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Showing content with the highest reputation on 09/04/2021 in all areas

  1. Dang, is it September already? I didn’t even work my little Claim this season! All the easy gold has been gone for a couple years now, and since I’m looking at a Hip Replacement in the near future (old car wreck injury), it wasn’t worth the flare ups that come from hauling rocks, swinging a pick, and shoveling to get at the remaining gold. So I’ve focused on fitness and biking the hills this summer, with a couple fun detecting trips to Nv to keep me in the game….but the next trip isn’t for a couple weeks and I need a Gold Fix! So I decided that after my early morning walk, it would be time to go play with the Gold Monster😊 It was a brisk start to the day! My hummingbird feeder was starting to freeze; most have left, but I leave it out for the stragglers. While on my walk and planning where I’d go with the Monster, I couldn’t help but admire the beautiful sunrise….unfortunately due to the awful California wildfires😥. Then I saw the neighborhood Mama Moose….her Baby was with her, but I didn’t catch the young one in the pic. I sure do love my morning walks up here! Once it warmed up a bit, the Pup and I headed out in the side x side to an area I’ve hit quite a bit before with the Monster, but I was sure it could squeak out a couple more. Lila, of course, wanted to drive😄. I worked real slow, and sure enough, was able to find some little bits. And LITTLE being the key word here…check out this tiny speck. Unbelievable that a detector can pick this up! Here’s one of the larger bits found…can actually pose it on the detector lol! All the while, my little Pup was protecting me from the chipmunks scurrying amongst the Old Timer’s rock piles…what a cutie 🥰 We spent several hours enjoying the late summer sun, the gentle babbling of the nearby creek, the breeze in the pines, and the solitude and contentment only Nature can bring. And I ended up with enough bits to actually weigh…what a great day!👍😊
    9 points
  2. Or did what I did many years ago when I first went prospecting……decided to go out in early February and by the time I got to Leonora it was 48C and not a single fly anywhere…..in fact, not a single anything anywhere 😄
    8 points
  3. Hello. I had the idea to start this poll because I did own a lot of detectors from different manufacturers myself. Some things differ between the models, but some things are equal, depending to the brand. To me White's is my absolute top favorite. I like the tones, displays, the balance of the detectors and how easy they are to master and to have fun and success in the field. It is not only depth, it is also the amount and quality of finds and how much fun the hunt was. If I let all my hunts pass in review... White's is the winner. Only very few problems and Top Notch service. Oh, did I mention the fun?
    6 points
  4. I just had to show this one, a guy in Victoria Australia found a 165 gram / 5.8 ounce nugget with his 22" Concentric coil, he'd only had the coil for a couple of weeks! He caught it all on video too. Here is the live dig video. If only it were my find 🙂 I release the same sort of excitement for a 1.65 gram nugget 😛
    6 points
  5. What’s with these bozos on the show then lol
    6 points
  6. Joe- coming up on my 6th season snowbirding in FL, but it’s funny you brought it up because I’ve decided to sell my place there! I’ll still visit, but I want more flexibility in the winters….to enjoy the snow and wildlife up at my Idaho place, to explore and detect the desert SW from my toy hauler trailer while I’m still young enough to do it, and to visit other areas of FL(fossil hunting) as well other tropical climes! Decided life is too short to be tied down to Melbourne Beach for 6 mos…plus I’ve already found my Spanish coin from the 1715 Fleet, so can check that off my list 😄👍
    6 points
  7. I’m watching Aussie Gold Hunters right now. With the flies being so bad, all the miners look like they have Tourette’s or a severe twitching disorder, with all the arm flapping and hand waving! Question: why don’t they just wear light netting over their hats and faces? Just curious…I certainly would!
    5 points
  8. Just for fun we used those electrified small bats and feed the flies to the ants. However this had its own problem, the amount smoke of burning flies and the smell of the smoke, which was matched with the ants coming from everywhere. Tony this was at Leonora too, so the heat of February is only a small discomfort in comparison. 😃 I think the big problem with the flies for us was we were the only source of moister for them. They tend to get in gangs and lift your eyelid to get it.
    5 points
  9. I Prospect Pilbara WA most of winter (not last 2, covid lockdown here). Flies are real bad say 1 in every 3 years. Black flynets are a must (see better through black, dont get green). use deet spray as well, because the flies make the back of your hand itch. cover all cuts/wounds well, so the flies dont blow them.
    5 points
  10. Came across an interesting article regarding Qualcomm's latest incarnation of it APTX BT audio codec called "APTX Adaptive". The technology from a purely technical standpoint is simply amazing. Instead of fixed bitrate modes (e.g., APTX - Classic, APTX-HD, APTX-LL), APTX-Adaptive evaluates and scales the best bit rate based on the situation and adjusts on the fly, including incorporating low latency by default. Cool right? However, diving into the specifics, it appears there may be a few gotchas. Notably, the low latency capabilities of APTX adaptive are not quite as good as APTX-LL and backwards compatibility - from the article: Regarding low latency: "[APTX Adaptive's] Algorithm latency is also down to less than 2ms at 48kHz, with a system round trip falling somewhere between 50 and 80ms depending on the implementation. This isn’t quite as fast as Low Latency’s sub 40ms speed but should be virtually imperceivable. Other codecs can reach over 200ms latency, and even the old aptX clocked in at around 150ms." Regarding backwards compatibility: "Speaking of latency, aptX Low Latency is being retired after the launch of Adaptive, which has some implications for backward compatibility. When connecting to Low Latency devices, Adaptive will default back to aptX Classic. In other instances, aptX Adaptive simply matches the capabilities and bitrate of the Classic or HD-capable device, so product transition should be seamless." What does all this mean for ML detectors and the folks who own them? Well there are gaps in the article's explanation of APTX Adaptive's implementation, but the key takeaway is the statement that APTX-LL is being retired. What this practically means is that 3rd party headphone companies will gradually shift to implementing APTX Adaptive and releasing phones with that tech while phones with APTX-LL will be harder to come by as the APTX-LL phones are retired from manufacturers' product lines. 3rd party APTX-LL compatible headsets are already a relatively rare breed. This will just eventually exacerbate that situation. All the existing APTX-LL compatible gear will still continue to work with both APTX-LL and APTX Adaptive phones, but at some point, the APTX-LL phones will wear out, break or get lost and getting a 3rd party, direct APTX-LL replacent will be hard if your favorite phones are no longer manufactured. ML will support breakage of their ML branded APTX-LL under warranty and I suspect, ML will continue to stock their marked up phones for post warranty purchase, for the foreseeable future to support their active detector product lines using APTX-LL wireless. It appears APTX Adaptive phones should work with the ML APTX LL detectors, the big question mark is whether their latency will default to APTX Classic birate AND latency at 150 ms (compared to APTX-LL's 40 ms latency) is not entirely clear in the article [this would be noticeable and bad] or will simply use APTX Adaptive's 50-80 ms latency and APTX Classic's birate which would be OK, but not quite as good as APTX-LL. What is also not clear is whether full APTX Adaptive backwards compatibility requires the new Qualcomm chip on the transmitter (in this case the detector) which would be a non-starter for ML, a firmware upgrade to the existing BT chip in the detector, or nothing at all needs to be done. I suspect the latter, but I am just guessing. Overall, this is the flip side of hitching your wagon to a pseudo industry standard compatible technology where you have less control over future obsolescence (but a better and more economical selection of third party hardware) vs. using your own, less universally compatible proprietary hardware/software. ML makes their proprietary solutions such as Wi Stream wireless audio even more cumbersome by not providing universal compatibility across their own detector lines. Manufacturer-specific proprietary tech is one thing, making it detector specific is a whole other level of suck. I was encouraged to see ML going solely with APTX-LL wireless audio on the GPX 6000. I just hope ML they did their homework and asked some pointed questions of Qualcomm before Adaptive was announce and before committing to APTX-LL for the GPX 6000 regarding future backward compatibility as Qualcomm evolved the APTX tech and got the right answers that put the questions I posed above to bed as non-issues... We'll see.
    4 points
  11. The original TDI was limited to a max battery voltage of 16V. I designed the SL so it could take 20V and will probably be OK up to 25V. That's the rating of the power supply caps and anyone not comfortable running caps all the way to their rating (I'm not) can swap them out for 35V caps. The next limitation are the voltage regulators which have a max rating of 30V.
    4 points
  12. Qualcomm is just trying to keep in the game, keep in mind their adaptive chipset was released in 2018 and wasn't implemented in Minelab detectors. The real way it is heading will be Bluetooth 5.2 with LE Audio, Qualcomm was always a bit obscure which is why it was difficult to get Bluetooth aptX low latency gear, it's just not a common chipset. Bluetooth 5.2 will end up being in every new Bluetooth product so it will become commonplace, it obviously won't be backwards compatible with Qualcomm's low latency codec, made by a different group, metal detector manufacturers started using aptX LL as it was the best available at the time. I guess to use Bluetooth 5.2 with LE Audio Minelab would have had to delay the GPX 6000 release, or it would just be too difficult if they'd already had the PCB ready 12 months ago with aptX LL incorporated into it, and placed their order for a big bunch of rebranded LL headphones. Some reading on Bluetooth 5.2 with LE Audio. https://audioxpress.com/news/bluetooth-le-audio-and-lc3-market-overview-technology-trends-and-forecast-from-sar-insight-consulting Note that it's 5ms latency on Bluetooth 5.2, and Qualcomm's aptX LL averages around 40ms and Qualcomm adaptive averages slower than aptX LL.
    4 points
  13. Nice writeup, Chase, and thanks for sythesizing (translating?) for people like me who aren't as tech saavy and/or up on the latest ideas/products. I've quoted a couple (IMO) key points and highlighted the most relevant. Regarding latency of current detectors (this isn't just limited to Minelab products, but Garrett for sure, and I assume XP and others), APTX-LL was never as fast as those (I think the proprietaries are in the high teens of milliseconds). To make matters worse, some advertising promised or deceptively hinted APTX-LL when the products didn't meet that spec! There has been debate (which I doubt will ever be resolved) as to whether detectorists can tell the difference between latencies of 40 ms and 18 ms. I happen to fall on the side of 'yes', but a well thought ought and conducted experiment would need to be executed to find out the real answer and I have no interest in going to that much trouble. Still, technology in general tends toward faster,better,cheaper so it rubs me a bit the wrong way that there is the faster method isn't being exploited in most of the real world. And this is where the reasons my second quote & emphasis becomes clear. The 'public' didn't buy into APTX-LL because listening to music (what 99.99% of Bluetooth users do?) isn't affected by latency. We detectorists are a mosquito compared to that elephant. I seem to be in the minority of preferring the detector manufacturers' proprietary methods. I use the WM08 exclusively on my ML Equinox 800 and I use the stand-alone (proprietary) Garrett Z-Lynk transmitter+receiver for all my other detectors. As long as detectors include an industry standard external jack (1/4" or 3.5 mm) and as long as high quality 'wired' headphones and earbuds are still available, I'll be fine. Would I prefer fewer wires? As long as they have the extra-low latency (Garrett's Z-Lynk system is the poster child) then that would be even better than my current setup, but I don't mind the hybrid (old fashioned headphones with cord connected to a receiver that fits in my pocket). The main thing is I'm not tethered to the detector. Being tethered to something in my pocket by a cord from my head to that pocket isn't a big inconvience for me.
    4 points
  14. The lack of ingenuity by FTP in regards to the CZ line of SMF detectors is stunning. Many on this forum have been begging FTP to do something.....anything to the CZs. They have managed to clone, rebadge, redesign the control box housing somewhat and add some features to most of their detectors. If they had just done any of that to the CZ 20, CZ 21 or the CZ 3D. The components used to produce those detectors are so old, I don't see how they still can keep making them without some serious board level component upgrades. And then compare that to the Minelab Sovereign with BBS simultaneous multi frequency from 1991. The Sovs and the CZs look strikingly similar. Minelab definitely did not stand still and stop SMF development with the Sovereign, unlike FTP. I have been testing another Garrett Ace Apex with the latest updated software for the last two weeks praying that it would be better than the first one I tested......... I sure hope Garrett does not stop there with their SMF technology.............. I am still singularly unimpressed with the Apex. I guess I have been spoiled by Minelab's SMF technologies. I hope Nokta Makro really nails it with their SMF technology.
    4 points
  15. DANG IT! Ya scared the' heck outa' me! Thought you got a close up of a Idaho Mammoth wolf.
    4 points
  16. Hello Friends, My Oldie finds have been building up for the past month or two, so I decided to make another post. All of these finds were with my Nox 800 from around 10 different parks in my locale. These parks have been detected by numerous hunters around me many dozens of times over the years. I’ve been detecting them for close to 15 years now. All the parks are very trashy, and most times my hunting protocol is to pick thru the the trash and dig the deeper, higher conductive targets, in addition to digging all quarter signals regardless of depth. I’ve hunted these parks so many times, I know the depths of the oldie targets, which range from 6-9+”. I’ll also dig the occasional nickel signal. I have some hunt buddies that prefer digging all clad signals regardless of depth, but that hasn’t been my style of hunting for decades now. It has been a very hot and dry summer in my area (dryer this year than previous years), and I have limited my hunts to just a few hours at a time. It works for me because I can’t stay away from home too long anyways since I take care of my Dad (preparing his meals and medications daily). Thanks for looking! Good luck on your next hunt! Raphis Dan
    3 points
  17. I spent 6 weeks camping in Canada and Alaska in the summer of 1989. It was a great road trip except for the mosquitoes and flat tires. I did master the Canadian salute; the action of slapping them flat on my forehead.
    3 points
  18. Good advice, Steve. I will get a green one and toss my black net, although I haven't noticed anything unusual with my black one. But then I am also not in Alaska. On a side note, I once had a very unpleasant encounter with what appeared to be African Bees in the Mojave desert. I was detecting next to a mine shaft as all of the sudden a whole swarm of them flew out and were chasing me. Luckily, I was wearing a mosquito net since millions of little gnats were bothering me that day. Otherwise I would have been in real trouble. It must have been really funny from a bystander's vantage point seeing my full speed running away like a rabbit with the GPZ in the hand. But believe me it was not a laughing matter for me....although I would have laughed had I seen it
    3 points
  19. Probably not an issue with the Oz flies, but the reason most nets are green, is that black attracts mosquitos. In Alaska, never wear black clothing, but stick with light grays, blues, or greens - the colors of the sky and woods. Black or very dark colors make you look like a black bear to a mosquito, and it is amazing to see. A person in black will have their own personal cloud of bugs around them. I tried a black head net once, and ditched it because it created the very condition I was trying to avoid. So don't dress in black, but make sure your buddy does, so the bugs go after them! If you are in the worst locations in Alaska, 100% deet is the go to but lower concentrations work also, just takes more. Lot's of the fad stuff that comes along is a joke. I rarely apply it to my skin unless there are not that many bugs where I do not need a net, but normally spray all my clothing and hat, and wear gloves and a head net. If flies are out, wear tight wrists and pants cuffs, taping shut if need be, as the flies like to land and crawl up sleeves and pants legs. The thing I liked about the Oz flies is they do not bite. The small black flies and gnats in Alaska do bite, and they are far worse than mosquitoes for the damage they do, as about 1 in 10 people are allergic to the bites. The bites fester and can last for weeks....
    3 points
  20. Try other USB cables as some are “power only” charging cables. I’ve accidentally grabbed those myself, and they won’t transmit data. And the suggestions to try a different computer are spot on, if that is possible.
    3 points
  21. Bounty Hunter 840! Not because it was necessarily anything technically special at the time, but because it was simple to use, and the anodized electric blue color was way cool!🤣 (the Red Barron was cool looking too!) And it found me a bunch of silver in the late 70's! Along with the lack of restrictions that we have today, to be able to have fun, and hunt practically anywhere without being hassled! 👍👍 And yes, I still have it!!🙂
    3 points
  22. Geeze ! And I though north of Uptah Camp was bad ! We only have no see ums , "mingies" (might be the same as no see ums but nobody can tell) , black flies , various types of mosquitoes , deer flies , horse flies ("green heads")+ moose flies.....in order of size . Oh yeah , tiny deer ticks have become an issue since Lyme Disease started up too ! I've seen vids of a moose so covered in THEM it killed the giant !!!!errrrk There might be a few I missed. And the house flies don't count...they only make maggots , not try to suck you dry ! Good thing it freezes over up here or we'd all be lost to the hoards!!!!!! Net suits , deet 40% ,+ permethrin are the preferred weapons of defense. arrrrrrgh somebody release the Kraken !
    3 points
  23. So far both of the Apex I have tested have been reliable, comfortable to swing and enjoyable to use. I have no complaints about build quality at all. My main complaints are lack of target ID accuracy on any targets which aren’t shallow,, lack of overall depth and fairly slow recovery speed which results in target masking. All of those complaints just reinforce the fact that the Apex is an entry level detector that happens to have SMF. I believe it would be an excellent saltwater beach detector and a solid choice for a USA made entry level detector. I could get by with it in a bed of nails and for areas where good targets are not very deep. Non-ferrous targets are being completely masked sometimes in my testing. It scored a 7 with an Indian head penny in position 1 and a 5 with the same IHP in position 2 using Monte’s ’Nail Board test so total score was 12. My Simplex scored 14 and my Deus scored 15 with 16 being a perfect score. I believe that SMF is great technology. However some SMFs like the Vanquish and most of the earlier Minelab and Whites have very good target ID at the expense of speed and they are not good in dense iron trash.
    3 points
  24. Sad story for your neighbors. Losing all you have in the world is a bitch , I've BTDT more than once and it ain't any fun...... Some of those places looked like the owners might not have enough to rebuild either . Hope they can get it back to livable before winter .
    3 points
  25. I came across a french prospecting website where some interesting mods had been done to their White's TDI SLs.... for instance: 1. Removal of resistor R86 within the gain circuit - providing a boost to the gain control. They believe this was to make it stable, for less complaints. Removal of this resistor provided additional gain reserve. They had some good results with their testing. 2. Placing thick o-rings under some of the pot knobs. Helps to add some friction and avoid dials turning themselves accidentally, especially with the above modification. 3. With a single +16V battery pack, there was feedback that depth seemed to increase on the TDI SL. However, this came at a cost of over-driving the 16V rated power capacitors as well as other circuits on the board. Potentially shortening their life, by running them full time. The moderator seems to have been able to add another battery pack in series (6V) with the 12V pack, and use a toggle switch to drive the voltage above 18V temporarily. This "boost mode" was done as a method of improving a faint signal on-the-fly. Just a flick of a switch, double-check that faint signal, and then back off. Ultimately, it seems they were discussing driving the coil with it's own 18V external battery and using the standard 12V battery pack to drive the rest of the board (logic). Basically driving the pulses in the coil without going through the voltage regulator, via a large MOSFET. Unsure if they actually were able to do this mod. Anyways, just thought they were some interesting ideas those french detectorists were messing with.
    2 points
  26. I've always been fascinated with what attracts and repels insects...why some people are constantly bombarded and the person close by is left un bothered...from studying this photo it appears that dressing in all yellow may be worth a try...maybe time to pull out the old disco outfit from the 70's just hunt alone the first time. strick
    2 points
  27. Wasps the big red one are painful beggars, they don`t lose their sting when they hit you thus sting repeat ably. Nicknamed locally Red Barons for a good reason.
    2 points
  28. Thanks GotAU. I can actually say ‘thanks’ because I did find it, but it’s not mine. I was showing a mate how to use his new GPZ and this was one of 6 pieces I found that day. He’d spent the big dollars on the Z and it was his patch so he kept it all. We found that piece within the first 10 minutes of turning the GPZ on! I have actually just put it up for sale for him on PA. He is not the most computer literate bloke. https://www.prospectingaustralia.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?id=37881 The day we found them.
    2 points
  29. True - detectorists do not drive the industry's push for low latency, high fidelity audio capability. But low latency, high fidelity audio is also desired by gamers and those who consume video content, including music video content, so there is a driving force out there, just still outnumbered by those who consume audio only and couldn't care less about latency.
    2 points
  30. Hello GB_Amateur. Thanks for asking. Yes, I know fun and success are two different things. But to me success with no fun is hard work. So what is a detector worth if you have to have degree in electronics and physics to find stuff without digging piles of rusty iron? To me the hunt itself is the goal. Fresh air, spending time with friends/family, talking to people... and not fiddeling to the instrument for the best find, the oldest coin and things that are not under your coil 😉. Yes, a few goodies are a welcome gift beside 😎😁. But that's only my opinion. Oh, and messing with a manufacturer isn't fun at all, too. And I never, never had a problem with Minelab, White's or Wilson. To me that counts, too. About the Fishe m-scope... the idea was to put all Fisher detectors (former Los Banos, now FTP) into that, and not the pulse ones from JW Fisher, which has it's own index. I know there are some brands missing, but you're only allowed to do 20 😒. but otherwise it may become confusing. When I started detecting the first ones were handcrafted. They worked, but you know, there must be something better...😅. So the Wilson Relic & Coin IV was the first "real" detector, manufactured by Wilson Electronics, South Bend, Indiana.
    2 points
  31. I like the analog machines because they can be challenging and I tend to rely more on my instincts on what to dig and not to dig vs a VDI machine that takes some the guess work out. The anticipation of something good is much greater when you have just your ears and a couple of knobs. Also nice to run reallly quiet until you come across a target. Find myself more likely to dig a suspect target than with a VDI that may or may not be spot on so I have dug some very nice rings many walk past.
    2 points
  32. I like these surveys so kudos to you, locator, for creating this one. I do see a couple (minor) deficiences which I'll quickly point out and then procede to my details: 1) 'fun' and 'success' are two different things and I have different answers (see below). 2) Fisher m-scope specifically? All other Fisher detectors go under 'misc'? And who/what is Wilson (besides a huge sporting goods company)? Is that an early European brand? "You always remember your first..." leads to my 1st and 2nd in the 'fun' subcategory: Nothing like the fun of finding your first 'treasure' (early Wheat cent in my case) with a detector. That's the Heathkit GD-48 which was a DiY assembly project (that I screwed up by getting a diode in backward 🙄). Was still in high school ~ summer of 1970. Hammer (head only) shown in photo was also a find which I still use today. 2nd most fun (I won't include photo since it's well known) is the Fisher Gold Bug Pro I bought in August 2015 and proceded to find my first silver coin, first Indian Head penny, first gold ring, and first Civil War relic (button), all with the 5" round stock coil. I was digging it all back then (except low conductive ferrous) -- those were the good old days. Most success easily comes from the ML Equinox. Part of that is because I have by far the most hours with it. It's my detector of choice with others relegated to the 'specialty' category.
    2 points
  33. The only one that works, but it dissolves plastic. .....LINK.....
    2 points
  34. We all have our selfish desires we would like to have. Mine of course is for water hunting. I cried for years about issues with the Xcal. Like warranty, knobs, shaft, wires … and on and on. Yes I’m sure there are financial milestones. It won’t happen over night or at all. He may well have improvements in the machine first. He’s sure listening and we keep seeing improvements. Which is an advantage IMO to a smaller company…. what improvements have ML made to the Nox to their issues? I’m good with improvements right now over coils
    2 points
  35. Great review Simon…….I’d love to send you a few cubic metres of hot ironstone so you could build a test bed for me. I’ve got access to several trillion tonnes at short notice 👍 If possible, could you PM me where you purchased your 24K from (assuming you are happy to do so). I’ve got the MX7 so same size housing and battery tray. Also, Australian Customs have no involvement in any parcels stopped. Australia Post security initiate this when screening exports but the system shows a “Customs” status.
    2 points
  36. Nox 6” is the 9th one down on the first page. I do have the 15x12 but forgot to include it! So that makes two more coils now that I need to add. Strick
    2 points
  37. No nets, horse bum cream (natures botanical, rosemary and cedar wood oil) Producers tell ya to take of nets and sunnies when they were here.
    2 points
  38. Whites, the Eagle SL was my favorite and first of my computerized detectors, I was amazed that it could accurately I.D with numbers not just sound. The Goldmaster GMT was and still is one of my favorite gold detectors and was great with the constant on screen probability of iron and magnetic sand readout, and analyze trigger, it still has the record for nugget size I have found at .9 oz. all models had great balance, something my EQ 800 can't say.
    2 points
  39. The camera operators and TV directors are probably wearing them lol.
    2 points
  40. White’s………the audio on all their detectors that I have used is just so “nice”. They are put together to a high standard as well, even their lower end models. I currently have the MX7 with the 950 and 6” shooter coil plus an absolute mint XL PRO with a nice pancake flat 950 coil, two Royal 800 coils (favourites by far) and the smaller 5.3 Black Max coil. Minelab is a close second……Excalibur and two older PI units.
    2 points
  41. Peg, What can I say, nice hunt, nice pictures, nice hunt, and nice weather. Great job and keep it up before the weather changes.
    2 points
  42. Great write up, and I love the pulltab towel…what a hoot! Definitely get our share of them on the beaches. Its wonderful that Forum members can visit and host each other on outings…cool!👍
    2 points
  43. Hello Norvic. No. I know of him. Don't know him personally. Have never meet him. The gold world in NZ is pretty small & he has been around a while. Always liked his posts on his adventures & finds on a few forums he used to belong to, including this one. I miss his contribution as I am sure many others do too. All he appeared to do was show a love & passion for 'getting out there' as he called it, exploring the haunts of the old-timers & finding any gold they missed. He seemed fairly well respected. I have been around a while myself chasing gold but I aren't one to put myself out there on forums. While I have a GPZ 7000 I didn't attempt the X coils thing but was impressed with results that I saw from JW & others. Seemed to work for him on ground the Minelab 14" coil had either stopped finding him gold or just the more choices of coil sizes that X coils offered him & others to get into places the ML 14" couldn't or was too difficult to operate in. I know people go on about him "promoting" X coils because he was gifted some, & from a post I saw of his, he also purchased some. The name of this game is to increase your chances of finding gold & I am sure if X coils wasn't doing that job I am sure he & others, including yourself, wouldn't have persevered with them. So obviously they had there place & were doing there thing. I was just too nervous to do the adapter thing. We are all after that advantage in increasing our gold take as the gold is always getting harder to find & smaller. I wont go on about the fall out that occurred & JW's demise, as you will all be well aware of that, but I felt he was dealt a raw prawn & made the escape goat to clear the air. I thought forums were a place where people could share their detecting experiences & what gear they were using without other people ego's or agendas clouding it or prejudice or prosecution as long it was in the spirit of what we do & not targeting or bagging individual people. I have a GPX 6000 & on seeing that footage that phrunt put up of an X coil on the 6000 I am very interested. Time will tell what happens from here & it will be interesting to see what, if anything, Minelab will do about it in respect to making other coils themselves or allowing other coil makers to produce after market coils. After all X coils twisted their hand in allowing Nugget Finder to make the 12" so that wasn't all bad in the end for those wanting a smaller coil. I see Steve made the comment about "was I JW in disguise"? Because that thread got locked I couldn't reply on there & wasn't sure about opening another, so thank you for giving me this opportunity to answer. I have followed forums for many years but just as a lurker. We have been in a two week lockdown due to the Delta variant of covid coming into out country via NSW from your neck of the woods. We had been enjoying life as normal, with the exception of no overseas people entering, for over a year with no community cases in our country. How quickly things can change. I was bored at home during lockdown so ended up becoming a member of this forum. Whether I contribute much we will wait & see. I aren't one that is really into doing posts on my detecting but always show an interest. I am following things to do with the 6000 & as you were an X coils convert on the GPZ 7000 & now using a 6000 yourself & seeming to love it I will watch with intertest what you may find at depth with the 17" coil. Or if you go down the X coils route with the 6000 as well. Cheers. Greg
    2 points
  44. Gotta dig them 20s . After all , Zincolns ARE better than pull top tabs ! Nice contrast with the gold against all that,,, well sorta copper. Good "perseverance" detecting !
    2 points
  45. A couple years ago a friend of mine (who already had gotten me 5 permissions) asked her sister if I could come detect her 18th Century homestead in NW Massachusetts. I had hoped to go in 2019 but time got away from me, and you all know what happened in 2020. Finally we agreed upon a time window and I made it out there in the past couple weeks. Basically, after the Revolutionary War, soldiers were rewarded with property in unsettled parts of the previous Colonies and one of them started this homestead in 1785. The original cabin burned (remnants can still be seen but it was overgrown this trip) and was replaced by a larger house at the beginning of the 19th Century. The current owners have a lot of property but most is wooded and I had only three full days to detect so I decided to confine my searching to the 2-3 acres of cleared ground surrounding the house. Except for recently constructed garage (which replaced a barn burned down by an arson), there are no other current buildings, but with the help of a 1911 survey which they showed me we were able to figure out the location (and find the foundations) of a couple other long ago razed outbuildings. My goal this trip was twofold -- survey as much of this cleared area as possible and try to hone in on the best spots to cherry pick, meaning specifically undisturbed ground. As is typical, improvements to property occur over time, covering up some of the history. I wanted to avoid those areas during this short trip. I began in the front yard close to the house and not surprisingly got some nail hits, although trash wasn't thick. After digging 3 or 4 good sounding targets that turned out to be nails, I moved closer to the road, below a bulkhead wall. BTW, I was using the Minelab Equinox 800 in Field 1, 2 tones, wide open (i.e. no notching), recovery speed=5, iron bias F2=0, gain = 22. About 45 minutes into the first day's hunt I got a good, strong high tone and the dTID showed low 30's (silver quarter/half region). (I tend not to spend a lot of time requiring perfect, consistent dTID's since I've found so many good targets which don't give them. But I do listen for iron hints although even those don't necessarily turn me away, especially from weak signals.) The ground was suprisingly soft and sandy, unlike the stickly clay I deal with at home. Also, they'd been having quite a bit of rain (the mosquitoes were evidence of that!) so digging conditions were near perfect. At about 6 inches I pulled out a metal disc the size of a USA Large Cent (size no coincidence because that's what it was)! First target and I dig a coin I've never found before. I wasn't sure -- could have been a slug -- and took it inside to rinse it off and carefully blot dry (even that seemingly benign action might have been a mistake) and still couldn't see detail but showed it to one of the owners and she, with better eyes than I, said in the center it said 'One Cent'. Bingo! Already I knew it was my oldest coin ever since the last year of minting large cents was 1857 and my oldest previous coin was an 1864 2-Cent piece. I returned outside to that spot (coins congretate in patches, too ) and a few meters away got a nice high 20's hit, but rather weak. Eight inches down was a Barber dime. What a start! Unfortunately the only old coins I found the remainder of the trip were a few Wheat pennies. I did get a lot of relics, not surprisingly. Here's a picture of all but the obvious nails and modern metal trash: Lower right group are what I consider the best finds and I'll show a closeup of those shortly. I'm pretty sure everything around and directly below the horseshoe are related to horses ('tack') including the two obscure pieces inside the horseshoe which are similar, one a piece of leather with two large copper rivets and the other just a bare rivet. Interestingly I found almost identical pieces in June when ghost-towning in NE Nevada. I guess leather survives in wet climates as well as in dry ones. Some of the buckles are chrome plated which I assume (but don't really know) means they are fairly recent, meaning 20th Century. (I apologize for not taking better pictures. It was the last day and I was in a hurry to get on the road for a long drive to my next stop. I left all but the old coins with the property owners.) Here's a picture of what I consider the best finds: (Again, my photography leaves a lot to be desired....) I'll show the old coins (upper left) in a better photo. Lower left are modern coins (clad and Memorial pennies). Lower right are ladies' items -- stocking clip, powder compact, and lipstick tube cover. (The woman of the property owners really liked the compact and cleaned it up with some metal cleaner. It really looked sharp after she did that; too bad it was bent.) Upper right are four buttons, two of which were flat buttons. The large one had no identifying marks. It was made of a copper alloy (brass?). If anyone can shed light on its possible age I and the owners would really appreciate it. One of the several mystery pieces I found is the dark looking floral(?) shaped item above with compact. It had 8 holes arranged symmetrically (two of them don't show up) and was attracted to a magnet). It was quite thin and reminded me of jewelry. Above it is a copper broach or pin, possibly previously silver or gold plated. Now for the old coins: Four Wheaties (one from each of the 20's, 30's, 40's, and 50's) plus a 1954-D Jeffie (ok, not very old...) with the two best coin finds. And those two best: The 1941-S Merc came from a different site which I'll discuss in a separate post ('Part 2'). The 1911 plain (Philadelphia minted) Barber dime is in nice condition although not a scarce issue. But I'm still happy to get it. Unfortuantely you can't see detail on the Large Cent in these photos, but I can with a magnifying glass (still no date discerned 😞), and here's what I've found out so far: On the obverse ('heads' side) the lady is facing right. That's very important because only USA Large Cents minted between 1793 and 1807 faced right. So that alone tells me that I didn't find a coin which might be as late as 1857 but rather my 'new' oldest coin find ever is now at least 50 years older than that! I can see some clothing at the bottom of the bust making it a 'Draped Bust' type. That narrows its birthdate down to 1796-1807. There are still a lot of varieties in those 12 years and after trying to figure things out on the PCGS site I broke down and ordered the definitive work on these coins. It won't arrive until Thursday so you will have to wait along with me to see if I can narrow down further info. Meanwhile, can you help me identify this unknown find? It appears to be brass, but is hollow. The lower left of the picture shows damage, but it's breakage, not corrosive loss. You can see the seam to the left of the head where it joins the conical part. It reminds me of a calibrated weight for a scale but the only ones of those I've seen are solid, not hollow. Anyone?? To summarize the first part of this trip, in 10 1/2 hours of detecting (oh, I didn't mention that most of two of the three days was interferred with by Hurricane Henri!) I found some very promising post Colonial artifacts while just scratching the surface of a small part of this property. The (very generous, hospitable) owners were sufficiently pleased with what I found that I've been invited back, but I doubt I'll be able to make my return this year. I'll probably bring a weed eater next time and detect around that original cabin foundation. I can't wait....
    2 points
  46. Yesterday My buddy and I got up early to beat the heat (76@6:00am). We decided to hit the other side of the swim club that was fenced off a week ago, but now the fence was removed and open to the public. I was running the new silver umax and my buddy the 800. The first hour for me was a bust, just a bunch of pennys. My buddy was a 100 yards away and found 2 mercs and a bunch of wheaties. A little hot and frustrated, I walked another 100 yards to an odd looking small tree. This spot most people would have walked by. I'm thinking kids were climbing up and coins were falling out of their pockets. Maybe two swings and I hit a rosie. I stood up checked the hole and about a foot away I got a strong hit, Out comes a 1941 walker 1/2 dollar. At that point my buddy joined in on the fun. Two more hours of hunting in the now 100 plus degrees Yielded a total of 11 silvers, 39 wheaties, lots of pennies, kennedy 1/2 dollar. Oh and your good old trash. Not to shabby for 4 hours of sweat. I was liking the old tesoro's even more (would I have found them with the 800 Yup) but what fun would that be. TOTALS 5 Roosevelt dimes, 4 Merc's , 1 Washington, 1 walker 1/2, 39 wheaties
    2 points
  47. Not really a good approach to multi F, if you've done a deep dive on the topic, you would realize that the MF spectrum and number of frequencies is not nearly as important as how those frequencies are utilized to process the target signal. I'd rather have the Equinox approach where you chose the general frequency profile weighting and then let the detector do its thing than have to guess which of thousands of combinations of frequencies woukd do the best in any given situation. End user flexibility is one thing, settings overload is another. With respect to numbers even ML states that more individually generated frequency components is not better (in fact that reduces the power capability of the transmitted field). NM is embarking on their first gen MF machine, keep delaying release, and as a result are falling further behind ML which is on their fourth gen of the tech. Even Garrett beat them to the punch by releasing a MF machine before them, which frankly astounded me. Don't get me wrong, I am rooting for NM (and in fact any company that can be competitive with ML) in this arena. But they have some serious ground to cover to catch up. Their SF and selectable MF designs are top notch but they have yet to prove they can deliver anything besides basically single frequency induction balance VLFs and pinpointers. So let's not get ahead of ourselves thinking they are going to somehow leapfrog ML (or even Garrett for that matter) with their first SMF offering which is still several months away by NM's own admission.
    2 points
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