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First 100 bits so far. They are coming slow and small this season so far but having fun!

Memorial Weekend Contest, win a Minelab GPX-6000 in your dreams. Ok, Detector Prospector fans. Most of us have been patiently waiting, some – not so patient. A few of us have even sold/traded our old detector to be ready for the release of the biggest dream of 2021. Here’s your chance to win that dream. BUT WAIT…. There’s more. This is not a dream for just you. That’s right, Gerry has stepped up the prize to the ultimate, most rewarding gift of all. Folks, I’m allowing you and your favorite detecting buddy (that’s what I said, - TWO of you!!!) to experience this dream TOGETHER. Here’s why I have went all out on this very special occasion, and by god it is special. In my 20+ yrs of selling Minelab detectors….I have never lost so much sleep, never tossed/turned/sweated and dreamed to the point where I almost pissed me-self. Heck even my Shepperd kicked me out of my own bed.. he did so. Folks, these dreams are real, their genuine and it hurts. Heck, I was just in the VA clinic last week and they scanned my brain for cause. You know it’s bad, when they tell you to come back next week for more treatment. I overheard one of the assistants and I could swear, they mentioned “Gold Fever”. Oh shit, it can’t be, I kept telling myself. Those flashbacks about took me life times prior. After all, the release of the SD-2100 in the early 90’s, then the big one of the GP-Extreme late 2000, or the popular series GPX in 2006 . Those were pretty bad on me, but that last one, the trickle and tease of the GPZ-7000 almost did me in and this go around, I’m not sure 50/50 I was told? Wife thinks I should double my life insurance, but I told her “it’s an existing condition”. Active posting DP members and just reading gawkers – Here’s the dang truth of it all. We survived. That’s right we did. Each of us had our own issues and some of us are still wearing those Gold Fever Dreamin scars, but we are breathing, walking, talking. And most importantly, we are dreaming. Heck those many scars I carry, at this point, it’s almost a Gold Detectorists Honor to show them off. But some of us do and we do it with PRIDE. Here is where I’d like everyone’s help. The numerous calls, texts, emails to me, my Field Staff, even my dedicated Minelab detector dealer friends, has to stop, if it’s about the GPX-6000. We know, we’ve heard and we’ve read. Bottom line is we want them just as bad as you folks. Heck, I even had to take the customers who were scheduled for training on the April Rye Patch, NV session and move them to the June class. Guess what, it’s almost June and so I’ll probably be moving them to the Fall class (which I just added another class to try and help get customers up to speed). Yes it’s a mess and yes the Covid Gold Fever is real, but us dealers can’t do anything until we get detectors. OK, Enough of the fun and laughs….but you can add some.. he he. In the meantime. I’d like to see you folks get out and celebrate this fine extended Memorial weekend and hopefully use your detectors. I do want to reward those who have read this far down. I (Gerry’s Detectors of Boise, Idaho) am really running a contest for all of you in the United States (sorry to my friends from other countries). I’m asking of US participants to post each day (starting today and posting to this thread), a picture you took this holiday weekend of Memorial Weekend theme with detector in the picture, examples are you family picnic and a detector in the picture, a Veteran memorial with detector, your front yard with American flag and detector in the picture, or you out detecting and camping this fine weekend…and with detector, you get the idea by now. Each day you can post 1 pic and your name will get put in a bucket for each day’s picture. BONUS - picture of “your gold find” with a metal detector. Now, before some of you get crazy with the term “gold find”, I’m talking Au gold, not a piece of gold foil, not a gold colored doodad, but real gold..a coin, a piece of gold jewelry and most certainly a gold nugget, picker or specimen that was found with your metal detector this Memorial Weekend starting today and ending Tuesday, June 1st at 5 PM MST zone. Reason I am going until Tuesday, is many of us will be in the hills and not returning until Tuesday. The BONUS gold picture gets your name in the bucket 2 times per day, max of 10, for those who are fortunate enough to find and post a gold find pic each day. Please don’t beat me as I am trying to have fun for most everyone. Rundown of the rules. 1 picture a day can be posted per DP member. So in reality, you could post a pic of this weekends events each day and end up with 5 entries, but you can only post 1 pic a day. Sometime next week I’ll count the pics and enter your name per amount of posted pics and of Memorial = 1 or Gold = 2, per day (remember 1 post a day no more than total of 5) with the last one by Tuesday, June 1st 5PM MST. I will take a tally and draw (no there will not be some big video show) a name. The winner will get a new Minelab Gold Monster 1000 metal detector courtesy of Gerry’s Detectors. No it’s not a GPX-6000, but it’s a real gold detector. Detector Prospector is the #1 metal detector forum in my opinion and I enjoy reading, learning, sharing pics, seeing gold finds. Go out, get some, spend time with family/friends or alone the way you may and be safe this Memorial Weekend. Don’t forget to think of the reason for this special weekend and the real meaning behind it. As a family of US military myself, I thank you all who have sacrificed for our freedoms and dreams AND SO IS THIS CONTEST – for a Gold Monster 1000 and the chance to dream with your detecting buddy about the GPX-6000. Again, a Memorial Themed pic with detector is 1 name in the bucket that day and a pic of your gold find is a BONUS which puts your name in the bucket 2X per that day. Thanks folks for helping calm the storm of GPX-6000 Gold Fever, as I know it’s real. But the reality is we all need to relax a little and enjoy this weekend...hopefully with detector in hand and surrounded by family/friends, laughter and making memories. PS, I'll probably shut the computer down later today, so chat with you all next week.

Well, this was my final beach hunt on this beach until after Labor Day. I needed 5 silvers to make it an even 200 from this beach this season. I made it out in the sun longer than I thought I would – from 8 AM until 3 PM. Got a farmer’s tan in one sitting. 😄101 coins including 4 silvers. I did not make 200 no matter how hard I tried. So 199 it is, and I am happy for that, considering the number of visits I missed due to Covid restrictions. I just could not squeak out that one more silver. It’s funny when you stay in the sun digging all day, strange things happen to you on the trip home. Like scratching your back and your hand cramps closed. So, you use you other hand to open it and then that hand cramps shut Dehydration, even with 64 ounces of hydration drinks, just doesn’t cut it. I’m fine now but getting old sucks! 😡First target of the day was the Walking Liberty Half. Then a lull and I knew it would be a long day. Managed 2 nicer condition (and dated) Buffalo nickels. Pictures were taken when it was getting dark, so the are a bit rough. Later I’ll post all the silvers for the season and total for the other seasons combined. One thing I can say about the GPX is that it can find the half dollars like no other machine I have used, including the Equinox. Best of luck to you guys that can continue hunting beaches. I will be rooting for you to get gold 👍

Got out this afternoon for a few hours. Hunted one of the hardest to hunt beaches in my area. Not many targets today, but good for this beach. Started off shallow and picked up a couple of nickels then went deep. When I can back in shallow the detector was erratic. I noticed if I released my hand off of the grip and grab it again it would sound off. I could release my grip and just tap the foam with my finger and it would sound off each time. Looks like once the grip gets wet you can't hunt shallow. I did pick up a deep small Gold ladies ring that the AQ hit hard on it. HH

Only got about an hour and a half in at the farmhouse here in NC today. I found that the house is still on Google maps, so I had an actual photo to use with GPS and was able to identify exactly where the house was, and where I was in relation to it. Apparently it was taken down within the last 10 years. First and second hits were coins, a real Zincoln and a 1974 penny. The Zincoln was about 6" deep. The older one was about the same. There has to be some silver here! I took @rod-pa's suggestion and switched all metal off, looking for only deep high tones (15 up, my choice) that were repeatable, skipping the surface stuff (2-4") that I'm sure was can slaw. I think that since I don't have a lot of time I need to get busy and stick with the "good" stuff. There isn't a tremendous amount of iron here but it is significantly more than I thought. Dealing with iron cancelled out is easier, but kinda scary. I just never trusted it before. Got at least one real relic, a really nice brass rein guide complete with the attaching nut. It was a 30/31. Some copper tubing, some old gears (30-32 ID), bullet, and a shotgun shell. Only one piece of iron got me. I found some wire but dropped it off in a trash can. The Howard Jones tune played in my head so hence the title.

Walked down to the local watering hole; brackish water bay tributary, pretty well cleared out over the years but a bit trashy with bits of iron. Ran delay 7, sensitivity 7, threshold 4, volume 8, ATS 6.5, reject 6; mostly all metal but some tones and mute to check targets. Initial reaction is that it is a little easier to hear the edge modulation with the 8 inch than with the big coil. I walked away from several targets that were very pronounced double tones then had a more subtle edge that I told myself to walk away … but dig to verify. That was the little fish hook. The odd shaped washer, to the right of the fish hook, fooled me; it sounded pretty good in all metal and in tones. The rest of it is all non-ferrous. Some of the small targets fell through the scoop several times before I finally capture them and got them in the pouch. This set up finds fairly small targets well. Tones seem to be more pronounced to me with this coil than with the big coil with some similar settings, yet I think I still hear iron better in all metal than in tones ... maybe some setting tweeks would change that around but I'm pretty happy in all metal. I did have an interference issue. A boat about 100 feet from me fired up and the AQ talked and talked. Stepped through the frequencies and no help there. I was shallow enough the detector head was above water so I went deep where the detector electronics were well under water and, surprise to me, that did not help either. Dropping the sensitivity down to 2 made it usable. Once he lowered the boat lift, backed off and motored away I could turn the sensitivity back up and hunt with a very quiet AQ. Did have a great blue heron land on the beach and walk into the water. Got about 30 feet away from me so I stayed still and watched it turn its head looking for minnows, catch and eat them. After a few minutes it walked around the beach corner towards the boat lift then flew about 2 hundred yards down the water. A good afternoon in the water.

Can’t be too much of a fault/problem/error or whatever it’s being called because I can’t get mine to do it 🤨. I have found the 6000 loads quieter then the sdc/5k/zed have been running it on Auto+ with speaker (because I keep forgetting the headphones) on the worst areas I can find, found gold on all. Hopefully they suspend sales and spend 12 months trying to figure out this ‘problem’ 😁

Righto just because I`m downunder I can`t enter the comp, but I`d like to post in this thread and join the fun, if I may. This photo is an oz of that lovely 6000 stuff organized in a Memorial significant number, now whilst today that number has been adopted by another international "forum" as a sign off, this number came from early war time. (no its not the number of nuggets as there is actually 83) No more clues, let your keyboard direct you to the Memorial significance of this number.

It seems I caused a bit of a stir 🙂 While the guy has his own opinions about things like iron bias his general thoughts were similar to mine, I'm not overly clued up on iron bias, I never really had a need for it as we don't have much iron junk in our soils around here so I just set it to 0. I don't see how iron bias would limit depth but I find recovery speed does affect it. Maybe he was meaning with certain iron bias settings the ID's become less reliable so you may pass on some deeper targets thinking they're junk? I've used my CTX on my local sports field which as some know was a very good producer giving me hundreds of silver coins, I knew there would be more, I seem to never get them all 🙂 The CTX did surprise me with how well I did do in a short time. I always was a cherry picker though, for me to dig a silver I had to have a pretty good ID that it was going to be a silver or I didn't dig, the reason for this is I didn't want to dig hundreds of holes in a public area. I wanted to keep my digs to a minimum. When I went back with the CTX after doing some basic air tests to get the numbers I was chasing I found quite a few missed silvers quite quickly. Almost all the silvers in this field are deep, regularly at about the depth of my Carrot. The CTX wasn't finding coins I'd missed with the Nox not getting the depth, I just think it was giving me a better ID. Now, why I think the CTX is possibly deeper while still providing a good ID is last weekend i took my daughter detecting at one of the local ski fields, we end up doing this once a year for a bit of fun, she mainly wants to do it as shes so excited about ski season starting so she just wants an excuse to go there, the deal is also that she gets any money we find 🙂 So I put her on the Vanquish, and basically just told her only look for ID's 21 and 22 ignore everything else. That gets her our gold $1 and $2 coins and that's all she'd have the patience to dig. I used my Nox and 11" and had the CTX and 11" with me that I found targets with one and checked the targets with the other, not on every single target, just the deeper ones. I found the CTX was doing a great job on ID's at depth, but so was the Equinox. Only some targets the CTX gave a more reliable ID and often the shallow targets on the Equinox were more wild with their ID like a $1 coin buried at only 1 or so inches was less of a reliable ID with the NOX than one deeper. The CTX gave good ID's on various depths even the really shallow ones. I'd never noticed that before with the Nox how the ID's are a bit less accurate wth very shallow coins and perhaps that was just the soil type at the ski field causing that. There was one particular deep $2 coin that the Equinox was very erratic with the ID on while the CTX was quite stable and easily identified it as a $2 coin. The beginners areas are always best, they fall over the most 🙂 So in my very mild soils I think the CTX is great as a cherry picking detector, so is the Nox and Vanquish though. Even my Ace 300i is pretty remarkable with the stability of target ID's in my soils as long as there is only 1 target under the coil. I think in my area a person could do almost as well with any main manufacturer detector that have target ID's, they may have to dig a few more iffy targets but I personally think I could do just as well on coins with any of my coin capable detectors. I'm confident if I used my Ace 300 I wouldn't leave much for the Nox to find afterwards if I was willing and able to dig every potentially good target. We all have different soil types so our opinions on things can vary wildly. She managed to get 70 something dollars for her efforts on the day, mostly my finds 🙂

The biggest oddity is the bolt holes being different so you can't use an Equinox bolt, you have to use the Coiltek bolt. Why they'd do something like that just makes no sense to me and all it would have taken is the bolt hole to be an extra millimeter or so bigger. I normally have just used the same bolt for everyone of my coils, keeping the others from the other coils away as spares. Not If I take my 6" and Coiltek coil on a hunt I need to take both sets of bolts. Not a big deal but an annoyance for no reason. That's as far as the standard Nox bolt goes. The sizing is a bit different to advertised too, although I prefer the size than if it was 10x5" It's pointy noise is really good in rocky areas, and it's the most sensitive part of the coil by far to small targets so great for prospecting and can get into places the 6" can't. The 6" is most sensitive to small targets in the center of the coil so the benefits of the Coiltek really shine when in a rocky or bushy area.

Friday, heading out for Lunch in Reno!

Here, I’ll start it out! 😊

As a Senior Minelab dealer with many many customers, I get more calls/emails than most about the Customer Service Issues we are going thru right now. I have to agree 100% with the customer on this go around. Yes Minelab USA Customer Care Service team is not running as usual, but which company is? But I also feel, - If Minelab is going to be the big dog at the show and the proud company they are with record sales/profits, I feel they need to have the man/woman power to back it up and we (Minelab) have to take the good we create and accept the bad when we fall behind and fail, which I feel right now. Yes we are behind... but who expected records sales of detectors due to a worldwide Pandemic? Trying to hire someone right now is almost impossible. So here is my temporary solution and I can't do this every time someone has an issue. Edward, give me a call, Gerry's Detectors in Boise, Idaho 208-345-8898 and I can get a loaner coil sent out to you today (if you are in the United States). We'll need to step it up a little as it's already 3PM. When the rest of my Minelab Team in Customer Care gets you taken care of then send my loaner coil back to me. Hope this puts a little ease to the situation and we can all enjoy this special holiday.

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 “Customer Care” 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

I had a chance to get back to an old mill during lunch break this week. I decided to work a steep bank that was partially man-made from cutting a more gradual ramp into the hillside for the wagons to pull the grains to the top of the mill around the back of the house. Swinging on an angle like that..really weird. I like flat and level, i have decided. However...going to have to go back and keep working it. Got a pair of wheats to start, then these two. Also a thimble, but it was just brass, and homeowner took that one to clean up because she collects them. And, i must say, when I saw the quarter was a 13, and could make out a mintmark on the back.....i was about to hyperventilate until I saw it was a D. You guys in California dodged one again. Happy Hunting

How about going the other direction and reduce (with sandpaper, etc.) the OD of the screw's shank? I don't think screws come with warranties. 😉 Better yet, if you can get a 5/16 inch screw/bolt (easier in the USA...), I suspect that would work fine (based upon the photo Phrunt showed). I don't have the new Nox 5"x10" coil but I measured an Equinox screw. Here are some pertinent dimensions: Eqx screw shank diameter: 8.0 mm (0.32 in) Eqx screw diameter at threads: 7.8 mm (0.31 in) 5/16" screw diameter at shank: 7.84 mm (0.309 in) 5/16" screw diameter at threads: 7.75 mm (0.305 in) For reference 5/16" = is 7.94 mm (rounded to 2 decimal places) (Note: neither of these screws was perfectly round. In the case of the Eqx screw I rounded the measurements to one decimal place. For the 5/16" steel screw I happen to measur, I posted the largest value as I rotated it in the caliper.) My favorite stock coil attachment screw of my collection of detectors is the White's 3/8 inch diameter. Turns out a standard bolt for attaching a toilet seat to a toilet bowl in the USA is that very size, and plastic ones are available at pretty much every hardware store in the country. (But even in that case, the shank of a plastic toilet seat screw may need sanding down a bit. However if you happen to lose the White's nut but not the bolt, the toilet bowl nut works just fine unmodified.) Afterthought: 7/16" diameter bolts are also used for some toilet seats, so if you choose to go that direction with a White's detector make sure to get the smaller 3/8" size.

Hello everyone - I saw the need to follow up on this for clarity. Detector Center is an independent but Minelab dedicated Authorized Service Center. This business is staffed by technicians who repair detectors, but Minelab's Naperville office handles the initial processing of your concerns and put the repair process in motion. To set up a repair, first contact Minelab Service at the following contact points: 877-767-6522 or service@minelabamericas.com The address to ship your detector after you first contact Minelab for initial processing: Detector Center 188 Oak Shade Road Alum Bank, PA 15521 Thank you everyone

Took 83 to make the first 6000 OZ, fortunately a few were near 1 gram or would've hit the ton.

Minelab Australia is always outstanding and they respond to emails very quickly, the NZ service agent is fantastic too (A&E Electronics). You took the right step contacting ML Australia when you were having troubles as it makes them aware subcontracted people or their own business in a different region isn't up to their high standards or are having difficulties for whatever reason. if you have no luck elsewhere contacting the place you purchased it from is always the best step. It sounds like Minelab Customer care in the US isn't functioning as intended and Minelab head office in Australia may not have been aware of that but will be now.

Great job on the finds, but I think you are a few short of a hundred, please send them to me so I can get an accurate count. LOL Good luck on your next hunt!

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 15” 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.

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.

So here are the silver totals for the year and for 3 seasons from this one beach. Clad pictured is only from this season. For people new to the hobby, try and never think something is hunted out. Eventually it may end up that way, but don't limit yourself to that thinking. I would have never guessed there is this much left at a beach. It's true that the shallow stuff gets hunted out rather quickly by regular hunters, but there are areas and depths that are still original. The color of the coins tell me these are not recent drops and that they have been there from about the 40's thru the 80's. Who knows, once I clean all that clad in the tumbler, I may pick up a stray War nickel in the bunch. 😁

Even if working from home they should have the ability to answer an email or return a phone call. Those two are supposed to be the easiest things to do working from home. That’s all we had to do for the first few months and it worked pretty flawlessly. But I’m also surprised because I’ve always had great customer service with the USA office. 🤷‍♂️

Had to laugh, was watching a old western few weeks ago. One of the guys in town built a shower that would continuously run. He gave the prettiest girl in town the honors of christening the shower. So all of the men in town waited outside the shower as the lady undressed and placed her undergarments on the hook outside the shower. When she took off her last piece, one of the men said" she's down to bedrock now boys" 😆

Should you find out where the old outhouse was, go that direction, also if there were clothes lines in the picture try that area also. I have done that around the places I hunt and have come up with some nice pieces. Good luck on your next outing!

Hey Phrunt, I think for the most part, it's this COVID crap here in the US. I work for a major company here in the US beyond running my business and 70% or better are still working from home. I think Minelab USA is in the same boat, many are probably still working from home, meaning less people potentially at the main office, repair center and such. I'm basing this off solely what is going on in the West Coast right now, USA. I read an article a few days ago about major companies struggling to get employees back to work. When you allow someone to stay home for so long, they don't want to return and many employees are claiming it's not "SAFE" to return to the work place! Rob

Haha...it does suck getting old. I can relate to your hand wanting to close itself shut. 😌. Your push for 200 reminded me of my push for 800 silver coins back in 2015...I came up a little short, but I ended up with way more than I thought I would get, and that year turned out to be my most productive ever. Congrats on a great beach season! 👍🏼

It would be interesting to know if the issue is coming from speaker acting like an antenna, or if it's coming from interference on the audio frequency band itself while the speaker works. The first seems like it could be solved by replacing the speaker with a transducer, as it would likely be the voice coil acting as the antenna. The latter seems like it could be fixed with optical isolation, optical transmission, or better shielded wire. All seem like things that could be fixed post manufacturing. Or potentially doable DIY mods if warranty allowed. I have no desire to buy another BT unit and hang it off my chest where I already have a WM12 hanging and getting lost occasionally. If we are going that route then I hope they just make it possible to use the WM12 to keep it simple. The 6000 is an awesome prospecting machine for a number of reasons, a big one is because it's one piece, quick to rig up and down, and simple. That's one of its strengths. It should stay that way. Forward, not backwards!

Simon, you did not cause a stir at all. This is not the first time that the person who wrote that article’s opinions and techniques have been discussed on this forum and it probably won’t be the last. Thanks for relating your experience with the Vanquish, Equinox and CTX and especially your hunt with your daughter and your photos. I am glad she can swing the Vanquish.

Today I got time to put together the body of the raft. Threw it in the canal by the house and it floats good. Draws about an inch, just by eyeball. It weighs 16.6 lbs, so adding a few accessories, and the detector won't make an appreciable difference in how it floats. I'll start on the steering mechanism after lunch. I'm thinking of a movable rudder in the front. I'll probably take the time to draw it up, so may not get it built today. Also the detector, as show, is not in it's final position. Still have to come up with the mount plan for that. Here's a couple of pics: Jim

Yes. It really locks in to non-ferrous.

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.

I saw some waves last night and thought I'd get in a wet beach detect today before I drive to a one day desert hunt in the Southern California mountains. I didn't know what to expect and I didn't find very much of interest but I did find this pendant. Does anyone know anything about it and what the symbols and writings mean? I'll do an image search and post what I find.

All I can say is if this were found on Oak Island, Gary Drayton would be going into orbit. Templar, baby!!!

Looks like one I would put outside. Looks to be satanic!

Like I said, Customer Care is short staffed and a little stunned right now. At least they are trying now and that's what is most important.

Hi Keith, Thanks for the clarification. I did not want to see you getting tarred for Naperville's lack of response. But it does set up a Catch-22, where people can't get service from you, due to inability to make the initial contact with Minelab.

Great haul for the season. Thanks for the pics.

I did try 2.5 at the beach and the lower frequency does reduce any chatter and got the machine to run nice and smooth. Will experiment more with the reactivity on that as I haven't tried 1 on the beach but it seems to work ok in low trash areas. From my past experience lower frequencies are less sensitive to smaller targets and less suseptable to ground noise but that is comparing 5 khz machine to a 56khz. General hunting in these parts I have been doing well with 15.6 which seems to be a happy medium for coin shooting with reactivity of 2.5. ======================== Quick yard test and yup you guys are right, too low on ractivity extends the response of the target making it seem bigger than it is. Thanks

I hear what you're saying Chase, but the scenario in this case is rings/coins ID'ing purely as iron...and not popping non-ferrous. The beaches I hunt are black sand and littered with iron debris large and small. If I turn on iron audio, it is absolutely constant and not useful. If anything pops non-ferrous I'll hear it with iron audio off. By the way, your advice leading me to 5khz is appreciated. I tried it this morning and it was more stable than expected. It did false occasionally, but not nearly as bad as I expected. I'll continue to play with it. My tests were far from a controlled scientific study, but when the ring/coin was inline with the coil I rotated it to see when it would switch to a non-ferrous signal and it was near horizontal. It is a challenge for detectors, but the chances of encountering on edge...or not fully horizontal...items is high where I hunt. If a different coil can do a better job, I'll make the switch. I'm not convinced a new coil will resolve the issue, but it doesn't hurt to investigate the possibility. No harm done except to my wallet:) Silver makes my day, so I hate to think I'm missing stuff. Thank you for the link to the Xterra guide. I'll give it a read. Also agree...maybe Garrett can tweak something via an update, hopefully without adverse (whack a mole) consequences. I won't hold my breath though...apart from Thrace, I haven't seen anyone reporting this as an issue....yet.

Hey Guys, Steve is correct, contact Detector Center. When in doubt, always contact the dealer you purchased from, they should be able to provide all the contact details and even help if there are any hiccups. Rob

That's not the best way to think about reactivity with Deus. Depth is not affected as much as ground noise with reactivity. Adjust Reactivity to minimize ground noise reactivity and to get the target response you want at depth and you might be surprised. Don't be afraid to run it at 2.5 or even 3. I typically run at 2.5 and bump it up to 3 if I need the separation. I encourage you to experiment with the higher reactivity settings.

Topic says Next XP Detector, didn't say Deus or Orx. I never used a Deus and don't know all the modes it has but using the Orx for the short time I have it the Gold modes are more of a 2 tone mode than an all metal mode. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but I did wish it had an all metal mode and one that where the VCO was very proportional to the target in response to depth and size much like the Tejon. I have been running the Gold mode and set one up for bit of beach hunting and where there is minimal trash with recovery speed at 2 and even dropped it to 1 and running it at 13khz to squeeze some depth out of it. In low trash areas it is ok but any shallow objects or crushed cans I have a difficult time judging the size as it is loud and audio seems to overshoot the target much like the deep mode on the Kruzer. The Gold Racer iron audio is brutal compared to the Orx so I don't mind that but it seems far less sensitive even at 54khz so it only sounds off on iron objects and doesn't really have any audio on the ground most of the time with the disc at 7. I may drop that lower because I have a hard time nosing off of bottle caps to get any signs of steel. Using the 9" round hf.

I hear what Jason says. The speaker functionality on this 6000 is a big deal to me as I despise using headphones and use them under protest only. Hopefully this emi thing is worked out.

It does seem a weird problem like when the speaker is engaged it becomes some sort of antenna or powering the speaker when its very close to other electronics that are very sensitive is generating noise, very odd it would make it to market like that. I'm sure it's something that will just be remedied in the background without notice and later purchasers won't notice the problem with it as much as earlier owners. It would bother me as I'd likely be an exclusive speaker user forced to find an alternative to the speaker. Maybe they were aware of it and it couldn't be fixed and it's just how it has to be, like many things in metal detecting a compromise, at least it has Bluetooth so there are easy workarounds that are likely better than using the speaker anyway so for most it won't be an issue.

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.

There were some spots that were pounded by the explorer that we took the Nox to and did not get much.There were many spots that were pounded with the Explorer that we cleaned up on . Many were spots that dried up for the explorer.I can use the Nox almost anywhere and get good results. I also can take it in the water and get the goodies there too. I will say the explorer is a great machine and was way ahead of it's time.

First, this topic is really about improvements to the XP Deus.......not the ORX. Anyway, having owned both I personally like the VCO audio on the Deus in the All Metal Mode Gold Field just fine and it was never overpowering as long as I had the Reactivity setting between 2, 2.5 or 3 and Audio Response on 2 or 3. My main beef with the Deus is the audio in its discrimination modes, but I am audio picky. As for the ORX, as I mentioned earlier, the Iron Tone not having a volume control made it very unpleasant for me and I just used it as a last resort for iron ID in the Gold Modes. I do not remember the VCO audio being remarkably different from the Deus VCO audio. You and I may have very different audio likes and dislikes as far as VCO audio preferences. Personally, I like the VCO audio on the Deus and ORX just fine (aside from the disgusting iron tone audio on the ORX). I like it better than the VCO audio on any of the Nokta Makro detectors I have owned including their Gold detectors in Gen mode. I also like the adjustability and depth of the XP all metal "Gold" modes better than the features included with the Nok/Mak Gen modes too. The most important things about the XP all metal gold modes where I detect are setting the threshold on 3 to 6 or so which seems to smooth out the audio some at least for me and performing frequent pumping ground balances. The second that I start getting ground feedback I do a pumping ground balance. Which coil did you get?

The pandemic did not help, adding an extra year to the three it’s now taken, to get my treasure find released and returned. I’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.