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Unfortunately i was away for christmas and missed the crazy surf. Came back the 30th and stopped by the beach on my drive up. Got a gold ring right off the get go, then nada. Came out on NYE and got 5 gold rings! New years day i got 2 more gold rings. Then got out today and got a gold pendant. I doubt I'll ever have a streak like that again but it was fun. In all i had 5 additional rings, 2 silver and 3 junkers. Also got around 15 silver dimes, one silver quarter, a clad half dollar, and around 200 clad coins, mostly dimes and nickels. Gave a few of my silvers to a kid who was detecting with his trusty bounty hunter.

Main database file was corrupt. I repaired it and should work again now, but this has been happening more frequently as of late and has me concerned about data loss. Hopefully the next forum update fixes it. If we get to a version that seems stable I may stop updating the forum software as most of the so-called updates do nothing to make our lives here any better, and always run the risk of breaking something. Anyway, add to this thread if anything else seems wrong still after I make this post. Thanks.

I am probably going to rant but will try to get all the information out. Been using .71, since inception and now just changed to 2.0. Summary: I was really impressed with the overall difference between the two operating systems. Beach and Beach Sensitive used with 9"coil. Will provide all my settings if you want. With 2.0 1. Better handling of Black Sand mineralization. 2. More punch power, with better TID's 3. Better TID at depth. 4. Not as much Iron up-scaling [but a caveat] 5. WAY---WAY easier on the ears with mineralization noise. Identical sensitivity and the ability to hunt one or two-points higher sensitivity. 6. Good job of still blanking bi-metal coins. I started right away with positive results. VERY deep coins that were reading strong in volume and TID. Noticed good iron blanking and Black Sand disruption was more muted on the ears. Meaning easier to pick out targets from ground noise. Today's take, with trash:

Although these pieces weren't found with a detector, I think what I relate here is relevant to this site. Background: This past summer my wife was aiding a friend who was downsizing as the result of a divorce. She had several jewelry rings that had been accumulated over the years but didn't remember their history. Likely some were family hand-me-downs and others were gifts or even purchases she had made herself. Her feeling was that they were of little value but my wife asked me about them and I said I would dig deeper. Thus initiated this rather detailed study. I probably spent upwards of 25-30 hours, maybe more, with this investigation, but it was certainly a learning experience and I enjoy those (if I choose them myself 😀). Items: I initially broke the ~25 rings into two categories -- those that were (by eye) clearly junk and those that might have precious metal content. I don't have a photo of the first group of half-a-dozen or so. Those were in fact put in a yard sale for ~25 cents each. The second group was given the royal investigation treatment as follows: 1) search for maker and purity marks, 2) measure weight and (with Archimedes method) specific gravity [initially with stones included but later after their removal in cases I was able to do that], 3) find their air-test VDI's with the Minelab Equinox 800, and 4) perform an acid test on those that were still considered to be gold after steps 1-3. Here are photos starting with the gold candidates: Silver rings (all marked either 925 or 900): Junk rings (as concluded from multiple tests, not from simple inspection): These photos were taken shortly before shipment to the refiner so in most cases you'll see that the stones have been removed. Investigation & Preparation: Initially I did the specific gravity determination with stones in place and then tried to estimate (subtracting with guesses to volume and weight of stones) the metal-only specific gravity. In most cases I was later able to remove the stones and then repeat the S.G. measurements which were more appropriate/accurate. I used three methods of removing the stones: 1) when held in place simply by 'prongs' (is that what jewelers call them?) a needle nose pliers was good enough to bend the prongs until the stones fell out. 2) In many instances the back side of the ring had a small hole accessing the stone so I used a somewhat sharp punch (only as sharp as required) to knock them out. 3) In a couple silver ring cases the stones were glued in place. For those I used Lacquer Thinner (a mixture of several not-so-healthy petroleum derivative chemicals including acetone, methyl-ethyl ketone, xylene, toluene, methanol,...) -- easily purchased at hardware stores -- to dissolve the adhesive. Note that Lacquer thinner will dissolve most plastics and many wood finishes so care should be taken. Fortunately for me this worked quite nicely in this instance and the stones just fell out. Shortly I will show a spreadsheet with all the data. For the purposes of the shipping manifest, though, I defaulted to the stamped purities even though I was in some cases dubious that they were 100% accurate based upon the specific gravity measurements. I'm pretty sure the refiner has better methods than I to determine purity and will conclude pricing based upon their findings. No deception was intended. (I did not include S.G., acid test, or VDI data in the manifest, BTW. I highly doubt they would use my values or trust them if it's even something they would use in their determination methods, and if so they surely would make their own measurements independently.) Here are the shipment contents: Basically each gold ring was it its own bag. Silver rings were in two bags sorted by purity (92.5% vs. 90%). Each bag included an index card with metal type (gold or silver), marked purity, and weight. A separate summary itemized listing is shown at bottom. (Thanks go to Jeff McClendon for advising me on steps to take in preparing the shipment.) I sent them via USPS Priority Mail, insured, to Midwest Refineries , also suggested by Jeff. (Sorry but as I write this the link icon isn't working. You can easily find their website by a Google Search.) The total shipment cost (postage + insurance) was $25. I think I insured for $600 -- can't remember. Surprisingly and gratefully, I shipped on a Friday and had a check in hand the following Thursday! Here is a screenshot of a spreadsheet with measurement/identification details: Hopefully you can read it. There are three specific gravity columns -- initial measurements with stones still present, my estimate correcting for stones, and the final measurement after stones were removed. As you can see, based upon the gold and silver spot prices on the day of shipment (upper right) and assuming marked purities (one exception being the tiny 18k ring) and no refining/recovery/processing costs I concluded the (unrealistic) total precious metal content value of $901.94. Also shown is the returned check amount of $747.00. I was pleased and my wife's friend (recall she thought all were junk) was overjoyed. Take note of the Equinox VDI values. All silver and junk rings (recall these latter were not shipped) have high VDI's (in the case of silver, being up in the neighborhood of USA silver dimes, quarters, even halves) while the gold rings are at highest around USA nickels and going down to near iron (1 being the lowest non-ferrous reading on the Equinox). The rings gave different readings depending upon orientation and I just listed the highest value I got from the three orientation measurements. Another thing you may noticed in the 'comments' column are the details of the acid testing. IMO this isn't a clear indicator as hopefully you can see. In some cases there was no dissolution (meaning the purity was as high or higher than indicated on the acid bottle), in some cases the metal streak didn't appear to dissolve until I gently absorbed the liquid with a paper towel, in some cases the metal dissolved in ~10 seconds, in some cases 1 minute, in some cases it neither dissolved nor would it wipe/off or absorb. In particular, although I've found specific gravity vs. purity tables on the internet, I suspect there are more devils in the details than these tables imply, particularly for white gold. The actual alloy contents are likely the reason. Here is a photo of the removed stones: The lower tray are the ones that either gave good readings on a gem tester or otherwise appeared to be of actual quality. The upper are, from my conclusion, glass or low grade minerals. BTW, for one of the rings I punched out ~50 tiny stones! That large orange item might be authentic amber, IDK. It exhibits layering which I wouldn't expect from a fake, but what do I know? The two pearls passed the 'tooth test' (not sure if that is reliable) and the green stones may be jade. They came from the 18k yellow gold ring. Summary: This is my first (maybe last?) attempt at selling jewelry. I certainly went to more effort than is required, but again, I wanted to take advantage of this learning experience. As to whether the relative return (~83%) is representative of such sales, many of you are a better judge than I, but I felt it was quite reasonable.

Blew off work for a hour and hit one the permissions I have nearby. Was working an area where I had plucked some other oldies out and sniffed out this nice little 1877 seated dime. Turns out to be a S which I don't see to many on the east coast here. In the mix there was some tiny signal which look like rivet heads to clothing, probably turn of the century. Also kept running into some deep targets that had a faint iron audio or nearly none but would have a low TID. Out of curiosity I carefully dug a couple of them and came up with lumps of iron oxide. They weren't very heavy. Out of curiosity I gave them a good squish in an arbor press only to reveal what looks like carbon in the middle. My guess is the iron rusted away leaving the carbon behind. This would explain the coal like behavior and rusty lumps. The longer piece you can see the layers. Guessing it was a piece of an old horse shoe or something similar that was forged.

The Bad: While Iron up-scaling appeared to be in a better place there was one standout. Large Old Nails. I NEVER have dug one of these in two years of hunting with the D2 here. Today I started getting wrap-around targets that registered 80-86. This mimics my 10-peso coin, which comes in around 82 . After some trial and error, it was possible to hear Iron blanking on a 360 look and some elongation as compared to a coin object. But was much more difficult on deeper nails. This might take some ear training that I did not have to worry about before.

The good>>> Found more old pesos today than the last four put together. Same beach sites. I could tell the depth difference right away. Nonferrous targets just sounded better on the whole scale. Less chirpy, and good on 360 looks.

I just got through posting here recently that I'd never top some of my finds of 2023, but I guess I did. 🤯 I dug something so unique and interesting, and got such a rush from its discovery I feel I have to share it. I waited until today to see how I felt about it. Please forgive the lack of specific detail and understand I'm detecting in a place I have permission to and have the current landowner's permission to appropriately preserve the relics I find taking into consideration their significance and potential ties to the original landowners or local area history. It was supposed to be a fairly warm and windless day yesterday, so I decided to go to one of my permissions and detect parts of it that I have not been over. Deer Hunting season is almost over, and it was really quiet, I didn't see a single hunter anywhere. Ground conditions are perfect, enough moisture to keep the ground loose and easy to dig. I first hunted the "beer zone" and "turn zone" of the field, and in almost 4 hours I got some small bits of aluminum, a Zincoln, and a very nice button with a shank as you'll see. Then I decided to go a little further into the field, got another button, what I think is a lead weight, and some odd piece of metal with a loop in it. Upon finding that odd piece of metal, it occurred to me to circle around it, and I'm glad I did. I want to preface this find with some advice, don't ever think you're cool bypassing buck balls, on the Deus 2 the ID is about 55-62 depending upon composition. Just like pull tabs at the beach, you will miss some incredible stuff if you're not digging buck balls from any century. Most of the balls in my area come up white indicating they are really old. So are some other things, like the ~300 year old gold ring I found. It was a 58 on the Deus 2 with the 13" coil, about 4-6" deep. It came out as a ball of dirt with a shiny gold strip in the center, at first I thought I had found a gold coin because the edge looked reeded but it was much more than that. I carefully picked the dirt away, and when the dirt fell out I was shocked. Upon closer inspection and help from friends, the ring is likely a Lost Wax cast with names and dates, the stone is missing but from researching history (and listening to my wife 😀) it was quite possibly a black stone called "Jet". I looked through the dirt and could not find it. The setting is mangled so it could be anywhere, sadly lost forever. Turns out it is a "Mourning ring", a classic way to memorialize relatives dating back hundreds if not thousands of years. The dates on the ring put it at about 300 years old and the inscription ties the find directly to some of the original Colonial landowners of the permission. Here's the total haul, 3 buttons, a lead weight, a few tack studs, and the metal thing with the loop that prompted me to look more next to the weight. The coin next to the Zincoln is a wheat, too crusty bother with finding a date. Here's the trash, not even a handful. Even got a Revolutionary war Pull Tab! 🤣 This is truly saving history and I am taking the appropriate steps to preserve it for the benefit of future generations so the local history of these properties won't be lost or forgotten. Good start to the year!

I found a gold disc last year detecting near a small gold dig. It was kinda gooey black on one side. I noticed it had writing under the goo so I sanded it off a bit. I’m not sure what it’s from but it’s now glued to my D-2. Any ideas?

You really "nailed" that one. 🤣 Great report, I find the same thing going on so I bump bottle caps setting to 3, makes most but for the hardest forged and curved nails go full iron on a turn. I still get a few, the fields are loaded with shoe nails from animals and old houses. If I'm really in the thick of it I'll go to 5, at that point what do I have to lose? Big nor'easter coming today, going to get the new remote rolled back and programmed. I'll probably have to wait until the high winds dry up the surface, probably by Monday. Edit: Gotta add for those unfamiliar with the Deus 2, the shortcut buttons are well documented in the literature, but not as prominently as one would hope. I run into noise often especially with underground power lines, so I caught the hotkeys early on. They call it "Automatic Frequency Scan".

I have had NO such issues at all as Aureous has mentioned when I have been using my 17x13 coil including it producing extra depth over the 11 coil depending on the size of the nugget. No problems running high Manual or Auto settings from my experience. NF definitely produce great robust coils which can handle more rough use than the light weight 6000 coils.

I went from 1.1 to V2.0 last time out. I pulled a Large Cent from an EXTREMELY worn out site. I am not saying it was the V2.0 , because there were a couple of other variables at play. Even though I really can't say for sure V2.0 was the difference, I got the feeling that V2.0 was a bit more sensitive and a bit more reliable in tone and in visual ID. Time will tell.

Heh, a little over 3 years. 😀 Started with a Garrett Ace 400 after a roof replacement to find nails, checked the yard and started finding colonial relics. In the summer we travel to beach locations on the East Coast, so I'm a beach hunter then. It's been quite a wild ride.

Ok I have seen recently people using the simplex shaft for the deus. I have been also. The shaft is already the same shape and lower works on the coils so why not. Here is what I did. I took the display unit and the coil off of a simplex plus. Why? Because the don't sell for much more than $100 bucks since all the newer ones are out and a aftermarket shaft costs $200 or more so here I am. I ordered an XP mount from Anderson shafts , the one they use on their XP Deus shafts. I then cut off a piece of carbon fiber shaft that I had lying around, 7/8" I believe. Took maybe 5 mins to make and it's done. You have a carbon fiber shaft, lower, middle and plastic upper, it's longer so I don't have to buy a tall man shaft, and it's as compact as the XP deus factory shaft. But way more comfortable. Plus the remote or WS6 can swivel in any direction you want for better viewing. And this just slides snuggly into the open grip that the simplex display was removed from. It fits snug so will never come out on its own. You can also add a screw through original hole if desired. But I only use the WS6 so I remove it while on beach and just use the WS6 as headphones with no display since I dig everything that isn't iron. Here are some pics. Hope you like.

A few days ago I went to one of my favourite sites ,a field close to a small town where old artefacts ( from 13 to 17th century ) can be found . Probably because there were gardens in the past there . I like this place because it is quiet and the soil is mild and sandy , and of course because of the potential old finds .. As usual I have my trusty D2 with me . I always use the SENSITIVE mode . The only change I have done since the update is to use HIGH SQUARE instead of SQUARE. HSQ works very well in iron infested sites ,this is the reason why I use it especially in this field with old irons ( nails , etc .. ) and modern ones like 1st WW shell fragments . I spent 2 hours there . At the end 4 coins . Only old coins , not even a modern coin 🙂 ... And an old buckle The other targets were mostly 1st WW trash including shrapnells , casings , bullets etc .. It was a nice outing , with a nice weather and nice finds .. Detecting is definitely a great hobby .. A few pics below. Happy New Year to Everyone The field : A double tournois ( 16th century ) : A typical medieval buckle : A broken Nuremberg token : The town center with the Christmas decorations : The 4 coins found during the outing : the 2 on the left from the 14th century , and the 2 on the right from the 16th century

I define positive ground balance as the detector producing a slight sound when the coil goes to the ground. I define negative ground balance as the threshold going away, being suppressed, as the coil goes to the ground. There are almost no cases where a negative ground balance is going to help. In fact it can suppress the faintest signals if they occur while the coil motion is even slightly downward or ground rising under the coil. I always did a ground grab with any FT 19kHz machine, then manually bumped the balance one notch positive. This can easily be tested with any tiny target in the soil. A slight positive balance will preload the audio and often help the signal. Negative balance, just the opposite. I have heard about machines that people claim do better with a negative ground balance, but I suspect perception is more at work than verifiable proof. In the end it's not really an ask the question sort of thing. It's go find a target in your ground (when you can) and test it both ways and see what works better for you. But me, I never, ever ground balance negative, but do very often go just a touch positive.

I had to change the audio tones to put up with the noise three times.I had started with three tones and it was unbearable, then a little better in pitch and finally full tones with an offset on 20.Try changing also audio filter to 1 because any higher level increases the annoyance on false signal in salt water.

My experience with the 17" ellip mono was poor. Way too noisy, had to dumb it down to manual 1 or 2 just to shut it up. Trialed another from a friend, same deal. But others have had no such issues... I aint buying any other coils except NF ones...but the wait is now painful.

If you want a larger coil as a patch hunter, I would suggest that the 17" minelab coil is your best, and only way to go. I would not expect a larger coil from NF for a fair while, perhaps the 14 x 9 coiltek could be a choice.

Hold down the up arrow button (upper right) for 2 seconds and it does an automatic noise cancel.

Thank you Gerry! I've only got 3 years into this hobby. I'm in a place that has great potential, many hundreds of acres to search in many very old farms. Purely random spectacular finds seem to be my specialty 😅 but they reinforce my suspicion I'm doing well often enough to keep me out there looking. I'm beginning to feel much less than a novice now that I'm used to the Deus 2. I appreciate your assessment and encouragement. 🙂

Yes. On a salt beach it is.

Thanks strick, You might have missed the part above where I wrote that the inscriptions tie the ring to the original settlers that established the farm. 🤔 There's a lot of genealogy to wade through, 300 years of it! 😅 I'm pretty sure it was commissioned by a family member who then lost it while out on the farm. Sad all around, really. 😢

Wow very nice job I want it ... 🙂 A very professional work .. I had a similar idea btw 🙂. I reused a Quest Q30 shaft . I have been using it during a year now and I am very happy with it , it is very reliable and easy to use .. I like its large armrest and the robust telescopic system.. I am sure you will enjoy your Simplexp 🙂 ..

Moonshine, mineshafts, & old cabins. I have some shine to drink tonight as well. Cheers from GhostMiner.

Thanks VL, Rest assured all measures are underway to see that an object of such significance is properly conserved, and legacy well considered. 🙂

The ring was a shock many times, first I thought I'd found a gold coin, then I thought it might be a wedding band, then I found it was a lost mourning ring. 🤯 as old as it could be for the most part. I'm sure there are more things to find, this was pretty much in the middle of the field, a completely random find. I'm sure it was lost while horse riding or through some other activity. 🙂 The Zincoln was found very close to the road that passes by the farm, it was probably thrown from a vehicle.

Nobody on these forums has to preface anything with IMO because everything posted is only somebodies opinion. If anyone thinks they are just stating facts - well, no. All you are doing is stating your opinion of what you think the facts are. I agree with Chase. I state my experience, the other guy states their experience, somebody else states their experience - the reader can decide for themselves what is what. So, long story short, my style of posting is to state things as if they are facts. They are in my experience, but maybe not others. With metal detectors in particular everything depends on the ground and the targets, multiplied by operator experience. What is true for beach hunters in Florida is 100% not true for me nugget detecting in the Sierras. Different places and totally different ideas about what works and does not. The point is to take it all in and learn, not insist any one viewpoint is the "correct" one. Learn to see the big picture.

Seems to be fine now, I just posted in the other section with many pics and no issues. Thanks for being on it.

Man, That's quite a bit of work but as you said...you wanted to learn. I know of a couple customers who send their jewelry in as well. I don't think they go to the efforts and detail (in fact I'm quite certain) as you did. I still have not decided if I]m best to sell them individually to get top dollar or not waist as much time and work with a smelter in small volume amounts. Thanks for sharing.

August 12 2002 The crew was up at dawn with the exception of Conor who didn’t come out of his camper until just after 8:00 AM. He didn’t have much of anything to say to me and he and Bill went up to the Hidden Mine with their new detectors. In the meantime, Jacob and I started up the trommel and got to mining gold. The place we were digging did have fine gold but it was all tailings from the upper mining area that had been shot down the mountain over 100 years ago. Occasionally we would pull up an old homemade bucket or some other bits of scraps from the old timers. We didn’t see anything of Bill and Conor all morning. At lunch Jacob said we would run the gravel where we were digging for the remainder of the day and do a cleanup and then do a gold weigh tomorrow to see if the ground was worth the trouble. He had been doing test pans with poor results and wasn’t confident we were going to make much gold there. We ran the trommel until dusk and processed a whopping 275 yards which gave us a two day run of 425 yards. I knew we had gold but how much gold? Tomorrow I will tell the story. Conor and Bill had already had their supper by the time Jacob and I got back to camp. I asked Bill if they had any luck and he shook his head no. Conor was silent. I asked Bill how long they were going to metal detect the area and he wasn’t sure. He said they wanted to comb a large area from the mine heading outward to see if they could find anything. I wished him good luck. TO BE CONTINUED .................

What program and settings are you using? Please list all of them. Did you use the same program and settings before the update to V1.1? Chatter can mean EMI, ground noise from mineralization, ground noise from moisture, ground noise from improper ground balance. I have never thought of using the English word chatter to describe sounds produced by bumping the coil into vegetation or rocks. Does your coil produce audible responses when bouncing it on the ground or when tapping it with your hand?

If NF wire the 16x10 like the 12x7, it will be closer to a 14x9 Coiltek in wiring which is $200 cheaper.

Ya, YouTube taught me that when I got back to the condo. 🙄 The D2 is not very button user friendly. Especially with sausage fingers in gloves.

Grounds not difficult, we just tend to lose a lot of depth in some areas due to mineralization. Narrow dd's tend to do fairly well but it's a balancing act wtih depth, coverage and separation. Can't have all that in one coil.

Hey guys, been a while since I've posted. Work has finally slowed down enough for me to get out, and I got to detect some places me and my prospecting buddy Josh have been researching. I've been learning a LOT, and getting deep into research. The gold is still out there, just hard to find sometimes. Here is just under a half pennyweight in chunky Oregon gold I found on Jan 3rd, 2024. I figured it would weigh less than that but it's pretty fat and surprised me when I dropped it on my scale at home. We don't always find gold, and come home with more skunks than an Alabama bloodhound. But as a lot of you know prospecting is about a lot more than finding yellow rocks. I'll post the video if it's cool with Steve!

I haven’t had much luck on the gold so far this year, a few days of nothing but junk, so today I gave up exploring and went back to my best patch find for another try. I was there a few days ago with the 6000 and 10x5 and spent the day to find nothing and wanted to move away from the patch into the deeper ground but all the 10x5 will do there is find me pellets so today I tried the 12x7. The detector ran perfectly, such a contrast to prior to the EMI fix. I had spent half a day or so in this deeper ground area a year or two ago with my GPZ and 15” CC and found a few bits, one very deep one too so I had hope there was more if I spent some time there and after plenty of pellets my first 2024 gold, only shallow and small but a notch on the belt. In the hole with it a tiny pellet, not sure if I first found the pellet or the gold 😁 What I like about the 7000 and DOD coils I really miss on the 6000, the double blip it does on close to the coil pellets, saves so much time. With the 6000 I have to scrape the ground clear of grass then check it, faint target ok then scrape more soil away in this rock hard ground even though only less than an inch the faint target is now loud, and of course being so shallow a pellet, all of that avoided with the GPZ double blip. It’s truly odd how faint targets improve so much on the 6000 with so little soil removed. I gave up on the deep ground as I was only finding pellets and even larger bits of metal were quite shallow yet started off rather faint and brighten up quickly with some soil removed. I was in normal max manual sensitivity and well ground balanced. I decided to go back over my patch that I tried the 10x5 on the other day with no success, hoping the 12x7 may find something but an entire afternoon of nothing, I guess the 15cc and 8” got it all that I can find, you may remember the videos of the patch with those coils a year or so ago, ended up about 16 grams over 40 or so nuggets I think it was. I think I’m done with the 6000, I’ve given it a good chance but just prefer the 7000 especially with the 8” and 15” concentric coil so next time that’s what I’m using, hopefully my luck returns for a good 2024 on the gold.

August 11 2002 Part Two Another Confrontation Jacob and I worked the rest of the day without any issues. The trommel was running smooth as silk and we were seeing some gold in the sluice box. It was mostly very fine and it was hard to tell how much but at least we were seeing gold again. I always sleep better after seeing it. We ended up with 150 yards of washed gravel. When we walked into camp Bill and Conor were playing with their new detectors. Bill said they had been given instructions by the guy who ran the shop where they bought them and they even used them before bringing them back to camp. He seemed confident that he and Conor would find the supposed 1000 ounces of hidden gold. It had been a hot day and after supper we sat around camp drinking a few beers and talking about gold. Conor and Bill had gotten hold of some moonshine in town and they opened up a jar and started drinking it. I tasted it and it was powerful stuff. Jacob had a sip or two as well. After a while Conor started getting a little drunk again. Then he opened up a can of worms. He was saying that this mining property really was Jed’s and seeing how he had been murdered it should have gone to him. He just went on and on about it. After listening to this for about 15 minutes I heard enough. I told him that it was a tragedy that Jed died and the mine did go to Jacob until the crooks killed the crew and took it over in 1937. I tried to explain to him that I had legal rights to all of the mining claims that made up the vast property. However, he didn’t want to hear it and told me he should be getting a big cut of the gold we had worked for this year. I laughed in his face and told him that wouldn’t happen. He knew that he and Jacob were splitting up Jacob’s gold and they had their own agreement that didn’t concern me. After a spell Conor staggered back to his camper in a fit of drunken anger. Jacob got up to follow him in. I told Jacob that he needed to rein Conor in or I would do it for him. He didn’t say anything and Bill went to bed as well. I stayed up for a spell and had a drink of the moonshine to settle down. I looked up at the big sky and finished my beer. It was nice to have some quiet time alone. I was thinking that Conor had the worst case of gold fever I had seen and he could become unhinged - especially when he drank. TO BE CONTINUED .................

I’ve been thinking about the 6000 and it’s roaring on tiny targets close to the coil but that roar quickly dissipates to a faint signal, most noticeable on pellets and I’m wondering if it’s just using the volume limit function the GPZ has, thereby giving the impression its very sensitive to tiny targets, it’s just a surprise how it booms on these targets but they quickly drop off with any depth, different to the GPZ where they don’t roar but it holds them deeper. I wonder if the 6000 has a volume limit built in that makes all targets with any reasonable target strength very loud. Great for marketing as it really gives the impression of a very sensitive detector. From the GPZ manual on the volume limit setting, the CTX has a similar setting. “A high volume limit will allow a greater difference between a small and a large target. A low volume limit will reduce the volume difference between a small and large target"

It was a big nothing-burger in my part of CA (central coast, Monterey Bay). Most every beach simply got flattened. That's where the beach is overpowered . So instead of mother nature picking a parallel and eroding DOWNWARDS, the waves/water simply go up-&-over the dunes, and make a mess and puddles and lagoons inland. And make a mess of parking lots. And only draw down dry fluffy sand and spread it over the inter-tidal zone. And not truly take it out. That's what I saw @ all my area beaches. A few lone exceptions happened on 12/28 and 12/29 (on the heels of the big event). And if you knew where to go, there was some straggler pockets . I got perhaps 150 coins, a few silver coins, and a gold band, by sampling multiple beaches. And found a few exceptions. But all in all : A big nothing burger. Very disappointing. And the forecast continues to tease of incoming swells, that drop in strength by the time they reach our area. Not sure how southern CA did. But based on Compass' report, sounds like it wasn't an epic event there either.

Great looking coin and it is in good condition for being lost for so long. Wish you more luck on your next hunt, way to start off a new year.

There was a little gold found by myself and others so I wouldn't call it a dead horse. A few beaches were producing targets and at a couple, quite a few targets. I believe I found between 400-500 coins this past week. However, I found quite a few zinc pennies and other lightweight targets and very little lead - usually not a great sign that gold and silver are around.

Nice coin kac! 👍 I too like the fancy button, you sure have some nice places to hunt. I do remember the terrain up there though, it must be difficult sometimes. 🤔

Thanks! They are one of a kind, I'd like to know the gold content. It looks cast. It weighs 1.7g and is a woman's size, research says they were worn on the smallest finger. Mourning rings fell out of fashion after WW1.

Nice Seated. Probably a solid XF condition wise, minus the ground caused surface scratches we all get. That star pattern button is very interesting as well. Nice little hunt!

If I find it with a metal detector then I'm going to call it a nugget and not a picker! 😜

Thanks for the report Colonel, I'm pleased to see that others are observing differences that may not be documented. The timeline of releases was such for me that certain nuances weren't perceptible until where I was hunting changed. I've followed the versions as they came out, and only having one RC unit and one WS6 until this past November made some transitions difficult at best. Not from an updating experience, but experience in the field. All updates were relatively smooth. As it stands now, after many sessions where I tweaked parameters during live hunts, I'm extremely pleased with V2 over the older versions. When I think about it the environments I hunted in did not change, but the way the detector worked did, and did so to sometimes an uncomfortable degree. I've already compared my two V2 RC's in the same environment with the same program and found there to be no additional fear of hardware differences, so that concern is out of the way. Maybe some took that for granted but I didn't. Now I'm thinking of rolling back one of the RCs to V0.71, creating identical programs on both - this may be of interest as well if some parameters are not the same - and trying both in the same live conditions. Would anyone interested in that? I have never used any of the Gold programs, for the most part it has been Beach Sensitive, Relic, and General. I want to help anyone who might be reluctant to update to V2. I was not reluctant and am pleased with the final outcome, but it took some effort to reach that outcome. 🙂 There are still some things that bother me, and I want to see if they were there all along.

Started about 30 years ago in my late teens, with a cheap radio shack detector. I then found and read (about 5 times!) Charles Garret's book titled "Modern Metal Detectors". I tried a few more detectors and settled on a Fisher 1266X and a Tesoro Silver uMax. I found a lot of great stuff with those detectors over the next few years. I dropped the hobby because I let wine, women, and song get in the way😬 Fast forward 30 years, and the bug hit harder than ever. I devoured massive amounts of information about the new detectors. I thought I'd be good to go with a Simplex and a Vanquish 540, but I quickly grew out of both those detectors. I then bought a Legend and have been using that for the last 2 years. I won't be buying another detector unless it can distinguish between aluminum and gold.

over 50 years started with a jetco bfo

Bingo. FWIW - With the 900, I would personally up recovery speed from 4 and set the iron bias to max and back off on sensitivity to 20 or less to minimize falsing as much as possible in thick iron and see if you could cherry pick at least some shallow non-ferrous out of the iron muck recognizing you are just going to lose depth on deep non-ferrous regardless. I mean in thick iron, depth is pretty much out the window due to falsing, masking, and target ID down averaging, so one of the first things I do in a thick iron patch after upping recovery speed is lowering sensitivity, the filters never really do much. I know your test garden is showing you some potentially “optimal” settings but your test garden can’t really replicate all the myriad of real world 3-Dimensional ferrous to non-ferrous target spatial orientations, soil moisture conditions, and old target halo effects that can result in masking and falsing at your tough mining site. The Deus might be a better tool in the thick stuff as well. I would tweak Silencer up or use Goldfield with mild IAR unless the soil is very mineralized (in which case I would set IAR to 0) and again lower sensitivity to focus on unmasking shallow non-ferrous. None of the iron filter features on the peer detectors mentioned (Manticore, Legend) or Deus II are really going to work any miracles in your situation over and above your Deus and Nox 900. If neither detector is pulling non- ferrous out of the iron patches with these tweaks, it might be time to start the tedious process of scraping and removing iron. Good luck in any event.