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Last Monday I thought I’d ry out my new waterproof GoPro 8 Black at the lake, and ended up leaking, so much for being water proof. 😡 So anyway I ended loosing my video. I ended finding a nice old gold signet ring, not too deep, and a big tungsten, alotta clad, some aluminum ect. That tungsten ring was DEEEEEP! The guy who lost it must been a big dude, it’s a big ring. Those crummy rings are so heavy it’s no wonder their always at least a foot deep! Check out the link for more pics.https://forums.tarsaccisales.com/forum/5/last-mondaysome-gold-and-tungsten Thanks looking....Aaron

Good morning everyone! Just passing by to drop some of my Vanquish finds! Really great machine! Its my Mini Nox haha. No complaints from here! Already managed to find a scattered hoard from the 14th century with it! Have great day! Cheers

Hey wassup guys!😃 These are all my golds, found last year with my trusty Equinox 800! ( except the scorpion medallion, was found with 9HF) Staring from the top: 2 Escudos from Philippe II - 1556-1598 400 Reis from Ioannes V - 1722 Barbarian Tremiss 3 - 6th Century if I'm correct 1/4 Dinar aka Fraction - 12- 13th Century if I'm correct Roman Earing Hollow Earing 18-19th if I'm correct Scorpion medallion. I turned one of those coins into a ring. I never tried hunting for native gold and never tried learning how to track it, but I got sort of specialized on tracking Ancient/Medieval areas. Best of luck to you all! Cheers

Had the Nox 800 in the saltwater today for 4 1/2 hours and I didn't see any difference in using different sensitivity settings. Still the same as before but one good thing... it still finds gold. A 10K ring and gold plated chain along with some coins and the usual junk. Bob

There is an old saying "THE CREAM ALWAYS FLOATS TO THE TOP" That is how I found this thread today and I read every word of it including the posts from the interview. I thoroughly enjoyed every word of it and would like to thank you Steve for your honesty openness. I now know now why I immediately liked you when I accidentally met you in the Nevada desert. Thanks for providing us with such a great forum Norm

I've been sober since 1986. I don't know how it is I missed this thread until now.

Hey wassup guys!😀 Theses are my last 3 hunts with my brand new GPX 5000! I have 4 coils : Commander 15x12 DD, Commander 11" Mono and Double-D, Coiltek 14" Mono Elite. 👍 I only used the 11" Double-D and the Coiltek! I have been learning a few things with Gordon Heritage from UK! These are all finds from areas where i hunted before with other machines! My main machine is the Equinox 800! I'm very pleased with the GPX! Cheers

Had some great winds, zero, .......smooth water, .........and fairly good tide. In the water about 3 hours, could not had been better. Other then the boats and jetski's , seemed everyone want to cruise close to shore, three times I had to flag them past. Two gold rings, 8 silver Washington's...

Steve, my deepest congratulations to your "coming out"! What you wrote about anonymity and the ego-thing and so on may be true and need to be careful thinking. But it's also very true, that it helps other people so much, to see, that everybody struggles in live, even a "bright star" like you. Nowadays everybody tries to present only the best of himself in TV, social media etc.. This gives a very distorted image of how people are. This distorted image of flawless and successful people can lead to depressions because of the stress for many to reach this unachievable goal. So I'm absolutely sure, your book will help many, not only regarding alcohol, but generally in life. Thank you for your contribution, and God bless you, Steve!

Thanks GB, This was found in freshwater but my understanding is that the higher the gold content is, the more resistant to corrosion the piece will be. Much of the 10K gold I have found in freshwater will be tarnished but usually not black like this was. The 10K I find at the beach often has a green patina buildup on parts of the ring. 14K and above usually holds up pretty well, even after decades in the water but I think the alloys used have a lot to do with it.

After setting back reading all of the post, no doubt location is the deciding factor if depth is important. I've been searching (for deep) several years now and found one that meets my needs.........Now to put it to use. ☠️

Welcome,some tremendous finds,have detected with Gordon (Ironhearted Gog' a few times over the years and also possibly on one of the hardest inland sites to detect a roman trading villa site as the soil conditions are just like black high mineral sand that you find on the beach its that bad,but machines like the GPX which you use have accounted for many many coins found on this site infact the huge amount is staggering. One main thing i learnt from Gordon when related to using a Pulse machine in this instant also is the GPX 5K is the 'spray paint' method' when on farmland using a special marker spray can on either a new permission or one that has all ready produced a hoard,in Gorden's YouTube video that he made some years back he demonstrated how he uses his GPX and a Minelab705 together trying to locate possibly more gold full staters from the original hoard......this is a method that i adopted some years back albeit not with a GPX but a TDI Pro with the 15x12 GPX mono coil and the Nexus MP both work identically to the same system devised by Gordon. The history on your sites ie roman and saxon etc and basically the exact same as what we find here in the UK,very well done on your finds,i can also relate to your comments about depth and the main reason behind why you use the GPX for deep artefact/hoard hunting and the reason why a Pulse with large coil is required as it only possibly takes just one decent find at that greater depth to pay for all the detectors many times over. Enjoy your style of detecting.

Regarding your inability to find a clear spot to GB - what may be happening (especially if you are searching for a "clean" spot using no discrimination (i.e., horseshoe mode)) is the detector is reacting to mineralization ground feedback as opposed to actual ground targets. Try this next time you are having trouble finding "clean" ground to GB - use the pinpoint mode find a clear patch. Pinpoint mode is a non-motion mode and is also not subject to reacting to ground mineralization. If pinpoint mode does not sound off then there is no target under your coil to interfere with getting a sat GB. Again, GB is not so much about depth as it is about reducing ground feedback noise that can interfere with getting a clear target signal especially if that signal is a lower conductor or deep target that can appear to be ferrous. Sat GB tends to clear up those iffy signals. On the other hand, especially in multifrequency, the Equinox is very forgiving of a less than perfect ground balance, so don't sweat it too much. But if you are experiencing ground noise or you are at a site that is subject to ground phase variations, periodically check your GB or use tracking mode. Unless you are looking for micro jewelry or small natural gold, tracking will not typicially null out a keeper target. Don't use tracking unless you have to though and be sure to do a GB first before you put it in tracking to get tracking "in the ballpark". If there is not enough of a change in mineralization to trigger a rebalance, then tracking can do more harm than good, so just ground balance once and be done with it. Similarly, if your ground phase is taking "wild" swings, your best bet might be to just periodically do an auto ground balance because tracking reacts rather slowly (in order to not over compensate and cause target nulling during target interrogation) and may not be keeping up with severe changes in ground phase. The numbers don't necessarily directly correlate to the level of mineralization in the ground. There are several soil properties that can affect the ground phase reading including mineralization (attributed mostly to magnetite and to a lesser extent, maghemite) and alkalai salt content. But other consituents such as moisture content can also affect the ground balance point. The only way to tell if mineralization is driving the ground balance point is to have a separate mineralization meter which the Equinox lacks (although it does measure mineralization because that is what it uses to trigger its tracking ground balance algorithm, it just doesn't display mineralization level to the user). Also, beware, that each mode responds to the ground differently due to the differing Multi IQ frequency profiles. On the same patch of ground you may get a 30 with Park 1 and 55 with Park 2. So the numbers are just giving you a visual reference for how close the detector is to being balanced and the relative variation from the default neutral ground reference point of "0". This is also the reason why you need to balance each mode separately if you intend to use more than one mode at the site (for example searching in Park 1 and interrogating the target in Field 2 or Gold mode to see how the target ID and audio ID tone respond). Generally, at the beach, keeping the GB at the "0" default is fine, even in wet salt sand. But if you are in the surf with varying levels of salinity or the wet sand is showing signs of variable black sand mineralization (or the mineralization overload warning shows on the display), shifting to tracking GB is a best practice as recommended by the manual. Hope all this doesn't make you over think it even more. In practice, just get a sat ground balance (use pinpoint to find a target-free patch) and swing away. Periodically check the detector response using the horseshoe mode (no discrimination) and if you are getting a lot of ground feedback in form of ferrous grunts and -9, -8 target ID numbers, then re-balance the detector. HTH.

It’s a book on alcoholism and recovery, something I know too much about. I was addicted to alcohol and am coming up on eight years sober. It was the hardest thing ever did, with it taking lots of miserable years and two stints in rehab to get clean. I’m working towards a peer support specialist certificate at the University of Nevada, Reno. It’s a continuation of a new chapter in my life that I’m very excited about. Oddly enough I count my struggles with alcohol now as among the greatest blessings in my life as it set my feet on a path I don’t think I would have found otherwise. Thanks for asking. That was my official “coming out” statement. A real issue with addiction is the false dual life a person leads, and I’m enjoying finally just being whole in who I am. The good and the bad, no more energy devoted to presenting a false front. I’m just a flawed human doing the best I can. One of the reasons I am doing this is that as a so-called “successful person” I am in a position to speak out on issues surrounding the stigma attached to addiction and recovery issues. As an Alaskan I knew far too many people who are not with us now due to drugs and alcohol. It’s an issue that has touched too many lives in this country. My goal is to make some hard earned lemonade out of the lemons I grew and hopefully help some people the way I was helped myself. I am amazed every single day and eternally grateful for how fortunate I am. Thanks again for asking. This post is another big step forward in my ongoing recovery journey. But definitely off topic!

Some finds from area that i tracked some months ago! We were having a very boring day... after several hours walking near a river bank hoping for a Medieval dock, I started to see few fragments of pottery and Equinox 800 started to grunt alot... 1 musket ball... 2... 3... We had just found a new hot spot! Lots of goodies from the 18th Century. When we started to get short on signals, I loaded my sea level simulator for a quick inspect... ( the more you go back in history, the more higher was the sea level), i saw an interesting elevation and went there for a inspection. Managed to extract 9 Medieval coppers on a small patch at the top! Hope y'all don't mind that I post old hunts... Be lucky! Cheers

Not to confuse things but I am confused. Pinpoint mode on the Equinox is definitely a non motion mode but it IS subject to reacting to ground mineralization. Once the pinpoint button is pressed to enter pinpoint mode any discrimination pattern being used is removed and all detectable targets under the coil are detected. So, the ground and its mineralization become a target and from my experience any target response is also momentarily amplified. I experience this everyday when I am detecting. If my ground balance is a little off, using the pinpoint mode creates quite a bit of ground feedback and creates even more unwanted noise while trying to pinpoint say a coin at 4" which normally is a fairly small sounding target in pinpoint mode. It becomes much larger or is just swallowed up in the ground noise if my ground balance is appreciably off while using the pinpoint mode. Jeff

Wow, you are not kidding about the hoard! what an area to hunt so lucky to have so much history under your feet, and nice dog too! 🤠

Thank you mate! Glad you like! Yes it has! I know a couple of old-schools... I remember hearing then talking about their hunts 30+ years ago, back when they were swinging Fishers and Cscopes!😃 There are always people interested to collect. About museums, well, I donate all the very important relics (I don't get paid), relics such as Axes, spear heads, daggers and some other cool stuff (mostly from the Chalcolithic or Bronze Age). I also collect some stuff. Most of the history I know, I learned from what I've found!😁

I would not say every swing....I would say between 4 and 5 buoy's every few swings..and I dug a few to see what they were..crab pots pieces..so I know I would be best going into mute mode in that area.......I even dug a nail...rare here.. Add on ..second site.. Modern beach to the right, old beach to the left..there are areas of high iron where there are pieces every swing on the old beach...and I got my two gold rings from these areas, using the excal..and they were Nulls..to deep for the excal to ID..so it nulls... To the right is AQ area...to the left I will venture once I feel more confident with using the AQ in those area's...I know now to go slow and overlap my swing..see if that works..in the mute mod.. still learning..

What do you do at beaches that are loaded with iron? More then like this..what I did yesterday..Someone asked if I hunted the spot I got the 2 small 14k women's engagement rings with the AQ yet.... Not hunted that beach with the AQ yet,... Yesterday was a scouting mission. I marked off where not to hunt with the AQ and where to hunt with it. And I guess your wonder how I marked the area off being I'm shoulder deep in the water......they have crab pot trap buoy's..between buoy's 1 thru 3 is good but once I start going into area 4 to 5 lots of iron.......Between buoy's 1 to 3..maybe 4 pieces....and I marked those pieces of iron by digging a few scoops of the sand. Since the sand is hard packed there......... any soft sand area I encounter later I pass by knowing I've been there and it's not good target...... Yesterdays Gold rings were small and all found in area 3 to 4, each crab pot is about 70 to 80 feet a part. I love this time of year for those crab pot buoys are life savers. I just walk out to where I left and start. Last year they pulled all in Oct and I was lost! Wouldn't the AQ in tone/mute be useful at sites like that, or would the Equinox be a better choice? I would not take the AQ blindly into a spot with out first getting to know it better Every beach is so different and there make up.......... I would suggest getting to know it with a Nox, CTX, or Excal. Then trying to do as I do...I have two places just waiting for the AQ...but conditions have to be calm...so I can hear the faints...I got the battery time now so if I can stay on these spots and a few more come fall and super low tides I should be able to do good, I hope. And a side note..All it takes is one wrong wind storm to waste all you know..we had a storm around March 13 to 15 that devastated one of the spots I hunt..I'm still trying to rebuilt the map in my mind with landmarks and any areas that stand out..like pilings, high iron area's, cuts, bottom matrix,....anything.....

Aside from Joe OBN... It has been really quiet about results with the few AQ's that are in use.

Thanks for this site Steve. I have not been lucky enough to have someone show me the ropes so most of what I have learned is from this forum. Thanks to all that have shared their knowledge.

Thank you all for the kind words of support, it’s much appreciated. Though I do have to be careful. My ego is my number one enemy and humility my friend and protector. I am not an AA member per se, but they recommend anonymity for good reason. The downside of that however is it does contribute to the stigma side of things. It’s important that people know it’s not just that skid row bum but everyone in all walks of life that faces these issues. Business owners are just one of many classes at particular risk. I’m still on the Board of Directors of my old company. They look at me like some amazing old guy, one of the founders, successful business person and all that hoorah. My last visit up I gave a presentation to the entire company where I told them no, I’m just a high school kid who made good but not because I am perfect by any means. I told them my story and let them know people in need would always get our support, to not be afraid to come forward and ask for help. There were literally tears in some eyes... it was a very emotional thing. The dark, cold, and social isolation of Alaska means the rates of every bad thing in the book are sky high. I am a good speaker and good story teller so I want to leverage those strengths to best advantage. I can help people one on one but it’s all about finding ways to be of more influence than that, and a book plays right into it. The problem always is making it about me instead of the people I want to help, and therein lies the danger in being public about this sort of thing. All I can say is I have always been a risk taker and will walk that tightrope as best I can. I can’t imagine giving up the peace of mind I have attained for any reason, but addiction is a tricky thing and I’m not entirely normal, whatever the heck that means! That’s ok though, I have learned to embrace my weirdness and above all laugh at myself. If I start taking myself seriously I know I’m on the wrong path. Anyway, once again, thank you all. It really is massively off topic but hey, I think I’ll give it a pass this time. That’s enough from me on the subject though, the rest can wait for that book. It’s been in the works all year with the goal of getting published next year. I’ve denied myself any more new toys, vacations, you name it until that thing is done and in the bag. Going public with all this does help put a fire under my goal, so there is a method here at work where I am purposefully making the commitment publicly as one of my self motivation tricks. With that, my best to all of you in your own journeys, and if you do need some help, please seek it out. It is amazing how many people want to help if all you do is admit you need it and ask. That is indeed the key. It’s ok to be human.

I was approached by a young man (wearing a mask) today on the beach that I was metal detecting on. He ask me if my metal detector could find a medallion that he had lost when his chain had broken. He then said it was gold. I told him that gold was what I was looking for on the beach and said, Let's go find it. He and his buddies had been tossing a football around and that was when his gold chain had broken and the medallion had dropped into the dry sand and disappeared. I said, "I hope this is your lucky day". Two minutes later I ask his if it was "Jesus on the cross". He said "yes" and I handed it back to him. It took all of about 5 minutes of my time and made his day. I love this hobby!

Went back to an old poured concrete foundation in the woods which is a popular Elk hunters campsite. This is a site where I found my first seated dime a few years ago. The area is loaded with modern trash and lot's of iron nails and old tin buried near the foundation walls. I brought my Teknetics G2 with both the 5" and 11"x7" coil as I also intended to try some nugget detecting near the creek. I didn't find any nuggets but managed to pull 2 nice V nickels, 1890 and 1883. I set the detector in disc mode after ground balancing at 83. The ground here is very mineralized. I then set the tone break at 40 to separate ferrous from nonferrous and started swinging . I dug everything that hit in the ferrous range and all one-way signals that sounded good one direction but like iron the other. I also managed a few relics and a small pile of trash.

Yes, you did Dave, as per the ad I placed on Rogers Relics. However someone has lied and said otherwise to fit their own agenda..... Keep up the great work Dave, we’re proud of you mate! Aaron

That doesn’t look American.

ok perfect..thank you very much for the solution..I'll upload videos soon so you can see it..a pleasure

Super nice! And a fine detecting partner as well!

Ok. My bad. I’m a poor communicator apparently because I tried say that in my response but apparently failed and the lead in didn’t help. BTW that was also referring to GB’s post who I couldn’t exactly tell whether or not he was agreeing with me or just bringing up a separate related point (it was the latter) until I read through it a couple times. Hopefully, fixed now.

Ah, thanks, it's specifically for Beach modes, which is why I never noticed it when detecting. (I don't beach.)

Wow! What a fantastic day Joe! Those are beautiful rings, and close to $50 in silver! Aaron

That is amazing. Well done. Do you think your area has been detected before? I'm also curious about sheer 'quantity' of coins and artifacts. Are they of interest to collectors, locals, museums or resale on an aftermarket? Do you keep them for personal display and research perhaps?

Actually, neither 4 khz nor 5 khz are true whole number harmonics of 60 hz (but they are true harmonics of 50 hz) so that was probably inaccurate on my part. The point is something that interferes with 5 khz is also likely to interfere (but to a lesser extent) with 10 khz but is unlikely going to significantly interfere with 4 khz. Similarly, something interfering with 4 khz is probably not going to interfere as much with 5 khz. So it gives you that fighting chance to find a clean low operating frequency channel including whatever the noise cancel algorithm does for you. The lower operating frequencies are closer to the 60hz (or 50 hz) power line frequency and since the harmonic amplitude drops off the further you are away from the base frequency, these lower operating frequencies are probably more susceptible to power line noise. But as was written in the paper you linked to, there are a myriad of other sources of far field EMI that can affect the detectors, so the key is being able to "shift" from the interfered frequency (or its harmonics) and that is essentially what 4 khz now brings to the table for Equinox (and perhaps some additional secret sauce signal processing compared to the "fives" single frequency settings).

There are no stupid questions...only stupid people who don’t ask for help because they think they know it all already 😂 I think the ground balance numbers are simply telling you the level of mineralization in the ground (i.e. how hot the ground is). Higher numbers are an indication of higher levels of mineralized ground...In my areas I detect, I’ve only seen a max ground balance value in the 20’s....but I’ve seen other YouTube videos where a Nox’s ground balance number was in the high 70’s.....In other words, you shouldn’t decide what ground balance number your Nox wants to be at for the given ground you’re swinging on...the machine should decide the proper ground balance for you to get the best depth and less falsing of signals in the ground....

Painfully Quiet! GaryC/Oregon Coast

A good day out! And you left someone with a good memory!

And this will be my first comment in this Forum... Hi everyone! Its a pleasure to be here! Finally i took the step to create an account haha. Steve, YOU ARE A LEGEND! Well, I'm from Europe, and believe me, back here most of us look for depth... But I must admit, depth isn't everything when we hit those hot spots like Roman, Medieval and Ancient areas... Lots of "polluted" patches, when i say "polluted" I'm referring to iron, "slag rocks" from when Romans used to work with iron... Most of these areas have a really dark soil and its full of pottery fragments... The problem nowadays is that there's lots of new Detectorists... And mostly don't even know alot about metal detectors, coil types, frequencies etc (after 3 years, I'm still learning). Sorry for my English

Gotta love it when a great hunt gets better. hh Mike

I would not be basing my buying the AQ on it's discrimination abilities. It's not the Nox, CTX or Excalibur. I'm done testing for "myself".... others may chime in.. The closest I got to testing the disc side of the AQ is testing something I may encounter while hunting..A piece of crab pot as the iron..then a gold ring..I was impressed and know what to dig if I come across this odd signal...Mute mod, swing left Iron signal, swing right a good target possibly. And doing a full swing, left to right covering the same area. Mute mode only...I don't like the tones mode. About 95% of the time I hunt in All Metal..and dig all..........since the spots I hunt I've already marked off using the excalibur .....area's of interest for the AQ to dig all .......... Chains are the AQ weakness.. What size of gold chain are you talking about?...Air test.......... it did poorly on 3 different sizes.

Good catch! Does lower concentration of gold in the alloy make it more likely that these jewelry pieces recovered from salt water?

Congratulations Joe!Two old beauties 🤩... Nothing to say for me today...Just turned off the morning alarm before 4am and continued to sleep🤣🤣🤣

Great story and congrats on the recovery!

Thanks to all for kind comments. In my opinion, this update has improved the functioning of an excellent detector. I sincerely hope that future improvements will include more substantial coil ears, enhanced waterproofing and a better shaft and arm cuff. Just the view from my sandy foxhole...

My theory is the updates are not specific to Equinox, but are accidental offshoots of work being done on the next version of Multi-IQ. So the benefits are aimed more at the target feature list of that future detector, and are perhaps hints of where that development is heading.

People beg for years for CTX updates and complain mightily that almost none ever happened. We get Equinox updates, and everyone questions why. Minelab really can’t win. I see now why other companies just save all the updates up and sell them to you in the next model. This could have been a new feature for sale in the next model instead of an optional freebie. Very unlike a Minelab when you think about it.

CTX going on 8 years old.....still the best detector I ever used to this day.....apparently others think the same ...... as the 8 year old CTX still has a insane resale value. Just wish the new 4040 is a little lighter and cheaper.

Took a photo with my new DSLR and zoomed in on the image to examine the old Tdi Sl PCB close up. The only part that appears to be adjustable is circled. It is close to smooth/sense and ground balance. If this is out then it may be the problem? I like a puzzle..

There is no need to quit anything in life Reg if it is not working against you. I’m certainly not out to convince people of anything and am the last person to judge what others do. It’s not about amounts or how often or anything else. A wise person told me “it’s only a problem if it’s a problem”. I was not drinking, I was killing myself. That’s a problem. There is nothing about substance abuse that predicates how people will be after they stop. Nothing about quitting anything inherently makes people boring or turns them into preachy religious types. Those are separate issues. It’s only a wagon of boredom if that’s what you make of it. I have no idea who is addicted to things or who is not, but I can promise you one thing. If you are an addict, your mind will find a million reasons not to quit. Many if not most addiction issues have underlying causes. This can be seen clearly with food, spending, and gambling addictions. There are people addicted to bad relationships. It’s every bit as much a mental health issue as a chemical dependency issue. A large number of people with chemical dependencies are self medicating for underlying mental health issues. Personally I was at first self medicating and only secondarily developed a chemical dependency. What that means is there are many people who quit whatever their drug of choice is but who are far from normal, well adjusted people afterwards. There are many classic “dry drunks” and they may have quit drinking but are still generally miserable human beings. Quitting drugs or alcohol is not some automatic magical road to happiness. For me quitting drinking was just the start of a process that has continued ever since.

Well I gave up the smokes years ago (all sorts), but giving up my home brewed beer and whiskey may be a bit more difficult. I gave up smoking cold turkey. One day I just thought "that's enough" and stopped. No relapse, and no nicotine gum. Just stopped. I try to keep the booze in moderation, but may one day have to give it up completely. My Apprehension is that people I have met over the years that neither smoke nor drink can be as boring as bat droppings. Especially those that are reformed, and the ones that tempt me into committing strangulation are the ones that have turned to religion. Should I reluctantly decide to climb upon the wagon of boredom Steve I shall prevail upon you for some words of advice. Seriously.