Leaderboard

Folks this is my first spin at the beach with the Legend. I ended up with a bunch of lead sinkers, some toasty beach clad and two silver rings. Gold was stingy, there were a total of four hunters at this beach and only one got a gold ring. I did a little testing on the salt sensitivity setting, but I don't think this is a beach where it would be beneficial. I want to test that feature at another beach as well before I make any comments/release video on it.

I placed a phone call to the State Geologist of Wyoming after reading articles in the ICMJ recommending an area in the Western part of the state that was known for shallow pocket gold and ore shoots situated along a fault line. After having no luck detecting an eroded rusty quartz outcrop for a few hours, I ventured out onto a raised knoll in the sagebrush a feet away and started picking up a staccato of signals over a 30' wide by 100' deep area. The rimfire round, (resembles a 45/70 but doesn't have a centerfire primer),was stuck in the ground nose down, with 1/4 inch of the case sticking out. It was intact when I pulled it out, and after being stored it in a coffee can in my truck awhile, it broke in half while I was bouncing around 4-wheeling. I taped it together to hold the powder in the case. The nickel 3 cent piece dated 1865 and the percussion pistol/rifle side plate were found close to the rifle round. I found several pieces of plank/boards that were so old and dried up they looked and felt like balsa wood. There were 3 large Flagstones buried just under the surface that had been placed together to make a campfire and hearth, (where the remnant of a lead bar, slag and hand cast bullets were recovered) Small animal bones were found in the fireplace. Numerous fired bullets and "Drops" were also recovered along with all the rest of the items shown in the photographs. Some of the percussion caps found (1/2 inch deep) were unfired! The 1851 0 mint 2 1/2 dollar gold piece was found together with the brass baton (cabinet latch?) near the campfire. The site appeared to be an old campsite or wagon stop from the 1800's.

I am not aware of any actual operating design changes. As noted above, the unit was vetted as far as electronics and coil, to be sure it was up to Garrett’s ISO 9001 standards. The coil was basically replaced with one made by Garrett. I’m not aware of what, if any, changes were made as far as internal components. Obviously the included accessories were upgraded. Having run both extensively, I doubt anyone can tell the difference between a properly made 24K, whether it’s of White’s, or Garrett, manufacture. There is no difference, as far as I am concerned, beyond more assurance you are getting a good coil. Coil manufacture was an Achilles Heel for White’s. The above post says the 24K is an MXT running at 48 kHz. That may be conceptually correct in some ways, but is not true. The MXT/GMT are their own older design, with a huge circuit board. The MX5/MX7 circuit is completely new from the ground up, much smaller, and intended as a base for various models, through the magic of program based detector design. The MX5/7 circuit did however attempt to largely mimic MXT operational concepts. The 24K is made on the MX5/7 circuit platform, with a set of control concepts and options that are taken from the lineage of both platforms. My Review of the White’s 24K My Review of the Garrett 24K

Production model Legend with preset fixed iron bias (not updated) recovery speed and ferrous/non ferrous masking video tests from the UK by a very experienced detector tester and user.

Made it out in the Florida winter weather today (85°) to a soccer complex that I have vacuumed with the Equinox 15" coil many times. Today I was using the 5x10" and focusing on the areas I avoided when using the large coil because there were so many targets. I was mainly digging quarter sounds and those indicating a possible ring. Lots of junk was dug. No rings today, but in three hours I managed to dig 46 quarters, something that hasn't happened for a long time! There is also a token that was not too deep in the ground. https://www.worthpoint.com/dictionary/p/coins-currency/tokens/car-wash-tokens It was found next to pine trees on the perimeter of one of the fields. In case you are wondering, yes, it was so warm today that I can't wait for next winter to get here in Florida!

2) TESTING THE BH01 BONE CONDUCTION HEADPHONES : -------------------------------------------------------------- I did a 2nd outing yesterday evening with the D2 11" . Same area as the 1st one . I was curious to see how the BH01 would behave in the field . I thought that they have been designed to be only used underwater , but I was wrong and I discovered during this test that they work perfectly when inland hunting ... During this outing I had the D2 RC ( remote control ) in my jacket pocket , with the BH01 cable connected to rear of the RC. Actually I was surprised by the excellent sound quality provided by these headphones . They leave the ears free . And they are cumfortable too .. 🙂 🙂 I did not change my D2 settings I used the GENERAL nr1 factory mode just changing from 3 to 5 tones and from PWM to SQUARE audio . After this second outing I confirm that this SQUARE audio is really excellent , very reactive and accurate on targets . I will probably use it permanently in the future with my D2 , this rather to the historical PWM Deus1 audio ... However may be the PWM will be more efficient in specific situations like nail beds , I need to check this ... As this outing was short I did not find a lot of things , just a nice 1st WW French soldier button and the usual trash ... Concerning the downsides , the only that I dont like on the D2 is the rod which is a little too short for me . I definitely need to order the optional longer mid-shaft which has been designed for tall guys like me .. 🙂 Apart from that the D2 electronics/ergonomy are perfect from what I have seen up to now . The D2 seems to be the best machine I have used/tested since 1998 btw ... And I am very impressed by what they ve done at XPs with this detector... 🙂 👍 A few pics : The BH01 bone conduction headphones connected to the rear of the RC : A beautiful sunset : The RC inside its hipmount case : The BH01 headphones in action ... : A 1st WW aluminium French button :

I decided to embrace my D2/11” and ready to go as I’m expecting weather to allow at least once/ week use. I don’t feel like I have to buy a second coil because I ordered the 11” coil shortly after ordering the 9” version but before getting an 11” version sooner became an option. Of course I would have preferred the other order (9” first) but I’m not stressing about it anymore. I’m just anxious to get out there and get in some swing time on the Deus II. The less I think about the 9” coil, the sooner I’ll get it.

First thanks to the Chateau Numis MD shop ( France ) https://www.metaux-detection.fr/fr/ for the Deus2 loan ( I have it for 3 weeks testing 🙂 ) MY DETECTING CONDITIONS : EUROPE ( FRANCE ) , COIN HUNTING , INLAND , LOW TO MEDIUM MINERALIZED SOIL , MEDIUM TO HIGH IRON TRASH 1) TESTING THE P1 "GENERAL" MODE: --------------------------------------- I did a first outing yesterday evening with the Deus2 11" in a field where I have a permission and where I have tested a Quest Q30 2 weeks ago . The soil is moderately mineralized with quite a lot of iron trash ; old nails , 1st WW shell fragments etc ... I spent only one hour in the field as the night was coming and it was getting colder , but that was enough to have a first feeling of the machine . I decided to focus on the GENERAL nr1 mode . I first changed the audio from PWM to SQUARE , because for me the SQUARE audio is one of the main and most interesting differences between the D2 and the D1 . I have immediately been impressed by this new SQUARE audio with its fast and crystal signals on targets . I like this audio . I also changed the multitone from 3 to 5 tones to have more info about the targets IDs . I used the RC loudspeaker with the RC in my pocket to save weight . I dont need to permanently watch the screen as all conductivities can be an interesting target over here ... BTW It took me a little time to get used to the RC interface , as it was new for me but it is ok now ... I have found a lot of targets , including an old 1774 Prussian silver coin, a brass hook and a buckle . This coin has probably been lost by a Prussian soldier on 1814 during the Napoleon war when the Alliance ( Prussia , GB , Russia ) invaded France ... A very nice historical find btw .. 🙂 Long story short , the Deus2 has been very efficient in the field , even with this large 11" coil . Usually I prefer to use smaller coils in open fields but the 11" did a very good job . Without any EMI , always very stable ... Actually this single GENERAL mode with the SQUARE mode is exactly what I was expecting from the Deus2 and I am already happy with this , knowing that I am just starting to test the machine and there are perhaps even more performing modes 🙂 🙂 ... A few pics below : The testing area : The 1st coin found with the D2 : IT is a 1774 Prussian silver coin ... unfortunately corroded : A buckle : A bronze hook : And the trash .... :

I'm noticing that when in full tones that is oft the case, next time I'll test out the lesser tone options. Nice thing about the lesser tone options is that you can completely reprogram them. Audio, tone break, pitch, threshold, all kinds of stuff. You could actually take a 6 tone and make it a five (why I have no idea, but you could). I don't know what you're looking at at the beach 🧐

I have had my Deus 11 since its release and i got it on the first batch to the UK . I have used it 5 times and thats out of 6 times i have been out this last month. On the 2 land digs , I found that the Deus 11 runs much better than the Nox and many other Nox users were talking about EMI and when i used mine before changing to the Deus 11 i was getting nowhere with the Nox. As soon as i changed over i found a nice cut Half Scottish Silver Hammered coin. The next dig i used the Deus11 straight away and found a whole but badly worn Hammered Silver coin. People complained about EMI with their Nox's again. I have used the Deus 11 on the beach i go too and on 1 search i found quite a lot . Its normally a bad beach for EMI and even the Deus 11 has issues in one spot which i expected. All machines get it there. The day after Storm Eunice in the UK is when i found the finds with the Deus 11 . Would my other main machines have found them ? E.Trac YES , Explorer 11 ? YES , Nox 800 ? MOST but in the Nox's case thats because of poor target info . I dont have pictures of the land finds to hand . On the above beach hunt the beach looked awful and it took my experience to understand that the beach was in fact looking good that evening . In my opinion the Deus 11 is the best non Minelab multi frequency machine out there . Its got almost the best target info and the Square tones on FULL tones give you almost E.Trac level. I have used the General program mostly and a version of Beach and Beach Sens programs for the beach. Going by what vid's and what people have said about the Legend and the delays , i am going to postpone my Legend order for now and wait till others have used it and Nokta have done their further updates that are likely. As for the Deus 11 ? I am on the list for another unit. Its brilliant . I want to back up the best with the best. Like i back up the E.Trac with an Explorer 11 . Is the ET better than the Deus 11 ? YES and slightly NO . Thats why i have both. Is the Deus 11 better than the Nox 800 ? YES . Poor build quality and very poor target info and only 3 year warranty and the fact that Minelab is a shareholder company and charge more for their machines for the capability prove it in my opinion. The last very good Minelab was the ET. I am a very keen Minelab user but they have been letting the side down since the Deus 1 came out in 2009 . We see what happens when you rest on your laurels ( Tesoro , Whites) . As for that all important thing called depth ? We are at the limits when it comes to depth with VLF machines . You might improve a little on certain targets but its all about sensitivity and target info . The Nox and Vanquish unless in clean ground are poor. Unless you like digging every little thing regardless? I will say it here and now , The DEUS 11 is the best machine that has been released since the ET in 2008 . The price is high but so is the capability. Damn i am sticking up for the French LOL ! Mondeur ! Or should i say Mon Deus ?

Like Goldseeker posted above, 1906/1907. But I have many that are dated the late 1800's.. earliest is 1861..my buddy Steve who lives down your way got a 1856 at one of the spots we have hunted, (Rebel metal detectors, Charleston, SC).. Seems about 60% were stamped before they passed the law..based on all I've dug...I do think the older they are the less likely they were to be stamped. As far as Hallmarks, the ratio is a lot less, unless they come from across the pond.. the best about the old gold is they loved to write script, names, dates, events. The designs and styles were stunning, compared to the gold of today.

In 1906 the United States government passed the "National Gold and Silver Stamping Act.", however there isn't a law that actually requires that gold/silver to have a purity/quality mark..but the law does require that any gold/silver that does have a purity/quality mark MUST be fairly accurate and even more accurate since an update in 1981, and any marked gold/silver must also have a "Hallmark/Makers mark" accompanying the purity mark or the purity mark is mute and may not be accurate. Here's a little more info... https://www.stuller.com/articles/view/national-gold-and-silver-marking-act/

JULY 13 1936 There were two more ounces of gold in the pan. This is enough to get us excited about the new trench and gives us the energy and hope to keep working hard. This morning John was at the tom as usual while the three of us worked the dig site. About mid morning we heard three gunshots in a row. This was a pre set signal we had worked out in case of danger. The three of us dropped our picks and shovels, grabbed our rifles, and headed down to camp in the truck. When we got down there we saw John standing with rifle pointed at five armed men. One of them was the guy John punched. I told Will and Jacob to spread way out right and left of John and I went down to where John was standing. John hollered that they were here to cause trouble. I hollered at them and said they were trespassing on our claim. The leader said they were there to get us into the co operative and he had papers for us to sign. There would be no more discussion. I told him what to do with his papers and I leveled my rifle at him. John already had his leveled. Jacob and Will did the same. The leader said to sign up or face the consequences. I told him what I said to the guy who was sent out on our claim yesterday. We would shoot to kill and this was his last warning to git. I also told them we had them in a cross fire as Will and Jacob had them flanked. He started talking threats and I fired a round that splintered the stock of his rifle. John fired a round into another guy's arm. I told Will and Jacob to shoot to kill if they retaliated. John hollered for them to raise their rifles and fight like men or leave now and that we were ready to fight. All five of them took off running down the mountain. I told Jacob and Will to high tail it up to the dig site and make sure nobody was up there. If there was then fire off three rounds. John and me stayed at camp a spell and kept an eye peeled. After an hour passed I went back up to dig gravels. We only dug until supper time and got 115 buckets down to the tom. I was too worried about the co operative thugs coming back. At supper John was all fired up on whiskey and hollering about how they took off running instead of fighting like men. He said he welcomed a shoot out with them and they were cowards and would most likely turn tail again. He said we should have just killed them all. I had a talk with everyone. I told them that as far as John and me were concerned we would not hesitate to shoot to kill now. I said it would be up to them to decide if they were in or out. If they were out they needed to leave for their own safety. I don’t know if these gangsters will leave us alone or come back with more men. Will and Jacob said they’d stick. John took first watch. What I am writing here is how it happened today for anyone who finds this journal in the event that I am killed. TO BE CONTINUED ...................

It’s offensive you called me a old fart. Here I’m happy that I can and that’s still fart . That lady has got it together I must say. I had a guy at one of those inspection stations ask why I carried so much equipment and my reply was it’s over a thousand miles to go back to get something. I’d really like to have her hat because when my shirt pulls up it would give my piggy bank slot shade. That would keep it from getting sunburn. Chuck

I'm sure Geotech can answer your question. All I know, it can bang out some deep gold, any size. It does seem to be stronger on the smaller gold (Not Micro) 1 gram up to 7 grams..... And Rarely do I run my delay lower then 10, ATS 6...All Metal ..Sensitivity 8... Audio 9 ..threshold just audible, but is constantly in need of adjusting down until the machine warmed up. I know it's hard to give a accurate depth when hunting in the water but I'm remember digging a couple of hunkers in the 18 plus inch range. One way signal on this one, (pumping the coil makes it seem like I'm hitting it swinging). As I dig and get closer to the target you can tell the signal strength...... After digging the ring someone asked why the "AQ" did not sound off when I pulled it out of the water and showed it next to the scoop.. I have a toggle (on the handle) I can turn the audio off to the head phones to save my hearing. And here is a video of a smaller 1.7 gram gold ring just shy of 15 inches. Middle ring in the picture below.

Here are pictures of mine. Note 4 small zip ties. The hinge still allows WS6 to fold. Use a soft hat if you want them to fold up. You won’t regret it once you try it.

Sure, when I go out, its to get some exercise, breathe fresh air, avoid the Mrs and enjoy the hunt.....but without the yella metal being involved, I wouldn't waste a single second. I'd find something else to enjoy. A 14 grammer I got a few days ago reminds me why I 'do it' 😉 I'm sitting at 114 pieces so far this year.

I didn’t have a lot of time this morning and it’s going to rain tomorrow so I stayed close to home and hit my only old house permission. This is the same place where I detected under the floor of the old house. There’s around 3 acres at this site and I’m making my way to the areas farther from the house. Today I used the D2 in program 3 except I switched to pitch and lowered the reactivity to 2.5. I set disc at 8.5 and sensitivity to 95 and audio response to 5. Oh, I also used the x/y screen for the first time. My goal was to dig all good sounding targets. About an hour in I got a really nice sounding, solid 66 with a nice straight line on the graph. About four inches down I see yellow and out pops a small 14k wedding band. It fits my pinkie perfectly lol! After that I tried and tried to find a coin, but didn’t find a single one.

The weather has been excellent here in Central Texas. Only had a couple of really nasty days so far. Was able to get out 5 or 6 times this month. All the finds came from public places. I haven't turned my attention to private permissions yet. I've been running the Nox 800 in Park 1....Iron bias 0...Manual GB...Either 2 or 3 tones...Sens as high as the location will allow .. 11" coil 95% of the time....Recovery speed 3. It's not the oldest stuff in the world but I take what I can get :-)

US Patent Application US2021/027335 filed 26th Feb 2021 mentioned in the last few posts references Australian Patent Application 2020900585 which was filed on 28/2/20. A full year before the US Patent Application but this Australian Application (and subsequent Aus Application 2020904645) both for a "a magnetic field transmitter of a metal detector" have lapsed in Australia. My original post refers to Australian Patent 2022900362 filed 18th Feb 2022 which is for "a metal detector coil". This latest Patent Application may be an amendment to the two now lapsed applications or it could be something completely different. From all this patent activity i am guessing that Minelab is banking on coil innovations as their next big thing. No new product name applications in the pipeline so could be some time away before we know anything concrete.

I usually pinpoint swinging and using the back of the coil and then turning 90 degrees. Learned with a Blisstool which doesn’t have a pinpoint mode. 11” coil is quite accurate but a 9” is obviously more precise. Anyway in my opinion 11” is the right size for relic hunting in open field..

JULY 14 1936 We weighed up the gold from yesterday after breakfast and got a nice surprise with 2 ounces in the pan. That was more than expected with such a low bucket count. The gravels here seem to be rich. We worked hard all day with no intruders to slow us and ended with 248 buckets. There is very little large rock to move and the river channel is evident. We are down a good 7 feet in depth and widening the trench to the same and driving the dig east into the fault. At camp tonight we are all four of us on alert for any sounds or movement. The bobcat screeching has gone away. We used to hear them almost every night. I don’t know if that is a warning that there are trespassers in the area or that they just have moved on to better territory. The crew turned in early and I took first watch with my whiskey to warm me against the cold night air. TO BE CONTINUED .................

What I'm about to say may sound a bit strange, but believe me it's absolutely true. it may be that these algae affect the machine and is something responsible for that sizzle. Here on the beaches of southern Spain (Cádiz), above all, there is a type of algae that emits a weak signal every time the coil passes over it, as if it were a deep object. Thank God they come out sporadically, otherwise it would be impossible to detect. that only happens with the equinox

Thanks for watching GBA. The sinkers all have some type of wire loop to attach the fishing line, some appear to iron others are brass. Most of the sinkers came in the mid 40's. Surprised with all the sinkers no gold, but it's luck of the draw. Here were my results from the Legend proto: U.S. $1 gold coin 23 V nickles 24-25 U.S. $5 gold coin 38 Crusty zinc 38 IHP 40 Clean zinc 42 Green wheatie 42 Orange wheatie 45 Canadian copper small cent 45 silver dime 45-46 Silver quarter 52 Morgan silver dollar 59-60 BUTLER / STAND 6¼ cent 21mm brass trade token 43 (TC-294985 Haddock (2019) 1836). It has modulated audio.

Klunker, I'm sure they don't make large enough cameras to take pictures of your nugget!

Thank you guys so much I’m still learning I do well with my other detectors this one is just a much bigger learning curve maybe it’s due to using other detectors first

There is no such thing as a depth meter per se. They are all signal strength indicators. Older models generally calibrated to a U.S. dime and stock coil. Change target, or change coil, reading is changed. Some newer, more sophisticated detectors, take coil changes into account, one genuine use of chips in coils. The White’s V series had a manual setting for identifying the coil. There may be even newer models that use target id to modify depth readings, but I’m not sure about that. If not, somebody should do it. I use the target id in conjunction with the signal strength reading, whether by meter, or in my case, by modulated audio, to give me clues. I can tell a shallow small item by the localized sharp response. If it reads as US dime, it’s possibly a small bit of copper, or silver jewelry. Similarly, a large broad response reading as a quarter, might more likely be a sprinkler head. I almost never use so-called depth meters, as being redundant to modulated audio. If modulated audio is not an option, then the meter becomes more useful. In general with modulated audio, strong/sharp means shallow, weak/fuzzy means deep. Whatever method you use, practice makes perfect. Always try to predict what you are digging, and how deep it is. If you are wrong, ask why, and put that in mental file for future. Reading is nice, just like reading about playing the guitar, but only actually doing it over time builds the actual skill involved. There are lots of similarities between learning a musical instrument, and learning to use a detector at the highest level.

Since bedrock is generally homogenous, it’s easier to get a ground balance with a unit that has a fixed setting, as does the Gold Bug 2. Gravels and pebble/cobble beds are often of mixed composition, so some rocks are balanced out, others not. As noted above, hunt bedrock separately. In mixed material, try and find an average balance setting that will minimize response to the various rocks as much as possible. This will be aided by lowering the sensitivity, as rock responses drop out faster than gold responses. Ground tracking aids greatly in mixed materials, but just like the 2300 suggestion above, requires a different detector.

Wow! That was pretty impressive.

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20210273335A1/en?oq=US20210273335 Physical laws of detection ... you can't change ....but .... but we can bend them to some extent ..... ... this is a really smart idea ....

One extra 'addition' to the overall design, which I feel would add extra versatility and power is a frequency change option. On my modded GPX4500, this option adds SDC2300 type sensitivity with small coils (I love the 9" Elite) using the high frequency setting while still allowing terrific depth on solid nuggets. At the other end, the low frequency allows terrific depth on larger targets, using bigger coils (18" monos or larger). I'm uncertain if the QED type bias control already alters the frequency OR its a code alteration. If its code (pulse train), then BOTH bias AND frequency user control options would surely add a significant % of depth and sensitivity I'm thinking....

I asked that question while back in another forum and this is what the reply said: Garrett 24K is an updated version of the Whites 24K. It is my understanding that unlike a previous poster, Garrett did not just paint it black and slap some labels on it. They went over all of the tolerances and improved the stability of the stock coil, added a nice battery charger and some quality NiMh rechargeable batteries for less than the original Whites price. XGB ground balance system really works. Coils are very stable and fairly quiet even on some ground that only the Equinox can handle. The Whites 24K I owned previously would overload if it came anywhere near that same ground and coil knock was atrocious. Garrett 24K is actually an MXT running at 48 kHz since it has an MX7 circuit board not a GMT board. It has iron reject and discrimination options, a two tone option, a one tone VCO audio option, easy pinpointing and ground grab, follow black sand feature and a nice display that is sort of target IDs and sort of ferrous/non-ferrous probability. Easy to use, extremely sensitive and can double for coin and micro jewelry. No wireless audio or waterproofing. OK ergonomics even though it uses 8 AA batteries

ALMOST as exciting as the gold counts !

I know basic stuff for us but good advise for those new old farts ! So yer piggy bank is on it's own (I couldn't find the emoji with both eyes shut !) I've enjoyed their video's the country is nice looking camping , that helicopter ride to the prospect site must be awesome and the gold looks pretty good too. I'm pretty sure I haven't seen any painted rocks either and speaking of either , either she doesn't show all that she finds or she's not making a lot. This new vid makes me think she might be hoping for some extra clicks and new subscribers . Thought we might be able to help with that. And her nice hat blew off and fell down a mine shaft so that's just a substitute and she needs a proper new best hat too ! Go Krissy!, and Mark , wherever you are?

This question comes up frequently. Here's a recent thread on the subject:

This guy normally repairs model trains it seems but he's done a great video on CTX coil ear repair, which obviously could be applied to the dodgy Equinox coil ears also. He runs through the entire process in an easy to understand way and his repair looks fantastic when finished and much stronger than the original. I didn't do mine near as fancy as this guy, my 17" coil had a small crack in the ear going from the bolt hole outwards my guess from me over tightening the bolt to try keep the big coil stable without flapping in the wind, by putting on the ABS 3D printed bracket using a plastic glue that chemically dissolves the two plastics to melt together seeing the coil is also made of ABS it worked pretty well, nice and solid. I used PVC glue and primer on my 17" coil and ABS glue on my 11" coil and both seemed to work as well as each other, both melted the plastics during the bonding. Because of the way it was glued there is no way for water or dirt to get up under the coil ear stiffener to cause me any grief, it's completely bonded. I decided yesterday to do the same with my 11" CTX coil, it had nothing wrong but it's only a matter of time. One thing I have noticed with the CTX is the washers just don't seem thick enough so the ears bend inwards as you tighten the bolt, and you have to tighten the bolt fairly tight to hold the coil in place or it flops around. It seems quite a bad design. In case it was just my washers were wearing thin I bought a new pack of washers which made no difference at all. I put the ABS glue the 11" coil on and mounted the stiffener using clamps overnight last night You'll notice on my coil cable where it runs up into the shaft I've shrunk down some dual wall heat shrink to protect the cable there, the CTX has such a bad design where the cable goes up into the shaft, even though my coil was near new I already had signs of wear on the cable where it runs up into the shaft. Much like the coil ears the cable going into the shaft like that almost seems like it was designed to fail. So now my 11" has stronger ears too, I've got far more confidence in the ears not breaking now. It's a real puzzle to me why the CTX is such an old detector now and so many people with it had coil ears fail yet when Minelab released the Equinox and Vanquish they made no effort at all to improve the badly designed ears. Now they're swapping out so many coils for people under warranty for broken ears that could have easily been prevented with a better design. The ones that break outside of warranty I encourage people to fix and not buy a new coil, why pay Minelab the money for their screw up, fix the thing, it can be done and it's not all that hard to do and you'll end up with a better coil after it's done than the new replacement would be. I'm not sure if I'll bother doing my 6" coil until it breaks, for a start I'll probably rarely use it as I bought the CTX for coins, I have little need for a small coil on a coin detector in my hunting environment. The 6" is so light it doesn't put much stress on the ears either, and you don't need to tighten the bolt as tight to drop the 6" moving around as it's so small and light. The 17" needed tightened up pretty tight being such a big heavy coil. In a note to Minelab, or perhaps a plea, Minelab, if you're working on an Equinox 1000 PLEASE make new coil ears for it's coils, don't give us this weak rubbish on anymore detectors. You're starting to have competition now, you can't be so relaxed with your lax build quality anymore, it's become the butt of jokes for the competition.

As long as iron bias mitigates the scenarios presented in this video, this will be a great machine: Next up will be a day at the beach.

Yes it's frustrating I want my preferred 9" coil too. But it's not an intentional manever and its not a strategy. It's just a fact of life on ANY new release and the practical limitations of ramping up a new production line are not going to change that no matter how much we rail about it. If you gotta have it now you're just going to have to wait and your choices will be limited. It's not some conspiracy theory hatched by the manufacturer to frustrate potential buyers. You want frustrating? How about waiting for nearly 6 months before OEM accessory coils besides the stock were even available for sale for the Nox. You want choices on demand, instant gratification, and options? Then wait for a few months after release and let supply catch up with demand, otherwise, you're just wasting energy railing about how XP is wronging us. Not going to change a thing about the reality of the situation, but if it makes you feel better, well at least you have a platform here for getting your frustrations out. BTW - waiting is also not a bad idea, if you can imagine the shortages on specific coil types for paying customers, you gotta be concerned about whether there is any stockpile of replacement components/parts in the event of DOA or defective components. The good news is that I am not hearing many reports of DOA or defective D2 gear, which is a stark contrast to where ML was at this stage of launch with dead control pods and unacceptably wobbly shafts. So there's that.

Oh ya! I once found such a big nugget I needed a bigger camera.

JULY 12 1936 There was some hope for us at the weigh and we got 1 and one half ounce. This was better than I expected. The day was not quite as hot as the previous days and we actually got a few unexpected sprinkles of rain. It felt good as we dug away but it didn’t last for long. We were now cutting in a new trench as we looked for bedrock. The rock was still small and we moved it quite easily. I took a few pans throughout the day and was seeing some promise. We were getting down about 5 feet and made ramps at either end of the dig to walk the buckets out. It all seemed like familiar work to us and we hoped for good results. We called it a day about an hour before dark and hauled the last load of 198 buckets down to John. We helped him finish up the wash. John said we should stay on high alert as we now had to worry about the co operative gangsters. I told him that all we can do is take our turns on watch at night and have our guns at the ready. They might just be all bluster and trying out scare tactics on us to get us to sign up. I opened a bottle of whiskey and took first watch just after dark. Everything was quiet. TO BE CONTINUED .......................

I suggest running over bedrock all at once, then afterwards, hit the gravel spots separately if you can, so you avoid transitioning between the two as much as possible. Also, try to run parallel along sections of bedrock and gravels to limit how often you need to run the coil over transitions, leading to the falsing. Easier said than done, I know. But, working slowly with precise coil control will help with the noise and give you a chance for success with patient coverage. Good luck! You are in a great area.

Some nice finds you got, good job, love the gold coin...but it's odd that the "51" is so well defined but the "18" is almost worn away!

I've been backing off the target until the tone disappears and doing the same at 90 degrees. Make a mental note both directions and that's the center. Tone is best at about the center of the coil once you pinpoint where the target is. If you use the pinpoint mode the target is usually at the center of the coil.

Thank you, yeah I was disappointed I wasn't able to pull out any Indian heads. These places are really bizarre. That blob is a bent up sterling silver earring.

rvpopeye -- now that was funny! LOL! Steve

JULY 11 1936 This morning Jacob, Will and me went up to the new dig site while John guarded camp. We set about opening a new trench at the base of the fault line. Will hauled the first 20 buckets of pay gravels down to John and came back up to resume the digging. We were about four feet down and the digging was fairly fast. What we lacked in quality I hoped to partially make up for in quantity. When I went over to the tub to pan a small sample I noticed someone duck behind a tree just to the north a hundred feet or so. I walked over to Jacob and Will and told them to grab their rifles, there was someone sneaking around on the claim. We started walking in that direction and spotted a man looking at us from behind a tree. I hollered to stop right there and come out with his hands in the air. I told him we all had guns and would use them if needed. He was also armed with a rifle and I told him to drop it. He did and came forward with his hands up. He said the miners co operative had sent him up to our claim to talk with us. I said if that was true why was he sneaking around, He wouldn’t talk but said he was alone and meant no harm. We decided to take him down to camp and figure out what to do with him. When John saw him and was informed on the goings on he was madder than hell. I told him we had declined the co operative invitation to join up and told him we don’t like trespassers on our claim. John said he thought he was snooping around to see if we were getting any gold. I asked him about that but he just said he’s been sent up there to talk with us and if we didn’t join up we might have some problems. I asked him what that was supposed to mean. He just said we’d find out and there were a lot of bad people roaming the mountain. He said he was instructed to sign us up and we needed to pay a co operative fee every month. John said that’s blackmail. He said we should pay the fee and we would have no worries. We would also need to give up a percentage of our claim ownership to them. He said they had already signed up nearly half the miners in the county. I told him they weren’t signing us up and they were wasting their time. He said that the word was out that we had been getting a lot of gold and we needed their protection. He said he was just doing his job. I had enough of him and told him to get the hell off our claim and tell his boss not to send anyone from the co operative up here again making threats. He kind of smiled at me. He said we were making a big mistake. John hauled off and punched him in the face. The man staggered backwards and looked shocked. He said he’d regret that. I didn’t say a word as i was sick and tired of all the hooligans and their threats and robbery attempts. John stepped forward and hit him again. The man took a swing at John but it missed and John punched him in the face a third time. This time he went down. We kept his gun and told him to git. He got up and headed back down the mountain saying we’d all be sorry. When things cooled down we all went back to work. We ended up digging 205 buckets in total. I saw some color in the test pans but i’m not sure how good the pay will be. It’s the top layer and maybe we can hit some good gold as we go deeper. Time will tell. All I know is it’s getting more dangerous around here. TO BE CONTINUED ....................

What we have here in CT is a LOT of signals that give a good VDI but when you disturb the ground they disappear. My hunting buddy and I know which VDI signals will go POOF and vanish on our other machines. Usually a 58-62 on the ATMAX and a 34-37 on the Impact. Ct has some really bizarre mineralization and according to a Geologist friend who is a professor at UCONN here, "The iron content in the soil in CT is very high in certain areas particularly in the North West part of the state. This iron can come into contact with other decaying metals or minerals through electrolysis and mimic other metals with a metal detector. ".

My buddy found a U.S. $5 gold coin at a trading post site we found, and it was an 1849 D mint mark. After he saw the mint mark he exclaimed it was from Denver. I told him nope Denver didn't have a mint in 1849, it was Dahlonega.

I’ve posted endlessly for a decade on this subject, so I’ll just link to my main lobbying thread here. If anything our options are more limited than ever, so the need for a decent, ergonomic, affordable, ground balancing PI, has never been greater. But to sum up, I’d simply like an ATX class machine, or better, in a less than 5 lb, well balanced housing, at a price normal people can afford. And a decent, affordable coil selection to match.

A rock is either "hot" or "cold" if it's condutive mineral content and/or density differs substantially from that of the soil to which the detector was ground balanced. An individual stone which was "hot" in one locale, if transported elsewhere, may now become "cold." In most severe hot rock areas, with my 24k, I use the 10x6 DD, SAT at 2, autotrack ON, and GB OFFSET at +1. Hope this helps. HH Jim