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I have to admit I don't care that much. I think we are hitting a wall in various ways, and that a new model is not going to do a lot to change the facts on the ground. Those facts being diminishing returns. Sure, they could make a more ergonomic GPZ, but can they really make it find smaller gold better than what we have now? I don't think so. That leaves what some people want, which is more depth on 1/4 oz and larger nuggets. What can they bring to the table there, and how many of us have ground where that will pay off? Lots of Aussies I suppose. With things as they are now in my area, I would have a real hard time convincing myself I need to buy another $8000 - $10,000 metal detector. But that's just me. What sells detectors is not so much the reality, as the dream, and for lots of people the dream is alive. Going to get that super duper new machine, and go out and find a pile of gold. Yeah!!

This forum has been running for ten years now. I have never done anything to weed the database down in all those years, and it is getting way too full of stuff that does not need to be there. A big one is people who have registered over the years, but never posted. The so-called Lurkers. That's fine I guess but the reality is there is almost no reason to join the forum if you are not going to post. The content is free for anyone to view without an account, so you are free to lurk all you want, without taking up database space. The only area that is off limits to non-members is in the Downloads area, where I have limited the ability to download the large files to members only. I'm just trying to keep a lid on the bandwidth by keeping outside sites from linking directly to the resources there. Long story short a quick review shows that fully half the members database is comprised of non-posting accounts, going back ten years. I am going to delete all those accounts before the end of the year, except any created in the last 90 days. If you have one of those accounts, and do not want it deleted, you need to make at least one post before the end of the year. This thread will work. Just post anything at all here, and your account will not get deleted. You only need to do this if you have never posted on this website before. If any accounts are being held by spammers, it’s likely to be in this group, so it helps clean that up also. The end result will be invisible to current users, except that the site may get a tiny bit faster once I clear out all the deadwood. These people have never posted, so no actual content gets lost.

Thankful for the 2022 season with my beloved Goldmonster....4.177ozt. Most thankful for being invited back once again for the upcoming 2023 season!!!!!!!

I've been out again with my new Nokta Legend on the hunt for some gold jewelry. So far the gold is still eluding me, but I did manage another men's silver ring as a consolation prize for digging countless pull tabs along with other trash and clad. This time its the ring on my middle finger in the picture (the other 2 I got a couple of days ago) and its a large ring size, as it still too big even for my average sized hands. I got an ID# of 94 on the Legend and I was nearly positive by the locked on number and sweet-sounding tone it would be silver and likely a ring. I dug it about 3 inches down on the outskirts of a softball field where spectators sit in the shade of a tree. In case anybody is interested to know, my settings were Park, M2, 28sens, G(round) disc mode, 6 recovery, 4IF/3stab, 4 audio gain, using 60 tones. I had the 6in. coil attached. It works great for pinpointing the smaller targets and still gets the big ones.

OZ eye candy. The big one was a sunbaker, I was detecting down a dry creek, got massive "biscuit tin" signal at top of about 1m waterfall, looked over and could see it wedged in towards top of rock waterfall. Out in fringe country that had no old fellas working, others from same virgin area.

"Don't Sweat The Small Stuff" You are probably dialed in.

From the above discussion it would appear that there is not much reason to make any new gold metal detector from here on. The Axiom as a versatile all-round PI, the 6000 as specialized small/medium gold sniffer, the 7000 for depth and advanced settings and best ground processing. So, is this the end? Really? I personally don't think so. But the point is well taken, the advancements in technology need to be striking to justify a true value return for the money in terms of gold finds. And that is also getting harder with less and less gold in the (reachable) ground. But all that being said, I suspect the same people who refuse any thoughts of buying the new "GPZ8" will eventually change their minds, once they see a horde of prospectors are out there with the latest and greatest, while they are missing out. It is the "gold bug" in us and the obsession for metal detecting that keeps us going and that can't tolerate that someone else "might" have an advantage in the field. And that advantage might indeed be real. GC

There is a big reason. To part people from their money so as to stay in business. And to satisfy the desire of those who clearly are waiting for the next new detector. I sold my GPZ 7000 long ago, and my 6000 last year, and downshifted to a presumably less capable detector. So I have exited from that group already. But I am not the norm by far, and I would expect a GPZ 8000 to sell like hotcakes. When it appears, and it will, it will have a measurable advantage you can hang your hat on. Or Minelab will not make it. They are not a company to simply repackage something and call it better. So have no fear Gold Catcher, the detector you desire is waiting in the wings, though not nearly so close at hand as many people would like to imagine. But it will show up eventually, and then everyone that has a 7000 will have a reason to trade up and go hit all those dead patches one more time. The only new design that would get me truly excited would be GPZ like performance combined with Deus like ferrous discrimination in dense ferrous nail pits. But I will not hold my breath in the slightest for that.

Handle part of safety razors, double edge blade.

Thankful for the lesson this 2.8 gm taught me near Quartzsite earlier this month. Just because it's really loud and moves in first your boot scrapes, not good to just walk away. Happy Thanksgiving yo all. Mike

Our thankful nugget is not the many gold wire and leaf specimens I and my wife have recovered over 30+ summers here in Colorado but being able to experience all the good and bad times we spent detecting those prize specimens. The memories and stories that we are able share make it seem just as exciting and satisfying as the day we found them. Here is a recent wire gold specimen I finished cleaning and mother nature was sure in rare form we she created this one:

Nine Thanksgivings ago I found my largest nugget on Thanksgiving Day 2013. I've told the story a few times and posted it on a couple of other forums before I joined here. This link will give a look back and let you remember or get introduced to a few old timers mostly from the Southwestern United States where I found the nugget. It is an Arizona nugget. Introducing the Goose Egg Nugget (22.46 oz Speci) - GOLD NUGGET HUNTING - Nugget Shooter Forums (ipbhost.com) The night before I found this nugget I slept in my Isuzu Trooper and about an hour after I got up I heard this deep target in an area that had been hunted heavily for meteorites. After digging down into the cobbles out came the speci. It is nice to remember it but also sad because some of the people I shared the find with are no longer with us. Have a great Thanksgiving everyone. This is my entry into Gerry's contest.

Here's my entry. I always like to show my appreciation to landowners, for giving me permission, by giving them a display of stuff I found. Just gave this one to a guy this morning.

Well, I just got my Nokta Legend with extra 6in. coil 3 days ago. Today I hit a small park and started around an outdoor basketball court with the aim to find some jewelry. Day 3 detecting with the new machine turned out to be the charm! So far I have about 15 hours coin-shooting and looking for jewelry in parks and sports fields with the Legend, and I have to say it handles my highly-mineralized soil quite well with its SMF capabilities. Thankfully with my experience running 2 other SMF detectors the past few years, watching videos and reading the manual last week, I think I've gotten a solid handle of how to set up this machine. It might take a newcomer much longer to get to where I am, but the Legend is easy to use and even in the default modes and settings would work great for a less-experienced detectorist. Ring #1 was about 6ft. in the grass behind one of the basketball hoops. I thought a VDI# of 51 would mean it was a quarter, but imagine my surprise when this heavy, initialed with a "K" pinky ring turned up. I kid you not, it weighs exactly 1/2 oz. of sterling silver at 15.55 grams on the scale! Five minutes later, I knew I had another silver ring when I saw 6ft. over a VDI# of 55. I'd never seen an ID# that high in my previous outings, but being so close to a honker ring, it had to be another...and it was. A nicely styled, large man's ring. Its not a whopper like the other, but a respectable 7.23 grams. I attribute these two finds to 3 things, location, location, and the 6in. coil on the Legend that gave me the courage to dive into this zone heavy with trash, lol. In my short time out with the Legend, I'm really enjoying it a lot. Its a ton of fun to swing with the "dinky" coil, has great sensitivity to low conductors and works great in a variety of situations like in parks, fields, tot lots. Other detectors I've owned have struggled in my hot dirt, but the Legend handles it decently for the time being. Someday I still hope for technology that tames my dirt, but this newer crop of detectors with SMF are opening things up some. You still have to swing over the treasure though, and I'm glad I was able to get over these two beauties.

Getting ready to ramp up......what’s better than a AQ...... hmmmmm ....Two AQ’s Happy Trails jimpugh

June 18 1937 This morning we had a brief crew meeting. We feel we can once again get back to work but must remain on high alert at all times. There are the four of us here alone once again but we now have two deputies in town on our payroll. They should be of great help to us when needed. Will and I went up to the digsite after breakfast with Hudson on guard duty and John working the tom. We got into a good rhythm of digging and the sound of the pick and shovel work rang out in the cool morning mountain air. I felt the sweat rolling off my brow once again and the handle of the shovel in my hands as well. We broke for a quick lunch and resumed the digging and worked clear into the dusk. Even then we didn’t want to stop but finally did and drove the last of the buckets down to the tom. Every pan I had tested today looked rich. I have gold fever like never before and so does the rest of the crew. Even with our wealth obtained from our treasure find we still crave gold. I think we will always want it no matter what. Tonight after supper we drank to Sarge. John made a really beautiful speech about his friend. We all knew it could have been any of us going home in a box. I have told the others that if I am killed out here I want to be buried up on the mountain overlooking Jed’s first strike at the glory hole kettle. I want my casket buried in a secret location and filled with gold and Irish whisky. I have vowed to haunt any claim jumpers or high graders that enter the mining property. Every one of us also swore an oath to defend each other and all our goods to the death. We vowed never to be run off our claims and to defend them with honor. Jed would have expected no less and never was there a braver man than he. To that we drank well into the night. TO BE CONTINUED ...................

Seriously though, A detector with the ability to swing fast, and still capture targets, is one of my main requirements for beach hunting! Low and slow is fine, once you get to where the targets begin to group, but you have to locate those areas first! And that generally requires a fair amount of walking, as some of the best spots are not close to parking areas!! Reading the constantly changing conditions is part of that! The Nox, and a several others do that quite nicely! And I'm sure the "Core" will too! Swing speed is not the main problem i see of other's detecting! It's the massive "Golf" swing that is a target killer!! Having the coil at swing apex, twelve inches or more, off the deck, is a big no-no! But I see it all the time, and it just means more possible targets for me!👍👍

My thoughts exactly. If I was in a place where there was plenty of nice big gold to find my views might be different but my gold barely counts as a flake to some and they'd probably find it a disappointment if the target they dug was one of my little nuggets, hardly worth their time let alone going out on a mission to seek out such small pieces 🙂 I guess it's a bit like computers, for years we saw computers getting faster and faster, often doubling in speed every couple of years, manufacturers made transistors smaller with higher clock speeds to make them perform more computations per second, electronics get too hot if you make them calculate too fast and we were having bigger and bigger fans creating more noise and giant copper heat-sinks to try keep them cool, it was becoming impossible to keep them cool enough and partly why we no longer see clock speeds increasing much, CPU's now have the similar clock speeds as a decade ago so to get around this they put more and more cores in, so essentially we are running multiple processors in parallel to compute faster. The laws of physics stopped computers getting faster forever. This appears to be similar with metal detectors, Physics stopped them improving by leaps and bounds. It's amazing to me the Gold Bug 2 is the benchmark for small gold sensitivity after being released in 1995, 27 years ago and it is, I've not found a detector more sensitive. I'm done buying high end gold detectors for now and I doubt the GPZ 8000 will excite me too much, they won't want to take sales away from the 6000 so it will be a big deep gold detector with a 14+ inch coil with no small coil options even though it's well proven ZVT with a smaller or Concentric coil can be awesome for small gold and deep! I'm very happy with my current detectors, I benefit greatly by breaking the rules and having a range of coils on a detector not otherwise able to run them and I've told myself the Manticore is my last VLF for quite some time although I'd probably prefer it was the CTX 4040 I was buying. I often wonder how many people would have even bought a 6000 if Minelab just released a few extra official coils for the GPZ, similar to those that I run on mine, I guess that's not good for business, they make a lot more money selling a new crazy priced detector than a coil for one we already have.

Great picture, something about that color!! Here are a few of my bigger pieces I could to this day after many many years tell you the exact spot I found them, but I won't 🙂 the big ones are out there..don't let anyone tell you there not.

I considered myself a "lurker" for many years. But I never actually had an account & made no posts until last year. I have always appreciated your detector knowledge & your sharing of it Steve. Thanks for all you have done. D4G

But will I still be able to download updates for my 7000? Thanks again for keeping D.P. the best one.

Stick with the companies discussed by the thousands of successful users on forums. Avoid anything making excessive claims.

I like my doughnuts extra smokey!!😁👍👍

We use to have a One Ounce Club…you had to have found a 1-Ouncer within our group. One of our members was gold smith and made us a ring with the gold we found to suit our fancy(s). There where many made but this one is mine and use as my Wedding Ring! Rick

1¼ Troy Pounds (16 Oz) in Carol's hand all from separate patches. I was lucky I got it back off her. 😁

Now that everybody is full from a tasty Thanksgiving dinner, I did a weigh up of the 2 nuggets. Nugget #1 weighs .25g and nugget #2 comes in at a dwt. or 1.58 grams. Not bad of a day at all and I'm quite happy with that. Once I got those nuggets out of the way I felt I could relax and enjoy swinging the new detector over some familiar ground. I passed the exact spots I'd found many nuggets in the past and it was nice bringing back those memories. I think I need to next take the Axiom to some less familiar ground in the future and see how it can do. I think this may be my machine to grab when checking new areas since I can use a DD coil in bad trash and with the Axiom settings potentially tune out micro targets which can be a real pain in a new area and really slow down exploration for a new patch.

I’ve been more than blessed other than with Nuggets! The Friends, Adventure and lifetime of memories are my best finds. I was a pretty successful dredger in the Motherlode, but that gave way to full time metal detecting to satisfy my Gold Fever. I can’t remember every poke I’ve parted with, but if I remember right this one was over 5 ounces. It’s a mixture of California Foothills nuggets and the bottom one was just a hair shy of 1-ounce from the Sawtooth Knob area of Nevada. You bet I wonder, where all the big nuggets are at…until the next virgin patch of fatties, keep swinging that coil. LuckyLundy

After many years of metal detecting I'm amazed that I still discover nice finds days or weeks after a hunt. A week ago there were bulldozers making winter sand berms on a local beach so I decided to hunt behind them hoping that they would uncover some goodies. Targets were few and far between so I only hunted an hour or two before heading home to beat rush hour traffic. I finally emptied my finds pouch this morning and looked more closely at a small ring that I had assumed was silver. It was dull and a bit rough but when I examined the inside expecting to see "925" I saw "14K" instead. A quick acid test confirmed that it was gold and it cleaned up without much effort. At 2 grams it isn't the biggest ring but $65 in scrap gold value covers gas for a couple more hunts so that's a win!

Happy Turkey day everyone! Yes, I'm a prospecting scoundrel being out here at this very moment nugget shooting on this family-oriented holiday. But, I got the go ahead from the wife and kids to do a late dinner tonight. I've done a few quick tests of my new Axiom in a familiar patch area that's like an old friend on life support. Sad to see a patch dry up, but I know there is still gold on the fringes. I tried out the 13x11DD on the hottest patch of dirt I know of and it drives all of my PIs nuts, especially when wet like right now. I got the machine calmed in Normal mode/timing and sensitivity at 2-3. Nice to have adjustability like that. Next I headed up the ridge to "milder" dirt, its "only" highly-mineralized instead of red hot, haha. We've cleaned it pretty well, just a few pieces of small rust and an almond-sized hot rock with the 11x7 mono equipped now. I did snag the smaller nugget on a steep, very rocky spot 2-3in. down. It was likely missed by larger coils that didn't fit. I just pulled this second nugget at a spot where an old timer's ditch hits the creek. It's loaded with nails and is a spot we've "saved" until last. Down 3in. on bedrock, I was sure it would be a nail. It was not, and something to be thankful on this day! My tough ground is challenging the Axiom pretty hard. I'm in Fine mode, but on sensitivity 2. Higher sensitivity levels are too much, as Steve warns in his sensitivity control guidelines thread. HEED his warnings! The only hitch has been the wireless headphones. They frequently "pop" and wireless is lost for an instant. Seems to happen when my head nears the coil to dig or run the scoop over it. I've had a few times its totally disconnected. Standing up reconnects it. Multiple repairing and even a factory reset haven't solved it. I'm running the speaker now and I'm glad this unit has one. It's plenty loud and clear.

I am a long time reader. My current metal detectors are, Equinox, Whites TDI pro, TDI SL, and MXT all pro. Been detecting for 13 years, although I've taken the last year off due to a shoulder injury. Should be repaired in mid December, may be able to start detecting in 4 to 6 months, if health permits. Love to coin hunt, and occasionally pretend to be looking for gold. Although I'm an expert at finding a lot of lead. I've learned a lot by reading this Forum.

I’m working an old labor camp and two weeks ago I came across the first one of these and then today I came across the other. The top side is open on each. I thought maybe it was a cigarette holder but I can’t unscrew the ends(if you’re supposed to?) and there was no google support for that either. Any ideas?

I'm getting ready to post now man! I know I don't post much, but this is the only one I still go to. Great forum.

It's good you come and asked, you just dodged a very expensive bullet.

One word that come to me when i hear of these types of super duper detecting items and that is 'Bargepole' the longer the pole the better.

I still use one 😏 Sounds like a great spot!

Its been 40 years since I swung a detector. The last 3 months have been a blast. Met lots of nice people, hunted a couple of un-touched sites, and hauled a few nice coins out of the ground. Nothing terribly old. This area off northern Alberta was mostly settled in the 1930's. Some highlights include an 1899 English penny (an odd find for this area), 1922 nickel, 1935 cent, two 1943 tombac nickels, a few George V silvers, a 1954 dime (a bit of a key date), and a bunch of pre 1960 silver. The 1948 bronze chauffeur's badge was a nice artifact. Winter's here. Time to pack up the Nox 600, catalog some coins, and start gathering permissions for next Spring. There are a couple of circa 1910 sites that look promising... Cheers!

Yeah me included....when ML announced a new gold detector back then, we thought it was the GPZ replacement. Now a couple years usually separates new prospecting detector releases and the 'word' is that the GPZ8 prototypes have been in and out of field-testers hands for a couple years now. We'll see after the next shareholder meeting.

Finally! A new video is coming tomorrow of a Manticore field test in Arizona. Possibly a gold test for the Manticore. UPDATE: Well, no gold test. Just a Target Trace demo using iron and silver coins ON Arizona desert soil. Informative but it seems Minelab doesn't want any gold or aluminum to get under the coil of the Manticore during pre-release. And then there is Merrill in NYC. This guy is funny but he deciphers the cryptic Minelab video from the other day. (Actually I don't think it is a Z. It makes more sense that it is a 2 just like the 2's in the date.)

That’s harsh. JP doesn’t build them or work on the quality control line. Like Steve H, he can only suggest and advise, it is up to Minelab what the final outcome is.

Nah doubt very much that will be so, he`s been around the ridges for enough detectors to know each and every detector that`s been made/will be made has its detractors and its fans. Nah he`s out there having fun digging up that heavy stuff with another new detector.

Clay, That 100mil win was for for his Consumnes River, Sacramento county operation that got shut down. I remember reading it in our local news. I think on the Placerville Big Cut operation he was only fined a "small" amount in the end. That guy dont have to mine no more!

You would think California would learn. Remember the Big Cut placer gold mine and how the county and state were screaming "illegal mining"? The state and county claimed he had no right to mine his land. He mined it anyway. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna46309739 The mine owner was fined 900,000 dollars (which they never had to pay). The end result of the harassment was a federal judgement for 107 million dollars in favor of the miner. The Sacramento County Supervisor, planning director and aggregate resource manager for the county had more than 2 million dollars in judgements against them for their involvement in suppressing his mining rights. https://verdictsearch.com/verdict/historical-mine-operators-claimed-county-revoked-right-to-mine/ There are many laws in California regarding using surface waters. All of those water laws are based on the constitutional obligation of the state to ensure that the water is used for a beneficial purpose. California State Constitution Section 2 Article 10 https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CONS&sectionNum=SEC. 2.&article=X There are no laws prohibiting the use of water for mining because under California law mining is a beneficial use of water. The state water board agrees: The following definitions for beneficial uses are applicable statewide; Uses of water for industrial activities that do not depend primarily on water quality, including, but not limited to, mining, cooling water supply, hydraulic conveyance, gravel washing, fire protection, or oil well repressurization https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/about_us/performance_report_1314/plan_assess/docs/bu_definitions_012114.pdf The water board has no power to make laws or change the meaning of laws. The California constitution would have to be changed to give the water board the power to ban surface water use for mining.

I told the wife I was going on a quick hunt this morning and would be back by noon. Made it back by 11:30 instead lol. The goal was to combine a relic hunt at an old WW2 base near me and hit a park on the way home for jewerly...The WW2 base is nothing more than urban development with dirt that has been turned over but you can still find some cool stuff if you know where to look. Used the Deus 2 for about 1.5 hours then switched gears and hit a park on the way home. Targets were tough all around with most being beyond the reach of the garret carrot. Was very pleased to see the shiny gold ring pop out of the hole at the park. It was a solid 18 with the Nox in park 1 and weighs right at 6 grams 14K... I dug many zinc pennies today that read from 20 to 12 in various stages of decay. The tiny chain is silver and was a 1 on the Nox...the bigger chain plus crusifix is stainless. Dont forget to dig those zinc pennies fellas you never know what will turn up. HH and Thanksgiving. strick

Same, did it all the time until I got a recurring ulceration on my gums. Thousands of nuggets got the 'treatment' until it got so bad that I got a pathology report saying it was a certain soil bacteria. Only occurred in WA, nowhere else. But, I wised up and stopped gobbing my gold. Now only need a bottle with some water, shake it up....same result and no infections.

Well, the show is about over. Time to head home to cook fajitas and tacos for the 4 of us for Thanksgiving. 😁 I hope you all got something from describing my day out using the Axiom and had as great of a day as I have so far. The final few hours on max 8 sensitivity on speaker allowed me to find around 10 small targets on hard hit ground. All ferrous but for half a pellet and the final target of the day...a full pellet of course. The final pellet wasn't the smallest size, but was small. It sounded off at max 8 sensitivity and vanished on a setting of 2. Sens 3 gave a whisper I would have missed if I didn't know the target was there. This pellet was less than 20ft. from where my dad got a 5 gram nugget and it had been missed. That was the target that told me the Axiom does pretty well on the small stuff and the kind that builds confidence. The big ones take care of themselves 😃

Minelab made everyone take note of the old 'Axiom' (pun intended): 'Innovate or perish'. Looks like Garrett listened.

Uh Oh ! Best not to let this leak out just before Christmas PSPR - Pretty sure you've just relegated yourself to the Minelab NAUGHTY LIST and will therefore get BUMPED to the back of the Manticore waiting line. Minelab expects patience and LOYALTY from their dedicated customers. Unrelated - growing up, did you ever catch Santa Claus in the act? 😉 UtahRich -

My prime detecting time is November to May which is why I was hoping to get it by Christmas. I also tend to go away for a month or so over Christmas so I'd like to take it with me, I can detect year round here I just prefer to use my winters for skiing. Hopefully it comes in time, I was hoping to take some new GPX 6000 coils with me from NF too, that looks like it's not happening so hopefully at least the Manticore does. I dislike these early announcements that are clearly just designed to stop us buying the competitors product, same thing happened with the GPX coils, and the Manticore announcement was there to stop Deus 2 and Legend sales. I like the way the Deus 2 was released, took us all by surprise.