Jump to content

Leaderboard

Popular Content

Showing content with the highest reputation on 09/14/2021 in all areas

  1. Grab a bag of popcorn and a beer, this is gonna be a long read. (Skip to the third paragraph if you are only interesting in my review of the GPX 6000) Before getting into why I decided to purchase a GPX 6000, I would like to give some background into what got me to the point of making that purchase. My friend "Brian" (Yes the one from Gerry's visit to SD) had been nagging on me that detecting is WAAAY better than sluicing or highbanking for gold. Me being stubborn, I would not listen to him as I was told by many of old prospectors "Theres no nuggets here". Were they hiding something or just oblivious to the truth, I do not know. After a year of recirculated highbanking on my dry claim and "Brian" detecting, it became clear to me that there is some truth to the message he had been preaching to me. That fall I purchased a Gold Bug 2. I loved that it is all analog inputs that require you to actually understand what the different knobs do. It allowed me to gain a better understanding of what the detector was doing. Not just letting the computer on it think for me. That fall gained me no nuggets as I was learning not only the detector but how to be successful at detecting. Many frustration finally led to my first small nugget that next summer. I was getting pretty good I thought as I would come home with a pocket full of tiny lead beebees and if I was lucky, a small nugget. I felt comfortable with the GB2, until I noticed that even though I felt I was doing well with the GB2, "Brian" was doing even better with his SDC2300 and GPZ7000. He would go back over areas I had just detected and pick up what I left behind. It was a perfect game for him as i would clear the garbage and shallow smaller nuggets and he would get the deeper larger ones. 😀 πŸ˜„ I would even come back over to where he would have a target and check it with my GB2. It became obvious to me that ML technology had a clear advantage over my GB2. About the time I decided to go all in on purchasing a GPX 6000, I joined the detector prospector forum. I did more research into my GB2 and read Steve Herschbach write up on the GB2. Running the settings "hot" still didnt match the performance of the Minelabs detectors. After talking it over with the wife, I gave a call to Gerry at Gerrys Detectors, and after a pleasant 20min call with him I was sold. I gave him my deposit and waited patiently for my GPX to show up at my doorstep. Gerry, being the outstanding man he is, hand delivered it to me as soon as it had shown up at his store. (perfect timing pays off πŸ™‚ ) Our first day out was a total success. I bagged the largest nugget of the day weighing in just under 2g, my largest at the time. Gerry and "Brian" also did well, both scoring more nuggets and pickers than me. This was also my first gold from this patch. The ground at this patch was very mineralized and had many hot rocks. Listening to my GB2 was a nightmare and I had not been successful at getting any gold from there until this day. There is probably more I can learn on the GB2 but I feared with the larger nuggets being around 10" deep my only chance was to run hot. The GPX ran like a dream comparatively. I was not used to the wobbling threshold that this detector has and it took me some getting used to. We were also less than 500' from a larger powerline and I was still able to get two nuggets that day.(and yes we were just running the 11" Mono) I was able to learn from Gerry while he was there on his trip, but he made the comment to me that I was already doing very well. Everything I learned up this point was from "Brian" who took Gerry's class from one of his past purchases. Gerry and his team must do extraordinary training as I only have had second hand training thru "Brian". I hope to make one of Gerry's training trips to get a chance to do some more detecting with him and his team! On to the GPX6000. This detector has been a dream!! And I really mean that! Ergonomics are very important and ML has indeed hit this one out of the park. I never ran a 4500 or 5000 so I cannot compare to them, but "Brian" has let me run his GPZ, and I was tired after an hour with that detector. Even though the GPX is slightly heavier than a GB2, I do not notice the weight. I can go for 8 hours and not be completely dead, unless of course I am digging a lot of targets! πŸ˜„ The controls are very straight forward. One thing I always liked about the GB2 is it is quite literally turn it on and go. With at least the SDC and GPZ (as these are my only other references) there seamed to be a long start up. Not with the GPX, turn it on and in 10 seconds you can be swinging. The onboard speaker is decent. I think I would have preferred it to be by the display as the sound is coming from behind you instead of in front of you. Its not a huge deal, I can still hear it fine, I just find that when your coil is making noise going over grass and banging on rocks, I find it harder to concentrate on the threshold. With that being said, I do prefer to run with the headphones as this allows me to concentrate better on what I am listening to. I know there have been alot of complaints about EMI. I would say that the first 15min seem to be extra chatty but after that it seems to settle into it. Maybe it is just my mind canceling it out, but I do not find much issues with EMI. I even leave my IPhone on in my backpack which is usually anywhere from 20'-100' away from me. When I do notice more EMI, I just click the noise cancel and in roughly 12 seconds I am going again. The one thing I noticed is there is about a 5 second delay after running the noise cancel(7 seconds) before it is running properly. (probably has something to do with an averaging function that it is running) The threshold is a bit different to listen to for me at least. Its more of a wobbly hum. Once you get in tune with it you just listen thru it and the targets are obvious. Even when you think you've heard a target, just a simple swing back over the same spot and you will have your answer. The collapsible shaft is spot on. It packs down small so it does not take up much space. Its also nice for getting thru thick areas in the woods. I do not like to overtighten the nuts as this then allows me to twist the coil about the shaft instead of twisting my wrist or arm to keep the coil parallel with the surface. It is also more comfortable for me to not hold the display straight up but more turned in towards me. I do not like to run on the automatic sensitivity settings as I do not like the idea of the computer making changes that I am no controlling. (even though I know it is doing some automatic changes with ground tracking) I have been mostly running on 8-10 for sensitivity and normal soil. The spots I have mostly been to are fairly mild soils. When I get a target, I will give it a little scrap and check again in difficult. If the target is still there then I go after it. I have found that the normal soil setting can give you maybe an inch or so of extra depth. If there is a target there, It will go off on both after scraping a little off the surface. I have noticed that the difficult ground settings will give a better response to small nuggets. On to the gold! When I say that this has blown me away, I mean it! I know I am not very versed with other detectors, so for some of you this may not be as impressive as it has been for me. My first trip out after Gerrys visit, I go to a patch we call the E patch. We have worked this patch on and off for several years now and had felt fairly certain we were done here. There is a lot of garbage here, and I mean A LOT of garbage and most of it is tiny shrapnel and the thinnest pieces of wire I have ever seen. My first day here with the GPX banked me 42 pieces of trash and 5 nice nuggets with the two larger ones weighing in both just over 1g. As you can see, that pinpointer is about 10" long and there is another 2" of soil above that. This piece was right at 1g. This was my gold from that day. The top left is the one shown in the hole above. Needless to say, I was a happy camper that day. My next day out with the detector would net me 10 more little nuggets. I have to say, it is a blast when you are getting that many pieces no matter how big they are! It is hard to read, but that total was 1.14g. The smallest of these was 0.03g and this was about 2" deep. In fact this scale would not register it. I had to use a more precise scale to get a measurement. The last day I was out once again surprised me. Both the detector and this location! In about 2 hours I was able to pull out another 10 pieces! this time though the weight would be 8.25g of gold! With the largest piece coming in at 4.25g! My largest pieces yet! This also puts me in the lead for largest nugget of the year in one of my running bets with "Brian". These bets are for a beer for each bet πŸ˜‰ The depth of the largest nugget was about 14". The image is deceiving. I dug a narrow hole but if i put my hand straight across from the scoop, there was at least another 2" of soil above my hand and the scoop is roughly 12" long. The depth of this piece was about 8". Again this image is deceiving as the hole was fairly wide at the top so the scoop is laying down more. This piece weighed in at 0.35g To sum things up, YES I am well pleased with this detector. It has delivered me gold that I missed with my GB2. It has given me the confidence right from the get go. I know that if there is gold under my coil, this is giving me the best chance of seeing it. I no longer have to wonder if I am missing targets that other detectors would see. Overall I find this detector fairly easy to use and the light weight makes it easy to use all day. Will I ever pay this detector off, that depends on what you mean. It has already paid for itself in fun! It may very well pay for itself financially someday, but I will rely on my full time job to feed me. πŸ˜† I can not wait for further usage of this detector and will always remember the awesome time I had detecting with the legendary Gerry McMullen! Like I said above, the GPX6000 is not just a detector... It is a thrill ride!
    20 points
  2. Hello everybody!! I apologize for not checking in earlier but a lot is going on here at Nokta Makro as you can imagine. Now regarding the SMF, we decided to make some major changes to the device after the first prototypes were produced including some features that I had mentioned in my earlier videos/interviews. We believe that our valued customers will excuse us and understand that the changes are all for the good and that the delay is only due to our efforts for trying to make the device lighter and more user friendly for the customer. In addition, I have no idea where the name Lightning is coming from but the name of the product is not Lightning and the name will be revealed at launch. I will be doing a live video on our FB page soon to give an update to all customers around the world and answer some questions for those who will be watching.
    13 points
  3. Alma Bay continues to spit out lost property.. Although not as weird as a gold medal for women's cricket, this Iphone was lost on the same beach.. I found it this morning buried in the sand just above the high-tide mark.. It's already been claimed by a mighty happy chappy! At least he was very easy to find.. Always good to spread the joy!
    12 points
  4. Great story and photos. I really appreciate you taking the time to post it. I like hearing from people who are relatively new to detecting, as a fresh perspective is sometimes very informative. One thing about the older GPX and earlier models was that there was a lot of settings, and a lot of gear. You take a newbie, harness them up with all these bungees and cords, hand them the 62 page manual…… it’s overwhelming stuff for the new person. The 6000 on the other hand, I have described as the Gold Bug of PI detectors. Relatively light, simple to operate, and gets the little stuff. But also has that PI Punch for larger gold. I think it is a far friendlier first step up from a VLF, and the ease of tuning makes a new person as good as a pro in a much shorter period of time. My one bit of advice - don’t be shy of the Auto+ setting. It can be the most powerful setting on the 6K under the right conditions (mild ground), and it and regular Auto are go to settings for patch hunting. Sometimes computers are actually better at stuff, and Minelabs auto settings just keep getting better. I would never use automatic ground balance β€œback in the day”. Now I don’t have any option not to, but that’s turned out to be just fine.
    8 points
  5. We had a 3 party hunt scheduled Condor, LuckyLarry and myself. I set sail East Bound and down on I-80 to Rye Patch from Reno. I texted the Boyz and received a text back from Condor that his Truck was sick and couldn’t make this trip! Well just meant more Rib Eyes on my dinner plate! LuckyLarry, was on his way from Elko to Rye Patch and the timing was perfect he followed me in to our camp site! Temperature Gauge was a solid 97 at the 3 O’Clock hour. Larry, hunted out here in the Hey Days of Rye Patch. He was just learning Gold Detecting back then and scored many nice nuggets! But, ended up being a Top Notch Relic Hunter. That’s how we met. We met on the Internet with me needing some old Relic’s ID. He was my go to guy to tell me the history of anything I’d dig up in the Goldfields of California. Of course, I avoided these extra trashy old camp sites and would pass the location to Larry for his Relic hunts when he traveled to California. We set up camp and hopped into my RZR Buggy into the heat to swing our 6000’s on my old patches. Finding left over nuggets that our older models missed, but the heat! Had to hit a 100 before some clouds moved in to cool things down! Them clouds had rain and in front of them was the wind. Headed back to Camp to beat the rain, as I left my Trucks Windows half open which was the way the wind and rain was blowing in. Made it back to camp wet Windows up with a gust of wind that had to be over 50 mph. Well early to bed with showers on and off and the next morning with more rain to heavy to detect in which gave us time to eat some cookies and for me to remember where some more old patches where at to swing on. Gone for 4-Days with 2 1/2 days of good detecting! We ended up with 20 Dinks each! Two Lucky πŸ€ guys with plenty of smiles for our efforts fighting Mother Natures last blasts of Summer! I figure I’m now about 80% done with having the 6000 over our old patches in Rye Patch. I’m sure we left gold in the patches we hunted for further visits…never can get them all and every day is a different day! Until the next Hunt! LuckyLundy
    7 points
  6. Well, after being rejected by customs twice in Australia before even departing the country as "dangerous goods" and the poor dealer in OZ having to spend hours on the phone to Australia Post my Whites 6" coil arrived! I should say a big thanks to Justin at Lost Treasures in Brisbane Australia, my old stomping ground for helping me get this coil, he really went out of his way to help me. The good news is the White's coil cover fits the Garrett 10x6" Coil perfectly! I took a bit of a gamble getting a Whites coil cover for my Garrett coil seeing I was ordering the Whites coil anyway so the dealer could slip it in the same package. A nice snug fit. At first I didn't think it was going to fit as it was quite hard to get on, but once on it was locked on tight πŸ™‚ So if anyones considering getting a Garrett 24 (I would be) and sees some dealer clearing out old Whites 24k coil covers, grab some! A design feature that may go unnoticed is the tapered edge on the 10x6" coil which you can see in the photos above, it'll help it glide over small stones when being scrubbed on the ground with less impact. I like that. It's quite funny as my 10x6" is a black coil with a White cover..... and my new Whites 6" coil is a white coil with a black cover πŸ˜› I still have another of these 6" Whites coils coming from the US, it's currently in Erlanger, Kentucky.... I'm kinda hoping that's where KFC came from! πŸ™‚ I've taken the 6" for a quick test run and really like it, sensitive little sucker and runs nice and smooth although I think that's the norm for the 24k, it's such a smooth running detector. The little 6" is a bit bigger than I expected, not quite 6" it seems but still, small enough, and I'll be getting the Nel Snake coil when it's released as my tiny coil anyway, this 6" size is still a good one with reasonable ground coverage for a smaller coil. It's noticeably bigger than the Equinox 6" I can't wait for Garrett to come out with their 6" coil, I'll be ordering it straight away as I think it's going to be the most used coil for the detector, with the Snake being the specialty coil. The 24k has taken over as my primary gold prospecting VLF from my GM which I retired to use my Equinox and now the 24k. I never really took to the GB2, sure it had the sensitivity I desire I just found it fiddly and missed having Target ID's. The GB2 also was terrible with it's recovery speed or something, put a hot rock near a bit of gold and the blanking out of the hot rock in disc or even just the sound response on the hot rock made it completely miss the bit of gold. This isn't apparent on the GM, Nox and 24k and as many of my areas have a lot of hot rocks the GB2 just didn't cut it, they'd need to release a modern version of it for me to show interest in using it much, and well... we saw what happened there. I have yet to go to the gold prospecting areas with my 24k as my area in NZ had it's first Covid lockdown since March last year right as my 24k arrived, we've come out of that now so I'll take off for a gold detect in the next few days and be the first in NZ to find gold with the Garrett 24k πŸ™‚ A title I'll wear proudly.
    7 points
  7. Got a message rather late Saturday from Chase, he had threatened to come down here and made good on it. πŸ˜€ Went to the old farmhouse and the newer house to see what we could find, I was glad to have someone more experienced to check with me. If you've been following I've found 75 coins at this house now, and no silver. I am starting to think those that said it was cherry picked could be right. 😡 First we hacked around the farmhouse and I was glad we did. I challenged Chase to look where I had been, I will let him tell ya what he dug but it was pretty darn good. He showed me some techniques he uses, and ran both an Equinox and a Deus at the newer house. I took mine over a fresh spot, found 2 memorials, and then went back to the front yard and dug 4 more, all masked by other stuff. Pretty much everything we dug was secondary to what we went after! All I got was a new quarter, mangled on the surface of the driveway, and 6 memorials, ranging from a 1959 D to a 1974. Dug the address tag, and then some kid toys not shown. Still no silver found at the newer house but... πŸ˜‰ At least it was a good day for Chase. Made it worth the trip. At one point we discussed the Equinox issue with coins on edge. I'm thinking of dusting off the "old" Garrett Ace 400 and trying it here. πŸ˜€ Had a blast! It's always good to put fresh eyes and more experience on one of my permissions. Nothing wrong with humility now and again 😳
    6 points
  8. Just a quick post to say a big "Thank You" to Bob (F350) for the invite (well I kinda invited myself, but that's okay). He is a great host and makes sure you are fully hydrated and caffeinated, as the situation warrants. Holding off on a more detailed post until I have a chance to photograph my few finds. Bob has kind of set expectations perhaps a little higher than deserved for the actual find but it was silver at least (with an interesting story to go along with it - let's just say sometimes its better to be lucky than good) and here's a glimpse. More to follow. All I can say is can't wait to get together again in Bob's detecting paradise situation. Glad I'm sort of in the neighborhood just a couple hours away. Bodes well for a fun fall and winter before the vegetation takes over again.
    6 points
  9. On the various forums (that I read) a number of people have cited Minelab’s (smf) head start, and their patents, as a major road-block in Nokta-Makro’s path. That’s certainly a logical point, and likely the safe money bet. But... Nokta-Makro (Dilek) has been rather forward in stating their intent to produce a machine that competes head-to-head with the Nox 800 - and offer more for less. Marketing hype? Maybe. It could be that the β€œmore” are features - bells and whistles mostly. Or it could be that NM found a new way to β€œskin the cat” and their new (smf) machine will offer more performance and more features; all without infringing upon a single patent. I’m not pretending that is the case, but I’m not going to categorically ignore the possibility either (no matter how unlikely it is). I have zero doubt that NM engineers know what makes the Nox 800 tick. They know its capabilities. It would be unreasonable to think NM doesn’t have several Nox 800's in their possession. (And Minelab will have several of the new NM machines in their possession, so they can see how it works - once that machine is released) There is a reason why NM (Dilek) has worded statements in the manner that she has. Dilek is a very astute person; she isn’t about to make grandiose claims that will come back to bite her at a later date. Her words/statements have been carefully chosen. For many avid hunters Dilek is Nokta-Makro. She has spent considerable energy/time cultivating our trust and respect. Dilek has gone out of her way to provide outstanding service countless times: she has made Nokta-Makro an incredible success story, and a force to be reckoned with. She isn’t going to chance all that by making claims that have no possibility of being valid: She is far too intelligent to do that. For me - if it was anyone else (from any other company) making statements along the lines of directly competing with the 800lb gorilla that is the Nox; I’d immediately discount those comments as being marketing nonsense. As it is, I trust that Dilek knows a lot more than I do, and if she says their new machine will compete directly - she believes it. And I’m inclined to believe the claims are very possible. Call it blind faith in someone who has earned my trust.
    6 points
  10. We shouldn’t punish Nokta Makro for our own speculation or the speculation of other sites. They’ve only said β€œthe countdown has begun,” and set by the end of the year as their launch goal. It did make Detectival more interesting to watch thinking there was a chance, but they never promised that. There’s still plenty to be excited about. It seems like in some ways Nokta Makro has already surpassed American companies. It seems that way when we look at the capability and quality of their VLF hobby machines. Nobody thought it was possible for anyone to eek out any more depth with these kinds of machines than the T2 and F75 has, yet the Anfibio did manage to improve on it. If we asked First Texas to waterproof their line from top to bottom they’d spit their coffee before we finished our sentence. NM has a little ways to go in some areas, and more in others, but when it comes to hobby flagship if I had to choose between an Anfibio, F75 LTD, or an AT Max, without hesitation I’d have to pick the Anfibio. I might even pick the Simplex. These are things I hate to admit, but I have to.
    6 points
  11. After watching Dilek's facebook video I'm pretty impressed, it's hard not to like Nokta as a company. https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=889745971917245&ref=watch_permalink I'm glad they're ditching their 2.4ghz headphone system and going to Bluetooth, I bet they're going to use Bluetooth 5.2 and that will put them ahead of the competition for audio straight away for having the lowest latency audio, yet completely standard. Interesting she said they've only had a very small number of leaks with the Simplex and they've all been machines that have been opened up previously by service agents or dealers and so on, so their waterproofing is much better than the competition. I also found it quite amusing she reiterated they feel they only have one competitor in the market, just one, the other companies are not seen as competition. I guess in a way it's true. I also like they're just releasing one version of it, not a scaled back and high end version, just one, solves all confusion. She said it will have a high enough frequency for the gold prospectors and will have a gold mode, now that could mean 20kHz so that's a bit of a worry. Hopefully it ends up at least with 30kHz ideally 40kHz or higher. It's going to have flashlight and vibration, I think that's pretty cool.... a point of difference and I have found a use for the flashlight with the Simplex, quite handy. Don't you wish all manufacturers would come on and talk to customers like that? They can have my money now, I want one.
    5 points
  12. phrunt You just miss the power of the Lightning detector. It saddens me that you of all people didn’t like the name I submitted. Haha πŸ˜‚ Who knows none of us may not like the name that’s picked. One thing you can’t help but like Dilek. I believe she’s one straight shooter. Reach your hand and feel the power for the last time . Chuck
    5 points
  13. I think Garrett purposefully limited the Apex so they've got some left in the tank for the ATpex, their multi frequency technology is probably better than it may seem and they're refining it for the higher end model which they may time for release when Nokta is about to hit the market with their machine, who knows? It would be a good thing for them to do. First to the post often gets the most sales. I'll be pleasantly surprised and also very happy if Nokta do achieve multi-IQ performance from their multi frequency detector, and I'd be quick to get one . My Simplex is better build quality than my Nox 800, including the coils. I think to maximize profits Minelab went a bit too cheap on build quality, something Nokta never does. I'm not at all impressed by the performance of my Simplex however, it's because the things that matter to me are the things the Simplex is weak at, accurate target ID's and depth, and most importantly a combination of both..... Hopefully this is improved on the Multi Freaker, I've never used a high end Nokta so maybe I'm just a bit hard on their entry level unit however entry level now from a few manufacturers is often exceeding or very competitive with flagships from other companies in many ways. In hindsight the naming contest years ago was a bit of a mistake, I'm sure they realize that now... I think it's vital Nokta consider advancing their focus on a PI prospecting machine, they said about the time they did the naming contest for the multi machine they were going to do a PI gold machine.... This is an area of the market that's open for the taking, a lower priced PI prospecting machine with good performance would sell well. It doesn't have to better or equal the Minelabs, it just has to be in the game, something equal to a QED in performance perhaps with automatic ground balance or a ground grab button and a far better build quality than the QED which is the norm for Nokta anyway and they'd be on a winner and fill a gap the market desperately needs filled.
    5 points
  14. Don't be shy to dust off the old Ace 400, I've found coins in a spot I'd missed with my Nox by using my Ace, sometimes a different detector can just sniff out a few more, I don't know why or how, I just know it happens.
    5 points
  15. The thing about Nokta/Makro is they are always moving. In fact moving so much that people were complaining about too many new models too fast! Like, when does that happen in metal detector land? Sure, some were just variations on a theme, but they have never lacked for trying new stuff that nobody else does. Things like the vibrate mode may seem a joke to some, but not to the number of hearing challenged detectorists out there. Yes, there are totally deaf people who metal detect. I think it’s awesome somebody thought about them, even if they are few in number. When I reviewed the Nokta FORS Gold in 2014, almost nobody had ever heard of this company. Yet anyone reading that review will see they immediately won me over, and I predicted big things for them. The main thing was they were responsive, and fixed things that I mentioned needed fixing immediately. I was used to U.S. manufacturers just putting a new machine to bed, and any issues always were β€œtoo late now”. Not these folks. They would stop the production line and implement changes immediately, on the fly, in a way I’ve never seen before or since. Sometimes a model gets released too early, like the Simplex, but they don’t just give it a pass. They take any feedback, make improvements, and make good on any genuine customer complaints that arise due to any oversights on their part. They are not perfect, no, but who is? The thing is they try and just keep on swinging. From a company nobody heard of in 2014, to a major contender now, nipping at the heels of the top dogs. If they get a good multi and a good PI to market in the next couple years, they will finally pull up neck and neck with First Texas and Garrett. Garrett only just got a multi to market, and while it’s a start, nobody is being blown away. The ATX is decent, but too heavy by a couple pounds at least. First Texas has a 25 year old multi, and is fumbling their PI intro, so neither of these old line companies have a lot to brag about in the multi and PI department. Nokta/Makro has a good shot at pulling up even or even exceeding both these old line companies. Minelab has a massive head start in both multi and PI, and due to various patents I don’t think it is very realistic that NM will outperform them per se. But they do not have to. They simply have to get in the ballpark, and with PI in particular, at a much lower price than the sky-high Minelabs. Not everyone loves Minelab, and many would buy something else just to buy something else, as long as it is decent. Minelab may be top dog right now, but it’s anyone’s bet who is going to be in second place in 2-3 years. I’m sure not counting this scrappy little company from Turkey out. They are hungry, and in business, that’s half the battle.
    5 points
  16. Manual sensitivity only goes up to 10. Auto+ can go above Manual 10 if conditions allow it to do so, typically in mild ground. That's where the "plus" comes from. Here is a tidbit in reference to that from JP: "If the ground conditions are mild Auto+ has the ability to increase the detectors outright sensitivity much further than flat out manual mode, so in variable EMI areas the EMI will sound worse in Auto+ compared to full manual mode."
    4 points
  17. Congrats on the gold πŸ‘. A good story, I usually only have a quick flick through so took your advice on starting at paragraph 3, ended up going back and reading the first 2. I got a 5g piece the other day at 14” in horrible black iron laterite, was using the 11” coil. It sounded like a 20g piece would sound on the 5k at similar depth, I was stunned when it was only a 5 grammer.
    4 points
  18. I printed my own from this free Thingiverse file. Coil Ear Protector for Minelab Equinox I printed it with Polycarbonate filament using 100% infill (no internal gaps). I also changed printing orientation to print it from the side instead of the bottom. This aligns the filament layers perpendicular to the common break lines of the tabs instead of parallel to the break points. It is much stronger this way. I've had it on for a year with no problems.
    4 points
  19. Ok, today I took one for the team. πŸ˜€ I didn't get out until the hot part of the day (east coast mid Atlantic is 12 -4, peak at 4). It was 90 and around 70% humidity with little to no wind. 😡 As much as I like the warm months this is just uncomfortable. Took the Ace 400 to the old farmhouse to see if it turned up anything else. This is what I got in an area I hunted with the equinox and the 10x5 and 11" coil: I ran the Ace in no discrimination at first, got tired of digging beer cans (threw most of them out), so I switched to jewelry mode with iron audio. Most of what is pictured above was retrieved before I switched, after that I heard the iron, but still got some falsing. It's all aluminum, steel, and iron, I dug the copper wire in fresh places. Consider a farmhouse as a single layer cake, there may be some deep stuff but it's usually big iron. Here everything is gonna be in the first 8-12". This tells me straight up there really isn't much left to find here except where I haven't looked. I went to the spot that Chase dug the silver quarter, and again nothing but iron came up. 4 hour hunt in a small area. I went closer to the house and dug these two memorials after moving a bunch of branches and searching the English ivy in a spot I did not swing a coil before: My conclusion is that the Ace will find stuff if it is there, but it falses so much that I will never regret getting an Equinox. πŸ˜€ It does not surpass or compliment the Equinox at all. All that junk is what I passed over with the Equinox. Depth indicator is almost always way off on the Ace. In the next day or so I'll go to the newer house with the Ace to see what I might have missed. Cooler days are coming!
    3 points
  20. There is no gold in SD, we do all our hunting in WY. Yeah Dan killed it last weekend. Deepest biggest gold yet I have seen yet with this machine! Diet GPZ (or as Steve calls it GPZ Lite for you Euros) for sure in my book. I really used to enjoy winning all the beer bets before Dan got a 6k. Now he is taking my beer and my gold! 🀣 I keep telling him now that I should have never told you to get a quality detector, why the hell did your wife let you get one!! 🀣🀣🀣 Nah, Dan is great friend, detecting buddy and fellow researcher. Good partner in crime for our gold fields. Deserves the gold he is finding after for so long collecting dust. And now an active DP community member to boot! Now the next bet should be first one to find a 1+ ouncer gets a case! Game on!
    3 points
  21. I have no idea what coils Garrett will be producing for the 24K, though I lobbied hard for a small concentric. They understand coils are key to the machine, so we will see. In any case, when Simon mentioned Serious had the 6" concentric in stock at a good price, I immediately ordered one, and turns out I got their last one. I'm hoping Garrett will make their own version, but this was cheap insurance to make sure I got one. Bird in the hand and all that. I'd like to get this setup to a few tot lots soon. The 24K is a great machine for hunting small jewelry, and so I'll go clean all the small aluminum out of a few locations, and see what happens. Anyway, thanks for the tip Simon!
    3 points
  22. Simon has the 6” for the White’s 24K, which is white. You are correct, the same coil for the GMX is black, with a yellow label. Very hard to find a good photo of one by the way. For others who do not know, both coils will work on the Garrett 24K, as will the 4x6 DD for the GMX, also black with yellow label. I have never seen a 4x6 made in white for the 24K. The new Garrett 6x10 DD coil is black, while the original White's version was white. 6” concentric for White’s GMX Sport - compatible with 24K models Garrett 6" x 10" DD coil for Goldmaster 24K
    3 points
  23. I get 3.5 hours per set of cells. Last Sunday hunted 7 hours, probably 7-8 miles of walking. Not the greatest targets but the right detector for the job as really not too much trash and lots of black sand. I tested this detector against CTX and eq600 in this type of sand and way better depth. Also no pickup of foil.
    3 points
  24. 3 points
  25. Whites' 6 "concentric coil has an actual size of 6.5" -6-6 "so this coil is visibly larger than a 6" coil from Equinox ... I expect this coil to be very sensitive to small gold ... because concentric coils can maintain this sensitivity with increasing coil size ... significantly better than DD coils ... This 6.5 "GMT coil should have an excellent ratio between sensitivity and range for very small targets .... and the size of this coil is still quite compact. Simon .. I'm very curious about your GMT testing with different coils in your New Zealand terrain ... and I wish you nice and productive gold prospecting in these areas....πŸ‘
    3 points
  26. GPAA has the treasure shows lined up for 2022 . Hopefully they don’t get shot down but you can see below how they going to run . Chuck
    3 points
  27. And it's not just the phone itself. It's all the pictures (uh oh...) passwords, music, pay apps, social media apps (and their login info), etc. on the phone. I think most people have password protected lockscreens, but there's also the hassle of having to call your mobile carrier, redownload all the apps, reconfigure your settings, etc. Or maybe most people use cloud-based services that negates that hassle? Don't look at me, I'm using a smartphone that was like $20 and it runs a version of Android from like 8 years ago...
    3 points
  28. Not sure about that, many of the new cell phones cost as much or more than a diamond ring πŸ™‚
    3 points
  29. I'm very tempted! Just don't relish the thought of "relearning" the Ace. πŸ€” I do think you have a point tho. The Ace may have a more simplistic way of looking at the ground, perhaps I need a bit of nostalgia.
    3 points
  30. There are two ways to look at this. Parks (and schools) have lots of traffic -- people losing valuables -- but also lots of associated trash as well as many(?) detectorists who have had and continue to have easy access. Homesites have less human traffic, but often over longer time periods, possibly less trash (that one is quite variable) and fewer detectorists to compete with. IMO, finding the 'garden spots' of homesites can be the difficult part. At least that's been my experience. Where were the clotheslines, the shady spots for evening relaxation, the path to the outhouse, the place where the dishwater, clothes washing water, etc. were tossed? Where did they park their buggies and cars; where did they dismount their horses? Where was the mailbox? Answer those and you'll be on your way to finding the goodies.
    3 points
  31. It has to be an engagement ring with a fat diamond for her to try that hard. No one would work that hard for a cell phone.
    3 points
  32. I get your motive, and what you write is true to a point. πŸ™‚ I started in July 2020 with a Garrett Ace 400, and did ok, but it didn't take me a year to figure out (much as I've also seen Vanquish users write recently) that getting a detector that doesn't ground balance was a big miscalculation. I had an Equinox in my hands not 5 months later. I would have gone with the Simplex at first as it ground balances and is waterproof had I initially known that there was a metal detector store in my area with a seasoned detectorist in charge. He steered me toward the Equinox 600 as I didn't have the $$ for a Deus or an 800, he knows the area I hunt in. You can take an Equinox or Simplex anywhere. Not so much the others. I do rivers, campgrounds, beaches, and my beloved 100s of acres of farm and farmhouses I have permission to. The only thing I don't have is a park! I have to say the poor Ace is gathering dust, I'm thinking of selling it for the next improvement on waterproofing, multifrequency, and balancing/noise cancelling. Without all those features no other detector would do. I don't really want to own 10 of them!
    3 points
  33. I find the Equinox to be just fine as a turn on and go detector where you just select your detecting environment and go. It's only complicated if you want it to be. It's stable ID's make learning detecting on coin type targets a breeze. Sure the Vanquish is just as easy if not easier as you can't get tempted to play with settings but I personally wouldn't tell someone to buy a Vanquish as they're a beginner and buy an Equinox when they're more skilled, as you can just buy the Equinox and use it as a turn on and go detector and have room to grow into it. I love my Vanquish, it's fantastic but the Nox is better. In some detecting environment's a Vanquish won't cut it without ground balance so a Nox is necessary so a beginner buying a detector that won't ground balance in their soil isn't going to go down very well. I would say buy an Equinox if you an afford it, buy a Vanquish if you can't knowing one day you might want to upgrade to an Equinox anyway as you become more skilled at detecting and want to broaden the targets you look for, such as gold nuggets.
    3 points
  34. If you have a descent notch system you can snipe out particular pull tabs or at least make their tone break up. When jewelry hunting I pay more attention to signals that sound more like foil or have the softer roll tone. Some machines are better at that than others. Can slaw is where it gets tough for me but often that is in patches. In general I have found that chains are really tough, often like foil with dodgy signals depending if they are strung out or balled up. Small earings range from foil to below nickels. Small and thin rings are at or below nickels. Wedding bands often above nickels. Class rings up with ring pull tabs. Platinum seems to have a stronger signal than gold but I only found one plat ring and it was fairly large and came in above nickels. Higher k value will be higher on the machine but not always. Thin 10k rings can be in the foil range. Rings in general will have consistant numbers on the VDI but may have different ranges depending on orientation, ie one direction the last ring i found range in at 47-48 and another direction it was 48-50 but importantly the numbers were repeatable. Trick for me when hunting in trashy areas it to isolate the target before I even begin to start watching the display. I want to make sure I am dead on that target and no other targets are being picked up. Does seem like your close to the million pull tab per ring at least it sure feels like that at times :)
    3 points
  35. So, my beach season hunting has officially started. I was going to shoot for two days hunting but a wash out on Thursday made me change some plans. I had reserved Thursday for the GPX 6000 and the 14” DD coil, but had to settle for trying the 6000, 5000 and Equinox on Friday. I changed beach locations too and ended up at the less EMI beach for the day. Started out using the GPX 5000 for clearing out some of the recently deposited junk in an area that has produced silver before. I thought the storms that ripped through the previous day would remove some sand, but it was just the opposite…. sand deposited along 3/4 of the beach (top to bottom). Also, high tide reach to the highest point of the beach, so I could only hunt where the waves did not constantly reach up top. The 5000 did well considering the beach was really sanded in and gave me my first silver of the season – a 1955 Washington quarter. The rest was clad, but for 2 copper pennies. Some junk jewelry, and maybe some iron shot or just a ball bearing, - it measured .75 caliber. The big spoon was found at 20” and I thought I was going to get a beer can or some big iron, so that was a nice surprise. Hunted with the 5000 for 6 hours and decided I cleared enough to try the 6000 in that spot. The EMI was a bit more than usual but not really bad. I’m still not sold on that 14” coil. I tried both ground settings, as well as both Salt mode and EMI mode. I tried auto, auto +, manual (full) and manual (setting 1) and some in between. I just could not get the 6000 to not false on the sand. It was partially damp, as high tide receded a while ago, but with a sensitivity of 1, I would have expected a smooth clean machine. IDK maybe the coil is not good. I did not bring the 11” mono as I really wanted to see if the salt mode would work on the 14” DD. Being a bit disappointed, and after trying all combinations of settings, I called it after around 10 minutes. So, the tide was getting as low as it was going to be, so I hunted for 3 hours with the Equinox and traded my spade for my scoop. I didn’t use the Nox much last season as the 5000 was killing the silver, so the Nox sat idle. But I wanted to see if the heavy waves dropped anything on the beach along with all that sand. There weren’t many targets, so I dug everything to get a feel for all the numbers. The hairpins and tiny wire all read a steady -2, -3. The Nox did well for the short time I used it and if I wasn’t beat from the hunt, I would have stayed in the area that was producing some coins. It was the best machine for the day to give me a chance at some gold. It felt really, really good to get out and just walk the beach. Next week all 3 machines will be at the crazy EMI beach. I will have the mono coin and the DD to see if this beach (dry sand) will be ok for the 14” coil. Can’t wait!!!
    2 points
  36. Only a matter of time before these start to ship out in Australia. Full credit to Garrett for doing a better job in marketing and sales, they are moving fast. Now available for sale in Australia.
    2 points
  37. Lots of gold prospecting I do may as well be called trash detecting. Endless nails and other ferrous trash.... and the bullets and shell casings! So jewelry detecting is not that different, and anywhere people have been, jewelry is possible. Dig endless aluminum until gold appears. I like hunting tot lots for lost jewelry as it is good practice for nugget detecting, and sometimes more productive.
    2 points
  38. Thanks. It may not be a defective coil. It seems that detector manufacturing is taking a turn from what previous models were designed to do. They are more focused on a particular task (and customer) as opposed to working for a broad range of scenario. They will still work other places than they were not specifically designed for, but I have to remember that this is a gold machine and when they say all gold, all soils, all the time, they meant gold only!πŸ˜„ Even the DD coil is engineered differently than previous DD coils were. That is why after market coils are a necessity for me. My biggest fear was that I am limited to just a couple of options when I run into trouble, like I did on that beach. It didn't like the damp sand.... so now what? It goes into the trunk and the 5000 comes out πŸ˜„ The 6000 worked awesome with the 11" mono coil for regular dirt hunting the 14DD, not so much but still had its pluses. I will try again with both coils on a dry sand, but heavy EMI beach. But rest assured, I will have the 5000 and Nox standing by. It's just such a different machine that the 5000 is. I understand why they kept the GPX name, but for me it's not the GPX I grew to love. Now the gold guys??? They are in heaven with this machine. I envy them for bringing fun back to nugget hunting.
    2 points
  39. Good warmup to what I expect will be a great season for you. I assume you are one of the first (in the world) to try the ML GPX6000 on a saltwater beach. That means no one to compare notes with -- you're on your own. If you can't get the DD to work on your next outing I hope you can send it in for a replacement. ML ought to give you extra attention given your track record on the beaches with your X5k. Hopefully more than just ML-USA takes notice....
    2 points
  40. You would be surprised how effective the Ace can be. Short time I have had my Apex with it's simple beep I have found large cent, kg, couple nice gold rings, v nickels, flying eagle ih and in less than one week found 2 clad Kennedy dollars and of course good amount of pocket change. Sometimes for me changing machines gives me a new perspective on an area, new audio and response forces me to pay more attention to what I hear.
    2 points
  41. I agree. My wife is a certified health coach and she's always telling me how to keep fit for detecting. Getting the right nutrients when they are needed is a good start. But, I also agree that proper footing can do wonders as well. Add dehydration to the mix and it seems to aggravate or initiate a lot of muscle and joint issues for me. I had the same thing happen on a long awaited hunt... First scoop into the hard packed shell sand, and the scoop twisted. It shot a pain right up my leg. I thought I was done for the day. But like others, I gingerly limped along and soon after it was still sore, but bearable. It's a terrible joke life plays on us allowing our brain to think we are still 20 overriding our body's screams that we are old!!! πŸ˜†
    2 points
  42. This week I have used my 3030/17 two times after it being on the shelf for a couple of years. The reason why I got it out was because my wife was using my 800. I won't wait that long to use the 3030 again. When I first got my 800 I was switching back and forth because the 800 had 'foreign' sounds to me and I was not comfortable. I made the comparison at the time that the 3030 was still a very good beach machine and maybe even better than the 800 with 11" coil. After I got the 15" coil for the Equinox it was just easier to use and I have found lots of valuable things with it but that does not mean that the 3030 is not good. Today I was by myself just before an incoming high tide and I didn't have much wet beach to detect but it was just a joy to swing with my harness and hip stick. Targets were not that many but they stay on the screen and in the ear phones longer than the 800. I came to remember the sound, look at the screen and see on the grid where a penny, dime and quarter are. Of course the Equinox has numbers but not a graph which gives better discrimination than the Nox. When I got the low tone and saw the circle in the gold zone I was hopeful. My hopes were rewarded with a 2.7g/14k little bracelet. I can elaborate more on the detecting if someone has questions. I could really use this a lot more again. When I turned on the location of my finds it showed all of these finds I made back years ago. That is really special. I don't remember much about aftermarket coils for the 3030. My coils are the 6, 11 and 17. Gold Hound used it for gold and I've found a nearly half ounce gold nugget with it.
    2 points
  43. When Tesoro went out of business I emailed Deeptech on making a dual discrim machine like the Tejon. They ended up going a bit further with the 2 tone discriminators. I think with the 2 tone and single tone you can do a bit more than the Tejon. I mean in the sens you can run your first disc with minimal (lower discrim) and 2nd as a 2 tone with a higher break or run it with just low and high break on disc much like the Tejon in single tone or run first as all metal and 2nd at what ever breaks you want. Tejon I always run the primary discrim lower than the 2nd. I also never run it full time in all metal simply because the recovery speed is very slow compared to many other machines out there making it difficult to hear smaller targets. From what I heard the Vista X has a much quicker recovery speed. One of the things that kept me from getting a Vista X was the location of the toggle switches. I really hoped they would do a trigger like the Tejon, Racers and F75 have. That is probably the best spot for pin pointing. For threshold and listening to the changes in ground with a nice steady and smooth hum I think the Kruzer and Gold Racer are incredible for that. Now for the independent gain and sensitivity, the reason that I still thing other manufacturers should do the same is simple. Gain is the over all power of the machine and sensitivity is the break point of where the machine responds to what is ground phase and what is a target. That fine adjustment can really help pick out targets. How I would run it in the field is simple. In the case of deep searching you can simply crank up the gain and start to drop the sensitivity to settle the machine down and make it run quiet and not chattery. As gain goes up you start to pick up more mineralization and I can sort of equate that with looking down a foggy road. Another thing you can do is run the gain really low and sensitivity up so you can essentially hunt recent drops and small jewelry without blasting the ground and picking up deeper targets. Between the Warrior at 18khz and the Gold Gain at 30khz I think I would lean towards the Gold Gain for myself as I have a few other machines in the lower khz. The Warrior with the large coil supposedly can go very deep and hit higher conductor coins in the 18"+ mark. That sounds great but I think there are only a handful of spots around me that might possibly produce a target that deep but I tend to think it would be unlikely. That doesn't go without saying that the Warrior would rule meadows that havent been cut or where grass is a bit higher. Still not sure why they wouldnt put a threshold control on the Gold Gain, basically without it is just a high frequency coin and relic machine. Not that its a bad thing but the name doesn't quite fit the machine.
    2 points
  44. I'm taking them at their word. They are coming for the Equinox buyer's market primarily, the Apex market is slightly secondary, They intend to get a large portion of both. Market share is the goal, but prestige plays a big part too.
    2 points
  45. Kind of a funny anecdote, I found a real clothesline (still there). It was in the overgrowth but completely intact. I brought a lopper and hedge trimmer in there and cut everything to the ground in 94 degree heat. 😡 I was so excited! Took a break and then fired up the Equinox. Went in there, and found absolutely nothing. 🀬 There is a path to the outhouse visible but it's overgrown as well with a different kind of ivy. I'm going to keep that in the back pocket for cooler weather. There is also a shed that is completely overgrown. I think the oldest clothesline was in the front yard where I dug many coins including the 1907 British penny and a 1958 silver quarter. Chase agreed that this might have been a more likely older spot for a clothesline, there is more wind there. The rest of the front yard is covered with English and poison ivy, I'm going to have to get my hands on a gas powered mower to clear that enough to find coins lost in the shade of the large trees and under the boxwoods. The house has no front entrance facing the road. Most of the silver was found in a small spot to the right of the shed/garage, possibly out of sight of the house. I also found a large modern coin spill there, a couple of clad quarters, some dimes, and a bunch of pennies. Might have been an improvised 'outhouse' of sorts... It is out of sight of the house. πŸ˜€
    2 points
  46. Short run at one my usual stomping grounds. This time I hit the lower section near the power lines to see how the Apex handles emi. My buddies Nox 800 and my Kruzer aren't fond of that area as it gets noisy. Not bad enough to quit but enough to be annoying. The Apex handled it well and separation is great amongst the trash. 2nd hit of the day was the 14k ring with yellow stone, not sure what the stone is. The other good hit was the 1871 Canadian 10c. When I first dug it I thought it was a barber not sure and just tossed it in my pouch. Got too hot to keep going so called it day shortly after.
    2 points
  47. All great analytical dot connecting BUT perhaps one oversight if I may. At this stage of the game they don't have to be better then ML, just FTP and Garrett. The bar's not high at this point IMHO. Now if they're going for the juggler with a stretch goal to take out the Equinox, which has been alluded to, great, but the battle's already won if they release a better SMF then FTP and Garrett have in their lineup IMHO. If their SMF is as good as or better then the Equinox, then it's game on and it will be very interesting to see Minelab scramble to release an Equinox Pro with more features and capabilities then their Nokta competitive counterpart. This will certainly be interesting!
    2 points
  48. I wen through this a couple of years ago. Thought my outdoor life was finished. tried all the Youtube video fixes, stretches, and all that. Nothing helped. Finally got a pair of inserts to lift my arches, and problem was quickly solved. the strain, and pain is caused by your ankles tipping IN. By raising your arch, it causes the ankle to tip more outwardly, thus relieving the strain on the tendon. I'm completely cured of the problem. Took about a week after getting the arch supports. Jim
    2 points
  49. I use a 12.5" DD coil on the 5000. It has proven itself as the best all around coil for my beaches. It rarely falses and some better coil control on my part would get rid of that falsing. It does pick up emi fairly well, but the is probably due to the fact that I run my settings... let's just say, not the recommended settings from the manufacturer. πŸ˜† I may hit a heavy emi beach next visit so I may try the 14DD again to see how it does on completely dry sand. If it does not work well, it may end up in the dead coil, time out pile πŸ˜‰ Thanks, I hope you lose a couple of feet soon, although I bet there are still a lot of targets that are really mixed up in that 8-10 feet. I wonder how much tiny gold (studs, chains, charms) are in that mix? For sanded in times, I would use the Nox and try for micro gold. You should try it. Any chance to get some time in with your machine is good for the soul. I do some serious research. Here is what I do..... Get in car, take machines, spend all day on a beach, dig like crazy πŸ˜„ Works for me.
    2 points
×
×
  • Create New...