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I went to the park today with the intent to dig pull tabs in hopes of finding some gold jewelry. I’ve found a gold ring at this park before and felt I have already gridded this area pretty well for coin targets. So pull tabs and aluminum range it was. I chose to use Park 2 this time but I have all the settings setup exactly the same as Park 1. So I dug all the consistent signals above 6ish. Found a few nickels, a couple deep wheats that I think were on their side and deep, but I felt reassured I had been pretty thorough gridding off this area for other coins. No other pennies, dimes, or quarters. So I get a 19-21 hit. I’m thinking, probably a zinc penny, maybe a bottle cap. I dig my hole, see something shinny, thinking it is some large round piece of aluminum out comes this silver quarter! My first silver quarter! I’ve found no other silver at this park. It is borderline time period where we transitioned out of silver coins. I stuff the pinpointer in the hole again and an inch or two deeper I found the rusty nail. I think this is what made what should have been a 29-31 or so vdi come in at that 19-21. Anyway, I found no gold, dug tons of pull tabs, but did find this nice silver quarter.

Several of us on this forum are former Marines or Marine "brats." Today marks the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the 17 day Battle of Chosin Reservoir. My dad, a sergeant in the First Marine Division at Chosin, later co-founded the Sea Angels scuba diving club with Mel Fisher. Their treasure hunting experience, along with that of the Depression Era "survival" gold prospecting experiences of my grandfather and great grandfather, influenced me greatly. Off topic, and reminiscing.

I had about an hour before we were going fishing for fish this morning, so what better to do than to dirt fish? I was trying out a new set of aptX LL BT earbuds that were ordered for when the other ones start to fail. They paired fine, but they certainly were not fast. If I'm running 7 recovery, I don't want them to sound like a 3 recovery. I disconnected them and continued to hunt. About 5 minutes into no earbuds, I got a strong 11 ID. Not knowing what it really sounds like, having taken the earbuds out, I decided to dig as it seemed like a robust signal. The Carrot was able to hit the object from the surface, so it wasn't too far down. There are no markings, but from the looks of it, it appears to be about 18K based on my wedding band at 14K. I believe this makes 10 gold rings/necklaces for the year. To my recollection, all found with the 15" coil with 7 recovery. I remember the first few years of detecting when I found no gold. I really appreciate this machine! Florida weather doesn't hurt either, as it is far easier digging in non-frozen soil year-round! Almost forgot...fished for fish for 4 hours and didn't catch a thing. 🤪

Our ground requires Difficult 99% of the time. In Normal things are a bit different signal wise over Difficult, so HY will give more ground signal and more conductive signal but the difference on big gold deep is less profound, whereas in Difficult there is a distinct difference between the two with the cross over being around the 9 to 20 gram range if the nugget is solid and deep, this is most obvious when the depth gets past 14+ inches. As an example I always detect in HY Difficult and get the bulk of the gold in that mode, if the size is up there and there is depth I’ll go over the same ground again in General in the hopes of a chunk. Nuggets found first pass in HY Difficult on a Virgin patch this year Pieces picked up at depth on 2nd pass using General Difficult (note some are small, this is because General runs at the same delay as HY so still has good sensitivity)

Got a desert trip planned in a couple of weeks and was wondering if anyone (Steve especially) has had a chance to test out the AQ for nuggets? I got mine at the end of September and it has already paid for itself in beach finds, including my first platinum ring ever, a 25.2 gram monster. I know it's not designed for prospecting, but was thinking about taking along it to play around. I did air test a 2.0 gram gold/quartz nugget with Pulse Delay of 7, max sensitivity and minimum ATS and it was a solid hit at 5" and broke the threshold at 7". For each 1/2 increase of Pulse Delay, I lost about an inch or so. If anyone has field experience, I would like to know your results. I will relay actual findings (if any) after I get back. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! John

This just shows all the Detectors’s that has been over the years.

Hitting the area that has been picked through by just about everyone with a detector and managed to find a v-nickel nicely hidden with a chunk of iron bar about 7" down. Got a fairly short signal in one direction and long iron signal in another, the short had a spot on nickel ID but thought it might have been a piece of aluminum. As you notice in my mix of trash there is a bunch of small aluminum. You can blame Chase for that as it forces me to look for gold $1 coins in the area :( Bunch of memorial nickels were in one hole with a penny about 4" away from a can on the surface. The brass bits look like its from a hurricane lamp? Found a few of those in the area. Anyways the Gold Racer does really well in trashy areas and surprisingly has descent depth for such a small coil. Finding that I needed to drop the iSat down to 3 from default 6 as the ground didn't vary too much and the gb would drift too much. Ground averaged 40's-mid 60's which is mild for most the area.

Just got back from a 45 minute deposit tonight. Two peanut containers down, two to go! The manager had to come and open the machine a couple times to clear crusty pennies and bent coins. The two times she did that, it printed out receipts for cash with the fee deducted. At the end, she credited back the $24.68 in fees. So, I got $115 in Amazon and the rest in cash! Total was $322.53. It was a fun time with my son who has had the experience before.😀 The last two pics show the rejected pile, likely about $4 in pennies and other mutilated coins.

I had to add some jokes that was in the magazine.

We all have different styles of gold nugget shooting and across this globe are so many varying terrains to chase nuggets. Our skills and years at it vary and on this fine forum, it could just as easily be the eager beaver newer member who's grateful for their 1 and only nugget, as it could be a salty savvy veteran with a lifetime of Thankful gold finds. And yet many of us have a certain detector that meant so much to our pursuit of heavy metal. What model of gold detector are you most thankful for and why? For me, it's the Fisher Gold Bug-2 as it was the 1st gold detector we (detector & I) became 1. It was the machine that kept gold coming in and eventually lead me to the Pulse Induction powers/depths beyond. It's not my favorite to swing today (not even top 3), but I have to give credit when due and the GB-2 is the gold detector I am most thankful for. I look forward to hearing your Thankful gold detector comments.

Simon: the glory days are only ever as far away as the next patch of new ground. You make your own glory days. The important thing is to keep looking for new ground. The safe old familiar flogged areas are, sadly, never going to be the stuff that dreams are made of. 😞

A 1985 Gem and Treasure Hunter (later Gold Gem and Treasure) from Australia. The magazine had just been purchased by a new Australian detector company called Minelab Electronic industries. The Goldseeker 15000 was being tested at the time by a young bearded bloke called Reg Wilson, yet not a single Minelab product appears anywhere. There is an advertorial for the new Whites GM6100D and others for Bounty Hunter, Tesoro and the Garrett A2B Groundhog. These were also the days when your first colour could well be too heavy to comfortably carry around 🙂

I think you may have sent me a few of those older magazines at one time Chuck. Just think how many boxes of magazines you have stashed away, as I seen your name on the shipping label going all the way back to 1971/2, so I suspect you have 40+ yrs, maybe 45 of being a dedicated TH'er and magazine reader. Heck, I imagine these are more rare than the Playboy of the time. Great post and pics.

I also started a magnificent quest for a different kind of gold in Dayton NV at age 18...... namely the Kit Kat ranch, Starlight & Moonlight Ranch....lol😇

Yes this happened to me a few times in the early 70's. Mama found my porn stash under the bed and it was what set up my career. After all, I tell many I'm in the Adult Entertainment business selling high end toys. These early magazines had me squeamish in bed a many sleepless nights. A boy my age was quite naive, so seeing such raw and natural images sent my brain into overload. I had no clue what the future would hold, but I feel it came out quite right. View these 2 early magazines and you'll notice some of the articles and headlines. 1st is GOLD by True West, 1969 Vol. 1, #1 and looking at the inside page of the articles are authors mostly long gone. But I give credit to them for allowing me to dream. If anyone knows of these names, it would be neat to get updates. 2nd magazine porn I used to drool over, Old West 1971 and just as incredible is an article about "Elk City Idaho" and just below that....perfect timing. "One Thanksgiving Day". Folks, I can't make this up any better. I go to my old stash and grab a couple and these are absolute on. The inside cover (I forgot to check the centerfold) is a full page ad from Jetco and their top detectors 50 yrs ago. The models of the detectors are catchy like many muscle cars of the day, GTO, Mustang, GTX, Treasure Hawk...didn't Minelab have a Treasure Hawk? So I ask you folks, show the rest of us your Treasure Porn that kept you dreamin, drooling and -master swinging.

Who do you know that has ever considered mining in Korea or a 'Korean Gold Rush' of a sort? The thought had never occurred to me until I read this brief article and then did a bit of research to find more links. I doubt there are any articles on nugget shooting in Korea. http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2020/11/721_300053.html https://nanopdf.com/download/a-glimpse-of-life-at-the-gold-mines-royal-asiatic-society_pdf https://steemit.com/korea1960/@coped/gold-mining-in-south-korea-koryo-mines-part-1

The Impulse AQ has the sensitivity to hit fairly small gold nuggets. Unfortunately the lack of ground balance controls means you are at the mercy of the ground and hot rocks. I found I could get the AQ to run in most any mode if I slowed to a crawl, as any coil speed at all introduced too many false signals. The only mode I could cover ground in effectively was volcanic mode. If the AQ was the only detector I had I would not discourage anyone from giving it a go gold prospecting, but I would not recommend anyone buy one thinking that will be a viable use of the machine. It really is highly optimized as a beach detector, and when looking at other possible uses of the machine like coin or relic hunting, I would put gold prospecting dead last on the list of things the AQ is very good at. Put another way, I was halfway determined to find a gold nugget with the AQ, but gave it up very soon as just not worth the effort.

Yeah, that makes sense about the larger silver coins. I just always wonder if more experience detectorists or those that hunt by sound can really tell. Or certain detectors separate the two by VDI or tone better than others.... But I really do think I am finding the tough ones that were on side or signal was blended to a lower VDI by another nearby item. Lots of patience, lots of trash digging, but rewarding. I’m starting to find that a good strategy for working sites that I have repeat access to is to work them in buckets. 1. Cherry pick the obvious coins and higher tones in Park 1. 2.Then work those high single digits and teens as another layer in Park 2. 3. Maybe then go back in Field modes with lower iron bias, maybe the 6” and try to wiggle out some more goodies.

I use 8" Reebok Rapid Response boots, 100% no metal, got mine with composite toe. The side zipper model, which I own, has a metal zipper tab, which I remove. The boots last on average 2-3 years, but are used a lot. They are light weight, and in summer when its 115 degrees they do pretty good keeping feet cool... If you hunt in desert environment, waterproof, or snake proof boots I would not recommend, at least for me, as my feet would not breathe in them, sweat big time, get athletes feet, ect. I also put an impenetrable insert in them, as the cactus still come through bottoms sometimes on any boot, especially the chollo. Make sure to get non metallic, a lot out there with metal in them, such as https://www.lacrossefootwear.com/flex-shield-insole.html https://www.amazon.com/Non-Metallic-SoleGUARDZ-Puncture-Resistant-Flexible/dp/B089J59XDT/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=steel+flex+nonmetallic+puncture+resistant&qid=1606576738&sr=8-1

I and my wife started out with White's Goldmaster II and we've had every version ending with the GMT. For the area we hunt for gold specimens these detectors have worked really well. Unfortunately a PI detector will not detect some of the gold specimens. Here are the gold specimens we found first year detecting with the Goldmaster II:

Thanks, JP! Amazing gold and amazing operator! Every GPZ owner on this forum should be greatful for your detailed explanations and advice!

GB2. Reasons: My 1st nugget, most nuggets, analog tuning, few false signals and light weight. Still a viable afternoon machine on shallow ground when I am tired from swinging my GPZ and great for searching under bushes.

Good looking finds, and great looking quarter! I think there are few qualifying parks, if any, that haven't been cherry picked for their silver! But no matter how hard hit, there will always be those that were missed, or out of range to detect! That makes you appreciate the one's you do find, that much more! Keep at it!👍👍

One of the worst weather Wars of the time with 17,000+ American casualties. Just think what it would be like trying to fight outdoors with 1950 clothing in -35 degree weather. It is said that more casualties were from weather (non battle) than actual deaths fighting. From one Marine to the next...Semper Fidelis = Always Faithful.

So I went ahead to try the Coinstar for the first time in my life and also to see how the crusty pennies would fare... Some things I learned: 1. Walmart Machine had a very limited selection on gift card choices and no Amazon! Kroger (grocery store in midwest) machine however had a much better selection including Amazon, Lowes and Home Depot. 2. I decided to load the pennies first, in case the machine jammed up and wait on the other denominations. It did jam up... with the nickels. But it stopped short of $5, the minimum for the gift cards. So the lady came, printed out a receipt for 4.33, minus 59 cents fee! Oh well. I cashed in my 4.33 and got the rest on another ticket with a code to use at Amazon. Lesson learned, load in the Quarters, dimes, and nickels first! Then the zinc pennies! It rejected so many zinc pennies😆 Although, I’m pretty sure it was a bent nickel that jammed it... I think it did a good job at rejecting the bad pennies. No dimes rejected. The one bent nickel and a few others had nicks from shovel probably, one of the quarters. Some no damage, not sure why rejected. It was on the low end of what I guessed but that is okay. I made a lot of other cool finds this year, had a lot of fun, and learning. I kept my coppers and wheats for now. Probably eventually toss the crusty zincs, make a cache of some kind.

Always detect back to your vehicle or start point, I am often amazed by the amount of good nuggets I find within 50 feet of where I park my 4x4. This 26 gram chunk was a good solid broad hit in HY Difficult yet when I checked it in General the signal was more subdued suggesting it was going to be less than 1/2 ounce, got the shock of my life when I threw it on the scales. I’d say the rough exterior made it more of a Fast Time constant target than the weight implied. So a 14 gram morning bonus’d out on a lucky find because I kept the motor running after a long hot session. 😎 Always a nice feeling when they won’t fit in your container. A 40 gram session is always greatly appreciated by the bookkeeper

If you want the best that fit your hearing needs you have to make them yourself. These are wired, waterproof headphones for the Minelab Excalibur. Everyone knows how bad the ML waterproof headphones are....So after several years of experimenting and testing I was able to find a combo that allowed me to hear deep targets no one else could. I ended up using Unlimited audio 50mm piezo's that gave me the higher pitch, 2400HZ that fit my hearing then add a unique horn design to amplify the audio for all metal hunting only. Being they work great for me on the excalibur I tried them on the Fisher "AQ" Limited and no doubt they are pushing the limits of unheard deep targets of the "AQ". I did test several speakers / earphone elements and these were the more popular used in Aftermarket metal detecting Head phones. Audiosears higher tone..used in several of the bigger name HP's..Sunrays Pro, Black Widows, then a few of the GG models and if I remember correct there is one set that is made in the UK that uses them also. Then the bass sound of the old Rat Phones...using Kobitones...Many swore by the Rat Phones years ago but now no longer available. I was able to make all of the speakers I tested water proof using a proven method. .

I started with the A2B back in '83. That first chunk of auriferous quartz from an ore dump in Dayton NV began my own Magnificent Quest.

Alexander Enterprise was the guy I got my White’s 66 TR before I came a dealer myself. Has name was Jim Alexander . Later Jim moved out to Az. having something to do with mining and that’s the last I know. This all took place around 72 and it’s been a lot of water has run under the bridge. Chuck

For me, it used to be the X-terra 705. That detector continually impresses me. And at times it has frustrated me. But now it is the Gpx5000.It offers me so many settings and ways to mix and match how I want to set it up to hunt a particular area that it easily wins. My Gpx4000 was quiet but never quite like the Gpx5000. A detector that continually amazes me is a detector that I seek to unlock all it's capabilities. For me the 5000 paired with the Evo coils, covers most all of me needs. Versatility is what I need in Montana. The 5000 provides it.

You're really showing your age, Paul. My wife and I got lectured by our niece maybe 10 years ago using that old lingo, and that was after she put her eyes back in the socket. Those are 'flips' among younger generations. I'll let you Google Image 'thong' if you're not up on 21st Century terminology (and all the more reason to if you are 😏). OTOH, having read many of your posts, maybe this was part of your typical subtle, clever methods.... You've spent too much time hanging around with those feisty Meganesians.

Ditto for me, Gerry!

Garret A2B without a doubt for me. Mainly small gold sub grammers in my backyard, Bounty Hunter RB7, Whites 6000D, Garret Deepseekers were OK but the Groundhog/A2B with its high frequency 15Khz (for that time). It was the " prelude" for the Fisher Gold Bug 1 & 2 and the Whites GM 1 & 2.

I finished my 2020 Field Training of customers a couple weeks ago at Rye Patch and was able to run the 7000 without interruption for 6 days. My best day was 12 nuggets but I also have to admit that on 2 days, I was skunked (the 2 days I was swinging new ground looking for a patch. ). Almost all the gold were whisper signals most folks are not good at and in a particular wash near the burn barrel, I pulled 7 in a day. I even called over some customers who were hanging around to let them listen, watch and learn. It just amazes me this detector can pick up nuggets at 14 to 18" deep and they are less than 2 grams. Now I would never expect these kind of results in the Spring though so make sure you know your ground and timings. I was able to also watch Lunk dig his 1 ouncer and it blew me silly how it had been missed by the older machines. Anyway, we had a great trip, fabulous customers/camaraderie, some delicious meals (Thanks Chef Rusty) and good gold. I'm starting to see a pattern when training though. The lady customers seem to pay more attention and their proper coil control gets them more gold.

One of the better large VLF coils I have used; I still have the detector and coil below. From https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/1387-detailed-review-of-makro-gold-racer-by-steve-herschbach/ "Perhaps the biggest surprise for me was when I decided to give the 15.5” x 13” DD coil a try. Honestly, I did not expect much from it. You normally do not see a coil this large for high frequency machines because the ground feedback usually overwhelms them, negating any gains that can be had regarding depth. Instead, the Gold Racer seemed to be even better behaved with the larger coil than with the smaller coils. I hunted some cobble piles with it and it ran smooth as can be at higher sensitivity levels. I then wandered into some moderately hot ground with it, still with no problems, and was actually surprised when I came up with a couple small gold nuggets with it. The first was only 0.8 grams which I thought was pretty fantastic. So I put a little more effort into it, and found a 0.3 gram nugget. With a 15.5” x 13” DD coil on a VLF? That is really kind of unheard of, and I was thoroughly impressed. I am not sure what is going on there but I do know the Makro detectors can sense what coil is on the detector. Something different going on with that big coil? I don’t know, but the results and performance surprised me. Also surprising was that for such a large coil it actually was not bad swinging it for half a day. That could be from my using large, heavy detectors all summer however. Still, it was an eye opener all around and changed how I think my Gold Racer might get used in the future. It looks to have more use for covering very large areas blue sky prospecting than I would have imagined." Makro Gold Racer with 15.5" x 13" coil

Then you would not left any gold for me. JR the Whites 6100 GoldMaster was great to see again that was the first Detector I bought for me. The Garrett ADS was my hand me down from the wife that I got for her new. She hated it and I had to get her a Whites 6000 but it got me away from dredging into detecting . Gerry those early top line detector cost less than a good coil these day.

Thanks Jeff. I have a few sites where I find wheats back to 1918 and old artifacts but struggle to find silver. And the wheats often come up high like silver dimes and quarters would. So if someone beat me to it, would they not have dug those wheats and other clad dimes and quarters I find? How would they skip those but pull all or most the silver? I hunted this park, found wheats, and kept hoping to hit silver but no luck until today. And I think I lucked out on this quarter digging for something else! Maybe just the tough ones are left and I’ll have to regrid in Park 2 after some good rains.

The “Frozen Choisen” - I had a friend who limped because of the toes he lost.

Sunny Mountain.com has them listed. Ausome

For me it was the ML 4500 had the most success over the years, but still have great memories of the ML3000, ML2100 and the ML GT16000 also great machines in their day, compared to the gold machines memories between/after (Z). Re Coin detectors have had a number of ML units but like OneGuy like the Tesoro Golden Sabre.

Here is an old boot thread and there have been others over the years:

Not so in Siskiyou County California. Our Sherriff told me that just being in the woods, away from people is enough reason to carry a gun. He said that no law officer would bother you for that.

Hey I got some that have Buffalo poo on them .

Thats a tuff call being Ive found gold with all of the ones Ive owned

When I and my wife stayed there a few years ago at the trailer park in Meadview we met a lot of prospectors who were there for the winter. Seems like most of them were very helpful and wouldn't hesitate to give advice or areas to prospect. They also seem to look out for each other. Maybe things have changed and no longer true. We also had a great time at the Lake Havasu Gold Seekers camp which is in the Franconia area.

Welcome aboard and glad to see you here. You are going to find many people to help you here on what detector to get, and where to find the rocks. Please post some of your pictures of the finds you get so everyone can enjoy them. Good luck!

Agree but it would have to be low latency bluetooth such as APTX LL which lowers the perceived audio delay down to less than 40 ms or so. Most "regular" Bluetooth protocols such as SBC, AAC, and even non LL APTX have latencies from 60 to 250 ms which is readily noticeable (and intolerable) on a normal coil sweep swing. This severely limits the selection of compatible 3rd-party bluetooth headphones available for purchase. It is apparent that there is not a huge demand for low latency wireless headphones so APTX LL does not appear to be a widely adopted BT protocol in the consumer market. That fact and manufacturer profit driven motivations tend to drive detector companies to hawk their own custom proprietary low latency wireless solutions limiting the selection of cross compatible wireles audio systems to the relatively expensive Quest, Garrett Z Lynk, ML Pro Sonic, and Nokta wireless systems that lock you into specific wireless receivers or headphones.

Found a run in laterite yesterday, basically just laterite with the odd bit of quartz here and there. Picked up 1/2 oz of sub gr pieces and as it was late in the day and my ute was 6 klms away I marked and left in the ground 30+ signals. Returned this morning and picked up 40+grams of subs to 2.5grs. It was all reefy gold that hadn't travelled so I tried tracing it up the hill, marking another 50 or so signals to dig out later. All of a sudden WHAM!!!! The back of my ute now has 40+kg of rock absolutely riddled with gold and the signal is still going along and down. This spot will keep me amused for weeks as the initial run is about 30 metres wide and about 100 metres long and who know how big it will expand to. Not sure what I have yet and too afraid to estimate but it's multi ounces, just how many is the question. Half the bit I picked up were sunbakers too, sitting there winking at me. 40+grs from today 40+kg of rock / reef/ ore/ something Crappy pic of random chunk of what it's all like

For Klunker

I had the opportunity to detect for a private claim on some really good ground in Arizona. I had to share this. Here's 50 ounces I found in 31 days. I get a small percentage but the experience alone was worth it. I hope you enjoy.