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Leaving LAX Sunday July 3 to OZ..🤠 Stay tuned for a probable interesting dramatic time..lolol

out of an old farm field, today's great find , a silver ring marked 925 which stands for 92.5% pure silver the rest made up of copper for strength

They hate Yanks!!!!!!!-- that's why I have to stay way out in the desert miles away from civilization and the closest pub. It's a dreary... dreary life...... with nothing but the flies and snakes to keep oneself company. Gold nuggets come along once in a fortnight, and I cant even find any bigger than a sub-grammer because WA has been flogged to death by every dickhead from around the world. I dont even know why I am going back this year--- I guess for the chance to take another drive back east where all the real gold is in FNQ and down in Mexican country--That's where I heard they were picking up nuggets galore. It is a huge price for airline tickets and will take a lifetime of detecting just to recoup that investment. I guess someone has to go there... I've always been a Volunteer..

Pity you could only get 10% of them in that photo, Aureous. 😞

All our outback welcoming committee is ready n waiting for ya Paul

No promises but you will hopefully get your wish granted... we are not done with updates:-)

Copper is added for malleability. When working with silver it will become brittle and have to be annealed so it doesn't crack. Nice looking ring.

I finally had a chance to do wild target comparison testing in a Denver Colorado area public park using Deus 2 9" coil, Legend 11" coil and Equinox 800 11" coil. Absolutely nothing is implied by doing these tests. I don't work for these detector companies and I gain nothing from doing this testing except for the knowledge it gives me. I am sharing this experience here on this forum. I am not trying to prove anything whatsoever. I liked all three detectors before the test and I still like all three detectors very much. They have many similarities and just a few basic differences at least when it concerns this test, on this day, in these ground/target conditions. So, the ground was damp, temperature was 82 F with light breeze and partly cloudy. Deus 2's mineralization graph consistently displayed 10 out of 12 bars, so highly iron mineralized ground. I chose a 30 foot by 7 foot area and flagged six targets. Actually I only had six flags but there were seven targets. Target number 2 was actually two adjacent targets. I used Deus 2 to first locate and choose these targets. Target depths below include 1" of grass/ground clearance. I chose these targets to flag because: ---they were fairly obvious deeper targets, ---there seemed to be iron, low conductor, mid conductor and high conductor non-ferrous targets included in the target selection ---all of these targets had consistent enough target IDs and tones for me to make an educated guess about what they were before digging --- all of these targets were probably coin sized and at least 6" deep which was determined by audio response, displayed depth readings and they were all out of range of my Teknetics Tek Point pinpointer set to Max which usually means 4.5". You can stop reading right here if you want. All three detectors had very similar results on these seven targets and the information they gave was remarkably consistent and accurate considering the depth of these targets and the high iron mineralization. However, before digging the flagged targets I ran all three detectors over the grid area and counted the number of targets that I determined were solid 2 way response targets. They could be ferrous, mixed ferrous or non-ferrous but they had to have repeatable 2 way responses. Size was not considered. Most were shallower than the flagged targets by their audio responses and depth readings. After the test I recovered 15 of these targets that were in the surface to 4" depth range before stopping since the grid area was starting to look really bad from my recovering 22 targets including the flagged targets. I used the Legend to recover those 15 targets. Deus 2 detected 31 targets that matched that description in the 30' by 7' area. The Legend detected 43 and the Equinox detected 54. Those were detected 2 way repeatable targets. There were many more that weren't 2 way repeatable by the way. So, this was a small area with lots of targets that could cause masking, etc.!!!!!! Settings: Deus 2, 9" coil, Detech over the ear headphones with WS6 Puck installed.......Modified Program 2 Sensitive, 5 tones, disc. 10, sens. 95, Freq. shift 3, Iron Vol. 3, Reactivity 2, Audio response 4, Bottle cap reject 1, Notch OFF, Silencer 1, Ground Balance 86 (I chose the Sensitive program because it ground balances the best in the iron mineralization present here of all the higher weighted programs with very few spurious ground responses in the Coke 23 to 25 range) Legend, 11" coil, stock Bluetooth over the ear headphones.......Park Multi 1, 6 tones, disc. 0 to 3 rejected, sens. 26, freq. shift 10, recovery speed 5, iron filter (fixed) 8, iron volume 4, no notches, ground balance 9. The Legend ground balanced easily with no issues with spurious ground responses. Equinox 800, 11" coil, Avantree Studio Pro over the ear BT headphones, Park 1 Multi, 5 tones, disc -9 to -5 rejected, sens. 22, freq. shift 8, iron volume 4, recovery speed 5, F2 iron bias 2, no notches, ground balance 2. The Equinox ground balanced easily with no issues with spurious ground responses. Target 1 6.5" deep small aluminum ring pull with just the ring....no beaver tail All three detectors detected this target correctly. Deus 2 TID 62 Legend TID 25 Equinox 800 TID 12-13 Target 2A US Jefferson Nickel 2004 Lewis and Clark "Keel Boat" and Target 2B unidentified mixed aluminum/iron target Both targets were 7" deep and they were 3" apart. All three detectors detected both targets separately and correctly. Deus 2 target 2A TID 62, target 2B TID 83-85 with iron audio responses Legend target 2A TID 26, target 2B TID 40-41 with iron audio responses (targets were too deep for Ferro Check reliability) Equinox 800 target 2A TID 12-13, target 2B TID 22-23 with iron audio responses Target 3 7" deep 1977 Lincoln Memorial copper penny All three detectors detected this target correctly and easily. Deus 2 TID 89-90 Legend TID 47-48 Equinox 800 TID 27-28 Target 4 7"deep 1959 Lincoln Memorial copper penny All three detectors detected this target correctly even though there were iron targets/responses all around it which made the exact location of this penny tough to pinpoint. Deus 2 TID 89-99, Legend TID 48-60 Equinox 800 28 to 39 Target 5 9" deep 1965 Lincoln Memorial copper penny This target was detected correctly by all three detectors even though there were iron targets/responses all around it. By far the toughest target of the test. Deus 2 TID 91-99 Legend TID 50-60 Equinox 800 TID 30-39 Target 6 8" deep 3" long late 1800s to early 1900s square nail All three detectors detected this target with mid conductor falsing and with iron responses. I guessed a very corroded zinc penny, mangled aluminum screw cap or nail before digging. Deus 2 TID 81-88 with plenty of iron responses, Legend TID 38-44 with plenty of iron responses (too deep for Ferro Check reliability) Equinox 800 TID 21-25 with plenty of iron responses. This test did teach me one really important fact. Not on a soapbox here just stating the obvious. There were many people including me that doubted the ability of Nokta Makro and XP to come up with effective simultaneous multi frequency operation that could compete with the Equinox platform. We all experienced the release of Deus 2 and the Legend and all of the turmoil and vitriol that went with those releases and with the hype both positive and negative afterwards. I will just say that in particular.......the Legend is an outstanding metal detector. Its precursor, the Simplex (I detected this park with one) simply would not have hit these flagged targets in this dirt very well if at all and certainly with very poor target ID/tone accuracy. The same goes for the original Deus 1 (also detected this park with one). So both companies have released great SMF detectors no matter what anyone says to the contrary.

Went looking for 1800s festival location but the terrain was too rugged in the heat so I gave up for today and went to a creekside location where I always have a good time. It’s a location with a few foundations that is packed with iron but has provided many nice finds over the years. I was rewarded with this fine 1901 Barber quarter. No mint mark but in very fine condition. Might go back today. I was using sensitive FT and X-Y screen reactivity 4

Nenad put up a video using the 12x7" It's sounding like it's a lot more stable than the 11", Nenad even points out it's running smoother allowing him to bump the sensitivity up a couple of clicks. I like what I see with the size/shape of it and certainly the smoother running which you can clearly hear in the video. I am looking forward to getting this coil. I've always liked Nenad's videos, he shows it how it is junk and all.

You’re spot on Jeff. Going from memory, I thought it was clearly stated in the manual that the puck could be charged with either cable (three way or single), but to update you could only use the single cable. I think the erratum was just making it known that you could use the single cable not just to update but that it could also be used as a charging cable. BTW, both of the cables fit snugly in the port on the puck and I haven’t had a single issue with the puck not pairing with the remote when I turn it on. Knock on wood. Lol! I did have a problem with pairing after doing one of the updates, but once I paired it manually all was fine.

SUCCESS! Its done and dusted.... I'm already 'in the black'. Since May 10th, Ive found 255 bits of gold for 41.79 grams. 184 hours detecting. The 6000 now owes me nothing, its all cream from here lol. The extra 1.79gm has paid for the canvas protector and neoprene arm rest cover set. Suppose I'll still have to find another 8.1 grams to pay for the 12x7 NF mono coil but I will have that 'in the bank' easily by the time it becomes available. At some stage soon, I'll take a pic of all the junk Ive found....its considerable.

The manipulation is endless, all day every day, so who really knows where the price is going. Gains in slow increments and lots of sideways movement seems how the money masters like to keep it. Anyway, hope you're on target Aureous.

All Commander coils were made by a company in Sth Korea but that no longer seems to be the case with the 6K coils. if someone could open one up, i'm sure we'll see the shielding being sub standard or the screen wire being way too short. Personally, I cannot see why ML would want to chip their coils..... the bigger range of coils available, the more successful the detector will be. the fact that the coils are exact same specs as previous gGPX ones would've made this issue a huge bonus for everyone. An utterly brainless decision and a huge missed opportunity for Minelab. ML are in the business of making great detectors, NOT coils.

Chinese talents??? That might be a little overreach. Most everything coming out of China is inferior.

Crikey I can hear violins.......... in the background behind all the WA tortured moans and groans..... ah no that Outback Tank`s coming back @#%$!&^$%#@ 😉

I'm with you on the earbuds, they're so much nicer in hot weather. I just ordered the WS4/6 audio adapter and plugged in some cheap JBL wired earbuds and clipped the WS6 puck to my hat band. Problem solved! XP WS4/6 Audio Adapter

Seriously? I can see the marketing whiz kids at work on this one. “People love pirates, right? Alaska shows do well. Pirates in Alaska, that’s the ticket!!” Like many tales this one has a source that seems based on a tale, with the likely amount of gold inflated, and the idea it’s buried someplace a real stretch based on a few oddball finds. More likely a few coins were found on Adak, and a tale concocted to explain them. https://www.historicsitesandshipwrecks.com/seal-pirates-missing-gold/ Alaska Lost Mine & Treasure Tales

You are a brave man. 😎 and don't forget your thongs and do I have to remind you to take your detectors. 😁

So true…… the next time I see an ironstone outcrop (here in WA) that has been struck by lightning, I’ll be sure to take a photo. It can look like a small solidified lava flow 😳

If anyone in the US can find a spot where you can actually weld the soil into pig-iron, you are getting into semi-Australia type conditions. I haven't seen or heard of anything remotely similar there?

Good place to start is detect older areas. So round up an old map, say 1920 for example, and hunt existing places that are on the map back then. Try Old Maps Online for general maps https://www.oldmapsonline.org/en/California#bbox=-124.48200307000002,32.529523530000006,-114.13078163999997,42.009498940000014&q=&date_from=0&date_to=9999&scale_from=&scale_to= and Sanborn Fire Maps are great for down to the nitty gritty local details https://www.loc.gov/collections/sanborn-maps/about-this-collection/

So OCD Strick 🤣 See I already managed to get the wrong day of the week, but at least the 3rd was right!!! Sounds like all things remain the same 😵

Well, yes, that's understood. Their releases don't seem to run on a regular schedule, though.

So far works really well. I use my pp straight up and down to find the target then put the blade just outide and pop the target out. Tip does scoop pretty well for it's size. I hunt quite a bit at the river and lakes that have packed gravel and want to test the new one on durability. Should be like a little pry bar. Shovels are useless in the gravel.

The Chinese manufacturers are not only doing clones they're doing mash ups combining features of one model in the look of another. This one is pretty interesting, it looks like a GPZ, combined with a CTX 3030, combined with a normal VLF for functionality and coil design, and includes a full colour touch screen. I like the GPX 4500/5000 arm cuff on a GPZ body. 🙂 It truly is a shame they don't use their talents to make their own detectors, you would think with the clones they can pop out and the skills that they must have to do them they could sit down and build a detector of their own and start a genuine manufacturing company for detectors rather than using other companies ideas. One thing they did do right that Minelab could learn from is getting rid of the weak CTX coil ears and using the GPZ 7000 coil mounting ears on a CTX shaft.

Minelab has posted a link which shows that the GPX 6000 is being used in a Netflix series. It also states there are other amazing detectors. What could they be? Have you heard? Pirate Gold of Adak Island starts streaming on Netflix on June 29th. Will this expert team unearth legendary pirate treasure? Follow the hunt for buried gold amid the harsh Alaskan wilderness in this documentary series. Minelab is excited to see the GPX 6000 in action...along with some other amazing detectors. https://minelabmetaldetectors.cmail20.com/t/ViewEmail/j/CECC249E62AEC10B2540EF23F30FEDED/DB0BCE1DBD546B193FEC1D8A50AFD3BD?alternativeLink=False

Thanks for the reply Simon. I've never gold prospected, so I'm just trying to wrap my head around what one considers successful. Everyone's after the whoppers out there, they do get found, but I guess that's mostly a bonus when it occurs for most hunters 🙂 Kind of like when we find a gold coin or rare date/mint silver coin at an old site, but plenty of other relic finds keep us content, and coming back for more.

Well done Aureous. Do you have to travel very far to get to your gold grounds. Fuel costs these days are another large cost in chasing gold that many seem to not mention but becomes part of the equation when talking about gold finds paying the way. Phrunt, just out of interest have you made your GPZ pay for itself before thinking of gold finds paying for your 6000? D4G

His tests seem very promising. Can't wait to recheck old permission with the new settings. Oh man and bring on the 10x5....

thanks Carolina - much appreciated - I managed to find the connectors online and have wired an unused set of Koss yellows to the connector - epoxying as we type! They seem plenty loud and you can drive them louder with the 'bone conductor setting' on the Deus 2 (probably also ok on the standard setting at v9). Will post photos

I’m curious to how you all see the mineralization of the soils you detect compared to other locations. Our soil here in central Arizona seems to be fairly mineralized. But, we haven’t been detecting anywhere out of state to let us effectively compare. Here’s a USGS map showing relative iron concentration in US soils. There appears to be heavy iron concentrations in the Pacific Northwest. Does this reflect your experience on the ground? If so, has this affected what you choose to swing? If not, how do you think your soil compares to elsewhere? us iron concentrations.pdf

Both of my 6K aftermarket coils are gonna be from Rohan. 3 of my last 4 Coiltek purchases failed within 6 months of use. The only NF failures Ive had were older SL monos that were left out in the sun for too long....bought second hand.

Nice ring! Got a silver and 18k gold version, recently a toe ring. 👍 Odd that you'd find it in a farm. 🤔

Back when I got it there was just the one supplier. Not the case now. Google: XP DEUS 2 Remote Control Headphone Jack Adapter Part Number D2-RC1-G0-002 It is a genuine XP part, and any XP dealer should be able to at least order it for you. And surely somebody can put it in a small padded envelope for shipping, not some ridiculous oversized parcel. The thing can weigh a ounce or two at most. XP DEUS 2 Remote Control Headphone Jack Adapter

Got some areas that I want to hit but can't really use my regular digger as the ground is really dry and want to be bit more discrete. Made a mini digger/probe using 1095 high carbon steel. Thinking I may use a lower carbon steel as this can be brittle but it is surprisingly strong and holding up well even on packed dirt. Still have to get my technique down but it does a pretty nice job.

My first ounce with the 6000 here in New Zealand was 31.16 grams in 305 pieces. That reflects our small kiwi gold. Just over .1 of a gram average. That's lots of digging & that's not counting the rubbish digs. By far most of it was with the 11" & a few with the 14". I don't have the 17" as there are not many places I could swing it where I detect. Same really with the 14" as I haven't used that coil much but where I have I got a few bits. Have been using the 6000 for over 6 months & have had no issues except for the shaft twist. I like it. D4G

, 83 pieces, 73 is Tele Code for cheers.

Running total as of today... 30.87gm (almost an ounce!), 192 bits of gold, 147 hours detecting time. 10.3 grams (thereabouts) to go. Pic is of the last 6.8 grams found in the last 5 afternoons.

There is a practical and necessary reason for providing the single cable. The single charging/update cable for the WS6 was provided because they wired up the 3-Way USB A cable connector dedicated data pin to the mult-pin DIN connector for the remote (you don't wire in multiple split parallel data lines because you want to avoid people attempting to hook up two devices at once during updates, but you can easly and conveniently split power and use multiple connectors for charging). As a result, they needed to provide a separate single USB cable with a B-mini connector with data so you could run data and power to be able to do firmware updates to the WS6. Because you can't/don't split data lines (and because all the connectors looked the same unlike the D2 3-way), the old 3-way B-mini cable for the Deus 1 similarly could be only be used for charging 3 devices at once but couldn't be used at all for updating. Since the DIN connector looks noticeably different on the Deus 2 3-way, they could take advantage of this visually distinctive feature to wire up both data and power to that multi-pin DIN connector for both charging and updating the remote for convenience (avoiding having to provide yet a third dedicated cable for updating the remote) without causing (too much) confusion to the end user. There is no reason you can't use the three-way to charge the WS6, you just can't use it to update the WS6. It's also convenient to have the dedicated cable so you can simultaneously charge 4 devices at once if you also happen to own the MI-6 pinpointer. HTH

Joe, tried to help, got no response.

I'm at a campground I metal detected last year, checked to ensure I was still allowed. This place has so many different areas, tot lot and volleyball court, an old farmhouse site with lots of relics from the 1800s, and a huge waterfront. This morning I went to the tot lot , Cornhole and volleyball court. I brought the Equinox and used it in the usual Park 1 settings. It was outrageously hot and muggy this morning. Searched the tot lot and surrounding area, I was hoping for an earring, but just got a lot of change. I was surprised by a 1946 wheat! Then I searched the Cornhole area, got a couple more coins. Here I was hoping someone would have thrown a ring or something. Last was the volleyball court, there is far less sand this year than last. I won't dig much past the sand as I don't want to leave muddy patches behind, so I left a lot of targets behind. I had my Ranger shovel but only used a composite trowel. My first find was a toy motorcycle, and not much after that except for a strong 5, I got a bead or slide that may be gold. Ended my 3 hour hunt with $2.01 in usable modern coins, including the wheat. Got one of everything, the Zincolns are on the bottom. 😀 Not too much trash, I picked stuff up as well so they would see that I do a good job. Later in the day we had to bug out of the campground for a couple hours due to a tornado warning. 😬 Luckily there was no damage when we got back. Some trees were down on the road in. Going to try the water tomorrow with the Deus 2. I'm glad I have more than one detector now! 😀

A lot depends on where you live. Start by studying the history of your area. Google "History of your town". Old farm fields are the best. Just stop and ask permission. Where I am in NH, many places of high human activity have returned to woods. A good place to start might be in the vicinity of RR tracks. Most were built in the 1800s. It took a lot of man hours to build them. Look for places where the workers may have had lunch. Some bridges took weeks or months to build where the workers would be for a long time. Vagrants often lived near RR tracks, sometimes in large camps for safety. They all carried coins. River banks often had a lot of activity. Look for where people might have fished, gone swimming, or camped. It may have looked completely different 100 years ago. Think positive. Imagine all the ways people can lose coins. At night in the dark, in deep grass or snow, falling down, fighting, taking alcohol, cutting trees, riding horses, fixing wagons. The possibilities are endless.

I've actually gotten to the point that I only use Park 1 for all my hunting except beaches and gold nuggets. Works for me both park hunting and relic hunting and I don't feel like I'm missing much. Used to use Field 2 relic hunting until I started comparing signals in the field between Field 2 and Park 1. Park 1 almost always gave a better tone and tighter target ID so now that's what I use most of the time.

Come on Eric, we all know the wildlife in Australia all want to kill you! Even the lovable dogs want to take you out, they steal babies! I've even been attacked by a bird there, yep, a little birdie swooped on me and tried to peck my brains out, damn Magpies, and then another bird was sitting in a tree watching the entire episode and all it could do was laugh at me, crazy Kookaburra's. There is nothing fake about the crazy wildlife there, big or small they're out to get you! 🙂 Just a day ago a guy got the crap beaten out of him by a cute little Kangaroo https://www.9news.com.au/videos/national/vision-emerges-of-a-man-attacked-by-a-kangaroo/cl3shtfjz003p0jm5go7p8urs

IMHO, the SDC is as good with small gold as the GB2 or GM1000, especially with the SP01 combo. And yes, where I hunt the soil is highly mineralized (Motherlode). Especially with the ultramafic Serpentine outcroppings that are part of the Motherlode belt. However, the worst soil I have encountered in some areas of the Mojave desert in Southern CA. Some of these areas are so rich in iron that the compass doesn't even work (magnetite, iron-rich basalt, iron ore, etc..). Go figure....

Just a couple of site-specific notes on the Pacific Northwest based on some limited initial VLF detecting. In the Oregon Cascades, the Quartzville Mining District appears to be an area of mild mineral content. In eastern Washington, the area about 10 East-Southeast of Spokane, in the Spokane Valley area is also of mild mineral content. In both instances I have focused on small areas where I had permission to use a detector. Other areas nearby may be different.

Here's the original paper: https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1270/pdf/PP1270_508.pdf It's worth noting that the map shows iron concentrations totalled over all chemical forms, not just the insidious (to detectorists and other gold recoverers) magnetite. From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_ore Although iron is the fourth-most abundant element in the Earth's crust, comprising about 5%, the vast majority is bound in silicate or more rarely carbonate minerals (for more information, see iron cycle). The thermodynamic barriers to separating pure iron from these minerals are formidable and energy intensive, therefore all sources of iron used by human industry exploit comparatively rarer iron oxide minerals, primarily hematite. Thus magnetite isn't even the most abundant oxide of iron. (Hematite is only weakly ferromagnetic. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hematite#Magnetism) I bring all this up because the Fe3O4 (magnetite) scales on the Fisher F75 and Fisher Gold Bug show iron concentrations considerably less (by roughly a factor of 10) than those in the map Skokum included above. The detectors actually measure magnetic susceptibility but the results are reported in Fe3O4 equivalent units. (See: http://www.fisherlab.com/hobby/davejohnson/DavesGoldbook-reders.pdf especially pages 12-13 and 24-26.)

Interesting read. I would say my gold hunting areas in Idaho are mostly mild, but I do have some hot areas. Eastern Oregon were I hunt is more mineralized than my South Idaho sites. The ground I swing in Northern Nevada is actually pretty mild, but I do know of a few hot areas. When I head to Montana, I feel the sites I hunt there have the hottest ground of all. Yes I feel MT is hotter than the areas I swing in Arizona too.

To supplement the video above: White’s TRX Instruction Manual White’s TRX Extended User Manual