Leaderboard

Two recent trips with the trusty Deus. Still the same gold rush camp from the previous posts under my other name CVISChris. The 5 Fanc was maybe only 2 inches deep but had a nail close so it sounded weird but showed 96/97. The little half Real was in a rock foundation and was found with the pin pointer. Not sure about the gold gilt thing.

Beautiful day to head out. Morning was in the 60s, light wind, never got out of the 70s. At first I was going to try the river, there was supposed to be a low tide. Got down there and it was disappointing. Waterman out in the river bringing in crab pots, and no real low tide. Maybe the harvest moon is keeping the water high. Decided to go to the newer house and see if I could find more coins, boy did I. 57 coins, about $3.50 just in the driveway! Not a fan of digging in gravel, but if you hit it on a low angle it's a lot easier and you don't damage the coins or your shovel. Dates range from 1965 to 2010. This makes over 125 coins I've dug here, still not one silver. 22 Zincolns 😵 Went across the road to scout my new permission, really not much there, got the 1954 dog tag and the Disabled Veterans fob above. Also dug a rein guide, a mangled silver plate spoon, and a corner plate. Here's the trash. Not bad for this place.

I closed out my 5 1/2 days of hunting in Texas Panhandle today and I ended up with a few more keepers. What a productive trip it was. Since I will not be coming back to this area again for some time, my intent was to hunt for wheats and silver only. I did not want to spend most of my time digging trash chasing nickles and low conductors. I hunted 3 different parks and 1 school. I'm not sure how many hours I hunted, maybe 50 or so, but, I hunted until I could not swing the coil anymore each day The first 2 pictures are of today's hunt followed by the total's for the week. Thanks for stopping by and having a look.

This post is for all you lurkers and newbies. In December, I won a Barska Winbest Pro Edition in a church raffle. I always wanted a metal detector as a boy, but Santa never came through. But as they say, “It’s never to late to have a happy childhood.” Shortly thereafter, I found this website and started reading about the hobby. May 13 was a beautiful day, so I unboxed my new toy, plugged in an old pair of iPhone earbuds, and headed off to a nearby park. I didn’t have high expectations. First, because I had looked the Winbest up on Amazon and knew it retailed for under $70. Second, because the park is less than 25 years old and has no concession stands. It’s a sports field with a tot lot, a Fitcore station, soccer field, baseball diamond and tennis courts. How much loot could there be? I hit the Fitcore lot first, since maybe people would drop stuff while working out. More importantly, the lot is surfaced with wood chips, which would make digging and refilling holes a lot easier. Being a rookie, I had read on this website to set the detector to “all metal” and dig every target until I learned how my machine worked. So I started swinging. Minutes later, I heard my first signal. I scratched through the wood chips and out popped a 1995 penny! I couldn’t believe my eyes. Seeing old Abe staring up at me was quite a thrill. Over the next hour, I dug up 9 pieces of trash. But I didn’t mind. I was gaining confidence in my detector, since each time I heard a signal there was something down there. () The Detector Deities were looking out for me that day. If I had found the trash first, I would never have persevered long enough to find that penny. The Winbest would have gone to the thrift shop and the day would soon be forgotten. I hit the Fitcore and tot lots a few times more, and found a few more pennies and some broken toys. But the problem was not the slim pickings but the fact that a lot of people used the playgrounds. I didn’t want to attract attention or make a nuisance of myself, so I reluctantly headed off to the empty soccer field. Reluctantly, because, I mean, how much stuff can there be on the sidelines of a soccer field? (To be continued…)

thanks for all the positive comments and wishes everyone - very much appreciate and we are excited too. Sizes and shapes will be released later but I am sure it will make most of you happy 🙂 I can appreciate your comment Ridge Runner but i can assure you we are not the only ones with delays for products and we are catching up very nicely. As a consumer myself I can relate - my Whiskey delivery is taking ages to come and I cant wait to try it out. My favorite for the older units is always the 14x9" Elliptical. Just such a nice sized coil Trev

Joe your modified equipment reminds me of the guy who claimed to have the ax that George Washington used to chop down the cherry tree. It had been in the family so long that they wore out two heads and five handles!!!

Hey All - I can confirm we will definitely be making coils and release will be in first half of 2022. Coiltek Quality - Fully Minelab Approved and no need to break a coil to make a coil. We will be releasing more info on this in the coming months. Stay safe everyone. Trevor.

Just giving some thought to the future and what will be left to find. Gold nuggets are a vanishing commodity so what about a new beach PI Minelab? I know there are a couple of guys out trying to use the 6000 on the beach but at $6000 a copy that is a bit of a high price point for a beach machine. I like my 800 and my 3030 at the beach but what am I missing a little deeper? I tried the AQ limited but I got a lemon and I soured on it quickly. Should I try one again? I live at the beach and spend 90+% of my time on wet/damp sand. Hard to break old habits now.

Congratulations, kac, on another successful hunt. As you know, I have 3 Apex devices sporting different coils, and my primary-use Apex w/'Ripper' coil continues to impress me with a combination of comfort, long operating battery 'run-time', and impressive performance afield. Nico depth, great recovery time, and very responsive to small, thin, 'tricky' targets. I continue to praise the Apex for all it offers and the performance it provides, making it a terrific mid-priced model that can compete well with many more spendy devices. I think some of the introduction period had negative replies by some folks who were bias toward a different brand, some who didn't give the Apex enough time in use to learn and know it, and I also know a few who simply flashed out some comments they had heard or read and never saw or laid their hands on an Apex at all. Monte

The dark gray with a slight blueish tint and the tiny black inclusions are very characteristic of some industrial grade corundum. I would not be able to say your original photographed specimen is a sapphire (even if it is corundum)due to its poor quality. What I don’t see is any remaining crystal faces or any very characteristic basal parting. Corundum variety Sapphire is so hard that there are usually some remnants of its crystal faces and parting in most specimens. Instead I see a water worn, conchoidal fractured specimen with no hint of worn flat sides, with cracks running in several directions that do not exhibit basal or rhombic parting.

The Apex is definitely a nice detector for the money. If it had a threshold based all metal mode or something similar I would totally prefer it to an AT Gold or AT Max. However, since the original poster (Welcome by the way!!!) is from New Zealand with a Minelab repair center close by, and at least four of us on this forum have had to contact Garrett about our APEX coils and/or control boxes and shipped them to Texas for repair…….I would highly recommend the OP get a Minelab Equinox 800. I completely agree with Steve H. I have said this repeatedly on this forum: I am not a fanboy, I didn’t jump on the “Equinox Wagon” because I was mesmerized by the hype, and I never offer an opinion about a detector that I haven’t owned or used extensively. The Equinox 800 is the most versatile VLF detector I have ever used. It can be used effectively in just about any soil conditions on any types of targets within range. It is ready to go right out of the box, it can be adjusted slightly or its settings can be ridiculously customized after several hours of getting acquainted (50 to 100 hours of just basic detecting in default Park 1 for a newbie). For me anyway, it is the detector I have waited for since I first began to understand what high mineralization can do to single frequency VLF detectors several years ago and how even Whites, Minelab and now Garrett’s simultaneous multi frequency offerings prior to the Equinox offered virtually NO advantage over a single frequency detector in higher iron mineralized dirt. SMF technology is definitely not the same from one detector model compared to another.

Hey Trevor, That is great news! However, please do us a huge favor and allow the US market to get their fair share. Since Coiltek started selling coils, I have been there with you. I got only a handful of coils for the Equinox to date, while there are thousands of customers still waiting, most getting them from overseas dealers rather than the US market. I just hate to see a huge hype on GPX 6000 coils and we only get a handful to boot. Coming from a loyal, longtime dealers and supporter. Hope you take my honest opinion to heart. Rob

I generally dig signals that are low, especially 1-10. First gold ring I dug in a beach was a 1, got one on a hill behind me that was a 5. Still not sure how much gold is in each. Got to find time to test them.

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.

I never dreamed I would find a spot like I did today, turned out to be my best silver coin day ever!! I've been on a 6 day hunt starting last Wed and ending Tuesday morning when I head home. I've been hitting a couple parks in the town I'm staying in and a couple of surrounding towns as well. I managed to get into some producing spots and have done pretty well with multiple silver days everyday. Today, my plan was to drove over to a town about 60 miles from here and hit a pretty big park that's been around awhile. I got up early, grabbed some breakfast and hit the road. About 20 miles in, I figure out I forgot my phone, so, I head back to the motel. I decided to stay here and look for a new spot so I googled the town and saw a couple of parks and schools that I decided to go check out. Well, none were in older neighborhoods, so I headed to a park that had produced last year. As I'm driving over there, I see an old high school that's been renovated and drive around back and see a big open area with old backstops in each corner. I decided what the heck, might as well stop and swing awhile, maybe I'll get lucky and find a wheat or 2 I started out in front of one of the backstops and get a copper hit. The shovel slid easily into the ground and I pulled out a memorial. I move straight out towards the pitchers mound and get another penny signal. I go to dig a plug and the ground was hard as a rock, nothing but compacted rock and gravel. I take my pinpointer and scan the ground, thankfully I got a hit. I began to chisel my way thru the rocks and pop out a wheat, oh yes, it's on now. The next target was another wheat, again, within range of the pinpointer, out pops another wheat. Now I'm getting excited, within 5 minutes I have 2 wheats, that's good sign. The next 2 hits were funky signals and turned out to be mercs, both shallow and picked up by the pinpointer. Every swing of the coil sounded like a machine gun, 6-7 iron targets per swing. I'm in the middle of an iron infested spot, with compacted ground. I hunted for the next 30 minutes and ended up with 3 merc and 6 wheats, no clad, I'm only 45 minutes into this hunt and it's only 8:15 am, gonna be a long day lol. This old playground area is about 1 square block, so, I head off toward the other backstop and within 50 I get a hit. The ground is as soft as butter and out comes a clad dime. I hunted about 30-45 minutes at the other backstop and dug nothing but deep clad. I realized real quick that the spot I was in must have been avoided because of the rock hard ground and all the iron so I headed back. I decided to start grid off the area and see how far this hot spot goes. Turns out it's roughly a 60-70 foot area in front of the backstop. The soil outside of this spot is completely different and relatively trash free. I guess they dug out the original soil and missed this area, I have no idea. I hunted all day, started at 7:30 and called it quits at 5:45 when I quit digging keepers. I never thought I would stumble on a place like this just out of pure dumb luck. I'm glad I decided to stay in town. I ended up beating my single day silver coin finds of 13. Sorry for any grammar or punctuation errors, I'm celebrating with a couple of cold ones:)

This is the second half of my post for lurkers and noobies On May 13, I went detecting for the very first time and found my first penny. I was hooked! I went back to the park on May 16, May 19, May 31 and June 7. I stuck to the playground and Fitcore lot because the digging was easy and I figured people were most likely to lose items while active. My expectations were low. My detector is basic and the park is a 25 year old suburban athletic field, not a 150 year old park in the center of town. I was out for the nice weather and the thrill of the hunt. I always came home with at least one coin. The problem with my search strategy was that the playgrounds are the most-used part of the park on weekdays. In this day and age, I didn’t want to be the Weird Old Man who shows kids his metal detector. And I certainly didn’t want to annoy the musclemen when they were working out! On June 14, I was crowded out of the playgrounds. So I tried the sidelines of the soccer field. My neighborhood is largely immigrant, and amateur soccer is a very big deal. Still, I wasn’t optimistic. How much can you drop watching soccer? Do young people even carry change any more? I started swinging. Keep in mind that I still was using the “all metal” setting and digging every target. Also the ground was bone dry and rock-hard from being trampled by spectators. Much to my surprise, I was finding a target every few feet. Because of the soil condition and the fact that this is a park, I didn’t dig more than 2” before giving up. Still, after 2 hours, I had found 2 dimes and 3 pennies (in addition to countless bottle tops). QUESTION: How the heck does a coin minted in 2018 end up 2” under turf in 2021? Before I left, I looked around. How did I not notice there was a shaded hill at each end of the field? A quick check showed they not only had perfect views of the field, but plenty of trash and trampled grass. Hey, I was learning to read the terrain! On June 17 and June 23 I hit the hills. Not only did I find 2 dimes, 3 nickels 11 pennies (a huge haul for me at the time) but I was getting a PhD in telling trash from treasure. For the first time, I started playing with the discrimination knob, finding the spot where I could dial out the countless beer bottle tops. Armed with this new knowledge, I hit the more productive of the hills on August 4. Here’s what I found in 3 hours: I continue to hit those hills, especially on Mondays. On August 23, I decided to detect the field itself. I figured young Central American men + competitive soccer = lost gold chains. Since I was looking for surface finds and didn’t want to leave holes players could trip on, I only probed targets with a thin screwdriver. No gold, but I did pop 1 dime, 2 pennies, and a house key, along with 2 aluminum cleats (which really pegged the meter!). QUESTION: How the heck do coins end up in the middle of a soccer field? That’s the end of my tale. I don’t consider myself a Tenderfoot any longer. A beginner, but not a Tenderfoot. As I sharpen my skills, I continue to find more coins, not fewer, as I work the same park. I hope I have inspired others. You don’t need a fancy rig or an historic location to have fun.

You're catching on , using a probe is pro level stuff ! You can cut a slit in the turf and probe easier. I use one of those tools for taking off old style door and window handles that looks like a big tack puller. I'd go back and try the soccer field again , Discrimination might also be ignoring those gold chains ...

Did you see the “Pickles” comic strip from September 19? The mother gave her retired husband a metal detector, which he uses in their backyard, to keep him out of her hair. The mother says it was the best investment she ever made. When the daughter asks how much it cost, the mother replies, “Oh, about two hundred dollars…plus another thirty a month on old coins to bury in the yard when he’s not looking.”

Nice set up. I hope you can figure out how to keep it upright and still be comfortable enough to hunt. I don't know about you, but for me I never do well at detecting if I only have a couple of hours to hunt. It takes me a while to get into a good groove. I do hope your obligations don't press too hard on your soul and everything works out well for you in that respect. Detecting is how I rid myself of stress. Without it I would be in divorce court 😄

Gawd you suck...

The Equinox was a retirement gift from my wife. 👍 That is awesome. Guess we're blessed 😇

This trip was a gift from my wife for retiring from the postal service next month 🙂

Coiltek in no way am I knocking Coiltek coils . I just believe that you Coiltek was not expecting the demand that would be for the 10X5 coil for the Equinox. I do understand that the C-19 hasn’t made the added problem any better by having to deal with it. I’ve had my money down for one and come hell are high water I’ll be here waiting for it. Chuck PS The only thing aging around my house is me . I just had my 39th birthday 41 times.

Good take on the clad. When you start hunting jewelry your trash level should go way up so don't worry about that 🙂

The Chinese have gone nuts flooding the auction sites with fake Whites detectors since Whites closure for very cheap prices and instead of blanking out the brand name they're taking on the Whites names even in their marketing and on the detectors. They used to edit the photos of them hiding the branding I guess to keep the brand names from complaining and are doing that far less now Whites is out of business. They've even been so bold as to use one of Gerry's videos for their marketing and branding the video with their GPoint brand logo at the start of the video acting like Gerry is endorsing their detectors. I doubt there is anything you can do Gerry but if you want the direct link to the detector being sold with your video on it as advertising I will give you it, I won't post it here as I don't want people being foolish buying one of these detectors thinking they're getting the real deal for a cheap price as they're not the real deal, and they will likely not work near as well either. It's sad to see this happening but I guess it was inevitable with Whites going out of business they'd get more bold with their fake detectors.

That time of the year again. While throwing more wood in the stove I noticed a break in the clouds and saw our first snow on the mountain...probably down to 5-5500'. days are already getting shorter so you'd best be getting out there if/when you can. Raining down low today so sidelined....

I would think there would be a market for one if it had full discrimination attached 😄

Hope you put the suit on after going to the local bank, though it might make withdrawals more lucrative. You make water hunting look so easy. Nice finds.

Trevor, Thank you for publicly confirming the production of GPX 6000 coils. Rumors are fun, but the truth is comforting! Brian.

Think the Lifetime warranty applied to the company and not necessarily the machines 🙂

Actually reporting it to Garrett and Ali Express themselves the units will be pulled, at least for a little while. Trouble is as long as people keep buying fakes they will keep making them.

Puttered around on some old stomping grounds, further up from where I found the gold ring with yellow diamond and found an 1881 IH penny with heavy patina so won't bother to clean it and a thin what seems to be platinum ring. No stones in it and the casting and finish is a little rough so thinking it was a custom piece. Also found an old pewter spoon, was a little spread out in the hole but managed to find all the pieces. Never thought the Apex would do so well with jewelry as it does. Audio on it is so simple.

Awesome number of silvers. Considering how long detectors have been pounding parks, you did extremely well. Your wife is a Saint!! 👍

Not much anyone can do about, many counties its not an issue importing fakes. They are mainly marketed towards to those in the goldfields of Africa and the like. If they set up shop in the USA, then Garrett can go to town like Fisher did.

I'm very tempted to buy one and put bad reviews up all over the place....

Solid one piece of silver. Just high relief Italian .925. Not a transformer.

We have everything in stock currently for the GPX 6000's - Minelab GPX 6000's Lower Shafts Li-ion Batteries 17" Searchcoils (limited stock) all skidplates Doc's 5 piece Blue Camo Cover Kits Free shipping & Insurance, No Tax if you are outside of Arizona. Military Discount (15%) available with proof of service, active or retired. We would love to earn your business.

I remember finding my first penny with a Garrett Groundhog VLF/TR machine back in 1988🙂 I was hooked and like Tom said, it's only the beginning of a great journey, have fun!!

It was only a memorial penny now. But within a few weeks, it will be wheat pennies. Then in a few months, it'll be Indian head cents. By the end of the year, it will be large cents. BUCKET LISTERS WILL FLY PAST ! And within a few years : Any gold coin *newer* than 1850 will bore you to tears ! 🤩

Absolutelysk ! skheeeeeeeeeewwwwwwww . Leavingsk the curvesk in the handle for extra pointsk on degree of difficultysk; Skuh kuh kuh kuh kuh kuh

To eat your spinachk? 😀

That spoon is awesome ! I'd straighten it out and use it ...

Another great day , you'll never forget ! Being retired IS the best job I've ever had........welcome to the tribe.

Sure was a heckuva run, Dan. Good to see all that silver! That's an experience that will last... Until the next one😀 👍

The crusty is a war nickle at hit at 24 on the Nox, thought I was digging a penny 🙂 I drank a gallon of water that day, thankfully there was a nice breeze. I did roam around the rest of the ball field, nothing doing, it was only a small portion of the field.

It is a war nickle that rang up as a penny, came in at 24 on the Nox, that's the only reason I dug it 🙂

My favorite coil size for the GPX series detectors has always been the 9x13 mono coils. That was what I used almost exclusively. Hope they make one for the 6000!

I'm salvating with envy. Kinda funny that the 'homework' you did wasn't what led you to this one. Nothing wrong with stumbling onto a spot and you had the smarts to realize it was worth a check. Jackpot!! 10 straight hours of detecting -- hope you had plenty of water. Texas must still be hot in mid-September. What is that crusty thing next to the silver GW quarter? IMO, you found a spot that has never been hunted. (Historic Aerials likely will tell you more.) I suspect the other baseball infield has been landscaped/backfilled and agree with your hypothesis that they just hadn't done that where you found the silver mine. Are there still parts of that site you haven't surveyed? Consistent with Raphis's post, I think you experienced time travel -- back to the 1970's and 80's when lots of school yards and muni parks were just laden with silver coins for the pickin'. I hope I find one of those someday.

That's what I had before, I could hunt for 5 hours and be toasty in low 30F waters.. temps could be in the teens and wind chill lower. I still have the "Muck Artic Pro" boots which are good down to Neg 50...., I was thinking lead weights on the ankles and a life jacket. But both would have to work in perfect harmony. Just enough lead to keep my feet down and enough floatation to keep my head above water, and not sink... I see my hunting coming to a stop soon. Obligations are slowly growing, This will give me time to play with my equipment. Always next year. Good Luck on the gold, Once you find the right spot I know it's going to happen for you!!

WOW, all sincerity. Get lotto tickets for the next drawing!!!! Great Finds!