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You hunt one side of a draw and only find trash. Your mind keeps telling you to cross the drainage below and go back up the other side (grass is always greener theory) so you start hiking away and eventually turn off the 7000 just to cover ground quickly. Eventually getting to the other side, you fire up the machine and start your search. Not 10 minutes into it and that sweet soft sound comes thru the sweaty headphones and I can tell it is not surface trash. I get a little gigglie as I reach over my shoulder to grab my pick and ....holy shit...I reach over my shoulder again to grab my pick...., Now the holy has left and it's just shit... as I realize there is no pick? This is the hard part for guys 50+ as I try to think of where my pick be? Well the sound of that target was too good to leave, so for the next 15/20 minutes I used my plastic scoop as it was not designed and or intended...and scooped/picked away removing bits of dirt, pebbles and clods 1/4" at a time. Eventually 6" later it is removed from the divot in the soil I've so feverishly been working. Now most of us at this point would use the big super magnet at the end of our picks and run it through the freshly removed dirt trying to suck up any iron trash targets. Well as you recall, I did the "holy shit" thing and lost my $100 pick. So going old school (for those of us who's been doing this a while and we had no magnet on our picks), I used the hand/scoop over coil method and eventually found my little treasure. Yes, there it was a nice .2 maybe .3 gram, 100+ yr old beauty of a boot tack. Now I'm not only upset at the old prospector who lost his tack, I'm still pissed at myself for losing that fancy APEX with the magnet. Where could it be?? as I'm thinking and can only guess to hike back down the ravine, across the wash, up the other side (holy shit - this is going to take a while) and then walk around trying to find my last dig spot. I'm just about to the point of calling it a loss and not giving a holy shit anymore and realizing $100 is gone, when I then realize something even more shittier, is the fact that I did not bring a spare pick. Well this would not normally be an issue if I was close to home, but the reality of it...I was in the 2nd of a 4 day prospecting hunt (new area and ground to me) and was almost 500 miles from home. So the reality of things is I better get my holy shit together, hike back up that ridge and walk the side of a mountain trying to find my last dig. Well I have to admit, I didn't think I'd find it, as the sagebrush was 10 to 14" tall and all the terrain looked the same. Luck would be on my side and I eventually did find the pick. You know, I'm usually pretty good at not losing my own pick and in fact have found 2 picks and many scoops in my many yrs of detecting. But I did learn a lesson for future trips. As I get older and these hills get steeper, I better start packing a spare. What is the longest hike back or time you have had to go to find your pick. BTW. The gold in the area is not known to be nuggets (according to the old research records), I guess they missed a few.

Got out while the water is still warm enough in the ocean for a wet suit, out at chest to chin deep was a slight slope/hole which held old targets. all targets were weak signals except for the new clad on top. Best of it was a 9K signet ring from Chester England. With all the stamps on the inside small portion of the ring there are 2 more on the large portion of the ring witch is solid not hollow. The small dark coin is a Merc. the other ring is Brass.

Last night I went to a beach that yielded a lot of targets. On my 6 hour hunt from 8 PM to 2 AM I got 51 quarters, 40 dimes and nickels, 54 pennies (one wheat), 2 silver rings and one 10k gold ring. There should have been more rings! The trash was another 50 pieces or so. When you figure it is 4-5 scoops per target (1000 total) then it adds up to a stiff back in the morning. I found the gold ring 2/3rds of the way through the session about the time the fog started rolling in which made for an enjoyable sight as it covered up the normal lights but there was still a mostly full moon above. I was using the 15 inch coil and when I started I was down a couple of notches from full power. I thought there would not be much on the beach but I was wrong and kept pushing along finding some high cuts. Near the end of the session the detector was nearly out of power and I could hear a lessening in my headphones. Something I've wanted to say about the 3.0 update is that it really makes the quarters crackle. I don't think I remember them like that before and I wish they would be a little more 'solid' but perhaps it is because of the sandwich metals.

As many of you are aware, I have been 'accused' of driving a lot and not staying in one place long enough to find gold. I'm here to tell you that is TRUE. Here is an example. Tuesday afternoon my wife reminded me that Pat Keene (that Pat Keene) might be up on his claim in Downieville. I said "The Forests are CLOSED!" I called anyway and sure enough he was in his second week of his annual pilgrimage to the Downieville area and said come on up. That is a 500 mile trip for me but I said I'll leave tonight and be there in the morning. My wife and I have fond memories of this trip as we went to this about 5 years ago and had some success. She found a 5 gram button on a trail near some old workings using a Gold Bug Pro and I found a 1/3 ounce nugget using a 3030 sniping the Yuba River. Now I have an 800 and the 6 inch coil and thought I could find what was left. After a bit of packing in the late afternoon it was time to go out to the 4Runner and wipe off the cobwebs and see how it looked. It needed a bath so I could see but it also had a low tire. What? It was too late to go to a tire store so I stuck some of the tire seal in and when to a gas station and filled and checked the tires all around. I gave it a bath and my plan became to find a tire store on the way and get it fixed. My original plan was just to take the 800 and the 3030 as backup but as I got closer to 11 PM and a nap I decided I'd take the 7000 and the Xcoil in case I had time to make it to the old WSPA claims in Sierra City. I laid out all my stuff and tried to take a bit of a nap. About 12:30 I got up and packed the car and knew if I got to Auburn at 8 AM the America's Tire Store would be open and I could get my tire fixed and all of the rotated. It would be over an hour and a half to Downieville from there. Staying on schedule and making pretty good time I followed my familiar route up I-5 and I-80 to Auburn and arrived there about 8:15 with a still inflated tire! When I was asked why I was there I pointed at the tire and right on top was a screw head. I said I think this is my problem! I bought these Cooper Tires from America's Tire because Fred Mason told me his good experiences with them. They told me I should be out of there by 9:30. Well, because of some 'training' and scheduled appointments I didn't get out of there until 10:30. They showed me the screw and it was about 3 inches long. They plugged it. Now I was on my way. Going up Hwy 49 to the northern Sierras. This particular 70 miles of road is 'lovely' but I learned to hate it with my 4Runner because it doesn't like turns. The anti-swerve gets activated because it is old and needs a new R&P and it grabs. Most of my friends will not pull a trailer on this road. So with all of this 'behind me' I arrived at Downieville about noon. My plan was to stay in the hotel with the other participants that night. When I got there Pat was making a video about some of his innovations to a sluice they produce in Canoga Park. I took off with the 800 and 6 inch coil. My first stop was going to be where I found my nugget. When I got down to the back of the river it had changed. This is to be expected of rivers that flood and are subject to snow runoff but the conditions now didn't leave me much bank. In addition there were panners and sluicers set up all along the area I wanted to detect. Hummmmm ... I chatted with a few of them but I wasn't there to pan. I walked around them and found some areas to get to work. It was more difficult for the 800 than I thought it was going to be. I've used it for thousands of hours now on the beaches but these hot rocks were making me take the sensitivity way down from my normal 23. I was down to 17-18 before I could make it ignore some of the rocks. I was trying Gold 1 and Park 1. This bank area is not that big and it is steep with green moss on it but I worked it for 3 hours. I couldn't get into the water because it was too deep. This was one of the changes. It was now time to check where my wife had found her gold button on the path up above. While looking for anything up there I did come across a 'mini-spill' which was 3 pennies and a dime but nothing more. At the end of this it was about 4 PM and it was time to check on a room at the Inn. More later ... Later has become 2:40 PM on Sunday the 27th. When I went to check on my room ... there was none available. My original plan was that I would sleep in the 4Runner but I saw the setup and I said I'd go on up to Sierra City and get a room there. That is about 12 miles. I passed by Sierra Pines on to an old club claim and saw they had been working on the forest to thin it and had disturbed the soil. This now became the area I wanted to detect. A new 'plan' had replaced the old plan because I could stay near this location. The problem then became gas. Sierra City and Downieville don't have gas stations any more. I had to drive to Graeagle and get gas and that would also be a place where I could use the phone. When I got there I called a forum member, Norm but there was no answer. I spoke with my wife and she was ok at the end of the first day and said everything was fine. I drove the 20 miles back to Sierra City, got a room and got on the computer before I slept. I messaged Norm and Klunker. I told them where I was and that I could be around for a couple of days but there would be no way to call me. When I got up in the morning I had messages but Norm was not available and Klunker was working but could consider Friday but he wouldn't know until late Thursday. So, we didn't have any way to set a schedule. Off I went to the claims where I had found gold before. When I got there I could see that they were still harvesting some trees. This is one area where forest management has continued over the years. When I first prospected around this area over 5 years ago you could see old tree stumps left from maybe the first cuts in the area 60-70 years before. Now they were thinning the trees again. Some was cut for lumber and other was cut to make road access. I gouged the dirt deeply and that was what I thought would be different. Above was the first area where I pulled into and started detecting. It was about 9:30 and pleasant after the low of about 42 in the morning. I was rested and ready to tackle the area where I know gold had been found before. At this point I knew Norm was not going to show up but he wished me well. I began detecting the ruts as were my plan but that plan soon had problems. My Xcoil was working fine and I was getting these 'targets' but they turned out to be pieces of the dozer blade! Oh, no. Why can't they make these blades and teeth harder so they don't shed. That continued all day. I altered my pattern and detected some unrutted areas. At one point I was walking along (looking out for snakes in the process) and I almost tripped. I went to pull my foot up and it was like it was in mud. It was actually dirt that was so dry and fine that it acted like water and mud. That is one of my lasting impressions of this trip. It was DRY. There was another problem that I discovered after the first 30 minutes or so. YELLOW JACKETS were everywhere. I could walk along and try to recover one of the little pieces of blade and they would gather around me and then land on my arms and then try to get behind my sun glasses. They were not overly aggressive in the sense of a big swarm but they did sting me a couple of times when I had to get them out of the way. After 4 hours at the first location which included the area where I found my last nugget I had to move about half a mile to another spot. At this spot I had found the remnants of a pair of Levi's. There was really no material left but the buttons I was able to date back to the 1890s. That meant there was old workings and others in our group had found some nice gold here. They had even cleared the brush when Fred was out with them to get access to the gold. It was not long before I got a couple of targets that included normal trash but then I got a deeper target. I went back to the 4Runner to get my phone to take pictures because I was into the roots. A new roadway had been scraped here to allow for taking out the logs. I thought this was the nugget of the trip. The Yellow Jackets were around and I was digging down and down and got the target out of the hole and ... a big piece of lead. Sooooo disappointing, just like Australia I thought. Well, there was nothing I could do other than fill in the hole and keep after it. I went a few feet more and got another good target. This time I walked back to the car and got the 800 to pinpoint. It was an odd number of 10-13 and it wasn't coming out of the hole easily. I used a pin-pointer and found it. A WIRE. Now I'm getting late into the afternoon. Home and obligations started to weigh in on me. I had gone to the areas I knew best and didn't get any gold yet. I went to another area where the undergrowth had been cleared and tried to get a stray nugget to keep my head in the game but it was not to be. I started thinking about telling the story of forest management with pictures. All of these trees that had been cut down would make some people mad. What I realized was that there can be too many trees. All of the little trees on the ground didn't have enough sunlight to grow in many areas. This was being corrected with management here. I was done with detecting and I knew it was time for me to go back but I wanted to take some pictures on the way. Here is what I saw on the way from Sierra City to the end of the forest and the valley overlook. The road above is covered in snow during the winter. A few years ago we couldn't get to the claims where I was detecting until April there was so much snow. The road below is 49 again. It is maintained through the winter. I wanted to show Simon the elevation and also the ski area but this is not a ski resort as much as it is cross country. I don't know much about it because I don't do it. As you guys know, I'm a beach sort of guy. If I don't get early, quick results then I'm bored with limited time. I want to thank Klunker and Norm for taking my call/message on very short notice and trying to help me find some color. I didn't plan the trip very good and once I decided that missing the traffic on Friday was more important than gold I was done. I did see on accident near Sacramento on the way back. I don't see many and this one was a car had just run into the center. I was back in Santa Monica about 1 AM on Friday morning. I had been gone 48 hours and driven about 1200 miles. That is a long, short trip. One day I hope my sons will be able to still read about it here on Steve's forums. Thanks Steve. Mitchel

Joe, I hunt in AM too but thought that I could switch to Tone (which works on coins) to give me more info on the targets. My beaches for the most part are steep and the sand movements are sever. The can loose or gain 8 foot of sand overnight. Yes, 8 foot is not a typo. You cannot hunt out in the surf either. Even if the waves were only a couple of feet tall, when they break, you wind up being thrown up to the wet line. (have had it happen, LOL) My beaches all have surfers on them so that should tell you something about the waves and the breaks. Anyway, there has been enough sand movement that I am trying to get to them before the sand and the jewelry is completely washed out. This is a tough environment in the wet and you have to be an opportunist and catch the conditions just right or they are gone. It takes major storms to bring stuff back in and we don't get major storms that often. Every few years I am told. So I just have to work with what I have. Ok, enough ranting and raving. It may take a few more days (or weeks) of using this detector but I will figure it out. In the mean time, I will have my VLF charged and ready if the wet conditions are not good enough for the AQ. thanks, Joe

Been waiting for fresh drop season to slow down a bit before taking the Fisher AQ out for it's maiden hunt. Some big surf hit a spot and exposed some black sand under decent looking cuts so figured it would be a good time to try it out. Started out in all-metal under suggested stock settings. Unfortunately there was quite a bit of iron bits around. Decided to give the "Tone" mode a try, about 15 mins later I hit a high pitch sound at the lower slope, 2 scoops down and I had my 1st AQ gold, 3.6 grams of 14k! I like the Tone mode a lot, I can foresee how it's going to be a useful setting when trying to cherry pick gold rings out of coin & iron infested areas. Quarters, dimes, pennies, tent stakes, nails do come up as a low tone. Some rotten Felix pennies did come up as a high tone though, but surprising most zincs were weeded out by the machine, a lot of the trash you see in the pic sounded off as a low tone. Nickels and Gold sang out as high tones. The 925 chain came in as a high-tone surprisingly, the silver ring was a low tone. Also another note, this area was already heavily pounded by someone else judging by the grid marks & dig holes left behind. I couldn't be happier with the performance of the AQ and I can tell after I spend more time learning this machine, I'll be able to expedite the gold extraction process on some challenging beaches this fall/winter!!

Hello Today i went to a Sandy beaches which has been popular since the 50s but also hit hard (as most of the beaches are).I took my MDT as i was told it was a potentially good beach for PI but i wanted ti try the Tarsacci 1st as it is Tarsacci week in the RR house.Anyway first target was the stainless tube which gave me a shit reading but i dug to keep myself warm. Then came 1 whisper in my headphones with positive ID took me 5 minutes to dig and the 1st 50cal cartridge was out then same signal and same target really deep maybe at 40/45cm (15").The copper deep too maybe deeper but could mesure as it was a fight to take it out, the hardest was i only took the spade. While digging those deep stuff i realise they were on a layer of crushed and broken shell under 35/40cm of sand,i shall be back there tmw God willing RR

What you see for sale is a bunch of older generic stuff that practically no one who might buy "the company" would want to mess with. What is not for sale is all the key equipment for making detectors. I suspect they are still trying to strike a deal on an overall sale. For the most part, there is nothing preventing a company from making the same detectors as White's was making. Replicating the circuit design is easy, but they would also need the micro source code. Source code repositories are on the company server with limited access so it's not a matter of anyone's "know-how," it's a matter of having the source code. Everything else is simple. If an "overall sale" never happens then White's may piecemeal-sell the designs, and then FTP might show an interest. When I started the F-Pulse design I considered re-creating the TRX. I did not because (a) I had only recently left White's and felt that would be a bit unethical, and (b) the TRX was an incredibly difficult project (I designed the circuit, but did not write the micro code so I would have to start from scratch on that). So I went with PI instead. One day I may design a "PRX" pinpointer, but not for now.

Simply prospectors who are happy to share their findings ....

Looks like iron. Try a magnet to it, I bet it sticks. As for the eagle, I'm not sure. Usually corrosion can take the shape of many things. You said it has a shank?? It almost looks like a 4 hole undergarment button. It would be better if you tooth picked as much as you could to see if there are any details on it. Pewter usually is gray with the edges de-laminating, if not found in good dirt.

Good story Gerry, I was right there with you. I also lost my pick one time, didn't leave it, just lost it. I was not even aware I had lost it until I wanted to use it, much like you did. I'm old too and it is true that walking back over ground you have already walked is never something to be looked forward to. But age takes its effect on brain cells too. Now I sit down and try to think where it could have possibly gone. My pick holder is a simple belt hammer holder, it is one of the ones that actually can swivel. In thinking of this I remembered that there had been a place where I had to turn sideways to scoot by a fallen tree. It was real close getting by it and I thought that if it were anywhere it would be there. I hiked back and it was exactly where I thought it might be. Fortunately the walk back was not long, but I hate it anyway. To my old mind going back is something you avoid at all cost. It is sorta like when climbing uphill, you do anything you can to not lose the ground gained by going down at all. Sometimes I will scramble on hands and knees to keep from losing altitude. It is somewhat of a trade off, but I figure I worked hard for that altitude and I won't give it up easily.

Well I have about 20 years on the Sovereign and am experienced enough on the Nox to comment. While I have not compared both machines in head to head. I am pretty comfortable to say at the beach I hunt, the Equinox is better in the wet sand and in the water the Sovereign is better, 10" sov coil and stock Nox coil. I have wrote on this topic several times. My conditions are: Mild to moderate black sand, and lots of moving water. Dave

If I am to get taxed on my finds, then I'm going to write off every detector purchased, every set of tires, the ATV, the toy hauler and the $80K truck used to haul everything. I'm going to write perdiem on every trip taken and then anything else I can think of. It would not be cost efficient for the IRS if we did it this way. Interesting read.

I know this is not going to help...For I use All Metal only when I hunt.....Every beach is so different on it's habits it's really hard to predict what you may encounter... And I know the frustration of digging a deep target for 10 minutes only to find it is trash. I have a spot that is loaded with that stuff...but I have reconned the area very well with the excalibur and made a map in my mind on where to hunt and where not to. Also I marked several of the solid nulls by digging two scoops, there won't be a hole there but the hole will fill with a finer grain sand, which I can tell its softer when I go to dig. This will hold good for about 3 weeks.. One thing I have noticed at other beach's and this one ..seems the crab pot pieces collect in some areas. And my guess is because that's where the cage broke down. I do find strays but they are shallow most of the time and on the move. So far that is my fight against digging those babies.. Mapping out the area, then I'll be going in with the AQ...I'll let you know how that goes. It has worked before at one other location. Good Luck..

Did any of those pieces give a double beep? I would think the long pieces should do that from a certain direction. Maybe circle the target from different angles before you dig? Just a thought.

So having used and test the Garrett Ace Apex for a bit now. I've come up with some things I do and don't like about the machine. If anyone is on the fence about buying one this might help you make up your mind. I think Garrett is heading in the right direction with all the modern features they have included on the Apex. Here's what I really like about the Garrett Ace Apex. 1. Wireless headphones 2. Backlight display 3. Rechargeable battery 4. Easy to navigate menu 5. Easy to read display 6. Great sleek look 7. Light weight 8. Ground balance capabilities 9. Weatherproof design 10. Adjustable frequencies What I don’t like and why, yea I know you can’t have everything you want with a $425 machine. 1. Lack of accessory coils-IMO the 6” x 11” Viper coil is too big for trashy sites and not big enough for clean sites. 2. Iron audio-IMO the iron audio on the Apex is pretty much worthless. It’s too loud even on 1 and the machine can’t reset fast enough and drowns out good signals close to iron when iron audio is used. 3. Notch discrimination-notching out 5 segments at a time is too many. With the Apex already struggling at depth and in iron, you need to be able to notch out one number at a time so you don’t lose targets in iron or make them even more jumpy when the target is deep. 4. Lack of adjustable tones-5 tones on this machine doesn’t work well, especially in iron trash. The iron tone and the very low conductor tones are too close in sound. Yea you can hear the difference but since this machine pulls down target ID so bad in iron, a 2 tone option or even a 3 tone would be much better so there is a distinct separation of the audio. 5. Lack of usable search modes-Really all you get with the Apex is set discrimination patterns, not search modes. When you change modes you simply notch out different segments you may not want to dig. Depth and separation remain the same, many other machines on the market both more and less expensive change the recovery and depth in relation to the mode you choose. For those of you that have the Apex or even if you don't, I would be interested in what your thoughts are on the Apex.

Just got back from 8+ days in the high desert....the weather was perfect and the quiet, wide open spaces were soul rejuvenating. Met up with Chet and Brian....we were working on a skunk our first day when Lucky Lundy texted Brian, so we went and joined him on a hunt. And true to his name, his luck rubbed off on all of us...by late afternoon we all had some gold. By the next day, Rick and I both had Lucky 7s lol.... Unfortunately, his favorite beverage was gone and all I had to offer Lucky Lundy was my homemade lentil soup or organic tofu/veggie stir fry, so he left us for “meatier” digs 😄 Detected new and old spots and I found gold each day....no skunks for me this trip and that’s unusual for sure! Some pieces I swore were going to be bigger by the hole I was digging...I can’t believe what small targets the 7000 can get at some depth! Here’s my largest and smallest nuggets found this trip...a 3 grammer and .06 gram; I only use the 7000 in Nevada and really don’t plan on finding Gold Monster sized gold there, but hey, gold is gold! After being in the dry desert sun and wind all week, I was wishing I could shed my wrinkled outer skin and grow anew like this guy did😆 Saw lots of wild horses, different lizards, and cute horny toads which all add to the experience out there! Had a great time with some great people, and ended up with over 12 grams of Northern Nevada Nuggies!

I'm interested to see what Garrett adjusts & adds to an AT platform version. Iron volume would be a deciding factor for me. Coils will come in time knowing Garrett.

Disintegrating in the name of saving history. I have never quite understood that logic. Keep it off limits until it is gone so nobody can enjoy it. I guess it makes sense to someone. The historical community has the political pull to make laws but hasn't the funds to preserve the real history. At the end of the day, the "spot" where history was made is still just a piece of land and nothing else. And most of the time the "historical" landmark is in the wrong location anyway as it is someone's best guess location. LOL

I've done the trip probably 100+ times so I have the mileage down pat. Timing is pretty close as well. I once did Boise to Winnemucca in 3 hrs 15 minutes when I was much younger and had to average 80 MPH, so the straight open was 105, but that is all the truck would do. I've since grew a few old man issues and at least 1 stop, sometimes 2 to water down a dried out sage bush. Plus I also stop in Winnemucca to gas up and of course Walmart is a lifesaver, for the items I seem to forget. Now the average trip from Boise with all my stops and then to the Burn Barrell at RP is right near 6 hours. Yes those rabbits are hard to peel from the front grille. Not good trying to swerve on that road when doing 80 though. Keep it straight and steady. BTW as for the flat tires at Rye Patch. I run 10 ply and go fast. That way, if I do get a puncture, I can get to camp just as it gets flat enough to stop. It is one of those centrifical force things that keeps the air from going out so fast. Glad you are making sure my stories are not stretched to much. But then, they would not be as entertaining...

First passes were in all metal mode. Then, in tone mode and, finally in mute mode The iron nail is fully discriminated but the lead bullet gives a lower tone than the gold or aluminium. The pull tab can not be discriminated out.

Manufacturer part number differences can simply mean a decal difference. I suspect that’s what happened here, since Gold Bug coils say “Gold Bug” on them. This is a compatibility chart, and it should show what coils work, but I can see how that could happen. The “will not interchange with other coils” asterisk only refers to hardwired coils, not electronic compatibility.

It appears you found a very fine and dense conglomerate. In a way it is a fossil, conglomerate is essentially sand or mud from an old water system thats ossified into rock. The bits of stone are old gravels and it looks that some chalcedony formed in what was a void in the stone~ the white portion of your last photo.

Who would want that idiot as an advisor?

Great story Gerry, I haven't been nugget hunting yet, to loose a pick! But i have left a shovel, and dropped a pinpointer at the beach! And had to trek back a long way, hoping that no one else found them, or the surf hadn't claimed them! And your right about that after 50 thing! It changes you!!👍👍

KOB, I am in So Cal also. Looks like it may be the nature of the beast. I keep digging and dumping them in the trash. I can say at least that nobody will step on it and stab their foot. I have been digging tons of tent pegs too but can tell them from the sound and loooooong tone or double beep. It's a job keeping these beaches clean but at least we are doing our part!!! thanks, Joe.

kac, That is not a stupid question. I think that I just have more sand movement here and there are very few constants that you can rely on. I am trying to finesse in between a lot of extremes in sand movements. When or if the sand moves out, it takes everything with it. The Lobster Trap pieces are either new or in a spot that didn't get sanded out for a couple of years. I think that most of these pieces would move more freely than a heavier ring. Gold is usually (or averagely) 9 times heavier than other metal in the sand. That's what the smart guys tell me anyway. So the gold should sink a few more inches under where the coins and this junk metal is. Or that would be what you would think if you believe that gold in heavier. It should be in the same stratus with the lead sinkers or at least pretty close. I may just need to just keep digging everything and get it off the beach and take what AU the beach gives me. LOL thanks, Joe

I can't help with the AQ. But I can say in the last 3 weeks or so I have dug around 60-70 of these things in So.Cal. The majority seem to be 3/4 to an inch long and they sound great. But I have been finding some rings and clad mixed in. Mine are no deeper than 8". I'm resigned to dig them and clear out my area.

I believe lobster traps are steel with a zinc coating so they do ring in higher than regular steel. If I nudge up my pulse delay I can get them to hit on the edge of the coil a bit but it isn't fool proof.

What depths are you finding these pieces at? I wouldn't think that they are settling as deep as the rings your looking for! So my suggestion is that you may have to clean out the wire with a VLF first! Or along with your AQ! But this would definitely be a lot of extra work! Is the area worth it? You be the judge!! Good luck!👍👍

Thanks for the reminder. I seem to be repeating myself ever 6 months, but at least I showed pictures this time. 🥴 That official Tek-Fisher cross compatability chart is pretty conservative (consistent with something Dave Johnson said in the quote Steve posted to initiate this thread). From what I see, except for one known clone (Tek Patriot = Fisher F70) the only coil that shows cross compatibility is the 4 inch coil designated for the F5 which works on the Greek Series as well as the 'new' (this will get Simon on a rant) F11/22/44 series. Even the F19 and G2, G2+ show different coils than the Gold Bugs. Very disappointing on First Texas's part, IMO, to not fill in this chart more completely with what is obvious to many of us. Were they trying to hide the fact that the (lower MSRP) F19 and G2, G2+ are the same as (or even more feature rich than) the Gold Bugs?

First thing that stands out with the GMX is that the inbuilt speaker is not as loud as I would like, being waterproof that is no mystery. This type of machine would rarely use the inbuilt speaker as most users would be using headphones. An amplified external speaker like a Nokia MD-11 on hot days and out in the bush, but headphones would be the norm. The supplied Whites headphones are decent, but no volume control.. decent but not great. The arrival of a pair of Grey Ghost Amphibian headphones for the GMX illustrates the importance of high quality audio. Simply fantastic quality, performance is great. The volume control is most welcome, at max the headphones are 'loud'. Tested with targets there is a performance gain, yes it is marginal but it is real. Add extra comfort, superior performance that really cuts out external noise. Well worth the investment and highly recommended. When considered against the cost of fuel and accommodation plus other expenses when out prospecting this has been a good investment. An investment in performance and quality. Peace of mind knowing my 'setup' will be performing at its peak. The Grey Ghost headphones are simply superb. All the best.

Hi all, Just to change things up from all the Simplex chatter of late, I wanted to share why I still love my Impact, and a few differences compared to some of the other Nokta/Makro units. Multi with 20 kHz. Nokta Makro have had a few machines running at 19 kHz, but for some reason, I can get bad interference around here, not all sites, but usually parks adjacent to houses. To be fair though, Freq shift usually sorts it out (I did run the Fors Gold+ as a shallow coin plucker for a while) but 20 kHz is a little quieter than 19 kHz which is great. Only the Anfibio Multi also offers a 20 kHz option. No real drama on the Multi Kruzer though, as I'd just use 14 kHz anyway for general coin hunting. AA Batteries. While I do like the light weight of the Kruzer/Anfibio with the internal batteries, I don't always remember to recharge them. On the Impact I run rechargeable NiMH batteries, but if I turn it on and the battery bars are telling me it's low, I can just whip in some Alkalines and I'm good to go. Also, having some of the circuitry and batteries right out past the armrest provides excellent balance. Of course this can also be achieved with the optional AA pack for the Kruzer and Anfibio series. Now the Racer 2 is lighter than the Impact and balances nicely with the batteries under the armrest, but it's 14 kHz only, and lacks a few features that I like, so don't have one in my personal arsenal. I have thought about getting another R2 and keeping a 7" concentric strapped to the end of it, but I might wait to see what optional coils come out for the Simplex. Oops haha DI3/3-tone. 3 tone in the Kruzer and Anfibio series is lightning quick, but sacrifices a bit of depth, unless you get the Sens on 90 or higher. I like that the Impact doesn't have this dual recovery split, it may be a touch slower, but it is still more than fast enough in my sites. I can also set the Sensitivity where it suits the site, and don't have to worry I may be losing depth if the Sens is below 90. The next logical step for Nokta Makro (on their higher end machines at least) would be a user adjustable recovery. Night search light! Again a feature on the Racer series, but not present on the Kruzer and Anfibio line. I do most of my beach searches at night, so having a unit with a built in search light is a real bonus. Another plus to the Impact, and re-introduced on the Simplex, arghhhh I just can't not mention it 😊 Concealed cable! The only unit in the Nokta/Makro line-up to have a concealed coil cable. Just gives the Impact that sleek look, and also don't have to worry about the cable getting scratched up in scrubby terrain, or accidentally hitting it with my digger! The draw back though is you can't really interchange coils between the Impact and Kruzer/Anfibio as the Impact coil cables are a little shorter. But I love not having to fiddle around with velcro wraps. Just slide the cable up the shaft, screw it on and you're away. More modes than you can poke a stick at! The Impact has the full suite of search modes. Actually is doesn't have 5-Tone mode as found on the Anfibio (Multi & 14 models), but it has both Gen and Gen Delta modes as well as another Impact exclusive......VLX modes. These are lower gain modes, for a quieter detecting experience. I have found they also perform well in mineralised soils. Even some of the suburban areas have heavy clay soils, and VLX1 works great. VLX2 is a low gain 4-tone mode, but is slightly deeper than VLX1 but still offers improved stability, and target ID's are very stable as well. VLX2 mode is probably the best all-round mode on the Impact, particularly if you have mineralised soils. Wide armrest. Just another one of those personal things which I don't envy manufactures on, trying to make a detector to suit everyone out there! The Impact armrest feels great for me. It is also nice and thick, so doesn't flex like many other plastic armrests found on other detectors. Trigger switch! When you get used to a detector with a ground balance/pin-point trigger, it is so hard going to a panel controlled one. It's not the end of the world, but the trigger is so natural. You ground balance more often just because it is so easy. Anyway, I better stop there, as this is getting quite long. If you've got this far, hopefully you've learnt something you didn't know, and at very least, got you thinking about what you like or don't like on your current detector.

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

Hi Gerry! The big flat one is Lucky Lundy’s....mine were the 7 on top and his were the 7 on bottom of the bottle. And NO WAY do I drink whiskey lol, that was his too! Those days are long gone for me....I’m more a merlot or Pinot noir kind of gal after dinner😄 Hunted 4 or 5 different locations so the gold would have some differences.

Thank you El Nino77. Have orderd one and it will arrive next week. If I get some time on hands I'll do a little testing. Again, thanks for your effort and your time.

Jim - Not losing the elevation on the side of a hill as we get older, is sometimes more of a challenge than the actual hunt. I agree, it's a mind over matter. Glad you were able to recover the pick. Thanks for contributing. Matt - Good point on a cost savings (Harbor Freight), but on last weeks hunt, I don't think there was one within 150 miles. Maybe if Elko, NV had one? Since I have seen so many lower quality picks break, I'll just add another APEX to the back of the truck. Good to see you on here and thanks for contributing. Joe - Glad I'm not the only who has done such. You being a beach hunter, I totally know the feeling of losing a scoop. I was with a staff member in Cancun a few yrs back and he got into some rocks, so the $300 scoop was no use. He did not want to lay it on the beach and have someone walk away with it. He laid it down in the rocks under the water. Well an hour later he comes over to me and says I need to help him find his scoop. Now you'd expect a couple guys with $2500 detectors that can find a gold ring 12" deep could find a big metal beach scoop? After about 30 minutes of us criss-crossing I finally get a whopper of a signal and sure enough it was his scoop. Thanks for sharing your same 50+ issues. Valens - You do bring up a point I have seen many timing while training groups of people. Sometimes the younger ones just feel it's easier to buy another than to try and find the original. I've learned, those few folks are normally not going to be good at metal detecting, as patients/persistence is half the battle. Thanks for your input. Skookum - Great points to paint the handles. I actually have a Staff Member who paints all his wood handle picks bright PINK for a couple reasons. 1st is we are doing quite a few trips with many customers when training and most of us all use APEX picks. Not once has a guy grabbed my staff members pink pick thinking it was theirs. Also, the pink pick is easier to spot at distance. BOOTS - I've done that before and now I keep a 2nd pair of detecting boots in my truck at all times. Only benefit of flip flops is there's no metal in them...now that is funny just trying to imagine you out there. Thanks for sharing. DDancer - You bring up a good point about the GPS on the 7000 and plotting your digs. When I was in MX earlier this yr I had one of my staff show me to use the GPS on the 7 and it was much easier than I had expected. It also made things much easier and safer when returning back to the rig after a days hike. I highly recommend those who have GPZ to learn the GPS for such occasions. Glad you were also able to find then night-light a month later. Did it still work? Thanks for adding input. Joe D - Or anyone else who may know. Has the cost of those small GPS Tracking things become relatively inexpensive yet? Yes I keep a 2nd pair of non metal boots in my truck.

This is from my experience on mid to steep slopes : on very low or minus tides the vast flat wet can being barren. Only some deeper pulltabs and caps from being pulled out by the surf. Drives me crazy , waste of time. As I move in to the bottom of the slope I tend to find the heavier iron , sinkers , etc. This is where I pay attention for the bigger HEAVIER gold. But this area of late has not been producing consistently for me. It is then where I focus on the mid to higher slope where I have been doing well. Lots of coins , smaller iron ( lobster trap bits ) and jewelry. The gold rings under 8 grams have been in this zone but have sunk deeper. It is my belief that they are being churned up and tossed back upon the beach to begin the process all over again. Timing is everything. You pretty much got to dig it all. Recently I had a great day , went back the next , it was sanded back and horrible. 2 days later I decided to hit it again and it was good. I would have normally waited a couple weeks to check this spot again. Now , I need to be checking my spots every 3 , 4 days. You never know , beach cams help but are not definitive. GL... The KoB

Cool ring, and nice selection of finds! Hopefully the water will stay warm for awhile! Keep up the great finds!👍👍

Fantastic hunt and some nice finds, keep up the great work! Good luck on your next hunt.

Research, time, and lots of boot miles. Get away from the known areas and roads.

Joe, Yep, these are in the same stratus as the rings, coins, brass pieces, etc. The coins that I pulled out were somewhat green which is a good sign. The sand had move a bit in this area with a 2 foot cut. I knew going into the AQ purchase that it was going to be just a special site detector that should compliment my Equinox/3030 and take the place of my TDI Pro and Dual Scan. BTW, I would have the same problem with the TDI. The coins would discriminate for the most part but not these pesky Lobster traps pieces. I guess I just need to go out more often and stay longer and just clean out my beaches. The downside is that I will be cleaning them out for my competition too. LOL I was hoping that someone else with an AQ would have recognized something that would tip me off before digging 6-8 scoops of sand. :-( thanks, Joe

The broken ring had me fooled when I first pulled it.. But after closer inspection it is rolled gold. (heavy gold plated) Dating it I would say this one is the 1920's...The area I am hunting did not come to life till that time period. I have a few spots I would say late 1800's is possible but that is about as old a area I have hunted. The older locations in the water here are all off limits.. Historical. London Town is one, 1700..Great stuff in the water slowly being destroyed by the Brackish water.

Certainly not as elaborate as Steve's but I planted a 3D version of Monte's Nail Board with dug square nails @ 1-4" around a Cu penny @ 6". It's a tough target, but not unrealistic for some of my sites. It has really helped me to see the need to slow way down and massage each hit, It has also shown what each size coil can do and how different frequencies react with the ferrous and non ferrous. Without this 3D set up I would have just gone with the conventional wisdom that a higher frequency is better in iron, Now I know how 20kHz compares with 14kHz and 5kHz. High gain vs. moderate gain, I was surprised by the clarity 5 kHz gives the tones, but you have to go slow and keep good overlap on any frequency. Now I know another way to help unlock a keeper out of the iron. 5 is not as quick as 20 but it adds it's own attributes if you let it.

Like I said, I used my F75 Ultimate on my Gold Bug Pro and it seemed to run fine. Try yours before getting another.

Steve, it was a thin folded nugget, little less than 2 dwts. Someone will want it for their collection! Chevron’s are getting harder to add to the poke! Rick

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.

You didn't get that bullet on a WSPA claim, I think I got the last one! Norm

More later? Well... I'm sure it will be well worth it, especially the photos. Regarding Mitchel's ability and endurance as a long-distance driver: he is the kind of guy who can leave Santa Monica at 2:00 am, to arrive in Yucca Valley at 5:00 am, pick me up, and by 6:00 am be at the Rattlesnake Canyon trailhead, all kitted up, about to start the 2 mile hike to the old Spanish Workings. Dig and detect all day, back in Yucca at 8:00 pm, to be back in Santa Monica by 11:00 pm. Really. Hey, the guy runs marathons! My hero.