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In general I’m not a fan of calling out other forums or people who are not present. But I also see no evidence that anyone really knows who this person or person is, as not naming names was a proper decision. If they are saying that Target Trace directly maps target shape, that would be incorrect. As is the idea that is can directly tell gold from aluminum. That said, the nuances revealed in the display can aid in determining both. What is being mapped are the target id numbers. Since a round item tends to produce a strong singular target id, the mapping also tends to be solid and round. Ragged irregular targets tend to have sparky target id numbers, and so produce irregular mapped displays. So while it’s incorrect to say shape is being mapped directly, it’s more nuanced than that. The display certainly does aid a knowledgeable operator in making at least some better calls about the target shape. Gold from aluminum? No. But again, it’s not entirely black or white, as an expert jewelry hunter might gain clues from the display. It’s all in nuance and how things are presented and perceived. Without knowing the actual source material it’s impossible to say. But really, does that matter? What does matter is imparting some good information here about what the display does and does not do. I think focusing on the social media presenter is a distraction. Now, if this person can be identified via information presented here then I’d ask that the references that allow that be scrubbed, but for me I have no idea who they are based on anything presented here, and don’t care to know. If anyone thinks differently say so. Seems like a tempest in a teapot really as somebody I’m associating with at the moment is having a deep personal emergency that puts stuff like this in proper perspective. Be nice if everyone can just chill out and move on.

I have a few theories why the left hand edges have gold and not the right. 1 - The surfaced area was very rich and the original diggers found less and less gold the further they dug to the left hand side so they abandoned it . Probably. 2 - They started digging on the right hand side for whatever reason. Working right to left across the run of gold , throwing the overburden behind them on the already dug ground . So there could be gold on the right edge covered by overburden that's out of range of my detector. Possibly. 3 - Pure coincidence and the pattern that is emerging is all in my head. Good chance. But I'll always be giving the left hand edge of similar sites a lot more attention. 4 - Most of the diggers were right handed. Unlikely. I think the diggings have been worked twice , 1870's and 1930's going by the dates of coins found . Anyway it was good of them to leave some for me.

Hi All, my first post here. Hope this is the appropriate section for this topic. So I'm new to metal detecting. Bought a Minelab X-Terra Pro a week ago. I live on an old farm dating back to the mid-late 1800's or so. Figured I'd learn in my back yard and maybe find something special. Things were going ok, apart from realizing how much iron trash there is on an old farm, but last night after the first rain in a few weeks things went south. Both the X-Terra and my pointer were telling me there were targets everywhere, I mean literally everywhere. Almost lost my mind after a few digs of finding nothing, not even a nail, just red soil...even a handful of it triggered my pointer. Is this a thing? Too high in iron content making my soil nearly impossible to hunt? I'd love to hear anyone's similar experiences and/or tips for success. Here's the first something special I did find during the dry spell. Late 1800's I think? Almost looks as though it went through a fire, which lines up with what history I know of the place.

Welcome to the Forum You have made a good choice as there are lots of experienced & helpful folks here. Others, more qualified will chime in I am sure. Detecting in mineralized soil can be a real challenge, especially when wet & conductive. That is what you are experiencing after the recent rain. The moisture activates & connects the soil electrically so it is seen as one big background target to the detector and your pin pointer. You have a good detector and as the soil dries the false signals will start to dissipate. In the mean time, it may help to reduce the detectors Sensitivity to a very moderate level, add some Discrimination to cut out some of the Iron responses and sweep the coil more slowly & evenly. A lower frequency choice will also help, as will a medium fast Recovery speed and a good Ground Balance. The Xtera Pro being a single frequency detector will still struggle a bit on that type of ground. Be patient and learn as you go. It sounds like you have a very interesting place to hunt. That is a nice pocket watch case. There will be a lot of small iron and other types of trash, but the more you dig, the more you learn and it gets it out of your way to find the good stuff being hidden. Have fun and keep us posted with your questions and successes.

Time to rejoice everyone, because the impossible is now possible! You see, a detectorist on another forum, told other members that Target Trace on the Manticore can distinguish between aluminum trash and gold jewelry. Imagine that? No more digging any of that trash when hunting for gold jewelry! Yes, you read that right. TT on the Manti can actually defy the laws of electromagnetism. However, before you throw out all your other detectors, you probably should know that she's a Minelab Rep and also thinks TT shows the shape of the targets😁

As long as we are using induction balance/pulse induction, the gold and aluminum range overlaps entirely. For every gold VDI there is an aluminum VDI. It then boils down to playing the odds. A particular common pull tab false here for instance, so ignore it. But the fact remains some gold jewelry might overlap that pull tab, so ignoring it forever will eventually mean missed gold. You have to know your targets and play the odds. My advice is focus on quality locations where you dig it all. In low quality locations, some cherry picking may be more appropriate. I can cherry pick rings to some degree based on the solid centered VDI, the roundness. But every pull tab will do that also. It avoids common foil and can slaw, but irregular pendants and gold chains will also be missed. Again, it’s all playing the odds. I can promise the more aggressive you get in trying to not dig aluminum, the more gold you will miss. The Invenio does simply map target signal intensity results as opposed to mapping VDI numbers, so what you are seeing is a visual interpretation based more on what you would hear running a threshold based all metal mode. The louder the signal, the “hotter” the color that gets mapped. Interpretation is required as a deep large faint target will map the same as a shallow smaller target, just as they sound the same to your ear. And in dense surface trash, it’s nothing but a mess. It’s better for distinct targets in cleaner ground. Or mapping large stuff while detuning the machine to smaller stuff.

You won’t do better than Sunray Pro gold.

Quite a lengthy thread on it there. Also a new manual out to reflect the update. https://www.minelab.com/__files/f/505058/4901-0428-2 Inst Manual, Manticore EN.pdf The firmware update does indeed seem to improve the small gold sensitivity, I haven't had a chance to test properly yet but it's feeling more on par with the Nox now, rather than worse than it.

It can be tough to get nuggets at Rye Patch any time of year, but when you and I were there, the soggy ground and weather made it even more of a challenge for sure. I'm sorry your group didn't get any gold. I detected over 3 days last summer in June and also got skunked using my ML 6000 in dry ground. I helped two older greenhorn guys with vlf machines who were there set up their machines and scan some signals I found. One had a gpx 4500 he didn't know how to use, so I had him switch that machine and to his 11in mono and set all the proper settings for him. I saw both later in the afternoon, and they had quite a few dug targets, but no gold. We all had a great time camping out and sharing the fun of prospecting and that's what its all about.

Well we stopped by a few parks today. I found some quarters, change, and of course trash. EMI was kicking my butt today with the D2 by some power lines. I tried every trick only thing that made it sound good was dropping to 14k and running the SSlayer program to notch a bunch out. Wife got a 44 wheat, the junk ring, some change, and the wing. Anyone seen this type of wing before? It’s hollow. First thing we thought was hood ornament for an old car. ??

While you are fundamentally correct in your assertion regarding TT and target shape correlation, what the man is saying is not necessarily "completely" wrong. While the TT doesn't actually show the shape of a target, the traces can show TID variability that occurs with non-symmetric targets, co-located targets, and seemingly "stable" TIDs can show smears and shapes other than a dot. The traces the man describes may very well align with his real life experience digging can slaw and pull tabs. Do you have actual field experience with the Manticore that contradicts the man's assertions and actual experiences regarding the correlation of his TT plots and target predictions? Also, speaking as a site moderator and from past experience, no real good can come from documenting your interactions with others on another MD site and quoting others who cannot defend themselves here and doing so with minimal context. Even if the individuals and site go unnamed it can put Steve in an awkward position with the principles of the other site - doesn't take much detective work for people to figure out was is going on to have it boomerang back. So while it's worth it to continue to discuss the nuances of Manticore target trace in this thread, let's just take the high road and put a stop to airing your differences of opinion and drama with these unnamed people from your anonymous detecting site, if you don't mind. Thanks for understanding.

Over 9 oz so far. A couple more pics after processing the species before I sold them . Gotta love the gold price at the moment. 🙂

The battery for my WM12 stopped charging and was dead, zero volts with the multimeter so it was either buy a new WM12 for about $350 AUD or try and find a replacment battery. I ended up finding one online and it cost $25 AUD including postage so I ordered it and it arrived and I fitted it, it is just plug and play nothing to hard at all. The WM12 now charges and works perfectly again This is the replacement battery if anyone is interested or has a similar problem and this is the original battery cheers dave

US clad coins found during a 3 hour hunt today at a big Denver area park. Most of the “trash” in the area I was hunting at was actually US zinc pennies and various pull tabs. Deus 2 really does well cherry picking US nickels and of course the rest of the modern US coins. Most targets were 3 to 6” deep and were recovered with a screwdriver using coin popping method. Little gold looking earring and part of a watch band are actually .925 silver. I basically gridded a 20 by 60 yard area. I left a lot of zinc pennies in the ground. I got tired of digging them. Deus 2 is just a fantastic modern USA coin hunting detector. thanks for looking

My last 3 patches have all been below old reef mines. The old timer's surfaced the ground below the reef workings until the ground got to deep then sank holes. I found a few scattered pieces on the surfaced ground and the mullock heaps down further and thought I got most of the gold. Then I tried the left and right edges of the surfaced area. Standing on the bottom of the slope and looking up towards the reef mine at the top, the right hand sides on all 3 surfaced areas were barren of detectable gold but the left sides had a narrow strip of ground running down the slope that the old timer's didn't dig that was full of species. Makes me wonder why they didn't dig a bit further to the left. Were they all right handed diggers? LOL. Here are a few pics with some of the results.

Never used the Legend, Nox 900, or Manticore. In the water ’d be pulling out my Equinox 800. In general I agree with Gerry though. I’ve done the detect in creek thing, and in water you’d better have a mask and snorkel if you want to try and recover targets from underwater. Trying to do so is really challenging while wading in running water. A sucker gun and pry bar maybe? It’s slow work for a nail or fishing sinker. But I’ve found lots of gold nuggets from the waterline up, and once out of the water my choice of detector would probably be my Axiom. Most drainages have a lot of mixed rocks which often means hot rocks. But if you are in milder places a hot VLF does great. I snagged a lot of gold at waters edge with the Gold Bug 2 in Alaska. My Nox with 6” coil would do well in such locations. Funny you ask actually. I’ll be detecting along a recently flooded creek bed in Montana tomorrow, seeking nuggets on freshly exposed bedrock with the Axiom. Never been to the site before and did not even bother to pack a VLF. I will work hard along the creek, but I’ll be surprised if I put the coil in the water at all. Maybe if I see some exposed bedrock with only and inch or two of water on it. I am far better off putting maximum effort into hitting anything I can find from the waters edge on up. Looking forward to it as always like seeing new ground.

Highly mineralized ground can be noisy. If your machine is chatty use a lower frequency and swing bit slower. Lower frequencies are less responsive to low conductors. Machines can only go just so deep and ground phase effects the range of all ib machines. Just nature of the beast. Sometimes smaller and narrower coils will do better in sniffing out targets as they will be generally less noisy. As for iron infested grounds that contain bits of rust from processed iron like old nails, sheet metal bits etc the best option for me has been an analog with concentric coil. Some the old tesoros can be picked up cheap and that is the type of hunting they really shine. Very cool pocket watch, I just found one the other day in a ball field.

Not my deepest Axiom gold but one I caught on video. Sorry for the extra exuberant...but I get all giggle when chunky in the hand.

Mark, Glad you were able to score some Rye Patch gold on the last soaking adventure. What's even more impressive is your ability to do it with the Axiom. I've said it so many times before, but some folks think it's sales talk. Glad you mentioned it as well. The Axiom with it's Fine Tuning capabilities can do things the more expensive GPX-6000 can not. As for depth, I've dug some 12"+ nuggets (specimens) and on bigger gold, the Axiom is so close to the GPX-6000, you are splitting hairs. My group was there training June 9th - 11th and the ground was not that bad, but it was still the worst June hunt I have ever done. I think 15 to 20 nuggets were found by all. There was a storm coming in when we left, so that must have been afterwards, as the pics below were not as such when we pulled out. Yes I was sent a couple pics of the cross roads to the burn barrel turn off. Looked like a serious gully washer came down. Majuba in the background. Again, great on you for realizing the situation you were in, the GPX-6000 was not the best tool. Thats why I always take a couple on any given trip. Lundy, When the ground is ideal, be sure to let us all know so we can head that way.

Sunray Pro Golds

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. 🙂

Just got done laying out all the finds from my week long trip to a campground, it was an old hunting lodge and camp before it changed hands twice to become a full fledged campground. I was going to tumble the coins first but decided to do them and all the others I've found together. I've been here 3 times now, thought I hunted the heck out of the place but find I was wrong. I'm getting better as a detectorist, and now have a better detector, the Deus 2. 🙂 Probably a combination of both. Over the course of a week hunting anywhere from 3 to 6 hours a day, I got all the stuff below: 262 coins, oldest was a 1926 buffalo nickel. 3 rings, one is either gold plated or filled, estimated at 1950-1965. Got it pretty well cleaned up, it looks cast and has some gold solder where it broke once. Old script "V". The pictures don't do it justice, it's really shiny. Got a working hand torch, a cheap but working flashlight, an old duck call, keys, and some stuff used to make a bracelet. One 1930 wheat and a 1978 penny with what I think may be a laser hole in it, it's just too perfect. The only silver I got was the tiny iron cross on the earring. 3 very old buttons were the relics, one from the late 1800s and two much older. Quite a week.

Pro Golds for me. I have two pairs with the locking toggles, separate volume controls, real leather cups. They are soft and comfortable with good coiled cords and they block a lot of background noise. As far as I know, they're compatible with all detectors.

SunRay Pro Gold are another top brand but Ralph retired a couple years back. Here's the scoop for those that don't know. John Smith is the guy who used to build the SunRay headphones for Ralph. John Smith also has his own brand "Killer Bees" and I myself prefer the "Wasp" model. He also has top performing 1 ear headphones for areas with rattlesnakes. Killer Bee's are American Made and lifetime warranty (and he backs it up). All he asks is that you register the headphones when you get them. He's a great guy to deal with in the many years I've done with him. I heard Gray Ghost went through some management change and their products are not as good as before. Maybe that is hearsay? But when enough folks start complaining, that says something. Black Widows are also top performers but a little tight on the head if you have a big grape. The Koss UR-30's on most Minelab's have top quality sound, but their durability? Does not exist.

Yes, and it’s not fast. You have to scan every square inch and analyze what you are seeing, which will be a lot messier than cherry picked promotional photos. A nail on end will look like a coin. A coin on edge might look like a hairpin or small nail. I doubt there is enough resolution to see a hole in a pull tab or washer. If you can’t hear the hole, you won’t see the hole. It’s just mapping the audio to a screen. The downfall will be efficiency. You’ll never get anywhere or cover any ground in a trashy park type scenario. The Invenio is far better suited for archeology oriented site survey type scenarios.

Having dug lots of can slaw with the M-Core I can say with certainty that the TT and sound can help to identify these larger targets...Of course you don't know what you are passing up if you don't dig it but I am able to call out can slaw most of the time...am I fooling myself by sayin that? maybe and maybe not due to the odds that finding can slaw are greater then good targets in most situations... But a small piece of can slaw can TID the same as a gold ring...which is why I dig most non ferrous targets when hunting... strick

Invenio Pro - Nokta Detectors The third image shows a coin about the diameter of a quarter. Is that enough resolution to distinguish between gold jewelry and aluminum trash? Or all trash for that matter?

No, fresh water does not need the beach programs. I use General in fresh water lakes and it does just fine.

I just spent a short while at the famous Nevada Rye Patch over Monday evening and into Tuesday afternoon. The desert this year is extra beautiful and green in the summer with all of the past recent wet weather. I hoped to stay dry doing some detecting and perhaps find some Nevada gold. Well, I at least completed one goal, but failed on the other. I had to wait out a rainstorm for about an hour after a late day arrival. I grabbed my ML GPX 6000 with Goldhawk 10x5 coil and gave the area a test. There were still some puddles on the ground and the top several inches of ground were soppy wet. The 6k is a bit noisy, even with the 10x5 coil, and the saturated ground added to the noise. As it would soon be dark, I decided to pack up the 6000 and use the Garret Axiom with 11x7 mono coil the next day, as I've been able to get it to run more quietly in some tough areas due to the added controls and lower sensitivity levels it offers. The next morning was overcast, but the puddles were mostly gone. After a bit of fiddling to lower audio on the Axiom to 4 threshold, 2 sensitivity and volume 14 while using my ML Koss 1/4in headphones, I was off detecting. Since Rye Patch has been very heavily detected over the decades, my experience has been there aren't too many signals to expect, so I was happy to get my first within 5-10 minutes. I got a faint, but repeatable signal near a sagebrush bush, even with a low sensitivity setting of 2. I figured it would be a shard of bullet or sliver of iron can, but nope, it was a caliche-encrusted, very coarse nugget down about 3 inches! What a way to start the day with a success. I figured I'd cover that area even more slowly and after finding 2 tiny slivers of iron, about 30 minutes later I got an extremely faint signal. A few scrapes and it was in the pile and turned out to be an very tiny nugget! This one was about sesame seed size and also very coarse. The Axiom with its extreme stability and almost no falsing with the audio/sensitivity lowered, still hit that tiny target, very impressive! I renewed my efforts the next 4-5 hours, since it was a race against time. The clouds darkened quickly and it began to look like rain coming yet again with huge dark patches of clouds building nearby. I did dig some other small trash signals and a couple of recent bullets, but no more gold. As the first rain of the early afternoon started to soak me, the thunderstorm hit HARD and I decided it was time to head out. I'm glad I did because the main road in/out had some flash flooding and unfortunately is going to have considerable water damage for a while in spots. People with 2wd vehicles might have trouble passing in the near future. I was glad to finally score some Rye Patch gold after being skunked there in the past. I can now check off finding Nevada nuggets from my list. Low and slow, as others often state, was key, as was making my Axiom as quiet and stable as possible to discern solid signals from saturated ground noises. Also, determination was key. I told myself before the day's hunt, if signals are there to be dug, then there can still be gold, and sure enough there was.

Yes, I made the decision to withhold their names, and the sites in which the discussions were taking place. I did so to refrain from any drama. My original post was a lighthearted way to present misleading information that is often prevalent in this hobby. Shortly after my initial post, I wrote my second post which explained why I wrote the first post. More specifically, how easily newbies can (and are) being misled.

Gerry, sorry I came late and missed the party during your training session. I'm glad you guys came away with a few nuggets despite the tough conditions. Yep, the Axiom performs very well. I don't feel I'm under gunned when out detecting with my brother using his ML 6k, or when I loan my dad my 6k. It finds nuggets plenty small and really shines signaling well on the coarse gold older tech has been more blind to. I definitely appreciate the ability to switch settings to suit the conditions like I was able to do during my last trip to Rye Patch. It "paid" off having a second detector along. I have plans to take the Axiom into some hot rock infested sites later this summer. I've included a picture of that same wash on Tuesday afternoon as I left. I just got out before the roadbed was so deeply eroded it would have drowned my truck to cross, haha. After I got through, I watched several whole sage brush bushes float by on the brisk current!! Talk about a nice mini-monsoon!

Save LOTS of money and buy a used Equinox 800. All you will ever need!

June 17 2002 Things were quiet last night. Jim refused to go to the hospital to get his knee checked out. It is badly swollen and he is out of commission. He volunteered to sit up at the pump today which would allow Vern to help me shovel gravel but I told him to wait until he is feeling better. Vern must guard the pump and water line during the day so with Jim out of commission it leaves just me to feed the tom. Jacob doesn’t have any concentrates to clean up so he will help me as much as he can. The heat is not letting up but no one complains. Jacob says it will get even hotter come July and August. For someone who is 85 years old Jacob did more than could be expected today. The two of us were soaked in sweat and we sent 15 yards of gravel through the tom. We are hoping to get the trommel back up and running soon. TO BE CONTINUED ...............

Most people who say things that don't correspond to reality are definitely trying to mislead and take advantage of newbies who are unfortunately the majority. in my country greece in recent years many people are active in facebook groups writing things that cause great irritation, these people avoid participating in forums which unfortunately now consist of few people but with real knowledge, the reason they don't participate in the forum is that they have no arguments to back up their words against people who have real knowledge. unfortunately there is a lot of exploitation behind this wonderful hobby and most of the time it is also the fault of the marketers who recruit these people to mislead with their lies for financial gain...

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.

I found some gold ore some time ago and had a friend slice it for me on this diamond saw. I would like to have some of it turned into jewelry. Can someone advise me on where to go to get cabochons made for like a ring or a pendant and then set them. I would want someone that is reputable to do it since I think these samples can yield multiple pieces and want to make sure I am not ripped off. I have also watched some videos on how to make cabochons yourself but not sure if it is cost effective to invest in lapidary equipment for such a small quantity of ore. I live in Hemet, CA and would prefer to go to a shop instead of mailing samples off to someone.

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!

In situations like that i would tend to use a much smaller coil,so you dont get the ground coverage but when you have so much junk you have the high probability of target masking ie 2 targets under the coil at the same time but the discrimination is knocking out both targets,so this why my personal opinion a small 6 coil could well be the best way forward.

Wonder how much of it was the computers fault and nothing to do with the update or detector, A breeze for me, both headphones and detector updated in about 5 mins, it took me longer to find my headphones than do the updates, I'd never used them, probably never will. You're lucky it wasn't a Legend, a failed update bricks the detector, Minelab's firmware is different, unusual really, flashing failing is normally very bad news, Minelab have done a great thing with their firmware, it's more software being copied on than firmware being flashed which is so much safer.

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.

From my perspective, the point of this thread appeared to be more about you mocking others from afar who have misconceptions about the nuances of high end detecting gear without giving them the recourse to defend their position on a level playing field. People are always going to have these misconceptions and will invariably pass them on to others who will either run with that flawed information or do the due diligence research to verify where truth lies. Pointing that out here with your attitude is simply self serving and does nothing to help those who don't understand. Not sure what you were hoping to accomplish here other than grandstanding about how you saved everyone from the horrors of misinformation. It is also indeed painfully apparent you haven't swung a Manticore because you'd know that getting a single TID number is almost more the exception than the rule. Seriously, though, the Manticore and Next Gen Equinox numbers often bounce around on isolated non-ferrous targets at depth. Furthermore, the TT circle is not necessarily less "accurate" than the visual TID number. In some respects it is actually a better, more informed and less filtered version of the processed target signal. Almost a probability density plot of the most likely target IDs resulting from the variables that affect the final processed target ID number on each subsequent swing. So idealizing to the perfect single-digit target signal is actually not reflective of the real world except when there is little doubt as to the nature of a no-brainer shallow or surface target. Finally, I am going to extend to you the same courtesy you extended to the anonymous targets of your sarcasm and am locking this thread before you reply. I can see it is just going to devolve into one of "those" threads where you don't know when to put the shovel down while you dig a deeper hole with each reply and people just throw up their hands in frustration. You can take it up with me or Steve offline if you so wish.

Ok so Gov.mint is not a government agency. When I first saw that I thought maybe the coins were confiscated. Wouldn't be a surprise, really. I wonder if it was the landowner that found it. I would be happy with just one gold coin, any gold coin.

I used a generic carbon fibre upper which only needs the two control box mounting holes drilled (fairly accurately). The lightweight battery sits in my Camelbak pack/harness. As for coils, maybe an 11” open style mono would be a good starting point. The 6v lithium battery is only 400 grams ! Most of the overall weight is felt when bigger coils make the setup nose heavy but a bungee will solve most problems. I found with the smaller coils then no bungee is needed. I run a 3500. Hope this helps, Tony

Huge problem right there. You are correct in not being certain. It would be a no for me even though you may enjoy her company/love her. Kids are a big deal. In this case.....a deal breaker for me.

Fantastic hunting and you walked away with some great looking gold. One of these days I am going to find the time to do some detecting for gold as I have been working to much. Good luck on your next outing and stay safe out there.

Just a reminder - if you get into real bad salt ground go to Salt Mode. It will lose the smallest nuggets, but allow more sensitivity and possibly get better depth on larger nuggets by eliminating the salt signal. Buried test nuggets really help in situations like this. Great report Mark, and congrats on finally getting that Rye Patch gold!

A Sadie for my 6000, although not a Minelab product. 🙂 I can't think of a Minelab product I'd buy at the moment, although I will want the elusive Manticore coils if they ever come out.

If I'm still around when a machine can correctly call gold vs aluminum , I will be a rich man. As it is , I've found several pieces of gold with the ML Nox that read in the negatives with a dig-it-all approach. No discrimination used. These #s would typically tell someone "don't dig , it's iron". You might want to bail out of her "Club of Fools".

Another great haul, F350, well done again! It is odd there's no silver in there. I'm finding that here alot too. It seems as if everywhere is cherry picked these days, but like you mentioned, why did they not pull all of the dimes and quarters? Weird, but maybe there's still some silvers hiding out there, and of course you have to keep looking to find them, so it's just a matter of time. 😏

Wow! 25% off the GPX-6000 for the month of March and its just reaching its second year anniversary. It’s always good for the consumer when two competing companies are trying to keep sales up and use pricing to achieve that goal. If these recent sales prices our part of this goal and could remain in a long term competition, then its going to be a very competitive market for these high end detector. Note also, the 15% military discount Is now also offered by both companies. The prices added in the list below do a fairly reasonable job at separating out the performance verses current pricing options on the higher end PI detectors. The only caveat to this is If pricing and performances are close together I would always choose the three year warranty option though. Below is the price list including the most recent February/March sales prices offered on the most high end Pulse Induction detectors. ATX $2,379.00 Weight with 11 x 13 inch mono coil 7.0 Lbs. Water submersible. Lots to offer for coil sizes & coil configurations to achieve small and fairly large gold performance. Offers partial iron discrimination with DD coils. 2 year warranty SDC 2300 $2,550.00 February SALE vs. $3,499. Weight with 8 inch mono coil 5.3 Lbs. Water submersible. The MFP timings with the small 8” coil seems to handle higher mineralization pretty well. Very small gold performance. 3 year warranty Axiom $3,995.00 Weight w 11 inch mono 4.2 LBS. Very small and fairly large gold performance. Offers partial iron discrimination with DD coils. 2 year warranty GPX 5000 $3,999.00 Weight on arm minus battery pack 5.3 Lbs. with 11” coil. To be wireless you need to add Doc’s Gold Screamer battery and booster pack 6.3 Lbs. Largest offerings for coil sizes & coil configurations to achieve small and large* gold performance. Offers partial iron discrimination with DD coils. 3 year warranty The GPX-5000 could definitely use a price reduction also but is still one of the most versatile PI detector on the market. *Note: Coiltek Elite & Nugget Finder Evolution coils add more performance and sensitivity over previous released bundle wound coils. GPX 6000 $4,500.00 March SALE. Weight 4.6 Lbs. w 11 inch mono. Very small and fairly large gold performance. 3 year warranty GPZ 7000 $6,375.00 February SALE vs. $8,499,00. Weight 7.3 Lbs. w 14 inch DOD coil ZVT or 6.0 Lbs. with the Nugget Finder Z-search 12 inch coil and compatible CTX-3030 Li-ion battery. Minelab’s flagship detector with very small and exceptional large gold performance. 3 year warranty Please do not get to excited about the iron discrimination capabilities on the ATX, Axiom, & older GPX series, as it is only has partial discrimination at best. Works good on surface iron, but for any deep iron you will still need to dig quite a bit of dirt until your detector can determine it is iron. The only chart that I could find to show this was a GP-3000 Minelab chart showing its limited discrimination abilities, attached below.