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I'll be at Alaska Mining & Diving Supply all day next Wednesday thru Friday as part of the Grand Opening of the new Mining Superstore. I'll also be doing some free seminars with question and answer session each afternoon (details below). I'll probably step out one day for lunch with my sister so if you want to catch me morning or afternoon are best. If you know anyone in Alaska who might be interested, please let them know. I hope I might see a few of you there Here are a bunch of photos of the new store location on a previous thread The AMDS Story Grand Opening Celebration! May 17-19th 10am - 7pm daily FREE Seminars and daily prizes! Prizes May 17th - Garrett Ace Metal Detector May 18th - Garrett Apex Metal Detector May 19th - Garrett AT Max Metal Detector (No purchase necessary, winners will be selected and notified the next business day, limit one entry per person per day) Steve Herschbach, AMDS Co-Founder and World-Renowned Metal Detector Expert will be on hand daily sharing his expertise and wisdom with FREE seminars. May 17th @530pm Metal Detecting for Gold Nuggets May 18th @530pm The New Garrett Axiom May 19th @530pm Gold Dredging Basics Special Guest Kayla Johanson from "Gold Rush: White Water" on Discovery Channel Friday May 19th 11am-3pm

Thanks everyone I’m still shocked I found a gold coin! We went back to same field before crops got planted and another friend dug a full gold sovereign with his manticore it rang up a 47 and I got a 1799 1/2 reale. Farmer said when crops are done we can detect all the fields. We can’t wait to get back there as soon as we can. Thanks John

A new detector Versa in our offer. Waterproof to a depth of 2.5 m. Lightweight 1.3kg. Telescopically folds flat so it can be conveniently placed in a backpack. Operating frequency range from 4 to 40 kHz or Multi Frequency operation. Built-in rechargeable battery with a run time of 10 to 25 hours (average 15). In addition to motion and Dual mode, a new non motion mode with tone identification. Versa supports SR-1 headphones and OS-2 receiver. Full specification and price will be announced soon.

Hey Jason. Here's a couple of pics of mine. It's only about 1/8" in diameter.

Yesterday I went for a nugget hunt and before I could get to my spot I saw this snake in the road. It wasn't moving in the early morning chill so I got closer to see if it had been hit by a car. No, it was just sunning itself but I didn't want to leave it there so I got a stick. It needed to be moved and I would pick it up if I had to. This is a harmless gopher snake I think. It had no rattles and is not poisonous from my experience. It moved on its own. I didn't know if it could make it up the side of the road but as you can see no problem! All that was left were the tracks.

Skip the lead acid batteries and grab a 6v Lithium battery. Capacity of around 7.5Ah is plenty of run time…..at least 8 hours. I run my GP3500 on these……super light and quick to recharge. Remember you don’t need a fancy regulated battery (from the GP3000 onwards….all regulated internally). Also, the old “dome” battery connect to the lithium batteries but are too big to physically mount to the lithium battery (unless you choose a higher Ah battery which then becomes physically bigger). The battery / headphone connector one in the photo is from an old SD2100 setup but they are easy to make yourself if you can basic solder. The 6v lithium batteries are cheap….depending on capacity. Mine was about $60 Aussie dollars. Grab an amplifier if you want to use an external speaker otherwise not needed for headphones. Have a great trip.

Seems like White's was the "First Love" for many of us. Not so easy to give up the memories. Funny how the new machines often gets compared to 20-30 year old White's detectors. Say IDX Pro, XL Pro, MXT, XLT, DFX, Hum even the 6000 series of the 80's. People remember the joy they got from them. For me the "Silver" Gold rings came with those old detectors. As I get older the time flies by in a hurry. My MXT is getting old, Looks good yet, I keep it clean. No plans to give it up. Recent buy is a "Closet Queen" 2017 MXSport. Still has the screen plastic film on it. Got it for less than half of new price. I just happening to see it about to end on Ebay, Threw a bid out there not thinking I'd get it, But dang it I did. I haven't been on the forums for years, I never knew the "Drama" of the MXSport. So when I got the win, I came to the forums. Now I didn't know about the problems, The dates of problems. I waited for the delivery wanting to see if the screen was cracked, Was the "Sat" a 6 or 8? What was the date and was there a "Smiley sticker". Well it didn't have any of those problems. Seems I missed the bullet. Well then it's time to see If I can make it work for me. I have little time on it. Felt the "Nose" was heavy and Like my MXT a smaller coil was going to be needed. Found a "Six Shooter" and when I took the 10 DD off, WOW no wonder it's nose heavy. With the smaller Concentric coil it became a whole new detector. My relic sites, iron infested, hard worked for even the MXT. With that coil and working many setting I found it could separate targets, Recovery speed is great. Like I said I have little time on it and need more time with it, But I really feel there is something here that's gonna work for me. I'm not going to drag you thru the battle as you all had enough of that. I do think there is some of you who have found the MXSport to be worth the effort to tame. I have been spending hours looking over the posts, Trials and efforts of your ordeals with the (Digital) MXSport. I Have always loved the 5.3 coil in its's many names over the years.

The latest detectors have reference and live thresholds. Reference thresholds will go silent over a target with a target ID that is being discriminated out or rejected. For people that don't want to hear for example, a lot of iron grunt audio, rejecting the iron target IDs and turning up the reference threshold volume level will help to alert them to ferrous or mixed ferrous/non ferrous targets without a lot of audio racket. Live thresholds can boost actual target signal intensity and audio volume especially on borderline targets that are close to giving really weak audio responses.

Hi all - ive been hitting the beach hard over the past 5 days and have some great finds to share. All with the Deus 2 with the standard beach sensetive settings. The finds: One 1945 wheatie One 1945 silver quarter Two silver dimes One 1950 german coin One buffalo nickel with no date One silver bracelet One junker-ish earring Three beat up junker rings Two fidget spinner rings (fresh drops) One Stainless ring w some sort of opal One 14k - 1/20 ring w 3 fake diamonds (fooled me!) One 14k gold ring w 10 small diamonds One 10k black hills gold ring one 10k baby's ring (my favorite) Definitely one of my most exciting few days yet!

Can't miss that red glow... Granted this one is tiny and not really gem color. Was storing some samples and checking them out in the microscope first, and decided to run the UVBeast flashlight over them. This one came from a place with no known ruby occurences, didn't expect to see this turn up. It could also be spinel, but no known occurences of that where this came from either. Might be worth running a UV light over panning/sluicing concentrates for people that have them. Never know what you might find...

37.5% gold the rest is alloy... pretty ring and a nice find none the less.. strick

Minelab looks at updates as bug fixes, and the more updates there are, the more that means a machine was not finished when released. There is nothing to be happy about or proud about in having lots of updates. If machines are properly vetted in beta testing and development updates should be minimal at best.

Another gold ring on the beach today , a dozen coins from a hunted out 1800,s site earlier in the week . Gee I hope no more people around here get Manti,s !

I think it was a politician snake and only when you used a stick was it willing to do what you wanted it to do. Good save.

A break in a threshold is just a break in a threshold. It can happen for numerous reasons, ferrous, non-ferrous, EMI, ground mineral…. all it really means is possibly something to investigate depending on the detector and the exact circumstances.

Sonoran gopher snake. good guy. Glad you saved him, hope he gives you luck.

A friend took me to one of his spots in NJ he’s been finding seated silver dimes and quarters at. I dug my first gold coin an 1876 young head shield back 1/2 sovereign in excellent condition and 1854 1877 seated quarters the 77 is cc. Still learning the manticore but it’s starting to click. Good luck everyone. Thanks John

I managed to get in a short coin and relic hunt today with the Equinox 900. I was at a high altitude 1880s site in the Colorado Central Rockies. I really wasn't expecting much but I will definitely be returning to this site again. It was a site with a clearly marked stone foundation. The ground was loaded with both iron trash and extreme iron mineralization. The harmonica reeds and the 45-90 Winchester Repeating Arms WCF shell casing were near the surface and were easy pickings. The other targets were deep enough to have extremely jumpy target IDs. This was not the Equinox 900's fault. I blame it on extreme mineralization and tons of iron trash. The 1876 seated silver dime was barely giving a non-ferrous response 5" deep but it gave enough for me to go after it. The 1886 V nickel did not give a nickel ID until I had removed about 4 inches of dirt. I dug plenty of other 1880s trash. If you see something you recognize in this photo besides the things I mentioned, don't hesitate to chime in. I am not much of a relic person. I was using the Equinox 900 with 6" coil in Park 2 Multi, with -9 to 99 accepted, DP tones, sensitivity 20, iron bias 0, recovery speed 5.

The problem with updates is it makes it harder to release a new model in the future, if people are happy buying the product as is when its released every update you do that adds features or improves the detector makes the next model that bit harder to do, we know VLF's have virtually hit a wall, so any improvement you do on an already released detector isn't beneficial for the future models. Minelab are very good at saving some in the tank for the next model, especially on gold detectors where there was little to no competition, with the VLF's now they're having to throw a lot more at it to stay with the pack, they certainly don't dominate VLF's like they do gold detectors. The initial Legend is a very different detector to the latest updated detector. Great for the customer, not so good for Nokta who will now need to do a lot to release a Legend 2 and make it viable. They've already made it clear there won't be one in a hurry though with no Legend 600, 800, 900, 1000 etc.

I don't know. There are other hunters that have experienced numbers of all kinds with gold and the Deus2. I have not acid tested it but it looks real to me. Probably the added silver to make white gold? What is 10k white gold mixed with? White gold is generally alloyed with silver and/or palladium. A common composition for 10 karat white gold is 41.7 percent gold, 47.4 percent silver, 10 percent palladium, and 0.9 percent zinc.Dec 6, 2022

Ok, I lived in the Venice, Florida area many years ago. On Sunday mornings I would go out with a scoop and look for shark's teeth. I found some nice ones with the scoop that they sold there. Some of those scoops are used here in California to get sand crabs for bait. You can also use a detector scoop for that as well. There are some people in Florida that have added a twist to the shark sand scoop. It would be ideal for an area that had lots of jewelry. You scoop and then flip it over and it spreads out on a mesh so you can see what you found.

The GPX series batteries are 18650's inside an alloy housing and marked 7.4v 9.2AH and can be taken on planes. Not sure about the older GP's but they will be gel cells or something being that age, not sure how planes go with batteries like that? Buying one of those older SD series you can bet the battery won't be much good unless someones replaced it fairly recently. I'm sure you'd want good battery life. I'd personally go a GPX with an aftermarket lightweight battery system. The GPX 5000 even has a super deep coin and relic timing for milder soils that is far deeper than any other timing on a coin size target, the 5000 also handles EMI reasonably well, put on a DD coil and it's pretty damn good, an AI coil and it works in heavy EMI.

Wait till you buy a Deus2 and a big white gold 10K chunk rings in at 98.

Found this today in a short afternoon hunt. There is a crown in the top half and it says London in the bottom half. With a magnifying glass I can see small letters along the top near the rim that say “DOUBLE GILT“. The back is blank. That makes me think it’s the front of a button. But I have no idea from what or how old. I also don’t know what the pock mark in the middle on the front means. Any ideas? Thank you very much!

Just found a ring nicely stamped inside the band .375 with a couple other hallmarks next to it, too blurry to identify. It was found in the saltwater. It rang up as a 57 -59. I thought it must be a piece of copper or brass before I dug it, but it turns out to be 9K and weighs 5.5 grams. I checked it in some other search modes and it's the same. I'm just really surprised it ID's so high. I also checked it with my Nox 800 when I got home, and it IDs as 20. I don't think I have found a 9K ring in years and was curious if anyone else can check a 9K if you have one and see what it ID's as. Thanks Bob

Hey all, Went detecting this past Saturday at a school that has seen many detectors and managed to pull a few silver coins. Strangely, all three of the coins last digits are a four. A 1934 Washington Quarter, 1944 Mercury Dime, and a 1954 Rosie. The Rosie was down about six inches and completely on edge. It still provided a great sound. How any one missed a Silver quarter is beyond me. I was cherry picking due to time constraints. Happy hunting, John

Went to an old homesite last night. I just stepped out of the car, snapped some pictures of a forest fire across the Peace River and was getting my detecting gear out of the car. I looked to my left and there was this fresh elk shed lying on an old rock pile in the ditch. Clean as a whistle, all points intact, with no chew marks. Now I need to go looking for it's partner.....

I know you're busy, XP, and we all love the MI-6 pinpointer (well many of us anyway), but it's never too early to think about features we'd like to see on the next gen pinpointer. Personally, I'd like to see a good ferrous/non-ferrous discrimination capability on the next pinpointer. We know you excel at that capability on the Deus and Deus II, so now maybe it's time to port that ability over to the next generation XP pinpointer. And while we're making a wish-list, how about adding the switchable vibration mode to the pinpointer as well while paired to the remote. These are just some thoughts that could take the MI-6 to the next level. You're welcome! 😏

That was what was confusing me with the Legend Thresholds for a while, I did not realize that in Park,Field and Beach a reference threshold was being utilized and in the Gold field mode the Legend utilized a true Threshold, it took me a bit of investigating to finally figure it out and what the differences in the two actually was, a lot of researching and reading, one of the best reads I found was posted up by someone on another site he went by Rudy, his article pretty much helped me to figure it out in the end here is that article I was referring to https://metaldetectingforum.com/index.php?threads/confused-about-threshold-vs-volume.15979/

That's what I did, but made it an EARLY retirement gift. I too was heavily invested in the Deus 1 eco system>4 coils, two remote/upper stem sets, WS4 headset and a few WS4 puck compatible over the ear phones. Haven't gone back to Deus 1 since, even with the lack of a D2 compatible variant of the D1's small HF elliptical coil. The HF coils were my go to coils for the Deus 1. Always thought there would be something the D2 couldn't do that the D1 could, but haven't really run across that scenario personally. Though, D2 does seem to lag behind the D1 in sub-gram natural gold sensitivity. That drawback doesn't really affect relic, coin, jewelry, or beach hunting though and since the 9" HF coil was my favorite on the D1, not missing the small HF elliptical as much as I thought I would, either. I just immediately feel I'm putting myself at a disadvantage whenever I consider detecting with the D1 versus the D2 and all of the user interface quirks (hard to operate pushbuttons, smaller screen, D1 remotes vulnerability to water) all deter me from pulling it out even just for old time's sake. Running D1 is like night versus D2's daylight.

Perhaps the Garrett Axiom is an alternate worth considering, good range of OEM coils, discrim. DD, light, ergonomic, cordless, powerful with easy to get at settings. I cannot say how it would go as a relic detector, I only chase gold with it downunder here.

I LOVE the Atrex's performance and features, but the only waterproof machine I have is the Equinox and it's old. I'm afraid to dunk it since it's out of warranty by a few years. Maybe I'll sell the Atrex and try out the Versa. bigtime1973, you can buy them from an overseas dealer and have them shipped to the states. That's how I got my Atrex.

Yeah, It would be nice just to locate the Go Terrain app itself. C'mon XP, talk to us. But integrating the Mi-X PP with Go Terrain to set up its modes, locate it, and to be able to use it in "smart mode" with Deus 2 AND other detectors (via Bluetooth LE), if Go Terrain ever shows up, would be great. Ferrous/Non-ferrous would be a great add. Don't really need TID but if it basically comes along for free with ferrous/non-ferrous, I'd take it. Vibration in connected mode. Finally getting to the root cause of the wonky connection issues would be great so it isn't such a crap shoot.

100+ year old 14k ring dug in a field was a 79.

You are probably right. I shouldn't be doing risky things at my age.

I am not an audio electronics engineer or anything close to it. All I know is Pitch audio in the Equinox 700/900, Manticore, Legend and Deus 2 is characterized by having Voltage Controlled Oscillators where especially the non ferrous tone is a proximity tone that changes its intensity and pitch with a change in input voltage. They have a VCO modulated low tone for ferrous objects and a very modulated VCO higher tone for non ferrous objects. In these detectors, the ferrous/non-ferrous tone break is moveable and the volume of the ferrous tone and non ferrous tone is changeable. That is all that can be changed on the Equinox 700 and 900. I don't know about the Manticore. With the Legend and I think Deus 2, the actual pitch of the ferrous and non-ferrous tones can be changed to suit ones hearing. On Deus 2 its audio equalizer can also change the quality of the tones as can changing from PWM to Square Wave audio. Changing the recovery speed/reactivity will also elongate or shorten the length of the audio tones on all of these detectors. On the Equinox 700/900 and the Legend, the other tone options available for the Park, Field and Beach modes also have some slight modulation in volume that is similar to VCO as far as having some target proximity characteristics. The actual chosen pitch of the target tone changes very little however. Depth/Pitch tones has a much wider volume and pitch modulation especially on the non-ferrous tone which gives a clearer picture of depth, size and even amplifies the difference between ferrous versus non ferrous. This really helps me in a sea of iron trash to separate non-ferrous from ferrous, when I am trying to hear deep, partially masked or poorly oriented targets or when I am trying to hear really small targets. Hope that is what you were asking.

Mine is always super tight as well. I was a machinist and am now one of those darned engineer guys and I wonder if the issue is the material and tolerance more than the thread pitch or shape if threads? I’m with you though F350. square threads are a better fit for repeated hand loosening/tightening cycles. The trade off is that they don’t hand tighten to a seal as well though.

Two day ago, I got a 14K diamond ring. The weight was 2.2 grams and the ID numbed was 8.

As a beach hunter, I'm loving it. Have learned the sounds of a good target in prospecting audio and have learned the ID #'s for most targets. One that I still MUST dig is foil above an ID of 10. It's in gold territory and sounds good, so I dig. Nickels are just a hair below tabs usually. Pennies can vary 10 #'s depending on how crusty and composition. I don't have the problem of it being noisy or chattery. I run beach low conductors, all metal, 0 upper ferrous and 4 lower with low volume iron grunts. I run prospecting audio with recovery speed 4. I jump to seawater when submerged and keep the same settings. 20 to 23 sensitivity usually. No problems, and I don't dig iron. Yep.....great detector for my use at my beaches.

Good for you!---You might have saved its life doing that.----We're in their territory out there--not the other way around.----They are another one of Gods creatures & they have to live someplace.

June 5 2002 We were all up early this morning. Jacob was all wound up about getting heavy equipment on the mine at last. And the timing was good because some of that big heat that jacob had been talking about was supposed to be starting. I was having morning coffee with the crew when Jacob came out of his camper with a bottle of Bushmills and poured a generous serving into everyone’s coffee cup. We had a good breakfast and waited for the deliveries. Vern stayed at camp while the rest of us drove down to the main road. First to arrive was the old skid steer and the two pumps. It had tracks and the motor seemed willing to work. We put the pumps in the bucket of the steer and Jim drove it up to the digsite. After a wait of what seemed like forever but was actually late morning the trommel arrived. It was mounted on an off road trailer. We hooked it up to my truck and I pulled it up to the mine site. Then we got to work setting up our new operation. It was like Christmas had come in June for us. Everyone was excited to get everything set up just right. We worked until dark and finally had everything set up like we wanted but it was too late to do a test run and we were all exhausted. The temperature during the late afternoon had climbed into the mid 90’s and we were all feeling it. We buttoned up the last details and walked over to camp and had cold beer and hamburgers. It had been a very good day for our crew. TO BE CONTINUED ................

I have a treasure pro that I got back when they came out I have found more with that in one month than I have in the 5 years that I have used the equinox 800. I wanted a v3i when I bought the 800 the v3i was just a little out of my price range. I thought well minelab is a good company and they are useing 5 frequencies not 3. Now the fault of not having a good time with the 800 is mostly on me I know it’s a great machine but when I saw the new manticore coming out and it’s 2D frequency display I looked into it. It would be most helpful but only coming out right now with the standered coil and not having a small one is a big deal for where I hunt. Then I remembered the V3i had something like that where you can look at the response of all of the frequinceys from a target. The more I looked the more I came to realize that what whites spectra V3i was 10+ years ago is still at the front of the technology in metal detecting. So I found a V3i on eBay with a few coils with it. I have only had it maybe two weeks and have found more targets with less trash in the two weeks than in the first year with the 800.

So, I went back to a club claim that had been pounded for years with virtually all detectors imaginable, including countless times with the GPZ 7000, and that was essentially left for dead. It was a beautiful day, around 60 degrees but with fairly strong winds. There was not a soul out there, something that made the majestic landscape even more impressive. I decided to use my GPX 6000 with the NF 12 x 7 and to do some slow scanning of an area where I recovered quite some gold over the years (mostly by using the GPZ). My settings were: Auto +, normal, threshold on, with ML headset. I was pleasantly surprised how stable the machine was with these settings, something I would not have expected in this area. I should mention that I did the audio fix as well, which I now believe contributes for sure to the overall improved stability of the detector, even when just using BT. One of my first targets was a thin flat piece that was obviously pounded by the force of moving mass including lava rocks. Always nice to see it at first all dirty in the scoop, a feeling of joy that never seems to go away, doesn’t matter how many nuggets you have found before, small or large. After some "spit cleaning", the shiny yellow came out. I am actually surprised that this nugget was not picked up previously. I would certainly expect that most detectors would have been able to see it, also considering that it was fairly shallow, about 2-3 inch deep. So, the day started good, and I continued to scan the close vicinity around my initial find. One thing that I noticed was how incredible sensitive the machine is, something that I was of course aware of having used the 6000 quite a bit, but that again came to my attention. One challenge is that the whole area is littered with bird shots, and I must have recovered at least 20-30 within just a few hours. This is clearly less of a problem with the GPZ 7000, even when run at full bore. I then decided to change tactics and once a target was heard to remove about 1 inch of surface material with my Hermit pick (one end with wide blade), and to only recover if the target would then still be there. This actually worked quite well, and my next “piece” was a super small, tiny flake at about 2-3-inch depth. The flake was so tiny that it was almost impossible to pick it up with the fingers, and of course it did not register on the scale. But the fact that the 6000/NF12 x7 picked it up with a clear high/low signal at about 2-3-inch depth is truly remarkable, and shows once more the power of the 6000, combined with the excellent performance of the NF 12x7 coil. Would the 11-inch stock or the Coiltek 9-round have picked it up, perhaps. But I did not make a cross comparison of all three coils, as I wanted to focus on detecting. But I really have to say I am super impressed by the NF12x7. It is highly sensitive, not a bit less than the 11 stock, but with a more balanced response signal, smoother and it also appears more stable. All targets that I recovered that day were high/low signals, with only some hot rocks or areas of high mineralization giving a low/hi response. I picked up two more pieces, always by using the “1-inch scrape/discard technique”, something that really worked well for me and that I can recommend using for bird shot infested areas. Can you see the one in the next pic? 😊 I picked up four in total that afternoon, and I am sure there is more on this claim, considering that I only focused on a small area around my initial nugget and thoroughly scanned only in the close vicinity. Overall, a great day in the desert. There is something magic about being out there, and every time I come back from it I feel I have been on a meditative retreat. Finding gold is an added bonus to me, and even without any I enjoy my trips every time! Here is the general area where I hang out. Go get some. 😉 So long, guys! GC

Definitely was a bucket lister lol friend dug a holed 1853 $1 gold with legend not sure what it rang up on his machine. The 1/2 sovereign rang up a 34 or 36 on manticore in ground was about 5” deep after I seen that gold shield staring at me when I popped the plug I couldn’t remember if it was 34 or 36 lol adding photo for size thanks John

The Dual Mode & Non Motion All Metal with Tone ID looks very promising. 10 Multi frequency choices also along with many Single frequency options is almost too much for me to comprehend. I like it.

I've been toying with the idea of a D2 since its launch. I have heavily invested in my D1, 4 coils, 3 shafts, ws4 &5 headphones also a wired set, remote. But after reading this thread, maybe I'll treat myself to one for my retirement in January.

Well, two of my claim partners and I headed up to obe if our claims to see how close we could get to it with the UTV's. We made it all the way in to it. We had to hike about a quarter mile of the last stretch as we always have to but we made it. Still a lot of snow in our dig area but the four of us made it work. I picked up in the spot I stopped last fall and since I could start at the face of the bank, I decided to move rocks on the surface and cut and dig straight down through the grass. I worked my way towards the bedrock and my hard work was rewarded with five nuggets. My hole was about four feet by three feet and right around three feet deep. It is very hard to see the accurate depth in the pictures. It was very muddy at first but then I broke through the wet layer and it became a little dryer. Three pieces of iron and five nuggets. Not bad. The first nugget weighed 1.39 g and all total 2.35 g. Not a bad day as this gold is selling for $100 a gram. Video will be coming very soon.

In the Florida sun on the beach, my hunting buddy and I usually only last about 2.5-3 hours....but then he's 68 and I'm 75. We then go to lunch.👍 It's become a welcomed routine for two old beach scavengers! 😅

Rye Patch is a general area. There are patches within the patch 😂

You sure put in max effort it looks like! Nice day