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I have been on the forum for a year now more or less and thought that I would share a few finds from a couple of sites.One is a recently discovery where I dug the little bank and toy pistol and the other earlier items came from a site that I have been poking around for awhile now. The Bank Will Hold Five Dollars Of Dimes And Unfortunately It Was Empty. The Pistol Has Patent Date But I Cannot Quite Make It Out? Site Two Eagle I With A Push. # 28 Phoenix Never Get Tired Of Those! Roseette And What Maybe Is Tack Related Item? Wreath. Cryer Mission Era? The Experts Out There Will Know. I Call These Perforators. A Fairly Common Trade Item Are The Iron Bits For The So Called Spanish Pump Drill Used By The Native Peoples For Drilling Shell Beads Etcetera. The Pocket Watch Or Compact Lid Was Pounded Flat A Then Perforated To Be Worn As A Gorget IMO. And A Couple Of Iron Relics And Some Of The Usual Stuff That Always Turns UP.

It's been a while, I also need to do a wrap up of relic season, but I went to Myrtle Beach for a week. I was hoping to score some high end stuff, but I was in the Southern campground district instead of the hotel strip. Spring break had just ended two days before we got there. The campground is enormous, more than 800 campsites and about 2,000 lease/rental houses. It also has about a mile of beach, and there are two more large campgrounds heading north as well as a couple large condo buildings. Each morning and most afternoons I got to hunt the beach at low tide, the tide is about 5 feet so it goes way out. There were 4 sections, High dry, trough as seen above, mid dry, and wet. The top 3 were all random finds, in the wet you could zigzag for a short time to the surf, and soon you would find a line of good finds. The best stuff was probably in the surf trough but I didn't go in the water, especially after seeing a kid running down the beach with a 3 foot shark in his hands to show his parents. 😀 Tried to get a good shot but all I got was this: I know, what shark? 🤔 You can see the hotel district in the background, never made it there, it was about 4 miles up the beach. Overall it was kinda disappointing, but still fun and I lost over 5 pounds over the week. I met other detectorists who were complaining instead of lying about the dearth of finds, I kinda had to laugh. I was using the Deus 2 with the 13" coil and a modified Beach Sensitive program done sort of like my Relic Reaper program. No disc, no notch, ears for discrimination. I knew from reading others' posts that there would be all kinds of crazy IDs and sometimes no ID, but I dug everything that sounded good. Thing was everything was deep for the most part. I got so I'd scoop at least 5 times not only to beat fill-in, but to get to the find which was usually in the 4th or 5th scoop, anywhere from 8-12" deep. Because using square full tones and turning on a find identifies almost all iron, I had no problem skipping it but dug some randomly either because it was close to the surface and dangerous, or just to check. I did find that low tones with IDs of 5 to 15 were usually bling jewelry. I also blessed the 'no beach tents' signs which kept stakes to a minimum. It was the only thing you couldn't legally do on the beach 🤣 Here's my Day 1 trash getting used to the place: Glad I got rid of that surface trap iron! This is my last days' trash showing that I got better but still watched for surface iron: Ok. Now for the finds: Crap finds Bling finds A small handful of junk jewelry including a tungsten ring, a stainless spinner, 3 earrings, a tiny ankle bracelet chain, and some earring parts. The best one is below, .925 with a big CZ. Big finds: A huge monster truck Hummer that was 2 feet down, a small toy car, sunglasses. An iPhone 13 and case that was about 6" under the surf and vertical, it would have been 6 feet under water at high tide so it is dead. A huge bling buckle found close to the surf about a foot down, I think it took 8 scoops to get it. It has rhinestones or CZs and is some kind of plated zinc. https://www.buckle.com/blazin-roxx-glitz-belt-buckle/prd-5491537906 Coins: 99 coins, oldest was probably 70s. The place was huge and so nice that we booked it again next year before leaving, my wife loves the local shopping and restaurants. Shame I couldn't get her a gold or silver ring. A few more gratuitous photos of the place: Cool spider crab

Klunker is the best detectorist that I know. (Because he is the only detectorist that I know) Anyways, over the years I have become a much more proficient at detecting. Partly because of his misguided teaching. I'm very competitive and always want to beat him for the day on nuggets found. Recently I've been getting close to him and occasionally tie or beat him for the day. Doesn't happen often. But I think Klunker is feeling threatened by my rise in awesome detecting skills. So he has moved on to more serious tactics to keep my nugget count down. He has now trained his dog to come lay down in my dig hole. I now have to carry a bag of sliced salami to get him out. 🤣 Things are getting serious now. I'm strategizing my next counter moves.

Four hour beach hunt yesterday netted two pieces of gold. Thursday it was to rough to get into the water so I went back yesterday to much better conditions. Tides were a little high, about half a foot. Went out into the water and was only finding bits of aluminum and some zincons so I decided to hunt the wet. Had a good signal the was jumping from 10 to 12 right at the high tide line, 10k gold class ring. Hunted a little longer and didn’t find anything other than more bits of trash, so I decided to hunt a different beach. Second beach same as the first, lots of small aluminum and some clad. I was about to call it quits when I got a signal jumping from 2 to 4 thinking it was more aluminum I dug it anyway and got the 10k gold earring. the ring weighs 5.87 grams and the earring weighs .63. the class ring had the woman’s full name in it so I did a search and found an email address, hopefully she contacts me back and can identify the ring so I can return it to her. my settings were beach low conductor, sensitivity 23, 5 tones , recovery speed 5 , normal audio.

What an absolutely awesome day metal detecting on one of my beaches Thursday. I didn’t find much with my metal detector but saw the best treasure ever. There was a pod of migrating gray whales that were spyhopping, spouting and breaching for about 20 minutes just offshore and down the beach from my viewpoint. I believe that there were at least 5. Spyhopping is when they go vertical and “stand on their tail”, come straight up with their head and look around at the landscape for landmarks so that they know where they are on the migration trek. I think that maybe an older whale was teaching a younger one how to spyhop as I saw this amazing feat 8-10 times. They also breached in the normal way of just coming up and spouting and slapping their fins. One almost came completely out of the water. And I am talking about 40-50 feet long whales. They were just massive! It is just a marvel of nature. And they have been doing the migration for hundreds of years if not thousands. After the whales were out of sight a pod of 20-30 dolphins came from the other direction, breaching completely out of the water playing their way south. It almost looked like they were in a feeding frensy except they were moving way to fast. Not all of the treasure I find at the beach is 14K. LOL Have a great day!!! Cuniagau

It even came with a key! Unfortunately even if I can get it to turn on I don’t think I would be able to fit in it... 🤣

Some time ago I had to make a decision about buying a new coil for my 7000, buying a 6000 or buying an Axiom. I decided to buy a 15" CC X-Coil and it arrived about a month ago. The family is off on a trip so yesterday was my first try with the new coil. The coil was sent by post with a tracking number all the way from Kazakhstan. Here is the coil as I unpackaged it. The coil I've had on for the last few years has been the 15x10 Spirial X-Coil so seemingly there is not that much difference but in actual use I think there is a great difference. I've found lots of nuggets with the Spiral, but I just had this feeling that it could be better based on what Simon has said. Simon was right. My testing ground is a place where I and many others have been for years. When we first started there we were able to find quite a bit of trash and WWII 50 cal and shells. Those are long gone and so are most of the little wires which gave us such good 'potential' among the nuggets and hot rocks. My testing method was to go out with the coil I had on first and then come back and put on the new 15" CC. I marked targets I found but did not dig them. I had three areas/targets marked by the time I made it back to the SUV. I switched the coils by unscrewing the adapter with the chip from the 7000 and screwing in the new coil and replacing that back on the 7000. I didn't change the settings and I tested the new 15" CC on my test gold chips laying on the ground. The sensitivity was at 12. Ground smoothing low, high yield, normal and I use the SP01. The first thing I noticed when going over the test chips was that you had to have the coil directly over the nugget or you couldn't hear it. And furthermore, as Simon had told me the receive coil is smaller than the outer coil so it acted as a smaller coil. I didn't mind because it is a light coil. It seems ligher than the Spiral but I'd have to check it. So off I went to find the 3 marked targets, but I had pretty much of a dead battery in my phone. I put the phone on a charger and took off in search of my 'marks!' Finding the marks proved to be a bit harder than I first imagined. All the pretty flowers and dried bushes looked the same. My first mark was about 15 minutes from the start. I spied it and before I could get there, I got a loud target. It was a little sharp and it could be bullet jackets or the wires. It wasn't very deep so it moved with the light scrapes, but I couldn't see it in the scoop. It got down to a little bit of black sand and then I saw it. A little, flakey nugget! This coil can hunt I said to myself. I had to go back and get my phone so I could take some pictures. I'll have to add I carried it around later and it didn't cause an EMI problem for the coil. When I came back these are the pictures I took. I was impressed by a coil that big finding a nugget that small. The 7000 allows you to mark 'find points' which I have always liked. It asks you the depth which I said was 2" and the weight which I said was .1g. I was on the board and no matter what happened the rest of the day I had a nugget. This was good for me because the last 3 trips I've made to this location I got skunked. I then went to the target I had marked about 10 feet and it was a piece of trash. I went on to check the other marks I had made and could see all of those targets except one. I had dug one target and left it in the hole with the Spiral. It was a wire and the 15"CC did not see it. Another thing the 15 did not see was the hot rocks. That was a good thing. I was learning how to use it as I got into a couple of hours. At first I was worried that I was going to miss things under the bushes because the outer coil would be 'dead' and I couldn't get the center of the coil under the bush. Larger bullet trash and a couple of cans showed me that I could hear targets before the coil got to it. I was digging under bushes. It was time to leave this spot and go to another pounded spot where I wanted to test the new coil for depth. I knew this was deeper and perhaps the main reason why I bought it for $1200. I covered a lot of areas with no joy but I was learning to use the coil. There was one area that held deeper nuggets and that is not something I am good at. I can hear shallow nuggets that scream but deep iffys get the best of me. With that in mind I was looking for a repeatable iffy at this location and I found one. I dug a couple of inches as the first nugget and it was still iffy. I dug more and it brightened a little but not enough to make me think it was a nugget. Now I'm down about 6-7" in some moist desert soil with a lot of iron hanging off the magnet on the pick. I run the coil over the dig out pile and it screams! It is right on top. I scooped it and said YES. I don't remember digging a deeper small nugget than this. The phone was a long way from me so I don't have a picture but once again, this coil can hunt. I'm ready for Rye Patch now. Franconia here I come. Watch out Quartzsite. Here are my results. Notice just to the right of the .06 nugget on the scale a little wire piece. The 15" found that also. The desert revived me and reinvigorated me. For the next few weeks I'll go as much as possible. This was my trash.

Leaving the mint, silver quarters weighed 6.25 g. Clad quarters OTOH weigh 5.67 g.

As Chase has said, it's a clad quarter and is typical of the various damaging stages that a clad coin would go through. Silver will never corrode out on the edge and cause that hollow gap. Color is the least reliable factor in determining coins. Silver usually is black, but I have found gray, milky white, and brown (just like a clad would look). The fact that your quarter lost some "meat" on the edge says it's clad to me as well

My assessment: 1966 clad, 1967 clad, 1967 clad But don’t take my word for it. Showing us edge pics of probable clad coins is not really going to be definitive. Have you looked at what the copper clad cores look like on non-corroded pocket change? It’s pretty highly variable. If you factor in the bi-metallic galvanic effects and other environmental elements that cause corrosion, on clad, the visual results are all over the map. So, if you still really think you have something there, you can: 1) Take to a local coin dealer and have them assess it for free. 2) Purchase a silver acid test kit. 3) Send it off to be assessed and professionally graded (PCGS, etc). 4) Run it through a Coinstar machine. If it gets rejected, it could be silver… 5) Brush the edge as suggested earlier to expose the copper core. 6) Keep it a mystery, create a semi-fictional backstory of its origin and impress your friends and family with the tale of the “rare” 1967 Quarter variant you discovered.

Silver coins are solid, homogeneous metal and don't have a core. That coin edge certainly looks like a core is there which is where the term clad comes from. Plus it does not look like silver corrosion but typical of clad which is highly variable because of its bi-metallic galvanic properties. There is a possibility of an issue with the metallic composition of the clad planchet resulting in an error, but unlikely its silver.

I recently acquired an MXT-E ... as I'm getting to know this detector... I've been amazed at how deep it finds very small targets... I had read somewhere that these machines do well at the beach... So I took the MXT out a couple of days ago... to a little strip of beach I like to hit... many of the locals fish here... there's always sinkers and pocket change... I've found two wedding bands on this strip in the past... For Me... It's a Good close by spot... after an hour or so... I found the usual run of the mill aluminum... sinkers... a nice little pair of wiss snips( CW7T ).... A stainless hook( I really should take up fishing some day)... some junk rusty iron... clad coins.. The piece of Bone was an eye find at the edge of the water... I think It came from something that's dead... but one target blew me away... pictured in the middle of the quarter and nickel... is what I'm pretty sure... is a dot of silver solder... I don't know exactly how deep it was... but I dug a heck of a hole before it was topside... the MXT carried on like I had a troy once under the coil... this is the 3rd time Iv'e had this machine out... It finds Tiny stuff deep... It kinda reminds me of one of the blue lunch box detectors... The Coin Master V Supreme... That machine could find a rusty nail head a foot down.... But... that was my sneak away from work early day at the beach... with a detector I'm really starting to like

A good hunt on heavy iron infested field.

June 2 2002 Part Two We broke for lunch around 1:00 PM and headed back to camp. Jacob had the gold all cleaned and weighed. There were 2.7 ounces. Then we told him about what had happened earlier. To say he was angry would be an understatement. He was saying that now the trouble had started and there would be hooligans all over the mountain watching us and stealing as well. He was really concerned. He had lived through things like that before and we all started to get worried. Vern never carried a sidearm and Jacob brought it up immediately saying he must start wearing one. Jim had a really nice 357 and lent it to him. Then Jacob decided we needed to move our camp up to the dig site for security. It would be less convenient but safer all the way around. So we spent the rest of the day moving camp which took us until dark. Unfortunately, the water line ran way up the mountain to the pump. Jacob recommended that we take turns on night watch to guard that area for a few days to make sure nobody messed with anything. It would also provide security for the camp in case of anyone coming down the mountain from the north. So I decided to take the first watch. I didn’t dare mention any of this to my wife who was at home and already worried about the crew’s safety. I headed up the mountain to find a good lookout area but the night guard would need to patrol up and down at times because one watchman couldn’t see everything from one spot. This was becoming dangerous. TO BE CONTINUED ................

As we know, the D2 is primarily a tone machine...which is how I use it. I posted this video as an interesting demonstration of how the frequency weightings affect TID. A takeaway here is that by switching programs over a wavering tone, you may get a better idea of what your coil is trying to tell you. I've done this on our beaches and in some cases, it cleared up the picture somewhat. Having said that, I'm still a tonal kinda guy. 😉 Just the view from my sandy foxhole....

Most parts of Colorado and Wyoming (with some notable exceptions) produce very small gold more suited to panning and sluicing. Overall, I think its pretty tough to find nuggets compared to the other states you mentioned, but I'm not one to tell you not to try! I've seen a few big nuggets that came from the South Pass City/Atlantic City area.. I suspect that area is claimed pretty heavily. Colorado's produced some big nuggets and specimens. There's an impressive collection on display at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. A specimen called Tom's Baby weighted 13 pounds, and the Breckenridge area has produced some cool crystalline gold.

Which is which in the picture above? I am seeing hints of copper core on both coins' edges. Nothing really unusual that I see from the first picture. Looks like corroded clad to me. And other than special proof sets/specimens no silver quarters were introduced for circulation after 1964.

Ok, I'll get it all measured up for you and provide photos and all info required.

I was out and about today detecting my usual spots and I found this strange quarter. Normally when I find coins, I check the rim and give it a good scratch with my nail to expose the copper. This time I found a 1967 quarter that didn't have any of the usual wear and tear found in clad, and it was dark purple sandwiched within, much like the silver coins I've found except this coin has a visible distinguishing line between the clad faces and the inner metal due to beach exposure . Scratching it with my nail did not expose any copper either. Do silver quarters even exist beyond 1964 and if so are they valuable?

Got out to the field of dreams( detecting here for over 5 years,several hundred hours,mostly over same small area). Trying to spread out to hit the large areas on property I've never ventured. Found that can buckle in one of these areas few days ago. These nails and bits if not dug on false are in every single hole dug! It's insane and can lead to hardship atleast for myself! I'm still working out some second guessing from digging signals I shouldn't be! I love getting out here to this spot though as I know the chance of epic is always valid! The knowing old things are 100% lying around is all any of us could ask for I reckon! The thin metal piece is like a ar bolt cover,it has attachment places tiny little holes like a flapper of some sort. My finds tackle box. I know how tough it is for some to get on good ground or my experience says it is anyway! I've dug maybe 150 bullets,50+ shot or smashed added to it,around 20 cw buttons, lot of clad,10 or so silvers not really a coin chaser though, flat buttons,cannister shot , cannonball frags,box plate,cav buckle and many random items. 3/4 of all relics from this field of dreams! Ive had long stretches of many outings low numbers of sought after relics to show. Gave many of bullet to anyone interested to spread interest and because I'm just that way I reckon! Have a great day fellas,be safe. You are your own first responder!

I believe the objective of the video also included audio responses coupled with target ID especially since History Teacher deliberately used PWM Pitch audio to reach those deep test targets. They had very sketchy target IDs but both had dig me audio in my opinion considering the low amounts of black sand at that beach. I have hunted several of the beaches near the border of North and South Carolina. Deep targets mostly become iron responses if they have much lower surface target IDs and small size/poor orientation. Having non-ferrous target IDs and audio on really deep targets at those beaches.....better dig. I believe the headliner for this video was: Comparing diving and beach sensitive, could using these programs together help identify a big gold ring deep and a big zinc penny? There was a difference in the audio and the IDs using those two modes on those two targets. Was it conclusive and more important, repeatable enough for me to know that those targets were a big gold ring versus a zinc penny......... that is questionable. I also totally agree that PWM Pitch is not the best audio form for highlighting Deus 2's audio capabilities as far as the qualities associated with target tones. I only use PWM Pitch when I am in really thick trash with a ton of notching, when I want absolute maximum depth, when ambient noise is really bad or when I am gold prospecting for the really tiny stuff.

Jason Conductive shielding such as copper mesh can be used. Some of the early BFO and VLF detectors used aluminum foil or copper mesh. One even used a thin wall copper pipe with the windings inside. There must a gap such as a very thin slice of pie or slot removed in the shielding somewhere within the 360 degree circle. The gap prevents the shield from becoming a shorted turn. The entire coil and shielding must encapsulated in epoxy or foam to prevent any movement between the coil and the shield when bumped against anything. In the videos you can see how the slightest movement of the copper mesh causes problems. Since those good old days lol by rule of thumb it was determined that any shielding material that could be detected when passed over the coil should not be used. It was found that a graphite coating with a resistance of 50 to 150 ohms worked well for shielding. The GPZ 7000 14" coil has a layer of graphite coated paper on top and bottom of the coil assembly with overlapping fingers around the circumference. There is a thin bare wire taped to the top and bottom shields that is connected by a blue wire to the printed circuit board ground inside the detector housing. Shields should always be connected to a common circuit ground or ground plane. The GPX 6000 should react to the copper mesh similar to the GPZ 7000 if the mesh distance and placement is the same. There will be differences caused by coil types (mono, DD, DOD) and size (11”, 14”). The copper mesh will be a load/damper to both detectors. The distance and amount within view of the coil will determine how much the coil will be loaded down. This is why he is spacing the mesh away from the coil with large plastic boxes. If he wrapped the mesh closer to the coil it would severely desensitize the performance and at some closer distance cause an overload and shut down the detector. Test your carbon sheet for resistance at several places with the probes 1”, 6” and 12” apart. Pass it over the coil to see if it is detected. If the resistance is consistent in the range of 50 to 150 ohms and the sheet is not detected then it should work. Have a good day, Chet

Great finds Doc, always good to see interesting stuff. 👍 Your toy pistol looks a lot like this one, someone wants a good chunk of change on eBay for it:

The chat I had about the 900 will remain private for the time being because I want it to, not because I was asked to keep quiet.

So, Gerry from Gerry’s Detectors talked me into an Equinox 900. With the Minelab veterans discount it was $515 less expensive than the Deus II, and comes with two coils. 1/3 less is significant. Ordered on Wednesday and it arrived today. It was intuitive to assemble. It is light and of high quality. I can literally just turn it on and go detecting. My only two complaints are there were no Minelab stickers, 😐, and my a Killer B headphones seem to be the wrong impedance to work with the Equinox. The volume is very low even with the volume knob on the headphones turned all the way up. That is rather disappointing. I will take it out tomorrow to begin learning the machine. I have a spot on Gerry’s Rye Patch trip in June I am really looking forward to attending.

If it was me I'd take a tiny bit of the shielding off the cable and get the splinter out in case it eventually breaks through the thinner insulation on the coil wires. Have you tried doing a good bend in the cable where the entry wound is to try make it easier to get the thorn out with the tweezers? I'd then use dual wall adhesive lined heat shrink over the injury to seal it up and make it as good as new. Good heat strinks can shrink up to 4 times their size so you'll be able to get one that fits over the coil cables plug connector but still shrinks down small enough to shrink onto the cable. I use them doing X-coil adapter stuff and putting plug ends back on coils. They slide over the coils plug ends fine to be used on the cable. You can just use a lighter to shrink it down if you don't have a solder station with a heat gun. https://www.te.com/usa-en/products/heat-shrink-tubing/dual-wall-tubing.html Once that's done the cable is as good as new and just as waterproof as it once was. Dual wall heat shrink tubing protects against moisture and corrosive environments, while providing electrical insulation and mechanical protection using engineered adhesives. Dual wall tubing products consist of a crosslinked outer jacket and an inner layer of adhesive or encapsulant. During installation, the adhesive or encapsulant lining melts and flows, creating a moisture-resistant protective barrier. Benefits of this type of tubing include controlled amounts of adhesive and consistent results; compliance with AMS-DTL-23053 standards; UL recognition/CSA certification; and RoHS Compliant.

I guess nobody can now say Minelab don't care about their customers as they've proven otherwise in this case, along with the GPX 6000 EMI issue.. They did the EMI fix for the GPX and it now works a treat, they're now looking into the ID issues with the new detectors. I'm really happy about this just as I was about the GPX 6000 EMI Fix. Thanks Minelab. I agree too, it's good they made the call to a detector user that's very knowledgeable and level headed and not just some Facebook or Youtube personality, Jeff's criticism was not click bait like Youtube videos often are, it was a genuine opinion of a possible problem that may need some attention with the new 900 and possibly also the Manticore. I had a play with my Manticore today, there is nothing I can do settings wise other than beach mode to give it anywhere near the ID stability of the Nox. I can improve it over default settings but I can't get it to the level of the Nox, even taking into account the extra ID's of the Manticore on deeper coins that the Nox can remain quite solid on. Beach mode is the only way I can get it what I'd call good on ID's on deeper coins.

1964 was the last year silver quarters were made. strick

A few added thoughts related to the above conversation and my thoughts on how a pulse induction detector works. The coil is not a tuned circuit like a radio receiver antenna coil which has a variable capacitor to select different radio Channels/Stations. The narrow bandwidth of a tuned radio antenna circuit eliminates all broadband EMI frequencies that are above or below the tuned in station frequency. If the radio is tuned to 1590000 Hz at the top of the AM radio band it will allow a continuous flow of sine like waves to pass through to be converted into voice and music. If the station is at a long distance only EMI that is within the narrow bandwidth of the tuned circuit will cause static and distortion of the station’s signal. A pulse induction detector is not a radio frequency transmitter and receiver. It is a timed device that gates the receiver open at a precise period at the end of each transmit pulse. All EMI and noise that occurs when the receiver is off is eliminated. Unfortunately there is still a lot of EMI and noise that is also gated into the receiver during the gated period. The transmitter induces a high energy collapsing magnetic field into the earth. At the tail end of the collapsed field the receiver is gated on to allow measurement of a feeble distortion of normal ground return and background noise signals caused by a small target’s magnetic signal. The detector coil is a broadband circuit allowing many Channels/Stations/EMI in simultaneously. Each time it gates the receiver on it is trying to detect a slight magnetic induced change in one single received slope which is the equivalent of one of the 1590000 sine waves of the AM radio station signal. The frequency control on a pulse induction detector changes the number (hundreds to a few thousands) of transmit pulses transmitted each second. The pulses and target return signals are not tunable sine waves. The transmit pulse is a very high current change in energy switched into the coil. The number of energy changes, grouping, widths, energy and spacing varies with different modes. The automatic frequency (pulse rate) control tries to select a pulse rate so that the very weak received signal slope is not synchronized with predominate EMI rates. If a 50 or 60 cycle power line is nearby it will choose a pulse frequency that does not synchronize with that frequency or any strong harmonics of the primary frequency. It cannot handle all of the random power line EMI that comes from computers, TV distant ARC welders and other heavy changing load loads on the power grid. Pulses and harmonics from other metal detectors will also be avoided by the automatic frequency (pulse rate) control. Random EMI noise/pulses from distant electrical storms, aircraft and other sources that vary in repetition rates and signal strengths will fade in and out and require more frequent automatic frequency (pulse rate) actions. Transmit coil specifications have not changed for many years. Most coils are wound with a special Litz wire and have a low coil resistance of less than one ohm. The inductance is typically around 290 to 310 microhenrys. The coils are normally shielded for EMI and ground effects with conductive graphite paint. The conductive coating must have considerable resistance to avoid shorting out or severely damping or overloading transmit and receive signals. Any external add-on shielding or metal material will severely alter the performance of the coil. Smaller nuggets will not be detected. As more shielding is added to a coil an overload condition will be reached and hopefully the detector has an automatic shutdown feature that prevents internal damage. Automatic ground tracking/balance is continuously adjusting the receiver section to compensate for different ground conditions. Some mineralize and/or damp salty ground will tend to bias the ground balance. In these conditions the detector may slowly become desensitized and quiet. And then it goes over a hot rock or tin can and suddenly wakes up to return to a more sensitive and noisy normal condition. Internal broadband noise and EMI can severely desensitize the detector receiver. Suppressing or shielding internally generated broadband noise is essential. Construction and layout of the circuity, multiple layered printed circuit boards with a continuous copper ground plane sandwiched into the board are some of the methods used. Shielding of critical circuits is most important. The GPX 6000 and GPZ 7000 detectors have a black epoxy covering the entire receiver module. This epoxy may have iron powder mixed into it to provide a very effective shield. Overall sensitivity is determined by a good signal to noise ratio at the first stage of a receiver. It takes very little input noise to desensitize the overall system. It is a difficult task but some of the manufactures have overcome a lot and provided some very fine detectors. The current problems will be improved upon in future models. Have a good day, Chet

Didn't think of that one Dave. At least that coil has been promised and presumably is in production. Hope you get it soon. Just to be clear, Minelab contacted me via email using my information provided with my warranty registration. I did not contact them or request any help other than the sentence that I put near the end of my original post about being open to hearing from them.

June 2 2002 Part One Gold Cleanups And Hooligans We got up to the the mine site early while Jacob started the gold cleanup. When Vern was hiking up the mountain to start the pump he was confronted by three men who stopped him and started asking questions. Jim and I heard the air horn he carried signal three rapid blasts which meant trouble. We hustled up the mountain as fast as we could. I had my 9 MM semi auto on me and Jim always carried a 44 revolver. When we got up to where Vern was located we could see he was in a heated argument with three middle aged men. They did not look to be armed. I asked what all the ruckus was about. Vern said they were looking for trouble and were about to get it in spades. Now Vern is the young guy in the crew and full of vinegar. I tried to calm the situation down before things got out of hand. I asked the men what the trouble was. They wanted to know what we were doing on the mountain and why we had equipment to dig up the earth and make a mess. I calmly explained that we were permitted and bonded miners who were here to work and had no intention of destroying the beauty of the area. I also explained to them that when we had finished our work for the season the ground would be put back in good shape and they should not worry. Vern chimed in that these were probably the scum who had cut our water line. The three of them would not look him in the eye and I suspected he may be right. However, we would not be able to prove that and my intention was to alleviate any pending trouble. I did warn them that our activities were legal and any attempt to sabotage or create trouble for our project would be met with the law. With that they trudged away muttering to each other. Vern said wait until Jacob hears about this and that he was right, trouble was starting already. TO BE CONTINUED .....................

Welcome, Wilderland! The Northern Nevada ghost towns I've hunted (four that I can think of) are *loaded* with iron trash. Small coils have proven to be almost a must. (Not sure about the 9 in. diameter XP Deus 2 -- smallest they make for it so far -- but for the Minelab Equinoxes and Nokta Legend, the 6" round DD has been preferred by others who get out there more than I do.) Minelab has promised a 5"x8" DD for the Manticore but so far they haven't released any.... People have had success with single frequency detectors such as some of the Tesoros and a couple Noktas (e.g. CoRe and Relic) so your Teknetics Omega with small coil (e.g. its 5" round DD) can't be eliminated without more specific info. Maybe someone else with experience in those conditions can comment. I wasn't able to have much success with the Fisher F75 and 4"x6" concentric because of too much falsing from small pieces of sheet metal, but I'm not the sharpest performer with that detector.... Low amplitude (i.e. left-right) swings and slow coil movement when searching is what I've been taught for those sites. They really are tough but that means even if searched many times there are still goodies. I've proved that myself with the Eqx 800 and 6" coil. I won't say it's the best choice as I haven't tried the other multifreqers in those conditions, but it's probably in the running. Likely at least a few detectors will do the job almost equally well, in the right hands.

Some time ago I have started adventure with Atrex and I have to say it is an exelent detector for places detected to dead. Atrex bring new live and new discovery. On such a field I manage to make discovery of a year a little gold weding band with latin inscription inside. It is dated 16 cent. Few day later on same place about 50 meters away next tiny gold weding band.... also an old one.

Hi all. This is my first post. This is a wonderful site with a wealth of knowledge! I have a newbie question so I apologize to those irritated by the stereotypical newbie questions. I live in the Great Basin (Northern Nevada) and am interested in ghost towns and stage stops, which I am pretty close to. I have a Teknetics Omega 8000. I’ve had it about 6ish years, and it hasn’t been used much. I will be retiring in two months and will have then have time to hit these places. Obviously my targets will be coins and relics. I have very mineralized soil and there will be lots of iron trash. The Teknetics will certainly get me started, but technology has marched forward since I bought it. What are your thoughts on a new machine? My budget is up to a Deus 2, but that doesn’t mean I am itching for one. I’m okay with a single frequency machine if there are some that work great for my purposes. Thanks in advance!

Hi guys, I’m new here, any one can get me an advice on a gold detector ? nothing expensive, I’m a starter im in Queensland, only go prospecting weekends nothing fancy for now. appreciate the help thank you 😊

Ask JP. Jonathan Porter. Queensland is his back yard. He may see this & chime in, but don't hold your breath as I have noticed he hasn't been on here in ages. You could try message him directly. He is a Minelab tester, dealer/agent. You would most likely be better off with a pulse induction detector as has already been mentioned due to hot ground that the cheaper vlf's dont like. Because they are cheaper doesn't necessarily mean they are no good. Just given a hard time by mineralised ground. My vote for a "cheap" but usually very good vlf in mild type ground would be the gold monster & the Nox 800. If you are also keen on jewellery & relic hunting then the nox 800. For a PI that might be within your budget a 2nd hand GPX 4500 or 5000. Good luck. D4G

yes, but they've also changed plastic formula to stop the cracking too.

I just wanted to let people on this forum know who I am ... I have posted on other forums over the years. I have been prospecting and mining since 2003 when I got my first gold detector ... I have had treasure detectors since about 1989 I think it was ... I moved to AZ when I retired from my real estate career on the seacoast of NH in 2011 and lived there until last July when I moved back to NH at the request of family. Family thinks a 74 year old man 🙃 is incapable of living far from the 'group'! 🤣 Anyway I became very involved with gold prospecting a met a bunch of great people along the way. I've found what I consider my fair share of gold with various detectors ... GP3000, GPX4500 & 5000, GPZ7000, SDC2300, Equinox800, GM1000 Milabs and a few other brands from Fisher and Whites. I even taught folks how to use them for awhile while affiliated with a couple Minelab dealerships. But mostly I just enjoyed camping and hunting down specks of gold and sharing a meal and a couple beers with great like minded folks. My other love is tournament bass fishing out of a kayak ... but that will have to be a story for another day. I use my real name on the forums so people know who I am if and when we meet in person. That's part of my story ... and I'm sticking to it! 😁

Keep detecting. When you find a silver one, compare it to the clad coins you've found so far.

mate bought a 6000 today from Nenad and it had the new type coil in the Box

Didn't see no watch, no shark, no hotels, no water. Wish he would have taken a better picture of her, because I have seen some women who look really great from that angle, but when they turn around they would break a camera. So many great finds on this trip as usual, and glad to see you pull in so many of those pull tabs just to keep others from finding them. Good luck on your next hunt and please take better pictures of the women.

Good to see you around posting again Chet. Curious what you think about where Woody is able to throw a solid copper fabric over the GPZ coil to cut out noise in his house during testing, yet is still able to detect targets through the copper mesh without much decrease in sensitivity? Did you see that part of his video? That must mean the GPZ works differently enough that you can use a more conductive shielding? It didn't work when he tried it with the 6000 though. I'm wondering about it because if a solid copper fabric on top of a GPZ coil works, then should we be able to make coils for the GPZ out of carbon fiber (which is conductive)? At least, on the tops and sides, if not the entire coil. That may lighten and simplify the GPZ type coils if so. It may also be a magnitude better/more effective shielding than high resistance graphite paint is. I ordered a sheet of carbon fiber to test with out of curiosity, but the mail has been crazy unreliable into Wyoming due to all the snow/ice road closures and this one seems to have gotten lost in transit, so waiting for a replacement.

Those are all very interesting items in nice condition. The second site has some significant age of activity. Thanks for posting.

Sounds like it was a nice week of fun in the sun. You got a lot of clad, so if there was a ring to be found, you would have found it. Don't forget to check that '72 cent for double die. Sharks are my favorite 🙂

I watched the video. I think History Teacher is a really good guy. The person referenced in the video who came up with the idea behind it, who from his own telling has zero saltwater beach experience...........? In my opinion that video showed more about what overall weight of a target (not non-ferrous conductivity) has to do with audio responses using differently weighted SMF programs than it did about target ID. For me anyway, I would be much more concerned about a 2.5 gram zinc penny with a target ID around 84 and a man or woman's ring with enough gold in it to weigh 6 to 10 grams and have a target ID of 82 if they were buried in the 6 to 10" range at a really mild mineralization beach like the one in the video, where they both might retain their target IDs a little better and have much more solid audio especially in the case of a zinc penny. David's entire premise is to avoid digging zinc pennies which is much more of a land based attitude. Unfortunately, if a person is deliberately trying to find larger gold rings, digging good sounding zinc pennyish type IDs is a requirement whether on turf or at the beach. Personally, I just want a ferrous/non-ferrous choice on the saltwater beaches I go to if that is even possible due to levels of black sand. Target IDs are only accurate on shallower targets if at all on many of those beaches.

For those of you who may not think or believe that Minelab cares about their customers or that they pay attention to these forums, I had a very nice, lengthy phone call from one of the Equinox 700/900 design engineers tonight (4/28) in order to talk about the experiences I was having with the Equinox 900 that I own. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this topic and who kept it real, no nonsense and as factual as possible. Minelab does care about the experiences we are having especially with new models and also when they are reported in a level headed way. For you GPX 6000 owners, I did give the gentleman that called me a huge thanks for the speaker/audio/EMI mod and I gave him and Minelab a special request for a small DD coil for the GPX 6000. Maybe it will happen. later, Jeff

For my eyes and ears, the pre production Simplex Ultra smoked the X-terra in this video. Keeping the Simplex tuned and optimized for 15 kHz versus taking the selectable single frequency guts from an Equinox and putting it into the Equinox style housing has its advantages. I am seeing the same target ID instability and up averaging that I and others see on the Equinox selectable single frequencies and unfortunately even on the Manticore and Equinox 700/900 in Multi. I still really can't stomach the audio tones on the Simplex and Simplex Ultra. That would have been the first thing to go if I had redesigned it. VCO is fine but PWM strangled duck squawking drives me mad.

A little tip for everyone. You can use all the screen protectors that come in the pack if you take and cut the optional languages off with a razor if it bothers you. All are best applied using lens cleaning wipes to prepare the surface, then leaving a spritz or two of water on the screen. Apply right on top of the spritz. Then take a credit card to squeegee it. It will come out bubble free.