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We caught a break in the 90+ temps in Yuma for one last trip. Ostensibly, it was to be a quick trip to the spot we found the bigger gold in Feb and to test the X-Coil 15" Concentric coil over the ground we had covered extensively with the X-Coil 17x12 and stock coil. It's about a 1/2 mile walk to the spot but I pulled up short to detect a wash we were about to cross. My friend with the Concentric coil went on to the target area. I am using the 7000 with stock coil while waiting for some re-work on my patch lead for the X-Coils. I had worked the lower sections of this particular wash back in Feb and found 6 little bits in one small area, the rest of the wash seemed barren. My goal was work the wash towards our target area just to get the machine warmed up and my listening skills tuned in. I was working pretty quick really looking for a sitting duck rather than slow and methodical because this wash hadn't produced too well. About 100 yds on, I hit a pretty good tone right up against the wash sidewall. I pulled out the bigger of non-specie gold in the picture. From there over about 20 yds I pulled 3 more small pieces then hit the smaller specie gold on an inside bend of the wash. I continued up the wash and found the bigger specie dead center of the wash down in the bedrock. I found 1 more tiny bit up on the bank, but then starting hitting a lot of trash targets so I turned around and reworked the wash for 0 nuggets. Because of the specie pieces I then started a circle on the hillsides all around the area for nothing. I put down my gear and walked to the target area to check on my friend with the Concentric coil. He had found 2 pieces in an area well detected on our previous trips and attributed it to the overall sensitivity of the Concentric on small targets. Because of the heat and short trip we had no opportunity to make any comparisons on undug targets. I worked my way back down the wash to the RZR, over areas I had covered in Feb. On the last bend I was picking my way down a slick rock slide area and waved my coil over some overburen covering a layer of bedrock above me. I got a faint tone and started pulling down the overburden and reached some decomposing granite bedrock. The target sound got better so I ended up busting out the bedrock trying to pick up the target down in a deep crack. As I got further down, the target got weaker and I thought I was pushing it deeper in the crack, so I busted out some more bedrock. I finally picked up a half a matchhead size nugget and thought that just couldn't be right. As good as the 7000 is on small gold, that just didn't seem right. I then waved over my spoils pile with all this overburden and busted up granite. Targets everywhere. The sun beating down on me and I'm on my knees sorting through the spoils trying to pinpoint tiny targets with a 14" coil. After about 1/2 hr, I got most of them, 6 matchhead size nuggets. If I had my handy NOX, I could have made short work of this mess, but maybe I'll go back for the crumbs next year. I'm moving to Reno in a couple weeks, I'll be a snowbird in Yuma next year.

I had a chance to meet up with Jim in ma for a beach hunt. Always nice to detect with a fellow forum member. 🙂 Hit me favorite beach for about 6 hours and had to adjust my thinking, since the bulldozers had mostly buried my silver area. Thanks Guys! 😡 So, I moved over to the clad section to at least get to dig some coins. The ratio of silver to clad leans heavily towards the clad. But there was some silver to be found, including the big silver. 71 coins in all (including silvers). Oddly enough, there was not a single zinc to ruin my day. ❤️ Average depth of targets was about 14”. Some different finds of the day were 2 round ball, one being a 69 caliber, the pistol brooch, a chain which looks too thin to be a pull for a light, but still may be. If it ends up testing positive for silver, then it is a neat design for a piece of jewelry. It was really nice to get out, and I was pleasantly surprised that it did not rain as predicted. Today we are covered with a bit more snow than the dusting I thought we were supposed to get. New England weather! 🙄

Out detecting the other day and had a signal on the Monster that sounded like your typical hot rock but when I dug the hot rock out it didn't look like my typical hot rocks in this area? So I took the time to flip the rock over and ran the coil over the other side of the rock and the Monster said GOLD! So after some scraping I see nothing and I'm too busy hunting and throw the rock in my pouch to bust it open later at home. Needed to go into my pouch for something tonight and found the rock I'd already forgot about and scraped the piss outta it and saw nothing, ran coil over scrapings and the rock and still a gold signal but no sight of gold? Took rock inside and took the steel wool to it and finally saw the glint of a little gold so proceeded scrubbing cautiously and found the little flake. This guy almost got away. Moral of the story...if it sounds like gold you might want to pack it home for a THOROUGH check.....

Minelab GPX 6000 Data & Reviews Minelab GPX 6000 Accessories and Spare Parts Minelab GPX 6000 Owner’s Manual

First one out the door. 😎

I dug another fake Cartier LOVE ring yesterday. Second one dug on this beach. Even though I could not read the hallmark inside the ring (gotta have my cheaters for that) I knew it was just like two others that I dug last year and the year before. I do have one real one though. I dug it last year. All the white gold ones are fake. The gold colored one is real. These are getting to be a little to plentiful. LOL

I’d have to disagree with the second part of your comment. I’ve found the SDC an absolute beast with regard to handling mineralisation. Better than the GPZ 7000 and QED. I’ve never directly compared it to a 5000. I thought everyone found it ridiculously good in mineralised ground/hot rocks? Small stock coil is certainly a limitation on depth although I thought the timings that it ran also contributed to this? Eric - I hope that within 3 weeks I can provide some feedback to undug gold signals compared with the 7000, 6000, 5000, SDC and Equinox. I’ll have to think about my chart symbols 💥 💣 ⛱️ 😃

The only thing that has ever pointed me to gold were friends.... which was better then the gold itself 😊 strick

I once got a 2 oz bit out of an erosion control trench about 50 meters below a mined quartz vein. This was back in the early 1980s and I was using the wife's detector. The nugget was visible in the trench and looked like an 1½ inch steel nut. Her Whites 6000 had motion discrimination my detector did not. I tried the discrimination from min to max and it did not reject. When I pick it up I knew I had a good piece of gold. Back at caravan park I show it to a few professional prospector that I know. All of them said iron junk till I dropped it in their hand. Prior to it acid bath it could be dragged across the table with a super magnet but was unable to lift it up from the table. The gold looked pitted when cleaned and that is it in the photo below bottom right.

Not always but generally, larger/heavier gold will often be deeper. If it isn’t, then all of the detectors on that sales chart will do just fine. The Goldmonster 1000 is limited by its available coil sizes and 45kHz VLF detection type and will only go as deep as its small coils and soil mineralization will allow. Even though the SDC 2300 is a pulse induction detector, its stock configuration (8” mono coil) limits it depth wise as does its inability to deal with extreme mineralization. The GPX 5000 got the short straw on that chart in my opinion since it is so versatile coil wise and settings wise. It does much better on deeper and smaller gold than that chart shows.

ha ha wife and anchor in one beach find ........🤪🤪 👩‍🦳 🤿

Gerry If you retire . I've heard metal detecting is a good hobby for retired people. You should check it out .

No, not this year Mitchel...did that a couple seasons ago on way to Florida. No diamonds for me tho lol. I did find a cool quartz cluster in Arkansas that trip. This year on the way back, I’m planning a topaz dig in Utah when they blast the mountain for fresh material. Should be fun!

It appears Fisher has shipped at least one AQ Limited off to Australia.

I'm happy to say the 6000 really does exist. I picked one up yesterday from JP's shop, The Outback Prospector in Clermont. First impressions, well packed but not ridiculously entombed in plastic, nice and light. It takes a few hours to give the battery full initial charge so allow for that when you purchase one. Bluetooth headphones are nice quality and charged fairly quickly by USB from my laptop. Looking forward to using it in the paddock but need to wait a couple of days till my knee fixes itself.

Special thanks to Calabash digger for his reasearch on the pitch mode being good in iron , and His heads up on keeping the silencer at -1 so the target does not get masked in iron . well i used the pitch mode on the DEUS and kept the silencer @ -1 and it came thru for me , Got a good hit on many non ferrous targets today and some right next to iron . i was using the full tones but when i seen Calabash diggers VDs on the pitch mode i had to try that and it has proven to work very well the VDI on this target was 49 and 50 right where a 22 casing comes in or some foils . glad i dug it

Thanks. The lack of zinc just shows that the ocean has cleansed whatever remained after all the detectors have swept the area, (after hours) during the beach season. They usually take a blind eye to detecting after the life guards go home. So the locals come out and look for the gold in and out of the water. As for the huge number of coins? Some say it is due to storms surging things back on to the shore. I'm not completely on board with that, as the coins are laying fairly close to the clay layer. I'm thinking storms and wind have removed enough sand for me to just be able to hear these targets. The GPX is heavy especially if I try the 18" coil on it. The 12 1/2" coil is all I can handle on a regular basis. A 14" coil would be perfect for depth I would think. 🤔 The weather is not usually an issue with me, as long as I am constantly moving and digging. The wind can sand blast your skin and eyes though. Helps rejuvenate those dead cells 😄. I'm pretty sure that I am the riff-raff on the beach 😆

Do you have an interpretation for that other than randomness? You sure do produce with that (heavy) PI. And every time I see a WL Half I feel both joy (for the finder) and a bit of pain (for me since it's my favorite all-time USA coin design, even more than the St. Gaudens $20). There's one out there with my name on it but as yet I haven't figured out where it is.... Good stuff, as always, and I doubt these 30's degree days bother you much after what you went through during the winter months. Besides, it keeps the riff-raff out of your way.

The only thing I’ll say is I’ll be here if and when it comes out. I just can’t sit around and wait being I’ve got the ORX already with the Simplex and this New to me that is Tarsacci I need to get out as of yet not so. I see myself now with a detector in each hand and one attached to my butt with a windshield washer motor running it . Chuck

Looks like we can expect reports from genuine purchasing users very soon. Gotta be first on YouTube! Those are the reports that those still on the fence should be looking for, and there will not be long to wait now. Minelab GPX 6000 Data & Reviews Minelab GPX 6000 Accessories and Spare Parts Minelab GPX 6000 Owner’s Manual

Hey Northeast I just put myself up for adoption. So if you adopt me I’ll dig for you. The only thing good about me is I am house broke but that’s all . Chuck

Hi relicmeister , From what I know XP will release their first multifreq machine in the coming months . it will probably a "fast mf" detector to be very efficient in iron trashed areas like the Apex , and as usual a very light machine. Future will tell ..

Orx normalizes all IDs to the 18 khz reference regardless of selected operating frequency on every coil (including the HF coils) as Jeff mentioned above. Which is a good thing as the 2 non-ferrous tone breaks associated with the coin modes are fixed (not adjustable). Orx just missed being a true Deus killer because it is limited to 3 fixed tones. If they simply added pitch and full tones I could honestly say there would be little reason to upgrade to the Deus even accounting for all of the other Orx simplifications vs. Deus. Still better than the Deus lite configurations, it is merely a very good backup to the Deus IMO.

We had an old Rambler. We painted it with brushes, and my brother used it to go to college. He named it "Foxworthy" for some reason. It served him well, it was the first car I ever saw with fully reclining seats. Rustiest car I ever had was a Fiat 131 Super Brava, it broke in half on the flatbed when they picked it up to take to the junkyard. Good thing it didn't do that to me!

Finding Placer Gold with a Metal Detector and a Breaker Bar Armed with a Breaker Bar and a Minelab SDC 2300, a White's Gold Master V-Sat Jeff and Gary ( Two Toe's ) head back to the Gravel Bar to finish up the search for Placer Gold Nuggets !!!!! Jeff brings the Big Breaker Bar and it boulder moving time on the creek while Gary searchs the high and Low bench for those elusive Nuggets. See what the guys find with there Metal detectors while working the Bedrock crevices both High and low !!!!! SG 037 Thanks for watching

i used the pitch mode on the DEUS and kept the silencer @ -1 and it came thru for me , Got a good hit on many non ferrous targets today and some right next to iron . i was using the full tones but saw videos on the pitch mode i had to try that and it has proven to work very well the VDI on this target was 49 and 50 right where a 22 casing comes in or some foils . glad i dug it

Congrats on your GPX finds from your beach!! I hunted my beaches for a few years with a TDI Pro and a 17x13 Nugget Finder coil, and slaughtered the deep silver, along with a decent number of gold rings....It was so tough digging those deep holes that tend to fill back in the deeper you dig. I had 3 reinforced beach scoops made years ago by Chuck from Sunspot scoops. I totally destroyed one after 8 months of digging in hard packed sand for 15-20+” targets. I surmise my TDI Pro (GB Off) with the larger 17x13” coil would penetrate slightly deeper in the sand than a GPX with 12.5” coil would, but not 100% convinced...I had thought of buying a used 4000/4500 a year ago to test depth against my TDI pro, but it never materialized. I bought my TDI Pro for $950 (used only once before by previous owner) back in 2014, and it has paid for itself many times over. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, if you or any of the locals in your area have hunted with a TDI Pro before. HH, Dan

Mine, the one JPs kindly donated to the cause.😉

I wonder if they will send one to New Zealand? Then again, I did have to tell them NZ is not part of Europe 😪 I wait with baited breath......

Conditions are 'contagious' and oceans discriminate and classify. You just have to be at the right place at the right time. Two days ago I walked my normal beaches without result (EQ800/15) and then I came to a little beach and I found a little chain (thought it was silver but not). Then a few feet away I found another small chain and before the end of the hunt in that 100 ft area I got a 3rd cheap chain. There isn't any value like your finds but it shows once again if you keep walking and keep detecting that interesting and sometimes valuable objects are where you search for them. In this case it is not the chicken or the egg. You MUST search before you find. Well done. You make me want to go out and buy my first ATX! haha

Steve I can tell you sitting on that fence hurts . I have a friend wants me to buy a 6000 with his money and we hunt together with it . I personally don’t see that honeymoon lasting too long with two guys on one 6000. I was telling my youngest son that I’d like to buy a Can Am Ryker motorcycle and he said do it. I said your mother would kill me and his reply was it’s easier to ask forgiveness than get permission. That’s another boy just like his dear old dad. Chuck

That saphire ring will make their monthly finds photos for sure, and have a chance at find-of-the-month! You show commendable humility to admit it. IMO there is luck in every hunt (sometimes good; sometimes bad). You hit the jackpot and luck is only one part of it. You (and your ATX) supplied the rest. Well done!

Gold pans, sluices and fancy backpacks from XP are nice but........an XP simultaneous multi frequency detector with some typical XP speed would be fantastic if I can afford it................. $$$$ To be fair, they did produce the X35 coils and I do really appreciate their Mi-6 paired pinpointer. It works very well.

I started getting paid for writing software in 1976. I retired (completely) in early 2020, still writing software. 44 years later but one common complaint (and a legitimate one) remained -- poor or lacking documentation. However, when working on a project, it's my experience (and consistent with what kac said) that hand recorded notes are standard operating procedure, and the finishing steps (if the product/development is successful enough to proceed) are when the documentation crystalizes. Losing the lead engineer in the middle of a project is difficult to overcome no matter how good the documentation has been up to that point. And if detailed documentation had been required during the development, the project likely wouldn't have been as far along as it was. In these cases there is no simple/painless solution.

New coils have been designed for the Apex , I imagine that it will be the same with the new XP ... Alain

In regard to the SDC 2300, I believe I said “extreme” mineralization. There were two prospecting areas that I used mine where it was unable to handle the situation. I haven’t been able to take the QED to those places yet but from my experience with it so far I am not expecting it to do any better. So, no need to defend the SDC 2300. It is a great detector for sure.

Good point. I think it can go either way when it comes to EMI depending on the type - so a more general statement of simply adjusting recovery speed either way to see if it has beneficial effect is probably a better way to put it. One thing I do know is that reducing recovery speed generally increases ground noise. So you can be trading one undesirable effect off on another undesirable effect.

I have to agree with Northeast's comments. The SDC is designed for shallow gold in highly mineralized ground and it deals with mineralization exceptionally well, better probably than any other machine. And it is actually respectable with somewhat deeper targets too despite the small coil size and ultrafast timings. You just have to listed to the faint warbles which can be tricky to hear since the threshold can be rather unstable at higher sensitivities. Therefore, for deeper targets I usually never go above 2 and do noise cancelling often. The more stable the threshold will be the better you will hear deeper stuff, gain 2 suffices for that, combined with a booster. It will be very interesting to compare the SDC with the 6000/11 with respect to handling mineralization.

And whose was first to the post office?? 😜

Minelab marketing...............They can't market the Multi IQ Equinox as a gold detector. It would directly compete with (and outperform) the Goldmonster 1000 and even to some extent it will out perform the SDC 2300 especially with that new Coiltek 10X5" coil. You can check out the detector categories on Minelab's website, at Nuggetshooter or on Rob's Detectors for instance and the Equinox will be included in every category of detectors =all terrain, coin and jewelry, relic, underwater.........but not in gold prospecting. Bill and Rob know how good the Equinox is on small gold in high mineralization. Their hands are tied marketing wise.

The chart is to sell GPX6000 and not harm the GPZ7000. So if I was selling the 6000 I would show it best features (getting 1.0 to 0.05 gram bits at depth.) and show the 7000 best features (getting 1.0 to 100 gram lumps at depth.) This would be done by putting the bits as deep as the 6000 can get them, of cause at that depth the others detectors are out of range.

I wouldnt put to much attenion on the chart info-I had a sdc 2300 and put it over some of my old beat up patches that I hunted to death with my 5000 and a few other beepers over the years hoping to find a bunch of nuggets missed guess what none at some and only a bit here and there-I have a 3-4 grain nugget on a poker chip I use for testing-the sdc hit at about 2-3 inches while my 5000 hit it at about 5-6 inches-I no longer have the sdc-IMO alot of sales hype-I hope the 6000 lives up to its chart hype-Time will tell

No offense Tom, but the GB posted this so he could get advice from PI guys for a certain situational hunt. You hijacked this thread so you could push your views on how PI guys are incorrect about this or that. Who cares! Start your own post on it. You come across as pushy when you don't win the argument. I'm surprised Steve let this off topic go so long.

So you're due for another gold one , must maintain the ratio..

I have and use Maktun, it has helped a couple of times. I have used it on US and foreign coins and it has done a respectable job and is easy to use. Down loaded from Play Store for Android.

Ok, so, I don’t think I could have made this up if I tried! Decided to go for another water hunt today, ATX charged and not expecting a great deal as has been ‘slim pickings’ lately - especially with the CTX / Nox / Excal. Found a spot in the water, I have walked over hundreds of times in the past! Not kidding. A mixture of luck, tides, sand, the ATX, the mono coil - and clear water! May be worth writing to Garrett about this one hunt - especially after “breaking up with my ATX” in the past, only to rekindle the efforts this week! In love again. Several old coins (mostly 70’s and 80’s), 4 silver rings, 2 junk rings, a junker gold coloured earring, and copper / plated locket.... Then 30+ grams of gold! Including an awesome Sapphire? Ring! Hmm, back again tomorrow!

To be honest, VL, I didn’t notice it was a nickel until you pointed it out so that made me take a closer look to verify it was a war nickel.

Hello Cipher. Those 3d printed batt. packs are great for sure. And they are on a budget, compared to other solutions. The first Li-ion pack I build myself, as many of us did. Works as it should, but the 3d printed one is a lot more trustworthy 😉. So I ordered one and have to agree, it is a very well build battery pack which I really like. Into this pack protected and unprotected 18650 cells can be used, but I recommend the protected ones as you never know when the detector will really shut down at low voltage. And to me there is a big advantage to get the cells out for charging. In the past I had some issues with battery pack which had the cells soldered in a row. The charger showed them fully charged but when inserted to the detector the voltage dropped immediantely to the low bat. level. When the pack was metered the voltage seemed to be okay, but a measurement with a attached burden showed that one ore more cells were faulty. And for charging there are so many chargers in the market... this is what I use. It's a great thread you started, thanks.

I just switch to a quiet frequency and problem solved.

Did some crack scratchin today.......all with the Monster. Gonna take a few thousand of these to pay for that 6000....lol