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Today was the last day I could get out before a week long relic hunting and possibly water hunting trip. It's been raining since Saturday night on and off, windy and in the 60s so I didn't expect to find much at the beach I went to. I recently updated the D2 to V1.1, did some air tests to create a new beach program. Used Beach Sensitive, disc at 10, no notch, no Silencer, Bottle Caps ended up at 5. High Square Full Tones audio. Gotta say I really thought XP had got the iron falsing under control with my air tests, even aluminum makes a distinct "brassy" sound with this program. However, all that glitters is not gold. 🤣 This beach is rough, at one end there is a motel and the beach is almost all pebbles, you cannot go barefoot or wear sandals if you have old feet. 😀 In the middle it's a mix of sand and pebbles in bands, and the other end it's a mix of sand and red clay. Ground balance varies from 79 to 95 depending on where you are. Got here early hoping at least someone braved the weather and came to the beach, it looks like some did and I was the first to hit it. 3 other people showed up later and complained they weren't finding anything, I sort of had to bite my tongue. 😏 Iron did false until I changed bottle caps a bit, there is quite a bit of junk in the sand. Pushing disc to 10 helped a little, I'm glad they fixed the audio. With disc at 10 most iron will disappear. (Thanks Andy!) Most pull tabs have that brassy sound, I dug a few to prove it. I think one was in the 70s so I dug it anyway. That one fooled me. I was getting coins here and there, they jumped out sharply with very close IDs. Managed to get at least one of every US denomination, and a nice 1945 wheat. That was a great sign. On the pebble beach I got a 47 and found this tiny ring, I doubt it's anything good but it was a solid tone and ID. It was just in the surf, and pretty deep. Next one was this bling ring, a hard 85. Looks like it's been there a while. My best ring today was this tungsten carbide and malachite ring that my wife took immediately, it was a 54: About $15-$30 on Amazon. 3 Keys Jewelry. Here's the total take: And the trash: The doll swims if you tighten the innerspring by spinning the arms. 😀 Second small doll I've found there and second pair of tweezers. 😵 It was interesting to see the difference between air testing and real world, never done it before. Think I'll stick with real world.

The great debate of DISCRIMINATION, Iron ID and Target #'s when detecting for Gold. The war of words is about to begin. So lets try to stay on point and be courteous of others ways/ideas or skill levels for those who are newer to the game. This is an open end post and all who respond, reply, ask questions, disagree and or partially agree is 100% totally fine and discussion desired. So many times I’ve heard from the Experts who detect for gold, they say “Dig It All” and to never used Discrimination. So I guess there really is no debate? Just do what the Experts do and live with the results. Is that such like good advice from so called Experts. So if this is the case, then why do the detector manufactures offer it (discrimination or ID) on their machines? VLF Gold type detectors have had Iron Identification on some models since the 1980’s and I also know earlier General Purpose detectors offered DISC as far back to the early 70s. I imagine those of you who have been around for longer than I could even know of detectors with such capabilities go back before the dates I mentioned? Heck, even Minelab Pulse Induction detectors in the 1990’s provided Iron DISC feature. So are all those manufactures and variety of detector models, just selling us bells and whistles? Remember what so called Expert says, “dig it all”. The manufactures have to know something? Maybe there are times and or locations that Discrimination and or Iron ID is indeed a needed feature? Maybe the models with such are for dummies who know nothing as they have never spoken with an Expert? Could said Expert who does this for a living be wrong? Well most certainly not in his mind anyway. I’m going to give you my reasons why I end using detectors with the Iron ID or Discrimination features and I’ll even go into detail of using both the traditional VLF’s and the more robust Pulse Induction power detectors. I’m not an Expert and I do not do this for a living (well I do not hunt gold for a living), but I do sell detectors as my full time job. So since I’m not an Official Full Time Prospecting Expert, does that mean the knowledge I have of various detectors not count? That is to be debated down the road. I will say this though and those who know me for many years know I can back up my words with the amount of gold and the sizes of gold I have recovered. 1st off, when you are out there detecting, I want you to do what you are most comfortable with and what has provided you success on previous trips. I’m not here to make you change your ways. In fact, those of you who are just as happy with your results and not using DISC., I totally understand you are not about to change your ways. That’s totally fine with me…I’m happy for you. It’s the rest of the folks who are newer to the game of Electronic Prospecting for gold and or even those who are experienced hunters that have decent success…but you are wise enough to realize at times ..just maybe there is a better way at doing it? This article is for those folks. The average guy who goes detecting a few times at the same locations with a little jingle in the pouch. Your success at those sites tell, you’re doing it correctly so you’re quite pleased, happy and not willing to change your ways of thinking or doing things. I’m fine and happy for you. But, sorry that is not me. I’m all about Adventure and Travel with detectors in hand. I enjoy new detector technologies and trying to find ways to make them perform better for the task. I like gold and the varieties of gold I pursue is quite varied when compared to many other folks who chase it. I don’t know if it’s because of my knowledge and skill level of gold detecting or just that others are stuck in a pattern and don’t know any difference? My travels in pursuit of gold have guided me to more states than most (NV, OR, ID, MT, SD, WY, AZ, AK) 8 to be exact and 2 different countries (Australia and Mexico). I’m not counting gold jewelry and coins/artifacts (my list would be much larger), just natural Au gold in it’s raw form. All the states and countries I mentioned, I have had success with my metal detectors. In fact, I have yet to hunt a state and not find gold with a detector. CA, CO and UT will eventually get checked off my list. OK, back to the Discrimination/Iron ID discussion and why I want it on my detector tools. Why I feel DISC and Iron ID are of desired features on a metal detector and there are many times when they need to be used. Those features save me time and energy. Both Time and Energy are something I desire more and more each year and seem to get less and less of. A detector with the features of DISC and Iron ID can save me Time and Energy when digging. When I use a detector with such features, I get to SELECT the amount of targets I want to dig. Here is a typical situation I experience many times in my hunts. I hunt gold where gold has been found and I like to detect in such sites. Here are the main sites I prefer to hunt and use DISC and or ID machine. Old hand placer workings, Ore dump piles, and Dredge Trailing Piles. These golden grounds were proven producers at one time and they leave plenty of targets for us. Old hand placer workings (6 pics below of Au digs using PI DD coils with DISC or VLF's with VDI Readout) In OR, NV, ID, MT, and SD. The problem is most of the targets are trash and many of the trash items are man made iron. My DISC and Iron ID capable detectors save me time/energy in these gold rich locations. Using common math to show. How many times will that person dig in an hour? How many hours a day will that person hunt? How many days on that trip will they swing the detector and dig targets? Let’s say a person can dig 10 targets an hour and 6 hrs a day = 60 targets for the day. On average, average site produces 15 non ferrous targets and 45 iron targets. So of the 15 non ferrous targets, lets say 20% are gold (3 pieces of gold) of the 15 nonferrous targets and of the total 60 digs. In Eastern Oregon those numbers are pretty close. Here is where I like the ID. I can save Time and Energy by not having to dig 45 iron targets. I now am digging more non ferrous targets than the average guy so my gold count goes up. Say I saved T&E on those 45 iron targets so I still get the 15 Nonferrous, but the extra T&E allows me to dig 15 to 25 (not 45) more targets that are Nonferrous. I’ll be extremely on the cautionary side and say I only dug 15 more NF targets. That ends up 2X my gold count for the day and also still saved me T&E. Plus as well all know, the extra boost of finding more gold seems to earn me a little more Energy. Ore Dump/Hardrock Piles- (5 pics of success using VLF's & their Identification systems) Many areas I hunt in NV, ID, MT, OR and I’ve seen many in AZ have such hard rock ore dumps. Do you know the preferred detector for this kind of gold? Do you know if you take a target identification VLF and use it at such sites, you can recover more desired nonferrous targets. I select only certain VLF type detectors for these sites. Iron ID is nice and if that is all I have then most certainly, I use it. But I know (from previous testing) that certainly VLF gold capable detectors can go a step farther and provide me with even greater odds of Success at gold and saving me T & E. Dredge Tailing Piles – (8 pics of gold using VLF's & their ID features) Love hunting these locations and my success in Tailing Piles of ID, OR, AK, NV is golden. Some of my largest gold recoveries are from such piles and the funny part is most all of them were recovered with VLF detectors using Iron Discrimination. Why you ask? Because in dredge tailing piles, even a VLF detector can pick up a rail tie spike at 12” down. Even a VLF can hear a rusty prospectors tobacco tin or smashed sardine can at near a foot and a half deep. Even a VLF detector can hear at depths of 2 feet down for a rusty grease bucket or lid to a 55 gallon drum. How about the 55 gal drum itself…well I know for a fact some VLF detectors will respond pushing near 4 feet down. Are you man enough to dig those monster holes in loose rocks and gravel? If you have never attempted it, good luck. The material you are digging keeps caving in as you go down and the next thing you know…after 45 minutes, you have a 4 foot wide and 3 foot deep hole. Only another foot more to go. Oh those days…can kill an old mans ego for the whole trips…I’ve seen it happen. As you can see from the Success pictures, the ability to use Iron ID on Pulse Induction & VLF detectors has proved golden. Now, taking today's newer Identification ID machines a step further saves me much time on pursuing only the best and most probably signals to dig. No, there’s no magic to it, but I’ve learned a lot more than most about different kinds of gold and how it reads on these ID machines. So many of the sites I currently hunt, the bigger solid nuggets are gone and have been for 10+ yrs. But there’s still some of that specimen stuff the older technologies missed. Sites I enjoy detecting are the trash areas most others try for an hour or 2 and then they walk away is discuss. They’re tired of digging holes and finding iron nails, boot tacks and shovel heads. Sure, I dig a few of those shovel heads, but not as many as most others do. I’ve spent the time in the field and learned. I’ve purchased most of the newer technologies and tested/compared each to see how they stand. No one detector does it all, but I know this. I quality PI and a new technology VLF sure does cover most bases. After all, I can tell you with fact, that the last 5 yrs, my gold finds are better than most and the majority were recovered using my techniques in the locations I mentioned. It’s hard to beat what works and puts the gold in the safe. Knowing where and how varying gold finds register on your VLF detector is crucial. Here’s an example of what most folks encounter when in the field at an old gold producing site. Ore dump piles, are full of rail tie spikes and blasting caps. Also seems to be a beacon for lead bullets of a variety, but usually .22 and 9MM slugs. Many of my gold recoveries from these sites, the newest of VLF gold detectors can ID the difference between such targets. Also, the majority of gold specimens in a certain pile, seems to ID the same #’s or very close to it. Yes it does take practice and time to learn, but in the end, you have knowledge to be selective and save time/energy. Hand working placer digs has a bigger variety of trash items and one some of my locations, the gold is thicker, more dense and reads different. I usually use VLF ID’s to help identify and ignore the high conductor targets while concentrating on the lower ones. Most gold (not all) will read in the low to possibly medium range. Even using a Pulse Induction detector with Iron DISC is possible and quite rewarding. Dredge Tailing piles are a lot like hand placer workings, but they provide even a bigger variety of trash. These piles are the hardest to learn and use a PI detector. I prefer a VLF for most of the tailing pile hunts I do, as the machine itself is much lighter and easier to swing on side hills all day. Besides I don’t want to dig 2’ or 3’ deep holes and those occasional 4’ ones will practically kill you. On the rare occasion there is big thicker gold (Ganes Creek, AK). I recommend if you swing a PI, you better have a quality VLF detector handy to help ID as you dig. So many varieties of gold and the areas, terrains and methods they were minded in the US. Australia and other countries of the gold bearing regions are different and those of you from there may not see any use in my techniques and style of hunting or the detectors I use. That’s totally understandable and I have no issues. But if you do have hard rock ore dumps and hand placer workings with trash, it might be worth the time to swing PI and DD coil or a VLF with good target identification. I look forward to hearing from those who use my techniques and I also want to hear from others who might have things to add. What is most important about this post and discussion is the actual discussion and sharing of knowledge. After all, that’s why were on here right? Thanks for your input and reading.

SnakeJim - Glad you are using the features some detectors provide and saving your back/legs for another hunt. Yes, I too used to dig it all and then wondered why some machines have those features on them. Just like a new truck has options and features most of us never use, but in the right situation, those bells and whistles actually make the truck that much more enjoyable. Thanks for the input. D&P-OR (Del) - Eastern Oregon (my stomping ground as well) has some really nice gold. Here's a golden grin of the Idaho find before I cleaned it. Below is a pic after cleaning. Your neck of the woods below (Eastern Oregon). The 10 ozt. specimen below, I recovered in ore dump piles with a GM-1000 while training customers. They were running GPX detectors and the amount of iron they were digging was very frustrating for them. I tried explaining the importance of using different gold detectors in situations that can save time and energy. I used one of the students Monsters and recovered this $5000 rock. I didn't keep it though. When you hand over a chunk of gold that size to the claim owners and explain why they make different gold detectors with varying features, it surely makes a believer out of them. Could a GPX detect it? Most certainly, but they had about given up with those machines as most PI's raw depth and power is a double edge sword. It's a hard pill to swallow, when someone with a $5000 gets so frustrated and then a sub $1000 recovered the gold with much less effort. Just another reason why I try to help educate folks on the importance of different technologies and detector methods. As for the piece I recovered with 24K, that's an Idaho find from ore dump piles. The gold in the pic with the bill, is from Oregon and was also Ore Dump piles using Iron ID. Thanks for your enthusiasm. Blackjack - Most certainly different regions/areas require varying tactics. Knowing where/when to use Iron ID/Target ID/Disc is key. At one time (we all) used to dig it all. Some of eventually wonder if there is an easier or more proficient way. Most certainly is in many (not all) situations. Glad you are open to trying features on your detector. Heck, when the Equinox 800 came out, how many people actually used it for gold? Most laughed at me and thought it was all salesman talk. I'd say more on the subject, but my mouth is full at the moment. Thanks for your input as well. Geof_junk - Yes, it's an art in a way and knowing when/how to use it can be very beneficial. I realize many areas are not the same as I hunt here in the USA, but the area you show in the picture with rusty cans and tin, is a good place for different detecting techniques and approaches. Expert hunters as yourself even said you walked away. That's exactly my point. The best of us give up on certain areas and explore the fringes and outer perimeters of that site, in pursuit of less trash. But in all honesty, here in the US, it's time to go back to such sites and use features some of the detectors provided. 1st thing I would do on that site is drag some super magnet bars and try to remove as much as possible. You're experienced enough to know different tricks to get a few more pieces. Now, I agree 100% if small bits in that trash area, then I'm not as desiring to spend a lot of timing cleaning up the trash. Sure, I know some gold may still be there, but I'll chase bigger stuff 1st. Actually, at my stage of gold nugget hunting, I'm not one to get excited on small bits anymore and I don't do it for a living. the last 5 yrs, I spend most of my time focusing on the few bigger chunks. Thanks for adding.

Yesterday I found 15 cents in change, and today I found 3.50$+ in change, No rings this time , but found one good heavy piece of copper wire, happy with the finds.

If a person had neither and was serious about nugget detecting, money no object, I'd lean GPX 6000 with aftermarket coils. If they want the detector for additional uses other than nugget detecting and/or budget is an issue, I'd lean Axiom.

I have screwed up and made technical specs mistakes on forums and I often apologize for them. I try to do the same when I mistreat someone because of a misunderstanding or because I am having a bad day and let it filter into what I write. Merrill and a few other YouTubers have made basic technical mistakes in their videos. Whether they do it on purpose, accidentally or out of ignorance, for me it really doesn't matter. What does matter to me is how they handle it when people actually call them out for their blunders/bloopers/deliberately wrong information. My experience with trying to suggest that some of these YouTubers are giving out wrong information based on a technical mistake has generally not gone very well for me. Merrill stopped responding to my comments on his videos long ago and I have stopped watching them also.

There is an art in discriminating, but I have seen a lot of failures with it. Most of my spots are virgin areas and not much junk and when it is fully of junk I conserve my time walking away from it. In the photo below got gold right up to the junk (It is not the junk you can see that is the problem it is the small bits) and I walked ½ a mile away I got my largest specimen 3.5 kilos with 16+ gold in the second photo.

Some of these video guys get more wrapped up in view and follower numbers, rather than learning the machines.

Recovering from a record breaking Winter of Snow, now we are suffering from near daily Rains. My Theory is there is so much moisture in the Sierra’s coupled with warm Spring days turns it into afternoon Thunder Storms. Anyway a person addicted to our hobby has to get out and search for their fix. This story is about my 3rd trip and just like the first two trips knowing that the ground was subpar for detecting…but, it’s the hunt and hunt we must! Met my Pard Lucky Larry out of Elko, NV we quickly hoped into my RZR and hit the trail. Notice I didn’t say Dusty Trail. We hit several old haunts with limited results at each. We ended up hunting some new ground, I dropped Larry off on one side of the hill and I drove over it to hunt the other side. Hour later, I went back to my RZR to pick up Larry and my trusty machine would not start! During the over a mile hike back to my truck, I figured it was my Fuel Pump…of course no Shade Trees out in the high Desert to confirm my diagnosis. Lucky I have a winch on my RZR as we would have never got her loaded up, didn’t bother trying to crank it before loading as I knew I’d need every bit of my battery to load it. It rained on and off as we drove back to camp and continued thru the night. Next morning we drove to a nearby patch and pulled a few more dinks before I loaded up and left with rain drops just starting to fall. Back home with my newly Amazon delivered fuel pump, I hoped in the bed of my truck where I left my RZR. Let’s see if the battery recharged itself, the sucker cranks up! I unload it and take it for a ride in the back 40. Cranked every time I turned it off too! Still no shade trees, but in my garage I thought maybe it was Vapor Locked? I read up on it and it’s not uncommon…so if you see my little Red RZR way out in no-man’s land laying in a puddle of oil, know I shed a tear! It’s Memorial Day and according to Weather report 3 more days of afternoon thunder storms. Rye Patch area will need a few dry days to get the ground settled down to hear them dinks, but there is always some shallow ducks to get your coil over until better conditions arrive! Here’s our loot for the day and a half trip…yes, my poke is on the left. Both Larry and I used the 10x5 Coiltek on our 6000’s…great coil. Until the next hunt! LuckyLundy

Just a bit alright, "discrim... groundhog... " , We are spoilt rotten now days

Not a lot between them, both are magic lightweight cordless PIs, however I`m still on the fence, waiting to find a virgin patch with the Axiom, it has not got much on flogged 6K patches, once I`ve flogged the first Axiom patch that`s only a few swings away .... I`ll flog it with the 6K that`ll sort it out for me. Well sort of, because the Axiom with its settings and large OEM coil choice, thus versatility will keep it in my arsenal if its just short of the 6K as I suspect. Just a matter of working out which is my grab and go to machine. MN tis a bit like that piece of string....

Well done, old son. Perhaps the finest and most informative article you've written to date. If I was still at "Treasure" magazine it would certainly get published. After 40 years of wearing out my knees digging the Most Happy Yellow Metal, I (k)need all the help I can get. HH Jim

I never notched out pull tabs...or tried to.... because as we all know they ring up in a similar range as some nice targets. But I thought I'd experiment with 32 random pull tabs from a variety of manufacturers using Deus V1.0 and V1.1 just out of idle curiosity more than anything. Had the new update versions changed how pull tabs were identified? What I confirmed was more or less the obvious...pull tabs, like bottle caps, are not all created equal. In other words, pull tabs in pristine condition rang up in a range from 61-65 in my tests. Now keep in mind these pull tabs I used were relatively new. None were broken or had been in the sand for an extended period of time and the tests I ran were air tests...yes I know...air tests...ugh! In real salty beach life, pull tabs are found in a wide ranging state of deterioration, age and design, as well as an endless array of parts and pieces. As a result, I've found their VDI to ring up anywhere from the 50s to the 70s! Notch out that range at your own risk...regardless of the update version or detector used. Now if you want to focus on recently dropped pull tabs, i.e. new ones, you can try notching out 61-65 which will indeed get rid of SOME new ones. However, a women's 22K ring I brought back from Saudi Arabia after DESERT STORM rang up as a solid 62!!!! So again, enter that door at your own risk. Granted, you'll find tens of thousands of pulls tabs for every 22K ring but what other nice gold items of various metallurgical composition will ring up in that same 61-65 range? In any case, it was an interesting exercise and I enjoy interesting exercises where metal detection and detectors are concerned. Bottom line for you; the results of this personal lark is worth exactly what you just paid for it...🤣

All terrain general is still all terrain general regardless of the disk being engaged or not....the targets will still appear in the same locations on the TT allowing you to still see bottle caps easily when in all metal and ignore them...if you get tired of all the noise when in all metal engage the disk and take your chances of missing a small gold chain. And he is just now finally impressed at how the M Core disks out bottle caps? Makes me wonder if he is even using the machine much.. strick

I'm with Gerry 100% on this topic. Back in the day we dug it all, and only had a magnet on a pick as a discriminator. Digging a hole 3 foot deep for a rusty can was a total waste of time and effort. Today, I use all the features of the detector I'm using as a time saver and it works well for me. snakejim

This subject came up on another thread recently and, coincidentally, member King of Bling told me of this YouTube video which just posted today: Pirate Mike finds a gold dental crown at 19:54 and acid tests it at 22:45.

What is the latest? Which one does what better?

June 13 2002 It was another peaceful night on the claim. The only movement I heard was a black bear who had ventured near camp and circled us a few times until Jacob let loose with the Thompson to scare the critter away. It no doubt smelled the remnants of our supper but was too timid to come all the way into camp. We got to work early and tried to send as many yards through the tom as possible before the heat came on. And come on it did. With a vengeance. By noon it was over 90 degrees and we took a short break for lunch. This time I gave in to my yearnings and had a cold beer as did the rest of the crew including Jacob and man, did it taste good. Jacob had the gold cleanup done and we drank out beers and looked at the pan of gold. All 11 ounces of it. And from only 35 yards of gravel. It was unbelievable but it was real gold. I even asked Jacob if he was tricking us and he just laughed and said to enjoy the view. We got back to shoveling gravel and worked until dark. I didn’t have any sweat left in my body and had drank gallons of water. The entire crew was shot to all heck but we had processed 44 yards of pay gravel. We were all pretty damn proud of ourselves as we sat down to supper. We were becoming a rough and tough crew like the old timers. TO BE CONTINUED ...................

But this is two in a row (the 50% more power video and this one) that he has posted a video title that throws Manticore under the bus but then retracts and needs to explain his previous video as "Maybe not as bad as the title sounded". It's as if he's experimenting trying to find something bad with Manticore and then pushing out a title that is going to grab everyone's attention to get more hits. Good on bottlecaps? That's the best you've found about the machine? Really?

Hi Dsmith, I own a Whites TRX and was a little disappointed that it doesn't detect only at the tip which a lot of people seem to think. You can try an experiment . Turn on the trx. Take a penny ,start at the tip and run the penny down the side of the detector towards the base.You'll find that the detection zone is right near the tip,and then near the letter" r "and to just below the letter "x' . So there's the possibility of trying to pinpoint something in a hole you've dug not knowing whether it's in the side or bottom of the hole. The Garrett carrot isn't any better as it detects along the entire shaft from the tip to just below the button to turn it on. The Garrett also seems to be way more sensitive at it's highest setting. Just my observations. These are the only two pinpointers I've used.

It's odd there have been no replies to this! I have seen how the 6000 can work, and pretty good. I have the Axiom but haven't been out yet so can't say, hopefully by the end of next week I'll be able to report back.

Haven't broke it out yet, ( and it won't ever see a beach)! But I did have the Bandito 2 and the cleansweep out at the beach today; it works fine for shallow recent deposits! (in the dry)!! Anybody need a little clad and a bunch of tent stakes?? 😂 Tent stakes are obvious on most detectors, for those unfamiliar, but I like to get rid of them, (and any other detected junk, of course), so no one gets impaled by one in the feet!!😵 Beach conditions here; and my luck, have been lacking since our back to back hurricanes last year! And renurishment projects only made it worse!! Also had the 800 with the 15", and Tdi SL out today, they didn't fare any better! In fact the Tesoro ended up with the most clad, not that there was alot! A couple of friends fared a bit better than me today, thankfully!!🍀Oh well, can only get better!! Back to the parks for some targets!👍👍

100% Norvic 40 years ago in W.A. I never used disc on my Ground Hog, now I'm older and the equipment has improved "just a bit"

Thanks Doc! I've pretty much wiped out the place I'm going to, but they are expanding it, and they even let me search the tent campsites when I told them I found live ammo near fire rings 😀 There is no beach but there is waterfront with piers for jumping in the water. I'll have to watch the tides to be able to get anything with my scoop, neck deep water makes it pretty impossible to press a scoop in. I don't have scuba gear. 😁

Thanks! 🙂 Iron detection is better for sure, the falsing can be mostly eliminated by turning on a target.

Noriv - I'm totally content with you using zero DISC for those open areas. When I visited Au back in the 90's, I never once even thought of using DISC as the sites we hunted were as your mentioned and pretty much trash free. Sure there is the occasional surface target (usually trash), but nothing like I encounter here in the US as I mostly hunt previously worked gold bearing ground. And yes I agree, as we age with wisdom, we learn to conserve the amount of energy our body provides us each day and use it most wisely. No more spring chicken left. Thanks for chiming in. Gold Catcher - Yes for the average beginner Joe, I feel using DISC or Target ID features is not desired. Those folks have not learned the ropes yet and need to dig their share of holes. Heck, that's exactly why I don't mind having a group of newbies go swing an area before me. Just make sure they pack the trash out that they are digging. In the end it makes my job much easier when they remove the majority of trash. Yes, small gold and even bigger gold at depth will not register properly on all detectors. Each one built that has such features, there's a depth or ground conditions that all of them can be fooled. That's why when I'm at sites like Rye Patch and realize the gravy is gone, I'm more apt to use ZERO DISC. I usually won't chase those screamer surface targets out there either as 99% of the time, they are fresh bullets. Knowing when to be selective is very important. Thanks for adding. Andrew - I'm glad to see you chime in as I know your experience with a PI for relic hunting is near the tops. You have tested, compared and listened to enough targets to teach yourself the fine lines of PI's and how they respond. Heck, even your skill with many of the VLF's is tops. I've seen enough of your posts and videos to know you're one of the few who takes the time to go out and just compare/practice/train your ears. Using DISC in your head is very important and you do better than most. Jasong - Interesting quotes my friend. Being a WY guy who travels to many areas/states hunting gold, I think you/I are alike as we encounter many more options of gold bearing grounds. The rules to gold hunting? I honestly don't think there are rules to hunting gold, as there are to many variables for the ones who travel. That's part of the reason why some have success more often. But being able to adapt is a big part of it as well. Thanks for providing. Dirtman - The ear is a great tool. I just wish more newer customers relied on it and not the LCD screen on their detectors. Even advanced hunters such as yourself use Mind Discrimination and make a decision based on signal width, strength and site location. I noticed your profile does not give a location of you and it's hard to tell where you spend your hours swinging? Based of your comments and style of detecting, I'm willing to gestimate you usually don't hunt dredge tailings much? No worries, as many folks don't, just for the facts that not are around. Everyone has one.... I've seen that before. Alls good and thanks for input.

Last week--biggest back left 14k, 6.5 gr. pendant 7.4, 10k, front center 18k, 5.2 ....Manti, Impulse AQ, GQA2... French Foreign Legion with waves...about $1700 CDN minus dealer cut. cjc

Top insights Gerry to start this this thread, I`ve not used iron reject/discrim at all in my 45 plus years, mainly because there is not any need for such out in the unworked fringes where an occasional horseshoe/nail/bullet/pellet is encountered. Aged legs are dictating those long searches in rugged country via shanks pony are near over so part of this season on day trips I`m amongst the junk in closer to the mines/settlements. I will be following this thread with much interest to pick up any hints from those who work such areas that may help the Manticore or Axiom w/. DD score amongst the junk without losing what`s left of my sanity from our crazy fever. Young fellas get out into the unworked fringes whilst your legs can...... it can only drive you crazy but.... when you score... tis magic no.

CTX 3030 on gold nuggets Hi guys I have had the CTX since it was released. However I did not purchase it for the same reasons as most others bought it for, I bought it primarily to look for larger gold in areas that have a high trash density where non discriminating detectors like the GPX will drive you nuts digging junk. It has the best discrimination and target separation of any detector I have used this far, particularly if the trash is iron. That is why I use it for this job if the trash density is low I just swap back to a gold detector and would never waist my time using it in low trash areas for gold nuggets. To give you an idea of what I am talking about with trash density’s and to establish an understanding I will break them into 4 groups. 1- Very low trash= up to 10 targets in a 5mx5m area. This area I would use a gold detector like the GPX in. 2- Low trash 10 to 25 targets in a 5mx5m area. This area I would still use the gold detector in if it is worthwhile. But if the gold density is low I will start to use the discriminating detector. 3- Med trash= 25 to 50 targets in a 5mx5m area. I am definitely reaching for the discriminating detector now unless there is a high gold density. 4- High trash 50+ targets in a 5mx5m area. Discriminating detector only! any other is a waist of time. Ok now that I have established a base line of trash density’s we can get to the nitty gritty, I will go through the settings that have an effect on gold field performance one by one and explain how I use them, or play them against each other to squeeze the best performance out of the CTX that I can for my given situation. Target trace; I turned it on and would never turn it off as it is very useful in helping to identify a target or multiple targets under the coil and I am yet to find a reason to turn it back off. Why this key feature was not on by default is anyone’s guess. Target trace pinpoint; I turned this on and never turned it off ether, as it greatly assists in pinpointing particularly if there are multiple targets under the coil, by using this feature you can pinpoint only the desired target most times. Threshold Pitch; I run it at 13 but everybody is different all you are after is a threshold pitch that is comfortable for you to listen to all day. Threshold level; set up threshold so that it is soft but clearly audible, the manual covers this in detail. Volume Gain; now this is a important one, I mostly just have it at max=30 but if you are getting spurious noises like those faint blipping noises that you can sometimes get in mineralized ground you can wind this back to cancel them out with less loss of depth than turning back the sensitivity, however it has its limitations in this regard. It is basically an audio amplifier that amplifies the target signal. Sensitivity; Obviously you want to keep this as high as possible, but in the gold fields the ground usually contains various minerals and because the CTX is a multiple frequency detector ‘Auto’ sensitivity is more effective in these conditions, because the processor individually adjusts each of them to their optimum setting. Where as in manual you can only adjust them all to the same setting which means that if one is effected by mineralization or emi and becomes noisy, you have to turn them all down to the level where the noise stops in that frequency and you are effectively choking the rest to quieten the detector. So this is why Auto is the best option on the CTX in gold field areas. I can usually run Auto +3 but I turn it down if I am getting a lot of spurious ground noise and I can’t use any of my other tricks to get rid of the noise. Response; My favored response is ‘Long’ but I also like ‘Normal’ as well. It depends on my anticipated target size and trash density as to which one I’ll use. In a medium to high trash area I prefer Long particularly if the gold size is 3g+ like in tailings oversize piles. I like normal for smaller gold and lower trash density. Recovery Fast; I nearly always have this on as it aids in target separation. And superior target separation is one of my main reasons for using the CTX Recovery Deep; I have this on if the trash density is low or medium particularly when using the smaller coils. Recovery deep improves the ID on deep targets and can improve the signal on deep targets marginally but it can cause spurious noise in some mineralized ground. So if it’s on and you are getting spurious noise recovery deep could be the cause so try turning it off before dropping the volume gain or sensitivity. Target Separation; The 2 best target separation modes for gold nuggets are ‘High Trash’ and ‘Ground Coin’, I use High Trash the most as most areas I target most with the CTX are med to high trash areas and High Trash is good at handling mineralization and still gives you very good target separation. In a area with low trash density that is mineralized I use Ground Coin but it dose not perform well in high a trash density as you will get some blending of targets. In a low to very low mineralization area ‘Ferrous Coin’ performs very good no matter the trash density, but is no good in mineralized areas as you will get blending of the ground and target, which makes the target ID go crazy and blending is a problem. Gold Hunting Discrimination and Audio Patterns. Below I have posted a few example modes that have a good base discrimination pattern and audio pattern to suit the situation that I use them in. 100’s of hours of work went into building each of them. When building your own pattern I recommend that you do what I did which is scan as many nuggets as you can get your hands on of various sizes. When I did this I scanned just over 1000 nuggets ranging from .2g to 32oz and I put the ones that show on the edge of my pattern aside and took them to a few locations and buried them in different mineralization to test and modify my mode’s, then I got my bucket of junk and scanned 1000’s of pieces of junk commonly found in the gold fields. Then I modified my modes again to cancel out most of the junk whilst still keeping most of the nugget area open. They are not perfect by any means but they have been pretty useful for me as a base but if I keep getting one type of junk in a specific area I will modify the discrimination to deal with it and save it as a new mode in my file. You might also notice that in all of my gold specific discrimination patterns that I have the top two lines rejected, this is because in mineralized ground the ground will give you a blipping signal always in these top two lines and rather than sacrificing performance by turning the sensitivity or audio settings down I dealt with this by blanking it out, buy doing it how I did I lost no depth due to having to back off the settings and no good target ever ID’s only in these lines. The audio patterns that are part of the mode also have a few tweaks that I have done for gold nugget specific reasons. If you look at the Audio profile in the exchange software you will notice that I have set the low Ferrous tone line very low down at the 32 ferrous line, I did this because I found that when using the discrimination pattern if the tone was set higher up at say 17 for example I would get some audio blanking or mixing on some good targets in very trashy areas. This is the main reason that most of my Gold nugget modes have ether a ‘2 Ferrous Tone’ or ‘Combined’ ‘Tone ID Profile’. But when set low at 32 ferrous line the separation was very good in a cluttered area. It is not that noticeable on larger 3g+ nuggets but on the smaller ones even on the smaller coils (6in and coiltek elliptical) if I had the ferrous audio line higher it would not separate the nugget from the trash as efficiently. That is why I mostly prefer the discrimination pattern over the open screen also. http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/files/file/4-gold-hound-ctx-gold-modes/ Coils My preferred coil for the CTX is the standard 11in coil because I mostly chase the bigger gold in the tailings oversize piles and old diggers camps. But in areas with predominantly smaller gold I put on the coiltek 11x5. I also did away with the skid plate on the ML 11in coil as it wears out in a matter of hours in gold field situations and I silicon-ed a piece of 3mm lexan plastic in its place. And after 2 years of heavy use it is still in good condition!

Was offered a new in box TRX for what I think is a great price from the prices I have seen when you can find one, $112 Shipped to me from a friend in AZ he has several, also offered me their Etrac for $150, because he purchased a Nox 900 I have always wanted to try the TRX but never would pull the trigger when I would find one because everyone of them I have ever seen listed for sale the price always seemed way high to me but for $100 I am willing to give one a try since its new in box the Etrac is in really nice working condition and I am thinking of taking it also LOL I know everything is Legit so not worried there at all, if I do not like the TRX i will offer it up for sale at the same price.

Notwithstanding Steve's having told me years ago that alluvial gold in Greenland is probably scarce due to glacial activity...I keep look around to find encouragement. Google's new Bard, AI assisted search engine is fun to play with, so I had some fun just now. So I asked.. is there any notice in the last 3 years of finds of alluvial gold in greenland Yes, there have been a few reports of alluvial gold finds in Greenland in the last 3 years. In 2020, a team of prospectors from Canada discovered a large deposit of gold in the Kangerlussuaq region. The deposit is estimated to contain over 100,000 ounces of gold, and it is the largest gold find in Greenland in over 50 years. In 2021, another team of prospectors discovered a smaller deposit of gold in the Isortoq region. This deposit is estimated to contain over 10,000 ounces of gold. These discoveries have renewed interest in gold mining in Greenland, and several companies are now exploring the possibility of developing these deposits. Here are some of the details of the recent gold finds in Greenland: 2020: A team of prospectors from Canada discovered a large deposit of gold in the Kangerlussuaq region. The deposit is estimated to contain over 100,000 ounces of gold, and it is the largest gold find in Greenland in over 50 years. The discovery was made by a team of prospectors from the company True North Gems. The team was using a helicopter to explore the Kangerlussuaq region when they spotted a large area of bedrock that was exposed by erosion. The team landed and collected samples from the bedrock, which were later assayed and found to contain high levels of gold. 2021: Another team of prospectors discovered a smaller deposit of gold in the Isortoq region. This deposit is estimated to contain over 10,000 ounces of gold. The discovery was made by a team of prospectors from the company Veritas Gold. The team was using a ground-based exploration method called induced polarization (IP) to search for gold when they identified a strong IP anomaly in the Isortoq region. The team then drilled a series of test holes, which confirmed the presence of gold in the area. These discoveries have renewed interest in gold mining in Greenland. Several companies are now exploring the possibility of developing these deposits. However, it is important to note that these discoveries are still in the early stages, and it is not yet clear if they will be commercially viable.

Possibly the tip off a early wooden version of a digging bar, sorta like these, especially the non-conductive version with a fiberglass handle.

That is a neat piece. No real telling but my first thought was a flag staff or big tent pole spike.

I've found the TRX to be quite unreliable quality wise, unstable in high sensitivity settings negating it's air test sensitivity performance over other pinpointers that can run in their highest sensitivity levels fine. In saying that, the price is pretty good, I'd certainly snap up the E-trac.

Good haul, F350 and congrats on the 3 rings and the Wheatie, well done! And thanks for the beach reports, we're not seeing a lot of those yet since the last update. It looks like you didn't dig any iron at all. Very nice!

Merrill is an intelligent guy, and an experienced detectorist. He wouldn't make such basic mistakes. IMO, it was all deliberate for the reasons I mentioned in my previous post.

I watched the video before it was taken down, and the whole thing was facepalm worthy. For example: 1) He uses a mode that the engineers, for good reason, designed to discriminate out those targets, then complains that the mode can't hit those targets (Whaa??). He calls it a "problem", instead of changing the mode / settings to hit the targets he desires. 2) He talks about how the Legend used to have the same problem. The "problem" lol, was about the Legend's Park mode discriminating out the 11 ID when in Park mode. It was designed to do that because 11 on the Legend is one ID above the ferrous range, and 11 on the Legend is almost always small foil. So, if the engineers didn't discriminate out 11, then just as many people would be complaining that the Legend hits on too much small foil. In other words, metal detector engineers are often in a no win situation when it comes to the defualt settings they decide to use. However, just like the Manti or any other feature rich detector: Just change the damn settings and/or mode to what you want to hit! It's not a "problem" and it's not that freakin hard! 3) He goes on about the Manti as if it has some sort of miraculous bottle cap rejection (another Whaa??). Bottle cap rejection is simple coding for the engineers, because it's just simple discrimination. The hard part of BCR for the engineers, is having to decide how aggressive to make it. For example, do they reject just steel caps, or aluminum caps as well? Either way, the engineers are again in a no win situation, because whatever option they choose, people would complain that the BCR is too weak or too strong. If someone owns one of these detectors, they should know that they can eliminate most caps without using a BCR feature, by using other settings. But, the more caps they discriminate out, the more good targets are missed. #2 and #4 seems to be him trying to justify and placate his ludicrous assertions. Given his past annoyance of not getting enough traffic to his site, and complaining that the controversial sites were getting all the hits, then it seems to me that the video was click bait to generate site traffic. Especially when you consider that he used the erroneous, overly dramatic, and fear mongering video title of, "The Manticore misses A LOT of gold".

30 years ago when I lived in W.A. and did far more detecting, I would feel confident to answer. Now I live in Tasmania and while I'm still finding gold it's not with a detector, so I'm prepared to be "shot down with a feather". It's hard not to agree with Gerry on the points he makes, from my perspective having a dig all in all metal approach takes away the one advantage that a VLF has. I can only comment on using my nox 800, I can't see much if any improved performance in All Metal.

Hey Gary-----What a fabulous, fabulous bunch of gold!-----Especially those two breath taking pieces--the one by the dollar bill & the one by the Goldmaster.----Please tell us the whole story when & how you found them---the whole ball & wax.-----But you didn't have 'em in your mouth though!!!------Anyway, if'n you get tired of looking at them feel free to send them up the road to me at Baker City. :)-----Seriously--if I would have found something like that I'm sure I would have had a heart attack on the spot!----What lovely pieces.----------Del

Been detecting for 40 + years old bygone Home & Civil war sites are what I like to hunt..also try the Beach scene couple times a year.. Appreciate Steve, Chase and everyone who comments on this forum..

Welcome, Jeff, haven't turf hunted in Fl for about 4-5 years, but the few times I did I went to city parks and schools. Knew/know state parks are off limits, but city parks and schools were ok. I know people hunt inland, so not everywhere is off limits. Might check around and see where the closest metal detecting club is located and attend a meeting. You may not learn anyones secret (good) spot, but you will get a general idea where some hunt other then the beaches. Good luck, this is a great hobby. HH Jim Tn

Not the kind you want to find. Nowadays you can find anything and everything at the beach. I’m glad I wear gloves during my hunts. Stay safe and protected out there. HH

Pumping the coil....50/50 found if there was halos or iron close it would grunt..bummer...won't stop experimenting So! Tried these audio settings and radical reduction in pattern (I opened it up to 8, -8 in field) So much iron around this (we found out yesterday it's not virgin, heavily hit last year) 1840s house, pinpointing is quite impossible. Sens set around 22, 23, a bit higher than previously possible. Get a possible target, slowly reduce the swing, turning a full 360 to pinpoint. If I could get a repeatable tone matched with reasonably steady bid for half the circle, I'd dig Had an hour, hit the likely path from back door to privy The silver bracelet, catholic charms... one's stamped 1830. That's how it was in the hole no sht. I brushed off the dirt, but that's how they lay, check the nails, the big one was OVER the center of the cluster. Previous detectorist missed it, vdi was 90s..mixed in all the iron squonks The gilded 1870s naval button ..roofing nails everywhere...vdi mid 40s, but the tones were the huge difference for me today We'll figure this out lads 👍 I do wish they'd run a patch, and speed up the coil release....

Good work getting their attention on this Jeff! 👍🏼👍🏼 The big lesson here for Deus 2 owners is that when hunting very small gold nuggets, avoid using FMF for now and use Fast 40 or Deus 2 Mono instead.

Summary of Issues/Observations Identified Since Public Release of Ver 1.0: Ver 1.0 Silencer Filter Response appears to be more aggressive at the 0, 1, and 2 levels (and above) and step increases in silencer settings appear coarser than the equivalent settings in Ver 0.71 adversely affecting 3-D ferrous/non-ferrous target separation and causing masking even at high reactivity levels. See questions in next section regarding whether the Silencer filter is disabled when set to “0” or was changed from ver 0.71. (Addressed in the Ver 1.1 Update to restore Silencer behavior at levels 0, 1, and 2 to Ver 0.71, Note that Program 3 - Sensi FT retains the aggressive low level Silencer Settings introduced in Ver 1.0) Ver 1.0 Audio Response appears to be amplified over the equivalent settings in Ver 0.71. Deus 2 Micro/Sub-gram gold performance of D2 in gold field mode still significantly lags Deus/Orx Gold Field performance. XP should consider providing a selectable single/mono-frequency Gold Mode factory program in a future update. Enabling mono-frequency adjustments above the current Program 7 max of 45 kHz, perhaps in conjunction with a D2 small, elliptical high frequency coil (see more on that below). Bug (ver 0.71, ver 1.0, ver 1.1) - If the Big TID Display option has been invoked in any mode, accessing the Equalizer from the Audio hot key shortcut (long press of "+" key and then pressing the middle "^" key reverts the display to normal sized horseshoe screen. Big TID can be recovered using the Big TID hot keys (pressing and holding the "+" and the right hand "^" keys at the same time. This does not happen if any of the other audio options are selected or adjusted from the shortcut and if Big TID is your saved default display mode (such as in the ver 1.X General Program), it will return on a power cycle. Anomalous Clock operation appears to still be an issue. XP Needs to update the User Guide to address increased coil battery drain at lower Max F settings. Possible Bug: Remote parameter adjustment locks up after frequency scan or Sensitivity, Reactivity, or other parameter change, requiring a power cycle reboot of the remote. (Potentially Addressed in Ver 1.1 Update to restore Silencer behavior at levels 0, 1, and 2 to Ver 0.71) Odd Behavoir: If you go directly to bone phones as the audio output device, you can only select Square. Go to another audio device, change it to HiSquare and then back to bone phones, and it will then say HiSquare which can’t be changed directly back to Square unless you repeat the audio output switch procedure again. Switching a another device to PCM and switching back to bone phones audio is ignored by the bone phones output. It is difficult to tell if the audio is Square or HiSquare when it says HiSquare. (New: Added 6/29/23) Update issues: Various reports of WS6 lockups (requiring battery drain resets) or puck bricks during the update process or during version rollback. (Potentially Addressed in Ver 1.1 Update to restore Silencer behavior at levels 0, 1, and 2 to Ver 0.71) Questions: Is the only difference between FMF profiles used in the base factory programs the Max F setting and whether FMF uses Frequency Addition or Conductive Soil Subtraction or are there other Min F or frequency combination or signal processing differences? Put another way, do similar programs that utilize Frequency Addition or Conductive Soil Subtraction behave the exactly the same if set up with the exact same Max F and other user adjustable settings? Examples include Dive, Beach, and Beach Sensitive at the same Max F or Sensitive/Sensitive FT/Fast and Park and Deep HC at the same Max F and all other parameters adjusted equivalently. This is important information for users trying to determine the most appropriate base program to use for developing custom user program profiles. Is the Silencer filter disabled when set to “0”? If not, was Silencer at Level 0 modified from ver 0.71? (Answer to second question is yes, but ver 0.71 behavior at Silencer = 0 was restored in the ver 1.1 update except Program 3 - Sensi FT which retains the Ver 1.0 aggressive low level Silencer filter) Were Ver 1.0 non-ferrous ID ranges/segments (especially high conductivity TIDs) adjusted vs. Ver 0.71? When will the Go Terrain App be available in all geographic regions? Will it be possible in the future to delete some of the redundant factory programs to enable more custom user program slots? Ability to apply updates and reload/re-program custom user programs via a mobile device or PC interface as an alternative to programming via tge remote’s limited interface would be a welcome new feature. Expanding the number of Characters that can be used for naming custom user programs would also be welcome. Is a D2 compatible small elliptical coil (or enabling existing HF elliptical coil compatibility with D2) on the table (even if it is not-dive rated) or is that just out of the question as far as XP is concerned? A lot of prospective and existing D2 users have expressed a desire for this popular coil form factor for D2.

I could give you measurements to any of their coils.

awesome idea to use a 3D printer for making coil covers ( skid plates) as we call them here. I'm sure someone in Aussie land would also be able to do this, and even make them for the various X-Coils as well cheers dave

…and the new coil cover fresh off the 3D printer.

There never will be miracle settings for the GPZ or most any other detector for that matter. You have to learn what the controls do, and the best way to do that is to use the machine. Each setting must be custom adjusted for each particular combination of ground type and gold. Anyone who uses a magic setting is a "Turn On and Go" junkie as you have described. Even Gold Hounds suggestions are just that - suggestions that work best for his conditions. Let's say you have a manual transmission car. What is the "magic setting" combination of gear setting and throttle setting that is best? Would that be third gear, half throttle, or fourth gear, one third throttle? It just depends on whether you are on a hill or not, whether you are passing someone or not. The gear shift and throttle exist with the sole intent of being adjusted as needed. So it is with the controls on your detector. Some settings will never be more than educated guesses. On the GPZ I might use High Yield or General based on my best guess of the depth of the ground and the size of the gold I am after. Neither is right or wrong, it is just a judgement call based on experience and knowledge of the ground. Some of us work solely in certain areas and so there really is a best setting for our situation. Somebody else somewhere else can settle on an entirely different "best setting". What works best for me in low mineral ground is not going to work best for somebody in extreme ground in Australia. Other people get around a lot, and so must be better prepared to adjust the machine for whatever conditions they encounter. The vast majority of people I have encountered do not use their detectors enough to ever really learn what the controls do or how to properly adjust them. Reading has limitations. Read all you want about playing a guitar and you will get no closer to being able to play a guitar. Detectors are like that. You have to use them and use them constantly to stay good with them.