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Hi all, It’s been awhile since my last post, but I’ll be sharing some knowledge and anecdotes more often, now that my summer job is a thing of the past and I’m free to once again roam the desert southwest, wielding the power of the mighty Zed to unearth nature’s golden treasures. I was carefully gridding (or - in deference to Gerry in Idaho - crawling) an old nugget patch during a recent trip to the far flung reaches of Nevada’s golden triangle, when the hypnotic drone of the threshold was suddenly broken by a sharp, double “wee-ooh, wee-ooh”. This type of response typically heralds a small and shallow target, usually within six inches of the surface. “Most likely a boot tack or bird shot”, I thought to myself as I crouched down and scraped an inch or two of the dry and dusty desert soil away from the target zone with my pick. Another swing of the detector coil indicated that I had moved the target, and a quick sifting of the material with the hand scoop revealed a small yellow nugget...the first catch of the day! A few more of these shallow pickers were dug during the the next couple of hours, and then I heard a faint, single “wee-ooh”. Knowing that this meant a bit larger target at depth, I went to work hacking into the densely packed soil with my pick until...well, I’ll let this short video tell the rest of the story: https://www.dropbox.com/s/zzmm1pgdrpaswe7/Nugget dig.mov?dl=0 The actual weight of the nugget turned out to be 5.6 grams, bringing the total for the day to over a quarter of an ounce of the good stuff!

I have been hunting an old desert SP stop that is heavy alkali , so heavy that the top of the ground is a white salt crust. The park 1 and beach 1 settings have produced the most favorable results for me and at this point seem equal. The sensitivity level I run varies as chatter annoys me. The settings I have been using are 50 tone, Iron ON with volume set at 1, 0 iron bias and recovery at 6. There is a lot of garbage in the ground. I recall Brian Cal-Cobra posting about hunting in similar conditions and am interested in his take (as well as others) on setting choices. The Morgans and the lock came out of the worst of the alkali mud and were completely encrusted. All three were good dig signals but none deeper than 6 inches.

Peg, You impress me again with your hard work and fantastic detecting skills. For those who are not familiar, Peg purchased her 1st gold detector from me 20 years ago and after some hands on training, she has become 1 with her machine. Our Southern Idaho gold nuggets are small pickers with an occasional .5 grammer. The biggest solid nugget I have ever recovered in Idaho is only about 1.5 gram. Peg continues keep an open mind and hunts other areas with Success. She not only finds gold with her GPZ-7000 in NV, travels to CA for some of their hydraulic pit pickers, but even does with in Oregon. Here is a video of her 1st training when she stepped up to the Pulse Induction Minelabs when I traded in Oregon. She is usually one of the 1st in the field and last off of it. Blisters, scrapes and cuts and part of the fun and she just shrugs them off. Peg knows what it takes to be Successful and I know many guys who would enjoy finding what she does...but in all honesty, some of them will not put in the effort. Beautiful gold, great pics and an overall wonderful person. Thanks for sharing your stories with us Peg.

Time flew by up at the cabin and on my little claim this season. I continued to clear, detect, and drywash the decomposed granite bench areas. Here’s a nice clean out from one drywash session: I also reworked the sides of some oldtimer Diggings, filling in their ditch as I go....lots of work here for little return lol! Found some nice nuggies when I uncovered some crevices in a different bedrock...biggest piece was almost .6gram, decent size for up here: A highlight of the summer was having my nephew’s boys visit. They learned drywashing, running the concentrates through the recirculating sluice, then how to pan. Each ended up with a couple grams(hmmm....maybe a little “salt” in those concentrates lol): AND the season ended on a positive note! Found a nice handful in this small scraping from a new spot....definitely will setup the drywasher here next year! Ended up with just shy of 12 grams total up here for the season....not much gold, but tons of fun and memories! 🙂

Was in an old 1940 school yard that used to be a farm and got all giddy at first when I dug this up, was pretty deep about 14" or so. Thought it was a large cent in good shape but still kind of neat. Medal is bronze.

Hello, some news 🙂 first concerning FTP silence they have no strategy / this is their biggest problem ... if the European team had not given any news you would be in the dark !! concerning discrimination the only hole left is big targets in 24k "no problem in any metals of course" but he can now take 24k sos of iron what no one else can do I have not tested more than 8 gr / no ring 24k bigger 18k rings 20/25 gr are taken by cutting nails 14 k even easier 10k child's play ... very thin rings are not a problem impulse AQ will be the best on a 1gr ring all metals or discimination / sand white sand black on the rings the power of the AQ system is unbeatable more difficult on other forms earrings / open ring / chain it detects / but will probably not be the best cut some lead possible and gold is still detect I agree with you the pro will prefer all metals but there are places where it's impossible even for me / lol on this type of terrain / impulse AQ is going to hurt a lot he will be able to pass / cut the iron / cut the lead and take the gold Terra: the results of betatesteur over the last 6 months are excellent / better than expected with the 8 inch coil and after for testing the bipolar == suppression of soil effect == I'm still waiting for more model but he will have to wait .. and to answer Steve about a possible miracle machine who knows ............:)) see you soon

The settings I use are well suited for the current dry soil conditions. They may seem counter intuitive at first, but, as you can see, the proof is in the pudding. Gold Mode: High Yield, Ground Type: Normal, Sensitivity: 8, Volume: 20, Threshold Level: 27, Threshold Pitch: 25, Volume Limit: 3, Audio Smoothing: High, Ground Smoothing: Locate Patch.

I'm back everyone 🙂. Took me awhile to heal from my last endeavor 8 days ago. But i'm back ready to go. Note too self don't mess with neck muscles. My next Expedition will be on the 11th, Monday. I have some very good news and since i don't really have any friends to share my excitement with i'd like to share my excitement with you all! I got my BUGGY!!! 2020 Honda Pioneer 700 I got it today from Ride Now Powersports Chandler. I financed it with 4K down. Super awesome, me happy! 🙂

Three methods that produce the gold...no right, no wrong...just different! fred

Don’t worry Rick, your reputation as unofficial spokesman for First Texas is quite secure. You do more to promote their detectors than anyone that actually works there.

Gerry I think it was 2010 or so when I purchased that 1st detector from you, a used Gold Bug 2; I guess being out in the sun and dry winds of the gold fields just make me look like it was 20 years ago lol! Seriously though, I can’t emphasize enough how much your training has helped me enjoy this wonderful hobby! By the way, I loved that used GP3500...I remember you let me split up my my hands-on training so I could do that one day in Oregon, then another at Rye Patch, so I could experience different types of ground etc....very cool. Thanks so much for the kind words and support! p.s. now if I only could have some success on the beaches of the Treasure Coast down here in Florida! 🙂

Just remember you can only ever be running in one Timing option, so if the Special selection in the menu says Fine Gold, but your front panel switch is sitting on Normal, then you are not in Fine Gold. The first sentence in the instruction manual about the Special timings is pretty good: "You can select which timings will be activated by the Special switch on the control panel." Get a label maker, and on the smallest font setting write MENU SELECT and stick it above Special. That will aid as a good reminder that the Special position is tied in with the timing selection in the menu.

I consider myself to be extremely fortunate due to the fact that the entire age of modern metal detecting has taken place over the course of my lifetime. I was too young in the 60's to be one of the many famous names that were there first on the ground with these new toys that go beep. That's good though for me as most of them are gone now and I'm still here. I got my first detector at the true dawn of the modern detecting age when I got my White's Coinmaster 4 in 1972. It was one of the first of the new "TR" machines that were the starting point for what most of us use today. Mine was as basic as a detector gets, no ground balance existed yet or discrimination. Just a couple inches depth and a beep, dig it up. So I have been involved in detecting now for 47 years. I started my business while in high school in 1976, and have been involved in metal detecting pretty much daily ever since. Anyone who followed my online presence starting in 1998 may see a pattern. I have been involved in some top end machines, some VLF, but basically almost every ground balancing PI made has been in my hands at some point. I had a vision in my mind based on my background in computers that told me what was possible and where we were headed. I was particularly incensed when an upstart company from Australia showed up the industry leaders at the time with the world's most powerful gold detecting PI machines. All the more so when I heard White's had a shot at it and passed. I made it my mission to jump on and foster anything that came along that might compete, and so I was involved with the Garrett Infinium, the first U.S. ground balancing PI. I had a lot to do with White's finally producing the TDI. Yet the fact is nobody ever seriously took Minelab on, and finally they won me over because they delivered when the rest just milked us. Minelab has been the sole company at the forefront of this technology since the SD2000 was introduced. All this time I have wanted two things. A vision in my mind of what a VLF could be. And a similar vision regarding a PI. Both those visions basically revolved around something a normal person could use both as regards ergonomics and price, two areas we kept getting bent over on for 20 years. Long story short I am grateful to Minelab for allowing me to be involved in the machine that delivered on my first vision. The Minelab Equinox is the first machine ever that really can do any VLF metal detecting task and do it well. In any one area it may not be "the best" but no one machine delivers across the board like the Equinox. My VLF quest is over. I will use an Equinox as my primary unit until a detector comes along, probably a Minelab, that does what it does but better. No more VLF buy and try for me. Yay! In 2017 I laid out my vision for the PI I wanted. The price was kind of a set the bar high (with a low price) thing so there is a little wiggle room there. But not a lot... the machine price should be something most people can stomach. As far as I am concerned the GPX 4500 sets the standard at $2699 both for performance and price. The TDI wins on ergonomics but loses too much in performance for me. All I really wanted was a GPX performance in an ergonomic package, and we all know it can be done. That is what is so frustrating. It's one thing to introduce new tech but all I want is proven tech packaged right. Garrett has really been a disappointment not putting the ATX in a light box. They can do it but so far have refused. I would have been satisfied with that. Right now I am calling the Australian made QED as being the default winner of my challenge. The rough edges have been smoothed out, and it's got the ergonomics, coil selection, and price all right. I am not going to argue with anyone over performance. Based on what I know it's good enough for me to go find gold and easily beats the TDI and is competitive with GPX. Good enough for me and good job boys. The only niggle is no FCC approval for U.S. sales, no U.S. dealers or service. But by end of 2020 if there is nothing better I will have one anyway. But we have the Fisher Impulse AQ on the verge and a dry land prospecting version promised. I would be crazy not to wait and see what develops there. I sold my GPZ for many reasons, mostly because I was not going to be detecting much this year, but I resolved when I sold it I would wait until my vision appeared. I knew it was close. I decided I can have fun enough with Equinox until that happens. Put as simply as possible I want a reasonably powerful PI packaged like a good VLF that most of us can afford. Something that can get in and out of a small backpack with an hour of labor being involved. So I am tossing down the gauntlet. I have my magic VLF and am looking for a mate for it. Right now QED and Impulse are in the running. And it's up to Minelab, Nokta/Makro, and sure, let's toss Garrett and White's in there also. It's time to deliver as by the end of 2020 I am getting one. I prefer in the spring but if something is one the radar I may wait. By 2021 I will be using something that finally fulfills what this high school kid from Alaska has known would happen someday. And I got to be there and see it all from start to finish. As I said... a very fortunate soul! Interfacion QED PL2 Fisher Impulse AQ

100% agree. Jbone, you did well in explaining your thought process, which is rare in these kinds of requests. Hidden in there was the feeling that you were wasting your time with one detector if you eventually got another. Not so. It's like driving a car. 90% of what makes one work will make another work. You already know the basics of how to drive an automatic. Stay with that to get you around town, or around the country. Once you've mastered the Anfibio you'll be in much better position to decide whether or not something more is needed/desired.

Your nails only prove you’re not sitting around looking pretty! Irons are a whole another ball game... if you have free access to an Xrf, nothing lost by using it...otherwise I would not waste any money. save these suspect rocks for an Outing or to show an Expert, I am not! fre

Why would Parker bother with small Australian gold. He needs to go to Russia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3OoSsXHQMI BTW: The guy in the video looks like Kiwijw to me. Maybe this is why John has been too busy to post here lately, he has been in Russia showing the Russians how its done.

Hi Mal, thank you for clarifying those questions. I have not run a 5000 for years now but I always remember the needlessly misleading and confusing nomenclature that was so easily avoidable.

Very unlikely lol. Fred, Tyler and myself.

Autistic daughter actually, and thanks. The reason the equinox sales are through the roof is exactly because it convinced people like me to buy. I wanted a ctx for years, but not THAT much. Bring out a detector that people actually prefer and use when they own both at 40% of the price and it gets people off the fence, both for the value and the obtainablility. My daughter randomly told me a couple days ago we needed to go out in the desert and dig gold and have adventures. No idea where it came from. So that's definitely going to happen! The main reason I dont get out of town more is watching her, so she's going to get all the adventure she will tolerate. She really likes going places so this might work out.

I think we are all eager to see this machine come out. My hope is someone buys it and hates it and will sell it to me for a discount price 😄

Here’s a little something LE.JAG posted on another forum recently - along the same lines... a scoop for the forum the latest changes now allow detect a 24 carat ring weighing less than 5 gr (no ring 24k heavier to test ...) under a big nail / or several small nails if you have a ring 24k try with your detectors it's impossible / even tdi (modif Reg Sniff) can not do it (22K is its limit ) it will be a very specific setting that I would explain in video this extraordinary feat? detect the 24k under the iron gives you an idea of the level of separation, gold / iron”

Well done Lunk. Keep them coming this winter. Gerry will be watching! haha So will the rest of us. Mitchel

1. Cost 2. Color 3. Ergonomics 4. Uses AA batteries 5. Less complex 6. Size/collapsability 7. Coils 8. Desire for Multi-IQ without having to buy the Equinox I personally would love the form factor of the Vanquish with the ability/performance of the Equinox.

Great nugget and video Lunk! Can you share the settings you ran on the GPZ in NV? Bill

Nice Nugget! Great way to start your mining season. Thanks! for sharing,

Nice finds, patience and perseverance wins.....

I love every minute detecting with the Zed, Phrunt. We let the dog smell and taste the nugget, but for some reason she seemed more interested in flushing out a nice jack rabbit from the sage brush rather than digging up a piece of gold. 🤔

Sounds about right! I'm right there with you! And still trying to enjoy each day as it comes!👍👌

Joe, it was strange but one of the hardest things to wrap my mind around was the fact that the whole "getting all the kids raised and moved out and retiring" had just gone away. It's fine now, but at the time I really struggled to wrap my mind around it and adjust. It basically morphed into I don't have any big retirement goals now. I take my adventures where and when I can and don't have big delayed plans waiting on retirement. I still have some dreams (altered somewhat to match current reality) but mostly I assume I'll pretty much be doing what I do now. That's fine, I'm happy.

Amen Lacky, A little late on this post, but just joined in October! I have a special needs teenage son and agree with your statements about cost! The Nox 800 was a high dollar item for me! Unless i strike it rich with the lottery, or on the Treasure Coast detecting; ( highly unlikely on both) which is 100 miles away, and not a regular drive for me! Than i will probably never spend that much again! Not only am i retired, but have a daughter in an arts college $$$! And i will have a life long dependent ( my son) living with me and my wife for life! 💑 👩‍🎓🤷‍♂️ Don't get me wrong, i wouldn't change a thing if i could! (Except the lottery winning, and treasure finding part) I'm just happy i have some time to detect, and would love my son to join in at some point if he's willing and interested! (Very little so far; Patience is not his virtue)LOL🤯

Yep....I have about 50 silica gel sachets. Self indicating which means they change colour as they absorb moisture. All kept in an airtight container until needed and baked in the oven as required and then reused.

Metal Detecting: Nokta-Makro Simplex Firmware Update Guide Oct 27, 2019 TheHunterGT

Steve, A very valid point. Funny how we have two opposing scenarios here with anticipated new machines: The Vanquish, which has been teased to the max, and the Fisher Manta/Impulse AQ that has gone ridiculously dark after some now ancient teasing. How about just actually making a new product and then having it available to purchase? Guess that's just old school thinking, eh?

This was not Gold Bug Pro versus Go Find 44, but new detectorist versus experienced detectorist. It beautifully illustrates why I always bet on experience and not the machine. Thanks for posting!

Wait for the new fisher to come out : GOLD RUSH WORLWIDE REBOOTED season 1 RR

Hi, Just after some clarification re the Soil/Timings switch please. Should I be able to access the Special menu on the rear LCD panel from all three Soil/Timings switch positions (Special, Normal and Enhance)? Yes that is quite normal I was under the impression that access to the Special menu is, or should normally be, locked out when the front Soil/Timing switch is set to Normal or Enhance and only opens when the front switch is set to Special. No, the special menu is not locked out I only noticed after returning from my last prospecting trip that I have access to the Special menu from all 3 front switch settings. That gives me 3 versions of Sensitive Smooth, and 3 of each of all the rest. 18 different choices that are distinctly different in sensitivity, tone loudness and target response (hi/low, low/hi) No it does not give you three versions of Sensitive smooth or Fine Gold or any of the special timings The Special Timings only work when the Front switch is in the Special position. Reassurance please. Thanks! Hope that sorts it out for you Mal

Welcome to the forum! I’ve been detecting for coming up on 50 years now. One thing I can promise you is the detector you are using is not nearly the biggest factor in success. That’s the marketers at work. I can use any, and I mean any of the top tier coin, jewelry and relic machines made by any of the manufactures and basically do just as well with any of them. The tech is mature and it’s splitting hairs with all the over $700 models these days, and what you get for the price is dropping by the day. Nugget detecting gets more technical but for the vast majority which detector model you use is largely a popularity contest. I choose detectors based on basic factors like feature set, weight, waterproof or not, audio, etc. not whether one is magically better than all the rest at finding stuff. There are people out there doing better with a Garrett Ace 250 than some other with a much more expensive CTX 3030. How is that possible? Easy. Learn your basic skills which translate to any detector. Coil control and target recovery. Then put yourself in good locations, put in lots of hours, and dig lots of targets. That’s it, just good locations and hours. It’s not rocket science. So my advice is keep and use what you have. If you are dissatisfied with your results, it’s not the detector. Work on your detecting skills and finding better locations. Or get another detector if you want... but don’t expect that simply doing that will really make any difference. Best wishes and good luck! Edit: I hate it when people don't simply answer the question asked. So for what it is worth I sold my CTX 3030 as soon as I got my hands on an Equinox 800.

Welcome Jbone to the forum, Since you mentioned that you are relatively new to metal detecting and considering a purchase of a different metal detector, here is what I would suggest. Most newcomers to the hobby/sport purchase a metal detector and immediately start second guessing if they made the right choice or not. In my opinion you have made a good choice in the detector you purchased and it has more than enough features for a newcomer to learn and hopefully understand what each feature does over a period of time. Use this first purchase as a stepping stone in the future as you become experienced and understand of what your detector is capable of doing and if there is features that you find that are lacking in certain areas, then use that information in another detector that will fill that need. You will get many opinions on what detector to have or use on this forum, but it will be up to you and the time you put in learning any detector and that will translate how successful you will be. Also it seems the way the used metal detector market is today, the resell value would not be in your favor.

Great topic. If I am in an area where gold has been found before (within 1/4 mile) and there are my typical indicators, I will go as Lunk describes. I will pretend my shoe laces are tied together and pretend I am a master painter covering 90% of that wash. The more indicators I see and the more my intuition sets in, the slower I go. But this is only for washes. If I am scanning hillsides (not knowing if there is a gold in the washes below) I will go much faster. I will not walk along the hillsides, however, without my coil to the ground. I have stumbled on great gold with this small rule ...hillsides you would swear on your relatives grave there could not be gold there. But there was. 😬 I started learning gold hunting on claims and for that, I did the slow hunting everywhere. And that taught me the style of gold hunting that gets the bits others miss in their rush. I believe this is really important to learn starting out. But as I began hunting with others, there was a distinct advantage to really covering ground and covering only half of a prospective gold wash. So many more gold areas can be found this way. But I think you need to be able to go back and clean out those washes the slow way, once they are identified. Some people can flip that switch and in my opinion, they are the most successful. So I see it as you need to be good at both methods and even better at deciding when to apply these methods.

Never been a big fan of the bungees although I use one on my gas powered weed trimmer. Don't like being tethered to my detector. Wired head phones were bad enough. Thanks for the suggestion, though! You'd need one for that length of time. I'm usually good for 3 or 4 hours. Walt

Also, there are a couple of undiscussed levels of detecting that at times can surpass technique, knowledge and type of detector used: luck and intuition. I can't count the number of times these aspects of detecting have come into play. Not sure it is something that can be cultivated or learned but it's definitely a part of what we do. Perhaps that's not for this discussion but just in case...

Sometimes iron can bring the numbers down. I dug a 1917 Merc at 7" with three square nails in the plug. It was only hitting 16-17 one direction, but was a good repeatable signal.

No right or wrong, it purely depends on the situation. Are you trying to find a new patch, or trying to extract gold from a known patch? Are you hunting a natural gold patch, or highly disturbed ground like tailing piles? If I am hunting a known patch I am like Lunk, crazy methodical slow. My normal mode is to hunt a week at a time, on one location, basically not moving at all. I find most people can't stand this and want to run all over the place or hop in the car and go someplace else after a day. Not me, just leave me in one place for a week, as long as I know there is gold there. The old saying is "never leave gold to find gold" and as a rule I find it to be good advice. But put me in Alaska hunting tailing piles looking for lost over-sized gold and it is all about ground coverage. The nuggets are few and far between, not in a limited area like a natural patch. And miles of ground usually. Low and slow is not the way to go. If you are hunting for a new patch in a desert, better have a large coil and cover ground like no tomorrow looking for an indicator nugget. Low and slow is no good in 100 square miles of desert. Patch hunting versus known patches, real world result. I spent exactly a month of hunting days in Australia, with JP putting me on a known patch every day. Dawn to dusk. I was in Australia to find an Australia sized nugget, you know, the fist sized type. I figured the pounded patches were not a good bet for that, and so I devoted dawn to lunch each day on a long loop swinging an 18" coil on my GPX 5000. I don't take breaks, I swing for the 4-5 hours I have. I covered about 5 miles per half day on each of those loops. Then after lunch it was hit the patch low and slow. At the end of the month I had 2.33 ounces of Aussie gold. If I recall correctly, like one or at most two of those were found on my exploration trips. I would have bet, did bet, that I would have found some tiny patch or stringer of gold somewhere off the main patch locations. Instead I essentially wasted half my trip for basically no result. I can't say I regret that - go big or go home - and I do have to learn some things for myself. But in retrospect I could have easily have doubled my gold take just by staying on the patches. And frankly maybe got a whisper that proved to be the big nugget I was after. If I go back to Australia again, unless it is specifically a trip to find new ground, I would stay on the patches 100% of the time and give it my all. If I have done that last trip I would probably have found 5 ounces instead of 2.33 ounces. 2.33 ounces of Australian gold I do quite a bit of wandering in Nevada, and have found quite a few isolated nuggets, which apparently are far more common in Nevada than Australia, or at least where we were in Australia. Just one nugget, then hunt there for two more hours and nothing else. And I did find a little virgin mini patch once that gave me about an ounce of gold. But more normal was one week I spent in a gold bearing region but not on a known patch, just hunting dawn to dusk trying to find that fabled virgin patch I know is out there someplace still. A solid week, one nugget of a couple grams. Man I was excited when I found it, but once again it was a one off. It is very hard to patch hunt like that knowing you can drive a few miles and be on gold. But if you want to be that person who really, and I mean really scores, you have to give it a go every once in a while. But realistically, getting on known producing ground with the absolute best machine possible and hunting as slowly and methodically as is humanly possible is what puts gold in the poke these days. Unless you are in tailing piles in Alaska!

Gerry, Great post and beautiful RP gold...you know that area better than most hunters. This year I crawled and gridded small areas using orange cones to mark off areas( Lunk's recommendation), overlapping by 1/2 or less and it works, if the gold is in the ground! Like Mitchel, I may need some more training by the pros in those special RP areas. Bill

Thank you Lacky for so clearly expressing what seems to be overlooked. People have to work within reasonable budgets and the idea that everyone can just run out and get $5000 plus machines simply because they are "the best" flies in the face of reality. For most people metal detecting is a hobby, nothing more, and no money is ever going to be made doing it. It is an optional expense, not a genuine need. It's for the fun and adventure. I know I have made this all about me, me, me but the truth is I am very cognizant of people like you and the need for reasonable power at reasonable prices. Equinox is a very good example of what happens when a company delivers on that promise. It's called value, something that is still lacking in the PI world. I just wanted to highlight your post because I think its says everything I was trying to say but in far less words and with far more heart. My very best wishes for you and your kids.

I want what I want when I want it, lol. That being said I will wait in line like all the rest for the PI that fits my build list. My build list is about the same as Steve's. I have a Nox and it wrecks all other vlf units. If you don't care for that statement sorry, I respect your view and will add you to the list of people that prevent me from dredging in Cali. The SDC is where I expect the small gold bar set at. The deep gold needs to be better than the Zed. It does not have to be as big in gold size as the Zed, would be nice. But let's face it, the honkers are disappearing. So I will take many grammer in a day over one big one. I get bored fast lol. Weight needs to be Nox like. Let's keep it simple. Give me a PI Nox and I will buy two lol and a hat lol lol.

I want my speaker(s) up where my ears are not down where my arm or wrist is though.

Actually what I would really like is two GPZ’s, one on par weight wise as the CTX for larger coil use and another one that is super light for small coil use and yes with a 10 x 6” elliptical for Steve.??

Sure, I’ll take one if you throw in a 6x10 elliptical coil. Do you take American Express or VISA?

Seems simple JP. Set your bars for your use, I’ll set mine for my use. For me I am sure I said it already but a Garrett ATX circuit packaged up right would be fine. That’s my low bar... for me. Unlike you I can grab an ATX right now and go find gold with it. But all I am doing is setting a low bar. What I am asking for is the machine that exceeds that bar the most while staying ergonomic and affordable. Did it appear I set an upper limit on performance? I don’t think so. GPX 4500 is the better low bar really, and I’ll sure go for more! Said it many times. How about the SDC stuffed in the Eureka Gold box with a coil selection? At least I could hip or chest mount it. But no, it has to be in a 5.3 lb military box with a hard-wired coil. Sure it works but I want what I want. I am the one being selfish and conceited JP. The machine is for me and people thinking like me and I am sure I am far from being alone. You should use what you want and what works for you. You do this to make money so absolute performance is paramount I assume. What difference does it make? I’m not demanding that all other detector development for other people like you cease. It’s not a battle between us, where one must win and the other lose. Surely there is room for more than one set of desires in the world? How about I vote we both get what we want? I am just clearly stating what I want and what would make me happy, nothing more. I’d love a thread from you on what you want and why. I would assume that would be next gen GPZ but I should not put words in your mouth. As for me it’s basically a non-issue. My bar has been cleared and all that is left next year is to pick between the available choices. Like I said, happy days... for me!