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Here's a nice little self-contained set of finds, these came out of a 1x1m area on a small pushed up pile of dirt and rubble in a local forest reserve. I've wandered over this area plenty of times before, but only now did I snag a good target. I had a hunch there had to be something of interest here but I just couldn't make it work... There was a smattering of aluminium pull tabs dumped on top of the pile to cause distraction as well. Can't work up any more targets even with the nox set at F2-0, tempted to get the pick out there and turn it all over a bit. 1873 and 1877 pennies, an 1842 groat and a silver cufflink made in 1911.

Metal detectors have some basic limitations on how far they can detect items. From http://www.talkingelectronics.com/projects/200TrCcts/MetalDetectors/MetalDetectors-1.html : “the sensitivity is roughly proportional to the cube of the object diameter (as expressed as a function of the search coil diameter). Sensitivity is also inversely proportional to the sixth power of the distance between the coil and the object. All this means is that if the object size is halved the sensitivity is reduced to one-eighth. Also, if the depth is doubled the sensitivity is reduced to one sixty-fourth. It’s easy to see why all metal detectors which are designed to pick up small objects use small coils, (150 to 300 mm diameter) and really only skim the soil surface. If the search coil is doubled in diameter for greater penetration the sensitivity to small objects falls to one-eighth. You rapidly encounter the law of diminishing returns.” Famed metal detector engineer Dave Johnson reiterates this in a different way at http://www.fisherlab.com/hobby/davejohnson/davejohnsonjohngardinerinterview.htm : “Getting extra depth out of a VLF, multifrequency, or PI machine is very difficult, because these machines follow an inverse 6th power law relationship between signal voltage and depth. If everything else is maintained equal, doubling the depth requires 64 times as much signal. If this is done by increasing transmitter power, doubling depth requires 4,096 times as much battery drain. That’s the basic reason why depth increases come so slowly in this industry.”

After making some errors yesterday about what I believed were the Vanquish operating freqs, I have some proper facts today: Those Russians over on the MD-Arena website have been poking about on a Vanquish, and have posted a frequency spectrum of it's output, and a 'scope image of its waveform. And the surprise result is .... it's running like the Equinox Beach mode. The waveform is an exact match for the Beach mode scope capture's that Chiv made on Geotech1, and the frequency spectrum matches, too. So that is 7.8 kHz / 13 kHz / 18.2 kHz / 39 kHz Ratios are 3 : 5 : 7 : 15 How it then goes on to process these four is of course unknown .... it could be a straight 'copy' of the Eqx beach mode code, that would be the quickest simplest way of doing it - make use of the R&D that's already been carried out. If they only need to process two freqs for a given mode, they can, no need to change the transmitted output. I suppose this opens up the possibility of hacking Vanquish coils onto the Eqx ... though don't hold yer breath. I'll try and add some pics and further info later.

Perhaps uncoincidentally, 2.2 billion years ago is also within the great oxygenation event which created the early banded iron formations due to the first life on Earth emerging and photosynthesizing oxygen from CO2. The Subury impact here was also at the end of that period. I wonder if a lot of the oceanic dissolved iron was sourced from dust from major meteorite impacts? The only other BIF forming period on record is also during the only other "snowball earth" period (there were two of these) around 650 million years ago. Odd how it's all kinda connected, life and meteorites. Makes me wonder if there is something to the theory that RNA, glucose, or other simple life building blocks hitched a ride to Earth on a meteorite, and maybe the crustal iron arrived on our surface at the same time as the first life did, because they came in riding the same rocket.

I think it's a lot harder to make a successful new gold prospecting machine without any real tech advancements than it is to make a new coin machine with no major tech advancements. Nature isn't making any more nuggets, but new coins and rings get dropped every day by people so you need much less tech to succeed in coin shooting than you do in nugget shooting. In 50 years my Ace 250 is still gonna find me gold rings, but my GPZ won't find a single nugget when there are none left within range for it to find. So, a new gold machine better be a major improvement over the last model in some shape or form, or I just don't see it succeeding outside of the 2nd and 3rd world, even if they get down into the sub-$3k range. It's pointless to run a detector over ground with no targets left in detection range. To compound the issue - most guys I've met nugget shooting are in their 70's and 80's now. Very few new or younger people have joined since I started 13 years ago, mostly due to obscene pricing schemes. And nugget depletion is a massive problem here in the USA too. Nugget shooting is already dying quick here in the USA from what I can tell. Most of the success is limited to people with areas of exclusive access or exclusive knowledge in the USA today. Dunno about Australia or NZ, just talking about here. Waiting another 5 years to release something significantly better than the GPZ might find half their market in the US missing. An observation: I've taken my X Coils around quite a bit now. They are definitely giving me a nice, repeatable, measurable sensitivity boost. But I can say for certain that it's just not enough anymore. I've found maybe $700 in nuggets I missed with prior technology, in total. It's not enough to pay even my gas for a 25 hour drive round trip, let alone food+propane, tire repair, etc. Whatever ML does next needs to be better. It needs to cancel salt and retain GPZ level sensitivity or greater. Or cancel iron mineralization and maintain sensitivity. Or lower the noise floor a full magnitude so RX sensitivity can double. Something major like that. Discrim doesn't help me personally, but clearly many would buy a new machine based on that major upgrade too. It needs to be big. A GPX remix would be a major letdown to me personally unless a successor to the GPZ was also released contemporaneously too. The computing power has been there for a decade. It's possible to do, especially with a team of physicists and engineers. There are a lot of different things that can be done with that many extra computer cycles, beyond just a coil on a stick. Gradiometry, interferometry, magnetometry, GPR-like methods, etc. The chips are literally fast enough to measure the speed of light (and thus EM reflection) over distances which a nugget or ore body might be buried now. There is much room for improvement.

You should do that Simon... it would convince nugget depletion is a real thing. Nobody is saying all the gold is gone everywhere. Yes, some people are still doing well but they are getting rarer every year. Places like Africa and such are newer fields but if nugget detecting has taught me anything it’s that it’s amazing what a few thousand people with metal detectors can do given a little time. The gold lasts forever but the cream of the crop goes away in a stunningly short period of time. Not long ago finding an ounce of gold a day was not that hard for me. Now I’m really happy with an ounce in a week. Anyway, I’ll shut up now. I don’t want to be that old guy raining on the parade. Lots of gold out there for sure, just ask any metal detector dealer!

Well GC. There you go thinking again. I will warn you that if you keep it up you will be cursed with the affliction of finding substantial quantities of gold. I doubt that, at this point , I can save you from yourself so I'll share some ideas that have worked for me. As far as the "mother load" area of the Sierra Nevada range goes I would be very surprised if there was an acre that had not been prospected for gold by the mid 1860s. But they didn't have very good detectors back then and the only way they could recover the gold was to see it and reach down and pick it up, throw the gold bearing dirt in the wind and hope the gold dropped before it blew away or concentrate it with water - and there you have a good idea. Look higher than any available water. there was rainwater but rarely enough for profitable washing. If you go to the higher elevations the rain soon turned to snow so even if it was a rich placer the working season was unpredictable and short so these areas were often abandon before they were worked out and a lot of good detector ground is still available and perhaps some that was discovered but never worked Another idea is pocket hunting. I am absolutely certain that I will be here bragging about a stupendous pocket discovery before this coming season is over.

For all the mega gold these people supposedly find you would think they could afford better digging tools and detectors! It's always the same $59 detector and a bloke chipping away at soft material like a woodpecker. The ones where he uses a little screwdriver and small hammer to tediously chip away is pretty painful to watch. But hey, they are getting millions of views so striking their own kind of gold!

Most of the gold I have detected has come from tailing piles, several pounds worth. The net take away from it all is that you can find gold in any of it and can’t discount anything. The spot no one else will hunt is where the last remaining nugget waits. That said, the decision to hunt large cobbles or not largely depends on the historical production of the creek. The average trommel has holes around 2 - 2.5 inch in size. If the creek produced lots of large gold that would not fit through that screen you’d be crazy not to hunt the cobbles. If on the other hand the creek produced nothing but smaller gold, then the cobbles are a poor bet. Research is the key. In general because small gold is more common than large gold your odds at finding any gold at all is better in the smaller material. But aren’t we all in this to make the big score? If you want to find big gold you have to go where the big gold is, and most spectacular finds, though rare, come out of the cobbles. But I have to reiterate, if the creek has no history of large gold the odds are very low in the cobbles. Three days detecting in tailing piles

Some photos of my finds, Roman coinage.

Gidday All, Just found a clip on my old hard drive taken in October 2015. I took my step daughter out for a swing in a paddock I had access to over near Maryborough, Victoria, Australia. First time that she had ever been out. To say she was excited is an understatement ! Minelab GPZ 7000 in difficult / general. Cheers, Rick

Oh oh, Norvics on to me

Our last 4-5 trips to Nevada we been hitting undiscovered areas prospecting, for zero. Have worked 3-5 miles north of Rye Patch prospecting several old closed placer claims for zero including west side of Majuba twice. Have also hit south side of Granite mountain in pretty remote area east of hwy 80 for zero. Also did one trip around Bikini Tree area for zero. It still is best to work within known gold areas maybe just around the edges and not miles from the discoveries. I guess its just the possibility of hitting an undiscovered patch keeps us prospecting.

Lot's of the books record the areas of high productivity and low productivity finds. The low productivity finds were often forgotten or are not as widely explored anymore by the general public. Also, just because there is a known gold area, it does not mean that everybody and their grandmother has covered every square inch. Many many of my finds are in known gold areas, just not in the heart of the main work. Many time there are no "signs of life" anywhere near where I am finding gold. Maybe they are not noticeable or they just weren't worth the old timer's efforts. But staying on the claims can be really tough. I really don't know if you will get skunked more by going off the claims or not, but I can tell you that your chances of the big finds tend to increase 10 fold when you go off on your own and explore. And when you find a couple gullies that nobody else found (because they were afraid to explore) you will more than pay off all of those skunks. Well, hopefully :)

A sound theory...but, be prepared for many dry days. Chris Ralph covers this in his book and articles... fred

Very interesting....... https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/01/21/snowball-earth-oldest-asteroid-impact-site-discovered-australia/4531149002/ “Some 2.2 billion years ago, an asteroid slammed into the Earth, leaving behind a massive, 43-mile-wide crater in what's now Western Australia, scientists announced Tuesday. It's the world's oldest known impact site, the new study said, one that also may have changed Earth's climate: It occurred at a time that coincided with Earth’s recovery from an ice age known as "Snowball Earth," where most of Earth’s surface was covered with ice sheets up to 3 miles thick, according to a statement from Imperial College in London. The impact left behind a scar on the land that's known as the Yarrabubba impact crater. "The age we've got for the Yarrabubba impact structure makes it the oldest impact structure on the planet," study co-author Chris Kirkland, a geologist at Australia's Curtin University, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.“

I have used both VLF detectors and PI detectors extensively to hunt tailings. Yeah, I dig junk like you would not believe. A GPX 5000 with an 18” mono is a nail finding monster. Click Steve’s Journal below in my signature line and look for Ganes Creek, Moore Creek, and Jack Wade Creek stories. The bottom line is simple. VLF is great until the gold plays out, then you have to go to PI or go somewhere else.

A nice RAKE is your friend, arrange, the tailings to suit your detecting.....Another thing, when you start seeing sharp blocky chunks in dredge tailings, you know that is bedrock that has been dug, this is what excites me......Remember low and slow, move stuff around...

People in general have a lot more faith than I do in the ability to get the technology much past where we are now from an outright power and sensitivity standpoint. I don’t expect any new detector to change the fact that we are pretty much down to grubbing for leftovers now when it comes to nugget detecting. Hate to be a bummer, but that’s just this prospectors opinion.

Rick may your medical issue disappear quickly and you bounce back better than ever. Thank you for your description of the controls and there effect on one another and all you have shared. You have taken a beating thru it all and for that I am sorry. Your picture on another forum had me rollin on the floor !!!

My soil is 50 to 65. I did a test in garden,coins 8 inches down 6 inch apart. 11 inch coil. Set sensitivity to 15 to just get a signal that targets were there. One nickel and one quarter. 0 on g.b. no signal. After g.b., was getting both signals,not great , but a signal i would have not walk by. I always G.B. Every time.

Hi everyone, my name is Nemanja, I live in Serbia. I've been doing metal detecting for about half a year, I have a Garrett ace 400i, mostly searching on Roman Empire grounds and medieval grounds. This part of Europe is a very rich ancient and medieval terrain. So far I have been finding Roman coins, medieval coins and similar finds from that period. I hope to have a good time and share experiences. So much for now and I apologize for bad English ...

Was here with the with the 7.5 and Hi-Q coils , it leaves tomorrow,, absolutely no comparison to the big box TDI ,, and the HI-Q isn’t any better at air tests than the 7.5 coil,, Whites says it’s for relics as well as gold (HI-Q) maybe gold,, not relics having pursued relics for the past 35 years this combo isn’t it ,, I’ll stick with the big box and the standard spider coil,,, or use my other pulse the M/L GPX5000 ,, and as someone else had written ,, we shouldn’t have to buy or make higher voltage batteries to gain depth ,, don’t get me wrong I love my Whites detectors owning1, Big Box TDI ,, 2 , 6000 xl 1, Blue&Gray, 1,MX Sport ,, and 1 Eagle in Brand New mint condition too pretty to use ,, this package is advertised as a gold and relic detector / that HI - Q isn’t for relics of much depth before it taps out

I tend to save all my finds and put them on a tray until I have time to sort them. Last year it seemed like I had too little time to sort because the two trays hold a whole year's worth of junk, jewelry, and coins. I did have additional plastic bags partially filled so the trays wouldn't overflow too much. The box holds the change that came out of all that junk on the trays. There are no picks of the jewelry because I remove that as I come home after detecting. Just wanted to share with others new to the hobby so they know that there will be junk as well as awesome finds. I used to keep track of how much change I found on each hunt, but now I just take it in and cash it out for Amazon credit. So, I'm not sure how much the change is worth yet because I have yet to take it in.

I thought a Pi air test is useless as it needs the ground to send the signal back unlike a IB machine. Comparing my 2 IB machines and my simple Seahunter which is a PI, the PI is much much deeper in the ground than it's air test would show and the opposite with my IB's. I noticed the SH is somewhat weaker on silver than lower conductors. Not sure if high conductors are weaker on pi's in general?

Aie Charles Thatcher had the go back then still has. I travelled OZ chasing the heavy stuff on short trips many times, spent 2 years straight in WA, NT & Vic, did OK but found twas golder at home, I just had to adapt. Now Phrunt to put a Bob each way...........True detectable gold is depleting, but that was also the consensus back in the mid 1980s, as I have no doubt will be so in 2080 and probably was so in the 1880s even. Don`t listen to Steve & JR they just don`t want to share 😉 Tis plenty out there with your name on, you just have to adapt.😋

Charles Thatcher: "The Green New Chum" http://www.cobbersbushband.com/green_newchum.htm

Pretty cool Steve. I guess I can deal with the frustration if I every now and then go back to my old spots to convince me that I can still find gold. It’s the old saying: either one step away from a million dollars, or a million steps away from a dollar. I would be willing though to go a million steps for a million dollars 🙂

In this YT video is missing any emotion or enthusiasm for gold or treasure hunting, but maybe regularly digging 5kg gold nuggets per day is quite boring for them ..

Another fake video from " Golden Bullshit Media " !

I like the straight shafts on my Excaliburs, but with a curved handle which makes it easy to carry to the beach. I do like the control pod under the elbow with a very tight cuff. Gives me better coil control in the water. I keep my cables trimmed short and tight to the shaft, one thing I hate is a sloppy cable.

Yes, Very careful. I have a long Telescoping Boat Hook I use to check the depth as I'm drifting in...and. I do have a nice ladder off of the back which really helps me slowly get off...and makes for a easy get back on. The boat has been a great tool that has helped me get to spots no one else can being many of the old closed beach's are now private and have no way to get to from land.

Rick, I've been following the 'manta' for a few years now, and have appreciated the info you've kept coming our way as it's become available. I'm still expecting to read your updates and share in your forays to the beach once you get your detector back from the factory. And drop a note if and when you get your Fisher dealership. I'm sure many will be interested. Get well soon. UtahRich

The Whites V3I is much heavier but seems much lighter. Why ? S rod and counter weight with box at rear. I have Steves fiber rod with counter weight and it helps alot.

In short, I have more doubts, it was a joy knowing that there were hopes, but I see no! I feel the AQ farther away, fisher doesn't listen to his clients, Alexandre and Denis's position has been very good, fisher leaves a lot to be desired

The terrains in Serbia are really top notch, from the Neolithic period, through Illyrian coins, Celtic coins and jewelry, Rome has ruled these territories for almost 400 years, 17 Roman emperors were born on the territory of present-day Serbia and several more in the region! later in the Middle Ages from the Ottoman Empire, Austro-Hungarian to this day. A seeker paradise!

A friend of mine bought one of the sharp zig zag Russian rakes about a year ago. He used it a couple times and said he never realized how out of shape he was when pulling it through the sand. Also it would grab any sizeable shells and seaweed and plug up pretty fast and get quite heavy. Probably works better in a soft sand beach environment.

Jesse, but then again big cobbles can often hold LOTS of gold. A buddy of mine found a cobble about a foot wide that the oldtimers had had placed on a claim marker, that had 26 oz of small gold in it. And Jimmy Sierra found similar piece with 27 oz in it. So, feel free to detect the big cobbles, too, you have my permission!😊

No problem Steve. Your inquiry and comments were totally legit and caused me to think clearly back on how I ended up where I am with this. I re-read my post and wish I had let a bit less annoyance creep in - thanks for the prod. After going on three years as gadfly and cheerleader, I am about to launch a new effort as a dealer - likely restricted to the Impulse line as it develops. My objective in the whole AQ thing at this point is to build my competence and knowledge of the device so that I can leverage my understanding of these things as well as my ability to “reach back” to FTP - all in order to make folks interested in choosing me as their dealer when they decide to buy one

My grandfather had one of those when I was growing up! I remember that he had said that it was one of the better models that could be made at the time. He could locate almost anything with that little guy and he knew exactly what it would be when he dug it up. I think he said he could locate a dime almost 9 inches deep with it, but I really can't remember that far back anymore. Make sure that you clean the battery compartment quite well before installing new batteries and hope the capacitors are still good. I remember it was very rugged and used standard headphones. He could use it all day without running down the batteries and then use it again for about half a day after that. Just remember that batteries were not as good as they are now and they had less power in them also. Great find that you got and remember that it used for hot areas in gold country.

I have a line of straight shaft at the detectors - they allow a more compact folding but also a better balance ..., a lesser weight and a smaller pull of the lock as a S-rod that employs a large force on the lock.

Welcome to the forum, amazing history where you are. And your English is 1000% better than my Serb!

Squaring off a DD coil or making a concentric coil pointy on one end however is just more about looks than anything else. I can hear the guys in marketing now... can’t we make it a different shape? Engineer groans....

Nordic, I doubt it I s a meteorite if it has no magnetic attraction....but, get it checked... fred

Well, not having made that huge investment yet, myself... But seriously, Minelab needs to consider whether they are going to court those who have already invested in the Zed and new buyers, or new buyers only. I suspect that ML will want to attract existing and new users, so some performance enhancement likely needs to be part of the equation. But frankly, an updated, lighter version of the GPX with similar power would be all I am really looking for and I would be willing to " upgrade" from my current GPX even if the performance enhancement were marginal.

Gravely smaller tailing piles that were shoveled out at the end of Long Toms and Sluices, can be great.

when i put the disc in the water she just moved / I can't hear her anymore until then, the sound does not vary / it is still in place my gamate, from the tip to the yellow handle is 45 cm = 17.71 ' it's hard to say how much she was and that’s not the purpose of the video .. but it was pretty deep also note, that the ring is a small diameter it does not pass to my little finger larger diameter / good weather condition see a lower carat (18k this one) = easier to detect we can largely hope 20 '

My compliments to Skate on his post and I'd like to add just a little more to it. The metal detecting industry is more susceptible to speculation, both positive and negative, than any other industry I can think of. Every time a manufacturer is even remotely suspected of having a new machine coming this same pattern shows up. You get antsy, "kid on Christmas morning" folks who just can't wait, you get doomsayers who can't wait to pick the product apart, and you get others who speculate endlessly as to what the machine will do and how it will do it. For me, this is fun to follow for a little while and then I get burned out on it. It reminds me of the off season in pro sports, when for months all you get are analysts resifting the same sand over and over until the season starts. I commend Rick., Le Jag and Alexandre for sharing their info, and Steve for providing insight and also some much needed discipline to the conversation. But honestly, the only voice I really care to hear is that of Fisher to simply say when they will offer the Impulse AQ for sale. Followed by the voices of people who actually buy and use this new detector. Now that will be interesting.

Steve....Off subject.......Interesting question about using a rake would be many State and Federal beach's are closed to metal detecting. Some year round....... some summer only. It would be a interesting the reaction one gets from the local park rangers on the use of a rake. Maybe something to consider not only for the little chains.

Found this in what was a farm then turned into an estate then taken over by Nuns then turned into a city park. Coin is older than the town and older than the estate that was there. Good sign for older stuff but as you can see the farm land really beats these old coins up so back to the maps, wait for warmer weather and start hitting the wooded areas around some more. Looks like 1790's and only give away it was a large cent is the diameter. Might be a draped or flowing hair, hard to tell.