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What made this unlikely spot a bit more likely than the hundreds like it was an old fence post in a cleared area.. This is on the ocean-side of the lagoon at Horseshoe Bay.. It's a bit of a bush bash getting there but as part of my new mindset: 'You never know until you give it a go' I thought I'd better put my money where my mouth was.. Anyway, the new mindset worked again with a penny, half-penny and six pence (1942-1946) as well as a few 1 and 2 cent pieces and the compulsory bullets.. But what made the new mindset really worthwhile was a little gold ring (22 carat) which rang up as a solid 11 on the Foxy Noxy.. I was hoping for some old silver coins but didn't expect a gold ring..

I got back to Montana a week ago and the weather was great until last night. Hahaha! No gold yet since I have been back but I ended my winter in Arizona with an ounce of gold.

I was detecting in a yard where the house was built in 1890 late last week with the Deus 2 and I found a mix of modern and semi old items, but nothing from when the house was new. I think the coolest find of the day was a modern Memorial cent that was struck about 90% off center:

Started detecting in the early 70's and was very skilled at old Coins, CW Artifacts, and even found a handful of gold rings . Early 90's (20 yrs after I started detecting for Coin/Relics/Jewelry), I purchased my 1st gold detector (GM-VSAT) and went at least 6 trips to Eastern Oregon trying to find gold. Ended the year with ZERO. Next year I upgraded the detector to GM-III and went to the exact same areas I previously hunted with the VSat. Why? My buddies were finding nuggets with theirs at those same locations. At the end of the year, I have ZERO nuggets. 3rd year of owning a gold detector with ZERO gold nuggets to show for my efforts, I've pretty much written them off and decided to stick with Coin/Relic/Beach detectors. The better half of me (my wife) advised me to attend a class on how to use a gold detector. Say what darling? I've over 20 yrs experience and dug so many coins/relics/rings, even been to England with Jimmy Sierra and killed it on Romans. Why do I need a class? Yes I was a hard-head. That May of about 1994 I paid $100 and attended a half day speaking session at Rye Patch, NV and listened to a gent by the name of Gordan Sahara talk to us about "using gold detectors to find gold". He never did any hands on training with any of us, just stood up and talked and went over the motions with his own VLF detector. I took the guy and his wife out to dinner in Winnemucca that night and listened to him some more. He informed me, I was using my 20+ yrs of success/experience of hunting Coins/Relics/Rings the wrong way and I needed to toss all of that knowledge and thinking out the door. Long story short, I was listening for the wrong things and did not have the right coil control or mindset. How much did I learn from that 1/2 day group session at the burn barrel of Rye Patch? I went home with new hope and fresh mindset and new desires. A couple weeks later, Memorial Weekend I went to Sumpter, OR to the same exact location and dug 13 nuggets in 11 hours. Been hooked ever since. Moral of the story. Get off your hi horse of what you think you know and listen to the folks that are regularly doing it with Success. Watch them, listen to them, study them and hopefully they invite you along some time. Or you can waste so many tanks of gas, flat tires and weekends digging trash. My 20+ yrs of Success...chasing different targets in different conditions and being damn good at it, was my own demise. Along with my upbringing of...I was a young stud Marine USMC back then and so I was taught to have confident in myself and capabilities. You know how the joke goes. - A young bull standing the top of the hill with an older wise bull and they looking down the meadow below at all the cows. The young bull says to the older bull, "hey, lets run down there and have our way with one of those cows". The old bull stretches, sighs and then says to the young bull. "No son, lets leisurely walk down to those cows and have our way... with them all" For gold nugget hunters new to the game, my best advice is find that special person who knows the ropes and continually has success. Become acquainted with that person, buy them breakfast or dinner or etc and get to know them. Maybe, just maybe they might take you under their wing. Be sure to bring them something to the table as many of them are tired of being taken advantage of their knowledge. Good Luck Thanks Mike for posting and hope to see you this summer. Tell Sally I said hello and I'll still impressed to death with that nugget she found at Rye Patch with her GPZ-7000 while we were giving the class.

OK, so it's not much. I got a Legend at the end of last year but the cold weather set in before I could go out and try it. I finally went out for the first time ever today for about an hour or two to the local park and actually found some coins! I had forgotten everything about using it that I had read last winter and just went for it. I set it on Park Mode and M1 and man, what FUN! I've really enjoyed this forum and just purchased Clive's book to help me really learn what I'm doing. It's going to be a fun summer!

Yeah gotta agree, but you dont know this until your an old bull and that`s no bull.... 😉 How many cows?????

Seven years. I got a bit frustrated and paid Ray Mills considerable cash for help. After an introduction session that Fall, he took my buddy and me to a better place that Spring. Over the next few days I found 63 mostly sub-gram "nuggets". My buddy the @@@, fount 79.

i think it was 1995. i bought a Tesoro Diablo II Gold Demon from Arizona Al who had a little shop in Glendale. as i only had a car, i only got out when a friend of mine with a truck could get out. i think it was about 8 to 10 trips within about a years time i found a 1.5 gram nugget shaped like a small pinto bean. i was out in that area this morning and thought i would give it a look. i have hit this spot a lot with lots of different machines. and was not expecting to find anything. all these years and i have been walking past this .56. it was 8 feet away from the first one i ever found on the opposite side of the wash. it was under 5 inches of old dry washer tailings.

Thank you. I didn't want to get in trouble for talking about coin roll hunting on a detecting forum, but in the cold winter months I look through nickel and cent rolls from the bank. A little more than a month ago I found a $5 gold 1911 half eagle coin in a roll of machine wrapped nickels from Loomis. I was over the moon.

All Yanks: Thongs = Flip-flops..

I have both pinpointers (and a number of others). Don't over think the mineralization thing, you just need the pinpointer to get you close to your target for recovery. I regularly use my Garrett Carrot in the hottest of soils in Culpeper VA without issue. It is a reliable and rugged pinpointer. It gets the job done. The Nokta Pulse Dive is a fine pinpointer and great if you plan on doing any submerged detecting, but I prefer either the Carrot when not using my XP Deus 2 Detector, or the XP Pinpointer when using the Deus 2 because it links up wirelessly to the D2 and is a great, sensitive pinpointer. It is not a PI but also does just fine in hot dirt. Bottom line is that you can't go wrong with either the Pulse Dive or the Carrot. BTW - The only way to tell the level of mineralization in your soil is by using a mineralization meter, which, unfortunately, the Manticore does not have built in. But again, that really doesn't matter other than for curiosity sake for the most part because you will still be able to ground balance it satisfactorily without knowing the actual mineralization level. Also, even though the Manticore will come up with some arbitrary unitless number as a ground balance reference point, you really can't infer the level of mineralization from that number. It's just a reference that lets you know whether the ground reference point is changing as you traverse your site. HTH.

And this sure didn't look too good out near the 1936 dig site.

As soon as this crappy weather stops and finally starts getting warm to the point we can get up to and work our claims, then I can start pulling out some serious gold.

WWI Model 1905 bayonet, found in the woods. I'm sure the drop involved a conversation along the lines of "Dad, I lost your special knife". Plus bonus silvers! and a mystery item. I believe it's the point from a cane or walking stick.

Just go out and buy a Garrett Carrot, they work fine. There is no perfect anything. Just get one and get used to using it. I have an old black Garrett and it works fine. If it interferes with your machine move the machine a little further away. We are lucky to have pinpointers. My mom used get pissed when I borrowed her long spoons before they existed. And I'm in no shape now to dig around like a dog looking for a bb.

LMAO! Sorry Reese, you know me and how I love to see others not having any fun if I'm also not having any fun for the same reasons...... Thanks for the laugh and remember "it'll feel better when it quits hurting". Seriously tho.... it be over soon enough, good luck over there!!!!!!

Thank you. I have found a lesser off center strike in the past while searching through rolls of coins, but this was my first one found while detecting.

That would be funny to see someone wearing a thong bikini, if it was just flip flops. What would not be covered on the girl wearing them? I hope you know that I am just kidding with you as I think everyone on here would never want to see a picture of you in a thong.

Erik had to wear something to scare the crocks away! The fish might have looked on him as bait.

The joys of language, I'm sure Eric meant to say flip flops. Get that other image out of your heads please

Oh ... too much information!

I see what you mean, I looked at the mouth, Thongs ? that's going too far !

Haha.. Mate, it's bloody hard going along the top of the creek bank, and there's a waist-deep crossing to get over to this side.. And no end of crocks to worry about.. 😁 I even had to wear thongs.. X marks the spot..

OK, if you go to the Download Category List and look at bottom you will see two categories, 3D Printer Files and Metal Detector Settings The detector settings area is an old one, was set up more for detectors like the CTX and V3i but no reason why it can't work for others. main problem was I was not allowing direct member uploads - everything had to go through me for submission. As a result it languished Now that we have a more vetted Full Member level, I am allowing Full Members to not only download but to upload files in these two areas. Hopefully this will help facilitate things. Let me know how it goes as I may need to tweak something. Right now I have set it to allow eight 3D file extensions: fbx 3ds obj stl iges dae 3mf stp Too many? Too few? Are there any security risks with any to be aware of? I'm a newbie at this 3D printer stuff for sure, but as they get better and cheaper I can see myself having a new hobby. Again, let me know if it works, does not work, if you need help, whatever. Thanks!

Some of my customers are making snowmen down there. I have Brad, Jim and another guy (camped around the burn barrel). Another guy from Boise, ID (Rob) is heading down Thursday and I think Ray, Faustino and one other, is also heading down this weekend. I heard Lunk was running around with the Axiom and scored a couple yesterday. The ground will still have a quite a bit of moisture, so stay on the ridge tops and keep your GAIN/SENS moderate. Since I just returned from Cancun, I need to weigh all my gold jewelry and get caught up with customers before I head down. Crazy it's already mid April and so many of us have yet to find our 1st gold nugget for 2023, well at least me anyways. That's exactly why I had to get out of dodge and head south across the border. Have fun guys and if you need any detectors or coils, I can ship them C/O at the US Post Office in Imlay. If you stop in Mill City (it's not a city at all, just a couple buildings) say hello to Trudy at the Star Trading Post. If you really want a treat ask her about the Prime Rib and Lobster Dinners (you must pre register). Tell her Gerry's Detectors from Boise says "Hello". If you are around the dam, stop in and see Danny at Gold Diggers Pizzeria and Saloon. Treat yourself to the coldest beer in the area and one of the best hand made pizzas you'll set your lips to. Danny, is the grandson of famous Ed Spears. Tell him, Gerry's Detectors said "hello". I forgot the name of the girl who offers sight seeing trips, but I know you won't be disappointed. It's amazing the imagery you can see under moonlight. Dang, were did I put that card? Have fun everyone and be sure to have good quality tires, a spare and know how to change it.

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

Hello. I finally got around to getting an acid test kit and a diamond tester. Here's my questions: 1) One of my rings looks to be marked 10k or 18k. It's hard to say because only about the top 1/3 of the second digit is visible. It passes the 10k and 14k test, but fails the 18k test. Any idea what's up with that? 2) The same ring has 3 small (what appear to be) diamonds. The diamond tester shows them as real diamonds, but is there not a type of synthetic diamond that will pass the diamond test? The link to the diamond tester I used is below. 3) If my cheap diamond tester can give a false positive, by what means do I find out if it's a real diamond or synthetic? 4) I'm cashing in on the gold and diamonds. I'll be sending the gold to a refinery, so if you have any tips about that, please let me know. 5) What do you do with the diamonds, and how the heck do you remove them from the ring? Thanks for reading this. I'm looking forward to the replies. Here's the cheapo diamond tester I used: https://www.amazon.com/Accuracy-Environmental-Protection-Professional-Conductivity/dp/B09W4YR5K8/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=3TLT8FUYEVW3V&keywords=diamond%2Bselector%2Bii&qid=1681929497&sprefix=diamon%2Bselector%2BII%2Caps%2C139&sr=8-1-spons&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUFEQVMyRFowQkJUVVYmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTA2OTk5MzAyRkFZNlJBMEFUMU9LJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA3MzUyODAzOEZVUVhLVkpBN0FWJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ&th=1

Went to the beach again today to hunt for jewlry... i didn't find jewelry but did find a gold crown from somebody's tooth! Tested out as 22k. Found with the xp deus 2. Anyone else ever find a gold tooth or filling?

May 28 2002 The mood at camp this morning is low. However, I am unable to disclose the reason here in my journal. However, we have all had our breakfast and are more than eager to get back to our dig site. All of the crew including Jacob was up at the site today and we sent gravels singing through the tom at a good clip. By day’s end we were bushed and had washed 17 yards of pay. Jacob’s test pans were all looking very good with plentiful gold in them. We will see what the morning brings. We are all ready for a good night’s sleep I think. TO BE CONTINUED ...................

took me 6 months of detecting once a weekend before I finally scored a small 0.2g! My problem for the first 6 months was that I was using a PI mine detector with silent threshold....literally only dug loud signals. Finally scored a bit the first time out with the 2300....sucked and licked that bit about 40 times while staring at it to make sure it was actually gold 🙂 Looking back, I think I walked over gold with the mine detector......I just didnt know at the time that I should have investigated the small squeaks and farts....

The CZkidd has a couple of videos that shows how Sensitivity and Reactivity interact with each other regarding two silver targets at depth. One with the 11" coil and this one with the 9" coil. Of course that will vary depending on ground conditions, but I found it interesting.

That's interesting, Carolina, thanks! I've heard of folks using beach sens on land but haven't tried it yet. I'll have to give it a try!

Thank you. I think the bullet casing was older for a center fire cartridge also. I haven't pinpointed the manufacturer or the date range on it. It measures about 2 1/8" long and has an inside diameter of 1/2" so I think its a .50 caliber. I wanted to rule out a .45-70 because of the diameter and it seems to be to short to be a Sharps. From what I can tell it is a rarer .50-80... The only markings on it are "F 10 87"

I got out for 3 more hunts but unfortunately I missed the big waves this week. I did get gold every time I got out so that’s a plus. My first hint of the 3 netted a wheatie and a broken grad ring. The next hunt I lucked out and pull a small 14k with a diamond chip. The last hunt was today and it didn’t disappoint. I was debating if I should go out, and to where. The diamond on the ring tested good and the chain weighs 33.73g. HH

Think it took me a good 5 or 6 trips and it was .85 of grammar. Then another 3 or 4 trips before I got another one, got a 6 grammar and 3 sub grammars. I was working an old good rush area in the NT, and was getting real frustrated with boot tacks and bullets, but now I look for un worked ground. There is plenty of ground that has gold on it, that is not viable for the big companies. Hooked ever since. Rarely have a trip without at least 1 nugget these days.

Eric, Please tell us that you accidentally put the thong on after waking up next to a beautiful woman before running out the door with your detector before her husband came home. Second did you also wear her high heels while metal detecting? Nice hunt and nice looking ring.

Not sure we're we going to end up. We did make it into Nevada today but it took some doing. Six and half hour trip took ten hours. Out flow air pipe to the intercooler blew apart climbing over the Owehyes mtn. Wired it together and head back towards Nampa. No luck at Napa auto. All the way back to a Ford dealer. They had one. Now camped on a old side road. Gold tomorrow?

I'm pretty sure there is not a best answer, I went with water proof just in case, even though I don't water hunt. Most will work fine after you pass 100, you might want to tape over the speaker, mine are all to loud for me. After you have one spend a lot of time seeing how it works. There is a little more skill involved than what it appears.

I have the nokta Pulse Dive (Pulse Induction), Fisher F Pulse (Also Pulse Induction), The original Garrett Pro Pointer (VLF) The F Pulse for me is way to quiet and the vibration is so weak you cannot even hardly feel it vibrating when pin pointing a target, the F Pulse is my least favorite pointer I currently own The Nokta Pulse Dive I do like except it is very very heavy pin pointer, which for me personally makes it a very UN comfortable pointer to use one suggestion I have for you is to also check out the new 2023 model Quest X Pointer Max pin pointer, that comes with what Quest calls the Magic Holster, what the Magic Holster does is allows you to turn the X Pointer Max on while out detecting and while in the new Magic Holster the X Pointer Max is in stand by mode until you are ready to pin point with it, you just remove the X Pointer max from the holster and it automatically turns on and is ready to locate your target, once finished pin pointing put it back in the Magic Holster and it goes back into stand by mode, another nice feature with the X Pointer max is it is a discriminating pin pointer which works very very good, the Quest X Pointer Max is also a (VLF) pin pointer and is currently my favorite pointer I use

Well I was down that way today and we’ve been getting lots of rain and the river is up . The weather man shows rain all this week. It still shows lots of places one could hunt but not as many around Easter . The first three pictures is one of the dam’s and what it looks below it now.

Made it back to the beach this morning. More trash targets than friday but still managed a decent hunt. Best find of the day was a pandora charm that was an eyeball find in the parking lot. Ended up with just over 3 dollars in clad, 4 pieces of junk jewelry and a button.

Great job Erik, Looks like you once again have made a few people breath a sigh of relief. Not many good people like you left in this crazy world. Thanks for posting!!!!

Jeff nailed it. Been hunting beaches for a fair number of years and have been using the D2 exclusively since it came out. Jeff nailed it. just the view from my beachy foxhole….

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

My friend Brad texted this pic from Rye Patch this a.m. Forecast is better in the coming days though.

Yeah I did say I would, and got sidetracked by my efforts to thwart the spammers. By end of tomorrow, I promise.

35-40 detecting days, sun up to sun down, every day. I drove to AZ determined to find a nugget, and not leave until I did. It got to the point where I'd wake up and walk around like a zombie swinging a detector mindlessly all day and just forcing myself through the motions, unwilling to give up and go home though. Couldn't find anyone to help out, spent a lot of that time in areas with no detectable gold as a result. Learned a lot though in all the failures.

Having found several gold crowns over the years, I think that most, if not all, were from cremation urns. I became convinced of this when I found 3 on one hunt and all looked similar. I'm pretty sure that the melting point of most gold crown alloys is higher than the typical cremation temperature. My local beaches have also produced a few cremation tags so it must be a popular place to spread cremation ashes.

It's very hard, a hammer or nips wouldn't chip the corner. I ordered a test kit so I'll keep you guys posted. I have found similar campfire pieces before but it melts with a torch and this dosen't. And this is my first consistent 39 ID or I wouldn't have bothered with it.

I'll vote camp lead. I usually take some nippers to pieces like that on the edge..if its soft when you cut it then probably lead. strick