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Showing content with the highest reputation on 04/13/2021 in all areas

  1. Some shipping this week, possibly in stores early next week, with regular batches (maybe) in the following weeks. But at least that means the wheels are in motion and users will start to get their hands on them soon.
    12 points
  2. 99% of my detecting is done on central Florida beaches. Since it’s impossible to establish a well stocked test garden at a public beach, I sorta brought the beach home with me and developed my own private beach garden! I cut slots in two large empty chlorine tablet buckets at various depths as shown from 2 -16 inches. I then filled one with New Smyrna Beach sand and the other with soil...for the few times I land hunt around here. I embedded numerous examples of ferrous and non ferrous targets into paint stirring sticks. I also have several blank sticks I use for gold and silver jewelry as well as artifacts that I don’t want permanently attached to a stick. I then insert the target(s) in the slots, each at its desired depth, and start scanning. This allows me to rapidly change the targets, depth and relative position of each. I can now test for sensitivity at depth as well as separation of ferrous and non-ferrous targets in a variety of scenarios using actual beach sand where I do my detecting. If I want to test in wet salt sand, I just soak the bucket sand with authentic sea water that I also brought home from New Smyrna Beach...and the Atlantic Ocean never even missed it. 😉 Works for me.....
    10 points
  3. I have been using the ORX and doing well but have not found any coins, and i think i have hunted this unhunted spot now 10 rimes or more, But this time i got out the big gun , the DEUS in full tones, using Coin fast, it started squeeking out shot shells and brass things, one after the other , then my 1st coin on the spot came out a 1923 wheat. and not long after that the 1872 shield Nickle, I was using 8.4 KHZ and it came thru for me .and its deep to
    8 points
  4. Last month I started to get a bit bored with my usual Snowbird gig of bicycling, paddle boarding, beachcombing, etc, so I decided to check out some creeks and the Peace River about 3 hrs west of me. This area was covered by shallow seas millions of years ago, and more recently saw the Ice Ages....so a cool mix of fossils can be found. Here is one of the creeks I hunted(cue the banjo music from “Deliverance” lol): So you kayak and/or wade in water of various depths looking for gravels in the bottom, then you dig and sift. All this is done in Gator and snake habitat, so one must stay aware of one’s surrounding while working the gravels: Here’s some of my favorite finds. A fossilized prehistoric bison tooth and a baby Megalodon shark tooth...the Megs are small here, as these shallow seas were the nursery. The next pic has a fossil tortoise leg spur, a crocodile tooth, and 2 extinct Snaggeltooth Shark teeth. Here’s fossilized stuff from my last hunt....upper left are turtle shell fragments; upper right turtle nuchal bones, a prehistoric tapir tooth, a broken Meg; then a whole bunch of shark teeth. I think I’ve discovered a new hobby and passion to enjoy while here in Florida half a year! And as a bonus, it’ll help keep me in gold hunting shape for when I’m back out west!😄
    7 points
  5. And it’s tripled for users of canned settings. Very few people really understood the timings on the 5000 and earlier models, and it did not help that they were designed over time, and sometimes had names that mislead people. Even worse is the idea that no one timing gets it all, so multiple passes with multiple timings are the order of the day. GPZ 7000 was a move in the other direction, and the 6000 reduces settings further. Some think this is a bad thing, but the larger number of more casual types will actually do better with fewer controls, not worse. Minelab GPX 6000 control summary Initiates Bluetooth® pairing for headphones (long press for at least 2.5 seconds). Cycles through the backlight settings - High, medium, low and off Power On/Off - Restores factory settings (press and hold from off for at least 7 seconds). Adjusts the sensitivity level. Toggles between Difficult and Normal Ground Type. Toggles between the Threshold On / Off settings (long press for at least 2.5 seconds). Initiates Noise Cancel process. When a Double‑D coil is connected, toggles between the Double‑D Modes, EMI Cancel and Conductive Ground Cancel, (long press for at least 2.5 seconds). Adjusts the audio Volume Level. Press and hold Quick‑Trak Ground Balance to conduct a Ground Balancing operation.
    7 points
  6. Well - I missed this machine. At the moment the sand is pretty darn deep in NZ - maybe the constant onshore winds. First water hunt with the ATX. a 15ct ring (looks like two older rings fused together) I think I became a little lazy without the pulse and was just not getting the required depth. The ATX is still a killer in the water with the 8 inch mono!
    7 points
  7. Chris, one thing you might dislike, on the Deus (if you're accustomed to other machines), is that the Deus will "ring the bells of Notre Dame" over things like rusty crown caps, domino sized portions of flat-tin, large rusty bolts , etc.... Whereas other machines easily reject such iron, right ? After much hair-pulling and digging 1000 such cr*p items, I have come to understand what tones a person *could* pass, if they wanted to cut down on the iron-falses. HOWEVER, I am NOT convinced of this : If a person is getting the Deus because it's the "cat's meow in seeing through iron-masking", then : How can he be sure that the iron that he's "passing" isn't masking a goodie below it ? In other words, the moment you begin to "be picky" and only dig the signals that are for-sure a conductive target, then : It seems to me that that means you had a "clear line of sight" to that conductive target. Such that it had the right audio clues, eh ? Well gee, if we all had to wait till we had a "clear line of site" to a target, then ... Gee, even my explorer will likewise get a "nice-clean signal" on targets to which aren't masked. So what's the point of even switching then ? Aaarrghhh. So to that extent, I'm a little frustrated with this. So thus far, I'm only using it for specialized occasions (extreme relicky pursuits), where I'm game to dig a bunch of iron-falses . It's just the "cost to pay" to not miss stuff I guess. And it's kind of site-specific : If the location was in play up to the 1920s (the throw-away era of rusty soldered can tops, flat tin, etc....), then it can be very punishing. Yet at another site I hit (which was vacated by 1850-ish), then very little of these type iron items exist, in the first place. Anyhow, if you need any coaching , I'll convey what I've learned, the settings, etc...
    6 points
  8. Many folks have inquired just how does tracking work and how do you set it? Here’s a quick video that explains everything! Aaron
    5 points
  9. I found this on a quick adventure in between jobs. It’s the prettiest nugget in my collection. Weighs under a gram but man it was fun! I found that running the EQ800 in single frequency really helped stability in this red hot ground. Here it is fresh out of the ground. On the 6 inch coil which helped me get between boulders to find it. After some toothbrush action almost looks like one of the 50 fired bullets I found today. But I’ll call it a flowing hair nugget instead. Maybe the coin shooters will let me hunt with them. Weigh in on the cheapo scale. Wasn’t wearing gloves because I’m no Nancy boy. But maybe I should have been. I think there was a parable about the guy above and his friend. It’s ok I needed the exercise anyways. But next time I’ll bring my big saw just in case. Hand stacked rocks are sometimes a good sign. The poison oak was in bloom, the air was sub freezing, and the square nails and bullets were practically jumping out of the ground. But hey I got a cool piece of gold, paid for my gas and got some threshold meditation in so it’s a win win for me.
    5 points
  10. Well they cleaned up nice! Big one is 4.91 grams.
    5 points
  11. It's always fun watching VLF people talk about pulse machines and what they can't do. Gives me warm fuzzies, it does.
    5 points
  12. Here is what this area looks like. Caliche is a couple of feet down in some places but with small gold only, perhaps within reach of the 22X?
    5 points
  13. We headed out Saturday morning to the camp. Wife has given up on the Vanquish because all she digs is square nails. So we swapped detectors later in the day. She then found an ax head and a big chisel. I scored the dime and other stuff with the Equinox before the switch. We bought a curio cabinet to house our growing collection of history so I will include a photo of it. Hope everyone is doing well out there.
    4 points
  14. Yes nice set up I have a similar test garden with 4 boxes filled with different ground thicknesses. The targets are simply set down under the middle of the boxes. The first boxes are filled with inland mild ground and the 4th filled with sand and salt water. I use these boxes since 4 or 5 years now and they are VERY helpful to test different settings of a machine. Of course field tests are the most important but you learn a lot of things with these kind of test gardens... On the pics below I was testing the Garrett Apex ..
    4 points
  15. Great idea for a compact home test garden! All I have now is a compact portable setup I made to take to the beach! But that can be tough with some beachgoers wanting to know what you are doing!!👍👍
    4 points
  16. Was getting my last digs in on some state property before they sell it off for housing development. The areas have been picked cleaned for quite a few years now so takes a bit of patients to squeeze anything out of them. Yesterday ran my batteries dry on the Multi Kruzer with external lithium pack and half way down on internals only to find a pewter figuring. Top and back are gone but was interesting anyways. Today I didn't spend as much time out because it looked like it was going to rain and I was using my Tejon with the 10x12. Hit a hill that I had picked up a reale on few years back and got this nice 1887 IH. The other thing is a piece of brass enameled on both sides, maybe a decorative tab to something (junk). Buddy and I went to another field where I snagged the degraded 1880 IH and this silver clip that looks like it went to a strap. Says Patented OCT 16 1888. Think it was on a carry strap to a tool of some sorts, maybe a gun holster? Did some research on items with patents granted at that date but the machines didn't show this part.
    4 points
  17. Did some crack scratchin today.......all with the Monster. Gonna take a few thousand of these to pay for that 6000....lol
    4 points
  18. The weather may have turned for the better in Northern Nevada. It was time to get out and check how my GPZ 7000, would handle the moisture/salt from the Winter Storms. I pulled into the Burn Barrel to camp, but it was like pulling into a KOA. I unloaded my trusty RZR and hit the trail to find a nugget. I ran into several folks out trying their luck, all had smiles on their faces and enjoying our outdoor hobby. I was told that Gerry was having his training at the Burn Barrel which explained the crowd of RV’s. I did get time for a short visit with Gerry and Lunk, before heading out. The soil, is a little noisy with High Yield/Normal. Using Difficult settled it down perfectly, but not my preferred setting for dink nuggets. Anyways, I hunted in Normal and ground balanced often to give my ears a rest from the noisy ground. I didn’t find any dink nuggets which are the Bread & Butter to any poke, but did find a couple of Steak & Lobster nuggets before loading up and heading home from the short Dirt Recon Trip. There’s gold out there, you just need to get your coil over it, I need some Bread & Butter Nuggets to complete my meal. Talking about meals, my Dog Marley refused to eat his normal dog grub on this trip, and only wanted what I brought “Fried Chicken”. Until the next Hunt! LuckyLundy
    3 points
  19. Wow, now that is really different, and an amazing haul! I'd be happy finding just one sharks tooth, and you find them by the pound. Simply fabulous, favorite post of the week!
    3 points
  20. Looks like a nice set-up and i will have to try it myself for sure. I can use a good system like that to prepare for a good hunt. Since I don't live near your beach can you please send me some of the sand and water.
    3 points
  21. Very nice setup and it is in your back yard...👍...You can really learn a lot about a detector doing testing and playing with the settings in a test garden ...... Good Luck! I've had a swing arm (air) test bed for many years. Although not as nice as yours I've learned so much about my machines and target responses. My favorite testing has been head phones and how to get the most out of them, audio wise.
    3 points
  22. Tom, the DEUS is just another “tool” in my shed. The Equinox has absolutely killed it for me and the Vanquish my wife uses literally sucks with the mineralization where we currently hunt. The Nox is quiet and hits coins like Thor’s hammer. The Vanquish leaves you guessing the whole time. I bought the Deus as a toy basically and I intend to see what it can do. Funny that the Deus sounds like a kids fart machine and again the Nox is sweet as pie. We shall see how it works out. I know another gold rush relic hunter who swears by the DEUS and he has been really helpful and knowledgeable with my finds. So I’ve already bought it and I will find the goods with it God willing. I almost bought a CTX but the price is way high for something that could be replaced anytime.
    3 points
  23. large truck tire stem, looks like a great day of toobing at the lake Ha Ha, Did you find a beer can next to it?
    3 points
  24. Congrats on the coins. Just to be clear, Kaolin - were you using Deus Fast (Coins Fast is not a Deus Program) at 8.4 khz full with an X35 coil? What size was the coil, btw? Full tones is a great tool in modern aluminum trash, because the tonal nuances really help to bring out the irregular tone distortions associated with mangled aluminum slaw and bent pull tabs. Pristine tabs will still fool you, though. If I am in thick iron, I prefer pitch audio with discrimination which basically sets up as a two-tone approach with iron volume providing the iron grunt tone for anything below the ferrous tone break (disc setting - I usually set it between 7 and 10, 7 if I can get away with it (i.e., if most iron rings up at 6 or below), 10 if I have to. In this pitch set up, anything that registers above the ferrous tone breakpoint results in a VCO pitch audio signal which really stands out, especially on "squeaker" iffy targets. Full tones is just too much in iron, frankly and you can't run full tones with any discrimination if you want to hear the iron. Why run with discrimination? It helps to mitigate ferrous down averaging and helps the horseshoe display accurately display target depth and ferrous vs. non-ferrous. Tom I know what you are driving at regarding the Deus affinity for ringing up large, flat iron as a sweet high conductor both in tone and ID. However, regarding your statement on "seeing through the iron" you can never be truly sure a non-ferrous is being masked if you don't dig the iron. But as far as unmasking in iron, I find using the pitch tones approach above, to be most effective in umasking of non-ferrous in thick iron. It really pulls out squeaker iffy signals and manipulating the target with the spade (simply twisting the blade in the dirt or removing some dirt) helps to potentially separate the keeper from the iron masker, which helps firm up a dig decision even even further without having to necessarily dig the iron. But you have to get that iffy squeaker clue in the first place (otherwise you are simply just digging it all). It doesn't help eliminate flat iron from sounding non-ferrous, but having some disc applied tends to mitigate the effect somewhat, though it is really marginal. So that's the point - trying to give you a better chance at hearing those partially masked squeakers. HTH
    3 points
  25. Steve I have been using VLF's to find gold for only four years, but I hunt wooded areas a lot. You have to be willing to do more research, dig more holes, and work harder than the other guys. Every time I've been lazy I walk away with less gold. If the spot is hard to get to, trashy, or requires moving overburden I have a better chance. Most people are lazy, or older, or too out of shape to clear off a few hundred square feet of good ground to detect or even hike a few miles uphill to get to the good spots. They want a place they can drive right up to, get out and in ten feet find nuggets on the surface. Or places accessible to side by sides or quads. Go where they can't go! While placer gold is often found on bedrock, you can also find pocket gold with a VLF. Most of the pieces I've found in the past two years have been pocket gold, from eroded veins exposed by soil depletion and erosion. If you are looking for placer gold you will do best by finding areas with about 4-8 inches of hard pack or overburden on top of bedrock. Shale, slate, or serpentine with vertical orientation is a natural gold trap. For old workings make sure to check their tailings, and keep in mind they were either classifying or hand stacking muddy rocks. Mud can trap gold and after 150 years of rain some gets washed out. Similarly, specimen gold would sometimes roll all the way down their long toms or sluices since it was too light to get caught in the riffles. So check where the sluice dumped out. Also check the edges of the workings where the giants couldn't wash, or they just stopped the work. Tree roots, islands of unworked material, and crevices may hold nuggets. But they also hold a lot of trash. River bottoms can be tough for VLF's since the bedrock is often hot. So I usually look for places with just enough original overburden to give me a buffer as well as possibly hold some nuggets. When I first started detecting for gold I dug about 200 pieces of trash per nugget. I have a few ounces now but I still dig about 50-75 pieces of trash per nugget. That's the nature of it I guess.
    3 points
  26. Larger coils can be counter productive if you have upper layers of trash as you hear what is on top predominately. Higher trash areas the smaller or eliptical coils may help you sneak around the trash and pick out targets between better. When you swing over areas and hear nothing at all then maybe a pi or larger coil may sqweek out something that might be deeper. The area really depends on what kind of activity was there over time. As an example yesterday there was a small hill where I picked up a reale few years back and picked up an Indian Head but at the bottom of the hill is a trash line with cans going down to 12"+. Soil on the hill is sanded and natural with a thin top soil line and bottom is dark black dirt with lot of modern trash. Bottom of the hill was filled in and whole field was just fill to cover a swampy area for farming. Bottom of the hill was wetlands at one time so there is no old stuff reletively speaking unless your a Millenial 🙂
    3 points
  27. Wow, that’s terrible re your friend! The key is to don’t go during mating season(pretty much from now through June or so), and avoid going near the baby ones that are often on the banks...momma will protect them! I’m around gators quite a bit in a wildlife preserve area where I walk almost daily, so I’ve learned to read their body language etc. But like with any wild animal, definitely need to give them their space and respect them!
    3 points
  28. Good advice ^ from VL. Welcome aboard , and prepare to LEARN A LOT there's so much already posted . Ask anything you want to find out about. I find going to the door and knocking is a good start sometimes. Have a few rehearsed lines ready. (Dressing a couple levels up from usual helps too.) Maybe have a "card" made up . Offer to give a demo of how your dug holes disappear due to your "immense experience and skill" , OK you may need to practice that ,,,now , go get a permission....(if they say no , keep trying , start next door . Once you are in at one place you can work the neighborhood using the first place as a reference....
    3 points
  29. GB : I know there are some coin/relic guys who will try to use those balls-to-the-walls pulse machines , for coins/relics. Since, sure, you can "get a coin to 1.5 ft. deep", blah blah. I saw a few of them guys at the Virginia relic shootout a few years ago. And asked them "Don't nails give you fits ?" They only gave rambling feeble replies. Lo & behold, at a few cellar-home antebellum home sites (which were a THICK carpet of nails), those guys were nowhere to be found. They steered FAR from any such area. Meanwhile, guys with standard machines (discriminators) were able to go fish some coins and relics from the mess. So I can't see the sense. Unless you're nugget hunting, or hunting the beach (where you're not likely to have ghost-townsy-conditions ), or some such exception. And as far as what kac says: Yes there's some "tricks" you can use to ID nails of some of those type machines. But guess what ? The moment you off-tune and start using those tricks, you can now kiss that fabled depth goodbye. You are left with no-more depth than a standard coin machine. So why bother ? Any iron-ID trick on those will only work for the top 6 or 8" or whatever (at best) . Everything beyond that starts to sound the same.
    3 points
  30. Had a good friend loan me his Tarsacci for a few months. Settings: Sens 9, Black sand ON, Salt 33, 9khz, disc -30, G-bal 623. Tested both coils First off, if you are tall like me the detector is NOT long enough. I know Steve is working on an extension but here is the problem. Not enough coil cable length. So if you are tall and plan to order one, be sure to ask for longer coil cable length . Myself, I would need 4-5 inches more rod length. Pros: Works good in the wave wash [all metal mode], good depth, silent running wet sand, NO EMI issues in a known EMI problem area, Awesome battery, good sound and volume. Pinpoints well in mixed mode, good target separation, fast recovery speed, large coil was just as stable in saltwater. Cons: Too short, lousy coil mount location on small coil, poor on target identification [vdi display]. Iron wrap around issues, gold chain issue?. I will probably ramble some so if you have a question please ask. For the most part worked in all metal. I was impressed how the Tarsacci handled moving salt water. While it is no GT Sovereign, it is 100% better than the Equinox. There is an initial disturbance by the wave and then sometimes on withdrawal but working in the wash is more than workable. Also you will never lose or bury a target in a hole of soft sand like the equinox. The tarsacci will chase it all the way until you recover. The ability of the machine to give you tone and VDI numbers at depth is a question. I was not confident that the machine separates the difference between iron and non-ferrous well at depth. While I dug very few nails and no bobby pins the MDT had an issue with the ferrous Mexican coins. Many of them would want to ring-up and some of them indicated must dig. I would say anything past 8 inches had issues to where the target would not lock-out. I am sure more time on this machine would solve some of this confidence. One tip I have on deep targets is to take a small scoop of sand 3-4 inches off. The MDT did better reading targets regardless if there was water in the hole made or not. On my last day both myself and my friend were on the MDT and myself the Equinox. I found a gold wrist chain that had a small name plate on it. I hit a solid 5. When we got together the MDT would not lock out on the chain with the 12”round coil, even on top of it. I could take the Equinox to about 4” above it and still locked out at 5. All in all, the machine was a pleasure to use. The increased coverage of the larger coil is well noted, and in my case no difference in salt water effect on the machine. Target identification takes a bit longer than the Equinox, but the MDT exceeds in moving water contact. It is not even close. Also the loss of EMI issues for three blocks of beach is a huge plus. Dave
    2 points
  31. Hi GB, The modification to my TDI was reducing the delay below 10us. Reg was hoping this modification would help in detecting smaller gold. Particularly the wire gold, unfortunately the modification did not help on this type of gold. My question would be in mineralization such as yours, would a TDI or PI achieve more depth than a VLF because of less mineralization?
    2 points
  32. Thanks! I guess when the teeth were lost and buried by sediment millions of years ago, through time and pressure, some sort of mineralization takes place...so the teeth are preserved. Cool stuff!
    2 points
  33. Announced by Miner's Den just a little while ago that it will be in stores late this week or early next. Not sure about other dealers in Oz? Can US dealers announce anything? Getting close now 🥳
    2 points
  34. A person that could help you a lot is GB_Amature as he lives close to you and could give you some good pointers. He helped my grandfather when he first got a new detector, and he know a lot of areas near you.
    2 points
  35. I should make a note and say that the official response I posted about X-coils today was sent to me 15 minutes before I posted it. It was not signed so I don't know who wrote it. It came from X-coils.com Mitchel
    2 points
  36. Tom in my area the answer is no. I and my friend who uses a TDI Pro get a clear audio response where someone using a Equinox or CTX3030 get a iffy or no response. My TDI is very stable in Ground Balance mode, Ground Balance mode off is very annoying. Yep and a lot of my detecting friends that got spanked! My TDI was modified as well as my friend’s TDI Pro was modified by Reg Sniff.
    2 points
  37. Hello GB, My main detector for parks is the TDI. I will list the settings I use and why I use them. With these settings I only listen for the deeper targets ( 5”or deeper) and the TDI will respond to deeper targets with a not as strong audio response. The surface targets or near surface will give a very strong audio response and the deeper targets will give a weaker response. Using this technique you can ignore many trash targets and concentrate on deeper targets. These settings completely ignore bottle caps, pull tabs and foil no matter what depth they may be at. Nails and wire will give a good response, but keep in mind I’m only listening for the deeper target so I’m digging less trash targets. People using the Equinox in are area can achieve some targets at the depths we are getting, but the are listening for deep target response with a scratchy audio. Our soil is highly mineralized and VLF detectors are limited on depth. I was fortunate to live close by Reg Sniff and he was able to give me advice on what settings to use. It will take awhile to become proficient with the TDI, but after a lot of hours you will have a better understanding of it. Settings: Sensitivity- Set at Max. Delay- 10 Ground Balance- Just below the 5 mark. Threshold- Light High Conductor Setting Frequency- Set at 12:00 o’clock. I’m using the 12” Dual Field coil, but you definitely need a pin pointer as their is no meter or way of telling depth other than by sound. I would not use the TDI in a ghost town setting that has a abundance of nails or any other areas that have a abundance of nails, but any other common trash items even with a large coil is not an issue. But you have to go slow and be patience and listen for the deeper targets.
    2 points
  38. Thanks! Yep, made my own sifter: 3/4” pvc, 1/4” wire mesh/hardware cloth, noodles and zip ties. Works great!
    2 points
  39. A few ideas and a fix. Are you running a coil cover? Have you cleaned it? If a beach has black sand it could only take 10 minutes to have enough black sand under the coil cover to give problems. Cell Phones- 100% fix An aluminum shield that goes over my pod protector.
    2 points
  40. My wife is a fabulous person that has supported my interests since I met her. 🙂 I wish she could get out there with me, and she would if she could. Unfortunately age takes its toll, she has had 3 major repair surgeries: her right knee, left hip, and 5 back vertebrae. Only the back surgery was marginally successful, they left a drill bit in her hip, and her knee was so badly botched she had to go to a wound specialist for a year. There are a lot of great women out there, it's just that they have to find you. 😀 I'm one of those people whom a woman has to hit me in the head with a brick to get my attention. I have always been focused on adventure and doing stuff.
    2 points
  41. Is that onna dem nugget pointer dogs ? I'd sure give up my chicken for one....
    2 points
  42. Nice finds and quite a lot of them to boot. Please remember about the gators in those creeks and don't get hurt. A friend of mine was in one of those a couple of years ago and lost an arm to a gator while hunting items in the creeks. We now call him lefty because he lost his right arm, and no I don't think it is funny but true. Good luck and happy hunting.
    2 points
  43. johnt, Welcome to the site and I know there are many people who can help with almost any problem that you might encounter. I am a newbie here myself and have learned so much since I have been here. The people are great and knows quite a lot about any detector that you may have. What type of detector do you have? When I do research on property I always go to the county court house to find out who owns the property first, then I check old records on what was there before the existing building. I found when I do that I can either rule it out or ask for permission to detect the property. Well good luck and happy hunting.
    2 points
  44. Cracks me up how they say outright (accurately) that almost no one bothered to learn how to use their prior machines correctly: "For a product with multiple ground balance timings, multiple coils, and various other settings, it is usually assumed that the user fully understands the behaviour or characteristics of various timings, coils and other settings and has knowledge about the soil he/she is interrogating, and selects the proper timing, the proper coil, and other proper settings. The assumption is incorrect for most users." Salty, Minelab! But true. Just gave me a chuckle. Also: further evidence of this being for gold machines even though they used coins as a test is their depth result on an Australia dime was 18"+! Pretty sure the EQ/CTX range can't do that.
    2 points
  45. A good review of Minelabs current patent applications & you are correct - they are a hard read. Minelab have applied for 4 patents so far his year (6 last year) so they are definitely serious about keeping ahead of the pack and not becoming a sitting duck in business by resting on their laurels.
    2 points
  46. If you only have a 2-3 bars on your ground phase then depth is probably similar to your nox. Why not snag a nice old fashioned analog machine for those sites? Tejon will give a flat tone and most often a little pop on aluminum so it makes going through moderate and low trash areas a breeze. I say that because the machine is just not chattery as my vid machines. I can crank the sensitivity to nearly max and have clean signals. In rare cases where there is high trash areas the modern machines can squeak out a signal with the faster recovery speeds. The Vista X is supposed to be close to the tejon with the benefit of iron audio. Sometimes its just nice to think less. As for headphones with an analog machine you really need good ones. Garrett MS-2's or Gray Ghosts etc. Earbuds you won't hear the nuances.
    2 points
  47. No extra or special skills on my part, just keep swinging. Persistence, persistence, persistence, some patience, some luck, and eventually a bigger nugg will turn up. The old boys got most of em but not all of them. Usually a few crumbs but every once in a great while the whole cookie!!!!! Almost got skunked today. Found a spot on my first hunt that gave up 3 or 4 of those bits (in the pic) and figured I'd investigate further today? 4 hrs later at the spot turned up zippo so with only an hr hunt time left I went to another spot that seems to always kick out one more bit and luckily I popped out 2 pieces for 1.6g and salvaged the hunt...... Here's the 1.5er that salvaged the hunt today. Thanks everyone for the comments and good luck out there!!!!!!
    2 points
  48. I'm not sure if this is the same reaction other PI's get, but on my GPX, coins hit louder and narrower than big nails do. Nails, for me, sound longer, and coins hit faster if that makes sense. Coins are a shorter signal but ramp up and ramp down quicker. Also coins sound the same no matter what direction I swing from. Nails can sound different from some angles. This for me has been true to about 9". After that coins are a smooth quieter sound while iron is a bit ragged and unsure and sharp. I can always get a nice sweet, quiet, even response on deep coins. Deep iron sounds unsure and iffy. Kind of like when you want to make a bad signal into a good signal. That works up to about 15" After that all bets are off. After 15" it may sound like ground noise, slight EMI, or kind of a wavy, distant ghost sounding signal. After 20" I just hear threshold 😄
    2 points
  49. From what I have read here and what others said you can ground balance on the iron so that tone is different than targets above that range. I don't know if that will be 100% is separating iron from non iron. Next thing you can do is use the pulse delay to trim out smaller targets. Having only the Seahunter, depth gain is only greater where there is more mineralization when compared to an IB machine. In other words in mild ground you may see little or no difference when compared to your Nox. Big draw back for my SeaHunter with the 10x14 coil comes when there are lots of targets that are within the coil size so separating out targets is nearly impossible. Low target density is not an issue. Still templted to buy my buddies TDI Pro but would consider an eliptical coil with smaller footprint then it goes back to the question, how much depth will I actually gain? Bottom line if your ground is nasty in the high 80's-90's then the pi should do better. Sorry for the long non answer hehe.
    2 points
  50. You don't have where you are located in your info page, so hard to say! But generally, in fresh water, stuff doesn't move as much, unless you have "tides" and wave action like say, the Great Lakes! Items just get deeper in the sediment/sand/gravel over time until they stop on a harder layer! That's not written in stone, but you get the idea! There can be several factors in play, depending on the location! Like currents, runoff, drawdowns in winter, drought, flooding, dredging, etc...! If you find the history of a lake or waterway, or know where people congregate and swim, that should give you an idea of depth for losses! Again, area and environment dependent, but the deeper you go, the less good finds from swimmers to be had! Unless you have knowledge of a floating platform, or other structure that would alter the depth where swimmers normally congregate! But then you enter the realm of underwater detecting; a whole other discipline!! And one last thing! Hazards: Boaters, Currents/Dropoffs, Temperature, and Dangerous Wildlife/Bacteria! Wear Water Shoes at a Minimum, and cover any exposed wounds! Broken Glass, Sharp Object's, and Flesh Eating Bacteria ain't no joke!! 😫 Applies to most all waters, fresh or salt! 👍👍
    1 point
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