Leaderboard

Hey All, A partner and I managed to escape this weekend to placer more of the wash we have been working. We didn't do as well as we hoped, but did manage a few nuggets that you can see in the video below. We were using the Minelab GPZ 7000 most of the time, but also had the GPX 5000 and Gold Monster on site. We had several trash targets that were wedged in the bedrock cracks that we though were going to be gold nuggets. Some of those targets were pick tips and pieces of old metal probably used as a tool to open up the bedrock. Hope you enjoy the video. We would love for you to Subscribe to our Youtube Channel by clicking the "Subscribe button," Hit that LIKE and follow all our new video by clicking that Bell icon. Wishing you all many gold nuggets in your poke.

was good to get out to the golden triangle again after lockdown, picked up these

Hi Mike, I'm not really a park hunter, so it's a rarity for me to find gold rings, but I found this at Golden Gate Park on my first outing with an old friend that had found a little area that had been scraped for new landscaping, and I was sure it was going to be a nickle when it banged in with a solid 14 TID 🙂

I was hunting at the beach yesterday and did my usual "dial it in" routine...adjusting F2, Recovery and Sensitivity using my test sticks to optimize my EQX 800 performance for that particular beach. As I hunted, I got a strong tone of a high conductor and started to dig and dig and dig. I couldn't see or find the target but I knew it was still there...somewhere...the EQX said it was! I finally narrowed it down to a certain pile of sand from the ever growing hole. Still couldn't see it but it was there among the brown sand...somewhere. Finally resorted to my Pro-Find 35 pinpointer. It rang up nicely but I still couldn't see this high conductor! I started to test small hand fulls at a time and finally...finally I saw a minuscule piece of wire on the edge of my hand. Could this be what all the fuss was about? YES. I measured the depth of the hole with the Pro- Find 35 and saw that it was approximately 8 inches! I brought the wire home specifically to post this story about the importance of adjusting your detector to meet the conditions. When we change beaches, I "dialed in" my EQX again for that new beach and had to change the settings from that first beach where my EQX sniffed out that piece of wire. Conditions change and so must your settings....one size DOES NOT FIT ALL.

Woke up late😨. Found a decent place. Found competition at work already💀. Heard from local fisherman's report on last week competition's success right there🤐... Almost 5 hours, dug 5 holes found 5 items...And the sand is yet to come... Can You guess how much I love the summer season?🙄 End of the story for today...

Looks like they use the same shaft as the AT series so I would guess Steve's Custom Shafts would fit it. Be a cool carbon fiber option.

Im Rick from Michigan, I'm getting back into detectors after about a 10 year pause.... I had a Minelab Safari that I sold , I just recently purchased a preowned E-trac with some extras . Im waiting on it to hit the door. So needless to say I have to get back into the swing of things.... I still need a pointer deciding on which and some smalls That I will need......I will be reading and asking a lot of questions....Rick

..These translations are therefore so good .... because I use my Gaming Laptop for that ....... But now seriously .. I forgot to give a dot for 1 ..., and during this Editing I did not notice that I had already translated English into my Slovak language ... I was in a hurry to work .. It's my fault ... I have to spend enough time correcting the writing of sentences ... and translating them into English ... and correcting the text ... to express exactly what I want ... I hope ... that you will forgive me for inconsistencies from time to time .. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now to the topic ... CTX ... works with a fixed iron bias somewhere at the value of 9, which helps him a lot to correctly identify the iron ...

Thanks for the additional information, that puts it into the clothing category. They may have used a similar button to the shoes, but I doubt it. I will continue to research it a little further for the correct item. The time period is correct for that style button.

Well done. Nice looking gold. It's a big 'triangle' as I remember it from last year. How the world has changed. Mitchel

Simon, as Steve stated, you are blessed with having low soil mineralization. In really bad ground, depth loss can exceed 50%. As regards depth loss, years ago, when I was a staffer for "Treasure," magazine, in my soil, to detect a dime in discriminate mode at an honest 4 inches deep was the "Holy Grail" of coin hunting. One day I was given the assignment to field test a new machine. In my test garden it screamed on the 4 incher, likewise the 5 incher. INCREDIBLE. NO detector on the market at that time could do this. Burying another dime to increasingly greater depths, I found it got an "iffy," but clearly 'good" signal to fully 10 measured inches. As I headed for the house to phone the manufacturer to ask for a "sweetheart" deal on my own machine, the thought occurred to me that I had not tested it's discrimination abilities. Tossing a steel double-ended drill bit on the ground, setting the disc. to nail reject, and passing the coil over it, it produced a great signal. It could not reject anything on or in the ground. I telephoned the company, and spoke to the owner/engineer. When I told him the foregoing, his reply was "You have mineralized soil." He then went on to explain that soil mineralization dropped that machine's discrimination depth potential to ZERO.

Hopefully your F19 has the 10x5” elliptical coil. As others have said being in a gold producing area is step one. Cleaning up big ferrous and non ferrous targets is a good idea too. Learning what a tiny or faint target sounds like and tuning your ears to that sound helps too. Try Steve’s Bic Pen test and also practice on some really small pieces of lead or aluminum like 1/4” to 1/8” size. Running your F19 at 60 to 80 gain is perfectly fine. If you detect a really big target it is a good idea to ground balance again after recovering it or moving on. My plate full of recent targets looks a lot like 1515Art’s. Most were nonferrous targets along with a few pieces of wire and rusty tin can shards. One tiny but really cute piece of gold in the middle. Used the XP ORX but the F19 would have hit these targets too.

Nothing so special here, just a common 18k wedding band, really usual in Europe. I'm satisfied to see again gold after over two months of Covid Lockdown😷. The amazing thing is from where I pulled it out. I've been totally shocked by the use of a compass today, cause I found too much times myself uncapable to keep straight lines underwater in murky or windy conditions. So today I was testing not only the use of the instrument, but also a new weight harness I maked to relax my poor back and what a relief! I'm now doing snorkeling without fins and a neutral buoyancy trim. The place was a terrible one, rocky, aluminum infested, uncovered bottom by months and deadly pounded by competition of other locals... Before the lockdown I cleaned up the last drops of gold remained, when they were saying me "is over..don't do it again" and laughing,leaving me alone there: (terrible mistake💀😉)... At a certain point I was next to leave, when I decided to follow another line on the compass to come back to the shore... Thicker Sand, freshly deposited, no referral things to take note of, but......Bang! When I heard the CTX to punch a solid 12.24 I was amazed and already sure about the shape of the thing...In the middle of nowhere.... The end of the story is...I've been fooled by myself dozen of times, never been really able to cover entirely hot points in patterns and potentially leaving lot of good stuff behind..I'm sure about it cause I frequently passed again like in a circle from same spots already checked... To hunt wading is another thing than snorkeling or scuba diving. I have proof now that a compass can make the difference when I need to cover bottom in the right way. I'm noticing this fact after "only" 15 years😭....Take note and apply.....Hard payed experience....

On the "Spud Diggers" YouTube channel appears the video "White's GMX and 24K: All 4 coils tested". We did an in-ground performance comparison using an extremely mineralized drywash pile from a black sand-laden auriferous wash. Coils tested: 14x8, 10x6, 6x4, 6.5 concentric. Nuggets tested: 1/4 grain (laminated to a business card), 1/2 grain, (almost) one grain, and one gram, at one inch depth. GAIN settings of 10, 5, and "0". Note especially how well the 6.5" concentric and 14x8 DD coils performed. HH Jim

Welcome back to the fun Rick. Its just like riding a bike, you never forget. Glad you joined in with us, you won't be disappointed.

Welcome to the forum, Rick. This is the best place on the net for detecting! As a pretty new detectorist, I've already learned tons from the nice folks here. Be sure and post pictures of your finds! ~Bash

Welcome to the forum Rick. Ask any questions you need to as that’s what we’re all here for. Well maybe the smart ones anyway. Good luck!

From my point of view, I actually prefer to have a sort of "Iron audio" setting.Without any kind of filter like FE or FE2, during the test of the Nox800 I was good in the water with a 5 tones profile, a lower tone pitch of 4/5 and volume from -9 to 0, an higher pitch of 14 with max volume 25 from 1 to 20 and again lower pitches like 6 or 7 for the third, the fourth and the fifth signal area... In this way I was able to always hear (in all metal) when, how much and where the iron was... However I don't found the Nox to be a reliable machine to trust on numbers and conductivity... So pay attention for big gold rings sometimes under unusual higher readings...On the CTX the story is a bit different..I don't trust the second conductivity number, but the first iron composition! I actually changed the audio profile to use it with two iron based tones, cause You'll never know how big is the stuff, but to cut a little is just better to understand how much iron is under the coil before to dig....Hope this will be clear...Reading again myself is not so clear even for me🤣🤣🤣

You much hunt far out deep with so few of targets. Same here, further out the less... but better targets. Nice save on the Gold!

I bet its nice to be able to get out and about again after so long being cooped up.🤕😷 Any gold found this year is a triumph AFAIC😎 JP

Welcome aboard and you have found the right place to be at. The people here can answer all your questions as many people have found. I use a Garrett pin pointer also and it serves me well.

This is my first post and I'm still relatively new to detecting. Wondering if the size of my nonferrous pieces is indicative that I would miss gold. This was from about 6 hours with a Fisher F19 that I got on sale. The California ground is annoying in that it needs balancing every few steps. Anything above gain 60/100 and >0 threshold would be way too chirpy, I think that indicates decently hot ground. Got a really good feel for negative rocks, though the tones with Iron sound an awful lot like everything else. Discriminate mode blocked a lot of the chatter but it made me worry some about missing targets. Note that I did pan good areas nearby and take samples, none of which had even the tiniest speck so I doubt I actually missed any. I'll need to take longer trips either north or east where the better claims are.

Join the SPMA, lots of claims from S.D. county to Yuma Az. If you also relic hunt I would like recomennd a book by Chris Wray called The Historic Backcountry. It covers SD and Imperial counties. Loads of information.

Well i have always thought just finding a whole bunch of iron targets was a enough for me. But digging tree roots and charcoal in the ground is on another level. As well also those ghost signals where you dont find no tree root or charcoal. Here in DR there is gold but we have to dig to get it out. It isnt laying around for most part. There is a lot shallow ground but is like the rain has washed off and deposited in benches and in the creeks. I have been to places where there is shallow gold but there are veryy few places like this. Finding one out here raw prospecting would have someone die of hunger. Right now im inbetween building a motorized winch which i would use in our dredging operation in the river and probably some surface mining openning cuts with a scape bucket to the virgen gravels. This is when i could see myself using a Metal detector. But walking like a crazy guy up and down acres of land without knowing im walking right over the gold. Lucky those who are in those geological condition.

Then you've come to the right place. Welcome, Rick!

Correct me if I'm wrong but White's coils are either hollow or foam filled. That makes them light compared to something like an epoxy filled Garrett Coil. I remember you used to be able to buy a Surf PI Pro with a weighted coil before they changed it to a Dual Field.

It has a lot of similarity to the Nox and Vanquish . But Multi Flex could be a version of the V. Flex tech in the Terra ? The Terra can use 3 different frequencies in its coils , maybe now the Terra patents have run out ?? they have worked a new Multi Freq machine from that ? Anyway at £500 UK it is much cheaper than the Nox and similar capability barring a few settings and the same price as and better settings than the Vanquish . I think Minelab may have either opened Pandora's box or left it open for all to see. Surely this Apex isn't a poach of the Nox Patent or has it run out already ? But if so then why didn't anyone jump on the FBS tech when its patents ran out ? Or have they ? Anyway I have to say that this Garrett is the first normal Garrett that I have seen that could be a machine I would want so I have ordered one. Worth a browse !

To add on to what Steve said, it could have been cheaper to use a miniUSB port instead of something else. But more importantly (in my opinion) is that Garrett didn't want to require a proprietary plug/cord to charge the Apex in the field. Just bring a typical battery bank that many people already have (which will almost assuredly come with a micro or mini USB plug, as well as possibly other plugs, such as USB-C).

That would probably not only need to be a different forum, but somebody other than a White’s dealer doing the video. Jim is a super nice, fair sort of fellow, but still, that’s a bit much to ask. No way to win in that kind of a situation. As a person who owns both I can say it’s not a slam dunk win for either, which is why I have both. My dime store opinion is the Equinox offers more versatility, the 24K is more focused on and physically better designed for nugget detecting only.

Greetings Mr. Carl .... your posts are as accurate and very informative as always .... I always had some idea that the possibilities of Spectra V3 could be much larger ... and that this machine works maybe 70% of its possibilities .. .. I always wanted that ..... the new Spectra V4 also had a 15khz frequency, and the user could choose 2-3 frequencies from 4 frequencies 2.5khz -7.5khz-15khz-22.5khz ... depending on the terrain and what type detection is exactly preferred ... also in terms of better separation on multifrequency and EMI resistance .. The Best data function could also be more adjustable .... No-Motion mode with ID would be an excellent feature on this detector ...

It's actually much larger - close to 29mm.

Steve - Your graph makes it much easier for the novice to understand the differences between the two. I've been trying to explain it using words. The graph makes it much clearer.

I appreciate Hugh's response as it provided the message I woudl have posted myself. The point of including programs from users around the world ALONG WITH THE REASON THEY MADE THE ADJUSTMENTS THEY DID was to avoid people simply blindly loading programs without understanding the why behind them. By looking at the settings and seeing what was changed from the factory presets, one can adapt them to their area, their preferences and their ground conditions. The book provides an overview of each function and that combined with the programs and explanations provided should help accelerate the learning curve. I have found that often driving even 20 miles from one site to another requires tweaks to settings but if you understand the function of each, that takes seconds to get dialed in and finding targets. Hope this clarifies the purpose of the programs in the book and how best to use them for your applications Andy Sabisch

Relying on God are we Steve? haha (For those of you who wonder about this post, when Steve wrote his post above he inadvertently or overtly said "priest" rather than preset.) I do think some of us have prayed and or pray before each hunt but to think of the God 'preset' was a chuckle.

I’m not sure it’s really a jewelry or coin thing, though beach hunters can get frustrated with bottle caps. To me it is more a personal preference setting having to do with each persons tolerance for trash. When I started as a prototype tester for Equinox there was no iron bias. It got added later. Most iron targets reveal using 50 tones and so I kind of cut my teeth on 50 tones and no iron bias. I really have no use for it except for rare circumstances and as a rule set it for zero unless I forget and am using a mode that has reverted to a preset that has some iron bias dialed in. I also have a high tolerance for trash targets. Other people do not like 50 tones as too busy, but fewer tones forces targets into a handful of tone responses so ferrous tends to fake you out more. Or people just hate digging trash, period. So they opt for higher iron bias settings. There is nothing at all wrong with that. This is supposed to be something we do for fun, and if iron makes you miserable, find the setting that works best for you.

Why do you say that? Whether iron bias is used depends on the nuisance factor of iron at a given site regardless of the target objective.

Apex stock coil is smaller than usual 8 1/2x11 stock coil. Size they chose is similar to the Kruzer series which I find really good balance between depth and easy to negotiate around obstructions. By the looks of it they really cherry picked the features on this one.

Unfortunately if looking for gold nuggets you dig way, way more trash than gold. Many large ferrous items read good on even the best discriminating detectors, let alone prospecting detectors. And many prospectors say dig it all anyway! This photo from some testing I did shows various hot rocks and trash I've dug while nugget hunting, which I then use to test detectors. The truth is you can cherry pick somewhat with VLF detectors but it always comes at the cost of reduced depth and possible misidentified and therefore missed gold. The main secret to solving this is research and doing you best to put yourself places where the odds of gold are better than the odds of trash. Sadly, the cleaner areas get hit the most as people avoid trashy sites, so some of the best gold still waiting to be found is in those very trashy locations people have been avoiding. Basically you need a strong back and a lot of patience to play this game. The main advice I would offer is you need to be digging tiny stuff. If all you are digging is big stuff all you are going to dig is junk. If you are finding buckshot and pellets your skills are well developed. If not, you need more work at it. Typical small stuff I dig while looking for nuggets....

When you are first learning your detector everything you dig is a lesson the more you dig the better you’ll understand the things it is telling you. Are you looking in and area known for finding gold nuggets? I’m guessing you covered a fairly large area where you were detecting too if you got all that big stuff from a small Spot it would be challenging but not impossible. Cleaning out the trash in a known gold location allows you to hear the faint signals and properly setting your detector for the ground conditions you need to really slow down and carefully listening for the faint tones most gold you’ll find is going to be small. You will find a wealth of information on these topics on YouTube by a host of really experienced prospectors, look for Jeff Williams, Chris Ralph, two toes, USMinor they take the time to share their knowledge you can answer a lot of your questions Watching the videos they produce. If you haven’t, join a prospecting club that holds claims in an area you want to hunt being in the right location is key, but expect the areas you hunt have been hunted before you are looking for gold missed by others. The photo attached is the typical junk I’m finding looking for gold nuggets, not to say you should not dig what you did as any one of those could have been a nugget just a matter of odds most of the gold is smaller.

This single introduction just reaffirmed Garrett’s position not as an industry laggard, but industry leader. You can debate detector technology all you want, but there is no doubt in my mind the stage is set for there to be an expectation that a 21st century detector offer lightweight, ergonomic designs, packed with frequency options, wireless technology, and rechargeable batteries. Any company not producing similar devices risks getting left behind. Garrett Ace Apex metal detector

Ok ill get on it.

Some contributors here are just having some good natured fun. That is what is really nice about this forum. We can make a suggestion without taking it too seriously. If you seriously want an upgrade for the Nox 800, you probably should follow Steve's advice and wait and see if one of those 5 new products from Minelab is a Nox 800 upgrade. Personally, I do not know of any detector that is a real upgrade. Currently the Equinox 800 is the absolute only detector with its feature set, period. An Etrac or CTX 3030 would be an upgrade for target ID on higher conductors. On low to mid conductors they are not any better than the Equinox, they weigh much more and do not have the recovery speed or target separation that the Equinox 800 has and they are not even close for all around versatility. They would probably satisfy your technical orientation and like the Equinox 800 would give you a chance to advance your theoretical knowledge. In my purely subjective opinion, the only weakness that the Equinox has is it's poor ergonomics. Without upgrading to custom shafts, the Equinox is poorly designed weight wise. Another detector that might satisfy your technology cravings is the XP Deus. There are plenty of adjustments to make on the Deus and you would certainly learn a lot of concepts and theoretical stuff if you decide to master it. Otherwise, other than its blazing speed, world class target separation, ability to detect in thick iron and light weight, it will not do that much better as a detector than the Equinox 800. A Tarsacci MDT 8000 might be an option. Most of the other detectors mentioned here were at some point in the past top of the line, great detectors. They are mostly old or based on old, somewhat tired tech that would be barely a lateral move if at all. Wait if you can. Jeff

CmonNow, you mention you like bells and whistles and tweaking things: White's V3i. It's old, heavy, complicated, eats batteries— long overdue for an update (which will apparently never happen) — it's like Nox800's grumpy old grampa! A miracle worker in the right hands... a red hot mess to us mere mortals... you will need A LOT more than 150 hours to sort it all out! Go Packers! Apple Pie with Cheese! Eff 'em, Bucky!

Hello All I wanted to share another case solution. This is a Plano gun case that I purchased from Amazon Canada. Nice case for $100. It took a little time to pick out all of the plugs but at least all of the parts have a place now. The left over plugs will be good for padding other stuff too so I'm saving them for now. Edit: I just realized that there is not much room for headphones but I don't use them and I'll probably go with ear buds if I ever do. My main concern was providing as much protection as possible to the gear in case I fly with the case. https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00E221A88/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I don’t know why but Minelab sent me another email to join up again . I would if they be willing to send me a Minelab detector to detect with. Right now I do not own a Minelab detector and don’t plan on owning any anytime soon. I was going to buy a 540 Vanquish but put that on the back burner for now. Just staying home and covered up . Sent my kids a picture of me saying I didn’t want them to forget what I looked like.

Sandi, I know Andy (I teach detecting boot camp classes with him). I will reach out to him and have him send you a signed book on me. PM me with your address and I'll have one sent out. And let me know who you want it signed to: you, your husband, Nate, or both of you. Chase

I keep getting requests for at least one forum with a looser format and in particular a place where people can make "that first post" and introduce themselves. So here it is. Meeting people and getting to know them often means general chit chat and such. Anything is pretty much ok here but more than ever it is important people abide by the forum Prime Directive - treat others with decency and respect. Past history and baggage from other forums is not allowed here so just leave it at the door, or do not enter. This is the forum most likely to see new members and so all "Forum Info" posts are also archived here for those who want to know more about how the forum software works, etc. Other than that - enjoy! Now a little history for those totally new to the forum. I used to hang out on all the other forums. The problem over time is I kept bumping into rules. No mentioning certain brands or dealers for fear of offending sponsoring dealers. That will never happen here as the forum members come first. The one that really irritated me was no links to all sorts of things, like other forums. Here, if the subject matter is relevant, please link to it! No silly "Google it" games etc. And then there are the trolls. People who just like to stir things up. Childish and rude people. Tons of off topic garbage to wade through to find decent information. Etc. I just got tired of it all because over time it all got worse as forums became more commercial. I started these forums to escape all that and with the goal of attracting like minded people who are also tired of all the nonsense. So the main thing here is very, very simple. With the possible exception of this forum, keep discussions on the particular forum subject matter. Be a decent person and better yet, try to help others. On topic, be good - it really is that simple here. New Member Signup - Click Here! Lost Password - Click Here! Forum Tips & Tricks Advanced Search Tag List/Index

I have been expecting this one and oddly enough I am pretty excited about it. "Why oddly" you ask? Normally I tend to go for pure horsepower. Instead in the new White's Sierra Pulse Pro what we have is simplicity and killer bang for the buck, in a lightweight, well balanced detector. In a nutshell the Whites SPP is a TDI SL ground balancing pulse induction metal detector with the control set focused down to exactly what you need to hunt gold nuggets. And best of all White's broke through the $1000 price barrier offering the first ground balancing pulse induction (GBPI) metal detector for a manufacturer suggested list price of only $995!! And that, my friends, is something to be excited about! The only caveat is the name. Pulse Pro implies this is some kind of super powerful professional PI. Don't let that mess with you and lead you to believe the SPP is something it is not. There is nothing new here per se. But again I am excited by this detector because I am a bit tired of heavy overly complicated expensive GBPI detectors. In my opinion this is just what the market needs. A White's customer can walk out the door after cutting a deal on a GMT and SPP together and have on heck of a fantastic combo gold getting setup that will get most gold under a wide range of conditions for way less money than most single GBPI detectors currently on the market. The SPP is locked into the hot 10uS pulse delay mode for best gold sensitivity. The conductivity switch is eliminated to insure you hear all targets, but you still get the tone responses that help identify many ferrous items. Intriguing to me is that the model comes stock with a normal 12" mono coil instead of the 12" dual field. This gives up a tad on tiny gold but offers smoother performance in bad ground and hot rocks. Anyway, kudos to Whites. I gotta have one of these for rough and tumble detecting in extreme terrain. Only three pounds, battery and speaker included. But I will need a smaller coil for most of what I do. I wonder if White's can be talked into selling it stock with a smaller coil?

The Australian Whites distributor still has the 150 coils in stock for $220au, though also advertises them on ebay for $50au plus postage. Might be worth looking up if still keen, converted over to US dollars it is a real bargain (around $38US). Seems we received a fair few of the SPP units after their limited success on the African market, I still own one with a range of Miner John coils.

Again, this is just a repackaged White's TDI SL so there will be no surprises on performance. Plenty of field tests and reports already exist. And just like the TDI most Nugget Finder, Minelab, and Coiltek coils will work. But not all! Some non-White's coils required increasing the pulse delay to more than 10uS to work properly, and the SPP is locked into 10uS mode. So if you have the coils already no big deal but I would hate to purchase a non-White's coil specifically to use on the SPP as it may not work.