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Hi all, been pretty busy lately, and what started out as a really slow year ended up being pretty good prospecting wise. The first half of the year was very slow, only able to scratch a few nuggets out of some old patches. Not much luck looking for new areas. A few buddies and I decided to meet up in the middle of the summer in Gold Basin. Dave, Steve, and a couple of other Chris' . They were out there since Friday evening, but because of work I couldn't get out till Saturday afternoon. Dave was meeting us on Sunday. I made the drive out from Vegas, and when I got there I tried reach the guys, but no luck. Cell service can be spotty out there, and the must have been out detecting. I figured I might as well get started on my own till I was able to reach them. I ended up in an area where I had found a nice gold quartz specimen years ago, and figured I might grid the area to see if I could come up with a few scraps. It was found 3/4 the way up a tiny drainage where nothing else was found (by me anyway) I detectected the drainage top to bottom with no luck, so I decided to hit the hillside. About 7 or 8 feet from where I found that specie I jammed the coil under a creosote bush and got a strong signal over a large area. It wasn't a distinct signal like a nugget, so I kind of thought I was some mineralization but decided to dig anyway. There was only about 5 or 6 inches of overburden, so I scraped that off, and now the signal was sounding much more like a target, but still over a 2 sq ft area. I carry a rock hammer in my pack so I used that to tear up the bedrock. I got down about a foot total and now the signal was screaming. One more attempt with the hammer, and now I have signals in the tailings. I pick up a piece of quartz and put it over the coil...bingo!! I found my first pocket. I actually found the source. I kept working on my hole, still pulling gold out, and still getting strong signals in the bedrock. I was finally able to reach the other guys and dropped them a pin so they could meet up with me. Everyone got some specimens out of my tailings. Over the next several weeks I brought home several buckets of ore. I kept at it till there was no more signal in the ground with my GPZ. The next step was to crush and pan...geeze that is tedious work when you dont have a proper rock crusher. It took several more weeks to process the ore. thanks the pocket ended up being around 4oz!!! And a big to 1515Art and his contest I got to use my kiln to make my first gold bar. Took me a while to figure out how to use the electric kiln, it does take a few hours to reach proper temps, but works great!! added to the nuggets I found, it was a 5z year! I still have some ore to crush and a nice speci I may just keep. But definitely learned a lot. I'm going to be looking for more pockets. 2020 has been a pretty good year so far as well. Cheers, Chris

I'd like to make a comment here, not specific to the Impulse AQ, but instead to the civility of the discussions on Steve's forum. Let's be honest, on any other metal detecting forum, some if not all of us would have been torched for just offering honest opinions within this thread. Instead, when there is a difference of opinion, it is discussed with courtesy and respect. I'd just like to thank all of you folks for maintaining this standard of integrity and class in this environment that Steve has created and for making it an enjoyable forum in which to participate.

FTP is closely held - they need to please no one except customers and Tom Walsh the CEO and his partners if he has any. Still, there is no doubt that they need to “up their game”. Alexandre Tartar is designing highly marketable new development detector systems WAY faster than FTP can figure out the mechanical design, do the sourcing of bits, set up and qualify the production system and figure out how to sell the darned things.

Photo taken last year of cleaned and preserved military buttons from 12th Regiment in NZ Land Wars 1860s using Treborius preservation wax. This was when I was getting started with the Tarsacci. As I was far more familiar with the XP Deus, it found the majority of these, but then when I thought I had cleaned out my gridded patch, I swapped to the Tarsacci and found about another 6 at greater depths in highly mineralised soil. It is a crying shame finding these in such condition.....deteriorated from age, fertilisers, lime, animal urine and soil minerals.

I wonder how deep this coin could be detected. 20 feet?... https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46821706

Outside of myself, I doubt there is anyone in FTP who pays much attention to forums. They mostly focus on Facebook & such. I try not to say much because I've been chastised a few times in the past for doing so. Rick & LeJag have a bit more leeway.

One happy result of the seemingly endless process of getting the mechanical package, production process and certifications done in El Paso is that Alexandre has been constantly pushing the boundaries of what the AQ is capable of. In the MANY months of slow progress towards full production, he has made multiple improvements in circuitry etc., resulting in a series of progressively improved boards, culminating in the released for production version. Here is part of an email I got from him late last year as a result of asking him to comment on statements on another forum that there was no way a PI could operate at 7microsec. delay in salt water.... “I have reduced noise by 90% with a new electronic system (he is referring to the issued for production version) and I have reduced variations due to seawater conductivity. A variation in conductivity due to salt at 15µs of pulse delay on a FOSTER (the TDI is of course is an Eric Foster design) is equivalent to a variation at 8 µs on the IMPULSE AQ in terms of stability and salt conductivity compensation.” Other results I am aware of as a result of this continuous evolution of the design are - reduced depth penalty for using higher levels of iron ID, expanded range of low conductor acceptance to include higher carat gold acceptance when using iron ID and a completely new mode of operation for Volcanic Sand and other extreme conditions which would totally shut down a VLF and many PI’s

Thanks guys, I appreciate it. There was a lot of luck involved. Here are a couple of other pictures.

Prospecting for gold isn't a new profession. Thousands of years of experience passed down from miner to miner is how we got where we are today. Prospectors were far from ignorant in the time period you stated. Part of the reason is past success had been built on. Part is because beginning more than 400 years ago you could read a book before getting your hands dirty. De Re Metallica by Georgius Agricola, published in 1556. Still one of the best. Translated to English by Herbert Hoover our geologist President. 👍 The first school of mining was established in 1765. The Freiberg University of Mining and Technology is still teaching today. Today we have Fists full of Gold. 😉 The beat goes on.

I agree. FT needs a new model that addresses the latest competition in the general coin and relic arena. There should have been a fast recovery digital CZ in a F44 type package ages ago.

Found a nice little run a couple of days ago, 2 days in a row just over 1/2 oz each day and another 23 grams this morning. Here's a pic of this mornings total.... I don't film many digs anymore, but the bigger chunk had a bit of depth. I was hoping it would be deeper and bigger...but alas, not to be, it went just under 10 grams https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpUIZp0f7zQ

Call that a gold coin? This is a gold coin. :) On display at the Perth Mint:

I have no solid information, but Alexandre is no fool and EU laws are very favorable to the rights of inventors to a fair share of their inventions profits.

Well that sucks. The part about you getting chastised. As far as Facebook goes I refuse to do anything to support Zuckerberg so avoid it as much as possible. I think lots of people feel similarly and focusing too much on Facebook misses a large segment of this particular market. Though I have to admit watching the sh#tshow on many forums they can't be blamed for ignoring them either.

Loving the aussie price! It's like every morning I wake up with a pay rise😃

It has been common knowledge among those paying attention that Nokta/Makro has been working on a new simultaneous multifrequency detector for some time now. The Simplex+ has been specifically stated as being the potential housing for the new unit when it appears. This post from 2/17/2020 reconfirms work on the new model: "Hello all... yes, the name has been chosen and the machine is in the works. Cannot confirm the release date as of today but hopefully I will be able to share more info further into the year. Hope this helps...." People often bring up patents as a reason why new multifrequency units have been so rare to appear, but the fact is patents on machines like the 5 & 15 kHz Fisher CZ, White's 3 & 15 kHz DFX, and Minelab BBS (billed as 17 transmitted but more likely 2 - 3 processed frequencies out of 17 transmitted) have all expired. Nokta/Makro has plenty to work with. Given the speed with which Nokta/Makro has brought new machines to market in the past and the fact they have a mostly proven housing in hand now via the Simplex, I expect an announcement by this fall with a detector available either before Christmas or next spring. If I was them right now I would be collecting warranty claim info to make sure the Simplex housing is bullet proof before launching the new unit, and that should be going well by now. In the meantime work can proceed on design and testing of the circuit. Frankly, there is no need to do anything radical to be successful. If Nokta/Makro simply did what Fisher should have done years ago and mage a digital clone of the CZ but with target id instead of meter, put in a waterproof Simplex box with wireless, and at their normal great pricing, they will have a winner. Many people would kill for a Excalibur BBS clone in a Simplex style housing. The main thing multifrequency offers is good VLF saltwater performance, and a Nokta/Makro Multiplex (my guess ) model would be an easy sale for a lot of beach hunters plus the general coin, relic, jewelry market. There will probably not be any real news for some time but when I hear anything, this is the thread I will post on. Nokta/Makro Multifrequency metal detector?

The day ended up too hot for man nor beast and my hunting buddy and I ended up in the water to cool off. We havent had rain since 1st week of December so relic hunting in dirt is out!!!! The spot we went to was mixture of Black Iron sand, quartz sand and rocks I had to turn over. Iron and nails were in abundant supply but we will revisit here in cooler weather. I suspect people in the past with PI machines have snuck into this spot guaging by the mixed dates of targets found so the finds we were after were not as plentiful as they should have been , however I was happy with what I got and the performance of unit in hard hunting conditions. Photo includes the trash before sussing out cherry picking. Jews harp (broken unfortunately) , musket/pistol ball, 1889 UK penny, Nz pennies 1961,1946, bent apostle reaspoon, button from S.W.Silver &Co, London clothiers, oarlock.....which looks old but I cannot date, square nails which straight away tells me 1800s site and etc.

Don’t worry, JohnnyS, I got your “What coin?” question. Hope all is well. Mike W.

It's probably buried in one of Simon's ball fields! (near a goal post) He just hasn't passed a detector over it yet!!🤣😁 Or, he thought the signal was the goal post!! 🤯🤯 😁

When will I ever find a place to look for gold with good weather? I hate winter and the cold goes to the bones anymore.

I would like to present you all with a dissertation on global economics, the functions and purpose of central banks, fiat money creation, government monetary policy etc...... BUT I'm going mining.

Aie tis tops for us MD users, because of golds price gains over the years the average weekly weight needed to make our game an income source has steadily dropped, a good living, now say 2 0zs a week does it nicely, but for this old codger that earning necessity is no longer a priority just the luxury/privledge of being out there "havin a go" is magic. Come on winter...………...

Here in Australia we get paid for gold in $AU, so a record high for us.

Very nice! Did anyone stick a vlf in the hole. fred

Trial and error testing and sampling mostly but gold mining is an ancient art and there were a few knowledgeable types back then publishing books. Word of mouth from there. Anyone working the mines got mentored by more knowledgeable people.

I guess my biggest complaint Chase is the silence from Fisher. It seems that the new norm (from most manufacturers) is to ignore your customers and just not comment on anything. Delays of years are now the norm. It's sad really how business has no enthusiasm, just dollar signs. Whether they believe it or not, some people will be turned off by there way of doing business. For a niche machine, every sale counts. I hope if a relic version is released it is by some other company.

Nice gold that you have found, wish you better luck and more gold.

That might be close, but who could afford to do the test for it? I believe that they either cut it up and melted it down or just hid it for just the right time to sell it on the black market.

I reached out to Jimmy through his website for Discovery Tours. http://discoverytours.us/ Here was his response: Hi Walter, We are still doing our Discovery Tours to England. In fact this was our 29th consecutive Year .I have personally missed participating in the tours for the past 4 years for "health issues" ....I turned 89 years old this year, but I hope to make at least one more trip if I can get a better handle on health. Meanwhile, I do all the paperwork from here. Get the participants, collect the funds, keep all informed of details and handle the return of the finds to the participants when I get them back from David and Trish in UK. So the only difference is that I don't get to participate in England. I hope to make one more trip at some point when health improves....but age is not on my side, sorry to say. Our website is still active and David and Trish keep it up to date with pics and finds and info, as always. If you are interested in a future trip.........let me know and I will keep you on my mailing list. Best regards, Jimmy Thanks! Walt

Well said. I really want FT to get back in the game. But a niche detector may not be the answer even though I DO want to see Impulse come to market, if only to see if the Impulse designers can follow up with a viable "terrestrial" focused detector for nuggets or relics.

Part of their strategy was to do a lot of test samplings using smaller size excavations. That's why there are so many prospects without any mines that followed. But they also had pretty smart geologists back then.

Nox, I sympathize with your disappointment and impatience, but the real world from an experienced engineering and business perspective is a little more complicated than that. See my interjections above. Yes a lot of it is speculation, but informed speculation based on what has been posted here by folks like Rick Kempf who are closer to the project and my own personal knowledge regarding the realities of delivering tech gear to a demanding customer.

Well I hope Alexandre didn't sign away all his secrets to them. It would be sad if this does not turn out well, and the rights were sold off to Fisher. Alexandre deserves to see his inventions come to market in a timely fashion, and to profit from all his hard work.

NZ is lousy with coins. They are everywhere and luckily there is plenty of silver laying out there. I took my detector to Rotorua once and scored heaps. Should be plenty of places around Hamilton. Good luck.

Hi Phrunt, my detectors, finds and Soul are all intertwined, so posting photos is like baring my soul.......a bit unnerving to a hunter who would rather have a low profile, along with the fact NZ history to be found is rather far and few between.....plus our hypocritical antiquities law. Being a hunter, not photographer doesnt help, but I will give it a go. What I WILL say is that in the year I have used the Tarsacci in demanding and difficult conditions it has given me some amazing finds both in black iron sand and highly mineralised dirt.....and some ground had already been pounded by other brand detectors. Even trash has been dug at great depths.....but I doubt anyone wants to see those photos!!!! Targets found by anyone at xxxx depth, is the depth where it is found,.....that is not an indication of what depth a detector can achieve. For example, I never retrieved a target at a truly unbelievable depth in black sand/ mud / ocean with the Tarsacci and my hunting buddy and I have to go back and try and find the spot to do so. Tide came in too quick. Then again......who wants to dig to Africa every hole?????? My depths in the above photo varied from a few inches to 16 inches. Yes there were deeper signals but not digging that far in that heat which is why a revisit is on the cards. The Auckland region is not as prolific in targets as other parts of the country so we really have to work for the good stuff. As Steve H says.....finding a spot no one has visited is the key., and thats getting harder each year.

Broke one drought anyway Steve. The other bastard will break eventually -

Not using the big Russian jobby yet Steve ? Nice finds by the way ! Cheers, Rick and Kaye

Wish I had more info to offer, but I don't. There is no question the Impulse is difficult to build, and is quite different from what the FT factory is used to producing. That is a big part of the problem. But I have no doubt that the Impulse will make it out the door. Don't ask me when, I really don't know. P.S. -- the Fisher web site will soon get a major facelift.

Saw on business news last night it may hit 2000.00

Soon we all will be rich 🙂

OK, I can't hold back anymore. I just needed to share some of my finds with my ( as I like to call it Mega Kruzer) HA HA. I'm not the best at this , but I'm pretty proud of the roughly 9 hours total on this machine. Bunch of clad , pewter spoon, Merc dime, silver ring, two old buttons, bird band , a weird button ? with the inscription FRANCOR"REX FRANCISG"DC with a crown and dragon symbol. And what I believe to be a suspender buckle S&G.M. CO. Patent 1871 #186, The super clean clad I found at a play ground in the mulch. DID ANYONE LOOSE A CHRYSLER KEY FROM A 1984 LE'BARON??? don't ask how I know the vintage of this key HA HA. I'm sure I missed more than I found but this is what keeps you going !!!! Oh I forgot Mickey mouse.

Your on the money Fred, over here in NQ OZ, although there are a few private properties that allow fossickers on for payment, most of our gold country is on private property where only a few are allowed and that is understandable as they`ve experienced enough of the "average" disrespectful sly fossicker. Gerry & Lunk go with Freds advice, WA has the laws that allow fossicking, The Kimberleys are simply magic and is a massive area, advice...…. get very experienced with your GPS device, OZ gold loves remote massive empty dry areas and perhaps look at paid tours, might cost but you will not be using time up ensuring your legal or safe and should be put onto chance of gold every tour day. The tag-along-tours Missus & I went on in WA in the 90s all were paid for by gold finds, but unfortunately that top tour guide has retired, thus I have no reco re. tour guides.

Well done Tuna. Hook in there and kill it. Got to be some decent slugs there somewhere deep. Busting to get over there after i do my winter prep chores, wood gathering for Deb. cheers Steve

Great finds, and that looks like the bullet that the planes did use, I could be wrong but it sure looks like them. I used to be in the Air Force and have been to many re-enactments of dog fights. The amount of ammo they used to fight with was amazing and it sure added a lot of weight to the planes.

Take My Land Matters with you and/or study it before you go. My Land Matters has managed to implement both the new Alaska BLM & State mining claims systems on the Alaska Mining Claims Map. They even went further by including the State Mineral Withdrawal areas and the State Mining Leases in the mapping.Each BLM mining claim information window now has a link directly to the BLM ACRES case file for that claim.Each Alaska State Mining Claim or Lease information window has a link directly to the Alaska State ADL Case file.Each Alaska State Mineral Withdrawal information window has a link directly to the Alaska State ADL Case file for the Closure Order. http://www.mylandmatters.org/Maps/ClaimsAk/GetMap

Ah yes. The McLeod. I remember it well. in my youth I worked one summer on a fire crew and I loved the McLeod. Then I liked the McLeod. Then the McLeod was OK. then I disliked the McLeod. Then I hated the McLeod. If my memory serves me correctly I recall single handedly scrapping a fire line the entire length of the Sierra Nevada foothills. However it did teach me that telling someone to get the McLeod and start scrapping fire line was better than doing it myself. A fine tool, the McLeod.

I wrote this up awhile back for Kellyco's website but never posted it here for some reason. After posting the story of the Flung Ring return, I thought, why not post this story on the forum since it was one of the most personally meaningful returns of my metal detecting life. Although the returned item was not all that valuable in monetary terms, it was priceless to the lady who lost it and became even more priceless to Mary and me as we put it back in her hands. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My wife Mary and I were spending a nice day at Daytona Beach Pier this past summer..she for painting and me for detecting. While I was hunting the beach, Mary struck up a conversation with a lady she met there. The lady was very pleasant and told her that she and her boyfriend were homeless and lived in a makeshift tent right on the beach. She said the local police leave them alone as they routinely clean up the beach of litter and don’t bother anyone. As the conversation continued, she told Mary that she had lost a sterling silver charm the day before and although she and her boyfriend searched for hours, they failed to find it. The small charm was the head of a kitty with red “ruby” stones on its head and black eyes. The little charm was extremely meaningful to her and likely one of the most valuable items she owned. Mary told her of my metal detecting and asked if she would like me to try and find it. The lady was overjoyed at the prospect but said she didn’t hold out much hope of ever getting her little kitty back. Mary brought me over to the area where the lady said she thought it was lost and I began the grid search. About 10 minutes later I got that familiar exciting high tone of silver. In my scoop was a little kitty’s head with red “ruby” stones and black eyes! When I brought it to her, she began to tear up, thanked me profusely and asked if she could hug me. She called over to her boyfriend who was busy making little items out of palm fronds he sold to tourists. The smile on her face and the tear in her eye was absolutely the best reward Mary and I could have ever hoped for that day. ~The Challenge: Big Beach; Little Coil; Tiny Targets~ ~"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication"~ Leonardo da Vinci ~Pre-determined settings serve only to get you in the ballpark. It’s up to you to pick the best seat~

I have swung the 15.5" x 13" on the Gold racer and the 15.5" x 14" on the Impact... Makro Gold Racer with 15.5" x 13" DD coil Nokta Impact with 15.5" x 14" coil Just to note I am used to swinging heavy detectors all day. The large coil on the Gold Racer is obviously quite nose heavy but not as bad as anticipated. The version of the coil for the Gold Racer only weighs 1 lb 10.8 oz. Still, larger than most people want to swing on a detector this light. The 15.5" x 14" coil is a little heavier at 1 lb 13 oz but on the Impact actually feels better due to the machine being better balanced with a large coil. This is because on the large battery box acting as a counterweight. I liked the feel of the large coil much better on the Impact. The Multi Kruzer being an S rod design like the Gold Racer probably makes the 13" coil the better choice unless you have really strong arms. The larger coil fares better on the Impact and I assume Anfibio due to a better balanced design.

Ive only used the stock and 5x9.5 coils on mine so far. They go deep enough for my needs and I tend to hunt more wooded areas. Think my next purchase will be the 5”dd or 7” concentric There are a few anfibio vids on YouTube using the KR35(13”) and it looks pretty effective. The KR40 looks like it may be pushing it as far as being unwieldy.