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I was at the Treasure Coast on Wednesday 4 September...right after Dorian left our area. All along A1A many, if not most of the small access points were locked and some actually had police cars blocking entry. Surfers were parking along the road side and making their way to the beach through heavy thicket! We were able to get to Bonsteel and it was a bust. Mushy sand throughout. The expected erosion was just not there. Numerous detectors were there however. Comparing results, only one that I met found anything of note. A small silver Reale about thumbnail size and paper thin. Obviously, I couldn’t see the entire Treasure Coast but Dorian did us no great favors where we were and we covered a pretty extensive distance. Other areas may have been better suited for hunting but again, the areas we saw were covered with soft mushy sand and no notable targets other than a few modern coins. 😨 The most important favor Dorian did for us Florida coast dwellers however was staying so far off our coast and sparing us the damage it could have done. Having gone through my share of hurricanes, I am eternally grateful for such favors! Thank God!

I kind of hesitate to bring some of my ring finds for customers because I know some folks think that it's not hard to find a ring when someone tells you where they lost it and ringfinders like me are glorified hustlers. I wanted to share this one because it was truly a quest and the ending was worth every step and every swing of the detector in the 95 degree heat and dust. I got a call from Michael last night saying he had been helping coach his young daughters cross country team at Rancho Santa Susana park in Simi Valley. He went home without his platinum wedding ring. As fate would have it they had run all over the park (It's huge!) and even up on the hills across the street. He thought he could have lost it in the bark area, a couple grass areas, along a 2 mile path and finally the hills across the street. We started with the bark area which was about 300 yards long by 25 yards or so at it's widest. He said he had sprinted in this area with the kids and the ring may have flown off there. Unfortunately for me it didn't as I canvassed the whole area in about an hour and a half just swinging my nox while kids played soccer next to me. I was looking for that 12-13 double beep as it was going to be on the surface. I turned my sensitivity all the way down so I would only get surface signals which helped speed things up. I was also the idiot who forgot to bring water so I was starting to sweat through my clothes hoping I could hijack and unsuspecting soccer players water while they weren't looking. We finished the bark area and detected a path on the way to the grassy area #1. I gridded it, found 2 nickels that had promise given the signal I was hunting for was 12-13 nickel as that's where all my men's platinum rings have come in at. We declared grassy area #1 done and went to grassy area #2. About a half hour in I began to sense he was giving up and truthfully I was beginning to think this wasn't going to end well. I was starting to to tell him the other things he could do to find his ring(police, craigslist, pawn shop) and I had literally covered all but a 10x10 area of the grass and something told me to search it even though it really wasn't an area he thought he'd lost it at. Again I want to emphasize I felt like I was being led/pushed to go search it. I got over to it, started gridding and I got a nice double beep with a 12-13 VDI. I had my shades on so I couldn't really see the grass and I was just pulling out my Deus propointer to verify the signal when Michael reached down and started screaming "you found my ring, you found my ring!" Before I could even speak he put me into bear hug and he started shaking and crying with joy that he had his ring back. He had a hold of me for at least a minute and then we prayed, gave God thanks for the recovery and he got it back together and called his wife. If you've never found something another person has lost you're really missing out on one of the greatest experiences of your life. To me metal detecting isn't my hobby, it's my ministry. Most of my customers are women and they have a tendency to be very emotional so you can imagine I was taken aback by how important this ring was to him as he said over and over that it represented his love for his wife. Finding this ring today was a needle in the haystack recovery that God led me to. I'm not trying to get all spiritual but it's just who I am and how I roll. I hope all of you have at least half as good a weekend as I am.

Been getting into the water more then I have in past years...I'm enjoying this type of hunting. Been hitting two spots...One is just a secluded swimming hole not effected by big currents and waves...easy peaceful detecting with no competition that I know of...little bit of trash here and there...the spot is maybe 40 yards wide by 40 yards deep...you can get up to your chest here if you like. The other spot is the opposite...A lot of people visit this spot as it's an actual beach on the delta....it can have a fast moving tide, gets lots of wind, big currents and waves...chest deep is too dangerous at times...theres no competition here as well but the the kicker is there are 12 bazillion bottle caps and pennies in all states of decay. It's tough hunting with the Nox at this spot...The small swimming hole I've officially declared hunted out and most likely wont be going back...No great finds to report...the small earring is 14k..the rings in the second Pic are junk (but gets the ole heart pumping anyways) the women's solitaire ring ..got me all excited till I got home and could see that it was 10K and the rock is a CZ... The wife even turned it down Beats working any day...Happy hunting to you all.. strick

Personally I like the V3i..... A bit of a learning curve but in my opinion worth it. I have hunted with a guy that has a nox 800. I hit everything he did.... Not saying there won't be times when that doesn't happen but there were no real advantages or disadvantages demonstrated on our outings. As to the extreme level of adjustability of the V..... Once you find a range of settings that fit your hunting you really don't have to tinker with the settings much.. Just make sure you have a good ground balance and if there is EMI you may have to make some adjustment for that but I haven't really had much problems in that regard. So............. Whats the bottom line. Learn your machine and you will do fine with whichever one you buy.

I did a coil test some time ago using a Tdi Pro OZ, quite a variety of coils involved. Just a bit of information not wanting it to go to waste. The test area was located in the middle of the Golden Triangle in Victoria, Australia. Looking at the images the test site is located on a area that produced large nuggets. Heavily mineralized to give the depth tests some authenticity. Targets were varied as were the coils tested. The Tdi Pro was ground balanced, gain was at 5, conductivity was in ALL, pulse delay was 10. Frequency was set in the middle and the audio was boosted by a Nokia MD-11 external speaker. Only clear repeatable signals were recorded. All targets were buried in the ground sideway from a miners hole, so as not disturb the soil on the surface or above the target. Only the 1 grain ingot and one 0.5 gram gold coin were buried from the surface disturbing the ground. Not sure how useful this is for Tdi SL users, deduct 10% maybe.. Just gives a sense of what is realistic is this one location at that one time with the Pro with the variety of coils available back then. All the best, Karelian

I replaced the end plug on my Nox and thought others might like the idea. I don't know if anyone else has done this before but I replaced the plug with a bicycle handle bar plug. This was done purely for cosmetic purposes as the plastic end plug it had did its job just fine. These are the ones I went with https://www.amazon.com/PRO-Bicycle-Handlebar-Plugs-Black/dp/B00JATNUGS/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=pro+bar+end+plugs&qid=1567359452&s=gateway&sr=8-4 . Just a simple plastic compression plug with a nice aluminum cap. They came with black coated steel screws though so I'll replace them with stainless ones when I get the chance. There are other brands, styles, and colors of these types of plugs but just make sure to get the right dimensions to fit inside the shaft and not interfere with the arm cuff screw. Many of the listings don't specify the dimensions of the plug. The ones I got have an OD of 23.5mm (the smallest I could find) and my shaft OD is 22.2mm so there's a tiny bit of overhang but my arm cuff is all the way to the rear so it didn't bother me. The only thing I had to do to make them fit was trim about 1/2 in. off the end of the screw to keep it from hitting the arm cuff inside the shaft and I also used some blue loctite to ensure the screw doesn't back out.

The VX3 and EQ600 are pretty similar detectors. They both offer 3 frequencies selections. They both offer multi frequency choices. Settings are pretty similar as well. VX3 has better graphics, more target id aids, and a better coil selection. EQ600 has a better ground cancel circuit. And you have more control over the audio tones as compared to the VX3. My main beef with the VX3 is that I can't adjust the correlate setting. Its locked into 20 points. My main beef with the EQ600 is that it only offers a peak phase shift target id. I dunno...be a hard choice for someone coming into the hobby today. My advice is that since you have narrowed it down to these two...pick the one that looks like the most fun to hunt with. You'll find stuff with either one..so that extra little thing called enjoyment factor is important. Good luck. HH Mike

While TIDs are nice they can also cause you to miss a good target.... I use them as a rough reference and dig most targets in any questionable range. We tend to get a little lazy and place too much trust in a target ID... I would have missed this if I depended on TID as it cam in as a screw cap if I remember correctly........ 415 grains of 10k

That is just insane! I would love to hear what the complaining is all about because I agree, I dont see how it can get any better. Its nice and crystal clear to me. Maybe they got a faulty machine lol. Aside from the humor. The IDs are awesome. Besides, the IDs are an additional feature of newer machines! I remember when I was little I would detect and have just 1 tone to play with, no screen or anything. I think I did end up getting better machines that gave me more features when I was little but I had no idea what I was doing and just dug everything up. But now to be able to accurately guess what you are about to dig up based on a tID just increases the pleasures of the hobby.

Thanks for sharing. HH Mike

Didn't like the battery box I had so I got around to snagging a small 2xAAA box with swtich and leads already done which of course changed everything else as the dorks put the battery door on the opposite side of the switch. Anyways I printed a part out on my sla printer so the plastic is a bit fragile but gives me a working model. All soldered up it works nice, it's compact and easily detaches since it just velcro's on the top. That little backlight panel works good. Anyone wants the cad file to fiddle with some more or have some printed on a more applicable printer like fdm or sls just pm me and I'll zip it up. I can also supply the stl.

I don’t think the Golden Mask rod would be a good candidate for in water use. It is basically the leg off a camera tripod, with fairly snug oring type shaft cams. I would hate to get fine sand and grit into those cams or the rod assembly itself. I am guessing a high probability of cam issues and shaft locking. The lower most rod section has a very minimal amount of flex when fully extended. Not really an issue for above water use but flexing might become more an issue pushing a coil through the water.

Nice job, Gerry. HH Mike

I recently purchased the Nox 600. I will say I did a ton of research however my research did not go into the Whites so I guess I wouldnt be able to tell you which may be better in comparison however, everything you mentioned that you are looking for, the Nox 600 wont have a problem doing. If money isnt a problem, my first thought is, get the fully waterproof machine in case you ever do need/want to go completely under water. The 600 has been extremely easy to just start up and go. The first time I took it out, I was able to dig up some change as well as trash of course at the park without much trouble, but my point is, its very easy to use the machine. You will still want to read through the manual and learn some tips about the machine, but as a newb myself, I assume anyone would want to do that no matter how easy the machine is to use because the more you know the better. One of my favorite things about this machine though is the ease of use. I literally power it on, choose the mode I want to detect in, do the EMI balance, and the ground balance which takes no more than 30 seconds, and then go. Also the ID numbers are easy to get comfortable with pretty fast. I have identified at least 90% if not more, of the coins my machine has found before digging them up. In all honesty, I couldnt be happier with the machine and dont believe anyone would be upset with it.

The White's VX3 is the less expensive sister of the V3i. It has fewer settings/options/graphics than the V3i but some people prefer that compared to the V3i's dizzying myriad of options and settings. The V3i comes with a DD coil; the VX3 with a concentric. Wireless headphones are (effectively) an $-add-on option for both. In many ways the VX3 is to the V3i what the Minelab 600 is to the 800. That's the executive summary. For more complete info see Steve's https://www.detectorprospector.com/metal-detector-database/

Hi Chuck, I don't know about sales. I think the whole XP line of detectors have been way overpriced at least here in the USA and the soon to be released Vanquish and the Equinox series have certainly cut into the multi frequency/all terrain VLF market. Like many have said, for certain detecting scenarios like relics in iron trash and relics in general, the Deus and Orx are fantastic. In heavy aluminum trashy parks it is not a lot of fun however, where numerical target ID is important since that is the weakest aspect of the Deus and Orx. Its pretty good for gold prospecting and like you said, the lightweight sure gives my wrist a welcome change from my heavier detectors. It sure is easy to backpack it too. I'm still really struggling with my dislike for the audio on the ORX and Deus. I just don't like to listen to really scratchy audio for hours on end. In areas where there aren't many trash targets I am okay with it. After listening to dozens to hundreds of buzzy, scratchy tones, a good target does sound fantastic. Jeff

Jeff Sales must be down on the ORX for them to offer a big package like that.. It’s lots of things I wish the ORX had but I got it for lack of weight and on that alone I’ll live with the rest. Chuck

I'm thinking about a trip coming up to northern Nevada. On that route I go up 395 through Bishop, California. On the way there are mountains on the left which includes Mt. Whitney. I've climbed it once with a running group. It took me 6 hours from the parking lot to make the top. https://www.recreation.gov/permits/233260 To the east there is a mountain range that includes the Bristlecone Pine Forest. https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/inyo/specialplaces/?cid=stelprdb5129900 https://esiaonline.org/new-page-1 I passed it for many years but one trip I said I'm going to go. It is worth it as just a destination trip it is so unique and beautiful. I've been there twice now. One time there was snow and one time there was none.

Im reminded of my trips in and out of Moore Creek in Steves Dads plane, He is a great pilot and i count myself very fortunate to have met him.. Those are very fond memories...George

Most of the time it is, however if it is purchased from a native from Alaska it is still legal, however make sure it is not bone. I have friends from Alaska and they have made several pieces for me all handcrafted and beautiful. The rest of the necklace would be hard for it to be made in Alaska to my knowledge.

It will be interesting to see in a few years how many go with the equinox instead of the gold monster. Most of the comments I've read from people that have both is there isn't much difference in capability for nuggets, but the equinox is more useful everywhere else. I'm doing everything with the equinox by necessity (and inclination I suppose, I've always been a own one of something and know it well type person), your doing it by choice, I'm wondering how many others will go that route too.

I suspect that many of us know of the excellent work done by “Land Matters”. Today I got an email from Barry Cole, informing me that Leigh Johnson, the woman who has been the backbone of the non-profit organization which is behind this all recent passed away suddenly. Here is the notice sent out to the subscribers and supporters. Changes at Land Matters RIP Leigh Johnson Land Matters Executive Director, Leigh Johnson, recently passed away unexpectedly. Leigh was a founder, board member and unpaid volunteer for Land Matters. Her belief in the Land Matters mission led her to dedicate the last 5 years nearly full time to it’s development. I know many of you had corresponded with Leigh and know how helpful, responsive and dedicated she was to the Land Matters mission. She will be missed by all who knew her. With your support Land Matters will continue to be the premier Free non-profit source for land information As a result of Leigh's passing Land Matters has fallen behind on it's regular claims updates and Member reports. Land Matters is a very small non-profit with limited resources. Rest assured that the Land Matters maps, reports and data will be updated over the next few days. Land Matters will continue in it's mission to bring users reliable current land information. We have been notified that some Claims Advantage Members didn't receive the latest report. If you are a Claims Advantage Member and you didn't receive your August 15th report please contact us at the link below so we can email you a link to the report download. Contact Land Matters We apologize for any inconvenience this delay may cause you. Thousands of people a day rely on Land Matters resources and we take that responsibility seriously. Please bear with us as we get updated and please let us know if you see anything that isn't working right. Keep Land Matters Free Donate Today

Anybody is interested in supporting this good work with / by finding out whether you know something that could be put to good use – or just signing up as a member – Or sending a contribution - at this time especially I’m sure it would be appreciated.

Yes, what terrible news. Barry and Leigh are close friends and it was tragic to hear this. Thoughts and prayers during this time for Barry and family.

How terrible! I am very sorry to hear that and my heart goes out to Barry and other people close to Leigh.

The stock coil does indeed pick things up however I've used the Shrew coil primarily since I got the T2SE. It's more a matter of "that's what I learned the machine with". Most if not all of the sites I can get into are trashy for sure, and littered with iron, pencil tops, foil wrappers, and things of that sort. The Shrew/Snake is awesome because even over higher grass it glides more easily over such areas and really picks up the tiny things. I regularly find things on playgrounds that are the size of two pinheads in width. With such a coil the T2 really becomes a specialized device. It's killer on dimes and nickels. It will even overload on a nickel that is less than 2 inches deep. My stock 11" coil has been used less than 30 minutes, if that long. I also have the stock 5" coil and it has never been out on a hunt, only hooked up for air test in the house. Working on selling those 2 coils to purchase another Cors coil(more than likely the sharpshooter or scout coil). I'm a firm believer in the little coils. Found far more things with this detector and coil combo than any other detector I've ever laid my hands on. Am I such a fanboy of this detector that I am blind? NO! And now I'm going to nitpick. Teknetics needs to make the T2SE into a waterproof or at least splash resistant package, and beef up the trigger switch. That trigger switch is a beautiful thing and I believe it is one of the reasons I enjoy it so much. Pull towards you and instant pinpoint! Push away and hold while bobbing the coil and get auto ground balanced, it's a great little touch and gets you immersed with the detector in a way pushing a button never could. BUT..That little trigger switch has a lot of play in it. I do wonder how long it will last and it wouldn't hurt to put a little silicone boot on that for protection and extra support for the switch itself. And by all means they need to do something about the cheapskate coil fastening screw. While it works, it makes the whole thing look like a toy. Display on it is nice, but it is very vulnerable and could be damaged. I use a protector on my unit for the display and the battery/power/volume box also. Would be nice to see some sort of seal on the battery cover also. When not using headphones and if you have a boot on the battery module/speaker the audio can be muffled a lot also. Little things like this are mere annoyances. Teknetics could make little tweaks to this already great detector, re-badge it with the tweaks and still keep interest in it. Why not create a multi frequency unit out of it? Have a low and high button that could select between the standard frequency along with the F1-F7 minor shifts. For instance Lo=standard freq as we know it now and Hi=Frequency of 18khz or so along with F1-F7 shifts but within the 18khz range. Call it the T2 Platinum, give it a new paint job and special holographic Platinum name tag. Yep, I went way out there on this one.. haha

OK, Got the beach gold Boraxed ....Not as nice a pour as the first button, and there is still gold left in the melt dish but I will redo the melt and collect it later.

Looks like it has a the flat spring metal momentary switch so either it isn't releasing OR there might be some moisture behind it causing it to short. If it's under warranty id give Fisher a hollar. Should be an easy fix for them.

So sorry to hear this.... my sincere condolences Barry

https://www.riogrande.com/product/midas-14k-yellow-bright-gold-plating-solution-acid-based/335053 "Solution contains 1 dwt. (1.56 grams) pure gold." $1550/ozt * 1 ozt/20dpt = $77.50 as of right now.

I could guess from your Avatar image that you have a Fisher F44/22/11. Could you give a bit more detail? What detector? How long have you had it? Did it always do this or just start recently?

Hi garifox, it was somewhere between 11 to 14 inches deep. And Old Farm Hunter yours is still out there, Nobody Gets It All !!!!!! Thxs Smithobx.

I normally run my pin pointers on vibrate only. At some point in the past 3 months I managed to change my TRX to beep and vibrate. When I got tired of it I found my instructions to change it back to Vibrate only and low and behold, the current option is the only option it will give me. When I try to cycle through the target response options it only cycles through the beep and vibrate mode. Will not cycle through all the options. I thought it might be low batteries but a battery change out made no difference. I've never submerged it so water wouldn't be a issue. Any ideas? Guess I'll have to cough up some money and send it off to Whites to get fixed. Bummed me out, I can tell you. I had to leave it at home and start using my Tek-Point which I don't like to use for jewelry hunting as it isn't as sensitive as the TRX on the small gold items. HH Mike

Hello. Good to know Mike Hillis problem is solved and good to know the TRX is working as it should. Very good help from the users here, thank you. When the TRX arrived I had a www search for files about the TRX and down loaded a extended user manual for the TRX, but cann't remember where?? But for those who are interested I'll attach this here. (hope this is legal !?) May be it will help some other users, too. White's TRX_Extended_User_Manual.pdf

Welcome History Surfer, wish I had been M.D. beaches when I lived in Hermosa Beach.....

So there is a used Whites TDI pulsescan detector in my area for sale for $675. It is not an SL so im guessing its an older version. Is there any benefits to owning this detector along with a GPX4800? The price seems good and its close by. Ive also thought i heard that the older TDI were more powerful. I also believe it can use most GPX coils correct? I dont really need it but it seems like a great price for a PI detector.

I'm suspicious, but that's typical. 😁 Old ivory is usually yellowed from age, but I suppose if it were in salt water that could affect the color. (New ivory is illegal to own, as I'm sure most here know.) Here's a decent set of tests that might help: https://www.wikihow.com/Tell-Ivory-from-Bone

Hi Mitch: On of my favourite places en route to the Victorian goldfields is Kiandra, Australia's highest goldfield. Located high in the Snowy Mountains of NSW, it was briefly "rushed" in the 1860's by 16000 miners before they were driven out by freezing alpine winter weather, never to return since the easy, fabulously rich nuggety shallow alluvials had been largely worked out. The area was later reworked in the early 1900's by Australia's first large bucket dredge "Enterprise" My winter Image is of one of its frozen dredge holes. Note the water channels originally feeding sluicing claims on the far hill:

Nice to see a surfer convert over..your knowledge of the tides and surf will help no doubt... wishing you many treasures.... just show us and all is good! strick

Is the acid dip for pickling? If so there is a safer alternative at casswell that I use for pewter prior to antiquing. They also have more home version of the pen plating systems which work but are a bit cheesy.. wadd of bandage on a squashed metal tube hehe. I never got into any full blown plating as the costs and disposal are just too high to make any kind of $$ at it and no way to compete with countries that have no epa. In any case use good ventilation with any plating, fumes aren't that healthy. Make some gold zinc pennies and toss em in corn field for fun 🙂

Haha! I used to never MD at the beach because i was always surfing! But now I'll check the waves and the MD conditions. Always looking for treasure!

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.

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.

Great write up of a great recovery!! God is good!!!

I once knew a guy who travelled the West (I did a couple of trips with him) and whenever he travelled he would stop to get coffee about every hour. It was not about the coffee however. It was about the chat in the coffee shops. He was an old tool collector and that is where he would do his research. He would chat up the owner and customers kinda like Frank and Mike on American Pickers. We could probably do the same on our trips to gold and find some local knowledge if we would just stop more often! Mitchel

I don't know how to overcome this issue, but White's might. I wonder if there is a (hidden) factory reset sequence. (If you leave the battery out long enough would that effectively be a reset?) You were going to need to call them to get a return authorization anyway. Maybe talking to a tech or engineer first would save all concerned a lot of effort/expense.