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Showing content with the highest reputation on 05/27/2021 in all areas

  1. I documented a recent 3-hour beach run in this post. It focused on my thoughts on the 10x5 coil. Bottom line: I like it. I covered mainly the dry sand towel line, got into one pocket spill and found a silver engraved medallion or key fob from a local car dealership. I did well to avoid trash and relied on high F2 iron bias to eliminate bottlecaps. Today I managed to hit the tide line and to literally get my feet wet with the Nox 10x5 in the wet sand and surf wash. What struck me was the stability of the coil in the wash in Beach 1 at the relatively high sensitivity setting of 23. The other eye opener was the sensitivity to micro targets under those conditions at up to 6-inches in saturated sand and moving salt water. Again nothing spectacular, a very tiny brass rosary centerpiece displaying a miniature "Our Lady of Guadalupe" relief image, two tiny pendants or charms of unknown composition a pineapple charm, and a small decorative loop that broke in my pouch (it was heavily corroded), a small portion of stainless chain, and a couple coins. I struck silver again on the return trip through the towel line with a freshly dropped silver and turquoise watch with SS back and band (primarily an eyeball find after it blasted my headphones on the coil sweep and yes, the time was set accurately and ticking away just fine, lol). Trash was similar to yesterday (you can see it in the bag in the background) with some tiny falsing ferrous wire and nails that were too iffy not to scoop. Some bottlecaps just to periodically confirm the ID (even with full IB, you can get a 10 to 15 ID chirp off the edge but it is dominated by a ferrous grunt). Couple of pristine "13er" pull tabs, freshness seal, and misc small aluminum bits. An aluminum liquor bottle neck wrap light green object). Overall, a lot fewer targets overall but attrubute that to half the run being in the tide line/surf wash during rising tide (again tge timing didn't work out for me to hunt while following the tide out). All in all, another enjoyable 3-hour run with this coil. I could swing this coil all day long. Love it's stability, sensitivity, depth, separation, coverage, and, of course, it's weight. Shame Coiltek felt the need to weigh down it's bigger brother elliptical to favor water hunting over terrestrial use, otherwise I would be considering that coil as well based on the 10x5 performance. Equinox finally has a winner smaller coil with adequate swing coverage now.
    12 points
  2. I thought I lost the gold in all the shuffle between vehicles, but here it is. Just for scale I put 6 of the smallest to get a weight, otherwise individually they won't register.
    12 points
  3. Spending a few days at the beach and managed to get out for a few hours to bond with my Coiltek Nox 10x5 coil (really 9.5 x 5). Only have had a chance to hunt two or three times with it. Have now had a couple 2 to 3 hour runs with it. Once in a park and now this beach run. Though no spectacular finds with it so far, it is hitting keeper targets well with decent depth/sensitivity, ID stability, and it pinpoints well. Love the light weight coupled with the tight swing ability and OK swing coverage. I will probably be selling my 6" round because it no longer serves a purpose for me. This coil combined with my Zlobrik telescoping CF shaft forms the basis for my tote anywhere light weight Equinox kit. I'm relic hunter, not a proficient beach hunter, and knowingly did not optimize my probability of success (went out with rising tide, light beach day, hunted primarily the towel line, went with a low[er] coverage coil etc.) because of time restrictions - had other family activities planned. Anyway, nothing spectacular. Plenty of clad, some junk rings and the only thing of perhaps relative value, what appears to be a silver, engraved Toyota key fob or medallion. Weird item, but definitely silver backed and heavy at .8 oz. Trash ratio was pretty good, only fooled in a couple of junk items like the washer, vape, the screw top (natch), a pull tab that rang up a solid 13, the drywall anchor insert, a disposable contact lens foil pak, a freshness seal (great solid 7 target ID but the tone is light vs. a ring) and the rusty tent stake that was falsing off the bend. That silver medallion fooled me too as I thought it was just another clad quarter (hadn't noticed the VDI above 35) and the junk rings sound great too. The other items were iffy probable junk that I dug just to confirm suspicions. Used Beach 1 primarily, though I could have gotten away with just about any other mode because I did relatively little wet/saturated sand swinging (high surf line was really sanded in with minimal cuts and steep slope). The key on the bottlecaps was running iron bias F2 at max 9. They were unmistakable after that. Anyway. I had fun and like my light weight Nox setup.
    8 points
  4. It's all part of the hobby. Since I retired from criminal investigations, I need a few challenges and something to outwit. A certain sense of satisfaction comes of getting through these hardships. Which reminds of the most annoying hardship of the whole endeavor. I forgot to mind the effects of sun and wind and got a bugger of a chapped lip, which turned to a cold sore that seems to replicate itself every couple days. The worst part is it breaks open and starts bleeding causing my cheapo box wine to taste like copper pennies. Nothing worse than copper Dago Red wine. "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome _______" (fill in the blank)
    8 points
  5. Maybe they are including all 3 Coils and 2 batteries šŸ˜‚
    7 points
  6. Yea I quite like my 10?x5" Coiltek. Thanks for doing your posts Chase. There seems to be very few people reporting on their experience with the Coiltek Nox coils anywhere even though it appears they're very popular.. I found the 10x5" to be slightly less sensitive to small gold than the 6" but I guess you would expect that, it's like comparing the Gold Monster 5" coil to the Gold Monster 10x5" coil, everyone is very aware of which is best on small gold. Other than that I've found it to be an excellent coil and I'm glad I've got it. I'm going to give the other Coiltek coils a miss. I've had a friend get the 14x9" and indicated he wasn't overly impressed with it finding the 11" deeper and give better ID's and the 15" seems to not overly give more depth than the 15x12" which is a shame as that one is one I wanted the most for more depth on coins. My dealer had me one there but I backed out of it and let him sell it to the next in line when reports were coming in on no real extra depth benefits. The 10x5" seems the best of the bunch I think.
    7 points
  7. My 2 bobs worth, the EMI "problem" you fellows are on about doesn`t exist from my use. It is much like the volume control on the GPZ 7000, the higher you set it the more hotter the machine is. The vids you are watching I would say have the speaker volume turned right up, thus the induced instability". I suspect the volume control is not a totally AG gain control but more a digital RF gain control not like a linear booster one places on the audio output. Further to this I have been playing with the volume control setting on both the 6000 and the Torus headband and an early observation is this can be a powerful feature ie. with the volume control on the 6000 increased from minimum and the volume control decreased on the headband the machine becomes hotter and seems to bring in the positive signals even more pronounced which at this early stage makes the 6000 detecting ability more like a VLF and thus may be the answer to those fine specie that PIs to now cannot detect as well as VLFs. Might just be the PI that suits Gerry`s detecting style. Like I said at the beginning my 2 bobs worth is, tis naught to be concerned about. The 6000 to me is one hot detector with new superior technology and like Steve said will probably become a classic like the GB2, those of us who were at it when the GB2 was introduced will well remember the negatives people expressed towards it and that was before the social forums we now enjoy. Heh I`m the fellow who was right amongst the X coil advantage what a month or so back, that had every negative possible thrown at, but they filled my pocket as the 6000 is now.
    6 points
  8. I'm camping in NC this week, a new campground that is on a remote island in the Currituck area. It's really an old campground that got a facelift from a big company. Did a ton of research (history, maps, aerials) before coming, they implied on the phone that metal detecting was ok here. Talked to some folks after scouting the place, it's over 400 acres of woods, marsh and shoreline that really doesn't have a beach except for about 50 feet at the end of a bulkhead. Got permission to pretty much do what I want from the management, really nice people. They pointed me to where an old farmhouse once stood: I brought my less intimidating shovel and promised to show them what I found. This place has been hunted by some YouTube personalities, I'm going to find their video if I can. The ground is similar to my landing back home and cuts like butter. Got pretty much skunked at the farmhouse in the 2 hours I was there, had to put on 100% Deet to keep the deer flies, mosquitoes, black flies and midges off me. The not so smelly stuff wasn't working. My trash was what I expected for the most part, can slaw, some brass, steel and other aluminum bits. Strange was the lack of much iron here. Everything was coming up in the 10-36 range! I was in all metal. Maybe I was just ignoring the iron. Got an "O" from either a Ford or Oldsmobile. Managed to dig 3 Zincolns, all 70s from when they said the house was pulled down. Odd too that they were all ID'ing from 22-26! Going to hunt the "beach" and may go in the water along the bulkhead. I'll probably go back to the farmhouse area if it gets a bit cooler.
    6 points
  9. Are you attempting to contact Minelab corporate, or the U.S. service center? They are two separate outfits, with actual detector repair sublet out to Detector Center. Detector Center is Keith Leppert of Ft. Bedford Metal Detectors. Good folks. Minelab ā€œCustomer Careā€ seems non-responsive lately, but Keith is normally on top of things. This is the Minelab U.S. service center: Detector Center 190 Oak Shade Road Alum Bank, PA 15521 Phone numbers are 630-401-8154 and 630-401-8159 email info@detectorpro.com These are the Corporate Offices: MINELAB AMERICAS INC 123 Ambassador Drive, Suite 123 Naperville, IL 60540, USA Customer Care: 1-877-SOS-MLAB (1-877-767-6522) Toll Free: 1-888-949-6522 T: 1-630-401-8150 F: 1-630-401-8180 E: service@minelabamericas.com for Service E: info@minelabamericas.com for Consumer products E: countermine@minelab.com.au for Countermine products
    6 points
  10. Today I was walking along the wet sand just looking for any targets and not finding many. Then I found a Jesus ring. Thank you Jesus! I gridded the area near the ring and found an Italian chain marked CU SU so I guess that means it is only gold ionized or something like that. It is pretty. It was time to get off the wet sand on the mile plus walk back to the car. I walked around the area where I had found my Franklin 50 Cent piece and nothing new. I went through the area nearby where I had found some recent silver and then followed my pattern back to the car. It was a warm day and I had to keep myself slowed down at about the 3 hour mark to keep in the game. Then I got the 35 on the Equinox and it turned out to be only my second silver 50 cent piece. I don't think I've held one of these since I was a kid. In the same general area was the 1944 Quarter and a couple of silver dimes. That makes for a pretty good day. These are the best of the finds with two wheat pennies. Just after I found the ring which is unmarked I got a 5 on the 800. When I dug it I could see the chain hanging out of the scoop. Then you feel it and know the weight is not quite right even tho the color is good. Then later I saw the markings and now it is stylish but not solid gold. I gridded the area and kept telling myself that chains don't sound like coins. Then about half an hour later I did get a coin sound and what a nice coin it is. This has not been touched as far as cleaning. It is one of those substantial coins that when you hold it it feels good. So you settle down and get to work looking for more. It was not long after and I had the quarter and a couple of dimes and the wheats. This was the way it all looked when I dumped it in the containers after the hunt. The saw blade was quite odd. I'll go back to that area one day at the beginning of my hunt rather than at the end. Mitchel
    5 points
  11. I think Mitchell has a legitimate question here, if there is a problem with the speaker then why not fix it before selling it? Are we going to have to mail it right back to Minelab to get repaired after they finally arrive? I actually hope this delay is them fixing units, and therefore preventing further delays. Some kind of update on things is long past due from Minelab at this point.
    4 points
  12. More information on the lettering on the chain: SU CH was a misprint on the stamp, as it should read SUCK. That was used for people that were being real cheap when buying something for the wife. The person selling the item was telling the buyer in his own way "SUCKER"
    4 points
  13. The Deus has a non-motion all metal mode that I have never used. Itā€™s pinpoint function is similar. Personally, Gold field on the Deus and the two Gold modes are touted by XP as being true all metal modes. Aside from being digital, displaying target ID numbers, iron probability bar, having adjustable iron amplitude rejection (which can be turned off) and iron tone/no iron tone......the two Gold modes on the ORX and Gold field on the Deus (which does not have iron tone) are threshold based all metal modes with VCO audio and really as close as I would want to ā€œTrueā€ all metal mode.....whatever that really is anymore. Those modes can go really deep on larger targets, are really fast and are incredibly sensitive to tiny targets depending on what frequency and coil is used. They are outstanding for gold prospecting on smaller, shallower gold even in really badly mineralized dirt where several other gold prospecting specific detectors have been unusable from my experience.
    4 points
  14. Yes, Coiltek is pushing it on the coil dimensions. It appears to have the same footprint as the XP HF elliptical coil. I may be misreading the true nature of your question, but I presume you are alluding to concerns regarding separation/masking with high iron bias settings. I am not really worried about masking or separation at the beach in general but regardless of that, I think the the concerns I've seen expressed regarding iron bias and masking are overblown. I am not afraid to use F2 iron bias for what it is, a great way to mitigate falsing and it does it well with minimal downside at the universal default of 6 and I have no qualms pushing it higher in low risk situations such as my beach run. Bottlecaps are unmasked for what they are at IB F2 at 6 (with horseshoe on) and legitimately a non-issue at higher settings. With IB F2 at 9, I was still able to zero in on keepers with coil wiggle if they happened to be near ferrous trash. Varied recovery speed from 4 to 5 but did not see much difference either way. As far as the coil is concerned great separation, great pinpointing. Depth is decent for its size and to answer a previous question, yes, it appears to be deeper than the 6-inch round. HTH
    4 points
  15. It would just be nice to hear the "official" reason from Minelab and more than likely it is multiple reasons but just SOME news. Even a blog with updates. Week 1: No chips this week. Week 2: Still no chips. Week 3: Made 10 units only going to testers. Week 4: No chips again. Week 5: Covid Lockdown...... Something like that would at least give some info. People can handle the truth, they might not like it, but they can handle it much better than no info and pure guess work. In the interim, sure would be nice if the folks who do have 6k's could show us some nice videos of them finding gold with it šŸ˜
    4 points
  16. Thanks. I was posting daily, but from here on out Iā€™ll be absent a lot this summer. JP I know is very busy. If you are referring to the GPX 6000, with each Minelab release people just get weirder. From my perspective at least, the 6K has already come and gone, and Iā€™m on to other things. I felt like with Equinox, the engineers and I were finally reading each otherā€™s minds, and that was even more the case with the 6K. Both are almost 100% reflections of my desires for detectors, and with minor quibbles Minelab is delivering for me. I sensed a dramatic shift in priorities and direction with Equinox, that continued with Vanquish, and now the 6K. Iā€™m really thrilled to have been involved in GPX 6000 development, and could gush on for hours about the detector. Unfortunately, innocent enthusiasm is beyond the comprehension of some jaded forum members. It is read as something it is not, and when demands for video proof, and the negative nellies start start up with the uninformed commentary - thatā€™s when I stop. Iā€™m not going to argue about a detector Iā€™ve been using for a long time with people who have never touched one. And truthfully Iā€™m probably too personally invested in the project to be objective about it. I am shutting this down for my peace of mind. Itā€™s best I assume the role of detached observer instead of being an involved party. So Iā€™ve cleaned out my previous commentary. Those who paid attention should know the score, and Iā€™ll leave it at that. Itā€™s weird having the machine in my possession, and having to shut up about it, but there you go. Iā€™m meeting privately with a few people to put it in their hands however, so they can comment, or at least see what people here canā€™t accept on my word. But as long as the engineers respect what Iā€™m saying Iā€™m good. I only need them listening, and the rest genuinely does not matter. I get that now. Iā€™ll turn it over to others, and my apologies for essentially giving up on this nonsense. There is excellent ongoing commentary and here also from first time purchasers that is rightly taking the lead, and kudos to those taking the time to post there. Best wishes to those who get the GPX 6000... I hope you end up as happy with yours as I am with mine.
    4 points
  17. I am fortunate enough to live close to Steve H when he was otherwise engaged in pressing business, so he loaned me the only existing US GPX 6000. I loaded up the Toyhauler, RZR, girlfriend and doodle dog for a week or so of detecting at Sawtooth. Lundy dropped by for a swing or two and we gave the 6000 a pretty good go on some heavily detected patch areas. GPX 6000 - I won't repeat all the other information already shared by Steve H and Lundy on their views of the 6000. I had the time to do a little more testing of the other features. 14"DD Coil- I spent most of one day running the DD in the saltiest, most reactive ground I could find. I found 2 tiny nuggets, depth not more than a few inches. One thing I noticed on these small targets is too much swing speed and you will flat out miss them. I'm talking patch cleaning speed, not patch hunting speed. I'm sure swing speed would not be as critical on bigger nuggets, but these are in the .1 or smaller pieces and a fast swing speed loses them entirely. It handles the hot ground like a dream, especially if you use the Auto Modes. There are only 2 DD modes, a cancel EMI mode and a cancel Salty ground mode. It seems you still have a normal and a difficult setting as well, but I'm not sure of the effect. I couldn't discern any difference in my short time. 17"Mono Coil- I think most people are going to want a bungee and swing arm. It's not the weight particularly, Its the repetitive motion on my feeble joints I felt the most. The swing arm from my 7000 really takes the pressure of that shoulder joint. The 17 should do great in normal soils and handled the salty ground remarkably well especially with the Auto features. I spent another whole day patch hunting with the 17 and I think that back in the Yuma ground it would be the go to, assuming it can handle the EMI from the fighter jet traffic. The Speaker- For whatever reason, as has been discussed by JP, the external speaker loads up with EMI noise. It seems to get better after 30 minutes of run time, but gets annoying initially. I normally hunt with Ear Buds and the 1/8 connection fits perfect in the 6000 headphone port, but you lose that wireless feature. I tried the Aventree wireless neckband, it connects and pairs nicely and works great, just not my comfort style especially in the heat. Auto+ plus Threshold- I was watching one of the Aussie videos and learned that in Auto+ you can press and hold the Difficult mode button and get a threshold tone in the otherwise silent (Bogenes setting) auto mode. I'm not sure what if anything this accomplishes, hopefully JP can give us a little more insight. I found gold, nothing big and nothing deep. I spent a great deal of time in areas that just don't have deep nuggets, and the GPZ's had already cleaned out the big stuff. Then I spent a lot of time trying to find a new patch, always an iffy endeavor. Despite having the machine for over a week, I probably didn't get more than 30 hrs of pure detecting time. First was the weather. I hit N NV desert just in time for a cold front. One day I was wearing shorts, the next day it was snowing. One day I saw the storm brewing and tried to outrun it back to camp only to get hit with sideways blowing hail. I had taken the windshield off the RZR to keep the dust vortex to a minimum, and sure regretted it that day. Detecting time also gets consumed by domestic duties, handling the BBQ, entertaining the dog etc.. It's good the have the family along, but you have to make a few sacrifices and pure detecting time is one of them. When the weather forecasts looked unsettled for the upcoming week, it was time to take the girlfriend and dog home which precipitated the misadventures. By then the dog was limping, having gotten a fair share of foxtails stuck between the pads of her front paws. A quick look showed hot swollen patches where the foxtails had embedded themselves in her skin. A trip to the vet and $200 later she's on the mend. I thought I would load up the whole works and try to beat the weather, nope! My toyhauler is a 5th wheel and relies on 12 volt landing gear for leveling and hitching. The internal gear started slipping so I added the manual crank and broke off the main drive shaft. Internet research reveals this is a common problem, way undersized gears and drive mechanism for that much weight. New dual motor landing gear ordered, that's more expense. I left the trailer and brought girlfriend and dog home, then returned to Sawtooth the following day. I arrived just in time for 2 days of cold wind and rain. I waited it out and got 2 more days of detecting for exactly zip, nada, nothing. Ground was wet and sloppy in places, the 6000 handled it fine by the way. I just couldn't get the coil over any yellow stuff. So, I surrendered and loaded up to come home. I used some MacGyver tricks to load the trailer. My hitch is an Anderson conversion and not a true 5th wheel hitch. It has an adjustable ball height mechanism connected to a bed mounted Gooseneck hitch. I dug out wheel trenches to get my truck under the trailer's hitch with the truck ball at it's lowest height, once centered I persuaded the ball up into the connector with a few hammer blows. Once the ball was pinned to it's highest level, I used an inflator to fill my truck's load leveling air bags to their highest point, about 2 inches. That was just enough lift to take the weight off the landing gear and free the extensions up and out of the way. I fear this kind of functional fixedness may be lost on the next generation whose skill seems to be finger dexterity and computer games. I took the long way on Jungo Road to Winnemucca because it is really well maintained for all the HyCroft mining traffic. I hit the freeway heading for Fernley and a couple times felt an odd vibration. I was facing a stiff headwind and the trailer was making that diesel engine work just to maintain 55mph. I got an error code for excessive engine boost and noticed the transmission temps heating up more than engine coolant temp. Then stuff happened. The truck started bucking and hard shifting as I tried to slow down. The emergency lane is no place to be on Highway 80, when the speed limit is 80mph and triple trailer rigs are zooming by. I limped it to Rye Patch road and limped down to Dan's Gold Digger Pizza place. Dan had no trailer space with hookups, but he let me park it in the back lot. My girlfriend drove out from Fernley because she has the AAA card and I was going to need a ride home anyway. I had the truck towed to the only place in Winnemucca who could look at it within the next 2 weeks. Car Care Clinic near the Walmart, great bunch of people in there. Anyway, it seems I broke the right rear axle and it was hanging on by a thread. The repair tally hasn't arrived yet, but it's sure to be further eroding my discretionary funds account earmarked for a GPX6000. I try to think positive. It could have been much worse. The weather is clear and warm, I'm still upright, the dog is good as new and I'll have a brand new axle. That dinosaur GPZ 7000 is going to have to carry me through a bit longer.
    3 points
  18. The graphics card shortage, in the US anyways, has less to do with chips and almost everything to do with the crypto mining boom. Graphics cards are way more efficient and powerful at mining than CPUs. The card I bought 2 years ago is worth 2x used on Ebay what I paid for it brand new because miners are bidding graphics cards sky-high. Might let JP know then, because he's the one that pointed the problem out to us and recommended not to use the speaker at all. He works with engineers, I imagine he knows. It's not like we are pulling this out of thin air. I dont use headphones at all. Even in the wind. The only exception is when it's cold and windy enough that I need to warm my ears, or sometimes in wyoming with 50 to 60mph winds. Torus, boosters, volume trick workarounds have zero interest to me on this machine. I'm buying it as a quick, simple, powerful prospecting machine with minimal rig up and down time. The speaker working is a big part of that, and so is not having to stop or slow down to noise cancel constantly. I found the 6000 usable with the speaker (I had my phone on in my breast concealed carry pocket too), but we were also quite some distance from cities, so I'm curious how it does in a place like Arizona with quite heavy EMI in places, or if it's specifically interference from the speaker itself. *(Welcome back Simon, just noticing you are here posting)
    3 points
  19. I waited so long for this coil I lost interest. Hopefully whatever comes after the CTX and Equinox, does not have a three year gap between release, and useful accessory coils arriving. Coiltek does appear to have scored with one out of three. The larger 9x12 elliptical is pretty much limited to water hunting, and the 15ā€ round is just too heavy for the machine. Reviews on the 5x10 have been uniformly positive however, and it is priced right, so a very worthy addition to the lineup. Thanks Coiltek.
    3 points
  20. Thanks, this area has very little sand movement. Everything gets piled into that area, but you never know. Joe's wealth of information. Always tinkering to get improvements out of his equipment, and yes it does make a difference. I think we taught each other a lot over the years and we're still learning. Thank you. I wish I got the AQ the past winter. That's prime time for hunting here.
    3 points
  21. Thanks. Still looking for my first gold find with this coil, but jewelry not nuggets. Still, I was pleased with its micro target performance so I am hopeful it is just a matter of getting my coil over the target, seems the coil and Equinox will get it done in that case. I too have no interest in the other two Nox coils at this point. Seems you got a different solution to more coin target depth with that newly acquired CTX, though bit more expensive than a new coil. Seems to be getting the job done.
    3 points
  22. I don't know which is worse, having had ā€˜someā€™ stock and satisfying ā€˜someā€™ customers or not having ā€˜anyā€™ stock and just having to be patient with a lot of dissatisfied roaming customers. šŸ˜¢ I am daily seeing customers who ā€œI have worked hard forā€ going elsewhere because we cannot supply, of course I know other dealers are suffering the same issues but this kind of thing really does your head in from a business POV! šŸ˜ž I really feel for the ML sales guys here in OZ they are being asked the same question over an over again with no ready answers to give till the stock (if any) arrives at the airport!! šŸ¤• Imagine trying to plan the manufacturing and release dates for all this? Kinda of like having a crystal ball with a towel over it, itā€™s more or less totally down to guess work with all the world event variables going against them at every turn. How do you make a science out of pure guess work? šŸ¤” JP
    3 points
  23. I found the SU is 'Italy.' So it is a 'cheap' Italian designed chain.
    3 points
  24. One of my Field Staff, - Lunk will be down in AZ this winter and I'm sure I'll get down there for at least 1 trip. He's not only dialed in the best Settings a variety of detectors to find Meteorites, he has spent countless hours and days in the field researching sites. A few of our customers from past - will visit AZ in the winter and schedule back to back training through me, and I connect you with Lunk. 1st day is learning the detector to find gold (at a different site down the road) and then the 2nd day is to learn how to set detector for those elusive Meteorites on some sites that still produce. Having that space rock sitting on your mantel with your other purchased gems will easily be the most memorable. Good luck down road and be sure think positive.
    3 points
  25. Sadly, there was no choice today but to hunt a really infested area, littered with aluminum and tons of new sand brought by the Harbor's arm shape and the last prevailed wind too... I was in a so and so Mood, between the idea to leave at the first trouble and go back home before the 9.am empty handed cause of bathers already therešŸ˜‘. I realized with all that horrible hump, to go way farther and to straightly use the tank, at least to avoid the fuc....g murky water on the shore...30 minutes later, after only three holes....hereunder the conclusion... RAW footage, Sorry
    2 points
  26. Yes we can call the instability with the speaker a design flaw if you like (BTW it has nothing to do with what coil is attached), I personally could give a rats arse, it is what it is!! Might let JP know then, because he's the one that pointed the problem out to us and recommended not to use the speaker at all. He works with engineers, I imagine he knows. It's not like we are pulling this out of thin air. I think the first quote above says what JP thinks about this "problem", think I`ll do the unthinkable and join JP and stop giving a rats arse.
    2 points
  27. Found this posted today on "GPX 6000 Fault" topic on Gold Prospecting Australia forum from deepblue: https://www.prospectingaustralia.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=609151#p609151 I just received my GPX6000 back from Minelab they did a very good job on the repairs and a quick turn around. The problem wasn't there originally but came over time. Every now and then a bump of the coil would cause the GPX6000 to turn off or shut down with an error message coil error. Then after a while turning on the machine would reset it and it would be ok for sometime it the next bump. Thinking that it was the coil it was changed out for the 14" DD from the 11" Mono. Didn't make any difference to which coil was being used. The Battery was checked and maintained a full charge. I did notice a one point when the Display was gently tapped the machine shutdown with the coil error message displayed. Kept on trying all different options to get the GPX6000 working continuously but to no joy. Took the GPX6000 back to where I purchased it and they arranged for a warranty repair, turns out it was a loose or badly fitting connection between the boards. I had heard of this problem before guess it just lucky to get one. Took it out today for a test on I'm very impressed with the repair and machine it runs perfect scored 8 pieces in an hour 1 piece was in a rock over 6" down no visible gold to see but found it when I crushed it. Thanks again to Minelab service for a great job. cheers db
    2 points
  28. I use gold field/mode as my go to for relic hunting in hot dirt. You can set the threshold to listen for dropouts, adjust sensitivity as desired and by manipulating reactivity (the most critical parameter) change target response. To me, gold field renders the ground invisible with a huge dynamic range that suits tiny shallow squeakers, deep coin sized targets on the edge of detection, large trash and keepers and everything in between.
    2 points
  29. I heard the US issue-fix from a pretty reliable source. If that would indeed be true (which we don't know for sure), it would make me wonder whether this would be a consistent problem across continents or just needed for the US batch.
    2 points
  30. That would be great if they are looking into this emi issue. Here in CA Motherload county, emi is bad in places! If its already giving grief in the Australia Outback, I can only imagine it would not be a pretty thing over hear. Maybe this is the reason Minelab is not talking? If it were just a simple shipping/chip delay, you would think they would have already disclosed that. Makes you think there is more to the story than just this.
    2 points
  31. Damn, I didn't know you were having all these difficulties out there, sorry to hear about that. Hopefully next trip goes the other way and produces some "payback nuggets" to cover the axle.
    2 points
  32. The pandemic did not help, adding an extra year to the three itā€™s now taken, to get my treasure find released and returned. Iā€™ll admit that has let the air out of my desire to go back for another round. I waited a year to get my first treasure find back, but now that time has doubled or tripled. Some of us are too old for those kinds of waits! I did get notification that my gold find was disclaimed, but still not at end of process for some reason. I do not understand why the long delay after finds have been officially disclaimed. I imagine Tim is caught up in the same delay. Apparently finds have piled up at the processing end, but the authorities have done little to add resources for getting finds back, and things are just getting worse with time.
    2 points
  33. That's a very important (new) piece of evidence and reduces the concern. It would be interesting if someone were to measure the angle at which the all-ferrous / some non-ferrous break occurs. An on-edge coin with its plane coincident with (i.e. containing) the coil swing path is the most difficult orientation for any(?) detector. I recall Randy Horton's advice on searching at the sidewalk-to-sod/dirt transition in his Understanding Your X-Terra monograph which is downloadable here. Maybe Garrett can alter the software and issue an installable upgrade, but sometimes fixing these rare(r) occurring anomalies is a bit like trying to accomodate for unicorns and run the risk of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. (How's that for a couple of cliche's? šŸ˜)
    2 points
  34. Nice watch! Racking up the clad too. I've read that ID is more solid with this coil, are you finding that to be the case?
    2 points
  35. Hey guys, Thank you for the replies. Appreciate the advice/info... The Detech I'm considering is the 11.5" in the video, so very close to the NEL Super Fly in size but the NEL is 50g lighter I believe. I also have a couple NEL coils I've used on my Sovereign GT and like them. Detech only came into the picture because of the video. There are no obstructions on the beaches I hunt unless you count the black sand, copius amounts of iron debris, and the carpet of can slaw:) I was happy with the stock Viper coil until I saw this video and tested my Apex. If a different/wider coil can do a better job identifying items on edge, I'm interested. On edge the TID's were solidly in the iron range, so I wouldn't even hear them as an iffy signal. I normally hunt in MS, Zero with iron audio off by default. Sometimes I switch to Custom 50+ and cherry-pick when I'm in an area thick with can slaw. Either way I won't hear iron at all. That said, I did air test the different frequencies and all of the coins gave good TID's on edge at 5khz. Your theory proved correct, but I doubt I'll be hunting in 5khz. I was swinging the coins/rings oriented inline with the coil, but just tried turning them perpendicular to the coil. The target ID's generally drop, but not into iron range. All diggable signals. I was swinging 4-6 inches away. 1-33 means the TID was not stable, but stayed within that range without exception (no high tones).
    2 points
  36. You will have to wait for the release of the GPX6500D (Discrimination)
    2 points
  37. Thanks for the information on the coil, I am waiting for one to get to Gerry so he can sell it to me. I have not been out there swinging my 800 yet because of the jobs grandmother has me doing around the house. I am hoping to get out there this weekend to hit up some of the old churches. Good luck on your next outing.
    2 points
  38. If you already know there is an 'issue' with the external speaker and EMI ... why release it?
    2 points
  39. Yes, really enjoying the CTX and currently looking into the Coiltek coils for it. The 14x9" Nox coil might be more popular with the water hunters, it seems it was specifically designed for that purpose with the extra weight being heavier than the 15" perhaps being beneficial for in the water? I'm not much of a water hunter, the waters too cold here for me to be flapping around in šŸ™‚
    2 points
  40. Thatā€™s a great beach hunt, Mitchel. Those coins definitely havenā€™t seen much moisture all these years. Iā€™m assuming the sand youā€™re hunting to find those oldies has a hard pack layer (the deeper you dig, as opposed to soft, fluffy sand). Those silver coins you found remind me so much of my dry sand hunts at a specific stretch of beach, where I dug over 600 silver in 2 years there. I surmised there should undoubtedly be similar conditions at other beaches as the beach I was hunting. I would dig every solid, smooth signal with my PI machine (my Explorer couldnā€™t attain the depths I was finding some of the coinage and other artifacts, so I always used my PI). I wore out a couple of solid stainless scoops over a two year period, but it was so worth the effort. Some food for thought....there were times I thought I had meticulously gridded sections/stretches of dry sand after finding a decent amount of silver/wheats/artifacts, and Iā€™d swear there couldnā€™t possibly be anything else to find in this particular spot if I hunted it another day.....but Iā€™d go back, and to my surprise, I would find more oldies....I was using a large coil on my PI too (17x13ā€). It doesnā€™t take much to miss a deep coin.....if the surface of the sand is heavily uneven, with pits, and divots, those conditions will mask deeper coinage. If the surface gets more leveled/even, your chances for finding the deepies increases.
    2 points
  41. Interested to see if more comes of the site, Bob. You know you are hooked when heat and bugs don't drive you away even after a keeper skunk. BTW - Zincolns did not exist before 1982. You have legit copper Memorials there.
    2 points
  42. It's a It's a start for sure. It got up to 91 today, really humid here. Bug repellent didn't last long! If it wasn't for the heat it would have been ideal. It will be about 15 degrees cooler tomorrow. I'm thinking I was just ignoring iron in favor of cherry picking, it was more of a time/bugs/heat thing. The squashed cans were 4-6" deep, slaw was right on top. In deference to the park I didn't often dig past the length of my shovel. I promised them they wouldn't see evidence I was there, kept that promise. It is super trashy for sure, bricks and such. The steel stuff gave great IDs. šŸ˜µ They are maintaining the area as a "nature trail", there is a pond with geese and a canal near where the farmhouse was. I think the well was where I photographed the Nox.
    2 points
  43. Looks like the area was landscaped. Was there a can line? Usually in areas that had been done over there is a trash line where squashed cans lay to rest, parks and fields here it is 6-12" mark I don't count can slaw in that because that is topical and created when mowers pass over so that usually sinks to the 4" mark or so from worm activity. The fact that there was no iron is not a good sign, thinking the old farm house was trucked away and new fill brought it, just my hunch. Still looked like a nice day out.
    2 points
  44. Thanks Chase, I have been hoping for a real use report with pictures. The trash to good target ratio looks really good. Do you think depth is a little better or worse than 6 inch ?
    2 points
  45. Doubtful on a first gen SMF. That will probably come with the next Multi IQ machine iteration from ML. Likely an eTrac/ CTX successor. But Nokta has proven to be an overachiever in detector tech, so we'll see what they come up with.
    2 points
  46. Great stuff! Awesome you found old silver. "CH" is "plated" in Spanish. šŸ˜€
    2 points
  47. I use a 3D printed one, which holds up better than expected. 2 years now without any issue. If you haven't got a carbon shaft yet, I'd hightly recommend to replace the whole shaft with one from steveg or detect-ed for example, and use their arm-cuff. The carbon shaft made a world of a difference! At first, I wasn't sure, if I should really spend 100ā‚¬ for a shaft (mine is one from the UK), but I didn't regret it and if it broke, I'd instantly buy a new one!
    2 points
  48. I recently went out to a very trashy local park to test out the new Colitek 10x5" coil with my Equinox. This park has been heavily detected and has high mineralization mixed with tons of ferrous and non ferrous trash. I had also covered it pretty thoroughly with the 11" & 15" coils since last year and figured it was pretty hunted out. The new coil proved me wrong and provided many unexpected targets. It also went deep. In my area we can't dig plugs so anything over 8" is out of reach and I left many deep signals behind, but what I found in reach really surprised me, including my second 14K White Gold ring! I guess nowhere is ever truly hunted out. šŸ™‚
    2 points
  49. The only place to go would be Gerry's Detectors, Boise Id., as they are some of the best people for what you are asking. Just remember to make sure that you understand your detector before they let you go home and ask plenty of questions. There are no stupid questions when it comes to detecting, believe me I have asked many of them and have always got good answers.
    2 points
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