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After finding a girl's diamond ring for her on monday, i was was rewarded over my last 2 hunts with 5 more rings, one 14k gold pendant, a 1952 dime, and a 1954 quarter. 4 of the rings were junkers but one was a 10k gold ring w synthetic ruby. The ruby has a roman warrior's head etched into it. All beach finds. The gold ring doesnt feel like a fresh drop but the others all do. Coins were in great shape amazingly! I probably found another ten bucks in quarters also which covrrs my gas to get there! I'm always amazed at how many rings are lost at the beach! All found w the deus 2 w the 11x13 coil. Last week i pulled quarters from a foot deep at the beach with it... it is just amazing in the salt!

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

I've been a bit slack with doing adventure posts for a while now, no real reason for it, just lazy I guess! 🙂 Today was a beautiful day, perfectly still and not too hot, not too cold, the ideal day to head up one of the mountains and fire up the Manticore. I quite like the Manticore, while I don't find it's target ID's as good as the Nox in a way its helping my detecting, I focus a lot on target ID's coin hunting cherry picking coins so I dig as little as possible so I don't cause damage to the fields, but when at the ski fields they're wild rocky soil places so digging a hole isn't as damaging and easy to fill it back in like it was never dug so using the Manticore with it's less accurate ID's doesn't overly matter as I tend to dig any non-ferrous. The ski fields aren't overly loaded with junk, for the most part the junk is accidental rather than people throwing rubbish down, for example I found no pull tabs at all even though people often drink out of cans while skiing/snowboarding. The drive up the mountain takes about half an hour once you get to the bottom of it, it's quite a steep drive and many cars overheat trying, it's said to be one of the most dangerous roads in the country, I think it's fine in summer, but winter lots of cars go off the edge from slipping in the ice and snow or crash in some way or another, especially tourists. They should all take the shuttle busses and it'd save a lot of grief. Made it up to the base of the ski area, I wanted to detect where I've never been before, so I went up to the top of a beginner/intermediate lift which took me over an hour to walk up there, but figured the most likely people to fall are beginners going up lifts for the first time so it had the most chance of decent finds. The base magic carpet areas where beginners not capable of using lifts go are always a little over-detected being the easy area to get to right at the base and an obvious place people are constantly falling over. They must still have juice running to the snow guns, these pole sort tended to cause much worse EMI than the other larger guns, not sure why but the Manticore really didn't like working near these ones. The ground is mostly rough broken up schist. this hole to the right of my control pod was a bit of a weird find, a golden knife. Not sure if it's gold, it's not magnetic, quite heavy and comes up as a solid 10 ID on the Manticore. I found this silver ring shortly after the knife. It was in this hole to the right of the control box. It's marked silver, the knife has no markings. This is the area I was mostly detecting, in the distance they set up snow jumps along the trail where the snow guns are for beginners to practice jumping, another good place they constantly fall over. The foreground here was most of my finds for the day. No sign of any surface stuff, far too late in the autumn (fall) for that, if I wanted surface finds I'd have to go just after spring while the snows still melting away, by now people have been wandering around all summer exploring so all of my finds were digs. Go earlier and some quite good stuff can be found without a metal detector, mostly phones and wallets. The ground here is quite variable around the mountain and required reasonably frequent ground balancing when I moved from one spot to the next, there were of course hot rocks too. I thought I'd head back down, my wife and daughter came along and they went to the lake, yep, lake, there is quite a big lake up here. it's straight ahead in this photo in the top right corner. This is it, nice clear water, perfect for a drink refill. I think the lakes around 2000 meters above sea level, something like 6500 feet. It's the first time I've seen it not frozen solid, I mostly am up the mountain in winter and spring when it's frozen. And my total finds Mostly bits off clothing and branding stuff off skis, snowboards and boots. See how none of the junk I found looks like something someone would throw down? I'm quite happy people treat the place with respect and don't throw rubbish around. I have no idea what this thing is, I'm not sure if the 1923 is the age of it or a model number, I couldn't find it on a quick Google search. $10 in current currency NZ spendies on the right, the gold $1 and $2 coins, and the left is oddly all old 20c coins, with one 5c and one 10cent. All pre-1980s coins. The goldies were mostly all from the 1990's except the shiny one which was a more recent 2020 coin. 5 cent don't exist anymore, 10 cents are now different and junk cupro coins and the 20 cent coins now are small rubbish cupro things too, the cupros are made in Canada, these older ones give a nice solid signal. The $1 and $2 are about the easiest coin to find, nice solid signal, never corrode, they just get a bit dull with age but clean up pretty good. The more unusual stuff, looks like an Aussie was littering the coin, a 2002 year of the Outback special edition coin. The left one is some Chinese 100 coin and the right one I'm not sure, some UK 50 pence coin that I've never found before, unusual shape. The Aussie looks like it's been run over by the snow groomers a few times over the years 🙂 So, a fun day out, probably my last detect at the ski areas, it was only 2 weeks ago the area was covered in snow, but the snow was too soon and melted already, the next lot probably won't melt. Happy enough with the Manticore, in fact it's excellent other than it's target ID's, when it comes to Cherry picking coins in the fields I'll stick to using the Nox and especially the CTX, I need the more stable reliable ID's so I dig as few holes as possible.

Beautiful diversity in everyone's photos. Mine are Idaho and Nevada. Must be some sort of pin pointer. Just dig right under it and to find...

Jason, here's a few pics of it slightly articulated. Note all 4 wheels are in contact with the ground. It will articulate 40* max.

My little girl with her first nugget

May 27 2002 Part One The entire crew was up early and we did our cleanup right after breakfast and saw a whopping 1.4 ounces of gold. What a great way to start the day and we all headed up to the digsite. We had quite a large trench going but still nothing to even remotely compare to the crew of 1936. That area is amazing to see but Jacob is confident we can achieve the same results. If we get our permit approved I know we will make a larger dig site but by hand I can’t imagine digging that much gravel in one season. We were fired up but Jacob reminded us to pace ourselves. He said it’s a long season and a long way to the finish line. So we worked a nice and steady pace and even Jacob got in the trench and chopped away at the gravel. I always worry when I see him in there working hard but he won’t have it any other way and he knows when to stop. That’s exactly what Jacob did around lunch time. Before we went back down to camp for our break he showed us one of his test pans brimming with coarse gold. He gave the crew a wink and a smile. That is always a good sign. TO BE CONTINUED .............

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.......

Will be available soon. You will need to contact your dealer and provide your serial number to receive the upgrade deal. Thanks, Nokta.

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.

Now that had to be a good sight after so much searching! But, I know there's all levels of mining. This is just a few guys with a shovel and a sluice. An oz and a quarter for this kind of mining is kinda good! I guess you can really call it prospect mining. Because once you find the concentration, now a days, you can bring out the heavy equipment and really risk big money, or get a big payday. At least you can spend less like you are trying to find the right spot. At any rate, that day reminds me of the beginning days of the '36 crew. You must have had a hard time sleeping just thinking of what could be! Livin' the dream!

The next part of the journal will talk about some exploration based on something Jacob told us. It will take us on an adventure to the remote northern areas of the mountain that are off our claims. What happens is something I have never forgotten and never put in my own journal. This will be the very first time I have written about this part of the 2002 season.

Took almost 3years back in 81, had totally no idea at all, common comment from all people of my acquaintance was that you cannot find gold with a box full of wires and a bunch of knobs on outside of box. Found the usual ferrous rubbish, coins and other goldfield artifacts. I now know how incorrect that early perception was and that in those 3 years I went over many ounces. Detector was a Bounty Hunter RB7, the detector that hooked me proper was the Garret A2B. It proved that scraps/dinks make up the most gold weight of the goldfields in my part of OZ, that the big bits were few and far between, but no doubt they were adrenaline pumping finds.

Absolutely! There is nothing like hearing about the old days from a guy who's been there & done it. I will always remember that season.

That’s right we have broken Dam’s here in south Texas. A while back one of the Dam gates broke and when that happen they had to lower the river level. Now on the shallow side you can walk on dry ground . This took place about 15 miles above my home town of Seguin . The good thing they have lowered the river above and below Seguin for about give are take 15 miles. The River is called Guadalupe River and it was decided to repair all gates saying it could take maybe as long as three years to do so . Now here’s what one can expect to find is lot of anything to do with fishing gear. Along the way you will find several bridges going over it . This where people throw away things they want lost forever. I’d say the number one item would be a gun and who knows a body now & then. I’ll post pictures when I go back down there again and that will be next week. I want to scope out some of the better places to go in at. I’m not much on fishing anymore but at the time you won’t find me throwing anything away. I’ve found everything has value so waste not want not .haha Until then when ever that is . Chuck

A month or so back I contacted Steve to make me a new carbon 3 piece shaft for the 800. I sent him some detailed dimensions that I was after since I'm a taller fellow. He was waiting to get some new clamps for the smaller end shaft he was working on and said it might take a bit. Well today it arrived and boy am I happy with the results. It's about 2 inches longer than my 900 shaft and is way stiffer. If your in the market for a USA made 3 piece shaft then Steves Detector Rods is your man. His work is amazing and you will not be disappointed. This is way better than factory. The 900 is on the right and Steves 800 shaft is on the left. If you guys and gals have never used Steves shafts before its time to give him a call. Thanks Steve!!!!!

Over the last couple months I've met quite few folks new to nuggetshooting. Many are frustrated at not finding gold, but are finding a lot of trash targets, including lead shot, and I find myself confessing that it took me more than 2 years on the calendar and 30+ days of detecting to find number 1. Part of my pep talk is to explain that this is a common experience, so stick with it. So the point of the question is to encourage newer detectorists stick with it and learn whatever they can from the real pros on this forum.

Found this today along with a flat button and a fired Colt pistol bullet. I'm having trouble identifying it. Any help would be greatly appreciated

Four hour beach hunt yesterday, water was still a little cool so I wore my hip boots. Couldn’t get out much deeper than mid thigh but it was good enough. Silver count was 1 ring, 1 earring and 1 1950 gw quarter. I also had 2 junk rings and a small amount of clad. I did electrolysis on the silver and then tumbled it. Not sure where the stone in the ring went to, I think it fell out while is was rinsing it. the bad weather we’ve had recently stirred up a lot of trash but it also moved some good targets. I’m going back tomorrow morning to give it another go.

The differences are pretty crazy between winter and now. This would be the same spot I took the photo yesterday when I got up to the base area of the ski field. This is from up a bit higher showing it better. This is the lake frozen And the beginners jumps area where I did all of my detecting yesterday, I target areas where people stack a lot as that's when they lose stuff. The other good spot is under lifts but its mostly dropped phones as nobody uses coins these days. This is how the road can look when it goes a bit wild after snow then rain then a freeze all in one night and you can see why I wished tourists that have never driven in these conditions just caught the bus, but no, many prefer to drive up in hire cars and get stuck or crash than pay for a bus. and the view from the top of the mountain looking down the other side from the first photo, this direction faces the town which is on the right of the lake in the photo along the water towards the back of the photo.

I like that phrase, "land of nada". 🤣 You must have seen the "NO" signs there. Got a few up my way too. 😁 I'm about 2 hours from VA Beach. It's a big beach. Not as expensive to stay at as Myrtle Beach, which is a bit longer. Headed there soon myself. Found a resort on the "Bargain" end that charges very little for RV's.

I have shown these photos before on this site. Targets are on or just below their target IDs. Equinox 800 low/mid conductor target IDs for some common USA coin, trash and jewelry targets: Equinox 900 low/mid conductor target IDs for some common USA coin, trash and jewelry targets:

As a Florida boy, I'd say my favorites are Siesta Key and North, up thru the panhandle, on the West Coast! Do ask about the "Red Tide" conditions before booking West Coast though, as it is a respiratory irritant, especially in older folks, and individuals with a history of breathing problems! South of there are still recovering from the hurricanes, if I'm not mistaken! East Coast (I'm in Melbourne) I'd say Vero North to past St. Augustine, but before Jacksonville! This time of year, ask about the seaweed conditions, as it can get messy if not removed! Disney Vero is a pretty safe bet for clean rooms, manicured beachs, and large pool area! And it is right in the center of the 1715 Treasure Fleet Wrecks! You might get lucky! Then there's always the Savanna Ga area, and Hilton Head SC area; both very nice also! 🍀👍👍

Thanks...I'm going to take a few weeks away from Coots, and then start in on the other one I have...it's in REALLY bad shape. I also know of 4 others I'm going to look at this summer. Might end up buying them, too. I'm a glutton for punishment, I guess. Jim

My first detector was a Garrett A2B Ground Hog, found two small nuggs in the first month and then went for over 12 months before I started to find gold on a regular basis. Back then it was quite a steep learning curve to sort out your detector. Cheers

So I found a lot of trash for couple of days trying to figure it all out. But then I took Gerry in Idaho's course. Really flattened out my learning curve. I was finding lead shot before and after class and found a small picker late the second day of class. Kind of got me hooked.

Great answer and one that I agree with too. Also...... Being a die hard Nox 800 user it has been hard for me to really get into the 900 I own. Deus 2 and the Legend were an easy transition from my 800. That is how different the 900 is from the 800. Most of the difference for me has been the expanded target ID range and what seems like some target ID instability. I will get use to it eventually. No doubt, the 900 is quite the detector. Some other 800 owners may be finding the 900 to be oddly difficult to deal with too.

Don't know how many hunt like that, but that's what I do. More precisely, I use discrimination WITH iron volume on D2 because Disc as implemented on D2 is not just a ferrous signal silencer, it helps to better differentiate ferrous vs. Non-ferrous targets in proximity to one another and mitigates ferrous down averaging of non-ferrous IDs. I use iron volume to tell me where concentrations of ferrous targets exist because that tells me where human habitation existed (when the visual clues have been erased by time). FWIW. Well, there are no free lunches in detecting. It's a constant struggle of managing tradeoffs. So, in reality you can't have best depth AND best separation simultaneously because one parameter works in opposition to the other, automated or otherwise. There may be an optimal balance point, but what criteria would you use to determine that (like you said, too many variables)? In high target density I am utilizing high recovery speed to find the shallower keeper targets that are hiding amongst the iron and that have hopefully been left behind by previous detectorists with slower machine. Selecting that recovery speed is a trial and error process that relies on "feel". It's imprecise and somewhat subjective. I have no expectation of depth. Also, when I'm in "machine gun" target density situations, my swing tempo and amplitude is highly variable as I try to lock in on keeper targets in the " muck", so auto recovery might be a hindrance and counterproductive. If I want depth, auto recovery speed is not going to do it, removing the iron and trash piece by piece is necessary and tedious to achieve that end. However, great strides in AI and machine learning have been made of late, so I'm not saying we'll never have a machine learn in real time based on the detectorist's manual adjustments someday that is able to emulate what we do by intuition and experience today. Might be ways off and detector manufacturers are going to have to decide whether the return on investment and cost passed on to consumers for that effort is going to be worth it. Frankly, in the mean time, just give me accurate target ID at depth under a wide range of soil conditions and give me on demand fast recovery for proximity trash targets and I'm good.

By the way I am a Garret dealer and I own an Axiom myself. I was not attempting to insult Garrett as I think the Axiom is a really valuable addition to the metal detecting hobby. But I was shocked to find that the accessory coils do not come with a coil cover and there is nowhere that I can find on the website that says, COIL COVER NOT INCLUDED. I sent an accessory coil to a customer and he called and complained that there was no coil cover. I had not noticed it did not have a coil cover. The customer said well they provide a coil cover with the coils that come with machine. So I think the expectation is that the coils come with covers is a reasonable expectation. I just wanted to see whether I was the only one that assumed coils come with coil covers these days. I think we may have gotten this impression because almost all the accessory after-market coils, Coiltek, Nugget Finder, all come with coil covers. If a coil cover is an additional item, then that should be something that is easily understood especially by me as a dealer so I can let my customer know. I have found Garrett to be extremely easy to work with, but sometimes with all of the things going on at the corporate level something like forgetting to list Optional accessories is forgotten. Doc

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.

Sodbuster, On the 900 and with my area it spreads some bad alloy targets to a point where you can disc those out. I'll break it out like this. Not all aluminum is the same, can slaw is different than foil as is a pull tab. For instance I have pull tabs in my area that range across a large batch of ID's so I disc the ones that fall away from the gold ranges. Pull tabs depending on when they were made and if they are anodized will all ring up different. Can slaw is the same way if it's folded flat or mashed into a tiny ball. Just my tests for instance. Park 1, 10x5 coiltek, multi and bias 0 and my disc program. Light 14k ring - 12 to 14 ID Heavy 14k - 50-53 ID 9K rings - 45-48 These are averages Aluminum pull tabs 27-38 Can Slaw - 16-20 Foil 7-11 These are my basic averages for what I come across Now can you see where I can disc a fair portion of the crap targets from the good stuff. As always foil is a mother and you will always dig a ton. I'm not saying the 900 is perfect but it's way better than the 800 with the condensed scale. Another thing is that most people will test good targets but forget to test the bad, thats foolish. Why not disc some aluminum to gain an advantage in a alloy infested park? I'll bet if Jeff sent me some pull tabs I would get a different ID and vice versa. Detectors are like snowflake's no 2 are exactly a like. Hope this clears up what I was trying say.

About 1 hour on an old puddler, 5 gram solid bit with a minelab eureka duel ace back in the early nineties. That piece got me hooked for life. Looked huge at the time doesn't look so big now.

Nice! I'd be hunting that spot until absolutely nothing is left. Once that window of opportunity closes... It's gone!

Yup. Agree. Some good perspective here. I agree the Manticore is overpriced for what it is (I think the D2 is also similarly overpriced), compared to the incredible bang for your buck that is Nokta Legend. The Mantocore should be priced where the 900 is now and the 900 should be reduced to the 700 price point and so on, consistent with ML's Xterra Pro newly established low price point anchor. Of course, none of that is going to happen as long as people are willing to pay the asking price for the Manticore and Nox Mark II. However, that all being said, I do believe the Manticore is more refined than the 900 and has things to offer over and above the Nox 900. I too have the 10x5 almost permanently bolted to the 900, the 6" on the 800, and will be looking for a "gently used" Manticore from a future "box of chocolates sampler".

For years I had only looked for gold by panning or sluicing with my grandfather, but since he passed away I thought it would be a good idea to try my hand with a detector on the creeks near me. I still took a pan with me to check the targets with since I was at the creek with plenty of water, and with amazement I was staring at the pan with a nice little nugget. I had only used the NOX 800 for about a year, actually about 20 times, but since I could hit on deep silver I knew if there was anything I had missed it would show up. Yes I found plenty of shot pellets rolling in the pan at times, but I knew that I had to take the good with the bad. I found that it enhanced my creek trips by over 90% more gold than without it. As far as searching only on dry ground with a detector for gold I can say that I have only found 1 nugget with it and soon I will be writing about that nugget with a couple of pictures. So I can honestly say for sure that i hit gold the first time I looked for it within the first hour, and every time I have gone out to the creeks since. Now I may have only found one or two pieces each trip out, but it sure makes for a good day and it all adds up by the end of the year.

Nice work!!👍👍

So far Ive only really found it after being given the pointy finger. And of those I did find, they were just a few little bits not much heavier than .5G, but the fun of looking for it with friends beats all!

Yeah...that would be bad, for sure. The downside of these is they're slow. Top end of about 25 depending on gearing. Mine's geared extra low, so top is about 20. But enormous torque in low range. These also have no suspension, or differentials, so shouldn't be used on pavement. But we outdoor-experienced guys understand that out in the desert or mountains 20 miles is a LONG way, so speed is not a big deal. I think the reason they don't make them is no market to speak of. Everybody wants to "baja" on them, and these Coots don't work for that. They made and sold about 10,000 of these between '65 and '85, and then the 4 wheelers came out, and that was the end. Somebody resurrected the brand, a few years later, with a model that had hydraulic drive instead of mechanical, but they only lasted a couple of years. Experts estimate there's only about 1,000 of the original Coots left. I've got one more, and know of 4 others a guy has that I'm going to look at this summer. There's no money to be made with them...I'll never get even my labor hours out of them at $10/hour...just enjoy making things that don't work operate again. Jim

Plus a hat, water and cb....excellent!

Good for her! And she is wearing snakeguards, too, proof that you are a good father.

Tom, The 900 is a good machine almost but not like the 800. I bought one for the 3 piece shaft and was about to hate it until I realized it needed some tweaking on the programs. Once I got away from the 800 mindset I find it to be a killer for gold rings. it limits the amount of trash you will dig because of the expanded numbers. If your hunting for coins and like tones you will have to play with it to break off of pennies. Test, Test, Test, The 900 hundred is really good with the coiltek 10x5. I pretty much run my 900 with the coiltek and the 800 with the 6 inch. The Manticore in my opinion is over priced and in dirt preforms the same as cheaper machines. Do not get lost in all the hype of whats the best. You will do well with a 800 or a 900.

Welcome Nibby, I'm just outside of Philly. Lots and lots of parks around in the burbs that allow detecting. Glad you joined up here.

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

I still think they need a cigar clipper and lighter on the machines.

All together now It’s a rail plate for train rails. We so bright they have to cover our heads up to let the sun come up . Chuck

You may have to get out to some small towns. Welcome from East Texas.

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.

Don't come down in Mexico where I am at. Way too dangerous😉

Don't come to St. Pete/Clearwater, it's hunted out already. 🙂

They were thinking they were making an entry level to mid range detector, which almost nobody on these forums uses or appreciates. The Apex is an Ace detector aimed at people who buy Ace detectors. I always think it’s interesting to go to a club meeting with 100 people and see what they are using, and then read this forum. The disconnect between our little world here and the actual world is huge. But back on track, a Gold Bug 2 in an Apex package - that’s what I would have made after over 20 years instead of what we actually got from Fisher. Their update landed with the loudest thud I’ve ever heard. It was like taking a rotary dial phone and putting a screen on it!