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Showing content with the highest reputation on 09/18/2021 in all areas

  1. I went back to the spot that produced a lot of stuff yesterday. It was like somebody flipped a switch and it was over as fast as it started lol. So I roamed around for about an hour and a half and hit another hot spot. The area was about 40 ft wide and 60 ft long thats where most of the stuff came out.
    13 points
  2. Found this pretty 10K the other day in the water. There was also a heavy (19 gram) tungsten ring etched with deer foot prints, a buck, a fish and a fish hook.
    11 points
  3. Through most of 2020 I detected a large park which had been previously detected but still produced decent old coins for me. In one post I told of a well used path to a small waterfall which confused and frustrated me. The path (approx 150-200 m long) is right next to a creek ('stream' for you New Englanders πŸ˜‰) and it was likely used for watering cattle in the late 19th and early 20th Century. The path was hard packed gravel and crushed stone, occasionl larger pieces of limestone, with soil filled in between all that aggregate. This path gave thick iron response to the Minelab Equinox and produced almost no coins. (I do remember one Zincoln -- I would.) Back then I tried both the 11" stock DD coil and the 6" DD with similar results. With both coils I recovered shallow (meaning mostly within the first 1" depth) lead bullets as well as brass casings. Most were 22 cal. but a few were larger and those in particular I was able to date at over 100 years old. My conclusion is that this path was used by hunters prior to it becoming part of the park. So in summary, lots of small iron (nails and wire), as many bullets and casings as I cared to recover, but no coins. And the recovered targets were mostly located in the top 1 inch. Some time after my report, kac suggested returning with the Tesoro Vaquero and 8"x9" stock concentric (the only concentric I have for it presently). He and dogodog recommended setting the threshold to where Zincolns just break up. I found out from the park caretaker that the path is scheduled to be covered over completely with a boardwalk so if I was ever going to return, I better make it quick. A week ago I took his advice as well as kac's and doggo's. But in two hours of hunting with the Vaquero I recovered almost nothing. One lead bullet somehow snuck past the threshold and I think I got an aluminum can base, but specifically no coins and practically no trash either. I had been committed to using concentric coils only and took my Fisher F75 with its tiny 3"x6" concentric as a backup. Returning the the vehicle I swapped out the detectors and returned for 2 more hours. I only use silencing discrimination (and silencing masking) when I have no choice so I set the F75 up in Default process, 4H (4 tones with nickel zone joining the high conductor coins in the highest tone). Low tone is 0-15 which is nominally the entire iron range. With this detector I decided to dig anything 'interesting', at least at the start. As was the case in 2020 I immeditately started recovering lead bullets and brass casings, all very shallow as before. Two more hours and still no coins. I gave up. At the far end of this wooded path there is construction of a new paved path in the open area of the park. (I've bitched many times before that I hate these backfilling-party upgrades!) For the last hour of this session I decided to search near that path, also at or close to where I had hunted previously. All the coins found that day (just two clad dimes and two copper Memorials) were found in that last hour with the F75 and its tiny coil. Here are the coins I found that day and the next day (described below): The next morning I returned to search several dirt piles -- the dirt having been removed ("scraped off") so they could backfill the walkway with crushed stone before paving with asphalt. That 2.5 hour hunt was exclusively with the ML Equinox 800 and 11" coil with my standard park/school coin hunting settings. The dirt piles produced only a clad dime -- what a disappointment. For the last hour I just searched part of the park I had hunted previously. One wheat penny was in the ground up trunk of a recently cut down tree (not surprisingly with damage from the blades of that tool). The other Wheatie was in along a path I'm pretty sure I had detected previously, but was less than 2" deep and thus sounded like a shallow Zincoln. (Lesson to self: Be careful what you mentally reject digging....) Oh, what's that other thing? Near the end of the first day in a dirt pile I got a signal in the nickel zone of the F75 (25-35 on the 0-99 scale) and thought maybe it was in fact a nickel. Imagine my disappointment when it turned out to be a 10kt gold child's ring weighing 0.43 g. (still about $10 in gold content at today's price). That's my first gold jewelry find since December of 2018. Ignoring the foil and pulltab ranges has its advantages... and its downsides. Finally, the non-valuable non-ferrous finds over these two days. The finds along the 'noisy' path to the waterfall (4 hours of the 7.5 hour total) are the lead bullets and brass casings, the aluminum bracket at far upper left corner, the chrome plated strap clamp (off womens clothing?), and the two items right above it -- one a small cap (but not bottle cap) and the other a small gear, possibly from a clock. To the right of those, also found along the wooded path, is heavy gauge copper wire wrapped around a fine gauge copper wire -- something electrical I guess. Everything else was from the rest of the (open) area I hunted over those two days. The tag with printing is religious and not old. Note the interesting toy cannon from a WWI(?) playset. I have no idea what those two embossed mating pieces (pot metal?) to the right of the toy gun are. That rectangle at the lower left is some kind of nametag, etc., not a buckle. Lower far right is a thick amber glass jar piece, probably part of a canning jar. Crown cap is pre-plastic liner era (I seldom find those as they rust away over 50+ years). Upper left is a decorative knob off of a piece of furniture. Finally the upper right -- what this was doing in a pile of scrape-off dirt at a park I have no idea. Here's a picture of a nearly identical piece I found googling: And some info on the company that made it: I'd much rather be showing you pictures of early coins, especially silver, and I'm sure you would, too, but the earlybird detectorists got those worms, leaving the decaying insects for me.
    11 points
  4. Hunted a fresh drop beach Tuesday, now that they are open all day. Tides were low and water was calm. I was able to get into a area where no one had been and got a 14k wedding band. The other two (10k white golds) were closer to shore, no doubt recent drops... (One scoop) When I dug the first, I said gold but never seen a mark and figured it was junk.. until I got to my car and seen both stamped 10k.. The place was hammered good but there were areas still un-hunted after being open a week.
    8 points
  5. I dug two silvers today on the beach. I thought that the ring was gold until I found the hallmark. The hallmark in not on the inside but instead on the outside and says 925 A2 and weighs 4.1g. The necklace is hallmarked 925 and Italy. Although the pendant isn't hallmarked, it appears to be silver also. At first glance, it looks somewhat like a key. BUT it has an alien head on one side and a pyramid on the other side. On one edge side it has SD and on the other edge side it has 2016. Total weight is 21.2g. I thought that maybe the SD was San Diego and the 2016 being the year. Maybe Comic-Con? Attached are some pictures for your viewing pleasure. Any ideas on both the ring and necklace/pendant would be appreciated.
    8 points
  6. The speaker is the pits, it generates its own EMI or the speaker being in close proximity to the very sensitive electronics housed in the plastic housing does anyway. Also if you have a touchy coil lead especially on the 11” monos wobbling the control box too much will cause EMI like noises, to ascertain this just hold the detector dead still and listen, no noise when held stationary most likely equals coil lead wobble noise. Lastly if you do more than say 6 to 10 Noise Cancels in a session then I highly recommend performing a full factory reset of the detector by turning off then turning on again but this time continue holding the ON button in for 7 seconds. In fact it’s a good idea to periodically perform a full reset regardless to give Geo-Sense a fresh start. Turning off then on again will retain a lot of dross accumulated over many sessions, a full factory reset will clear the logs and get things purring again. Hope this helps JP
    7 points
  7. When the waves are pumping you have to keep jumping! I was out for 5 hours last night and got 2 more Gold, 2 more Silver, 30 Quarters and a scull digger surprise. Here is the loot. Here is the good stuff. Here are the rings. Here are some details with 10k/10g/Reads 10 on the Eq 800/15/B1 Here are the rings from the 2 days by day first and by metal second. The gold was 18k, 14k, 10k Thanks for looking.
    5 points
  8. Those two mated pieces look to me to be a kids life size "cowboy" cap gun barrel! Sorry you didn't find the coins that "should" have been there, but is it possible that someone beat you there? And cleaned it out! Or they simply got buried deeper, being a path! Still interesting finds!! Anyway, I'm sure there are other locations, including the waterfall area, that has some hidden coins/jewelry!!πŸ‘πŸ‘
    5 points
  9. Here is a video of the 12x6" coil finding a little nugget, it's very windy there at the moment, I think he does very well to recover this with one hand while filming with the other..... I doubt I would be capable of doing that, I always put my phone down to recover it πŸ™‚ They're currently working on an even smaller size coil so I will hopefully have a video of that one being tested soon.
    4 points
  10. It's hard to know what went on there on that path. Maybe they scraped some dirt 50 years ago, maybe a washout took the coins and relics away, or as always feared, somebody got there first and cherry picked the coins. Either way you don't have to wonder what might have have been there if you didn't detect it, and saw them covering it up with the new boardwalk. If there were some coins hiding there you would have found them judging by what you were able to recover. You didn't miss any, they just aren't there for some reason.
    4 points
  11. I just started a a thread on the same subject, need to combine the two. Will figure it out…… OK, leaving this thread, copy of my post here: This is a copy of a post I made in the GPX rod thread: I wonder if there is more going on there than EMI, as it is genuinely a non-issue for me most of the time. Have you tried another coil? I don’t mean the 14” for EMI canceling, but maybe the 17” or another 11”. If you know somebody who will let you try their 11” give it a go, in case there is a coil issue. I have my doubts it is EMI at all, as even in remotest Alaska the machine will act up, requiring one, and in rare cases, a couple hits of the cancel button to settle down. If it’s EMI then in those cases it would have to be picking up aurora borealis or something natural, because no way it’s man made EMI. Maybe something in Geo-Sense going astray? Don’t know, may be subject for another thread, as I want this one to stay focused on the rod issue. JP has mentioned he thinks the speaker has something to do with it, like a feedback loop where the machine is picking up its own speaker, then amplifying that back via the audio? I do actually wonder if a Geo-Sense programming bug is at fault, as it did occur with mine in remotest Alaska, where it is impossible it was man made EMI. A natural source, like aurora activity? Perhaps, but feels more like something inherent in the machine. It also seems to vary by machine. Mine, it’s basically a none issue for me except in rare instance, easily tamed with the cancel button. But I consider the machine to be inherently noisy, like the SDC warble, and so discount what others might consider to me major. I’m also used to running machines very hot and noisy regardless, so maybe I’m not mentally attuned to this as much as others might be. But I also suspect there are machines that are simply doing this more than others, or more likely, areas where it really is EMI, like Arizona, where that seems more common than northern Nevada. Don’t know, but it is going on, and here is a thread, like the rod thread, to express your thoughts. No doubt the feedback will find its way to Minelab, so please express in depth and with some thought. Thanks.
    4 points
  12. MY OCD has a harder time with the out-of-true issue than the actual problem. One method I’ve used is attach the GPZ Guide arm to the mid shaft at the lowest end which seems to totally stop the mid shaft from twisting, the amount of twisting I get on the lower shaft is now minimal and easily corrected by fixing the coil with the foot and performing a light twist back to centre. As Steve has said the amount of annoyance hasn’t been enough of an incentive for me to actually bother to do something about it. Another suggestion is to not take the shaft all the way out to the red line, leave at least the width of the lock knuckle forward of the red line to give a good grip without it actually trying to grip on the red line (red line section has been machined smooth to get the paint to adhere) and prevent too much leverage on the end of the shaft, secondly I recommend users pull the shafts apart periodically and using a damp microfibre cloth to clean inside the locking mechanism and the shafts themselves. Do not use any chemicals, just plain water is sufficient. JP
    3 points
  13. People imagine Asians assembling things in garages with hammers and tongs, making cheap low quality products. The truth is Malaysia etc is a high tech hotbed, where top quality things like computer processors are made in top of the line facilities. Apple iPhones another example. Obviously offshoring of manufacturing was done to lower labor costs, and evade various regulations on manufacturing. However, the breakdown of the global β€œjust in time” supply chain, coupled with deteriorating global politics, means that companies are rethinking supply chains, and reshoring efforts are underway. People hoping this means lots of jobs will be disappointed, as AI and factory automation is largely cutting workers out of the loop, but this ironically means high labor costs are less an impediment to bringing some manufacturing back closer to the consumers being served.
    3 points
  14. I try to keep all metal away from the coil at all times, even when not detecting. When I dig a hole I always place the coil as far away from the hole as possible. There definitely is a drift in GB that gets exacerbated each time the pick, or any metal, comes to close to the coil. The same is true for any metal in boots, although the effect is more subtle. Factory reset is definitely helpful and I do it at least 2-3 x during the day. The quick track only optimizes around a local minimum, but if drifted to far off due to constant vicinity of metal a factory reset is needed. That's where the semi-auto GB of the 7000 with fixed X comes in handy. Regarding EMI, I don't find the speaker to be that unusable. Yes, it does add a bit but given how strong the signal response generally is I can live with the little bit added, most of the times. Having used the SDC for years my ears are already accustomed to the chitter and I can hear through it. Now, if I want to go deeper then for sure I always use the headset. But thus far, I use the 6000 mostly for shallow ground applications, say 1-6 inch depth. And there, the machine screams at you regardless of EMI or not. When I know the gold is deep most of the times then I always use the 7000.
    3 points
  15. Nice hunting G-B and glad you found some nice targets, but I wonder if you have tried to hunt any part of the creek. Those types of trails are good for old coins in the water just a few feet from the bank. It really depends on how fast the water is going to be able to hunt it. Good luck and keep a swinging.
    3 points
  16. I've seen two posts on Facebook now with people who had out of control EMI, they both had their GPX replaced and were then happy with the new one. It wasn't the coil in either case, one of them only had it a few days and took it back to the dealer where they tried another coil, the detector itself had a problem. There must be some part that's possibly a bit variable and makes some perform worse than others and in rare cases makes the detector just terrible to use, although this diagnosis is very simplistic based off only a couple of detectors. Yours sounds unusually bad and perhaps you also have a faulty coil or like these two people a faulty detector.
    3 points
  17. In the attached video is an example of the tracking being thrown out by the pick. When the second target is found from about 8:10 you can quite audibly hear the ground balance get thrown out by the pick pretty subtly at first then when digging 2 Γ— very audible pick strikes at about 8:40 & then again when he moved it pretty close by the coil at approx. 8:42 to 8:43. He then say "carrying on now isn't it". Les doesn't re-balance or auto tune afterwards & the 6000 continues to be very erratic until the end. I've seen a few comments on that section of footage say how bad the 6000 is with EMI but to me it's pretty obvious that the pick being too close to the coil caused the bulk, if not all, of the erratic threshold.
    3 points
  18. One thing I've noticed, & it's pretty obvious in a couple of videos I've seen, is that the 6000 hates having the tracking thrown out. In some videos you can see (& hear) where the pick etc. has come too close to the coil while it's set down to search for the target & it becomes erratic. Seen many comments wrongly say that it's EMI. Good thing is it's very easy fixed once setting off again, a quick track & a few broad sweeps seems to fix it up. I guess that's one price you pay for a very sensitive detector. I know I'm a lot more conscious of where my pick is or keeping things like phones out of coil detection range than I was with the 4500. GPZ was similar from memory.
    3 points
  19. Yep, those beach window's open and close so fast! I've been told many times by some of our beach guys, that if your lucky enough to hit one right, hunt till you can't swing anymore! Than switch arms, and swing "goofy" some more!🀣 GREAT JOB!!!πŸ‘πŸ‘
    3 points
  20. I had a busy day digging targets Took a little road trip and hit a park. Doesn't look like anybody in the town is swinging a metal detector LOL. I dug almost $14 in change, halfway through the day, I quit digging shallow penny signals. I wasn't able to dig any old silver, but, silver is silver. The little silver ring was a nice bonus. I only covered a small section, I'm headed back tomorrow to see what else comes out.
    3 points
  21. I moved freaks post here from another thread to start this line of discussion with a thread of its own. The rod can twist. I’ve experienced myself, and no amount of tightening will stop it if you put enough leverage on the locks. I don’t think you can break the rod per se from twisting the mechanism too hard, but obviously you could strip the nut off the threads. Still, I’ve given it as much twist as it seemed it could take, and have still managed to twist the rod. It takes pressure of some sort on the outer edge of the coil to twist the rod, and a larger coil provides more leverage between edge and rod. But I have had it happen with the 11” coil also when I get aggressive. When it happens, I’ve taken maybe one second with my foot to straighten it, and moved on. Some people will not experience it at all, others who are more aggressive with their coils probably will. I tend to let my coils ride on the ground with the rod fully extended, and bump into things a lot. This happens most often when I poke the coil aggressively into and between sagebrush. In my opinion, it at worst is a minor annoyance, not something a non-owner needs to elevate into months worth of posts. But I would love for other owners of the detector to weigh in with their view on the subject, yay or nay, to get a better fix on what actual owners think of the situation. I’m sure Minelab is interested also, so look at this as an owner feedback thread on the subject. I’ve considered drilling in a button lock, but it’s never annoyed me enough yet to go to the effort. I’ve been meaning to disassemble a twist lock, to see if roughening the surface or otherwise modifying the surface might help, but again, has never quite risen to that level of bother. I’ve considered whether Minelab might have gone with a square tube and lever system, and that might have been preferable for many. But I’ve also found for side hilling I like running the coil twisted out of true at times, and a square tube would prevent that. The simple solution of course would have been to include button locks. The entire rod assembly is easily removed from the 6000, and this would seem to make an aftermarket rod an easy option. However, the sliding armrest mechanism slides along a grip that is pressed (glued?) onto the upper shaft, making this a more difficult option than it might appear at first glance. Really going afield with possibilities, I wonder if tacky products, like this Golf Tac Grip Enhancer or Firm Grip might help. It seems part of the issue is the rod surface being so smooth with nothing to grab hold of. Separate thread on EMI issues here.
    3 points
  22. Give it a rest Rick. Off topic for starters with the rod thing. But beyond that, there is a line between criticism, and simply being a troll. You have crossed it. You have made it clear since day one you have no interest in owning a 6000, yet have missed no opportunity to criticize a detector you don’t own. It’s the only thing you’ve posted about all summer. It’s a poor look, especially as most owners actually like the machine. So let users speak for themselves, and quit with the trolling. I’d give the same speech to anyone hanging out on threads about a detector they don’t own, and relentlessly attacking it. It’s the definition of trolling, and won’t be tolerated from anyone. However, I totally agree with you about Minelab allowing others to build 6000 coils. It’s been reported that Coiltek will be doing just that. Let’s keep this thread on topic, which is x coil, not 6000 rods. I’ve started a separate thread about the 6K rod issue for owners, who actually know what they are talking about, to weigh in on the subject.
    3 points
  23. I have no problem with coil twisting and I am using the 17” now. I think people who are having a problem are not tightening down hard enough. The shafts are carbon fiber you’re not going to break them tighten the clamp as tight as it can possibly get. If you’re just weakly tightening it down then you are going to have some twist. Quite honestly if you wanted to drill a hole and put a pin in yourself it would not be a big deal but I think it defeats the purpose when you want to tighten up the cord by giving it a twist before engaging the locks. So far I’m satisfied with it. Keep this in mind to if you think you can actually tighten it to the point where you’re going to break it it’s under warranty for three years! But if you drill the hole it’s probably not under warranty anymore.
    2 points
  24. Mine twists a little with the 11” coil if I don’t tighten it enough, if I really crank on it it stays pretty well unless like others have mentioned I’m aggressively shoving it into bushes and then the more noticeable effect is a little false signal when the branches catch on the cable. The 14” coil is about the same, the 17” coil is the biggest offender and then I’m not really sure that it bothers me again as other 6000 users have mentioned the coil twisting a little actually comes in handy shifting the swing angle to suit my wrist on uneven terrain and when I want to align the shaft with the coil just turning my wrist a little with the coil on the ground does the trick. It’s not like the 17” coil flops around it stays pretty well aligned most of the time. The ergonomics actually add to the light feel unlike the 2300 that felt like a brick. If I have any concern it will be how the locking mechanism reacts over time? If it continues to function as it is now then I don’t think there is really a problem, however if time and repeated use result in the shaft connection becoming looser over then it probably is an issue to improve.
    2 points
  25. Recovery is fast so you should hear separate low and a high tone. I found the smaller than stock coils work better for me.
    2 points
  26. ATX is two pounds heavier than SDC! If you are not actually going underwater, no real reason not to use the TDI. Even if dropped in the water, it will probably survive if snatched up quickly and dried off. The TDI is a newer machine than the Infinium, and the better performer of the two. Garrett really needs that lightweight ATX I have been making noise about forever. The ATX is a fine machine, but needs a lighter housing, and standard coils without a rod attached. It’s crazy every ATX coil you buy, you have to buy an entire telescoping fiberglass rod assembly, doubling the cost of the coil. It also makes packing a spare coil in a ruck sack a real pain, and makes coil swaps the most difficult of all detectors I’ve used. Such a shame such a great circuit is hobbled by such a heavy housing and nutty coil system. Maybe the β€œnew Garrett” we are seeing now, will finally revisit this long overdue situation.
    2 points
  27. Good find Pimento, You may be on to something! If ML is experimenting with the formulations, than I give them credit for at least trying to fix the problem, without a mold change! That would be the least expensive solution, if it works!! Since we last visited this post, I have come to believe that their coil bolts are partly to blame! I have begun to alter them in different ways, to make them less likely to put too much pressure on the coil ears! And because I have several in reserve to use up! They can also be replaced with other brands/types to accomplish the same result!πŸ‘πŸ‘
    2 points
  28. On another forum, someone questioned whether certain manufacturing batches may be more troublesome than others. This made me look closely at my coils, and I see the month/year are moulded into the underside, along with the plastic blend. 11" stock coil (1): date "4" & "18" for April 2018, material "ABS+PC" (polycarbonate/ABS blend). This one had the broken ear. The blame is placed firmly on the previous owner, with worn teardrop washers, plastic-on-plastic wear. 11" stock coil (2): date "2" & "4" for Feb 2018, "ABS+PC" plastic. This one is also secondhand, but was likely less used ( until I got it ... ) and is still going fine with no signs of cracks. It may be educational, (or not) if users post their coil date code in future chat about this issue.
    2 points
  29. Another great hunt in the books for you, I hope that you are having fun at it as I am having fun reading about the finds. Good luck and happy hunting. Stay safe!
    2 points
  30. One thing I do know is the WINDIER and DRIER the conditions, the worse the EMI is.
    2 points
  31. While we are briefly on the sports field subject! Just a little "lesson" taught to me years ago, that I want to pass on to any "newer" people! Some Field Staff do not like/allow digging on "their" fields; sometimes for good reasons!! Dirt, grass, or otherwise! I get it!! So be especially aware of any holes dug!! And ideally, ask one of them first, if present! For Baseball Diamonds, and practice areas, under the top "orange" layer of soil, is generally a regular soil layer, if you dig deeper than a "few" inches! The soil "colors" should be separated, and placed back in reverse, so as not to leave brown blotches on an otherwise "prestine" orange dirt area!! And any grass fields should be probed, slit cut, or three-sided, instead of fully plugged! Than possibly wet with some water,, if dry, so they don't die, or discolor! And well compacted back, so no depressions are left to cause a twisted player ankle, or fall!! Actively used "public" sports fields are not an ideal place to avoid attention, even when totally vacant, so they can sometimes be tricky! (in my area anyway)! And any "highly manicured" field is sure to attract unwanted attention, and guaranteed problems! FYI πŸ‘πŸ‘
    2 points
  32. I’ve hunted hundreds of older baseball field (outfields and infields) in parks and schoolyards over the years. Sometimes, only the outfield produces old coins; sometimes only the infield (under the Decomposed Granite layer) will produce. Each baseball diamond is different in how it was built, with respect to the DG infield. Sometimes, 6” of original dirt is removed before laying the DG down. If that is the case, it’s possible to detect the β€œoldies” in under the DG. Ground balance over the DG before detecting. Depending on the level of moisture, digging thru DG could be a formidable task, but there’s nothing like getting thru the DG, and seeing dark, original dirt and the sight of silver peeking thru the dark dirt!! If, the original dirt was dug out deeper, the oldies will probably have been removed with the dirt before laying the DG. Of course there’s more variables than what I described. Older baseball diamonds could have been resurfaced/rebuilt many decades after they were built, so each one you come across in an older spot needs to be detected (infields and outfields). Also, any picnic areas in an old park with DG laid on the ground should always be inspected to figure out how deep the original dirt strata layer is.
    2 points
  33. Just some thoughts I've noticed, I have had noticed some EMI when next to multiple cell phones or when using the external speaker, but when I leave my cell phone in the vehicle and use the headphones everything seems a lot better. I primarily use the 11" Mono and have worked within 30 feet of power lines with very little EMI, in fact less EMI than my older PI machine has had in the same area. I do seem to need to do a few noise cancels, this occurs mostly after I'm lifting the coil high off the ground and letting it back onto the ground frequently. Some tips I have followed are JP's advice on letting the detector warm up and remember that if things do not seem right, then it is best to do a factory preset. In regards to the coil twist, I would definitely like tighter shaft locks, but actually prefer not to have a fixed position coil lock. The reason for this is to have the ability to twist the coil at an angle parallel to the ground when working side hills within hydraulic pits, the holding the detector straight up and down and having the coil at different angles of the slope causes a lot less fatigue on my arms (shoulders) and is easier to swing the coil close to the ground. I am also prone to tripping a lot and pushing the coil into the ground pretty hard and have thought multiple times that I would of broke the coil tabs off if it had not been for the twisting of the shaft which absorbs most of the shock. It could beneficial if just the upper shaft lock did lock though, as i do like the Vanquish series square quick locks.
    2 points
  34. i do remember having a bit of feedback moving the coil off the ground on rough bedrock. JP had talked about keeping the coil on the soil to keep it stable. going back out in the morning to have a go at it.
    2 points
  35. When it rains, it pours!! Now the permissions are finding you!! But if you hit that gold coin "cache", someone my change their tune!!😬 πŸ‘πŸ‘
    2 points
  36. I think I'll have to get one of those suits..............
    2 points
  37. I'll just cut right to the source, and chew on some coral!!🀣 I'm always picking up pieces, and shells, when I detect, for two fish tanks, and big glass jars at home!! Seriously, may be worth a try!! Thanks!!πŸ‘Œ Just got out this evening to mow the grass! For some reason, nothing will stop growing, while my foot hurts!!πŸ˜‚ It was bearable, with some new inserts, but still uncomfortable! But the show must go on, and I'm tired of sitting on my a$$ this week! Gonna try a park hunt or two next week, and work it slowly! Gotta be better by our "Winter" beach season, or I'll just hack it off, and replace it with a "big" coil, and a hip mount!!πŸ˜œπŸ‘πŸ‘
    2 points
  38. I developed this condition in 2005, while moving from Alaska to Oregon. Had to buy a cane to be able to walk. When I got to Oregon a friend told me that a friend of his also got what seemed to be the same thing I had. He said that his friend heard about talking Coral Calcium for it and it worked. So I got some and within a few days it was gone and has never returned.
    2 points
  39. For me it's a very minor annoyance barely worth worrying about with the 11" mono at least. I find I like the handle/user interface screen cocked slightly in towards me too so button lock locators would really be a custom set up to suit me. Last couple of times out I took a little extra time at set up to concentrate on tightening the shaft locks up as tight as I felt possible without damaging them & that's worked well for me. I have purchased some nylon shaft button locks but haven't found a need to install them. In saying that I haven't had the 14"DD or 17" mono on all day yet so that may change. Was thinking of buying a whole new shaft assembly to modify so I keep the stock shaft original (as per individual custom mod above) but ATM can't really justify the cost vs this very minor issue.
    2 points
  40. A good quantity day with some gold frosting ... That'd make me happy !
    2 points
  41. i always use headphones with the 6k and i only hunt early mornings. for me the airplanes and other detectors near by are realy the only thing that's been enough to have me stop for 30 seconds for the bad warbling to stop. sometimes i might hit the noise cancel button. sometimes it will get a little hiccup, target sound and ill have to re-sweep to see if it was a target or not. i would say i usually do not have a smooth threshold. been hunting the last 3 days with a friend, i locate targets and have him recover them with the gold monster. got 6 bits for 1 gram and one of them was 0.58 grams leaving the others to be 1 grain or less. i really have a hard time believing this 11 coil can hit on these so well, even with a bit of warble the targets are coming through distinctly. over all i really like the detector. i am thinking of selling the monster due to the 6k being able to hit so good on the small stuff. something i noticed other day, i was trying to make loud noises to scare some bears away, yes we have bears in Arizona, and was banging my pick on rock 4 or 5 feet away from the coil and the 6k was making a loud pinging noise. like the detector was feeling the shock or something. kind of like when lightning strikes far away kind of ping. super sensitive. oneguy are you using headphones?
    2 points
  42. I had similar frustrations with my GPX 5000 about 3 years ago. I'd hear sirens when planes would fly over, and no change of settings would really quiet it down enough to make it usable. Some days I'd have to swap to my SDC after 10 minutes of arriving at my spot since the noise the machine made would drive me crazy. Later in the day it seemed to be worse, but could have been my imagination. I even bought a used GPX 4500 after being forced to use the SDC most trips for a year since my dad and brother would snag the deeper nuggets I'd miss with the SDC with their 5000's. Both of their identical machines would behave when we were all out hunting together. After trying out tons of combinations of coils, batteries of my own and swapping in my dad's and brother's parts, I finally figured out my GPX 5000 preferred the "DD" position on the switches over "mono" and that it acted up with tons of false noises and siren noises most when running my 14x9 and 17x13 NF evo coils. My conclusion was the machine hated the spiral wound coils and they weren't a good match for my unit. I discovered this when I put on a 10x5DD Commander coil at home during troubleshooting one day and the thing was quiet...even around my house where there is a lot of EMI from powerlines, etc. I just recently got a Detech 15in DD spiral coil and it also purred at my house when I put it on. I hope to use it in the very near future in the very same spots I had so much trouble before with my 17x13 equipped in particular and see how it behaves. I'm glad I figured this out before selling the GPX 5000 at a huge loss and now my plan is to have it use DD coils for use in super trashy sites and someday buy a GPX6000 for use in areas where things are cleaner and for general use. I remember Jonathan Porter has mentioned a time or two in his posts the older GPX machines were not designed electronically for use with the new spiral/flat wound coils. Seems my GPX was a good example of that with how it rejected them. I'd definitely take a closer look at your GPX 6000 coil and try to use a known good coil on your unit if you can. Best of luck!
    2 points
  43. I've gotten in 4 sessions (totaling 10.5 hours) in this park since my initial post above. Here's a photo of the coin (plus one jewelry) finds: All but the leftmost column are modern coins. There is one Canadian nickel dated 1982 to the right of the silver lyre. I've only recovered about a dozen Canadian coins (two are fortunately early 20th Century -- silver dime and large cent) in the 1200+ hours since I've been keeping records. Note that now Jefferson nickels are showing up. Previously I had pointed out I had found only a couple. The trend of a high Wheat/Memorial(Cu) ratio has dropped drastically. The LH column contains the 3 Wheaties I found in these recent four sessions. But, two other coins in that column show the age of this site even better than the Wheat ratio. The top coin is a 1937-D (four legged 😞) high grade Buffalo nickel with a very solid full date. And, yes, that Roosie is silver -- 1947-D. The lyre is marked 'sterling'. I don't know if this item has some special meaning -- looks like it was either from a charm bracelet or possibly a neckace. Here are non-ferrous finds that aren't the typical trash (but those shortly): The broken clear glass embossed piece is quite thick (~1/4 inch). Typically glass that thick was not throw-away but meant to be reused. Two gaskets/washers, one copper and the other aluminum. The small brass/bronze bell (which previously contained a iron (alloy) clapper now rusted away) is interesting and I don't know what it was used for. Christmas decoration? The white chunk is lead, which I seldom find that color (from oxidation?). The disk is also lead. The electrical part is a two prong 120 VAC adapter for screwing into a light socket. Everything there looks like mid-20th C., IMO, but could be older (such as the wine bottle glass) or newer (key, electronic lug, cable/conduit clamp). Finally the typical trash -- this was from one 3 hour hunt: The only thing that stands out as old is the square nail next to the screw/bolt in lower right. That could easily be first half of 20th C. Even though modern round cross-section nails were availble back in the 19th C., square nails were still used even as late as the 1930's Great Depression when nothing usable was discarded. So, what are my current thoughts on the history of this site? I'm narrowing it down to two hypotheses -- either the park was active as a park some years before the brass plaque's official date (1974) or the industrial site's workers spent some of the free time (e.g. lunch hours) sitting on the slope behind the building that aerial photos show was there at least back in the mid-50's. I've only scratched the surface (literally and figuratively) of this site. I expect I'll be there many more times before the year is up. Early 20th C. USGS topos show another building which I'm hoping is in a (huntable) cleared area. Stay tuned.
    2 points
  44. The simple fact is most nugget hunting is in arid locations, and there is little need for waterproofing if it adds extra cost, weight, or complexity. I’m all for waterproofing, but only if it is basically transparent as far as those other issues. Equinox gives up little to be waterproof, though how waterproof it really is may be a debateable issue. But certainly enough for prospecting. I can attest that the 24K can stand a day in the rain with no extra protection whatsoever - it’s quite rain resistant as is, and that’s all most prospectors need..
    2 points
  45. I'm just glad your on the west coast πŸ™‚
    2 points
  46. Yes, the Chinese are pumping out replacement GPZ and CTX screens. There has to be a market for it or they wouldn't do it. I guess sometimes it's not practical for people to send their detector in to get it fixed if they need it or when they want to do it themselves to keep costs down or maybe they just don't have a service agent nearby or even in their country. The price of getting it fixed officially is just too high by comparison of doing it yourself and I'm sure they'd buy the genuine parts if they could, but for things like screens they won't sell them to you. I wasn't even able to buy the little rubber USB cover for my WM12 when it snapped in half, they wanted me to send it in to have it replaced, they were of course going to do it under warranty as it's under a year old I'd guess but they would not send me the part to do it myself even if I just offered to buy it so I can see peoples reasoning for sourcing aftermarket parts but having worked in a service center before myself I also know why they don't want people doing things themselves, it can go terribly wrong πŸ™‚ If I was able to find that little rubber on a Chinese site I would have bought it just so I could do it myself.
    2 points
  47. Most their detectors are made in Malaysia, and parts like shafts and so on come from China. My genuine Equinox replacement shaft came in packaging with shipping documentation of made in China. I guess this is relatively normal in this day and age, what isn't made there? not much! What you're seeing there with that Ebay listing is Chinese manufactured clone components, the Chinese have worked out that selling parts for Minelab detectors can be very lucrative. They sell everything now for many models of Minelab like shafts, batteries, screens, keypads and so on. You name a part they now make it. These will be the same parts they're using in their clone detectors so some parts might be questionable quality. I guess because some of the parts like screens Minelab won't sell you and instead want you to pay the service center to fit them into out of warranty detectors, some people would rather save the money and do it themselves if they're capable of doing so, in that case they source aftermarket parts to do it themselves. Often the labour on a repair can be more than the parts required.
    2 points
  48. We've been in a bit of a Covid lock-down recently and during that time my Garrett 24k arrived so I wasn't able to use it in the gold fields straight away, it was quite painful to look at it knowing I can't go and use it, fortunately we came out of our lock-down and as took off for a prospect with the 24k as soon as I could. I ordered a White's 6" concentric coil for it to tie me over until Garrett and with any luck Nel come out with other coils for it, I hope they continue with the 6" Concentric as I'll buy a Garrett 6" Concentric as soon as they release it. It's a remarkably sensitive coil, I expected it to be less sensitive than it is as it's quite big however it surprised me and matches or exceeds smaller coils on other high frequency gold detectors. I've always been happy with Garrett coil quality so upgrading the Whites to a Garrett would be worthwhile I think. In saying that, neither the 10x6" Garrett coil or the Whites 6" coil were at all bump sensitive, not one bump noise the entire day. I'm so used to coil bump sensitivity from the Equinox and Gold Monster it was a rather pleasurable experience being able to scrub the coil on the ground like mad and bump it around not setting off the detector, giving me a distinct advantage over using bump sensitive coils. I started the day using the 10x6" Coil as I wanted to see how it goes and I was going back to a spot I'd found a fair few grams of gold in the past, about 30 or more nuggets using the scrape and detect method taking off layers of soil at a time and detecting it. The initial nugget which was just under half a gram and a fair few more were found using my GPZ including a 4.2 gram nugget and then I brought in the Equinox with 6" coil to clean up as a majority of the nuggets were very small and the VLF's tend to do better cleaning up these very small nuggets. I'd even gone over this little scrape and detect area with the Gold Bug 2 however it was a bit of a nightmare as the area is absolutely full of hot rocks and the Gold Bug 2 in heavy hot rocks isn't a good detector in my opinion, it's too busy making it's response noise to the hot rocks to worry about the bits of gold next to the hot rocks so you miss nuggets if they're near hot rocks. The problem is this spot is loaded with hot rocks all through the soil of various shapes and sizes mostly a green type of schist that is all crumbly and broken up and detectors love to sound off on it. It's likely there from the old timers, it's basically some old workings where the old timers left their rock pile in a little gully, and right on the lower downhill side of the rock pile was my little scrape and detect patch. Even the GPZ struggled with all of the hot rocks so I was quite pleased how the 24k was coping with them, sure it was sounding off on some of them too but it wasn't too troublesome and seemed to ignore the little broken up bits and very usable. I ran the 24k with the sensitivity maxed out, Sat on the middle setting and audio on Boost 2. The ground balance was quick and easy then I switched into the Locked balance mode. If the broken up schist bits of hot rock were too severe I left it in tracking which helped to knock them out. I gave the 6" Concentric coil a quick try and it struggled more with the hot rocks and i didn't want to lower my sensitivity down so I reverted back to the DD which appeared to handle them better and is still remarkably sensitive. So I just started scraping back layers and detecting taking about 2 inches off at a time knowing the gold here is likely going to be very small and it will be stuff I've missed in the past as I've scraped this spot out before and back filled it so I was essentially checking the same soil all over again for anything I missed. I had high hopes I had missed some as all it would take is a small hot rock to be sitting on top of the bit of gold the previous time and I'd likely miss it or just the bit of gold on it's side being a very thin one or any number of reasons, even just at a depth too deep for the size of gold with the detector I was using. It wasn't long and I had my first piece. Quite a decent size one too, I was baffled at the time why I'd missed this one in the past. The 24k had now found it's first gold, highly likely the first piece of gold found in New Zealand with the Garrett 24k, a badge I'll wear proudly. πŸ™‚ Next up was a reasonably faint but very repeatable signal with no target ID showing, I delicately used my scoop to scrape soil away knowing this was likely a very small bit of gold and it sure was... my smallest bit of the day too and surprised I managed to find it with the 10x6" coil, I don't recall ever finding a bit this small using the 10x5" type size on other detectors. Can you spot it? πŸ™‚ There it is! 0.007 of a gram, not bad for the 10x6" coil, especially in this hot rock infested ground. I always check targets in case they're odd little bits of metal with my pick magnet, and you'll see it was quick to build up black sand, this soil has plenty of it in it. I kept scraping down layers and found another. Quite small too... but a bit more meat on it than the previous one πŸ™‚ I'd had enough of the scrape and detect spot by now and wanted to go explore a bit to see how the 24k performed for general detecting so I walked for about 10 minutes to another spot I'd found some gold in the past and detected for about an hour digging plenty of shotgun pellets, completely normal in this area as there is a rabbit plague that causes countless thousands of shotgun pellets to be distributed all over the place for me to clean up πŸ™‚ I didn't have high hopes as myself and a friend (JW) have absolutely thrashed this area but it's always possible to miss gold when there is so many pellets. We generally scrape a few times and if the signal persists dig it, if it moves after the first scrapes ignore it thinking it's very likely a pellet. A few pictures of the sort of terrain I was detecting. My batteries went down to 2 bars quite quickly, within an hour. I assume as they're rechargeable and run at 1.2 volts instead of 1.5 volts for standard AA's but it stayed at the two bars for the entire day so still plenty of life left in them yet by the looks of it. Pretty wild rocky terrain and only really suitable for smaller coils. The GPZ with it's stock coil is terrible here, the smaller the coil the better in general. I did manage to find a piece though, after a lot of pellet digs πŸ™‚ Not a bad size bit for the area too I now decided I'd put the Whites 6" Concentric coil on and give it another go as this area doesn't have near as many hot rocks as my scrape and detect spot. I found a bit of raised bedrock and had a signal that persisted down into the schist. At this point it almost had to be gold so I started filming. And it was gold πŸ™‚ I had to break up the schist to get it out. A nice little piece too, a roundish flat one. This area has plenty of black sand too, this was my pick after checking that bedrock in case it was a steel shotgun pellet. It was getting near time to go get some dinner and I was pretty satisfied to even get one nugget in this area but I kept going a little while longer and it paid off. I like the bulls eye sight on the 6" coil, it really is the hot spot too, great for pinpointing. I had a signal that persisted down into the gravels on the bedrock. And got this one! It's hard to tell the depth in the photo but it was a reasonable depth. A few inches anyway. And that was it for the day, I was starving! So, do I like the 24K? You're damn right I do, it certainly exceeded my expectations and will now be my primary VLF gold detector replacing my Equinox which replaced my Gold Monster, and the Gold Bug 2 was just not for me, I didn't gel with it at all especially with the masking from hot rocks. I look forward to getting more coils for the 24k, especially smaller ones, and judging by how well it handled the hot rocks I wouldn't mind a larger size coil for ground coverage too. The total for the day. Very happy with the results.
    2 points
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