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I'm sorry for this silence but I've been out a lot of time, busy at work with deliveries... Months ago I was in a sort of "bubble", unable to take a smart choice on my next instrument for the future... Thanks to some angels here, I found the way to see the light again and the shine too some days ago... I just wanna say here that I wish Happy new year to all of You and a brotherly hug from Italy. Skull

Hi Folks, Thought I would start a thread showing my first attempt at an analog detector, I've been working in the electronics field for many years mostly in the analog/rf area. Hope everyone enjoys the process, and any input or suggestions would be appreciated. I'll try and post as I go along, but this is my after hours hobby, so updates may come every few weeks. I apologize if this goes overboard on the images. So here goes..... Here is the overall unit, the display will tip up and turn on. Closeup of the display Display tipped up, it will show RSSI across the top, and material ID in the center and across the bottom. Control Panel, has gain hi lo, discrimination on off, coil balance, threshold, volume, phone jack, and on off with lo bat indicator. Coil Actual board and display turned on and balanced, I'm sorry for the vertical image I couldn't straighten it up, the coil is under the paper, it's a hand wound 3" OD test coil. Note that this board has only three adjustments and the one in the above renderings has four, this one has no threshold adjust. 1957 silver quarter Gold chain and cross. Aluminum pull tab. Coke bottle cap. Clad quarter. My steel cutters. I'm getting parts in to start putting the new one together, hopefully my updates to the circuit will work out. We have a saying, "may have to shoot the engineer to finish the project", it feels like every other day I come up with another improvement :), anyway I hope you guys enjoy this, I'll post as I go along. -Sun-Boy

These are from CA, found several years ago on an isolated high bench. There were nuggets everywhere, despite having been detected by others who didn't know their machines or were swinging too fast. My detecting partner found 3 with his GP Extreme. Found with a GPX 4000 and 17" elliptical NF coil. The nuggets are 4.8 grams total, the speci is 5.6 grams:

Hello all! First of all, I just wanted to publicly say thank you to Steve and the rest of the members on this site. Although this is my first post, I have been using the wealth of information gathered from everyone here for a while now. It's that time of year up here in Alaska where the days are dark and the memory of summer seems like a distant past. To cure my deep seated winter time blues and my sense for adventure, I decided to check out a spot I have been wanting to try for a while now, but let the myriad of summertime activities get in the way. But perhaps the real underlying driving force for this trip was my new highbanker waiting patiently in the garage to process dirt. Whatever the REAL reason, I looked at the forecast and saw a balmy 26 degrees forecasted and knew it was time to shine. So I drove North of Anchorage with my back country cross country skis (say that ten times fast) in tow, looking forward to a day out in the back country. I have found that if my main objective is to get out and enjoy the outdoors with a side chance of pay dirt, I am rarely if ever disappointed. And this day was no different. I arrived and strapped on the skis and my touring sled and set off into the snow. I quickly found out that hauling equipment by skis should be an Olympic event. The powder was easily three feet deep and probably pushing on four, making me earn every "stride". In reality, the snow was so deep and the sled so heavy that my skis weren't gliding at all, but being used more like elongated snowshoes, trudging through the snow. But the temperature was warm and snacks aplenty, so I trotted along the creek ahead encountering open water in places and crossing precarious snow bridges at times in order to make my way along. Just around the moment where I realized that I may be in for more of a workout than I intended, I had arrived. Located a few miles downstream was a section of the creek forced into a ninety degree bend by an outcrop of ancient gold bearing glacial till. During the summer months this "creek" (creek only in name) produces too swift of a current to properly explore this bend. But thanks to mother nature, winter freeze up reduces this section to a little more than a shin deep trickle. (The section of glacial till forcing the creek into a perfect ninety degree bend. The creek erodes alongside this till and prevents any debris from accumulating at the base.) (The creek encountering the glacial till and being turned at a sharp ninety degree angle, causing a major drop in water velocity.) As I considered this to be more of an exploratory trip on skis I had left my waders at home, preventing me from properly getting out in the channel. What I settled for instead was balancing myself on the edge of the ice as close as possible (not recommended) and shoveling a few scoops of dirt from the pool formed at the base of the till and into my bucket from the area that I could reach. Realizing that I had all that skiing back left to do, with darkness quickly advancing, I hurriedly filled half a bucket from mostly surface gravels and raced the darkness back to my car. Now for the fun! With dirt in hand and back home in the comforts of a heated garage, I was ready to test out my new 6 inch highbanker. Now let me preface this with some information. This highbanker is not meant to be loaded into a vehicle and dropped off at your spot of choosing. This highbanker is made to tear down and fit inside your pack and hiked into your spot of choosing. Weighing in at only six pounds, this highbanker fits a niche group for those wanting to pack out their operation on foot. And let me tell you what, I am extremely excited to do just that this summer with this bad boy. Made by Gold Rat Engineering out of Australia, this highbanker tears down to nuts and bolts and runs off of a 2,000 GPH electric bilge pump. Coupled with a lithium ion battery (less weight), you can have this set up packed out in the backcountry at 10lbs. While I realize that using an ultra lightweight 6 inch backpack highbanker out of your garage is like using a Ferarri to drive to the corner store, that's exactly what occurred. Running the half bucket that I brought back, the highbanker took it in stride and I soon found myself wishing that I had brought more back (the soreness in my quads reminded me otherwise). I panned out the concentrates from the lower mat (which can be detached and not brought into the field, making it even smaller and lighter) and found it LOADED with black sand. But not a single speck of gold. (The highbanker uses a matting called the Dream Mat) Feeling a little disheartened I ran the top mat, not expecting much after the lower mat didn't produce. Again, LOADED with black sand. And as I panned it back, gold! Now I realize it's not much (it was only half a bucket and ten minutes of digging in all fairness) but what I was really impressed with was the capture rate of the highbanker and the fines of the gold it was able to capture. Some of this stuff was the definition of fly poop. And for it to capture all of that in the top mat without any getting to the lower, I'll take it. So overall, I am extremely happy with this new highbanker and look forward to using it this summer out in the backcountry of Alaska. I am happy with the quick results of the spot I tested out. With a little more effort I believe it will produce some decent results. Once it hits 33 degrees I am taking the highbanker out there to really run some dirt. (Although a suction dredge would be the best tool for this location). But the biggest takeaway was being able to shake the wintertime blues, enjoy the outdoors, and remind myself that springtime prospecting isn't as far off as it sometime feels. Once again I want to thank this community for the knowledge and expertise you all have shared and hope that my short trip report reminds everyone that better panning days are ahead (looking at you 2021). Happy New Years, -Brandon

Ah ok. So my next best finds were 2 Seated dimes, around 15 Barber dimes, 2 barber Quarters, an SLQ, a Kennedy Silver Half, and lots of Washington quarters, Rosies, and Mercs. Around 25 Indian Head Pennies too. My best relic this year was a beautiful turn of the century Skeleton Key, and my 2nd oldest coin was an 1843 Seated dime.

The inside bend, side slope of a desert canyon about 200 feet above the existing stream bed. That's all I can share for now..

With the recent big surf and good lunar tides I thought that my last hunt of the year could be a good one. However, It wasn't looking too good after about 4 hours of detecting and I only had about a dozen or so coins when I scooped a darkened silver ring out of the wet sand. The "infinity" design prompted me to look inside the ring hoping to see what I did see- "Tiffany & Co.". Later I added another ring which I thought was silver but it turned out to be plated. I looked up the ring on the Tiffany web site and was surprised at the retail price on these: https://www.tiffany.com/jewelry/rings/tiffany-infinity-ring-GRP08642/ It was a nice way to end the year. Happy New Year everyone!

Very short but very productive year for me, seeing as I only got to prospect from Oct. - Dec. and only about 8 days during those months. I'll post a few more photos later of my 2020 finds. But enjoy this semi drawn out nugget discovery to recovery 😂

Hi all, I (we) are newly retired and setting up for life after covid.... We have been part time prospectors for many years, venturing ut when work permitted and sometimes when work did not permit. 90% of our time has been spent around the Kimberley and Pilbara regions, and whilst there are still patches to be found, the ground is hard on old limbs. We will be heading off in our new van in 21 hopefully to see what the rest of Australia has to offer. Hope to meet some of the Aussie prospectors out there in the never never, swap a few yarns, sip the odd whisky, and show a few nuggets or 2 around the camp fire. Cheers

Well, I don't know about the storage size but the number of them is moderate compared to many who post photos here. I like your enthusiasm and "get your hands dirty" effort. "Well begun is half done" and you're past the 'well begun' stage already. My main suggestion is to get a (prototype) unit up and running in the field and save the nicities for later. (That may be your plan already.) Air tests are known to be ideal and you likely will find differences with in-ground targets that lead to modifications. So far the performance appears promising. I look forward to your progress reports.

Dug the woman's diamond, 14K (2.1 g) within the first 30 minutes of today's hunt. Got the man's 14K wide band (4.6 g) at about the 3 hour mark in the hunt. Equinox, 15 inch coil, Beach 1, wet sand.

Thanks DWD, I've been fortunate enough to find 1 platinum, 1 gold and 5 silver T&Co rings over the past 10 years- all but 1 in the wet sand. I also found a thin chain and heart T&Co silver bracelet but would love to find one of their heftier bracelets.

The capability boost by incorporating those few things from the FBS2 detectors that are desirable would only be worth a couple hundred dollars in value to me. More importantly, and probably something that would actually drive cost up (since the above is only programming and signal processing - no impact to power requirements) is improving the build quality and ergonomics by going to full up CF shafts and stems, improving weight and balance, improving the grip and adjustability of the control pod, and finally deciding on making a truly waterproof or simply dunk proof/weatherproof machine rather than trying to split the difference like they did with Equinox(it appears to be mostly dunk proof and submersible if you are lucky and got one that does not have manufacturing/fit-up flaws). I could live with dunk proof (rather than submersible) personally which would be cheaper to design and build. Also not interested in built-in GPS and other half-measure bells and whistles. That would probably put it at the $1200 to 1500 price point, I would say.

I Hope you get a gold Tiffany next.In 20 years i have gotten 3 silver ones.A ring in the water,A chain with pendent in the dry sand and a chain with pendent in the turf.I have not got one in about 5 years. My friend has about 3 too.He also got a dry sand trifecta.Gold ,Platinum and silver in 1 day.He is the only one I know who has done it on the dry sand.

Thanks Compass! My daughter has already claimed the diamond ring and she usually doesn't care unless it has T & Co on it. LOL Finding a diamond ring that she likes and fits her tiny ring finger has been a real challenge too. Usually if the ring is that small it is not a diamond ring.

I tried finding my previous (2019) summary report and New Year's resolutions but failed. Well, I have the data (from my logs) and I roughly remember my goals -- find some new detecting spots. I left my old heavily searched (by me) schools and parks alone this year and returned to a couple I had barely detected plus one I had never detected. 90% of my year's detecting was spent on this last (previously undetected by me) site. All three yielded silver coins. Not surprisingly I spent most of my year in the one that seemed to be the best producer. I finally retired for good in February (I'd been 50% for the previous 1 1/2 years) and it did lead to more hours in the field, but not large multiples (311 hrs vs. my previous best of 263 hrs). My most noticeable increase in raw numbers was almost doubling my "other old coins" finds, those being pennies before Lincolns, denominations no longer minted (e.g. 2 cent), 5 cent pieces before Jeffersons plus the silver Warnicks, and all higher denominations prior to 1965 -- i.e. the silver years. I keep a separate category for Wheat pennies. My other old coin count (still modest compared to many here, some of you reporting 100 or more for the year) was 43 (previous record 22). I found 103 Wheaties along the way (previous record 90). Most of the increase in the 'others' was from nickels across the board (especially Buffies and Warnicks). Here's a photo of my last 6 month's 'other old coins': No rare or even semi-key date+mintmarks there. Both Indian Head Pennies are from the early 20th century (very common). I can't read the dates on the very badly worn V-nickel and two of the three Buffies (other is 1920 plain). The Jeffie (lower right) doesn't count as "other old coins" but is included because it's a fairly low mintage 1950 plain (not to be confused with the lowest mintage of the series which also came out that year, with Denver mintmark). The silver charm(?), at least I think it's silver, is not marked but I think it's some kind of artisan silver piece -- rather crudely made as you can see. Surprisingly I got very little silver jewelry this year since I dig everything about 20 on the Equinox (i.e. above Zinc pennies). I didn't buy a single detector this during 2020, only a couple coils (both for the Fisher F75). I feel like I learned a lot about using the Equinox but nowhere near everything I'd like to know and apply. Oh, one of the IHP's was found with the Tesoro Vaquero. (Only 9 hrs or about 3% of the year was spent hunting with anything except the Eqx and almost all of it with the 11" coil.) I used to buy a new (or used) detector every 8 or 9 months. The risk (and I paid for it) is not ever really learning one properly before I shelved it for the greener grass on the other side of the hill. I'm not making that mistake with the Equinox. For 2021, my goals/resolutions are the same, but to a higher magnitude. I'm going to find some local old, forgotten sites thru research and at least make an attempt to get permissions (if they are private, which is likely). The pandemic did hinder me a bit in 2020 with no detecting trips out of my local area. I have three promising permissions on hold (a 19th Century picnic/swimming hole, a 19th Century church site, and an 18th Century New England homestead -- none of these has ever been detected according to their owners). I missed getting out west for natural gold searching and ghosttowning. I should at least get to Colorado late spring or early summer for both and maybe Nevada (fingers crossed) again this year. While the weather is uncooperative for detecting I'll do more backyard testing and (finally) learn how to clean my now 294 Wheaties, many with dates currently hiding under the infamous green scale. (Maybe some semi-keys among them -- I hope, I hope.) If I can figure out how to pan in my (heated) workshop without making a mess I'll do some of that on uncooperative winter days as well. I do have some unpanned promising material and don't mind practicing with pseudo-gold (lead flakes), either. I hope all of you're pleased with your 2020 efforts and especially hope you harbor high aspirations for 2021. Happy New Year!

Sage advice for nugget shooters from the late, great Jim Straight! I always get excited when I come across the old drywasher tailing piles (dryblower heaps) of long abandoned mining claims in the desert. The efficiency of gold recovery using this dry separation method depends on many factors, including the moisture content of the material, its degree of consolidation, the angle of the riffle box and amount of air flow and vibration. Even if all of these conditions are optimal, recovery is never 100% and some gold inevitably ends up in the tailing piles. So, slow and methodical searching of these areas with the gold detector most always guarantees a few bits being added to the poke. Depending on when these placers were mined, the tailings can be hard to recognize, so carefully observing your surroundings while out in the field for these tell-tale clues to productive areas can really pay off. While the coarse tailings have been detected for large nuggets long ago in most instances, the fine piles were left unchecked and can still contain numerous sub-gram nuggets for the keen detector operator. But that's only half of the fun, because searching the virgin ground surrounding these old workings can yield more and larger nuggets, and maybe even an undiscovered nugget patch. Some sub-gram gold recovered from the tailings:

Hi Guys, in answer to the questions: Kac, LCD instead of Led's is an option, but that would mean interfacing to a screen which would mean a micro and programming which I'm not good at, so for now I'm stuck with led's Coil mounting in the center, yep, that was how I designed my original one, but I wanted to keep the wiring short to the coil windings, but I do prefer the center mount one for the reasons you mentioned, I like the center mount for the next iteration. I'm not real clear on the dual circuit you mentioned, not to sure what you mean. I'm not sure why I didn't go with a pot for gain control, I think I didn't want the coil balance and gain to interact, but it's an option to explore. Joe, Aluminum parts would be great, but when the money comes out of your pocket....eh....time for rapid prototyping. I use a place called 3D Hubs, I had them use MJF, Multi Jet Fusion, the parts are amazingly close to actual dimensions, probably +/- 2mils, they do a great job and a excellent prices. The Cuff is an anderson labs, really good quality. The Coil wire is running down the center of the shaft. Waterproof? Nope, it will be splash proof at best. Single Freq. VLF, I would say it's kind of a hybrid VLF/CW - continuous wave, you don't have to swing the coil to get a signal. Battery cover is on the back. Batteries are 8 AA's, typical black plastic holder. Battery life right now I think will be between 15 and 20 hours. Led's are a little inset right now. Materials I'm using on this model are carbon fiber tubes for all the shafts as well as the electronics/battery housing, if it don't work, it will be the prettiest non performing metal detector made! :) GB, I hear you, get it working now and make it pretty later....but I can't help it!!! :), gotta make it pretty..it's just how i"m wired :). And thanks for the zip lock plastic soil idea, that will work well. Johnny, I will do some testing over the holiday weekend with some rusty nails, straight and bent, and I think I can find some rusty tin. I'm still not to clear on the dual audio. Thanks for the input guys, this model is pretty much set, but we improve as we go. -S

Thought diving was your business 🙂 Nice gold. Have a better new year!

I would love to hear more in depth store about the terrain you found them in. Was it forested, no forest, steep mountains or hills. We're they found on a ridge or in a wash or gulch bottom or side slope of a gulch. Discribe your surroundings and what you think or know was going on with the gold geologically without telling us the location. This is a fascinating story. Tell your story in detail, I am sure there are people here that might gain ensight from it .

Bob what you describe seems normal to me on an exceptionally hot machine with auto GB. Swinging N to S you have a natural rise even a slight rise and are going against the "grain" where black sand forms in sheets..... kind of like going over a bumpy road with a car. Running E to W some of that you dont get because you GB doesnt have to adjust as quickly. We even get this in the water with about any machine if you try and hunt those high banks. It falses because we tend to swing the coil up .... kind of what you get from the so called "golf swing" lol. Now at the waters edge..... waster is move and expanding the sand causing gaps and moving more of that black sand. likely reduced sensitivity running N to S at the waters edge could be a better path. Then do your E to W grinding.......its likely you are loosing depth anyway as the machine adjusts itself.

Nice little high banker.... However I can not share your enthusiasm about the dream mat .... Something else you might consider is a smaller pump. 2000 GPH is a bit much for a 6" sluice. Try an 1100 GPH pump with some test material and see how it handles it. You are classified to what appears to be 1/4" which is good so water flow and sluice angle is all you need to dial in. The other advantage of an 100 GPH pump is they use considerably less power than the 2000 so you won't need as big a battery... Not trying to tell you how to do it just offering some suggestions for you to consider.... Heavy pans.

Great job SB, Looks to be a simple to operate lightweight design so far! The housing looks sturdy! Is it machined aluminum parts; other than coil and lower shaft? I hate plastic cuffs! Is the coil wire internal, or around the shaft? And is the unit going to be waterproof? Single frequency vlf? Is that the battery cap on the rear, and what kind of battery avilability and life do you estimate? If the LEDs are an issue in sunlight, as kac mentioned, they could be in a slightly inset housing to counteract this! That would also protect them from impact!👍👍

Great year. You must have access to some great sites there in Iowa to haul away all that silver.

I burn my old shed for 2 days in my barbecue😱(i chopped it into pieces with a jigsaw)👍 while gardening kept me warm in Central London it was 2c ,so far no neighbours complaints,we are a quiet family anyway ,garden looks bigger now. RR

Sheecan wood is wood hat I bring home that "shee can split".

Norm, Those will last forever. I hope you gave some DNA info or maybe some pictures of the nuggets to the recipients that they can see how much love you put into finding all the gold. I'm glad to see Steve's new work. Did you get some of the gold from his Orange Peel Patch? Mitchel

I went to hunt a local park this morning with my new Etrac. The ground is freezing up here and I wanted to get out before it’s totally frozen. Since I needed 1 more silver to make 100, I went to the oldest park around, from the 1840s. I went out with low expectations, since I know the park has been pounded over the years. After hunting for about an hour and not finding anything I was getting discouraged. As I was about to head back to the car, I got a very deep, VERY iffy high tone. I told myself Hey maybe they missed a rosie or something. So I dug a nice 7 inch plug and in the plug my pinpointer went off: 1 rusty nail. I rechecked the hole and got an even better high tone. I dug down to about 8 or 9 inches and out came another rusty nail. Then the most beautiful 12-45 signal sang into my ears and I eagerly dug down. At 10 and a half inches: Silver coin edge! I carefully took it out of the hole and got out my spray bottle. It seemed oddly thin for a silver quarter. As the dirt came off the coin I could not believe my eyes and yelled “HOLY $!@?” I got a couple of weird looks but I didn’t care. SPANISH SILVER!!!! I threw down my headphones and ran around doing a happy dance. My 100th silver and I could not have asked for a better one. I quickly ran home to clean it. Turns out it’s from the 1730s from the reign of King Philip 5 of Spain! My oldest coin I’ve ever found! What a way to end the year. I could not get any “in situ” pics because I was shaking so bad! But here are some from when I got home. Thanks for looking!

U all, I'm 53 years old and from the northern part of Germany close to the dutch border. I start with metal detecting in 1981 with a C-Scope TR XXX detector. When i grow up the hobby stopped until 2018 but not the research for good prospection sites. Two years ago I bought a Minelab Equinox 800 and still discover the whole capabiltys of this sofisticated detector. I joined your forum with the aim to exchange and gain more expertise in advanced techniques and settings of my machine. I'm open minded and look forward to chat& share detection knowledge with you guys. regards Mike

Always a pleasure to see your posts! I look forward to seeing your new discoveries.

Gold rings number 2 and 3 today with Fisher AQ. The smaller ring was down at least 8 inches and the bigger ring was down at least 10 inches. Very faint signals and could have walked right over them. The rings were found in wet sand. This was my seventh outing with the new detector. Still struggling with some falsing. Any advice would be appreciated. Mostly from a left to right swing. I do take extra precaution to make sure I am not arcing the swing. On a fully charge battery I can run pretty hot and it will be quiet. About an hour into the hunt I need to make adjustment. Today the battery lasted about 2 hour 45 minutes using ALL METAL mode. Eventually I was running with a delay of 10 than switched to 11, sensitivity of 8, ATS was either at a 3 or an 8. I also had to lower the threshold to the point of silence. I don't like running it that way but I hit both rings in the position. I also hit a couple of deep nickels that were 12 to 14" easily.

Bob ... all that noise we hear here in the water when we get near the hard pan can be gray mud concentrate or fine black sand and metal flakes. That’s really something to listen to.... running the machine hot if you don’t hear it tells you you may have a lot of moved fluffy sand .... good sign when you hear it..... I just adjust the sensitivity but start to really pay attention.... much like when you start finding iron.

Yep. I agree this is normal. The AQ is a nice machine to operate. I didn’t think there was much of an issue with black sand especially on the Florida west coast.

...and almost 2 months later no deliveries have yet been documented or announced. Scratching my head to see such anticipation for what is likely going to be a mediocre deisgn from a performance standpoint. Form over substance. I wonder what the makeup of the people waiting in line for this is? Serious detector geeks have to know there is nothing special here from a performance standpoint and it is hard to believe casual detectorists or newbies would latch onto a crowdsourced startup vs. going to their local walmart for an impulse buy on a bounty hunter for 1/3 the cost. I just don't get it. That leaves those with a combination of a curiosity factor and 200 bucks buring a hole in their pockets. (That sounds right up my alley )

My friend Tony , Who made Grave-Digger max a titanium scoop found a titanium Tiffany ring.

I was blessed to personally know Jim Straight years ago and spent a number of days detecting with him. Fine memories..

Well done thats a nice coin!!!! RR

That was some sweet eyeball find! I didn't know that about their stock but it won't diminish my excitement when I find jewelry with their logo on it. Every piece of T&Co jewelry I have ever found cleaned up beautifully which I think speaks to the quality of their metals and craftsmanship.

After the Reale what was your next best find and so on ...

Decided to go more for silver today at a possible older site that now is a grass parking lot for a school. I had really high hopes of the Equinox pulling silver from the ground as there wasn't much trash so I lowered recovery to 4 and increased sensitivity to 24. There was plenty of depth, so I even busted out my t-handle shovel. I got a very strong 32-36, and decided to dig it even though the coil was still able to pick it up about 10 inches off the ground. I was expecting a can given the footprint of the sound as the coil waved over the object. Down about 6 inches was what I thought might be a money holder or a makeup compact. I waited to open it until I got home. Sadly, there were no gold or silver coins inside. It is still kind of cool. From the looks of the design, it appears to be from the 40s-50s. The makeup still smells similar to how it should smell. There are no words that I can find on the outside or inside. It is not magnetic, so I assume it is brass. Anyone with an idea of a brand name would be appreciated. The silver dime was unexpected. Given that I don't find a ton of silver coins, each shiny coin coming from deep in the ground is also thrilling! Although I have detected the area a time or two in the past, I have not found anything good there. Plans are being made to go back.😁 The weather in FL was warm today. I know other parts of the U.S. have frozen ground, so I thought lots of pics of fairly mundane items might be appreciated.

Norm, that was a very special gift from your heart that will last forever in the family. Or until the price of gold hits the $10,000 mark per ounce, just kidding about that. Good luck on finding more soon as I wish you good luck.

Great beautiful gifts Norm! Steve does make pretty do dads. Happy New to you and Heather!

Peg Steve Wandt, his business name is Natural Gold Jewelry 530 320 3096 He is very good to work with. He also made this pendant out of a specimen that I found several years ago. The quality of his work speaks for its self. Norm

Gorgeous! I’ve been planning on having some things made to give to family as well. Who did your work?

Yah I know what you mean about getting old Jim. I do still chop a fair amount of wood but I got a splitting buddy a few years back. It’s still quite a bit of work feeding it, but it is a big help. Oneguy, a lot of danger falling any timber and the redwood is a big, brittle tree that can literally explode on impact. I haven’t fallen many redwoods (especially big ones) but have cut quite a few up to remove from the highways. Tremendous pressure on a big fallen redwood in uneven ground. You start sawing and they really talk to you. I built the tree fort in the back yard some years ago for my boys. The fort is about 10’x10’ so you can see how big the base of this old growth tree is it sits on. The old fellers went up the trunk as ways to get away from the huge base. Mike

I only have ever used the TDI Pro with the big battery,never really liked the 'S' shaped shaft of the 'sl' version,mainly use mine also in straight PI mode for the extra depth but when i am on my roman trading villa site which is basically like a 40 acre black beach but 70 miles inland then i will use it in target conductivity mode and must admit although i loose a small amount of depth it does work very well at discriminating out the non desirables. Regarding coils for the TDI Pro,although i do have the Whites stock coil and the 7.5DF ones the main ones i use are Minelab Mono coils and also the coils made for Jimmy Sierra by Miner John i bought some at a crazy low price brand new when he closed down a few years back,the largest one i like using is the 20'' Sierra Grande Mono. Wont ever part with mine as they are getting very hard to get hold of these days.

You might consider an Etrac instead? Pretty much the same good depth, pretty good id capabilities, a little lighter (but still a boat anchor with terrible ergonomics), and lots of easy to understand options to set it up for most types and situations you'll encounter coin shooting. If I remember right about $1000 us less than a CTX. I love mine for coin shooting.

This is a prime example of why GOOD forums continue to exist.... Help wanted...help freely given.... No BS, nothing except the shared interest and joy in the shared endeavor ... How does this continue to happen? Housekeeping. Somebody is keeping a tidy house. No rubbish is allowed to accumulate and fester. Thank you Steve H.

I’d be more worried about some of the mobile phone apps that you download for mapping, no one seems to have a problem walking around with one of these tracking/logging/listening devices in their pockets. 😁