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Thanks Gerry, and all of you that wished me Congrats. It is much appreciated. I just saw this so I really am surprised and very grateful. I got skunked today gold prospecting (nothing new there but at least I managed a few non-ferrous targets in an area that is target rich with hot rocks, magnetite, square nails and disintegrating tin/steel from late 1800s hydraulicking) so maybe a new Goldmonster 1000 will come in handy. I guess in a way, I didn’t get skunked after all. thanks again Gerry, Detector Prospector and all of you who contributed and read this great topic. Jeff

Just so you all know, I ran out of Likes today so please don’t be offended. First and foremost. I cannot say in words...because I don't think there are enough and or I don't know the proper way to say it. But as a Marine and one who signed up knowing the ultimate sacrifice could be... and then hearing the news of a few USMC brothers who never came home, my heart goes out to those families and loved ones. Memorial Day is a proud day for many, yet heart-wrenching somber for others as each of us treat it differently. There's not... it's easy as black or white, right or wrong in my mind as some of us have never taken the knock on the door that tears our heart out. But yes, so many have had to go through that pain and agony. Memorial Day means so much to so many and in a variety of ways. All I can do is thank each of you who did post pics, stories and tributes to your loved ones and those who gave their all. I salute you. Now onto our freedoms of this fine forum, the ability for members to go out and make new memories with family/friends or be solitude how you desire. We had a pretty good turn out for this contest and there were a few 1st timers making comments, posting pics and having fun. It’s good to get new faces/names on DP and active with what we all enjoy (detecting and gold). Yes I realize we have some highly successful Swingers and I thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise for all of us to learn. Also, I see some young blood newer names who joined in the fun and I hope each of you continue to ask questions and share your experiences as you progress and get better. It’s the asking, sharing, bouncing off ideas/knowledge that eventually helps us all become better with our detectors. You must realize, even guys like Steve H and I who have been chasing nuggets with detectors for 25 yrs and a few members even longer (especially you Aussie mates), but the reality is….we were all greenhorns at one time and dumb as a rock. Eventually down the road, we’ll be old and not so nimble, so we’ll be looking for you newer gold chasers to help keep our fire and dreams/desire going. The tally – My count showed approx. 60 names went into the drawing for the Dream. The winner of the Dream GPX-6000? Everyone who entered, posted, commented and yes even you Northeast & Norvic. I thank you all. The winner of the new Minelab Gold Monster 1000 is…… Jeff McClendon. Jeff, please call Gerry’s Detectors so I may get this Monster sent out to you. Again, thanks everyone for posting pics, sharing memories, family stories & contributions to those who gave the ultimate. Hopefully down the road I’ll be able to meet some of you out in the gold fields and we can make some memories and dig a few nuggies. Then we can share pics, stories and knowledge for others to glean. Happy Hunting all. Thanks, Gerry Gerry's Detectors 208-345-8898 www.gerrysdetectors.com Gold Detector Field Training Genuine Metal Detecting Experts

June is looking good already. Size 5, 1.8g, 18K & PLAT, 2 diamond and 1 Sapphire ring. Working the wet into the surf. Equinox 800, Beach 1, sensitivity 23, AM. Also got two small silver bands but they are not as photogenic as this little pretty thing. Oh, I found my name again. CUNIAGAU

8 grammer found at 11 inches. Nothing special as most detectors PIs should see something that big at that depth, but at least we get to see a big one finally found on film.

Good one Gerry! A good contest idea and very generous of you, also congratulations Jeff, I'm really pleased you won it. You'll put that Monster through its paces. I really like the Monster and I'm sure you will too.

Learning the Orx with 9" hf and scouting an older section of a park that many ignore. A lot of can slaw but overall good finds are sparse. Will hit it for deep targets later on but came across a couple of flat buttons not too old maybe turn of the century and this cool butterfly broach. Weighs 8g but has no markings. Base metal is not a pot metal so either platinum or maybe silver with spot gold plating on it. Thinking platinum base because of the detail in the casting. One of the wings got chewed up as it was under the turf and in with some gravel. Don't think it's an old piece just done well. Veins on wings are the base metal.

But this depth is more impressive on a 1/4 grammer.

Thank's for your service Gerry, and all the other's that served, and those who didn't come home!!😔🙏🇺🇸 And of course the contest! That was fun, and solemn at the same time! Not an easy combo to pull off! Jeff, congratulations! You are well deserving of the prize, and are in the right places to put it to good use! I only entered once to give you all a better chance,😜 and to enjoy a rare picture of my good looking mug!🤓 Not to much call for a Monster in S. Florida, but who knows; the occasional nugget does turn up at the 1715 wreck sites on the Treasure Coast!👍👍

Thanks for the great idea, Gerry! And also for sharing your thoughts about this important day and about the heroes we lost and their families. Jeff, congratulations! I know the Monster is not highly regarded by some, but you will see this is a great detector, in particular when paired with the 5 inch coil. It is very sensitive to small gold and handles mineralized ground surprisingly well. It is my to-go detector in highly trashed river canyons where an iron meter is a must have. It has found me many nice little flakes and nuggets and some bigger ones too. You will love it! GC

I can't give you the exact name. It is definitely and intrusive igneous rock with the minerals quartz, mica and feldspar visible. It has been rounded by being in moving water or rounded by desert sand and wind.

Believe me, it is great for relic hunting in hot dirt and junk iron. See some examples of my ORX finds below. I prefer the pitch audio and full tones audio of the Deus, though, so the ORX serves more as a backup. Even though I prefer the ground grab implementation and the way target/ground condition/settings are displayed on the ORX. I don’t think there is a bug in the way ORX “sees” ground phase and mineralization but I will note that for auto ground balance tracking on Deus, the Deus has an advanced setting for ground sensitivity which sets the responsiveness for GB tracking to preclude overcompensation due to the detector tracking algorithm responding to ferrous targets (the tracking feature is absent on ORX but the ORX ground grab feature pretty much obviates the need for it, you hear ground noise, punch the ground grab button and make it go away).

I purchased the 12 inch Nuggetfinder Z coil from Rob last week. I took the stock coil off and held the stock and Z coil in my arms held straight out. What a significant weight reduction on the new coil. I had a couple of hours free last Sunday. So I went up to a beaten patch of mine that I've found 100s of small nuggets in and a few bigger pieces. I found this nugget in 2 hours of looking. Not sure how I missed this with the stock coil, but I did. I had to have been over that spot dozens of times. Never heard anything there. But 1st pass with the Z coil it gave me a down low with a slight warble. About 10 inches down it popped out. I also have to say pinpointing is so much easier with this new coil. Reminded me of pinpointing with the NF coils on the gpx 5000. The weight difference and pinpointing are a major plus in my book. The 8.2 Pennywight darn near payed off the coil in 2 hours of detecting. I'll be getting out this weekend for a full day of detecting and can give more information on new coil.

Thanks for the contest Gerry ! I try to live for my friends that didn't come back and help those that did , a broken shell of what they were before going.......... Congrats Jeff ! May your luck continue on the hunt.

Now that is one to display but you will have to lock it up if I get close 🧐

99% of my detecting is done on central Florida beaches. Since it’s impossible to establish a well stocked test garden at a public beach, I sorta brought the beach home with me and developed my own private beach garden! I cut slots in two large empty chlorine tablet buckets at various depths as shown from 2 -16 inches. I then filled one with New Smyrna Beach sand and the other with soil...for the few times I land hunt around here. I embedded numerous examples of ferrous and non ferrous targets into paint stirring sticks. I also have several blank sticks I use for gold and silver jewelry as well as artifacts that I don’t want permanently attached to a stick. I then insert the target(s) in the slots, each at its desired depth, and start scanning. This allows me to rapidly change the targets, depth and relative position of each. I can now test for sensitivity at depth as well as separation of ferrous and non-ferrous targets in a variety of scenarios using actual beach sand where I do my detecting. If I want to test in wet salt sand, I just soak the bucket sand with authentic sea water that I also brought home from New Smyrna Beach...and the Atlantic Ocean never even missed it. 😉 Works for me.....

Hello fellow detectorists, To anyone thying to decide what metal detector brand to choose in my opinion MINELAB is great , just wanted to let you know about Minelab service and people who work for them in USA. I have a ctx3030, In January 2021, when my warranty was about to expire, my ctx control box got wet I sent it to minelab service . I talked to a lady named Molly, she was great. I was then instructed to sent the detector to service to a man named John DeAmeritt ( great guy ). He tested and replaced the LED screen and sent the machine back , again the machine did not work properly so i sent it back. After much testing John could not find the reason for the problem so they put a whole new control box on it in May. The unit cost $1200 - 1300 for part and stilled covered cost Thank you MInelab

3 more outings with the Apex/Ripper . Wood and forest , moderate to high iron trash . THE GOOD NEWS : - I confirm my previous feelings ; the Apex is a fast machine and fun to use , I have used it for coin and 1st ww relic hunting and it works very well. I like the short "bips" on targets. The Ripper coil is excellent , very accurate , very light , sensible to tiny targets , great separation and easy pinpointing with a good depth . Excellent MS3 wireless headphones etc ... 🙂 THE BAD NEWS : - I had false signals again during my last outing , this as soon as I started the Apex... 🤔 As I was using the MF mode , I decided to try the single freqs. The 20 and 15kh were still noisy , only the 10 and 5khz were quieter and I decided to carry on with the 10k freq. A few minutes later , I decided to do a test : I stopped the MS3 and the Apex , unplugged the coil connector, replugged the coil connector and restarted the machine . And miracle , the false signals had totally disappeared after this , even in the MF mode... And I could detect up to the end of the outing without any pb ... Weird ... The good thing ; now I have a bypass in case of false signals 🙂 .. However I have never seen such a behaviour on a detector , I will call my seller tomorrow about this , so that he can inform the Garrett support .. CONCLUSION : Up to now I have a total of 6 outings with the Apex / Ripper , total time 13 hours. Apart from this false signal "mystery" , the Apex is a very good machine especially for European areas which require fast detectors because of their often high iron trash density... To summarize : - fast and reactive - very light ( especially with an home made front carbon shaft , a new foam handle and arm rest / 2,1 lbs with the Ripper ) 🙂 Now I will focus on the Viper coil , I will open a new thread for the Apex/Viper testing..

Hey Guys, I have a few testimonials on it so far, but here is one - Hey Rob, got the coil yesterday and got out for a couple hours in the evening. Worked an area where I’ve found good gold and have worked to death with the stock coil and a gold monster. I like the Z search

Looks like this coil may be the answer to my "I own a 7000 should I get a 6000" dilemma. By the way, I like the old name tag better than the new one--looks more "professional".🤓

Improvement on previous GPXs, and with good slow coil control, allowing the 6000s GB to work goes close to illiminating in my ground. Operator coil control is still paramount, and I suspect always will be.

Aye you fellows are in for a treat, I`ve got to agree with the user comments in that last vid the shaft lockdowns are a wee annoying, imagine the aftermarket fellows will come up with a better idea, but the depth/signal response in difficult/varying ground of the 6000 will blow you away.

That 8 gram'r would make a beautiful pendant for sure

Very interesting! Both are nice finds. Yes, the depth on the 1/4 gram is impressive. 🙂 Looks like the 6000 could be a winner. It will be nice to see the results of its application here in the states once we have machines in the field.

In tougher grounds I find my Kruzer to be much better because it always detects iron and reports it back accordingly so old camps in the woods etc I simply don't have the confidence in the Orx on how it more often than not does not have an iron tone when obvious iron is present. Poking around parks it's fine for me for now.

That is a nice save..I only ever remember finding one butterfly broach and most of one wing was broke off...this one looks old to me but who knows..Might be worth taking it to a jeweler to identify and have touched up? strick

On ya Jeff and thank you Gerry for being a few pennyweights short of an ounce, nah only avin a go.😉

Love the Color of Gold! 🏴‍☠️

I'm still the guy. 😆 I just don't carry Coiltek anymore. I still have a few WALCO picks, and I have my own brand of pick, However, it's not like the old Serial Killer pick I designed for WALCO. This is my Nugget Stalker Pick. I still have a few WALCO picks left I think. Doc

You waited 12 years, when all you had to do was call me! You never know what I have sitting on my shelves until you ask. Doc

Congratulations Jeff.

Jeff, Congratulations! You’ll enjoy your new Monster. Rick

Nice. Don't know how it rang up (guessing mid conductor) but platinum would likely ring towards ferrous and silver base would ring high, so your acid test makes sense.

I've already asked Minelab if I could buy a replacement pod only as I have multiple coils and a share shaft and arm cuff. Minelab said NO. They will not just sell a pod, only if the detector you own is faulty and out of warranty will they sell you a replacement pod, I would assume once they've verified yours is dead.

Thanks for the fun contest Gerry and Congratulations Jeff!

The main difference I found between it and the standard GPZ coil was the weight, noticeably lighter. I think with coils the standard rules apply for most coils though with the same winding type, the smaller the coil the more sensitive to small gold and that's what I've been finding. It's a good thing for people that find the standard coil heavy, and now with the lightweight 6000 out anything to lighten up the 7000 a bit sure doesn't hurt and the NF coil feels a fair bit lighter 🙂 I've only used it a couple of times prospecting, other than that just some experimenting and comparing.

Is this what you are looking for? https://www.ebay.com/itm/252678175953 Or is that the guy who ripped you off? I see no bad ratings for the seller. $40 + shipping is a bit steep though. Apparently, he sells all kinds of Fisher stuff as well as other brands. https://www.ebay.com/str/dmoutstandingbargainxchange

That need not be the case at all. The machine is very simple to operate (basic start guide below). The issue at hand is nugget detecting. VLF discrimination in mineralized ground is unreliable at best. You should not use discrimination, but should be using all metal, digging all targets, and leaning hard on a magnet on a stick to separate ferrous from non-ferrous. It is absolutely impossible to reliably separate gold nuggets from lead, aluminum, or any other non-ferrous items from other non-ferrous items, and at a minimum you must dig all non-ferrous items. Brass, copper, and silver do tend to deliver higher probability numbers, but so will large nuggets. If you wish, I recommend using all metal, in conjunction with the meter reading, to make a dig or no-dig decision regarding ferrous. A ferrous object should bang repeatedly to far left, never bouncing above 40. You do ten sweeps, you get ten far left readings. If, on the other hand, you get one or more hits that bounce higher, especially if the bounce over 40, dig it. I've seen nuggets in bad ground read ferrous over and over, with only rare spikes to non-ferrous. But be aware that some ferrous also spiked high, and you will dig those. As you should, unless you like leaving nuggets in the ground. Look for reasons to dig, as opposed to reasons not to dig. You must dig targets, and lots of them, if you want gold. By using all metal, and using the probability meter constantly, you will learn the odds via meter readings and repetition, and can shift the odds as you please by modifying the resulting dig/no-dig decisions. How that meter responds is key, and that varies with how fast you swing, and how the coil approaches the target. Bouncy numbers are common, and the weaker the target, the less you can believe what you are being told. In truly trashy areas I get more picky, in less trashy areas I get more aggressive. The last method is go to the discriminate "beep mode" and use the actual tones and rejection settings, just like coin hunting. This makes dealing with the worst trash easier, but it also tends to miss more gold, so for me it is a last ditch approach for the trashiest locations. See my detailed review of the 24K for more on that. Goldmaster 24K Quick Start FACTORY RESET - Hold the Down button when turning on the detector. Press the Pinpoint button when “Fd” is on screen, to reset the machine to factory defaults. Just in case. VOLUME - Set the volume to your preference (tap Speaker button, use Up and Down buttons). THRESHOLD - Set the threshold to a faint hum (hold Speaker button, use Up and Down buttons). For silent search, turn the threshold down until it can’t be heard, but no farther. SENSITIVITY - Set the sensitivity to a level that ensures smooth operation (Up and Down buttons). The 24K will generate a harsh overload sound if the coil is placed on ground too mineralized for the setting. If this occurs, reduce sensitivity until the overload tone does not occur. GROUND BALANCE - The default mode is automatic XGB ground tracking. Simply raise and lower the coil over the ground a few inches, two or three times, and start detecting. Alternately, lock the ground tracking by tapping the Lock button (a Lock symbol appears on screen). While the tracking is locked, you can press the Cross Hair button to perform a Ground Grab. This updates the ground setting to what is currently under the coil. With a combination of Locked tracking and Ground Grab you can easily update the ground balance point as you swing. DIG ALL TARGETS - With an emphasis on the faintest targets. A magnet on a pick or a wand can make quick work of excavated ferrous items, while recovering all non-ferrous targets. If an operator wishes to avoid digging ferrous items, employ the meter to ignore items that repeatedly, and reliably, produce far left meter indications. However, always remember that discrimination is unreliable on weak signals, and strive whenever possible to dig all targets while nugget detecting. RETAINED SETTINGS - The Goldmaster 24K will retain your settings when powered off. Once you get the machine set for a particular area, it will be ready to go next time you power it up. When in doubt, repeat the steps above, starting fresh with a factory reset.

On the gold fields depth is greatly reduced. To show beginners how easy it is to miss a target we would punch a hole in the ground and place some lead at different depths and sizes. The area was about 10 foot by 10 foot and would tell them to try and find any targets but not dig them up. Most people found one or two targets after we told them that they had not found all of them, they found three or four more. When we told them there was a dozen targets and showed them were they were, they could get most of them. As the target varied in size and depth some missed the tiny bits and others missed the real deep larger ones. Anyway the point is that you can learn a lot from a well setup test bed, as most of them found gold soon after.

What frequency and coil were you using? Flat round iron tends to wrap around easily to the high 90’s on ORX and Deus and since the detector is being “fooled” in those circumstances, you will likely not get an iron probability reading unless the ID also bounces into the ferrous range. Deus has additional settings (silencer) and setups (TID free to vary with frequency, pitch audio) that help better ID iron that is wrapping around and falsing high. ORX lacks these features. As mentioned previously by Jeff McClendon, you can interrogate the target in Gold mode with a high iron audio reject setting to see if the audio breaks up in gold mode. Usually you just have to take your medicine on round flat iron and dig it to be 100% sure.

Nice looking ring, glad you were able to get the save on it. Good luck on your next outing.

Yes the 800, I didn't ask about the 600.

Being it is a expensive water machine and the battery compartment is not Big and the factor of you doing it yourself, then with limited knowledge of how to...I would try and purchase one from Fisher, or someone equal. Pulled diagram, Pimento will add the correct

Great find on the butterfly and I had thought it was gold when I first seen it. Silver would have been more damaged than what I seen, I have seen them done in gold and silver before. Great find and happy hunting on your next trip.

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.

Yours has the same logo as mine, I believe that was the logo used on the first batch then it changed over to a new logo for some reason.

Hey Gold Catcher, Ya, I gotten a lot of feedback so far, everyone is super impressed by then. I love the fact it's even more sensitive, but the biggest factor is the weight overall of the GPZ 7000, so the lighter coil makes it easy hunting without a bungee all day for me. Here are a few more pictures of the first coil I got, notice the logo is slightly a bit different than the new one.

Mike .... smaller coil 7 "detech ultimate ,, or 6x8" Sef .. can do enough to reduce the effect of Emi ,,, combined with a stable working frequency offset .... Another decisive factor is after using a 5Hz Band or 7.5Hz / 10Hz / 12.5Hz Band ground filter and also using TX bost ON in combination with a reduced RX Gain - it can strongly reduce the effect of EMI on my other coils ... 12X10 " SEF or 13 "Ultimate ... if you change the ground filter type Band to type High ... 5Hz / 7.5Hz / 10hz High ... the resistance of the detector against Emi decreases strongly .. The only filter of the High type that is sufficiently resistant to emissions is the Ground filter 12.5hz High- but it is also the least deep ... so I use it only for strong 2D separation in iron. Finally, the use of a highly set sensitivity of DS at 97 only confirms ... how stable the detector is at such settings ... TX bost ON in addition to EMI resistance at Spectra V3 can strongly add depth, as well as sensitivity to small objects ... - therefore it should use the "standard setting" of the detector - especially when working on 3F multifrequency.-because the multifrequency without bost is power and less deep than the 1F frequency alone ...

Back when the machine was designed, batteries were not so good. So it's quite likely that with good modern batteries, it would work OK with just two series-connected batteries, just shorter run-time. That would simplify a homebrew attempt. Blank copper-clad fibreglass/GRP sheet , the raw material for PCB manufacture, should be available from eBay / electronics surplus dealers / ham radio suppliers. It can be hand cut with a sharp knife to create PCB tracks. The PP3 terminals could be salvaged from dead batteries, or the flying-lead connectors of some obsolete gadget.

OK I admit, the gold is real, but not from WY. As Brian said, WY is not known for gold, just gold diggers.

Yes nice set up I have a similar test garden with 4 boxes filled with different ground thicknesses. The targets are simply set down under the middle of the boxes. The first boxes are filled with inland mild ground and the 4th filled with sand and salt water. I use these boxes since 4 or 5 years now and they are VERY helpful to test different settings of a machine. Of course field tests are the most important but you learn a lot of things with these kind of test gardens... On the pics below I was testing the Garrett Apex ..