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Went out last night for a low tide wet sand hunt with the AQ. Got to the beach a little late, tide was already coming in so I was only able to hunt for about 2:30 hrs before the swells took over the slope. Pretty sanded in conditions but still managed a little clad and hit a surprise 2.2 gram 18k white gold diamond half band about 2 scoops down on the upper slope. Also pulled out a 1957D wheatie at some point. Took a pic of the settings I was running, I was in All-Metal for the entire hunt. Have I mentioned I'm a big fan of OBN's Big Battery? 😁

Hi everybody, I wanted to thank you all for welcoming us to this forum last year. Thanks for the info, the advice and the support. It helped me create an amazing bond with my son. I am grateful to you all. Here’s a little video of some of our favorite moments of the crazy year. Best to you all!

Yes, many of the targets that I dug can be found with nearly any good detector but I can say that i had dug my deepest penny, dime and nickel this past week with the AQ. They were whisper signals that I am sure a CTX, Nox, and Dual Field would not hit. Maybe an Excal in all metal mode. So my conclusion is that there are targets waiting to be found that others cannot hear. My experience level is over 13 years beach and water detecting. I don't want to give inches since most of the beaches I hunt are not the soft fluffy or powdery beaches you find in FL, Virginia Beach, OC Maryland, shore of Rhode Island. The beaches are pack dense clay, black/silver sand/sediment and easily I lose 2 to 5 inches in depth.

Another "AQ" Lover! And a beauty of a ring to prove it! Two scoops and gold..Love it! You cracked me up with the "Another fan of the Big Battery" Heck, I'm a fan of my own on the big battery. I made a small one I used a few times but the big one seems to really gives me peace of mind?

Who cares what the whale looks like ,,,,if it drags in some depositors ! Skuh kuh kuh kuh kuh

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

This is the only MXT program that I know that the V3i has in it's Special Library programs. This is from the V3i user manual on page 39 and shown in the green column below:

They have all been put together here.

Beauty! Nice looking ring. In my house that would be swiped from my hands the minute she laid eyes on it 😄 It's nice not having to worry about the battery dying on you in the middle of a hunt.

I am a retired police officer and took up detecting about 7 years ago. I started with the AT Pro and last summer switched to using a Minelab 600 and also a Simplex. I am looking forward to learning as I go along and also checking into the wealth of information on this site. Hope you all have a great day.

Did the last few hours of daylight on the day of arrival with the Excal to check the beach, got one of the .50 cal shells a .50 cal point, a quarter, dime and penny; the rest of the week was all AQ. Did pretty well identifying iron. Spent nearly the entire time in all metal mode. On the open wet sand, it is easier to identify iron by walking around it and sweeping from all directions; something that is difficult if not impossible to do in the water. There were a few pieces of iron that fooled me. They are in the one picture towards the bottom, near center. Got a new style wedding band, no markings but probably stainless with either abalone or mother of pearl; not sure which. The ring was deep. It was a five scooper and was not in the side of the hole, was at dead center of where the first scoop was. That is what I have been hoping for with the AQ; now I just need to get the right metal. Got a couple of junk earrings that are fairly well encrusted and, unfortunately, stick to a magnet. Got a junk heart ring that looks to be copper, not extremely deep, Excal or CZ would have had no problem hitting that one. I did dig somewhere north of 100 bottle caps, did not count them all and threw them away before coming home. The one day that was "extremely deep bottle cap day" I counted 33 bottle caps. In front of some hotels when I'm high in the wet sand, near the dry, I would get interference that changing the frequency setting did not help. ATS at 8 or a little higher helps, dropping sensitivity down to 2 with the higher ATS quiets it down. Tried tone and mute modes and they were a little worse than all metal. As I get further from the offending interference, I can take the sensitivity up again. Some hotels gave no problems, some were chatty until adjustments were made. For the week, mostly hunting with sensitivity at 5 or 6, ATS at 5 and delay at 7.5. Interesting that near and under the pier that for years has made other detectors chirp, the AQ is quiet. Must be different kinds of interfering signals that affect the different detectors. Now that I’ve had a chance to spend time over open wet sand areas, coil control is important to keep from sounding at swing ends, it is the up and down motion by being sloppy, not the sided to side sweep, that sounds a little on the wet sand. The ergonomics of the AQ are excellent and help in that respect, particularly when I start to get tired and coil control is not as precise as when I’m fresh. I did a bit of calf deep wave wash area (that is where the Pandora bracelet was found) and found the AQ to be pretty quite (delay 7.5, ATS 5, Sensitivity 5, all metal), The wave wash was not too bad of a drag on the big coil, although it was not fast moving waves ... the conditions were being nice to me. Cheers, tvr

Amen to that, been say that for years....And the AQ is the machine. I've got spots like that the Excalibur may hit 6 to 8 inch's, I've noticed the AQ hits much deeper.. more like 12 to 14...tough digging thru shells and clay. Both machines in AM.

Advice: Don’t overthink it. If you are not having issues with noise or detection, leave it be. Don’ts: Don’t wrap it so loose that it flops around, don’t wrap it such that it constrains your ability to position the coil at the desired angle with respect to the shaft to keep it parallel with your desired swing plain and to lie it flat for transport. You want to minimize strain at the coil cable to coil interface or at any place else along the coil cable that could cause wire breakage due to repetitive flexing at stress points. Otherwise, other than certain special cases with certain coils and detectors, a properly shielded coil cable should not care from an electromagnetic standpoint where you start the shaft wrap.

Thanks George, With the size of the coil, and the way it screams on the Gold, I personally think that I'm hitting more targets than I usually do with my Sov. GT which Is what I usually use..I don't own another high powered PI to compare it to like the TDI so I cant say that I wouldn't of hit this ring with another detector. Before New Years I went out on a hunt and when I arrived at the beach I noticed another hunter off in the distance. When I finally made it to the spot where he was hunting (Left all his holes and trash) I decided to challenge myself and went over the area with the AQ. Next to one of his holes, 3 scoops down I pulled out a 7.3 gram Cuban chain ID bracelet. Also pulled a little clad from the area that he missed. I never did get close enough to the other hunter to speak to him, But I did recognize that he was using a PI and he was a skilled local hunter, wont mention his name though..🙂 Almost forgot to mention that the area had a decent amount of black sand that would have hindered depth on my GT...

I am a believer...lol

Yes it does, that was the only short coming. If you set it against the wall it leans on the battery. I did have another design but to complicated to be around saltwater. After a few months it failed due to my fault.

Maybe its the teardrop spacers wearing out and becoming flush so when the coil is clamped on, the connection between the coil ear and the shaft is too rigid. Much like engineers design buildings and bridges to sway so stress fractures do not occur a non flush teardrop spacer (which they are when newly replace as i have just replaced mine) would act as a shock absorber. I have used the Equinox extensively for nearly 3 years now and have not had an issue - but by the number of breakages being reported it certainly appears to be a design weakness and there should be some instruction from Minelab on what the problem is and how to properly maintain the coil. Good customer service is acknowledging a issue and putting corrective actions in place - Minelab - if you are reading this - that is how you build brand loyalty which one day you may need if more competition enters the market.

All 18k...Europe is plenty of it.. In 16 years I found only one 22k wedding band and really few 14k rings.

This picture is 3 weeks old, I 'm waiting for a today update. My grandson discovered metal detecting "for treasure" on tv. He's watched countless videos of how to and getting big finds and then my son told him I used to detect. Next step, using my old Whites spectrum in the back yard....he keeps finding stuff I've missed after 15 yrs of "cleaning it out". This Christmas his parents and I got him a basic set up with all the tools; pin pointer, shovel and belt with a trash bag. I gotta work on his making a smaller hole and leaving no trace But, damn I'm proud of him.

Was on my Oregon beach today Surf Perch fishing and met this guy who was building a whale out of driftwood. He pegged all the pieces together with wood pins! Kind of an environmentalist guy. He is going to torch it off New Year's Eve. Looks like a good place to detect the next day if all the people show up to watch it! Too rough to catch anything. GaryC/Oregon Coast

Thanks everyone for your replies.... I’ve ordered the 15 inch coil last nite..... supposed to be here by the 15th.... will then take it out for a run..... thanks again all..... Al

Thanks OBN! Definitely peace of mind with the Big Battery, I went on a couple 8 hour hunts before the new years and the battery held up with no problems, My arms, shoulder and legs on the other hand could use an update though! 😁

Welcome James and thank you for your service! This is the best site for anything you want to know about metal detecting and prospecting. It's a great place to share finds as well so don't be shy.

Slim, No doubt that that was a great hunt and the ring is a beauty- congrats!! However, you are a skilled hunter and I wonder if you would have had the same results with your other detectors? I'm just trying to get a better idea of the AQ's capabilities since it's hard to tell on some posts if it is finding things that other detectors can't.

Late this afternoon I managed to shirk some of my fatherly responsibilities and go out for a couple hours of hunting. I had gone a couple of days ago to one of my best beaches and was surprised at finding very little. Today was a bit different. I managed to find some beach with a cut but it had been hunted. Whomever hunted it had neatly put their trash back in the holes. I was coming upon them probably 5 hours after they had been dug. Knowing this I didn't stick very close to the cut and worked wetter sand on a lower tide. It wasn't the greatest but I managed a 19 number with the 800/11 and it turned out to be the first ring. The second ring was down in much wetter sand. It gave a weird sound almost like a chain but it is 'open' without a setting or markings. I'll have to clean it a bit and see if it is silver like the first ring. The 3rd ring was a 13. It is junk but still a ring. Just at sunset when I was heading back I got a high (above 30) sound and worked it and dug the ring marked STERLING. It is 11.5 g. So I had a 4 ring hunt to finish the year. I'll take it. Mitchel

You might at least contact Tony to see where he gets his solderless 90 degree connectors from. Hes pretty accommodating about sharing info. It also appears Joe (ole beach nut) is using a 90 degree solderless M8 connector for his AQ battery..... check him out to. Tonys is pricy..... but they are darn good AND they come with the connector at an angle that points over shaft and can easily be secured with velcro out of the way. Maybe the headphones have been changed but the one i got with my machine was in the way of my finger.

18K is still gold , arrrrrrrrrr ! Well done and I'm sure you'll be findin' more.....

Hello Luca. This chart is very incomplete about the settings. I don't have a clue about the MXT-Pro in Relic mode but I really like the relic mode on my Std.-MXT. My suggestion about the V3i would be to start in relic mode and have mixed mode switched on (stereo if you like). From that point you have to tweak the machine to what you like. Not having a V3i and a MXT-Pro this is all advice I can give. I know there are so many options into the menue you really can make it to act like the MXT-Pro. (assigning tones to VDI-ranges and so on...) But I think there will be more than one user who has done this and may be he/she will chime in and share. All my best and good Luck.

Love the battery design by OBN,,but it seems according to the picture that if you drop the unit or put it on the ground ,the battery hits the ground first cause it sticks out of the foot support,or am i wrong?

If you want to look at a daily picture of a meteorite subscribe to this list. http://www.tucsonmeteorites.com/mpodmain.asp?DD=01/03/2021

This is where you get your data for your Google Earth layers. https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php

Love the ring! Congrats.

You Southern California guys sure do well on the goodies.

Well done on the gold!!!!!! RR

Love that color! Some nice looking treasures!

My wife really wanted to go to snorkeling at the beach today, but I have a landscape project to get started so I didn't want to go. She convinced the kids and I to go so off we went to a very popular spot in Maui. We went a little later in the morning so there were quite a lot of people already out there. I'm not one to care what other people think so I started detecting. There was a spot where the tide had washed out the sand a foot or so and that's where I focused on. Several curious people asked me if I found anything and only 30 minutes into the hunt I had a few coins. A father and son were very interested as I dug up a cent coin and I said I knew it probably was because it was a 20 on the target ID on the Nox 600. Sure enough it was. Now I am just learning to beach detect after being an avid nugget hunter for over 20 years. The father and son watched for a few minutes and I had another target. It was an 8 and I said probably not a coin, but a hair pin because I had dug one up a few minutes prior to them watching me and it was an 8. To my surprise hanging half out of my scoop was a balled up necklace! It was silver in color and turned out to be 925 Italy! It measure 26 inches long! A few targets later I got a tiny little silver ring, also 925 and has a couple tiny stones. Turned out the ring has cz also stamped in it so probably cubic zarconia. For an hour and a half hunt I ended up with the necklace, ring, fake gold ear ring, 7 cents, 3 nickels, 1 dime, and 1 quarter, 2 hair pins and 1 pull tab. I found another quarter but must have dropped it. I would have hunted a little longer but there were just too many people by 11:00 and I was almost getting hit by people on boogie boards since the tide was coming in. Going to try and get back out at sun up to another popular beach tomorrow! The beach next to my house doesn't get waves and surf so I probably won't go there. I hunted it at Thanksgiving and only got a few dollars in change from the dry sand area where people put there towels out.

That should work pretty well for cleaner targets. You will probably be limiting masked targets to a broken/clipped response. The best thing I have learned on my Anfibio Multi is to just reduce the Gain on busy ground or for EMI. After quite a lot of testing/experimenting in the test garden & in the field I lost my fear of missing something if not running it hot. The factory preset gain of 70 is surprisingly deep. With the 9.5X5 DD or 7in concentric it will hit a 6+ inch coin size target. That is deeper and just as quiet as 3DI @ 89 Gain. The real benefit is you can hear what the detector is telling you.You also get more nuance in the tones. It is no longer overwhelmed with "noise". I had it backwards; I was missing things because they got lost in the high gain noise. The more difficult the site, the more important it is to find an efficient signal balance. @cjc's book help a lot for me. I have also found a lot of benefits in the Beach mode's filtering for Iron ridden or wet ground sites. Your Kruzer should respond very similarly.

Kellyco is a very large and very old business, with average customer service. That means they make most people happy, but due to size snd volume you can also find plenty of people with complaints. They are rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau. None of which helps you. Between the pandemic and the holidays, things can get crazy, and a mistake was made. Best bet is to be patient, call them, and find a solution. You can generally count on them making good on their mistakes.

I also cut the ground wire from coil connector to pcb and wrapped the whole pcb in static shield and put back in housing.

I never buy replacement coil covers. I make them out of 1.5mm lexan, I cut them about 5mm larger than the coil diameter to alow for wear and stick them onto the coil (cover removed) with roof and gutter clear silicone. These skid plates out last the standard covers by many many times. They usually last multiple seasons where as the standard ones I would wear out in a week in some areas!

Nice finds, and what a great year you've had! Thanks for the pictures, as well as the video, and all the best, Lanny

I love this post! good for you! is this something you are building a 1 off for you or are you thinking about going in business? I have used many metal detectors over the years and for most detecting I prefer a digital metal detector but when it comes to relic hunting in farm fields I prefer analog. In my opinion, after using many metal detectors analog works through the iron better time and time again. A new digital detector will come out and I think it will be the answer, "this one will finally be the one to beat out my old analog metal detectors" but so far it hasn't happened. I would love to have a simple 2 tone analog metal detector, 1 tone for iron another for everything else with a volume control for the iron tone (which could be set up on a pot to determine your own break point) with about 3 different size coils starting with about a 5 inch and going up. Can't wait to see what becomes of this.

Congrats on the gold! I love my AQ too, with OBN's big battery, it is a power house on the beach. It Screams over gold & nickels! The other day I was hunting behind another detectorist using a PI, 10 inches to the side of a hole he left and three scoops down I dug a 7 gram 14k bracelet. I was fricken stoked considering the knucklehead left all his trash behind for me to go over.

I also had mine mounted on a straight shaft with box mounted behind my elbow, having the wire taped tight all along the shaft is the only way to go. It has not seen any use after getting a TDI BH.

Great finds and great hunting in such a year, I hope that 2021 will be much better for everyone. Thanks for the pictures.

I'll be in the water again soon as I can.Right now a new lockdown is blocking me home... Thanks and happy new Year.

Hi my name is Travis. I am new to the site. Here are a few gold specimens I have found in Idaho.

"I think that two part Cartier find is the detectorprospector story of the year." Wow, thanks GBA- that is quite the compliment! Well, it certainly is my story of the year and perhaps the best one in all my years of detecting- so far. "...who says you aren't allowed more than one Find of a Lifetime?" I definitely agree with this. A 2-carat diamond solitaire ring, Tiffany platinum diamond ring, family heirloom ring (and return), gold coins and other items were also finds of a lifetime for me. "Further, if you really like what you do then even if you knew you'd never again reach such a lofty accomplishment you can still continue to enjoy the ride." If I knew that I would never again find anything as nice as this Cartier bracelet I'm sure that I would still enjoy metal detecting but it's pretty exciting knowing that those higher value targets are out there and you just never know when they will show up in your scoop.

here is yet another broken ... I was earlier on the beach, I heard or felt a little noise, but with the wind, the rubber, the waves and the headphones I didn't pay attention to it. well two minutes later I had both coil ears broken ... so I assumed that the first little noise was the first coil ear which broke. I hope minelab will replace this for me for free. it's not normal because I don't over tighten, I clean regularly and I have already changed the gaskets and screws twice. Plus I never go surfing. it is therefore clear that this is a design flaw.