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Showing content with the highest reputation on 03/30/2021 in Posts

  1. I normally don't dig for bottles but when my Brother-In-Law told me about all the glass they were seeing at this site, I decided to go take a look. The site dates from and the bottle we were digging are from 1850's to about 1900. Nothing real valuable came out but there were some real heartbreakers (broken bottles) like log cabin bitters, California bitters and a few others. We also recovered marbles, coins and tokens, but nothing real exciting to mention specifically. We used a trenching method to recover the bottles. There was about 8-10 inches of topsoil then a layer of trash that extended down to about 3 feet deep. We would dig about a 3 foot by 3 foot hole straight down and then start trenching and backfilling as we went. Between the 4 people that were there I would guess we recovered about 150 bottles. I will say I'm feeling it this morning after digging about 9 hours over the weekend. Hope to get back there again next weekend and I'll post my finds of that trip next week. Pictured below are the bottles I recovered.
    15 points
  2. Only an Aussie could pull this one off! A true story from the Mount Isa in Queensland. Recently a routine Police patrol car parked outside a local neighbourhood pub. Late in the evening the officer noticed a man leaving the bar so intoxicated that he could barely walk. The man stumbled around the car park for a few minutes, with the officer quietly observing. After what seemed an eternity and trying his keys on five vehicles. The man managed to find his car, which he fell into. He was there for a few minutes as a number of other patrons left the bar and drove off. Finally he started the car, switched the wipers on and off (it was a fine dry night). Then flicked the indicators on, then off, tooted the horn and then switched on the lights. He moved the vehicle forward a few cm, reversed a little and then remained stationary for a few more minutes as some more vehicles left. At last he pulled out of the car park and started to drive slowly down the road. The Police officer, having patiently waited all this time, now started up the patrol car, put on the flashing lights, promptly pulled the man over and carried out a random breathalyser test. To his amazement the breathalyser indicated no evidence of the man's intoxication. The Police officer said "I'll have to ask you to accompany me to the Police station - this breathalyser equipment must be broken." "I doubt it," said the man, "tonight I'm the designated decoy". Do you have a designated drive (not decoy) system in USA.
    14 points
  3. When you are pushing the edge, that’s the trade you make, and probably where Equinox gets its particular edge. It’s hard to get the best performance while also being stable. The Apex is priced such that stability makes sense, as it is more likely to hit first time users. The Equinox chirpiness puts some people off, but learning to ride the edge with a little noise is where I get what advantage I might have when it comes to detecting. Apex is a trained horse, where Equinox is more bucking bronco.
    7 points
  4. Funny how different people like different things. I really like the rod on the Apex, though Garrett could upgrade the twist locks. Only brand I’ve seen where those have to be assembled on arrival. But once done, they work. I think the rod is exceptionally stout, no wiggle. The grip and my hand get on just fine. I prefer S rods on detectors under three pounds, so good there. There is actually very little not to like about the Apex, and I am happy to hear this one had a bad coil. My own use of the Apex has been pretty positive, and had me scratching my head in puzzlement at some of the negative reports. Batch of bad coils? Anyway, good news, and inspired me to order my own 5x8 Ripper coil this morning. From my use, that seems like it would be a perfect match for the machine.
    7 points
  5. Good news, I have eventually received my Apex back from the European Garrett support ... 🙂 My seller ( Bruno at Lutece detection in Paris ) told me that the pb ( false signals etc see above ) came from a faulty coil . So I received my Apex with a brand new Viper coil , plus a 5X8 Ripper coil that Bruno asked me to test. I decided to restart the tests from the beginning with the static tests on my tests boxes / different targets at different depths. The results were good for both coils , but I decided to try first the Ripper in the field , because I have been very impressed by its light weight ( 330g instead of 400g for the Viper ) and I like light machines ... And also because in france we often detect in iron infested sites , the Viper is a little too big for that and for me the Ripper has the perfect size for searching small/very small coils in nail beds .. So I went to one of my favorite testing locations , a wood near a small town . The soil there is infested with iron trash dating from the medieval up to modern times. A very good place for testing machines in a very difficult iron trashed environment. I will give more details in a new thread , but to summarize the Apex + Ripper have done an excellent job 🙂 . First the Apex has an excellent iron filtering , it was almost silent on the nail bed , just beeping on the good targets , very impressive . The Apex is also very fast , it is much more reactive than a Vanquish or even an Equinox . The signals on targets are very sharp and accurate , perhaps a little too sharp btw , but it is just a matter of getting used to the audio I think . Also the wireless headphones MS3 Zlynk are excellent , no latency and very reliable. For info I used the MF mode during all this test No treasure found during this short outing, mainly 1st WW rubbish , but again I have been very impressed by the Apex with the ripper coil. Clearly at Garretts they have designed/tested the Apex to work on high iron trash environments., as stated in their Apex marketing brochure. And it looks like they have done a very good job ... Just a few things that I do not like , for example the shaft which is clearly outdated Now I need to confirm all this and detect more hours with the Apex to check that everything is ok , no more falsing etc , I will detail all this in the new dedicated thread ... A few pics below , the Apex with a Quest X5 , the Viper and the Ripper coils , the Apex + Ripper weight , and the wood ..
    6 points
  6. Not far from here is an old town on the north fork of the Feather River with a fabulous history. One of the few residents there posted a sign "Welcome to Rich Bar. A quaint drinking town with a mining problem". I, being a very self disciplined prospector, only drink when I'm depressed because I found no gold or when I celebrate because I found gold.
    5 points
  7. This is where having a relationship with a good dealer pays off. Weird. I pounded the table for this 5x10 coil from day one, but I guess when I gave up a year ago, after waiting over two years, I really just gave up. I might end up with one someday, but after three years, I find I don’t care that much any more. In sales it’s important for manufacturers to be there when the customers wants them. Timing. For coils, Minelab, and I, timing has been a miss more often than not as of late. I sold my GPZ 7000 due to lack of coils, and these coils I did without long enough that I can probably continue to do so. If there is one area Minelab is really irritating it’s best customers, it’s coils.
    5 points
  8. Me and my buddies did back when we were in the Army. It wasn't the police that worried us too much back then it was our First Sergeant. He made it very clear what would happen if we got thrown in jail. He had this 4 foot by 4 foot hole 3 feet deep. Your punishment was to move that hole until he got tired of telling you where he wanted it this was after your regular duties plus whatever crap he had for you.
    5 points
  9. Yes .. They are Russians ... who make these modifications to the coils on Equinox .., I give a link to this page ... it's an interesting option in case .. if you need a coil of a certain size .. http://foxmd.ru/index.php?route=product/category&path=20_44_93. ....On the other hand, there is Coiltek who started producing 3 new different large coils for Equinox ...- you are buying a new coil ... without additional costs.
    4 points
  10. You got that right, Steve. Thanks to Keith at Ft. Bedford Detectors. Testing the 10x5 out this week. So far I love this thing... Since I now have a decent multipurpose compact coil and not a ridiculous hockey puck on my collapsible Equinox backpack rig, I see a 6 inch round coil ending up on the classifieds very soon.
    3 points
  11. Since the pinpointer will react to any change in ground phase above it's initial refrence point (established when you turn on the pinpointer), about the only conclusion you can draw from your observation is that the clay probably has a higher degree of ground reactivity than your topsoil. However, whether that reactivity is due to ferrimagnetic mineralization (most likely) or another mineral, the type of ferrimagnetic mineralization (magnetite, the most common, or maghemite), and the absolute level of mineralization (none, low, medium, high) is anyone's guess. The only way to know for sure is to use a standalone mineralization meter or a detector with a built-in mineralization meter that indirectly measures magnetite levels in soil such as the higher end Fishers and Teknetics detectors, Deus, and some of the Noktas like the Simplex. HTH.
    3 points
  12. Wish I'd heard of this scheme while still in high school.
    3 points
  13. Yes it is for me what makes the difference for me beween the Apex and the ML mulifreqs ( Vanquish , Equinox , Etrac ... ). the Apex is almost silent in high iron trashed areas while the MLs are noisy and quite unstable there . On the other hand the MLs seem to be deeper than the Apex on big coins in low/medium iron trashed areas
    3 points
  14. Nice looking bottles, was it an old junk yard or trash site? Kind of unusual to find so many items in one spot like that isn't it? Good Hunting and good luck on your next outing.
    3 points
  15. So what caused it to break away? Here is more on that theory. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/03/remains-impact-created-moon-may-lie-deep-within-earth
    3 points
  16. I want some Swamp Root! Might fix my knees, back, shoulder and even give my MK an extra 4" in depth! Awesome finds. Love the old snake oil bottles. Generations from now all they will have is plastic bottles of miracle meds like prevogen to help with memory that all the users are vague on exactly when they first started taking it 🙂
    3 points
  17. Hey Glenn, Just to put my money where my mouth is 😀 I just put this together today. 1mm Snake chain, bezel for a Mercury Dime, and of course the only other American silver coin I've found so far in my area than a Trime which they don't make a bezel for. This will be for good luck at the beach. I wish the coin wasn't stained but here we are. 🙄 Didn't want to get too aggressive on it.
    3 points
  18. We got permission to hunt a park that use to be a Girl Scout camp from the 1920's to the 1990's when it closed down.The head caretaker of the park is a great guy and gave us the green light to detect there.We gave him a few scout relics which he would put in the park museum and he was very grateful for are finds.He told us that one capsule was found but a old farmer said a other one was still missing and gave us the area it could be in.It is probably from the 30's or 40's.I think the one is in a museum around here and we hope to see what it is made of.Have any of you heard of other Scout capsules and what could be in them ?I hope they are detectable.If not we could still stumble on to some silver coins or rings for a consolation prize. If found we will give the capsule to the caretaker to be put in a museum.
    2 points
  19. I had to look that up. Very nice I wish they sold that style here in the US.
    2 points
  20. Given that's about as difficult of an 'opponent' to defeat as there is, this doesn't really sound negative at all to me. (Also, you've shown in previous posts regarding other detectors that you are a tough grader when it comes to weight and balance. 😁) That is the most intriguing part of your report, IMO. I'm pretty sure Monte has an Apex in his arsenal and I hope he brings it to Wells in June. Either way I'll be interested in hearing his opinion on this capability. Thanks, palzynski, for your objective review.
    2 points
  21. I did not think I would get a chance to get out this week, but since yesterday opened up for me, I decided to hit my favorite spot. I had a couple of ideas on how I would work this same area, but in reality, it required a bit of trial and error to get these results. It was supposed to rain part of the day, so I figured I would use the Equinox for the morning. I wanted to get as close to the iron areas as possible, so I decided on the 6” coil. If the rain stopped, I would use the GPX with the 18” DD coil to get those deep dimes, in the other section of this spot. It worked, but I had to make a lot of adjustments to get each machine to do what I thought I wanted it to do. I think I have done all I can in this spot to get whatever remains within reach of my machines. If there is more there, I do not know how to get to it. Surprises of the day were the Barber half, Barber dime, and a decent amount of silver. It took a lot of digging, more than just the number of targets shown. The 18” coil is a brute to swing, Lucky you have to swing it very slow to get the good stuff. I am not sure where the next stop will be, but it probably will not be anything like this place has been. Who knows, Tony just fixed my AQ headphones and made me one of his as a spare, so maybe some gold hunting is in the cards. A relic hunt may be in the works for next week also, looking for Native artifacts. I have to hit the woods before the yellow jackets and ticks wake up. 🤬 As always, it's good to get out in the fresh air and enjoy the day!
    2 points
  22. Concerning the rod , I prefer the Vanquish or Deus telescopic rods . They are faster to assemblei in the field. They can be adjusted very precisely and they are lighter than the Apex rod, at least for the Deus. Just my opinion A quick summary of the Apex pros and cons from my standpoint : ----------------------------------------------------------------------- - The things that I like about the Apex : . excellent iron filtering on iron trashed areas . fast and reactive/accurate on targets . sensitive to tiny targets like small/very small coins as well as bigger ones ( multifrequency ) . the thin control box . simple to use . the excellent MS3 wireless headphones . the excellent Ripper coil - The things that I do not like about the Apex : . the rod . the weight/balance which is good but not as good as a Deus or Orx: ( Apex ripper 1140g , Apex viper 1210g , Deus Orx 800g ) . no dedicated backlight button . the running freq mode ( 5,10,15,20, MF or MS) not displayed on the main detection screen ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So globally the results are largely positive up to now .... to be confirmed with more tests ... Ha yes my seller told me he has now a few Apex customers having the false signal issue. He thinks that Garrett had a pb with some of the first hundreds of Apex delivered to customers ... But he does not know exactly the technical reason . Apart from that the weather is warm over here , 22 celsius deg today ... 🙂
    2 points
  23. If performance is very close to the nox, and its priced a bit less, and has a great selection of coils, they could steal a chunk of nox sales. The simplex sure is a big bang for the buck. I wish them well.
    2 points
  24. That's $1,000,000 worth of good luck! Found this unusual token at a park this week. Can't find a lot of information on this token.
    2 points
  25. Whoa! That is some great glass there Abenson!! They look to be in perfect condition for the age. The Great Dr. Kilmer's Swamp Root is my fav!! Of course, my last name is Root, so that may be why 😉.
    2 points
  26. Welcome sapper, Good to have you on board! Lots to learn! Make room for some Yanks up there, if things continue here on there current path!🤣 Good luck!👍👍
    2 points
  27. Time for some deep fried cicadas!! "Shrimp of the trees", yum!!👌👍👍
    2 points
  28. Welcome to the forum - nice little nugget If I was going to Southeast Alaska, I would take the Gold Monster before the GPX 5000. The gold in the region is generally very small, and in general it’s hard rock country, not placer. Glacial terrain, high mineral coastal belt. The mineralization calls for a PI, but a GPX 5000, no matter what coil, will never match a good VLF on small gold. A GPX 5000, I would get either an 8” Commander Mono, or Nugget Finder 6x8 Sadie Coil, and try to run Sensitive Extra The problem with small gold is you need a hot detector. But a hot detector struggles with bad ground and hot rocks. It’s a balancing act. Sensitive Extra may be too hot for your area, so use Fine Gold instead. It can handle the hottest ground, but it misses more gold than Sensitive Extra. And the fact is neither setting on a GPX 5000 will be good on the smallest gold, that a Gold Monster can easily hit. Frankly, I’d go SDC 2300 before GPX 5000 for your region. With an eye on the new GPX 6000. But for working with what you have, I’d grab Gold Monster first. If the ground defeats it, then GPX 5000 with Sadie coil. Glacial terrain offers complex challenges for metal detecting, with gold almost anywhere or nowhere. Glaciers are like bulldozers, mixing and making a mess of everything. Placers are very new, generally lean. Learn about things like moraines and eskers, and study where water flows around existing glaciers for clues. Gold placers can exist in lateral moraines halfway up valley walls. Like I say, use your imagination, and put the coil over everything. Good luck! Glaciers and Gold
    2 points
  29. Sorry to hear that cudamark. My AQ was in for repair for quite awhile but it is back in my hands now. Fisher told me they replaced the complete electronics. I had a little surgery the day after I received the AQ and that has kept me away from hunting, but am just getting back into the swing of things again. I have a total of 8 hours on the wet sand with it and all is well. Good luck!
    2 points
  30. To me, the most important part of Dilek's video was her clearly stating that the new Nokta Makro simultaneous multi frequency detector is being built to be a direct competitor of the Equinox. She also made it clear without naming names that Nokta Makro does not consider the unnamed Garrett APEX as a viable competitor for the new Nokta Makro SMF detector. I hope Nokta Makro is right in their assessment of their new SMF detector. That would be great for a more competitive market and for us most of all. I have always been extremely impressed with Nokta Makro's detectors. I don't currently own one but I have owned five of them in the past and they are outstanding.........just not as outstanding where I detect as the two detectors she discussed in the video without mentioning names (Equinox and Deus). So, do I save a little money and buy the Nokta Makro SMF or get a personal loan/sell a car/dip into my retirement/or sell all of my personal belongings (except my detectors) for the GPX 6000?
    2 points
  31. That is interesting! I wonder now how much I have been missing in the farms because of the deep negative numbers. 🤔 Probably a good thing, there will be more for me this fall. Rest assured I will dig everything where I'm going. High potential for historic items in one place. Just not sure about large holes... I don't think there will be black sand. I've never had a problem with EMI. The only time I have ever heard it here is when I am over a buried power line, that is common here. Kind of a good thing! I keep my cellphone in my back pocket and only hear it when I am taking a photo of my find. Thanks for your replies! You have a great toolbox there.
    2 points
  32. I was able to find an Audiosears 2463 headphone speaker and after installing it and resoldering all the connections, the Sunray Pro Gold headphones work great. Total cost, not counting my time, was about $24 versus the $130 or so online.
    2 points
  33. We're well beyond the Equinox 900. Now that ML raised the price to $949 MAP, I think we're talking the Equinox 950, now.
    2 points
  34. I guess for some people, with certain applications and/or with mid-size to larger-size targets to go after, some of the 'aftermarket' search coils might be helpful. For me and the types of places I usually hunt, big-size coils are not the answer. Helpful at times, yes, but not when a location has too many targets, too closely spaced and at varying depths. I know we can'r simply go by a coil brand or model / size just because a similar coil worked OK on a different make & model due to different circuitry. In this case, I used to evaluate and use several Detech coils on Minelab FBS series models, and most of them were okay. But I tried a 13" Ultimate on a couple of other brand detectors and didn't care for the weight and balance, nor the performance. I've used some bigger-size NEL coils, a brand I like better, but the coil and detector were not a good match for the location I worked. To me it is interesting to see how many people gravitate to larger-size search coils. With the Apex and for the variety of urban and remote places I go, I'm comfortable with the Ripper mounted on one unit as a general-purpose coil. I'll give the NEL 5" 'Sharp'some serious time and most likely it will fill a void and be mounted on my 2nd Apex. For open grassy parks or hitting a plowed field, the new 'Raider' DD is likely to be my coil-of-choice and I don't see a larger-size coil providing me much improvement n smaller-size coins and the like. I am going to check out a few aftermarket coils n some 'depth tests' on US coins, but I am not holding out hopes of improvement. Monte
    2 points
  35. It all started about 40 years ago i got bit by the gold bug in Colorado then we moved to Alaska in 92 bought a little 2 1/2 inch dredge found gold in reserection creek so bought a new 4 inch from Steve Herschbach at mining and diving . Attended a couple of outings down at crow creek with Steve Herschbach doing detector classes wife and i were hooked . Was able to buy 5 mining claims on silvertip creek dredged there for several years bought a 6 inch dredge from mining and diving we did ok there but i always wanted to try dredging up north Fairbanks area i saw a claim on eBay up near central but it was pulled of eBay after i bid the owner emailed me asking if i would be interested in the four claims above i said yes his family was just trying to get rid of them due to hard times. Well the dredging was terrible because the creek was froze after a couple of feet. So i bought a small excavator built a small trommel got a plan of operation started digging dirt the trommel maybe would run 5 yards an hour but i was in good gold so we built a larger trommel out of a huge propane tank also built a feed hopper with a conveyor this plant will run about 35 yards an hour at but at this time we still had day jobs i worked for the Alaska railroad but 2 years ago i retired from the rr after 27 years. well last year with the virus we went up early mid may spent 3 months up there we are 100 miles north east of fairbanks no cellphone no internet gods country so i mined wife made quilts ,hunted Cariboo ,met some locals but the gold was good first photo june 28 2017 still ice in creek bottom second photo boss searching for heart shaped rocks third photo and forth is stripped for this coming season what is truly amazing about this valley the gold is just on the left side of the valley thanks doug
    1 point
  36. Too bad the diesel isn't available here in the US! But it's hard to blame them, with all the restrictions on them here! Not to mention the added cost of the Blue Def on all diesels now!👍👍
    1 point
  37. Same here 10x5 came home yesterday, big thanks to Gerry up the road. Threw it on last night, and it feels great balance wise, it sounds good, and now look forward to first hunt. 😃 ht
    1 point
  38. Yes, 2021 has sat nav standard across the range, I picked up a Workmate wagon yesterday and was pleasantly surprised when I jumped in it and saw the radio. Funny that, Sat nav is factory standard, but you can’t have central locking or electric windows, not that you really want them in the bush anyway.
    1 point
  39. ”Minelab* equinox900” Coming soon.. ......FROM CHINA 😔
    1 point
  40. Yikes, most of that stone looks like the gravel in my driveway. Maybe you could revise it a bit with only the most interesting specimens? You should also post in meet and greet to tell us a bit about yourself first. 🙂 That is general forum protocol.
    1 point
  41. Great video, thanks for sharing. The story at the end with the magazine is awesome. Also, how funny the swiss guy with the beard who says "It's cool man". You show him briefly for 2 seconds or so in between the story. This was one of my favorite chocolate commercials and was hugely popular when I was a young man, and we all would say in college to virtually everything: "it's cool man". I completely forgot about it. Until now 😁 Thanks for making my day!
    1 point
  42. XRF's hold sort a mysterious place on the shelf of semi-unobtainable prospecting equipment. 99% of prospectors don't need one. Maybe this post will help clear up some of mystery around these devices, and show where they can actually be worth the outlay of capital. And why for almost all recreational/hobby prospectors, they are not worth the money. What does an XRF do? In very simple terms you point it at an object and it will tell you what elements are in that object. More on this, and why it isn't this simple, momentarily... After sometime over 5 years of searching, I was finally able to find a used XRF I could afford to finance recently. These are not tools for recreation. They are expensive and require understanding how they work, what tasks you need to accomplish, and understanding the limits of XRF. The trick with these units is to find one with the proper calibrations already installed as they can be many thousands of dollars to send to the manufacturer to get configured correctly for mining/prospecting uses and to add/subtract elements or to calibrate for certain matrixes (silicates/iron/etc). X ray tubes and X ray detectors are about $6k each to replace, and recalibrations are about $1500 a pop, so even maintenance is crazy expensive. It's a tool you need be certain you need or can put to good use before buying one. And buying used, it's probably best to find one with as few hours use as possible to delay the inevitable tube replacement, as well as with a recent calibration certificate. My unit is an XMET 7500 made by Oxford (now Hitachi). The more common units people generally see are the Olympus and Niton guns. This unit has basically every mining calibration Oxford offered on it in addition to soil and other specialized mining related modes, which is very valuable and very useful for prospecting. It also detects down to magnesium without any fancy helium purge techniques. The guns sold on ebay with only alloy calibrations are pretty useless for prospecting without spending a lot of $$$ on additional calibrations. Some other things to consider are the machines themselves vary greatly between model numbers and some models may be unsuitable for specific uses in prospecting. A few things to educate yourself on are: Beam energy and detector type (determines if certain elements can be detected at all, and how accurately) Electrode composition (Gold electrodes have lower sensitivity to gold in ores, for instance) Calibration to light elements, or ability to detect certain elements I don't think an XRF is particularly useful for people who are only looking for gold. Due to the electrode limitations, the PPM minimum to detect gold in ores can often be above what would be an economic (and thus desirable) concentration in gold ores. But, looking for tracer elements (stuff like Pb, Cu, As, Zn, etc) can be quite useful. It can also help outline buried ore bodies which can then be explored mechanically via drilling or other methods. For prospectors branching out beyond just gold however, an XRF can be even more useful. And that's when one needs to understand the elemental limitations and what your application specific uses are. Any affordable XRF today will not detect lighter elements than magnesium. Some will detect to magnesium, but then do not contain calibrations to allow it (extra $$) and some require helium purging to measure light elements. Elements like hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, and sodium are very common "rock building" elements. But XRF readings will lack these measurements. So, when a looking at a rock your readings will often give fractional (less than 100%) results. This is why - the missing mass is tied up in atoms lighter than magnesium. Fortuantely, a lot of common rock types have unique fingerprints still in elements such as Mg, Al, Si, P, S, Cl, K, Ca, and Fe. But some don't. This is why it's important to understand what you are looking for first in the field, and then find a tool that is going to match your needs. Further, a lot of minerals in certain locations but not other locations will also have further fingerprints in other elements such as Cr, Co, Mo, Nb, certain compositions of rare earths, etc. To make it more complex (this part took me a while to wrap my head around), each calibration within the machine may or may not be configured for some of these elements - even if they are within the range of detection of the machine! Like, an alloy calibration will have little use for silicon or calcium. Conversely, a mining calibration without magnesium or calcium may be next to useless depending what you are looking for. Of course, it costs extra money to add elements and even if you have for instance a precious metals calibration that includes platinum, the mining mode may not itself include platinum and that's more $. That is why the matrix matters, each mode can be calibrated to a specific matrix. Like mining modes are generally going to assume that the sample is mostly silicon, whereas precious metals mode might assume the only things that exist in the universe are metals. So if you analyze solid metal with mining mode it may misidentify elements thinking they have to be metals when they aren't, same as if you analyzed a piece of gold ore in precious metals mode where it will try to assign certain non-metallic spectra in the ore to something like gold or platinum, giving you false positives. This is why calibrations available and elements assigned to that calibration is so very important when it comes to XRF and accurate results. Why else is XRF bad for gold-specific uses? (I emphasized this because this is primarily a gold prospecting site, even though I prospect for many other things myself). First one needs to understand how XRF works - simply put it kicks a few electrons out of a few different orbitals around an atom at discrete energy intervals (these are spectral "lines"). When another electron falls into the empty orbital to replace the vacancy, another X Ray is emitted at this discreet energy. Unfortunately, some elements have some very close to identical spectral lines. Look here at some lighter elements and see the overlaps on this visible spectra chart that we use to ID elements in stars? Some might be familiar with these from astronomy or high school. Well, the same happens in the X Ray realm. This is coincidentally why ionized gases look a certain color to us and how "neon" signs can be different colors (different elements inside the tubes). The same thing happens in the X ray spectrum, just not visible to our eyes. Except when the X ray spectra is reaaaaaaally crowded around the gold lines. Making it hard for specific ID's when other elements with similar lines are also present in ore, and unfortunately some of the elements are also commonly found with and around gold mineralization. Combine this with the anodes on many affordable XRF's being gold which itself interferes with really precise Au measurements, and you can see why an XRF isn't the best tool for specifically gold prospecting. Here is an actual XRF spectrum. You can see how very common accessory gold ore elements populate and crowd the gold spectral lines at various orbitals. And also how you might be missing critical lines if your X ray tube only goes to say 15kEV instead of 40kEV (EV stands for electron-volts), you might miss some Ag, Ru, Cd, or Zr fingerprints in this specific case. Now notice how iron stands all alone? That's why some elements (iron) are easier for an XRF to ID than others like gold. So for some such tracer elements in soils and ore, and identifying certain minerals which really can only be accurately identified via spectroscopy or thin sections as for some gems, an XRF can save months of time and thousands of dollars for in field qualitative assays to do first stage determinations, ie, wether a resource is simply present or not, ignoring actual concentrations. This is why it's so important for anyone considering one of these units to know exactly what they are looking for first, to know the limitations of XRF, and to know if a unit will meet their application specific needs. Almost every company I spoke with had a story about a prospector, or even a few cases some junior mining companies, who purchased an expensive unit only to find it wouldn't work at all for what they needed to do. So hopefully this clears up a little mystery about XRF's and maybe saves someone from making an expensive $15k mistake. I am by no means an XRF expert and everything I know is just self taught. So if I've included an inaccuracy then please correct me. This is not intended to be definitive, but just to share what I've learned over the years in a few pages of simpler to understand jargon for those prospectors interested in these devices. More later with some actual measurements...
    1 point
  43. Thanks for any help or direction you can give. The knife is wood on one side and celluloid (maybe) on the other. The spike is from the same field as the other iron piece I found. I couldn't help but hear Gary D.'s voice say something about a decking spike off a Spanish galleon.😁 I am now digging the deep iron in the area these came from. The other signals are either masked or most are gone due to being dug. Thanks again for your wisdom.
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  44. Update: I filed it with a triangular (saw sharpening) file. It cut easily leaving a metallic luster. Conclusion: metallic and very likely an aluminum alloy. It is surprising to me how it weathered to look like a rock, but I think that is the most likely explanation of its current condition, not some intentional/artificial working. The area I found it shows signs of backfill and it's rather thick, sticky (when wet) clay. That is a common backfill in my area, and backfilling is apparently a lucrative vocation/profession here with prolific government support/contracts. Every site I've hunted (public schools and multiple muni- and county parks) shows lots of signs of backfill/resurfacing, much to my (detecting) dismay.
    1 point
  45. Never heard of glamping so Googled it," resort style camping", wow!!!! JR, you`d have to have walked in my shoes in my remote part of OZ, the Redarc you are talking of is much the same as the Enerdrive plus DC/DC charger I use (as listed earlier), to use ones vehicle motor in camp with the diesel exhaust fumes distributed in ones camping area plus the craziness of running such a large motor for a couple of hours each day for such little output, no much better for me to have the very quiet light weight (15kg genny and 15l or 15kg of fuel enough for a month plus, for a year if sunny} away on the end of a 20m extension lead. Nah, JR again, you`d really have to walk in my shoes for last 40 plus years to know where I`m at, expresso coffee is the recent addition, true it is an indulgence but heh I`ve earnt it and you know what after those years I ask for no more but to continue as long as possible in this historic electronic gold rush of which I feel very privledged to be a part of. I threw the historic in because if in the extremely unlikely chance that the amount of gold it has produced comes to light some time in the future it will indeed be noteworthy and go down alongside the 1800s gold rushes as an individuals gold rush not a company`s rush.
    1 point
  46. 3D processing of measurements river bed from several profiles, processing in the RadMax program.
    1 point
  47. Several examples of work. Archeology. Search for underground passages. The primary readings on the radar profile look like this: Left and right - two pictures with different processing (primary simple processing). On the left, an envelope of the hyperbola is automatically drawn (blue line) over the intended object. Well, now - mathematical processing using our visualization program: Left and right - two pictures with different processing (more complex mathematical filters). Well, in conclusion, this is what the object itself looks like after archaeologists unearthed it: I draw your attention: there is no metal inside the object! Only stones, emptiness (air) and earth rocks (clay).
    1 point
  48. I have made mine by buying an axis in ALIEXPRESS and bought them from the partner who makes them in a 3d printer
    1 point
  49. There is no benefit to BBS or FBS in my ground. The ground rules and sweeping generalizations are something I resist. In milder locations I am sure BBS and FBS have an edge on deep silver. Minelab has said so since day one. People have to choose machines based on the overall applicability for their particular uses. For me it’s Equinox as I favor low conductor performance and that is where BBS/FBS are weakest. For most silver hunters it leans the other way and so Safari/E-TRAC/CTX will continue to be favorites for many people. Recovery speed is the wild card, and the denser the trash gets then Equinox again will have the edge. It’s a complex question when trying to say “what’s best” and while we all like simple answers the truth is “it just depends”. When it comes to FBS Safari is an underrated bargain in my opinion. If it has a weakness it’s the slow recovery speed.
    1 point
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