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Showing content with the highest reputation on 03/05/2021 in all areas

  1. Hello to all , And again i went to the same beach secluded where nothing happen,the road potholes have been filed partially meaning you can go up to 9.5mph😂😂 I started at 7.30 once i found the right spot bullets and shrapnells.... silver ring came up then more of the deep debris from ww2 and then BINGO this nice 9ct ring maybe at 30/35cm. i finally gave up at 10.30 may go back tomorrow
    7 points
  2. With the amount of new people here the last few years it bears repeating on a fairly regular basis that the county recorder is the only place to properly determine what location paperwork has been filed if time is of any concern at all. All of these 3rd party websites like Minecache or yes even Mylandmatters (though they are far and away the best 3rd party site with the most knowledgeable people) are not substitutes for doing any kind of claim research, though many newer people tend to think it's suffices, that is not the case. Why? Multitude reasons. 3rd party sites are at best using the LR2000 (now MLRS) database dumps to update their own databases. This means that they might be up to 2 weeks behind the BLM themselves since it's a bi-weekly database dump. Assuming they update their own databses the day the dump occurs, which probably isn't the case so they might be even further behind. I get the "bi-weekly" database dump from the BLM myself, and I can promise it's often less bi-weekly and sometimes more "whenever we get around to it". I've seen it take 1+ months. The BLM themselves are delayed many months both in processing paperwork as well as data entry. Even in states in which historically they were fairly caught up, they are now behind 3+ months. I know because I file claims often and some of mine which I filed over 3 months ago are only now showing as "filed", which means they won't show up in BLM databases OR 3rd party databases unless you search by serial #, which only I have at the moment so they will not show up in database or mapping searching by my name, geographic location, claim name, or anything else. They do show up at the county recorder though In addition to the BLM delay, a claimaint is not required to file with the BLM for 90 days after location. A period of time I and many others very commonly use since being in the field means no mailboxes to get the county recorded original back quickly, nor access to post offices to send mail to the BLM once that document arrives. 3rd party sites do not give you any actual location information beyond the 1/4 section. That is insufficient to determine what land is actually claimed. So, right now, in states commonly prospected on this forum, I can absolutely guarantee that there are claims ~6 months old at this point (and maybe older) which have yet to even show up in MLRS, let alone any of the 3rd party websites. The 90 day period along with the BLM's internal delays in even processing paperwork received means that location certificates at the BLM may not show up for well over 3 months after staking/filing, so it's not good enough to only research at the BLM either. The county recorder is the only place to go for up to date mining claim status. Any serious prospector going beyond club claims has to familiarize themselves with recorder research. If not, stick to club claims because this is a huge part of prospecting, in addition to understanding the laws. The only exception is when researching federal/BLM specific documents which may or may not be required to file at the recorder, or curable items such as NOIH's, and these the BLM may be the only or at least the first agency to have copies.
    6 points
  3. I went back to my silver beach, as I had a fairly good feeling this part of the beach would not change much. It did not and I had a very good day. Spent 7 hours there with the GPX, dug all signals including iron and finally called it quits when my brain said GO HOME! The number of signals in a short span was unreal. I spent some of my time just detecting from my knees, since I could get 4 or 5 signals in very close proximity to the signal I was digging. Most of the time just inches away. Total coin count I believe was 150. 18 silvers, all copper pennies but 1 zinc, so I put that with the trash picture. It ruined my perfect copper penny day and I refuse to put it next to them. 😄 4 Buffalo Nickels showed up, as well as 1 Indian Head Cent, a Standing Liberty Quarter, and a Barber Dime (a rarity on this beach). Also, a nice little locket which I am unsure if it's solid gold or gold filled. It has a 14 stamped on the inside with a maker’s symbol that looks like a variation of Neptune’s 3-pronged spear (Trident). I saw no indication of peeling of the gold, so I am cautiously optimistic I found gold. Of course, with the type of hunting I do, there was lots of junk as well. Got my exercise in for the week and plan on hitting it again soon. Weather was rather nice and sunny, just shy of cold. No matter how old you are, the kid in us still has to play! 🙂
    4 points
  4. Great day but windy, 20 with gusts to 30. I could hardly hear my headphones sometimes and the wind kept blowing my spade around. Went to the site of an old farmhouse in my permission, at first I just scouted about but then switched to grid search using my flag sticks. It's not a huge area but will take a few days to search completely. Gotta say I was surprised to find any military objects at all. If you read my other posts your know this area never really saw war except for 1812, and that was only a very short skirmish that occurred nearly in my backyard. But find militaria I did! The site is as trashy as the other one I went to yesterday but just in the small area where the house stood. Found a decorated cutlery handle, looks like it might be a small teaspoon. There are marks and decorations, but nothing legible. The oval plate has a coin like border around it but also has nothing stamped or engraved other than the border. Next is some sort of part maybe to a machine or gun. The broken circular object seems to be tin. Large buckle is probably silverplated, it may be military. Two knurled knobs I found far apart that may be for holding a military device but I haven't found it yet! Some weird geegaw and a 1918 wheat penny. It was the last thing I found, It dates the finds somewhat. Saved the best for last, a colonial era button, and two military buttons. The left one I cannot identify but the right one is possibly 1864 to 1866 Marines. I did reverse image search on Goog. Anyone with an id for the other? Last is a shotgun shell , the UMC Union star primer is 1901-1912.
    4 points
  5. Finally got my RTG Blade today. Seller sent me the non-travel version first which was nice (and a little lighter) but I wanted the travel handle. Seems built really well. Good size. Does have a little play in the overlapping lower part of joint so I may try some teflon or electrical taper to see if I can reduce that. I don’t think it will be an issue though or I’ll notice while using. We’ll see soon.
    4 points
  6. The first thing to understand is that neither the MLRS nor any of the online claims mapping sites show actual areas under claim. On the Land Matters website we make that clear right on the front of the mining claims maps page. The mining claims represented on these maps are only displayed to the nearest section and DO NOT display the actual claim location. Sections are about one square mile and actual mining claim locations can vary considerably from their mapped location. The only way to determine an actual claim location is to obtain the County Recorder Location Notice and amendments for the claim in question, study the mapped location and then find the location marker on the ground. Members of the public and other prospectors do not have the right to determine whether an existing claim location is valid, only a court of record can make that determination. The next thing to understand is the BLM, Land Matters, Diggings and even the pay services do not rely on mining claim locations to present their information. The information is derived from BLM case files which are not based on current claims information. Besides the normal 90 day + lag in location files and records the BLM itself is years behind on updating these case files in several states. Just last week we ran some rough numbers on what percentage of BLM mining claim case files have never been adjudicated by the BLM beyond acknowledging the receipt of a notice. Adjudication is the simple process the BLM uses to determine if your mining claim location is properly described and located on public lands open to mineral entry. Until a mining claim case is adjudicated the BLM doesn't even know whether there is an actual mining claim associated with the notice they received. Here are state by state those percentages of not yet processed mining claims in a simplified format. 4% - Arizona 53% - California 20% - Colorado 10% - Idaho 1% - Montana and South Dakota* 1% - New Mexico 6% - Nevada 3% - Oregon and Washington* 14% - Utah 9% - Wyoming * These States are administered as a single unit by the BLM. As you can see if you are looking at the MLRS in California the information you are viewing is more than likely years out of date and has a slim chance of being accurate. In fact California is at least 2 years behind on processing claims closures so the numbers you see here just the tip of the administrative backlog iceberg. To varying degrees a similar situation exists in all states. The BLM isn't shy about warning you of this situation. On every file you acquire from the BLM you will find this notice in all capital letters and bold type: NO WARRANTY IS MADE BY BLM FOR USE OF THE DATA FOR PURPOSES NOT INTENDED BY BLM The list above should give you an idea of what purposes the BLM intended. Most County Recorders will update their records within two weeks of receiving location notices or amendments. There are notable exceptions to that standard. In particular in California some of the larger counties are far behind due to being closed to the public for the last year or so. Nonetheless the County Recorder's office is an essential stop on the path to determine public lands open to prospecting. What you are up against here is learning a new set of research skills before you can determine where there is open ground for prospecting. This may seem complex, and it is. Despite what appears to be a modern mess of red tape the fact is that successful professional prospectors in the United States have had to master these skills for more than 150 years. It's actually a lot easier now than it was even 20 years ago. It's just one of the many complex skills prospectors must master to be successful. I do this for a living. I can tell you from experience that there are some basic steps that really need to be accomplished even before you look at the BLM files or the County Public Records. The very first thing you need to do before researching claims in any given area is to study the Master Title Plat (MTP) maintained by the BLM. The Master Title Plat is the definitive map of government interests, ownership and past actions on the public lands. It includes patents, mineral withdrawals and ROWS. It's one of the few government documents you will find that doesn't have the giant BLM disclaimer. You can rely on the MTP to be an official government record. Without viewing and understanding the MTP you will waste a good part of your research and prospecting time investigating lands that you have no right to prospect or claim. Thousands of mining claimants waste their time and money every year staking claims that are invalid and will be classified as CLOSED as soon as your state BLM gets around to adjudicating your location notice. The real message here is that you have a legal duty to determine the status of the land before you put boots on the ground to prospect or locate a mining claim. This is known as due diligence and it's a positive legal duty to avoid trespassing. Not just charges of trespassing against a mining claim but trespass on private property or mineral trespass against the United States is a distinct possibility too if you don't do the research before entering these lands.
    3 points
  7. The 'notch' feature on the F75 is a nuisance, and it is easy to accidentally set it wrong, and not realise. I recommend performing a 'Factory Reset' , see the Owner's Manual for details of how to do this. This will clear any peculiar settings you may have got. I notice the central foam piece from the armcup is missing, that is unusual. Also, on the genuine machines I have seen, the 6 bolts that hold the upper armcup to the lower section are painted black, not left shiny silver. This makes me suspect the machine is counterfeit.
    3 points
  8. I’m not so sure it’s the connector as much as the electronics in the control box aren’t shielded. My VALLON PI shields the entire circuit board and they use a 7 pin Souriau bayonet style connector. The center pin is the coil+ and all the remaining 6 pins are tied together as coil- which shields the connector. Maybe Fisher could look at that as a possible fix for the noise. I read one post who says his machine gets noisy when the water is about 6 inches down from the control box. That most likely is movement of the coil cable itself. You need to secure your cable for zero movement the best you can. Good luck everybody and spring is just around the corner here in the US !!!
    3 points
  9. https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/2595-9-million-worth-of-counterfeit-detectors-destroyed-in-dubai/ https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/7634-first-texas-pursues-counterfeiters/ https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/2795-fake-gold-bug-pro-detectors-destroyed/ Minelab Stop Counterfeits Page Known Counterfeit Manufacturers https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/10993-list-of-legitimate-metal-detector-dealers/
    3 points
  10. The FE0304 meter doesn't have anything to do with the ground phase number. It simply tells you how strong the minerals in the dirt are. The minerals could be magnetic like black sand or they could be conductive such as salt, or some combination of both. You can have dirt that ground balances in the teens and give you a high FE0304 reading because its highly conductive like wet salt, or it could balance in the 50's and 60's and give you high FE0304 readings because its highly oxidized like some red clays and you can have dirt in the 90's give you high FE0304 readings due to black sand. And you can have some combination of both. What is important is understanding how ground with high FE0304 readings affect target signals on your detector. At some point ground mineral strength starts to affect target signals. It will either start masking it, or start interacting with the target response, either raising or lowering the target's phase numbers. In my environment, as the ground mineral strength increases, the target phase number rises and based upon the target conductivity it can quickly wrap around to the iron range, or in the case of tiny targets, completely mask them. The FE0304 meter responses give the operator a heads up about his ground and allows him to make appropriate setting changes to deal with it and/or better interpret his iron signals. HH Mike
    2 points
  11. Pimiento ... 👍 I think you have defined really well what the GB indicator does - it is the "Terain Phase "meter,...... and what is the function of the "Mineralization meter" -it is the "indicator of the strength of the X signal feedback" from the Field ...
    2 points
  12. All the FootPrints were in the process of having the claims updated in the summer of 2019. Sadly my partner passed away in the middle of the process and I've had to put those updates on hold. I still plan to update the FootPrints claims layers and some other features on some of the FootPrint maps but I've been swamped with work from mining companies for the last year. In my opinion the custom geology mapping on the Greaterville FootPrint alone makes it worth the price for anyone that works that area. The 50/50 boundaries are a bonus. The 50/50 area has produced some of the biggest detected nuggets in Arizona history. I've detected and water processed material there. There is a lot of gold in the 50/50 area. I was the caretaker for Kentucky Camp and there has never been a limit on prospecting in any reasonable form although working inside the Kentucky Camp fence line is strongly discouraged.
    2 points
  13. @Clay Digginsand @jasong and others who helped here - just want to thank you for the free time and education you are providing us, I really appreciate your responses, and am sure a lot of us here are benefiting by this - thanks!
    2 points
  14. No it won't show the "actual" boundary because all it shows is land status. I don't recall how many different patents were reconveyed in the exchange but each one is individually shown as reconveyed with split mineral estate. You will have to determine the boundary from that information. I mapped those boundaries back in 2012 as part of the Greaterville FootPrint but there is no public version available beyond the current MTP. Also the MTP is not a geographic map but shows land status in relationship to the Public Land Survey System. There are no common or reference map features on the MTP except Sections and government lots. The land status notation is unique to the MTP and only has a passing resemblance to English language.
    2 points
  15. This is true of the surface of the land and real estate. The problem comes when dealing with the subsurface estate (minerals). In the western United States it's common for the minerals to be owned by a different entity than the surface owner. Greaterville is a good example. What's known as the 50/50 area in Greaterville are old mining patents where the surface has been reconveyed (given back) to the United States along with half of the subsurface mineral rights retained in private ownership. Since half of the minerals belong to a private party you can't locate a mining claim in those areas even though they are managed and designated as public lands. This situation is very common and it's a major part of the reason your first stop in claims research needs to be the Master Title Plat which is designed to show these "split estate" and mineral ownership status issues.
    2 points
  16. Another vote for the steveg counterbalance rod....
    2 points
  17. I've found four Civil War relics in my parks (all from different parks!) yet there were no battles in Indiana (ignoring anything involving Morgan's Raiders -- and although I'm within easy driving distance of those they didn't happen in my town). There are other possibilities: 1) training camps and/or maneuvers, 2) participation in parades on holidays of later years to commemorate soldiers' service, 3) items brought back from war which eventually got dropped/lost. Sometimes these items even had utilitarian value. They weren't rare or even collectible then so they weren't necessarily treasured items at the time they were dropped/lost/discarded.
    2 points
  18. Sounds like that was the problem thanks for the advice! the plan is to go tomorrow to an old property to have a play. Will bury some coins and try learn a bit from there. excited for my first hunt
    2 points
  19. Yup yup , sounds like you just need more time with the detector getting to know each other.......Remember , don't expect too much until the third date ! 😄 Keep your coil under control and on target.
    2 points
  20. The AQ limited has a 15uS setting. The 11.5 is actually 15uS. I think the reason most other PI detectors stop at 15uS is because their circuitry was unable to sample faster than that in salt or heavy mineral locations and still remain stable. That’s not to say though that the unlimited AQ won’t add slower sample rates. We shall see.
    2 points
  21. [UCLA Meteorite Gallery] March 2021 Newsletter http://mail.artnet.net/skins/elastic/images/contactpic.svg From UCLA Meteorite Collection <meteorites@ucla.edu> on 04/03/2021 05:49 PM Details Plain text
    2 points
  22. Try turning down the gain=sensitivity from 99 to 60. You say in static all-metal mode you get a signal from this Phoenecian coin at 1.5 meter distance?? I don't think so.... Also you didn't say what process you are using. The Boost Process ('bP' on the screen) when in discriminate actually affects the detector's performance in All Metal modes also. Try setting to default process ('dE' on the screen) while in discriminate mode. Then go to All Metal mode. Like many detectors, in mineralized ground the numerical target ID's can 'wrap around'. For example, silver objects can show up as iron/ferrous and sometimes iron as non-ferrous. If you are discriminating out the iron range then you won't hear a tone for wrapped-around silver. (But I think the loss of a sound should only occur in discriminate mode. In the All Metal modes you should still hear a signal regardless of how notching/discrimation threshold has been set in discriminate mode.) Note: the Boost Process (bP) and Cache Locating Process (cL) are not on all models, only the Limited (which has a black shaft) and the F75+ (which I think has the '+' sign on the arm cuff). I see a gold shaft on yours so likely you don't have these processes. But you should have others (Fast, Jewelry, Plowed Field). I still suggest the Default (dE) process for debugging. After you've solved your problem you can try out other processes. I like PimentoUK's suggestion (below) of doing a factory reset. See the user-manual for how to perform that. And turning off all discrimination (notching) is also a good suggestion he gave. Keep things as simple as possible when debugging.
    2 points
  23. Coiltek has a 5x10. Bet that would compliment what you have already. Should have similar depth as the 6" but better coverage. Also coil like that might work good for small jewelry. You may find the narrow coil will perform in bad ground really well, elipticals usually do.
    2 points
  24. You can try to contact these guys and see what they have. They made connectors for many detector brands, even custom ones and that might be stock. https://www.switchcraft.com/
    2 points
  25. Here is the Public Land Survey System (Township/Range/Section) kmz for the US, and historic mine and Geology kmz file set for California, and a kmz file for Arizona that I downloaded from USGS in the past. Open each of them with Google Earth and good Internet connectivity. I also suggest closing these kmz files in Google Earth before leaving it, it will try to open the files the next time when you restart Google Earth and it takes awhile otherwise. They are interesting to browse on Google Earth, and were plotted using the information provided by claimants so beware, many of them are within a 1/8th and even a 1/4 section of the real point. Geologic units of California.kmz Mineral Resource Data System 2.kmz Mineral Resource Data System 1.kmz Mineral Resource Data System 3.kmz Mineral Resource Data System 4.kmz Mineral Resource Data System Az.kmz BLM National Public Land Survey System.kmz
    2 points
  26. Why they supplied those u-bolts is beyond me. Your foot slips or just carrying around can cause some injury. This is speaking from experience. Option 1 : buy smaller length u-bolts. Option 2 ( what I did , much cleaner) : buy a few slightly larger washers and locknuts ( the kind with plastic in them so they don't unscrew by themselves). 2 washers and tighten down nut , then grind down excess bolt. Bottomline is do what you can to eliminate that excess bolt sticking out.
    2 points
  27. As shown on the last page I picked up an Ames True Temper 2037400 46-Inch ash shovel replacement handle, which fit my hardware without needing shims. The handle tapers at the end, and I sawed the taper off so the bolts fit the thickest part of the handle. I do not think Brian did this above, and you can see the length difference in the u-bolt excess becasue of it. The u-bolts are too long but other than that the hardware supplied with mine is fine. I double bolted and used loctite, so not expecting issues there.
    2 points
  28. I also purchased the same scoop as Steve, based on his recommendation, thank you Steve. As I was assembling the scoop to the handle,I noticed that the supplied nuts were not going to hold without the help of washers. The drilled holes were slightly and I mean slightly smaller than the nuts, so washers were needed and unfortunately not supplied. I also added a piece of rubber under the “U” bolts to prevent slippage and damage to the wooden handle. This being my first scoop, I don’t know if the rubber is a good idea or not, time will tell. Hope this helps, Brian.
    2 points
  29. It would be nice if the manufactures would let you order a la carte. This detector with this coil and that coil. yea it would take longer and be more expensive but at least you are getting what you want.
    2 points
  30. And the BLM does have Google Earth overlays both for the PLSS and land ownership. USGS has a mines overlay too, which is what Minecache and other websites take and repackage and sell.
    2 points
  31. I use Minecache, overlaid on Google Earth, to see all mines and claims (active and inactive). I think it is the best research tool out there. I use Google Earth because you can also display USGS maps at the same time as you see all active and passive claims and mines. Unfortunately, BLM does not have a good Google Earth map feature so I go and check the land status on the BLM site separately. https://minecache.com/
    2 points
  32. I took coil cover off. Saves over 2oz
    2 points
  33. Look at the rod, shaft, and counterweight system offered by:
    2 points
  34. Oh part 5, 6 and 7 coming up.. 😎 Btw I have a cat, his name is Harry as in Dirty Harry the attack cat. Tom would be no match for Harry. Tiftaaft hold on to your shorts I fully intend on bringing you part 5. Here is a pic of a non metal but most likely Chinese artifact from a different location. Just for fun
    2 points
  35. Has anyone done a comparison of the mineralization readouts of various brand detectors on the same ground? I know Fisher F75 is considered a standard. I would like to be able to compare my NM Anfibio readings to other detectorist's ground conditions. F75, Deus etc. Also what GB settings others consider mild----hot ground.
    1 point
  36. To help understand what these 'ground strength' / Fe3O4 / mineralisation meters are showing, it's worth a read of a few posts on the "Equinox improvement ideas" thread, starting from this post: Notice the scaling of the F75 bargraph is logarithmic, to handle the wide range of possible values, and observe that it's not that precise, it goes in roughly factors of 3 increments, so there could be a 50% discrepancy between two different machines, and you wouldn't see it. This makes comparisons harder.
    1 point
  37. I'm also a ham radio operator. Heck, for years I've used DIN adapters, coax cable adapters, etc. Hopefully these guys can help out. I opened up the old connector and made note of the wiring. Later I'll do the same with the connector on the new coil cable. Kellyco may have something. Surely there are other owners that have had the same problem. Maybe someone on the forums will know what to do. I'll let you know how things go. In Mississippi the old GTAX 1000 hit on a grape shot ball about a foot deep. I want to get the old machine back up and running. It was a faithful detector for 20 years.
    1 point
  38. and another detector loses its virginity - congratulations!
    1 point
  39. Assuming it isn't counterfeit, a few things that can cause loss of depth such as ground conditions and emi interference. Do you have the silver buried? Is this recent or just in general and what are you comparing the loss to? Previous tests? Air test vs buried? Loss in depth just in all metal mode or in general with other modes? All metal mode is an unfiltered raw signal. I don't know about the F75 specifically but on my Multi Kruzer the all metal mode has less depth and target id's drop off more than the filtered modes. This may or may not be the case.
    1 point
  40. My order from Centreville Electronics came today with the TRX... Brand new and ready for hunting as advertised. Just wanted to let everyone know - unfortunately, they are now showing "Out of stock" on the website. ~Tim.
    1 point
  41. Ok je comprend mieux en français 🙂 sympa la montre , j’ai fait presque la mĂȘme gourmette cet Ă©tĂ© et presque les deux meme alliances Y’a quelques jours dans la semoule contre une lĂ©gĂšre coupe Moi aussi j’ai que de l’or lĂ©ger en ce moment voici mes 4 derniĂšres sorties . il me faut absolument le AQ pour aller chercher le lourd .
    1 point
  42. Welcome to this forum! The people who have responded have all owned and like the Vanquish series detectors. In general, they are very quiet detectors so your issue is definitely unusual. Since you are a newbie, there are a couple of things that could be happening. 1.If you are getting a constant relatively unchanging tone you may have a defective Vanquish. 2.If you are getting a multitude of varying individual pops, clicks and wavering tones along with changing target ID numbers with the coil in the air, you are experiencing EMI. If your problem sounds like 1.... you could have a problem with you battery connections or with an individual battery, you could have a bad coil or coil connection or an internal circuit board component failure. Try reinstalling your batteries, check you coil connection and if you have the 540 Pro Pack, try the other coil but first do a full factory reset and do not do any of this inside or near your home. Related to 2.........the Vanquish will do a 5 second process during startup that runs through 19 small incremental frequency checks to determine what operating frequencies will be the least bothered by electromagnetic interference. So, where your Vanquish and its search coil are during startup will be very crucial. Hold it still with the coil away from the ground when first turning it on. Turning it on anywhere near a large metallic object, near any Wi-Fi or other sources of electricity will be a bad idea especially if the last time you used it your sensitivity was maxed out. So turning it on with full sensitivity engaged in a house, car or near power lines will result in a lot of unwanted chatter from EMI. Your coil is an antenna for incoming electrical signals and since the Vanquish is tuned to simultaneously receive signals from 5 kHz to at least 40 kHz, there are plenty of exterior sources other than electrically stimulated metallic in the ground targets that are using those frequencies. Your cell phone or your powered on handheld pinpointer if you have one, could be an interference source too. I usually turn my pinpointer on before I turn on my Vanquish and Equinox so they will pick frequencies that will not receive too much interference from my pinpointer. Running any detector at or near full sensitivity is a bad idea in an urban or suburban setting near electrical power sources. I usually can only run my Vanquish or any of my detectors between half and three quarters sensitivity. I still find tons of 8 to 10" targets with my Vanquish 440 and Equinox even on those sensitivity settings and I don't have the constant chatter that will cover up good signals and drive me completely nuts. You should not have to turn off your detector when you dig. good luck Jeff Also, this happens to me very often in extremely trashy areas. I will detect a target, put my Equinox or Vanquish down on the ground, start to recover the target and my detector will intermittently beep. I accidentally put the coil on top of another target!!!
    1 point
  43. I think that should say " A fishing story on radio you can tune in on", as a show one can watch. Just kidding there and welcome to the forum for some of the best advice from the greatest people who metal detect. Just one more thing, I am a newbie and am just learning my detector so please don't ask me how to use it.
    1 point
  44. I still think of Eric's Aquastar coil with the stainless bead--shame something like that can't be incorporated here. cjc
    1 point
  45. Aah good to see another Queenslander here, welcome to the forum!
    1 point
  46. This!! These statements aren’t talked about in the Nox manual, but I accidentally stumbled on this effect while fiddling with the new F2 IB when it became available. I’m running F2-0 every hunt for ultra deep and partially masked/co-located targets passed over by many previous hunters (including myself) in heavy, non-ferrous trashy sites with moderate levels of deep iron, big and small, but I don’t detect in “blanket” ferrous sites that often. At F2-0, I haven’t dug any more iron than I had dug with my Explorer SE for 9 years. If F2-0 IB is not considered “Off”, I wonder if there would be anything to gain if minelab offered a negative IB (i.e. F2 -1) ...possibly even better clarity/repeatability of ultra deep, whisper targets??? Also, at the sites I typically hunt, I’d rather hunt with the least amount of iron bias looking for ultra deeps, as opposed to try and lower my recover speed below 4. In my typical ground I hunt, I don’t like the audio effect (more noisy/somewhat delayed) of signals when I try lowering recover speed below 4.
    1 point
  47. Hello there... I believe it is in transit. Will check with the team and let you know approximately when.
    1 point
  48. JP has written about the settings extensively and I recommend to look into the previous threads on this topic. Some really good info there. My bottom line, everybody runs the GPZ somewhat differently. The general consensus is (with some few exceptions...) that HY/Normal/ Smoothing off/ semi-auto GB gives the biggest bang for the buck, assuming the ground allows it. Some of the main differences come from how you prefer to ID your target. Some crank the sensitivity all the way up and tolerate a very noisy threshold with alot of ground/EMI signals mixed in, some others (like me) prefer to reduce the gain to make the target stand out clearer, but the response might also be fainter. However, gain up or down does not matter that much in Normal as you will always hear your target, it just depends how you want to hear it. Normal offers alot more tolerance to parameter changes than Difficult which filters out alot. Here, you need to make up for it by increasing gain and volume. HY/difficult/smoothing is very much reducing the power of the GPZ, but seems necessary for many Au soils to ID targets. My starting settings are HY/Normal/smoothing off, GB: semi-auto, gain 6, threshold 25, volume 9. Then I adjust from there. Threshold-volume is incredible sensitive and reducing it from the default 27 to 26 or 25 has already a big impact. At sensitivity 6 I usually also never have the problem to do GB with the ferrite. In contrast, at sensitivity 12 or 13 in mineralized/conductive grounds I often can't get the ferrite quiet during GB. Cheers GC
    1 point
  49. Thank you everyone. This should not be read as the be all end all of nugget detecting with the Equinox. It is a very powerful and subtle metal detector, and so everything I wrote is just a good beginning. I am still learning little things with each new outing to new locations. One thing I think I am seeing is that Multi has built in ground canceling capability not available with single frequency detectors. It has been well noted that for many locations and regular detecting you do not need to ground balance the Equinox at all. This is because the multifrequency processing is doing a lot of the work up front and so the ground balancing procedure only need take place in extreme ground. This exhibits when nugget detecting in that hot single frequency detectors have a very touchy ground balance setting. A Gold Bug 2 for instance, you have to deal with very fine ground balance adjustments. Just a hair off in either direction, and the detector reacts very strongly to the ground. The Equinox by comparison seems to be able to fudge the setting with less dramatic negative results. This can be very handy when dealing with hot rocks. The last location I worked was northern Nevada, mildly alkali (salt) type ground. The Equinox with small coil and sensitivity 17 wanted to ground balance at 6 to make the ground not react at all. However, at this setting there were reddish rocks containing maghemite that were giving positive signals. Maghemite is one of the nastiest minerals a detector has to deal with. From Advancedï»ż Nugget Hunting With the Fisher Gold Bug Metal Detector by Pieter Heydelaar & David Johnï»żsonï»żï»ż, page 33: ”Maghemite is gamma ferric oxide. It is red or reddish brown in color, and usually has an earthy texture. It commonly occurs in rocks that have been chemically altered by fire (forest fires, camp fires, etc.) or weathering, and in red or red brown soils. Some tropical or sub-tropical clays may contain more than 10% maghemite and may be so magnetic they will be drawn to a magnet. In many gold prospecting areas, “hot rocks”, which are of ordinary appearance but sound like gold, owe their obnoxious behavior to their maghemite content.” I played with one of these hot rocks a little. The rock went quiet at ground balance setting of 0 but now the ground was reactive. I settled at a ground balance setting of 2, which still kept the rocks quiet while still allowing for quiet operation over the ground. You can play these ground balance offset tricks with single frequency detectors, but it is much harder to get it right. Multifrequency seems to allow for more slop in the ground balance setting without the immediate negative aspects seen with most single frequency models. I have been using my Equinox in preference to my Gold Monster purely due to all the adjustability. The problem can be too much adjustability for many people. The Gold Monster basically gets the job done with almost no tuning expertise required at all. The Equinox has impressive capability also, but favors people like me that want full control over all the tuning aspects. I appreciate being able to manually ground balance, and I do like my threshold control, and therefore I lean Equinox. I admit I also like the challenge of learning new things also, and the Equinox appeals to me there also. I am not casting my Gold Monster aside completely however. There also are times when quick and dirty simplicity is all I need. When I test most nugget detectors I concentrate on their ability to find small gold. Small gold nuggets require a detector to be tuned up as hot as absolutely possible to just be able to detect the gold at all. This hot tuning however makes bad ground and hot rocks react. What really sets nugget detectors apart is not their ability to find gold. It is how well they can handle bad ground while still finding the gold that counts, and this is the reason that air tests have so little value for nugget hunters. This does mean I have not really looked for larger gold with my Equinox. If I am hunting big gold, I am more inclined to grab my GPZ 7000. Yet I suspect that the Equinox may be one of the best VLF options that exist currently outside pulse induction type technology for hunting larger gold since Equinox really does pack the punch on gold range targets. The largest nugget I have found so far with the Equinox was more an accident while chasing small gold.... 1.3 grams from my recent Alaska trip. I have proved to myself that Equinox can perform on small gold, but now I need to see how well it can do on larger gold at depth in trashy areas where my GPZ is going to go nuts on the garbage. 1.3 gram Alaska gold nugget found with Equinox and 11" coil
    1 point
  50. Thank-you Steve! This is a very informative and helpful article. You are a really good writer, by the way??
    1 point
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