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I spent almost 400 hours in my cold shop this winter. I rebuilt a "COOT" ATV I bought in Utah last fall. When I bought it, it didn't steer. One kingpin was frozen, and the other 3 were very stiff. The engine had a stuck valve. The wheels needed new u-joints at each kingpin, and the worm gearboxes, and transmission needed seals. Wiring was shot, and the body needed prepped and painted. The wife and I decided we wanted to offroad together rather than wrestle individual 4 wheelers, and not wanting to spend big bucks on a side-by-side, and being a handy guy, this is what we ended up with. It's 4 x 4, articulated, 12hp, amphibious, and has a cargo capacity of 1,000 lbs. Top speed is 20, and in low range top end is walking speed. Will climb a 32* (70%) slope fully loaded. Should get us and our gear wherever we want to go, though slowly...LOL Jim

Some Interesting Finds From Last Fall And The Long Wet Winter. Pictured Above And Below Is A Very Delicate And Translucent Obsidian Curved Knife Blade. Below Is Another Blade Much More Stout And Serrated Notice How Some Of The Artifacts Take On An Almost Chameleon Effect. Below After A Wash. Next A Very Large Blade. Below Are Bird Point (So Called) And A Very Small Micro Blade (Scalpel) The Next One Is One Of My Favorite Forms.I've Found A Handful Through The Years. The Final Piece Is A Real Crier A Damaged Bird Adornment Or Charm Carved From Slate. Thanks For Looking.

I recently been invited to hunt this colonial farm. After digging about thirty modern bullets. I found this 1823 Spanish 8 Reale. Still cant believe someone actually lost this coin. Never imagined I would find one.

Stuff comes with other stuff or does not. Read the product description and know what you are buying. If you don't like what you are buying, don't buy it. The poll options don't fit me because I don't buy things without knowing what I am buying, and when I then buy, I've got nothing to complain about. I don't "expect" anything from anyone... I just deal with things as they are. I don't care if coils come with covers or not as long as I am not paying for a cover I am not getting. As long as it is properly explained that the coil does not come with a cover, then I have the choice of getting one or not. If I have to pay extra to get a coil cover with a coil that I do not want or need, then I really don't need it forced on me. If I already have a 13" DD coil that came with the detector and that has the included scuff cover, then I do not really need another scuff cover for a 13" mono if I want to share the cover between both coils. Me, I'd personally rather have a cover on all my coils just for convenience. On the other hand, I’m going to use the 16” mono without a coil cover. It’s super unlikely I’ll use the coil enough to actually wear a hole in the bottom, and I don’t want to swing the extra weight. So no, don’t charge me extra for a cover I don’t need. I'm all about having choices, and for me the key question is am I being charged for a coil cover, but not getting it? If the answer is no, then I am fine. If I am being charged for the cover when I am sold the coil, and not getting it, then I am not fine at all. I would assume coils that do not include scuff covers are being sold for a lower price than they would be if they included covers, and if that is the case, do I want to pay more for all coils just to get covers on all coils? No, I'd rather have the coils be lower prices, with covers optional. Never assume. Avoid disappointment by doing your research. Know what you are buying before you buy it.

Diverse country here in Oz. Never leave home without this...proudly made in the USA.

This is crazy! It is actually in the town of Waite. I Lived there from birth to age 14. I played in the woods there. There are logging roads running all around that area. I learned to drive on those roads. I still have lots of family in the area. Very heavy woods, but pretty flat terrain. I should take all of my machines and get 30 people to make a "FOD" walk line in those woods lol. Probably the most exciting thing to happen in a town with a population under 200.

Abandoned cabin made entirely of dinosaur bones, near the site which would become the first place to really bring fossils into the public mainstream in the 1800's. It has fallen into disrepair and it appears someone is digging it up and trying to move it somewhere else now. Looks like they might have tried and failed and now its sorta sitting there semi-askew with a big hole under it. A lot of Wyoming is semi abandoned relics of the past. This is an old abandoned uranium mining company town, the whole town was for sale for $200k when I was a kid. By the 90's it was a true modern ghost town, empty of people but still with paved streets/sidewalks, a big school, restaurants/bars, post office, houses, stores, etc. A lot of people my age are in Wyoming because our dads originally came to work at these now abandoned sorts of places, old mining and oil towns. Some people are back there now. An artist bought the old gas station to live in, he sells pottery and apparently now also soup.

A patch of ground showed up in my yard finally. Had to play for a while. Dug up some junk near the crabapple trees. A piece of pull tab sure didn't sound like aluminum.

I would also like to see a new bolt come with the coil.

May 26 2002 There was .7 of an ounce in the pan this morning. Everyone is in a good mood and ready to work out here. Once again, all four of us headed up to the site and Jacob wanted to do a bit of digging before returning to camp. So all four of us worked the dig and I couldn’t help but think of the old days when Jacob was here back in 1936, 1937. I could almost see the old crew digging away with us shoulder to shoulder. I looked over at Jacob and he was hard at it and was really moving gravel. The weather was perfect for working, cool and sunny. By lunch break I could tell Jacob was getting tired and I suggested we all go down to camp for something to eat. Vern shut down the pump and we drove back to camp and had a good lunch together while talking about the claims and the gold. It just doesn’t get any better than this. All four of us got back to work and Jacob put the pick and shovel down and took samples until nearly dark. We have really made good progress today and washed 19 yards of gravel. All the pans Jacob tested were looking rich as well. He always made sure to show us the good ones to keep us working hard. Based on what I was seeing I am expecting close to an ounce tomorrow at the weigh. TO BE CONTINUED ...............

Chapter 5 I hate to disappoint but the story comes to an unproductive end. The next morning I was feeling pretty good, no major aches and pains and I still had one more area I wanted to explore. It was unfortunately a pretty long walk. I discovered the area several years ago after taking a very long hike to make a loop around the known placer areas. By the end of the day I found a somewhat hidden wash and never detected it properly. I was tired and just kept pushing the coil along in front of me. At about the mid point I hit a solid target and pulled up a decent 2 gram piece. I slowed down a bit, but I was running out of water and still had a couple miles to go. I didn't hit anymore targets and no trash at all. I have always meant to get back up there, but we were still finding nuggets in the easy walking spots. Now I'm 4 years older and closer to 70 than 60, with less enthusiasm for long hikes. Dennis was ready to go home although the "hiker" probably would have stuck it out with me. I debated all morning and surrendered. The deciding factor was my lack of my favorite trekking poles. Those poles have saved me from some nasty falls on difficult ground. With the trekking poles, I probably would have stayed 1 more day, but time distance prevailed. We made it to the border at Calexico at just past noon on Monday Presidents Day. There was on 1 lane of cars to get up to the Port of Entry and it was endless. We crawled along at a snails pace having to face all the hawkers of Mexican trinkets and limbless beggars. Three solid hours, but at least we got through US Customs without incident. I'll post a couple pictures from last year that shows the bedrock zones we had to build ramps through and my vast nugget finds.

“A museum in Maine is offering $25,000 for the remains of a space rock that streaked across the sky last week before landing near the border between the United States and Canada. Darryl Pitt, head of the meteorite division at the Maine Mineral & Gem Museum, said he was keen to study any fragments of the meteorite, which could contain valuable information about the solar system. The $25,000 reward is for the first meteorite piece found that weighs 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) or more. However, he said the museum would be willing to pay for any specimen “irrespective of its size.”“ Full story with map to start your hunt! https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/12/americas/meteorite-maine-museum-reward-scn/index.html

Wow that turned out really nice! On another note, I hope you have those ramps secured to your truck when driving the coot up them. All it takes it one wheel kicking one out (especially a rear tire) and you may never drive that coot again. If you haven't already, please do a search for what happens to people that don't secure their ramps when loading vehicles. You can get really hurt or worse.

Ok, that's some hard material then. I'd guess porcelain/ceramic or alumina ball mill balls then.

Wow Great shots from some special spots! Heres a few from the last couple years poking around the western states of USA.. AZ AZ Yuba River CA Harts Pass, WA Greaterville, AZ Gold Basin AZ All I want to do is pack up the truck and keep goin.......

I don't usually use silencer, but turning 45-90 degrees to a target and sweeping again will usually help. In the fields I'll keep bottle caps at 3, on the beach I might bump it to 5. That is another iron bias control. Running Relic use Disc IAR of 5. Another thing I do (personal preference) is lower discrimination to 00 and use full tones. This mostly eliminates iron from the higher tone bins.

Big flat iron is always a problem, you know this. How was the silencer level? You could increase it. When I hear iron falses I turn coil around the signal and increase silencer..

It very easy to do a poll, see below And yep, if I was buying a coil from any brand I'd expect it to come with the skid plate and manufacturers should encourage that, it makes the coils last longer thereby more happy customers. They last thing they want is angry people not using them and photos of coils with holes worn through them popping up online 🙂

Did you check that dirt for any nuggets?? And yes I mean BEFORE you sat on the seat 🤣

Having owned the Nokta Gold Kruzer and the Nokta Legend, the Gold Kruzer’s prospecting “Gen” mode just did not have punch or enough adjustable features to compete with the Legend’s Goldfield mode…..no single digit notching, no recovery speed adjustments, iron bias adjustments, single frequency choices and most of all, no simultaneous multi frequency operation to help with ground handling on hotter ground. Also, I did not witness any advantage in using its all metal Gen mode compared to its multi tone discrimination modes as far as overall sensitivity. I can run my Legend hotter and right on the edge of instability due to its excellent SMF tech on hotter ground. I am not dissing the Gold Kruzer. For me, I just prefer more features and versatility from a gold prospecting detector. I guess I am spoiled by the latest SMF do it all really well detectors like the Manticore, Equinox models and Legend.

I rarely use VLFs anymore, but if the conditions are right nothing beats the GB2. The problem is just that the conditions are mostly not right for it, at least not in my neck of the woods. The GB2 comes with a serious side effect though: The aweful screeching treshold has been burned into my brain after having used it for so long over years, and I am convinced that this will be the last thing my brain will hear on my death bed. GC

It came up as a 93. It was only about 5"but it was on edge. It was the only signal I got over 90 in the 2 hrs I was in that field. I started to head out to the entrance of the field to wait for the others. We were going to move to another field. We had only dug a few flat buttons and a ton of modern bullets. When I got the signal I thought it was most likely a can. The entrance to the fields tend to be trashy close to the road. To be honest I dug it because I was waiting for them to catch up. And it was the only VDI above 90. Even when I first had it in my hand it was so big I didn't think coin. I said to one of the other diggers I think I got a token or something. I wiped the dirt and saw the HIs and top of the pillar and said holy crap. I was so lucky I didnt destroy it with my Lesche shovel. I dug the plug quickly thinking probably trash. I wont ever do that again.

A few photos from West Australia, north of Meekathara. The gold is about the only time I have hit a patch A few bush flies ,after all the rain. Cheers

Looks like a tie plate for railroad track. Holes are for the spikes. Rail would probably sit between the raised or shoulders on the right side in third pic or against the raised on the left, with the spikes anchoring the rail down.

Hello everyone. With the importance of the recovery speed when it comes to depth and separation, is it possible to have an automatic recovery speed mode? It would have to work by comparing how many targets are seen in a particular time frame. The problem is that everyone has different swing speeds. For example, a slow swinger might hit 1 or 2 targets in a ten second time frame, but a fast swinger in the same area could hit 7 or 8 targets in the same time frame. Meaning, the detector would have to have some type of sensor that determines the swing speed. What do you all think of a feature like that?

My little girl with her first nugget

Frankly, the Quest implementation of sensed coil pumping to initiate GB makes more sense to me (than an automatic recovery speed adjustment feature) as I often encounter areas where I need to do frequent manual ground rebalancing due to shortcomings or downsides to automatic (ground mineralization sensing based) ground tracking that either can't keep up with ground phase variations or that can cause weak target signals to be missed. In fact, I could make a similar statement regarding implementing automated adjustment of recovery speed. That is, how hard is it to simply manually bump the recovery speed up or down based on the number of targets encountered in in a single sweep. Also, the perceived change in target density (sudden machine gun effect) with constant manual sweep and machine recovery speed is the thing that alerts me that I am in an area where I need to concentrate on the target signals and also alerts me to the boundaries of the high density target patch. The key to that perception is keeping recovery speed and sweep speed constant but high enough to not significantly affect depth while being able to perceive high density situations. I personally would rather be making the conscious decision myself on trading off depth vs. recovery speed, for the reason stated. Not sure whether my routine would be adversely impacted by an automated recovery speed adjustment, having a little trouble visualizing how it would change things for better or worse, TBH. Note also, having the ability to adjust recovery speed manually or otherwise as a basic feature is a relatively recent trend. For the longest time the ability to change recovery speed independent of other features with the range of adjustability that is commonplace now, was a feature present only on the Deus (yes, there were limited fast process, mode-based recovery speed adjustments available on Fisher, Whites, Nokta/Makro and other machines over the years, but they were much more limited than the implementation you see on Equinox, D2, Legend, Quest V series, and Manticore today). I agree that it should be a relatively simple feature to implement utilizing coil accelerometers as swing sweep sensors and counters. But I think the real reason we are not seeing it that it is just not something users are clamoring for, so manufacturers are not inclined to go to the trouble to implement it. I may be a Luddite, but I personally see the feature as a solution looking for a real problem statement. I am not really seeing a compelling use case, but then again, I am also in the camp of detectorists that like a wide range of manual parameter adjustability but less automation of that adjustability whether it has to do with ground tracking, gain (transmit power or sensitivity) adjustments, noise elimination, dynamic adjustments in target signal volume, or the suggested auto recovery speed feature. I may come around on this particular feature suggestion but just not yet seeing how it can significantly enhance my detecting experience. That's just me.

Personally I would be very interested in Geotech's (Carl) thoughts on this.

Speed of swing would not be in the equation. Software would determine how fast a detector reacts to targets per time period and adjust accordingly. Less time periods between reacting to targets would mean it would have to increase recovery speed. Less and it would decrease recovery speed. Just my thoughts of course....

Just so others know, setting discrimination at 0 (00) makes iron false less because the detector is more likely to select a lower tone in full tones. 🙂

It's why I end up using the 13x11" more than the 11". The 9" is great for tight spaces and stubble fields, but the 13" whacks more targets in less time. Separation is pretty good on the 13, of course the 9 is better. I was not too thrilled with the 11" all along, but keep it as a backup.

Can you explain this a little more? Edit: No need to explain

Plastic is really cheap. Coils are not. Include the cover and let us decide if we use it........🤔

Welcome to the forum. Google is your friend.... https://www.minelab.com/__files/f/4111/Inst Manual GP3000 Website.pdf

I saw the owners at a gold show 2 weeks before your post and they remembered me from almost 4 years ago. I was talking with a friend tonight- I heard our group is planning to go again next year. Some from our GPA circle will not go back...not their thing, but like you said Chuck, it's the memories and something that I personally will hope to do again. The nuggets I found there were some of my best ever and a husband/wife team from Montana who had never detected before bought a Gold Monster and pulled up on their 4 wheeler asking my partner and I how to make it work. After a few suggestions on startup, I pointed at a boulder strewn area above the wash I was in where I had just dug a 5.5 grammer with my 1000, they hiked up there and the wife was thrilled to find her first piece of gold ever under thevedge of a 4 foot diam. boulder- 1.12 ouncer. Needless to say they were hooked. It's not for everybody, but I found the adventure rewarding. When you're there tell Auggie what you want for the experience- I did in the first day arrival and he set three of us up on a special excursion that turned into an event the three of us had not experienced ...a sow with twin cubs 30 yards above us in the willow brush. We turned volumes full without headphones that day, shouted to each other regularly and she moved away quietly. Detected some nice gold there and I look forward to exploring that hillside further. Enjoy your trip - PM me what your dates are. A couple other friends may be up there this summer. Mike

Look like water worn pebbles to me, but hard to know exactly out of context of the area. If you want to determine the rock/mineral type then a scratch test is probably a good start, then go from there. See if you can make a tiny scratch in them with the tip of a steel knife. Offhand looks like some kind of limestone/dolomite or maybe even marble.

Recovered 2 rings for high school gal who just graduated on the Isle of Palms, SC. Her 6year old cousin picked up the towel and rings went flying in loose sand. Took hour and 15 minutes to get to her because of a over turned semi on the highway. Took 10 minutes to find her rings. $20 back then paid for my gas. Always a good feeling to return something of value to someone.

One of the English language Quest YouTube videos done by a Quest representative goes a little deeper into the Gyro feature which has three sub menus that offer features that separately can each be either turned ON or OFF. 1. Auto Power Save powers down SOME of the detectors features when the detector is ON but is not in motion. As soon as the detector is moved, all of the features are instantly back ON and the V80 is ready to start detecting again. So it is an optional power saving feature which doesn’t fully shut down the detector. 2. Pump To G B is just a ground balancing shortcut that is activated by vertically pumping the coil. No button press is necessary if this feature is turned ON. 3. Auto ID Stability automatically stabilizes target IDs shown on the display by compensating for variations in swing speed and variations in the angle of the coil to the target. I am not about to speculate, criticize or throw Quest under the bus for adding these features to their V80 especially since I have not used one. Nobody has since as far as I know there are no production units in the hands of YouTube content creators who have posted V80 videos. As far as an automatic recovery speed feature somehow related to swing speed……I am still a person that considers recovery speed to be a setting that determines how fast or slow a detector reacts to a target. How fast the coil is being swung is another matter entirely since a really fast swing will probably not cover as much ground during a left to right swing as a medium or slower swing. A really fast swing may also not be as accurate as far as keeping the coil parallel to the ground compared to a somewhat slower swing.

I just think it's very hard to bring a new gold VLF to market with the multi purpose SMF VLF machines being so popular and so good at the job it's made the purpose made prospecting machines a difficult sell. The older ones on the market already had a foothold before the multi freakers hit the market so plenty of people already had them, the Nokta was released at a very bad time, 2017 Nox hits the market, 2018 Gold Kruzer hits the market... couldn't get worse timing, add to that the fact most people who wanted a gold prospecting VLF already had one or more and had little need to buy another one like the Kruzer, if anything they were replacing them with multi freakers. Add to that people buying multi freakers selling off their single frequency gold machines so the market for new units was even smaller. The Equinox, Manticore, Legend and possibly the new Quest are seeing the death of the single frequency prospecting VLF's. Yes they may have advantages in certain areas, disadvantages too and financially for many it makes sense just to have one detector that can do it all rather than a specialty prospecting machine and also a multi freakier for other purposes. Even detectors like the Deus which many people had, they were able to just buy another coil for it and they have a good prospecting machine, no need for another detector and then they're still using the unit they're familiar with and enjoy using without learning a new machine. Single purpose machines are far less of a necessity now than they were some years ago.

You know, that's a good question. The Gold Kruzer is a great model that should be listed in the same breath as these other higher frequency detector. But I'm guilty of forgetting and overlooking it and the same can be said I think of the machine in the general market. I had to look and confirm just now that it had not been discontinued (it has not) since Nokta has discontinued almost all their older models since the Simplex and Legend came out. I don't know any nugget hunters in the U.S. that use the machine although I know Nenad in Oz is a huge fan. The only users here seem to be jewelry hunters? But yeah, why did the Gold Kruzer never seem to gain any serious traction in the U.S. at least? I honestly don't know, other than to guess the Gold Monster slaughtered it due to the Minelab name and marketing muscle.

Not to bash anyone but these "gee, I'm seeing a lot of a certain detector for sale" posts show up every time a new detector comes out. These sales mean nothing. Lots of guys buy new detectors, try them and then sell them right away. These are the same guys that squeeze chocolates in a box to see what is in them and then put them back.

That is a cracking photo ☝️ Well done 👍🏻

Camping on the gold fields at Tibooburra Somehow the search for yellow was a secondary pursuit.

I ran through my photo library and remembered this day! This Chinese Camp was just above the creek they pounded. This day I only found one nugget, some coins and a Silver Chain. I know nothing about the age of the chain. Over the years the little creek and bench gave up a handful of ounces they left for us and hundreds of coins. I’m sure to this day there is more to find!

This site has been in continuous use since the Civil War so there is a variety of ages to the items which can be found. The most interesting items are the button back, the old pocket watch, and the old pocket knife. The knife, the piece of rolled up scrap lead, and the belt buckle (modern style?) was found by my son on his first outing with my old detector. The lead and button back were in the “splash“ area of square nails from an old stockade. But, the 1957 penny was in the same general vicinity. There are no markings on the button back that I can see. So I am guessing it is probably not military but I would appreciate any input if it looks familiar to anyone. With a magnifying glass, I can make out fragments of a couple small letters on the back of the pocket watch - not enough to decipher. It looks like it was made to open. Not sure of the metal. It feels a little on the heavy side. The back might be brass. I am thinking the front might be steel. It rang up a solid 95 in a fire pit with blobs of aluminum, an old power saw blade, and tons of iron. So the whole watch was covered in a layer of black. There may be remnants of silver plate. I am guessing this is relatively recent? Not sure what the aluminum caps are. There is a crimp side to them like they were attached to a cardboard tube. This is the second shotgun shell (Western Super X number 12 paper case) I have found here. The rifle casing is FA 36 (Frankford Arsenal 1936). There is also one item which has a thin metal “flap“. I don’t know if this was some part of a music box? Thanks for looking and any help you can offer regarding some of the random items above.

I think the ending is perfect. You went on adventures, paid the bribes of another country, left some scrap metal and plastic from your Razor on the rocks and brought home a little gold. Adventure is what keeps us going. Sitting in a rocking chair is not a good way to die in my opinion. Love the read of another Adventure.

I appreciate all the replies, and the conversation. I'm leaning on sticking with the D2, and selling the 900. Between the two, and the Manticore, it's a great time to be in the hobby with the excellent instruments available that I wish I had when I started back in '72. My problem now is that I have severe back/neck issues that limit any hunting i get to do. I think I was out 3 times all last year due to the suffering I experienced afterward. This hobby is like being addicted to drugs, and almost impossible to quit. My main hunting was frontier military artifacts on the eastern plains of Colorado and New Mexico. Hunted in Colorado for the 37 years we lived there before moving to Texas 10 years ago. Now i pretty much hunt parks and vacant lots, when I can. That's the reason for the question for this type of hunting. I doubt I'll ever be relic hunting again. I'm lucky to hunt for 2 hours when I do get out. The more I think about it, i probably should just sell both the D2 and the 900, which neither has been even turned on, and just keep the little Vanquish 540 with the 3 coils for those times I can get out. Never thought it would come to this, but now at 79, my mind says yes, but my body says no. Thanks again for all of your responses, i really do appreciate them. I think they have helped me come to the realization that my hunting days are coming to a close, which is a hard pill to swallow. I'll continue to lurk in the background as my interest hasn't faded. Thanks again guys, and good hunting...