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A few weeks back forum member and friend abenson posted the results of an amazing hunt he had in Virginia at the latest week long "Diggin' in Virginia" organized group relic hunt. DIV is the gold standard of group hunts, a well organized, well oiled machine that enables folks regardless of equipment, skill, or experience to have access to sites in and around Culpeper, Virginia known to have Civil War activity through battle or long-term winter encampment. The CW history around Culpeper is immense. Several major engagements were fought within a 50 mile radius of the town including the Battle of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, the Battle of the Wilderness, and the battles of Cedar Mountain and the Battle of Brandy Station (the largest Cavalry engagement of the Civil War), the latter two being fought on Culpeper County land, and many other major and minor skirmishes. In addition, Culpeper was a popular site for winter encampments for both Armies. The result is simply a high density of CW related relics remaining in the ground on the various, numerous private farm properties in the area. DIV contracts with landowners to give the DIV participants access to the land to search for these coveted relics. The main catch is that relic hunting has been going on for multiple decades and although advances in technology and technique have enabled relic hunters to get access to deeply buried relics, those relics are disappearing and not being replenished. Those "surface finds" are actually pretty deep on average and the to complicate matters further, the soil is extremely mineralized due to the local geology which also happens to be home to some fairly significant natural gold deposits. Finally, several organized hunts and individual relic detectorists have repeatedly pounded the major "hot spot" sites. That doesn't mean the sites are devoid of relics but it does mean a little bit of research, detective work, and luck go a long way to getting you into an area of high relic concentration. Anyway, this DIV was number "50". No, it hasn't been held for 50 years, there have been 50+ organized DIV events held since around 2004. This event featured 4 separate sites that participants could visit as they pleased over a period of 5 days. If you read Andy's post that I linked above, you can see that he had a pretty good hunt, he had a plan, stuck to it, focused on one specific area, and was rewarded, indeed, with the find of a lifetime, a CS tongue. Part of a two-piece Confederate buckle (see pic below). This is my DIV 50 story. We started at a "new site" that was not hunted by DIV previously. As you might imagine, it was highly popular on day 1. Me and my two buds hit the site for awhile came up with a few bullets and not much else and then decided to hit another site where we previously had some luck. There too, the finds were few and far between but we were not skunked. We decided to hit a different site on day 2 where we had also had some previous luck with very little success. Lead is great but we were really craving brass. We visited a fourth site on day 3. This site was a site we previously had sworn off based on previous poor luck and you can now see how desperate our crew was becoming. We found a couple more CW bullets there and then proceeded to go back to a different section of the site we visited on Day 2. On the way there we noticed that a field that had been previously occupied with a fresh crop of soybeans had just been harvested that day. As far as that DIV is concerned, that would be considered virgin hunting ground and we were going to be one of the first crews exploiting it. We hit the field spread out and started surveying it for possible hot spots. I found a couple of tiny brass percussion caps and some non-descript brass, but it was starting to look like another wild goose chase. I hit another strong signal, that sounded good in the GPX headphones, nice high tone that did not break and started digging. As I remove more and more dirt and rechecked the hole the signal remained loud and clear and unbreaking (I was using a moderate iron reject setting). Finally, I located the target but to my dismay it was in the side wall of the hole. Not a good sign. That typically happens with ferrous targets because they tend to pinpoint off-center. I pursued it anyway and a beautiful green, brass something fell out of the sidewall and into the bottom of the hole. It was a heavy brass object that resembled a section of wreath. I knew what I just dug and I was simultaneously filled with feelings of joy and disappointment. I too had recovered part of a two piece tongue and wreath Confederate Army buckle. Andy had recovered his "find of a lifetime" CS tongue. I recovered part of the wreath that encircles the tongue when the two-piece buckle is fastened together. But unfortunately, under circumstances unknown (perhaps under the plow, perhaps in battle) it was only a broken off partial section of the Wreath and not fully intact. Hey a partial wreath is better than no wreath, and believe me I opened up that hole and also super searched the entire vicinity for an intact tongue or any other matching fragments to the partial wreath, but was unsuccessful. Similar feelings occur when you recover military two-piece button backs with the faces missing. On one hand you know what you got and you are happy to have recovered some brass, but he feeling is bittersweet knowing what might have been if the button (buckle) was recovered intact. That day and the next day I recovered five button backs. Ha. But the good news is that I also recovered 5 intact Eagle buttons including an Eagle "I" coat button that still had some gilt. A pretty good DIV haul for me and the rest of the crew as that field contained a number of brass button, minie ball, and brass relic hot spots. We also dodged the tractor a few times and it even forced me to abandon a sweet signal as it "ran over" my target. I let the tractor pass, reacquired the target and pulled a nice Eagle button. Anyway enjoy the pics of my finds from DIV 50. I managed to recover a relic from each site, just missed a spectacular find, and kidded Andy by saying that I found the part of the wreath for his CS Tongue that he was unable to recover....

I've been playing catch up with detecting ever since the rotten lyme got me. So I've been running hard and hitting some new spots and a fair amount of my old ones. The weather a day before new years decided to rain like cats and dogs. I was feeling like I was going to miss out on some silver if I didn't get out soon. ( I always feel like some of my good spots are going to turn into a housing development or soccer field). I guess my wife could feel my anxiety and said why don't you go out for a little bit. She said go enjoy your time off and gave me a smooch and wished me good luck. Well I headed out to the Park of plenty with an hour to play with, and a plan to focus on a small spot that has produced coins from the 40's/50's and some from the early 1900's. Tesoro silver U-max in hand with the new 10x12 concentric, I raced to the park. I started finding some wheaties right off the bat, mostly from the 40's. Time was closing in and I decided to hunt a break area where I have found some older silvers. I ran my disc 1/2 way between zinc and max to try and punch out some of the coppers. Nothing good was showing up and I only had a few short minutes before I had to go home. Walking back to the truck I saw piece of asphalt in the ground and gave a swing by it, Boom I got a loud signal and thought at first it was a smooshed can. I then realized my switch was on all metal (oops) back to disc. I still got a big sound and started to dig. At 9'' I was doubting anything good but being my last target to dig for the day I said lets see what it is. I gave a good push on (kac's) digger and pushed hard and out popped what I thought was an aluminum token until I saw the stars. At 11'' the 1902 Barber 1/2 dollar showed it's wonderful design. This is the second of 2021 and a perfect ending to a crazy year. This is the best 49 minute hunt I ever had.

It's become a tradition of mine to write up a year-end summary of my detecting experience, and since most of my detecting is for coins and relics I keep it in this subforum. My plan for this past year was to experience some new detecting types (via longish trips) and find some new local sites to coin hunt. Thanks to Monte and Oregon Gregg I was welcomed to their June Ghost Town hunt in NE Nevada where I met about 20 like-minded, ambitious, and friendly detectorists. Besides co-organizer Gregg (unfortunately Monte was unable to attend), Utah Rich and Tom Slick were among the attendees who are members and posters here. My 6 days produced minimal coin finds but some decent relics. Next to the camaraderie I most enjoyed learning about a new kind of detecting in a site, soil, and intended target combination I had never previously experienced. In addition to that part of the trip I also spent some time in the Denver area, getting to hunt with the local Eureka club and particularly valuable -- meeting Jeff McClendon and picking his brain on the operation of the QED. Also on this trip I spent a couple days on a National Forest GPAA claim 8-9000 ft. up in NW Colorado. Unfortunately I came up empty handed (as far as gold) but learned quite a bit about site reading *and* how to deal with remote, rugged mountain roads and terrain. In August I headed East to NW Massachusetts on a 'blind date' (not literally, but was generously well taken care of by the land owners who I had never met) detect of an 18th Century homestead. Even dealing with hurricane Henri I was still able to get in several hours of detecting, finding my first USA Large Cent -- oldest coin to date -- 1803. I'll be writing up more on that in a couple days. On the way home I accepted an invitation by member dogodog to detect one of his old coin sites. Even though the heat and humidity was up there we still got in four productive hours with silver finds (mine a Merc and he did even better -- two silvers and a gold ring) along with lots of converstation/discussion. Just another perk of belonging here with such friendly, generous, and accomodating members. The other 10 1/2 months of detecting were done locally. (No photos in this post as I've shown many of those finds previously.) I did accomplish one of my 2021 New Years Resolutions of finding new sites. Eight of the 16 local sites I detected this year were ones I had never hunted. Another writeup I'll be posting shortly focuses in on one of those (muni park) and why I think it might have been previously unsearched. Now for some what I consider *key* statistics of these local hunts: 266 hrs of swinging at local sites, 104 Wheat pennies -- new record for one calendar year, 36 'other old coins' (silver content coins, Buffalo and earlier nickels, Indian Head Pennies) -- second to last year's record of 43, One interesting contrast between last year (where most of my detecting was done in a single, large park) and this year in regards to specifically silver coin finds -- 22 in 2021 vs. 27 in 2022, and more disparate are silver dimes -- 11 vs. 20. Magnifying the silver dime arena, I found 11 Roosies this year compared to 3 last year and 4 in all previous years. (OK, for those of you who stuck around, here's your eye-candy fix -- my 27 silver finds of the year: ) My goals this year include another trip West (ghost-towning and gold prospecting), another trip to that Massachusetts Colonial site, and locally getting enough guts to ask for permissions to private properties. I know of one that (if undetected) is going to be a real 'silver mine' but I need to 'practice' my people skills first so that one may have to wait for 2023.

I'm not sure how I rated this, I don't have a Youtube channel and don't make videos, in fact I'm a relative noob with less than 2 years on the Nox, but Steve was nice enough to send me a protoype of his new S-Shaft for the Equinox to beta test. I must say it's pretty nice. It weighs in 1 ounce lighter than the bare stock shaft without coil, cuff, and control pod installed. So far I've tested it with the 6" and 10x5" coils and it feels really nice and responsive, but I'm not doing a full review until testing is done. I still have to run the 11" and 12x15" coils. He said I could post a photo so here ya go. I was doing a 5 hour test today when some college-age youngsters were sledding nearby and one of them came up to me and told me her friend had lost his ring in the snow and asked me if I could help find it. So the field test turned into a rescue mission.

Beach hunt # 16 is in the books. As much as I wanted to hunt my favorite beaches, I had to go somewhere else. So, I hit a beach where last time the GPX was acting up with the 12.5” coil, so I opted for the 11DD. This is a beach where the deep copper cents reign and it was no different this time around. No using a shovel here as the water fills in after about 12”, so I spent the day using the XTreme scoop. I got to say that scoop with the carbon fiber handle is unstoppable in the wet sand. The targets were all very deep, ranging mostly from 14 -20”. It took me a while to pinpoint them, but it was worth the time. A proper pinpoint in the wet sand at those depths is crucial for recovering the targets. Off by a couple of inches and you are digging a wider hole than you need to, and it will collapse in on you. No fun. 🙄 I hunted for 5 hours and this time I had no visitors as it was hovering around 30 degrees for the day. Once I found the area that I could reach the coins, I started pulling coin after coin. The Wheat to Memorial to Zinc cent ratio was awesome. Only 3 Zincs to keep me honest. Once the Wheats started to pop up, so did the silver dimes. One coin was kind of odd and turned out to be a 1920 UK Sixpence – silver I believe. The last hole I dug before going home played a bad joke on me, as I thought I just popped out a silver half dollar. Turns out it was the biggest hem weight I’ve ever found. 😄 I had to laugh so as not to cry!! Great day at the beach with not a lot of trash, and all the solitude I was looking for. It was nice to dig deep coins again.

I’m thinking doing a little diving myself and Calabash this new setup you may want to look into it for yourself. Low cost low maintenance but lots of reward. Chuck

Excellent review of the XP ORX Gold modes for gold prospecting by Kevin Hoagland from Gold Prospector Magazine. If this is breaking copyright Steve, feel free to take it down. I do have a subscription. This is a great tutorial by a master user for anyone who is thinking of buying an ORX while they are super inexpensive during the pre Deus 2 release sell-off or anyone buying a Deus 2 for prospecting use. The menu and settings according to Gary Blackwell are the same........ Maybe, except for the one setting that is still unanswered which is: FMF may be the only frequency setting option. If it is, the Deus 2 will be easier to setup than the ORX since you don't have to choose an operating frequency or offsets.

Got a permission yesterday from a friend, so I went right away since the ground is going to freeze shortly. The property has one of the newest houses for about 2 blocks. Most of the others are mid and late 1700s. This place is about 1850. A bunch of wheaties, a cool marble, and a whatsit. Then this thing pops out. Was only maybe 6 inches down, not much deeper than the wheats. Only my second 2 Cent dug, but wowsa! Pretty astounding high grade when it went into the ground, for sure. EMI was pretty bad as it is in town on a corner surrounded with power lines. I could only run sensitivity at 19 or 20, and 2/3 of the time I ran in disc mode to keep from going crazy. Last item of the day was a huge aluminum store token from a place about 10 to 15 miles away from the dig site, just to give me a heart attack, seeing that large silver looking disc. I will get it cleaned up later if possible, but it is pretty crusty, so we will see. When I get it completely cleaned up I will post another picture, but couldn't wait. Happy huntin..

I don't know how I missed these two excellent videos showing how the GM 24k and ORX handle iron mineralization/magnetite. Did you try the same with the GM 24k in one tone with iron reject engaged and not engaged and with the ORX in either of its Coin modes? I have continued to do a lot of testing with the GM 24k, Equinox 800 and ORX. GM 24K and the Equinox 800 have some very advanced features and tech that are lacking on the ORX........ For me, the GM 24k is a super fancy MXT running at 48 kHz. For a person that wants most of all an outstanding gold prospecting detector with maybe some micro jewelry hunting and incidental coin/relic hunting, the GM 24K is really hard to beat. I would have a very hard time recommending the ORX instead of the GM 24K unless someone really needed the great ergonomics of the ORX most of all.

kac -- yep, the plan is to offer these for some other units, where the control box attaches to the shaft; the first one I'll be producing it for is the Garrett AT and ACE series (but will have those field-tested as well, prior to production). I'm not sure if I'll include a rubber grip, or not. It's actually pretty comfortable without, and may just allow those who wish to use a "wrap," to do so; others may not want to as I feel it fits your hand nicely, as is. Not sure yet... Stee

While still under a NDA…

It's been a while since I posted some finds. It has been a productive fall relic season for me, so that isn't the reason. Perhaps too much focus on the new machines that are about to make a splash in the detecting community and other distractions big and small. Anyway - on Friday Bob (F350Platinum) again graciously let me invite myself down his way again for some last minute 2021 detecting at a new permission he has been surveying. He wrote about it here. I got a late start so Bob had already had a chance to snag some finds in another part of the farm. After Bob kept me from driving my SUV into the local pond and then a short chat with the landowner, we were off swinging. We moved into the direction of the farmhouse, reckoning that the Colonial finds would concentrate towards the house. We crossed a couple of promising spots that were giving up telltale older relics (buttons, brass buckles) but they dried up as we crossed into a greener, muddier portion of the field. So we circled back the the "hot" spots and focused in those areas. Was swinging the Nox with the 11" coil, which was a change up from my recent hunts sticking with the Nox 5x10 that I have really bonded with. Anyway, was looking for a little more coverage and depth and with the targets few and far between. After recovering a few buttons and a nice D Buckle and a some modern trash (shotgun shells, can slaw), I got a nice solid, borderline 20/21 hit. Thinking IHP or some heavy brass, I flipped the plug, and the pinpointer zeroed in on a non-descript small, dark, flat, oval-shaped target. Perhaps a medal or pendant of some sort. Definitely, not a coin, so I thought. As I cleaned it off, it started to look like silver. Ok, cool a silver pendant/medal. I flipped it over, saw the off-center Jerusalem Cross, and immediately realized I had just dug my first Spanish Cob. 1/2 Reale weight. Bob and I researched and it appears to be a Mexico City Cob minted during the reign of King Charles II 1663-1699. My first Cob about 30 miles south of where Bob fount his first Cob when we last hunted together. Some nice colonial buttons and other odds and ends (including 2 unidentifiable copper or brass disks that are not old coppers or tokens) from the 12/31 hunt and our previous get together a few weeks ago. Thanks for letting me enjoy a little of your detecting paradise, Bob. See you again in 2022. I think more great finds in store as you've just scratched the surface on your new sites. Happy New Year Everyone!

Old detectors good for the young and the restless. Deus 11 good for old goats that’s too old too fat and also good for the young restless ones too. I knew I should put one on my Christmas list but now I’ve got to wait until May for my birthday . I’m going to be 40 times 2 + 1. I just can’t bring myself to say it. You know it’s bad when your older than dirt. Chuck

Hello all !! My name is Tony. Been in this great hobby of metal detecting since 1976. Love hunting old coins, tokens, jewelry!!! Currently using a CZ5 and an XP ORX .

What we call the Panhandle now a days, or the Golden Spread. You know the western skies, the wide open spaces, the be there by morning destination. I was a meager lurker now i am a meager member. Very informative forum. Howdy.

I was backpacking with a friend last spring to some hidden dunes in Death Valley NP and stumbled across some odd things there. Obviously not metal detecting, but there were interesting things to be found lying on the surface of the sands! It began with finding what I romantically named, Dune Glass, which was probably just flintknap chippings from natives way back in the day. That was the biggest piece. From there I spotted something really interesting which I thought would be a huge piece of Dune Glass. But it turned out to be something even more odd! A .50 cal slug, resting contentedly on the sand! But aside from these interesting finds, I take you to this strange piece that I picked up and brought home in order to clean up what seemed like trash. Found in the area of 37.14981, -117.84051. But I can’t figure out what it might be. Reminds me of an ant trap, but the hole seems way to small, and what a weird place to find it. Also it looks to be sealed in the mesh by hand with staples. I think I should open it up, but I just wanted to see if anyone here might have a clue as to what it is. I’m optimistic that it contains at least a gram of gold 😂 I know they’re not metal detecting finds, but since I’m a detector prospector, I figured I could share here! And if you haven’t visited Eureka Dunes, it’s amazing and worthwhile.

Hola a todos, devuelta a este foro, leyendo todos los comentarios referente a los multifrecuencia, solo práctico buceo y busco joyería, he llevado durante 5 años cz21 y whites beach Hunter (recomendación de Steve) ambos me dan muy buenos resultados en agua salada, en una semana me llegará el deus 2, con kit de buceo y plato de 11', lo sometere directamente al agua salada ya que aquí en Europa es temporada de tormentas, prometo dar un análisis muy sincero referente al agua salada, aclarar que lo he pagado íntegramente, no tengo la presión de ninguna marca de detectores, mi compañero lleva nox800 y da muy buenos resultados, les informaré cuando lo tenga en mis manos con los test correspondientes bajo el agua Un saludo

The last few detector releases from Minelab were all foreshadowed in the corporate annual reports, and so far nothing on that count. I’d not be holding my breath.

Etrac will be the most sensitive to high conductors of the * Dime type on channel 2-3 ,, ,, the most sensitive to small things on channel 10 ,, and an excellent universal reach will be on the channels on various conductors will be on channel 8 ... However, an important feature of Etrac is the use of good settings and a larger reel .. I have 13 "Ultimate" colleague I have 11 "..and of our comparisons 13" is deeper .. Settings ...Ground to neutral .... in lighter terrain it is deeper ...

Put them up for sale. Get al least a bit of your hard earned back before public opinion says they are extinct. Still have the blunt instrument on a stick “Excal”,... not a single bid in my area. CTX and the Nox are gone. Collected the Deus Deux 9” from the dealer yesterday. He wouldn’t even smirk at my Excal. Put in a FIRM order for that to be released 13x11” coil. Anyway,... enough with the reading and watching Deus 2 posts and videos. I’m hitting dirt and sand first chance I get. Let’s put some wear and tear on this thing.

It was good seeing Hugh, you definitely found more buttons than I did. Glad you wrote up this great report. Brought back memories of DIV 50 even though it was just a short time ago.

As a... in the water hunter like you Dew, I'm waiting........ Once A few hundred machines get out there.... with some time passing I think a lot of questions will be answered. These video's of now...... are just a taste of what the Deus ll will encounter. Looks like a very solid hitter. I see one at the beach... I for sure will be grabbing the poor guy and asking to compare. Heck .. You have Cliff.. we will be waiting for that input!

Correct, no notching in the Gold/Goldfield modes but nothing says you are limited solely to using the Goldfield modes for prospecting. Even though not truly all metal you can still use the mono mode at 45 khz high frequency or any of the high frequency weighted FMF modes such as Sensitive, Sensitive FT (full tones) or Fast with minimal disc dialed in for prospecting while utilizing the ability to notch out hot rocks, if necessary. But like Jeff and Andy have mentioned previously, hot rocks do give a distinctive "delayed, hollow" audio tone that is fairly easy to pick up on once you have your ears "calibrated" for the day (dig a couple at the start and then your muscle memory will kick in). Just wanted to make a small correction here. Unlike Deus 1 where each of the programs is really just default setting variants and are somewhat interchangeable (except that the pseudo AM Goldfield program which is distinct from the "discrimination" programs). Deus 2 is set up a little differently. Each of the programs is indeed unique in the sense that the FMF profile for each program is "fixed". From what I can tell, and someone who is presently using the machine like Calabash can confirm this, you cannot operate the FMF programs in single selectable frequency (this includes the Goldfield and Relic). Mono is the only program available that allows you to operate in single frequency mode and it is dedicated for that purpose. So I believe the statement above "Deus 2 GoldField is FMF or selectable single frequency" is incorrect. It is only FMF and Goldfield flavored FMF which is described in the manual as follows: Prg. 8 - GOLD FIELD FMF • Max. freq. 40khz • Frequency addition. That's it. No single frequency. RELIC mode is similar only the Max. freq. is 24khz • Frequency subtraction. I agree the lack of the small coil is problematic, but I also understand better now why the elliptical is not really compatible with Deus 2. Being a single frequency coil, it could not be utilized in the Goldfield mode which is FMF only on Deus 2. I sure hope XP comes out with an FMF/Deus 2 compatible variant of the small elliptical coil. Since single frequency in is not available in the FMF modes it is hard to say at this point whether the FMF max frequency of 40 khz holds back Deus 2 compared to what you can do with Deus 1 and Orx and the HF coils that can be operated in the 53 to 80 khz range. Really good information from Jeff here but a super minor detailed correction here - "iron reject" or in XP terminology "Iron Audio Reject" or IAR is not just "on or off" in Gold Mode (Orx)/Gold Field Mode (Deus 1 and 2)/Relic Mode (Deus 2 only), but has a 5-level range of adjustable rejection (0 - 5, with a "0" being the setting for IAR off). Not the same as discrimination, IAR chops what it considers ferrous audio from the VCO audio signal resulting in choppy audio or blanking, depending on the strength of rejection selected, if Deus "thinks" there is ferrous content in the target. IAR really gets fooled by magnetite in mineralized ground and makes every target signal sound like crap, so its use is worthless under those conditions. HTH

I'm outta likes for today, being snowed in sucks. 😵 Just sitting around liking stuff, and trying to think of something interesting to post. 🤣 Ya hadda show the Roosevelts, huh. 😁 Dunno what I'm doing wrong, all I ever get are mercs. 🤨 I've got one Walker Half, 3 Washington quarters, one seated dime, a Trime and a half, and 8 pieces of Spanish silver. Not bad for a first year I guess. Heck I didn't even get silver out of the river, it's supposed to be the easiest. I have got gold and silver rings from the beach and campgrounds tho. Keeping my wife happy, yours is a saint too. 👍 I guess we all have something that is elusive.

Welcome 91, Glad your not a lurker anymore. Don't be leery of posting we take the good, the bad and the ugly. Posting bad days and good days help us all become better detectors. I have an MK and my top coil choice is the 9'' concentric. It's a great overall coil. Glad you joined up!!! looking forward to your input.

Hot rocks on these XPs are definitely easy to hear and identify by audio if they are big enough. However, you will hear all of them clearly. I am hoping that Deus 2’s FMF might at least unmask small gold targets better than Deus 1 and ORX single frequency.

I can’t speak for the Deus 2 Gold Field program vs the Goldmonster 1000. I can speak for the Deus 1 and ORX vs Goldmonster 1000. Just remember currently there are four big differences at least on paper between the Deus 2 Gold Field program and the Deus 1/Orx Gold programs. Two are big positive differences in my opinion which are Deus 2 GoldField is FMF or selectable single frequency and Deus 1/ORX is just single frequency. Deus 2 also has a choice of PWM VCO or Square Wave VCO audio. One big negative is the lack of a small elliptical coil for Deus 2. Deus 1 and ORX have the 9.5X5” elliptical. The other somewhat negative is Deus 2 highest single frequency is roughly 45 kHz. Deus 1 and ORX highest single frequency is 81 kHz. Compared to the Goldmonster 1000 vs Deus 1/ORX, Goldmonster 1000 is fully automated with the iron probability screen and iron reject and sensitivity adjustments along with 2 great coils. Deus 1 and ORX in Gold modes are basically threshold based all metal modes on steroids with ground grab ground balancing, iron reject on or off, iron audio on or off, VCO 1 tone audio, reactivity/recovery speed adjustments, threshold volume adjustments, 0 to 99 target ID, iron probability graph, mineralization graph, depth graph, pinpoint, internal rechargeable batteries and wireless audio. As far as performance in hot ground, adjustability to handle hot ground and overall features AND incredible ergonomics…….I would pick the Deus 1/ORX and Deus 2. As far as ease of setup and automation in more moderate ground, Goldmonster 1000. Sensitivity to small gold is similar…we are talking 1/2” difference or less depending on ground conditions and if one is using the HF 9.5X5” elliptical coil with Disc. IAR OFF. If Deus 2’s FMF simultaneous multi frequency really can pretty much make the ground be fairly easy to see through in hot iron mineralization much like only the Equinox 800 can currently down to about 6”……….that would be a huge plus for Deus 2 compared to any detector currently made which is what makes the Equinox 800 such a good gold prospecting detector. XP claims in their Deus 2 manual that it will see through bad ground. No proof for me yet. We will see, just like we will see how the Legend performs in similar conditions.

That’s the nicest 2 cent piece I’ve ever seen! Congrats!

Thanks. Sorry about paying the weatherman to shift the snow down your way 🤭 I'm sure you can pay him to shift the next storm over us. I did get the wind though, you could see the flag waving fairly stiff. probably @ 15 MPH at times. One thing about finding coins deep in saturated salt water is they wipe clean rather easily. I just rub them with the gloves and whatever sand is on them, and they come clean. Works on copper and nickle and clad. Doesn't work on zincs or silver. When the ocean pulls all the light stuff away, you get a better ratio of good targets vs bad targets. It also lets the GPX discriminate out some of the iron better. I still get fooled from the broken pieces of lobster traps though. If the tides go low enough to get to that level, I'll see if the trend continues this Thursday.

I'm snowed in for the next couple of days and have other stuff to do. While I'm bored to death I thought I'd show how easy it is once you have a permission to locate buildings using Historic Aerials - I hope they never charge for this or go offline. I used an area that is not one of mine, sorry. 😁 Let's say you have permission to hunt an old farm. You go to the website http://www.historicaerials.com, click or tap on "View images". If you have a GPS-enabled device, you can accept the website using your location. Next, locate the farm you have permission to by moving the base map around, and then click or tap the Topos button, it will bring up a list of all topographic maps for that area. I selected the 1916 map for this farm in the center. Next you tap overlays and select roads, which will superimpose the basemap roads on the topo, a great tool if the roads have moved or changed. It isn't perfectly accurate most times, but it's pretty good. Next click the Topos button again, this is where I will pick a late one to see if buildings have been added or deleted, I switch back and forth. After the 1980s they stopped putting squares where houses were, so there's that. 😵 This is the 1966 topo of the same area, you can look around and switch back and forth to see if anything changed. Once you have a pretty good idea of where the buildings or areas you want are, you can bring up the latest satellite map of the area, which you can use to match features on an app like OnX Hunt. I make marks of all the buildings, and specific features in the app. It makes it much easier to find stuff! You can walk right to them and track your hunting. OnX Hunt will show property lines, owner information, and topographic info if you pay the ransom for your state. Hope you find this interesting if you've never heard of it. 🙂

Good on you Cap'n for turning a demo into a save. 👍 That S looks like a winner! I'm fine with my straight SteveG camo shaft, I have the counterweight frammis too if I ever get my hands on one of those big heavy coils. 😀 Of course he might change my mind if he did it in Realtree! 🤣 Seems to me Steve made a good choice. Looking forward to your future exploits, you lucky so and so. 😁 I'm also impressed with the grip tape. I used some ACU tape at first but with all the sand and mud here it got nasty fast. Then I got a hand stop, problem solved.

It's silicone grip wrap tape I found on Amazon. It sticks to itself, not the control handle, so it will come off clean if you have to remove it. I've had it on there since last Summer and really like it. Silicone Grip Tape

I use the Anfibio, the Multikruzer and the Simplex. I like the Anfibio best due to the tone volume control, but the MK and Simplex have found silver for me. I wish i had started detecting some 40 years ago when offered the opportunity by a friends dad. There are no easy sites available on my to do list. I did get very lucky with the Anfibio pretty darn quick but that site is 7 hours away and has been stingy since i just happened to put my coil in the right place, under a dig everything approach. My silver count for 2021 was 7 coins, but hey i got on the board for 2022 with a little piece of gold jewelry today. My goals for 2022? 50 pieces of silver, 5 old west relics, and a gold ring. I feel self conscious about posting pics and a little bit leery of it.

They do their best to match stuff up, but topos changed over the years in measurements. OnX Hunt is great, but only as good as the data the counties provide. I have one place where we had to ask where the real property line was, then the other farmer came along and gave us permission to his land! 😀 "They" say location is everything. With this you can find what parts of a location have more potential, scouting is a big help too. Sometimes I hit iron in places I didn't expect it, and mark that area in OnX for future reference. The building "squares" are the big point here, as you go through the years some disappear. I found an old location or two no one knew about and they were quite productive.

I bought a atx earlier this yr and not only did it fail to hit the targets that where there it hurt my shoulder bad... I sold it and bought a sdc. It's not that heavie and I use a docs harness and I can swing it fr hours with out any issues, I also use the coiltek 11in G.extream coil and in one month I pulled 4oz out of the same ground the atx found one 1/2gram piece in a couple months on that hill.... I'm just a gold seeker not a dealer or a expert but the proof is in the pooding...the coiltek did way better then the stock coil.

Today I´m preparing for tomorrow dive in my usual and devastated gulf spot... After the shaft accident with the new toy the last week, Ive been captured by a stupid doubt... What about the use of a single frequency on the Ctx ? I know, this thing isn´t possible due to the kind of machine with an FBS range continuously at work, but somewhere I found a text related to the noise cancel channel and the different frequency in use... So In these years, I think the succesful use of a frequency among 15 and 20 Khz in salty environment it is not a secret anymore but what about this particular machine stated at 1 to 100Khz? So tomorrow morning I want to try all of the 11 channels and manual settings for sensitivity and noise cancel, adding the ground/coin separation that for sure is the more stable giving a less jumpy target ID... Feel free to laugh at this post but I feel like a child again...

Nice haul, GB! Hope 2022 brings you much detecting joy!

Not trying to cause steveg to miss any sales, but I think some White's lower shafts work with some Tesoro coils. (My TDI and Vaquero, for example.) They use different diameter bolts (nominal 3/8" for White's and 1/4" for Tesoro) but I think you can deal with that.

Excellent chronicle and photos, Hugh. I particularly liked your delineation of the different days and detecting history of the various sub-sites you hunted. Those are enlightening to me as I also try to figure out the detecting history of sites I hunt.

Nice! I love seeing finds with the old tesoro analogs. I may have to look for a five pin big concentric for my mojave.

Hello dogodog, I try to stay with private permission yards . It increases your odds for finygreat stuff.I mainly hunt with a CZ5. I have recently started to learn the XP ORX . It is so light and it is 3tone , so similar to the CZs. I will try to post some of the finds I make in the near future.

That is excellent. A real memory made there.

I just looked at Breen's book and those two coins used "French Bronze" 95% copper 5% tin and zinc Wheat cents are 95% copper 5% zinc (no tin). So I'm going to assume that the lack of tin had something to do with it? But I have also found old Wheats that had that green, IDK. Soil probably has the most to do with it, but I still find a lot of 2 cent coins that have that green look vs wheat cents.

Nice work on the S-Shaft Steve. Looks like you could mount a rubber grip to that too for other detector models or ones that have control boxes mounted on the S itself.

On display in my study perhaps... as a museum artifact? 😃

I want to grow palm trees in Virginia, but don't want to buy another boat. 🤣 Since I moved South I am not a winter fan anymore, I appreciate any day above 45 degrees. Reynaud's is nasty. We've had a lot of really warm days, so I'm out there! Glad you can get out too.

I'll take a little global warming if I can hunt the beaches in January without three winter coats on 🥶 Nope it's really hunt #15 😄 If I run them from Labor day to Memorial day, it's one continuous season. If I do it by year, then I have a big gap during summer when it's off limits to detect (or not worth the long trip down for after hour hunting). Tomorrows hunt is going to be a cold one for sure 😬

KS1652, zincoln is right : That lasted all of a few months. Perhaps all of a few dozen persons. And it post-dated the massive emigrant traffic (gold rush). So don't be fooled by its proximity to the east/west emigrant traffic. I don't think it had much traffic for travel-purposes (which is what you want if you're angling for coins). Don't be fooled by the term "town". That was a loose term in those days to just mean any cross-roads or wherever a few structures were thrown up. Not like in the sense of how we think of "town" or "village" today. Ie.: With laid out streets, etc... Also don't be fooled by the Paher mention of "2 hotels" : Back then anyone who let-out the rear bedroom of a shack, that was considered a "hotel". Not like we think of "hotel" in today's terms, with multiple rooms for set-aside purpose in a set-aside building, etc... My buddies and I passed by there, looked at the foundations, but elected to not even bother stopping. We were on our way elsewhere, that had actual traveler-purpose and longer-run-history. But seeing as how you're only a few hours from there : By all means, work the snot out of it. Even though it's no secret (and has no doubt been md'd before), yet .... ya never know. If you find anything worthwhile there, let us know.

I know this isn't necessarily detecting material but its definently relic hunting land and of course boot tack heaven!

Since you never even took your Equinox out of the box, and because this IS the Nokta/Makro Forum, I’d say get the Legend. No point in spending much on stuff you may not use anyway.