposely picked a small area of State forest that I have flogged for the last 10 years, with all 3 different GPX detectors, with coils from 11-25 inches, the SDC, and even a QED. This spot has yielded many ounces of gold to me from 0.05g up to 33g. I had declared it " dead ", as my last 10 or so efforts with the standard GPZ14 and GPZ19 have yielded nothing more. 2 hours in today, nearly back to the car, and I get an obvious signal. This was slightly downhill from a small patch of small reef gold, in an area that I have literally smashed. Coil was about 2 inches above the ground because of sticks and clumpy grass. Removed said obstacles and signal firmer. 4 inches in and I am in nice gravel, target now screaming, out pops what turns out to be buck shot. Bugger, but this is from a spot that I have NEVER managed to get a target in ! Moved about 10m along and same thing, another obvious target, once again coil 2 inches over the ground. Dug in and same again, 4 inches down in nice gravel, target screaming louder than the buckshot, out pops what turns out to be an 0.65 gram bit of reef gold ! I'll be buggered, I thought ! Rain then chased me home. Coil was very sensitive, being able to pick up my 0.11g test piece at 2 inches. I tried knocking the coil against a tree a few times and no bump sensitivity. 17 round weighs the same as the GPZ14. All in all, a fantastic coil. Don't know what the Russians have done differently, but Minelab need to have a good hard look ! Further testing to come when our shitty weather finally breaks. Cheers, Rick

It has been great to spend a few days with you Mitchel. Those amongst the forums may feel that we 'get to know each other' in some way via a keyboard but it is not until you shake a hand, wander the bush and have a few conversations together that you make a real connection. I very much appreciate the meteorite too. Had a look on Google maps at Gold basin, Santa Monica Beach (380 miles each way) - it's nice to get a sense of where it came from and the effort it has taken you to find it only just to hand it over to me ? Pity I couldn't put you on to some decent gold but I gave it a shot. When my friend today talked of 5 grammers, 20 piece trees, 5 pieces of 2 grams all within metres of each other it is hard to believe that all the 2 of us could get the last 2 days was your small piece this morning. I suppose when you pick over the carcasses left by others before you, there is often not much 'meat' left on the bones. It's a shame the long shot at Marong didn't pay off for us. For me it is now back to the research to find a fresh patch rather than a depleted one. Best of luck with your one last foray tomorrow, hope the hire car passes its final examinations and I am sure the real gold will be waiting for you in LA on Thursday morning California time. Safe travels ?

Finally had some time to get out. I hit a local football field for two days, about 2 hours each day. I was using the stock coil on the Equinox 800. It was in Park 1, 7 recovery, 50 tone, and ground balanced. The chain, found on day 2, rang up a solid 17, much like many of the aluminum bits on the field. The clasp is iron, but the rest is .925. At first I thought it was junk because of some rusty looking areas on the chain, but when it was cleaned off at home, a smile came to my face. The first day I dug a hole with a solid 11. Out popped a junk earring. There was something else in the hole according to the pinpointer, so I kept at it. The second target was another earring with what appeared to be silver and maybe diamonds. I tested it at home, and my tester said they were diamonds. However, my local jeweler gave me the bad news that they were not. It was a silver earring though.

I was able to get back to the CW site today and was able to pick up a couple of first's for me from this place. The Great Coat button and the A button have eluded me since I started hunting the place. Finally the button god had mercy and bestowed it's graces upon me twice. I was hunting an area that I had gone over before, but, this time I went east to west instead of north to south. All the targets were a dig me, no doubt about it hits( I suck) just flat missed them. The bottom button is a 1 piece and looks older than the others, I cannot tell if there's anything on it or not. My settings were.... Nox 800 Park 2 Recovery 5 Iron bias 2 Sens 19 Auto GB No disc 2 Tones Tone break from-9 to +8 11" coil

Simon, to answer your question regarding how far the 24k will air test on your 0.011 gram (0.169 grain) bit, I just ran tests using 1/20th grain (0.003 gram), 1/10th grain (0.006 gram) and 1/4 grain (0.016 gram) bits. To make this test REALISTIC I did not crank the sensitivity to maximum, rather, I set it up EXACTLY to the in-field settings I personally use here in the Mojave Desert. The reason I did this is that I deplore metal detector dealers who "demonstrate" the "performance" of their machines after adjusting them to settings beyond what can actually be used in the field, and then claiming such distances represent true performance. The settings I used were sensitivity 8, boost 2, and ground balanced to the actual soil, then locked those settings with traclock. I used the 6.5" Concentric. In short, all I had to do was tap the ON button, at which point the 24k automatically reverts to the last-used settings, without further ground balancing or adjustment. The carefully measured results, using a clear plastic ruler, are .003 gram=1.0 inch, .006 gram=1.5 inches, .016 gram=2.0 inches. In each case the 24k gave clear, audible signals, not "hopeful whispers." Since your .011 bit falls midway between the .006 and .016 bits, I would estimate it would be detected at 1.75 inches. Looking at the photos posted, I can guarantee you that the 24k is capable of detecting each bit shown. Hope this helps; HH Jim

The GC button, to me, is just a beautiful button, my buddy had found two, so I was determined to get me one ? On my tone break, from -9 to +8 the tone pitch is set at 1, the lowest pitch possible. From +9 to 40, the tone pitch is 25, I'm listening for any repeatable hit. The true relic hunters dig it all, I simply don't have the time nor the patience for that. I've dug from 0 up at the beginning and didn't dig anything but slaw, tin foil, bits and pieces of iron, nothing but trash.

Today wasn't ounce day for Adam or me. We met up with a local and hunted up North part of Bendigo again. Here they call it Whipstick. I was here my third day of detecting but I couldn't read it and then I went back northwest to Wedderburn. So today was a half day for Adam and his friend. They had to leave at noon. We had 4 hours and we were pointed to areas where 'nuggets had been found' and the ground wasn't too deep. Off we went and after 2 hours I took a break. We still had nothing and time was running out and literally as I was walking back to the car to say goodby to two new friends I got a little warble. It was very hard to pinpoint but I stuck with it. To say it is small is an understatement. It is tiny. My scale can't measure it by itself. It is something less than .1 but it is color! haha Squirrels be damned! I'm looking at a massive take of 1.2g for the trip. I had hoped to average that per day. There is a half day left tomorrow. The choice was a long drive back to Mop's spot or go to Whipstick again. Then I need to return Reg's picks and stay near the airport to turn the car in at 6 AM for my 9 AM flight. It's not over till it's over. Thank you again Adam. We gave it the trophy shot and got a pittance. Better luck next time.

I got a call from a friend who journeyed down this way so I meet up with him at an old park here in town. It's given up old coins a well as civil war relics. I wasn't prepared for what I was going to find. I dug an 1868 shield nickel! Wow! I was excited. Then just a short distance away I got another nickel signal. I hollered at Rick and said another shield nickel!! We were both laughing. His wife had come along so I told her she could have the rest of the area around the old Oak tree and I ventured off. Five min. later I hollered at Rick again " you're not going to believe this" it was another shield nickel. I have only found three shield nickels my entire life and to find three in one short hunt was just crazy! Anyways here's a pic of my finds. One round ball and three shield nickels. An hour and forty five minute hunt I will always remember. Tom

I have been keeping an eye on the weather forecast for the last week and it paid off. I found one beach with some nice sand movement and I hunted there for five days. I managed to dig 5 gold, a few silvers and $70.92 in clad. The diamond chips on the two rings are real and all rings are 14k. One of the 14k is plum gold and another is 14kpc (pc= platinum coated). Good luck out there and happy hunting.

Just spent a couple days hunting a hopefully not a once in a lifetime site!!!! A 70’s built cafeteria building at an old 1915 school was just torn down and the foundation removed. A roughly 60’x100’ area that was absolutely loaded with coins. Hands down my most productive opportunity to date! Was running the 600 in park1 w 50 tones, iron on and stock recovery and iron bias. Sensitivity started at 20 but with the targets being shallow I backed down to 16-18 and it seemed to behave a little better with the shallow iron and corroded conduit littering the site. Hoping to get back Monday or Tuesday to go back over it again as I’m sure there is still some targets hiding. I have only had the EQX a few weeks, coming from Tesoros, Explorer2 and a MakroMK, I really enjoy the audio, much more pleasant to listen to than the Makro at least. Seems to handle the iron very well too! Grand total was 1slq, 1 Washington, 1rosie, 4mercs, 6buffaloes, 2 war nickels, 1891indian, handful of early jeffersons, 60+ wheats, a copper ring and a tiny silver ring and charm. The majority of the silver was super corroded, I assume from the lime in the concrete, and the two war nickels rang up above normal. Strangely enough the buffalo nickels were the least corroded of all the coins. Fortunately the SLQ was off the edge from where the concrete had been and wasn’t corroded at all! Still reeling from the experience, and still sore too!! LOL. Thanks for looking

Update January 2019 - I started reviewing detectors on the internet over twenty years ago. At the time it seemed I was providing a service since good information was hard to find. I enjoyed reviewing machines in detail for those who were interested. The internet was more friendly back in those days. Times have changed, and these days everyone with a video camera is a metal detector expert. In particular there is a trend where industry insiders like me are considered tainted sources of information, not to be trusted. Personally, I don’t need people questioning my integrity. I was doing this for fun and that sucked all the fun out of it. I am therefore no longer accepting invitations to review metal detecting equipment. I may continue to work with engineers on product development but in general will recuse myself from publicly discussing the equipment involved. If anyone wants to use me as part of their marketing efforts they can hire me outright. I'm available and will consider job offers that involve the sales and marketing of metal detectors. My thanks to those of you who have expressed your appreciation for my efforts over the years. You can find my collected detector reports here. The focus on this website going forward will be individual user reviews as part of the new Metal Detector Database with User Reviews. Check it out!

I think more have made it that work.... than those that don’t... just a small error... nothing to see here,,,, moving along Nothing to get excited over....

Thank you, everything in the picture hit between 10-21, the small pistol ball hit at 10 solid, with the GC button coming in at 20-21. Sometime a piece of large tin foil will bleed over from 8-9 I'll get a mixed low tone high tone while sweeping over the target. The tone pitch is 1 from -9 to +8 and 25 from 9-40, I do this to keep me from having to listen to 5 different tones. I'm focused on a repeatable tone regardless of the VDI, if it's in my range, I'm digging it anyway. It keeps it nice and simple for me, my buddy hunts in 5 tones and cannot stand running his machine the way I do and vise-versa. That's the beauty of the NOX!!!

Yeah I`ve the 10" on order, son has a 12" on the way and as we prospect together suspect because my arm "aint what it used to be" I`ll swap the 15" for the 12" as my general coil. Judging by the performance of the 15" on both small scraps and deep larger pieces I`m pretty excited as this season has already been given a big X bump. Got this old codger swinging with new vigor. Like you AG I`m using normal but with general, the X coil handles normal much better then the 14"ML does, but it`s 4 years old and had just an odd knock or two in its life. Normals the go no doubt if the ground allows.

Gidday JP, Did not even bother with the ferrrite, haven't for about a year now. To be honest, I have not seen any improvement / difference between using the ferrite or not, when testing over buried targets, or general prospecting. I was using HY Normal for most of the time, just to see how much ground feedback I got. The ground where I was varies from medium to nasty, with lots of hot rocks and hot pockets of clay. A bit of ground noise where I got the 2 targets, but the two targets still jumped out ! Other areas the ground was too noisy to run normal, so went to difficult and HY. Tried a number of different settings, including general difficult, which is generally my go to for raw prospecting. No bump sensitivity at all. Same with general / extra deep. These coils have excellent build quality ! The coil is a super D similar to Minelab, not spiral wound. EMI was also good too, considering the wet and windy weather we have at the moment. Cheers, Rick

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 .

Good news, Dennis bag from Qantas will arrive today. I haven't detected yet, Dennis is using my 7000, while I've been sorting out the camp. Power supply for the Waeco Fridges is an issue. We're using one of Paul's dodgy 12volt deep cycle batteries hooked up to about 200 watts of solar panels. It's been cloudy the past 2 days, minor sprinkle of rain. We can keep up just barely if we unplug the fridge at night. The inside temp drops 2 or 3 degrees overnight, don't want the beer to get warm. The battery in our '85 Toyota Ute went south yesterday, so another trip to town for a new battery. My new $800 Li ion 100 amp hr battery arrives today, so I think our power issues will get sorted out. It's easy to forget all the power needs, phones, GPS, detector battery etc.. Dennis has found 9 crumbs of gold, maybe 2 grams total. As far as the ground conditions as compared to AZ, it's a lot tougher here. Dennis is running HY, Difficult, at about 10 Sens. Running the Semi-Ground Balance and the Patch Search updates. He's finding some tiny stuff, all pretty shallow. The cap rock is a bugger. Paul has a generator and a jackhammer in the back of his Ute, and it gets drug out pretty often. As a matter of fact, I hear the jackhammer now in the distance. Paul must be on one. Once we get the other detector and start getting serious I'll update with a new heading for our weekly results. Cheers/Tally Ho

Fantastic report and videos. The 24K has so much more capabilities and features over my Monster 1000. Yes I prefer the White's 24K as my VLF Gold Only detector and my 1000 has taken a back seat. I've bee trying to tell folks that since I started testing it last summer, but when you are a dealer, many people feel you are "just trying to sell". Well those who know me and purchased one have been quite pleased. Being a Minelab guy is fine and I too like most of their technologies, but I also realize I need to see what the other brands and models are doing too. Especially if I am going to sell them and offer Field Training. Sorry your pooch does not get as excited about it as you do. Thanks for sharing.

So my new Whites 24k arrived this morning finally after some issues with New Zealand post "before I begin I must give a big shout out to the guys at sneedens who are brokers for customs etc they made everything very simple for me... Right back to the detecter.. I wasn't sure what to expect as there is very little information out there bar the odd person and dealers pushing it. As I've owned many detectors over the years minelab grew on me as my favorite mainly because they were simply superior to the rest. Anyway I wiped up a unboxing video I then moved on to do some playing just with air tests and tho they are just that air tests I was pretty dam gobsmacked to say the least as it was pouring down out side icouldn't venture out to do some ground tests but from the air tests it's got the monster for depth The rain finally gave up this arvo so I grabed some gold ranging from non registering to 1.68 gm and in between. And set out for a spot close to me that was one of the big gold rush areas , now I'd taken the gm1000 here before and it was quite chatty in the upper sensitivity regions as the gm1000 is generally. Now once there I had a play with the 24k just with settings etc and to my surprise the ground there registered 90 on the ground balance to hot as hell was no wonder the gm1000 struggeled here but I was running the 24k max sens 10 vsat lowest it goes and the threshold was rock stable I was using locked ground balance and I do have to say that both the ground grab and xgb was incredibly quick to balance. No the ground is full of black sand so it did kill the depth on targets but not as much as I thought and I could still get the 0.00 non registering bit even with a layer ground on top . But I have already found a quirk with this machine that's a positive if you put it in xgb but run it with a negative ground balance of about - 2 for 30 seconds or so then lock it change it to positive 2 and then manual ground grab the machine goes as quiet as a church mouse with just the threshold hum no hot rock or ground feed back only targets make any noise.. But it hit every target clean and at good depth that 6 inch round is impressive but I can't wait for the 4x6 early next month... Now I also found the threshold as almost to stable for the sensitivity as I said I started on max and was stable as with bit of ground noise that I was able to get rid of as mentioned above. Now when I turned the sensitivity down to 7 I gained depth.. Lol yes gained I think on 10 it was geting over loaded by the black sand abit even tho my threshold was rock solid I gave up playing with my gold targets and went for we hunt knowing people use it for sighting in rifles there and I managed to pick out lead fragment one after the other as I went along.. Also worth noting there is Zero and I mean zero coil noise you can bash it scrape it knock it on things and not a peep... its going to be a learning curve to learn its qurkes but so far I have to say it beats the monster in just about every aspect apart from the monster being able to be custom made on broom stick or bush branch lol..

I am always happy to offer help and advice and will continue to make sure no questions on this forum go unanswered. I enjoy helping people. I will continue to get cutting edge models and use them. No doubt I will have an opinion on them I might share. I just don’t feel like putting a target on my back any more. I may do direct development work with companies in the future but if I do I will basically recuse myself from commenting on those models.

Heh, Nurse Paul you may have to get BB to deliver emails to Davsgold, he`s doing an Emu ( arse up head down) and why not there`s gold out in them thar hills whoops flats...….

Thanks for the information. Interesting information.

Went from brown and dusty drought conditions to green in a few days.

You can't help bad luck, nor the weather. It has rained all day here in Central Victoria. A lousy day for Mitchel's last chance to get a decent color. I checked the rain chart, and it has been the wettest May for over five years. I told Mitchel that the Great God of Nuggets required a virgin sacrifice, but we couldn't find one anywhere.

Enough, no more X coil reports until I get my 2nd X coil, Davesgold just got too many orders...…………..nah just kidding, they are the bees knees no doubt.

Thanks chase I really love those Xp machines. They sure can unlock the goods in those tuff sites.

Thanks gerry. Yes my self included was very surprised with it. I guess like myself I was reserved about buying on as there just isn't the videos out there or even online reviews.. And I think people get it in their heads that we'll I haven't herd anything so they must not be very good.. I'll deffanitly be putting up a lot of videos on my channel and this weekend I'm planning to get out in the hills see how it goes I have a few targets that I have diliberalty left in the ground in bedrock as I know they are gold but like to use them to test settings responses etc Really can't wait to get my hands on the 4x6 coil

Figured you would have he answer, Thanks

In general if ground is quiet enough I prefer a VLF. Apparently I coined the phrase “use a VLF when you can, and a PI when you have to”. If you use a VLF you will run into ground where you NEED a PI. When it happens you will know it. Modern PI detectors are getting close to VLF type performance on small gold, and once you consider minerals can do better on small gold than a VLF. The ability to hit small gold with a PI is a good thing since minerals can destroy what advantage a VLF may have in theory. All detectors struggle in bad ground, even a PI and yes that includes Minelab's. Otherwise Minelab would not have been able to release so many models over the years adding settings for more and more types of ground. So saying PI might struggle in some ground is just the truth and applies to all detectors. By all accounts the QED is a decent PI so I would not overthink it too much.

AMAZING, beautiful Great Coat button, Dan. SUPER hunt, once again! Steve

Interesting, Mitchel. When I went to New Zealand, this was also the case. Well now I'll have to go over to Australia to confirm for myself, and you will have to go to New Zealand. LOL.

Congrats on those shield nickels... thats a hard one to get...Nice work! strick

Nice, I knew there had to be some silver (or gold) there!

Yes, I've seen some 11's mixed in, on some older ones. FWIW, I dug a 4" deep Jefferson nickel that was a perfect "12", and it's not the first time... Incidentally, I also dug a 1" deep 1925 Merc, that read 25/26 in the ground...??? It air tests a solid 25... ?? I am CERTAIN I skipped over this coin, in the past, thinking it was a shallow penny! ? Steve

That old Whites was picked up for 10 Pounds ( about 13 US Dollars ) at a car boot sale ( like a flea market/garage sale event ). It took a while to work out what was up with it. Several things it turned out, but in the course of refurbishment, I've made it better that new, the residual background hiss is much reduced. This may make it more sensitive, or just nicer to use, I don't know yet. I had some ideas related to tinkering with the audio, which is pretty simple and hence easily changed. And there's lots of space inside that big box for add-on kludges. A curious machine, with the ability to do reverse discrimination, which I understand is for location of black sand areas. Not likely to be much use to me, though.

Many of my deep nuggets turned into bullets when they saw daylight... but some don’t...good luck on the final turns fred

Any gold from Rye Patch is well earned. Nice to see some Spring Flowers out there. Your write up was informative and well done. Wishing you even more luck on your next trip. Thanks for sharing.

On a completely different subject the 'biscuits' here are superb! The company Arnott's should be blamed for completely wrecking my diet plans. (Do they have these in the states?) I found myself on two or three occasions going in to Woolworth's (they still have that name here and Kmart) grocery and buying several packages of cookies/biscuits. Most people I'm sure would think of Australia as a beer drinker's haven and all of the politicians are seen tilting a glass before and after elections. They must all at least wet their lips. This is not the case with tea and biscuits. They are consumed in large quantity and take up long counters. The flavors and varieties make me want to find many of them in the states. When you check in to a motel room many of them have cream in the fridge for the tea and coffey you make. The last few nights as soon as I check in (I don't know from night to night where I would stay) I'm handed a fresh bottle of milk. I need to use it now and pack ... more later.

The oldest item from these finds is a Merc, although I can’t read the date due to the crust on it. I was able to take some of the crust off it but not enough to see the date.

Troy never made metal detectors or at least not the X series. They were manufactured by either Tesoro or Fisher for Troy, which is one reason they were pricey. So Tesoro being out of the picture is a bad thing in that regard. Anyway, last I talked with Troy I got the impression you would be wasting your time holding your breath waiting around for any new Troy models. Honestly, the technology has moved on. Dave Johnson is actually credited as lead engineer on the Shadow X5 and it is a classic Johnson 19 kHz circuit pushed to the max. As such the machine rode the edges of instability and had issues with ferrous targets and hot rocks. Anyway, Dave is now at First Texas and so unlikely to be involved on any new Troy stuff. If you want a Troy X5 the First Texas 19 kHz models like the Gold Bug Pro are actually the later more refined versions of Dave’s ongoing work.

First off, great digs Kickindirt! Owning both a Deus and now an ORX, I would have liked to have seen perhaps a pitch tone option and perhaps a 4 or 5 tone option. I am used to pitch on the Deus and the 3 tones really doesn't give me that dig me feel either but it can be utilized successfully. It performs the same as the Deus at the equivalent settings and there are just a few situations where the Deus would outshine ORX. In addition to the limited tone settings on the ORX, the inability to tweak some key settings "under the hood" such as silencer, iron volume, and audio response (like you mentioned) and lack of tracking GB are hindrances but can be worked around for most situations. If I had to go somewhere and would be able to just grab one detector, the ORX would most likely get the job done for me though I would prefer the Deus or an Equinox if it was a beach locale. The ORX is compatible with all the "newer" XP DEUS coils including the White HF coils (13, 28 and 58 khz (9" round coil ) khz or 13, 28, and 72 khz (5x9.5" elliptical coil) and all the new X35 coils (9" round, 11" round, 11x13" elliptical) which can be operated at 4 khz, 8 khz, 12 khz, 18 khz and 25 khz. Only the HF coils have the battery in the lower shaft. I think the 5x9.5" coil does what you describe as your preferred smaller coil option, it has the maneuverability and precision of a 5" coil with swing coverage of a 9.5" coil. It is like a laser beam out there. I like the HF coils for relic hunting because the 28 khz frequency hits hard on mid-conductive relics like brass, and lead. At 13 -14 khz you can do some decent all purpose coin shooting and beach hunting (though DEUS/ORX is marginally stable on wet salt sand). If you want to go deep the X35 series coils can get you that deep silver at 4 khz and 8 khz and puts you at a good place for relic and gold jewelry hunting at the 25 khz high end.

That's a nice pile of nuggets

Just dug two the other day that read high. A 43s that ids a 19 and a 42p that ids 16. I figured it was due to corrosion as they were under a concrete slab for 30-40 years but they still id high out of the ground. All the wheats ided low there and most of the silver I dug is toasted with corrosion. Strangely enough I dug 6 buffalo nickels that are in the best shape of any coins I dug there????

Update Yank # 3 Dennis got a nice 1.4 grammer this evening.... No more posts until I get some good stuff!! ?

Congrats on the nice finds. I keep eyeballing that machine ( ORX ) thinking I might have to give one a try someday. But until then I'll see ya in June and be ready for some more battles against a few old school machines LOL On the plus side, Monte has an ORX coming to evaluate and being he lives the next town over, I'll definitely be over there checking it out. And a chance to use it in some of our local old sites. One question I have and I am not that familiar with the machines yet. If the battery is now placed in the lower rod section of the ORX how come they do not offer a smaller 5-6" coil or small 4x6" elliptical or something along those lines? As great as it can do with the 9" coils, imagine what it might accomplish with a smaller coil in those nasty iron/rusted tin filled sites we try to tackle.

Interesting read, and thanks for taking the time to post your reflections. All the best, Lanny

I agree with my friend Strick! I have been going to the north Nevada desert country since the early 90's, before the big Minelabs, only the vlf's were available at the time. The evolution of the Minelab brand quality has evolved as well. Some of the early searchcoils had to be mended/held together with cloth backed tape... The lithium ion batteries were a blessing, expensive, yes, but lighter than the lead acid batteries of yore. When I got skunked with my first heavy Minelab, bummed as anyone who has left empty handed from the place will know, my only respite and remedy was to get out my old trusty Gold Bug 2, which, had only 5 numbers in it's serial number, to give me tell tale whispers of hidden bits of gold. Now, the Gold Bug 2 serial numbers are in the multi-millions... I believe the old Fisher girl has again been sold by the lucky chap who acquired her from me in a trade...what a sad parting that was for me... Please excuse me while I wipe the tears from my misty eyes. ~LARGO~

WTG! Yep, that Rye Patch dirt is a tuff gig when damp. Glad you powered thru it and found a few nuggets. October, is a good month historically for great soil conditions. But, this year who knows, lol. LuckyLundy

The changes to the TDI SL were about increasing the sweep speed, without loss of sensitivity to small nuggets. That was accomplished by changing the aforementioned capacitor values. Here's what Reg posted on this mod. "The caps being removed are C20 &21, .47uf and will be replaced with .22uf. Use 50v Panasonic, or Rubicon Stacked Metal Film Polyester type." Credit to Reg Sniff The only other change was increasing the battery voltage to 16.8 volts. There is a small risk of trouble by doing that. The capacitors in the power supply are only rated for 16v. But I don't know anybody that has used the higher voltage that has had problems. I've been using the 16.8v pack for 2 years. It does make a substantial difference in depth and sensitivity. Jim

Well, tomorrow is the last day of January, the countdown begins in earnest, and things will probably change dramatically here soon. My goal in this early period was to do what I could to present information on Equinox for those with interest. It has been a bit of a blowout thing for me because in the future if I work with any detector companies on true product development I will probably do it on a purely confidential basis. It was fun the last twenty years but the nature of the internet has changed and it is time for me to shift gears also. I will continue to keep the ball rolling for the short period of time that remains before the first people start receiving their Equinox detectors. At that point I will fade into the background as the overall forum moderator. I won't let questions go unanswered but there will now be a pause before I respond going forward as I am hoping other people will be taking the lead. Let's see if the internet can still support a forum where people simply help each other without all the other nonsense intruding. Anyway, with only a few stumbles it is all off to a pretty good start. I appreciate everyone's (well most everyone's) patience and for those who participate on the forums in the spirit for which they were intended, I thank you very much.