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Pulled this 3.17 gram nugget at 20" out of our claims with Reese Townes aka Gold Seeker 5000 on Sunday. It pinged real loud. Had a great day with 4.35 grams total in the last hour of digging. Always good to hit a "patch". Worked my hole hard before it finally showed. I absolutely love this coil. Really smoothes out the 6000 and finds little bitty crumbs and big gold at depth. Game changer for digging and detecting our claims.

Flat out wore myself out yesterday detecting - Lots of tight grids. Even faded on F350 and Joe D while texting last night. Wife got some of the change and the brand new-ish Jessica Simpson designer sunglasses to wear, so she is styling. They will go with the other new ones she got the other day. I scored 3 rings. 1 junker, 1 18k engagement as well as the 1 18k wedding band kicker. Yes the 2 rings are a set. Someone is probably not happy. Basically the diamond ring rang up 49 on the D2 (beach sens). The better news is after I was done admiring the diamond ring I remembered to double check the hole. Guess what another 49 on D2 😊 😃 😜 Well the rest is history — the wedding band came out next. Both same size and maker. I cannot not find any inclusions in the diamond with my loops so off to the jeweler this upcoming weekend for the big microscope inspect and hopefully a quick appraisal. Great Day! The gold dance happened! Double check those holes for 18K!

The cache of rare Civil War-era coins unearthed in the Bluegrass State includes finest-known 1863 Double Eagles as well as several interesting varieties and errors. Numismatic Guaranty Company® (NGC®) was honored to recently certify an incredible cache of rare Civil War-era coins found in the Bluegrass State. “The Great Kentucky Hoard” (as it had been designated) includes a group of finest-known 1863 Double Eagles and hundreds of US Gold Dollars dated 1850 to 1862, as well as a small number of silver coins. Several interesting varieties and errors were also discovered. https://www.ngccoin.com/news/article/11795/kentucky-hoard-civil-war-coins/ Short video of the find in the field

I usually don't post a lot of my finds, but seeing the Manticore is new to everyone I want to get the word out as to its capabilities. This hollow, 14K gold earring was found in the saltwater using the surf mode with a sensitivity at 21. It wasn't deep and was found in the first scoop with an ID of 2. I was surprised how well it sounded off when the coil went over it, seeing it is only one-half gram and the loop was open. The gold earring is on the bottom of the photo, with some junk stuff on top. It hit pretty good on the studs also.

Jeff, I’m certainly not saying the Xterra is the same machine as the true gold detectors, but it did amazingly well in the test. I don’t own one, but for someone with a very limited budget, I don’t see a down side. Of course an air test is not the end-all, but it is indicative of potential. For those who carry both a PI and a VLF at the same time, I think it’s an easy button. I will be very interested to hear reports of how the Xterra handles mineralized ground.

I spent a pleasant early morning on a recent permission I had wanted to detect for a while. It is the later homeplace of my Great Great Grandfather. It's just a cow pasture now but I remember the old house still standing in the early 1980s, all grown up. I went there with two of his grandchildren who had fond memories of him. We dug up some of the Iris plants that had been there close to 100 years. They still bloom here at my home. I dug the typical stuff you find at a farmhouse site. Lots of bits & bobs, Mason jar lids and assorted interesting junk. I did find a few personal items like I was hoping to. Of course lots of Iron in the ground. I dug the bigger iron and found some treasure in that too. I will save this site for when my children are home to visit and want to get out. All 3 like to detect and that is pretty special itself.

I’m on Social Security with a little retirement fund and I work 2 part-time jobs. The last thing I needed was to pay over $4000 US for the GPX 6000. The lighter weight and the high sensitivity to a wide range of nugget sizes is what tempted me to do it. I was disappointed in the GPX 6000 at first but now I guess I am happy with it. Have I found $4000 US worth of gold with it already…..nope. Like many, I tried the less expensive Whites PIs and even had a go with the QED. They just aren’t the answer for me. A GPX 4500 in a lightweight housing with lightweight battery sounds fantastic. I would be just as happy with a PI that costs half as much as the GPX 6000 that would hit 0.1 gram nuggets a few inches deep along with deeper bigger sized gold, that weighs less than 4 lbs, uses current GPX 5000 and prior models Mono and DD coils and would double as a good relic and saltwater beach detector.

No Gold or Silver. Only 3 coins. The partial toy soldier is neat and the small Flur de Luis ornament. The plated buckle is stamped brass so maybe from a cap gun rig. For some reason the photo loaded upside down. I will try again with 2 more photos. The first showing some of the big Iron. The chain & hook are hand forged, so quite old & worn. The plow share is a common type find for me. This one is whole and cleaned up well. I intend to use it on my push plow in my row garden. The second photo shows the house with a family reunion gathered together on the front porch about 1927. Fortunately, older relatives who are in the photo as children, helped me get everyone identified.

I left the house at 7am, not particularly confident, but I went panning anyway. There were a few reasons why I didn’t have my usual “ get up and go “ attitude when wakening up to the sounds of “ I’m happy “ by Pharrell L Williams. The first reason was the weather, it’s hot. Well it’s 26 degrees C which is far too hot for a Scotsman, I mean our natural skin colour is pale blue. The second reason was that I had all but done with the area I had been prospecting for a while. I thought with the heat that maybe a leisurely stroll along some bedrock outcrops would be much more economical than the usual set up, and that actually was the third reason. I had never seriously done any dry land crevicing before. Pharrell Williams really put the tin lid on it with the lyrics “ no offence to you, don’t waste you’re time “. These lyrics were in my head and on repeat all day haha! Arriving at the car park deep in the Leadhills an hour after leaving the house I was cussing the weatherman for getting it correct again. They’ve did this for the umpteenth time this year and nobody seems to complain. WELL I AM. Anyway, it was hot and the Leadhills are barren of any cover whatsoever, making the walk from the car park to my familiar stomping ground that extra bit tiring, so I took the opportunity of a few photos as an excuse to pause now and then, though pausing only made me more lethargic, as like I said there’s no shelter from the sun at all. A green desert. The views when walking along the old railway line are lovely on the eyes due to the elevation of the old line. The green hills roll on into the distance, and when stopping to take it in, so too does my mind. Looking out and over the valley from the old railroad, i can almost feel the presence of the old timers are still here with me. The burn winds it’s way along the valley floor like a main artery, fed by the veins that run straight down off the hills and that provide fresh water for the flocks, and replenished gold for the prospector. The farmhouse stands alone like a kings guard in defiance of the elements. A constant feature of the valley it helps to protect. The burn offers life for its flock too. The great thing about walking an old railroad is that it’s almost perfectly flat until…….. you reach a hill😃 At least it was downhill, and ideal for a perfect approach. At the bottom of the hill I would cut left and walk the short distance to the start of the bedrock outcrop that I wanted to work. Made it, phew! The plan for the day was to first head uphill along the bedrock looking for easy areas to work before removing the small amount of gravel still remaining in the pool on the bottom left of the photo. I planned things in that order because I knew there was still a flake or two of gold in the gravel, and therefore if I blanked with the crevicing then I still had the gravel as a last resort. I also knew that once that tiny amount of gravel was removed then that was me finished in the area, an area I’ve sort of became attached to over the last few months. I was prolonging the inevitable really. After a quick look at the pool I made my way up and over the rock wall. From now on in the only water I would see was the stuff in my bag, for up this high the stream dries out completely. On a positive note the lack of water means I can take my time to reach far down into the crevices where I could study them without the chill of the water that charges through in autumn and winter. A pleasing change indeed. I wasn’t long before I reached my the decent looking area to work. Doesn’t that in the photo just scream gold. The way the bedrock slopes down at angles that trap. No doubt this spot has been worked judging by the gravel that not just looks loose, but I can confirm was loose, and after what seemed like an eternity to reach bottom, I found nothing. The bedrock crevices started wide, but by the time I reached as far down as I could they were too narrow to empty out. Moving on I found the next good looking area not much further upstream, but like the last area looks can be deceiving. I like the way the bedrock funnels down in a v shape into the pool, helping to concentrate the gold. I opted to remove the gravel near the tail of the pool, thinking the water would plough through like a jet wash near the top, making it all but impossible for the smaller flakes to settle. Again the bedrock crevices went down a couple of feet, progressively getting narrower, and again too narrow for me to properly work. “ No offence to you, don’t waste your time” ,there’s those lyrics again, and this time I took heed and decided to refill the confidence meter by heading back downhill, and onto the second part of the day, removing that gravel. I would sluice and pan out each bucket as I filled them. The last thing I needed was to empty it all out at once only to discover no gold, that wouldn’t be good. After two buckets and very little gold I contemplated moving, and here’s where I believe our lives are planned ahead of us. You see I decided to pack everything away and move on to an entirely different stream in an entirely different area of the hills, but after packing everything away and hoisting the backpack up and onto my aching shoulders, I only mane]aged to walk around 30ft to where I saw another bedrock outcrop. This outcrop was different to the one I had worked earlier. For a start the stream below the outcrop widened out as it exited the narrow rocky stretch. The stream slowed as it broke out over an open gravel bed. The actual gravel was very soft underfoot, obviously well worked, but directly below the bedrock was an area I could work by digging down the wall of the outcrop. As I removed the rucksack from my shoulders in a writhing fashion I couldn’t help but laugh out loud at the thought I had only walked 10 paces before I had to unpack it all again. Sure enough the gravel down the side of the bed rock was packed fairly tight and I had to fight my way down through rocks that were difficult to remove. The thought of packed gravels alongside bedrock got me digging like Barney rubble, and after removing and sluicing the 4 buckets it took to reach the bottom of the rock I couldn’t resist the urge to pan it out. What would it contain I wondered. Well the answer was sweet sod all haha! Not even a dust particle of gold. I was a little upset. Why had I just not moved on to pastures new when I had my chance? Why had that bedrock took my attention and stopped me in my tracks, and turned out to be a total waste of time? What was I supposed to do now? I will tell you what I was supposed to do, because like I mentioned earlier, I firmly believe our lives are set out on paths that are impossible to veer from. What I was supposed to do at that point was finish off the last remaining couple of buckets of gravel that I had gave up on earlier after only finding a few flakes in the couple of buckets I did remove. So everything was carried back to the original spot and the sluice set back in place, where it was an hour before. I seem to do more walking than anything else these days🙂 Walking back up to where the pool is, and the last of the gravel didn’t fill me with confidence. The gold I had spent collecting over the past while had all but dried up, but I needed to finish the last of the gravel to remove the “ what if “ factor that would have played in my head, had I not removed it, but before getting the pump in action I took a last look at the bedrock face where it meets the water level. I used my fingers to scrape out any small pockets of stones that were still trapped in the crevices in the vertical wall, and that’s when something caught my eye. It looked like gold, but all my sinews were saying it couldn’t be, I mean how lucky would I have to be to have such a bad day, only to literally walk onto gold. Well it was gold, and a fine gram nugget too. I was overjoyed at my find that was just sat there on the bedrock. I’ve seen this happen in videos, but for it to happen to me was unreal. I still had to remove the last of the gravel in the pool, which I did, but as I suspected there were only a few last remaining flakes. I obviously wasn’t bothered. I had polished off everything I could in that stretch of the stream and I could now move on without looking back, and it’s a good feeling knowing I would be prospecting new ground when I next go panning. The walk back up that steep hill and along the old railroad back to the car park in blistering heat virtually went unnoticed thanks to my find. Now that’s what I call dream prospecting👍 til the next time, happy prospecting to you. Ian 🇺🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🥃

My OCD just prevents me from not pointing this out, but for accuracy sakes, the ML-105’s that come with the Manticore also pair with the X-Terra Pro, but as you say, both the ML-85’s and ML-105’s are basically unobtainium as standalone accessories right now, and when available, the ML-105’s price point as an accessory will likely be even worse than that anticipated for the ML-85’s. Alternatively, a plug in APTX-LL transmitter and compatible APTX-LL phones can probably be obtained for less than half of what ML will likely charge for the ML-85’s if one prefers a wireless configuration for their X-Terra Pro nugget slayer. But yeah, the accessories will drive the price to the point where other detectors begin to become relevant considerations. FWIW

There is absolutely zero wrong with a person on a budget picking up an X-terra Pro for gold prospecting when starting out. If they have a $300 US or less budget and don't mind using their own 1/8" wired earbuds or 1/8" wired headphones and the stock 12"X9" coil, everything is just fine. The X-Terra Pro in that case is an amazing deal and the new owner can use it very effectively for a lot more than just gold prospecting too. If they want to get the 6" round coil....add $150 US. If they also want the ML85 wireless headphones that currently are the only wireless headphones that pair with the X-terra Pro....add another $150 US if you can find someone selling them. If a person is already and Equinox 600/800 owner with extra coils, great. If a person is already an Equinox 700/900 owner with extra coils and ML85s, even better. Not throwing cold water on using the X-Terra Pro in its stock configuration as a gold prospecting detecting. It will definitely work just fine along with all of the other uses for the X-Terra Pro. However, getting an extra coil and wireless audio runs the price up to $600 US. There might be better options in that case.

Another new/old patch, again today, a good day 7 grams for the 6000 today was a good effort, started on a new/old patch this morning and ended with 7 grams The specie has just a fraction over 2 grams in it according to the SG test and it was fairly deep right down under a salt bush New/Old Patch Specie down deep under a salt bush Todays effort for the 6000 cheers dave

Air tests are cool, just like air guitars. I've never found a target in the air. But did find a several small nuggets in a blown over tree stump a couple feet off the ground. Maybe that counts as a air test.

some more little bits of gold for the 6000 in amongst last years old detector holes from the 7000 which was using the 17x12 spiral x-coil 17 tiny nugglets cheers dave

Skip the wireless headphones, get the 6” coil.

That's the idea, for people that only have an X-terra or the budget to buy an X-Terra knowing that it is capable of finding gold to a reasonable level for a VLF is what this sort of thread is about, not demonstrating other more expensive detectors are better. My cut off point for a reasonable gold detector is 12kHz, anything over that and someone should be able to find some gold if the gold is there and the detector handles the ground. The bigger gold takes care of itself and someone lucky enough to have bigger gold within VLF depths need not worry, my cut off point with frequency is only as my focus is on very small bits From what I've seen too sometimes having these lower frequencies handle difficult ground better. When I first started detecting I had little idea about anything much so I took my Ace 350 (Euroace) down to a gold bearing river hoping to find gold nuggets, the river is our worst river for black sand where a few buckets of gravels though your sluice and the thing is clogged up with black sand yet my Ace with a fixed ground balance ran perfectly fine there, no response to the ground at all. I didn't even know that was a good thing at the time. I was finding plenty of coins with good depth too but no gold, the Ace at 8.25kHz just wasn't ideal for the size nuggets in the area, nor was my knowledge up to par at the time to know the best places to look. I then upgraded to a Gold Bug Pro as I gained more knowledge and took the Bug to the same river, the Bug even though a ground balancing detector had so much more trouble with the black sand with it's 19kHz frequency, I had to wind back the sensitivity quite a bit to stop it responding to the ground and falsing when the Ace ran full sensitivity dead silent on the ground. I did actually find some Gold with the Bug though. So perhaps for some in difficult soils the 10kHz and 15kHz options in it's jewellery mode may work out for them for prospecting and in milder prospecting areas it should do pretty well, it's surprising how small of a Gold Nugget my Teknetics T2 at 13kHz can hit on with it's 5" coil. The idea is use the tool you have to the best of it's ability, so with a little research and some practice I think a X-Terra owner could do pretty good on gold nuggets without having to spend the money to buy a much more expensive detector designed for Gold Nuggets so I think for someone on a budget that want's a good all round detector that they can do a bit of gold hunting with the X-terra would suit the task, especially with the 6" Nox coil.

One thing about all this becomes perfectly clear...once again. Testing targets and settings on top of the ground can and most times will give you a different result than the same target array that's buried in the ground....which is where we hunt anyway...right? So I look at top-of-the-ground testing as a "preliminary maybe" indicator. I learned that years ago when I first started testing detectors and this masking venture just reinforced that lesson in spades....again. 🤣

JC - Dan relayed to me in some more detailed offline discussions, that it happens with all three base beach programs (i.e., dive, beach, as well as beach sensitive) regardless of the Max F setting used for each (i.e., he used all three Max F settings with each of the three base beach programs) and that he was able to unmask with General and other land based base programs regardless of the Max F settings. Agree that it’s more than just about Max F in the way SMF target signals are processed, but it appears that the Beach programs in general are doing something noticeably different than the “land” programs with respect to target signal processing even with otherwise identical user setting setups (other than the salt sensitivity setting which is only present on the beach base programs - and adjustment of which across its entire range had no effect on this masking behavior). Also, in another thread, he noted different target response behaviors (primarily associated with TID differences) between beach sensitive and beach with identical user settings (including Max F), so that is consistent with your assertion that the SMF profiles and signal processing algorithms are different between outwardly similar programs (e.g., beach and beach sensitive) that goes beyond the SMF Max F user setting.

I will suggest that the unmasking difference between the two programs has to do with how the SMF is weighted & processed. Even if you have the same max kHz setting, the Sensitive program will favor the higher end of the spectrum as opposed to the General program. Higher frequencies do not normally hit coins as hard but do hit ferrous harder than lower frequencies. The 2D air test is not hard. The 3D in ground with 5" between the 2 targets is hard for most any detector, even in mild soil. I have experimented a good bit on at depth 3D masking. If ferrous trash, multi frequency is the way to go for sure. The lower weighted mix the better. There is also a sweet spot on reactivity/recovery and careful coil control is needed in interrogating a suspect target. I also find that being able to hear the iron and the higher conductor interact under the coil is helpful. TID will jumpy but not too wild. Al trash and high mineralization is a whole other ballgame. You may want to try using the lowest Max Freq possible on the Beach Sensitive(and General) and play with the Reactivity some more. Let us know your results as this applies to all detectors and types of sites.

Just got mine yesterday too! Noticed right away it didn't go nuts when turned on in boost, even after waiting a bit. 😀 Great for verifying iron on relic and beach hunts. Can't wait to get out with it as an MI-6 backup. 👍 Dunno what I'll do with the old one. 🤔

Mine arrived yesterday. Wow, what great pinpointer (so far from my kitchen table test). Volume is adustable, disc has low tone for ferrous and red blinking LEDs, high tone and green LEDs for non-ferrous. You can turn the white Illumination LED off if you wish. Magic holster works great. Waterproof to 5 meters. Four sensitivity levels: 1, 2, 3, and boost.

Yup. I have found similar small pieces, usually in the dry sand because they are small enough to fall through my scoop holes making it near impossible to recover in the water unless you get lucky. I need to get one of those scoops with the small slots cut in the back for items like studs.

I've been experimenting with V1.1 and developing a few custom programs to use on the beach and for relic hunting at our Seminole Indian War site. In the process I came across an unmasking situation I can't explain...and neither can some other well experienced detectorists that I've contacted. Using a clad quarter for the non-ferrous target and a small tent stake we always find on the beach for the ferrous target, I placed them on top of the ground side by side about 2 inches apart. Both the Beach Sensitive and General programs were able to unmask the quarter...but that was just an air test. The more authentic test would prove differently. When the same targets were buried side by side in mild sandy soil, the coin at 6 inches and the tent stake at 1 inch, as we would normally find in the real world, Beach Sensitive could not unmask the coin no matter the settings I used while the General program was able to unmask the coin when discrimination was set at 4.6. In Beach Sensitive, I tried numerous combinations of sensitivity, salt sensitivity, bottle caps, reactivity, discrimination, silencer, notch/no notch and audio filter in the 3 beach programs...again, with no success. The quarter was always masked by the tent stake. When the tent stake was removed, the quarter came through loud and clear with the expected TID of 95-96. Base Settings: General: Discrim: 4.6, Tone: Pitch, Bottle Caps: 0, Notch: Off, Sensitivity: 95, Max Freq: 40, Iron Vol: 7, Reactivity: 0, Audio Resp: 9, Threshold: 0, Audio Filter: 0, Tracking: on, Ground Stab: 2, Mag Ground: Reject, FE TID: Off Beach Sensitive: All settings listed above, plus salt sensitivity, were varied to determine if anything made a difference. No Difference. The quarter remained masked. Non-engineer assumption by me and others: This must be due to some software design that differentiates Beach programs from Land programs. A difference that the user cannot alter or adjust. Any ideas we may be missing would be welcomed. Perhaps and hopefully an XP engineer will see this and help us out. I'm obviously built too low to the ground since this conundrum goes right over my head. 🤣

I very recently witnessed an air test comparison on small gold with the X-Terra Pro against both an Equinox 800 & 900, a Manticore, an Axiom, and a 6000 & 7000. Let’s just say I don’t think the Pro will stay on shelves once the word is out. The $270 detector gobsmacked several people. Sure, “in the ground, with mineralization, blah, blah, blah.” The truth is out there.

Hey, I'm not the only one! Exceptions would be in high wind or close to traffic...maybe in winter. I just don't like the feel of headphones, nor the loss of situational awareness. Maybe for nuggest hunting to focus in on those whisper signals or threshhold breaks, but that's not really the business I'm in.

Well you ask for confirmation from Serious detecting Chuck and so I called and Serious stated the same things I had already been told by three other dealers No V 80 or V60 will come to the U.S but one thing they also stated in a phone conversation there is a possibility later on down the road, Quest may bring them to the U.S but as of wright now everything is on hold with those two detectors coming to the U.S, and yes rite now it is only the U.S.

I've tried the iron volume at 0 and various levels of Discrimination too...no success. Good luck at the beach. I sincerely hope you find the magic solution!🤣

There is zero reason for any of you guys to be interested in or care about the Xterra Pro for nugget detecting. It’s not a sales pitch. Use what you already have, which is no doubt better. For those who do have one or are interested in trying one, I’d use the 6” round coil, or 5x10 Coiltek. Best place to start would be Fine Jewelry mode. Reduce the Recovery Speed if in relatively trash free, milder ground. Go slow, keep the coil to the ground, dig all targets unless in heavy trash. I’d stick with All Tones and not be tempted to notch out ferrous, which is the better way to go in the long run, as you are alerted to all targets, and can investigate those suspicious ferrous indications that might turn out to actually be non-ferrous. If you notch stuff out, you’ll never know it was there. Last resort if you have to though, or for those who just can’t stand hearing it all. Hint when using full tones: keep the volume low in target rich locations so as to not flood your ears and brain with too many loud signals. I found plenty of gold with the 13 kHz Fisher F75 and any detectorist with any real chops should be able to do so with a 15 kHz XTerra Pro. I’m not saying it’s the best option, but I’d not discount it out of hand either. Anything that gives people with limited incomes access to this hobby is fine by me. I do like that it uses coils I already have, and costs no more than just another coil! Be a great second machine and loaner for any Equinox owner.

Neither Discrimination nor Notch made any difference with the masking issue. Since no matter what we do anyway the masking will still be there, we just prefer silent search and not hearing the occasional iron. If we can somehow overcome the masking one of these days, that would certainly be much preferred. However, like you and I discussed, it seems this is a question better suited for an XP engineer to tackle. 😉

Air tests give a good constant test with no variables to show raw power. Ground produces variables in testing and we all have different ground. Its good to have air tests to have a starting point in your own variable situations.

Reese had it and didnt like it and sold it. I have never swung it. I pulled a .026 at several inches with the exceed this spring. Im really looking forward to the bigger coil coming out. We have alot of ground that needs surface prosecuted. Hopefully its as smooth running as the 12x7.

Yep I have. No magic unfortunately. Nothing much has changed. Smaller coil is slightly more sensitive to Smaller bits. Larger coil slightly more depth on Larger bits. Round coil slightly more depth .

Very nice hunt and that is a very fine designer ring set, close to the 15 to 20 thousand rang. I bet someone would love to get those back, but I am glad to see that they will go to someone who deserves them for the hard work to save them. Good luck on your next hunt. I saw a similar set of rings and they were in the same price range, girlfriend is hinting at marriage but I'm not quite sure about it at this time.

Great finds. Thus far, the NF 12x7 has only fans, me included. Simply an outstanding coil, stable but yet sensitive, and well balanced. Just like the 12 Zsearch! Real ceaftmanship and worth every penny. GC

The hook is unusual in that the nose has an acorn shaped end. I'm sure it was used on a wagon somehow. Kind of big for a trace chain. I wouldn't be surprised if it came from South Carolina after the War with the rest of the family. It is definitely older than the house site.

Didn't get much yesterday so I didn't have high hopes for today. Beautiful day, sunny, breezy and not too hot. Wind out of the southeast kept the pollution down. Went to the canal area this morning and used the WS6 with the 9" coil. Found a few coins here and most of my trash, along with the 2 Zincolns I got today. Next place I went was a small field at the very top end of the campground, a place I got about 60 coins last year. I wasn't expecting to find much but I was wrong. In just a small area about the size of a crowded city yard, not even a 10th of an acre (not this whole field), the coins just kept coming. Found one right after I dug the previous one. I was only here for a couple hours using the D2 and 13" coil. Ended up with 46 coins today, way more than I thought I would find. I got about 60 in this spot last year using the D2 when it was new, guess I really didn't have a handle on it. 🤣 I dug almost no trash at all here, two blobs of molten aluminum and a small aluminum strap. Got 2 1965 quarters 😏 Everything was from the 1960s to present. Here's what I got for trash elsewhere, only a couple pieces from the last spot. None of the above is iron. I was notching to 40 with the WS6, but not with the D2. I didn't see any difference between the 13" and the 9" really other than weight, both performed equally well. I'm kinda baffled that I'm not finding any silver coins here at all, I think I got one Mercury dime two years ago. Perhaps it was cherry picked, but everywhere? And with so many other coins? Also odd that I didn't get any nickels today, didn't see any 61/62 IDs. 🤔 Edit: used The Devil's Tongue Park Probe again quite a bit today, dug this quarter out from between two roots. 🙂

F350 and Joe D thank you for cheering me on. You guys must have sent good luck. Most people probably do not know I was actually texting pictures to 350 & Joe D right after diamond ring came out then I had to text back a minute later with the wedding band. They were getting play by play. 😂 No question the D2 is very forgiving on the arm. The more I use it the more impressed I get. Determined to learn it this year. Heck I learned the V3i (BTW still my favorite screen to look at visually). My TDI (primary machine) is just taking a short break while I am healing from surgeries, but I did have it out the other day for a short time at a 1715 beach. It’s not too bad in weight but not like the D2’s weight (feather). Each machine has its place.

Good work there F350. Though my knees are sore from just looking at all those coins you dug.

Wow! They would have bleeped out more if I found it 😂

JCR — I recognize that type of chain. Dug a good bit of hand forged chain up north recently from late 1700’s. I like yours with the hook on it. All the items are great you found. Congrats on your finds.

Thanks Steve, I did try the 13" DD coil but found it a bit heavy, I'll have to make up a bungy cord for it, not ready to buy a smaller DD yet. Got to learn the machine more yet. I did play with settings a fair bit, the 7000 doesn't play up at all same area. but yes, different machines. I was pretty disappointed, but I'll get it. Will be out again about 4 weeks. And yes, there were two different rocks don't know what you would call them but two different rocks if you could call one of them a rock more like clumps ant bed and maybe been through a fire? this one the 7000 will get sometimes. Otherwise, happy.

One thing you consistently ignore in your analysis is that not everyone has ground as bad as you Jeff, nor needs your level of detector. Alaska has huge swaths of gold bearing land that is near benign when it comes to mineralization. There are many other similar areas. I’m not trying to sell anytime in the Xterra Pro as a nugget detector, but I also bet a guy with only $300 to spend would have a hard time getting anything better. Yeah, everyone should own a GPX 6000, but not everyone can afford one.

What's good about the X-terra Pro is the price, it makes for a cheap detector for someone to get that gives them an all rounder, it can do the beach, coins and jewellery in parks and would be a reasonable gold prospecting detector in the entry level arena I would think not too dissimilar in performance to a Gold Bug Pro. Yes, it won't be a fantastic detector compared to the dedicated higher frequency machines but it's more than capable of finding a pretty small nugget and for such a cheap priced detector that's great. I gave a go with my Vanquish and it can find gold too in my milder soils, I guess not so well in hot soil without ground balance although multi-IQ does pretty well in many situations, I didn't think too far different from a Gold Bug Pro either in it's jewellery mode so these basic entry level type machines are starting to really be quite capable for various purposes for someone on a limited budget. If someone around here with just enough money to buy a X-Terra was questioning if they could use it for gold nuggets I certainly wouldn't snob the detector and say no way you need something a lot better than that, I'm confident I could find gold with it.

Sounds like a good time to research and line up a few permissions .🍀 Go sit on a beach and look for interesting movements in the wave line......😜

The idea has never been to produce a cutting edge product, a GPZ 8000, for $2000. Yes, development costs are real, and must be recouped. I have always been thinking GPX 4500, which last sold for $2699. Dealers cried when Minelab discontinued it. Development costs long since recouped. All it needs is to be repacked in a modern housing using a modern battery option. I’d be thrilled with something like that and have never asked for more on this thread. Minelab can do this easily. Minelab discontinued the machine since, as a monopoly, it was undercutting sales of the $3999 GPX 5000. Solution? Discontinue 4500 so you have to buy the 5000. That’s what lack of competition gets you. The 4500 always was and still is Minelabs ace in the hole, that allows them to stop any threat by Nokta dead in its tracks. Maybe Nokta has figured this out? Whatever, we will get there, and not too much longer. The fire of competition is doing its magic in VLF as I type. A match has been lit to PI and people like me will continue to fan the flame until somebody fills this massive hole in the detecting market.

Here's my totals from last week and today's hunt. Man....it's "HOT" working on the North Saskatchewan River. Had to fill up my baseball cap with water periodically to douse myself with water. These were 2, 3 or 4 hour digs. This worked out to be about 14 hours worth. For the 2 hour hunts after work this past week-end, I used the California mini, as it can be carried down to the river and set up in 10 minutes. Also got some dino bone pieces.

😲 SAY WHAT??!! 😆

You still need to take it easy for as long as you can or things might go south on you. Take your time and let your body heal properly before getting back to detecting or any lifting. The only 3 things I can suggest to pick up at this point is your dinner fork, your coffee, and the last thing is a cold one from the fridge, but have someone else open the fridge for you. Good luck and pray that you have a complete recovery.

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..."

My grandfather had the same type of surgery a few years back and said " I would rather take off a couple of months to heal my body than to have to go through it again and never be able to do what I love the most. So I will say this, take it slow and easy for now so that you can handle the hunts without any worries. Good luck and hope that things will work out for you.