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Saturday I was able to finally get out and use my 800 for a little while. I headed out to a nearby park that has been hunted to death by the locals over the past few decades. I mainly went just to get out of the house because of it being a beautiful day and I had been wanting to go for so long. I knew that I would only have a few minutes to detect as I had to take care of my grandmother and cook her dinner. As I had gotten out of my car there were 2 others with their metal detectors on one end of the park. As I was setting up the detector one of them came over to see what I was using. He had never seen a 800 and asked me several questions about it. I told him all that I could about it which was very little because I am just a newbie with them. He wished me luck and I proceeded to get with it. My first 2 targets were of course bottle caps, but I did not give up as I was still having fun out there. I decided to hit up a old tree and got my first good signal, as I started digging the guy came back over again. I had dug down almost 8 inches before the pin pointer caught the signal so I dug down another 3 inches. To my surprise out came a 1957 dime. I decided to recheck the area to make sure I wouldn't miss anything, and sure enough there was another target. That target was about 4 inches to the right of the first hole and not as deep, only about 7 inches deep. The coin was covered in a lot of mud and was a 1967 penny. The guy that came over could not believe how deep those coins were as he said they had covered those same areas earlier. I looked at my watch and noticed that I had to get home, or granny would be unhappy. I was there for a total of 30 minutes, but had some fun. While I was walking back to the car I got another signal that was to good to pass up and had to stop to dig it. This time both people came over rather quickly to see what I had found. As I'm digging the mud was really bad and thick. Each time I would have to scrape off my digging tool or I would be putting it back into the hole. I was down almost 4 inches when it came into sight covered in mud, and one of the guys let out a yell "it's a ring" Yes it was a ring with several stones on it, and quite heavy in weight. They were more happy than I was it seemed as they were jumping up and down. As I poured some water over it I realized that it was a cheap ring, pretty but cheap, one that you might buy a child. Anyway I had found my first ring and I was happy. I must say that for just the 30 minutes that I had spent out there it was still very nice to be there. Hope to be able to go again soon. I was using the 800 with all factory settings on Park 1, the sensitivity at 20, and using the CoilTech 10X5 coil.

Four, if you count the Indian Head/Buffalo Nickel. Old home site remains: Pottery pieces and older shards. Broken glass and crockery, buttons, .22 bullet casing, and misc. artifacts. Indian head dates: 1890, 1900, and 1901. The Buffalo Nickel was a 1915, and the Jefferson was a 1970's date. A child's ring, marked .925 inside.

Small coils find small gold, that large coils can not react on. For a newbie this help them in get a nugget ( more about) and learn how to listen to the detector that will be a great asset when looking for larger nuggets at depth. The nugget that are large and shallow you only need to walk over them and not think they are junk. The old rule if you hear it dig it.

The BLM MLRS reporting system will be closed from 8 pm central time today March 8th until 9:30 am central time on Monday March 14th. You will not be able to research or file mining claims online until next Monday. If you need to file paperwork the BLM State offices will be available for walk in filings. Land Matters will still be available for current research and mapping during this time. We will be updating the Mining Claims maps later today.

JULY 21 1936 The morning air was cool but not cold which meant we were in for more heat today. The weigh gave us our fuel for digging with 5 more ounces shining in the pan. After a good breakfast we went up to start digging before the heat settled in. By noon it was nearly 100. We paused for a quick lunch break and resumed the battle with the gravels. The rounded channel rock was becoming more plentiful as we got deeper. We were used to seeing this and it meant more gold to us. That gave us the energy to swing the pick and shovel the gravels. The buckets always seemed heavier in the later part of the day. The smell of pine is heavy in this heat and the sap runs like the devil. If you make the mistake of leaning against it on a tree trunk you nearly become glued to it. Late in the day Jacob hollered over for me to take a look at something. He had hit on a large boulder. The three of us grabbed bars and began to pry. As we got it to move we wedged a timber for support and kept working it out of it’s resting place. After about an hour of hard labor we had moved it a good three feet. I grabbed an empty bucket and scooped some gravel from where it had laid. I took it up to the tub and we all three of us grabbed some pans and worked it. In a few minutes we began to see our treasure. All three pans were full of heavy course gold. We were drenched in sweat and so tired we could hardly talk but we just stood there and laughed. After a short break we went back to prying the boulder another couple of feet away until all was clear. We dug out the gravels another three feet and encountered country rock. The slab was raised in that area and we cut across it with our shovels keeping the buckets separate from the other gravels in the trench. It was nearly dark when we finished up the raised country area and took 89 buckets out of it. From the other gravels we had 145 buckets. John processed them separately and we will see what we get out of them tomorrow at the weigh but I think it will be a good payday. TO BE CONTINUED .....................

The wife and I spent a night at a small town beach area back in mid Feb...we brought our detectors just for fun...not my first pick as it's cold and windy most of the time with not many people but my wife likes these areas north of Petaluma as she grew up in that area...Lisa was learning her new Nox 800...she found a few coins and lots of trash...I got lucky as I did not expect to find a gold ring...at first I thought it was 10K but it acid tests 14K like it's stamped....not the prettiest ring but gold is gold....the little one is silver.... some lady and her 5 year old daughter were on their hands and knees watching as I sifted it out of the sand...they were as surprised as I was.. strick

Great feedback everyone and I hope this truly does help some of the newer hunters. Let's play the odds for a bit and see who usually wins. That same thinking is true today and especially for the new nugget hunter wanting to dig a piece of gold. Old time Prospectors from years past running the sluice box, or a water cannon, gold pan and even big iron dredges played the odds of recovering gold. Even todays changing advanced technology and big mining companies play the odds at collecting Au. Their philosophy holds true today and is to find the most plentiful kind of gold that can be recovered at the cheapest cost. 100+ yrs ago it was the flour gold that kept the miners fed. Sure there was the occasional nugget found, but the majority of gold recovered in the 1800's and early 1900's was flour. Now jump forward 100+ yrs and the big mineral companies are collecting microscopic gold that naked eye can't see. Conclusion is nuggets are rare and the bigger they get the more rare they become. As a veteran nugget hunter myself of 25+ yrs, I know for a fact the majority of my recovered gold nuggets were smaller pieces. I've had 100+ nugget days on occasion and also found 40+ little nuggets in 1 hole before. The collection many folks share and pics tell the same story and show mostly smaller nuggets. Detector manufactures have caught on as well. Each time a new VLF gold detector comes out, it's usually compared to see how small of gold it can find. Heck todays higher dollar PI's and ZVT technology detectors do the same thing. They get better at finding the smaller nuggets than their older models before. It's the odds of having success at going home with a nugget, no matter what the size. I don't know if these numbers are fact and never did a google search but will say from my own experience. For every 1 pound nugget, there are 20 of the 1 ounce nuggets. For each 1 oz there's approx 20 quarter ounce nuggets. For each 1/4 oz (approx 7.8 gram) chunk I have probably found an average of 50 of the 2 gram size. Again, from 2 gram to 1 gram is probably another 50. Now here is where things really get going. I'm willing to say it, but I'm sure for each 1 gram pea size nugget, the average is closer to 100 .1 gram nuggets. I won't worry about anything less but hope you get my point. It holds true today just like it did 150 yrs ago. There's more smaller gold nuggets than bigger ones and more flour gold than nuggets and more microscopic gold than flour. So with my findings, the best chance of Success for a beginner detectorist is to set your detector up for the most plentiful size of gold still out there that a detector can hear (smaller nuggets). Pic below is from my customer in MT with his GM-1000 and when you look at all the gold, you'll notice much more smaller stuff. - On many detectors I have tested, the smaller coil is actually deeper on tiny gold than the stock coil. - Smaller coil sees less mineralized soils as it has a smaller footprint so you can turn the SENS/GAIN up. - Smaller coil on many detectors runs smoother, sees less EMI, and is more stable than stock coil. - The ID system on many detectors reads more accurately on a small nugget near surface than the stock coil as the bigger coil again sees more mineralization and it's harder to read the same small nugget. (note, I don't recommend newbies to rely on ID systems when chasing tiny gold). All detectors can be fooled. - Smaller coils can get under bushes, between rocks and in cracks/crevices easier and that's sometimes the places nuggets light to get caught up or hide. - Small coils give cleaner signal response to smaller nuggets than stock coil so you can hear it better. - Small coil is lighter in weight so the operator can hunt longer without fatigue, especially when side hilling. - The average person who purchases a detector uses the coil that comes with it. Many times, the VLF detectors do not come with the small coil (yes I know GM-1000 does). You don't want to be average and be using the same size coil in the same areas the other guys hunt. The above mentioned and a few other reasons is why when my Field Staff/I prefer that our customers coming to the Field Training to put on the smallest coil they have. It ups your chance of Success. For a beginner nugget hunter, SUCCESS of any size gold is better than NO GOLD. Getting to hear the rattle of those few tiny nuggets in the pill bottle on the way home is much more happier for the detectorist than his buddy with rattling nothing. Anyone else who wants to add to this please do..... This info is just my opinion and I realize there are always exceptions. Happy Hunting.

I know that someday I will be finding a lot more with the detector in the future, because the more you use it the better you get. That's what grandfather told me, but I don't know if he was talking about detectors at the time. Grandfather passed away and I have had to step up to take care of things for him, and that includes taking care of grandmother. She is getting worse and I believe that soon she will be going into a nursing home. Even at my younger age there are some things that I can't do for her. She really needs better care than what I can do for her, but until the time comes I will do my best to care for her.

I think the term "best" is highly subjective when it comes to listing metal detectors. The best machine for me could well be a very poor choice for someone else. A number of people have asked me which machine they should buy (their first machine). Mostly they aren't sure of what they want, but in general they want the following: 1. Inexpensive 2. Hunt the shore (beach in non-NJ speak) - in water and dry sand. 3. Hunt their yard and parks. 4. Hunt for coins and jewelry. 5. Simple machine that doesn't require a lot of adjustments. 6. Metal detector that tells them the good stuff, so they don't dig trash. For most I end up recommending one of 3 machines: 1. Simplex 2. Vanquish 3. Apex When I explain that the Simplex is waterproof, but not a great choice for hunting salt water. And the Vanquish (and Apex) are good at hunting wet salt sand but aren't waterproof (so they aren't a great fit for hunting in the water) - I usually get blank stares. Most (who asked for my opinion) have been shocked at how much metal detectors cost (we're talking the more entry level machines I've recommended). They'd be horrified at the price of an Equinox 800, a Deus, a Deus II, and especially the CTX 3030. Most would find the more expensive machines far too complicated. While I (mostly) agree with the OP's list of the top five "best" metal detectors - as far as performance goes - only one of those five machines is going to appeal to the average person who has some interest in getting into the hobby. I think the reason why Garrett Ace machines and Bounty Hunter machines tend to populate such lists is because they offer an entry into the hobby - at a price that most metal detecting curious people are willing to spend. And those machines do find stuff. In that sense, they are the best.

These lists can be anything from pure marketing mumbo jumbo driven by what model choice will give the author the most money (kickbacks or whatever) to genuine, good-faith analysis to try and inform or help prospective metal detector purchasers. Before one makes a list, I think they need to explain what the primary motivating factor is. For example, is it value? Overall performance? Specialized performance? Ergonomics? And so on...

These Specimens were from an area of 10 by 10 mile and shows some differences. This is a cleaned specimen my favourite. It contains wolfram (Tungsten) and the Weight of gold is only in the grams range. As can be seen there is many types of specimen.

Without Dilek I don't think the magic would be there for Nokta. When you have someone out front and visible to the public like her it does make a difference. Some people just have the drive, talent, and right way of doing things. Dilek is a treasure to that company. She IS the voice and face of Nokta. I sure hope they treat her right.

JULY 20 1936 Yesterday’s dig got us much lower in the gravels and the results were good. We had 3 ounces in the pan. There seems to be very rich pockets remaining in the fault line. I don’t know how many there are but we will keep exploring and digging. There is always the hope of finding another kettle. We didn’t see any new groups of prospectors this morning. Maybe the rush is slowing. John said they will probably all be robbed by the roaming gang of thugs and if they stake a claim will be forced into the co operative. We all know by now that mining here is a dirty and dangerous game. The more gold we mine and the longer we are here the more the risk builds for us. None of us want to leave our mine and if pushed we will fight to keep it. We can’t rely on the law dogs to protect our interests and must take care of ourselves. At the new trench we are down about 6 feet and there is no country showing. Hopefully this holds up for us and we get another pot. We set ourselves a ramp of gravels and flat stone to walk out the buckets. The ground is clear and we are able to get the truck close. We took an afternoon break in the shade with the thermometer kept at the trench showing 109. I rolled a Burley and sat on a log with the crew. We were all feeling the work. We take salt pills and drink gallons of water. It is too hot to eat much during the day. When we finished up near dusk we had another good bucket count of 310. Down at camp we unloaded the truck and helped John finish up. We cleaned up in the cool creek and warmed up beans and bacon with hot water corn bread. The crew drank some of the cool Lucky’s and I poured a big cup of whiskey and rolled a Burley. The work felt good for my soul and I was both exhausted and happy. After my first cup the soreness in my body started to fade. By the end of the second it was gone. John took the first watch and I stared into the night sky for a spell and retired to my tent. TO BE CONTINUED ...................

Before the rain hit yesterday (snowing this morning) I took the Deus 2 out to the Great Salt Lake here in Utah. Now for those of you in Utah, I was hunting on area that you can use metal detectors legally. The GSL is 8 to 10 times saltier than the ocean, depending on where you are in the lake. Most metal detectors struggle in this very salty environment, I usually use my GXP there anymore. Some parts of the lake also have high mineralization where the river inlets are. So there are multiple challenges that are present. Most SMF machines with a standard 11" coil will get somewhere between 9 and 10 inches deep on a nickel sized target. The Minelab CTX with the 17" coil is an exception. I tested the Deus 2 both in and out of the water and I will have to say I'm pretty impressed with it's performance. Didn't find any gold this time but did find a handful of old coins.

I wish I had taken a photo of the horse shoes I found in remote WA. Aus. It was about 15 by 12 and 6 ft high. Sorry I did not count how many also. 🤪

I've seen these lists that even include Chinese generic detectors in the top 5 so I've really never bothered with them, I pity the fools that fall for the lists and make their purchase decisions based on them though. If you Google "best metal detector" often these lists are high in the rankings and they're so far from accurate it's crazy. For my needs the Top 5 detectors are GPZ 7000 (favourite by miles) GPX 6000 (don't yet own but very much considering, still prefer the GPZ overall) CTX 3030 (awesome coin hunter) Equinox 800 (good all rounder) Garrett 24k (great on the nuggets, even in bad hot rocks) If that's all that I owned I'd be completely happy. The only one I'd like to add to make it a Top 6 is the GPX 5000 as it's just so versatile. I can't decide between the CTX and the Nox which I prefer, for coins it's the CTX but the Nox makes for a great nugget machine, I really can't decide between them. The Garrett 24k is just an awesome gold machine, but in this day and age specialty machines are becoming less necessary with these multi purpose machines virtually equal to them in performance and usually packed with more features. Obviously I'm very gold focused, but they're the only detectors I need that is available on the market right now, anything else is just for the fun of using other detectors which I enjoy doing but I certainly could live without any other detectors that exist on the market right now except those listed above. The stupid thing about these lists is how inaccurate they are even from to the reader might seem to be reliable sources. When I search "best metal detector" on Google the first one that comes up is a New York Times article/review which says the best metal detector is the Nokta Simplex. https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-metal-detector/ I just can't agree it's the best metal detector, for any purpose there is a better metal detector. I don't even use my Simplex, I would if it was the best.

No need to thank me... we thank you because you are the customer who is willing to spend money on our product and you have the right to get an answer to your question. I try my best to respond to every direct message and email although I must admit that sometimes I do forget or miss some as I get wat too many of them on a daily basis... I do like to interact with the actual end users and not only with distributors.

So the heartbreaker was that ring wasn't valuable? They can't all be gold.

Starting to see some great knowledge and tips being discussed and mentioned. Keep it coming folks.

Yes, with VLF's small coils will give you the best chance of finding something, unless: 1. Your ground has 4-5 inches of top soil/leaves/pine needles etc. 2. Piles of hot rocks If you are using a VLF to utilise the iron disc that many models are equipped with, that usually goes with the plan to attack some trashy spots where the PI machines are just very hard work, then often in these spots there is a good chance some decent gold is left behind. Now if there's 3 bits of iron on every sweep, then sticking to a smaller coil is wise. However, if we are talking 1 bit of iron every two or three sweeps, then I would rather be swinging a bigger coil - more ground coverage and better chance of hitting that 2-3 grammer at depth.

A huge ruckus developed recently over the new Nokta Legend, and a debate over the desirability of an iron bias control. One main argument against such a control came up repeatedly. It’s too dangerous to include. The thought is it could be misadjusted by people who don’t know what they are doing, so it’s best left off. Really? The sensitivity/gain, if set incorrectly, can cause lost targets. Disc settings when set wrong, can cost lost targets. Recovery speed, if set wrong, can cost lost targets. Set the volume too loud, you can damage your hearing! I could go on, but I think I’ve made the point. Any control worth having will cause issues if set improperly. So will sweeping too fast or too slow, coil too far off the ground, etc. There is nothing especially different, or “more dangerous,” about the iron bias control, than any other control on the detector. Long story short, I’m not a fan of dumbing stuff down just because some people will not bother how to learn how to do something correctly, and mess with things they know nothing about. We have default settings for people who do not know what a control does, and they should not mess with the default, unless they know why they are doing it. And if they do, and they miss stuff, frankly, that’s on them. Don’t make people who do understand what they are doing pay the price, for those who don’t care to learn. They have plenty of models to choose from, while full featured models are few and far between.

We have a new season of gold hunting just about to start and I've already seen a couple guys out and about making some finds of the heavy yellow metal. With the new season about to start is a few beginner nugget hunter want-a-bees. Let's take the time to share some of the knowledge we have learned. I myself recommend newer users to the nugget hunting scene to run as small of a coil on their VLF gold detector as possible. I have my reasoning for this, but before I say, I'd like to hear from others, your input, thoughts and experiences. What's interesting is the manufactures stock coil is usually larger than what I prefer and recommend for newer hunters. Thanks for helping out the newbies everyone.

I've lost count of the number of detecting videos I've watched where the user is cranking up the detectors sensitivity to very erratic levels. And in some of the testing videos, they are leaving multiple detectors on at the same time and they are all chattering away like crazy. Sure there are times where running your detector hot can be an advantage, but I can't help but think that when a person who's just thinking about taking up metal detecting, is lurking on YouTube and comes across video after video where the detectors are chatting away like crazy that they just get put off. I've even had the odd comment or two on some of my gold detecting videos, where to me the threshold was humming away beautifully, as if it was one with nature 😇 and I'll get a comment along the lines of...."nice one, but how do you deal with that annoying noise?". If that's what they are thinking after hearing a soft smooth hum, what would they think when they come across one of the detecting videos that sound like C-3PO after a case of Red Bull!??

Yesterday I started a thread with an unfortunate circumstance on the beach. I went back to the same beach today and almost in the same location I found this: It is a 24"/14k/9.2g chain and pendant.

Unless Nokta was providing the Pro Pack accessories at NO additional cost, I personally have no use for the small coil/big coil being offered in the pro pack variants (prefer a 10x5 elliptical) and the spare battery is just another unneeded accessory (unless built-in battery capacity turns out to be an issue, and in that case my Legend will quickly find itself on the classifieds forum). That spare battery just ends up adding weight and occupying the headphone jack and makes Legend unsuitable for water usage. No, I’ll save the $ on those unwanted accessories, get the Standard package and if I end up keeping Legend, will procure the optimum elliptical accessory coil (hopefully) down the road.

The V3 had a lot of innovation and cutting edge features. It was the first detector with color display, the second with wireless headphones, had stereo mixed-mode audio, and features like the SpectraGraph, Live Controls, and fully customizable audio tones. But where it was lacking was raw performance. Steve is right, a lot of people dove deep into the settings looking for ways to improve performance. But it wasn't all because the V3 was set to a low bar, it was because it fundamentally didn't perform as well as, say, an MXT or an Explorer. Part of the shortcoming was in the analog design and the reason for that is because the guy who knew the most about it -- Mark Rowan -- was run out of the company. In any case, there are a lot of cool features in the V3 that have yet to make it into another detector. We had a lot of other ideas that didn't make the V3 cut (the V4 was defined and started but didn't get far because all the players left White's) and I would love to design a new/better/high-performing V4 at some point. Ergo my curiosity about the acceptability of user levels. David didn't develop DST, John Gardiner did. I have no idea if 'off' really means 'off' but I'll try to find out. Sorry, I would share it if I did. Update passwords were unique to each detector. White's had a PC utility where you type in the detector's serial number and it generated the passwords. That utility was lost, along with the one that would reset your personal password if you forgot it, or if you bought a used V3 and wanted to reset the owner info. That would be a tall order, with or without me. The V3 needs extensive redesign.

A "real" list would be top 5 gold detectors, top 5 relic detectors, top 5 coin detectors, top 5 jewellery detectors, top 5 diving detectors, top 5 beginner detectors, top 5 budget detectors, etc etc. That's where these list really go wrong. This sets a prime example of how top lists should be, obviously this one is based upon gold detectors Something like this for each category would be awesome and nullify all these crazy top 5 or top 10 lists scattered all over the internet.

Carl, I love the fact that you brought the V3i into this discussion. I had one and if memory serves me correctly I got it when there was a coil issue at White's. My V3i had two bad coils. When I finally got a good coil I did like the detector but like many I was overwhelmed by the number of settings/adjustments possible with the detector. I recall at the time thinking that White's needed to pare the detector back for some users; I had no idea that the VX3 was in fact a reality. I don't know that I would have gone along with the $99.00 upgrade idea but perhaps this concept could have been implemented in a manner similar to the old Coinmaster 1, 2 & 3 series. Or maybe offering a V3I "dual" that would offer the two platforms in one unit. All I know is that to this day no manufacturer has offered anything close to the V3i in terms of ingenuity. It would be cool if Garrett brought the model back. They should bring you on board to make sure it's done right! Bill

Dates were hard to see. But a few were in the 40's the tax tokens were used in the late 30's through early 40's. The beach I was hunting was used primarily starting during the depression and into the 70's. Rings are hard to come by at this beach. Although I have found a few over the years there. The area has been pounded over the years and there are no recent drops or wave action to bring up new stuff. So the fact that I found what I did is very telling of the Deus 2. If/When the lake ever comes back up, new targets will be in reach as the waves move the sand. But until then it's all about getting the most depth you can.

Went out to another local park for two hours today with the same setup as yesterday when I found the gold Buccaneer flag charm. Today was 17 quarter, a fake plastic penny, and a medallion. Anyone see one like this before? It rang up as a 36 and was just off the sidelines of a soccer field (Equinox).

My favorite is when the put the shovel a foot away from the target and swing over the target....wtf. ? Or they have two detectors within 3 feet of each other while doing their “tests” I’m waiting for a guy to duct tape two detectors together and see how that works...Lots of stupid stuff out there from self proclaimed experts... the whole silent emi thing with the Deus2 and the Nox....did they really think that when you had two detectors that close to each other they wound not interfere with each other? The guys that swing PI’s as well as vlf’s seem to have a little more “Detector Common Sense” then most. strick

I don’t like this design. It looks like it might get in the way of your swing. I got the one on eBay that snaps under the original stand and widens it. It works well and still fits in backpack and doesn’t hit your hip when swinging. Sorry I don’t know how to attach a link.

They may be words you regret 🙂 If the Equinox 1000 Pro Ultra Premium Edition comes out at some point soon we'll all want it, lets face it and I highly doubt we'll be disappointed 🙂 The Equinox is 4 years old now, that's a dinosaur in technology terms and it's still right there with the best of 'em, if not in the lead, the others are playing catch up to a detector that's due for replacement, a dinosaur! a 4 year old computer can't even run the latest Windows, Microsoft deemed it not suitable for Windows 11, killed them all off. Maybe I'm getting that naming scheme confused with First Texas. Either way, if the Equinox 1000 comes out I doubt it'll be a flop and won't shake up the market once again, Minelab don't settle for a paint job, although I think we all agree build quality needs to improve. I think their bottom line with warranty claims may have pointed that out to them, at least I hope so. It's not wise to offer a three year warranty which is now becoming standard or even more with XP and their 5 year warranty on a detector that's lucky to last three years without some form of fault resulting in a warranty repair.... coil ears, water ingress, wobbly shaft, button failures and the list goes on. I just think it's great we have detectors from a range of manufacturers now that are competitive either by offering a lot for your money or performance in different areas excelling over others, not to mention the multi purpose detectors meaning one detector really can do it all and do it well, a good time for detector users and the future looks bright. Minelab, XP, Garrett and Nokta are doing well at the moment, I look forward to seeing what they all do in the future, not to mention the European brands like Rutus that really need more recognition than they get, hopefully they expand into the worldwide market.

There was no markings on it, and I could see some rust on it. There was plating that was starting to come off it also and the stones were just cut glass. I was running the sense at a lower setting because I had power lines about 75 feet away and didn't want the noise from it. Thanks

I just wanted to say thanks to all that have shared there knowledge here. Those of us that are new to this arena appreciate the information.

WAAAAAAY to early to tell. LOTS of 2022 left!

Great hunt for approx.. 30 minutes, dude you got silver !! 👍

Not going to try to talk you out of it. I have no idea what or where you hunt. If you hunt beaches/water and relic sites mostly then your probably good. If you hunt parks and yards or places with lots of modern trash the jury is still out on your selection.

Did you say something?

The main problem with cranking up IAR is that it doesn’t play well with highly mineralized ground, which cause all signals whether ferrous or non-ferrous to sound broken up. I usually run it at zero because I am usually relic hunting in hot ground and rely on target ID and the horseshoe display to tell me it’s iron under the coil. Old habits are hard to break, so even in the mild dirt farm fields I am mostly hunting in now, I keep the IAR at zero and interrogate the iffy targets signals acquired in Relic mode by switching to one of the FMF disc “modes” like Deep HC or General while swinging over the target. It’s really easy to switch between modes for target interrogation by using the +/- buttons to navigate back and forth between the user custom programs.

Deep HC non-ferrous finds (mostly brass and lead) in thick iron. Not just for deep high conductors. My favorite mode but it does suck the juice out of your coil.

If your lucky enough to be hunting with a successful nugget finder tis easy mimic him, his coil size but particularly his technique and I`m betting it`ll be low and slow. If your not that lucky best to start in bony (near bedrock) with as Gerry suggests a small coil and low and slow, but get lucky and go with someone that knows the go.😉

On Equinox, a newbie can’t even get to the Iron Bias control, without knowing exactly where it is hidden. No such control actually is visible on the detector. You have to go to the recovery speed control, and hold it for two full seconds, to activate the alternate Iron Bias control. Problem solved. Newbies can’t make accidental adjustment, but it’s there for people who want it. People who read the manual. It’s also not that hard to have a basic menu, and a separate advanced settings menu. XP has the Expert Menu: Once you begin to understand the Deus you can explore the Expert menu, remember the golden rule “only adjust something if it needs adjusting” some of the expert features are very rarely used during day to day detecting.

Looks like the shipment has arrived. Serious Detecting has at least 10 available as I write this: https://www.ebay.com/str/seriousdetecting/Nokta-Makro/_i.html?store_cat=14364028018

Now that's a great hunt! So you found a real ring that's worth something, small but real. Good going and good luck on your next hunt.

Neat and unusual find. HH jim tn

It does seem that the V3i not being quite as popular as it could’ve been has caused many to throw the baby out with the bath water. Multifrequency spectrograph and multifrequency pinpoint were great ideas then and great ideas now, but when this was discussed with NM for example, they were reluctant to mimic anything about the V3i because of its reputation for complexity and feature “overload.” Another reason you may not ever see these features again is because metal detecting manufacturers would then have to get honest with us about how many simultaneous frequencies they are actually using. You can’t have 3 frequency spectrograph and pinpoint on a machine running 2 frequencies at a time, for example. But boy is that multifrequency pinpoint no motion effective in commingled sites. It made up for the slow recovery of the machine overall, and was actually an amazing tool for determining where one item ends, and another begins, as well as their composition. For those who love the V3i there has been and likely will be no equal anytime soon. I plan to keep mine alive as long as possible.

Confidence is the key, having confidence in your own ability along with your equipment is very important, as without it you'll struggle. Knowing how your detector responds to gold is also important, knowing that gold might come up as ferrous on Target ID's or "gold change" indicators is also important. Small golds right at that break point between ferrous and non-ferrous so detectors can and do get it wrong. When I was learning I was missing so much small gold because I relied far too much on Target ID's and gold chance indicators on my detectors. Unless it's a very obvious iron target it's always best to dig it out, you've got more chance finding gold by digging most targets than you do swinging the detector around and avoiding digging as many targets as you can trying to avoid junk, doing this you'll miss gold, a lot of it from what I've experienced. If you're capable of detecting shotgun pellets, especially smaller ones and pellets with some depth that's all you need for confidence, you can find gold if it's there. This massive chunk of gold came up ferrous on the Nox, until it virtually touched the coil. I can't stress enough Target ID and Gold chance indicators like on the Gold Monster are there to give you some idea and should not be exclusively relied upon, if in doubt it's always best to dig it out! While I agree small coils on the VLF's especially small elliptical coils are wonderful for prospecting with a VLF there is something refreshing about using a PI/GPZ with a larger coil in a more open area like an 15x10" or 11" or like I mostly use 12" and 15" or whatever size you prefer on these powerful high end Minelab's while maintaining sensitivity to very small targets, that extra ground coverage sure speeds up detecting an area over messing around with a tiny little 6" coil.

As a newbie I for one fully understand what you are saying. I have not yet logged more than 50 hours on my grandfathers 800 and only use the factory default settings. They work fine for me and on Saturday I actually was able to turn on the 800 for the first time this year. It was very windy, at a very old park, and only had about 30 minutes to use it. However in that 30 minutes I found a 1957 dime and a 1967 penny close to 7 inches deep and less than 3 inches from one another. I made my way back to the car and had to leave. If I can find such things in factory settings why should I go messing with things that I simply do not understand yet. Thank you Steve for not calling us newbies idiots, while I must admit at times when I am using the 800 I feel like I am when all I dig is pull tabs.