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Showing content with the highest reputation on 09/01/2019 in all areas

  1. WE HAVE WINNERS See post 47 for the results. This is a terrific spot to hang out and learn about the hobby and everyone here is so nice and helpful it’s feels almost like family and in the spirit of just having good family fun I wanted to propose another give away. Ridgerunner has done this a few times I think and it’s a lot of fun for everyone. So, digging through stuff and I have this little kiln my wife bought a while back for refining gold scrap, I picked it out because I thought just about everyone on this forum might want to have this and really what could be a better fit on a gold related forum, OK gold but I don’t have much of that to give away. It’s an electronically temperature controlled electric kiln made by Kerr called an automatic electro melt, I believe has a 1kg graphite crucible that will fire automatically to just over 2000 f. This is an older model, I haven’t tried it yet but don’t think she used it more than a couple of times. I didn’t see this exact model on eBay but the 3 kg ones they were selling for around $800. i was thinking something simple and easy, the escrow closes on the house I just sold on September 30th, and if you would like to win this little gold scrap refining kiln just add your name to this thread with “I want this or something similar” and every entry I get prior to mid nite September 29th I’ll put in a hat and draw the winner. I’m going to limit my free shipping to the lower 48, but if you are outside the 48 and want to play that’s fine you’ll just have to cover the shipping due to the cost. I’ll do the drawing as soon after the 29th as I can and post the results as soon as possible, good luck. I realized the way I worded my contest entry it sounds like there should be a second place, “or something similar” ok I’m going to include the little pen plating system Steve was so kind to provide the video information for. Looks like the chemicals I had pictured with it in the earlier post are for something else and shipping chemicals is problematic, so no chemicals are included but I see all the cables and clips with the main unit and the power adaptor, the glass is in good condition and there is a little bag with felt tips. I just did a test with the little gold refining kiln and it turns on and I can feel the chamber getting hot on the outside but the controls are not responding like they should. it may need hopefully something minor the instructions suggest a couple of things, no doubt parts are available the company is still around and if nothing else still good source of material for a dyi kiln. Because of this I am including in first place with the kiln a 1900 Morgan silver dollar no mint mark, pictured along side the little kiln to make up for not checking first. UPDATE You can still buy the plating solution online, I’m not sure how to ship chemicals and don’t want to commit to paying a lot to do so but if we can arrange it some how I’ll include the factory sealed quart of plating 14 KY Bright acid plating solution I have should keep it in gold for a little while.
    8 points
  2. With yesterday being fathers day I went down to my claim with my dad. Targeted the same spot as last time where I got 3.2g in an hour. This time we spent almost 4hrs and did a huge amount of digging but only managed to find 1.2g. Including a little specimen, which is a bit more rare for that area.Such is life, golden day out with dad though.
    5 points
  3. Might get in touch with me when you get down there. You helped me get started in jade prospecting a few years back when I was trying to learn what to look for by sending me a nice jade sample and that was a big help, I went from guessing to knowing exactly how to test and look for stuff with that sample. This summer the company I optioned my jade prospects to just exercised the option to buy me out, so that was all a success and I'm able to use that money to get back to the field full time prospecting again. I appreciate your help when I was starting out. Now, I have a new gold project in the vicinity of SNV, and another guy associated with the jade stuff might be out on that one too and might be someone to meet if you are still doing jade stuff in China. I'm unsure of what I can and cannot say at this point though due to non-disclosure clauses so I may not be able to take anyone out to the project until it's completed, but who knows, maybe there is a good connection to be made if so. Also, if you happen to be in Wyoming before then for travel or whatever, I can show you what will be one of the two first new commercial jade exploration projects in the lower 48 in probably 4 or 5 decades.
    3 points
  4. Art, We aren’t that far behind you! But, looking at Northern Nevada...over all cooler in the Summer and plenty of Prospecting and close enough to head over the hill to my old haunts. Rick
    3 points
  5. Just having completed the project, I decided to do a quick check to see if the increase in voltage is worth out time, simple air test would lean towards a yes vote. Should mention that this design requires the use of the flat Panasonic cells without any protection circuit. So I use a smart charger that will not over charge cells and I'll check to see how long the 4 x 18650 pack lasts before it requires fresh cells. Yes this design allows me to carry fresh cells and swap out when required in the field. I managed to retain the original White's battery holder cover. No smoke or issues were present when using the 4 cell pack, seems to handle the extra voltage without issue. I did a quick air test comparing the Orange 3 x 18650 pack with the modified 4 x 18650 pack. Finally compared the results with a Tdi Pro using the same coil. Tdi SL with gain a max, conductivity in all, pulse delay at 10, frequency in the middle. Using Super Pulse 220 coil. 12.38 volt gave 6cm on 1 grain ingot, 24cm on 0.5 gram gold coin, 32cm on gold Half Sovereign, 27 cm on US Quarter. 16.48 volt gave 8cm on 1 grain ingot, 26cm on 0.5 gram gold coin, 35 cm on gold Half Sovereign, 30 cm on US Quarter. Tdi Pro gave 8cm on 1 grain ingot, 27cm on 0.5 gram gold coin, 36 cm on gold Half Sovereign, 33 cm on Us Quarter. Must mention Tdi Pro had gain set a 5 whilst the SL was on MAX... All the best, Karelian
    3 points
  6. I don't need to say much here, other than the White's 24K Gold Detector performed as expected for me. Here is his story. Boise, Idaho 8/22/2019 "To Whom It May Concern: This past Saturday I was helping a co-worker build a fence in his yard. Several hours into the project we stopped for a break. I pulled off my gloves and walked to my water bottle. No more than 30 seconds had passed since taking off my gloves when I noticed a weight differential on the hand where I wear a custom, 1 ounce Gold nugget ring, made in Alaska and given to me by my Grandfather after graduating from college. He has since passed away. The ring, a token of the affection he had for me. Upon realizing the ring was not on my finger a fear coursed through my whole body. Maybe you know it. It's the feeling you get when you lose your wallet or any other valuable possession. It is a horrible feeling. The ring had come off of my sweaty hand when I pulled it from the glove. I immediately let my friend know it was gone. Also helping with the fence were his son and neighbor. We spent the next 3 hours on our hands and knees searching. The search quadrant where I had been was not big. We were incredulous at being unable to find it. At the end of the 3 hour search, I gave up and started mentally preparing myself for the loss. Needless to say, I could not rationalize or minimize the loss away and I was feeling beyond terrible. I started going over what I would tell family members when they most certainly would ask why I was not wearing the family heirloom, which I never take off. At this point my friends son suggested I call an expert (Gerry) who he found doing a simple google search for "metal detectors," to consult on what the best course of action would be. I was not optimistic. My thought was, if 4 people searching for 3 hours in a small area could not find it, then who could? Nonetheless I called Gerry. Right away I could tell by the questions he was asking he knew what he was talking about. I scheduled a time later that day for him to come over with his equipment and perform a targeted search. To me, this was akin to throwing up a "hail mary." Fast forward two hours and Gerry arrived. Right off the bat I could tell he was a good person. He showed empathy, explained his process, went over the area with me, got a description of the ring and went to work. A small spark of hope was ignited. No more than 15 minutes later HE FOUND IT! To say I was ecstatic and overcome with joy does not even come close to describing the elation. After giving Gerry a bear hug and attempting to express my thanks verbally, the ring was safely back on my finger. We visited for another 15-20 minutes, getting to know one other. Gerry gave me advice on how to prevent this happening in the future, which I have already implemented. I imagine all this situations are different and have their own set of challenging variables but in my case Gerry came through for me and in extension, my family. My thanks to him in unending and I will not forget the service he provided. Of the many takeaways I gathered from the situation, perhaps the most salient point is, there are professionals out there who know what they are doing and can help in this sort of a situation. If you lose something, don't just write it off or give up hope. Don't struggle on your own. Give Gerry a call and consult with him. His personal and business integrity are unflappable and he will give it to you straight. If anyone would like to learn more about my experience, feel free to email at my personal email address, XXXXXXX. Thanks, Gerry! Words alone do justice to communicate my gratitude. "
    2 points
  7. My wife and I talk occasionally of leaving California for pastures more green or gold or even desert grey as the case may be and decided to do it this time instead of just talking about it.The decision did have an unpleasant catalyst of sorts to push us over the edge a surprise letter from the county assessor letting me know that a mistake in the valuation of my home was not in my favor (depending on how you look at it) and the result was around a 1200 percent increase in my assessed valuation and a tax bill for 2 years due in two installments that made me feel a little sick at first, now that I've had a little time to adjust and have a contract from a buyer on a piece of property I own Im all over the shock and am really looking forward to living a lot closer to what i hope are some decent hunting grounds a lot closer to me then it was living in the south San Francisco bay area. Only thing is after hunting nuggets since the zed came out I've got a nice little database of places I like to hunt and ill sort of be starting over except my skills should be slightly better than when I first started doing the beep, beep beep. Im looking forward to joining some of the local clubs and having the opportunity to get in some decent day hunts something just a little to distant for me right now and ive also wanted to check out some claims I have access to in Arizona, and haven't because they are just to far away now. Be fun to have a real chance to find a little space debris too, a bucket list item for sure id like to check of in my book. Ive always thought northern Nevada would be my choice but seems my wife wants the big city life and Las Vegas is her preference so I guess Im now in love with the idea of being a Las Vegas area resident if I know what's good for me, LOL. actually anyplace I can find some decent nugget hunting will work fine and wow the housing market in the Las Vegas area is something to behold coming from the California Bay area so that's a giant plus and the tax advantages are huge with no state income tax and lower property taxes. Its going to be HOT 4 month out of the year and I figure that'll be mostly indoor air conditioned time, but who knows there may be days I can tough it out and any advice from those been there is much appreciated as to this point I've only been a short term visitor and I know some adjusting will happen, in fact i was just reading a thread on the brown recluse spider that's not something here in the Bay area in California to worry about, they seem more a problem than the Black Widow I'm familiar with. If you lived there and hated it I like to know and the same if you loved it the coordinates of your favorite patches and placers would also be very helpful... 😎
    2 points
  8. I have that coil, and use it. I also have the 8 x 6 NF Sadie. I think the Sadie is just slightly more sensitive, though they're very close. YMMV. I prefer to use the 7 1/2DF, however. Just like swinging it. Recently I acquired an MJ 8 x 12, which is very hard to find since MJ got burned out in the Paradise fire last summer. This is a great coil on the SL model, and maybe the others. For tight spaces, and working around brush, I recommend either the small DF, or the Sadie, whichever you can find the cheapest. I'd like to find one of the 7 1/2 Aussie mono versions to test, too. You'll have to install some spacers on the Sadie to use it with the S:L lower rod. Jim
    2 points
  9. Welcome History Surfer from SoCal. Paddled into few myself. When I was in the line up, I would see the older guys (dudes, lol!) on the sand MDing. Back then I thought to myself, when I get old and can no longer surf, I’m going to try metal detecting. Boy did old come fast! Lol! May you find the gold and the “Green Room” many times over. Good luck!
    2 points
  10. A buddy of mine and I went to whiskey run yesterday and did some diggin.... Man it was a hot day on the beach especially with no breeze. Anyway Whiskey run has a pretty rich mining history both inland and on the beach. There were a couple inland mines close by as well One of which was a chromium mine. The beach placer that was discovered was a huge black sand lense.. The actual production is a little unclear but let it be said it was very lucrative until a south wester pacific storm hit and completely change the beach... Mining was halted after that. While a few still hit the area it is not easy work since most are now working the Whiskey run creek. The gold is fair with an occasional picker which is almost unheard of for beach mining ... I haven't cleaned up the cons yet but will let you all know how I did after running about 20 gallons of sand. Meanwhile here are some pics of the area.... Whiskey run is about 10 miles north of Bandon , Oregon. The first image is from Google maps and in the bottom right corner you can see the coordinates if you want to look into this further.
    2 points
  11. Fred, believe me I am, she swears on a stack of errr.., something very important culturally I'm sadly unfamiliar with "the last house I ever want to live in." nice,, but smaller... less expensive😁, simpler is the one she likes👍
    2 points
  12. Took my AT Pro out in the water and didn't have too much so I hit an area near where I found some flying eagles and came across these. IH is 1881, the nickel is a shield 1866. Will hit that area more this fall when the undergrowth is down more, same with the water as the weeds were too thick to swing.
    2 points
  13. Welcome aboard History Surfer. Check out the Equinox forum and you will find a few Cali natives over there. I grew up in San Diego but live in Virginia now. Enjoy that detector, it is a great one.
    2 points
  14. The 24k sends 54% more power to the coil than did the GMT. To accomplish this employs wiring to all 5 of the pin connectors for the 24k coils, whereas the GMT coil only uses wires to 4 pins. Which is why the GMT coils cannot be used on the 24k. Also, all that extra power requires more precise positioning of the internal coil wires within the loop, as well as improved shielding (so I am told). When "Spud Digger" Rob and I tested the first-generation 6x4 prototype at "Diamondville" June 1, we found it worked exceedingly well at mid-range gain settings, but at a gain of 9 it began to overload. We informed White's, and were advised that the engineers would solve the issue. This is essential prior to final FCC testing, which is HIGHLY expensive, and time-consuming. This is all I know at present. HH Jim
    2 points
  15. I got just over 500 bits with my 24K in 3 months. All on ground Ive hammered with various Goldmasters, a Gold Bug 2 and GMT. Got a Gold Monster...tried it for a week....hated it. Got the 24K and never regretted it. The new XGB ground balancing system, coupled to that amazing 6" concentric coil is a real winner. Itching to get back into it once the weather improves and my shoulder fully heals after surgery. I just really need that 6x4DD to maximize the areas I can search effectively. Still waiting......
    2 points
  16. Hi guys and thanks for the comments, the area I am using the 800 in is strewn with horrible hot rocks and patches of highly mineralized soil and is called the San Domingo placer district. I like this area and it is great for seeing what a detector "can do" in some difficult ground. Now about the video, thank you for all the comments and advice and I truly appreciate it and so far my videos on the Equinox 800 have been designed for folks new to this little beast and I do indeed switch to all metal in parts of this video to sharpen the target as phrunt has mentioned in his very helpful comment. As I use this detector more my videos will also reflect this and I will show some more advanced settings (as I too learn) I have been a hard core nugget shooter since 1991 or so and I too am new to and amazed by this detectors abilities in the goldfields and am having a lot of fun finding nuggets with it and find it to be much more capable than I expected. I am actually now falling in love with this little beast and trying to learn all it many secrets so all input is very welcome! Thank you Steve for posting some of my videos and thank you Mitchell for giving me a heads up there was a conversation about it. So in the video yes I am using stock Gold 1 with sensitivity at 18 or 19 and auto tracking. I have tried Gold 2 a little at the same placer area, but it struggled some with the ground so I settled on Gold 1. I am trying post videos as I learn to help folks new to this detector be able to "turn on and go" and be able to have a great chance at scoring a nugget or two and I think Minelab has done well with Gold 1 for this purpose. Those that have commented here I know most all of and have met several (respect all) and really appreciate the kind words and I guess I just feel it is time to share some of what I have learned in almost 30 years to give some of the new folks a boost. Good hunting, Bill
    2 points
  17. The Minelab SD2200D was the first Minelab PI model I really used a lot. I tripped over this old photo from 2000 of me and my SD2200D taken by Jeff Reed. I am pointing at the location where I found a nice 8 pennyweight (20 pennyweight per ounce) nugget. This was high in the Wrangell Mountains of Alaska. Steve's points to where nugget was found
    1 point
  18. I finally got round to panning off the gold I recovered from that Tarnagulla speci I got a couple of years ago and ended up with 13.76 grams out of it. A bit disappointing, I was hoping it was going to be closer to the ounce, but the good news is I got nearly half an ounce out of that piece. the first pic is the Tarnagulla speci, and the 2nd pic is the gold I recovered from it. I don`t have a lot of gold but I have wanted to make a ingot for a long time. I watched a heap of youtube clips about melting gold and then had a go at making a furnace. The first furnace was not a great success and the butane burners just didn`t cut it and then I came up with this one and bought the Bernzomatic TS8000 Torch Kit. Fortunately I had the fire bricks from a project from a couple of years ago and i already had all the tools I needed. If I had a 2 1/4" inch hole saw I probably would have used that, but I had a 2½" hole saw so that had to do. One of my friends suggested the the flame should probably swirl around the cauldron so in that 3rd pic you can see I have offset the burner but I saw the heat was pretty well being lost straight away. I drilled a ½" hole in another block and put it over the 2½" hole and that`s when the magic happened. For about the first minute NOTHING happened but then all a sudden a fierce flame leapt out of the ½" chimney. You can`t see it in the photo but the flame coming out the chimney was spinning like a tornado. I could stand above it and look down through the hole and was able to watch the gold melt. From when I lit the torch to when I poured the ingot no more the 10 minutes passed. 31.74 grams of pieces went in, 31.6 grams came out. My first ingot and I am very happy with the furnace. All I needed was couple of fire bricks, a hand saw, the burner, ½" drill and 5/8" drill, the hole saw and a cheap gold melting kit I bought on ebay for about 20 bucks.
    1 point
  19. This has been picked up in the news lately by several outlets. Great story. Silver is great and all but I am more interested in the fact that the one of the detectorist is rocking the Equinox mounted on an "S" shaft and it looks pretty cool. So, just thought I would start up the ol' S-Shaft/Straight Shaft debate again. Apparently, the only conclusion you can come to is that the S shaft is better for finding silver hordes. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7413021/Seven-detectorists-stumbled-5m-ancient-coins-Somerset-field-JILL-FOSTER-joins-them.html
    1 point
  20. Was a rough week at work and needed to unwind. Have been metal detecting when I could since my vehicle accident in April. Today me and my wife went to a place I secured permission to earlier this year. Not been able to get there until today. The grass was grown up about 3 inches here and I broke out my Tekentics T2 factory coil. It SUCKED. Skipped right over the 1963 quarter in the photo below. I could not believe it when I dug this one. That silver was beautiful. The Cors Shrew is no joke. This little coil has made me very happy. Went on to find a 1939 mercury dime and 1951 rosie silver dime! This is the most silver I've found in the last 16 yrs. The only other silver I found was back in 2003 and it was a single worn mercury dime. I also found a couple buttons, a 1944 or 1945 nickel and a 1926 wheat penny. I love my Teknetics T2SE. It's an amazing piece of equipment. With that Cors coil, it's a beast. Worth every penny.
    1 point
  21. Finally had a good sized nugg turn up for me. Hunted Fri. and Sat. over near Helena and drug up 8 pieces but I lost one little dink so only 7 in totals pic. Definitely did the happy dance and still can't believe I finally stumbled onto a big one!!!! Enjoy!
    1 point
  22. The Equinox will also give you lots of options for settings and adjustments that help determine what you hear and what you see on the screen (if you can see it submerged!!) which can help give you hints about your target's identity. Excal is tone only for all possible target identification information. So, like Chase said, your hunting style and preferences matter. Do you like tone ID more or visual ID or if you are like me, do you like all the information you can get! Jeff
    1 point
  23. Jim Thanks so much for the offer but I have one and like you said it is a great coil . I’m just wanting to know what other coils may have to offer without having to buy everyone. Chuck
    1 point
  24. I’m one that likes to give credit to one where credit is due . I want you to know that I didn’t post the pictures of both detectors . Steve done that and by doing so gave my post more meaning. I thank you and I know it’s not the first time you’ve done that for me . Chuck
    1 point
  25. Chuck, hardly know what to say except thanks for the very kind words. Any time you are down there, well you know...
    1 point
  26. In air tests, the Sadie is better. But in my in-the-ground tests on a 1 gram piece of nickel at 6", and a 1.84 gram piece at 10", they're really close, if that helps. Jim
    1 point
  27. I hope someone takes Clark under their wing in Nevada.... it wont take long before he shares right back with you... He is a very "giving" prospecting partner willing to exchange info......good luck over there buddy! strick
    1 point
  28. Yep, auto ground balanced and tracking on in gold mode, auto ground balanced in park mode. Sensitivity has little effect. I've lowered it to under 10 and the knocking didn't go away. I assumed dealing with the knocking was the better choice.
    1 point
  29. Where do you live, I am just outside of Kalispell?
    1 point
  30. That is also a good question. That is why I really recommend that ML put a statement out explaining what is going on so that people can be aware and informed of any vulnerabilities.
    1 point
  31. My experience is that knock sensitivity occurs if the manual or auto GB reading is high. I first noticed then when I started using the Equinox in highly mineralized ground that forced the GB number high (you can't necessarily make a direct correlation to the GB number and the level of mineralization, but in this case, I knew that the ground was mineralized). Anyway, I noticed coil bump sensitivity whenever I hit a corn stalk. In fact, I could just shake the coil in the air and get noise due to the coil vibration. I thought I had a coil problem, but when I switched to a mode that had GB at the 0 default setting the bump sensitivity went away. I lowered the GB setting manually on the mode I was using (I believe it was Field 2) and the bump sensitivity went away. I subsequently noticed that the "2" modes (Park 2/Field 2) and Gold mode were most sensitive to this phenomenon, which makes sense because these are the "hottest" (most powerful) modes, also. So, similar to what phrunt was driving at, see if lowering the GB setting makes a difference. Unfortunately, if you need to keep GB set where it is for optimal GB you may be stuck, but perhaps you can try running at default GB (in Multi IQ) of 0 or at least a manually set lower GB setting and see what happens because the Equinox in Multi IQ is pretty good at compensating for a less than ideal ground balance. HTH
    1 point
  32. Awesome, thank you Jim 😊
    1 point
  33. Since the WM08 isn’t water proof anyways, provision for 1/4 plug would of been nice. The proprietary water proof plug is kind of an annoyance, but inline with what other manufacturers are doing. The price they charge for the “official” head phone adapter is pretty ludicrous, even though it is pretty high quality, I wonder how much it would of affected the price just to through one in with the detector.
    1 point
  34. Just to prove I never win anything in contests....add my name.😁
    1 point
  35. My cup run over with Treasure mags so I’m thinking we could have more than one winner. Chuck
    1 point
  36. So got back out to my one nugget producing spot here in VA, this past Saturday. Four of us in total went I was swinging the GPX4800 with the 15x12 commander mono coil, my buddy was swinging my equinox 800 with stock coil, and my two other friends (the ones who originially found this place), were swing the GPX5000 with a 11 commander DD coil. In total i got 4 nice nuggets for the day, the GPX5000 got 2 and the equinox 800 unfortunately got skunked. Biggest nugget was 2.3 grams, smallest was 6 grains. I also got a steel ball that came from a civil war case shot shell. All three detectors ready to go for the next days planned adventure. Fording the high creek water to get to the detecting area. Collapse mine shaft. Case Shot Case shot second pic Dirt gold right out of the ground All cleaned up and purty On the detectors coil All the trash dug in the search for gold. 100+ pieces. I got some good video footage so i should have a video up in the next few days.
    1 point
  37. I like detective stories and detective work is a big part of serious detecting. Whether it is in researching prospective sites or finding out about what you just pulled out of the ground. Let us know how it turns out. And maybe you want to post it in some of the general finds forums so you can get input from non-Equinox users too.
    1 point
  38. Published on Jul 22, 2019 by Bill Southern. “I am kind of liking the Minelab Equinox 800 for gold nugget hunting as I use it more. It has some abilities the other VLF detectors out there do not have and man will it hear tiny targets as well as large. I am using stock settings for GOLD 1 in this video and will go into more later on various tweaks. I recommend the 6 inch coil when out for gold nuggets as it is much more sensitive and the smaller size helps with the highly mineralized soils of the Southwestern goldfields. In this video I am using STOCK Gold 1 settings with auto track and sensitivity at around 19. So let's go see if we can score a nugget....”
    1 point
  39. I sent a picture to one online. He just happens to be Navajo. He gave me an idea that many of the heishi beads can be purchased from a couple of wholesalers. This would make some sense as they do require some handling to make them uniform. I looked and the beads are sold by the string. I could find lots of that stuff at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show that I've been to a couple of times. I looked up the process of making the beads and I was surprised but I guess it was something that was developed by the trading Indians in the southwest for a few hundred years. The techniques have now been shifted to Asia so while natural substances are used the raw materials are available through dealers. The most helpful guy told me about stabilizing the mother of pearl. He said that it would normally not be flat but it is taken in thin sheets off a shell and then glued to a backing that makes it flat. I guess those components can be purchased separately also. The parts of this necklace are quite nice. That is what makes it 'stand out' from a lesser piece. I could see the maker asking a premium for it if the story is told properly. Zuni jewelry is much the same. The maker makes a lot of difference in the look and the value.
    1 point
  40. Only 7 antennas? I got you, Minelab, already obsoleted the competition for you. I put antennas on the antenna. Beat that, know it all scientists! Also massive increased sensitivity to diamonds and meatloaf sandwiches by invoking the imagery of a half donkey/half falcon drawing shooting a plasma beam from it's beak. And only I offer the official flag of Burkina Faso on my products. Finally, in a market first, after 17 years of painstaking research I've finally perfected flame imagery on the handle.
    1 point
  41. Phoenix, That beautiful/ugly specimen ended up producing almost a half ounce of gold for you. You enjoyed the hunt, enjoyed the find with a shitty grin when digging it up and now you learned how to make your own gold bars. Detecting is one of the most enjoyable hobbies out there. Keep it up and thanks for sharing.
    1 point
  42. 6" round coil to get better target separation in the yard full of iron nails. Signal Strength and a hard Positive reading. It was 25' from where he thought he lost it. Took me about 15 minutes. It was the 2nd signal I thought could be it. The other was a brass sprinkler. He did offer a small reward. I always try to gain a potential hunt site when doing these.
    1 point
  43. For me it traveling through farmland and fields of corn for miles. (relic hunter) . The only gold I hunt is through my eyes and this site. So yes, would like to see pictures of your travels to the gold. Pic is of one of my permissions, hunt the field borders until harvest then the fields.
    1 point
  44. Hi All, I'm new to detecting and this group. Have only been out a few times myself looking for coins/relics/jewellery etc. I'm a bit of a shed tinkerer and decided to knock up some picks from old leaf springs from a LandCruiser. Made two different sizes. One for my older son and one for my girl. Thought I would share them with you guys. I was pretty stocked with them! Cheers PS. They do not look like this anymore... I didn't want to get them dirty at first. They were almost mounted on the wall! hahaha
    1 point
  45. Hey Guys, Being a dealer for over 20 years, I have to tell you, Bill is one dealer with a lot of integrity. I have known Bill forever and he is only down the road as we would say. In this business, it seems typical that most dealers find each other as competitors rather than friends. I have to say, Bill and I are long time friends and dealers selling pretty much the same products. We have never had our issues, he does his thing, I do mine. There is enough business out there for both of us to do well and even support and work together. There are times when both of us relied on one another to make sure our own customers were able to get a product in a timely manner. No question, Bill makes great informational type videos on many detectors such as the Minelab Equinox series and Gold Monster 1000. It's great we have people like Bill that are willing to help inform and educate the public about this great hobby of metal detecting and prospecting for gold. Keep doing what you are doing Bill! P.S. Save me a nugget or two out there at San Domingo if you would. Rob Allison
    1 point
  46. Simon ....one of the gold benefits of the one-tonne-mode is if you have enough open discrimination still a nice ton though you are getting minus-vdi. Can it be mineralization .... Have you tried other 2 ton mode like Park2? .If the program isn't as deep as the Gold modes. It's a bit out of the way, but it has a definite ... well with gold prospectus .. Today I am at 7 bar Fe3O4 -extremne mineralization for Black-sand tests. -tested several detectors and coils between the other and Equinox ... Tested item "N.4 " was 1.2grams gold pendant about 12cm deep in Black sand. When testing equinox, I noticed a non-ferrous audio signal - which was sometimes a bit worn out ... but Vdi is almost still in the minus VDI numbers -2, -3, sometimes at 1a just occasionally jumping to the right 11-12 ID .. So I tried all the programs and the best work here was Gold Programs .. enough better audio and more correctly VDI 11-13 ... but it was still not 100% OK .. So I changed the 11 "standard coil on a small 6" coil. The signal detection work was further improved, but Vdi on a small coil was still very often on minus VDI ... So I tried to change my discrimination that I use / accept -3 to + 40 / to +1 to +40. After such a change in discrimination, Equinox detection has improved dramatically and I have been practically + VDI .. very often with the correct VDI 11-12. At the end I put on the Equinox standard 11 "coil and tried to test Equinox again on the new discrimination settings. The new discrimination setting worked great ... even on the 11" standard coil. Lessons learned from the test - in too harsh conditions, it may be too open to discriminating and allmetal has a great impact on working and displaying the correct VDI on Equinox.
    1 point
  47. Iron bias simply increases the ferrous weighting that Equinox gives a mixed ferrous/non-ferrous target response. This is fine if you simply want to reduce the likelihood of getting fooled by a ferrous target such as a rusted nail that tends to give both a ferrous and non-ferrous response as you swing the coil across the target. I won't get into the nitty gritty of why that happens, but we all pretty much have experienced it. There are two other target possibilities, however, that will give you a similar mixed response. One is a an actual target of mixed ferrous/non-ferrous composition such as some crown caps and the other is two separate targets in close proximity, one being ferrou and the other non-ferrous. Increasing iron bias simply tells Equinox to more heavily weight the ferrous component of the mixed response giving you a more pure ferrous response and de-emphasizing the non-ferrous response. Great if you want to avoid digging nails or rusty crown caps but not so great if you are looking for partially masked non-ferrous, mid to high conductors amongst a bed of ferrous targets. In that case, those partially masked non-ferrous targets will become totally masked as far as the detectorist is concerned because iron bias will emphasize the ferrous target. I have never seriously prospected for natural gold with a metal detector nor do I have any detecting buddies who prospect, so all I know is what I have read and that has been posted by Steve and other pospecters such you that have posted on various forums. From what I know, typically a gold prospector is neither concerned about ferrous masking nor ferrous falsing, because, as you described it ferrous target density is typically, relatively low and the variability in gold target ID based on nugget mass means that desirable gold targets can fall well into the ferrous range of target IDs. Since neither masking (favoring a lower iron bias setting) nor falsing are a concern (favoring a higher iron bias setting) , the iron bias setting is largely immaterial for the prospector. Since gold does not "false" and may indeed ID around the breakpoint of the ferrous-non-ferrous range and since masking is not of great concern, then keeping IB at the default higher setting on the 800 (IB 6 out of a maximum of 9) is probably a reasonably sound choice because at least you will avoid the falsing that might occur when you sweep over the occasional ferrous target (e.g., nail) that might be giving you a mixed ferrous/non-ferrous signal and IB may help "emphasize" a repeatable signal for those nuggets that ID in the ferrous range that may be in the near proximity to a non-gold, non-ferrous target (this latter point is dubious at best but theoretically true). Seems to be pretty consistent with your actual experience experimenting with IB, Simon. That's my take, anyway based on my understanding of how iron bias works and my limited knowledge of typical prospecting conditions. Perhaps someone else with prospecting experience can chime in.
    1 point
  48. SLGuin, I appreciate your desire to know how an ATX does on sensitivity to the same targets. I don't know for certain as I did not have an ATX in the salt water with me that day and compare the signals/targets. But I do know this, the TDI Beach Hunter is almost half the cost of the ATX, lighter and easier to swing. Now if I was wanting pure depth on larger targets and or Prospecting, I feel the bigger coil of the ATX would edge out the TDI BH'er. Now since I paid an extra $1000 for the ATX, I might as well step up to the GPX-4500 for $500 more (same price if 15% military discount) as it has proven many people with success in a variety of soils. That is one of the main reasons it is now the #1 performing PI detector at the Civil War Hunts called DIV. One of my beach scoops has a stud ring catch screen. I sometimes use mask to see tiny targets and fan with my hands in clear water. Hope this helps.
    1 point
  49. I use a Tesoro Mojave for tiny jewelry hunting. Playgrounds, sports fields and fitness trails around the exercise equipment. Always jokingly call it “urban prospecting” because most of the gold I find is tiny broken bits of clasps, chains and earrings. Here’s a little 10k clasp from yesterday. Unfortunately didn’t find any of the chain.
    1 point
  50. Thank you everyone. This should not be read as the be all end all of nugget detecting with the Equinox. It is a very powerful and subtle metal detector, and so everything I wrote is just a good beginning. I am still learning little things with each new outing to new locations. One thing I think I am seeing is that Multi has built in ground canceling capability not available with single frequency detectors. It has been well noted that for many locations and regular detecting you do not need to ground balance the Equinox at all. This is because the multifrequency processing is doing a lot of the work up front and so the ground balancing procedure only need take place in extreme ground. This exhibits when nugget detecting in that hot single frequency detectors have a very touchy ground balance setting. A Gold Bug 2 for instance, you have to deal with very fine ground balance adjustments. Just a hair off in either direction, and the detector reacts very strongly to the ground. The Equinox by comparison seems to be able to fudge the setting with less dramatic negative results. This can be very handy when dealing with hot rocks. The last location I worked was northern Nevada, mildly alkali (salt) type ground. The Equinox with small coil and sensitivity 17 wanted to ground balance at 6 to make the ground not react at all. However, at this setting there were reddish rocks containing maghemite that were giving positive signals. Maghemite is one of the nastiest minerals a detector has to deal with. From Advanced Nugget Hunting With the Fisher Gold Bug Metal Detector by Pieter Heydelaar & David Johnson, page 33: ”Maghemite is gamma ferric oxide. It is red or reddish brown in color, and usually has an earthy texture. It commonly occurs in rocks that have been chemically altered by fire (forest fires, camp fires, etc.) or weathering, and in red or red brown soils. Some tropical or sub-tropical clays may contain more than 10% maghemite and may be so magnetic they will be drawn to a magnet. In many gold prospecting areas, “hot rocks”, which are of ordinary appearance but sound like gold, owe their obnoxious behavior to their maghemite content.” I played with one of these hot rocks a little. The rock went quiet at ground balance setting of 0 but now the ground was reactive. I settled at a ground balance setting of 2, which still kept the rocks quiet while still allowing for quiet operation over the ground. You can play these ground balance offset tricks with single frequency detectors, but it is much harder to get it right. Multifrequency seems to allow for more slop in the ground balance setting without the immediate negative aspects seen with most single frequency models. I have been using my Equinox in preference to my Gold Monster purely due to all the adjustability. The problem can be too much adjustability for many people. The Gold Monster basically gets the job done with almost no tuning expertise required at all. The Equinox has impressive capability also, but favors people like me that want full control over all the tuning aspects. I appreciate being able to manually ground balance, and I do like my threshold control, and therefore I lean Equinox. I admit I also like the challenge of learning new things also, and the Equinox appeals to me there also. I am not casting my Gold Monster aside completely however. There also are times when quick and dirty simplicity is all I need. When I test most nugget detectors I concentrate on their ability to find small gold. Small gold nuggets require a detector to be tuned up as hot as absolutely possible to just be able to detect the gold at all. This hot tuning however makes bad ground and hot rocks react. What really sets nugget detectors apart is not their ability to find gold. It is how well they can handle bad ground while still finding the gold that counts, and this is the reason that air tests have so little value for nugget hunters. This does mean I have not really looked for larger gold with my Equinox. If I am hunting big gold, I am more inclined to grab my GPZ 7000. Yet I suspect that the Equinox may be one of the best VLF options that exist currently outside pulse induction type technology for hunting larger gold since Equinox really does pack the punch on gold range targets. The largest nugget I have found so far with the Equinox was more an accident while chasing small gold.... 1.3 grams from my recent Alaska trip. I have proved to myself that Equinox can perform on small gold, but now I need to see how well it can do on larger gold at depth in trashy areas where my GPZ is going to go nuts on the garbage. 1.3 gram Alaska gold nugget found with Equinox and 11" coil
    1 point
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