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Y'all must be pretty sick of all this, 😀 but today was another good day. Kinda went everywhere today, started near the boat launch. Lots of vehicles park here so it's a good place to look for coins, but i didn't think I'd get this very old duck call: The horn is some kind of old translucent plastic, it has two reeds that appear to be made of nylon, and the wood looks like ebony. Would not have found it if it didn't have the huge brass collar. This is a throwback to the old hunting camp. I also found an old bent copper ring there. After this area I hunted some of the tent sites I missed, and found more coins. Got 29 coins this morning, and the bent ring. Here's the junk: Got a few pull tabs because I was really hoping to find nickels today. Took a break for lunch, and went back to the place I got a bunch of coins yesterday, managed to get quite a few more, and even one nickel! 31 more. This spot is really small, pictures don't do it justice but something was going on here in the 80s. It's the area ringed by trees with my detector there for scale. Last place I visited caught my eye this morning: "Kids Corner". If you want to find coins, where kids are, you'll find a lot. I only searched for a short time, but got quite a few quarters. 60 coins today! Well that's it, it's going to rain tomorrow, and we're going home Tuesday. 🤗 I'll do a recap later to show the sheer magnitude of stuff I found here. Wish I had a working chance to hunt the water. I am very grateful to this campground for the opportunities to hunt it over the past 3 years.

Last week I reported on my soggy adventure at a relic site in town where I found one of my oldest local finds, which was a brass key tag from one of the oldest and the second largest 1800s hotel in the area, the Alamo Hotel. Here's the link if you'd like to read that post: Well I went back to that site a few days ago to see if I could find any other items related to the era or maybe even ot the hotel itself. It's been the one of the rainest Springs that I can remember, raining or storming almost eveyday for weeks, and it takes strategic timing to squeeze detecting in between one storm passing and the next one starting. I try not to complain about it because we really need the moisture after years of drought and fires, so I look at it as excercises in adapting to your environment. Adapt and overcome! 😏 So when I got back to the "mudlarking" site I noticed that the foliage had really sprung up in the area and weeds that were knee high in spots were now waist high only a few days after. I fired up my D2 with the 9" weed wacker coil and ran the same slightly modified General program and went to work. Once again, the General program was able to pull non-ferrous tones out of the soaked iron. I hit a strong 85-86 that sounded bigger than a modern penny not too far from where I found the hotel tag. I was thinking it was probably a soda can but it turned out to be a silver plated spoon. It looks like a fairly old one to me but it doesn't have any hallmarks on the back so it's hard to say how old it is. I also found an older looking pottery shard and a piece of fancy gold painted china in the same hole. I ran Silencer at 2 with no Notch and B-Caps at 0 because I want to listen to the iron since not all relics are non-ferrous. This kept the iron falsing down and I dug anything that sounded interesting. A couple of odd iron pieces were what looks like a square nail that has been pounded flat for some reason and a very corroded heavy ball shaped thing on the end of a broken shaft that kind of resembles part of a rifle bolt handle, but I don't know what it is. I also found a brass knob of some kind and the barrel of a kid's cap gun. The best find was a heavy brass slide with a steer head on it that banged in at 85-86 (just another reason why you have to dig zinc penny signals! 🤨). I think it is probably the end strap holder of a western style cowboy belt, probably from 1920s-50s if I had to guess. The last find of the day almost ended with a bang... no, nothing to do with the pistol bullet casings found. 😏 As I worked my way down the dirt road next to the site which has been there since the original houses (now long gone) were there, the clouds started moving in fast, the wind picked up, and the skies turned dark. Then I hit a solid 73. I couldn't equate a 73 to anything good in the site as it was usually a pull tab or ring pull, but this sounded really solid. It was more than a couple of inches down in the compacted dirt road so I had to chip my way around the target to get down to it. As I was working on it the first large raindrops fell and thunder began sounding closer. That's when I noticed a sporatic crackling static sound in the head phones. As I freed the target a clap of loud thunder boomed nearby. I took off my headphones and could now hear the crackling sound in the clouds directly overhead. I glanced at the crusty looking copper disk and thought, "Great, my tombstone will say- Killed by Lightning while digging a Zincoln!" So I threw it in the trash pouch and ran for the car! When I got safely got home, I went through the trash as I always do and noticed that the copper disc didn't look or feel like a zincoln at all. I can't make out any details, but my gut feeling is that it is what's left of an older penny, maybe a Wheatie or maybe even and Indian Head penny that had been repeatedly crushed by cars while under the dirt road. So there's my "Mudlarking, Part Deux" experience, and this experience has also taught me that the D2 makes a great Lightning Detector. Be careful out there! 😎 The Trash:

I’m somewhat amazed that over six years after I issued this challenge, nobody has won the prize. If anything, we have gone backwards, since the White’s TDI took away a model that met the criteria but unfortunately lacked the horsepower. Among major manufacturers that leaves us with the new Garrett Axiom as being as close as we get. I’ll give them a win on the weight at a perfectly balanced 4.2 lbs. The SDC 2300 is currently the only other option, better on price, but horrible ergonomics. This is where we are in 2023 as far as the challenge and the major producers: Fisher - no ground balancing PI being offered Garrett Axiom 4.2 lbs $3995 Minelab SDC 2300 5.7 lbs $3399 Nokta - no ground balancing PI being offered XP - no ground balancing PI being offered Axiom weight is good but price is still twice my targeted US$2000. It is therefore still an open challenge with only Fisher and Nokta in the running at this time. The Impulse Gold might get announced by the end of this year if we are lucky, and never if we are not. And we have no idea what the price will be. If the ergonomics match the Impulse AQ we will have a winner in that regard, but I’m worried Fisher will look at the Axiom and SDC price and come in at like $2995 just because they think they can. That would be a move in the right direction, but still too high. They are still selling the prototype Impulse AQ at $1700 though, so there is hope. That leaves Nokta, but not a peep out of them on the subject since just over a year ago, when the detector was only in the pencil to paper planning stage. A year is not long enough to get a new detector done when starting from scratch, but maybe it’s possible by 2024. Or does Minelab pull a “Xterra Pro” and head off everyone with a repackaged GPX 4500 for MSRP $2495 with an out the door price near $2000 ? It could happen, and Fisher and Nokta better get with the program or see this opportunity fade away. Me, I don’t care who does it, as long as it gets done. Until then I’ll use the Axiom as being as close as we can get at this time. It’s my way of supporting those who make progress to this under 4lb under $2K goal, and if anyone gets even closer I’ll look hard at using what they come up with instead. It merely need be as good as the Axiom, but at a lower price. Garrett met my minimum power needs, met the ergonomic challenge, but I’m disappointed at the price. That alone is keeping Garrett from selling the Axiom by the truck load. Garrett Axiom, 4.2 lbs, $3995

Steve makes a good point about the 4500, they could repackage that and head off any competition at the pass a bit like the X-Terra coming in to make the new Simplex rehashes redundant. If they ever made a lightweight GPX 4500 in a modern new housing it would be a great seller if it was at the right price. They could even trim the 4500's features down a bit seeing it's so close to the 5000 and come in at a really good price. I'm sure there are people at Minelab that's job is just this, trying to stay ahead of the competition in all areas. I don't care who does it will benefit greatly from doing so, especially if it appeals to more than just the gold market.

Once you have dies or molds built already, and research done - nothing costs that much really. It's all arbitrary pricing, and price gouging in the case of $10,600 GPZ 7000's and $6000 GPX 6000's. They are obscenely overpriced. An updated, lightweight 5000 tossed into the existing 6000 form factor should cost about $1250-$1500 MSRP and still have enough profit for manufacturer and dealers to sell, using existing tooling. Woody did a total cost breakdown video on a 4500, component by component (the newer 4500's supposedly were just 5000 boards with the numbers scratched off according to him), and I think it was like $150-$200 including aluminum case extrusions, or something like that, to manufacture. It doesn't help that in the US, a large amount of the buyers of these machines historically - at least from my observations in the field - are largely retired persons with a lot of disposable income and an attitude that price doesn't really matter if fun is being had (aka - the "fishing boat" analogy you can find posted in the past). I can't even count how many people I've met who've found maybe 1-2 ounces in their lives happily paid $10,000 for a GPZ with no expectations of paying it off. Combine that with the fact that a ton of people for whom price would matter are friends with dealers who give them very, very deep discounts - often at or near dealer cost, and so the complaining about price is largely reduced to a few people who don't have the disposable income, don't have dealer friends, or simply are tired of prices being ridiculously high on general principle. These people aren't numerous enough to force change. And there isn't enough competition to force change either. Thus - price gouging.

I live close to the beach and at the tip of a cape. If I don't have air on one side, I have it on the other... If you really want to get Gold, it is the first thing you must learn, winds and tides... You can already have the detector that you want, but you dominate when the beach washes the sand; you won't be deep enough. And Gold is buried as it falls. You can get more Gold in one night than in a whole month without knowing where to look. Location is vital... Finally, it's 14k Rose Gold (585) and weighed 2.58 grams.

As the one setting the challenge I am offering no inflation adjustments. My thinking is more that a very good VLF can be had for $1000 and a good PI should cost no more than twice that. People here tend to be made of money, but go to an average detector club meeting in the U.S. and tell the average user they should be spending $4000 for a metal detector! At $8000 they will think you are crazy. I am batting for the guy who is willing to invest in a couple good detectors and who thinks $3000 is more than enough to spend to get both a good VLF and a good PI. That's my personal goal also, to have just two or maybe three detectors at most that do all I need to do. I am a technologist who thinks that technology generally means more power for the same or less outlay. That being the case I don't consider this a challenge really, just more a matter of time, and who will do it first. Competition and technology being what it is I think it is inevitable.

...I had not seen this thread. Minelab has hit the table with the X Terra Pro. There is no arguing. I have used an Anfibio Multi for two summers (600 h.). I fired the Legend with a month of use according to the clock (about 700 hours) and now X Terra Pro. I'm on my way to 200 h. The use has been exclusively on the beach and the locations are the same... The X Terra Pro has already got more Gold than the other two machines combined. That is a fact. It is true that the years have passed, I have been learning, some other unit has passed fleetingly and I have also owned a Nox 800 since 2019 (probably with more than 2000h). The factory battery lasts me less than 4 hours...Comparing an Anfibio Multi or a Legend with the X Terra when diving is simply impossible. There is no color... They are all great machines and I have been in love with all of them. And now to my age and arriving as a resignation to a pre-order of a Manticore this young lady came into my life. Life gives many surprises...

I do not know of any extensive comparison tests done between the Axiom and GPX 4500 so there is also a not zero possibility the 4500 can detect that nugget better. Please do report back on what Garrett’s findings are with the machine. I’m less than thrilled so far by the reports of defective units. Yeah, Minelab really dropped the ball with the GPX 6000 in that regard. But so far I’m not impressed with the failures I’ve heard about from Garrett owners either. Can’t anyone make things correctly anymore, and more importantly, do proper quality control before units are shipped?

On Saturday night i went to the beach for 3 hours from 9pm and as the weather was very warm i hoped there would be something to find. The coinage was a bit sparse as only had £12.10p and a 1 Euro coin. But i had 3 Junk rings and my first Gold for the year and first with the Terra Pro. It wasn't deep but was near the waters edge and came in somewhere in the 50's It is a 22k 4.4g band . Nothing like finding Gold. I may well be back there on Monday evening . May well be with the Terra Pro again or the Legend.

The lack of competition really. You can get a home built PI kit for next to nothing, the price of a cheap VLF coil and make your own PI. Just because it's a PI doesn't mean it has to be a $4000 USD or higher machine, it can be a VLF priced machine if the manufacturer wanted it to be and they'd still get reasonable profit. Sure the batteries need to have a bit more juice, but really there is no excuse for the high pricing except for money grabbing and getting high profits because they can. Garrett have made a big mistake in my opinion, they'll sell a trickle of Axioms at their current price especially outside of the US where they're priced even higher and far too high when they could sell them by the truckload if they halved the price, if people are using and enjoying them they will sell more and more of them as word gets around, selling so few isn't going to help that, especially when with so few being sold and multiple reports of faulty units from what appears to be a small pool of buyers it's not a good look. It may not be reality and they are selling a lot of them and the faulty units are the squeaky wheel that you notice as the happy people remain quiet, but it is what you see happening. People in Australia would really struggle to justify buying one at it's current price there, it makes no sense to do so other than to try another brand. Nokta may get past the post, it's disappointing for such a vocal company they've gone dead silent on the PI offering as that's a bit of a worry but maybe they don't want to let out any secrets, if anyone comes in at a good price it would be them. Fisher I believe have something special if they can get it past the post, weight, performance, everything is there they just need to get the product to market and come in at the right price, too high and they'll sit on the shelf next to the Axioms, price it right and people that otherwise may not buy a PI will buy it, along with many others.

Yes, that’s right Chase. The last discounted price for the Patriot was $399, so $229 really is a good deal. $399 is a bit of a joke with machines like the Xterra Pro now available. Question is, with FT blowing them out on eBay at less than dealer cost, is it the end of the Patriot?

It may well be a spinoff design from Scots who emigrated here. 🙂 I am part Scot, and despite my family living here since such immigration, bagpipes are one of my favorite instrument sounds. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 I had never seen (or heard of) a Duck call until I moved from the North to the South and made a friend who made them. He was very proud of his work, he used exotic wood and tuned them for different Ducks. This campground was a hunting camp with a lodge for over 100 years, they destroyed the lodge and farmhouse just a few years ago. The main reason they let me hunt this campground with impunity is because I dig up the live ammunition scattered everywhere. I also don't leave a trace, although I'll be blamed for holes turtles dig to lay eggs. 🧐 I love coming here because of the diverse detecting opportunities from relics to park hunting to the possibility of water hunting, someday I'll get the opportunity to do that here when the tides are just right. They tell me wind has to come from the North for a few days to make it shallow enough to not be neck deep. 😀 The Currituck Sound has a nice sandy bottom, but you can't scoop if you go up when your scoop is pressed down. There is no beach here, only a seawall with piers.

OK, after what I would call a successful detecting week last week where I scratched off a couple minor-league bucket listers (silver ring, Sacagawea dollar, >5 coins in one hole), I've gotten skunked on my last two hunts. (Although I will say I now know where the local high schoolers drink beer out-of-sight on the local playground, based upon the volume of Bud Light cans dug.) Granted, this skunk hit when testing new/low traffic areas on existing public grounds, so my expectations were low anyways. So, what is your advice for beating the skunk? Anything from your experience, good luck charms (😅), prayer offerings, etc.? On a humorous note, last time this happened (and after I finally started digging good targets again), I arrived back home triumphant, announcing, "I beat the skunk!" Our twin boys then looked each other, confused, and turned to me and said, "Umm, it doesn't look or smell like you fought a skunk, daddy..."

Digger Dave should be in the fertiliser business. No shortage of BS. Any experienced prospector knows that the picture he paints is a lot less than factual, or honest for that matter. Flash a few colours at the 'new chum' and bingo, he has his (or her) money. The number of expensive near new detectors for sale on various web sites tell the real story. Just as in the old days...If you can't make it as a prospector there is always the option of making money selling the tools. Speaking of BS. Cop this lot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reQli3a4X38&t=47s

Am I the only one thinking this is getting weird? Does Minelab know this is actually costing them sales? I held a new Manticore in the box last month, thought about buying it, and decided no. Why? No small coil. Frankly, it just pisses me off, and so I kept my credit card in my wallet. I really don't get it. Is Minelab afraid to have coils ready when a detector releases? Gosh, maybe the detector will be a dud, so we don't want to make coils for a dud detector? From a retail perspective it's pure stupidity. If you want to maximise sales you do so at the time of sale. When a salesperson has a customer with the wallet out, it is the absolute best time to get them to buy an extra coil or a carry bag or whatever. Sales 101 for dummies, and apparently nobody at Minelab knows this, or does not care. Dealers have got to be ripping hair out by the handful. But more directly you have grumpy old farts like me that get all passive aggressive when companies do not do what I want. Minelab has been sticking that "screw you guys that want coils" knife in our ribs for years now. I'm happy with my Equinox 800 and the coils I have for it finally, though it took ages to get the 5x10. I love small coils in particular. I'd like to settle on a new VLF, and to this day the Deus 2 is just not really getting me excited. One reason - limited coils priced too high. In theory I really want a Manticore so I can sell my Equinox and Deus 2. But this coil thing is really bugging me, and so I have yet to pull that trigger. In a way having a Deus 2 instead of a Manticore is just my way of giving Minelab the finger as regards coils, and so I guess I'll keep being a XP customer instead of a Minelab customer, until Minelab decides to get their act together on this.

Ah, detectors are just flying off the shelves for Digger Dave!

2 rings today my wife got the wave looking one — so 2 925s for us today. Lil bit of change and some cheaper jewelry. Got excited when the gold earring popped out. Thought I had a gold ring at first then my hopes were crushed when it turned out to be cheaper jewelry. 😝 The shark tooth pendant is a nice find too. It’s about an inch long. Back at it tomorrow. Spent most of the morning in the water. Pretty calm for a change on this coast — it was nice to be able to get out in the surf up to my waist without getting slammed by waves. Dug a lot of junk targets too that are not in pictures.

Except you get to pay $500 more than Nox for the privilege of doing so, but dumping the D2 takes care of that cost gap and then some, I suppose. I'm of a similar mind. To me the 900 looked great on paper, appearing to address all the known flaws of the 800, however, the introduction of TID stability issues associated with the 900 TID range change and continuing issues with EMI susceptibility have soured me on the 900. Especially when I compare the 900 with the rock solid TIDs on the D2 and when I find that I can't calm the 900 down in fields where I don't even here a blip out of the D2. Yes, I consider the anecdotal better target depth performance and improved EMI of the Manticore vs. the 900 and the additional features of the Manticore that can compensate for the TID stability issues (i.e., target trace and ferrous limits adjustments) compelling enough to dump the 900 for the Manticore. But I am in no way shape or form selling the D2 to do so. Especially with my athritis addled, aching right shoulder. But somehow they had enough bandwidth to refresh the Nox, upgrade the Nox coil ear design, release the 700/900, and also the X-Terra Pro shortly after that with two new coil form factors available upon release of the Xterra all right on the heels of the Manticore launch. Sounds like they need to re-rack their priorities a little so they can deliver on their promises. They announced the Manticore accessory coils the same day they announced Manticore. I am sure people bought into the Manticore because of the promise of being able to get their hands on the advertised accessory coils presumably within a reasonable time frame. It really almost comes off as a display of contempt for their customer base - i.e., prioritize the big money detectors over the small-change coils (though profit margins are likely bigger). Reminds me of the lack of transparency that occurred in the wake of the Nox submergence failures...we never got a straight story or acknowledgement of a design or manufacturing flaw - just the bare minimum - honoring warranty repair, no questions asked and with no answers other than finger pointing at third-party shafts and accessories. It's all pretty disappointing. C'mon ML - show a little after sales respect for your customer base throw us a bone by getting those Manti coils on the street with some reasonable pricing. Throw a Nox 900/Manticore wireless receiver out their too so we can have a little variety on untethered 3rd party audio gear. ... And word on the timing of any forthcoming firmware update would also be welcome.

I've just read the FCC Filing for the MC and this document is interesting: https://fcc.report/FCC-ID/Z4C-0054/6366018 It suggests that ML want to keep secret - for the foreseeable future - four documents, three of which contain the word 'wireless' in their title. I notice that the SoC device that ML are using for their wireless linkage can effectively be used to create 'open' or 'closed' wireless connections using protocols covered by the BT specs. That is, they may have chosen to use BT, but in a proprietary - closed - way, which would make third-party devices fail to connect. e.g. at its simplest, they may have built in some logic that says, "...if the manufacturer ID code of the device trying to connect is not equal to "Minelab Pty" then fail..."

I'm willing to wait for Nokta to make Steve's challenge a reality. I think they will.

So just over a year ago we were at the “talking about what the detector should look like” stage. That’s the last post I can find from Dilek about the PI and where it is. It can take up to five years to develop a completely new detector from scratch. Nokta has been much faster than most however, and one reason I suggested the Impact housing was to shorten development time. Still, a year would be a pretty amazing thing, and I’d think next year at earliest. Assuming development did actually get past the “we are thinking about it stage.” Maybe the Minelab lawsuit derailed things with the lawsuit as we have heard nothing for over a year now. Still looking for a winner for my Under 4 Pound, Under $2000 Gbpi Challenge after six years of waiting. Fingers crossed for 2024.

Serious Detecting which has been a seller of the entire Quest line of products and detectors for many years, has the Quest V60 and V80 detectors on the second Quest products page of their online catalog. Currently they are listed as "Sold Out" but prices are included: $599 US for the V60, $699 for the V80 with one coil, $799 for the V80 with 2 coils.

Yes JCR, a big hematite area near here. The mineralization strength is more intense than some areas around Rome where soil is volcanic. I have (and had) PIs because of hematite and to do tests with a VLF on hematite, seems a miracle to me. With D1 was impossible going on red dirt looking for low conductors. With D1 and 95% VLF. But now, with multi frequencies things are different. Thanks for reading and for your input! 👍

Thanks for the replies.

I feel sorry for those kids in this new world order,

Might I suggest you paint the handle of your pick fluorescent orange? Then you just sit you pick handle up by your detector and you can spot that a mile away. Personally my detector never leaves my sight. Hell what difference does it make anyway? I'm 74, I have a big White Pickup truck and half the time I can't even remember where I left that when I'm out in the desert. Crap I can't find it when I parked it 10 minutes ago in the COSTCO parking lot. Most times I have to push the PANIC alarm on my key FOB so the alarm will go off so I know which way to walk. 😀 Doc

Finally you did the good choice , well done ... Dont hesitate to post pics of your finds especially the coins , I am curious to see what can be found in Spain vs over here in France thanks ...

The new wave of retiree detectorists in Australia certainly have the cash to spare, sadly as reflected by the number of flashy 4x4's I see bogged to the axles on any popular vehicle access beach in recent times, I fear it may be a case of " all the gear and no idea "

I totally forgot about this detector. I hope they come out with one still. All I need is: light, fast, quiet (EMI), external speaker, and a little more sensitive than a 5000 so I can hit the buried sub-0.1 nugget leads while exploring. Make it $2k And I'll ditch my 6000 and use this all day as an exploration/prospecting machine and never look back, I need an excuse to stop using ML products, still pissed about the 6000 honestly and how they treated the EMI issues and fix "rollout" that I had to force for them. Plus I just don't trust the 6 anymore either. I had a bad experience with Nokta when they first rolled out the FORS Core, 3 of mine failed in a row and I just gave up and threw it in the closet. Willing to try again.

I'm just out enjoying the great weather hunting with mine. No real complaints except I wish they had the small coil available.

Spent a couple hours at my favorite beach yesterday and was rewarded with a nice honker of a platinum men's band. Not sure of the exact size or weight yet, but it's probably a 7-8mm regular dome comfort fit between sizes 11-12 and made by benchmark rings. I'm working on locating the person that lost it, but no one reported it at the hotel and it's not on craigslist lost and found. I am really happy for the find, especially since my pt wedding band was stolen in the usps mail last year when I sent it to El Dorado to make an exact copy of it with some my placer gold. Funny thing is that this is the exact same ring as I lost except I wear a size 10 so If I can't find the person that lost it I will try and have it resized. Current retail for $2,240 right now. I know over 20 years ago my wife paid over $3k for the ring that was stolen, but platinum has not risen like gold.

Noticed a couple interesting bits of information while hunting yesterday: The unit I'm using does not save the GB settings between the frequencies. I went through these frequencies multiple times and each carries the GB of the prior frequency settings. Not a problem for me. This unit has a revision of 1 "R1", no idea how many revisions there might be. Thought I would hunt a while without SB enabled and noticed I was digging a lot more pieces of foil that gave a good tone. Enabling SB and these deep trashy items would break up after a few coils sweeps. Nice. Starting to hear the difference in iron false tones. Nice. Even if you get a good tone one way, 2-3 more sweeps over the target reveals its true nature. One thing for sure, if the ground has ever been moved, the GB will be a lot less than compacted dirt "what we call field dirt in Virginia" Confidence in this detector is growing with each hunt.

If the 8" coil was available I would also buy a Manticore. I would sell my Equinox 900 and Deus 2, keep my 800 with all of the excellent coils I already own for it along with the APTX low latency earbuds/headphones that I already own that work with the 800, GPX 6000 and the Legend and just enjoy detecting with these great detectors. Tired of waiting for XP to fix Deus 2 for gold prospecting via software and a smaller coil and I don't really like the Equinox 900 very much even though both work very well for most detecting. I can't see disliking the Manticore anymore than I dislike the Equinox 900 at this point.

I'd be interested to know if anybody has used the large 13" coil for gold on the GB2 and how it performed relative to the 10" and 6" coil as a patch hunter and on smaller gold? My standard coil on the GB2 is the 10" and I worked a patch to death with it (gridded twice and gave my ATX a pass too). Small scrubby bushes and big rocks on very thin quiet soil. It then happened that my wife tagged along and the 6" was on the GB2. I had the humbling experience of her picking up quite a few more 0.1-0.2 gram pieces. I think it had more to do with the Heineken Effect (small coils reach the parts others can't) than coil sensitivity.

Anything to compete with minelab would be fantastic something to rival the 6000 without the ridiculous high price.

What a week you’ve had my friend. Great job! 👍🏻

Nice silver. I like the old toy cars.

Now that was a nice hunt with a lot of work to dig out the items. Great saves on the silver and wish you more luck on your next hunt.

I had Gold with my Terra tonight on the beach.

Congrats! Nothing like some silver. That is a bunch of erasers. Lincoln Continental that’s a boat. Lol. That’s the type of car I’d like to drive around now a days. Lots of steel to protect oneself.

I didn't get a chance to post this earlier, but a few weeks ago I got to go back to the site of my first ghost town hunt. It's one of my detecting club's permissions that has been hunted for probably 30 years of the club's 50 year history. My first hunt there 2 years ago was a daunting experience to say the least. If you've never done relic hunting, specially on a site that once had almost 2000 people living and workng there, then you cannot even imagine what that's like. The tons of iron and coal throughout the area makes every detector go nuts and a few detectorists too. 😉 There are other inhabitants on this site as well. A couple of local boys wanted to crash the hunt, but they didn't have their club cards on them so they were politely asked to leave. 😏 I was very excited to get back to this site hoping for some really old coins and artifacts now that I have had a few years of training and felt I was ready for the big game. Well let me tell you, it only takes hunting a few hours of hunting with 30 pro detectorists to to put you in your place and one of the big lessons I learned was that detecting is 50% physical and 50% mental. I started the first day rushing around to get out the door on time for the long drive to get to the site on time and discovering a few block from my house that my rear tire was flat. That set the tone for the day. I got that fixed and flew like the wind and just barely made it to the meetup on time. When we get to the site, I rush around getting my wife's detector set up and ready to go, grab my detector and climb through the barbed wire fence and discover I forgot my shovel, so I climbed back through the barbed wire, grab my shovel and slither back through the fence only to find I forgot my gloves... Auuuughhh! I run the gauntlet again with gloves in hand and finally get ready to hunt and my remote control lock mount decides to break off. Fortunately I have a couple of backups in my pack.... but I forgot to pack my little screwdrivers.... just shoot me! I manage to flag down one of my detecting buddies and he graceously stops his hunt to rescue me. When he returned to hunting, he was promptly rewarded with a beautiful 1876 Seated Liberty Dime with CC mint mark! By the time I get out on the field my brain is fried and I spend the next several hours finding junk while everyone around me was finding ancient coins and wonderful artifacts. That's when I just took a time out to get my head together. After I settled down and ate a sandwich I went back to the field and my training kicked in. I discovered everything I was doing wrong and adjusted accordingly and then the finds started popping out of the iron. There were some amazing finds made over the 2 days at this site by some great detectorists, not by me of course, but I did find a few interesting things and learned an invaluable lesson. Keep a cool head, remember your training, and most of all respect the skills of your mentors! They all did well and deservedly so. I look forward to day that I reach that level of Zen. Well done my teachers! One of my cooler finds was this tiny heart pendant or rosery piece: Here's a dime for size comparison: Unkown disc, possibly a coin or token piece but no discernible markings. Oil lamp wick mount with 1872 & 1873 patent dates: Mostly iron and lead trash:

Welcome to DP forum. This is a really good place to get ideas & learn. Private permissions maybe your best option for places to hunt. You probably know more people than you realize. Just start talking & asking. You will be surprised. There may also be a detecting club close enough to join. That would be the best resource.

Gerry, Larry, did manage to get his coil over larger dinks! Next time I’ll zig and then zag instead of zag and zig 😂 Rick

I'm late to the party. The finds pics are looking like you still have massive display disease.👍 I'm hoping to become a victim of that terrible situation myself.😍 That GPX is a real "Hoover " ! 🤔 I'm saving up my finds from the last month. And maybe next month too . I'm getting close in the junk department anyway.........🙄

Simon, The small coil for the GKruzer is about an inch longer and 1/2" wider than the Snake coil that I have for my G2+, so not that much different. As for use, I don't know yet because I hate the controls, they should have continued the GRacer type ones. One day I'll be calm enough to cope with them. Joel

I like Nokta and Minelab. The xterra when it first hit the scene was one of the first units to just offer a number ID only readout that was large and easy to see. I found some of my favorite finds with the xterra 50. I am looking forward to the new xterra and will be purchasing one. I liked the eq series as well but when I had one of those I used it in SF mode only for the most part. I think for what the new xterra offers....it will put a pretty good smack on a lot of the competition. And from what I have saw on youtube....the lucky fellows who has tried one out already on the beach....it seems to run pretty stable on the wet sand. For a cool unit under 300 bucks.....I think i would rather have that than just about anything out there in the same price range.

X-terra pro 269 + 29 for a BT aptx LL transmitter and I have 4 coils for it and 5 kinds of earbuds/headphones. Anyone want a 705 in great shape with 3 coils?

We have all been thinking of the Simplex with this new X-Terra Pro, but more importantly perhaps is what it's release will do to the other brands that had their top of the line machines lagging behind the Simplex, what about Garrett and their AT Pro/Gold/Max. What about First Texas and their lineup of Dinosaurs? This could be extremely damaging to them. Yes they will have their fans that say my "whatever detector" is so much better than an Xterra but how about the general shoppers. I personally would pick the Xterra over my T2, or my AT Gold. If they put 20kHz on the X-terra it would be fantastic though but I guess a lot of thought went into giving as much bang for the buck without damaging existing detector sales in their lineup too much.

For your purpose the Gemini has 2 major drawbacks. First, it's a classic TR design (not VLF-ground balancing) so it is more affected by soil mineralization. Second, it runs at 82kHz which is even more sensitive to mineralization. So it may have problems inside a cave. Probably a better choice (if you really want to use a 2-box style) is the TM808 which is a VLF-GB design running at 6.6kHz.