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Pics are of 4 different 1 pound rocks with gold throughout. I guess technically they could be classified as Specimens if you must. Anyway, What's so interesting is, the 4 different rocks of gold were all recovered with 4 different detectors. Another interesting aspect is, the fact that these 4 different nuggets from 4 different detectors were found in 4 different states (AK, OR, ID, NV). Now for the most intriguing bit of information about the 4, all found with VLF detectors. That's part of the reason I still recommend gold nugget hunters to make sure they always have a VLF detector to compliment their big dog super deep power monster PI or ZED. If you are going to travel and detect a variety of terrains and areas of gold you need to have more than 1 tool. Sometimes DEPTH from a big powerful detector is not desired and in fact can be your worst enemy. The average person can only dig so many 2 feet deep hold and just a couple 3 footers and you are exhausted. I've done it myself and witnessed many other do the same. In old minded areas trash is usually abundant and a powerful DEEP detector can be your enemy. So what's one of my secrets to the success I have had finding big gold? DISCRIMINATION Yes that nasty phrase (don't use discrimination) so many people tell you "Dig it all" and I laugh all the way to the bank. So many old mining areas still produce big gold, but the specimens are mixed in with 100 yr old miners trash and a good way to help select the fewer targets I want to pursue. Don't get me wrong in that I don't like my GPX-6000 and GPZ-7000, as I do and have found many nuggets with them. But those tools have different features I use and like in situations that the VLF detectors are not so well designed. Just imagine the day we have get the feel of an ergonomically designed GPX-6000 with GPZ-7000 depth capabilities, the size imaging from a Garrett GTI, colored frequency analyzation of the V3i, discrimination with adjustable iron masking of the Equinox and waterproofing of the Deus II. Now that detector could be the ultimate and probably cost at least $2000 if made by an American company. We won't even try to figure what Minelab would charge? Now I know there are other aspects of finding big gold and so I'm asking those others who have had the rare pleasure of digging such big pieces to chime in and give info. The moral of the story is know your tools and their strong/weak points and take advantage of them.

I still have over 30 of the best ever produced from all over the world. Most grade 9 or above. At 70 years of age my Herd will start to be sold, not because of any new model but to others who want something different in their detecting life. 2022 is my 53rd year as a tester, relic hunter having used many hundreds of detectors in my life.

Never really had a lot of detectors at one time, if it does not find gold for me it goes back out the door fairly fast. Two for right now, the Excalibur and AQ Limited, I see one come along that is doing more then these two are I'll be in line. Took the AQ out yesterday to see if it still had it's Mojo..

Chuck, Sit back and enjoy the moment, winter is just starting up. Calabash has a Legend on pre-order. It a sure thing he will run it up against the equinox 800 on some hot Colorado dirt. The Legend videos are just now coming out, enjoy. Keep in mind, rumor has it that Minelab has five secret products releasing prior to the end of the fiscal year ending on June 30th 2022. When those rumored releases are announced we can enjoy another four months of waiting and watching videos as the pre-orders roll in. By then the XP Deus II “goldfield program” will actually be detecting of the goldfields and Nokta Makro will kick out a 9x5 coil for the Legend to stay in the game. Like the new member from Nokta Makro said “be patient guys! “ Who am I kidding, all this hold off typing ain’t working for me either, perhaps someone on the forum should start up a detector AA support group that offers discount codes and frequent buyers miles.

I think the Deus II was created to be the best new detector for the professional all around treasure hunter who uses a metal detector. I think the Legend was created to be an alternative to the Equinox 800. People will buy the Deus II because they want the opportunity to up their game over what they have now. The Legend will be bought because folks who have a 600 or a Vanquish want an upgrade at a price they can afford. Having a legend and an 800 seems redundant to me. It'll be interesting to see in 6-9 months where things stand.

Norvic, Oh yea I found them with the GPS coordinates I purchased on eBay. Best $100 I ever spent. Now if I was smart or I didn't care about hunting my old sites again, I'd just do exactly as I mentioned above. I could sell the GPS coordinates for each nugget at $100 a pop or all 4 for $299. You and I both know there's folks who would buy. I could milk those nuggets for a few more grand. Or...maybe I could give the coordinates away for free to anyone who purchases GPX-6000 or GPZ-7000 from me? Now you have me thinking outside the box Norvic. You are a great man today, not sure about tomorrow?🤫

It's fun to watch all the testing that's going on with the new machines. But it doesn't answer all the questions for me as to which is the best, I'm going to have to get them out and decide for myself. Everyone has their own hunt styles, sites, soil types and target types that differ from everyone else. Watching someone do a depth test in mild soil tells me nothing about my soil, which is very mineralized. Watching someone do an elevated iron and coin separation test also tells me nothing about my sites and the targets that are located in them. Yes it gives me a good idea of how machines perform as I have done the same on some of my videos. But in the end I think each person needs to decide on the features that are most important to them when making a buying decision. I don't dive or even hunt in the water much, so waterproof means nothing to me. although it is nice to have some rain protection. I also don't coin hunt parks much, so stable target ID also has little use. If I get a non-ferrous signal I dig with a full size shovel no matter what the ID is. I hunt Military relics, ghost towns, gold nuggets and do some wet sand beach hunting. Really the only things that matter to me with the new machines coming out is will they pernitrate my mineralized soil, do they have fast recovery and can I get a small coil for them. So at the moment both the Legend and the Deus 2 interest me for different reasons. But until I can get them in the sites I hunt, I'm not sure they can fully replace the detectors I currently use which are the GPX 5000 (Which I know that's not happening) the Deus 1 and the Equinox 800.

First off, I have been off the forums for a while. It's not that I have not been out prospecting, but to be honest, things have just been a little down the last couple years... and well, maybe I got a little in the habit of not talking to people. I'm sure everyone knows the feeling. Anyways, I did a trip with a couple buddies to an area we have been expanding upon for years. (in the desert of Arizona) We do ok here and there. Usually, I have quite the luck, but this time my buddy was rocking it. He managed to stumble upon a patch and true to his word, after he collected a few, he called out to me so that I could come home with a little gold as well. It sounds weird, but when we travel off to a place, we try to make sure everyone goes home with gold. This usually means, get 2 or 3 pcs, you call your buddies over. So I got there and went to work. After a couple hidden cans, I found my first square specimen (sort of strange piece) and then we took turns until I had found my second piece. Well at this point, we were content. My buddy that found the patch kept looking and so I moved on, thankful that I would not go home with the skunk. At this point it was time to get away from the patch and find new areas. I tried washes nearby and then ended up circling to the other side of the hill with the patch. I see a little flat area and head right up to it. It only seemed like seconds when I got a booming signal. Once in the scoop, it wasn't long before I felt the weight fall into my hand. It ended up being a nice chunky 11 grammer. This day just got better. Another smaller patch. Of course my buddies always rag on me for finding the chunkers and skipping over the smaller nuggets. I guess I can live with that. Honestly, it was just a good time hanging out. Some before and after pics are shown below. Best of luck to everyone in the New Year!!

Example of a recirculating highbanker setup with two (2) 12vdc pumps.

Virginia was blessed with a beautiful day after Christmas, it got up to 62 today, no wind, and sunny. So far I'm loving this winter, we seem to be getting a lot of great days to go metal detecting. Today I slapped the 11" coil on the Equinox, I knew I was gonna have a lot of ground to cover. This spot is huge, about 300 acres. The above shot is about halfway up the field, there is much more behind me. It's all a part of this old farm dating back to the late 1600s or so. There's a cell tower way back there that was tossing EMI out into the field but noise cancel, reduced sensitivity and ground balance saved the day. I hunted this field for about 2 hours, dug a ton of buck balls and shotgun shells and old cans, there really isn't much way out back. All the way back I finally got a good signal and popped a 1920 wheat penny. I headed back, trying all the tricks of reading the land, checking rises and areas where there would be shade in the hotter parts of the day. I started heading back to my truck for some coffee, and looked under a "signal tree" where I've found great coins in other fields. I wasn't disappointed: I got a nice 26-28 and dug this beauty, a first for me! 1876 seated liberty dime. It was kinda mangled from the get go, but still looks ok, it was about 4" down. I never expected to find silver here as I have heard this place was hit by others. Apparently not in this area. Found some old roads and followed them a bit, on the second one I dug the dog tag and the token: The dog tag has a member of the landowners' family name on it, so he may be glad when I make up a gift case for him after I've cleaned out the place 😀 The token is cool, 1890s to about 1930s ad for a laxative! I also dug the undated clad dime and the 1976 memorial on that road. It went to a really nice pond. got the old button and the ox knob on the way out, so scouting showed me where the colonial stuff will be. The button has backmarks of the typical "gilt" variety. What a day.

As I watch all the videos on the Legend and the Deus 11 I’m just wondering were I really want to spend my money. The Legend it being half the price of the Deus 11 I don’t have to sell anything. My kids knowing I was thinking about buying another detector gave me cash for Christmas. The only problem I’m having on watching all the videos on the Legend I’ve seen more excitement in a funeral home over a dead body than I have it . Here you got the Deus 11 twice price and I have to sell my soul ( Talking about my Nox 800 that I bought just lately it being the third one) that being my Nox I’d have to take a hit on to buy the Deus 11. At this point I’m just watching videos because that’s what is going to sell me not the difference in price. So far the videos that Calabash is making is winning on the Deus 11 and he could sell someone at the North Pole a refrigerator if nothing else a ice chest. The main thing with Calabash he’s all do show and tell. Come hell are high water he’s got you there with him. I don’t want something just some better than my Nox. I want something that stands out from any detector I’ve had in the past. If it can’t do that then Nox you’re not going anywhere. Sitting on a picket fence is starting to hurt so if you see my Nox for sale you know I got off of it. Chuck

This may seem extreme in terms of an analogy but as I get older the reality of things becomes much clearer. My uncle bought a house in Big Bear 20 years ago to eventually retire to. Every year was going to be the last year to work and then he finally was going to have enough money to retire and move to his cabin home. 17 years later he was still not retired and was diagnosed with lung cancer and 4 months later he passed. He never got to live in his cabin he loved so much because he never felt he had enough. When I see people losing perspective today I always point them out to my kids (who are 30 and 24) and tell them not to be their uncle Jim. Metal Detecting is a hobby and hobbies are supposed to be fun. Every detector I have ever bought has been resold with little to no loss on my investment. The fun in new machines is the anticipation that this time I'm really going to clean up and find that ring, chain, or ancient silver coin. I'm buying a new Deus II as soon as someone says it's my turn on the list and if the legend turns out to be the next great thing I'll buy it too. Just don't tell my wife.

Beach hunt # 14 was a couple of weeks ago and I’m just getting around to posting it. I wasn’t expecting much with a weak low tide and a never ending sanded in beach, so I just enjoyed using the 800 and the 5000 for some fun in the sand. Nothing much notable except maybe the complete herb grinder 😲... 😄 The following week I did a day’s work looking for structures and trying to ID finds without digging any of them. Archaeologists are fun sometimes. 🙄 They actually wanted to see if any structures were around that could be found by their iron nail components. This is a no dig site until permission is granted. Also, nonferrous guesses on what they may be (flat buttons, coins, etc.) I used the E Trac for this with an open screen – two tones. Fun, but not as much fun as actually digging them up! Last week I took a break during the holiday, and it had nothing to do with the 28 degree / 17 MPH winds that were scheduled for that day at the beach.🥶 Hoping to get a couple of beach hunts in soon. All is good and I’ll be glad to hit a beach soon. (getting kind of antsy!)

Ah go on Gerry, all you successful gold fellas are the same, you`ve got those secret places where it`s just laying around, just a matter of a few swings each time you want a gold hit.....🤤

Thanks! 🙂 I plan on making up a 5x3" Riker case for the landowner of certain things pertinent to the land. The dog tag will be in it because it has the family name and dog name on it. I've done this with another, it goes over really well!

I much prefer the same. Let the detector do the "talking" and just show me its features and how to basically use it. He has also answered every question I have ever posed to him in the Comment section of his Youtube videos and usually within 24 hours. Gary can do those things without boring me and my dog likes his voice too.

Looks like Deus II is attempting to address those first 2 issues. 😉 Fun having the pleasure when I am assisting Andy Sabisch during Deus Bootcamp Training Sessions to address Gary directly during the Bootcamp Skype sessions conducted with XP (either Alain - the Chief Exec of XP or Gary chat with the class and answer questions). Both are professional class acts. They stay on point and focus on their own gear without trying to constantly bring the competition into the discussion.

You guys are really sick wanting to have all these detectors!!!-----I (at the moment) got 15 of 'em----but---I ain't sick though---that's what I keep tellin myself anyway. :)------I got (6) F-19's (keep different coils on them)---(4) Deus 1s---(1) ORX---(2) CTXs & (2) Etracs.-----I (think) there is a method to my madness as my wife & I both detect & what papa gits, mamma gits.----That & the fact they are oh sooo sweet babies!----The ORX is going "bye bye" though & two of the four Deus should be if I could bring myself to do it.----Balls, all four Deus 1s should be goin bye bye as I got two of the new Deus 2s on pre-order.----Doing a "self examination--forget what I said about not being sick---I guess I am---plenty!------What a fun sickness it is though! 🙂

I went on a little day trip to the Mojave Desert, California. It is within a day’s round trip from where I live but I had to get up at 3 am to get there on time and to have enough time available for prospecting. I decided to just have a little exploration trip and to check out this new area that I had in mind. The general area that I wanted to explore has a long history of lode and placer mining, mostly in the late 19th century, but mining was not been done on grand scale due to the extreme harsh weather conditions and lack of water. It is not too far away from Death Valley with temperatures easily reaching 115 deg F and above in summer (43 deg C) and way below freezing at night time in winter. I happen to like this harsh and unforgiving environment and spending time there is like being in a meditative state thinking to be in a foreign world, or like being on another planet. I selected a canyon area that I spotted on google earth that had a couple of old placer mines nearby. The geology is in this general region is characterized by tertiary sandstone, shale, conglomerate, breccia, and ancient lake deposits. However, there are also significant lava rock occurrences in form of highly mineralized volcanic tuff which makes detecting extremely challenging. This is a little depiction of the rocks you find there. Many of these rocks are screamers that neither the 6000 nor the 7000 were able to handle. What made the situation even more complicated is that these “hot rocks” were not just on the surface but also buried all the way deep. So, identifying targets of interest that were worth-wile digging was nearly impossible and many times I found hot rocks 1-2 feet deep that the detector picked up. I started with the 6000 and found my first little nugget very close to the surface, around 2 inch deep. What made this one interesting was that it was stuck on a volcanic tuff rock. This is another example of how gold flakes can be stuck to these rocks and wiping the dirt off of them before throwing them away can pay off. I run the 6000 on Auto/Normal/threshold on with the detector volume set all the way down to 1 but with the headset volume set to about 6 clicks. This actually worked remarkably well and made detecting a lot easier without losing sensitivity. I can highly recommend these settings and I believe Steve and JP have commented on this before. I also picked up a lot of tiny bird shots, another example of how sensitive the 6000 is. I then switched to the 7000/NF-Zsearch which I run in HY/Normal/Sens 15/semi-auto GB/smoothing off/volume 6/threshold 27. To my surprise, the detector was fairly stable under these conditions but the hot rocks still remained a major issue (no surprise). However, even when using these fairly hot settings I picked up way less bird shots than with the 6000. This was a striking example of how much more sensitive the 6000 is on tiny shallow surface targets. I managed to pick up 3 more flakes, all of which were extremely thin and flat. The nature of these flakes is suggestive of water wearing and major pounding force as part of the volcanic activity and alluvial mass flows. The only way to pick these up was by extremely slow swing speed and strict coil control which paid off in this difficult to detect area. Had I moved faster as part of ground scanning I would have missed them for sure. Overall, I was happy with my finds (albeit very modest) as I think this area has potential despite the challenging detecting conditions. I will definitely go back there for a more thorough and longer exploration. The landscape and general area are absolutely breathtaking! Many bad things can be said about California, but the nature is amazing and extremely divers, with the gold rich Sierra Nevada to the North and the vast gold bearing Mojave and Colorado deserts to the South, all of which are just within a 3-6 hour drive, depending on where you live. Here is the trash/gold ratio for the day Well, it doesn’t look too good for the “gold team”. But when does it ever? 😛 Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a safe, healthy, happy and prosperous new year! GC

As if that were not enough, after having to create a new straight rod for the detector that I used immersed for 20 minutes, considering the new storm that arrives, today I have chosen an even worse scourge ... I have been waiting for months to complete a decent trolley that will help me transport cylinders and dpv without sinking into the sand and today might be the day🤣. It is out of the question that I buy balloon wheels at that price and I don't like the Idea of punctures happened in the past. So I'm recreating from a scratch the trolley with a bigger contact surface hopefully good to better distribute the weight on 6 wheels. Now the big problem that separates me from finishing the structure and mounting the containment sides Is a mix of aluminium and stainless steel not properly friends when soldering. Question now Is: Will this project finally see the light?🤣 At the worst, this crap will finish with bolts😁...

Nothing scientific, it's the first test I did on the Legend so I could get familiar with a variety of targets one could encounter when detecting in the U.S. I do a quick walk thru testing Field Mode in full tones on a variety of targets to check out the Target ID aka TID and audio characteristics, as well as some of the settings of this new Equinox challenger as we get ready to take it to the field!!

This is a great little thread on the advantages/disadvantages of the varied types of detectors. I too have dug it all, but when I had the opportunity to follow large-scale placer miners around their bedrock workings (they removed 50-60 feet of overburden to get to the bedrock), workings that included uncountable bits of steel track and bucket or blade, it was no place for a detector without discrimination. Moreover, I'd have lost my mind trying to dig all of the audible targets. My little VLF's with their discrimination were outstanding! (A geologist joined me one day that had the Minelab SDC 2300, and he couldn't get out of the excavations fast enough! Hundreds of signals in every direction for him, but no advantage of discrimination.) I have also dug deep holes chasing non-gold signals from my PI's, and I'm hoping one day there will be a way for them to discriminate effectively at depth, but that seems as if it may never be. So, until the deep seeking metal detectors can conquer the seemingly impossible discrimination hurdle efficiently, I'l always pack the one-two punch of a deep seeker (for its strengths), and the light little VLF's with their amazing discrimination. All the best, Lanny

Nah you're not stealing any Legend Thunder 🙂 The only thing silenced is via the "horseshoe" setting, which was set to "C" or Custom, it disc'd out 1-12 which is iron. It's basically a programmable version of the EQX horseshoe,which has some presets plus one customizable setting. The gold gilt two piece button has a steel keeper on it which pulled it under the FE disc setting on the "C" aka Custom horseshoe setting, so it was mostly silent. The 'adult' arcade token would be representative of a similarly sized Western era brass token found in ghost tows, dump sites, old parks, etc. 😁 I agree with your assessment on the cents. No, like coins I've tested not in a stapled holder are the same TID.

Thanks for that, Cal, and I look forward to your field tests. (Good to again see some of your best coin finds. 😄) Regarding your dTID's on USA pennies, IMO the order and range of the N/M Legend values you show are consistent with the numbers I get for in-ground (moderate mineralization) performance with the M/L Equinox. (This is not intended as a performance comparison so hopefully I'm not deemed to be stealing any Legend Thunder, but just to show the numbers you were getting were of no concern for those familiar with the Eqx who might be considering getting a Legend.) These are Eqx Park 1 and Field 1 values, and let's assume a moderate depth of 3-4 inches. 95% copper Memorial cents (and clad dimes): 24-26. Wheat Cents: 19-24 (the oldest ones tend to be at the low end of this range and the more recently minted towards the higher end). Recent drop (minimally deteriorated) Zinc cents: 20-21. (These are shallower than 3"-4", more like 0"-2".) Zinc cents that have been in the ground for 2 or more decades: 17-19. Note: the less metal remaining the lower the dTID -- not surprising. Indian Head Cents: 18-21. Most of the ones I've found center around 20-21, but I may have been too selective and missed some lower dTID IHP's. Oh, I'll throw in the 'adult' arcade tokens -- those are brass and fall right in there at 22-23. Aluminum screw caps also although they can be as low as 20 when flattened. To be clear, at 4" depth individual coins typically have a tight 1 or 2 dTID spread. It's the variation over different coins, (IMO) probably due to how much the ground chemicals have affected them, that result in the wider spreads shown above. Bottom line is that the variation you showed for the Legend air tests are consistent in their ordering with my moderate depth in-field Eqx dTID's. One question for you: I didn't pay close enough attention to see how many (if any) of the dTID notches you had silenced? I was wondering if that one anomalous ring that didn't hardly give a peep may have been below that threshold.

Bill, I use Predator brand T handle Piranha as I'm over 6' tall and I like the 40" length. Been using it for approx 6 yrs and have never bent it yet. It's dug a few $$$ in treasures with the most rare was when it dug 3 Barber Quarters in 1 hole. One of them was the prize winning 1913-S which is a Key Date.

Dave, we have been over this before. So as far as I know there is absolutely no difference between being in default Beach 1 (-9 to 0 rejected) and pressing the horseshoe button to accept -9 to 0, or just doing what I do, accept all targets in Beach 1 manually from -9 to 0. Pressing the horseshoe button does not change the “mode” to something special, magical or anything else. It is just a shortcut for what I do manually. Beach 1 with the horseshoe button engaged is still Beach 1 with all metal targets accepted. Whether pressing the horseshoe button to accept all targets in Park 1, Park 2, Field 1, Field 2, Beach 1, Beach 2, Gold 1 or Gold 2 adds depth to the Equinox…….I have no clue. Will it make it possible to hit iffy, borderline non-ferrous targets that are responding as mixed non/ferrous and ferrous….definitely. Obviously it is the only way to detect really deep non ferrous targets that are totally responding as ferrous unless one runs a threshold tone with -9 to +0 rejected and listens for interruptions in the threshold. At a noisy beach that method might not work real well.

Yes I'm a big fan of the concentric coils in particular although I'm on my way back to my campsite now after a big skunk so it doesn't find me gold everytime 😊 Or is it I don't put it over gold everytime, its more likely my fault, that's prospecting for you.

Gerry, Would you consider taking these Christmas tree dwellers "in trade" for one of them French multi-frequency detectors? Willing to toss in a couple un-stockinged lumps of coal. Have a Happy New Year.

Here’s a cheaper bucket version full of decomposed granitic clay. If only there was a multi frequency detector nearby to test. No matter how fast I shake that bucket under the coil can’t get deeper than 8 inches with the old single frequency. Maybe next Christmas I’ll ship the bucket to Southern Alabama, provided the duct tape holds up.

Just sold the Garrett Apex, Tarsacci MDT 8000, Nokta Simplex+, and a spare Goldmaster 24K. Still leaves me with GPX 6000, Garrett 24K, White’s DFX, and Equinox. Deus II on order. That will do me just fine for 2022. The only thing that I’m on the lookout for is another PI to complement my GPX 6000, something a little more beach and coin/relic oriented, but what I want does not quite exist yet, so I’m not holding my breath. Looks like I’ll be settling at 5-6 detectors, with just a couple of those accounting for nearly all my detecting. Right now that would be GPX 6000 and Equinox, but maybe Deus II will change that equation. We’ll see. I’m looking forward to 2022.

At one point I owned around 12-15 detectors at the same time. The excuse was always I wanted an extra one in case a friend wanted to go detecting. I told this to my wife and there was a time I began to believe the lie as well and then I decided enough was enough and I began to thin things out to the point I got down to an 800 and a 600. I just sold the 600 and will replace it with a Deus II so I'll just have the two detectors going forward. As I get closer to retiring from the classroom and we move out of CA, I look at everything under the idea of do I really want to move this. It's amazing what you can learn to live without. I still have 4 sand scoops though. You never know when you'll need an extra scoop.

Gold catcher, I bring it up since so many folks I speak with really don't understand. Part of the 3 day training my Field Staff and I offer does talk about the importance of the VLF detectors and why. I also show a variety of gold the VLF’S can easily see, but the PIs can't detect, or do at a much lesser depth. Thanks for adding to the discussion.

Quote from Nokta Makro Facebook on December 24th regarding the Legend manual: “Just a small update. The user manual has been sent for proofreading....we know we promised to put it up and we will do that next week. Thank you all for your patience!”

Hey Chuck to me it sounds like you really want the deus 2. Life’s too short to compromise on a new detector purchase. Plus the legend looks like it’s going to perform similar to the nox, but with hopefully better build quality and reliability. The deus, however is a completely different animal and from the looks of it much better performance than the nox. I say go for it! Lol

Merry Christmas DP friends and hopefully you were blessed with a detector or detecting accessory under the tree. Just curious who all were gifted a detector, coil, scoop, research material or anything related to your nugget hunting needs? For me, I just returned from Cancun to Idaho's winter is quite shocking and white. My Christmas gift was to me, hunting the warm water tropical beaches and finding a few different kinds of gold nuggets (I'll post results once I get my phone issues corrected. Hopefully your 2020 is Golden in so many ways. A big shout out to all my customers (many who are DP readers, followers and contributors) who helped make 21 a heck of a sales year for me. Again, Merry Christmas and hopefully a Happy New Year.

At one time I was up to 10 detectors. Currently I'm down to 3 that I use consistently and 4 that I don't and will eventually sell in the Spring or use them as loaners to family members. It just gets to the point that you can't keep up with making sure all the batteries are charged and all the accessories are organized properly. The detectors I use consistently are the GPX 5000, XP Deus 1 and Equinox 800. In reserves I have a Whites XLT, Garrett Apex, Minelab eTrac and GPX 4500. The XLT is actually a good loaner for someone who has little detecting experience. I can set it up and let them go hunt without having to constantly help them with dig or don't dig signals. As for the others in reserve, I see me selling most of them in the Spring when the market for used machines gets better. Currently I have both the Legend and Deus 2 on order. One or both of those may prompt me to sell either/both of the Deus 1 and Equinox 800 since they are both out of warranty. That will of course depend on performance.

The sand is not as fluid here in the bay and can be more like layers, sand, then shells/sand, repeated several times. At the ocean a totally different story, one scoop and your fighting the walls. There are many different types of bottoms here, most are firm and some even like concrete, hard packed shells for feet.

👍Looks like yer mojo workin' to me ! That's a pretty deep hole for under water ...they cave in on ya pretty fast I'd guess ?

I also have had good success running the 7000 with hot settings and low-ish volume. As I say almost every time I post, my hunting place at the moment produces very small gold as a rule. I have had wonderful success with the new NF coil and the settings described just above. Oh, and coil control, working slowly, and staying patient. This is a fun thread - for many reasons. Good job everyone of keeping it between the lines. Happy New Year to everyone, we all deserve one. 👋

If this has already been posted.....SORRY. This test shows a couple of things that I can see and hear. The Deus 2 handles EMI fairly well. The Equinox does not handle high EMI nearly as well and that is coming from someone who likes the Equinox way more than the original Deus 1. The Deus 2 Beach modes with factory default turn on and go settings are setup much better for the serious user than the Equinox Beach modes. Many Equinox Beach mode users that are after deeper targets use only 1 or 2 tones with every target accepted. I like two tones best too and am looking for any possible ferrous/non ferrous identification insights from the target responses. On deeper targets the responses may be half and half (or worse towards iron) ferrous/non ferrous. So rejecting the iron range by factory default kills many of the deep target responses on gold and even silver jewelry. However, opening up the full target ID range on the Equinox just makes EMI handling worse and actual in the ground target responses harder to hear. This has happened to me too often at beach sites. No choice but to turn the sensitivity down and there goes at least 3" of overall depth. Opening up the target ID range also brings all of the shallower beach iron targets into play. Can't have that if one is a beginner or casual detector user. This also shows how much more effective version 3 and later Deus 1 and now Deus 2's iron response handling capabilities really are and how much tweaking is needed to get the Equinox to handle iron responses more effectively. The Deus 2 default programs (and the Deus 1 programs that I often use) have been well thought out as far as settings chosen and perform extremely well even on tough targets just using turn on and go. As shown in Calabash's recent comparison videos the Equinox almost seems to be handicapped by many of its default settings as if Minelab was trying to satisfy hobby or more casual users and "keep them out of trouble' with the default settings. Those default settings are too safe and don't let the Equinox really "show off" in my opinion. The Deus 2 is one amazing detector and is geared towards the serious hobbyist, expert or professional for sure as was Deus 1.

Thanks VL! Sadly although this area contributed much to the Civil war, relics from that period are scarce at best. Everyone who fought went elsewhere. Offhand I can think of only 4 I've found over the past year. 😵 Most relics are either Colonial or 18/1900s civilian stuff. I expect to find a lot more Colonial artifacts here. And beer cans and pull tabs and buckshot. 😁 Last night I identified another house location on a 1917 USGS map in this permission that was gone by the 40s. The greater likelihood might be relics from the War of 1812, the British invaded this peninsula for a short time and looted and burned some farms. I'm close to the landing site. You are right about the pond, the place I took the picture is a dam. One side is water and the other drops off about 60 feet. I have no idea why the dam was built, I'll have to ask the landowner -they have a small dock there. The whole thing looks new according to the aerials from the 60s. It's possible the dam was built just to get a pond or for conservation, there is evidence of Beavers in the area.

Such audio ear training aids do exist but mainly for detectors that are audio only such as the Excalibur and GPX. They are less common for induction balance detectors that have audio and a visual target ID display. Your best bet to train your ear is to simply use live targets of both common junk and desired treasure either buried in a test garden or scattered on the ground. If using scattered surface targets, you can add some realism and guesswork to the ear training by attaching the targets to pieces of cardboard (so you can invert the cardboard and not be biased by your visual of the target). This method also helps you practice pinpointing and coil control techniques by mixing it up and not attaching the target dead center on the cardboard and allows you to dynamically set up potential mixed target masking situations by overlapping the various target boards. You can further mix it up by using wood blocks or styrofoam/memory foam structures to vary the target height in relation to the coil and in relation to each other to emulate in ground target depth differences. Let your imagination run wild. By practicing in this manner you train more than just your ear, you can also practice your swing and coil control technique, pinpointing skills, integrate the target audio with your visual target ID display, and better train your ear/brain "muscle memory" because you are practicing in an environment that most closely replicates your actual field conditions. At the end of the day, however, the best traing aid is getting actual field experience gained by accumulating swing hours with your machine under real world detecting situations. HTH

I owned a 4500 for a few years, then got a shoulder injury and had to go back to a lighter VLF machine....first a GB2, then a 24K. After surgery and healing, I decided to mod my 4500 and wow!...what a difference. Ive now found 3x as much gold as I did before it was modded. Since using it again last Sept, my 4500 has found me 721 bits of gold weighing over 5.6oz. No way in a million years would I bother with an unmodded 4000 now. My next step up is a 6000 though 😏

Golden Grams of Goodness: Part 1 November is not usually a time of year that I get to chase the gold, as by the time November rolls around the ground usually requires some dynamite or some equally powerful force to break through the frost to get to the gold. However, this year has been a year of exceptions. In September, we had early snow and frost with well below seasonal temperatures that carried into October, and that doesn't happen very often as usually the weather is rather mild. However, after the early blast of Arctic bad temper, the weather shook itself out until the first week of November with temperatures soaring above average, so this allowed the chance to engage in some gold sleuthing when normally I'd be reduced to only dreaming of chasing the gold. I have two sons, and the eldest loves to chase the gold, while the other will chase the gold given the opportunity, but he doesn't have the same level of passion. Me eldest was with me on this trip, and he was with me on our epic gold adventure when we truly slew an army of nuggets early in the summer (I have yet to post that story), so he was eager to have a chance to hone his detecting and sniping skills. The area we dropped into to work was full of bedrock pinnacles. These pinnacles were formed of an iron-hard bedrock, so hard that the big equipment had negligible effect. In fact, smoke was pouring off the bucket teeth and blades of the excavators as they tried to outmuscle the mother rock. As a result, there was a section of ground about the size of two school buses parked side-by-side, but slightly longer. Looking down into the excavation, there were three pools of standing water as well as a small stream of clear seepage water running diagonally across the northern, more elevated end of the bedrock. The southern end was where the largest pool of water was, and the eastern side of the excavation had a culvert that was collecting the water from the stream to then divert it through a long series of interconnected culverts to a sump where a six-inch diesel-powered pump was working night and day to keep that sump cleared. Over the entire area of exposed bedrock, there were many buried, small gutters with high, then lower humps, and throughout the area, there were those dark pinnacles of super-hard bedrock, some of them rising up almost four feet, resulting in an area that could not be cleaned out properly by the modern miners with their big equipment. The area was perfect for detector and sniping work, making it a perfect area for us to tackle. To be continued . . . All the best, Lanny

Well as we're getting flooded by video's of Deus Deux VS "All contenders" and to chase away the overindulgence of Christmas. I sold the Equinox and the CTX. What have I done??? Anyways, a few batteries less to keep charged and the much needed space in my brain feels liberating. When Two-sy arrives I get to put all my efforts in understanding this new kid. And it keeps me from thinking "The XXXX could have found this also,... The XXXX would have sounded different,... etc etc. Tommorow I get to break out the old X-terra 705 with the elliptical for a relic hunt. Single frequency rules guys !!!!

Good to see & hear it. I'm looking forward to some field work. Thanks,

Thx that was a great demonstration and it has enhanced my appreciation of what tone breaks can do. Very interesting and I will be testing this out in the UK. I feel I will find more hammered coins in soft plough and mineralised ground using a minus 1 tone break.

Thanks for the post Gold Catcher, it's good to see you doing prospecting trip posts, nice photos too. That sounds like terrain well suited to a GPX 4500/5000 with a DD coil, that's something missing out of your excellent range of detectors, how does the SDC handle the crazy hot rocks in that area? Your junk/pellet vs gold ratio is great, I wish that was my ratio on the average day prospecting 🙂

George I know myself I too have trouble eating humble pie but it’s just something one has to do when living with mortals. The best to Legend from Lightning .