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Hey Guys! Remember this thing that I found on Florida’s Treasure Coast a couple weeks ago and posted about? I was so disappointed there were no visible markings to link it to the1715 Spanish Fleet that sunk during a hurricane. Well, I decided to carefully try to separate the silver sandwich with a paring knife, and was successful with minimal damage. The inside surfaces were dark and thick with corrosion but I kept working on them(rubbing on wet aluminum foil did the best...very time consuming. I don’t have an electrolysis setup yet). So glad I did it! I’ve definitely found my 1st Pieces of Eight finally (1/2 Reales likely)! Minted in Mexico between 1700-1715 during Philip V’s reign in Spain, if my research is correct. They may be little, but I’m tickled pink with them! 🙂

It’s all missing the point. It’s not about what can’t be detected. It is about how well the small gold that can be detected will signal, and there is good reason to believe Impulse will improve in that area. On any small gold that the Impulse can detect in saltwater, it should do so better than other existing products. In theory, subject to independent testing. We have had detectors that can easily detect thin gold chains since at least 1995. We don’t use a Gold Bug 2 in saltwater. Why? It’s not rocket science. A decent nugget detector is so sensitive to a conductive salt signal they will detect your hand, let alone an ocean. Any detector that is tuned such that it gets a bare salt signal is tuned as well as is possible for small gold in saltwater. That is the limit and we have been there for at least a couple decades. Saying anything will do better in that regard reflects a lack of understanding about the issue. When I hear claims about improved ability to find thin gold chains in saltwater I just ignore it as nonsense. I did hope the Impulse on dry land could run full out at 7uS but being locked into salt mode negates that possibility. It may be a practical limitation of what can be done at the analog level, something to hope for in a future digital version. Or it may be a marketing move to differentiate the AQ from the prospecting version, which by nature has to remove that limitation. Whatever, it is what it is. Once we eliminate salt though there is still small gold we can detect. The question is “at what depth?” For the small gold that the Impulse can detect in saltwater, how well will an Impulse detect it by comparison to the competition? That is the real question. Personally I don’t care much about finding the smallest gold in saltwater. I will be hunting the largest gold I can find, not the smallest. Micro jewelry detecting has always been a thing people talk about more than do. I don’t see troops of people on the towel line with Gold Bug 2s or Goldmaster 24Ks or even Equinox with small coils. If hunting micro jewelry is so great why is everyone not doing it? Answer - micro aluminum. Micro jewelry detecting is actually aluminum detecting and gets old pretty quick for most people. Those 1 carat diamonds on a post are a lot rarer than you think. If you want to hunt thin gold chains in the water get a rake. and another.... https://youtu.be/zbXNcUqLAM8

I've been thinking about it for a while, however to reach low prices it would only be ALL METAL. No magnetic ground effect compensation. I also drew it completely. It would of course have all the settings ... delay, freq, volume, threshold etc ... a waterproof version 60 meters

I only paid money for my first (GT16000) after that, I traded gold for all my later detectors. The only exception was a Garret Infinium. I never found anything with that and quickly traded it for an SD2100. This (attached to Jim Stewart's 36" Bismarck") found an awful lot of big gold. Haven't bought a detector for years now, mainly testing new QED prototypes for Howard. These always earn their keep very quickly.

Several months ago friends and I went to look for some lost Civil War valuables. Since we all had signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement I am unable to say where it was at except that the state is Tennessee. We were using a new type of metal detector that I put together and had a friend from John Deere software division do some programming for the unit. This system uses 3 separate frequencies for 3 separate coils and builds a 3D image of the metal in the ground. The images show a depth of over 5 feet and we expect to find the item close to that depth. Since we are looking for something rather large this works very well to keep us from digging the smaller items. We use a standard metal detector for finds closer to the surface as well, and yes we have found more than we expected. We arrived on a rainy day and set up camp for the next 10 days and settled in. The rain ended about midnight and we knew that the ground would be wet. We had early breakfast and proceeded to gain the land owners permission to hunt on their land. That took some negotiation to get everyone’s permission but we had written permission in hand. We then unloaded the 4 wheelers and equipment and set forth to locate what we were after. After digging up almost 2,100 pounds of trash and a couple of small relics we called it a night. The next several days proved to be just as bad as our first day on the hunt, finding only small stuff and very few relics, but we still had a pile of trash left to dig. On the 7th day we had a very good target that looked like we had found what we were after. We were able to dig it up and pull it from a 6 foot hole and we knew we had found something important. We had uncovered a chest that belonged to a 2nd Lieutenant of the Union Army. Inside were several of his items including a Remington Model 1861 Army Revolver of a 22 caliber. Also there were numerous other items including 8 $1.00 gold pieces. He had some silver tableware, razor, and many other items. The chest had shown wear from being in the ground and the inside material had all but rotted. Surprising as it was the chest was In good condition as someone had put bees wax on it and it was wrapped in a trap of some type. The heavy iron straps that held the chest together was all intact and just slightly rusted. One of the locks was mostly gone, but the second one was in much better shape. Most of the chest has been cleaned and redone and looks almost new, and the other items have also been cleaned properly. Some of what we had found will be placed in a museum near the location of which it was found, while the gun and the coins have been shared between the people who went. Everyone had an equal share in this hunt and 2 of the people were brothers who wanted the pistol. I was given 4 of the gold pieces and now I have them hanging on my wall. We are planning another trip back because we know that the treasure we are looking for is there. Since we have the area narrowed down we should find it within a few days. The land owners have given us the permission again and we have plenty of equipment this time to make it go much faster. Below is a picture of my coins as I am still waiting on pictures of the chest and other items.

Reading through this thread, the consensus is towards an ergonomics, lightweight, cheaper discriminating gold detector. I am hoping that ML can produce such but for me I hope they continue to produce a flagship gold detector that continues in the direction that has made ML the worlds leader in gold detection. The GPZ"8000" for me can be in the same box/shaft as it currently is, ( a lighter/ergonomic one of course if possible) the weight/ergonomics as is, is not a big issue for me, no need for incorporating a GPS unless done with say an android color sunlight screen with popular moving map software that allows downloading/uploading/saving of existing/new data offline. I have no need for discrimination, main need is for more power and GB to penetrate deeper in noisy variable ground. In the coil department I go with the consensus, a range from say 8" round/elliptical up to whatever, and ML if you can`t give us those coils let the aftermarket fellows do it, that is the one concession I ask for. The 8000 priced as ML has been tops at, to allow for R & D financing of future flagship gold detectors, a producer as all previous MLs have been. I just hope there are enough potential GPZ8000 buyers who seek the above to ensure ML produce a more powerful refined gold flagship detector as is their tradition since the mid 80s.

Unfortunately PI technology as it currently exists does not lend itself to accurate discrimination. The physics just don't support it. I'm sure some form of hybrid technology will come along and eventually solve the issue. Maybe a combination of PI and magnetometer could help with ferrous discrimination.

Apparently they dredge sand from Canaveral Shoals to barges 5 miles off the Cape, then truck it to different areas. I would assume it’s been surveyed etc to make sure no wrecks there lol. In some prior years they used crappy inland sand but people complained. This year’s project along my particular treasure hunting beach sites will make it especially bad for detecting...they are super building up the dunes along with the beach as I type this. It’ll take a huge storm to open it up...I’m so happy and grateful I found my little Spanish treasures before they dumped on them!

I have known of this lost item for almost 40 years thinking someone else would beat me to it. Over the last couple of years I have learned much on this particular item and we are hoping to end the search for it this year. We believe that it is in an area of less than 1.5 square miles on either side of a creek and we can now search that area with confidence with what we have. We will have only 4 or 5 people going on this trip with a couple from this forum. Should anyone not be able to go I will ask someone on this forum to go with us if they want. We have not lost any money on this project and have actually made a little bit from it. So yes there are treasures out there to look for and to find.

In my humble opinion and about 1500 hours of diving, with more than 100 pieces of gold or a few kilos carrying 90% CZ I can say that I do not care about small parts since it is the same job as taking out a large one, where the priority is to optimize the air duct, it will always be better to go fat, now surfing with constant waves and standing scoop always lift rings and coins without problems. now I need a detector of greater depth, since I know the places where the sea accumulates the metals

Lots of beaches pay big bucks for beach cleaners. I think a "Saving the Environment & Your Feet" T-Shirt and raking up trash would be a great public service! You might even find something good by accident while performing this great service.

Thanks. The Vanquish did better than I thought it would given it doesn't separate targets as well as the Equinox. As far as relic hunting goes it can hold it's own as long as the trash isn't too dense. Great backup detector to have on hand or have a loaner for friends IMO.

Steve I find you absolutely right! The other big question is when will it go on sale?

Thank you. I have researched it for about 5 years talking to the old timers that knew about what we are looking for and we finally came up with a way to find it. What we have searched so far has shown that we are on the right track and in the right area. Last year took so much time to get permission from certain people that we lost our window to search properly. This year it will be the clean up year as I feel certain that we can get what we are going after. All the small stuff is just going to be gravy for our pockets, but the big prize will have to go to a museum I'm sure. Wish I could tell you what is down there that we are looking for, but I can't and won't right now. I have always said Oak Island has been a hoax from the beginning, and I could prove that wit a map.

I agree with the waste. Florida's coastline changes so give it room to change rather than rebuild so quickly. Where does the renourishment sand come from? (A good claim I hope!) haha

New player do tell whites came to mind or qed but direct competition to minelab high end is what we need. 1to keep them honest and 2 to keep prices fair.. You always see in any situation where you have one stand alone entity they can do as they please demand what ever price.. So I'm defanitly hoping that someone does come to the party to compete at flagship level. I know I've been more than impressed with the whites 24k in comparison to gm1000 both go tit for tat. Be nice to have the same thing on the pi level

Too cool! Now find a gold sandwich!!👍👍

Right back from the RB7 in 79 to the Z, only two gold detectors have not paid for themselves and that is my SDC. Not because it can`t but simply because I got it after the Z, because of the magic of the Z I simply have not used the SDC enough. The other was the XT1800, which was too quickly replaced by SD2100, like the SDC the 1800 didn`t see enough use. It is not a necessity that my detectors pay the way, it is just my good fortune to live where I do, the thrill of the chase and find is what drives me to spend many 100s of hours each year chasing that heavy stuff.

It was basically a one day event at one of the several beaches I checked that day...nice big cut! But the morons are AGAIN renourishing the whole area now, so we’ll need a huge Nor’easter to come by to open things up again. What a waste of money.

For information Manta was 4 years ago. There have been a lot of things done since ! 😉 The biggest technological advances were made in 2019, if I look back on the past 10 years for me and for Le.Jag when we dicuss together.

Well, since I wrote those words about a year and a half ago, I guess I get an opinion on what I meant. I meant simply salt water - sand wet with it, wading in it and coil submerged to some reasonable depth. I stated that the ability to find small gold would surpass any existing detector in said salt water - due to it having the capability to operate at shorter pulse delay settings in this environment. Since I wrote that - based on what I have read, I have used AQ prototypes breafly in salt water - including with the coil submerged in running salt water. I found no need to adjust the pulse delay from the setting I was using - 8 microseconds of I recall rightly. Also however, I have tested the AQ against tiny gold targets such as small posts and earring backs. I found it to be less sensitive to these than something like a Minelab SDC which is targeted at tiny low conductors like gold nuggets. In discussing this with Alexandre and in subsequent posts he has made, he made it clear that a degree of insensitivity to tiny low conductor trash like foil bits and tiny melted AL fragments from beach bonfires. This of course means that hunting for tiny 10k crucifixes is pretty well out. It is well documented that as the quantity of salt a detector sees increases, the ability to operate at very short pulse delays is lost. Diving PI detectors have quite long minimum pulse delays I believe. When Alexandre was questioned why no pulse delay longer than 12 microseconds was available, he answered, as best I recall, that within its submergence limits, the design of the circuitry and coil made that unnecessary. The proof of the pudding is in the eating thereof. You stated that “So it now appears that “in the water” this detector will provide little additional benefit against existing products.” Time will tell if you are right.

Hi Yes I agree with you Alexandre , a serious MD test must be a blind test. If the tester knows where the target is buried and the kind of target buried , in most cases he will tell that he detects the target, even its detector cannot do it. As you said he THINKS that he detects it but it is a kind of psychological "auto suggestion" process ( sorry it is in French ) . The MD tests must be done very scientifically with a very strict procedure as you have done above . Doing this with many detectors of different brands on my own bed tests , I arrived to the conclusion that the max detection depth for a VLF detector in moderated mineralized ground is always around 28/30cms for a 10Centimes napoleon3 ( 10grams french copper coin ), no more ,whatever the detector brand is . Tthis is just logical because the electronic/electromagnetic physical laws are the same for all the machines.... The last test that I did was with the Nokta Simplex+ , and the result was again 28cm on this 10C Napoleon coin. By the way I am looking forward to see a Fisher PI coin/relic machine coming after the impulse AQ and the Terra , if this is technically possible .And I am looking forward to see a machine beating the 30cm depth on the 10Cent Napoleon 3 ( with a very good iron disc of course ) , I have never found one up to now …. thanks , Alain

Well, I think there are enough testers and users out now to have identified the potential problems of making the lead. There are several here on this forum who have helped make the situation better than when we first heard about the Xcoils. The manufacturer/coil maker has worked with them. I'm in the process of getting one. When I get it and I'm ready to cut the 19" cord I'll look at the instructions and chat with some people here. Even those who had problems got them fixed and went on to get another Xcoil. They know more than I do. They've seen them work. When mine is working I think I could make a good case that I could sell my Z for more money with a working Xcoil than a Z that has not been Xcoil modified! (It shouldn't be worth less or worthless. haha) I've lost the fear factor. It is a tool that can be modified. More gold is our cry! When the NF coil is ready and the connections are made known for that perhaps a Z with NF and Xcoils will be more desirable in the resale market. I've already asked the question about a detector paying for itself and everyone says it is about the enjoyment. It shouldn't matter much then about the cost of a coil, right?

I've been hunting a lake nearby for the last week, so far, every hunt has produce some nice silver or gold jewelry. Today I was able to retrieve 3 more rings, 2 silver and 1 junk. I found something else, but, I'm not sure what it is. Here's my setting: Park 2 Manual GB Sens 22 2 tones Iron bias 0 Tone break +5 up Tons of trash to wade through to find a keeper, but, very satisfying when it happens.

The switches are small, cheap, fairly fragile things, it's almost inevitable that they will fail at some point. You can see them on this internal photo: eqx_PCB The sealed case means no access for repair. And removing/inserting the battery isn't exactly simple, so no get-around there. And I very much doubt that it's possible to do any clever software 'work-arounds', either, like swapping the on/off and the backlight button functions.

First of all, welcome to the forum. Second, define affordable... Most WP phones, especially those incorporating the special Equinox sealed plug are going to run north of $125 (because they are fully sealed) which is a lot to pay if you are not going to actually dunk them. Another option is to get a set of water/weather resistant bluetooth aptx low latency earbuds or phones, here are a couple links: https://www.questmetaldetectors.com/product-page/aptx-low-latency-bluetooth-wireless-headphones-for-minelab-equinox https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GBVCZZX/ref=psdc_172541_t1_B07P961J94 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y4J2FK4/ref=psdc_172541_t2_B07P961J94 Note that I haven't actually tried the latter two earbuds, the specs look ok but your actual mileage may vary. Soundpeats used to have a popular pair of APTX Low Latency buds but I no longer see them for sale, only APTX HD which has more audio delay and is not suited to detecting since the audio will significantly lag the position of the target under the coil. A quick and dirty option in light rain is to just pull your rain hood up and over your head with the stock Equinox headphones since they are wireless, it is easier to do that than with wired phones. (Assuming you have an Equonox 800, you didn't specify which model you have). HTH

My wife and I have paid all our detectors off with Gold but have also paid them off with coins and jewelery from park,schools and sea side. On one lucky holiday trip to a beach in Queensland I got over 50 gold rings and the wife got a share too. But all up, the bad part is the hourly rate was less than a dollar an hour. At least we did not run out of having fun.

Today I went to the beach to take advantage of the super tides. I got there and as luck would have it there was no one on the beach in my spots! I turned on the detector as I normally do by pressing in the on/off switch on the left side of the control housing. It turned on properly but I can remember I felt a 'give' that I hadn't noticed before. It was working so I just went about my detecting looking for targets. There were not that many either high or low today. When I went to take a break I got past the dry sand and tried to turn off the detector as I had turned it on. I pressed the button and all I felt was it 'give' without stopping. I tried repeatedly but no luck. I turned off the headphones and that didn't help, it just made it so everyone could hear. Now I know I've got a problem but what do I do? I unscrewed the connector to the coil and a message came on the screen that I think said 'Cd' and then the power went off. Now the power will not go back on. It was just before 5 PM in Chicago but I've left a message for Minelab. It will probably be Monday before I hear from them now. It looks like the 3030 will get some use or the SE Pro if I use a detector in the next couple of weeks. Anyone had a bad switch yet? Mitchel

With the Equinox being such a versatile detector, I have used it in many different detecting situations. Lately I have been helping a local municipality try to find the exact location of a 19th century narrow gauge railroad right of way on some of their city land. The rails and cross ties were removed long ago and the terrain has been altered. So I’m looking for the iron relic debris along the railway roadbed for their museum and to trace the railroad’s location and any other period non ferrous targets too. I get to keep the non- ferrous ones!!!! One easy way to selectively find deep big iron targets with the Equinox like spikes, bolts and nuts, fish plates, etc. in Park or Field modes is to locate an iron target and then size it in pinpoint mode. We all know that the pinpoint feature can be a bit wonky sometimes. A friend of mine is helping me with this project and he is new to the Equinox (longtime CTX user). I was helping him setup his Nox in Park 2 and Field 1 and showing him how to ground balance and pinpoint. He didn’t know about the global and local settings difference so he just assumed that what he set in Field 1 applied to Park 2. He manually ground balanced Field 1 at 5 while Park 2 was unknowingly left on 0. The ground balance here can change from -2 to + 10 rapidly. I was trying to help him hear the difference between what to me sounded like a short 6” or so piece of barbed wire (correct assumption btw) still in the ground and what sounded to me like a much more dense piece of iron (turned out to be a spike). The pinpoint audio “halos” were very different on my Nox 600 and clearly outlined a long, thin target as opposed to a target whose audio halo was at least as big as my 11” coil. His Nox 800 was in Park 2 and in pinpoint mode it responded with a loud, long cats meow that lasted for his entire 4’ coil sweep over what turned out to be the barbed wire strand at 8” depth. He tried several times with the same result. I just figured he was continuing to press his pinpoint button but after checking he wasn’t. I tried his Nox and got the same result. I switched to Field 1 and his 800 pinpoint mode worked just like my Nox had. I switched back to Park 2 on his Nox and checked his settings and fixed the ground balance discrepancy by doing a ground grab which set at 4. I then went back into pinpoint mode on his Nox in Park 2 and it pinpointed just like his Field 2 and my similarly setup Nox 600. It appears that obtaining a good ground balance reading may improve pinpoint mode function on the Nox. I sure don’t remember seeing anything about that in the manual. So, I have always wondered what pinpoint mode was on the Nox since there is no classic All Metal mode. I have also wondered how smart (or not) it was to just simplify things and leave a Nox on 0 ground balance. This experience has reinforced my belief that taking the 30 seconds or less to do a ground grab now and then on this internally complex high gain detector during a hunt is definitely a smart idea. Jeff

Now that makes for a Happy New Year! I’m very pleased for you Peg, congratulations!

A Battery cart! A used stroller from Goodwill! Or wagon with fat tires! And maybe an armored truck with security!! Not that you need suggestions!😁👍 Great finds! Keep it going!

Caches are probably the holy grail of treasure hunting. Here you and Peg report on finds from different troves within a couple weeks of each other, proving they are still out there. Most of us are left dreaming, probably for the rest of our days. But rather than acrimonious envy, I feel good that you have succeeded. Thanks to both of you for keeping those elusive dreams alive.

Well since you "missed it". Here is a quote: "The Manta has two key characteristics which aim to make it a deadly gold hunter. First and most important, it claims to be more sensitive to ALL gold than any previous salt water detector. It does this by having an adjustable pulse delay control which goes down below 10 microseconds pulse delay - this has two effects, it enables finding smaller gold than any current detector in salt water and second Manta has more depth on all gold. All this sensitivity would be no good if weak target signals were swamped by circuit and ground noise. The Manta’s design has been refined and every design trade off made in the direction of extremely low noise, letting weak signal be heard." Please pay particular note to the phrase: "it enables finding smaller gold than any current detector in salt water and second Manta has more depth on all gold." It's really not an inference, I was being kind and gentile per Steve's desire for this forum's level of decorum, it's a direct quote of a claim with direct reference to "in salt water". To me the that phrase refers to a detector coil submerged in salt water. NOT on a saltwater beach or shoreline etc. Here is the link where you will find this: http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting/580704-new-fisher-pi-ricks-manta-manifesto.html

The detector was made with detectors used for parking equipment and fast food drive-thru. They naturally pick up autos about 3-4 feet off the ground. We coupled together 3 separate units and ran them at max sense with a computer program made just for it. They are assembled using only PVC pipe and the wheel axles are made from machine grade nylon. Each unit uses a different frequency and are adjusted for a pulse which causes no interference from each unit. They run off a 12 volt deep cycle battery carried on the 4 wheeler. You will never find just gold unless you are looking for a very large amount in a small area. Each coil is 20 inches by 60 inches with 7 turns of 10 gauge wire inside the 3/4 inch pvc pipe, and then the wheels are added. I will try to get some pictures of the system and post them the next time I pull it out of the storage shed. Should we find what we are looking for this next time I am sure that it will be on the news because of what it is.

Luis, it appears your corroding coin above is a direct relative of the nasty corroding Zinc cents we have here in the US. As these zinc cents corrode away, they read lower and lower on the conductivity scale, dropping well into the mid-conductor range of the aluminum square tab and pull-tab (man's gold ring). It will be interesting to know if the Impulse AQ audio characteristics of a corroding zinc cent (or 5, 2 or 1 cent Euro) will be tell tale enough to skip digging them. ? ? ? ? Rich -

They are coins from here in Europe. Its appearance seems to be copper, but nothing is further from reality. Its material is highly ferrous and as I have put in the photo when they get lost on the beach they are not worth even for the legal course. When I had TDI SL you had to dig it if you wanted to recover gold and it was frustrating to make 12 or 13 inch gaps and get that out. The beaches of southern Spain what I live in are full of these coins

I use both the sdc and the Zed. In high yield/normal/smothing off the Zed is an amazing machine that will find gold so small that even the sdc will hardly find ,especially in difficult ground. Note: you will need metal free boots!! Both machines have a different target profile with respect to the ground your hunting. In the open field the Zed is King by a large margin and superior over any other Gold Detector that's out there

Li-ion batteries burning/exploding is apparently a growing problem for airlines. Here is the FAA chart showing recent incidents: https://www.faa.gov/hazmat/resources/lithium_batteries/media/Battery_incident_chart.pdf "As of December 1, 2019, 261 air/airport incidents involving lithium batteries carried as cargo or baggage that have been recorded since January 1, 2006." Because of the energy densities, li-ion batteries are inherently somewhat dangerous, but the most dangerous type is that used with RC model planes and similar devices, which by design lack the protective circuitry of the mainstream li-ion.

When was it ever "inferred" that the machine could alter the physics of salt conductivity compensation and magically see targets that also fall in the same range. I missed that one.

Well... I guess we do have to leave some small gold behind for the next generation of hunters or they'll have nothing to look for! ☺️

It’s also important to remember that “still” saltwater allows for quicker delays than “moving” saltwater. Working in 5 feet of calm saltwater is far easier (in terms of running shorter pulse delays) than 1 to 2 feet of fast moving saltwater.

I agree Steve ...... theres no free lunch in the salt water. Testing will determine..... what small gold might be lost on that end in the water. However..... for the most part the machine we now use ARENT getting that small gold either.

I have read posts by Alexandre stating the Impulse is locked permanently in “salt mode” even in all metal mode, and that there should be no expectation it will detect tiny gold items. In fact it is by design excluding small aluminum in order to focus of gold rings to the exclusion of almost anything else. This implies an insensitivity to saltwater that should be in favor of stable operation at depth. You can’t really complain the detector will not pick up small gold items then turn around and get overly concerned it might be too sensitive to saltwater. It’s one or the other, and the machine is stated to be insensitive to saltwater, small aluminum and small gold by design. In any case this is the reason why we have a pulse delay control and a sensitivity control so it seems to me like concerns over saltwater stability is a blown up issue. It’s not like the machine is preset with no adjustments available.

I have not put my machine into negative numbers but I have done 100's of digs on iffy beach signals. Where I detect Mexican Peso coins ring -4to-7. Due to mineralization position in the sand and other factors these want to break the threshold. So lets say I get a breaking sound signal it reads -1 then+2 then -4 then +3. I go in multiple directions then dig. To date with 100's of digs I have yet to dig anything of value. My point is two fold. First these are clearly targets that are NOT masked. Second there is a strong correlation that when you are given a target that won't lock but "wants" to ring up it is most likely ferrous. I will say if you are grouping meter numbers most read as a negative with a few low plus number in the swing. If you get the reverse and you grouping of meter numbers are positive then it is most likely a keeper. How many swings? I would say three back and fourths from TWO different positions should give the information you need. Dave

It’s standard practice when nugget detecting because very weak non-ferrous signals in highly iron mineralized ground can tip to ferrous. The ground overwhelms the signal. This does not mean just tiny targets but even large targets like coins right at the edge of detection depth in highly mineralized ground.

Been detecting heaps ever since the 2100. Reading about rumours of new ML gold detectors have wasted about a year of my life and given me brain damage. (Not as bad as following QED threads though). I will buy any new high priced ML high end gold detector because i will pay it off in the field. I just want ML to fix their ongoing design faults and actually talk to testers before they finalise the hardware rather then just getting the testers to check software. Next model and coils must be lighter weight. ML, After all these years please increase shaft length for tall people. Please give use a robust charger and use wiring for charger leads that is thick and not the lowest spec useable.(all our cigi lead wires shorted out after minimal use on Zed). For the price you charge for your gold detectors, a padded control box cover should be supplied so your loyal customers can protect their large investment. This would really show your commitment to quality and customers. cheers RDD

Using a good magnet can really help in some discriminating. I have a bigger problem with lead than I do with iron.

Hey Gang, Well, back to the drawing board. The first samples of Swing Arms we got into the field have failed miserably. Thanks to all of you who have put up with the frustration of being guinea pigs. If you have had one that failed, return to the dealer and he will refund your money, until the revised version is available. If you have one that has not failed, use it until it does, so you can give us feedback on what happened. Pictures are very helpful. So some of the things that have been identified are: 1. The strap, which I requested be made with some kind of UV rubber with fiber reinforcement was not made with reinforcement, so it stretches and then breaks. It also needs to be about 1 1/2 inches longer with one more adjustment hole. 2. The pivot ball joint has way too much play in it. It should only rotate 360 degrees with no side to side movement. Initially I thought it would give more freedom of movement, but it is movement that is not necessary and causes undo stress on the joint and a feeling of instability. The purpose of the ball joint is to only allow the arm to move up and down so it does not break. But the opposite is happening, because it has so much movement, there is a lot of stress on the part. That is an easy fix, the collar has to be redesigned to restrict the movement. I'll try to attach a pdf file to show you what I am talking about. Collar correction.pdf 3. The pivot joint, the one that has a pin in it that allows the Swing Arm to swing out and away from the detector is too thin and flimsy. This was supposed to be made of Nyglass, but I think they used something that was not suitable for this part. This will have to be redesigned to be thicker with tougher material and a more substantial nylon pin that will be sonic welded into place. The concept and functionality is solid, it is just the materials and some of the design that needs to be corrected. Now I don't know many manufacturers that announce to the public that they "screwed the pooch" so to speak. But you guys have always been very helpful with ideas and suggestions and helping me field test all this crazy stuff I come up with. So I wanted to include you on this. And trust me, this is the process I go through every time with everything I develop. From initial concept, to design to prototype to pre-production to testing to modification and back to testing and then to full production and shipping and delivery and to the market runs about 9 months to 1 year. Sometimes things go very smoothly, sometimes, not so much. It depends on the complexity of the item. Unfortunately for this SAGA swing arm there are so many different molded moving parts. 2 Molds for the handle, a mold for the storage clip, 3 molds for the pivot and pivot ball joint assembly, 1 mold for the straps, a mold for the buttons in the fiberglass rod, extrusion mold for the fiberglass rods. About $10,000 in mold costs alone. Fun, right? However, I have never brought to market anything that I don't use myself and stand behind 100% And the SAGA Swing Assist Guide Arm will be no different. So your patience is appreciated as we work on SAGA™ Version 2.0 Speaking of production, the "G Spot" scoops are in production but I had them made with a satin finish as in the attached picture. The shiny ABS material caused too much glare in my opinion and was too slick allowing small gold to slide too easily. The top picture is the new satin finish and the bottom scoop was the shiny prototype. Standby while we work out the bugs. Thank you and Happy New Year. Doc

New 8000 means🤣 7000 will be cheap.😂

Hey Doc, No question, some more great products you have designed. Doc has been designing gold prospecting/metal detecting products since the day I met him, mid 90's. Since that day I have been selling Doc's products and stand behind them 100%. We have many of these items for free with the purchase of various Minelab metal detectors. Thanks for some more great products Doc. Rob