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I've recently been posting photos and commentary on a muni park which has been producing old coins inconsistent with the park's establishment date. Since I wrote that update I've been out an additional 20 hours and although the number of old finds per hour has decreased, there have still been some goodies dribbling in. Besides what I show in the photo below I've also recovered another 6 Wheat cents. Here are the best finds in those last seven hunts: Clockwise from upper left: a wristwatch with a five letter brand name ending in 'EX'. Want to guess what it is (and also what I over optimistically hoped it was)? Sterling child's ring with red glass setting, 1892 (plain) Barber dime, copper alloy token with "Good for 5c in trade" on one side but no company name on the rerverse 😞, 1943-P silver alloy Warnick, and 1937 (plain) Buffalo nickel with all four digits of the date still fully present. That brings this site's silver coin total to 3, Buffalo Nickel count to 2, and Wheatie count to 25. There's no question now that there was human activity (accompanied by loss of coins) prior to the 1974 date posted on a plaque as the time of establishment as a municipal park. The dime deserves special documentation. I got a moderately weak 19-20 dTID on the ML Equinox which is spot on for a Zinc penny in my area. However, the weakness of the signal caught my attention. Yes, I occasionally find deep Zincolns, but that is unusual. Even though I sometimes pass over strong Zincoln zone signals, I always dig the weaker ones. After cutting a 6 inch diameter plug and removing a nugget scoop's worth of additional loose soil I was at a depth of about 4" and rechecked the hole with the detector. (I was already getting a weak but clear tone on both the Garrett Carrot pinpointer but wanted to get a better pinpoint location from the Eqx 800.) To my surprise I now was getting a solid (but still moderate strength) 24-25. I was liking this 'Zincoln' more and more! I loosened another 2-3 inches of dirt and after removing it I couldn't get a reaction on my White's TRX pinpointer when going through the hole. In my recovery pan I did get a signal and when I saw the light metal reeded edge of a small object I was pretty sure I had a silver dime. A squirt of water revealed the Barber head and a four digit date (which I couldn't read with my detecting glasses -- no matter as I can do that when I get home). I've recovered at least a couple dozen silver dimes with the Equinox and this is the first that gave such an low dTID initially. (26-27 seems to be the sweetspot in my typical soil.) This may have been an example of a coincident small piece of iron (small enough not to even cause the Eqx to grunt -- and note I keep all notches wide open when detecting). I did recheck the plug and hole after recovery without hearing anything obvious. I've graded the dime as a Good-4 on the Sheldon scale. A couple weeks back @Raphis posted a Barber dime for which he was unsure of the date. That one has more like a Fair-2 grade. I was curious how much of his coin was lost to wear and he cooperatively weighed it at 2.15 g which is a 14% loss from its mint state 2.50 g. Mine comes in considerably higher but still shows an 8% loss at 2.30 g. It would be overstating things to try and use those measurements to conclude when the coins were dropped since multiple variables determine a coin's circulation lifetime (i.e. from time of minting to time of loss). But I suspect both were dropped no later than the mid-1950's.

I recently picked up a Garrett Ace Apex with 3 coils for a very good price locally. This is the second one I have owned. I spent the last few weeks doing some indoor and outdoor tests as well as some park hunting to get reacquainted with it. I stated on the Garrett forum that I would give the Apex another chance and do some infield testing against the Equinox and Simplex and report back. I had a chance to spend about 5 hours at a relic site over the weekend and do just that. The site has had mixed usage since the late 1850’s and includes Military artifacts as well as more modern house site items. The site has been hammered over the last 6 decades and so I thought it would be the perfect test. Ground is 4-5 bars on the F75 and is for the most part loaded with iron except farther out where we will usually just find fired .58 cal bullets, shotgun and .22 brass. I started with the Apex 8.5 x 11 coil out where we usually just find bullets running MF, custom program where everything is accepted over 20 and sensitivity all the way up. My goal was to just see if I could find bullets, no comparisons were done. I quickly found out the sensitivity was too high as I got a lot of false signals and chased a few ghost signals. Once turned down 1 bar the Apex ran smooth. I managed to find 4 .58 cal bullets and a few .22 and shotgun brass. Deepest bullet was 6 inches and was a very jumpy signal. I’ve done a video in the past digging bullets with the Apex in this same area if you want to see it you can find it in the Garrett forum. It’s under 10 things I like and 5 I don’t like about the Apex. Unlike the Equinox in this same area, the Apex has a real hard time identifying deep large targets vs small .22 brass. The signals are jumpy in both regards and hard to determine depth. Next I moved to an area close by that has produced quite a few buttons and dropped bullets in the past. The area is very trashy in places with glass shards and square nails. I used the Equinox 800 with the 11” coil running Park 1, 50 tones, iron bias F2 0, recovery 4, Multi and sensitivity 22. The Equinox 600 can be setup exactly the same way. I proceeded to mark 8 targets that came in at as low as 1 up to the highest being 15 on the Equinox. All of these targets were located in the trashy areas. The Simplex 11” coil Park 2 was able to see all but 2 targets, one being a small pewter button about 3 inches deep the other being a fired percussion cap also about 3 inches deep. The Apex 8.5 x 11 coil unfortunately was only able to see 2 targets. The first being a large pewter button maybe and 1 inch deep the other being a fired percussion cap on the surface. A small Navy cuff button laying on the surface (that only read 1 on the Equinox) was surprising invisible to the Apex. Granted there were a lot of iron signals around it. Last area, the house site. This time I started with the Simplex 11” coil running park 2. Now I know what some of you are going to say. Why use the larger coils in trashy sites? I wanted to see what the stock coils would do, I consider the 8.5 x 11 the stock coil for the Garrett machines. Yes I may have gotten better results with the Apex using a smaller coil. Anyway, I located and marked 4 targets with the Simplex. The Equinox was able to see all 4 but did struggle with one, all explain in a minute. The Apex was able to see 3 out of the 4, but was totally blind to the one the Equinox struggled with. Target 1 was a modern penny about 1 inch deep and was not a problem for any of the detectors. Target 2 was a small piece of decorative brass about 2 inches deep which all the detectors saw. But the Apex numbers were all over the place where as the Equinox was a solid 14 and the Simplex a solid 44. Target 3 turned out to be a 1929 S wheat penny at 5 inches deep. The Simplex read 66-68 and could get the signal as I rotated all the way around it. The Equinox struggled, first direction I tried got nothing but iron grunts. But as I rotated around it, I started to get a choppy signal that would bounce up to about 17. The Apex got nothing but iron grunts no matter what I tried. Signal 4 turned out to be a 1946 dime at about 3 inches and was a good solid signal on all the detectors. I also located 2 old clay marbles while I was walking around the house site. In a relic hunting scenario, the Equinox and Simplex have a clear advantage over the Apex. The Apex likes round objects and does the best on them and has a fairly accurate ID. Odd shapes are not it’s strong point for sure. But for someone who only wants to dig coins, it could be great. I will also say that of the 3 the Apex was most comfortable to swing and I think I like the wireless headphones the best on the Apex. In the future I plan to take the same 3 machines to a ghost town and the beach to see how they stack up against each other. I will say that the more I use the Simplex the more I see just how great a value this machine is. For the money you can’t beat it.

Wanted to give the Apex with 9" ultimate coil a good run so hit the area again that I had hunted a bit before. Found a strange coin that was super light and little larger that a half dime, had no clue but was 10 Mazuma Play money. Odd to find that in an old area. Other finds are: 1 Flat button broken back Harmonica but the reeds were rotted away 7 cents in clad Odd looking fish lure or might be a whistle not sure but it's very old. 1911 V Nickel, 1892 V Nickel, 1899 Barber dime, 1910 Barber Dime, 1943 Merc Dime, 1897 IH penny, 186? IH penny, 1895 IH penny, 9 wheaties. Musket ball Very old Silver Claddagh ring was under roots of a tree, made me almost break a sweat Couple of old cufflinks, one is white enamel and other has guilded front.

Well the parties over for this trip ... a bakers dozen and the 11...14...17. Coils all tasted gold 👍😆

Here's a great image of a miner wearing the same buckle. At the rate your going you'll have every style buckle in no time LOL Guess bald eagle was a good omen.

I am in a spot i have gone over at least 5 times with the ORX, and the ground went silent. Dont think I dont like the ORX, when i go to the park and sports field you cant beat it .But like i say when i got to the site today I took some advice from a guy who said put the Disc at between 27-and 30 so i set it at 29 and i just was amazed that the ground just lit up . things at 9 inches no problem good signals and deeper . my settings used are . 6.4 khz in mix mode, gain of 7 and 0 threshold, black sand mode on and salt balance at 43, and this machine just starts devouring the ground , I spent my stimulus money on it and dont regret doing so as its made in U,S,A and it went to help an American citizen. the thing with holes in it was 18 inches deep and i left more in the hole. i was tired of digging deep holes for the day . and i forgot to say i was not digging as many nail false s. so what that guy said must be working

Then I'll have to quit using it... strick

Just sharing an appealing little alluvial worn twinned crystalline nuggie i detected today. (3.6 grams NSW Australia. 7000 with the NF coil)

Yep, it's no gimmick. Some nice old s/g head stamps there in addition to the other relics.. The disc/notch functionality is a little odd but effective. Per the manual (see below), when you set disc to anything above zero it acts as a full ferrous disc plus a 3 TID notch centered around whatever number you set it to. So with disc set to 29 you notched out 28-30 wraparound iron (the falsing nails) in addition to all typical ferrous. The only drawback to this approach is the miniscule chance of masking a large high conductor. Tarsacci is my go to relic VLF in high mineralized dirt because of its slightly increased effective target ID depth as long as the non-ferrous junk targets (i.e., aluminum tabs and slaw, modern shotgun shells and casings) are nearly non-existent. Otherwise, the weak 3-tone audio and bouncy IDs make it a chore to operate in mild dirt where it has no depth advantage compared to other vlfs. Equinox and Deus (not Orx - because its 3 tone audio holds it back also) outplay it in mild dirt because they are just as deep and have better audio options, especially if there is a lot of aluminum or non-relic brass about. But it really does excel in hot dirt, high alkalai dirt, and at salt beaches with minimal non-ferrous trash.

I would get this coil with whatever Garrett releases as the next higher end cousin to the Apex. Garrett does some things differently than other manufacturers on the AT series (and Apex) that I find compelling and this coil might almost entice me to give the Apex a shot. But right now the Apex doesn't really fill a gap in my current arsenal nor does it do anything head and shoulders above what I have now and some things it does noticeably worse, especially in hot ground (where I spend most of my detecting time). What really attracts me to Apex is the ergonomics, multiple single frequency selections at that price point, and straight ahead user interface (though there are a few things that can be improved there also). Hoping that Garrett ups the capability of their MF signal processing, introduces variable, selectable recovery speed, full up water proof, and maintains the light form factor in their next perhaps AT capable MF detector. Since they beat Nokta to MF by at least a year and a half, if they are investing as they should into refining the MF technology, Garrett has a good chance to leapfrog Nokta's first MF attempt shortly after Nokta release. Should make for an interesting 2022. Coil selection is a huge selling point, and despite the release of the Coiltek Nox series, Nokta and Garrett (and their third party coil collaborators) have got ML beat in this regard. It is reports on accessory coils like that have me continuing to keep an eye on Garrett. Thanks kac.

I also prefer a round shaped coil, and I have very little use or need for a bigger-size coil. A good 85% or more of my hunting is in dense debris and / or thick brush where smller-size coils rule. Other than that I do like a good mid-size coil which would be a round 7" to 9" or something like a 5X8 to 5X9½ elliptical shape for "fringe-areas" to more "open-areas". I like the looks of that coil, and if it is a bit thinner and lighter compared with others, I think I'll see if they make one for the Tek. T2+. My other detectors are already fitted with coils I like, but I might do some selling or trading to get another new T2+ just to use a coil like the Detech 9" Ultimate. 'Quieter' in and around EMI is a good thing. About ½" to 1" or so seems about right compared with the Viper. Glad to hear it is generally working okay afield. I have noticed through the years that, depending upon the make and model detector, the aftermarket coils often reflect a VDI read-out that is of two or three numbers, high or low, from a stock or manufacturer's' coil. I have what I need or my Apex devices, although I would really like to see Garrett make a smaller-size coil for the Apex, especially a Concentric. But that Detech 9" looks like it might make a good combination with a T2+.❓❔❓ Monte

Thanks for tenaciously following up on the leads regarding the mystery tray. No way Codan was going to just serve us up that info on a silver platter.

Went out to the camp site today. I stole the Equinox from the wife. I was using the 6” coil and working between the rocks. This is the better stuff from today minus nails, lead and two horseshoes. A couple percussion caps. One marked “GD”. A really cool knife with handle in tact. Finally one of the nicest buckles I have dug. All looks good considering the 170 years they have been laying around.

Grandfather and I used his Tracker IV with some good luck on a friends old farm house before they tore it down. We had the sense at half way up, all metal mode, and kept the coil off the floor and walls a few inches. Finally found the stash that they were looking for, and about 20 different electrical lines. Just keep the sense down and take your time is what we had done.

One half of the faux leather band was attached but I removed and pitched it. This very watch is available on Amazon for $36 so it's not an oldie by any means. The coin loss pattern for this park has pretty much crystallized. Anything within 20 or so meters of the (current) restroom building has a decent chance of being old. (There was a building there previously, when this was an industrial yard.) Outside of that I've only found two old coins (both Wheaties) but lots of modern coins plus this wristwatch. But there is one spot in particular that HistoricAerials indicates previously held a building of some kind going back about a century (or more). I've saved that spot for later in the season when the grass isn't growing and there are fewer park visitors since it's right next to a paved walking path that is heavily used. Fingers crossed... 🤞

It was whacked by a lawnmower and maybe my shovel a little bit 🙄 it was bent badly when I pulled it from the ground. A crescent wrench works wonders if used carefully. 🤗

Here's a couple I have.

I just don't understand all this talk about coil ear breakage...I have one of the first Equinox's made in-fact I have two of them...I have every coil available...hunt in water... brush...rocks...use it as a crutch to help me up off the ground and still have yet to break a coil ear and I've used the machine like a 1000 hours or more..so wtf? Those Detect eds washers are not what they are not all that good...I've bought them and they are loose...I recommend original minelab washers and original minelab lower shaft...and stop over tightening your coils like a rough handed buffoon...lol 🙂 now watch I'll break a coil next time I'm out... strick

I have no idea what the orientation was. After the initial shovel full of dirt the coin was in the bottom of the hole in the lose dirt. I think the Equinox was struggling due to all the iron targets around the coin.

Thanks for the tip. But the Deus makes standing on my head to deal with Orx quirks unnecessary. I only use the Orx as a backup/loaner machine and then only in Gold mode if I'm using it, because it works equivalent to the Deus as an all-metal site surveyor in that mode. Full tones and pitch audio options as well as, "negative disc" available for the Deus overcome the Orx shortcomings - not necessarily worth the price premium - but when I bought my Deus nearly 7 years ago, there was no Orx. Lol.

On the Orx just watch the phase meter and you will see targets are there but you won't here them because of the large offset XP has on the sensitivity of the machine. This is the break point between what the machine sees as ground and where it reports as a target. For the brief time I had the Orx I liked the machine but found it not very good in much of the ground I hunt due to small iron. Did make a nice little park machine though.

My wife and I both have 800s and hunt surf, brush and so on. In over 3 years of use and we dont baby them ,have not had any problem with ear breakage. We just never over tighten the bolt, just tight enough that when you set the detector down the coil will go flat. Works for us. Going to beach tonight Jinx a coming!

My thought is that it may not be that Minelab's sponsoring them, but rather, Garrett's no longer sponsoring them. But then again, they've often claimed to not be sponored by Garrett, and perhaps they weren't...at least directly. But going to Garrett events as VIPs, accessing new machines before most people, being in Garrett literature, etc. are forms of "sponsorship" whether the Hoover Boys are willing to admit that or not. Imagine if Kurt's face shows up on the box for the Equinox!

I watch their videos every week, have for a long time as they're not too far away from me and find about the same stuff I do. Helps me with recognizing finds. They used the AT detectors for a long time, but I think one of them switched to the Equinox, and others followed. It's great for me now because they give TIDs. Garrett numbers were meaningless. Haven't seen them preaching any difference, so I don't think it's a sponsor thing. 🤔 Waiting to see how long it takes to drown one. 🙄 They do a lot of river hunting.

Huh, I wonder why that is? Cool Smokey token, by the way!

Quote:"Why is it that the vibration does not work directly on the cable and it works through the headphone cable?" I see the problem here. The Equinox uses electronic switching to determine if headphones are plugged in, then it mutes the internal loudspeaker and drived the headphones. It measures the load placed on the Right channel, that is between the 'ring' and the 'ground' of the stereo plug. My experiments show 50 Ohms or less is needed to trigger the switch-over circuitry. Probably the simplest method for you is to short the 'ring' to ground, and use the Left channel ( 'tip' ) to ground as your audio source. I think the WM08 module would work underwater if it were placed very close to the control-box, so there was minimal water between them. The radio antenna in the control box is along the top edge, centrally positioned. The WM08 would probably need to be fitted into a watertight enclosure, I don't have one, so I'm unsure of it's water rating. I can't help much with the loop / WM08 issue. The module has stereo output, is it possible to use both L and R to drive the loop, either by directly joining them, or with a pair of low-value resistors ( under 10 Ohms ? ) to isolate L and R. Is the loop a low resistance ? Perhaps a series resistor may make it easier on the WM08.

Images for the patented tray for Minelab have been released. Looks like it is the top of the Silversaver that is pictured in Codans latest annual report.

You are killing it, please leave some of the nice things in the ground so I can find them. I hope I will be back in Illinois at the end of the week to get out the detector again. Good luck and happy hunting. PS, please stay out of my area until I have a chance to get there.

Yep, you just jinxed yourself!!🤣👍👍

Barber dimes must be on sale, found 2 today as well. 🙂 No trace of the band for the watch?

If the house has no fireblocks in the walls why not run an endoscope down from the attic and just look? I think wires, pipes and nails would be too much to try to listen past.

I was telling my wife, I think we have found most of the buckle types. Back to chasing silver I guess. 😀. Thank you Eric!

Killin me with the Barbers, man. 😀 Nice ring too! Luck 'o' the Irish.🍀 great stuff. 👍 Keep this up and I'll get an Apex. 🤣

When you say "valuable objects hidden within walls" , I assume you're talking about larger sized objects, right ? (caches, and things like box and jar sized stuff). Right ? Not individual coins, right ? Then if you're talking about cache hunting in walls, then ironically, the less sensitive the machine is, THE BETTER. Doh ! So for example, and old school 77b auto or 94b auto, would be perfect. They do not see individual nails. And are wimpy (depthwise) on coin sized targets. Or simply get a 2-box machine (although that would be difficult to man-handle sideways on walls and ceilings). A 2-box machine will simply not hear anything smaller than a soda can. Thus the perfect discriminator for nails, single coins, wires-in-walls, chicken screen (for reinforced plaster/lathe walls), etc...

Nokta did with the Simplex what First Texas could have done with the T2 or F75... completely modernize it, waterproof it and sell a bunch of them. That's now a very commonly owned detector and so similar in performance to a T2 it could easily be mistaken for a modern T2. If they did do that then it's not a paint job, it's gone beyond that, it's a full rehash. How many T2's do you think they've sold in the past few years? How many Simplex do you think Nokta have sold? That money could have been in the First Texas bank account. Something similar needed done with the Gold Bug 2, a full rehash to become a modern detector, sure the motor stays the same but there is nothing wrong with the motor, it just needed modern features, and especially something like a ground grab or ground tracking like all the other modern prospecting detectors. I don't think doing this is beyond them but they just took the lazy way out once again and just released a paint job of it so nobody is inspired to buy it, it just continues the model if parts were no longer available being such an antique detector. The core of a few of their detectors are perfectly fine and have a place in the market, it's just they're now so dated. Many just needed discontinued. Wireless audio has rapidly become a standard and it really makes sense, cords are annoying. They don't even need to think tor themselves, the competition has done all the thinking of the ideas they could put into their detectors to make them modern, they can just use their ideas and then put them into reality. My T2 is a deep detector, as deep as any however it's target ID's are dismal and with the other detectors all performing better and being more feature rich I can't really think of a reason to use it other than to warm up it's engine to keep it from seizing up. They should be able to improve that surely. My newer T2 green is great in EMI compared to my older T2 so they've fixed that up in newer ones, a positive sign someone there still knows how to modify the source code for the detector. Just adding every little software update they can and improve the performance as much as possible. I'm hoping when they eventually find the password to edit their website they make an entire new modern site with a banner across the top saying "under new management" and things start to change. They have potential, they just need the people working there to make it a reality, I don't want them to collapse but if they sit around doing nothing they're just going to be a big box store brand for the entry level customers and maybe that's where they feel comfortable now but that won't last forever... It's only a matter of time until one of the big brands chase that down market with aggression and Nokta might be it or the Chinese just come into it with force and pricing that can't be beat selling their own detectors. We went through this with Tesoro and Whites, everyone could see it happening and First Texas was the other obvious one. I have five of their detectors, a bunch of their OEM coils and the F-Pulse so I've done my bit to keep them alive but I can't see myself buying another of their detectors unless something dramatic changes. I would certainly buy a rehashed modern Gold Bug 3, and I would likely buy a modern F75/T2 if the price was right..... Simplex sort of pricing where it belongs.

Come on man!!, How could you forget that!! That's an awesome find!!🤠👍👍

I heard it's slotting into the upper mid-level product line between the Minelab School Lunch Tray(TM) and their Golden Serving Platter 8000(TM).

Its 40 % bigger

Finally, my dream tray. I hope it's compatible with my old plates.

First off I got the 9" as I like round coils to navigate in the woods better than the long Viper coil I had. I didn't want to get a coil too big or open where it becomes cumbersom. Tried a quick air test but emi is really bad in my house so only yielded 1/2" better depth on the Ultimate coil vs Viper but in the field away from EMI things are noticeably better. Separation seems a little less than the stock coil but overal stability is better with the Ultimate 9. Machine is quieter and pinpointing is better with the Ultimate 9 also. Did a quick run at local school field that buddy and I have hit over the years that has a can line in the 8-10 mark and tons of can slaw. I had hit this area a couple of times with the stock coil so went back and did a pass down the field and back. I was pretty impressed how nicely it picked out nickels we missed as well as the other clad. Cans themselves ran lower on id's down in the 70's with the zincolns instead of low-mid 80. Soil there is rich black dirt with ground balacance low to mid 90's Most the coins were in the 6-8" range and I had no question what they were before digging. So is the coil worth the $170 price tag? Depends how much you love your Apex but consider the Ripper too if your looking for another coil. I will be keeping this coil on for a long time.

Looks like some of the old political campaign pins they used to give out. Grandfather had quite a collection of them, so you might want to look in that direction also.

I have not bought the The coil yet. I probably should. I may buy a second 800 first.

I too have not had a problem with any of my coils, but I don't hunt in water other than an occasional creek or sides of rivers and lakes. I had one of the 3D printed protectors that I made out of polycarbonate on my 11" coil, but I don't feel like I really need it for the kind of detecting I do, so I took it off. I'm worried the least about my 10x5 because of the stouter designed coil ears or tabs which is similar to the GPX-6000 coils I noticed. Cudos to Coiltek on their design. Maybe Minelab should use that design on all of their coils.

Yeah I'm not recommending nor advocating them. Just illustrating the issue. As I wrote the 10x5 is a tough little bugger, it remains to be seen if someone will break the ears. I've had it on my Equinox for a while now in all sorts of conditions. I'm using steveg's grommets and the coil isn't too tight but tight enough to hold the angle. I have hit stuff and twisted the shaft, but a bit of tightening fixed that. No problems yet!

DD coils typically will give different responses to objects like nails when they are flat and coil is swung in different directions. Monty's nail board test is a good example on that and how targets separate. Smaller dd coils do bit better than larger in those cases and concentrics do even better but unfortunately many manufacturers walked away from concentrics.

And it's a Civil war relic! 🤦‍♂️ Threw it in my truck after I dug it, and totally forgot it. 🤣 No maker's mark, but nearly identical to the one I researched. 😵 Lotta photos. Mine had the spur, the one they show has a plain "rowel". The identification guide is $80, don't think I'll buy it unless I find more.

No worries here. I think a lot of the time manufacturers think we are just bitchers and complainers. I have been quite critical of all the manufacturers at one time or another. On these forums at least, there is more to it than just tossing rocks. Most of us genuinely love metal detecting, and we really care what is happening in the industry. We first get frustrated, then even angry, when we see these companies making stupid moves. The U.S. companies in particular have been drowning in arrogance. I’ve watched for very many years in frustration, while Minelab, once an unknown upstart from Australia, has eaten all their lunches. They’ve seemed completely blind to what had been very obvious to me for a long time… that Minelab was literally going to put a few of them, if not all, out of business. Then along came Nokta/Makro to add extra pressure. They are lucky the Chinese were asleep forever, but Quest is just the first that will add even more pressure. Tesoro did not even try, just committed willful suicide by doing nothing. White’s tried, but woke up just a little too late, and now they are gone. First Texas is just a mess, but their volume in low end big box product has masked this. To me they are in more trouble than they seem to think. Their mind share with most of us is evaporating, if not already gone. Just like White’s, there are the faithful who stick with companies to the end, but most of us have moved on. If they think cranking out cheap units for Walmart will keep them alive forever, they will learn that never works, never has. The irony is they bought Fisher and Teknetics to try and escape the Bounty Hunter low end trap, but in the last few years they’ve let both those premium brands languish, if anything gutting them to give their best products to Bounty Hunter. It’s not that they have not been trying, but their efforts have floundered, or been misdirected. The marketing is a non-cohesive disaster, almost non-existent. The main efforts seem to go into placing pallets of product at Costco and taking care of their big box customers, not taking care of the small dealer network. The Fisher website, as has been noted, was downright embarrassing in its non-updated, neglected state. It perfectly encapsulated my view of the company… just an ad hoc, sticking fingers in leaking dams approach to the business. Sounds like I have it in for them, but just the opposite. I probably care more about the company than many people that work there. Detecting is my life long passion, and I find it almost offensive watching the U.S. manufacturers run their businesses into the ground through arrogance and neglect. Mainly arrogance. They all think they are so damn smart, and that people like us are just unfair critics or idiots. No, many of us just see what they don’t, brands we know and would love to support, but who simply don’t seem to care enough to engage with us, or listen to us.

It turns out the bracelet was cubic zirconia.. she went to a jeweller on the mainland where they sold exactly the same bracelets for around $300.. So she got it.. and before you ask, yes i think i can trust her.. about as much as you'd trust anyone not to lie about a diamond bracelet.. 😬

😂…. At my age ya can’t tell if it was the running…. Detecting….. honey dew list …. Or just old age. Felt good enough to do my morning run. Here are my few finds. Note those black quarters I was talking about they were really down there. All those were silver. I guess the gold was deeper or one of the guy got it. We kept saying man there has to be some gold down there

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