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September 24 2002 Digging Deeper We all got an early start to our workday. The weather is still holding up with temperatures in the 70’s and no rain. The haul road is in great shape and we are trying to get our glory cut finished before the next storms set in. Jacob said we are on borrowed time and the weather could change quickly. Even snow could be here soon which would likely end our season. Jacob is still working his way deeper and the test pans are fair with some coarse gold. Nothing like we are thinking we might get but we are absolutely convinced that there is a big pot at the bottom. If only Jacob could get down there with the excavator. He is trying his best and that’s all we can ask. We washed another 100 yards and will do a cleanup in the morning. Not expecting anything great but it will add to our totals. I called my wife tonight and told her we are getting near the closing of the mine for this year. Can’t wait to get back home. TO BE CONTINUED ............

Sorry to hear about your issue. Honestly, making a detector with wireless coils then requiring a wire to make the coil work is a silly design. Give me regular wired coils any day, double that if for underwater use.

Admittedly I had lost all interest in First Texas and their detectors for some time, I haven't been detecting all that many years but I jumped through the First Texas ranks with a GBP, GB2 and two models of the Teknetics T2 along with their F-Pulse, now I even have an F19 on its way. It appeared with their lack of new products and very dated models they were just another generic detecting company, not something to really pay much attention to. My most recent of their purchases was the F-Pulse not all that long after it came out, while a decent pinpointer it is hardly something to be excited about a company's prospects over. Other than a coil that nobody seems to know much about and I haven't been able to find anyone that actually bought one they haven't really released anything for a very long time, and when they did it was just a rehashed older model, or as we like to call them paint jobs. Recently they started an Ebay firesale letting buyers dictate the prices they are willing to pay for their detectors, and people have been getting fantastic deals, but if you sit down and think about it for a bit are the deals really fantastic or are they about the price the detector should be in today's market, with the various competitors leaving these models well behind, it seems more like they're working out the prices people would be willing to pay and running with it, they've probably sold more of their higher end detectors in the past month or so with this firesale than they have in a year or two. Suddenly First Texas is being talked about again by people that had little interest in their detectors when they were full price. Many of us predicted this would happen one day where their high-end machines are basically entry level in the modern marketplace. I was thinking this is it, they're just going to clear out the stock and wind up the hobby detector part of their business, then I took at look at their Facebook group, I hadn't bothered to look at it forever as they were just a stagnant business. To my surprise it was very active, mainly with their marketing of course but active none the less. Every few days they're doing posts marketing their products, this really took me by surprise, and they had no indication at all they're doing an Ebay fire sale, another surprise, if there was a good place to announce it you would think it would be their Facebook group with 24000 followers, that's a broad reach of people that would see their sale that may not know about it. I think they're just settling into the new normal, working out the ideal pricing for models where they can get sales and will then return to their status quo of selling the same old models for the next decade. They appear to have a larger focus on metal detecting products outside of the hobby market on their Facebook group too, which probably demonstrates where a much of their detecting income is derived from. Their last marketing post was only 2 hours ago. Here are some of their recent marketing posts. So, they do have a pretty active marketing person on Facebook, and someone making up fancy marketing pictures. I hope they survive as a hobby detecting company, and I really hope they've got at least one more "New" detector up their sleeve, a Gold Bug 3 would be something many of us would appreciate, but I'm sure a F75 SMF would be more of a crowd pleaser for a bulk of Fisher fans.

I would have been impressed too if they had released the FindX with a 9" ( or elliptical 10X8 ) stock coil instead of a 11". With a 11 coil the machine will be front heavy and they will loose a lot of potential customers , children , women , and more generally users looking for light machines . A 9 coil is much more cumfortable to use and it has very good depth and separation , and I dont understand why manufacturers continue to release new detectors with such big coils . Probably because bigger is better ... 🙂 Hopefully there are exceptions like the ML Vanquish 340 or 440 ( elliptical 10X8 stock coil )

You get no manual in the box when you buy a Manticore, just a Quick Start Guide, but you can download a full pdf manual online. Yet 10 months after the last software update, the manual does not mention any of the updates at all. I get that not printing and giving us a manual saves Minelab money, but the one benefit we could get from that is an updated manual when changes occur. When new models ship that already are updated, will new owners downloading this old manual even know that some of these new features exist? In the past there was also an actual pdf that outlined the update details but now we don’t even get that. Best there is now is an “official” YouTube video apparently farmed out to a third party. Stabilizer - All-Terrain Multi IQ - Reduces falsing on iron in heavy iron sites with mild ground mineralization - Adds a tonal nuance to iron to help distinguish good targets from iron - not recommended in normal conditions. Can only be used while in Multi-IQ and in an All-Terrain Search Mode. Stabilizer Filter - Makes the audio weaker and thinner on targets affected by stabilizer Red Target ID - All Metal Mode Only - Target ID is red if iron is detected New Options in the Softkey Menu: Speaker Mute/Unmute Search Mode Recovery Speed Frequency Sensitivity Boost Clear ID Map Flashlight ON/OFF Display Brightness Goldfield Mode – Fixed an issue with small gold sensitivity & discrimination depth. All Audio Themes are now available in Goldfield Mode Beach Mode - Ground Balance has been improved for dry sand. Default Recovery Speed in Beach Low Conductors and Beach Deep have been increased to 4 Audio Boost for Underwater Headphones Default settings for Tone Pitch for Targets IDs in the Coke range changed from 2 to 1 in All Terrain Fast, All Terrain Low Conductors and All Terrain High Conductors UI Languages support added under General Settings (Czech and Hindi added, minor updates to other languages)

Yes I understand. But XP left the end untreated in the clip [exposed] . This is why there is water egress in the cable. I have since made mine bullet proof, for Salt water hunting. I cut that piece of sheet clip off and attached directly to the coil with Goop Marine compound. First, I treat the end several times lightly to seal it then install like this [see pic]. The open space is for the charge clip which works just fine. Now this may not work for everyone. But since I am a dedicated beach hunter, I never need to remove that crap-e antenna. 😎

I love detecting in Nevada, so much ground and so little time. I also love that Nevada is mineralized right from the bottom to the top, great place to find gold. Keep swinging those coils, and hopefully sooner than later you'll get it over some nice nuggets. All the best, Lanny

Steve, You may not need the 11 inch. I have all three and only use the M15 or the M8. My 11 inch just rides in the car as a backup. LOL Used the M8 at a park on Tue. Only my second truf hunt in almost 5 years. The park is filled with can slaw and old nails, but I did manage a 1939 Merc and 6 wheaties. Out of the other 10 cents, 8 were copper and only 2 zincs. It was hitting about 5 targets or so per swing. The M8 is legit. Joe

He has very limited data relying on free wifi so I guess he'll pop up his photos and story when he gets home. I hope we can point the finger to an area where he finds gold, be nice to add a little NZ flake or two to his collection 🙂

I've got quite a few more pages done lately. (It's a lot of work to decide which stories and notes to include, plus the time to rewrite them.) It's given me a lot of respect for anyone, anywhere, that's ever written a book. (Sent the following to Jim today who asked about the writing--thought I'd share it as an update as well.) "I will admit that at this time of year the book writing is starting to conflict with the gold season, as I've been going through my detectors and ATV's to make sure everything is completely ready for the hunt to begin. Furthermore, I have to get out to check on the gold camp to make sure the trailers are all ship-shape for camping throughout the spring, summer, and early fall. There's still a lot of snow in the mountains, and that's where we've been chasing the gold for quite a while now. In fact, the elevation where we've been getting the nuggets is way up there, so the snow won't be gone until June at the earliest, but there's lots of other places at lower elevations that hold good gold as well, and that will keep us busy." (My son and I chase the gold together as often as we can. As well, my wife is a great panner, and she loves to pan the nuggets we throw in the gold pans along with the attached clay, etc., so we don't have to take the time to recover each and every target--saves us a lot of downtime, so we use the time instead to keep finding targets to throw in the pan. All the best, Lanny

The Queenstown coppers took a cool photo on their night shift a couple of nights ago A different set of lights flashing above their car 🙂 Fingers crossed you can find some gold while in Queenstown Mitchel.

I think they do, this file is version 2 of the manual and it has the stabiliser setting, which is only available after the update They just don't mention in a changelog in the manual the changes associated with the new firmware.

I just got permission to detect a large piece of land in a well known gold bearing area. It is private land that nobody has been prospecting for many many years. Everything around it is claimed up tight. It's hard to describe how excited I am about this permission. I will have miles, not acres to hunt. 😁😁😁

I guess Minelab heard our desire for the GPX-5000 in the US… Have ordered quite a few of these new units with 3 years manufacture warranty. Veteran’s 15% Discount also. So let me know if you’re looking for one, also willing to take trade-ins. Have an Equinox 800 with 2 coils 11” and 6” for $495 Also have a used GPX-5000 coming that’s in Excellent condition for $2,500 Coiltek Elite 9” $275 Oregon based so no tax and free shipping. Ron’s Detector’s 208-739-8079 rrlmmc@gmail.com

I had an interesting experience this past summer. I was hunting virgin bedrock in a placer cut/pit. There were some nice nugget finds, and then I started to work a bedrock rise with a vertical edge that dropped about three feet into a larger sheet of bedrock. Piled up against that edge about six inches high was channel material the large bucket on the excavator couldn't scrape out. (Sometimes these spots hide nice nuggets too.) I took my pick and worked some material off the top of the dirt and scanned the bottom dirt with the Goldmonster. I got a signal and watched the display. The bar jumped to the right, then headed back into ferrous territory. With each sweep, it read the same way. I isolated the signal, and it was a flake of gold, about half the size of an oatmeal flake. I was surprised the display hadn't pinned all the way to the right in non-ferrous territory. I kept scraping away top material to detect the ground below. The same thing happened again, the signal ID'd off to the right then back to the left. Another flake of gold, about the same size. I looked closer at the material I'd dumped from my scoop, lots of little bits of magnetite and dark, heavily stained rocks. I worked more material in the same way, and I kept getting flakes with every scrape all the way down to where the jutting piece of bedrock met the bedrock sheet. There were a few larger pieces that pinned all the way to the right, but all the others, a nice catch of flakes, did the iffy bounce. With the Monster it really pays to check out those iffy signals or I'd have left a nice whack of flakes in the ground. All the best, Lanny

Thanks Blackjack, I know what you mean by getting things lite, I have went from a 4" dredge, to a 3" highbanker dredge combo, and now to a 2" Keens dredge. Where i prospect has to many big rock to highbank, so a dredge is what i use to get around throse rocks. I do most of my prospecting in OHIO. with small gold. I think i would need to run to fast for the Dream Mat. That is why i ask. I have Gold Hog Mat, and don't like it much, so carpet and miners moss with ripples work good. Thanks for the reply. Dean

Hello All, I have several batches of Minelab GPX 5000's on the way. These are brand new, 3-year warranty and coming direct from Minelab. They are $4595.00 MAP price, so if you are interested in one of these units, please contact us ASAP to hold one. I already had a few customers looking for good, used one, now they committed to the brand-new units. Exciting to have some new one back available, as I find the Minelab GPX 5000 one of the most versatile gold detectors on the market. Email us at - rob@robsdetectors.com PM us here on the forums Call us at 623-362-1459 leave message or call 602-909-9008 for text or message. I know for a fact I will not have these long. Rob

I did get the machine only when the 5x8 became available as I like small coils for noodling in the trash. And with Manticore I know it will be a small coil with depth as good as some other detectors large coils. In that regard no big deal. But that does not mean I don't want the 11" coil I paid for! It will still be the coil to use in less target rich areas.

The F19 will be for my daughter on the odd occasion she wants to detect for coins. It does really well on our coins with its accurate Target ID on them in mild soils at our ski fields, especially our $1 and $2 coins which are all she cares about finding. The main reason for the "upgrade" over the Gold Bug Pro's was to give her volume control, she's a speaker user like I am, doesn't want to wear headphones so being able to turn down the volume is vital, the Bug is LOUD and embarrassing to use with its loud volume that can't be turned down in a public place. Incredible isn't it, their detectors like the Gold Bug Pro are so dated they don't even have a way to control volume.

A huge bonus to any Turkish company is their currency exchange rate. 32 Turkish Lira to 1 US$. Exports being their primary focus. Their inflation rate is seriously bad too... Their people seem to vote on a populist agenda, rather than fiscal common sense. But, their country is bountiful, produces great, cheap food, manufacturing industries are expanding and providing lots of jobs. Electricity prices are way better than the EU average too. So, as long as Turkey remains only an associate member of the EU and doesn't use the Euro as their currency, Nokta will remain a major player. Giving Minelab serious competition is always gonna be a bonus for us end-users.

Yup, it's make an offer - see the Fisher Forum for a few deals people have been getting. If you offer too low they will counter offer. In fact if you are logged into eBay and simply look at the page, you probably will get an offer. This way they are not breaking their own MAP rules. Impulse AQ is listed at $1999 guy offered $1200 and they countered with $1300, which he took. $700 discount and free shipping. $200 under the super duper introductory price that only the first 100 buyers were supposed to get.

Nobody is blaming them for an anniversary since nobody including Minelab cares. It’s just a marketing tool and not why they are blowing the Manticore out the door at deep discount. I’ve been too deeply involved in how the corporate world works to be anything but cynical about stuff like this. They are not anyone’s friend and not doing anyone any favors. It’s all pure cold hard business calculations at work.

Quartz Rock With A Faint Tone I was out in the Nevada desert with several buddies chasing the gold near a bunch of old hard-rock gold mines. I found so many pieces of old blasting caps with the Equinox, I thought I was going to go crazy because of the nice non-ferrous reading on the Nox. The Oldtimers sure did a lot of work in the area as there were massive mine dumps in front of the adits, all of them running in a crescent shape around the mountain. I headed up a little gulch that ran up and away from a large mine, and I started finding projectile (lead) after projectile, over and over again. And, the trouble with spent rounds is they ring up on the meter right in the gold range, so after an hour of finding my own lead mine, I headed back down the mountain. I walked over to another mine dump from a smaller mine, and I started finding square nails and more bits of wire and blasting caps (if I'd have kept all those bits, I could have started my own copper mine too), so I headed back to the rendezvous point to see what the boys had found. One of them had an oval piece of white and stained quartz about the size of a folded pita, and he was swinging his Gold Monster back and forth over the rock, and he kept getting a weak signal. (The meter would hop over toward the positive side, but then skip back.) My buddy had a rock hammer with him, and he started chipping off chunks of that quartz, then they'd scan them. With every chunk that gave no signal, he put them in a little pile. He kept chipping off chunks until there was only about a golf ball-sized piece of the original rock left. In that chunk there was a signal, and when he hit it with his rock hammer, it opened along a fracture line and there was the gold! Nothing big, but the only gold we found that day. All the best, Lanny

I am sure you & JW can make that happen. D4G

Shaft system is trapezoidal and is basically a Simplex mid and lower plastic shaft. 15khz single frequency waterproof detector that just makes the US manufactured offerings look plain silly.

At least you guys in the US get the Minelab sale, even in Australia when it's an Australian company their "Anniversary" sale doesn't exist. A bit like the Military discount, give it to the US veterans but not the Anzacs (Aussies/Kiwis) So, they celebrate their 35th Anniversary in the USA, but nowhere else, even their homeland! Nothing more than a pre-emptive strike at the pending Storm that let's face it, is a detector that will mostly only be sold in the USA and trying to pair back some sales going to other brands. Minelab have given themselves a unique position for a business, loved for their detectors, disliked for their business methods.

Thanks friend! I picked up the Manticore last night. With gift cards I was able to get it for half the sale price. What would you recommend for accessories, 8" coil first? Even used those are out of my price range, for now. Mrs-Menace would never let me see the light of day again if I came home with one of those for the foreseeable future. I'll practice with the Manticore, save up, and then see if I can join you in PI land. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll keep an eye on the Algoforce E1500. Unfortunately I think I'm running through some higher mineralized grounds. This is the best I can do for now, so I guess I'll have to give it a try and hope not to go insane from frustration.

good on you

I'm out of likes just on this post today! We need more pics from you! We know Simon and the others have plenty!😆🍀👍👍

I found this very beautiful stone on the banks of an Australian (VIC) river. (Merrica River) It took me by surprise as it was stuck in a root and is perfectly smooth and egg shaped. Does anyone have any ideas of how this was created? And what stone it is? Our theory was that the roots grew around the stone, it was exposed and then the water smoothed it into shape. Or the rock was originally a larger shape. It was able to spin around inside where it was sitting. Any ideas welcomed.

A little late reporting on the trip, but here it is. We got a late start (did I mention my wife was coming with?) . First spot we tried was a dry tributary creek. I quickly gave it the proper name of "can slaw creek" I was using the atx, so there was no cherry picking targets. After about an hour, and 5ft later, we abandoned that spot. Next spot was a small tributary creek running about 3ft wide. Took the gold kruzer out and grabbed the gold pan and put the coil in the water. Got some targets behind a bigger rock, and just scooped what I could out into the pan. Every pan had several specks of gold. I forgot my snuffer bottle in the truck, so most went back to grow bigger. My last pan I decided I better save something, so I went and grabbed my snuffer bottle . These were the biggest pieces of the day ... Nothing to write home about. We finished off the day checking some tailings piles that the rancher used as his gravel pit. No luck there. The main creek in the area was running like a river. I will definitely be hitting that later this year. I wasn't able to get back to where I wanted to be on that trip. The roads (and my wife) would not allow it lol I'm hoping to find some bedrock in that area. It's a big place. We didn't even scratch the surface. I'm still very optimistic about the area. I might even sneak out there tomorrow without the wife lol

A few weeks back my buddy and I braved a snow storm to get to a site that had an open window of opportunity. If we didn't go now we wouldn't be able to get back in until early June because of ranch activity. When we arrived there at 9 am there was 1" of snow on the ground and the storm had subsided. I had both the Deus 2 and Manticore with me but decided to start off with the Manticore and 11" coil. Manticore settings were AT General, 1 region all tones, recovery 5, sensitivity 22, stock ferrous limits, normal audio with a simple profile. Worst part about hunting snow covered ground is the build up you get on the coil, requiring cleaning every few minutes. We hunted for a few hours and for the most part finds were few and far between. I think I had a few small cuff buttons and a percussion cap in my pouch. At about 1 pm the snow started to fall again, so we decided to call it and work our way back to the truck. As I rounded a bush I got a solid 24 on the Manticore and in my mind I thought this could be a gold coin, knowing from testing that the type 1 $1 comes up 23-24. As I was digging the hole I heard thumping and brush crashing to my left to see a moose running past me, stopping just long enough to take a look at me. Taking out a few shovel fulls of soil, the edge of the 1850 $1 gold coin was visible in one of the dirt clods and came from a depth of about 7 inches. I called my buddy over to take a look and take pictures as I broke it from the dirt and put some water on it. Turns out it was worth braving the elements. For those interested, the ID for US gold coins on the Manticore are Type 1 $1 23-24 Type 2 & 3 $1 20-21 $2 1/2 37-38 $5 50-51 $10 65-66 $20 76-78.

September 23 2002 The Gold Fades Conor and I did the gold cleanup today while Jacob and Clay worked the dig site and hauled pay. The gold weigh was disappointing and surprised us. There were 35.5 ounces. This was about a third less gold than the last cleanup gave us and I was puzzled. However, Jacob told the crew he thought he knew why the gold total had dropped. He said that he was no longer digging at the bedrock level he had been at but now digging at the top of a new area where the bedrock dropped deeper as he had shown me. Therefore, the gravels from this weigh were well above bedrock but still fairly rich in gold. He continued on to say that what he believed about a huge pot of gold in the bottom of this digsite should still be correct. The only way we would know for sure was to find it. Our gold count from this pit now total’s a whopping 419.7 ounces. Our total for the year now sits at 1115.9 ounces. Jacob actually believes that we could double this total when our current pit is finished. TO BE CONTINUED ................

Attended Gerry's class this weekend and did not go home empty handed. Found my first two nuggets! A .42 and a .25 gram. Using my Manticore and the M8. Dime is for size reference only. Happy as could be! - Dave

@Rivers rat,a massive Happy Birthday for today fella,hope you have a fabulous day.

I just received my new weapon, a 10x6" coil for the Algoforce, and of course the GPX. I haven't weighed it yet, I'd have to take it off to do that and just put it on not long ago so I'll get to that at some point, all I know is its light, and on the light detector like the Algoforce feels like it weighs nothing, at least compared to detectors I'm more used to swinging. X-coils have certainly improved their coil cables a lot on these newer GPX coils over the old ones, the cable feels very nice. They make their own custom cables for their coils rather than using existing cables from the market as they like to do different shielding methods in the cable. As you can see, it calibrates fine. I haven't renamed the slot it's in yet, I just used the end slot as I use that slot for coils I don't regularly use for testing. I will end up using the 12x8" slot for it. I tested on a deep coin I've got in my yard, no problems getting the ID on it, sensitivity was on 24 out of 30, pretty stable on that setting, so the smaller coils helping nicely with EMI. I wound the sensitivity back to 20 and still getting the ID fine, that's pretty good for a 10x6" coil on such a deep coin, well ahead of a VLF with a 10x5" coil or 6" round coil for sure on the results there. The coin is somewhere between 25 and 30 cm deep and has been there for many years now. I tested on shot pellets, a lead 7 1/2 is as small as it will hit, and hits a #6 lead with a nice scream and over an inch depth. Perhaps slightly behind the 10" full spiral X-coil on tiny targets, but not by all that much. I'll have to compare it to my Coiltek 10x5" Joey being the closest coil I've got to this 10x6" in size. All in all, looking good, I hope they end up re-releasing Legacy GPX coils now the Algoforce is out. Please note they don't sell this coil, or any other legacy GPX coil, but it's promising to see them developing new test coils and I hope they make it to market at some point.

I'm not sure about the windings at this stage, I'll have to find out. It can only either be semi-spiral or bundle as you know, it has good sensitivity though. I'll have to compare it to the Sadie, that would be a good indication too, if it's more sensitive than that it just can't be bundle.

Help? It's only 2100 acres 😁

Northern NV. Too much snow for snakes yet. But they will pop out soon.

Well, just the 11" coil but if that's all I had I'd be seriously irritated. As it is the reason I got the detector was the 5x8 coil finally being available, so I got both at the same time. The 11" coil worked for two seconds, then gave a Coil Disconnected Shutting Down error. Disconnected and reconnected several times same result. 5x8 coil works fine. Did the software update with the 5x8 coil and did a reset. 11" coil still acting like it is not connected, 5x8 coil working fine. Probably a bad chip in the coil. Luckily I had the spare coil or I'd not know if it was the coil or the detector. I just sent an email to Minelab Service 3:30pm today so I will update with how the process goes with getting the coil replaced.

Yes, he has been very slack in photos. None in fact. What he tells, & that is very minimal, kind of means nothing without photos. A photo tells a thousand words & would make his sharing of his journey a lot more meaningful. D4G

I don't disagree. We all are used to things going on sale, but what is different here is the magnitude of the sale on a relatively new product. A full 30% discount. $100 or $200 off would be more the norm and a couple hundred bucks usually enough to goose sales. A discount of this magnitude does go overboard as $500 is not a trivial sum to anyone, and so the risk as you are pointing out that they are going to really piss some people off. Minelab in particular has a large number of users who like the products but really dislike the company for various reasons. If they did not maintain the technogical edge they have a lot of people would jump ship. Unfortunately metal detector users have a long history of getting mad about things, but in the end performance wins out most of the time. People complain but not enough will actually switch brands that it matters. Unless the powers that be see it hit the financial bottom line complaints will fall on deaf ears. Minelab is not alone in this at this time. First Texas (Fisher, Bounty Hunter, Teknetics) is selling factory direct on eBay at prices that actually undercut what dealers pay for the detectors. Not only are they giving dealers the finger, but anyone that bought one in the last year is now seeing people getting them for half what was paid just a short time ago. A guy just got a F75LE with two coils for $355. The value of used First Texas product is plummeting fast.