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Got out this weekend for about 4 hours with the Equinox 800 and 11" coil. The outing started out a little slow and after 3 hours I was getting a little discouraged. I had dug a few small musket balls, a dropped Sharps bullet and a crushed cuff button. So decided to head over to where my 2 buddies were digging. As I changed directions and worked toward them, I got a jumpy 15-16 on the Equinox and was rewarded with not 1 but 2 J hooks in the same hole. The area I worked between where I was and where my buddies were hunting was loaded with iron and progress was slow in getting there. When I got about 50 yards from my one friend I got a 19-20 signal and dug a zinc penny about 2 inches down. I thought great what's that doing here. Not 5 feet from the zinc penny I got an identical 19-20 signal only deeper. My first thought was another zinc penny. But at about 6 inches down in the bottom of the plug was a nice 1857-O half dime. That made my day! I walked over to show my closest friend and asked how long he was planning to stay as it was his permission. He told me he actually needed to get started back toward the truck now. We were about half way back to the trucks when I got a 18-20 signal one way but negative numbers the other. This kind of signal usually turns out to be iron but I decided that this might be my last decent signal and dug it anyway. I was down about pin pointer depth and the item was still in the hole, I loosened the dirt and took one last handful out of the bottom and through it on my pile next to the hole. In the pile I could see the edge of a large coin, so I called to my friend and said I think I have another coin. He came over and his first words were wow it's old. I said looks like a quarter and he said no it looks like a 2 real. I picked the coin up and to my surprise it was an 1781 2 real. Two great old coins in one hunt, still can't believe my luck. There's still stuff to be found out there.

Beautiful day today. Didn't get out until 10, but by then it was already warm, about 47. It was 25 when I first got up. Headed out to the old farmhouse site to run a couple of passes I felt I could have done better, surprised a large Coyote hunting at the woods edge. Coyotes migrated to this area in the last 5 years or so, this one has wiped out all of the foxes and many of the rabbits around my house. I get photos of him now and again on my deer cameras. Today he was stalking a groundhog that I saw go in the woods where he was a day before. All I found at the old site was a cutlery handle like one I found not too far from it previously. This one says "Sterling 925" on it, well maybe the plating was 😀 Last night I set up a new plot for another farmhouse in Tect-O-Trak using some historic aerials I found. Went there and saw brick and heard lots of iron so I knew I found the house. The well was filled in but not a great job. I have fallen in a well before, not something I would wish on anyone. Shown in the photo: The cutlery handle, a large adjusting wheel of some sort (at first I thought I found another KG Copper😵), another very heavy piece of cutlery with an odd tab. Belt buckle might be animal tack, it's heavy but still managed to get twisted. Four Wheat Pennies from 1913 to 1944. Two buttons, one seems to be aluminum, the other is the front of a two piece. I can't make out the design so below is a close up if anyone recognizes it. Toy wheel, and my most stunning find of the day, a .58 caliber Gardner ball, dropped not fired. I'm surprised to have found one in such great condition and even more surprised to find one at all. 🤔 Tomorrow I'm going back to grid search.

PART ONE: Pictured below are four gold specimens that I have found and I will discuss what methods I use to remove the host rock revealing mother nature's treasure. I gave each specimen a "letter" designation so you can follow the progress from start to finish on each specimen. Part Two I will discuss the chemicals and equipment I use to clean gold or mineral specimens.

Sand is just that - sand. So a rock and the minerals in it are not part of a discussion regarding "black sands." Rather, you have a rock that appears to have some dark colored mineral, presumably an ore of iron. Sand that is black is not always "black sand," and just because you have "black sands" does not mean you will find gold. Iron ores are common and just like quartz, can be found in far more locations that lack gold, than those that have it. Anyway, here is something I wrote for another thread that explains what "black sands" are... People sometimes misread the term “black sand”. Black sand is a mining term and actually has more to do with weight than color. Black sands are the heavy mineral concentrate recovered when running any form of placer mining concentration system. The most basic version is the heavy mineral concentrate left in the bottom of a gold pan. From the Glossary of Placer Terms in Placer Examination Principles And Practice: BLACK SAND Heavy grains of various minerals which have a dark color, and are usually found accompanying gold in alluvial deposits. (Fay) The heavy minerals may consist largely of magnetite, ilmenite and hematite associated with other minerals such as garnet, rutile, zircon, chromite, amphiboles, and pyroxenes. In Western gold placers, the black sand content is commonly between 5 and 20 pounds per cubic yard of bank-run gravel. Black sands are also concentrated by winnowing action on beaches derived from terrestrial sources like volcanoes or granitic intrusives... any source that can supply the requisite heavy minerals. In this context simply looking at a beach or in a stream and seeing dark or black colored material is not finding black sand. Amateur gold prospectors often do this, thinking that seeing black colored material in a stream is a positive sign for gold. All they are often seeing is just material like black slate or shale gravels and sands, not actual black sand. Unless it is heavy material concentrated by gravity action and typically with a high magnetic component, it’s not black sand in the context of the discussion. True black sands are usually very fine though I have encountered coarse grain black sands. The fine grain variety often has a glittering appearance due to the presence of many sharp edged crystals of the constituent materials, chiefly magnetite. Sands concentrated by gravity action and containing a high enough portion of heavy garnet material which confers a reddish color are referred to as “ruby sands.” Again, the key thing is material derived by gravity concentration and therefore very heavy, not simply color. Here is a picture of some gold I recovered in a Garrett 10" gold pan along with the resulting heavy magnetic black sand concentrates. Click picture for larger view. Placer gold and black sand concentrates

In the areas with moderate to heavy iron and nails, I would definitely try using Recovery 8 at some point. I've been maxing out my recovery speed around some local cellar holes and pulling out some good targets that were barely just squeaker tones. Just last month I got a King George copper using recovery 8 at a cellar that has been hunted by everyone for 30 years or more. I need to go back there and try gold mode next time.

You can find it with black rock.

So that is in a sense "black sand," but what you have there is a quartz rock containing a high concentration of iron minerals. Sounds like it's magnetite, a very "hot" iron mineral and a very common one in the goldfields. It is also true that gold may be found nearby as it is an indicator of mineralized rock bodies in the area that gold may have hitched a ride up with. There is a saying that goes, "gold rides an iron horse." Meaning essentially that gold occurs often in setting where iron occurs. They are both heavy minerals, and heavy minerals in general are an indicator of possible gold concentrations, but iron is much more common with the planet Earth than gold is. So there is going to be a lot more iron found than gold. But it looks like you're on the right track in that area. It's specimens like that in your photos that sometimes are found to have gold in them. I'd say stick to it. You'll probably hit a heck of lot more iron nodules/hot rocks before/during/after finding some gold. But this is the labor of the detector prospector. Remaining diligent in detecting habit regardless of nuisance targets. Because you only find gold if you dig at targets, so take every non-gold find as a check-up that your detector is still working and that your attention span hasn't wanned and you will eventually swing that coil over something exciting 😉

Hunting the first sandbar on Lake Ontario where the water is clearer and it is easy digging I would use the gold modes to hunt.I would go mostly by how the zip sounded but would glance at the numbers. I found a small 316 stainless steel ring with small stone that rang as a 1 that was near a foot.If i did not have gold mode i would have not dug it because it would have sounded terrible.I dug a tough gold earring hit with this method too.The gold modes have a place in certain situations other then nuggets.

I'm out there swinging that coil nearly everyday and finding nothing but crumbs. I got out late this morning in an area that was shown to me about 16 yrs ago by Rob Allison and Bill Southern. I detect that area all the time because it's nearly in my backyard here in Sunny Yuma. This morning I noticed a short gully that was kind of hidden by the rolling hills that I had overlooked all these years. Lots of drywash tailings stacked on a low bench above the gully. I didn't see any obvious dig holes and started working the bench. Not 5 minutes in, I get a decent target signal smack dab in the middle of that bench. After digging through the old tailings, I started hitting virgin hardpack caliche about a foot down. At a sensitivity of 1 on the 7000 with the 15x10 X-Coil, I could just barely pinpoint the nugget without blowing my ears off. I got out the dental pick and started breaking up the caliche so as to not damage the nugget. A good 30 minutes of work and out popped this sweet specie nugget. I'm running High Yield, Normal, Sens 12, Threshold 27. I criss-crossed that bench 4 more times without a target. As a last resort I jacked up the Sensitivity to 20 and turned down the threshold to 21. The threshold at 21 sounds like distant Morse Code blips. In these conditions I listen for the distant blips to blend with a slight hum. I chase a lot of hot rocks and seams of clay, but every now and then it pays off. So I found the small nugget about 20 ft from the bigger one and a solid 12 inches deep. Slowly working my way towards that new GPX6000.

Hello to all ,went back to the beach where i found the Gold ring 2 days ago i tried hard but nothing good came out except on this 2 Oz weight probably victoria 100m from the beach towards the sea.........what was it doing here not sure maybe from a fisherman scale...... Anyway as the finds were scarce i decided to push the MDT to the limit of stability so i crank up the sensitivity did another GB just in case So : AM 9khz sens 9 Threshold -1 ST26 GB535 So while it is chatty ,you will realise that the ID suffer variations on a non round target fluctuate a lot,BUT the depth is actually unreal on medium size targets like fishing weight i think 45 cm is the norm.I lll be interested to see what happen when you hit a silver or gold ring.......bear in mind it is also less fun as you got more ghost signals. Anyway was worth trying RR

Kioti I do say old chap you do impress me with that tag from Minelab. I see it has 1800 was that the model of the detector? If so I had the one before that. I’ve also had the Extreme, 3500 and two 4500 but yet to have a 5000 . I sure like the looks of the 6000 and like I said on another post my wife said I have the money so buy it. Well I’ve looked myself over good and can’t find it I was willing to look her over good but then she called me a pervert and that put a end to that adventure.haha Chuck PS I forgot one and that was the 2300 I had it .

I have experienced all of what you have said as well. A few years back I also found a merc in the corner of a park that I had... and others had hunted a lot over the years... I barely broke the surface of the dirt and the merc popped out... still scratching my head on that one. The oldest nickels I have found seemed to give me an 11-12 reading... but the depth of the signal made me chase it. My mindset was... if this soft deep tone is a pull tab... chalk one up for the site... but when the shield nickel popped out... or on another occasion a "v" nickel popped out... I was glad I took the time to dig deep. Funny thing... probably just mental more than anything... but I always get "nickel fever" when I start going around the base of trees... all my old nickels have been around the base of a tree... like I said, probably just my own mental focus on those tones.. 😉 As I mentioned, I normally run 50 tones... but your 5 tone setup is interesting... I will probably give that a try at some point soon too... I do love the 50 tone setup though. And now... alternatively... the 1 tone has my interest (and the theme of this thread... sorry for going off into the weeds a bit...) I am going to try to hit the old school this afternoon with the 800 in Gold 1 and the 6". Most likely over the area where I found the quarter, wheat, and yesterday the back of the pocket watch... so see what other hits are around there. ~Tim.

Yes, I started the same way... wide open... It sure makes you appreciate the ability to set the volume on those iron hits in the park and field modes, huh! 🙂 This is very similar to my test run... I was digging the shoulder tones around nickels as well (11's and 14-15's... as much to clear the can slaw and pull tabs out as anything). I have a fairly short swing amplitude anyway, but you are right, I shorten up even more with the 6" coil. Also, I have been including 18 and 19 as the potential IHP range... interesting that you have found 20 to be the sweet spot for them. Agreed, at a site where I (or you or anyone) have worked it over with other mode and settings combinations... it gave me enough of a different approach to listening to what the machine was telling me in Gold mode to stop and investigate. I want to try a slower recovery as you tested... a 4 or 5 recovery, small coil, maybe single frequency comparison against multi... just to better understand what this arrow can do when I pull it out of my quiver. Thanks for the details GBA! ~Tim.

I normally don't post on this site much ( I post on the gold forum) as I'm usually chasing gold nuggets with my EQ-800. Anyway the snow melted last week and the temps hit 50's so I took the new CoilTek NOX 10" Ellip coil for a spin at a site I've hunted for many years. Saved a few military items and also spotted some eye candy. I think it's ivory, but not sure. Also has a name engraved on it. What's the best way to tell if it's ivory? The 10" NOX is very sensitive to small targets as I dug many primers. I really light the weight balance and extra ground coverage in semi trashy sites vs my 6" round. I'm most certain this will be a great coil. Also, what is the item about the size of a nickel and it has a star in the glass?

Good hunting again, happy hunting those old sites. I try to find the old churches or old cemeteries as they had churches right next door. The older the better.

The silver is just awesome. How about that reed for an instrument? I have found several all different sizes where I’m detecting now.

Out for two hours (weather was perfect). Here are my setting and impressions of the hunt: Settings: Picked up EMI higher than gain=20 so settled there. (Not a bad place as Jeff has said more than once. You don't need max gain on the Eqx by any means.) Multi-freq, Recovery Speed = 5. Iron Bias F2=0. I started out wide open but saw that wasn't going to work with all the iron hits so disced out everything below +5. (I rarely run any disc but your mention of the Tesoro Vaquero made me realize I actually use threshold disc with my Vaq and it works well. So use it with this method.) Mental discrimination: First thing I noticed (which is typically the case with small coils anyway) is not to be in a hurry! My swing (left to right) amplitude was less than 3 feet. I always try and overlap 50% on my subsequent swings, regardless of coil size. Anything that ID'ed near USA nickels (12-13 is the sweetspot) and from 20 and up (that includes the Zincolns which aren't badly deteriorated, plus -- in my experience -- the Indian Head pennies and early Wheats. I'll post a photos of all my dug targets tomorrow. The site I was hunting has only been detected by me (AFAIK) multiple times with both the Fisher F75 and Minelab Equinox (medium and small coils with both detectors) and has been my best producer (old coins per unit area) as it was previously a homesite built in the 1920's where I suspect children were given pennies to play with and keep them occupied. (For once rugrats paid off for me. ) I only found one keeper and it was well masked -- a ~6 inch deep Wheatie. The combination of 6" coil (with which I've searched this area before) and Gold mode gave enough indication on this very iffy hit to cause me to dig. But I had other better sounding/ID'ing signals which turned out to be nails, in some cases two nearby nails conspiring to give a high TID (coin range) tone & ID. My preliminary conclusion is that this method is a good unmasker but requires patience. It's not a panacea (not that anyone advertised it as such). I have more experimenting to do, such as turning the recovery speed up to 6. I also have an even trashier site which has also produced old coins on that I'll give it a whirl in the future. Bottom line is this is a good tool for the toolbox.

Hello, I was out this past weekend with my Gold Monster 1000. Here is a picture of a rock that I came across that had crystals and what I believe is black sand. I have come across black sand by it self and has done the same issue with my machine. Reading and sounding hot and then a blank sound as well. 1) I assume that you can find black sand like this still in a rock with Quartz. 2) Is is not true that usally when you find black sand you may end off finding gold as well because black sand and gold go together. here are four pictures of the rock. Allen

Hi. Just received the mdt 8000. Would love to hook up the garret z link. Which adapter do you all use if you use the wireless with the tarsacci? And, any suggestions for the settings in red dirt?? Thanks in advance!

I just got a geology book called Ancient Landscapes of Western North America: a Geologic History with Paleogeographic Maps and it's pretty awesome if anyone else is looking for a good visual/map overview of how plate tectonics and the different mountain ranges have changed over the hundreds of millions of years. I have to force myself to put it down and go get some work done, but posting here for those who are interested in such things that might help locate old channels outside the published areas in California and into the unknown in other states where no such literature exists and the search must be on our own laurels. While the river courses it shows are almost certainly guesses or just for show, the mountain locations themselves are somewhat accurate since these and the various basins have left record as the various geologic formations we can see today. And it's easy to see which directions rivers might have flowed at various periods of time since the mountain and even sea locations have changed so much. Geomorphology is important when tracking down undiscovered placer deposits, and this is the best book I've ever seen to get an idea of what the landscape looked like so long ago when these paleorivers were actually running and depositing gold.

Or if an adaptor is needed the buy a 12" 1/8 to 1/4 adaptor and mount receiver on arm cuff. I always do that so there is no extra weight on coil end of unit.

Flak I thank you for the kind offer but with me I just like shooting the bull. I figure I’ll win the lottery about the same time I’ll win a cap from Minelab. Thanks again ! Chuck

I know!! My thought too. I checked and re-checked the hole, and area... then made a mental note to mark the area with landmarks to go back and spend time looking for the rest... I didn't find any glass either... but it was pretty dark by the time I finished working my way around that root. The next dig in that spot will be much easier though ;).

Where did the insides go ? Keep looking. Somewhere nearby there's a very punctual ant hill......

What ^ he said. Plus check out Steve's Guides

That's a super hunt! You got a lot of different, great targets. 2 sweet coins, bullets, etc. I'd be real happy with that for the day.

Glad you didn't give up, and came home with those great finds. Good luck on your next outing.

Great hunt with outstanding finds. El

Here is a factory one. Notice how thin the band is. Not as wide as the custom made one. And it's not expensive to have one custom made.

Thanks, Tom yes fairly rare although I have a few older sites around me that have given up some Spanish silver. This is my second 2R. I've also found 3 1/2 R's and a 1R. This last coin however is the oldest I've found.

1985

Went back to the same site today and tested auto ground tracking and beach modes. The beach modes seemed to be a little quieter, but only just a little. I'm guessing it is more of the hard minerals the Nox is picking up and not salt. Auto ground tracking worked well but didn't help much with the ground noise. I really thought it would help more. I ocaissionaly double checked the auto GB numbers by manually ground balancing and they were within 2-3 numbers of each other. The Nox is just like the Deus ground tracking. If the coil doesn't move for several minutes (if your digging a 2 foot deep hole) the GB will be off until you start swinging it again.

Great finds! A 2 Real on the left coast. Awesome. I've been finding a lot of those Reeds on a steamboat landing. Had no idea what they were. 👍

Sweet Silver man! nice going gotta love those last minute scores. ht

Holy smoke Andrew ! Correct me if I'm wrong but reales are very rare find in your part of the USA, right ? And ... sheesk ... 1781 no less ! Congratz dude !!

I was in multi in the Gold mode... I wonder if single freq would produce different (better/worse) results... should have tested that. Recovery 6. Had I thought of that... I probably would have slowed it down to 4 which is where I normally hunt... but maybe that accidental combo helped find the coin. I too, should have opted for the 6", but was afraid of the depth limitations on this site... all the oldies I have found have been no less than 8", I will try that next. You can't tell from the pic, but my pinpoint was off-center too... maybe 4" like the one you found. I had to chase the target away from the center of the hole... that usually means falsing iron... which is what I thought I had until that quarter popped out. Good luck today... I hope you do twice as good as I did! Anxious to hear your experiences using gold 1.

Difficult to tell if I would have "heard" these coins while hunting in multi... I just know that I have hunted this area more times than I can count with various machine/coil combinations with various settings... but yesterday... using gold mode 1, stock coil and setting up the disc at 10 and below... I got three very clear 12-13 ID's that ended up being Jeffersons. A 24-25 that ended up a 1939 wheat at 8 or 9". And thin but and somewhat repeatable 28-29 that ended up being the silver Washington I posted in my "Quest" thread: The quarter was on edge about 9 1/2" down, and I did cross check in Field 2 - 50 Tone... the tone was there, but I had to really work for it. It was only there in one direction too. Iffy to say the least, even knowing where I pinpointed it with Gold Mode, and using ultra short sweeps. Hind-sight... of course I would have stopped... But there was enough scratchiness to the tone, I might have dismissed it without the Gold Mode verification. I think I will be using it more... I didn't even mind the 1 tone... I had committed to digging everything I could get a repeatable tone on... so why not? Then again... that is what my Vaquero does too :). Of course, I have a pocket full of pull tabs and ring pulls... but that was expected. One hunt result: Powerful mode I will be using more. ~Tim.

Forgot to mention I tried different single frequencies also. Spent about 4 hours trying different things at one of my worst colonial sites that produces new items every time the ground is turned over for planting. It is only about every 5 years now since everyone in the US practices "no till" planting. It seemed like 15khz was the most quiet and 5khz the most noisy. 20-40khz were very similar to 15khz. Almost every plug will have 3-5 square nails. The ground is full of fertilizer. The first 5-6 inches is organic top soil and underneath that is solid red clay but with really low iron oxide content.

My 10 year old At getting some extra time while my Infinium is getting overhauled. Found a brackish water small beach, tide just heading in slow. Polluted with tabs and had been hunted recently. Pretty quiet till I struck a small area with a nice spill of coins. So about $2.90 and no bling. Doesn't sound like much but a bonanza after hunting in deeply sanded beaches. Great day too.

Fascinating... still trying to fully understand all the comments above. I have used gold mode when hunting on occasional tot-lot... to "dig it all" including any small gold that may have been dropped by parents or kids while playing... but have steered away from it in more "trash populated" sites... So, If I am following the comments above correctly, gold mode has a potential to be a great tool in un-masking targets... and honestly, I never even considered using the discrimination aspect of the mode, leaving it in stock settings when I used it. As I said... fascinating... and I have just the site to test it out on! Thanks GBA for the thread, and everyone for the comments and links. ~Tim

Thanks a lot for that link, Steve. Obviously I had read it back then as I had given it a thumbs-up, but it didn't sink in, at least partly because I didn't even have one yet (and I've been learning it ever since; continuing to do that). You must have quite the ability to see the future, having answered my question perfectly three years before I asked it!

Thanks GB. The zincs were washed away when about a foot of sand went with them. The one zinc I found was kind of a shock, as it was as deep as the mid 60's layer that was exposed. Just shows you how the beach mixes everything up. We could be so lucky to have the zincs corrode away quickly. They slowly degrade and cause havoc with my Equinox numbers. They find there way down into #'s they should not be, like 9, 6, 5, all great gold #'s. I'm used to the weight of the GPX, it's the constant digging that gets to me. Non stop, and no lunch is what does me in after 7 hours. I've had people move into where I was hunting when I changed machines, so I stick to it until I've had enough. My energy level is a mathematical equation E=GFxS (Energy= Good Finds x Sugar) 😄

The fact that you can disc out target id numbers means the Gold Mode is not a classic all metal mode, but a very powerful "accept all items" discrimination mode. Add iron bias, recovery speed, etc - filters galore.

...where it belongs! If my ratio were similar (dry land detecting) I would conclude that the site hadn't been frequented in the last 35+ years (1982 having the last 95% copper cent production). But you beach detectorists have different environmental factors working. Is you conclusion similar or do you think the Zincolns have disappeared, either by corrosion or selective washing away? 7 hours with such a heavy detector is quite impressive. I do well to hold up after only half that amount of time with my ~3-3.5 lb detectors. And obviously, based upon simply the number of good targets shown, your recovery energy output is considerable as well.

So when the excitement was over and we finally put it on the scale, it had us a little frustrated. As such a bizarre and exquisite gold specimen, our lack of discovering this mythical style we had no experience before. Now we learn, as well as a bill and coin of the actual weights. How many times have you dug a nice piece of gold to only drop on the scale and be baffled. Yes we were, but still a prize among gold collectors. Watch the video and get a little lesson on gold and $100 bill.

Not yet in stock, but I'll be getting some next week. I've been a Minelab dealer for 20+ yrs and also using/selling CoilTek coils for just as long. They promised to send me a test coil, but since it's still pretty much winter, I have not been able to chase any gold nuggets with it. So the best opportunity now is try my luck at some local sites I know of for relics. I have a list started for the coils and if you want on it, shoot me an email from www.gerrysdetectors.com

He's has quite a few $10K offers a couple in $15K range and one bumped it up to $20K. I still feel his best bet is to wait until Covid is over and have it at a couple bigger shows to get some publicity. Then head for the Auction with a Minimum of $25K.

What it is valued as a gold specimen, sure out weighs (no pun attended) what the specimen weighs in at. Most of our wire and leaf gold specimens are nice size but lack in weight. But I'll take what they are valued at over the weight any day. That specimen is beauty for sure!

https://www.treasurelinx.com/vintage_md__treasure_hunt.html For hunt details

Since I have previously tested various coils for MXT in field tests .. ,, I did what I call ... reverse engineering - compare these coils 6x10 "eclipse, 7" Ultimate, and 6x8 "SEF also in the control airtest .... Program Prospecting- HyperSat, Gain +3... GB lock-50... Treshold in posicion -quiet... 6x10 Eclipse coil : --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7" Ultimate Coil..... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6X8" Sef coil....