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Fri. hunt and one of my better hunts this season. 28 bits for a whopping 2.1g.....lol But I'm having fun grinding em out, one bit at a time!!!!!

This forum had lots of 'finds' in the past but not so many now as most are waiting to get their 6000. The Equinox and a few other detectors can still hunt. Use them and post what you find fellas. Here is a pendant I found today which is unusual that it is 14k. Most of my religious finds are 10k or less. This one weighs 4.5 grams.

Spent 4 days in Nevada last week and hit 4 different places that consisted of a Military Fort and 3 ghost towns all on private property. Found a nice assortment of stuff. Coins are pretty crusty but should clean up OK. The holed looking coin turn out to be a ration token that has been counter stamped a bunch of time. It reads U.S, Subsistence Department on the one side and had One ration on the other.

I always want lower price detectors. I was hoping the 6K would be half what it is selling for. But I will say this. Minelab invests millions of dollars into single models. Nobody would ever have created this technology if it had to sell for under a certain price. It should be obvious Minelab has far more financial horsepower than the competition, and it is this ability to have the largest and best engineering staff on the planet that truly makes the difference. They are the leaders, dumping huge amounts into R&D while the competition trickled money into decals and new paint jobs. There is a genuine cost here. If I recall right, the GPZ 7000 ran up 50,000 plus engineering man hours in development. From http://www.codan.com.au/Portals/0/investorpubs/Half Year Company Announcement Feb 2015 Final complete.pdf in 2015: "Minelab launched the GPZ 7000 gold detector to the market in February. This is a significant new product platform that has taken five years to develop at a cost of over $10 million." The truth is Minelab had the guts to go big on advanced technology while everyone else played it safe. Everyone turned their nose up at Bruce Candy when he was looking to sell his original PI tech to U.S. manufacturers. I know for a fact they simply lacked the vision to see what Bruce saw. So instead he started the company that’s now putting those arrogant, self satisfied companies out of business. There is a lot to hate about Minelab over the years, but if they had not come along, we’d probably be at least a decade back from where we are now. The Fisher F75 and Garrett ATX would be top dogs. So while I hate the high prices as much as anyone, and agree that competition would help, it’s not that simple. If we want companies to pump $10 million into a single model, expect it will be a very expensive detector.

Ok, so these turned up on Thursday - actually early - excellent! These things are much smaller and lighter than I was expecting which is nice. They easily sit in a top pocket or could be velcroed to a harness or something. Played with them Thursday night and they both connected but at home the GPX6 was going crazy with EMI so got out this arvo for a couple of hours to really see if they work properly. The SoundPeats - connect easy, very good sound quality, bring up the Bluetooth + sign on the GPX6. Used them for about 2 hours and they did not drop out a single time. Very happy with them. Obviously no comment re: battery time as yet. Not that it this is a downside for me, as I only brought these for detecting, but I cannot get them to Transmit from either the TV or the GPX6. If I wanted them for that I would be returning them but like I said, I have no intention for using them for anything except detecting. Maybe I need to clear device history or something but I won't bother. Another thing to note is that the audio coming through is just perfect using the Philips Sports 'sitting just out the ear' ear buds. Even a tiny bit louder and they would be too loud and this is with the GPX6 audio turned right down. Someone using in-ear ear buds might actually benefit from using a booster to turn the volume down a little. Most of you would know but these are purely a Transmitter/Receiver - there is no Volume control. The TaoTronics - I connected these at the end of the detecting session just to see if they work. One thing I have found is that I have to Factory Reset the GPX6 before trying to connect a different Bluetooth device otherwise it just keeps searching for ages. After a Factory Reset it connects quite quickly. The TaoTronics did connect and the audio was clear and a little louder than through the SoundPeats device (a little too loud). But, it would not connect with the Bluetooth + sign. After getting home and checking the Amazon write up I found this: LOW DELAY: Low Latency for High-fidelity Stereo Sound, lag-free content streaming in transmitter mode. Low Latency supported Bluetooth receiver is required. So, they are Low Latency but only in Transmitter Mode - missed that one. Incidentally, they do work perfectly well in Transmitter Mode and will therefore be used for TV so someone can watch the footy or a movie and not have the TV distracting someone else. So, a big YES vote for the SoundPeats being used as a Receiver for the GPX6. A big NO vote for the Tao Tronics due to no Low Latency when used in Receive mode. A medium YES vote for the little bits of yella found for the evening 😀 0.64 grams.

Welcome back Reg you rascal. 😀 My post from Finders for forum readers: What’s there to say about the 6000? Not a lot really 🧐 It’s been designed to be used by just about anyone, so my advice is to just switch it on and go detecting. 😝 Use the Velcro cable ties, one with a nice coil lead loop near the coil (just above the point where the coil edge touches the shaft when laid flat) and the other Velcro between the upper lock knuckle and the handle to prevent cable movement near the connector. Leave a little looseness in the cable between the two, too tight and there will be noise created by stiction on the lead when the shaft flexes. I do not recommend using the inbuilt speaker but I say that about every gold detector with a speaker as I am not a fan of the audio source moving around, plus I hate the 6000 speaker with a passion because it is Shyte. Do not use the Quest Tx device or any BT Tx near the control box, the 6000 is super sensitive to electronic devices being anywhere near the control box, mobile phones included (especially when phone signal is weak). Do NOT be tempted to drive too much audio volume to achieve target sensitivity, I strongly suggest starting with the Volume low and gradually increase it as it is easier to adjust your brain that way rather than the other way around. It is much better to run a low volume and increase the sensitivity (I start at full Manual mode and adjust back from there). The BT headphones have a lot of volume range so it’s a bit of juggle to get the volumes correct between unit and headphones. Start at 2 on the control box and halfway on the headphones. If your right handed put the volume control side of the headphones on your right ear and opposite for lefties. This cuts way down on dropped audio packets. The 6000 takes a while to stabilise from a cold start so boot it up and leave it running for a bit while you gear up, you will notice the threshold is extremely dominant and target sensitivity is drowned out. When I see someone on YouTube turning on a 6000 and immediately waving over a target I just shake my head. You will also notice the threshold takes a while to stabilise after performing an auto tune so give it a few seconds to stabilise before checking suspect targets etc. In extremely saturable ground the 6000 has two ground balance heights, one is a general height at usual detect height levels in most ground types but in extremely saturable HOT ground there is a 40mm to ground GB that requires a bit more care, slow careful pumping of the coil in this zone will allow for careful close to ground detecting in extremely variable ground. A good operator from the VLF era will soon work out you need to be on the Quick-Trak button on a regular basis, the 6000 is extremely sensitive as such it will express audio responses over variable ground that the auto GB will not keep up with, GOOD operators understand this intuitively and keep on the QT button as par for course. Do not get sloppy with the QT process, take your time and move the coil in a measured and controlled way, the days of a quick pump and walk in hot ground have long gone, that’s the price we pay for the incredible sensitivity of the GPX 6000 platform. Adhere to these precepts and you will soon discover the 6000 is nigh on as sensitive to small gold as a high frequency VLF (I kid you not, I personally do not chase the fly-chit stuff but you can easily find ‘wet your finger to pick up gold’ with this detector). The shaft needs to be firmly held to prevent twisting below the lock knuckle when tightening, so hold the shaft ABOVE the knuckle your turning with one hand and tighten with the other till it is firm, repeat the process on the lower one. I leave mine loose enough that I can place my foot on the coil and apply a firm twisting pressure to align the coil with the control box. If you find it is twisting out of alignment during detecting or when lifting the coil while you scrape at a suspect target with your boot then just tighten the offending knuckle using the above described method. In Quiet ground Auto+ has the ability to achieve more sensitivity than the manual modes, by default the Auto modes are threshold off so you need to long press the Ground Type button for 2.5 seconds to get threshold. (this will revert to threshold OFF on a power cycle BTW). Small target sensitivity comes from the Difficult mode, so in Normal the timing is a blend of Normal and Difficult. If the gold is primarily tiny then there will be little difference between Normal and Difficult so do-not unnecessarily put up with ground noise using Normal in the hopes of achieving more sensitivity on tiny gold. There is also no need to re-ground balance when going from one timing to the other as both timings are ground balanced in the background regardless of the timing selected (Thanks to GeoSense) 😊 JP

This letter should have been: Dear Competition, Please get your act together and make a decent prospecting PI detector, Minelab currently has total control of the market charging extremely high prices for their equipment as they have absolutely no competition so it's money for the taking if you can come out with a reasonable performance, good quality, light weight, modern automatic ground balancing PI detector with good sensitivity to small gold and affordable to the weekend warrior market along with EASE OF USE it will sell like crazy to those not willing to pay Minelab's pricing but still want to have a bit of fun prospecting. The weekend warrior market is likely a huge untapped market largely due to insane pricing limiting the buyer pool to only those more serious about it. You don't have to beat them in performance, just make something that is worth using and built to last, support for GPX coils would help it sell. Thank you for listening Fisher, Nokta and even Garrett, not pointing out any names of course. Simon Even if you didn't want to buy the competitions detector it would drive down some of Minelab's pricing when they see it eating into their market.

Apothecary scale weights, used on gold scales

Firstly my thanks to the guys at Coiltek. After dreadful weather here in central Victoria, and recovering from surgery, this morning dawned clear and sunny. Nice hot coffee and before the dew was off the ground I had the 6000 cranked up. Rudimentary reading of the manual the previous day saw the new detector humming sweetly after a short warm up. JP had been most helpful with a few tips on the local Finders forum, so it was quite easy to feel a certain amount of confidence as I ground balanced and paired up the headphones, which are surprisingly good compared to some of Minelab's previous offerings. There is a shallow but substantial lead running west to east across my fifty acre property which yielded a small amount of gold to my GPZ a few years back. I had gridded out the most promising area at the time, so it seemed obvious that this would be a good place to test my new toy. Not bothering to take a pick I headed off towards the east end of the block. Where on earth did these signals come from? A number were I am sure just shotgun pellets, but a few were at a reasonable depth as I tilted the coil to get some idea of just how deep. The more interesting signals I marked with boot scuffs and will check out within the next few days. I did not get to go back for my pick as a visitor turned up to have me check his detector. Initial impressions; Pretty damned good.

5 Hours today behind the Nuggetfinder 12. I had a chance to get out with this new coil. I like it . I can hunt longer and easier to swing on hillsides. Very good on small gold deep. Was lucky enough to find 21 nuggets. It has been a long time since I had a 21 nugget day so I am sold 100 %

Crikey, JP your right again, you`ll make a dinosaur yet, I suspect those of us who came from the VLF days will find the 6K easy as. Not over driving the audio and slow coil control are the go for sure, the exact opposite portrayed by most of those vids out there, but that`s not new, before vids every gold field caravan park had a xter knocking anything new

Let it be a wind that brings wisdom and knowledge from a legend. Welcome back, Reg!!

Hope you don’t mind me stepping in here to offer an opinion? 🧐 Hark you’re mind back to when the GPZ7000 was released, at the time the GPX5000 was the top dog for gold detecting which the 7000 then pushed out of the way. Over time the vast majority of 7000 owners have taken advantage of the better depth capability on ‘fast time constant’ targets rather than the outright depth advantage on large gold the tech has on offer. This is largely due to the gold fields just not having the right conditions for many large nuggets still being left in the ground at depth thanks to the inverse square law. As an example a large nugget at 3 feet detectable by the 5000 and the 7000 does not need to go much deeper for the 5000 to sign off but alas thanks to the inverse square law there’s not a lot more depth required for the 7000 to sign off as well. 😞 Once nuggets get beyond a certain range from the coil it becomes a highly specialised operator to be able to take advantage of it. Therefore the vast majority of GPZ owners spend a very large proportion of their time chasing the more friable ‘fast time constant’ gold that is still well within range that is missed by switching field-collapsing PI machines. Add in the weight factor of the 7000 and it soon starts to become a more specialised machine that requires a lot of effort from the operator. In reality the 6000 is on the same performance curve as the GPX5000 when it comes to large gold at depth although at present there are only a few coils available if you want to go head to head. Where the 6000 does shine, and very brightly at that, is ergonomics and fast time constant sensitivity. I see no real need to focus on the 6000 outright depth capability on large gold because we have the 7000 for that plus there have been plenty of 5000’s with a variety of coil sizes go over the goldfields in the past even to present day. It is however good to know when you are using the 6000 for what it was intended for it will let you know if a decent piece is lurking, not as good as a 7000 but still just as good as the 5K. Just my 0.2 cents JP

I can tell that one thing Camo don’t work when your wife is looking for you. Chuck

Time for a bump as part of the welcome back. Reg is a part of detecting history, and people who do not know, need to see this stuff. Thanks for doing this JR.

Well look what the wind blew in. Welcome back Reg.

Hello All, I am the current owner of Sun Ray Detector Electronics. I normally am not one to post, Kind of lurker and read comments. I do take feedback from comments and try to match products to the need of our end user. This head phone was created to do to just that. The fact more manufactures are using 1/8 audio outputs is all across the spectrum. We also wanted something different other than a non-fitting adapter that normally don't hold up. We wanted 1 pair that will fit more/most detectorist needs. Thanks for the feedback, continued swinging. Joe DeMarco-Sun Ray Detector Electronics

I've been hunting the yard of a house we have been working on for a few weeks. The house is the first or second house built in that town and has some decent history. So far I have only found 3 old horseshoes, a completely shot rusted pocket watch, a few pieces of lead pipe, a few newer coins, many rusted cans, and a ton of rusted chunks of steel. I was about to leave the job today and decided to search for a half hour or so. I was about to leave and decided to dig another signal that sounded decent. It ended up being an Indian Head Penny. I was pretty excited to finally find an old coin on that property. After rechecking the hole I ended up finding 8 more IHP in a space about the size of a table place mat. I searched all around that area and found on more less than two feet away from the first hole. They are in pretty rough shape. After only rinsing under the faucet, the top 2 show dates of 1891 and 1883. The bottom 2 are unrecognizable. Hopefully with some cleaning I can get a few more dates off of them.

I did some quick calculations the other day and to my surprise, realised that I have spent over $15,000 buying your awesome metal detectors. I don’t have a problem with that because I hunt the beach and water during the summer and hit the gold fields during the winter. My issue is with the current line up of gold detectors, specifically the pulse induction units which range in price from about $6000 to $10000 dollars. I know you plough a good deal of money into R&D but I feel a lot of your loyal purchasers are being neglected. I remember the days when the SD2100v1 and SD2200v2 detectors were available at a reasonable price as well as the reintroduction of the GPX4500 ( but I suspect as a reaction to perceived competition). These units were available alongside your official top of the line detectors so that Mr Average could afford a high performance detector. What has happened to your ability to still offer affordable pulse machines and not have to remortgage the family home? Mr Minelab......or is it Mr Codan.......your business model is sure keeping your stockholders happy but it is a far cry from how things used to be. Current new PI units are out of the reach of many users who have supported your company for over 25 years. I could go out tomorrow and buy a new GPX6000 but the reason that I won’t is twofold......my old 2100 and 3500 running both small and large monos perform very well for me AND I don’t want to further encourage Minelabs perception that “if we build it (and sell it for a premium price) they will come”. I fully applaud the GPX6000 platform based upon initial feedback from owners but COME ON..........stop making it an exclusive club !

I have only have had a few hours with the 6000 and am still in the learning stage. No gold as yet, but have dug a lot of targets missed by other machines. After reading a number of posts on the Bluetooth headphones, about pairing and battery life, I decided to see if there is an alternative to have as a back up. I did find the pairing a bit fiddly, although the sound was quite good with more than enough volume, and very comfortable. Being a big fan of the Quest Mate Wireless system, I decided to experiment on the feasibility of using this set up which would enable the use noise cancelling headphones or ear buds. As it turned out the wireless system worked quite well with the Tx mounted with Velcro on the arm cuff. This is far enough away from the electronics to avoid interference. The Rx has a volume control that gave ample sound when dialled up, and the n/c phones when switched on also gave a slight volume increase. I now have the security of knowing that I have a viable option to the factory Bluetooth should it at any time give problems.

Thanks for that note, Steve. I could not agree more. The RD cost behind every new technology it's tremendous. I work in the pharmaceutical industry. People often ask why many drugs are so expensive. Well, it costs about two to three billion dollars to develop one single medication. If we don't make this money back and some profit, we will just not invent better medicines that help people. It is that simple. It is a sad reality that I don't like neither, but this is just the reality take it or not. GC

Looks like you had a great time! I admit I’ll probably never be a relic hunter. When gold nuggets and relics beckon, the gold nuggets always win. You guys would be horrified what I toss as “junk” but that’s just the way I swing. Thanks for taking the time to shoot and share video. It’s work as far as I am concerned, so kudos to anyone that takes the time. Some nice, intelligent commentary.

Keep up the good work ,it not the detector (those it does adds to the results) it is the effort, and keep the rest of us hyped up.

Thanks Joe. It probably is sand. I thought I got it all but I didn't put this piece in an ultrasonic cleaner yet. I almost thought this was Mary and then I looked at the bottom and thought it was a fish and that would make it The Sermon on the Mount and then there could be others. It does look like two pieces. The figurine is more silver or white gold than the holder.

Hey Reg, Great to hear your initial field report on the Minelab GPX 6000. I have followed your post for many years on the forums and know you always have been a larger coil guy and depth (from what I gathered). That being said, keeping as much as we can similar, despite the different technologies, what is your overall opinion on larger gold at depth between the two? I'm well aware that the GPX 6000 is going to be better at small gold and there is more small gold out there for the most part. This question might be too early in the game for you to answer as it sounds like you just got the Minelab GPX 6000. Wishing you much success and hope to hear more successful stories as it gets over more gold. Rob

I still want a proper ATX as a well behaved detector. Which I would use to hunt coins in parks, despite what people think about that. I can do it because i have, many times. The ATX circuit will easily handle hot rocks that a GPZ 7000 or GPX 6000 bang on all day. I'd get one just for that!! I did actually, but I finally just gave up on heavy machines. I totally agree with your last paragraph Simon. Cutting edge tech has only been part of the problem. The other was losing track of what the customer base actually wants. In my case it came to seem like willful ignorance. Minelab has left plenty of opening still, but they are tightening up the product line rapidly, getting extremely aggressive on prices where they have competition, and going for the moon where they do not. Once upon a time the $1500 - $2500 range was nose bleed high, and so in one way Minelab has given cover for companies to make solidly profitable product in that price range, without it seeming all that expensive now. It's a rather simple balancing act really between the proper physical design combined with the actual performance. I will give up a small edge in performance if it means I get the physical package I want. There are efficiencies to be had in the physical design that help make the offset. Make it an attractive price and we have a deal. Anyway, we are not at end game yet. In fact, I see avenues blossoming with new tech introductions. Microprocessing enables things we never thought possible with analog.

There are two pricing models they could take. Cheaper with more sales hoping to recoup the money that way which I'm sure they would. They took this path with the Equinox. People in the coin and relics market were already accustomed to cheaper detectors with the CTX being the top dog in the market for price and possibly performance at the time prior to the Equinox but it didn't have a huge market share compared to the lower priced units which were the bigger sellers. Before the Equinox came along what was the most popular coin and relic type detector? For me it is hard to know, it seemed more of a spread around various brands. The Equinox came in giving people a large step up in features and performance at a similar price to the existing detectors and just basically took the floor out from under the other detectors market, almost everyone quickly jumped onboard and bought one. Although their profit margin would be a lot smaller on the Equinox they've more than likely made up for that on the massive number of sales of it and then we look at accessories, if you want to buy both of the other coils for it they're making a big profit there. Check out the price of a WM08 or headphones for those that bought a 600 and want them, mental. I went to buy a v10 coil for my Vanquish 540 to complete the set. I looked at the price of the coil and thought OK, a bit pricey considering the price of the detector. Then I looked at the Vanquish 340 which includes the v10 coil and for just over $100 more I can get the V10 coil and another detector. I think this is the path I'm going to take to get the coil. I've never bought a detector just to get a coil before but it makes sense to do so. Now, the Gold detector market has been different, people are used to very high prices and for those that are fortunate enough to be in a location with gold that can make these prices viable, it's really no big deal and that's their target market, people that would fall into being professionals really. I'm a hobbyist and my finds in my area limit me to being so, I'm not their target market. They set the price by the bulk of the buyers of the detector and what they will pay, not by people like me. I've heard people say If I buy a 6000 I can pay it off in a week or two in gold finds, it'd take me a year or more, I'd have to go out much more often than I do now too. Minelab are selling more 6000's than they can produce already, waiting lists all over the place. A bulk of the detectors seem to have gone to fill the market in Africa and I guess rightly so, the bulk of the buyers are there. Australia they just had to give a bunch of detectors to for their reputation to stay intact supporting local plus the Australian's are great for marketing purposes flooding Social media with photos and video of the detector in action, the African's don't do this, they're too busy using their detector to make a living. The smaller markets just have to wait to get one and they knew there would be less sales in these markets, and with sky high shipping costs from Covid and even chip shortages and production constraints again related to Covid lock downs and social distancing at the production facilities the high price low sales volume method was really their only realistic choice at the moment, they would have no way possible of keeping up with the orders if they sold the GPX 6000 at $3000 and they have no reason to with no competition. I think it's how it has to be, so my hopes are on one of the other manufacturers throwing caution to the wind and coming out with the lower cost PI option, Garrett are already there they just need to do a redesign of the housing and set a cheaper price point and they can make the lower cost PI for those that want a cheaper unit, they also have the TDI up their sleeve they could redevelop into something a bit better. First Texas have the Impulse Gold if they can ever get it to market, the AQ has left me a bit troubled there. And Nokta have said they were doing a PI.... maybe they'll do it. QED is far too limited by various things we don't need to get into here to really make an impact at all except to a very small user base so can't really be included as an option for worldwide distribution. I think any manufacturer that can fill this void of a low cost good performance lightweight modern PI will do very well, they may create a hobbyist market that didn't even exist due to price constraints. If someone else doesn't do it Minelab might just do it soon to make sure the others have no hope. A modified simplified modern housing built in battery GPX 4500 and a lower price point and bang that opportunity is gone.

Ahhh ... outside of my knowledge base but I just read about it. Thanks for the ID on the pendant. Perhaps this Virgin is made of silver also and the holder is the only part that is gold. I wonder where the chain went. This was a cut find so it could have come from either direction.

Nice gold and coin! 👍 Yesterday I ordered these, they came out in December 2020. They are "on ear" but supposedly quite loud. Aptx-LL, I'll let you know how they work as they are only $39. They might be great for hot days. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08QRQMLVY

Nice finds! Here in VA the ground was concrete for 3 weeks, and now we are dealing with heavy rain and flooding. I have a beach trip coming up. 😀 Most of the "Virgin of Guadalupe" pendants that I see from "Lensing" your photo are silver, so cool that you got a gold one. 👍

I'm very bias to Bougainville chance's of becoming a world leader in gold and copper mining again. https://www.bcl.com.pg/revisit-panguna/ And this is after 40 years away from the island that really set me up for life, as well as being the best years of of my life. I wish the Bougainvillian's the best of luck that they deserve.👍 Some facts of the mine In the 17 years prior to 1989, the mine produced concentrate containing three million tonnes of copper, 306 tonnes of gold and 784 tonnes of silver. The production had a value of 5.2 billion Kina (K) which represented approximately 44 per cent of Papua New Guinea’s exports over that period.

Nice find, good luck on your next hunt.

Unique piece Mn, Look's like it was two pieces soldered together! And what are the black looking crystalline structures behind the figure, sandwiched in the middle? Is that soil/sand?👍👍

I just realized I haven't ever been so excited about pennies since I was little ,,,and the ice cream man was coming up the street ! But I checked if there was one in my collection before spending it ! There was even a thing called penny candy.............

No worries Steve. Note the rather heavy printed block with 6 stainless screws and the loop and plate. I use this rig not only to keep the detector safely tethered to my golf cart (I have a restraint for my dog to keep him from flying off), I also use it for a Limbsaver sling when I'm in the water. I'm sure it makes up most of the difference. 🙂 I also just used the weight of the Equinox straight off the Internet, not that of any of my configurations. It was not intended to be disparaging in any way!

LOL -- thanks, rvpopeye! F350, it's interesting that you say there was "no weight savings." Something seems off... I did NOT weigh the camo carbon-fiber tubes prior to building your shaft; I just got the very first shipment in, and didn't weigh them before building your shaft -- and I'm on vacation now, so can't weigh them. BUT -- I find it really strange that you are saying there was no weight savings. My "non-camo" carbon-fiber shafts weigh around 30% less than the stock shaft, and I can't imagine that the camo ones should be appreciably different, weight-wise, as compared to the others. Are you sure you are weighing the machine with your new shaft installed "apples to apples" with what your machine was beforehand, with the stock shaft attached? I know you said you added one of those "bumpers" to the control box, and I know you are using a Detect-ED arm cuff, which is heavier than the stock cuff. Did you have these same items included on your unit when you weighed in, prior to my shaft arriving? Are there perhaps any other items you may have added to the unit, along with installing my shaft, that would have added to the weight, as compared to the "stock" shaft configuration? I can't recall exact numbers, but if I remember correctly, the stock Minelab shaft runs about 10 oz., give or take, and mine are about 7 oz., give or take. I can confirm when I get home, and will also confirm that the camo tubes are of similar weight to my other tubes. But you should have experienced some weight savings switching to my carbon fiber. Something seems a bit "amiss" here... Steve

Nice finds. The Apex is sounding more impressive.

A credit to the group for sure ! I think we should keep him .

It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good Steve.

The GPX6000 sounds like a winning formula, performance matched to light weight and good balance.. Tony I'm keen for people to buy a load of them, in a year or two I will be looking at the used market. Sometimes it pays to take a step back and let the dust settle. Time is on our side, more information, accessories etc I will make a better educated purchase when the time is right. All the best.

I wasn't sure on the granules, due to it being a unique two piece construction! Thought that they could have been something special glued in between for religous significance! The "screen" appears to be related to a confessional design! I haven't seen one quite like it! JMO👍👍

I hope so Palzynski, since you pointed it out I've had another sleepless night! I'll let you know if one battery is shorter or not when they arrive..

Got out for a hunt today in some of the worst conditions I’ve ever detected in, the wind was howling and the EMI was in machine gun mode so bad until afternoon when the atmosphere finally settled down it was impossible to detect. Then in the late afternoon the sky cleared a bit and my coil found itself over 6 little nuggets all found within an hour inside a 25 yard by 25 yard area, not a virgin patch but a patch!

Actually, it might even be better to have a book compiled with all high profile detectorists who have, at one time or the other, contributed to the success story of ML. Seeing their spectacular gold finds in high gloss format, together with a brief history of their discoveries with individual comments would make this a really nice testament of ML's excellence, added in every new detector box.

BTW here is a link to the official ML Equinox battery replacement instructions: https://parts.minelab.com/category-s/270.htm Note that the difficulty rating is listed as "Easy" I think Steve linked to this in the other thread, but in case you or anyone else missed it, here it is again.

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,

Last year I found an 18K 5 pointed star that I thought was a Star of David but it was not. Pretty sure the Star of David has 6 points. Cool looking find.

Third outing with the Apex/Ripper. A less difficult area , a forest near a town. Modern coins from the 16th to the 20th century can be found here. Sandy moderated mineralized soil with medium iron trash . A bit lucky because I found a coin on the first signal 🙂... I know the Apex audio very well now , it is very reactive with short signals on targets I like this . As I already said the iron filtering is excellent and the Apex likes iron infested areas , however it is sometimes a little chirpy with erratic "bips" but I am getting used to this now ... I hope that Garrett will filter/eliminate those erratic signals in a future software update .. Total I found 3 coins , a 1770 louis XV copper coin , a 17th corroded copper coin and a 1966 demi franc nickel. The Apex is fun and easy to use , it is a light machine with the ripper coil. The audio is more basic than the MLs but it works very well . My settings during this outing : RELICS mode , sens max 8 , freq MF The corresponding pics below , plus a pic of the Apex electronics board rear side done at home ..

Hi all, and thanks James. My old Transit had a 3.3 ltr in it originally. The previous owner put a 5 Spd. Supra gearbox in it but it kept blowing 5th gear, so I put 4.1 cross flow alloy head, twin throat weber carb, extractors, and 5 Spd Ford box. Duel fuel as well. She goes all right.

JR I would venture to say that this history was not shared so much at the time it was happening. It would have to be exciting to get up the next day and see what you could really find that was new and missed by others. I'm reminded with all of this big gold gone that it would be impossible for many of us now to understand a big gold patch. Much of the 'evidence' has been removed but you alluded to this JR on one of your first posts here. You said you were somewhat amazed your present patch had been missed and these pictures give that perspective. I might not be finding many nuggets in the field right now but I'm finding a lot of them here! Mitchel