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First gold in about 6 years of a detecting hiatus. Got it in a little wash Condor showed me (I think) 8 years ago. The rains stirred it up a bit and I got one we left behind. Offroad racing is slowing down for me (getting old sucks) and I’ll be out swinging a lot more. I even got one of my little girls interested 😁 I’m in So Cal, anyone else in here around?

I hunted a park that I have hunted many times in the past for a couple of cold, windy hours today. I wanted to try out Depth Tones VCO on the Nox 900 in an area that I have gridded with the Equinox 800, Deus 1, Deus 2 and some other detectors. There is tons of ferrous and non-ferrous trash at every depth along with some older coins. Iron mineralization is 7 to 10 bars on Deus 2 at this park. I deliberately setup my Nox 900, 11" coil, with a Field 1 Multi, trashy park pattern that accepted -7 to 0 for some iron audio, 24 to 27 for US nickels, 55 to 62 for US Indian head, early wheat and zinc pennies, and 70 to 99 for anything else in the high conductor US coin range. The nickel target IDs worked out well for US nickels and also snared a few broken pull tabs and beaver tails with no ring pull attached. I did not hit any Indians or early wheats but I did get some deeper zinc pennies. The high conductor IDs accepted range did great with only two very rusty nails recovered that were standing almost straight up in their holes with the nail head facing up. They were 8" deep and were giving mid to high 90s target IDs along with constant iron grunts as I circled the targets. I was fairly certain they were nails before I dug them but digging them was the only way to know for sure. All of the coins in the photo were in the 6" to 8" range and were very close to iron or aluminum targets and had somewhat iffy target IDs but they were accurate enough to get my attention. I did some back and forth between Park 1 Multi, 5 tones, no notches, -7 to 99 accepted and Field 1 Multi DP tones as described above. The DP tones definitely gave stronger VCO audio responses on the deeper coins than the non VCO 5 tones. I could hear the responses using both types of audio but DP was more obvious. Personally, I have not gotten very used to the audio quality of DP tones through the ML 85s. It just sounds weird to me, but it works very well, seems to separate a bit better and is another tool in the tool box. Another 1919 mercury dime, along with some other silver era coins: 1951, 1959 and 1960 US pennies, 1960 US nickel, and some clad dimes and quarters from the 1970s and 1980s.

Another short, very cold 2 hour hunt with the Legend version 1.11 software, 10x5" coil, G discrimination pattern, Park M1, reactivity 5, iron filter 1, iron stability 3, bottle cap 1, 6 tones arranged for iron and US coins. Hunted a fairly new park with no history of older coins. 7 of 10 bar iron mineralization and multiple trash targets under every swing. The Seagrams and Bud Light steel crown bottle caps sounded really good with some intermittent iron grunts and lots of low to mid 50s (US quarter or bigger coin) target IDs. I was using very low iron bias settings. Ferro Check however, told me these were going to be bottle caps. Squarish pull tabs and US nickels do share the 25 to 27 target ID range with some gold rings so I didn't mind digging them. I have found gold and silver rings at this park in the past. I hunted an area that I hadn't hunted before. All targets were in the surface to 6" range. It's a North facing hillside park that is still frozen deeper than 6". 1944 Wheat and some early 1960s Memorial pennies so silver coins may be present. 3.5 gram sterling silver ring with no stone. Nothing special about these targets but at least for me, clad and scrap jewelry do add up. I am old enough to have worked for 50 cents an hour in the past, so I will take $2.50 an hour anytime!!!!! The Legend can hunt.

A guy I know repairs Minelab detectors in South America, he's currently working on four GPZ's that have faults and showed me a photo of them on his workbench. The immediate thing I noticed is the differences in construction, notably how random the glue is on the PCB. The hot glue/RTV silicone is often used on PCB's to help with vibration where they haven't used any sort of mechanical fixing, more of a cheap way to do it really, If you think about it tall heavy capacitors are only held on by little leads into solder pads so having some mechanical fixing helps prevent vibration and stress failure especially on something like a metal detector that has a pretty hard life being bumped around and dropped. Sometimes it's used to shield components from the one next to them to help with preventing heat transfer or just keeping components separated. In very high density PCB's its often used for electrical clearance ensuring components are kept apart, an example is if a high voltage mosfet is too close to another component the glue helps prevent arcing between the mosfet and nearby components. All four GPZ's are relatively modern versions, the newest one in the far right being a couple of years old, the others are 3-5 years old, all four are revision 3 PCB's, take note of that, it means there was a Revision 1 and 2 PCB so over the lifecycle of the GPZ there have been changes to the PCB since the original release, anyone wondering if the first GPZ is the same as the modern ones, it's not, perhaps in performance it is but they've felt the need to change the PCB 3 times since the first production run, sometimes this is due to components being discontinued or it's because they've found problems and resolved them on later PCB's, this is certainly not unusual and detectors on the market for a long time end up with many PCB revisions, for example here is my Gold Bug Pro, it's a revision 6 PCB as evident in the top right corner of the photo, they maybe even higher now, mines a 2017 model. The Gold Bug Pro The GPZ, all 4 are the same revision. So without further ado, here are some photos of the 4 GPZ's. I've chopped up the photo to individuals so you can look at the differences better and blanked out serial numbers for privacy reasons. You'll see just how different they are, some are well glued, some have no glue at all, it's all very random, I was so surprised by this inconsistency on such an expensive electronic product. It's not even put on well either, in some cases it virtually misses its target and isn't providing much support at all. This is not what you'd call quality work. The glue is likely hand done, in some cases it can be done by machine but with how random and inconsistent it is this is very much done by hand, and not done even remotely well at all. Doesn't give you a lot of confidence in build quality does it.

PI pinpointers do not go deeper than IB pinpointers in mild ground. They simply lose depth at a far smaller rate as ground mineralization increases. The worse the ground, the better the PI unit will look relative to the IB models.

Thanks Coiltek for the 9 inch round Goldhawk. I will put it to use soon.

Back packing my Deus II in the XP 280. Everything plus some other items fit nicely. I made it through TSA no problem. No questions about the detector or the MI 6 pinpointer. Check in….smooth as silk. When your son is a pilot for that airline and made the reservations for us, things go extra smooth with no charge for checked or carry on bags. I’ll do some detecting on the property this afternoon along an old wall of piled up rocks. Updates to follow….

The question was not how physically complicated the models are or how complicated the tuning is, but what the ground handling capabilities are like. I’d rate the 5000 as superior to the 6000 when it comes to handling severe ground and hot rock situations. The 6000 is great in general but in some places with the wrong hot rock it just bangs away every swing or two. There is almost nothing the 5000 can’t handle with the right coil and setting combo.

It's funny you should say that, JW had the main PCB replaced in his GPZ, it was quite an early model one, obviously the new PCB was the latest model and he noticed his detector was different when he got it back, I can't recall exactly what he thought was different but he knew the detector like his own right hand as he used it so much so he noticed the change in it after the repair. I'll have to ask what if he can recall what he noticed different.

May 21 2002 Part One The Search For Jacob’s Lost Gold Cache Jacob and I were up early and had our coffee together. He did the usual and spiced up our cups with a little Bushmills and we sat and watched the dark night slowly turn to dawn. Eventually the rest of the crew was up and about and we all had a good breakfast together and cleaned up the concentrates from yesterday’s work. We had 7/10 of an ounce. This officially put us at 10.1 ounces for the season. As we were beginning to prepare for work Jacob hollered for us to come over to his camper. He had something on his mind. He told us that he had hidden some gold caches on the claims back in 1937 and had never had the chance to come back to get them. He wanted us to help look for them. He said he’d throw them into our pot to be divided up equally by the four of us. He said that we were his partners and that’s the way it should be. He reckoned there were about 50 ounces hidden up here somewhere. We were all in agreement to help him out. He didn't have a map because he was afraid somebody would rob him and find it so he was working from memory. Jacob said that if he could find the first one then the other two would be easy. He said they were hidden way up on the remote northern section of the claims. He said nobody goes up there but black bears and mountain lions. We grabbed some shovels and started to follow Jacob up the mountain. TO BE CONTINUED ..................

In the "it can do it all really well" segment of SMF detectors, the Legend is the only one that has proven (at least to me) to be capable of that phrase. Deus 2 at the moment is just OK for sub gram gold targets, a pain in the ass to setup for even just coil submersion, no small coil availability and it has a couple of other weird characteristics that only the long awaited software update can possibly fix. After the 600/800 water and coil ear issues, I won't trust the Equinox 900 to be waterproof and sturdy until it has gone through one full North American spring, summer, and early fall of water hunting. I also am just getting to know the Nox 900. So far it is different enough from the 800 that I have to learn what I can expect from it. The Legend took me one hunt to realize that I would have no problem transitioning to it from the 800 since it was very similar but better. The user interface is tedious for me but those 16 custom program slots are awesome.

The newer 7000's definitely perform better than the older units. I tested a January 2022 unit vs a June 2016 unit. The newer version was quieter and deeper. I could get an extra 2-3 inches depth on most targets on the new unit. And the new one was so much smoother! This worries me for the GPZ 8000. It's always good to wait to buy for the bugs to get worked out on these expensive machines. But impatience takes over! I hope Minelab does a good job and irons out all the problems before release. -Don

Thanks. These new detectors that I am enjoying: Nox 900, Deus 2 and Legend are amazing.

Figuratively if not literally (wished they still had pinpointing triggers). Ordered a new Deus 2 full 9” with WSA2 XL and MI6 today. Should arrive by Friday!

I’ll just say the reason I posted the videos without even looking at them is that, as far as I’m concerned, the 6000 and Axiom are both good detectors. Some will prefer one, some will prefer the other. Some like me would be happy using either, and reality is I don’t feel any need to push one over the other. Just review as many information sources as you can if shopping both, and rest assured whatever you choose, you’ll be fine. But yeah, new Axiom owners, run the default sensitivity or a notch higher or lower, no more, until used to the machine. Axiom Sensitivity - A Must Read For All New Owners!

Get it back inside and warm quick, bloody thing`ll freeze out there, tis only made not to melt downunder.

I got my D2 last April and have had no problems with it other than learning it and that just takes putting in the hours on it like any other machine. My shaft has been great, with no flex problems like some report. So I'd recommend putting in as much time as you can and learn as much as you can about it. Fortunately it's so light that you can swing it all day and not get tired from it. After you get comfortable with it, and that won't take long, if you feel you need to make changes in shaft there are many after factory solutions, including a whole carbon fiber shaft. There may be quirks just like there are with all detectors and peripherals, but give it a chance to do it's thing first. The D2 is an amazing machine and it will amaze you too, the more you learn it. The most important thing I've learned about it so far is to learn the sounds and the audio nuances that can tell you so much more about targets than the TID numbers. And if you have questions or need help, there is no shortage of helpful and knowlegeable detectorists here that are always willing to help. Most of all just enjoy your new detector, it is a winner! 😎

I fooled round with this yesterday evening for a couple minutes.....my machine does the same thing kinda..it will creep up but not to the extent his does....I was not set up as comfortably as he was to just reach over and wave the cap consistently over the coil while raising the ferrous ... if you just notch out the area whilst not waving a cap over it then there is not this creeping up thing. Like I said above I have successfully notched out bottle caps esp when park hunting and if I dig one it is usually intentional just to prove it ..the kind with aluminum foil can sometimes be sticklers...I asked him a question on that video but he has not got back yet. strick

Legend! I know the Legend is waterproof and I know it can easily hit small sub gram gold when I need a VLF for that. Built solidly and I personally, subjectively like the Legend’s audio the best of the three.

Gun to head right now, you can only keep one of the three, which is it?

I don't know what all the fuss is about with the GPX 5000 being labelled heavy, it's not too bad at all and you can lighten it up pretty easily. Once modded it doesn't weigh all that much more than a GPX 6000 and having a bit of weight on the back of it with the battery/control box actually helps if you wanted to use bigger coils to balance out the detector, the 6000 is terrible with the 14" DD, so out of balance. The 6000 is great and nice and light running small coils though but do you do that with meteorites? I'm guessing you're not really after absolutely tiny targets. Here is my 5000 next to it's younger brother the 6000. It has a light weight lithium ion battery pack, lasts 13 hours on a charge, 13400mAh, the battery itself weighs 450 grams and just goes in my side pocket on the cover. I have a full carbon shaft on the 5000 too. It looks tiny in there as the cover is made for the standard GPX battery. Jut plugs in with a short little attached lead. Has a charge indicator. And for a speaker I have the JBL wind on there, very loud audio with adjustable volume, way louder than the pitiful speaker they used in the 6000. The 5000 maybe an oldie but it's a goodie and handles hot rocks far better than the 6000, the 6000 is more sensitive to small gold though, and finds gold the GPX 5000 misses for various reasons not just size. It may come down to which is best for meteorites seeing that's what you're using it for and that I don't know, hopefully someone else pipes up and lets you know. I really like the 5000, it's just so versatile, I really like the 6000 too.

There are many ways a target can be "missed" when going over the same area. Here are a few. Lack of complete swing overlap/coil coverage is an obvious way. Using DD coils some targets have different responses at 90 degrees especially if there is a lot of iron trash or iron mineralization. If my detector is setup with full iron discrimination using a DD coil, I may miss some iron masked targets. If I am using some non ferrous notching to avoid aluminum trash a similar thing can happen. Changing the direction of coil approach may change things completely. Swing speed changes and keeping (or not) the coil at approximately the same height above the surface can effect detection of some targets. Removing some targets from an area and then hunting that area again even right afterwards can result in targets being detected that seemingly weren't there before since they may have been partially or fully masked by the targets you already recovered in the first pass. Add to all of that, beaches with tides and wave action are a very dynamic target environment. Just walking/standing on a constantly changing beach can change target depth and position.

Someone's probably done a video thinking they can do it 🙂 I must admit when I first fired up my shiny new GPZ I thought I should be wearing my undies over my pants as I was a now a bona fied superhero as I now had super powers!

Don't forget, if the ground you are working is pretty benign, and you are using Multi, then you can leave the GB on 0 and not worry about it.

As most of you may already know, I’m 99.9% a Florida beach hunter but that’s about to change this week. My daughter bought a house on 12 acres of Tennessee in an area that saw Civil War activity….no battles that we know of but definite activity. There was also supposedly a slave quarters on that property…acreage that’s never been hunted by the way!!! I’ll be there for several days and looking forward to detecting as much as I can. I want to open up the D2 at first so I can maybe find areas of habitation/activity so I’ll be looking for and digging iron as well as non ferrous. If some of you seasoned relic hunters have any advice for this “beach bum” regarding favorite relic programs and settings you would use on a piece of virgin ground, I’d appreciate your thoughts and advice. Thanks. 🙂

Nautilus DMC .

I hear you prunt, getting up and down several times digging even 1 target let alone several targets each time out can wear you out. I removed the short handle on my pick and installed a long shovel handle so I could stand up for most of digging a target until I need to kneel down to retrieve it. Much better on my legs and knees at the end of the day.

Lack of 3rd party coil support for Nokta is less of an issue than it is for Minelab as Nokta had two accessory coils available AT RELEASE for Legend and then provided 2 more less than a year later for a total of 5 coils and all are reasonably priced and cover the bases from 6" round, to small elliptical, to stock round, to mid-elliptical, up to large elliptical. For Manticore, three months in...just promises and crickets.

Make sure she recovers the next one. It'll hook her for life. That's awesome she likes to go.....

Nice bit of gold for your first lump on your return to detecting. Looking forward to hearing about your future adventures and finds. There is nothing fun about getting old, I'm starting to feel it, I grunt now when I get up off the ground recovering a target, especially towards the end of the day 😛

Well with my lack of enthusiasm for wireless coils and grumpiness over Minelabs antics, the Legend may very well be the solution to what ails me. Thanks for the very direct feedback on that Jeff. 👍🏼

popeye in the house!!

Second day of spring was a winner! A bit chilly to start, but it warmed into the 60s. At no point was it really cold because there was no wind, or just enough. Last night I told Chase I was headed to the big old farm today, I've done well there recently and wanted to check out a few more areas as well as go over some of what I already hunted. I got there fairly early, Chase has a long drive so I decided to go to the top of the largest hill, I only did it once before. The photo doesn't do it justice but it's 141 feet high, yeah not that big by any standard, but a long walk here. It's almost terraced, but probably all natural. This was shot from the top, I only found a couple of buckles on the way up and behind it. Saw Chase walking into the field below, and we searched around the farm for quite a while, both of us had the D2 and the 13x11" coil. The bigger the better here. I used my Relic program, changing from 0 reactivity to as high as 1.5 when it got trashy. I tried to go higher but targets disappeared. The 13" has excellent separation for its size. I ended up walking over 6 miles today, and got only a handful of trash: All the usual stuff, shotgun shell ends, buck balls and metal bits, very little iron even though it is everywhere. Here's what I got, I thought it was interesting/amusing enough to post: An old stamped buckle with decoration, a chrome plated and painted rooster (same reverse), an extremely old spectacle buckle, and a piece of elongated oval lead with no marks. Next row is a strange copper coin with a center hole, it appears to be either cast or hammered with the sunburst design. Two IHP's, a 1902 and 1904. Here's the large coin, it's a bit bigger than a large cent: The side is wavy so I don't think someone used a real coin to make it. It was an 81 which is a standard cent ID. The stamped buckle is very decorated. I'm thinking it was part of the last of its era. My favorite find is the metal rooster, it is probably chrome plated and painted brass. It's not painted one the other side but had the same markings. Chase got some interesting stuff too, it wasn't a spectacular hunt but it was a really nice day for one.

I’d be looking for smaller coils to make your detectors more sensitive to hit on tiny finds. My G2 was reborn when I put a 5” Nel Sharp on after using the stock 11”. So too my old GMT with a 4x6 Goldmaster Shooter after the stock 5x10 DD and 6” concentric - I can find very tiny gold with that shooter.

They both struggle a fair bit with ground noise, then he puts the magnet to the ground and shows the black sand and that makes sense, he also said the ground was covered in snow a day or two earlier too which I guess the damp soil made it worse. The guys got his Axiom maxed out, doesn't seem a good idea to do that with the Axiom. The GPX seemed to do a bit better over all, but doesn't really mean much when the guy using the Axiom is running maxed out so it's playing up a bit, he's just learning the machine though. It was nice to see the sort of areas you guys hunt in, similar to here in many ways.

What you experienced is what I say in my signature...learned only from many years of beach hunting: The Challenge: "Big Beach, Little Coil, Tiny Targets." Simple as that....😉

Pulse induction detectors actually take advantage of the decay of the eddy current set up in the target. The White's TDI detectors allow you to adjust the delay between transmit and receive. The adjustment range they allow is 10 microseconds to 25 microseconds. (A microsecond is one millionth of a second.) This should give you an idea of how long the metal detector's effect on the target lasts.

I appreciate all of the information! For meteorites, the sizes depend. The smallest ones I have found detecting are around a gram, but that one was pure iron, so it made the GB2 scream. I assume that if the GB2 could pick that up, then it would also be pretty loud on a PI machine. There are a lot of small irons at Franconia, along with stony chondrites. The chondrites contain a lot of nickel and iron so they set off the GB2 as well. The largest chondrite I found was right on the surface, weighing 16 grams. I may make a post about this trip on the Meteorite hunting forum because it was a lot of fun and I was glad to have some success.

Manticore users may wish to investigate on their own machines to see if this is an issue that needs to be reported to Minelab.

The 1 gm that the 25 or 24" coil could locate would of been found by the 14" coil if it went over it.

Also, when paired with the D2, the MI-6 has 50 levels of sensitivity as opposed to 3 levels when not paired. You cannot use the vibration mode when paired, but I haven't really missed that at all. And you get 90 hours of battery runtime when paired, as well as all the audio choices F350 pointed out, MI-6 battery indicator and Target Zoom screen (which I never look at), and the kicker, the D2 can locate a lost MI-6 even when it is turned off. What's not to like? 😏

It's a Predator Raptor "D" handle. 11" blade gets you to the finds fast. 🙂 I also have their T handle Barracuda which only digs 6". Far less intimidating. 😀 They're very tough shovels and cut through roots like a hot knife through butter.

We men would be better served to not assume women know what we think we know!

Jim, that sounds like a plan. Weather is still bad here also. Best wishes! Jim

Yes, the device is Pulse Induction, but it lacks the kind of power you’re probably looking for. It sees coin sized objects only around 4”-6” from the coil in the air. I like it for what it is, compact and convenient, but it’s not in the same league as any full sized machine.

Yea, the Joey is a good coil, and waterproof too, shame they discontinued it.

I guess moderation is the key to any hobby. Everyone needs time to themselves…some more than others. I’m 60 and have three kids aged 13, 13 and 15. It’s a balancing act getting my alone time in along with time with my kids. (My wife and I are separated so we alternate weeks with the kids. We actually get along better now.) Every other weekend I’m free to do whatever I wish.

In my world the choice is more about whether I want to use a PI for genuine power, or settle for a VLF to deal with some discrimination issue. All VLFs are second tier detectors when it comes to raw power, and from my perspective top end models are all pretty satisfactory at this point. If you genuinely care about making more finds put all your efforts into research and getting to new and hopefully better locations. That will make far more diffence than hunting that same old park the hundredth time with the latest new whiz bang toy.

Thanks glad you enjoyed it! There are a few reasons for good stuff still being there. One being the area is so big and two metal detectors are getting better. The half dollar was about 12" deep.

Put your 4500 in normal timings and you will basically have a 2200.