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The short answer is, unfortunately, yes. Got a 10k gold wave ring on a beach in Savannah that was a 1. Since then I've dug a lot of round bottle seals... 😵 Sorry to break the news.

Gigmaster reviews the Deus 2. Unlike most YouTubers, Gigmaster waited until he had almost one year of near daily use at saltwater beaches and on land based relic hunts before he recorded a review of his Deus 2s. Unvarnished, no nonsense, straight forward review.

Found it with the simplex and a city park that has been hammered for decades! Thanks for the welcome guys. I took the D2 out tonight for some beach detecting and I'm starting to get it nailed down. I found 20ish coins and another silver ring with a giant fake pink diamond. I dug a wheat penny over a foot deep in the wet sand which just blows my mind.

I didn't write this down back in 2002 but at this point I began to realize there wasn't much that would scare Jacob. He'd seen it all and been to hell and back more than once. He was my hero in every sense of the word and I suddenly understood what the brotherhood of gold mining and prospecting was all about. I had much to learn as did Jim and Vern. We would protect our new partner in good times and bad. Little did we know what lay ahead for us. Also, today marks one year of posting this adventure with over 230,000 views. A BIG THANKS to Steve and all the readers.

Here are some pictures of the ring. Mom cleaned it up some. It's the one on her pinky.

Just received my check from Midwest Refineries. I mailed them my 10K and 14K scrap gold jewelry finds and my .925 silver scrap jewelry finds for the last 18 months for processing. I removed as many gemstones as I could before mailing. It all fit into a USPS Priority Mail Small Flat Rate box. I added some extra insurance. Midwest received and processed it on the same day and I have a check in my hands for $2,400 or so after a one week turnaround. They paid 95% of melt value on the gold and 90% on the silver with no additional fees. Very easy to deal with, no questions asked, just follow their instructions. The amount they sent me is within $200 of my estimate too, so very happy.

Yes. It didn't have a Hallmark or "k" number, had to test it to prove it. I've since collected all 3, Rose gold and silver too. Dug it up near the exit. Odds are you'll find a few of these, lucky that the others ID a bit higher. 😀 One of my experienced detecting buddies always says, "if you're not digging foil, you're not finding gold". One day we were hunting VA Beach, and his Equinox 800 didn't find the 14k gold chain at all, but he saw it. My D2 was blind to it too, so I tweaked it later to ensure that wouldn't happen again. 🤔 Welcome to detecting! 🤷‍♂️ 😀

A picture from down in the Southern Kettle.

This is a picture of the shaft Jacob was talking about.

April 24 2002 Part Three UP TO THE NORTHERN FAULTLINE WITH JACOB After about fifteen minutes we all headed back down the trail and headed north to the old road going up to the northern faultline dig site. Jacob was surprised to see the condition of the road. There wasn’t much left of it and we hiked about half a mile to get up there. Jacob told us this was a dangerous area back when he was working there. You never knew who might be up on the mountain and there were people who would try to rob you and steal your gold. Hooligans traveled up and down the mountain all the time and some were quite dangerous. When we got up there he led us over to a forty foot deep ravine that was located against the west side of the faultline. Whisky Jack had shown it to the crew back in 1936 and told them the old company was getting some good gold here back in the late 1800’s before the company moved them to another location. Whisky Jack had told them they never approached bedrock or country rock as they referred to it back then and they figured there was a pile of gold deeper down. Jacob gave us a wink and said he was going to tell us something he didn’t put in his journal. It seems he and the crew went up there in 1937 and dug out a shaft about thirty six feet deep where they hit bedrock and a pile of gold. He wouldn’t tell us how much they got but said it was plenty. He said they had dug a couple exploration drifts at the bottom but the bedrock dropped away nearly vertical and they had no idea how deep bedrock was from there. Then the entire workings flooded and collapsed so they moved on. He said there was never any mention of it in the journal. He said there were other things that happened that he and Jed never wrote down but didn’t want to talk about at this time. We got down in the ravine and sure enough, the old shaft was there but collapsed and flooded out. Jacob told us that there could be thousands of ounces still down there. We all looked at each other with our eyes as big as saucers. Jacob said the crew all had their hiding places for their share of the gold. He figured almost all of the gold from 1937 was still hidden somewhere on the mountain. He said that he was trying to remember where his was buried. The ground had changed some and he remembered hiding gold in five locations. He took us a bit further north along the faultline and showed us more of their old diggings. We were amazed at the amount of work they had done with pick and shovel work. Jacob talked about the difficulty of moving the bigger rocks by hand and how long the days were. Jed had taught him the value of hard work and none of the crew ever complained. He said he could still hear the ringing of the pick and shovel striking against stone and gravel. TO BE CONTINUED ...............

My first breast plate was found at a site a logging crew was cutting trees off of. I was working my way through a spot, and got a overload signal on the F75. I kicked the dirt and out rolls a drop 3 ringer. A few steps away, another one. Then I realized it was also the place the workers had apparently been taking their breaks at, as flattened soda cans were everywhere where they'd ran over them with the big machinery and mushed them into the ground. I found a few of them and was almost about to move out of the spot...got one more overload signal and kicked the dirt expecting to see a shiny mtn dew can. Instead, out rolls what I first thought was the zinc lid to a Mason jar. Went to pick it up to put in my pouch and there it was....eagle breastplate. Sounded just like the shallow bullets and cans and was in the same small area. A house now sits on the exact spot it came from.

When I get a 1 or 2 with the 800 I always get a bit excited. The Equinox is renowned for throwing up those numbers for some types of Gold Jewelry as seen in F350 post. If you look at my profile pic that small nugget that you see on the end of the coil came in as a 1 as well.

You got me digging in my old tool box, is the tip copper? Then I’d say for sure it is an old iron, it also is shaped like it could be used to rig sails and splice rope? that’s a quarter next to it for size comparison.

That's the beauty of the Equinox, and what it's revered for 👍. I love mine. I've found both the earring and the tiny clasp 3 feet apart! 😀They get flung off towels. From all I've read here another thing that will give you fits (if you find it not being detected) is an open gold hoop earring. The heavy hitters can explain it much better than me, but it has something to do with the shapes. I found that ring my first beach hunt, and a 10k ring on a hill behind my house, that was in my first year. Nether was marked so somebody took me under their wing and showed me how to test gold with an acid kit. Forgot about those... 🤔 This past year I've found 4 hallmarked gold rings! But I only go to the beach a few times a year. "Persistence pays off" is another tenet of metal detecting. 🤣 Sorry to always jump in man, I'm testing my knowledge of the subject, and looks like I'm doing ok by the likes. 😎 Others will be along soon. 🙂

Equinox blows the Monster away for ferrous id, which is one of several reasons why I still have the Equinox and not the Monster. The Monster can hit just a little bit smaller gold, but in all other respects I think the Equinox is the better nugget machine.

I've seen those, they look like CNC milled poly. They're interesting, but on Steve's shaft the balance is pretty good. 👍 Might be ok without one.

Yeah, we are good, there will be no changes. I'm going to go ahead and lock this. Thanks for all the feedback folks!

April 24 2002 Part Two JACOB TAKES US TO THE SOUTHERN KETTLE The weather was fairly warm on the claims for this time of year. We all had on heavy flannel shirts as Jacob led the way out of camp and up the mountain. He was heading up towards the southern end of the faultline. It was a fairly easy hike until we got up on the ridge of the faultline. This is a remote area where the ground formed a spiny ridge with sharp drop offs on the left and right. The climb became steeper and we needed to pay attention to our footing. On the way up Jacob had shown us where the waterline had been run back in 1936. I couldn’t believe the shape he was in for his age. He was sure footed and made the climb at a slow but steady pace. After a ways the spine of the ridge formed a big Y with a trail to the left and to the right. Jacob headed right and we just followed his lead. I noticed there were a lot of large bear tracks and fresh scat. I asked Jacob about it and he said nothing had changed since his days out here. He said there were always a lot of black bear in this area. Jacob had his 45 on him and the crew was also armed with guns and bear spray. After about two hundred feet on the right side trail Jacob came to a stop and pointed downward to the left. There was a big pit there. He told us that was the southern kettle talked about in the 1936 journal. He said Whisky Jack had been the one who told the crew about it. Whisky Jack had worked it with the mining crew he was with back in the late 1800’s. Jacob said there might be a little gold left at bedrock and in the lower portion of the walls but they had worked it pretty hard. Whisky Jack had died from his bite to the face by the rattler before they had finished with the southern kettle. Jacob asked us if we wanted to go down into the pit and take a sample of the gravels with us. It was a steep drop of about fifty feet or so and I told him we should probably come back with some water for panning and do a good test. He agreed. He said he was too old to get down in the pit now. He laughed and said it wasn’t the getting down part that bothered him but the getting out part would be the problem. We all had a good laugh. He asked if we could take a short break and we agreed. He took a seat on a rock and pulled out his pouch of tobacco and rolling papers. I asked him if he ever bought cigarettes ready to smoke. He just chuckled and said they were too expensive and he always liked rolling his own. He’d been taught by his brother Jed when he was a youngster. Then Jacob pulled out a small flask of whisky and took a slug. He said it was good for his heart. As the four of us were sitting there talking quietly we heard a ruckus on the far side of the pit as a big black bear slid down the north wall and ended up down in the bottom. Jacob let out a hoot and a holler and asked us how we’d like to be down there now with that big bear. We all had a good laugh as we watched the bear down below us. Jacob pulled his 45 and fired two rounds in the bedrock about five feet from the bear. That animal scurried out of there as fast as he could climb and sprinted north and away from us. Jacob fired one more round into the air for good measure. We all laughed some more. After all the excitement had settled down some, Jacob told us about how they got the water up there to feed the tom. He said the tom was John’s baby and nobody but nobody was allowed to run it, not even Jed. Then he took a swig of whisky and a long drag from his smoke and I could tell his mind was back there working with the old crew from 1936. We just let him sit a spell with his memories. TO BE CONTINUED .....................

It is a beast though, certainly not for most people. The only problem with the Manticore is it feels so light that when I pick up the GPX, I'm like "I can't swing this tank anymore" 😄 Thanks. That trash would have been even lower if I could have started out in the low tide. Most of the light stuff came from the upper beach. Down low that stuff was long gone, washed away by the sea. It's hard for me to even believe, but all those copper cents, silver and clad basically came from a 15x30' section. I'm sure a lot of it was left because the scoops can not get past some of the big rocks that are locked together in place. With a spade you can pry them while kneeling. Then you just have to dig blind through the water until you get the signal out. Not fun, but judging the age of this beach, worth the time. Hopefully in 2 weeks the tide will just be barely low enough to expose those rocks again. Geeze, that F350 guy is always making you hijack threads 😬 We should do a road trip and teach him a lesson. 😄 CC Seated coins are hard to find here and are usually pretty worn out, like the "S" coins are. I think I may only have 3 of them. I'm trying not to get too pumped up with the Manticore, because there are different situational hunts that require different settings. So far I can tell it loves saturated sand and semi saturated sand (when the tide has receded a couple of hours ago). Like all Minelab detectors, the likes will over take the dislikes as soon as more people get their hands on them. I'm just glad I got one in time for my winter beach season.

I'm going to add to what I said earlier. I'm not sating 5" is the max depth for these machines, I'm simply saying that target trace is not at all accurate after 5". I can hit a 6" dime with all 3 machines and get enough of a VDI to tell it's something high conductive. At 7" all bets are off. Both the Manticore and 900 report high VDI's almost like iron wrap. The D2 is actually the most stable and reliable it will give mostly no ID but about every third pass will throw up a 91, which is pretty close to what a dime should be on the D2. Target trace is really all over the place, I've seen mixed iron/coin traces, snake like traces from the top to center line and snake like traces that stretch 1/3 of the length across the middle line on deeper pennies and dimes. And yes I have dug nails that report just like a coin.

April 24 2002 Part One We got Jacob settled in last night and he retired for the evening early. He was quite happy with his camper and told us they never had anything so comfortable back when he was working the claims. I got up before the crack of dawn this morning but Jacob was already up and cooking his breakfast at his camper. Eventually the rest of the crew got up and we took a pot of coffee over to Jacob’s camper and we all sat around a small fire as the sun came up. Jacob spiked his coffee with a shot of whisky and he offered the bottle to us so we all had a shot in our coffee. Then he rolled a smoke while we fried up some bacon and eggs. He said he wanted to see his old dig sites today. Jacob said he would show us the southern kettle which was the last one the crew worked with Jed back in 1936. Then he wanted to head up to the northern area of the faultline where they had the big strike in 1936. From there he said we would go out to the Eastern Drift Mine. He also offered to show us the rocks where the treasure had been found. We could hardly wait and it was going to be a full day for sure. TO BE CONTINUED ..................

One additional thought on this excellent post by Jeff - just as there is a point of diminishing returns (i.e., additional noise and lower stability (that manifests as chatter)) when increasing sensitivity, there is also a point of diminishing returns when lowering recovery speed. Besides the fact that users have reported little difference in their ability to hear fringe targets at the lowest recovery speeds vs. the typical defaults (4, 5, and 6), lowering recovery speed beyond what is necessary will also cause you to hear more ground noise which will be picked up as chatter in hot dirt as well as wet salt sand. So really, the name of the game is optimizing the settings to give you the desired separation and depth capability as well as minimizing chatter and ground noise (maximizing signal to noise ratio). Many people have noted that ML has done a pretty good job at setting the defaults for the user adjustable parameters such as sensitivity, recovery speed, and iron bias at pretty good starting points and only slight adjustments for site conditions usually all that is needed to make them optimal if they aren't already there.

The 2 Euro reads 42/43 on my Nox 900. The 2 Euro is 75% nickel. The 2 Euro coin is magnetic due to its high nickel content so maybe that has something to do with it slightly confusing the Equinox 900 and the Manticore which seem to have very aggressive high end iron bias settings. The USA modern 5 cent coin is only 25% nickel and is not magnetic due to its 75% copper content. It gave all four detectors no problems even with their Bottle Cap/Iron Bias settings maxed out. I did notice that the Legend's Iron Filter setting maxed out at 8. Now it has an additional setting of 9 so the video maker must have been using a Legend with 1.09 software instead of 1.10.

Hey Guys, I've been detecting for close to 40 years now, and I wanted to pass on my recommendation for a really deep-seeking and stable detector: the Tarsaci MDT 8000. It's great to have a machine that provides a good 2-3 inches of additional depth over my older detectors. I'm using the 11"x9" DD coil. Earlier this month I located 3 Civil War infantry coat buttons in one hole (ranging from 9"-12" in depth), two Civil War cuff buttons at 6" each, and an 1880 cartridge belt buckle at 15". Yesterday I took it back out and found half a dozen rimfire shell casings at 4"-8" in depth, and a Minie ball at 10". Not that I want any more of these, but it's also great at finding rivets, some at up to 5" deep. Most of these areas had sandy soil, which thankfully made the digging easy. It took some getting used to the way I use it in "MIX" mode, since you hear both good and bad targets alike. Fortunately the good targets have a nice ringing tone to them. The ground balance is easy to set and very effective; I have not used the salt balance yet. Once I do, that will open up even more areas of detecting. I'm very happy to see this forum--I hope to pick up some good advice on using my new machine. Good hunting!

That's excellent, you definitely went the extra mile! That should be the stock setup from XP! 😎

I guess a picture is worth a thousand words. Everything inside the blue circle is plastic not metal. The antenna bumps up against the back inside of the mounting bracket. Since I coil my cable so to facilitate complete closing of the lower shaft a tie wrap secures the end in place so it does not spring back into the shaft when fully opened.

I emailed them will keep you posted on reply when received. Thanks Steve 👍

Thanks for pointing this out. Based on some of Tom's over the top proclamations (like Nox coils burning up if they were connected to the higher power Manticore) its not clear to me whether he has the expertise to actually be part of the ML M-core design team or just an outside expert user offering feedback as a consultant/tester to ML (one of many) that also happens to have a lot of loyal website users. To me the "horse" would be Mark Lawrie - ML's Chief Engineer. If Tom is speaking for ML as a designer with his "We" statement, it would be an interesting formal admission from ML that there were indeed some potential design shortcomings with the original Nox watertight design. Regardless, this is a great reminder that ML did get an IP68 rating for Manticore (and Equinox 700/900 for that matter). ML appears to have definitely improved Manticore and Nox 700/900 design in terms of waterproof integrity over the first gen EQX and the fact that they are able to actually specify an IEC Ingress Protection (IP) rating this time around (and not with the first gen Equinox which has NO advertised IP rating) which requires submission of documented test results to advertise the 5M submersion spec as IP68, is a good sign. Plus they have never been accused of not standing behind their warranty (and in some cases even beyond the warranty) on the original Nox with all the reported water intrusion issues.

Spot on review. Steve is a straight up guy!

Just had a thought: If you're getting lots of 1s and 2s that happen spontaneously when the machine has been running quiet, you might be hitting little "waves" of black sand, or you are just at the edge of the water enough to catch moving water. At that point you might want to lower sensitivity or change your beach program to the other. Look what your coil is over, change accordingly. I generally go to beach 2 when the sand is getting wet from the waves. That little ring was high on the beach which is why it stood out. The other I found on the hill was a 10/12, what I would expect for a thin small ring 🤔

I made up a full length waveguide out of the RG179 I had left over for deeper wading. Made it just the length I needed and it fits under my cover. Also used the original waveguide control clip. Only took about 15 minutes. I figure I can make a few more out of my original waveguide cable after I cut out the discolored ends. That would keep you from having to stuff the extra cable in the shaft.

I have my antenna permanently mounted and up the center of my CF rod. NO ISSUES with signal. Including waist deep water and very forceful wave wash.

Thank You, I dont post much, but have been reading from the beginning. I check a few times a day for new posts.

That's awesome! 🙂 No feel free to chime in anytime ha. I love talking about metal detecting and I still have a lot to learn. I've found 3 hallmarked rings and I just all the time wonder if I am missing something. I want to make sure I am set up to find just about anything metal out there lol.

I'd agree with that, the GM became nothing more than a pinpointer when the Nox 800 came along and proved its worth to me. I am sure the Nox 900 is at least as good as the 800 on gold, if not ever so slightly better with it's higher sensitivity setting and just all around better build quality. I still think for some reason which I can't explain the Vanquish 540/v12 coil combo with jewellery mode gives me more stable ID's on coins than the Nox 800 with 11" coil on the same targets, and the Nox 800 with 11" coil gives slightly more stable ID's on the same coins than the Manticore. Perhaps the Vanquish's secret is the V12 coil. I think the Manticore is less stable as the larger number spread makes the numbers bounce a little more but the bouncing is to all very close numbers and the 2D target trace is giving me a very tight little ball on the center line. I can make deep coins false as iron simply by lowering my sensitivity down to 18 or less. Steve made a great point with his ground rules comment above, a lot less arguments would happen if everyone understood that and were more tolerant of other peoples opinions when they could possibly be in very different ground conditions.

I always felt that W&E was a class act, but the writing was on the wall when they went digital only. As much as I love technology, I kind of lost interest in W&E when they ceased a paper magazine, as the online forums have been just as interesting, if not more at times. I'll really miss their Best of the Year issues, I was fortunate enough to have some items published, some best of the year finds, even an Ask Mark submission a few times over the years 👍

Haha dang, that is certainly crazy. Everything that I get to ring up as a 1 or 2 on the beach is crumbled up aluminum foil (like the kind in candy wrappers or mints)

Thanks for all the input, picked the Minelab SDC 2300. Got some old stacked tailings buried in vines & thorns that need a good raking.

I picked up a pair of real nice ones @monicalewinsky.com The slick willie model.

Geeze, bruises from us giving you guitar lessons? What kind of lessons were you thinking? 😄

Great video! In high school,I watched two friends pass a cholla clump back and forth several times to each other on a field trip- they kept flinging it off their arms into the air and it flew accidentally onto the other- funniest thing ever. Ever notice how woodrats collect and use cholla clumps to protect their homes? When I was a kid, I was exploring around an old miners shack and saw a newspaper posted on the opposite wall from the entrance- so I walked in across the room to read it but didn’t look down. The entire floor was coated in cholla. I had to throw away my tennis shoes after that one. *I always wear boots while hiking now.

I would consider that an honor after the bruises healed... 😀

I found some in Ukraine made for the 13” x 11”. I will let you know how they work. Delivery by tank and horse back so may be awhile.

The best way to get an accurate answer would be to contact Garrett. With my Equinox going strong after four years it was not something that concerned me with the Axiom, so I’ve never asked. I’m sure any reasonably competent person can split the case and do it themselves after the warranty expires. What the battery might cost I do not know, nor whether trying to do it yourself before the warranty expires would void your warranty. All questions for Garrett as I doubt anyone else knows, unless a forum member has already called them and asked. Online Contact Form EMAIL Sport Division sales@garrett.com Garrett Electronics, Inc. 1881 W. State St. Garland, TX 75042 Phone: 1-(972) 843-5324 1-800-234-6151 USA and Canada

You are in low mineral ground Simon, that’s the key. White sand beaches and turf are where this machine should shine, or just low mineral ground in general. People in high mineral ground will be just as likely to be wondering what all the fuss is about. Andy is reporting just what I’d expect in his ground, and you are reporting just what I’d expect in your ground. Kind of puts the YouTube internet tests where you have no idea what the ground is like into perspective. And all the detector wars on the internet with people trying to prove they are right, and the other guy wrong. “Well I’ve used both these detectors and this one is better - you calling me a liar!” Rarely does anyone stop to consider that both sides may be right.

In the areas I’ve been so far the 2D target trace is doing as advertised to near the edge of detection on coin targets, it’s working well to very good depths, I think for me it’s far better than the early model Nox, I’m unlikely to buy a Nox 900 now, unless it’s better for prospecting it’s a big step backwards I think. I wouldn’t buy a 900 based on prospecting alone as I don’t use VLFs much anymore for gold except for very specific circumstances and the 800 and 24k have them covered well.

I just installed the waveguide for water detecting tomorrow, looks like this, decided to run it through the shaft and zip tie it. Thought people might like to see how this option works on the SteveG CF shaft.

Lucky for you I didn't read the new finds post last night when I saw it on the index page. Yes, finding a -CC mintmarked coin is tough, particularly in the East. (Those lucky Western detectorists recover them like they're screwcaps. OK, not true, but much easier to find in the West, relatively speaking still far, far from easy.) The story of the creation, operation, and evenual closing of the Carson City mint is an interesting page of USA history. The prolific silver production of Northwest Nevada led to its creation, but it never lived up to the need. In other words, the demand never caught up to the supply. That led to considerable value to some (low mintage) issues in contrast to considerably production & availability in (only) a few others. For example, only three years of dime production (1875-77) resulted in ~25,000,000 issued. The previous four years together produced only ~87,000 and the last year (1878) only 200,000. So less than 2% of -CC dimes were minted outside those 3 prolific years. Those three years are not only #3, #1, #2 (in order of date) among dimes but in fact (if my findings from flipping through the Redbook is accurate), actually the three highest mintages of all -CC coins ever produced! Dime was the smallest denomination minted; all silver denominations of higher face value, including the elusiver 20 cent piece, were produced, as well as gold in the $5, $10, and $20 denominations. Only the SE USA mints at Charlotte, NC (-C mintmark) and Dahlonega, GA (-D mintmark) produced fewer coins than Carson City, and that was because they never minted anything but gold coins. Coincidentally all three of those mints had the same lifespan (24 years) but because of gaps in production, particularly 1886-88, Carson City had issues in the fewest number of years. I wonder how many detectorists have found coins from all the USA mints.... I suspect you could count them on a couple hands, or less. Well, school, I hijacked your thread again, but I'm putting all the blame on F350. 😁 Is that your first -CC minted coin found with a detector? A likely bucket-lister if so. (In case I haven't said this previously) I'm glad you have a Manticore and are giving us honest but cautious reports of its early performance. Please keep that up.

Not laughing,well I'm trying anyway....😏 The cholla is why that nugget was still there !

When did they cease their hardcopy -- was it 4 or 5 years ago? The hardcopy 'Treasure' magazine series departed shortly before them, I think. I have two shelves full of old treasure mags, going back to 1070. I don't think they'll leave before I do -- too many good memories.