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Had a repeat of yesterdays BEAUTIFUL day today! Took this snap of a gorgeous Montana morn on the way to harvest more yellow tiddlers!!!! Love this time of year.....

On Monday (my 19th detecting session) I found this: I found it on the sidelines of “my” soccer field. The ring is marked 18K and 950. Weight 45 grains. There was a teeny-tiny, clear stone in the center but it fell out in the ultrasonic cleaner. I was able to rescue the little stone and trapped it in a clear piece of packing tape. Should I ever propose to a mouse, I’m sure she’ll be impressed.

I was told the title needed to be revised. 🙂 SG is 10.04 OZT. Total 17 OZT. GPZ 7000. Humboldt Co Nevada

I really didn't know what to expect on one recent hunt but I certainly didn't think that I would be finding gold and silver including one of the biggest rings that I have ever found. The hunt started off slow enough with lots of trash and zinc pennies for most of the first 2 hours in the wet sand. Then I started to find a few "real" coins and even a couple of small blackened silver items before being stunned by scooping out a yellow gold diamond ring that was so clean looking that it could have been lost that same day. But I know better and that ring could have been lost years ago, especially, with all the blackened silver nearby. Not long after finding the gold came another big surprise and I mean BIG! I don't remember anything unusual or special about the target signal but when I kicked it out of the scoop I remember thinking "no way!" There on the sand in front of me was a huge bright purple blob, so richly colored in the sunlight it looked like a plastic part from a child's toy. However, I've seen that color many times before and when I picked the target up it confirmed that it was a huge silver ring! The gold ring was not stamped but held the 18k acid. However, I don't think the diamond is real from my preliminary testing. Too bad since it appears to be about a carat. At nearly 30 grams, the silver ring may be the heaviest ring that I have ever found. It is stamped "DIESEL" and "925". It turned out to be a fun afternoon at the beach. I haven't detected all that much this year but I have had some memorable and productive hunts like this one. GL&HH!

Are you sure it's not EMI, have you lowered the sensitivity and obviously done the noise cancel? You may have a bad coil, I assume you don't have a second coil to try on it? You could try a factory reset on it if you haven't already.... with the detector switched off press and hold the power button, it'll turn on and play the startup tune, keep holding the power button down until you hear a low tone and then release the button, a menu will come up and go to Reset All. The other thing you could try is checking if it has the latest firmware, if not update it, long shot but worth a try. Are the numbers all over the place in air tests? Say waving a coin over the coil will it give a solid ID? If it does that sounds positive... I assume you tried a ground balance too? A video of your problem would be helpful but I've read in the past someone with a problem like yours with a CTX and they had a coil where the cable was damaged internally where the cable comes out of the shaft down near the coil, so a replacement coil was the solution so if you've got someone you can borrow a coil off to try that'd be helpful if all else fails.

Was heading into the bush for a detect and said to the wife .. shit this bloody track is tough today .. Judy agreed as the Jeep got tossed about more than normal... ha ha now we know why ... but the gold still popped up

Yes I was able to check off 2 more (now 8 states in the US plus 2 other countries) from my list of, I found gold nuggets with a metal detector there. Some of you realize I was in South Dakota this summer and was able to work a so called cleaned out patch with the new GPX-6000. I already posted the results to DP awhile back. Most importantly on these road trips we had fun and made laughing/lasting memories with customers/friends. These trips are one of my most enjoyable parts of my job. It’s such a treat to meet up with other DP forum members/hunters and share the new technologies in the field on their ground and patches. We don’t know what the outcome will be, if the results are in favor of a new detector or did the old one do such a fine job, it’s all live and unscripted. The end results are what we learned and experienced while in the field using the detectors on their sites. Wyoming, It just so happened that on my way from SD back to Idaho, I’m heading West and traveling through the cowboy state. For a few years now I have been trying to get myself in WY to meet up with previous customers, share some in the field detector knowledge, again make some memories and hopefully find a WY nugget. Well a couple phone calls/emails with their help/guidance I was able to swing in and make it happen. Again, just another reason and part of why I like the followers on Detector Prospector, we all enjoy seeing success, learning detectors (including me) and sharing field knowledge. Wyoming is such a different kind of detecting terrain than what I encounter in South Dakota. It actually reminded me of some of Northern NV with the openness and lack of trees. You can see for miles and as you glance across the plains, the 1st thing a prospector realizes is exposed bedrock in many areas, meaning gold could be near the surface (which is exactly what a detectorists wants). Also, the lack of bushes made it pretty easy for swinging the detector and hopefully if I go back, the larger 17” coil will be in its element allowing for more ground coverage. Working my way across the old patch, I could see scratches and scuffs from previous detecting efforts. When coming across such indicators of nugget recovery, I try to concentrate around them realizing the new technology and it’s capabilities vs the 7000 should hopefully produce a few missed nuggets. As had hoped I started getting target hits. They were not the gold I was after but many small lead pellets. At least I know their machines missed these piece of non-ferrous metals, so now it just becomes a numbers game and sooner or later, one of them will be gold. Yes I could use the scratch the surface and if it moves method (just walk – usually trash), but I was informed some of the previous gold was recovered near the surface. Plus when you are digging lead shot at 2”, you need to check them all. We compared the 1st half dozen signals and it was evident the capabilities of the 6000 was better than the 7000. Interestingly a couple of the targets were not even heard by the 7000. On my GPX most signals were much cleaner and louder coming from it, so we were excited to see the 1st target become gold. It didn’t take long and then it happened. I nice rough narrow nugget only a few inches down. Now we all know once that 1st piece of yellow metal is unearthed, our attention and desire becomes so focused, we are on our A game. That’s exactly what happened, the remaining few hours of detecting and the elusive WY gold started popping more regularly. Notice the difference in the kind of gold from the 2 hunts. SD gold is smoother and dense while the WY gold is rough and porous. Either way the results were the same for the GPX-6000, it was able to find the smaller stuff the big GPZ-7000 missed. I’m not saying the GPZ-7000 is not a good tool, heck it’s a great detector. But as I get older and more wise, I see the comforts of the new design and that’s what this old geezer needs today for most of my hunts. Nothing special but I wanted to share with you all. My Settings for the 2nd half of the trip in WY were SENS at 10, Threshold On and Normal Ground. Yes my detector runs noisy but I have confidence in my ears hearing the differences of a target vs ground noise. Be sure to do a Frequency Adjust way more often than most of us did with the older Minelab PI detectors. I was doing it every 15 minutes in the morning and every 10 minutes after noon.

I remember when you posted the side by side depth tests several years back and a CZ21 was the deepest on a gold ring ... but it low toned, very solid low tone, with the ring at depth. That taught me that I needed to dig it all with the CZ in all metal, or use it like a PI and only exclude the sweeps that double blipped. After a few years on an Excal and going between it and the CZ it became apparent the the minimum discrimination setting nulling on the Excal excludes less gold than what the low tone indication on the CZ does. Both seem to find more and better stuff running all metal and digging the deep ones. It is an ongoing learning experience ... never ending learning! Thank you for all the lessons you share!!!

Something to consider with the 6000 with coil sizes etc, as it currently stands the GPX6000 can easily find tiny pieces that require you to wet your finger to pick up (this is all with the supplied 11” mono), having a lot smaller coil could bring a lot of pain in the form of increased surface ground signals due to the increased sensitivity especially in the hot variable ground but also in areas where there are lots of tiny hot rocks etc. I think a 12 x 8 inch elliptical would be a really nice fit for the 6000, the weight would balance out the detector nicely (similar to the GPX11) whilst at the same time offer a reasonable amount of extra sensitivity without increasing too much ground signal and of course with the added advantage of being an easier coil to use in difficult terrain. An elliptical shape would also help somewhat with EMI. Just my 2 cents based on what I know of the 6000 learned during field trials etc. JP

I've been prospecting with my shovel and high banker for many years, though I grew tired of hauling all that heavy gear around. Always wanted a metal detector and now I have one. Gerry has helped to outfit me with one of those GPZ 7000 rigs. I now live in Bozeman Montana, surrounded by some amazing geology, history and beautiful mountains. My objective is to get out and into the mountains, away from the crowds. Currently researching the local mountains as I have found lots of quartz just off to the side of the trails, now I can go back and see of there is anything hidden within the dirt. I look forward to the adventures!

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.

Nobody in the U.S. cares about that JP. You can’t find gold where coils won’t fit, and even the 11” mono is too large for many locations here. And, we have lots of mild ground with no hot rocks. So make it smaller, and make it HOT. If it won’t work in some places, oh well. It’s all about where it will work, not where it won’t work. We desperately need a small GPZ coil here, and since that seems impossible unless you go X Coil, then give us one for the 6000. The 10” x 6” form factor has always been the most popular nugget coil size here, and yet it’s always the last coil we can seem to get out of Minelab. Trevor is surprised by demand for the 10” x 6” Equinox coil? I have been pounding the table, and pulling my hair out, since day one trying to make it understood that is the coil everyone wants here. If we could just get people to listen to us…. from April 2018 And yes, people here still want a plug and play small coil, like the 11” round or smaller, for the GPZ. It’s all GPZ owners here talk about, like wishing we could win the lottery. One factor in my selling my GPZ was my feeling that Minelab reneged on the promised smaller coil, and that still bugs me to this day.

Sorry for not responding folks but I've been on planes traveling the world. Yes that looks to be my clone in the pics or was it me in person?

Blooded the big banger. 😤. Very sensitive to pellets.. easy peasy to pinpoint ..: bring on the big stuff 🥳

At this beach any machine could have found these. I had a CTX for a few years, Good machine but not for me, to much information which can be distracting for me. As far as comparing the CTX and Excalibur. I think the CTX is a better machine for finding rings on fresh drop beaches.. I have seen a couple CTX's where I hunt, along with several Nox's on the older beaches. Never have I seen them find old Gold, My opinion, it comes down to the hunters abilities with the machine and knowledge of this type of hunting.. I can share this, I hunted a older small beach where I was invited by two CTX users and one AT Pro.... When I left the first day and they seen what I found, one went out right away and got a Excalibur.. Him with a new Excalibur and doing a few modifications reopened that spot up where I would say he got a "LOT" more silver and gold from it.. Mike Guard like me seemed to connect with the Excalibur.. I can take Mike out with me and he can find everything I find, I take others who have Nox's, Excalibur's and CZ20/21's .. Most find only a few targets. So I would say, it's not the machine its the users.. I never clicked with the CTX.. with the right user it may find all I find.. but yet to see it happen. Post from a very good friend I took to one spot, Tom has been detecting about 40 years plus years. Second picture is my take that day..

Well if the Scottish could manage to clone Dolly the sheep in the 90's I'm sure the Chinese could clone a Gerry the Detectorist/Detector Salesman in the 2020's. I think you're onto something strick.... we will now have clone Gerrys selling clone detectors all across China to deal with!

🤣😂 I'm no expert at anything! But I'm pretty confident that the "Gerry mold" was broken, crushed, powdered, and scattered into a black hole!!🤣 I don't even think cloning him would be close to the same!! And that is just what little experience I have had with him directly!! I still have a brain fart, every time I try and say his name correctly! 🤣👍👍

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.

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:)

Thanks Kac, That yellow gold did look so clean that I was a bit skeptical but it tests good and weighs 4.5 grams which seems about right for its size. The absence of any markings is a bit odd but I guess it could have been hand-crafted.

Here is a link to the video 🙂 https://ae-cn.alicdn.com/9f8e1de30350cb41/nHtCXMJOlMy5HbbUnSU/WyN768JqueQgXIxaCqW_320679396375_mp4_264_hd.mp4

Could only tell by the accent hehe

I love CRC silicone but wouldn't use it for switches or electronics, proper electronic cleaner is best for that, silicone leaves a film that could cause contact problems. The silicone is great for lubrication and restoring and protecting plastics and rubber though.

Yep, what Steve said! In California we have thousands of little creeks, benches and rivers with craggy bedrock where small coils are king. 10 x 6 coils are money makers in these environs.

950 Silver Silver of 95 percent purity is relatively rare because it is a nonstandard alloy. Technically it is not fine silver because it falls considerably below 99.9 percent fineness. This means it is sterling silver, but more pure than most sterling silver. 950 silver will be softer than most sterling silver and will tarnish more easily. This means it is unlikely to be used in most industrial applications. Most 950 silver is used for jewelry. .. (from the internet.) Platinum usually will have some other mark ie. P, or Plat or be set in a house symbol .. 950 silver will stand alone with just the number 950 or be inside an oval .. much of the 950 silver used in jewelry comes from places other than the U.S. ,Mexico for example uses a lot of 950 silver in rings.

Use "tuner/fader cleaner" if you can find some , it has lube mixed in with the cleaner. Link : https://www.amazon.com/Hosa-F5S-H6-DeoxIT-FaderLube-Spray/dp/B00006LVF1/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3OQ941EJ6UO7E&dchild=1&keywords=deoxit+f5+fader+cleaner&qid=1632395618&sprefix=DeOxit+F5%2Caps%2C184&sr=8-3 DeOxit also comes in other formulations.. D5 is awesome contact cleaner / preserver S5 is a sealer for harsh environments. I haven't tried the S5 yet but the D5 and F5 have been road tested many times in the last ~40 years ! Top shelf stuff.

And just check all connections 😉

Yes, a great choice but they're too heavy for me to carry around all day.

Felt it here in Latrobe Valley, it was a good shake. I had one in PNG that I could not walk down the hallway to the kids bedroom without being bounced from one wall to the other. About 1977 had another in Guam that knockout the Island TV receptions. The Old Power Stations Transformers in my Area used a Gas/Oil surge protection that would of tripped with todays shake. 50 years ago I inspect the high voltage electrical equipment after an Earthquake in Morwell and found damage to the the cables exiting the 11,000 V Generator that had to be shutdown till repaired.

Yep, in lockdown so was home for the show. Did the walk around and checked the house, no cracks or any damage. Had a few smaller ones but for Melbourne this was the biggest in my experience. Animals are sensitive to these things, someone forgot to tell our cat who snoozed through the whole thing. It has been an interesting year for sure. All the best.

Said by a man who kills the beach with a 5000! I really do need to use it again on the beach. I used it for almost 2 years before I got a second hand SE Pro. That killed my 5000 at the beach for fear it would corrode from the salt.

It seems to me a discriminating PI is the holy grail which might be why the Impulse AQ crew tried to make out in their marketing that's what they had...... although not quite. Hopefully in my lifetime one is made, I don't want to get old and have to dig everything and I find beach hunting to be an easy sort of detecting, easy to dig and finds readily available, it's something I plan to do more of at some point in time as a summer activity. If VLF tech has truly hit it's depth limits then I will want something deeper at some stage as I've used my previously owned QED on the beach and saw the beauty of a PI on the beach, the nice big coils for ground coverage (I used the 15" round X-coil) and screaming on old deep coins my Nox didn't even sound off on at all as I tested them side by side. I would like to use a rig like that as a beach detector but only if it had discrimination and ideally Target ID. Is it that no one has bothered to make Target ID on a PI or is it an impossibility with current technology?

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.

Small coil sizes, increased sensitivity, more reaction to ground etc etc, takes me back to the swing from low frequency VLFs to higher frequency of the GM2 and GB2 with their small ellipticals and their productive popular performance, to just yesterday the success of the smaller X coils on the Z, tis elementary Coiltek and ML a small elliptical mono for the 6K will sell like hot cakes not just in the US but OZ too. You ever detect in FNQ OZ grass up around your ears you`ll know where I`m coming from.😉

I'm located in California, USA and would also like to see an elliptical coil with a width in the 5-6 inch range. That size would make scanning bedrock crevices and rocky areas much easier to accomplish. I don't want a more sensitive coil than the 11in factory round, as it already finds tiny nuggets. I think a traditionally wound small coil could tame it some against really nasty ground, yet the small size help it still find gold the size the partially flat wound 11in round Minelab already cleans up on.

All good points Steve and sorry for not seeing “How it is” in your neck of the woods.🥺 My concern is based around the ultra sensitivity of the 6000 and if that then might impact on the ability to actually make a coil that small, hence the cautionary remarks.😬 I understand the “need” and especially your frustration for not having what is a glaring requirement for a coil size that will complement the areas you work. As an example of supply and demand though I can actually have a pretty good guess at the numbers of the new NF Zsearch coils that have gone out and as it currently stands I’d say my business here in Clermont has shifted an equal amount of Zsearch 12 coils as the whole of the US orders. Now to be fair the US winter gold season is only just starting up and the Zsearch was hard to get hold of at the end of the US season earlier this year along with the subsequent release of the GPX 6000 (plus the Zsearch is also an expensive add on), but this example probably goes a long way to explain why the need in the US has never been fully addressed which is a shame. 😔 In the case of the 6000 I think a smaller coil will be a very good seller in the USA so hopefully Coiltek will do their best to develop a coil that is more suitable for your conditions, knowing Coiltek they WILL as they have a very good following and an expansive dealer network over there. Hopefully by this time next year there will be lots of examples of happy 6000 owners showing off their finds on the forum. 😊 JP

Thanks Tom, it's a great combo for coin shooting, they compliment each other quite nicely.

Phrunt, all good suggestions, I did all of the following before I decided to post. noise cancel, lowered sensitivity, the software is the latest, I did a factory reset, ground balanced, it came with a six inch coil and tried that but still have the same problem. Maybe there is dirt in between the coil covers and coil, will check when I wake up😁 If not call Minelab I guess. Thanks

I don't know which picture is the most beautiful, but I will say that you found some nice gold. Good hunting and good luck out there.

Love this time of year. Beautiful gold and scenery you have there.😊

17 oz that is nearly a pound and a half troy. That is a solid centre piece for any display.

Nox and the CTX, about equal time on both depending on the site. None of the spots were that old unfortunately.

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.

High human activity leads to drops, good and bad. Age of trash can be a good indicator of the time of activity including coins. Areas that have pesiticides sprayed can change the eco system and result in shallow finds. Also desity of the earth effects sink rates and eco activity. Common practice in looking for structures that are long gone is nail hunting and identifying the nail type to get a rough idea on the time. There are a lot of clues under our feet but often people just discriminate them out and look for the goodies and cherry pick the high tones (silver) which is the easiest to do. There is a lot more to detecting than just the choice of a detector.

Big Bertha!!! That bear doesn't stand a chance!!!🤣😆😂👍

Yeah but, a GPX 5000 "D" has a nice ring to it. Just think of how many more silvers can be had if they just add the letter D. 😄 So far I have not had any salt issues that have surfaced. I'm sure there is damage happening inside but no issues yet. I did have one knob freeze up on me so hard that I could not change settings. From then on, I use electronic contact cleaner on them and they work fine.

Also, began modding my ML coil bolts, which I think are part of the problem, in my opinion! I filled them with silicone, and set in a nylon washer in each, just above the rim of the bolt! If I need to, I can further modify the bolt edges with a more rounded profile, with a file or dremel! Now I can use "as is", or add a thin, soft washer to the bolts, without it collapsing into the hollow bolts interior!👍👍

If you are going to use this backpack a lot you should be very careful with your decision. I was searching for a daily use backpack and the mistake I made was to listen and buy what someone else told me. As we are all different we should look for something that suits us. I found a lot of good options on https://backpacks.global/ and after a lot of research I made up my mind, of course with some reviews from the same site but the final decision was mine, not someone else's and this was the best decision.

steve i thought that is what you bought the toy hauler for