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Yesterday my buddy stumbled onto another hot spot at the 1850's site we've been hunting since the beginning of the year and found a Dragoon and an R button along with a really nice rosette. He wasn't able to go out today, but he gave me his blessing to head over and hunt it today. I'm sure he's not to happy about that now ? I got there at 05:30 this morning and right away period items began to come to light, dropped musket ball, pistol ball, percussion cap and a trouser button on the first pass. That's always a good sign when you start to pull some keepers right from the get go. On the next pass, a percussion cap, 2 pulltabs, a pistol ball and then I get a 21-22 on the Nox 800. We seldom get very many items that hit in the 20's except aluminum slaw or deeply buried aluminum cans, most hits are in the 9 to 19 range. I fully expected to dig a piece of trash and was totally unprepared for what came out, when I saw what it was, I just threw it back onto the dirt pile, stood up and started walking around stunned. A major bucket lister that I always wanted to dig, but just never figured I'd ever see come outta the hole, my first Spanish Reale. My goal for the day was to at least dig a Dragoon or maybe another R button. This was the last thing I thought would ever come from this site, I'm still in awe that I was privileged to find such an awesome coin. Somehow I was able to compose myself and continue hunting for another 9 hours and ended up with some excellent relics to add to my display case once I finish hunting this site. I did dig a lead, 1 piece button, my 3rd from here, anyone have any idea if it's period and what it's from? Once again my settings on the Nox 11" coil Sens 23 Recovery 4 Iron bias 0 No disc GB at 3-6 Park 1 2-tones Tone break -9 to +8

Three Dragoon buttons in one day would be unusual by itself, but then you get a (silver) Real on top of it! Nicely done, Dan. You and your friend have a sweet hunting spot, obviously. BTW, the US didn't really convert to US coins exclusively until late 1850's, and that was in the East. Then the Civil War happened.... I'm not downplaying your Spanish coin find, just pointing out that foreign coins circulated freely in the US for the first half of the 19th Century. The fact that Dragoon regiments disappeared just before the CW confirms what you already know -- that your site was occupied prior to that. The Mexican American War (1846-48, which among other 'acquisitions' included today's California) was probably the sweet spot for Dragoon buttons. Could your site be that old?

4 years ago it was sometimes hard to ask a question that might be construed by some as questioning ML products or business. Often required was a preface - "I love my Minelab, but..." in order to get a serious discussion. Today we now have photo montages of instructions on how to hardware hack and bypass their IP security to run a product which has apparantly bypassed their licensing department in a way not so different from some Chinese business practices. Except we do it for them. Things can sure change quick with the prospect of a little better performance. I'm curious, is the DOD design patented too as part of some of their broader GPZ patents? Or is it a gray area? Might that be why they have not gained licensing? If so, is this Russian company doing anything so different than the Chinese do with IP theft? I mean, I'm buying an X Coil too just like a lot of people because there is literally no other option, but as much as we don't hear from Minelab we've heard equally little about this actual Russian company. I mean, I'll do what I please with my GPZ since I paid for it, but still, so many unknowns... Should these things be discussed or are they irrelevant? Absurdity abounds. However, I'm reminded a little of the fight in court here in the US involving farmers against John Deere and the right to modify and repair equipment you purchase, plus have access to firmware and not be locked out of it. We may soon have legislation saying exactly what is and isn't right there, some states I believe already do.

Hello went back to the spot of my latest trench and decided to dig one longer,i left markers last week which were still there on thursday but were gone on Saturday ...........so i left some this time heavy enough that u need a bit of strength to move those rock.......I was equipped with the 9"HF 1 spade ,1 pickaxe and 1 Hodan pick.Weather was ok not too hot. The pickaxe really helped to loosen the compacted gravel,and i think with a bit of practice i will getter better at it.I detected the spoil once out ,and it was very easy with the deus to switch on and off. So i found: -1 Rose farthing -1 Nuremberg token -1 beautiful button from the 4th regiment of the East India Company -1 roman coin -1 strap of some sort probably medieval. I did found anything while refilling the trench(which is good) and i more than happy with the result as i still got 100s of trench to do on that spot but also i am the only one allowed as most of the license holders are scrapping only?.I also found a pretty long clay pipe Enjoy the work out RR

IMO - This one really comes down to personal experience, recovering targets and reinforcing in your brain's muscle memory what the detector was telling you. I can't imagine just learning this by seeing pics of finds next to some sound signature or audio file. Clive Clynick does a good job of trying to provide some general sketches of tone forms for various target types in his Equinox guides, but it is basically generalized. The variability in environmental factors makes approaches to learning tones of limited value.

Would love to try a Nugget finder coil 17x11 on my zed. I went from a 5000 series with an older series nugget finder coil. Great combo and found plenty. But now im going over areas ive already walked over and picking up what I missed. Just wish the standard zed coils are a bit lighter.

It's entirely possible to love one's MineLab detector and disagree the MineLab company-level of customer communication. It doesn't make sense to be so opaque. In the line of business I worked in we tried to provide the answers before the questions needed to be asked because sooner or later trust becomes a big part of the ongoing business equation.

You have been killing it out there!!!! Congrats on your first Spanish silver.

Oh yeah, I forgot, today is my birthday. Officially a senior citizen with Medicare and all the trimmings.

I have never used a detector that has such a problem with a coil cover filling full of dirt and sand.Got tired of having to remove coil cover to clean.It's really bad at the beach, if I'm working just above waterline and a wave comes in and fills my cover full of water and sand, even though it's only a few ounces it feels like 5 lbs. And it's nice after hunting dry sand and putting it in the back of my Jeep and watch sand pour out. Had enough of that. Drilled some 9/64" drain holes in the cover, be sure you take it off the loop first. It will help a lot. Had very little sand after a beach hunt, usually the coil is packed.Since I took this pic, I have drilled 1/4" holes at 12:00 and 6:00, use those for flushing, put the hose to the top hole and let it flow out of the bottom. Don't run the water full blast, unless you wanna get wet.

I was having a relatively slow morning detecting at La Jolla Shores Beach in San Diego today, about $1 in clad and a euro coin when a young woman came up asking for help finding a ring. She was frantic and her husband was second guessing, saying it must be at home and asking when was the last time she saw it? She kept insisting it was here right here, next to the seawall. With just a couple swipes of my Equinox 800/15" coil I had it in the scoop. She was ecstatic and gave me a big hug. I've always dreamt of finding a big expensive engagement ring whilst detecting. I've gotten a few gold bands but nothing like this! I obviously didn't get to keep it, but it seemed to bring some good karma to the day and I found two large silver rings shortly afterward. She insisted on getting my info and address so I might be getting a reward or thank you letter later. Here's a couple pics of the expensive ring, the happy owner and the two silvers I got afterward.

This seller has nearly a half million positive feedbacks. https://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=vette1986&&_trksid=p2047675.l2560&rt=nc&iid=233254189948&sspagename=VIP%3Afeedback&ftab=FeedbackAsSeller I don't believe he got that by selling fakes. As many coins as this seller has seen, I imagine he could spot a fake in the dark. Lastly, it would be hard for me to believe he would risk his reputation on a fake $13.00 quarter.

Man that is the truth. I've seen some pretty amazing gold found by detectorists in CO. High grade stuff worth $100's per gram. Most people are panning for crumbs at parks set aside for the public. There are thousands of abandoned mines well off the beaten path, on unclaimed public land. If I were in northern NM I'd be heading north to do my prospecting.

Yes agree they can. Although I listen to target tones first, VDI second, one thing I noticed is the numbers on a crushed aluminum can or a target with points or angles jump around (from 2 to 29 sometimes) . So even if using only three or two tones, I would want to watch the VDI numbers to see if they remain close with each sweep of the coil. Hopefully a repeatable target.

Yeah there is definitely potential. You do seem to be doing real well in a place a lot of people might not find anything at all. There is always Arizona next door if that fails. Or Colorado if you want a real exploration challenge! CO is probably the most underrated, underexplored terrain in the lower 48 when it comes to detecting. Check out the San Juans though if you want to see some truly awesome mining terrain and history and some of the most underappreciated mountains in the US, depending where you are at in NM it may be quicker to drive to them than other parts of NM. One of these days when I strike it rich, I'll retire in Telluride or Ouray, I love it down there but damn it's expensive.

There are definitely some areas out there underprospected still with lots of wide open space. Especially in a place like NM that isn't exactly a hotbed for prospecting discussion online like some of the more Western states. Places that get mentioned online get way too much attention and then get really hard to prospect. The reason I started learning all this stuff though is because I started out where it appeared every square inch of decent land was claimed since there were only a few known places to find gold near me and years worth of exploration outside those areas ended fruitless. So I went to great lengths to figure out exactly how to map this stuff accurately and find the tiny fragments between the existing claims that I might be able to get a foothold into. When I started panning and later dredging in 2003, there wasn't even a complete copy of General Mining Act of 1872 online anywhere, the best one online was some weird scanned version with lots of artifact errors that was missing the last 5 or 6 paragraphs, and had some other act accidentally scanned in, which people as a result thought was part of the Mining Act. I spent 2 years searching for a copy in a library and finally found one on a trip to Denver, which I hand transcribed and put on an old page of mine that no longer exists, later linked and used on Wikipedia (which itself had been using the incorrect copy until then), and subsequently other sites later copied that one and I'm pretty sure that is the text most use today. It blew my mind that people could be so specifically sure of what they thought was right, yet would link a completely incorrect and incomplete copy of the law they were quoting. I even had guns pointed in my face in a few cases. That's when I realized I couldn't trust what people said on forums and online in general in relation to the law and I had to do my own research. I would recommend the same. Don't even trust what I say.

This one gets a bit stickier. There are lots of skewed or otherwise non-standard sized sections, both larger and smaller. I've seen them up around 720 acres in Nevada, and I've also seen fractional sections (and entire fractional townships) where the sections are like 180 acres total. Usually unless it's someone who knows what they are doing, the person just claims as normal without realizing it. When done with aliquot parts in a larger section this means their claim technically is larger than 20 acres and thus requires 2 people to claim or 2 seperate claims. A lot of times the BLM doesn't catch this, sometimes they do. Sometimes you'll see verbiage on claim papers "this claim contains X acres, more or less" That leaves gray areas where people think they have more claimed than they do. And that leads to an entire 'nother complex discussion about wether that is kosher or not. In other cases people's claims overlie partial private lands or partial private or withdrawn mineral rights. They rarely realize this either. When I write claim papers up in these instances I include the verbiage "excluding any private or withdrawn minerals or surface" and I recalculate my total claim acreage. To answer the 160 acre thing - that can be done in 1 claim, it just requires 8 claimaints (and 8 claim fees). Or 8 seperate claims with one person.

Slick!!

If you don't have it already, here is a PLSS WMS overlay (actually REST but works like WMS) from the BLM. You can download the whole database as a .shp file from their website if you want to import in ArcGIS or something, just Google that one, it's a very large file. https://gis.blm.gov/arcgis/rest/services/Cadastral/BLM_Natl_PLSS_CadNSDI/MapServer/export? These things change or go down from time to time so links have to be relocated. This one is harder to read than the one they had working last year that allowed you to change font sizes. If you find a better one easier to read the T/R/S let me know, I can't get this one to let me increase the font.

Yes, you have to pull the papers from the county recorder or off the location monument in the field. Even then, half the time the people filing the claim seem to not know what they are doing and their location is often impossible to nail down. I can't count how many times I've found lode claims with no tie to the public survey or placer claims using a lode claim form but attempting to still use aliquot parts and making no sense at all. And a thousand variations in between making the claim impossible to locate more accurately. A lot of recorders now have the last 20 years or so of records online, but now some of them are starting to charge for it and require signing up, which in some cases can takes weeks for the ones the require you to mail a form in. You'll want to get a PLSS overlay onto Google Earth or into your GIS program so you can map aliquot parts or tie the claim to the survey and calculate metes and bounds. When you are mapping a ton of claims this makes it way quicker. You'll do all that work and realize a ton of prospectors just go out and play dumb and detect over valid claims until someone says something to them.

Nice work once again...and all the buttons are in excellent shape! The detecting gods are on your side thats for sure lol strick

Congratulations Dan on finding a bucket lister! Amazingly rich site that has yielded consistently to your workings all year.

Congrats Dan - what a great site.

Wow!! Quite a day! Congrats Dan!!

What metal detector company should Minelab imitate? Do we have a better example? Are any of them producing too many great machines at a discount price? Some of us are making lemonade and some of us are just doing business with the tools we have. Until we can become successful alchemists we are living in the age of the best metal detectors ever made. Let's encourage the companies to be even better with the promise of "we'll buy it if you make a better machine. "

One of the things I learned from my trip to Australia is that they, like many Americans like to modify things. I could see this in the cars and equipment and trailers and agricultural machinery. This spirit of modification and innovation has to have come in part from the gold miners coming from all over the world with their own ideas and then adapting to the bush realities. The same thing is happening in WA now and will continue forever. We wonder why there is not 'open source' access to Minelab technology when it seems to have made the computer world bigger and more competitive. I think Minelab might be trying to act more like Apple rather than Android. They are different business models. Apple has few business partners and Android has many. I'd like to have Minelab open up the Z and also make available their next technology. Licensing would be great if China and other knockoff countries would license rather than steal which is the case now. Innovation can also turn into theft and loss of shareholder and company value if protections are not considered. Are they pleased by the Xcoil success? Probably not but with modifications to their existing technology as Phrunt has said it may give a longer life to the Z. Do I think they have an Xcoil on their test benches right now? Yes. Could they make a deal with the Russians? Yes. Will any of these things happen? Who knows.

Sure, trying a competitor coil is what it's all about - having to risk your machine in any way seems odd but I'm all for these x-coils if they are the only game in town.

Initial tests of CC coil vs DD coil on 4bar -0.4%FE3O4 strong mineralization and also 7bar-4%FE3O4 extremely strong mineralization on Tesoro Mojave .. already in progress: First observation: 1. Coil 6x8 "SEF has a little more reach 7-11% in airtest-and ground tested at low and maximum sensitivity.. than 7"CC Precizion coil.. 2. .. I was surprised by the 6X8 "SEF coil with extremely mineralized BlackSand already at the setting of the switch Ground balance to LOW ...- and is extremely silent ..- stable work Standard Concentration 7 "Precizion coil has a problem with debugging GB as well as setting GB to HIGH ..- and sweeping is a sense of cracking, and sometimes false signals from the ground. it is independent of detector sensitivity setting ... and virtually makes it impossible to detect normally in this black sand test ... 3. Practical deep tests on various subjects show a little more deep range in the 6x8 "SEF coil, and "+ " ..has a "wider" / 7-8cm / maximum signal detection window = easier and more powerful detection. On a concentric 7 "precizion, you have a "point"-to-detection window - you need to get it to the target very accurately to detect it. 4. DD Coil 6X8 "Sef Extremely Fast Separate Objects Leading Each Other Coil 7 "precizion has a much worse side target separation here. 5 .. more details about the test write later and divide this test into: A. ranges and both coils in airtest, and in low mineralized terrain. B.testing coils for deep detection on 4Bar liapor mineralization, C.Testing and reach of the same objects at 7bar Black sand -extreme Mineralization .. 6.Optimal setting of the Tesoro Mojave detector to the conditions - and the effect of the setting on the detection ..

Thats the problem no competition, they locked it all up with Patents

I suspect trying to look at this from MLs view, if they were to make a "patch lead" they`d be leaving themselves open to warranty claims for damage done to the GPZ caused by an incompatible coil. Anyone could then knock up a coil and put on the Z. It would open a whole can of worms, I know this is so with the GPXs but they may have the ability to be not damaged by an incompatible coil wheras the GPZ being the 1st of new tech (ZVT) may not have this ability and thus suffer damage. I don`t think we will get that peace of mind and those of us who go for the X coil should be prepared to shoulder that risk themselves, as you know I`ve gone for the X coil with my 3rd in the mail, but to me the rewards are worth this risk. That old saying comes to mind "if you take the risk be prepared to push the pram" No doubt ML have Z2 in the pipeline and perhaps it will address the issue that we the customer want a variety of coils. An Explainer: I spent 20 years of my working life manufacturing and selling a then niche product, the most 5 year warranty claims I had by far were caused by user misuse and were easily solved most just by telephone conversation.

if Minelab is not interested in selling any other aftermarket coils for our zed's then they are missing the boat not selling us overpriced security chip enabled adaptors from technology already developed so we can buy from other vendors.

FWIW.... I haven't seen a coin like this posted in any MD forum....at least not yet. It was a zinc signal 20-21 about 4-5" deep.

So what's new? Sorry Paul.

You my friend, have issues.

sdbirder Don’t that make you feel good all over to give back something that could have been lost forever for them ? The best part about this hobby is doing the right thing and seeing their face when you find what they lost. Chuck

(NOTICE: No gold found on this outing. Read on only if you enjoy hearing about the adventure.) Deep Canyon Ghost CampWe’d heard rumours, but we’d never followed up on the information . . .We were told to head down the logging road until we saw a large area off to the left side that had a designated winter pull-out for vehicle parking. After we’d found the spot, we were supposed to check the forest behind the pull-out for an old trail, and by following the trail, it would lead us down the mountain into a steep canyon where the Old Timers had taken out lots of chunky gold, and all of their work was done by hand as the gold was shallow to bedrock; shallow diggings, the Old Timer’s bread, butter, and cream. Furthermore, there was supposed to be an old cabin where a highly successful miner had been found dead. His body was discovered during the deep winter snows, and only located weeks after he’d died, but his cache had never been found. So, it seemed like a good spot to investigate.We grabbed a couple of detectors, some bear spray, a flare gun with bear bangers, some sniping tools, a couple of pans, and off we went.Not far into the trees we found an old cabin, but it wasn’t quite old enough for the stories we’d been told, but it did have some cool items in it; however, there were no other structures, and we’d been told there were “cabins”.We carried on, picking up the thread of the trail, but we got crossed by some deadfall. Working our way through, we were soon on our way downslope. In short order, the steep trail dropped in pitch even more, and the surrounding forest was extremely quiet, which was unexpected.We were in an area of dense growth, but no buildings were visible anywhere. As we rounded a bend in the trail, we saw a collapsed roof, and under the roof, the drooping remains of a log structure. Off to the right at about a 45-degree angle, there was a building that had obviously been a workshop at one time, as lots of cast off materials and machinery parts surrounded it.In front of us, right off the trail to our left, was an old root cellar, and someone had been digging behind it, throwing out all of the old cans and bottles. To our immediate right was a building and part of the roof was beginning to collapse. What was interesting is that under an intact portion, there were still many cords of cut firewood.As the steepness of the descent increased, we came upon a large, long log building, one that had been re-roofed in more modern times. To elaborate a bit, the cuts of the logs where they were fitted at the ends had been beautifully done by some master builder in the past. Those logs were securely locked; it was built to weather any kind of severe force. To the left of the long building, there was a house, the roof over the porch collapsing, and when we went inside for a peek, someone had done a lot of work to cover the rooms in every ceiling with tin, and that was curious.After poking around the surrounding buildings for a while, and after snapping some pictures, we worked our way along the edge of the cliffs to get down to the creek.One of the first things we noticed was a hand-stacked rock wall on the opposite side, one expertly crafted on the bedrock of the creek to rise up to then intersect the cliff face. Someone went to a lot of work to stabilize that spot.Visible above the rock wall and the cliff were countless hand-stacks of cobbles, evidence of the gold rush where the miners were working the shallow diggings to get to the easy placer. (Later on, we met a modern-day miner, and he told us there were lots of nuggets recovered in the two to three-ounce range!) As the canyon was so steep, and due to the shallow deposits, it had never been worked by mechanized mining.My son fired up his detector and set off to see what he could find.While he was hunting for targets, I set up to provide over-watch: we were after all in the land of the grizzly and the black, as well as the territory of the cougar.As luck would have it, there were no encounters with apex predators, and it was a beautiful afternoon with the forest lit by golden shafts of soft sunlight that filtered down from high overhead. However, the normal symphony of mountain songbirds was absent, as were any signs of hummingbirds or butterflies, all my normal companions while chasing placer. In addition, no mountain flowers were present, reflecting the scanty soil conditions of the canyon.As I kept watch, I moved around and noticed that every place there was any kind of a gut or a draw the miners had tossed out the cobbles to reach the bedrock bottom. In fact, I couldn’t find one place where they hadn’t excavated any likely-looking spot. Furthermore, as I looped above the area where my son was working, I came across numerous trash pits with all kinds of interesting old cans and containers, rusted evidence of either former food or fuel needs.My son called me down to the creek where he’d isolated a target underwater, but it turned out to be a small part of an old square nail, which for whatever reason always sounds off like a good find on the pulse machine. He kept digging the rest of the afternoon and recovered countless trash targets: square nail tips and sections; intact square nails of various sizes; bits of can-slaw; a chunk of punch-plate; various pieces of wire of differing compositions; as well as chunks of lead, etc.What he didn’t find was any gold, but that’s the way it goes in the nugget hunting game; buckets of trash get dug before the gold gets found. In retrospect, I don’t even know how many buckets of trash I dug before I found my first nugget, and I think that’s what kills most beginning nugget shooters. They give up after the first palm-full of trash or sooner. Nugget hunting requires serious dedication and patience, but when that first sassy nugget is finally in the palm, there’s nothing like it, nothing.We gathered up our gear, took a few more pictures of the cabins and buildings on our way out, and then hit the switchbacks as we slogged our way up out of that silent canyon.We will go back, but with a different focus this time. We’ll move some hand-stacks from some likely looking spots to give the underlying, undetected bedrock a sniff. I mean, two to three-ounce nuggets? Something had to have been missed in a crack somewhere . . .All the best,Lanny

Granted, our beaches are relatively low in mineralization where I normally hunt. But since all beaches are different, my simple reasoning is this; if sand isn’t supposed to be there, I want it outta there. ?

I don’t know that the Nox IS as affected like older model machines. Here in Fl of course we don’t have nearly the minerals. Like I said that accusation of sand in the cross arms doesn’t really affect the detector unless it moves separate from the detector.

How can I make a dredge for fossils. I don't want the fossils to go through the pump. I haven't bought anything yet...just using bucket classifiers and its painfully slow with all the blue & purple clay and leaves. We are on a small creek that runs through a swamp in South Carolina. Right now we are just going through piles of excavator dirt from the creek bottom but would like to get into the hand size teeth in the creek bottom. We are considering just using an excavator and a gas powered preasure washer to wash the fossils off the clay. Any help would save me time and money. Thanks?

I suggest you start to drill your holes from the inside of the cover. That way there's no ridges left on the inside to impede the flow of water. Just the view from my foxhole...

Here is a photo of how I modified the coil cover on my EQX 800. Works fine for me on our Florida beaches. One swipe in the water and the sand flushes out.

Deep 1, I've been drilling numerous holes in my coil cover for years and, like you said, it works fine and the coil itself is still protected. After years of hunting the beaches, I found that with a solid coil cover, no matter how well you try and seal them, salt water and sand gets in there. The real problem comes from the indisputable fact that once in there, the sand has no way to get out thus the problem. After I drilled holes in the cover, the water flushes out the sand and I'm good to go. When I get home and remove the coil cover, I find there's only a few isolated grains of sand left...not nearly enough to cause any problems whatsoever.

Cutting a small portion ...1” long off the back bottom without cutting the side works for water hunting. You can dunk the coil up and down in the water and it will drain out the back.

wise words being said by phrunt! I don't worry at all what happens after end of warranty as Minelab is a company that wants to keep their customers happy. I had my SDC2300 sent in and it took a loooong time + 3 months. I have to say it wasn't Minelab's problem. The German importer caused the delay. Minelab in Ireland was real fast and a pleasure to deal with. That was the reason for me to purchase a Nox 800 instead of a DEUS. I fully trust Minelab and their products. I can't really say how much fun I have with my Nox 800. I hope there is my first bit of gold with a MD left in California.......

It helps to minimize falsing and I can run run at a higher sensitivity. It adds to my detector comfort, before the coil would pack with wet sand and add noticeable weight to the coil, now I don't tire a fast.

Hi Goldpick, ran your buckle past a group of experts that hunt the California goldfields and hunt primarily for tongue and wreath buckles. No one is familiar with this one, but the concensus is that it is not American, but most likely Mexican, notice what appears to be cactus below the eagle. In addition, this style of buckle, as do most tongue and wreath buckles, pre-date the American Civil War, and in our goldfields in California are most commonly associated with pre 1860 sites. Perhaps that buckle has some association with the late 1840s Mexican-American War. If I learn more, I'll let you know.