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This is from a local news report. A local prospector known as Sourdough Scott is being investigated for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Not only a single child but it appears an entire forth grade class may have been involved. The local police claim to have surveillance photos of Sourdough Scott teaching several young children about prospecting , local history and then shamelessly showing them how to pan for gold. Many parents were understandably very upset." I have spent thousands of dollars on video games and a big screen T.V.", said Mrs. Adit," but now all my child wants to do is play outside with a $5.00 gold pan. What's a mother to do". It has also been reported that a rogue gang of forth grade children, who call themselves "The Company" Turned on all of the neighborhood outside faucets and sprinklers then channeled the water at a one half percent grade for several thousand feet South of town and began washing off an entire vacant lot. It yielded $67.95 per cubic yard in gold with a fair showing of silver and a trace of platinum. 2000 cubic yard were washed with 150.000 yards remaining. (investors wanted). Sourdough Scott has apparently taken flight to avoid prosecution and could not be reached for comment. NEWS UPDATE This report may have been based on some poor information by an unreliable source.Namely a miscreant prospector referred to as Klunker. We now know that this was a scheduled activity for the local forth grade class and Mr. Sourdough Scott took an entire day off during his busiest time of year to assist with an annual Living History Program for the school. Though Mr. Sourdough Scott doesn't even have kids he works with them in an exceptionally expert fashion.

Everything is true. Had a blast.

wabbits, hahaha, we were hunting wabbits fred

The Gold Kruzer has one of the most stable thresholds of any High freq VLF I've used, and that's what helps it perform on the ground. Many other machines can air test better, but they are next to useless on the ground. Joe76, yes as Steve has said all VLF's will lose depth in mineralisation. The smaller coil will be the better choice of the two stock coils in mineralised soils, with the concentric being reserved for mild ground or if using the Gold Kruzer to chase jewllery. The optional GK24 coil is a 9.5x5" elliptical DD, and this is a good choice for mineralized soils, better depth and coverage, but not quite as zippy on tiny stuff as the small 7x4".

Early detectors with small coils could find pellets, but modern detectors find them deeper.

"That the old detectors couldn't find bbs and that is why there are so many still there?" ..........NO........... The old Whites and Garrets DS & A2B and Detec could all pick up Shotgun pellets. Maybe some people went to fast (after the worth while nuggets) or were not skilled enough. And lot of pellets have been shot in the last 40 odd years.

Frankly, unlike the Garrett AT series (or CTX for that matter), in my circle of detectorists, I am actually seeing very few folks give up their Deus' for the Equinox. They are getting Equinoxes, no doubt, but they are hanging on to their Deus's. I think they compliment each other. I swing both the XP and the Equinox and have equal and excellent success with both. Just depends on the situation. Can't wait to see how Vanquish will fit into the picture (if at all).

Good for you and the 4fh graders Sourdough. I can visualize those kids. I’ll bet most had more fun doing this than any of their other “entertainment” Thanks Sourdough and klunker Mike

Hi, finally it looks like winter is over (snowed here in Denver last week!!!!) and I got in some testing with the Makro Gold Kruzer in my fairly nasty decomposing granite and volcanic ash dirt. I have already used it for micro jewelry and even shallow coin hunting in Micro discrimination mode. It is definitely good at micro jewelry detecting and can do fairly well as a coin detector too in the multi tone Micro mode. I tested three gold targets down to 4" (11cm): a .75 gram nugget, .15 gram nugget and a tiny .05 gram picker outdoors in my test bed which has buried coin and relic targets and a 1.5" by 6" PVC pipe with PVC/styrofoam insert buried vertically in the test bed that I can remove, insert a small target and replace for in ground nugget testing at different depths. I used Gen mode, gain on 89, threshold on 7, ISAT 2, and bumped the tone pitch up to 50 to give it a higher zippy pitch. Ground balanced at 87 with 4 of 5 bars mineralization so almost in the hot zone mineralization wise. In fact if I ran the gain any higher the Gold Kruzer would go into overload. I used the 10x5 concentric and the 7x4 DD. The results were almost the same. .75 gram nugget was loud and clear down to 3" and was easily detectable at 4" with a quiet zip. .15 gram nugget was loud and clear at 2" and was easily detectable at 3" with a quiet zip. .05 gram picker could only be detected at 1" or less. Any deeper was not possible. I did the same test with my XP ORX and used similar settings especially gain at 85. I could have run it higher with no problems. It ground balanced to similar numbers in both Gold 1 at 31kHz and Gold 2 at 74kHz and had 2/3rds to 3/4ths mineralization bar filled. The results were similar in both modes with Gold 2 being better at the tiny picker. .75 gram nugget screamed at 4" .15 gram nugget was loud and clear at 3" .05 gram picker was easily detectable at 1.5" in Gold 2 and 1" in Gold 1 The Makro Gold Kruzer was similar to the Gold Racer results wise. I wish the ORX was waterproof............... Jeff

I found when using a GPZ that with experience one could tell the difference between shotgun pellets and tiny gold. A mate and I worked a patch of over 120 small colors which was also littered with pellets. The biggest color was only 3 grams. I left the pellets in the ground. I later took a Minelab agent to that site when they scoffed at my claim of being able to tell the difference. They then went over the area with an SDC, and found nothing but pellets.

That’s because He’s just a big Old kid his self

I have been metal detecting for over 45 years now and have waited decades for a metal detector like the Equinox 800. Until now the so-called "do-it-all" multipurpose metal detectors have been very limited in one fashion or another. In particular, there has been a wide gap between metal detectors that can handle saltwater very well and those that are very good at gold nugget prospecting. Waterproof detectors have also tended to be feature limited in the past, heavy, and usually expensive. I primarily prospect for gold nuggets, and hunt for coins and jewelry both in parks and at the beach / in the water. Historically I have needed different detectors for water hunting and for gold prospecting. Suffice it to say that the Minelab Equinox 800 is the first detector I have owned that can do all the types of detecting I like to do, and do it very well, if not better than other detectors. Add in the fact that it is waterproof, has built in wireless headphone capability, and is incredibly affordable, and you have a detector that pleases me more, and in more ways, than any other I have ever owned.

I hadn't seen an overview type video on the Gold Kruzer, at least not in English, so decided to do one. It's just a bit of a run through of the machine and a run across some ground and a few targets. Hopefully of interest to anyone wanting to know a little more about it.

Hello everyone :) I'm just starting out in this hobby and i will be receiving my very first detector today. I bought the Equinox 800 a few days ago. I also joined the RRPC today as well. Thank you Steve Herschbach, Your information is very helpful thank you :)

Hello everyone, I am basically new to metal detecting besides messing around with a family members detector. I found some interesting items but their detector is super old and cheap. So now I am looking to buy my own detector. I live in the foothills of NC which is basically all red clay soil. I am looking for coins and relics mostly because this is what I've found on the property. I honestly cant spend a lot on the detector (around $200-300). Due to the soil here being red clay it is super thick/dense and figured I would want a detector suitable to this if possible in my price range. So from what I've researched i have a few I'm looking at but i am completely open to other brands and models i may have overlooked. So far though, I'm looking at: BH disc 3300 (cheapest with ground balance), BH ranger pro, and the minelab 305. Any suggestions and input will be appreciated. thanks everyone

I found this site that has posted all of the Tesoro Brochures for each model. Great walk down memory lane for those who love their Tesoros. https://www.treasurelinx.com/tesoro.html

We're still getting dialed in for the WA conditions. In many places we can run the GPZ on High Yield, Difficult, with a Sens between 10 and 15. We've hit some old patches that have been scraped, then trying to venture out around them to see if the patch might continue. These places have been detected pretty well, all have dig holes scattered through them. We've had some minor success, I hit a 3 gram piece right off the go, from there it's been nothing but tiddler scraps. Surprisingly small pieces that Difficult mode sings out on them. All very shallow though. The weather is crazy. Cold mornings needing a hoodie, then warming up to weather more suitable for shorts. We've seen a few 'roos and a couple Emus, other than that it's just flies and more flies. We've tried some cream they use for the horses, seems to last an hour or so then the flies are back with a vengeance. The quit just before sundown and don't come back till it starts to warm up in the morning. Just part of the challenge. Our totals to date. Dennis had a couple day headstart, but I'm trying to catch up.

Hi guys, just wanted to say it was a pleasure meeting up with you Mitchel and sharing your company along with Northeast. Had a great couple of days sharing stories and looking for those yellow lumps. Was great catching up with you too Mop, thanks for the pointer and giving us a different area to have a look at. I Was lucky enough to be running the SDC a few times over some mullock heaps and managed to snag three tiny little pieces for my troubles. A bit of colour is always a positive though. The allure of gold always keeps you keen, I hope you had a great time Mitchel and get the chance to come back again with better success. Will try and get a pic up later. cheers, Elusive

Fred, They must have gotten them all! I saw a few ducks, a few geese but in the area of the workings I didn't see anything I wanted to hunt ... well just a few 'dove type' birds but not enough to explain all the shooting. Just like the nuggets, there must be something in the trees I missed. JR has said that anything that moved was shot at but they must be extinct now. Target practice with a shotgun isn't much of a sport.

Yesterday I was hunting a curb strip which I'm pretty sure had power transmission lines buried under it. Even the single frequencies (including 10 kHz, 15 kHz and 20 kHz which usually work fine in my EMI) got noisy at gains 20 and above, and even in the high teens for 10 kHz. I was able to run quietly enough with motion in Park 1, multifrequency, ground balanced, recovery speed 5, all metal, and gain of 16. Then I remembered the above tip and tried recovery speed of 4. I was able to turn the gain up to 19 before the EMI noise equaled that running at gain of 16 (recovery speed 5). As long as the trash isn't too bad, I've found that recovery speed of 4 works pretty well. As the nails (in particular) start to get more dense I have to go up to 5, 6, or even 7.

The Nox is essentially non-repairable apparently, there is no nondestructive way to open the control box. Any fault in the control box and you get a new one back. Makes for quick service turn-arounds. expect to see more of this in future machines from other makers - service is a money losing proposition, much faster just to replace.

I really like my Gold Kruzer. It really has not got the attention it deserves. Just way too many good gold VLF nugget detectors came out the last couple years so people are kind of drowning in the options.

Minelab is serious about their US service. Sent my Nox by priority mail Thur., arrived there Sat. Got there in 2 days. They called me @9:00 this Mon. morning.It been tested, diagnosed and a new control unit is being sent out today. I sent Whites, Garretts and Fishers in for service and have always been happy with their service departments. Minelab just blew them away with their service.I am impressed. Shipping hint: Remove control head from shaft. Control head, coil and headphone will fit in a large flat rate box.

Yeah, the A2B & Detec maybe to an extent but only surface or near surface bbs the Z goes much deeper then those or any VLF since. Remember the A2B & Detech were high frequency for those days, the GB 1 & 2 & the GM blew them away in BB and small gold sensitivity.

Joe I spent a lot of time getting all of the historical data for gold over 20 years ago. To do it you will need a GIS program. My work is available on this link.... http://golddetecting.forumotion.net/t2273-historical-gold-mines-in-google-earth Just click on the file you wont and click on the blue download link under the horse and select direct download. GIS programs ...... A geographic information system (GIS) is a framework for gathering, managing, and analyzing data. Rooted in the science of geography, GIS integrates many types of data. It analyzes spatial location and organizes layers of information into visualizations using maps and 3D scenes. I used ... Global Mapper...It will let you do all you want but it is expensive, however there is a lot of different programs about.

I can tell a bb now with 90% accuracy because I can easily tell when the sound is not a bb. In my latter days out I was skipping many of the bb sounds so I could get to other sounds but they were few and far between. Out of the hundreds of targets I dug while in Victoria I can still hear the 4 gold targets I dug as unique and had that gold potential sound just like hearing the first note of an old song. You know the tune that is going to follow. Sometimes I just had to give my back a stretch and bend over and dig a target for exercise. There might be another target under it!

I bet I know his name and will be meeting with him in Sep.2019 going out prospecting together. He does this to kids all the time - god bless him for! Can't wait for his very special coffee in the mornings and the good chats at night in front of a campfire. I hope my granddaughter will enjoy prospecting one day. She's 3.5 yo and lives in Kelowna, BC. As I live in Germany we just can't spend much time together. Man, hopefully there is a small nugget left for me out on the North Yuba somewhere. We'll be in the Downieville and Good years bar area. We both are yet to find our first Gold with a MD. We both use a SDC2300 and I'll bring a Nox 800 as well. Any help and good suggestions are highly appreciated.

Welcome to the forum. From what I hear the red clay effects many detectors so first choice is a detector with a DD coil. Lots of brands to check out. I have a couple of Garrets and a Tesoro here. Garrett does have a sport package on their AT Pro but think that is a bit higher on your price range. I had used an old Bounty Hunter for many years but I think you may do better with a machine that has some ground balance control or at least the option to be able to manually ground balance the machine. Relic hunting and coin shooting you can use a wide range of machines. Fisher and Teknetics also have some good machines to check out and many in the forum may have a recommendation for you.

Cool site, even has the air tests for comparison for the Tejon so you can determine if it needs tuning.. bad part is who will tune it? Saw my Bounty Hunter Treasure Tracker ID there too.

Naw mate...the grocery store and s stop off to volunteer at the local shelter ....??

All VLF detectors lose depth in mineralized soil, and the Gold Kruzer is no exception. It is a slightly better nugget machine than the AT Gold but basically if mineralization is the issue then a PI is the solution.

silver 925...cant rely on detector VID numbers. Nice ring strick

This is the main reason too, before you venture forth on an adventure, check with MD clubs in the country you are interested in.. It is imperative that you do so...

Up the other way it looks like 800. 800: the minimum standard for silver in Germany after 1884;"Plata de segunda ley" in Spain (Second law silver); Egyptian silver; Canadian silver circulating coinage from 1920-1966/7 Maybe that?

From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_standards Britannia silver has a millesimal fineness of at least 958. The alloy is 95.84% pure silver and 4.16 per cent copper or other metals. The Britannia standard was developed in Britain in 1697 to help prevent British sterling silver coins from being melted to make silver plate. It was obligatory in Britain between 1697 and 1720, when the sterling silver standard was restored. It became an optional standard thereafter. That's my guess.

Park 2 is going to favor nickels over high conductors based on the frequency profile FWIW. That doesn't mean it won't hit on high conductors, but might explain your target ratio.

I got tired of having to load up the car to travel to distant hunts...staying in hotels, and eating in restaurants. Pain in the butt! So, I had to see if my young son would take to a "camping" lifestyle and not just complain about not having wi-fi for his games, I took him to an club sponsored MD Treasure Hunt near Tulsa in a rented Class C Motor Home. It was pretty beat up, but everything sort of worked, so we'll see. He absolutely ate it up! Loved the camping aspect and the Kids Hunt and was disappointed after two days to have to go home. (I cleaned UP on Silver halves and quarters on MY hunts!!) So after getting back to Tinker AFB, I had a long talk with my wife, and we made a decision. We need better family vacations and getaways whenever she can get away on leave from her Command position in the Air Force... along with prospecting and metal detecting, so we made a decision and started a different kind of hunt. We were successful! Our new transport for all things fun is an absolutely MINT condition 2013 Forest River Sunseeker 3010DS Class C Motor Home with an auto tow dolly. The wife is already in the books and on Google deciding where and when we start having trips! This beauty only has 23,000 miles and the previous owner was a retired Master Sergeant from the Air Force who was a vehicle and aircraft mechanic. Those skills showed in how well this rig was kept up! It looks literally showroom new inside and out. I'll be doing videos and updates on our adventures, and will post the MD related jaunts here as well. Woohoo! Lovin this rig and the adventures to come!

Finally had a chance to get back to this site. Spent a few hours this afternoon. Ran park2 this time, standard settings with iron on and 50tones. Sensitivity was 20 mostly. I must have done pretty good the first time because the only high conductors this time were 2 wheats and 2 keys. Did find 7 more nickels though. 1 being a no-date buff and 1 44p silver nickel that IDed at 17-18. The others are 39-62 Really starting to get into the audio on this detector! Was planning to take my MakroMK this time but after a month with the EQX and its pleasantly smooth audio it’s been hard to go back to the more abrasive/sizzly sound of the MK.

Good going you two i like your new nick names Yank 2 & 3 will have to remember that for next winter in sunny Yuma.

There is a glimmer of hope. A fellow who not so long ago advertised mods on Tesoros has relocated and although he isn’t set up yet he expects to be able to offer mods and perhaps repairs in the not too distant future, I believe he has schematics for at least some of the machines. He isn’t ready to go public yet, but at least it is a glimmer of hope. I have been in contact with him but he has asked for no further disclosure till he is in a position to do something useful.

Cool mate, all good. Maybe this thing does things a bit different to all the others I've had over the years. Im not quite an old dog yet, but Im still open to learning some new tricks. Next week when Im out I'm gonna treat it different, try all the recommendations from you all and report back. Again, appreciate all the input.

This should be pinned at the top of every sub forum here.....

I have never experienced this on any version of the TDI. The “ground balance off” mode should be the pure unfiltered signal. Engaging the ground balance engages a filter which reduces the air test results in a properly functioning TDI. The only reason the TDI has the ability to turn off the ground balance is to get this extra depth back, as has been highlighted in numerous online posts and videos. The manual says air test depth increases with the ground balance shut off. What you are saying simply makes no sense from a pure electronics standpoint and how the ground balance functions. If a TDI loses depth in air tests when the ground balance is shut off then in my opinion it is not working properly.

I would like to begin this review with a bit of background. A couple of years ago I received a phone call from an old prospector that I had not seen since since the late 1980s when I was involved in testing a prototype pulse induction detector developed by Bruce Candy, one of the original Minelab team. I had tested one of Bruce's earlier VLF prototypes of the GT16000, in the process of which I turned up a 98 oz nugget in a patch of over 300 ozs. It was while I was in London that I picked up a newspaper and read of a new type of metal detector developed by Eric Foster of Pulse Induction Technologies. This detector was finding Celtic gold treasures at depths not achievable with VLF machines. Naturally I was quite excited and on returning to Australia, then to Adelaide, passed on the information to Bruce. Some months later I had a PI prototype from Bruce in my hands.....and the rest is history. My old prospector acquaintance explained to me that he had met a most interesting electronics 'wiz', who had developed over many years a very compact pulse induction detector, and that he needed someone with experience and credibility to test it for him. Naturally I was curious and the introduction was made. I visited Mr. Howard Rockey who lived not far from me, just out of Ballarat, one of the worlds most famous gold towns. He was a very friendly man who impressed me with his enthusiasm for his project. After showing me his detector (which I must admit looked a little simplistic and perhaps unfinished) we proceeded to his back yard for a demonstration. He had a tiny piece of gold in a clear plastic pill bottle which he tossed onto his lawn. I noticed all the electric wires in the area and thought, "this will be interesting". He turned on the detector, did a quick ground balance whilst explaining to me that his detector was manual GB, then swung it over the target. The response was crisp and very positive, and I have to admit I was a bit taken aback. I then had a play with the machine myself, moving the target to different positions and distances from the coil. I noticed that it ran smoothly despite all the obvious electronics in the area. He explained that it even ran smoothly inside the house. I left Howard's home with a prototype and over the next few weeks the machine received extensive testing as I familiarised myself with the different settings and mannerisms of the QED. It was quite different to the detectors that I had been used to - it achieved the required performance through procedures new to me. The more I used it, the more I liked it. As its functions became more familiar, my confidence grew. Out in the field, the first small bit of gold turned up after a few days, and I then knew that this was a viable gold hunting machine. The current PL2 QED is quite an improvement on that first prototype (which I still have and prize greatly) as it has better balance and has some additional features. The mode has been extended, and auto ground balance added (not auto ground tracking). The battery system is now lighter and charging much easier than the earlier version. The controls can be accessed with the thumb with one hand, making adjustments easy. I won't go through the functions here as that information can be found within the operations manual, but I will give a few reasons why I enjoy using this detector. Firstly, it is very light and well balanced - I give the machine a very high rating for its ergonomics. Secondly, the target response is extremely positive even on tiny targets, and when fitted with a small mono coil it performs as good if not better than other specialist small gold detectors. Thirdly, although small in size it does not lack power when matched with even very large coils, and comes close to matching even the most expensive of the bigger heavier detectors, punching surprisingly deep. In summing up...this is not the perfect detector...nor is any other detector I have ever used to this point. The QED suits my detecting style in that I can use any size coil I wish for different circumstances, covering more ground while prospecting new areas. I know that with its sharp signal response I will miss very little. I am confident that this machine will also do the 'low and slow' hunting out of deeper and more elusive targets in previously proven ground. 3/2021 Update - Quality Issues

You can find some excellent info on the Anfibio, straight from the horses mouth here: https://www.noktadetectors.com/anfibio-settings/ Well worth a read for current owners, but a few little nuggets of info there for prospective buyers wanting to know a little more.

A mono coil in my opinion does not send a cone shaped signal into the ground, the field radiates out from the windings in all directions and becomes wider and gradually less powerful the further away it goes. A DD coil does the same thing and is only constrained by its original shape which I would say infills the area around the Tx anyway. The Tx power of the Minelab machines is identical regardless of which timing is used BTW. When comparing the coil sizes relative to field strength it comes down to the actual size of the Tx, so a similar overall sized DD will have a lot smaller Tx than a Mono of the same dimensions. The receive on the other hand is where the magic is done, size for size a Mono has the advantage because of its surface area and lack of a null that dampens sensitivity but they are prone to ground noise and salt so require timings like Fine Gold etc to deal with ground noise, which has a trade off but the trade off is extremely variable dependent on the target etc. Generally speaking a good rule of thumb for depth comparing like for like DD and Mono coils using Normal timings is to allow for an approx 20% less depth across the board on the DD but this is highly dependent on the ground conditions. DD coils are used a lot in detectors because they create less ground signal response (thanks to the overlap of the windings which require a null), a lot of ground signal response kill depth, DD's also allow for things like discrimination and out of Phase cancel modes etc. The key to getting max depth is to pass the receive winding exactly over the center of a deep target so the coils receive points are evenly exposed to the targets field, in the case of a mono loop the whole coil is the receive with the apparent response seeming to come from the center of the coil whereas a DD manifests its response along the line of the cross over points of the windings, but once again the very center is the max signal spot for a deep target. The key is to move the coils receiver evenly and smoothly through the field of a target trying to create a good lead in signal response but more importantly transition smoothly out of the tail of the target signal so the response is recognizable from ground noise etc, generally a deep target well be quite broad relative to coil sweep. Hope this helps JP