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Hey Guys, I had to social distance myself, so I decided on a trip back to the old placers. Like always, digging tons of iron rubbish, this time I must of dug a dozen iron pick tips. I'm sure they were using the tips to pry open crack and it would just snap off the tips. I was working with my Minelab GPZ 7000 all day, moving rocks and racking sections of bedrock off. I ended up with 6.2 Grams of the good stuff in 5 gold nuggets total. I didn't get a picture of all the nuggets or a final shot, but here are a few I took during the earlier hours. A few pieces wedged in the bedrock cracks. Wishing and praying for health and wellness for you all during these crazy Coronavirus times. Rob

Information about what is happening at Garrett with the current business restrictions, tips on things to do while you can’t go detecting, and an announcement of a new detector on the way, but no actual information. A full product announcement coming in the next few weeks. Update 5/15/2020 - The new Garrett Ace Apex has been announced - Details Here!

Hey Guys, Here is the shot of all the nuggets found that day, didn't think you wanted to see the trash. 🙂

We all know why so let’s not go there. Here are a few ideas of prospecting and metal detecting related activities you can do at home. 1. Research. This is the key to all truly successful prospecting and metal detecting. You need good locations to do well, and they are getting harder to find every year. Time spent researching is never time wasted. 2. Take those detectors apart and give them the best cleaning ever. Make them look brand new! Are there spare parts you don’t have and maybe should have? Extra coil bolt and washers for instance. Think about this while cleaning the detector and get them ordered. 3. Check all those old batteries and discard the ones that need to go away. If you have detectors that have been sitting for too long, take the batteries out if they are going to keep sitting. Charge everything up that can be charged. 4. Time to clean house. Get that stuff you are never really ever going to use again up for sale or give it away. 5. Go though all those finds and get them in order. Maybe some need to go in the trash. The best may need a display case. Good time to take photos and post a story! 6. You know those bench test experiments you always meant to do but never get around to? Time for that and maybe a test garden or test tub to answer some of those questions for yourself that have been nagging you. 7. Change the oil in that ATV or generator. Service all your support gear and vehicles. Please add your own suggestions to the list......

Dean Wormer informed Delta Tau Chi pledge Kent Dorfman "Fat, drunk & stupid in no way go through life" has been ringing in my head the last few weeks. While I don't drink much with much being the operative word, fat and stupid are probably a pretty good fit. I can't fix stupid so in addition to starting the Paleo diet a couple of weeks ago I thought I needed to get out more and get a little exercise. I used to be a avid detectorist in the past and used the progression of Minelab's machines. I decided I would get back in the saddle and purchased a brand spanking new Equinox 800. After tinkering with it in my yard a bit and finding a copper memorial I loaded up Andy Sabich's coin program and headed to a local high school that I am quite sure has been bombarded over the years. BOY, I AM OUT OF SHAPE! After a little over an hour and a half I was starting to lock up. I did celebrate finding a wheatie early on, which was more than I was expecting. I had programmed the detector to ignore zinc pennies and was just looking for very good signals. Literally turning the corner to make my way back to the car I got a 27 signal. I had found a couple of clad dimes and was sure I was adding another and out pops a silver rosie. For the first run finding a wheatie and a rosie made my day. Well I gots to be going now and I'll see if I can stand up. I am going to be sore tomorrow. Cheers!

Nice to hear it will be a full product information release. The endless tease thing is very old with me at least. And hopefully the information will be followed by an actual detector in a very short time, not next year. Please let it be a top end unit of some sort and not another low to mid-range offering!

Hi Rick, The little 3mm 10k white gold stud earring is really more of a mineral target than a metal target and the premise is that if you can hit this difficult target at some acceptable distance (acceptable as determined by the user) then you will be able to detect any of the ultra small (micro), difficult to detect gold jewelry items, including the tiny non-round angular items. If your equipment passes this test, you know you have a capable detector for this type of hunting. You still have to learn to how to do it. Reality is that most of the gold targets will be yellow gold with is much easier to detect, and the majority of them will have some sort of closed loop, however small, to detect, which makes it much easier. For me I want some thing that I can take to a known hot spot that I KNOW has a good chance of holding these little and tiny gold items and if it passes this earring test then at least I know the equipment I'm using has the capability. HH Mike

White’s new 8″ x 14″ DD Coil for the Goldmaster 24K and GMX Sport is now showing up at some dealers for $249.95 (internet price $229.95), part number 624-0614. Scuff cover /skip plate sold separately, part 501-4101, $9.95. Great for ground coverage, but for those with a GMX Sport do note this coil will float like a cork. 8" x 14" DD search coil for White's Goldmaster 24K and Sport GMX The Goldmaster 24K and GMX Sport now have a decent coil selection going. In addition to the coil above, we have: 6" x 10" DD coil (stock on 24k) 6" round concentric (stock on GMX) 4" x 6" DD coil Here is my Goldmaster 24K with a prototype (no label) 8" x 14" coil.... White's Goldmaster 24K with 8" x 14" DD coil

The claim belongs to Ian Holland and is at Corindhap, south of Ballarat. It is on the 'Break o' day' lead, which at it's time of discovery was reputed to be the richest mile of alluvial gold in the world. There are two leads running from the north to the south in parallel, the other being the Frenchmans lead. Depths vary from surface to over 80 feet. Ten nuggets of over 100ozs were found in this gold field, the largest was found in very shallow ground and was reputed to be 375ozs. In 1987 in company with another detector operator I unearthed an 11oz lump in unproven ground between the two leads . This led to a surface run of very course gold, totaling 350ozs, the largest nugget being 98ozs.

Righto, whilst I`m waiting on roads etc to dry out to get this gold season into gear, also to alleviate cabin fever, gears hasbeen maintained and serviced as per norm during our annual wet in FNQ OZ. The old backpack was beyond repair, so scout online for a replacement, Gold Hounds https://eberlestock.com/products/gunslinger-ii was top on the list for a bit then looking through the Camelbak Range up come the KUDU . My old one was a Camelback of the heavier rugged military style as is the Eberlestock, but I got this one https://www.camelbak.com/en/packs/R01069--KUDU_Protector_20_US?color=c94fa6d070d2440099b6a02f53bb242a only con I`ve seen so far is it is not of military style thus will not take the abuse that style does thus will probably not last as long. It ticks a couple of big boxes, it has a 4" or 100mm wide belt that first is a top idea , you tension this by overlapping and fastening at the overlap with Velcro, then you do up the narrower belt. Second tick to the 3l dehydration pack, another big tick to the back support. Now this is removable and would make a top splint for a broken or sprained limb, but it`ll serve another purpose and insulate the water in the dehydration pack from heating up against the back. Wearing this backpack shows the strengths of the wide belt, the back protector and the 2 across chest straps, it just does not move on your back and once adjusted is comfy as. Being a narrow pack and even full providing you are walking upright there is an air gap except at waste and below neck that allows cooling and thus will help stop sweating down the back. Finally the hip stick and pick holder mounts on it as if it were designed for it, with that 20l capacity and the Helmet holder a great place to carry a sleeping bag for those overnights. Made for todays cyclists but applies to our use, now to get it out amongst the weight...………...

For what it is worth this was a major deciding factor in my ditching my Gold Monster and keeping the 24K. Minelab's policy of limiting coils lost me and switched me to White's in this instance. Not only does the 24K have twice as many coils, you don't get the coil knock issues with the 24K to anywhere near the extent as exists with the Gold Monster when sensitivity is maxed out. You can scrub the ground with the 24K with no problem. Plus more control options, adjustable rod, better balance, does not roll over when set down, etc.

I had the Gold Kruzer for about 6 months. I was doing a comparison between it, the Deus, Orx, and the Equinox 800. My first time out with the Gold Kruzer, the first target I found was a 10K single earring stud with a nice emerald stone. Found it in a bark tot lot. That really got my attention. The other detectors I mentioned will hit it too. During that time I ran across an incredible deal on a Whites GM 24K that I could not refuse. That detector is really something also. As much as I liked the Gold Kruzer, especially the Micro mode!!! it and the Deus went bye, bye. Jeff

Hey Dogodog and Flak, Thanks for the comment guys. Back to you, stay safe out there - God's in control. Rob

No, just the volleyball pit metallic targets pictured. I didn't dig all the deep iron signals by any means. But I think I covered the area pretty well down to the 6 inch sand-dirt transition. I'm sure I missed some -- always do. As far as the rest of the park, I've still only searched less than 20% of the less used parts. They show signs of old droppings and not so much new -- that's a park hunter's dream (well, short of being completely unsearched which is too much to ask here). I've been avoiding the pulltab zone above nickels and below clad, but still have recovered well over 100 beavertail-only and some of the small R&B -- all these hitting in the nickel zone. Besides one other Buffie (common date) the nickels have been simply face valued (one 1939, a couple 1940, one 1940-S), but there have to be Warnicks in there along with more Biffies and probably a V-nickel or two. I've been patient trying to be thorough. So, yes, there's more awaiting. Metal detectorists have a lot in common with the general population. Many look for the low hanging fruit and are satisfied with that. They've left me some high haning fruit and I relish the challenge. You will hear more from me, but like most of you I'm laying low. There are bigger things to be concerned with right now.

Nice social distancing Rob...

If it wasn't for trash some days I wouldn't dig up anything. Nice gold, I'm starting to envy you gold guys and gals. I might need to plan a trip out west after this mess were in is over. Stay safe Rob

Well with the COVID-19 pandemic, I will not be purchasing a new detector this spring.... My business in which I am self-employed is all but shut down and will put my money toward bills etc. Hope everyone is staying safe and feeling well and pray this will soon be over!

Made it out to hunt this volleyball court last Monday, my last hunt before our state's stay-at-home order. I'll start with a bit of background. This park was established about a century ago, and the volleyball court (in its current location) can be seen in an aerial photo from the early 1960's. For a lot of reasons (including about 8 hunts in this park over the last month), I'm confident this site has been detected before, likely multiple times. However, there is so much still present aluminum ring-and-beavertail pulltabs (completely intact, bent, broken) that I can tell previous detectorists cherry picked the high conductors and in many places discriminated out the lower conductors. As you'll see there is evidence of that in the volleyball pit. It is a more/less standard size pit, with the sand-filled part not extending past the regulation boundaries. When searching I found that the sand is about 6 inches (15 cm) deep. I have no idea when it was last redone. I hunted with the Minelab Equinox 800 and 11" round (stock) coil. I ground balanced in the pit, went with Park 1, 2 tones, tone break at 0/1, recovery speed 5, iron bias FE2 = 5, gain = 20-23. I always carry a gold pan and gold nugget scoop with me anyway, and I laid out a magnet (at Gerry's suggestion) and then forgot to bring it! Pretty slim pickin' for a 2 1/2 hour hunt. The rusted nails were all at the bottom edge or the sand or deeper. Note the 22 bullet (below leftmost ring-and-beavertail). The three modern coins didn't require any cleanup, which I attribute partly to being in the sand. (The two pennies are Zincolns.) The (dateless, unfortunately) Buffalo nickel was in the sandy area, but I'm not sure how deep. I got a choppy nickel-zone (12-13) signal and dug a rusty nail down into the dirt below the sand layer. After refilling the hole I went over the spot again and got a strong nickel-zone signal that seemed to be a few inches away from my previous hole. Down only 2-3 inches was the Buffie. Only a bit of water and soft toothbrush cleaning got it to the above state. It is reddish in color, typical (in my local soil, anyway) of USA nickels that have been in the ground for many years. I kinda doubt it's been in the sand since it was dropped (likely 50 years or more ago). The Irwin "made in USA" screwdriver was sitting on top of the sand. I wonder if this was a previous detectorist's probe. Definitely my most valuable find in the pit. 😁 The curved nail is a square nail. The three staples sounded pretty good -- all in the sand in the 3-4 inch depth range. (Side note: I had intended to search in Park 2 mode to get smaller items, but Park 1 found these with no problem. Of course iron shows up more strongly than non-ferrous of equivalent size.) Magnet would have helped recover those pesky things. The curved nail is a square nail. The crown cap has a plastic liner but is quite rusted, so likely been in the ground for quite a few years. I don't know what that eye-looped fastener is below the middle R&B pulltab, but I can hear Gary Drayton: "Templar, baby!" I was surprised at how clean this pit was with respect to metallic items. I interpret that to mean it was searched fairly recently, maybe after last summer&fall season. All four of the coins and the aluminum washer were right near the border of the pit, so maybe the latest detectorists just hunted the garden-spots, such as under the net. A good learning experience and thanks to all who gave advice. Wish I could have found a piece of gold jewelry.... As soon as the stay-at-home orders are lifted I'll be back in that park, but doing my usual old coin hunting. That has already produced some goodies (two silver dimes and an IH penny included) and there's more to be found.

Went to Oregon on Saturday and scored one of these babies. I don't find them often (less than 10 in 40+ yrs of MD'ing) but when I do, it puts a smile on my face. Pay attention to those little odd finds so you don't throw them out. I'd love to see some of the ones you other hunters have saved, so please show some pics. I'm sure the Aussies have a few as well. Last pic shows the weight.

OK, so this time around, I have made things a LOT easier to work with, and expandability is key here. Sure, it's not huge, but for a portable system, this should work great. The key thing here is that I wanted a system that could be printed with little to no waste material, and yet have the structure and strength to hold up for a long time. This is what I have come up with so far. This will likely be my last design for this version. I'm only tweaking a few dimensions here, as well as making new modules that can be added to it. Features: Modules are 276mm long by 104mm wide, max height of 106mm (virtually) unlimited stackability Use modules in any order you want Use whatever sluice mat you want (to a point) Best used with a 5 gallon bucket (self-recirculating water system) Current Modules: Feed hopper Mat tray Bottom Support Key note here is that those modules, even with the tilt, print FLAT on a printer, and unless something drastic changes, will require NO supports. That means nothing to clean up after the print is done. Pull it off the printer, and use it right away! The cutaway view shows you how it currently operates. I did away with the "G-Force" drop whatever that the Gold Cube has. I wanted better flow, and didn't think that part was completely necessary. Some of those angles might change by the time the final version rolls around. I am still waiting on my four 200GPH water pumps so I can physically test flow rates. I know this is still very small compared to a lot of the others that you can shovel hundreds of pounds a day into, but this is meant more for fine cleanup or to run pre-classified material through, although this should be able to do a bit of classifying on it's own. Also, as I design more modules, I might include a couple modules that will spray wash and classify before sending down the smaller material to be run over the mats. I would also like to design a sort of trommel as one of the modules. Would have to be geared to run off of some water pressure, so I don't have to include a motor and all the electronics and extra building parts that come with it. This is one part that would have to be made from metal, as anything printed would get destroyed very quickly, so I'm still contemplating this one. Remember, this system isn't meant to drop boulders into. I'd say you can safely feed in no larger than 8-mesh material. Depending on water flow, you might get away with 4-mesh, but I wouldn't count on it. More info coming as I get more work done, and get a chance to print some physical models.

I think it's going to take 7 years again. 😅 I found "oriental whip snake". One down (maybe), several more to go.

It’s great to see you’ve able to get out and about Rob, there is no better mental health exercise that going prospecting. 😎 Thanks for sharing JP

Even though there was somewhat different opinion from minelab Vanquish 340 users on how well this detector can detect in the iron and divide these views into two groups of views. some are very satisfied with the detectors.......and also those users for whom this detector has only average separation properties.... My latest comparison of Vanquisha in the "Monte" nailbord separation test on a low conductive 5 gram nickel coin and a 5 gram high conductive silver coin revealed the fact .... both sides are right. Detetkor Vanquish 340 -a V10 coil I tested on all 3 programs..Allmetal, Jewerly, and also Coin program. The results of the separation test are surprising. The 5 gram silver high-conductivity coin gained only a "Average result" in the nailbord test .... 5.5 points of 8 point max...! 5 grams of nickel low-conductivity coin got " excellent result" in nailbord test 7.5-8 points out of 8 points Max .. !!! This detector is excellent for separating low conductive objects .... !!! The detector worked best on separation in All metal y Jewerly ...Jewerly program in some cases ... it helps better to highlight good signal between iron and iron than Allmetal ....but I wouldn't take it as a rule, rather as an alternative ... for a better verification of a suspicious signal .. The Coin program was significantly weaker in the separation. .

That’s exactly how I learned, just remember the correlation between range of motion and sweep speed relative to target signal and try and cobble them all together. I am always on the listen out for a broad repeatable response within the threshold, if you get the range of motion and speed right in context with repeatability the signal jumps out at you. JP

Extra Deep is a later sampling timing that has good depth on slow time constant targets. The advantage of the Gold Mode is it’s very effective at removing a LOT of Salt signal and also near to surface ground signal response (both variability and Saturation signals), as such even though the target signal can be reduced a lot compared to other modes the actual deep target signal can stand out from the threshold enough to be recognisable. In effect you are doing a similar thing to using the Motion filter (Audio Smoothing) but in a more refined way because the timing is complete across the target size spectrum relative to what makes it through the delay. The other advantage of using Extra Deep is it has VERY good immunity to microphonic’s when the coil is rolled across hard pebbles and comes into contact with woody sticks, you’d be amazed how much information is lost due to variability in the threshold because of this effect especially in General Difficult. In the Normal modes it’s not noticed so much because the timing is more agressive and agile so the variability in the threshold masks the signals. IMHO the ground Tracking is better in Extra deep than it is in General, there is way less up and down signal in High Yield and Extra deep compared to General, noise from coil raising and lowering has a really big impact on subtle target signals in the General mode especially in Difficult. Finally the range of motion of the coil is extremely important when chasing deep signals especially the ones that barely make it through the delay, it would pay to not sweep over a suspect target too often in any sort of tracking because the resultant remainder Eddie current after the delay will be right on the edge of detection. Interestingly I find the target response of some gold does not always get determined by how much actual weight of gold is present but is more to do with surface area relative to depth, getting the combination right can bring a surprising amount of gold to light, just be aware there will be some targets that are lost to the late sampling. JP

Ya if still in use the prospect mode might do well for the small stuff. I have 2 coils for my Tejon, 8x9 concentric and 10x12 widescan. The widscan is good in open fields some woods hunting but it struggles with steel caps and can mask out in heavy iron areas ie foundations. The concentric rules the parks around here and does well on ear rings, reg rings and general coin shooting. Steel caps on that fall below the foil mark so I can just ignore them but that is the Tejon that is similar in freq as the Lobo. Concentric will put caps low on the Vaquero but I don't know where that break is. If caps aren't an issue there then the 5x10 might be really good on the small stuff. Always thought of strategically placing trampolines around to seed the areas I like to hunt. Not sure how the parks dept would feel about that.

I'm surprised you never found at least 1 earring or earing post? No bits of a chain and or clasp either, tells me to step up to the Prospect #1 Mode. Yes, please go back when you get a chance and give us the details from Prospect Mode. I've never hunted a VBall Court and not found at least an earring post/back? I also seem to find my share of lead pellets (bird shot) in our area, as I think they get the sand from the Boise River banks and sand pits and there must be quite a bit of dover hunting going on. I think the small lead shots in our sand is a local thing though and big inner cities probably buy their sands from beaches? Nice Buffalo for your efforts too. Thanks for sharing.

That's a good day of detecting, Rob. Be well, amigo!

Great nuggets Rob. I am glad you could stay close to home and still find some good targets. I hope you, your family and you Dad are safe and well. thanks for posting. Jeff

Hey Beatup, Ya, some guys don't want to finance a new metal detector or products via credit card or use their good ol' American cash, but do have a collection of gold they are willing to part with. Just gives the customers another payment option. Hope all is well on your end. Rob

A little late to the party but like you said it's a Mass Vol button. Some just predate Civil War. I have a couple of them. Mine were gold plated and cleaned up well using a 30/70 ratio of CLR/ water. CLR is the stuff you get at Home Depot or similar and is Clacium/ Lime/ Rust remover. I dab a toothbrush in it and scrub gently, then dip in running water, then repeating. You may be surprised on how much gold may be left on that button. If you get some on the reverse and it turns red, 4 aut (#0000) very fine steel wool cleans it up. When done with the brushing, soak it in a mix of baking soda and water to neutralize.

Hey that is good to know you do that Rob thanks for letting everyone know.

Agreed on the MASS VOLUNTEER ID: http://www.americancivilwarrelics.com/Civil%20War%20Buttons%20Federal%20State.htm If this was just a low worth button, I would suggest a soak in diluted lemon juice, with regular brushing witha soft brush eg. worn toothbrush, This will remove the green deposits, but keep a check on it, too long in there and the gilding will also peel. But if it has any true value [ I'm not familiar with US finds] best leave it ...

Hey Guys, What I forgot to mention is we do offer "clean gold" as a trade-in option for equipment. Many don't know this, but we offer spot value for gold. We also like to look at the gold first, as we had a few people send in some really low quality gold or gold filled with more black sands than gold ..... I'm sure other dealers/distributors might also offer this, so check with your local dealer(s) first before trying to outright sell. Rob

The whole park that sparse on finds? Usually if people are cherry picking here I end up with loads of nickels and sometimes zinc pennies. There has to be more there I'm sure. Keep looking.

Hey Bud, Here are a few others ones, most of them I know personally - Dave at Gold Bay - https://www.goldbay.com/ Matt at Gold Rush Nuggets - https://www.goldrushnuggets.com/ Natural Gold Traders - https://www.naturalgoldtrader.com/ I don't believe I have ever sold any gold to them, but they have purchased metal detecting products over the years from us. Is it a time to hold or sell gold? Rob

Not a bad day and I'm sure the volleyball players would thank you for removing those nails (ouch). eye loop thing looks like a drop ceiling nail, Used to attach your wire to it and to the grid. Or Curse of the Templar Volleyball pit (your choice). I like to search a 20' perimeter around courts and such, that's where the careless fans sit. Good luck on the second pass!!

I just put mine in my regular luggage. I tend to think special cases attract special attention from thieves. But if you are looking for something check out gun cases on Amazon.

Gilted button...nice details. strick

Yep they do, mainly smaller nuggets 1-3 grams at a foot or so (a swap to high yield resulted in no or weak signal). I have got a couple good slugs between 2 to 3 ounces at depths over 2 feet on patches. They only were heard by swinging very slowly. Top images down a couple feet or close to. Bottom 2-4 gram crystals were on a spot i flogged, but i picked up more by swinging ultra slow in extra deep last week. Hence my question to jp.

Parker's Episode 2 was worth the watch last night. No huge nuggets and a lot of hard work. My first look at anything Queensland. Tyler's Trial In the legendary Palmer goldfields, Parker and his team encounter a lucrative family-run mining operation and discover dirt far richer than anything they've ever seen in the Yukon. But convincing the family to lease him virgin ground will come at a price.

Been pretty busy lately organising our business and finalising last minute preparations for the global lockdown associated with current world events. I am so lucky to be able to self isolate in an area where I do not need to travel to go detecting, therefore contact with others is near zero. I encourage readers of this forum to understand the importance of not moving about where there are others present, the risks are too great at this time. Please do not respond to my comments about COVID19 on this thread, I am just explaining my own personal situation and why I‘m able to continue detecting thanks to my location and circumstances and do not want to seem to be encouraging others to take risks if they have to travel any distances to get to a goldfield. I am able to literally step out my front door and go detecting more often than not with my detecting buddy Mia. Here are a few pics of some of the gold I’ve found over the past week between tasks. Gold is a very big part of my usual income and now because our shop is effectively defunct it has become a vital component to our survival strategy. I live where I live for this very reason, having ready access to gold bearing ground was always the main driver for this decision. I am happy to share my finds here so long as it is not seen as rubbing salt into the wounds of those of us who can’t, the primary focus is about sharing something I love with others and I sincerely hope it’s taken that way.😕 Speci found sitting on an old timers pile Yesterday I revisited a favourite old gully where I found 1 1/2 ounces quite a number of years ago, there is always some left behind in scrubby terrain like this. Gold bearing gully Nice solid chunk that made me smile when I weighed it The aim is to ‘try’ and find an ounce a week to keep ourselves afloat during these trying times, any gold coming in is better than nothing! Going detecting and finding nothing is way better for my mental health than being stuck indoors and I hope my sharing goes some way to helping others cope with the magnitude of what is happening to all of us collectively.😔 I will not be mentioning this subject here again as there are plenty of other places for those discussions to take place, but felt I should explain where I‘m coming from in case it is seen the wrong way. JP Yesterdays take

Am I missing something here? Most finds don't appear very deep, yet the Minelabs couldn't find any gold but the AQ did?

Deep mode with 0 disc makes it very sensitive and deeper to tiny gold as with tests on an earring I would like to see if it's possible for an update adding notching. This is the first time I ever wanted notching. I would like to run the Gold Kruzer at 0 disc in deep mode and notch out what I don't want. Notching would be my disc if It had that feature. Would probably be good for nugget hunters also because 0 disc in deep mode makes it very sensitive and deeper. This would be a great addition. So for me notching would be perfect for jewelry hunting and I thing it would be good for nugget hunting also. The Gold Kruzer is a great water hunter for jewelry including micro jewelry. Maybe Nokta could add this.

Kac, I tried the tip and along the sides of the F pulse with no luck. I did try it on other gold earrings & rings and got good results? I also have a Gold Digger Land or Sea model which also did not register. Maybe it has stainless steel as a base metal? In normal usage the TRX gives me good depth and accuracy. Update: I did some more experimenting with the EQ800. I moved to another room bumped the sensitivity up to 15 and it would detect the original stud in Park 2, Gold 1 & best signal in Gold 2 mode.

maxxkatt -- I have confirmed that Miccus Bluetooth 5.0 headphones WILL work perfectly with the Equinox -- at least they do on my machine, and one of my hunting partners' machines. I'm not sure why you are having trouble with yours, but I don't believe it to be an overall incompatibility between Miccus 5.0 phones, and the Equinox. It could be a bad set of phones, or a mistake in the pairing process, not sure, but I don't think it's a universal issue of incompatibility. Steve

On baseball diamonds and tot lots with wood chips I push the top layer aside, get my find then push the top layer back so it doesn't have that dirt below showing. My digger makes a nice plug or flap and I use a piece of rubber roofing cut 12x12 as a dig mat to put any soil on rather than leave dirt on top of the grass. The rubber mat works good because it seems to not blow around easily and is waterproof. Use it to kneel on sometimes if the grass is wet.

Yes. The reason I call it Prospecting Mode and not Gold Mode.... I've sold over 200 NOX units across the US and many folks wanted the 800 model so they can hunt GOLD RINGS. , but there is no raw natural gold in their region. The NOX 600 does not have the Gold Mode and so they felt the 600 will not find rings. So wrong they are, as a gold ring is just as easy to detect with both models. So with many folks not realizing it, I call the Gold Mode what it is meant to be...a Prospecting Mode. Here are some NOX 600 gold jewelry finds as it does just as well for ring hunters as the 800. Part of why I get so many referrals on detector sales, is I try to get the customer what I feel is the best bang for the buck detector. When comparing the 600 to the 800 and you live back East with no natural gold, why pay $250 more for wireless headphones? Yes I realize there are some advanced fine tuning and I know most folks never go there...let along even know how to get there in the detector. Minelab did a stunner job of making great adjustments and settings for the Factory Preset Modes which will suite the majority of users.

and here we are in Arizona looking for bits......

The very first thing I would not do is go to the very worst place you can think of for the maiden voyage. Do a little bench testing with coins or whatever to get familiar with target id numbers and controls, then go detecting. The presets are actually very good, needing little more than adjusting the sensitivity. My first outings I like sand boxes or beaches - easy digging - to get familiar with machines and targets by digging everything. The Quick Start Guide above sets out the steps. Choose a starting mode or search profile based on the descriptions below. The assumption seems to be that the defaults settings are no good, so start messing with them right away. The truth is the exact opposite - I highly recommend sticking with the factory default settings with minimal adjustments (sensitivity, number of tones). In my opinion the best way to go wrong with Equinox is to not trust the defaults when starting out. Instruction manual pages 23-24 (emphasis added): Park 1: General / Coins Park 1 is optimised for modern coins and larger jewellery with a default discrimination pattern set to reject many common aluminium foil-like targets (Target ID 1). Therefore this is the ideal profile to start with to learn EQUINOX, before experimenting with the other Modes and more specialist settings. Park 1 Multi-IQ processes a lower frequency weighting of the multi-frequency signal, as well as using algorithms that maximise ground balancing for soil, to achieve the best signal to noise ratio. Hence Park 1 is most suited for general detecting and coin hunting. Park 2: Fine Jewellery (Fine in this context means small) Park 2 is better suited for smaller targets and greater trash densities. It will detect a wider range of targets including low conductors (or higher frequency) targets, e.g. fine jewellery. All non-ferrous targets are accepted by default. Recovery Speed is also increased to clearly identify good targets masked by iron trash. Target Tone is set to 50 to allow greater audible target identification rather than relying more heavily on the visual Target IDs. Park 2 Multi-IQ processes a higher frequency weighted multi-frequency signal while ground balancing for soil. Field 1: Coins / Artefacts Field 1 is for general hunting with high trash rejection. This assists in locating desired targets more easily. The default discrimination pattern is set to reject Target IDs 1 and 2 (most coke signals). The first Tone Break is set so that Target IDs 1 and 2 will produce the same low tone as ferrous targets. Field 1 Multi-IQ processes a lower frequency weighted multi-frequency signal, as well as using algorithms that maximise ground balancing for soil, to achieve the best signal to noise ratio. Hence being most suited for general detecting and coin hunting. Field 2: Fine Coins / Artefacts (Fine in this context means small) Field 2 suits locations with high target and trash densities. It will better detect small hammered coins on their edge or at greater depth. The default discrimination pattern is set to reject Target IDs 1 and 2 (most coke signals). Target Tone is set to 50 tones to enhance audio identification and Recovery Speed is faster. The first Tone Break has been set so that Target IDs 1 and 2 produce the same low tone as ferrous targets. Field 2 Multi-IQ processes a higher frequency weighted multifrequency signal while ground balancing for soil.