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  1. Here are some of the big chunks found by my mentor back 10 years ago or so with a gpx4500 and later 5000. Biggest chunk in the upper left corner is just shy of 7 ounces. The coin is a quarter. All Va gold.
    14 points
  2. Had a chance to get 2 beach hunts in with the GPX and AQ and was pleasantly surprised that the conditions at this beach had changed for the better. It was going to be a 50/50 split between both machines, so that I could get the benefits of both machines technologies. Started out great with the AQ, but unfortunately the headphones started making a loud clicking noise. I figured out the thin wire had finally given out. Then it completely stopped working. The conditions were perfect for trying out the AQ in Tone mode, since there was almost no trash, or small iron left in this spot. So high tones and grunts meant nickels/gold/ huge iron or silver/clad. The AQ scored a lot of nickels, paper thin worn coins and 8 silver dimes before it died. So the hunt continued with the GPX. That patch was on fire giving me the most silver in a single hunt ever, along with the greatest 2 day total as well. The area covered was about 20 x 30 feet, as I had 3 other detectorists around me on either side. This area was sand with packed cobbles beneath it, so I paid the price after digging in that for 2 days. The ring is 14K and was the only gold found, surprisingly. Now, I love my AQ, but honestly not being a durable machine kind of makes it take a back seat to my other machines. I have been gentle with this machine, but I did a lot of holes. Those two days I estimate digging almost 250 holes and I beach hunt generally once a week. I would love to get a new set of headphones (not stock), but if I remember the connector is hard to get??? If anyone has info on that, please let me know where I can get one. I would have Tony make me a set in a heartbeat. It's not often that the beach gives you those kind of conditions, so I was happy to be there at the right time. I can't wait to get back and see if the conditions are still good.
    12 points
  3. The pictures are of nuggets I’ve found in VA using the gpx 4800 and the gold monster 1000. The gpx finds were all on hill tops and hillsides at location in and around old gold mines. These locations were found by a good friend of mine back 10 years ago or so. I’m just picking up scraps compared to what they found. The gold monster finds were in creek finds at a property that I mainly dredge. Only a few areas of the creek have produced any gold to detecting. While dredging this creek it produced up to 12 gram nugget so far. I’ve detected all around the hillsides around the creek with the gpx and haven’t found any gold. It’s been frustrating lol. the vast majority of my nugget collection not shown in the pictures has come from dredging. Nugget shooting in VA is more of a winter activity when I get bored lol. I’d love to give a gpz a shot as it may be able to detect small gold deep enough to punch through all the leaf litter organics and topsoil But I can’t drop that kind of money on an unknown
    12 points
  4. Me and the wife were looking thru some older money and foreign currency and I came across this coin. I had seen it before but I didn't pay it much attention. I honestly have no idea where or when I found it. It’s a 1/4 Pahlavi Mohammed Reza Sha made from 1945-1979. I weigh mine and it’s exactly 2.03 grams. I know it’s not an American gold coin but I’m still happy to have it in my collection.
    9 points
  5. GPX 6000 Manual released (it won't allow direct linking the manual so I switched the link back to the index page with the links for all documents) Too many people click might crash the FCC site, no clue how much bandwidth they have. Also photos of the internals and externals of the 6000 are now live.
    7 points
  6. I have owned an F75 (several versions) an F70/Tek Patriot, an AT Pro and the Nokta Makro Kruzer, Multi Kruzer and Simplex. In my soil conditions and in the environments I prefer to hunt in where it really helps to have waterproofing, excellent EMI protection, solid numerical and audio ID at depths of 6" or more, wireless operation so I don't get headphone cords tangled up and excellent ergonomics..........I would without hesitation pick the Simplex not just because it is the least expensive of the detectors mentioned but because, unlike what one poster said, the Simplex is not a beginner detector. It is much more advanced than that and in fact, its name is misleading and does not do this excellent detector any favors. If you are after raw depth between all of the detectors mentioned in the original poster's post, the F75 would win that battle in mild to moderate dirt. In moderate to high mineralization the F75 performs poorly as do all of the detectors I mentioned except for the Simplex. I don't know what Nokta Makro did to make this happen but the Simplex can handle mineralization very well and has remarkably fast recovery speed and target separation among other excellent qualities. As kac correctly reported, the AT Pro used in at least good condition is still going for over $400 as is the F75, Kruzer and Multi Kruzer, while the Patriot/F70 and the T2 are not far off that price if they too are in good condition. Part of these high used prices is because these are excellent detectors but they also (unlike the Simplex, Kruzer and Multi Kruzer) have huge, very loyal, long-time followers who trust them for good reasons and have given them great reputations. After owning and using the detectors mentioned above, and from people who know more than I do about the origins of the Simplex, it reminds me of a waterproofed T2/F75/F70 with many more features as already mentioned and with the ability to receive online updates, etc. Dilek from Nokta Makro told the truth in her original marketing pitches about the Simplex when she said that "it is way under priced for what it can do." Personally, if you have an Equinox 600, a Nokta Makro Simplex, and an F22 for a loaner or just for casual hunting, you have two excellent intermediate level detectors and a good beginner detector. I see no glaring reason why you should feel in anyway that your detector stable is deficient and I don't see where the other detectors I mentioned would drastically change your detecting experience more positively. The only similar detector that I would even consider over the Simplex which might change your game would be an XP Deus at 2 to 3 times the cost of the Simplex if you can find a good used one and 4 times the cost of the Simplex if you buy a new Deus. That is my assessment from experiencing all of these detectors personally. You may, like Mike H. said, like to try out some of the detectors that have drawn your interest. I did the same thing and after years of weeding out detectors I don't really need, my two main detectors are the Nox 800 and the XP Deus. Many others on this forum and acquaintances that I hunt with have the same two detectors. The Nox 600 and the Simplex are correspondingly very similar to the 800 and Deus in many ways but for substantially less money. You could invest your money in a smaller coil for your Simplex. With the excellent stock coils offered by Nokta Makro and those added by Nel, you have many good options. If I came across a great deal on a used Simplex with wireless headphones, it would be really hard for me to resist. I certainly enjoyed the one that I owned for 2 months but then sold due to the pandemic when it was necessary to let go of some things. enjoy....
    7 points
  7. Decided to visit the river this morning, over the weekend I got permission to search the steamboat landing near my house. It was my 61st birthday Sunday, and the permission came in the morning. My wife got me a Predator Barracuda shovel! What a day. Of course it rained all Sunday. Just threw some high insulated boots on, it's cold out but not freezing, about 40. Not five minutes in the water and I got a solid 14/15 with the Equinox in Beach 2, all metal. Tried out my CooB sand scoop, and the result is this about 1/2 inch paper thin round object, this is exactly how it came out of the water.
    6 points
  8. Or they could just keep the detectors in the design phase forever constantly improving and ruggedising them until the end of time!!🥴 Edit: This is one of the reasons why I get a bit ‘pissed’ by all the aftermarket coil brand chatter, its always X sized nugget/nuggets were found with X sized/type coil and no mention of the actual detector it was attached to!!🥵 If X type coil was so revolutionary then why doesn’t the coil manufacture make their own electronics to go with said wonder coil? After all the detector manufacturers are doing a really crap job of things!!!
    6 points
  9. Love this chart Steve and it brings back great memories from a customer of mine. Gene was on one of my trips to Ganes Creek, AK. This was mid way of their trips yrs and the MXT was top machine at the time. Were hunting a fresh push and everyone was swinging up/down the rows as fast as they can. After it slowed and a few went on, I get in there and methodically hunt my style and a couple others stayed with me. Anyway, Gene gets a WHAM of a signal and yells. "It says Buckle" on the screen. Back then the MXT when run up at Ganes, we smart guys preferred the RELIC MODE over the PROSPECT MODE, as it had better ID and smoother operation. Well Dr T (from Reno on his 1st trip) says, "that means it's a beer or soda can and too high of a # for a gold nugget". Gene looks at me and shrugs his shoulder as to say "well Gerry, would you dig"? I told him, T was probably right, but since the cobbles we were in was also the same ones the Heart of Gold that Steve B found, that it will only take a few minutes to find out. Well the buckle turned into grown men jumping around acting like teens who seen their 1st Playboy. It was a 6 ounce Buckle of a nugget. Moral of the story. You don't know what you don't dig.
    6 points
  10. Short manual. So basically, after brief read of the manual some various things we mostly already knew - You can operate with or without a threshold. Manual sensitivity has threshold and Auto sensitivity has no threshold. Ground balance is Auto. But there is a quick track button to adjust manual ground balance on the fly. DD mode has a Salt Cancel feature which will be interesting in Northern Nevada and similar terrains Noise cancel is only 5 seconds, significantly faster than the GPZ Two ground modes - Normal and Difficult Battery design looks much more robust and they got rid of the stupid breakable foot There is a Coil Error, so it's likely there is coil authentication (aka - a chip). Coil waterproof to 1 meter. Detector is rain proof, not waterproof. Headphones not rainproof. Looks like a well thought out, general purpose driven machine to me. That purpose may suit many, and might not suit others. Field performance reports are the big unknown left, and I hope they let JP talk about performance soon.
    5 points
  11. You can download the draft GPX 6000 user manual at the FCC website (user manual 2 of 2) and a set of internal photos at this link. These are filings required ahead of release by the FCC, with the manual as existed at time of filing. It is a draft and missing various sections, so should not be relied on 100%. Revisions are sure to happen in the final version. The internal photo pdf has notes about the document remaining intact (no photo excerpts), so please download and view it if you want a peek at that circuit board. Minelab GPX 6000 Data & Reviews Minelab GPX 6000 Accessories & Spare Parts
    4 points
  12. It’s a wildlife management area now. No mineral removal no picking plants not metal detecting no sluicing no panning. Basically only for hunters. Bunch of crap really it’s my tax money and they won’t let you do anything on the dam property that now covers over 8000 acres I believe. Gerry - if you ever coming out VA let me know. My mentor was a relic hunter for 30 years or more in VA and only happened to fall into nugget hunting. Many of the Va civil war battle fields happened on top of or in close proximity to many old gold mines.
    4 points
  13. Also. We still don't know what exactly GeoSense is. There are some weird grammatical things in the manual and highlighted things that indicate this isn't the final manual and a newer revision will be released with the machine. As well as some stuff left not filled in with placeholders (various notes, coil winding, etc). I have 4 things specifically I'd be curious to test out before making any decisions on how good such a machine is - How that 2nd auto sensitivity mode works and how the no threshold thing feels since it's the most sensitive mode (is this GeoSense?) How the DD Salt Cancel performs sensitivity wise How good the performance in mono mode is on small/speci/crystalline/porous gold compared to the Z14 stock coil Can you swing this all day without a bungee?
    4 points
  14. Love this story and your pics to show the VA gold. I try to get back East every other year to do some Civil War Relic hunting and meeting a few of my old Marine Corps buddies (NC, SC, GA) I've been able to convert a few of them to detecting, but they don't have the fever like I. My last trip to VA was at the 1765 Montpelier Estate, home of the 4th President of the United States, President James Madison. I was one of a dozen dealers across the US to be honored and selected to represent a metal detector to Archeologists. We showed them the benefits of modern technology by using a detector. The 2 machines I specialized in were the GPX and ETrac. In return, they showed us the importance of proper recovery of all objects and much more. It was a win win for both young and old. I remember at the closing ceremonies, I gave a short speech (yea right, me short), and said this. "I grew up from a young age 7 yr old boy with detector in hand and this is my tool to recover history. I enjoy and cherish each of my treasures, some more than others...just like you. I'm proud of my accomplishments with a detector and take pride of what I do. You learned Archeology with a brush in hand and how to use it for success. You take pride in your discoveries and the history you save. You too are proud of your work and what you do. So the reality.. we are not much different, but use varying tools/technology to achieve said success, in a way we are the same" To this day, of all my 40+ yrs of detecting accomplishments, that stands up there with pride. If I get back to VA area sometime and you'd like to see how a GPZ-7000 or GPX-6000, heck it might even be GPZ-8000 by then... let me know. I'll even let you or the land owner keep the gold, but I would enjoy having 1 nugget to add to my collection and be my 1st VA gold.
    4 points
  15. You nailed it, Jeff. I keep my F75 because I consider it a classic detector in its day with great ergonomics and also because I like that it can use concentric coils and has a great selection of available accessory coils. And because I would have to sellmit about a third of my original investment.. Would I get a used one today? Um, no. The ergonomics alone cannot make up for its dated design and as Jeff mentioned, its underwhelming performance in mineralized ground which is what I hunt in most of the time. I am also over using detectors that need a raincoat put on them when the sprinkles come out or that have non-lithium battery power. Finally, I like to be able to vary recovery speed independently without having to trade off depth or being locked into a specific mode (a la Equinox), but I am impressed with the Simplex's more straight forward mode choices vs. the F75 that allow you to trade off depth for recovery speed in Park 1 and Park 2. I do like F75's discrimination circuit vs. Simplex, its ability to readily ID bottlecaps using a concentric coil, its tone ID options (though very limited compared to Equinox and Deus) and of course the ergonomics. But that has been resolved by getting the more appropriately sized elliptical coil for the Simplex. The F75 is just collecting dust now, unfortunately. Which I guess is apropos since these newer detectors have basically left it in the dust.
    4 points
  16. Thanks for posting the video Swegin. Hopefully my website guy has it on my site tomorrow. Of all 3 coils, I too.. feel the 10" ellip is going to be the best seller for most of my people. Heck I even sent a 2nd order...all 10" Ellips., as I already have the other 2 on my original order to Coiltek. The 10" Ellip is ideal for Prospecting nuggets on a VLF and I also like it for semi trashy sites when detecting old Coins/Relics. Hopefully I'll have some of these coils soon as I'm getting prepared for our Field Training coming up in Nevada. Boy would it be nice to be swinging, testing, selling the new GPX-6000's and the NOX coils. If I have some to take, I might even head down a few days early just to put some time on them.
    4 points
  17. The new smaller coils on the Simplex, make it a really nice detector for coin and jewelry hunting, more stable and quieter operation. I didn't care for the stock large coil.
    4 points
  18. I treat my detectors like expensive electronic instruments, that I may want to sell someday for top dollar. The GPZ is not fragile; you are breaking it, and it will continue to break unless you stop dropping it. It was hit hard. Putting a cover on it does not make it indestructible. I’m not being critical here, just saying I do not drop my new iPhone a foot or two when I put it down, and I always place my detectors on the ground, not toss them there. https://parts.minelab.com/category-s/100.htm
    4 points
  19. (Long article. If you think you'll get bored of the background info and stop in the middle, skip to the Testing section to see what a metal detector has to say.) Introduction Detectorists occasionally come across ceramic tableware/dinnerware at sites. For example, I found some in a ~1880's Colorado ghost town. A friend of mine found a piece (which I was able to identify and date to the 1890's) near a high altitude Colorado miner's cabin associated with a small silver mine. Western USA explorers/settlers/miners may seem backwards and uncivilized (and that is true in some cases) but often they longed for the finer things of the lives they left behind. Ceramic dinnerware was both utilitarian and aesthetic. Coin&relic detectorists around the world use pottery and other ceramic pieces, often found on the surface, to indicate good places to detect. In a previous life 😁 (actually 1998-2015) I was a avid (make that obsessed) collector of dinnerware by a particular USA manufacturer, accumulating a collection of 2000 pieces by scouring antique malls/shops but also occasionally other sources like rummage sales and Ebay. Not surprisingly I did a lot of research on the subject during my collecting years. Here are some results relevant to metal detecting. Plausibility In this first photo are two 6" diameter plates, both with filigree decoration and an edge line. The lower decoration is gold and the upper one is platinum (often mistakenly but understandably called 'silver'). The upper piece was manufacture in 1937 and the lower (gold) one in 1952. Each sold (usually as part of a set) for considerably less than $1 -- let's use $0.20 as a reasonable amount. Can we possibly reconcile these two 'facts' -- precious metals on inexpensive items? It is known that gold can be worked into very thin sheets. According to Wikipedia, typical gold gilding is 100 nm thick. ('nm' is the abbreviation for nanometer. There are a billion nm in a meter.) Scientists in the laboratory have done ~200 times better -- less than 0.5 nm which is actually about 2 gold atoms in thickness! Coatings on precision mirrors (e.g. astronomical instruments) are also about 100 nm in thickness -- same as fine gilding -- and that is thick enough to reflect in the high 90% decade at infrared wavelengths. About 15 years ago I took a tour of the Homer Laughlin China factory in Newell, West Virginia -- located in the very tip of that spike in West Virginia's NW part, along the Ohio River across from East Liverpool, Ohio and about 45 miles WNW of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They actually took us to the factory floor and one of the things they showed us was a technician/artist painting the gold edge line on a piece. The claim was that it was pure gold (24 kt) but my research indicates it was more likely 22 kt. I calculated the approximate amount of gold on the edge line of the lower plate in the picture above and at today's price ($58.54/g) it comes out to about $0.06 worth. However, when that piece was made, gold was $35/oz (a factor of ~1/60 compared to today) so that material cost would have been more like $0.001 (at tenth of one cent) for a 6" plate. That certainly seems plausible, even if the thickness was several times that 100 nm assumption. Testing I used the Minelab Equinox 800 with 11" coil, Park 1 mode, gain of 24 in 10 kHz, 15, kHz, and 20 kHz modes (MultiFrequency too noisy with EMI) to see if the following soup bowl would give a signal. This is a rather extreme example in terms of the amount of platinum for an inexpensive piece of dinnerware to contain. The platinum band is 1/2 inch wide (1.27 cm) and the total calculated mass is about 0.011 g (assuming 100 nm thickness of pure platinum, so adjust accordingly). At today's price of $36.49 g those assumptions translate to $0.40 worth of platinum in this dish (I don't know the platinum spot price when it was manufactured in 1932). The digital Equinox's TID waffled between 1 and 2 and the signal strength was maximized when the coil was centered over the dish, with the coil about 1 inch above the platinum band, resulting in 3 arrows out of 5 ("depth meter" reading). Sweeping over the entire dish also gave a weak hit when the edge of the coil crossed the edge of the band. I also tested a similar sized dish which had just an edge line and filligree decoration similar to those shown in the first photo. There was no noticeable response by the detector on that one.
    3 points
  20. Horses for courses, yes, you can go out and buy the most expensive car, or have the most expensive stuff in your house, but guaranteed you’ll still find something that’s ‘not quite right with it’ I have a GPZ, I’ve got a couple of niggles with it, but it’s not concerning. Mainly comfort (I find the control box handle is a bit to ‘straight’ on the main shaft and irritates my wrist), but I adjust to accomodate. I once managed to get my hands on a Garrett ADS Deepseeker (the same detector that found the ‘Hand of Faith’ nugget) and after hanging onto it for all of 5 minutes, believe me, we’ve come a long way in detection equipment. Many of the older guys, gals and testers will agree to that. I don’t know what people are doing to break the feet off the control box or smash batteries off the back of them... I treat mine like a baby and it sits in my car if I’m travelling anywhere with it and lives in a padded bag.
    3 points
  21. Click or double-click images for larger versions Minelab GPX 6000 Data & Reviews Minelab GPX 6000 Quick Start Minelab GPX 6000 Controls Minelab GPX 6000 Display
    3 points
  22. Getting it mostly right has zero value then? If every thing on the internet that is said is not 100% addressed to the 100% satisfaction of everyone.... then they are not listening at all? Who is getting it right then, and why are we not buying their detectors instead? Anyway, since that has been deemed inaccurate, and not factual, I’ll not bother anyone with that assertion in the future. I’m sure I’m the one that’s been telling you all that product development is not happening in a vacuum, and that this forum is watched. Erase all that, I’ve just been making it up.
    3 points
  23. When you know a beach well you know it and you don't want to waste even an hour or two on getting another one to produce but this is exactly what you have to do sometimes.
    3 points
  24. Here in New England, some beaches were very popular in the 20's, and up. We also had a lot of very deep silver, mostly out of range of early detectors. Now days, it's a different story, as pulse machines & multi frequency machines have given many more people the ability to get some of the deeper targets. But even with those targets, the operator still needs to understand how to get to those depths. This beach is hard on anything short of a pulse machine, with multi layered black sand, lots of rocks and a clay layer that helps mask those deep targets. The other machines that were around that day were 2 EQ's and a ExCal. I think in very experienced peoples hands they would have done better. Also the digging is really hard and not a place you can use a scoop. It's a small pointed spade shovel that works best. In Cal I'm thinking you have a lot more deep sand to deal with. There are no 3 foot cuts on this beach. You can get to clay at around 15" But surely you have turn of the century beaches that should have deep silver, but it may be out of range of any machine. But I'm betting it's there somewhere. With this last hunt, I have found nearly 300 silver from that beach in just 3 areas. I just can't get to that silver layer in other parts of the beach. The bad part is, that I never want to try another beach up the road that is a bit older, because I'm afraid of missing something on this beach 🙄
    3 points
  25. My buddy still has them and more. And the east coast generally doesn’t suffer from being picked over with detectors. It takes private property access to get on any old mine site and most people don’t detect out here and if they do you still have hundreds of acres of heavily wooded and brush covered terrain. I think that I’d you picked up the east coast gold belt and changed the climate to something AZ with little vegetation and opened it up with a claim system and not private property you would have lots of gold nuggets being found and new patches be located all the time. But many of these properties haven’t been touched since the 1800s. And very little modern prospecting has taken place including big companies searching for high grade deposits. But some of that is changing.
    3 points
  26. I don't understand why you'd want or need an F75 if you already have a Simplex and Equinox 600. What are you hoping the F75 will do for you that the other two can't do?
    3 points
  27. I was able to get out a few times for the recent SoCal storms. Although I came across a few cuts there wasn’t much gold to be found. This is my first hunt of the storm. I found enough targets to keep me busy. The 14k ring with diamonds was an eyeball find that was laying on top of some black sand and 90% of the ring was exposed. The teeth were found almost at the end of the hunt and they appear to be gold but haven’t tested yet. As you can see there was almost no jewelry in this hunt. This second hunt provided a lot more targets and jewelry but surprisingly only one gold. I found quite a bit of silver. The third hunt provided a decent amount of coins but only two pieces of jewelry. I thought they were both junk but the earring is marked 10k on the stem and has diamond chips. These are all my better finds for January. This has been my best month/year in my short time in the hobby. Thanks for looking and good luck out there.
    3 points
  28. F75+ model or the F75 LTD with DST.....I'd never even look at a Simplex with one of those two. My opinion is that the F75 is a true multi-purpose treasure hunting tool and the Simplex is just an entry level metal detector designed to acquaint you with the Nokta/Makro series of metal detectors. The F75 has so much more under the hood and I doubt many folks even use 1/3 of what is available under there. I looked at the Simplex and as a F75 owner user I didn't see anything that caused an itch to experience it. But that's just me and my opinion. Far be it from me to cause someone not to buy and try for themselves as I am all for buy and try. HH Mike
    3 points
  29. Thanks, That gold band fits nicely on one of my other fingers 😄 I may just put it next to my wedding ring. If the wife asks about it I'll just tell her it's from my other wife 😂 I bet then I can go detecting everyday. I'll just have to find a place to sleep. Beaches are funny... I was just there the week before and struggled all day just to find one silver earring. But I should have known things were changing, since the copper pennies started to show themselves quite a bit that day.
    3 points
  30. Yikes! I am the type that could break the horn off an anvil. I use my 7000 about as hard as anyone on this planet and contrary to my initial fears it has held up very well (3+ years) but I do put a bit more effort in not knocking it around. The foot on my 7000 lasted 2 days. I never replaced it. I have broken about 37 lower shafts Until I made my own fix. I have to agree with Steve- The GPX7000 is not fragile.
    3 points
  31. Folks, I just joined your fine forum and am enjoying a good winter, full of snow, ice and cold, which affords time to finally see through the trees, and to ponder and plan another season, chock full of New England hiking and rockhounding adventures (gem & mineral). Now I want add metal detecting, to spice things up. I’m currently in the early stages of research for this hobby (addiction?), before emptying my wallet, and I’m considering a Minelab Equinox 800. No beach combing or town greens for me. I’m a mountains, woods, stream, and fields guy and I prefer to bushwhack and explore off-trail. Hoping to reveal some of the past that surrounds me and perhaps find a trinket, coin, teeny nugget, or some interesting mineral. - Stretchy
    2 points
  32. I had the same issue , power shortage after setting the detector down. I suppose that the little shock between the detector and the ground slightly moves the batteries in their housing creating a micro power shortage. So I have added a piece of foam between the batteries and the cover to block the batterries , see pic below. I did not have any more the pb since I use this trick...
    2 points
  33. Well, in order to know if my math is correct someone (besides me, since I already have) needs to go to the trouble of redoing it. Interestingly the first time through it I made a mistake. "Measure twice; cut once." (Err, maybe that's not what this means....) Hmmm. Lead glass isn't free lead but rather its oxide compound. However, as many prospectors know there are some compounds that are actually conductive (although not many). Coincidentally I just read an ICMJ article by Chris Ralph where he talks about the mineral Cuprite giving a strong response to a detector, and that is a copper oxide (Cu2O). (But, minerals we find aren't always as pure as the pristine specimens pictured in rock handbooks and on Wikipedia. So I don't know if it's the copper oxide or some kind of contaminant. Someone here probably does, though.) Somewhere around home we have a (heavy!) leaded crystal pitcher, which we can't use because supposedly the lead can leach out and contaminate the liquid in it. If I can find it I'll swing a detector over it. That should answer one question, but not necessarily Valen's. If 'yes' it will keep your hyphothesis alive for at least another day.
    2 points
  34. Yes, that’s what I recommended in the post above that you liked. N&D says he considered it but is leaning towards an S shaft approach. BTW - if I could make a Frankentector it would be an Equinox in the Simplex form factor (i.e., with a normal sized grip without a battery cell in it), with a CF lower rod attached to a ML Vanquish 10” coil and F75 menu navigation and control, Deus iron performance and FT or Nokta all metal mode and Tarsacci depth in mineralized dirt.
    2 points
  35. I keep hearing this about the Nox and I just dont see where its coming from? I have used the S#@t out of my machine and have yet to break anything on it associated with the coils or any of it's connections...I bump it bang it etc...not on purpose of course but it happens occasionally Now my garret carrots I've had problems with breaking but it's my fault most likely as I have a habit of dropping them on the ground as i fumble for my digging tool. strick
    2 points
  36. Sorry we let you down. 😞
    2 points
  37. 2 points
  38. Same here, Second guessing myself has not worked well for me. I always tell myself I am there to get some much needed exercise and the finds are a bonus. I stick with what works 😄 But what really surprises me is the fact that my favorite beach can be hit by so many people over the years and is not even close to being cleaned out. It really shows me the complexity of how beaches work and evolve and how they can hide targets so well. Gold? I wish!!!! It's funny how gold works sometimes. There are times I can't find gold no matter what I do or how hard I try. Then on other days, I can hit 2 or 3 gold without effort. I just started bringing a flat head screwdriver to loosen the bigger rocks so that the spade can remove the sand/rock mix faster. Amazing how just a couple of jabs with the screwdriver loosens up the mix enough to make it much easier to dig. I'm all about speed and efficiency when I have a limited of time to detect.
    2 points
  39. Or it could simply be that the GPX 14 decals hadn't even been made yet, so a GPZ 14 decal had to be used to show the decal positioning for the photo.
    2 points
  40. Another great hunt for you, when can we expect the next one with a little more gold. Good luck and happy hunting.
    2 points
  41. I'm guilty of this also when I go back to my 'best beach' first. The truth is when things are good at that beach they could be as good or better at other beaches but I sometimes don't know. We just have to go with our instincts. Sometimes they are wrong. A few months back I hit my favorite beach and it was $$. I was the only one one night $$$! The next night there was one other $. The third night I decided to go to another beach with 'similar' position on the coast but 30 miles away. It was a bust and I hit my best beach again about 3 hours after I should have been there. When I did get there a 'squadron' of lights was all over the beach. There was a group of at least 4 (high, low, middle, blanket). I didn't want to join in the fun so I left. Was it an opportunity missed? We just have to do the best we can. Later I found out where I went to the far away beach someone had a killer night but they know their 'best beach' too!
    2 points
  42. It would have been nice to have a teaser signal (the sound of the actual detector over a nugget), but I guess we'll have to wait for the next tease.
    2 points
  43. Yes, sorry, realized I should have done that. 🙂 It's not in very good shape.
    2 points
  44. Those are amazing for the east and at this late of a stage in detecting. Do you have any idea what happened to these nuggets? I mean are they in a museum some place? They should be. Mitchel
    2 points
  45. Firstly settings please, but I think I can guess at it a bit. When you change modes there is a massive change to the Tx and Rx of the machine, often if the sensitivity is cranked up to high levels the poor little chip overloads and throws the detector into the state described. To avoid lower your sensitivity or pick the coil up and away from the ground so the detector is not blasted with a massive change while loading up its new parameters. I’m not sure if the sluggish button presses are linked as I find the GPZ frustrating slow at the best of times (press, waiting waiting waiting.....change 😖), the sluggish button behaviour can also be corrected by firming up the Mylar power strip. The other thing that can send the GPZ into conniptions is having the WM12 turned on before the detector boots up, it tries to connect up the audio before all the parameters are fully loaded and can throw the detector into a looping power cycle. Best work flow is to turn on the detector and wait till the battery icon appears then turn on the WM12, follow this procedure and all is well. About one in 20 units do this with the stock that comes through our shop and is something I check during assembly and initial training. One customers machine does it religiously every time if he forgets whereas others only do it on occasion or not at all. There could be a correlation between the two scenarios and could be associated with a sensitive machine that is slightly vulnerable when it’s loading up its coefficients. During the load up period the detector is performing diagnostics and takes into account a lot of things like temperature and slight differences between components, this is why there are so few variations between GPZs. This type of process is vital due to the absolute need to get a near perfect voltage for the tech to work, Zero Voltage Transmission means ZERO variation in the voltage. Hope this helps JP
    2 points
  46. Thank you all for the warm welcome. @rvpopeyeI bought an Equinox 800 after a lot of research..So many great machines to choose from. Mainly looking for coins and jewelry..Planning on going to the beach and parks. There are a lot of possibilities, if permission is allowed. Richmond parks and Rec. already told me no, not allowed..so did another town close to me. @ShintoSunrise, I am just south of Petersburg. Lot of history here, so relics are also on my list!
    2 points
  47. When this topic comes up I usually toss in this test I did with the White's DFX and some gold nuggets. It shows how the size of the nugget has less effect than the purity and shape/porosity of the gold. The numbers are all over the place, but in general, the purer and more solid the gold, the higher the number. Some Gold Nugget Target ID Numbers In general, Alaska gold is lower purity than California and Australian gold, resulting in lower target id numbers. Note that a very large gold nugget will give similar readings as a 12 oz aluminum can! Some old nugget target id numbers
    2 points
  48. I put a cut-in-half section of pool noodle inside Doc's protective cover under the detector for extra cushioning. Also, I never treat that machine like anything other than the 7 to 10 thousand dollar item that it is. It's worth that extra few seconds to treat it well. Picks on the other hand? I don't worry so much about.
    2 points
  49. You're right Steve and thanks for the parts link. I'll contact my local dealer for the 2008-005 replacement part. I opened the box. The data cable appeared to be slightly pulled out at the right side, but not by much: I cleaned and reseated it. I epoxied the battery locator pin back in place and it appears good to go. I'll get out in a few days and see if the issues are resolved. Thanks for the help!
    2 points
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