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I don’t believe any one detector makes magical differences in my detecting. When I want to go detecting I use what I have. Waiting around for new models is a waste of time. You have an ATX and despite all the hype the fact is the difference between it and a BHID or an Impulse is not going to drastically change your life. Good locations and hours makes finds. So my advice is use what you have until something comes along you want bad enough to buy it. Which is exactly what you are going to do. The bottom line is if you want an Impulse AQ you are going to have to wait whether you like it or not. Fisher could decide to cancel the whole thing tomorrow since they have been careful to not say a single thing officially. And if it does arrive it will just be another metal detector, and life will go on. Two years from now the next magic wand will come along and we will do this all over. Go detecting, live life, don’t get played by marketers. Life is too short.

While detecting several hundred yards south of the Daytona Beach Pier, an elderly gentleman approached me to tell me about a lost ring that was “flung” from the patio deck of their hotel and asked if I might be able to find it. He said they looked for it several times without any luck. I asked him several questions such as how long ago this happened and in what general area did he think the ring landed. He told me he could show me the area and where they thought it landed after being tossed off the hotel deck. As we walked over to the area below the patio he told me how all this happened. It seems his grandson threw something off the patio onto the beach and the ring went with whatever it was he “flung” [the grandfather's word]. When we arrived at the area below the patio, the gentleman described where they were standing on the deck and about how hard his grandson “flung” whatever it was. I laid out a general search area based on what the grandfather described. Fortunately it was in dry sand not more than 15 feet from an elevated patio overlooking the beach. I began to grid search the area and within several minutes the distinct tone of gold rang out. I pushed my scoop into about 4-5 inches of dry sand and out popped a ring. Not showing what I'd found, I asked him to describe the lost ring. He said it was white gold but that's all he knew. He would have to ask his grandson's wife for a more specific description. I told him to please ask her to come see me. A few minutes later a young lady approached me and identified herself as the wife of the man who lost his ring. I asked her to describe it in as much detail as she could and she nailed it to a T. I showed her the ring I'd found and a big smile brightened her face as she exclaimed “That would be it!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!” I asked if I could take a few photos and she agreed. She then quickly headed back to the surf where her husband and the older gentleman were. As I resumed my detecting near the water line, I caught site of the grandfather making a bee line my way with a big smile on his face. He couldn't thank me enough. I simply told him that I was happy I could help. After we exchanged a few pleasantries, he wished me “good fortune in my day's hunt” and rejoined his family. That was the only ring I found that day but I walked away from Daytona Beach convinced beyond any doubt that my time was extremely well spent as there were big smiles all around for those visitors from South Carolina!

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.

One thing I was surprised by, in my tests, was the large difference between air tests, and ground tests, when comparing coils. With my SL, the 12DF was always the hottest coil in air tests, even on gold as small as 1 grain. But when I tested that coil on small targets in the ground, it performed poorly. Also, when comparing the NF Sadie with the Whites 7.5DF, the Sadie was clearly better in air tests, but testing in the ground showed much less, or almost no difference between them. One thing I learned in all that is to never use an air test as the deciding factor for detector, or accessory coil purchases. Jim

Those guys were, and are, wonderful generous gents who had so many people trying to follow them and essentially rip them off, they stopped making their incredibly educational and entertaining videos. It was our loss but I certainly don't blame them. For those that don't think there's any more surface gold around, check this out, it's from last year.

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.

But then again.... Highly trashy sites at KNOWN productive sites are relatively unworked sites, as least as far as M.D."s are concerned. "If you don't dig trash, ya' ain't gonna dig gold neither" Woody Woodworth used to say. "Gotta pay yer dues."

Retirement gold is out of the question or realm of possibilities. When you hit it big there is no reason to stop! Mitchel

OK CG. Now that I better understand what you are looking for here is a good plan (and bad idea). Get yourself a stout, mindless, obedient little burrow, make him pack all your food and water and head deep into an unexplored desert. When you get several days away from civilization you will find that no burrow is mindless nor obedient. It is inevitable that the further from civilization you get the greater the likelihood of his escape from his cruel servitude. While you are chasing the recalcitrant beast (your very life depends on catching it) you will find a fantastically rich undiscovered load - - - and the bones of the last prospector that followed my plan. I'll stick to my forested mountains.

No one knows when the AQ will be released. Whatever Fisher’s plans actually are, they have not disclosed and information about the ongoing certification testing means that even Fisher Marketing may not be able to give a firm date. I am personally satisfied that the AQ will outperform the TDIBH for most wet salt beach applications, but it will certainly cost significantly more. Patience is often rewarded. When the AQ reaches market, and if it indeed outperforms the TDIBH, there may be an opportunity to pick up an nice used TDIBH at a bargain and you can then choose based on how much $ vs. how much performance for YOUR own uses.

Just saw this on another forum. Will be interesting to see what they come up and the design concept.

I have used just about anything and never had any issue except the time to charge. Note below. USB 2A charges in less than 4 hours but they also say you can use a 0.5A and charge in 18 hours. In other words, don't sweat it but more is better. You can't overpower it as it will only draw as needed. You won't find any 100A USB ports no matter how hard you try. By high quality all they mean is stay away from super cheap stuff that may have issues. They misspeak in the warning box saying mid-capacity. Capacity has nothing to do with it. Don't use mid to low quality chargers.

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 :)

I dont find tailing piles necessarily any more trashy than bedrock, in Californias Motherload country from Mariposa to Downieville. If in a super trashy site, I move on looking for something more detector friendly. Old diggings have trashy areas and less trashy areas. Find those with less trash and party on..

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

Other than my minding the store here for historical purposes, the world is moving on. Soon Tesoro will be just like Compass Electronics... a fond memory for us old-timers. Hmmm, maybe I should change this into an analog detecting forum that celebrates all the old machines regardless of brand. Obviously just being a Tesoro Forum will run out of steam entirely as time goes on.

Jim in Idaho, I have used my Tdi Sl with battery boost now for a while, there is a significant improvement. The reality is that the Tdi Pro will beat the SL for depth under all ground conditions, under all circumstances. The 16 volt battery pack narrows the margin but if depth is the only criteria then the Pro wins. If ease of ground balance and battery power and life are included then the Pro increases the margin significantly, particularly in difficult ground conditions. As the owner of both machines for years, that is my experience. A Tdi Sl using the lower 12 volt battery or the Whites rechargeable packs provided with the detector is way behind in depth. I did a quick comparison between different voltage on a Tdi SL, then compared the results using the Tdi Pro. Machines had a Whites Super Pulse 220 coil fitted. The Tdi Sl machine ran with gain or max, the Pro had gain on 5. 12.34 volt Tdi SL 1 grain gold ingot 6cm, half gram gold coin 24cm, Half Sovereign 32cm, US Quarter 27cm 16.48 volt Tdi SL 8cm, 26cm, 35cm, 30cm Tdi Pro, 8cm, 27cm, 36cm, 33cm In my experience the worse the ground conditions the greater the margin in favour of the Tdi Pro, not gospel just my experience. No expert but I suspect the ground balance system of the Pro and the filtering on the Tdi Sl both play a part. The depth comparisons above do not tell the whole story. A super light and beautifully balanced Tdi Sl with upgraded battery is not a bad thing.. The reason I have an Sl is because of the very light weight, it is great for kids and old people, the battery system allows air travel, that beautiful smooth audio. It is a great loaner detector for family and friends. If depth is the main criteria then the Pro is it. I like the Tdi machines for their flexibility, great on the beach, good for coins and relics. They have decent performance on the goldfields, a great all rounder. The dedicated gold prospector is probably much better served by Minelab's superb line of gold machines. An individual who likes to do a little of everything like me can find excellent value in the Whites. There is a strong argument for a second hand Tdi Pro, rebuild a few new battery packs, a great value. I have been asked by many people about this, just expressing an opinion based on my personal experience. All the best.

Slow marketing dribble usually heightens peoples expectations and lets them down once released as they usually expect more that what it really is. I only joke with a hint of sarcasm but do like the company. Hope something cool comes out.

I’m betting you have a top performing detector Jim! Probably splitting hairs when you get right down to it. To be fair is the Pulsescan owner allowed to do the 18V mod to their detector? Modded machine versus modded machine? I do think most people want to use detectors off the shelf however, and not get involved in doing lots of mods to get the performance they desire. It would be nice if Whites put out a special line of hot rod TDI models. If you can do it, why can’t they? I hear excuses about reliability, but I’ve not heard of anyone yet blowing up an SL by boosting the voltage. And frankly if that were an issue, it would just call for higher quality components. So how about it White’s? Instead of a black or tan TDI how about one with flames on the side and a set of pipes!

You guys are wising up to the marketing. Most people would assume this means a new detector, and then assume super duper new flagship detector. Everyone gets excited, the anticipation builds.... and a new digging tool is announced. If it is a new detector let’s hope for something better than the slow tease offered with the AT Max. Manly men hiking over hills with barely glimpsed detectors over their shoulders, etc.

Wider pouch? Green carrot?

More roman coins

The only pic I have at this moment, apologies if not too clear, the bend is under red cover (latex bike tyre tube 🙂 ) To be honest, this is my 3rd middle shaft because one of them snapped bending. I was using pipe bender. There is certain limit when aluminium simply snaps. Also those holes at the back, they tend to implode or give up 1st. Can't recommend trying it, breaks too easily. I also heated up the arm cuff and made it narrower. Standard it is clearly designed for Popeye arms

Air tests are not useless, they simply have to be used wisely. There are those who say detectors can detect deeper in the ground than in the air, and I'd not argue this is impossible in rare situations. However, you can generally assume that testing PI to PI or VLF to VLF you are not going to see detectors exceed what they do in the air under actual field conditions. Air tests are a good way to get theoretical maximum depths under very mild ground conditions. Where people go wrong is in comparing PI detectors to VLF detectors in air tests. VLFs by nature air test great, but also by nature lose the most depth in the ground. PI detectors do not air test so great, but lose depth far less quickly than VLFs in the ground. So air testing PI to VLF is deceptive - keep it apples to apples. Long story short I would not air test a big box TDI Pulsescan against a TDI SL of any version, and expect that in the ground the results will flip. In this case we are talking a 14.4V Pulsescan with a 12" round Dual Field coil versus a 12V TDI SL with 8" x 12" Dual Field. If you used a higher power battery on the TDI SL and the same size coil it might have a fighting chance on relic type targets that Joe is after, but the HI-Q coil is more a nugget hunting coil so leans better performance on small stuff. Between the smaller coil and lower power battery what Joe is reporting is exactly what I would expect.

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.

Thanks for the encouragement, Andyy. This is the type of answer I am trying to talk myself into :). Regarding claims, I still find gold on club claims even if they have been sometimes pounded over decades. It's just alot harder and the gold is usually small. It's just impossible to have every square inch covered even after a long time. That being said, the satisfaction that you get from finding something so many others have missed is just not the same as finding a new gold patch altogether in the wild. Hasn't happened to me yet though, at least not for being able to retire (or anywhere close)

Would you post a photo?

Joe Beechnut OBN inspired this post and I hope he puts a copy of his other post on this thread. Thanks Joe! I have several scoops but my favorite by far is a heavy duty stainless steel model with 3/8" square holes that has held up very well in rocky material. It works just fine for rings. However, the 3/8" holes are a little large for when I get into places where there are lots of smaller targets. Many times I know the targets are no good, like .22 shell casings, but for areas I will hunt a lot I hate to leave them and then find them again. I got pretty good at retrieving them on the lip of my scoop, but that only works in calm water where I can clearly see what I am doing. I decided a floating sieve would be more efficient. I used to sell mining gear and have lots of the stuff myself. Keene came up with a line of deep sieves in various sizes that I really liked, though there are now other people making them also. The stainless models range from 1/2" to 100 mesh plus an all plastic model with 3/4" to 1/4" sizes. They measure about 4" deep from rim to screen. They are 14" at the top and 11" at the bottom, designed to sit in the top of a standard 5 gallon plastic pail. Very handy items to have around for multiple uses. I went with 1/8" for chasing micro jewelry and so far have been very happy with that choice, though some may think it a little too small. It depends on the beach - 1/8" works great in finer sand locations. I found tossing stuff in a floating sieve to be so handy though I also have a 3/8" plastic sieve I can mount for coarser material. The sieve mounts handily in the middle of a standard trailer tire tube, and I just tie it to my waders and float it around behind me as I hunt. I use the same scoop but employ it more as a shovel, and have even used duct tape to close the holes off temporarily, which worked surprisingly well. Anyway, this is one option. I really liked Joe's also, since it uses dense foam for the float, so no inflation issues, plus a little wider and lower profile. If anyone else has ideas or options please post away. Floating inner tube with 1/8" screen and 3/8" alternative

Guys, I would be interested to hear your thoughts on the following: Old wisdom says that gold can be found where it has been found before by others. Following this "rule", I have mostly been hunting in areas that are well known for their gold deposits and that have been heavily mined by others. This has worked well for me and I have found decent gold over the years (although I always could use some more...;). However, lately I am more and more playing with the thought to explore areas where there are no known gold deposits recorded. Here in California there are many areas that are not explored by others that have the potential for gold. I am trying to locate these areas by for instance comparing the geological maps with those maps of known deposits. By inspecting these maps I sometimes see geological formations on public land that are virtually identical to those where gold mines are located, but they have never been mined or claimed before. This happens more often in desert areas where there is a lack of water and perhaps therefore the old timers where not all over it. I am sure this is not typical for California and the same potential for "undiscovered" bonanzas exist all over the world. So, what do you guys think about such adventurous new places? I would hate to be skunked every day for weeks and months while exploring potential new areas, but I can't help the thought that it is nearly impossible for the old timers to have caught every single gold bearing area.

Same here Fred, twas heading for a Doug Stone NT trip across the central "hwy" from WA, the wife I first run across the Cave.(signposted and just off the road) A month or so later through a mutual mate the wife and I spent a few weeks detecting with mate and one of the men that placed those 44`s. Very memorable weeks they were in a magic Central OZ winter.

Doug Stone took me there on our way to the N.T. I cannot imagine how a surveyor could get lost or lose a gold mine...but, he did. Fred

Hi Whitbey, I am sorry for your loss. Not one of us knows for a fact that we will even open our eyes tomorrow morning, and yet we act like we will live forever. I am very grateful to have made it this far, and try not to take a single day I have left for granted. It may sound weird to people but I structure my life now around the idea that I have been told I have 90 days left to live. It made me write some letters and do some things I would have regretted were they left undone, and keeps my life in sharper focus. I tell people that matter I love them a lot more these days. The now is all we have - don't waste it.

I agree. Highly mineralized ground in particular tends to flatten differences observed in coils while air testing. When doing actual detector comparisons all my tests are on actual found targets with extensive cross checking. But to each their own. I’ll still bet my dollar on the 14.4V big box vs the 12V SL with smaller coil for larger targets, which is probably the real issue at hand here, not the testing methodology. How I Field Test Metal Detectors - Methodology Using Air Tests To Gauge Detector Performance

I didn't hit the start button!

More won't hurt anything. Charging devices draw from the charger, the charger is not pushing to the device. Unless it is a cheap, defective charger.

I should add , forgot where I read it [ or thought I did ] - just did remember after the replies . I did check the manual , 1.7 amps @ 5vdc , Which my added info , Ohms law says 8.5 watts . I read a discussion here , as I remember . So also the needed discussion - to talk about , the 5 amp reading here , have to do a search on that thread ? Want to find the reasoning / proof of the 5 amp discussion ? Or maybe I had a nightmare 😉

Oz is the place, Simon! Go, Simon go fred

I think it is 2 Amps. Also, I recall that a lower amperage (1A?) may make the machine think it's fully charged, when it really isn't. Lower than that and it will take a long, long time to charge

When White's took the TDI design on from Eric Foster I fully expected it was going to be the starting point for a line of ever more powerful detectors, something that would give Minelab a go for the money. Instead, the SL watered the original big box version down. Now it was lighter and less expensive so that's all fine. But then White's discontinued the big box version instead of introducing a more powerful version, in effect actually going backwards in performance. People now do circuit modifications and battery upgrades to the SL models just trying to get back to the performance we had in the original TDI back in 2008. I really like the TDI SL for what it is... and light weight, well balanced, affordable PI detector. But I think I speak for a lot of us when I say I am disappointed that White's never accepted the challenge and pressed forward with the TDI as a Minelab alternative. The excuse I was given was that there was no more room to grow with the Foster platform, that it was maxed out. I kind of accepted that, but now it appears that Fisher is going to release an upgraded version of the Foster design in the form of the Impulse AQ this year. It appears there was room for improvement after all. Long story short, no, nobody with a big box TDI should get an SL model, even the latest, and expect it to outperform what they already have out of the box with a 12V battery.

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

Got 2 middle shafts, so bent one to an S shape - much better, feels more direct. I think ML should've made coil ears off centre or an s-shaft. Had a constant fatigue in the upper forearm, which is no more. It is the twisting of the shaft during swings that the arm needs to counteract causing fatigue, as much as I could figure it out...

Since having my 800 unit, I have never had an issue with the weight, balance, or anything that would give me a problem. I have not had it in the water above my knees, and I felt that it was doing a great job for me. My problem is that I am still learning this unit, and with it being so cold or wet outside I don't get to use it much. I only have a problem when I walk past it and it looks mad at me for not taking it out to swing it and find something in the ground. It tells me it can handle to cold, the snow, or the rain, and I have to tell it wait until it gets warmer for me.

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.

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!😊

From the same doc referenced by Dave above "Another disadvantage of PI is its capability at detecting very large nuggets compared to CW metal detectors, such as ZVT. CW means Continuous Wave and includes all technologies that do not have zero transmit periods (almost all technologies other than PI). Zero Voltage Transmission (ZVT) – ZVT has the same major advantage as PI for ground balancing in not detecting the major soil component X, but has the same advantage of CW metal detector technologies compared to PI for detecting very large nuggets because ZVT is CW (unlike PI that is not CW ), and also the same advantage as PI for being relatively insensitive to saline soils compared to VLF.

Rev it is your money but there are better, cheaper ways to test samples... Chris Ralph writes for the Icmj magazine...many basic questions answered at the cost of a subscription. good luck fred

I work in an assay lab and I’m familiar with the reference material on your report (OREAS45p). The values for this reference are consistent with the values for the first sample, labeled as “blank.” It appears that there is a sequence error which would lead me to question the data set.

Jesse the RNB HP3100 is a system using three 18650 cells, fully charged it peaks at roughly 12.5 volts. An excellent well made product that is ideal for many White's metal detectors. You are fortunate to have many excellent and cheaper options.. perhaps better ones when looking at the Tdi SL. The 'orange pack' uses three 18650 cells, but you have to remove them from the pack and use a charger. Good if you want to put fresh cells in out in the field or update the cells. Cheap and decent quality made in Ukraine, still on fleabay.. Equal performance to the RNB. The AW2200 is the older version of the RNB HP3100, well made and reliable. Ideal for my MXT and XL PRO, but I have explored other options on the Tdi SL.. There are battery packs and modifications to the White's pack online, 9 x aa, 10 x aaa, 4 x 18650. Again spoilt for choice, so I suggest going through this forum and others, research is key here. Good luck Jesse. Karelian

These were found pre-EQX. The team and I were using CTX 3030s and Excalibers. My CTX was set to 2 tones, open screen and optimized for relics. When relic hunting, I always use all metal and dig everything...iron artifacts are valued too. 😉