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Showing content with the highest reputation on 10/02/2020 in all areas

  1. Just back from our first prospecting trip after taking early retirement and moving to Kambalda in Western Australia . Did really well for a 5 week trip with 216 pieces for 376 grams. Biggest pieces 10, 11.5, 27 and 155 grams. No more working for the man ! Cheers, Rick https://youtu.be/jvZ3RyTN0Mo https://youtu.be/hvygdhqU_uQ https://youtu.be/yWINJjZdhp4 https://youtu.be/MODRP3GihW8
    26 points
  2. I have to qualify that title, 90% of the bottle caps were found in the dry sand along with one plated ring. This is not a dry sand coin shooting machine...but I knew that going into it. Lots to learn yet on the machine, wanted to do some testing against the MDT today but unfortunately, the battery died prior to us testing. Most of the water hunting was done in All Metal, 10,5us due to choppy water, sensitivity was just under 4. Gold ring #2 for the AQ 10k, 2.15 grams with CZ's. No doubt in my mind that any other water machine would have got this one IF you got your coil over it. One scoop target. Major cramping on the scoop arm from all the digging. This machine will get me back into shape or kill me! Cliff
    12 points
  3. Hello did 2.5 hours on a quiet beach tonight to have a feel of the machine,it was fun,once GB i started in mix by mistake then i turn into AM . I like the tones and the capacity to ID iron.Took some pics the 50 cal remains is probably from a Bomber during WW2 as this area of UK saw a lot of action......Wireless headphones used:MARSHALL wireless transmitter TROND this kit comes from my G5c.So far it looks powerful enough on large and medium stuffs Enjoy RR
    5 points
  4. Thomas, yes there are 4 single freqs. But my testing found 9 and 6.5 the better choices IN the salt water...... especially waist to chest deep. I could run 12 and 18khz..... but my salt sensitivity was up around 44. On really deep targets i was getting longer cleaner tones from 9. 12 was short more chopped....... and sounded weaker. So i saw no need to run those two freqs and possibly miss targets. Would they do better on smaller gold........i dont think so since ive not found anything that ive found with the Nox or Xcal that cant be found by this machine in the water. Out of the water and in some shallow ........yes i like 12khz...... as you move away from the water i may switch to 18.
    4 points
  5. I agree. I was trying to not ask anything too specific or press the matter for that reason. I actually had a pretty good guess what the SP01 was doing already since I've heard one in the field. Which is in part why I am asking these questions. Props to him for showing up and answering what he can. I don't want him to reveal trade secrets, but I do think it's good to understand what things do and when/how they should be used so I definitely will always be asking what products do and trying to understand them better for any product really, detecting or otherwise. Like, if you have a turbocharger in your truck that is intentionally bypassed, then it's kinda pointless to spend a bunch of money on a 3rd party tuner to boost your HP when you could just hook up the turbo and achieve the same or better end result. I wanted to see how similar or dissimilar this situation is with the GPZ.
    3 points
  6. No. As stated previously the non-linear audio amplification used in the GPZ distorts the signal and also raises the noise floor as you crank its output. So using the GPZ amp as a pre-amp to the booster in the low volume region of the GPZ audio amp where distortion and noise are minimized is preferred. Letting the equalization circuit of the booster color the signal to compensate for the audio response of the speaker or headphones being used and then also applying the cleaner low-distortion, low-noise audio amplification of the booster provides a cleaner, boosted signal that emulates the effect of increasing sensitivity when indeed you are actually only boosting the audio. Put simply, the booster amp is cleaner than the GPZ amp and provides variable equalization that is absent in the GPZ audio circuit.
    3 points
  7. Water levels were pretty good today. I hit an older area that gave me a ring a few years back. Set knobs to presets except volume (full); threshold was at 4 and hunted all metal. A thanks again to Clive, the edges are easier to hear than previous hunt, but I don't think I'm anywhere near as tuned in yet as I got with the HHPulse. Got some old pull tabs, brass screws, other junk. I focused on faint targets; and this thing is deep. On one of the pennies, I started digging at belly deep and when I got it out, water was breaching the top of the chest waders when I stood on the scoop to sink it. The only things that a magnet sticks to are the one encrusted bottle cap and the big blob in the lower left corner that I think is an old furniture caster wheel. Right now for me, a three hour battery run is just fine. As cdv noted, this detector will get me in shape or kill me.
    2 points
  8. OK I’ll bite, if a Minelab GPZ control box or coil didn’t Ferrite balance they would be considered “faulty” and replaced, this is not to say the coils mentioned are no good just not optimal. Clearly they find good gold, this constant jibing and digging just for the sake of it has grown very thin, if X balancing wasn’t needed then it wouldn’t be provided in the menu and a calibration tool would not be in the box. In this day and age witnessing a nice haul like this is great to see and I congratulate Rick on his successes. Also great to see Davsgold posting again, sending my best wishes to him on a speedy and full recovery. JP
    2 points
  9. To answer your other questions, a bigger coil will usually give you a bit better depth, but, they are also worse when it comes to target separation and masking. There will also be a difference between mono and DD coils on those subjects too.
    2 points
  10. Ground balance numbers do not equate to how bad the mineralization is. It is a guide to the type of mineralization, not the amount. It is the amount that matters most, and that is what a Fe3O4 meter measures. It is common on quite a few First Texas and Nokta/Makro models. For other models with a manual ground balance, you can get an idea from the way the ground balance acts. Low mineral ground is easy, and will ground balance well over a range of the setting. As mineralization increases, it will be harder and harder to get a good ground balance. In the worst ground, just one number off either way, and the machine reacts. Plus, you get the balance perfect, but move two feet, and now it has changed. It is also common to have to reduce sensitivity in very bad ground just to get the machine to balance at all. Too high settings will cause overload situations to occur - an obvious indication of bad ground. In mild ground one setting works great everywhere. You may not even need to ground balance a lot of mild ground. In bad ground constant ground balancing is required, and eventually ground tracking is beneficial due to this fact. Finally, drop a small, powerful magnet in the loose soil. If it comes up looking like a spiky golf ball, you’ve got serious magnetite iron mineralization. Not all bad ground is magnetic, so lack of magnetic mineral does not really prove it is low mineral ground. However, Fe3O4 is the formula for magnetite, which is common enough to be the problem in many locations. In Australia the offending material is more likely to be maghemite. As far as coils go, all I will note is that if the ground really is bad, going to a larger coil may not provide much benefit, other than ground coverage. In the worst ground, a large coil may actually get no more or even less depth than a smaller size coil, especially when dealing with a VLF. PI detectors are less affected by ground mineralization, to such a degree that coils can be far larger on a PI and still be effective. Super magnet covered with gob of magnetite....
    2 points
  11. Also maybe consider the Detech Ultimate 13" coil, extremely light for the size of the coil and good sensitivity to small targets. Still lighter again than the smaller Mars Tiger which is 500 grams vs 480 for the Ultimate.
    2 points
  12. Chase, when you try one, I'd be interested in reading your opinion. Especially as it relates to a GPZ with an sP01.
    2 points
  13. Norm, you probably said this somewhere along the line (lost in the deep discussions -- 7th page already), so could you post the name (and preferably a link) to these? I'm always interested in a better solution if it's cost effective. I shelved the Equinox's ML80's for a couple reasons, one being I didn't like the sound compared to other options I have already available. Now you have me intrigued.
    2 points
  14. Same here Dave. All weed spraying and cattle feeding for me till Victoria opens up again. Good to see those faulty X coils still delivering the goods. Well done Rick! :)
    2 points
  15. I think that some people on this post haven't read some of my posts correctly. I do not have any issues with EMI on my GPZ or my CTX with the set up I use. I have used the WM 12 and WM 10 since day one with headphones plugged to the one I was using. Then I added the booster with headphones out of booster. I have successfully used that combo for years. Then I added the Equinox 800 to the mix, the furnished wireless headphones failed, While I was waiting for them to be repaired or replaced I bought a replacement set that fit me more comfortably with much better sound quality with better volume. I was able to turn the volume down about eight points. II have used the Grey Ghosts, Black Widow, Koss and Sun Ray Pros. The new wireless headphones work so well for me and my particular hearing loss, I wanted to try them on my other detectors, the cost was minimal ($26.00 dollars) and it works great for me. The EMI issue was for my friend that doesn't use the WM 12 and plugged the Wireless TX, RX into the GPZ, I think the consensus is that it the location that he used to mount it. I love my GPZ, CTX, Equinox, booster and wireless headphones. Norm P.S. a lot of good info on this post, thanks to all for sharing
    2 points
  16. I think that more precisely answers jasong's original question re the SP01 so that will be helpful info. Anyway everyone, continue to enjoy the SP01 deep dive, despite minor misunderstandings it is great to have a forum where the actual device designer engages in technical discussions with the end users. In the mean time, I hope Norm's buddy figures out a solution to the EMI problem. Cheers.
    2 points
  17. So are you saying this would bring back a lot of good memories? If so please send me your address so I can get rid of this stuff, I mean so you can enjoy every memory over again.
    2 points
  18. Thanks for the suggestion and I have used acetone several times and know a little about the affects on the skin. I talked to a couple of people today and they want no part of it at this time sue to the smell. I have tried denatured alcohol once before on some copper and it really did nothing that I really noticed to remove grease or oil. That is where the smell is coming from. Right now I am using the Odoban to remove the odor first as it is not harming the coin. Odoban kills the odor is a lot of funeral homes use it to remove the smell of human decay. When they go to a home where a body has been for several days, they will spray the Odoban on anything with the smell and it removes it. Sometimes it takes a few tries to remove all the odor, but it works. I may have to leave it in a cup of Odoban overnight to remove the smell completely. Thank you for all your help and advice as I do appreciate it.
    2 points
  19. Except that isn't exactly what is happening since Phrunt said on page or 2 or 3 that Pat claims there is no equalization occuring in the SP01. I'm not sure people read my post very closely. I'm sure the booster is doing something. Clearly. If it's not equalization, it's compression or noise filtering, or both. I understand the amp after preamp concept, but I don't personally see the distortion that would necessitate following the GPZ with another amp, and this is part of my confusion, since clearly others do. What I'm unsure about is if it's doing anything that can't be achieved simply by using the onboard GPZ controls more judiciously or by not following religiously the settings JP posted. For example: I don't experience distortion above 8 volume, but I also don't run my threshold at high levels (and I often use low smoothing), I'm usually below 18 and sometimes down to 6 or 8, while JP recommends 27 minimum and no smoothing. This might be irrelevant except that from what I can tell, everyone using this SP01 seems to be following JP's advice judiciously, which means running very high thresholds, and with unprocessed noise from no smoothing, which themselves may be causing this distortion that doesn't seem to happen to me. If the SP01 is simply compressing or filtering the audio to get this "brightness" then you are losing data in the audio stream in the exact same way you would as if one simply ran a lower threshold or used low audio smoothing, which seems to contradict the point of running those GPZ settings to begin with. In fact, running a lower threshold may sometimes bring out that tiny signals that get wiped out by the higher threshold levels, and then completely erased by filtering on top of that. What I'm trying to figure out is if a person needs to spend $250 more and hang another object off their chest just to achieve the same effect one can get for free, and with one less accessory, just by using the onboard GPZ processing. Or if this SP01 is actually doing something unachievable within the GPZ controls (apart from the boosting). Next time I meet someone in the field I'll just have to test it myself I think because something isn't making sense to me here. I get the SP01 for a detector that lacks the audio processing of the GPZ, but I wonder if people sticking to other people's settings is causing some of the perceived need for the SP01 on the GPZ.
    2 points
  20. I have been learning my grandfathers equinox 800 metal detector for the past couple of weeks and digging more trash than anything. I was back at it again in his back yard after watering the holes I have dug in the past, almost 300 of them by now, when my grandmother asked me to go back to where an old log cabin used to be. As I turned the corner of area where it used to be near the pine trees, I had a strong signal of 23 and 24. I stopped and rechecked in several directions. I noticed that every direction showed the same numbers and used the pin pointer mode and marked the spot. The 800 was in park 1 at factory settings, and showed that it would be about 5 arrows down. I started to dig in the dry ground removing the top few inches of dirt and grass. I went to the tool shed and picked out a shovel knowing how hard the ground was I needed the added ability to dig. After I got down about 6 inches and no signal on the carrot yet I kept digging. Once I got down 8 inches deep I got a signal on the carrot and began to carefully poke around the ground to remove the dirt where the signal was coming from. I finally saw what was giving me the signal and removed it from it's tomb. Since there was so much dirt still clinging to it I rechecked the hole and nothing else was in it so I filled it in. After cleaning the dirt of with a little bit of Dawn dish soap and water I could make out what was on it. I first thought it said 1 farting, but later was able to read 1 farthing a British coin. The date was 1799 and I am shocked that I was able to find it. Here is what was on grandfathers property, and yes I am going to keep searching the area for more items. I fully expect to dig at least another 15 pounds of trash before I can say I have covered his yard properly. I wish I knew more on how to clean coins and I am reading the forum on just how to do that before I ruin anything. Grandfather never got to clean some of his coins and I really want to get those done for him.
    1 point
  21. Almost done this season but may get in a few more hunts. My 3rd and best season detecting for gold. Gold is from Montana and Idaho from 5 different locations. Total count was 436 pieces, 119 with the SDC and 317 with the Monster. SDC got the 3 big ones and also the bulk of the total weight. Big nugget weighed 3.55ozt, then 25+gram, and 12 gram (3 nugget pic). SDC also found me my 1st "pocket" where I'd had a 20 piece day with 14 coming out of a 6" wide x 8" deep hole...THAT was FUN!!! Total weight (so far) is 7.66ozt. Nuggets came from public, private and permission ground. The Monster still amazes me and the addition of the SDC really helped make this season by far my best. Thanks to everybody on the forum for all the info/stories etc. and to Steve for hosting and maintaining the site!!!!
    1 point
  22. I recommend signing up to this website, Geotech1 , where the technical aspects of detecting, including coil-building, are discussed. The Gold Kruzer is a new model, though, so you may be the first person to try and make a coil for it. Website: https://www.geotech1.com/forums/forum.php
    1 point
  23. Almost to the minute Joe. Dont think I want one to last longer.
    1 point
  24. GB I had decided to try these headphones as they had several recommendations from other members on this forum. They paired with the Equinox the first try and they appear to be fairly durable, no issues so far. Probably about 60 plus hours of use. I found them on Amazon for about $70.00. Norm
    1 point
  25. Keep them coming! I can't wait for my machine.
    1 point
  26. The only way to know the true Mineralization of a site is to measure it directly via use of a an Fe3O4 mineralization meter. These can be obtained standalone but several mid to higher end FT detectors such as the T2 and F75 have these bargraph meters built in (hence statements like "3 bar soil"), as well as the XP Deus and Orx and most recently, Nokta added a mineralization meter to their Simplex via a recent update. Trying to infer mineralization from GB readings is really not the way to go because other time variable factors such as soil moisure content and other soil constuents besides the mineralization that directly impacts detector performance play into the ground phase readings that register on a detector at any given time. IOW high GB/ground phase readings do not necessarily equate to high mineraliztion.
    1 point
  27. You say it stinks as it is very old. Valens it could be 175 years old, have a look at this link. ....LINK.... "Kelley discovered that oil from the jaw and head of the porpoise and blackfish proved superior to any other known lubricant for delicate mechanisms, and his oil, which he began selling in 1844," It was a good read.
    1 point
  28. Hello there. This is Dilek - Now, I do not know whether the product is faulty or not because I need to look into it. And yes we may have sold a faulty product because there is no company in the whole world with 0% failure whether in this industry or any other! UT the part ''NOKTA MAKRO is doing nothing about it '' is something I will reject to. Are you referring to the service center as Nokta Makro or us? Have you gotten in touch with us? I cannot tell who you are from the nickname. So if you can email me at dilek.gonulay@noktadetectors.com with details, I will try to help you.
    1 point
  29. Interesting thread indeed, I’ve never been a booster user, possibly because I’ve spent a very large portion of my working life in Audio engineering, Speech processing for Speech recognition, voice biometric systems, and IP telephony voice recording. The inventor/chief designer of Minelab Metal detectors, Mr Bruce Candy is one of the best designers of Audio Amplifiers on the Planet. You can read all about the man here. https://halcro.com/history/
    1 point
  30. Was great to catch up Rick and congrats on a successful trip and welcome to WA.
    1 point
  31. TR As I have learned about hunting is dig everything! I have only found a few coins since I have started with my grandfathers detector, but I am learning some of the sounds that make. I know I have a couple of good coins that I have found, and yes some junk does stink at times. With that said keep at it as you are getting close to the gold that you seek from finding the small stuff you are showing. Welcome and good luck.
    1 point
  32. Well here we go.. I have been metal detecting off and on for about 20 years I got my first detector when I was about 9. I WAS HOOKED. It was a solo thing so I found myself alone while detecting. I went out now and then but school came first THEN CAME THE INTERNET... OMG there were some forums but nobody really went to them so I kind of moved on. Only until a month ago I NEVER posted pics or videos online. THE DAWN OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR ME I had a Facebook page but it was a so so personal page, I forget how but i came across a video about someone metal detecting and I saw that he had a TON of subscribers, it was at that moment I realized was not that alone. I started posting on FB of my finds and people started asking if I had a YouTube page I said no, they said you should. At first I thought NAAAA who the heck wants to watch me. More and more people kept asking. So one day I said OK. It has been just over a month and I am AMAZED AND SHOCKED I have almost have 400 subscribers. It is INSANE...lol. I have met SOOO MANY amazing people online that detect as well, It is so cool how many people there actually are out there and that it is a world wide hobby. Don't get me wrong I knew people metal detected around the world but I literally have subscribers of my channel from around the world it is crazy. if you are at all interested at watching my videos, here is a link to my channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmQrf7LsvJP6bHDtv4kbFPQ I am so happy I am here now and I look forward to meeting you all All the best C.J. AKA Official Gold Digger STAY SAFE AND KEEP ON DIGGING
    1 point
  33. Thanks for explaining Chase Goldman, I've got it now 👍 And as you say, it all becomes a Nightmare.
    1 point
  34. Sounded like a fun calculation -- ratio of weights of copper for two different coils. Now, I made a lot of assumptions and I don't know how good those are, so please keep that in mind. Assumptions: mono coils (already inaccurate for IB/VLF search coils), typical simple winding (as opposed to the fancy spiral windings now available on some more recent PI coils), same wire size used in both coils' windings, same electromagnetic inductance (I think this is a requirement for properly tuned detector-coil configuration), 7"x11" coil is a true ellipse (calculation probably insensitive to this assumption if it's anything close) and 11" coil is a true circle (ditto). The assumption that the wire used is identical (other than length) may be the biggest weakness of this simple comparison. The loosest approximation says the ratio of copper weights is (smaller coil divided by larger coil) equal to the square-root of ratio of smaller coil perimeter dimension to larger coil perimeter dimension. For the two coils you quote (and assuming dimensions quoted are of the actual copper coils, not the enclosures/housings) it comes out to 0.91. A better approximation includes some sqaure-roots of natural logarithms of functions that depend upon the actual wire used, but that's a weak dependency so the expected weight ratio then comes out to be ~0.92 for coil wire guages in the ~20-32 AWG size. Now, how much does this help you? The weight of the housing (and coil covers if included) are also going to contribute, and not in such an easily calculable way. Throw in the possible flaws in the assumptions (e.g. mono coil vs. DD or concentric coil) and I'm thinking "not so much". I wonder if measuring the inductances of the coils (two for each searchcoil) would help? I.e. should they match? (For mono coils as mentioned, I think the answer is 'yes' but I don't know if that carries over to concentric or DD coils.)
    1 point
  35. You can have a film left behind with acetone too, I worked with these chemical over the years extensively. You can use a jewelry mix of amonia, water and couple drops of dish liquid as well then rinse with clean water after. Not sure if the amonia will be strong enough to degrease whale fat though. Heavy detergents can react with copper and cause it to patina if left on the surface. Another option would be to use 91% IPA. I use that on my laser optics with a pec pad but no need for a pec pad, trick is to continually roll the cloth so your not smudging but rather constantly using a clean portion of the cloth over the surface.
    1 point
  36. Well, I'm going to disagree again. Acetone is what the professional grading services use. (I don't expect alcohol to be a problem either, but most store bought alcohol contains water and when the alcohol evaporates a film often remains. If you've had to clean eyeglasses as much as I have you'll know the annoyance!) As far as cloth goes, even cotton can scratch plastic eyeglass lenses. Microfiber cloth typically included with eyeglass cleaning kits is much more forgiving. But as always, careful (minimal) use/application is preferred. Blotting is preferable to wiping.
    1 point
  37. Got a call from Felix, only been a week, nice! Going to be $65 for parts and recalibration, including return postage. I'm very happy to pay that to get an official calibration from the factory. I should have it back next week. Big thumbs up on FT servicing a thirty year old metal detector. 👍🏼
    1 point
  38. Although i sincerely thank you for your most generous offer, I believe I will decline it at this time. I was a trapper for a lot of my adult life and at times had to make up some serious 'stinky' for my trapping lure. Rotted whale oil would fit that category very well.
    1 point
  39. I've got an Equinox 600 with one of Steve's gold carbon fiber rods set up with a fully loaded counterweight. I only use the 11" coil and I'm 6'2" and it feels perfectly balanced to me and there is zero flex in the shaft when swinging.
    1 point
  40. If you'd boiled your oil in Nigeria, no-one would've batted an eyelid, they would assume you're just making a big pot of delicious skunk, tripe and fish head stew, they may even come over offering recipe suggestions. " You need more chillies in it!"
    1 point
  41. Anyone who thinks you need expensive, or at least cutting edge detectors to do well, should download this and look at the finds, and what is making them.
    1 point
  42. Loose gold chains and very small gold items can be hard to detect under the best conditions. It can be impossible to detect them in saltwater due to the way metal detectors are conductivity based devices. If you tune out saltwater you eliminate the small gold signal along with it. Any detector can be pushed to the edge of just barely detecting the saltwater, and no more. Otherwise the detector would sound constantly. A machine that is experiencing just the slightest bit of salt water falsing is right on the edge, and can go no father. We have had machines that can pick up thin gold chains since the 1990s at least. Any decent VLF nugget hunter would do the trick. Gold Bug 2 for instance. Except they do not work on wet salt sand. They are TOO SENSITIVE! The whole pick up tiny earrings and thin chains in saltwater is one of the most overbaked yet least understood areas of detecting. We hit the wall on what the tech can do there ages ago. There are a lot of tiny low conductors that will be eliminated along with the salt signal because to the metal detector it is the same signal, the same thing. All the detector sees is a very low conductive signal - period. We can set the machine to find those, but now it won't work in saltwater. Or you can tune out the low conductive salt signal, but now you miss all those tiny gold and platinum targets also. Get the Equinox, and using my nugget settings you will be able to find exceptionally small gold. But those settings will not work in saltwater. Or you can use the Beach Modes to deal with the salt, but now you can't hit the tiny gold. The capability is there, but it is one or the other, this or that. You can't do both at once, it is the nature of the technology. The minute Equinox came out and people started speculating on gold chains, etc. I knew it was the same old same old. People do not understand the physics, and so they think a new detector will somehow change things, but it can't happen. Not as long as conductivity/eddy current retention is the tool we use to make our determinations. Long story short, if micro gold is the desire, I would use any detector that can tune across the salt transition zone - in other words that can balance to salt and beyond. The machine needs to be able to pick up saltwater. Then slowly detune it until there is just the barest indications of salt false signals beginning to occur. You are now on the edge, and you can go no farther. If a machine cannot be made to pick up saltwater, then it is tuned to be well below that threshold. Salt content varies around the world, and many saltwater machines are set up to ignore the worst. But if you get into lower salinity water, now you have poor sensitivity to tiny gold, or at least poorer than is possible. This is why numerous detectors, especially many single frequency machines, have a "SALT" setting. The MXT for example. If not around saltwater, leave Salt Mode off. If you hit the beach, use the Salt Mode. Engaging it eliminates the salt signal, and the thin chains and tiny earrings, etc. For ages I needed two detectors. A beach detector, and a hot tiny nugget detector. Nobody made a machine that could do both. Equinox is special because I can hunt Hawaii one week, and hunt tiny gold nuggets another week. It can do both very well - but not both at the same time. The chart below shows where salt signal occurs relative to other targets. Just barely into the positive range. This is also where small low conductors read - foil, thin chains, post earrings, tiny gold nuggets. Keep in mind platinum reads even lower than gold, and so the problem for platinum is even worse.
    1 point
  43. I have the eq600 and am a die hard fan of the ORX. I cannot speak much on gold prospecting but I can in everything else. Water beaches hunting get the equinox. For primarily a land machine go for the ORX. If you can save and get both it would be a great combo. If you decide on a vanquish I think you would be pleased with the simplicity B's the performance it gives. Makro and Nokta make the most robust units ever in my opinion. The perfect machine would be one that was as tough as a nokta/makro, water proof, multiple frequency with 30 selectable single frequencies with the recovery speed of the XP units.
    1 point
  44. Well, I went for the foil, salt and warm water method and it revealed a badly corroded 1964 Roosevelt dime - birthdate I guess.
    1 point
  45. I have had a few along the way, My first and still one of my heroes is Klunker. At the time, he had two GPX 4000s and he invited me to go with him in search for gold He was kind enough to let me use his second machine, he showed me the basics and turned me loose. He invited me to go on several occasions. He was finding gold on a regular basis and I wasn't. That frustration only grew on me but inspired me to get my own machine, my first nugget came soon after, He has shown and taken me to numerous places to find gold that I would neve have found here in the Northern Sierra Mother Lode area on my own. My second hero is Bill Fletcher aka Bill and Linda's Prospecting. He took me under his wing and showed many things about detecting in the Nevada and Arizona deserts. I will be forever thankful for his friendship and guidance. In my search for coins and jewelry my hat is off to my good friend Rob. Given the fact that we live about five hours apart, we usually manage more than one hunt a month. One of his first hunts here after he got his 800, we had been detecting in old schools and parks several miles from home. On the return trip, the conversation turned to the possibilities of finding gold with the Equinox and he was ready to try. I suggested we stop where I found my first nugget. This 78 year old body had had enough, I sat on the bank of the road above the area and gave him the pointy finger. The bank is very steep there with a very small flat spot on the was down to some tailings out of a tunnel where i got my first gold. He made his way to that spot and turned his machine on and started detecting. He was only about twenty feet from me, he said I have a nice signal. Well that nice signal ended up being a nice Merc dime, he started to swing again, I've got another good signal, he said, another Merc. I had been over this place numerous times as well as several other people with GPXs. The trash is never ending. Well he wasn't done yet, another Merc and a 40 nickel. By tis time we were past the time we told our wives we would be home for dinner. Rob always seems to put himself in the right place for a great find. More to learn from him! Norm
    1 point
  46. I can't take credit for that, Steve. Somebody on another forum sent it to me when I posed the same question. Wish I could give him credit. Jim
    1 point
  47. hi everyone, I'm from France and I know XP well and the guy in the picture of the box. but personally to have tried it is worth a garrett kit in the quality of manufacture. It's not worth Minelab's gold panning kit which is much better and more complete. That's just my opinion.
    1 point
  48. I recently had the pleasant surprise of a mint condition Tesoro ‘Outlaw’ metal detector, minus coils, showing up at my doorstep as a gift from a very generous enthusiast and forum friend. It is an attractive metal detector and after spending a little time with it, I find it a very interesting detector, operational wise, as well. It has three operational modes; a motion all-metal auto tune mode, a non-motion all metal mode, and a silent search discrimination mode, all accessed via a three-position switch. It also includes a manual ground balance control dial that affects all the operating modes, a threshold control dial, a on/off + sensitivity control dial, a discrimination control dial, and in the center below the speaker louvers is a dual layer push button that servers both as a pinpoint and a retune button. Seems all very straight forward at first glance, until you discover its secret: The Tesoro Outlaw is a true, threshold based, metal detector. The threshold setting affects every aspect of the detector. The good news is the threshold setting is a set and forget control. Set it to where it gives the faintest hum and leave it alone. For me that is approximately the 1 o: clock position. And that brings us to the center Red Button. That little red push button in the center of the Outlaws face plate is the most important control on the detector. It is imperative that after every setting change that you make to the detector settings that you press and hold that red button and hear the threshold return. I mean after EVERY and ANY adjustment to the detector settings, no matter what the change is. If you change the disc setting, you press and hold the button until the threshold returns. If you change the Sensitivity setting, you press and hold the red button until the threshold returns. If you change threshold settings, if you change operating modes, after you ground balance, you have to press and hold the red button until you hear the threshold return. Takes about a second, maybe a second and a half for the threshold to return. No big deal once you understand it but it has to be done. If you don’t return to threshold after every and any operational setting changes the detector will be working at reduced performance/reduced depth, as if the threshold had been set somewhere below the audible hum, which will affect your depth. That is the way it operates. Once you figure that out you are golden. There are two all metal modes. The far-left switch position says ‘AUTO’. This is the motion all-metal mode with auto threshold retune. This is the operational mode that you need to be in for ground balancing. The all metal gain is preset. Sensitivity is controlled via the threshold setting. The threshold auto retune speed is perfectly acceptable for the majority of ground minerals. Might be a little too slow for really bad ground but for most of us it is fine. The middle switch position is the non-motion all metal mode. You control the threshold drift via the red button retune. Again, the all metal gain is preset. Sensitivity is controlled via the threshold setting. Ground balance affects depth performance for high conductors in all operating modes. Too far positive (clockwise) and you will severely impact high conductor response. However, the ground balance does not go all the way to salt so low conductors are not affected by a maximum negative (counterclockwise) setting. Yes….if you do not intend to use the all metal modes you can Power Balance in Disc mode. Yes….if you do not intend to use the all metal modes you can super tune the Threshold. The Discrimination mode is the far-right switch position. The Sensitivity control only affects this operating mode. The Threshold setting affects this operating mode. Ground balance settings affect this operating mode. Assuming you have your Threshold setting where you want it, and are ground balanced to an acceptable point, then you can further increase your sensitivity with the Sensitivity control. Discrimination control is classic Tesoro. I think the Disc range is ED120 or there abouts. It is easy to max the disc and just hunt high conductors and it is easy to disc out most small foil and hunt nickels upwards without losing a lot of depth due to the disc setting. I put the Cleansweep coil on it this past weekend and hunted recent drops and found it good on both high and low conductors. The Cleansweep is a fairly shallow coil….5” to 6” tops in Disc mode. Maybe 3” more in all metal modes. I was happy with its performance on both low and high conductors as a 10.6 kHz unit. I was happy that it seemed pretty EMI resistant. Ground balancing in the Auto tune mode is pretty straight forward, except you have go a bit slower on the coil pumps than you might normally be use to as you have to let the threshold retune between pumps, again about a second, second and a half. It’s a neat detector. I’ve never used anything quite like it before. HH Mike
    1 point
  49. Don’t be afraid of the Cleansweep Paul, it’s my second favorite coil after the Bigfoot for jewelry detecting. Hope you are healing up well... time is catching up with us! I mainly decided to post about the Pantera to perk the Tesoro Forum up. I figured with other forums abandoning them we would see more action here but I guess there is not that much to say about detectors people have owned for a long time.
    1 point
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