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The contest for the GPX-6000 is over as I did not get one in time. The Memorial Weekend Contest for a Gold Monster 1000 is over as well and any post after this is just for enjoyment purposes and dreams (kind of like the GPX-6000) from here out. Tomorrow, I'll try to get the tally and do a drawing so I can get the Winner posted. I have not even read through everything as I spent most of the day catching up with business from the long weekend. Looking forward to seeing the posts, reading the comments and seeing the pics of your enjoyable Memorial Weekend. Again, For those families who have given the ultimate sacrifice, I honor your husband/wife, son/daughter, brother/sister, niece/nephew, aunt/uncle, grandfather/grandmother and all the men/women who are no longer with us. Be proud of their actions for it's their bravery that allows our freedoms to be enjoyed on this day and forward.

Hello All, I came across a really old Youtube video I made back around 2008 here in Arizona. There are only a number of places in the last 25 years of metal detecting that I can say were honestly rewarding and worth all the effort to drag down a drywashing/vac-pac, set it up and run it all day or weekend. This happen to be one of those locations where we found a number of very rough gold nuggets using metal detectors, but the amount of smaller pickers and fine gold was unreal. Practically ever nugget my partner and I dug up, we saw a half dozen or more small pickers and a good amount of fines. You honestly don't find this too often, but they are out there and it does happen. We worked the small gully (as seen in the video) for several weekends, getting whatever we could metal detecting with a VLF and PI's. We then started down lower in gully and drywashed/vac from side to side, digging all the cracks and crevices up the best we could. The wash wasn't too long, nor very wide, maybe 3-4 foot in the widest spots. However, after about 2-3 weekends, we had the entire gully down to bedrock and ended up removing about 3 ounces of very small nuggets, pickers and fines. I believe we did so well due to the nature of this type of gold being very crystalline in nature. The source was probably weathered away as we never were able to locate any type of real vein or source. Overall, with all the gold, fines and gold nuggets, we ended up with about 6 ounces of really nice placer gold. There are hundreds, if not thousands of these locations still to be found, so a good metal detector can lead you into one of these hidden gems! Heck, at todays gold prices, just over $1900 per ounce, that's a nice $11,400 payday. It probably took about 5-6 days to recover it all. Wishing you all a bedrock-gold rich gully. Rob

Conditions were pretty weak all this month, went out on several negative wet sand low tide hunts at a few spots. Started out the month with a small piece of 10k that looked like it was part of a gold nugget ring and also some grey crusted silver from an area that had a cut and some erosion.. Next peace of gold was the 10k nugget ear ring and a small silver peace ring found waaaay out in the negative low tide wet sand plateau, no doubt fresh drops, targets were few and far between at that beach. Next gold item was a tarnished 10k ring that looked like it had a pearl at one point since there is a post sticking out in the middle of the setting, also found some more dark crusty silver on that hunt from an area that had heavy black sand and steep wet sand slopes. The final hunt towards the end of May was a bit on the weak side, not many targets despite the high/low negative tides caused by the mega full moon. Pulled out a small 10k crucifix and was sure that was gonna be the last gold for the month, but as I was zig-zagging the wet sand on my way out I hit a screamer of a signal at the upper slope area, one scoop down, dump the sand and saw the outline of a ring, thought is was just silver at first sight but then I picked it up and noticed the weight, then noticed the hallmark.....Booyah! 18k/Plat Fred Goldman combo band! I was stoked! Called it quits and went home. Gold total for the month: 10k- 4.1 grams 18k/Plat - 11.5 grams Thanks for looking and GL out there!

Extended at the park one more day and I'm glad I did. Got a ton of practice looking at depth and analyzing targets before digging. Got really good at plugs. I only looked a bit around the farmhouse, got mostly trash and a couple of pennies. I did dig an old large cent, unfortunately no details. 😵 It's 1 1/8" wide, thick and heavy. Looks like someone tried to put a hole in it. Next I went to the canal and old dock: Coins everywhere. I also visited the volleyball court to do the other half. Didn't find anything stellar, 3 wheats, the oldest is 1924. Oldest quarter was 1967. 25 modern coins today! It was quantity, not quality. 😀 Feel like this was a beach trip, but overall it was a total blast and I met a lot of nice people.

Got permission for a construction site to dig bottles over Memorial Day weekend. The bottles were dating from 1860 to 1900 most of them 1880's. We dug over 60 bottles, I came home with at least 2 dozen decent ones. Had a great time with my Brother-in-law and a few friends. picked up a few wheat pennies in the waste piles and my Brother-in-law was lucky enough to find a valuable token. Sorry don't have a picture of it. Video below if you want to watch it. Sorry the audio kind of muffled in spots.

my settings- 6.4 khz Mix mode, sensitivity was 7, and threshold set at 1 , black sand on ,salt on and balanced to 39. and ground balanced to 616 .and was using the 12" DD coil I hunted a park ,where the old swing set was . and the soil was glacial gravel & sand.and i got a nice solid 18-20 and had to dig way down to 1" past the depth of the pinponter and up comes a clad quarter. It was a solid 10" deep I was impressed. the other quarter was 7" . and i found several tabs down at the 10" level as well . but again small foil. Also out of the hole came several egg size basalt rocks that did not seem to block the signal to my 10" quarter . So I know this machine can find the silver if its down in the ground very pleased with the tarsacci

Not all of the good stuff that comes out of the ground in Australia is gold one of my favorite rocks is Mookaite a very fine jasper that comes out of western australia ( windalia radiolarite) because you can make things like this with it.

The finished piece

Last entry, #4. It’s been interesting to see what other people are doing and finding. Thanks for the magnanimous Memorial Day contest.

Thats it Rob No show No gold-Is there a part 2 to this ???-

Yes, a total non-event. It's at least next year now by the looks of it. The competition will likely have their new model sitting ready and waiting to release just before this detector hits the market to ensure when this does come out it has a hard time getting anywhere. They probably would have been better to keep it tight lipped about this detector until it was a few weeks off release, not tell us about it a year or two before it hits the market.

I know the GB2 is the all time popular classic, but that photo brings back lots of memories and for me the GM2 was the classic of that era, today I visited an old GM2 patch on bony ground that no detector until the 6000 has managed to better. GB2s, SDs, Xs, Monster, Zs, Z/X combos.

I hope that one of these days I can get out west to do some of that, all I need to get is a decent dry blower system. I have more sluices, pans, and everything that goes with them for creeks and streams. I enjoyed the video and the information you provided so thank you very much.

Thanks Rob for the show and tell. As we get older it’s nothing like reminiscing of time’s past. The Best To You Rob . Chuck

Armed with a Minelab SDC 2300 and a White's Gold Master V-Sat Jeff and Gary ( Two Toe's ) head back to a spot they worked in the spring in search of Gold Nuggets !!!!! Jeff brings the Big Breaker Bar and it boulder moving time on the creek while Gary searchs the high bench for those elusive Nuggets. See what the guys find with there Metal detectors while working the Bedrock both High and low !!!!! SG 035 Thanks for watching

Hello All, Well it's been a bit since I had the 12" NF Z Searchcoil on my GPZ 7000, but it managed to show the same results once again. It was about 3 months ago when I originally was field testing the new NF 12" Z Search, before it's release here in the US. I managed to take it back over a few patches I hammered hard with the stock 14x13 coil, but still was able to find about a dozen for so smaller gold nuggets that I missed. The hyper-sensitivity this new coils gives, plus the lightweight, make detecting with the GPZ 7000 much easier and pleasant. I managed to just get in the first batch of new NF coil for the GPZ and even got a few that I didn't expect. Most of them were pre-sold and spoken for, but I still have 1-2 left I think. I went out for my second, first day, meaning I only got one day on the first coil then a customer/good friend just had to have it. I ended up hunting all day, sun up to down down and scored the nuggets below. I'm super impressed with this coil, so if you own a Minelab GPZ 7000, this is something to consider if you're looking for a lighter coil and something that is more sensitive to smaller/specimens vs. the stock coil. Just a FYI, the original coil I sold has scored well over 100 nuggets from what I'm told and some of the recent coils that just hit customers hands (some pictures now on this forum) have scored gold. Congrats on all the new NF Z Searchoil owners and new ones to come! Rob https://www.robsdetectors.com/nugget-finder-12-z-searchcoil-for-gpz-7000/

Its been a while since I’ve posted anything as I’ve been away up north and when I got back to the island I was evicted from my house (rental).. The sewage tank had collapsed and my house been declared uninhabitable as a health hazard.. Crap way to start the year (pun intended).. Nonetheless, this morning’s coin-shooting expedition at Radical Bay made up for it, at least it’s put me in a much better mood.. I found $65 and 4 cents (‘old’ Australian coins 1 and 2 cent pieces).. Plus a $25 casino chip (it’s got a metal centre), a tungsten carbine wedding ring (worth between $250 - $300 online), some other pieces of jewellery and a hash pipe.. Whilst this bay was once a popular camping spot it has become isolated since January when we had over 260mm of rain in 5 hours which has washed away the access road.. I don’t think anyone has ever been there with a metal detector.. The first thing I noticed was the huge amount of rubbish metal in the ground with no end of bottle tops, ring pulls and old cans.. So much so that I decided only to dig for gold coins ($1 and $2) and 50 cent pieces, leaving all the other silver coins behind for my next trip.. I concentrated on the camping areas along the bay set amongst the vine and palm trees as the beach itself was yielding very little.. As I said this little haul has restored my faith in this wonderful world, all it needed was to let lose my Foxy Noxy..

I wanted to set up the ORX for shallow park hunting. so i chose the coin fast program.and used a low 56 sensitivity , and set the disc at 45 to make a low tone on small foil, and the reaction was on 2.5 and at that setting i could still get a good signal on a 6" dime and on pull tabs7" now the small foil can be picked up at 4and 5 " but makes a low so i did one more test i took the small foil,which is flat not crumpled ,set a penny under a cup turned upside down, and put the foil on top . in fact two pieces of small foil about the size of a quarter covering the penny 3.5" under and i got a mid tone and not a low , If the penny was removed i got a low . so the ORX can get thru small foils and at least give a mid tone thru the small foils and that for just shallow park hunting. and i was using the 8.4 khz for the test as it is less responsive to foils, but still hits on tabs and nickles good .so i can find rings

Stacked quarter test my Multi Kruzer and AT Pro both dropped to iron range at 3 quarters. The Tejon held the tone to 3 quarters but gave a broken signal just above the iron mark (something I would dig) and the Orx gave a non iron tone to 9 quarters. The can disapears with or without IAR and I only seem to have IAR option under gold modes and haven't found it useful so it's been off. The can bottom responds the same across the gamut of frequencies and thinking because it is so thin it is just acting like a mask. Only reason I dug it was because in the ground it was on edge and gave a funky signal but oddly no iron signal. Seems like the HF has little or no fall off on the tip or tail of the coil. Not that it is a good or bad thing, just different and more precise so using tip off to help id iron isn't as reliable for me in this case.

I would not trust anything from Kellyco. If I was in charge at Fisher, I'd be saying publicly that the AQ is expected to be available at such and such a date. Or the AQ project has been delayed or put on hold and give the reason why. Most importantly, I would be honest with my customers.

Thanks! I don't post if I don't find anything interesting, or don't have a thought or experience that might benefit someone. I've had a few skunk days, but for the most part research and a bit of good will can go far. As long as they don't let me grid this place it will never be hunted out, I never got in the water. It's full of "depositors" every year, and that old house has a lot of history and secrets. If you can get permission to hunt the remote parts of RV parks you will find a lot. We are a benefit to them, I picked up a lot of trash both metal and not. Showed them what we do, and they get it. I'm not saying hunt campsites unless you are willing to be careful and not leave a trace. Sports areas, boat launches, old home sites are all a part of these parks. Most have a beach of some sort, and even the state parks will sometimes let you hunt a man-made beach. Guess I'm on a one-man crusade to promote metal detecting at these places! 😀

Rob, thanks for sharing.

In the gold modes, the Disc IAR settings of 2 or more may breakup or completely null out rusty tin near the surface. In the coin modes too, it seems that some flat rusty tin has an ID that is somewhere between 99 and 0 and most often gives me -- for an ID and basically nulls out the background chatter or threshold tone if you are using one. Small rusty tin flakes the size of a US quarter or less can be a real nuisance gold prospecting in the ORX and Deus Gold programs. With disc IAR off they sound very much like a gold or non-ferrous target. With disc IAR on, they will null the threshold and mimic a very deep or very small non-ferrous target that is just barely disturbing the threshold tone with no ID most of the time.

The enamel is probably ceramit, a color fill used on white metal castings where cloisonne can't be used because of melt temp req for cloisonne is higher than the metals melt temp.

As pointed out on a previous pic, there is a small six pointed star on the pendant that has the appearance of the Star of David,

Thought I'd be wrapping up the RV park today, we decided to stay one more day. Been digging lots of stuff here, it's either been hit or there just isn't any silver. With all the techniques I've tried you'd think I'd find one silver coin. Still could be me... 🤔 But I have found silver (reales, US coins) so It's hard to believe it. The take today was just fun: 70s memorials, a 1916 wheat, an 1892 IHP. Box key lock plate, live .40 S&W hollowpoint, .380 FMJ. The snap is there to keep the bullets from rolling into my favorite find today: This 1920s brass advertising medallion for an obscure soda brand. Looks like it had a loop on top for keys or something. Info here: http://www.tazewell-orange.com/wascott.html Fun thing to find. Didn't see one in any collection so I may offer it up. Later I saw some people playing volleyball in a sand court. 😈 Hit that this evening, only got halfway through before the sun went down and my pinpointer died. Well there's one more day. There were some "gold" signals but I would be obligated to turn that stuff into the office I think. The gold would have sunk deeper than the modern coins IMHO, and it would be in the hard pan under the sand unless lost recently. I did get the '78 quarter there. Going to tell the maintenance guy to hit it when he gets his metal detector. 😀 He's hooked! It was a great day.

It was rather uneventful and rather disappointing. Not really anything new that we didn't already know. I was under the impression from the prior show that it was ready for release. I was wrong. What a waste and 1 hr I won't get back.

Hey Gold Catcher, I used to be one of Bunk's top sellers for both of his picks. Believe it or not, he got so busy with pick sales, he was struggling making all the picks himself. I think there is a chance if you contact Bunk he could make a pick for you. However, don't quote me on this, but here is his contact info - http://www.bunknteri.com/ Rob

Thanks to Gerry for holding this Monster of a contest ! I got totally rained out so didn't enter but I DID find two clad dimes and two pennies today ! One of the pennies was even CANADIAN ! But I'm not putting it in my mouth ......Skuh kuh kuh kuh Can't wait to see who won !!!!!!

I don’t understand all I need is one!haha Wish in one hand and spit in the other to see what gets full the fastest . Chuck

I am currently testing the Apex inland but I have a very experienced friend who has tested it at the beach on the French west coast ( Bretagne ) and he said that the Apex goes deep and is a very good beach detector. From my standpoint I am not a beach hunter but I have a static test at home (a box filled with sand + salt water ) with a 2 euros coin at 10 inches depth , and I noticed that the Apex goes deep in the salt sand and hits the coin with both the Viper and the Ripper coil ... I have the 1.28 update

This isn't gold but it is Golden!

Puttin in pic 5! Gerry style...gold in mouth. However no multiplier here it was from yesterday’s finds. Thanks Gerry for putting on this contest, I had a blast doing it from day one, plus it got me some gold!

My husband's biggest hobby is metal detecting. He also owns a Minelab SDC 2300 and a Garrett AT Pro, which is his favorite. He got obsessed with it ever since finding a few valuable coins with one of his buddies under our https://trimthatweed.com/best-gravel-to-walk-on-bare-feet/ garden rocks. Those coins were the main reason behind this detecting passion, and he has found many crazy things over time. His collection is full of everything: from pull tabs, toys, marbles, hearing aids to silver and gold jewelry(even a vintage channel bracelet, which probably cost more than his detectors, haha).

Ever use a digging mat for the fussy stuff? I made one out of a piece of rubber roofing, cut it into a 12"x12" square, rounded the corners and put a finger hole in one corner so I can carry it easier. Dirt slides right back to the hole nice and it doesn't blow around in the wind. It always lays out flat even after being rolled up.

Gerry, Thank you for running the contest and I also want to say THANK YOU to all that have served and continue to serve.

Here is my pic, taken today from a little hunting trip at La Porte, CA. Good memorial weekend to all.

Was giving the Orx a run today and came across a jump signal 40's and an occasional low 70's. Iron probability was 0 and I knew it was trash but dug it out of curiosity. It turned out to be the bottom of an old tinned can that is all rusted. When I layed the can end flat out the Orx could not detect it in any of the coin modes and it would sound off in the gold modes but give no number. Tested the can end when i got back home. AT Pro gave a solid grunt and low numbers, Multi Kruzer was spot on with iron sound also. The Tejon also was able to crackle when disc one set on the iron line. I kept the Orx coin modes and first 2 gold modes stock settings including disc at 7. Not sure why the Orx can't see the can end. Bottom line is if I am running in a disc mode and come across a piece like this I could easily miss a good target below as it may be a masking problem. Has anyone else noticed this?

Oh..... you should try that. I would be curious if it actually did mask the good target if there was one. If it hears the good target, maybe that glitch is what we have been praying for, in not responding to iron but hearing something good under or near it. 😄 You never know.

I see. I think paying for the Simplex would have been less painful 😁

Point I am making is the target that is iron and shows and sounds like iron on ALL my machines except the ORX. On the ORX is is showing as ground phase which tells me that there is probably an error in their programming where or the machine is not sensitive enough to pick up on the target as being an object. Bottom line in the real world if there was a descent target near or under that flat bit of iron it would be missed by the user because it is masking without any audio response. If I hunted in all metal the sound is offset from the target much like magnetite does. I would rather hear iron than totally miss the target through silence and just see a phase meter bounce up...

Carolina and I got our 2,........😲

Now that's a ring. Outstanding finds. 👍

First and foremost, Thank you to all who made the sacrifice to give us these freedoms we hold today 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 Puttin in pics 4.... with the the multiplier!!! What a great gold day! Virgin patch found! 2.45g nuggie being the biggest! All the gold is next to the “G” in GPZ. Might have to zoom in 😂😂. 3.29g total!!

Thanks Gerry for this fine contest for a Gold Monster 1000 and especially for honoring those who are serving and those who have served for our military. A big shout out to my son, Scott serving on the Pasadena!!!!! It’s been raining constantly since Friday evening so even though my Equinox would have been fine getting wet, I am old enough to know when to give it up and get dried out. I did manage a short hunt on Sunday and came back with a couple of quality rings......sorry, no nuggets or flakes (the gold bearing creeks and rivers in the Denver area are really running fast and heavy so too dangerous). The Equinox got over a really nice .925 silver and Smoky Quartz beauty and a Navajo (Scott Skeeter) 14K gold and .925 silver band. Thanks, Jeff McClendon

Memorial Day! Coming from a long history of Family Military Service, I learned early that it’s for the Veterans that never returned Home. My Grandpa, corrected me at a young age...”It’s not Happy Memorial Day, but it’s a Good Day”. His words rang true, as I visited many American War Fallen Cemeteries in European Countries during my tours of duty. Now that I’m a US Air Force Retiree, the old Military saying of “We All Gave, But Some Gave More”, rings loud and clear on this Good Memorial Day. Now, I live in the “Battle Born State” unofficially the “Silver State” or “Sage Brush State”. Well living in the 7th largest land mass State, you have to have a modern Mule to battle the Sage Brush to find the hidden treasures of the Silver State. My Kolpin ATV Gun Racks carry my Detectors and yes, the clean ones next to the roof are brand new. My Buggy is Ruff & Ready! If you see it in your Prospecting adventures, swing by. I may need some company on a hot patch and always have a pointy finger to other nearby locations! Good Memorial Day, LuckyLundy

Puttin’ in pic 3! Man I am having some good fun with this. Tomorrow is gonna be my gold day, I can feel it! LOL. Went RZR ridin’ again all day with my wife Erin and now grillin’ up some good ole start of the summer juicy burgers. Have a great weekend everyone! Tomorrow, Let Us Never Forget.

I recently posted a day I spent continuously digging over 80 minie balls from an apparent Civil War camp firing range. I was not the only detectorist that was digging in the midst of that range hillside that day. I was one of only two who were using a PI detector (GPX 4800) in that hot Culpeper area dirt. Scattered around me were detectorists using AT Pros and Maxes and a lot of Deus and Equinoxes and a Tarsacci was present. I have heard a lot of hyperbole and debate regarding "the best" VLF detector to use in hot dirt and my conclusion having owned and used the Deus, Equinox, Tarsacci, and GPX (pre 6000) in multiple hot dirt situations that no VLF is going to touch the GPX at depth under those conditions. There just is NO comparison and now I have objective evidence of that truth. I was using a GPX 4800 with an 11" Commander DD coil with iron rejection set at 7 on the GPX. The iron was not thick as thieves but it was present and iron reject worked well to give me a clue that I was probably about to recover a nail or piece of farm scrap instead of a minie ball. What was apparent was that I was easily "shooting fish in a barrel" that day as I recovered over five times the number of keepers as anyone else that day in that same field whether it was Deus, AT Pro/Max, or Equinox. Based on my experience, that pretty much seals my opinion of VLF machines in hot dirt. Yes. You will recover targets, but you will not touch a tuned-in GPX in experienced hands even if you are highly proficient at using your VLF machine. I was constantly checking signals with my hunting partner who was using Deus to confirm this. Without going into a lot of detail but with hundreds of hot dirt swing hours on the following four machines, I can come to some conclusions: Tarsacci is no doubt the deepest VLF in hot dirt with its ability to ID non-ferrous at depth (Note: I only have experience with the 8x11 stock coil, not the "Beast" coil, but frankly, in hot dirt, ground noise is going to dominate with the larger coil footprint which will limit additional depth performance vs. stock. On the beach or mild soil conditions, the Beast will no doubt get you an additional couple inches easily vs . the stock) The ultimate depth (the depth at which you know you have a target but cannot necessarily discern ferrous vs. non-ferrous) is also deepest but probably on par with the Equinox. But the advantage Tarsacci has over Equinox is that it will ID non-ferrous deeper while the Equinox may see the same target but ID it as probable ferrous or simply give an erroneous TID. The actual depth performance is variable depending on degree of mineralization and the target type. One thing about using the Tarsacci in hot dirt is that it is important to get salt balance right in hot dirt, which is not exactly straight forward for two reasons. Hearing the nuanced audio noise minimums that indicate proper terrestrial hot dirt salt balance is tricky business and the operating frequency affects "salt" ground noise effect with higher frequencies (which are preferred for relic hunting metal compositions) being noisier than lower frequencies. So you are frequently faced with a tradeoff there. But any claims of PI-depth by the Tarsacci in hot dirt are just way overblown. It is really no contest the GPX will dominate unless there is so much iron that the GPX starts blanking out. In that case, I just might not use the Tarsacci (read on to see why). I chuckled to myself when I read a post on here about a Tarsacci user taking a deep plug and still not hearing the target with the pinpointer. Believe me that happened on probably 70% of the minie balls I recovered using the GPX and my Carrot. That is not some unique indicator of over the top detector performance. That's just what happens when your detector hits on a deep target, especially a large deep target as was the case in the post in question. Believe me, ALL those minie balls, even the ones at greater than a foot of depth in hot red clay were just banging on my headphones but were not immediately audible on my pinpointer after the first plug was pulled. Equinox retains its reputation the most versatile detector under these challenging conditions. If I could only have one detector, it would be a close contest between Equinox and Deus. Without a GPX and going into a hot dirt site, I might choose the Tarsacci as my primary weapon of choice (unless there is thick iron), but I would have no problem pulling the Equinox and having at it. Put another way. If I could only have one detector in the truck at all times it would either be the Equinox or Deus, but not the Tarsacci. The Tarsacci tone limitations and lack of signficant depth performance ADVANTAGE in mild dirt sitautions vs. Equinox or Deus, means that if I wanted to do a coin or jewelry shoot in a park with lots of modern non-ferrous trash, I would really not have a great time hitting that park with the Tarsacci vs. my trusty Deus or Equinox. Equinox would probably be my number one single detector choice as it has equivalent depth for a similar given coil size vs. the Tarsacci and probably greater depth than Deus. I especially like swinging it with the new 10X5 Coiltek elliptical and it is staying on my Equinox for the time being. If the situation involves hot dirt AND thick ferrous or non-ferrous junk targets, then the Deus is my weapon of choice. The Equinox comes close with the new Coiltek elliptical now, but the Deus still rules. The Tarsacci can get it done too, but the tone limitations make it a more difficult proposition since the audio feedback you are getting is poor even with the excellent mixed audio implementation. Deus can just navigate machine gun iron better and with Pitch audio or Gold Field mode give you the audio you need to pick ferrous from non-ferrous. If modern non-ferrous junk is the problem, then the expressive Deus full-tone audio nuanced audio distortion patterns work well to highlight aluminum can slaw and slag. So there you have it, my conclusions based not on exhaustive test garden A VS. B VS. C testing but based upon my real world experience over a variety of sites and conditions: Hot dirt for max depth with occasional ferrous: Number one choice is the GPX (pre-6000) followed by the Tarsacci which is a very distant second. If it is raining, then the Tarsacci comes out so my GPX doesn't melt like the wicked witch of West if it gets wet. Somewhat justifies the high cost of the Tarsacci vs. Equinox and Tarsacci Value vs. the GPX (pre 6000). GPX 4500/4800/5000 iron reject and target sensitivity are ideal for relic hunting vs. the Gold-focused GPX 6000. Overall Most Versatile Hot DIrt or Not and best overall value for the price: Equinox. Overall Hot Dirt plus ferrous junk or non-ferrous junk master: Deus. Salt Beach Nod (Black Sand): Tarsacci has the chops to handle any beach wet salt sand type (including black sand without dialing back transmit power like the Nox) and appears to be the most effective in moving salt water. Equinox is my choice if hunting the wet plus the dry (especially if the dry has a lot of modern trash). Deus is dry and damp sand only and only if I don't have an Equinox in the truck. GPX can handle dry and damp too for max depth but is mostly overkill unless the beach has a lot of deep, old targets hanging out on top of the buried hard pan/shell layer. Hard core, submerged water hunting: Excal II or waterproof PI (e.g., Impulse AQ or ATX or waterproofed TDI). Fresh Water: Similar to above salt beach. Tarsacci is more "honest" about its submersion capability than Equinox. Have yet to hear any report of a Tarsacci "drowning". Grab and go coin shooter in a park or field setting: Equinox with the 10x5 Coiltek. Deus if modern trash abounds (but it Is close) or one of the value detectors below. Brash Proclamation: The day of the expensive, slow ML FBS silver slayer (CTX, eTrac, Explorer) is probably nearly over in light of the capabilities and promise Multi IQ brings to the table in terms of speed, affordability, and ferrous filtering/non-ferrous signal processing headroom and sophistication. I am confident ML will come out with a Multi IQ-based successor to the less versatile CTX that will have the speed and value of the Equinox with the additional discrimination, high conductor target depth and target ID sophistication as the CTX/eTrac. Capable Value Priced Detectors: Simplex, Vanquish (though lack of adjustable GB is a big drawback), Apex. Value Comment: I find it hard to fully justify the price points of the Tarsacci and Deus (and the high end ML FBS detectors still in production) today in light of the capabilities and value that detectors like Equinox and even Simplex/Vanquish/Apex bring to the table. However, the Tarsacci has some key, niche performance features present in no other VLF and the Deus/Orx feather light ergonomic platform and strong performance and ferrous handling is still a strong seller - it has extended the ability of several folks I know to enjoy the hobby despite increasing physical limitations that come with age. The Orx is an excellent value versus the Deus but is missing some key essential tone features which only enable it to be a serviceable relic hunting backup alternative to my Deus despite the fact that it's raw performance is on par with Deus. Captain Obvious observation: No one detector VLF or PI does it all. The compact Deus is always in the Truck in the event I happen upon a swing opportunity. Heading to a general relic site, the Deus, Equinox, and Tarsacci ride along. Heading to a hot dirt relic site, the GPX hops on board too. Equinox Relics (mild dirt) GPX Hot Dirt Deus Hot Dirt GPX Hot Dirt Tarsacci Hot Dirt Equinox Hot Dirt - Eagle Minie ball Cartridge Box Strap Breast Plate and similar (but not quite the same) sounding melted aluminum slag and can junk. I dug all the junk pieces knowing that they were likely junk in the hopes of snagging a plate or similar relic. It was tedious and frustrating but did eventually pay off. Equinox Epic Hot Dirt Hunts in Pennsylvania. One Crazy Deus Hot Dirt Day in Pennsylvania. Combo of Deus, Equinox, and GPX finds in hot dirt near Culpeper. The US Cavalry bit boss was found at nearly 1.5 feet with a GPX and ML 11-inch Commander coil operating in Cancel Mode!

While I wait for availability of the 10x5 Coiltek, I decided to make myself feel better by constructing an interim solution. Good ergonomics, runs quiet and stable, great depth and separation. Almost like it was designed in cooperation with the Equinox for optimal operation. 😉 ~Tim