Jump to content

Leaderboard

Popular Content

Showing content with the highest reputation on 04/28/2021 in all areas

  1. Hi Guys Just thought I would share my first trip with the GPX 6000 out near home. About an hour and a half in an old spot on the NSW Far South Coast AU. Settings on manual about 12 o"clock position in difficult. Hot ground but with a steady threashold. Down @ 6 - 8 inches. Cheers Jack
    15 points
  2. Went to a local park today after work. Only had a couple of hours to detect and test out my new home made arm cuff. I wasn't a big fan of the plastic, and it was a little too wide and flexy for me. At this point I only have about 5 hours on the 800. The first hour today netted me a handful of clad and some misc. corroded zinc. The next hour was the same thing clad and junk. With only 15 minutes to chicken parm, I got a really nice 28-29, not expecting anything great, I proceeded to find out what it was. For a split second I thought it was another odd piece of stainless, But I quickly saw Tiffany and co. Wooooo Hoooooo. Now I had a good excuse for being a little late for dinner. My wife would never get mad for a Tiffany ring. It is about 6.16 grams and polished to like new. Oh and the cuff was a winner too. fits my arm and no slop. I made it out of an old no parking sign and the factory bottom section. It took me a few hours to create, but I'm happy with it. Have to give a shout out to Kac for the hand digger, Still works great and hasn't failed me yet.
    14 points
  3. Finally got a chance to hit the steamboat landing on the water today. A coincidental lower tide and great weather made an opportunity for me. It's a beautiful place, but fraught with risks from the poison ivy ground cover to the soft sand/muck in the river. There are places here that look solid but you sink immediately should you step there. Really didn't find much but didn't expect to. What I was more interested in was getting used to the gear and the conditions, I was wearing waders and using my scoop as a "stabilizer" as well. There are pilings, underwater holes, even saw an engine block out in the river. I only went a little above knee deep today. The water is clear but silts ahead of you as you walk. Water parallax makes it a bit difficult to locate where to scoop, but lifting the coil straight up after pinpointing helps. Found some pretty cool stuff, the steamboat mooring line cleat and the old blue medicine bottle were my favorite trash, the cleat was a 36. Thought I'd hit the jackpot. πŸ˜€ I worked my way over to the area I found some completely corroded Indian Heads just before I quit, I was only there about two hours. Got a 9/10, and scooped this very corroded "V" nickel, sadly not enough detail to provide a date. Identified it by size and the bust that was barely visible.Going back soon! They're planting the fields so woods and river are my only local diversions.
    9 points
  4. Went to a different, flat beach for a change of pace. I was going to wrap the GPX in plastic and go into the water a bit but found out my Detech coil needs to be weighed down in order to not float. Not a big deal, as it is a great coil and my favorite. I will know better next time and will weigh it down. Because of how flat the beach is, I expected and was granted, lots of bits of aluminum πŸ˜†. The number of coins was in line with how things seen to go for me on my area beaches. Found a bit of silver as well. Also found a ring which is either nickel or white gold. It is not as clean as I would expect gold to be, but maybe it is a lower karat. Just somehow reminds me of how some clad quarters look when they are tumbled a lot, coming out looking clean and not that red/green/brown look. Reads a solid 8 on the Nox. I still feel there should be some deep gold and silver there due to the deep coins and deep lead that is still left behind. Also, the number of pull tabs could have been gold rings as well. I do have to say one thing about the GPX line. They are very durable machines. I just hope the GPX 6000 is as durable. My 5000 has done a lot of deep woods hunting as well as the beach hunts. Things do go wrong with it (like the cam locks), but it always powers up and performs well. So, nothing earth shattering, but a decent day at the beach.
    9 points
  5. surface find in the leaf litter a nice silver earing
    6 points
  6. Never thought of getting flowers for my therapist. πŸ˜‰ Good idea.
    6 points
  7. Thought of one thing to add. When you have someone supporting your obsession with this hobby/occupation, never forget to show your appreciation. Probably my favorite find of the day, they grow wild here. πŸ™‚
    6 points
  8. So, just some observations from your excellent video on a very iron sand rich beach.......I could not tell if you were in Beach 1 or Beach 2. Did you try both in that damp sand? Did you ground balance your Equinox or just use 0? Do you get the same results with your 11” coil? in your video your sensitivity is above default 20, most of your black sand target responses are -9 and -8, your depth meter on those black sand targets is basically pegged and you are swinging really fast. All I can say is if you are getting that strong a response from the black sand at that beach you may need to compromise on your settings. Do you want to hear actual targets or mostly hear tiny iron sand targets that are reading 8 to 12” in depth because they are so small? The extreme sensitivity for small targets that the Equinox has is a really good thing but it can cause issues like you are running into. Turning up the sensitivity is just going to amplify the ground noise even more and make it really hard to tell if you have a real target. Swinging really fast is also not going to help you pick up actual coin sized targets in those conditions. So, I would lower the sensitivity enough that most of your target responses will be actual targets and the tiny iron sand targets will not be heard as much along with swinging slower. You can also compromise by rejecting -9 and -8 or so and hunt with every other target ID accepted to eliminate much of the ground noise and still hear actual targets. You can also hunt in 2 tones with your ferrous/non-ferrous tone break set at zero.......... I would take a US nickel and a dime, bury them at 6” or so and see how they sound and how they respond with that setup. Can you lower the sensitivity enough to eliminate most of the ground noise and still hear 2 direction, repeatable responses from those buried coins with enough non-ferrous responses to know that your target is non-ferrous even though you may have a few responses in negative numbers on those coins which may be either rejected (-9,-8) or in the iron range IDs that are still accepted?
    5 points
  9. Fat Bastard Prospecting, all his videos are entertaining unless you're offended by common Aussie prospector language. He does a quick run with the new 6000, not a great deal of new information but entertaining none the less.
    4 points
  10. Many, many hobbyists can have a difficult time distinguishing ferrous targets from non-ferrous. Part of that is due to the particular shape of the ferrous object, how man shaped the alloyed object into something that enhances conductivity, such as those blasted crown-type Bottle Caps. You also have Iron Nails that that are not a nice-and-proper straight design and best oriented to the coil. Instead, they might be bent, positioned at an awkward angle, and the Nail 'head' is 90Β° to the Nail-body and all those variables can have a challenging impact on the EMF as it encounters the hidden object. ALL manufacturers should be working on improving the performance of their product line, and it isn't always so easy. Many tasks were easily handles with some of those earlier analog-circuitry detectors that are more of a challenge today with a lot of the digitally-designed circuitry models, and to often make things tougher is that most manufacturers have followed the trendy move to Double-D search coil types and do not offer, or only have a limited offering, of Concentric coils. Concentric coils will generally provide more accurate Target ID than a DD, better Discrimination than a DD, and even slightly more depth-of-detection than a comparable-size DD. We, the consumers, have to deal with some of the so-called modern trends in detector design, and that means learning to ignore some of the marketing hype, then select the best coils we can for the types of sites we hunt and trash-target challenges we typically face, and a detector that we happen to like and enjoy using.. Learn each detector well, really well, to know their strengths and weaknesses, and my decades-old encouragement is to own two or more detectors that can complement each other in order to select the best tool for the task a-at-hand. I have a couple of Nokta / Makro devices, and my two all-time favorite Tesoro's, but my primary-use TID / Tone ID detectors are my three Garrett Apex devices, sporting different search coils. Monte PS: All of my Apex models worked well recently, and the first I updated the .25 software models to .28. I compared them with my original Apex that I got immediately upon their release which had the .23 software. After comparing all of them, my original Apex still worked fine, but I could tell some subtle enhancement differences favoring the new update. Last Friday evening we updated my 'original' Apex to .28 since it is my primary-use detector, and I am leased.
    4 points
  11. GB-amateur , as the others have said: Excellent post ! It is a common observation that gold-nugget hunting is more profitable. From a daily "melt value" perspective (given a skilled hunter, in each venue, that knows what he's doing). And let's be honest : Even if you factor in key-date old coins, that the odds are: It's rare that any old seated coin (even the key date S and CC mints !) will merit you $1k. And a cool collectible buckle or button might net you $1k. And so forth. Contrast to the guys who have strictly drifted to gold nugget md'ing: It can have much higher dollar values for their accumulative value. Than ANY coin/relic guy could have had in the same period. This is why many Sacramento area hunters, back when the nugget-specialty niche of the hobby first took off, tended to "leave coins/relics behind", and focused STRICTLY on nuggets forever more thereafter. It became an addiction unto itself. I know we can debate: "What about the coins that were found, that were worth $10k ?" Well , gee, so too : "What about the nuggets that were found that were worth $10k ?" But at the end of the day, we all can't deny that if money were the only driving factor, and skill-levels-were-accounted for, then: Nuggets seem to be more profitable. HOWEVER, as Raphis-Dan and others point out, there is NO substitution for the thrill of the history (strategy, skill, story, etc...) that the old coin or relic presents. A nugget is strictly a monetary object. But a coin or relic holds a story. Not sure if that's making any sense. This is all-so-timely for me. Since: My wife and I are looking at taking our central coast insane real estate market nest egg, (since I'm not on the ugly side of 60), and thinking of G.R. area real estate living. And as such, I'm pondering learning the nugget hunting aspect/side of our hobby. Great post GB-amateur !
    4 points
  12. What did they feed the pigs ? restaurant waist, what got in with it ? some of the tips
    4 points
  13. How tall do the vases grow in the wild,I was thinking about planting some for my girlfriend. The flowers are nice also. Seems like you had a nice hunt and have checked out the area for future hunts. Good luck and happy hunting.
    4 points
  14. I really like the finds and location very much! But, the credit and flowers given to your wifeπŸ’, is the treasure of the day! A much needed reminder for me to remember! 🌺 Thanks!πŸ‘πŸ‘
    4 points
  15. I’m not sure there’s a part I’ve not broken on a water machine. Joe knows me best he’s fixed a lot of um for me. I’ve split coils, broken ears, shafts, cuffs.... but hey from it all I’ve learned a lot. I can also say I never broke anything to my knowledge when dirt hunting. That’s why I’ve always said .... plan for ... stuff breaks in the water especially... thank goodness we find some gold.
    4 points
  16. An old site as in I havent been back to it for some time and thought I would give the 6k a run over. Went over it with a GP3000 and I may even have put the 4500 over as well. I dug some nice pieces out some time ago but yes may have missed alot too with the 3k/4500 ...obviously. The 6000 hit hard on these pieces which were down in the pipe clay. Cheers Jack
    4 points
  17. I have some unexpected extra time on my hands and am going to give metal detecting another try after quite a few years. I was on a couple of forums that might not exist anymore. I took the detectors out of the closet and brushed off the cobwebs and dust. I have a Troy Shadow X2, Tesoro Bandido II, and a Whites GMT. I mainly used the Shadow for hunting for relics and found a few. I recently sold a Tesoro Eldorado to a friend and hopefully he'll get the detecting bug and we can go out and find something interesting. I'd like to resume the hobby and search for relics, gold, and meteorites out here in the desert. This is a great forum with expert reviews on detectors and many informative posts. I hope to learn quite a bit and enjoy the hobby.
    3 points
  18. Finds like that your xmas shopping will be done by july😁
    3 points
  19. Luckily I didn't dig one of their lamps, My wife would have a hell of a time trying to put it on her finger!!!
    3 points
  20. As far as I can tell, Coiltek packages them in clear plastic display bags. Some sellers ship them boxed and others ship them in mailing bags. Mine was in a mailing bag that had damage on the outside and when I opened it, the coil was damaged too. I can't understand why a vendor wouldn't spend an extra $1 to box such an expensive coil to guarantee it arrives to the buyer in good condition. I won't be shopping there again.
    3 points
  21. This year is a good year beach wise for finding older coins. It takes a couple of storms to remove sand as well as very windy days to remove some more sand, little by little. Most recent hunts, I have averaged around 50 coins I think. I lucked out and bought the GPX used for around $2500.00. The bad part is I spent almost that much again on Minelab and after market coils πŸ™„ It would pay for itself if I would stop buying coils πŸ˜„ Solid nickel rings probably don't even exist, but that is what it looked like to me. It probably is white gold, but is a bit weathered looking. Nickel, even shaped like that ring, probably should read a bit above 8 on the Nox I would guess, but I bet it would be close. I think nickels read 12 or 13? Thanks about the photographing. I figure some people may want to see what New England beaches have trash wise. It also shows you that, if you dig it all, this is what you can expect junk wise. Not sure on the S/S hex nut. It looks tapered, so maybe some kind of pin for some machinery they may use on the park grounds next to the beach. But I also saw a windshield wiper in the water as well, that I threw out. It is kind of a trashy beach in some parts.
    3 points
  22. Excellent thread, GB. πŸ™‚ As a noob I'm still in the romantic phase where finding anything is a pleasure. I wonder when it will end, or if it ever does. Haven't had a total "skunk" day yet, but I fear them in my future. I am hoping my research skills and ability to "read" a place sharpen in proportion to the lesser amount of finds. Thus far I haven't found much silver, but it really makes my day when I do. A silver coin ended my last hunt. I'm trying it all, farm, field, random, beach, and soon parks or county owned properties. Gold might be out of the question where I am other than coins, but I'm not expecting them. I'll be thrilled If I find one! Didn't expect to get a gold ring first time at the beach, but my wife loves it. I have no problem giving away my finds. I'm glad people post thoughts on this site, it makes it unique among the choices.
    3 points
  23. I've just been informed that the 26" GPZ Concentric I ordered will now be a 30" The designers believe this will be the ultimate manifestation of the ZVT CC and it should have some serious depth. I replied that I will now have to grow a right arm like a lobster. Oh well! what the heck! Exciting times! Could be like the old "Bismarck" days all over again?
    3 points
  24. For anyone interested in seeing how a Dual Field is put together, I recently did a video on making one after reading a lengthy thread on the Geotech Forum. Cheers
    2 points
  25. The scoop is very strong, I can lean hard on it or use it to pull me out. Someone asked me why It is 6' long, that's one of the reasons. I may add a second Raptor handle facing in the other direction. Walk softly and carry a big stick! πŸ˜€ I'm wearing chest waders so my boots won't get removed by the muck. Waders are inherently dangerous so I use a Mustang auto/manual CO2 type II PFD from my boating days. The water is barely in the 50s right now. My phone is waterproof and in a floating waterproof bag. The rescue squad isn't far away, but I'm not the type that throws myself on the good graces of others. The nickel is and was a 9/10. πŸ™‚ It's about as thin as those reales I dug! Weighs 2.5g. It looks just like it did when I scooped it. Your question prompted me to think of other safety stuff I could use, and it occurred to me that I also have a portable aluminum spring loaded anchor that I used when kayak fishing. It would work like a grappling hook. Saved me once when a large Rockfish pulled me out into another river.
    2 points
  26. The 12 inch coil is awesome in the iron. Still no silver. But I just haven’t gotten over top of it yet. That small flat button was at least 12 inches down and next to iron!
    2 points
  27. I think it's specfically the silver 3 cent piece, at least here in the USA. We also had a nickel-copper 3 cent piece which superceded the silver one. That wasn't very popular either. Finding either is an accomplishment but the silver one is so tiny that it's even a better feather in one's cap than a nickel 3-center. In the mid-19th Century the USA experimented with several non-standard denominations: 2-cent, 3-cent and 20-cent. None came even close to catching on. They all share a pattern -- the first few years had (relatively speaking) high mintages but their failure to be popular led to a few years of low to very low mintages and eventually their demise. The years of mintage were: 2-Cent (95% copper) -- 1964-1873 (10 total, with almost 75% being in the first two years), silver 3-Cent (90% silver) -- 1851-1873 (23 years, but 1864 and later are all rare), nickel 3-Cent (25% nickel) -- 1865-1889 (25 year, but from 1877 on all are rare except 1881). 20-Cent (90% silver) -- 1875-1879 (5 years, all quite collectible and except for two with mintages specified below, rare to extremely rare.) Of special note for the 20-center is that of the above oddball denominations it's the only one to bear a mintmark (i.e. only one minted outside of Philadelphia). All five years had coins minted in Philadelphia. 1875-S and both 1875-CC and 1876-CC are the exceptions. The 1875-S has by far the highest mintage (1.115 million) followed by the 1875-CC (0.133 million). I've never read of a metal detectorist finding a 20-Cent piece. Anyone here ever found one? You don't even hear of it being a bucket lister and most people, detectorist or not, probably don't even realize they ever existed. Quite an asterisk in the history of USA coin minting.
    2 points
  28. Love the red stone ring! I've found several nickel rings but they have that clean look but nickel colored. I have one I found that is marked Nickel / Silver. (which is German Silver) When I found it I though gold but for some reason it looked different. Very clean but just not the right look. See if I can find the picture... You should be able to tell the difference if you scratch it on the testing stone. Gold is soft, NIckel will be hard...Nickel/Silver.. I'm not sure.
    2 points
  29. Went on a couple of hunts this past week trying to put my new Coiltek 10x5 Nox coil through its paces and then using my trusty Deus at my favorite relic farm site with numerous iron patches and high mineralization. Tested the Nox coil out on a Colonial site and scored a couple of keepers at decent depth in sandy soil including a flat Tombac button and a brass makeup case with a fancy "wreath" design. Snagged a tiny flat button there when switching over to the Deus and round 9" hf coil. in thick iron. A week later it was off to my relic paradise site we have been pounding regularly for a few years and steadily since November when I got the privilege to hit it after harvest and deep discing and snagged a $1 gold piece and about 30 other relics - perhaps my most productive single day ever. The site "refreshes" itself with every plowing. Anyway the finds were tailing off and this was the last trip before spring planting. Took the Deus out and got on the board quickly with a minie ball. Started pulling different types of minie balls including a .69 caliber "fatty", a confederate Gardner, and a really rare dropped .54 cal Merrill carbine, as well as some "generic" 3 ringers. But the highlight was an iffy high conductor signal - hoping for any silver at this point because they have been few and far between at this site, lately. Little did I know that I would be checking off a bucket lister that I have been hoping to snag for some time now. Flipped the plug and knew what I had with just a glimpse. Welcome to the finds pouch my freshly dug 1835 Capped Bust Liberty Dime. Some non-metallic eyeball finds and miscellaneous brass and lead fragments including a porcelain 4-hole button rounded out the day. Enjoy the pics...
    2 points
  30. Here’s what it is like with Horseshoe enabled (all metal). https://youtube.com/shorts/lsC6B7xG-4o?feature=share
    2 points
  31. Not sure what you're asking. I got waders for river hunting early in the year when the water is cold, there are a few spots I want to check out. Soon the people who have summer houses will be here, and boats will be everywhere. Just testing today. I wanted to see how difficult it would be.
    2 points
  32. Here is a 5000 beach video we all have to like!
    2 points
  33. Great post & great pix as usual. And I love how you are sure to post the junk pix as well. Just so it's not like the bass-fishing channel, where "every cast is a lunker" πŸ˜† To show the good, the bad, and the ugly. You worked for your rewards πŸ™‚
    2 points
  34. Killer cuff dog, and not too shabby of a ring! πŸ‘ ht
    2 points
  35. If only that dime could talk...😱
    2 points
  36. It's like the Big Lez Show... but with gold nuggets. On ya for sharing, mate.
    2 points
  37. Good little detector, a few teething pains, and why we need update functions on new detectors. No update capability.... just say no.
    2 points
  38. Could you go into more detail? I ask because I sometimes wear waders in a creek here and if there's something I need to be aware of I'd like to know now. Ah, maybe the loss of thickness is the reason. High conductors (like copper) aren't as vulnerable to dTID droop caused by thinning, I think, because the penetration depth of the eddy currents is shallow -- i.e. more of a surface effect. (Could be way off-base on that, though.) Interesting datapoint. Wow and yikes! I caught a rockfish off the California coast (pretty tasty, IMO, even though the locals think of it as nothing special) but maybe that is a different specie. It was a couple pounds, nothing that could pull a person off a boat. 😲 😬
    1 point
  39. Ha, she does the arranging and she's good at it! πŸ˜€ Just flipped out the trusty Benchmade, cut the top off a 1/4 full water bottle, sliced off a handful of narcissus and stuffed em in the bottle. I had the golf cart so I had a cupholder. 😁 Last year she told me to get the grass as well, and leave em long.
    1 point
  40. I had not heard of a trime till found this site. Is it a slang name for 3 cents. I see it is smaller than out 3 pence (slang ... thruppence) our smallest sterling coin. 3d --16.22mm compared to 3c -- 14mm. The 3d was my most common silver coin find but the hardest to detect but it helped that a lot of people missed them. πŸ˜‚
    1 point
  41. The 15X12” Commander Mono is a very good coil. The 11” Commander DD is too but it will not be as sensitive on small gold as the 11” Commander Mono if you had one or possibly even the 15X12 Mono. So, in addition to Northeast’s question about if you have found gold with the two coils you have........What is the size range of the gold in this area? If there is plenty of 1 gram or larger gold and the depth is around 12” or less, even in really bad mineralization both of the coils you already have should work. For smaller gold you may need a more sensitive 11” or smaller coil and for larger and deeper gold, you may need a larger coil than the 15X12 whether it is a DD, Mono or Concentric.
    1 point
  42. That's a nice one, congrats! I've dug one bust dime that was pretty toasty, and one bust half that was in decent shape. They're definitely not jumping out of the ground anywhere.
    1 point
  43. I read a lot of posts here and on top of that my memory ain't what it used to be. I recall reading just yesterday a post mentioning the difficulty of sometimes distinguishing ferrous from non-ferrous tones. That may have referred specifically to the AT series, though. Sounds like Garrett was already working on that. It will be interesting hearing/reading from users as to which of these are noticeable. (Hopefully all, in a positive way, and without any deleterious consequences....)
    1 point
  44. Hummingbird Video https://biggeekdad.com/2021/04/hector-the-hummingbird/#.YIe7I2dIBFY.link
    1 point
  45. Interesting perspectives on gold/silver value ratios. It was never about how much dollar value I could find while detecting....for me, it was truly about the challenge of finding older/deeper targets from previously heavily detected parks/beaches that no one else has been able to find (including the targets that have eluded me in previous hunts). This goal (mission statement) drove me to finding over 6000 silver coins and over 30,000 wheat pennies since 2007 (beach/turf combined). Most likely, this mission statement evolved because of my location to countless older, silver coin era sites, coupled with the fact that I always wanted to better/challenge myself at whatever I thoroughly enjoyed doing! My gold jewelry finds, for the most part, were all incidentals in the turf (at the beach I dig mostly smooth sounding targets), but my gold finds (a little over 1.5 lbs of mixed karat values) far surpassed the value of my silver finds (including my sterling jewelry finds). I had more satisfaction, though, in finding the elusive silver coinage, but I’d also admit that all of my gold ring finds that I found in ultra deep wet/dry sand (at the fringe of detection with a PI machine) were just as satisfying (and more physically demanding). It was always more priceless to me to meet up with my local hunt buddies (I enjoy solo hunting also) and share in the camaraderie of the day in search of those elusive, deep, partially masked old coins/artifacts from heavily hunted sites...however, I never turned down a shallow gift from the gophers 🀣.
    1 point
  46. So you've found more -CC mintmarked coins than -S? Since these mints had different periods of operation it's a bit hard to compare. In particular the Denver and Carson City mints didn't overlap and Denver and New Orleans was only for a very short time (Denver's first coins were minted in 1906 and New Olrleans's last in 1909). I don't have numbers but when I collected coins as a youngster going through bank rolls and pocket change (of my adult relatives since I didn't have much spending experience 😁) it was particularly hard to find -S mintmarked coins in general. However, part of that is because San Francisco typically didn't mint as many coins as Philly in particular and in later years, Denver. An added complication is that in some years not all mints even produced coins and in those cases it was typically the branch mints that didn't (compared to the main mint in Philadelphia). So it's a complex deconvolution problem to figure out reasons for the distributions we notice. None of that is meant to discourage your data reporting nor your wish to know what other have experienced. My limited finds of early 20th Century coins (pre-clad era) here in my stomping grounds seems consistent with what I noticed back when I was collecting in the 1960's -- i.e. -S mintmarked coins are clearly the exception. I've found only a couple pre-Barbers (one Shield nickel and one 2-cent piece) and only a few Barber dimes so my data are sparse, regardless, and praticallly non-existant prior to ~1900.
    1 point
  47. Loved this content! I hope to find in your Channel something on a plain mono too, as I'm forced to build one on my own, due to a past attempt to change my dualfield with a Detech 8" mono, great coil but for land use.. Underwater Is Just another game and I think Is Better to build a new One in a new empty housing instead to ruin that One trying to open it and modify the mold with new resin. I Also think to Land @t 11"
    1 point
  48. Great coin and other finds but the coin is the star of the show.
    1 point
×
×
  • Create New...