Leaderboard

Aussie boy's $20,000 find buried at popular beach The boy came armed to the beach with a 'metal detector and small shovel'. Thu, 23 March 2023 at 3:20 pm NZDT·2-min read A "very excited" young boy was able to dig up a man's prized $20,000 watch that he lost at a popular Sydney beach on Tuesday. Josh Shave, 10, went hunting for the valuable Cartier Santos watch at Balmoral Beach with his father Simon, when the stressed 79-year-old man couldn't find it in his shorts pocket after going for his usual morning swim. “Dad was in a real state and very upset,” the man's son, Justin, told the Mosman Collective. “He returned to the car after his swim, and when he went to put his watch on, it wasn’t there. “He parks in the same spot and swims in the same spot every day, but even after retracing his steps, it couldn’t be found. The 1975 watch bought in France holds great sentimental value for the man, being one of his "most treasured possessions". Article: https://nz.news.yahoo.com/aussie-boys-20000-find-buried-at-popular-beach-022053551.html

My first impression was that this is a completely different detector from the previous 705 model and much more similar to the Equinox 700 pod configuration but without Multi-IQ. I have used the older X-Terra 705 with the 18.75Khz. Gold Pack coil and was curious to see how the new X-Terra Pro would perform on some smaller nuggets. I also liked that this detector had a manual ground balance and the Equinox 700/900 VDI numbers. So, the Equinox 6" coil was used for this testing using the 15Khz. Park 2 mode on both the X-Terra Pro and the Equinox using nugget sizes of .03 and .05 Gram. The X-Terra Pro and the Equinox could easily hit on both nuggets. As suspected the X-Terra Pro did have a decrease in target sensitivity when compared to the Equinox when I tried it in the Park 2 multi-frequency mode. Ground handling capabilities on both detectors were as usual for a VLF, no new breakthrough in this regard. I'll will have to admit I was surprised that this detector at it's price range could be used also for prospecting. I would like to hear any feedback if anyone else has used the X-Terra Pro for nugget hunting with any success. If this detector had a small coil and a selectable 18, 45, and 71Khz. frequency option I would call it a Goldmonster 2000. Yes, it would also be a waterproof fully submersible GM2000.

May 21 2002 Part Two Jacob slowly made his way on a northeast heading. This took us away from the creek and into some fairly rugged terrain. There were no trails or clearings from previous workings and the pine trees were old. I had never been up to this section of the claims. I saw no sign of any previous mining activity or anything else. After about fifteen minutes we came to a stop. Jacob was taking a look around and muttering to himself. He seemed to be trying to remember things from 65 years ago. We all wanted to help him but there was nothing we could do but remain silent and let him think. After about ten minutes we started moving again. Now he was heading more to the east than north. He said the trees had grown and he was having trouble finding one of his markers he had carved. Jacob said he had made a carving on the south side of a big pine and had placed three rocks on the north side of the base of it. He said if he could just find that first tree he should be able to find the first cache of gold. He seemed to think we were in the right area. We decided to spread out a bit and start searching in a tight grid slowly working east. It was probably no more than ten minutes when I heard Vern holler out to come have a look at where he was standing. He said he found the first marker. Sure enough, when I got over to where he was pointing I saw a very faint carving of two initials in the south side of the tree. JS. I walked around to the north side and there were three good sized rocks lying near the base of the big pine. When Jacob came over he was all smiles. He gave me a nudge and a wink and said I probably just thought he was just a crazy old man. I told him that no, I would never ever think that. I asked him where to go from here. He just chuckled and said to follow him. TO BE CONTINUED ...............

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.

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 have the three oldest Equinox in the country, spent plenty of time underwater, and never had a leak. For every Equinox that ever leaked, hundreds did not. It’s a fact that improving the waterproof integrity of the new Manticore/Equinox/Xterra models was a major design goal, reflected in the increased depth rating. This is one concern I think you may be overemphasizing Jeff.

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.

Found this antique clock mechanism and square nail near the rock wall. The clock part was found after I notched 0-50. The nail was pre-notch….obviously. Lunch break and back to it.

You have described pretty well some of the days I have on the Southern California beaches. I believe this happens because of wave/energy actions. I consider the beaches a big gold pan and nature is supplying the jiggle to separate the concentrates. What makes me slow down for jewelry? Greenies! Give me a patch with some crusty quarters and I'll try to get them all. I hit a few beaches that are close to me and produce. I thought I knew what would turn them on over the last few years. As it turns out I've become very disappointed with my understanding of these beaches. They've stopped producing during this time of Pineapple Expresses. The shape of the beach, the slope and the bars have frustrated me more lately rather than rewarded me. I've had to go to other beaches that I don't know as well and that takes an adjustment in style which is a hit or miss proposition. Some of the fun is missing and more of the work has entered my brain lately. Some of the old timers from the 60s and 70s will tell you some real stories about what you find with jewelry. I only have a few great days.

Landed a few hours ago and only had about 2 hours to recon and try digging a few targets. Rocks EVERYWHERE… very tiring and slow going. Mostly a recon day but I did find a square nail near the old rock wall…. an indicator of the 1800s. Sure isn’t the Florida beaches I’m used to! Further updates to follow…..😊

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.

Went out for another stroll at the beach. One of my first good targets was the broken piece of a class ring (I have quite a few from different beaches this year). The next two hours were just the usual clad and finally I dug my first silver coin for the day. A couple minutes later I dug my second silver. I spotted this low spot with lots of rocks and decided to hit it. I got a nice sound on the equinox and after a few scoops the leaf was laying there in two pieces. Picked it up to examine it and noticed it’s stamped 18k. There’s some hard to read letters on the back and I think it says Tiffany. The leaf tip the scale at 8 grams. Thanks for reading and good luck out there.

Beach hunt # 29. This happened over a week ago, but I was too busy (lazy?) to post it. 🙄 Not much to say about this one. Very late start – car issues (x2) Got to the beach late and left early hoping the car would start. So, a very uneventful hunt. I was going to hop beaches, but I stayed put. I didn’t want to get stranded 2 hours from home. Not much of a low tide, so I hunted the top for a while. Better luck next time! 😄

From the User Guide, Xterra somehow identifies "residual salt response" and assigns a "0" TID using it's "specialist salt noise rejection configuration", whatever that means. It looks like the main difference between Beach Profile 1 (Wet and Dry Sand) and Beach Profile 2 (Underwater and Surf) is Profile 2 has a higher default recovery speed. Black sand is more problematic without the benefit of Multi-IQ, as your only recourse after ground balancing is to reduce sensitivity. Salt balance capability is not solely limited to simultaneous multifrequency detectors. The Fisher F19/Technetics G2+/etc single frequency machine is known for its ability to balance well in salt sand and the Tarsacci MDT 8000, a multiple selectable table single frequency machine is specifically designed to have a salt balance adjustment separate from its ground balance adjustment. So it can be done, with some limitations. The Xterra Pro user guide can be downloaded here: https://www.minelab.com/usa/metal-detectors/x-terra-pro

I didn’t personally find this but it also came from the same area…one of many, but this one will follow me home to Florida. 😊 One could spend a lifetime hunting artifacts around here!

Let us know how mineralized the ground is too. If heavy mineralization, you might want to notch out 00 and give Relic a try with IAR (tge Relic/Gold Field version of "discrimination) set to 3 or 5 (I use 5 - doesn't seem to affect non-ferrous masking even at that Max setting and the ferrous ground feedback at 00 disappears with the notch) iron will readily sound off (if you have iron volume on) while non-ferrous will squeak through. I use this program in mild dirt too to check potential iron while searching in Deep HC or General. Speaking of which, you can learn a lot about a target by how it responds to custom programs set up with different parameters, including different audio and switching between those programs while swinging over the target and turning on the target. Don't forget to set reactivity consistent with target density. For general open field searching, I like 1 or 1.5. In bed o' nails, I crank it up to 2 to 2.5, sometimes 3. For searching I like General or Deep HC with pitch audio as it really pops on any non-ferrous over the iron volume ferrous grunts. For target interrogation, I switch to relic as it most consistently differentiates falsing ferrous that might show up in Deep HC or General without a turn. If my search program is providing a pure non-ferrous tone, I dig or switch to a corresponding zero discrimination full tones variant (General aka Relic Reaper or Deep HC) of my main pitch search program if I suspect aluminum can slaw, junk, or cans. FT really beings out the hollow, distorted audio associated with irregularly shaped mid-conductive targets or the overload distortion associated with large cans that give off coin IDs. FWIW. Good luck out there and hope you get some goodies.

The Reaper is for hearing everything, you might want to turn iron volume down a notch. Looks like car parts to me, I've found whole Model T Fords out there 🤣 make sure you're ground balanced on a clear spot (12 pumps minimum), and turn 45-90 degrees on falsing targets. They will "dive" to iron. Up reactivity in machine gun nails, but not really over 2.5. When you're not hearing stuff deep, it's too high.

This property is beautiful but this is what I’m fighting. Rocks, downed trees, branches and “wait-a-minute” vines! 😊

I use the 9" all the time because it's the only one I have currently, but I haven't had the chance to beach hunt or hunt large farm fields with the D2 yet. That's really the only reason I'm considering a larger coil, for wider coverage. But for all the types of land hunting I do, I haven't really felt the need to go larger, except for maybe a bit more depth in some areas. The 9" is amazingly deep even in mineralized ground, easy on the arm, and has incredible separation. If I'm being honest with myself, I really don't even need a smaller eliptical coil at this point except to squeeze into smaller areas and between shrubbery. Of course if a 9x5" does come out, I will jump on it like a chicken on a junebug! 😉

I agree that most of us already have everything we need in our current high end detectors. My reasons for buying an X-Terra Pro (assuming I can sell my AT Pro first) would be to use it exclusively as a beach machine so I don't risk drowning my 800, as a backup machine (we all want a backup machine right?), a simple to use spare machine for maybe getting my wife interested or for getting a friend interested, plus I'm your basic tech junkie.

I guess the same silly reason I bought a Simplex and XP Dues, to open myself up to disappointment 🙂 It's all part of my problem, I need to go to Detector Buyers Anonymous for some counseling, I can't help myself but trying out new toys but you've helped me hold off pushing that buy now button..... for now..... 🙂 If the Manticore coils would just come out that would resolve the urge.

Anybody that already owns an Equinox 700/900/Manitcore already has every feature included with the X-Terra Pro plus a lot more. Unless I am missing something, why would anyone that already owns those three detectors or even an Equinox 600 or 800 or a Nokta Legend really need an X-Terra Pro? I get it. I love metal detectors and I really like the looks of the X-Terra Pro. I am so tempted to buy Ridge Runner's really nice ORX package.......but I have a Deus 2 which has a really good Mono selectable single frequency program that is every bit the equal of anything on the ORX aside from the higher frequency HF coils.

I feel after all these years since the GB2 has been around, something would surpass it. 71 khz will find the smallest pieces, so going any higher wouldn't make sense. Vlf is Vlf and you can't make it something it's not. I only wish I was into gold detecting when it first came out. I only use it in lode quartz tailings not for placer and would never try. But for finding pieces like the ones in pic I want the GB2 not a 45khz or 40khz or 19khz. Those will still hit on these pieces but they don't hit as strong. That quick Waap Waap noise is the sound I'm looking for and easily distinguishable from hot rocks. Hot rocks usually give a totally different sound, and the ground balance is rarely touched once I get into a spot I rake material in front of me and it never changes unless I was walking and detecting something you don't do on the hillside. The GB2 can't be improved in my opinion.

The X-terra pro is now available to buy in NZ, it's oh so temping as the price is crazy low Simplex pricing and the fact it can use Nox coils, I'm really having a hard time not buying it...............

Did a smurf take the photo on their mini smurf phone? 🙂 I was hoping to see what it looked like!

Yes, they're all Malaysian, ideally If it were me I'd be adding the glue to everything I've circled in this photo, and if you look at all of the different boards they all have these things glued on at least one of the PCB's, it's just missed on many of them, this one is quite funny the person adding the glue virtually completely missed their target in the top right corner, they have a little line of glue running off the capacitor barely touching it. More often that not they're just applying glue to one side too which isn't ideal especially when if you look how they've done it they've got minimal contact on many of the components they're applying the glue to. It's just a real messy job and they clearly take no pride in their work. The bottom left black wire looks like it has such a bad solder contact on it's pad, I will get the guy repairing them to check that as it may be his fault, this PCB was turning on and reporting the battery dead (when its not) and turning off. It's hard to see things when all you've got is photos, I've already zoomed them as much as I can without stuffing up the image too much. You'll likely have to click on the photo and click the + sign a couple of times to get the full zoom to see things properly. They've done a better job on this GPX 6000 PCB, I remember old 4500 board photos where the work was very well done with the glue. I can't find a photo at the moment. Norvic some time ago put up a photo of his SDC 2300 guts, it looks pretty tidy on the glue.

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.

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.

Given to me by a friend it still works perfect.

I think this chart was lost due to websites going offline, etc. It is by Reg Sniff, and attempts to illustrate the White's TDI tone shift on some targets, at different ground balance settings. Where the colored lines cross the “minimal audio change” line the object has fallen into the hole and is eliminated. At proper ground balance settings of around 8 on common ground the TDI exhibits a huge loss or inability to detect nuggets in the 1/4 ounce range, but due to nugget variability the actual loss is extremely hard to predict. See my photo chart below as to why that is. Gold nugget target id numbers Source

I intend to use it around the slave quarters. I will dig everything there…at least initially👍🏻

These UFOs (unidentified found objects) were found pre-notch…all metal. No idea what this is….except even I can ID the arrow! 😂

Welcome to the wild and wonderful world of relic hunting, Colonel! Often, when my ears are being assaulted by rapid fire iron grunts and falses in a bed of square nails, I wonder why anyone in their right mind would want to do this. And then I find something really old and amazing that I could not have found in the city and remember why I do it. 😏 There's nothing wrong with notching iron out to get your ears used to this different style of detecting. Just be aware, if you notch too high, you can miss good targets masked by iron that drags their IDs really low. This is where the audio makes a difference. Trust the sound, not necessarily the ID. Good Hunting, Colonel!

Everything you say about getting an Xterra (if you already have an 800) makes sense (value priced backup/loaner plus compatibility with Nox coils) except for maybe the exclusive beach machine part. We need to wait and see how the Xterra performs in the wild, but if you are worried about drowning your 800, that means you intend to take your Xterra into the surf, instead. I could be proven wrong, but I seriously doubt the Xterra being a single frequency machine will run anywhere as stable as the 800 in that situation at a reasonable sensitivity setting despite having a “beach” mode. So is it really a viable alternative to a fully functional 800 in that situation? So, for me, it’s either the out-of-warranty 800 or a suitable wet surf alternative unless and until the Xterra proves it can even minimally perform there. I believe it may do better than the AT Pro in salt surf and in wet salt sand (which is probably where ML intends Xterra 8kHz “beach mode” to be used) but if I am just doing wet salt sand, then I am still pulling my out-of-warranty 800 out for the extra edge in performance vs. Xterra because there is little risk of “drowning” the 800 there. Even if I did drown it, I would press ML hard for an extended warranty “consideration” against a replacement pod (~$375 out of warranty replacement cost) because I used it only as ML recommended and it is all but confirmed that ML had some sort of design or manufacturing flaw that contributed to the failure (hence part of the motivation for the 700/900 redesign). If ML had at least provided a limited “beach only” multi frequency mode on Xterra (which would still not significantly intrude into Equinox territory) then the Xterra “beach machine” substitute for a “land locked” 800 would make a lot more sense. It would also be a great reason for ML to shelve the Vanquish lineup (which made a lot less sense after the Ace Apex was released), improving Xterra sales even further. But since all of that Xterra Multifrequency Beach Mode discussion is a fantasy and moot, and having a capable and versatile and affordable beach/backup to your Equinox is a goal, then a bare bones Legend might be something to consider as well. If you do your homework, a bare bones Legend (i.e., without the BT headset) can be had for less than $400. That’s not $229, I know, but it’s a hell of a lot more machine than the Xterra for an additional $150 to $170 if your primary motivation is decent beach work and not just solely for getting a low cost backup or tech junkie buy. Again, just something to consider. FWIW.

Weird , the coil which has the most advantages ( the 9" : 5 positive points ) is the one which is the less used in this forum .. Except me and an other one lol 🙂...

I still have my original Equinox 800. It also has never leaked. It has been submerged a handful of times for maybe 8 hours total. Many water hunters have their detectors submerged that much in a day and repeat that daily. Some have reported multiple leaking 600/800s. Others haven't reported leaking or just haven't reported in general. I finally had two 11" coils with cracking coil ears last year. That took thousands of hours of mostly dry land use but it did happen. Anyone new to the Equinox that is expecting the 700/900 to be the "answer" as far as constant submerged usage or even occasional submerged usage needs to know there have been issues with the very similar 600/800 in my opinion. How big they were.....I don't know.

I’m running into a lot of modern iron so today I’m going to take a page outta the Calabash book of relic hunting success in iron and use the notch feature. I’ll revert back to all metal for awhile when we hit the slave quarters area. I’ll let you know how it pans out. One thing I know for sure, it’s going to require multiple trips to this place in order to detect it properly. 12 acres of rocky hilly ground isn’t fast or easy! 😆

If you want to Turbo Charge your meteorite hunting in Arizona then take a meteorite lesson from Lunk. I don't know the charge for a day and where he goes but it is one of your fields. He uses a 6000, 7000 and has a lot of experience with the 5000 also. He might even tell you a place or two to hunt for gold! I've taken lessons from him a couple of times. Separately I've hunted meteorites in Franconia and Gold Basin among other places. I've found chondrites and irons with the 5000, 7000 and Equinox. Gerry took a pretty recent trip with Lunk and got some larger meteorites. He might have a deal for you on a used/new detector that would be ideal for what you want.

There is one more thing... let's assume that you already have an Equinox and 3-4 different coils for it.... what will the Xterra pro do on the 11" standard coil from Equinox?,,or on another coil?.... Minelab made X terra Pro something like *Equinox Lite..

That's pretty awesome news, thanks for doing that, it makes for an excellent entry level prospecting detector far better than any other option I can think of in it's price range. It probably does pretty good with it's stock coil on the nuggets too I would guess, that would be an interesting next test for you. I'm loving this competition stuff, it's bringing prices down to much more reasonable levels.

Glad to see the gold again after so many years I bet. You may need to get your girl a better detector and let her help find some more. I don't thik that anyone here would say a word about you hiding a couple of nuggets for her to find. Good luck on your next outing and stay safe out there.

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.

Thanks Jeff for the detailed write up about a successful park hunt. As a new user to the 900 I appreciate the details for the detector setup.

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.

The thing that bugged me and the reason I never took the Legend path is because at first it seemed Nokta was going to allow aftermarket coils on their detectors as previous models were allowing it then the Simplex came along and Detech was able to do some coils for it in a partnership type situation, Nel announced Simplex coils that never happened as for whatever reason Nokta wouldn't supply them with what they needed to make the coils, then they were no longer going to make coils for Nokta's modern detectors. I'm not sure what went on there but it was some sort of coil protection Nokta has implemented, this was so disappointing. I realize they want to sell their own coils but the one thing that they could have potentially had over the other brands is being welcoming and open to aftermarket coils. The good thing is they have Detech coils available for the earlier model Simplex which probably can't be used on the new Simplex models but I've not seen anything from Detech either for the Legend which I'm sure they'd jump on if able to with how well it's been selling. All I ask is a Nel Snake type coil on any of these Multi-IQ machines and I'll stop whinging 🙂 Maybe that's going to take Garrett to come out with a competitive multi freaker for it to happen, they seem the only one left not trying to prevent aftermarket coils.

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

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

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. 👍🏼

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….

At White's I designed a transmitter and analog front end for a combined MXT+SMPI. I breadboarded it and it worked, but never built a prototype because I mostly did it on a bet. It was intended to be a switchable design, not simultaneous. But then I built a truncated half-sine system which was a true hybrid VLF+PI system. The prototype was working great, already beating the TDI. I was working on auto tracking and disc when I left White's. No one ever picked it up and continued and now Garrett owns the patent.