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Seen a opening to get out today but just not the right spot for the "AQ' yet. Come winter I see the "AQ" getting a real good work out here. Today I took the excalibur for I was not sure what conditions I would be walking into. Working in close first nothing..... but Iron and trash..dug a few pieces and decided to go deep, still not a lot of targets. Slowly working my way deeper and parallel to the beach about 600 foot out...shoulder deep I got a couple nickels kind of shallow (2 scoops) then slowed to the snail's pace...Got another signal, broken but being I just got two nickels I'm going to dig all...3 scoops, maybe 12 inch's deep ..surprise...Gold.

Most I found and a few were collected.

I got out once again today to try and build up my pain tolerance so when I get a deep machine. I hunted a few hours and managed about a dollar in clad plus two wheats and buffalo. I also found a silver ring and this moon brooch/earring. I don’t know if it’s plated or what since I have never seen these markings. Thanks for looking and happy hunting.

As I like the Vanquish serie ( I already have a 540 ) 🙂, I decided to buy a 340. Over here the 340 price is 240e , so quite cheap ,almost the price of a coil ... My plan was to do some tests with the 340 and resell it later .. A few days ago I did my usual static depth tests. See pics below. I could see that the 340 had the same depth than the 540 V10 , either on a big coin at 11inches or a small coin at 6inches, so very good news for the 340. I could also check that the 340 is as sensible as the 540 V10 on tiny targets lying on the surface like small hammered coins , good news again .. So today I went to an open field cultivated with wheat. Sandy low mineralized soil. Low to medium iron trash. Actually the conditions were not ideal because the field has not yet been ploughed and I had to sweep the coil 3 or 4 inches above the ground because of the cut wheat. I found many targets , mainly 1st WW rubbish... Among that stuff I could find 2 coins , a 16th century copper coin and a tiny roman bronze coin .. Very happy with these 2 coins 🙂, the copper coin displayed 15 id and the roman coin 11 id . The 340 is very accurate and deep, the same as the 540 V10 actually , I did not see any difference in the field, the only thing there are only 3 tones for the 340 instead of 5 for the 540. Iron separation is the same between the 340 and the 540. The V10 coil is excellent for coin shooting , and very light .. The only limitation I see for the 340 , the same as the 540 and other multifreqs MLs , are high iron trash areas , so the 340 is a little too chatty and slow on these areas . And unfortunately there is no dedicated "FA" ( fast ) mode like on the Teknetics T2 ... On such iron trashed areas I prefer to use my Deus . So if you dont need wireless and backlight and you detect on low/medium iron trashed areas , the Vanquisg 340 offers a great performance for a very limited budget. Even experienced users will be happy with it ... I was thinking of reselling it but eventually I will keep my 340 for the moment .. 🙂

Here are a few locals, Bob and Frank.......who hunted the same beach's I do now. Back then it was not uncommon for a hunter to find 7 or more gold rings a hunt. For me to find that many gold rings in a hunt is tough..my best was 8 this year, in one hunt..Rare for sure. I do have one more guy who hunted even before detectors, diving...and by sight. (Harry)...He would find 30 or more gold rings a hunt..more later on him. Hide....I guess I do in a way .......for Joe Beechnut is ... not my real name...As far as a legend, I don't see myself as...I'm just Blessed to be in the right spot at the right time...it's that simple.

Thanks Compass!...Yes one of my Hot machines, stock coil for I love that I can run the numbers higher using it. My Skullie head phones, which are extremely loud..in compare the GGA, or Tony's head phones, those run around 91db................the skullies 105+db's, So I can hear things others can't. And I have a few other modifications to the PCB and having the push button on the grip to go to disc to check the target, then back to all metal hunting....But really the big factor is I have done the research over the year and I stay in contact with the beach's l hunt. So I know there history and ......I can't say I can predict them but I have a good feel for them? And let me add, I'm Very Blessed. :)

Both silver. Was using the Equinox 800 with 6" coil. Using Park 2, 2 tone, recovery 4, iron bias 0, and sensitivity 24. I like Gold mode too. Not worth much, 2 earrings worth $0.50. Like finding 2 quarters lol. The stone is cz. They are real jewelry though.

My plans are to hit this beach if I get it before it gets sanded back in. Only a couple of these green (and some undersized) coins in the picture below, actually hit my Equinox 800 (15 inch coil) as coins. Almost all hit as iron, foil or just a threshold blip. Most were in the 12 to 15 inch range (best guess with wet sand caving in on itself) in sand with a lot of black sand mixed in. There has to be gold in the next layer down under these. Anyway, that is where my first date will be when Miss Impulse comes knocking at my door.

Nice report... I think the Vanquish 340 is perhaps the best detecting value on the market right now, along with the Simplex for people who need waterproof. It would be fun to see a Simplex vs 340 shootout.

I just picked up my Gold Monster 1000. The first one had a low volume issue and was replaced by the dealer. The second one appears to suffer from bump falsing. This may be due to lack of experience with the machine. I used it for the last 2 days and was able to find some really small gold which is awesome. It did a falsed badly with the small coil and some with the large coil during those 2 days. I tested it when I got home by holding starting it and ground balancing it in a clear location. Using the small coil. It falsed badly in 10 and 9 less in 7 and 8 and barely in 6. The issue is not as bad with the large coil. I then held the small coil up in the air and tested for falsing. The issue was still there but 10 was more like the setting of 7 when grounded. I moved the cable while in the air and there was no falsing. I used my scoop to tap the coil and cable so my hand wouldn't effect the result. I have generally concluded that the issue is due to high sensitivity setting more than coil or software issues. I would like to verify this by comparing my machine to another. Some other users could do the same test and see what your results are. This would give us a baseline for what a GM1000 should perform like. Test procedure Turn on and balance on clear ground at setting manual 10 or highest possible manual setting with small coil. tap coil lightly with scoop or something that wont be detectable. Reduce sensitivity until falsing is a non issue. Record this setting Then perform same test in the air and record that setting. Post results on this thread My results would be Grounded 6. In the air 9 or possibly 10. This will obviously vary due to the ground you have and how hard you tap the coil, so the more tests we have the more accurate the data will be. Thanks

Thanks for the clarification, Jeff. What surprises me is that the lowest cost and probably best for a newbie (whether s/he's the one making the purchase or borrowing from a seasoned vet) doesn't have a feature that seems like something that would make it easier for someone new to the game to get off on the right foot. I agree that more experienced detectorists (such as yourself) have developed multiple pinpoint methods which they quite possibly prefer. I did a little surfing and found the following comparisons: Garrett Ace Series (originals) 150, 250, 350 -- similar to the Vanquish, the 150 doesn't have a pinpoint feature but the others do. Garrett Ace Series (upgraded) 200, 300, 400 -- same thing -- pinpoint only on the two more expensive / higher end models. Minelab X-Terra (upgraded from 30, 50, 70) 305, 505, 705 -- all three have a pinpoint function. Fisher F11, F22, F44 -- all three have a pinpoint function. I don't know if the X-Terra line can be considered low cost when they were released (in the same ballpark as the other three above, that is). It's been argued that the Vanquish's target (competitor) detector is the Garrett Ace Series so maybe that was Minelab's thinking. Of course they want you to buy a more expensive model. (No need for me to go into that anymore, at least I'll save my typing on this subject.) Definitely understand where you're coming from there, Jeff -- lotta features and performance packed into a low cost product.

That is correct. Think Tesoro Compadre or Silver Micro Max or even the Tek Minuteman (awesome detectors by the way) with simultaneous multi frequencies, 3 detect modes, 3 tones, a display, outstandingly reliable numerical target ID on shallow AND deep targets, volume control, depth meter and saltwater beach capabilities............. See why I don't miss the pinpoint function much on the Vanquish 340?

I took the 340 V10 coil and mounted it on the 540. So I have the experience of the 540 V10 and 340 V10 and I can compare them together. Both 340 and 540 perform very well with the V10. I prefer the V10 vs the V12 coil because it is lighter , more accurate , less iron masking with almost the same depth perfos .

Thank You!.........12 years now, closing in on 800 gold rings.

Good but not necessarily news in the sense that they are both the same detector under the hood just lack of a few features and only one pseudo performance based setting (iron bias level) and lack of relic and pinpoint modes (which you failed to mention but which I think would be a useful feature for the target demographic - beginning detectorists), so I am not surprised in the least by your findings. Depth and TID accuracy/repeatability should be identical. News would have been if you found a significant performance difference. Not a criticism at all, by the way. I am glad you took the time to verify the expected results. Very nice finds, BTW. Just goes to show that bells and whistles wow people and sell machines, but machines stripped down to minimalist essential features can be just as capable and fun under the right circumstances. Great value for the occasional detectorist. Depth obsessed detectorists need to realize that basically all modern, main stream vlf IB detectors have about the same relative depth capability - it really comes down to coil selection, target type, site conditions, and operator proficiency as the factors that make a difference. You don't have to pay a lot for adequate depth and reliable ID capability, the two basic must haves for any detector. There is something about challenging your skills with a less complex detector that makes the hunt a little more exciting (provided you DO find keepers) plus the turn it on and hunt simplicity is kind of liberating when you are not compelled to tweak your machine to the gnat's eyelash because you can't. I felt good about my essentially equivalent success using the ORX compared to the Deus at one of my favorite sites. Just turned it on, hunted, recovered target and moved on. No 30 to 60 second interrogations in multiple modes etc. I compare that with amateur radio operators who challenge themselves in trying to maximize distant radio contacts using as little transmit power as possible. The smaller, less powerful radio and minimalist antenna are portable so they seek out mountain tops and try to make distant contacts. Something like the Vanquish that is light, compact, and relatively cheap can be kept permanently in your vehicle so you can always have something to swing should the opportunity arise. PS - I remain confused regarding the depth and recovery level difference between the three primary 540 modes (jewelry, relic, and coin), so not sure whether lack of relic mode on the 340 presents a slight performance issue in comparison to the 540 What is your preferred mode selection on the type of hunt you documented above (I presume Jewelry mode based on the pic, but wanted to verify)?

I found this in April of May of this year. I cleaned it, my brother put it on the grinder, and showed it to my dad. It looked shiny then, but since it darked and starting to chip. My dad looked at it and said it was probably my grandfather who had lost it in the 1980s doing yard work. He used to wear old jeans and maybe fell out of his pocket. My dad told me used to clean his pipe with this knife. My grandfather had passed in September of 2018, so I never got to show or ask him. It is a Trim pocket knife by Bassett. It was made a producer of beauty products I believe and my grandfather ran his own barber shop. I believe he got it through that business. It will never be like new, but it holds sentimental value. I only wish I could have showed him.

Was out in the water. I modded my scoop to catch those. They hit really nice with the 6" coil. I put them with my collection of gold and silver jewelry I've found. I was happy finding them. Gold is next.

Steve,thanks very much for that quote,it does mean alot for sure,as this was a Equinox thread/post i only basically mention how i use my Nox. But as it was also i guess covering small target/s like say small gold chains and other small gold items in general,i will also mention how i use my main everyday machine the Deus,how its setup with some of the settings and how i also use it.I use solely the HF elliptical coil running 80khz all the time on farmland,and as you have been over to the UK our main targets that we are after are the silver hammered coins both full and cut halves and quarters and you can relate to how small these are,celtic gold hammered coins are even more sort after.So this is why i run my HF elliptical coil in 80khz this is basically the territory of the ' It's a great coil as the old famous Gold Bug ran less than 80khz, and was revered for it's gold finding capabilities' and as most of our finds are in the top say 8'' of soil then i hardly miss much. My style of detecting over the last few years has become so slow and methodical that even snails have over taken my swing speed,i also go that slow that it looks like as if my shoe laces are tied together,but it works for me,methodical swing speeds and slow forward motion are the key as my finds rate has just exploded and just by doing a few simple changes in not only settings but also how i use the detector as aswell.In a previous post i mentioned that i basically run my sensitivity on my Nox down to say 14-15,i rarely mention how low i go with my Deus as folks often think i am joking but most folks run the Deus at 90+or- but on average mine is run down as low as 55-60 as the norm and even on bad ground down to 40-45,folks may disagree with me on this one but it works for me.

My plan is to dig my AZZ off

They are just covering their posteriors. The issue is not the detector, it’s the power cable. Frankly I’m doing the same thing, calling it a wader unit, but the machine itself is good to much deeper than three feet. Great reporting Joe! 👍🏼

I’ve been involved in a number of group claim situations created by myself and others. Rather than a club thing, it’s an association claim ownership as defined under the mining laws in the U.S. You need like minded people to pool money and resources in order to own and work a set of claims. There are things that can go wrong with any group, but there are significant upsides. Lower cost for all involved, ability to buy claims one person can’t afford, limited number of owners compared to clubs, and make your own rules. https://www.detectorprospector.com/magazine/steves-mining-journal/mills-creek-gold-cooperative/ https://www.detectorprospector.com/magazine/steves-mining-journal/gold-mining-at-mills-creek-alaska/ https://www.detectorprospector.com/magazine/steves-mining-journal/gold-dredging-mills-creek-alaska/

Last week I was training customers at Rye Patch so I missed out on the White's closing and all the comments, but I did make a little contribution (well deserved) in the White's Forum on DP. When I returned I was overwhelmed with many emails, texts and pics of my customers recent finds. One thing about the CV-19 is it allows you to get outside and away from others. Also, what was interesting to me is the different kinds of gold and the states they came from. Here are some pictures of my customers Success, the detectors they used and the states they recently found their gold. Hats off to you all for allowing me to share your success. This very interesting and highly collectible specimen piece was found in Idaho with an Equinox 800 (dang, how did I miss that one?) Notice that is the stock 11" coil. The next 2 pics were found in NV with the NOX and stock 11" coil 2 pics below of the same gold and were found in MT with EQ-800 and small 6" coil. Nice solid pieces. Then there is my customer in AZ with his GPZ-7000. He has been doing really well this year with over a half pound. The 3 pics are from 3 half day hunts in a row. He ended up with about a half oz of gold. He has a buddy come to visit and says I found some right here, why don't you head over there. The 3+ ouncer below was found by his buddy who came to visit. Ouch, that must be one heck of a friend. Notice all those nuggets are pretty rough and have not traveled that far. AZ still has good gold, just need to get a little farther away from the trails. Last is gold from a state most of us to not get to see. Wyoming is not known for gold nuggets, but I do have a few customers who do pretty well. These pieces of gold are very solid and look to be hammered almost. I'm no geologist but think maybe from glacial? I also noticed the dirt coloration is different than most places I hunt and find gold , but I don't hunt WY, yet anyway. Part of the reason I enjoy gold is the natural and unique characters each piece and area provide. Heck, there is a really ornate specimen, some nice jeweler nuggets and some really cool collector rocks with gold. Even the big 3 ounce chunk is quite interesting as the source must be pretty close.

I and my wife favorite gold detector currently is the White's GMT, both detectors are body mounts and very welcome feature as most of our hunting is detecting almost vertical tailing piles. We have had every Goldmaster model since they introduced in 1990. We would welcome a PI detector which would probably give us additional depth and help with random hot rocks, but some of this type of crystalline gold specimens we find becomes invisible when using a PI detector.

This gold prospecting and metal detecting story takes us all the way back to the beginning - my beginning that is. I was fortunate enough to be born in the Territory of Alaska in 1957. Alaska was still very much on the frontier back in those days. My father was a farm boy from the midwest who headed for Alaska in the early 50's with not much more than an old pickup truck. He worked as a longshoreman offloading ships in Seward, Alaska for a time. He decided to get some education, and earned his way through college in Fairbanks, Alaska, by driving steampipe for the fleet of gold dredges that were still working there. He spent some time in Seldovia, Alaska, working the "slime line" in a fish cannery. He met my mom in Seldovia, the two got married, and finally settled in Anchorage, Alaska. I came along in 1957. My father had taken a job as a surveyor but money was tight in the early years. I was raised on wild game and garden grown vegetables, and as soon as I was old enough to handle it, I was walking a trapline every winter with my father. Dad was a hard worker, and Alaska was having one of its many booms at the time - the construction of the oil and gas fields in Lower Cook Inlet. This was the Swanson River oilfield, discovered the year I was born. The state was prospering, and my father along with it as a surveyor on the new Swanson Field. He got the bug for flying early on, and by the time I became a teenager he finally got his dream plane at the time - a Piper Super Cub, the classic Alaska Bush airplane. Super Cubs equipped with oversize "tundra tires" can land just about anywhere you can find about 300 - 400 feet of open ground. A great little airplane and the one I ended up flying to get my own pilot's license. Super Cub N1769P parked on knoll in Talkeetna Mountains, Alaska It was in this same timeframe that dad got me hooked on gold prospecting. In 1972 I saw an ad in a magazine "Find Lost Treasure" and had acquired my first metal detector, a White's Coinmaster 4. This must have got discussions going about gold, and my father did have some knowledge on the subject having worked around the gold mines in Fairbanks. He took me to a little creek south of Anchorage, Bertha Creek, and I found my very first flakes of gold! By the ripe old age of 14 gold fever was in the air, I had my first metal detector, and already wanted a gold dredge. My first dredge, a 3" Keene with no floatation, was on the way to me in 1973. Keep in mind that the price of gold had only recently been deregulated from the old fixed price of $35 per ounce. In 1972 it was around $60 per ounce, and in 1973 made it to just over $100 per ounce. The money was not my motivation at all. I already just loved finding gold, and the connection to the prospectors of old and the historical quest for gold were more compelling than any dream of striking it rich. I just wanted to find gold! My first metal detector and first gold dredge (my 3502 had the older aluminum header box & a power jet) A young man with a new detector, new gold dredge, gold fever, and a father willing to fly him anywhere in Alaska on adventure. How great is that? Now there was only one problem - where to go? There was no internet then, so it boiled down to libraries and research. In short order I discovered the United States Geological Survey (U.S.G.S.) bulletin series and the number one Alaska title of the series, Placer Deposits of Alaska, U.S.G.S. Bulletin 1374 by Edward H. Cobb. This one book and the references contained in it became my prospecting guide to Alaska. My desired target? Remote locations with large gold nuggets! I read the book and certain places just jumped out at me. One was the Iditarod area and places like Ganes Creek and Moore Creek - tales told elsewhere. This paragraph of page 114 caught my eye: "Placer mining in the Chisana district, first of creek gravels and later of bench and old channel deposits of Bonanza and Little Eldorado Creeks, has always been on a small scale with simple equipment. The remoteness of the area, shortages of water on some streams, and the small extent of the deposits all prevented the development of large operations. There has been little activity since World War II; the last reported mining was a two-man nonfloat operation in 1965." Wow, that alone sounds pretty good. Nothing really about the gold however. The secret to the Placer Deposits series is not so much the books themselves, though they are great for getting ideas, like I did. The key is to use the references listed and in this case the main one is The Chisana-White River District, Alaska, U.S.G.S. Bulletin 630 (1916) by Stephen Reid Capps. It turns out I had stumbled over the location of the last actual gold rush in Alaska in 1913. It was a small rush and did not last long, but it did mark the end of an era. The world was on the brink of war and the age of gold rushes was soon to be history. The history of the area is covered in the report starting on page 89. It is fascinating reading, but it was this note on page 105 that really sealed the deal: "The gold is bright, coarse, and smoothly worn. The largest nugget found has a value of over $130, and pieces weighing a quarter of an ounce or over make up about 5 per cent of the total gold recovered. The gold is said to assay $16.67 an ounce." Gold nuggets a quarter ounce or larger make up five percent of the gold? And that $130 nugget at $16.67 an ounce? Somewhere over seven ounces. That's all I needed to know. Very remote, worked by simple means, and large gold - I wanted to go to Chisana in general and Bonanza Creek in particular. Even the creek names scream gold - Bonanza Creek, Big Eldorado Creek, Little Eldorado Creek, Coarse Money Creek, and Gold Run. Now all we had to do was get there. But when I said remote, I meant remote. Chisana is practically in Canada 250 air miles from Anchorage. To be continued..... Chisana, Alaska location map

Reg Wilson is a bit of a legend in Australian detecting circles and has kept a comprehensive photo collection of his finds over 4 or 5 decades. Now everyone likes gold images and stories - and there are plenty here! I've been offered existing topics to post on, but I believe the topic deserves its own thread to do it full justice. All images are those of Reg Wilson unless otherwise attributed. The album consists of hundreds of photographs of not only gold, but many gold detecting industry characters, some of whom are no longer with us, but who all contributed in their own unique ways to the great gold chase we still enjoy today. Firstly, a bit of background. Reg first shot to international fame with the finding of this 98 ounce piece which he named the "Orange Roughie" in 1987, decades later to be fraudulently rebirthed as the "Washington Nugget" By no means his first find, Reg was already a successful detector operator and at the time was testing a prototype GT 16000 for Minelab's wizz kid engineer Bruce Candy: Photo: Australian Sun Herald L to R: Bruce Candy, the late Doug Robertson, Ian Jacques, Reg, John Hider Smith. Reg recalled: "The man standing next to Bruce Candy is the late Doug Robertson, who with his brother Bruce worked the aluvials below the famous and fabulously rich Matrix reef at McIntyres. They had an old Matilda tank with a blade attached to clear Mallee scrub. Between them they had a wealth of knowledge of the northern Victorian gold fields. (Doug's name may have been Robinson. Memory is a bit foggy)" Ian, Reg and John were prototype SD 2000 testers in Victoria, AU and were collectively known as the "Beagle Boys" a name bestowed upon them by Dave Chappel, the publican of the Railway Hotel Dunolly. On any Friday night huge nuggets, some weighing well over a hundred ounces could be seen displayed on the bar. 120oz from Longbush. Found all on its own, finder anonymous: The playing cards and US currency indicate that the nugget has just been purchased by the late "Rattlesnake" John Fickett, a US gold buyer who bought many of the big pieces back then: Ian Jacques and Reg with 44 oz 1989: Ian Jacques with his SD 2000 prototype late 80's. Real prospectors don't use bungees All for now, but at least we've made a start - - -

A mile stone in my metal detecting hobby, my first wheat penny. I found it today in my yard near my driveway, at the edge of my property. I though it would be a memorable penny(just like the rest of the pennies I found in my yard) but it turned out to be wheat. A 1942 D to be exact. The house was built in 1940, so it was there most likely ever since. I am glad to have it. I cleaned the dirt off with dawn and a paper towel. Do you think it needs to be cleaned more or is it nice the way it looks?

Looks like the Apex is as good as my Nox at finding lots and lots of junk. lol

Now that the river level is starting to drop, I have been panning some flood gold. This gold came from 10 gallons of classified material. It was panned with a Garrett Super sluice pan. The flakes are so thin they will float on water. Hope you enjoy, it was nice to be outside and getting some gold.

Goldhound, OMG!!!! Gerry, those look like Equinox headphones in your photo at the beginning of the thread. I wear mine a lot too. To say the Equinox 800 is my absolute favorite detector for just about everything including gold jewelry and gold nugget prospecting would be an understatement. I have used most of the "gold specific" VLFs and the Nox and its many available outstanding features for gold nugget prospecting are hard to beat. Swung a Tesoro Lobo for many years successfully. I just started using the SDC 2300 so I can't comment too much about it except to say that I really like it so far. I have used TDIs and Minelab's SD, GP and GPXs too. Never swung a 7000 and probably never will since I could barely afford the 2300!!!! thanks for the topic Gerry Jeff

I see metal detecting as having similarities to sports betting. There are disadvantages of being well known as successful. Now if people think you know how to pick stocks (even if you don't!) then there are few downsides. Everything you own you recommend and your followers drive up the price/value -- TYVM! A kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. But back to your request, if someone wants to be known I see no problem with that, either. Anyone who comes here to share knowledge, legend or not, is an asset in my book. Legends presumably have more to share, and Joe (one of several here) has done an excellent job of that.

I know this topic is about the 340. Personally, I would rather see a shootout between the 440 and the Simplex basic model. The 440 has more similar characteristics like a pinpoint function and more discrimination segments. There have already been some comparisons between the 540 and the Simplex+

Nice.... Fine gold is about all I deal with. Make yourself a fine gold sluice and it will speed up that recovery time.... And you may find it improves your recovery... No way I sit and pan even 1 gallon of material when dealing with fine gold which is all I work with since I beach mine.

Nice hunt to find that and hope things get better for you.

Beautiful find Joe- congrats! Must have been down there a while to be in such great condition.

Ah the Excalibur is still such a good workhorse.......hopefully my horse will be up and running soon.....thanks to Joe 👍 Nice chunk of gold too !

I’ve had a pair of Tony’s headphones since last summer. I use them with my Tarsacci. Great quality, great fit and the sound is good too. Their holding up very well, no problems! Aaron

They are only using M8 (8mm) connectors and the cable itself is thinner yet. Way smaller and daintier than what you seem to be imagining. That's the whole problem with the power cable in general - too small and dainty, not thick and robust. I have all the required parts on order and will probably have something to post and look at in a week.

Great find. I've found around a dozen wheaties in the short time I've been detecting and all but two or three looked much worse than this one. I wouldn't clean it any further, it looks good the way it is.

They are civil war minnies of various types. I've dug several thousand of all types starting in 79.

Here are most of my good finds of the past year. I have a lot of pennies, a few dimes, 2 quarters, and 1 nickel. I saved a few old pull tabs because they were out of use before I was around. I have a button, a toy car wheel, A few bottle caps, a spoon head, a few keys, a EP co cap, a knife, and a broken toy gun. I have a few finds not shown here. Like an arrow to a bow, a game horseshoe, another toy gun, and a few older coins that went into my coin collection. The gun in the bag in from the 1950s I believe, and a picture of a mint condition one is below. The mason jar liner was un broken when I found it but I hit is with the shovel( I saved it anyway). The zinc cap was to far gone to save. Hope they are interesting to look at.

Fred and I had many conversations over the years. He was very interested in PI detectors. I am very sad to hear this news. My condolences to his many friends and family.

Yes, the audio is modulated, the stronger the target’s return signal, the greater the audio intensity. The strength of the return signal depends on the target characteristics including the distance from the coil (depth) composition, form factor and mass.

I ran down to the beach with my 6" coil when I got it and found 4 rings that session! I was stoked. I've use it quite often in the desert and for whatever reason I haven't found any gold nuggets with it. I did find lots of tiny bird shot which means if gold was there I should have detected it but not so far. It is quite a treat to walk a beach with such a tiny coil and get some good hits. Mitchel

Well I for one took home more than my share. Just think if we had another Ganes Creek to go to or even your dig at Moore Creek. Boy those were some times. Remember the loud mouth Minelab guys back then (I won't mention names) and how they were going to go there to Ganes with them big PI's and show all us non educated VLF hunters how it's done? Those times, emails, banter and all were some of the silliest and most disgusted gold hunters I have been around. What is so bad about that, is I still to this day, get folks who think their big badass Minelab is the best at everything. Bottom line, the best detector is the one you know inside and out...better be the one in your hand. And make sure you know its strengths and weaknesses. Weaknesses is where so many people fail, not knowing what they are missing.

Gold Hound - What the hell am I supposed to say? My jaw just fell to the ground and I am in total Awe and Amazed. You Sir have set my new standard of a true "Gold Hound" Very few of us are actually true successful multi task detectorists for a variety of treasures as it takes different locations, detectors and knowledge. The 146 oz patch with those monster 20 and 30 ouncers is stunning to say the least. Then to top that off, the collection of museum quality silver and jewelry and that gold ear/nose ring artifact is literally "once in a lifetime" finds for most MD'erists. Yes the GP/GPX are very capable detectors as you have proven. Yes I agree the 7000 is even better for most gold, easier to operate and less struggle with the power cord and headphone wires. The CTX 3030 used to be one of my favorite Coin/Relic detectors and you have proven is capabilities as well. Thanks for allowing us to see some of your hard earned efforts as the pics are very impressive and encouraging.

I was talking nostalgic all time favorite, not what I have now or you should be pushing. My Gold Bug 2 got replaced by a Gold Monster which got replaced by a Goldmaster 24K. And if forced to pick between the 24K and Equinox for gold... I’d keep my Equinox. Why? I can do magical things with it I can’t do with other gold nugget detectors. 😉

At my age the QED fills all my needs due to its light weight and ergonomics. There's not much point in expanding on the other reasons why it is my favourite, as unfortunately it is not readily available in the USA, although there are a few there. Sad situation really as you Americans are missing out on a great detector.

The rest of the trip was nice though clouds kept threatening to move in. They would clear out however and the sun would appear again. With time running out I got back to detecting with the GPZ 7000 plus a little bit here and there with the Equinox. All in all I was only averaging about eight nuggets a lazy day of detecting, getting about 1/4 ounce a day average. Hand stacked rocks and bedrock - nugget detecting heaven! I have mentioned I have never found a nugget weighing even a half ounce at Gold Hill, though they are mentioned in the old records, and I know of some found more recently by others. I really thought I had one this trip however. I was in a bedrock gut leading into a mined pit that was producing nuggets. I got a deep signal in a bedrock pocket right in the bottom of the little gully. Whatever it was was wedged down in deep and tight, and when I first laid hands on it I thought "Aha!" but it was not to be. I found the largest copper nugget I ever found though there is very little copper exposed on the surface. I will treat it with acid later and post a photo someday, but for now here is what it looked like fresh out of the ground. Large copper nugget - should have been gold! The last couple days of this great trip were dedicated to some serious camp cleanup and so this adventure finally came to a close. My detecting had exceeded expectations. I am certain I could have found more gold had I worked more single-mindedly at the task, but the fact is this trip was a near perfect balance of relaxation and finding gold. I finished up with just a hair over 3 ounces of nice chunky gold. Three ounces chunky gold found by Steve with GPZ 7000 The Equinox 800 had proven itself to be an excellent tiny gold sniper on this trip. It was the GPZ 7000 that made the day however, literally making it feel like cheating compared to what the other guys were able to do. Dudley and George both got gold but it was the GPZ that impressed us all. I have long known how powerful the machine is, but this is the first time I have run it on ground I know very well. It was amazing at how easy it was for me to do well just one more time at Chisana and Bonanza Creek. Dudley had been hoping to find a couple nice pendant nugget for his daughters but the dredge kept finding smaller gold. I gave Dudley what I considered to be the best pendant nugget I found at 5 grams and traded a second 3.5 gram nugget for some fine gold he got dredging. Pendant nuggets 5 grams and 3.5 grams Again, just a fabulous trip. Thank you George and Dudley for the invite and a great time. I have learned never to say never, so I don't know if I will ever return to Chisana and Gold Hill again or not. I am grateful I got this last trip in however as it ended my decades of visits to the hill on a somewhat brighter note than the last time. I hope you all enjoyed this trip down memory lane and a rare look at places and times in Alaska that few will ever see or experience. I am very lucky to have been born where and when I was. I have seen Alaska transition from true frontier to modern civilization in my lifetime and this is just a small part of what I have experienced. There are many people in this tale who have not been mentioned at all out of respect for privacy issues. My thanks to all of them. Thanks again for riding along on this long thread! One last look at Gold Hill below.... Steve Herschbach 2018 Herschbach Enterprises Gold Hill at Chisana, Alaska

Just shy of 5000 feet. I was determined this trip to concentrate on just enjoying myself and having a good time. Anyone who followed this forum this spring knows I was burning the candle at both ends doing website upgrades. Nobody knew at the time but I was on fire trying to get that all done before this trip. The effort had me a little burned out but that is ok because this trip was a reward for all that effort. That being the case job one for me was just to decompress and relax. I wanted to be sure and hike around to get lots of photos. In particular I wanted to get a good photo of a ptarmigan and a ground squirrel. I had no plans to do anything but metal detect for gold (no dredging), and had both my Minelab GPZ 7000 and Equinox 800 along. The ground as anyone following this thread knows has been heavily metal detected in the past. I knew there was plenty of tiny gold to find and figured I would do well with the Equinox 800 and new 6" coil. And in fact on my day of arrival I did a little detecting at the end of the day and got six little nuggets totaling 0.5 gram - gold on the first evening! Steve happy to be back up on Gold Hill - July 2018 The next day I grabbed the GPZ 7000 and headed for a once reliable location in the bench area. There is decomposed basalt bedrock that looks more like sand than bedrock that held a lot of nuggets. Everyone and their brother had been over this patch with many detectors including the GPX 5000. If there was a place that might show what the GPZ was capable of on this ground that spot was it. The ground is fairly mild and I was able to use Steve's Insanely Hot Settings. These settings are basically just every control on the GPZ maxed out to be as sensitive as possible. In lots of places the mineralization will not allow the GPZ to be run this hot and the settings make hot rocks if present really sing out. Yet I find I run these settings almost everyplace I go in Nevada and California because they do work to find gold for me. I fired up the GPZ, got tuned up, made a couple passes over the ground with the coil - nice sweet signal! Not more than a few minutes detecting with the GPZ and a nice 2.1 gram nugget popped out of the ground. And the best part - it was not a whisper signal. The GPZ lit this nugget right up and all the sudden I had a real good feeling about how this was going to work out. First GPZ nugget ever found on Gold Hill - 2.1 grams I did not see any point in looking for the tiniest gold with the GPZ 7000. I know this ground like the back of my hand, and where most all the gold had been found over decades of time. That made it very easy for me to target locations where I knew there was gold in the past, but where there might be more nuggets lurking in deeper ground. Deeper could mean more gravel depth, or maybe just deeper pockets of crevices in bedrock. There is also a lot of low lying alpine bushes and other ground cover that work to keep a coil away from the gold. With a VLF I might try and work under this stuff pushing it aside bit by bit. The GPZ has so much excess power I just ran the coil over the stuff while pushing it down. My first day detecting did not find a lot of nuggets but they were all fat ones that added up.... seven nuggets for 7.1 grams plus a little copper nugget. Steve's first GPZ nuggets from Bonanza Creek George goes detecting with Minelab SDC 2300 George and I were there to relax and metal detect. Dudley on the other hand has always found metal detecting boring and so he was gung-ho to go dredging. Years of validity exam work and piles of paperwork finally resulted in all the remaining claims being fully permitted. This meant that Little Eldorado now had permits for suction dredging which previously had only applied to Bonanza Creek. Dudley was convinced, just like I had been previously, that ounce a day dredging awaited if he could find the right spot. Dudley working 4" Keene dredge on Little Eldorado Creek And like I said, I was on the lookout for photo opportunities. Here is another Arctic Ground Squirrel photo and a view of the Wrangell Mountains looking down Bonanza Creek. "Parka Squirrel" watching from rock wall View of Wrangell Mountains from Bonanza Creek To be continued....

Can you believe I still remember when we had a hand crank phone and a party line in our house? Geez, I am getting old!! I literally saw Anchorage grow from a true frontier town cut off from the world (I watched the first live television satellite broadcast in 1969 - the moon landing) to what is today just another American city with all the big box stores. Not that different than Reno really except for the weather. Communications kind of ruined everything. You can be out in the middle of nowhere and there is a satellite dish and internet connection these days. It was that being off grid, totally on your own thing that got lost in the process. Dear old Dad is going strong at 87, though maybe a little slower. Yes, he is an amazing man in many ways. He let me do things I would be too scared to let a child of my own do but which instilled in me a great sense of confidence and self-reliance. My father ended up being a partner in the surveying firm he hired on with, and later founded his own surveying company. He worked from one end of the state to the other and his name is on records all over the state. He was one heck of a bush pilot and flew supply plane on many of the jobs. My good fortune again as I got to see a lot more of Alaska than most people ever will. My goal is to add a "chapter" to the tale each morning covering the time from the 1970's until the present. Chisana was a big part of my prospecting life but I have never told the story in full until now. So check back daily for new entries.