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  1. I find the speculation that the E1500 will somehow outperform detectors costing much more money to be, well, how to put this nicely… questionable at best. If this detector was GPX 6000 class it would be stupid to sell it for one quarter the price of a GPX 6000. I don’t think Alex is stupid. Here is the current price structure in Australia as of today after Garrett just introduced the lower priced stripped down Axiom package: 1. GPZ 7000 $10,499 2. GPX 6000 $8,999 with two coils 3. Garrett Axiom $4,999 with one coil 4. SDC 2300 $4,399 5. E1500 with Sadie & Battery $2649 6. Minelab Manticore $2499 7. Gold Monster $1299 I have pretty solid information in hand indicating that you are going to get what you pay for. The E1500 is a very affordable option at close the price of a top end VLF and will outperform said VLFs on gold in mineralized ground. Time will tell but I think the E1500 will fall short of SDC 2300 and Axiom level performance, essentially being a bridge between VLF detectors and those models. The 6000 and 7000 will continue to rule the roost but at twice the price of the SDC/Axiom level you are not getting twice the depth. Pulling a number out of my ass I’d assign a very debatable expectation of about a 15% increase in overall performance at each major step up in price. People can of course argue that number all day long but I think it is very important to give newbies some sense of reality. Twice the money does not get twice the performance. Gains are more like 10% - 15% - 20%…. pick your number, but it’s not double, triple, quadruple. If I was still selling detectors I’d explain to this new customer that they can go find a gold nugget with a Gold Monster or a Manticore. I’d explain that for not much more than a Manticore they could get an AlgoForce E1500 and be able to deal with mineralized ground and hot rocks that will give the VLF models real trouble. I’d tell them that for substantially more money they could get some very solid bang for the buck in the Axiom/SDC range, a step up from E1500 but still not top tier. Finally, I’d tell them that if money is no object and they simply want the best performance they can get, to look at the 6000 or 7000. I’d comment that out of the box with provided coils the 6000 would have the edge for smaller gold, and the 7000 the edge on larger gold. Adding aftermarket coils (and more money) to the 7000 can close the gap between it and the 6000 on small gold, but nothing you do to the 6000 will have it hitting the big stuff as deep as the 7000. That would be my short and sweet sales presentation and I offer it up as the most simplified big picture no B.S. look at the scene as you are likely to find. My somewhat educated opinions only, feel free to toss in trash bin if you don’t agree. In the States this would be the situation if the E1500 could be had here: 1. GPZ 7000 $8,999 2. GPX 6000 $6,499 with two coils 3. Garrett Axiom $3,995 with two coils 4. SDC 2300 $3,599 5. E1500 with Sadie & Battery under $1999 6. Minelab Manticore $1699 7. Gold Monster $799
    43 points
  2. Some of you may have noticed that the Cpt hasn't posted recently. He underwent surgery Tuesday for the removal of a brain tumor and is now in recovery which might take some time. He's a great Detectorist and a wizard on operating his D2. Each time we detect together he always finds twice the stuff that I do. He's also the Newsletter Editor and member of our local detecting club, The Pikes Peak Adventure League, here in Colorado Springs. Keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers. Thanks.
    38 points
  3. Five days of heaven and its not done yet. It was a nonstop adrenalin rush and I cant wait to get back on the site. My favorite is the silver buckle with a makers mark of silversmith Thomas Shields, he has a cool history and his works are in museums. All the silver buckles I have found have been busted up by the plow so this find was very speciaI. Dug 7 King George II coppers one was clipped, 4 George III coppers, 2 Connecticut coppers, 1 New Jersey copper, a 1723 Woods Hibernia halfpenny, French Louis XV 1 Liard [1719-1723], Spain 1724 2 Reales Madrid, Spain 1723 1 Reales Segovia, and a 1853 seated dime. A bunch of cuff links all of which I have found multiples of at other sites, they were sold on cardboard displays in general stores, I love finding them. Lots of buttons and smalls. Also found a similar Oak Island trade token whizzer.😏
    33 points
  4. Split from another thread so don't blame Ned for the title - that is mine. Yeah, I know Simon and probably others have found gold already, but this from Ned is more like what we want to see and so worth a thread of it's own. Congratulations Ned on a good start! - Steve H I've been out probably a dozen times with the E1500. Mostly testing a variety of coils the first few days. Then settings and combinations. I also rigged it up with a wireless set up and a sp-01 enhancer and headphones. After all that I got in some detecting time and managed to find my first gold for the year. 7 pieces all found with the E1500 and coiltek 9"round elite. Biggest bit went 2.7g and the smallest 0.13g. The heat's a killer here at the moment, if I didn't have a new toy to play with I wouldn't be out there.
    32 points
  5. Yesterday, JW and I went for a bit of a hike to a remote spot in the mountains, I hadn't been here at all since my GPX 4500 a few years ago, and JW had been a small few times since trying out his GPX 6000 and found a few bits. The hike in is what puts it on the backburner all the time 🙂 It's a close drive from JW's house, but a big steep uphill hike, and from my house it's about an hour's drive so by the time I get home I'm stuck to the car seat, man it's hard to stand up after a massive hike and an hour's drive home after a day's detecting with the hike back to the car, at least the hike back is downhill all the way. I ran the car's seat heater the whole drive home to help the muscles recover! JW has a few years of age over me, but he is certainly fitter. It's a really cool place to go though, with great views of the surrounding mountains, unfortunately I can't put up scenery photos for fear of revealing the location to prying eyes, as you can work out the basic location by using the bigger mountains to get an idea of where I was. There has been a bit of mining in the area, and reworked in the depression years, but the earlier mining was done with a lot of work and water monitors (canons) blasting water at the hillsides to recover the gold. The Chinese hit it pretty hard too, staying longer than the other miners going over it again. It's interesting how they get somewhere, then just stop. The soils an interesting colour, almost white. Quite the drop off here down to the ground below, but oddly at least I think you'd be crazy not not to detect these high areas, as gold often pops up in the most unusual of places. My first bit of gold for the day was a bit of a surprise to me, it was a fairly faint signal, yet it was very shallow, I thought it is more likely a pellet although this area barely has any pellets at all, in fact it barely has any targets, if you get a target the chances are high its gold, aside from the occasional old bit of miner's junk like cans and a few nails most targets are gold so it's certainly a dig it all location. I took a little video of the target, so weak of a signal for the size of the gold I thought, although I'm more used to using the 10x5" Coiltek which is more sensitive but still, I was pretty disappointed. This is the little scrape of a hole it came from. The piece of gold. And its weight, quite a reasonable size piece for me, anything over .1 is pretty decent size for me 😛 I was so taken back by how weak the signal on it was I tested it this morning with the Algoforce to see how well it would do, even though it has the larger 10" round coil on it, I thought the Algoforce gave a better signal response on this particular piece. It's a bit of rough looking piece. The other interesting thing is it was right next to someone's previous dig hole, probably JW or I, we were likely using older technology at the time, as I'd only been here with my 4500 which no doubt would miss this piece of gold. It's very unlikely this person didn't go over the nugget and they missed it. The joys of newer technology. Next piece was in the path you walk on to hike to this area, there are tracks all over the place, mostly from old miners I guess however now they're hiking trails and go all through the area, you can even walk from one of my favourite ski fields to this area on tracks. This is it's dig hole, another very shallow target, an OK signal. This is the little guy Smaller than the last bit, but a much better signal. Just ignore the shaft twist in this photo, it's a feature of the 6000 🙂 After that I was walking along detecting the path, but no other gold to be found in that particular area, I did find old boot tacks though which is pretty cool, one spot had a bunch of them in one hole so I gave up recovering them, that miners boots must have fallen apart at that spot 🙂 The gold spot is the dig hole just above the pick in this photo. Here is a little video of it, I haven't watched the videos back yet but it likely shows this one had a better target signal than the previous bigger bit I found. It was pretty easy to film gold finds here as there is so little junk about, so filming bits of digs is worthwhile knowing they're likely gold. Next piece was on top of a little ridge It was my biggest bit of the day, had trouble carrying it for the hike back to the car. Deepest of the holes too. A smooth bit. This is its spot. And a little video of it, the second target next to it was one of 2 pellets I found all day. That was my last bit for the day, the day felt like it went really quick though, we finished up detecting about 7pm, but both of us didn't realize the time and thought it was about 5pm I guess. A benefit or a negative depending on how you look at it coming from the GPZ and GPX 5000 is the 6000 can have the pick so close to the coil it's not funny, it always surprises me how close the pick can go, even when you lay it down recovering targets so while using it I have a belt attached pick holder and in this location I am glad I did, as sometimes its half an hour between targets so nice to holster your pick. The super strong magnet I've got in my pick handle makes life easy too, if I'm using it more regularly, I can just attach it to my pick holder using the magnet to save the effort. It stays there when walking around as long as the pick doesn't bottom out on the ground. So other notable things from the day, this piece of quartz was so weird, it doesn't show up as well in the photo but its flat smoothed off and much like a tile or bench top, and really glossy, so weird. You can see the shine on that one side, but the entire flat surface of it is like that, and its smooth and flat although the photo doesn't show that well. It's like someone's cut it smooth and painted it with polyurethane. And my junk for the day, there was also a nail which I left behind and you can see why I say it's a dig it all location. I'm used to digging hundreds of pellets on the farm land locations, this spot, 2 🙂 Both big pellets too. And last but not least, some old miners' tins I found, I left them where they were, a bit of history. I think this tin can was never opened. This one looked like a giant sardine tin. I think I'll get a bit fitter so the hike and day of swinging a detector around going up and over hills and mounds of soils doesn't wear me down so much and go back to this spot more often, I do really like going there, it just takes it out of me. It's very difficult to E-Bike there too as much of the path is on a cliff side with a big drop and very skinny path no more than 40cm wide in many spots, I've done it before but ended up walking the bike much of the way as I wasn't crazy enough to ride it through the steep drop off areas. Today I'm completely jelly legs and walking is a challenge 🙂 JW doubled my gold count, he came away with 6 pieces, pretty small ones too, he was using the GPX 6000 and 10x5" Coiltek coil, a better choice of coil for the day, I think. I only had the NF coil on as it was left on there from a previous time. It was good to take the 6000 out though, leave it much longer and the old motor may seize from lack of use.
    31 points
  6. I have a pile of SD cards that I started looking through. Every time I have an outing I put a new SD card in my camera so I have plenty of room for videos. Which is crazy because these cards hold so much. So this guy has been a very close friend of mine since the beginning of when I got into this. He's a fellow Minelab dealer. He's a good Christian, he's gives fantastic support to his customers. He's invited me to detect on his claim. I was there when he got married and I have watched his daughter grow up from birth into a beautiful young lady. This man is just an all around nice guy and you can never go wrong dealing with Rob Allison. This picture is of Rob and his hunting partner Dennis and I. Picture date May 2013 These next two people are also dear to my heart. Both Minelab dealers. I've known Gerry McMullen forever. He has single handedly probably trained more people how to use a metal detector than all of us other dealers put together. Gerry is a no-nonsense guy, former Marine with a very dry sense of humor. I think Gerry and his wife Michelle and my wife and I have been all over the world to every Minelab annual partner conference that has been held. You can always count on Gerry to help you out if he can. Need a machine for customer, and Minelab is out, Gerry is always willing to loan you a machine so your customer is not disappointed. Gerry continues to be a driving force in this industry. He also received Mienlab's coveted EAGLE award for outstanding dealer of the year. This next person was known as the Gold Lady. Retta Atkins was such a joy. She was funny as hell and sort of a miniature Dolly Parton. If you didn't know her personality I can explain it this way. If Dolly Parton and Larry the Cable Guy had a baby, that was Retta. Unfortunately about a year and a half ago Retta and her boyfriend Darren were brutally shot and murdered in a home invasion. To Retta's spunk and spirit she got off a shot and wounded the assailant in the shoulder. But that didn't stop him from chasing her into the bedroom and emptying his gun. The intruder was looking for gold and obviously had insider information regarding Retta and her business. The world of metal detecting is a sadder place without Retta Atkins in it. She was a very close friend, we probably spoke every week. She is missed and remembered by all that knew her. They thought they had caught her murderer in a shoot out in which the suspected assailant killed himself. Later it was discovered that was not the person when they arrested the person who was responsible for their murders. This individual was found with evidence taken from Retta's home and had a healed bullet wound from where he had been shot. Daniel Matthew Avila, age 25 was arrested in March of 2023 when he was involved in another home invasion and the bullets from that scene matched the bullets from Retta's home. This picture is of Gerry McMullen and Retta in Sunset Park in Las Vegas Nevada when we were being trained by Minelab on the then new and yet to be released CTX3030. Picture date May 2012. The other gentleman in the picture is Greg Johns a former tech with Minelab from Australia. I think Greg has gone on to other pursuits. If my memory serves me correctly he purchased a large ranch in Australia which was just amazing in terms of the scenery. I hope he is doing well. Thank you all for your amazing friendship over the years. In case you're wondering I'm not going anywhere, but I'm getting that age where I have a heck of a lot more history that I do future. These folks have been part of that memorable history that I have had. Thanks guys, and God Bless You Retta. Doc
    31 points
  7. I don't pay much attention to US wheat pennies except to let me know that similar date silver coins may be in the area. So this ugly looking, corroded wheat penny did not even raise my blood pressure until I got home and took a close look at it. I had forgotten about the 1909 S VDB "Unicorn" status as the number 1 wheat penny key date aside from the unobtainable 1943 Bronze pennies. It's got great detail and a nice patina but those corrosion bubbles........ Anyway, Manticore may have paid for itself with this find plus several other nice silver coin and gold jewelry finds. Very impressed with the Manticore (compared to the Equinox 900). Thanks Gerry's Detectors @Gerry In Idaho for making my day with a super fair trade for this Manticore a few months ago!!!
    29 points
  8. I was hunting one of the original Denver area parks that was built in the late 1880s. Shovel digging is not allowed at these parks so recovery is with a screw driver or probe. I have found plenty of wheat pennies, a couple of Indian head pennies, several Barber, Mercury and Roosevelt silver dimes and two silver Washington quarters at this park in the last four years after first getting the Equinox 600 and 800. I was deliberately hunting an area that I knew would not be too wet or frozen under some trees at the edge of a popular sledding hill. I have hunted this exact spot many times with the Nox 600/800 with 11" coil and Deus 1 and Deus 2 with their 9" coils. I am guessing I have hunted this area at least 10 times since it is near the top of the sledding hill and fresh dropped jewelry and coins happen in that area every year. I was actually looking for gold jewelry but I was also interested in deep high conductors. I had my Manticore in All Terrain General Multi, sensitivity 23, recovery speed 5, iron bias 0, and I had the horseshoe button engaged so that I would hear all target responses including iron. Ground balance was 4. This ground has plenty of magnetite, square nails, modern nails and is loaded with many years of aluminum and steel trash. There are very few places to ground balance. I heard a deep iron signal, saw red numbers and decided to turn on it and I was able to hear some faint, very short intermittent high conductor tones along with lots of iron tones. I pinpointed the target area with the Manticore's onboard pinpoint function and was able to isolate two separate targets and saw them clearly on the 2D screen with one upper area iron and the other at the high conductor far right edge of the non ferrous line. Depth was 8" on the depth meter. I dug the high conductor farthest right target first and it turned out to be the silver Washington quarter laying half way on edge at the center of the dig hole about 7" deep. My handheld pinpointer was still picking up a target on the left edge of the hole which turned out to be the business end of that iron skeleton key in the photo. It was laying horizontally. I recovered it, filled the hole and rescanned. I got a coin sized high conductor target response plain as day with target IDs ranging from 90 to 99 with very few intermittent iron responses about 6" to the left of the hole that contained the Washington quarter and skeleton key. Depth was again 8" on the depth meter and only one solid target trace was at the far right of the non-ferrous line on the 2D screen. Basically, I was starting to freak out. I certainly had not heard any target responses like that with the other detectors that I had used at this spot. The Walking Liberty half dollar was about 8" deep standing straight up on edge at the center of the dig hole. Basically, the Walking Liberty half and the silver Washington quarter were in a spill at the same depth with the skeleton key laying roughly horizontally between them and they were all under the Manticore's 11" coil at the same time. They were situated sort of like this but buried under about 7" of iron mineralized dirt.
    28 points
  9. We've had some cold weather and wind and rain since I last posted finds, hope ya haven't missed me 😏 Last couple hunts I went on didn't produce much, I hunted some really tough spots with the 9" coil on my Deus 2, and did ok for where I was: Got a nice 1909 V Nickel, a few odd buttons, and a little compact that was gold plated on the side. Nothing in it. Today was a little different, I wasn't expecting anything really, especially after my last 2 hunts. I went to a field near my house where last year I dug a Draped Bust Half Cent, but really didn't find much else. This field is the "outback" of the place, it's a huge local farm. I'm so glad I have an off road golf cart. 😀 I'd hate to walk an extra mile or so just to get there, and back. Today's hunt was all about the 13", I was going to test a new program but switched quickly to my Relic program, it just wasn't the right place. I found one button in the first two hours, because I didn't find much the last times I came to this area I decided to grid search it. Ended up glad I did: I finished with 12 old buttons, a mix of Tombac, Brass, and ball buttons, almost all of the brass ones have "Colour" and "London" on them so they're almost as old as the Tombacs. I guess the ball buttons are a bit newer, one of them is squashed. I was hoping I would find an old coin, but nothing could have prepared me for what I found. I got a solid 85 in all directions, and thought I found an IHP or something, then this popped up: I thought, "oh, cool! Got a Half Reale!" I flipped it over after spraying this side with my water bottle and my jaw dropped. I expected to see good ol' King Charles of Spain, but then i noticed something, it was a Female? Never saw anything like that before. I saw the date, and the "IBE" and knew I had something special and pretty rare. It's an 1803 Draped Bust Silver Half dime. This is what it looked like originally, only 37,000 of them were minted: I think mine is the "Large 8" variation. It's a shame the reverse was completely worn down, these bring a commanding price. 😢 Holes also devalue. I couldn't believe it, yet again I've found something that tops most of the stuff I've found before, so this year is going very well. 😎 It wasn't just a surprise! Trash wasn't more than a small handful, if you want buttons like the ones above, you gotta dig every buck ball. 🙄
    28 points
  10. It's been rainy the last few days, yesterday was so windy it wasn't worth going out. Today was supposed to be warm, it got up to 65 but was 42 in the morning. I loaded up my WS6 Master with the 9" coil and my Deus 2 with the 13", and went to the field about a half mile away. I haven't been to this spot in a couple of years, an old house stood here, and I got lots of coins and other late 19th century stuff. I really didn't think I'd get much today, but I did. I walked around where the house was for a while, really behind it. I found a couple of things , and decided to head out to a small corner that I only searched for a short time but found some buttons and a couple of IHPs long ago. Little did I know the spot was a small hotspot, I kept finding coins and buttons in there until there was nothing left. The area was only about 50x50 feet, maybe less. There was evidence of cooking pits there and chunks of sandstone indicating a much older structure. Each pit had large iron in the bottom, I assume a kettle long rusted away, and lots of oyster shells. That is always a good sign. I dug 3 IHPs, the only one I could read was an 1888. The other two are toasted, one slick and the other very encrusted. When the spot dried up I went back to the house area. A big surprise was digging my first Flying Eagle cent! It wasn't until I cleaned everything up that I found I had a second one. They're pretty toasted but I can make out enough of the 8's to know they aren't all that rare, but that's about it. It was kind of a thrill to know I got two today. That wasn't all though. Here's the stuff I probably can't fit in a display box, Looks like I dug a broken and bent musket trigger guard: Got some sort of tap or plug, some recent dog tags from 2006, a lock slide, a parasol slide, and a D Buckle full of the iron pin. Here's the trash, looks like a lot but it fits in my hand: It's all just buckshot, bits of lead and aluminum. I think there's a mangled spoon bowl in there. Ok, now for the finds: I got a Buffalo and a V Nickel at the house site, no date on the Buffalo but the V is probably 1893. At first I thought it said 1882 but that would not be my luck. 😀 Got a skeleton key, a Yankee minié ball, a small brass salamander with enameled toes, and 3 buttons, a fantastic ball button, a small thick Gilt button with some gold left, and my favorite: It says "Colombia Libertad". I looked it up and while there are many celebrating the liberation of Colombia from Spain in 1810, I cannot find this one anywhere. The back has "Colour" on it, so I assume it was made in England or an English territory. I don't know where the nicks came from. 🤔 It's definitely the 1810-1850 style that is single piece. I also dug this interesting lead coin, it has lettering on it. If anyone has any information about the Colombian button I would appreciate it!
    24 points
  11. Jewelry is not something I specifically "target", but I will find the occasional piece hunting relics & old coins. Quality jewelry is very rare for me. I have been re working some well hunted sites with the Rutus Versa and have had good success finding additional targets of interest. Most of these have been relatively small and/or low conductors. The Versa is excellent in this aspect. One of these sites is an old swimming & picnic venue that was very popular beginning in the mid 1890s and closed to the public after WWII. The ground is mild but prone to being water logged much of the time. Silver coins come out of the ground encrusted in a hard black oxidation from the Sulphur & minerals dissolved in the ground water. It takes a soak in Navel Jelly to get them clean. Cents & Nickels are usually in very poor condition. Of course, there is plenty of smaller iron trash where wooden buildings once stood but very little modern trash. It is a neat place with many very large trees still thriving, but the activity & fun that once filled this place is gone, and all but forgotten by anyone still around. The target pictured below was a mixed signal & fairly quiet, but it wasn't iron so it gets dug at this location. It was about 7" down & came out of the ground pretty much as you see it, very clean & bright. I knew instantly it was the real thing. 18K Gold Filled, so a quality piece. I also knew instantly what I was going to do as my 42 Wedding Anniversary was in less than a week. My wife is very good about my detecting & other hobbies. 1903 is also a meaningful year to us both. The birth year of her Grandmother and my Great Aunt. Both left a large impression on our hearts. So, a young woman's loss long ago has come thru dark days to shine bright again, given once more in Love.
    24 points
  12. I have both and it's the manticore all the way. I'm not a technical kind of person i terms of being able to tell you all the different ways one works better than another. I have a different way of looking at things and the manticore is simply a better machine. I have a tendency to "date" metal detectors and over the years I've had them all. Here's a way that I look at the latest models. Equinox 800- definite marriage material. In the right environment and if you take care of it will last you for years. Equinox 900- pretty much the same as the 800 so why get divorced and have to pay to get married again? XP D2- high maintenance. If she were a woman you would eventually get tired of all the effort it takes to just go out and you would look for something without all the noise. Manticore- the epitome of the girl next door. A combination of all that is right in the world. Now I know that many don't like the way Minelab treats it's customers in terms of updates, coils etc., but at the end of the day Minelab the company is like an in law, you only see them when you have to. Buy the Manticore and you'll be happy. At least for a few years until the next beauty queen comes out.
    21 points
  13. Last winter was a bust...I was going to take winter off, to work on my own house, and detect...then we got huge storm after huge storm, that plan went out the window...spent all my time, trying to fix everyones roofs. This year, doing better. Been out a few times, exploring, running across numerous cabin sites, and gold rush workings( Bought a 900 last year, after I lost the remote to my Deus1. Finally starting to feel compfortable with it. Got my coil across a few good targets recently. The Cohen center disc, and quarter, where found by my son, rest is mine.
    21 points
  14. Not so long back I had a farmer friend call me and let me know that he was pulling out a fence on his property and that it was crossing a line of gold that I had detected years ago. Would I be interested in detecting the old fence lining in the hope of picking up some possible gold that may have been hidden by the fence? Naturally I replied in the affirmative, and seeing how James was having his yearly time off from farming I asked my farmer friend if it would be okay to bring my good mate along as well? He said that if I vouched for him it would be fine. The percentage for each was agreed upon, so we loaded up the old van and headed south. The fence line was a disappointment as there was old wire everywhere and soon proved to be a nightmare that yielded nothing. Also an old dam bank that could have been a chance was another waste of time. An area that I had always thought a bit too far west of the main line of enrichment looked interesting, having the right mix of stone and soil, so I gave it a shot while James detected further north. A couple of small bits soon turned up so I decided to zig zag southward to see if the colours might continue. For a while it was only bullets and broken bits off farm machinery until there came a broad signal that whispered up from depth. I took a big deep breath and slowly scanned the suspect hum. It sounded good even though just a murmur, and too positive and regular to be ground noise, not changing at all no matter from which direction or slight ground balance change. Once through the top soil the gravel began to show and confidence grew, although I was not 'spending the money' until at a couple of feet the source of the signal was unearthed. The dirty lump in my hand by its very weight told me what it was. With a wash and weigh the gold was revealed as a pretty ironstone and quartz bit over fourteen ounces. The best bit yet for my 6000 and 11' coil. Who says these are a 'flypoop' machine? James and I then gridded out the run for a half kilo altogether, his best bit being a nice worn and clean 2oz lump. Needless to say, our farmer friend was surprised and pretty 'chuffed'.
    20 points
  15. Jim Straight taught me a naughty trick on how to learn where to go to find the Most Happy Yellow Metal. He approached me at a Gold Show, and dropped an awesome chunk of Auriferous quartz into my hand. "Where do you think this came from?" he asked. I answered [Place A]? "Nope. Not there" he answered. "How about [Place B]? says I. "No, not there either" came his reply. "Okay, it's gotta be [Place C], right?" "Sorry, Jimmy, your three guesses are up." He then turned to walk away. "Aren't you going to tell me where it came from?" "Nope. But I did learn about three new places to find this kind of stuff. Thanks!" And, yes, this a true story. HH Jim
    20 points
  16. I've neglected quite a few places due to the fact that a couple of beaches have been very productive. Its all about priorities with me, some fields are only just drying out & i'm not inclined to go to most places until cultivation in April or thereabouts. On Saturday I went a little further than I normally do as we've had some massive tides and wind in the right direction. The section I had in mind is backed by dunes of considerable height with clay & peat in the lower layers. I have removed a vast amount from here over the years, it was a popular place in the era of early motor cars and before, not so much anymore. What I was faced with was a massive tide that had cut right into the dune leaving a huge area of disturbance. I full well knew there would be a lot of stuff but wasn't quite prepared for the sheer quantity. Took the Deus with the 9", knowing the place well t was right for the job. Instantly I put the detector at the base of the dunes, I could see coins strewn along the base on the gritty black or red layer with a good smattering of wartime iron too. They were all from Victorian through to 1950's- perfect, plus a few George III/IV Difficult to explain, but multiple signals under the coil at once was somewhat overwhelming as all were positive. It took a few minutes for me to switch into fully auto mode. For the next 3 1/2 hours, I dug constantly as well as eyeballing many on the surface. Literally they were all over the place, but I kept up a strict discipline of straight overlapping lines pulling stuff every few seconds. I could see there were quite a few silver coins along with other stuff. In these situations, my recovery rate was as fast as I could go, on & on. At the end my bag was really heavy with mostly coins but with a couple of rings thrown in too, one with a decent Opal. By dark I gave up totally worn out. Back at it next day I hit exactly the same spot with similar results, but not quite in the same numbers. I noticed that the coins were mostly smaller than the previous day which is normal on a second less intense pass. Day 3 was interesting as many more small bits came up including a couple of broken gold 9ct rings & many small items. Lead toys were very common, some intact & a good time indicator. The totals were for Day 1 328 coins, then 169, lastly 102. In the first batch were 60 silver mostly pre 1947. Three days gave 109 silver back to George III. Quite a few pre-vic coppers came out too. Silver coins in England changed fineness after 1919 from sterling to 50% up to 1947. Its a personal record on day 1, you can quickly work out the rate of coins dug per hour. What helped the speed was the Deus with very tight settings so responses were channeled into very positive only settings. On the second & third days I opened it up to catch other items, this I have found is the best method in these situations. Needless to say I've been back there with much less results, down to a couple of dozen yesterday. Not since the '89 Hurricane in this country have I done so well. Then, on a full day I retrieved over 600 old coins from one beach alone, but that was over seven or eight hours. Its rare even for me to come across these situations, very intense detecting that will be well remembered. There is now a massive haul of coins in the scrap copper, this will exceed last years enormous haul thanks to the d2 and manti. Photo 3 are silver coinage from small 3 pence (Like 3c silver) up to half crown (bigger than 50c piece).
    20 points
  17. I recently had some doubts in using the main detector and was pondering the possibility of eliminating some by selling. In detail, I complained of some high ID response that I accidentally dug up in the absence of decent signals. The last victorious session, brought me a 6.49-gram 18K wedding ring and by sheer luck, with an amazing 80, I deigned to dig it out. So this morning I decided to go out with a dear old detector, one that doesn't mess around, and the numbers are shocking considering the spot, the devastated condition of the clay and rocks, and lousy visibility. After 4 1/2 hours on the bottom, thanks to the use of hooka compressor, I flushed out 4 pieces totaling 20 "dirty" grams. The numbers speak for themselves, and I am beginning to have clearer ideas.... I will add no more...
    19 points
  18. So Bob (@F350Platinum) documented our wild ride this week at our newish permission, a field with an unexpected house site on it. It was amazing. When we first surveyed it a couple weeks we knew it was going to be tough going with aluminum trash as expected nearer the main road and a ton of iron at the actual home site. I lucked out that first brief hunt at the end of a long day with a minie ball, a flat button, a silver spoon bowl, a wheatie, and, amazingly, the only silver coin ('64 Rosie) we've pulled out so far, all in quick succession. When I met up with Bob this time, he was semi-gridding the property adjacent to the access road/driveway were I had found the previous items and I was picking my way through the aluminum to get my "ears on". My first keeper was a '58 Jefferson. I then hit a few pieces of miscellaneous brass including some of those keyboard instrument brass "reeds" or whatever. I then hit a honker non-ferrous signal and hesitated whether to dig what I thought was going to be a smashed beer can or or worse. I decided to go for it, and to my surprise, I dug a late 1800's vintage Champion 6-Lever lock. This is a fairly common antique lock that was built to last and an built to be secure. It was in amazing condition. I joked to Bob that we should find the safe this thing was attached to...little did I know that statement sort of foreshadowed how the rest of the day would go. I dug a handful of early 1900's wheats, a 1940 nickel, and also a toasted Buffalo nickel. I then dug an amazing brass padlock key for a much older lock than the one I found and a pieces of a Colonial era English lock key latch cover marked with a Crown - perhaps belonging to the lock matching the key I found earlier. I dug a couple of other interesting brass things including a brooch or pin with a rippled shell-like texture and an ornate little brass ornamental with a square loop. After digging a number of those keyboard reed thingy's and little else of note, I decided to do a walkaround of the small plot, as I was making my way towards the back I dug a couple of matching costume jewelry type pieces of gold gilt over hollow brass that looked like pieces of a bracelet of some sort. Didn't think much of it. I then dug a brass makeup case that still had makeup in it. Anyway, as I moved out of the debris field of the house, things went quiet and I did not dig anything but a couple of random pieces of aluminum. I made my way back to where Bob was detecting. I saw him sitting on the ground for awhile and playing with his phone as I was swinging my way back, which typically means he found something good. I was right, he gave me the thumbs up signal, and showed me the incredible silver ring and stone. after chatting about that, I got a target not 5 feet away and it was a gold plated cufflink, with an art deco style design. After that it was off to the jewelry races with us recovering a number of jewelry related items, buttons, and pieces of silverware and miscellaneous silver bits. The coolest piece for me was a silver brooch with a translucent blue stone and a silver cufflink. Anyway, it was one of those rare "dig a minute" type days, and even though few of the items were as old as what we usually dig in that area, it was a great day by any measure and the weather was perfect. We are just wondering where the heck are all the silver coins. BTW - I was mostly using my custom setup of the Deus 2 Relic Program (IAR at 5, Reactivity set as needed, PCM audio) with the 9" Round Coil and occasionally searching and interrogating with the General Program using Full Tones and High Square audio. Thanks, Bob for another great detecting day and for not spanking me too badly. You were really making some nice ring saves and I didn't have much to show for lots of digging up to that point until we unlocked that "jewelry box". Good times.
    19 points
  19. Did a wet sand hunt today and the M8 finally sniffed out some gold. It's marked inside the band... Black Hills Gold 10K and weighs 1.3 grams. It was roughly 10 inches deep and gave a nice clear tone with an ID of around 19. No denying it was a good target to dig. The heart is marked sterling, and the little O ring is .925.
    19 points
  20. Hello all, Just got back from vacation from Hawaii and STILL looking at the same three feet of snow in Alaska. I am glad I took my Manticore to Waikiki Beach because the conditions were favorable in the water. I was fortunate enough to find a place where the wind shifted the sand off the coral. This helped me produce, nine rings (two are 14K gold) (one is a really nice opal with diamonds around it), 12 Wheat cents mainly from the 40s, and a ton of modern coinage. I am impressed how the Manticore handles in the salt water. To me, it handles better than the Nox 800. Also, my Excal II wouldn't have picked up the necklace but the Manticore produced a nice tone. Attached are a few pictures. Thanks, John
    19 points
  21. This posts a bit of a waste of time but any information is better than nothing. The coast has had pretty bad weather for a while now, today was meant to be a break in the weather and it was nice and sunny at home when I woke up so I thought I'd try take the Algoforce to the beach and try it out, I was going to be in the area anyway as my dentist is near to this beach and I had an appointment, seeing it's over an hour's drive each way to my dentist I figured it's a good opportunity to kill two birds with one stone and hit the beach before the appointment. Half way to the beach the wind picked up, the sky was grey and it was raining, great! I'd not want to live on the South coast of NZ, it's sure got some weather issues, drive inland an hour and you're in a vastly different climate. It doesn't help some storm from Antartica is sweeping over our island over the coming days either, so I'll have to try the beach again another day. I did film a small video while there, I dug a hole in the sand and put a $1 coin at the depth the Equinox started to lose the target, if I went much deeper the Equinox didn't pick it up at all, I was worried when I backfilled the hole the Nox may lose it but it kept the target, it was up averaging the ID's a lot, it should ID the coin flicking between 21 and 22. The Algo at that depth gave a near perfect ID on the coin which should be 66 according to an air test, I also experimented before backfilling the hole with the coin in there and the Algoforce was picking up the coin with a target signal deeper than the Equinox would. The Algoforce does lose the Target ID's at some point in depth when it still had the target signal. From this little experiment I've worked out on this beach at least I would be able to ID this coin much more accurately and deeper than the Equinox 800 can in the settings I was in, which was Beach 1, all defaults, ground balanced and 24 sensitivity. I didn't play around a lot as it was only about 5 minutes after I jumped in my car to leave the heavy rain kicked in. I did briefly take the Algo down to the salt water and have a try at ground balancing and it worked fine, this was all with the 10" Spiral X-coil, my most sensitive to small targets GPX coil so I was quite happy about that. The tide was right out so I didn't go all the way to the water to dunk the coil, It was too cold. I only didn't take my Manticore to check against it as when I went to grab it I had left the M8 coil on it and was in a rush to get out of the door so I couldn't be bothered trying to find the other coil and fitting it, so the Nox got the job 🙂 I think the Manticore would have done better than the Nox. Pure estimate, the coin was about 20 cm deep. (8 inches) The Beach does have some black sand, not ridiculous like some beaches around NZ, but still enough to cause a bit of havoc with VLFs. Here's the Video, I've kept it unlisted on Youtube as it's not very good and doesn't give all that much information but the best I could do given the circumstances. I'll try again on a nicer day when I have more time. I'm also kicking myself I didn't dig the target I found when in the wet sand, it could have been a ring, the right ID range, I was talking myself out of it as I would have had to go to the car and get the shovel and I just wanted to leave 😉 This is the weather I was dealing with; it's meant to get worse over the coming days and all the purple area is going to be snow, blue is cold air. Red and yellow are the warmer air. I'm guessing the maroon colour over Australia is the crazy hot air, we don't get that here 😛
    18 points
  22. Over the years I have repaired several coils with dried out masking tape and a couple of dried out carbon sponges. I will relate on of my experiences with one coil while detecting in a new undisturbed gully. Detected and dug a few square nails then the detector goes crazy making all kinds of noise. With more than 60 years of electronics experience I know how to fix most problems. Turn it off and back on; several cycles later go to plan B; tap it gently; after banging it into rocks and trees; give up and have lunch on a big flat rock. Since we car pool going home early isn’t an option. From the previous scientific diagnostic testing (remember the banging of the coil test) it was determined that the problem was inside of the coil. Probably getting revenge for allowing myself and it to slide and crash into a gully the previous week. And there is no spare coil available; it’s time for another plan. A Pulse Induction Mono coil is a simple three wire circuit inside of a sealed waterproof plastic shell. So simple even that MacGyver TV guy could handle this. Have you ever seen someone whetstone their prize Buck Knife until they can shave with it. Well it’s that time to put it to work. Working on my leg-top workbench I peeled off the tape that holds the skid plate to the coil housing. Then with my razor sharp Buck Knife cut and pried through the sealed plastic seam around the perimeter of the coil. Spliced the broken shield wire and secured it with a piece of the skid plate tape. Closed it up and secured it with the remaining tape. At this point I realized that I hadn’t stabbed my leg or cut a single finger! Now for the test; turned it on and it purred like a kitten; went about 10ft and got a soft nice sounding target. Dug down about 10” and came up with a beautiful 13.8 dwt / 21.5 grams nugget! Some days it's just written in the stars.
    18 points
  23. Many years ago I signed on to this forum while I was out of commission as far as metal detecting. I started traveling to Quartzite in 1995 during the winter months. I had read many articles about all the gold that could be found. I joined GPAA and LDMA and bought a Goldmaster 2. I searched for three winters and only found the usual junk. That third winter I had a week left before heading home and hit six sub gram pickers in a wash. When I got back to Montana I went to visit Bud Guthrie near Helena, Montana. He examined my Goldmaster and said the coil was faulty and sold me a Fisher Goldbug. I found three ounces of gold the next winter near Quartzite. On my way home, I stopped at Rye Patch. It had rained and I couldn't balance the Goldbug (lack of knowledge on my part). Anyway, the next morning I watched some detectorists out detecting nuggets left and right. They had the SD2100. Again, I went to Bud and asked if he could get me an SD2100. Armed with the Goldbug and the 2100, I never looked back. Well, I finally found ground that I cannot keep my 2100 quiet with all the magnetite. I know there is gold that I cannot differentiate from deep hot rocks. After seeing Steve's introduction to the Axiom, I finally made the leap. It came yesterday but we still have too much snow right now. I'll just continue to watch the videos and be ready to hit my favorite area this spring. The 2100 has been very good to me over the many years with over 50 ounces. The largest at 6.5oz. Reese has been a great inspiration with his never give up attitude. So many of you on this forum have taught me a great deal. Keep it up!
    18 points
  24. Today Chase came down for a "do your own thing" sort of hunt, we went to a permission of mine that almost guarantees at least something old. It was pretty cloudy today but exceptionally warm for mid March, there was a threat of rain all day but it never did, thankfully. The ground is still wet from the last storm under the surface, but the high winds blew the surface dry. I always fear Chase will come all the way down and not find much, but he did ok, just about the same as me but more buttons. It ended up being a good day despite the heat and the gnats that were everywhere. I only got 4 buttons today, one may be a small boss, but the biggest one is a silvered Dandy button. The smallest one has backmarks, and the top left one has some gold flowers on the front. I have no idea what the extremely figured piece of metal is top center. I even got a 1996 dime, my pay for the day 🤣 Of course the feature item I found today was the complete spectacle buckle, my book says pre-1650, so it's pushing 400 years old. 😎 This might be the first complete one I've ever found, I usually find them in pieces. Overall it was a great day to get out there, it won't be long now until the fields are planted. Only a handful of junk, this place isn't too trashy.
    17 points
  25. Well, at long last the book has started. I never realized how many stories I had filed away or how many stories I've posted over the years on the Internet, and it's a bit of a slog to get things organized, but it's coming together. As for how long it will take, I don't know, but I may have to release my stories in different segments as I can't see how I'll get them all in one book. All the best to those of you lucky enough to chase the gold in warmer locations (I only get into the desert seasonally for short bursts of time during our northern winters), but I love chasing the gold in the desert, and I love the rich history of mining I find there. The most recent hunts have been in Nevada, and Nevada is absolutely amazing its rich mineral deposits right from the bottom (by California and Arizona) to the top (California, Oregon, Idaho). Lots and lots of places to look for gold in Nevada, and it's also easy to hop over to California and Arizona as well while I'm wintering in the bottom part of the state of Nevada. All the best, and good luck with finding the gold, Lanny
    17 points
  26. I know many of you are aware, but I'm posting this for those who may not be familiar with the situation in the US regarding service. Until the end of 2023 Detector Center was the sole service provider for Minelab, providing warranty and non-warranty repairs of its detectors. Starting Jan 1 2024, Minelab has taken this role back in house for warranty repairs. However I just wanted to post a short blurb that Detector Center is still here.... we continue to complete non-warranty service of your favorite Minelab - be it a gold machine, coin detector, or water hunting detector, etc. Basically, if it's under warranty - get it taken care of by Minelab. But if it's out of warranty we can help.... as the techs are here and we continue to stock the vast majority of the parts needed to fix these detectors. Now in regards to some our favorite older detectors (15 years old and older) sometimes we run into the situation where there simply are no parts to be found.... unless we have something to salvage from another detector. So if you need a repair on something older, it is best to give us a call and talk with one of the techs to get a feel if its repairable or not. Also we can sell you some small parts that are otherwise hard to obtain through your dealer.... not all are listed on our website so don't be afraid to ask if something you need is not listed.... 🙂 In the event you need to set up a repair it's easy - just go to https://www.detectorrepair.com and follow the links to set up the repair... or give us a call at 814-283-4270 to discuss your options. Thanks for your time everyone, and to Steve for letting me post this here.
    17 points
  27. Took the D2 out to a small Confederate camp using the general program because the ground is saturated. Three tone, notch 07-40, tone break at 68. I had dug several bullets all ringing up as 82 when I got a solid 84. Out came this cut 1730's Spanish silver. you can see the beginning of a 3 for the third digit in the date
    17 points
  28. I'm posting this in Coins and Relics because all the pieces of jewelry are relics. 😎 This isn't a beach hunt, I've done much worse there 😅 What seemed to be a "let's check this place out a little more and go somewhere else" hunt turned out to be a whole day in this little field, I invited Chase down for the day because it was going to be warm and I thought it might be worth the trip for him. It's a small field, only a few acres, totally nondescript. I got there a bit before Chase, walked back and forth along this part of the field, there is another huge farm next door. We think there was a house here, but nothing exists on any Topographic maps. By the end of the day we were sure of it. First find was what may be a gold plated metal ring, no marks inside. Might have been a replacement or bargain wedding band: It only weighs 2.6 grams, but it does ring when dropped. A 91 on the Deus 2. I'll probably take it to my jeweler who has an XRF gun to make sure, because it does weigh more than a similar size 14k band. Next find was a 1944 war nickel: Chase arrived , we walked all over and found some wheats and lots of junk. The place is stupid with crap, aluminum, bits of old brass and tons of iron everywhere. I was running Tekkna, and it did well for me. We didn't find much more for quite a while, we were thinking of leaving, and then I found this mangled silver spoon: Almost 16 grams of coin silver. I then found this trunk plate, a Civil War era plate from a Washington DC trunk maker used until 1880. I joked that I just found the jewelry box plate... 🙄 Who knew I would sorta be right... Chase went off to check out the back of the field, he had been on top of a hill finding nothing but large pieces of aluminum and concertina reeds, and I walked back from where I found the spoon, and got one of my best finds of the day: This massive 8.4g Sterling ring with probably a glass stone, it's purple and seems shattered. I motioned for Chase to come over to this spot, and we just kept finding jewelry. He will probably add his finds later, it was an insane day. 🤪 Very difficult to find stuff in all that iron and trash, we both were using D2s with the 9", anything bigger wouldn't have done as well. Next I dug this Sterling pin: It was taco'ed but I got it straight. Here's the trash, lots of large brass, lead and aluminum. I didn't get much iron at all, Tekkna is great for this kind of challenge. Here's the total haul, the best is yet to come: Obviously finding a really old ring is a thrill but nothing could have prepared me for the last big find: Apparently this is quite rare, researching it only found one other like it. It's a 1904 Republican National Committee badge for the Chicago Convention, where Theodore Roosevelt was selected. The Chairman had this 14k version made for him, but sadly passed away before the Convention: His was 60 some odd grams, my piece is 35: It may at least be plated. It's unbelievable it held up this good for 120 years. 🤔 I haven't had as productive a hunt as this in quite a while, we hope to go back and find more. It's very difficult going.
    17 points
  29. I have been detecting with people who claim that small gold is too small for them. Yet if I am digging small bits with a detector and their detector can’t find those bits, I’ve never seen a person yet that was happy about that. The question is, do you want to be finding gold or not? I’ve dug as many as 100 of those tiny bits in a day with a Gold Bug 2 and you know what, they add up. Plus, they keep you going until a larger nugget comes along. People who are finding nothing tend to go home. People finding a tiny bit every 10-15 minutes tend to keep at it. In general I have to chuckle at people who say they detect for the fresh air, and those that say small gold is not worth their time. Except Reg of course. No, the rest of us are out there to find gold and small gold is better than no gold.
    17 points
  30. Recently Gary Blackwell put up two videos informing us about a program someone else introduced to him - "Tekkna". It has a whizzy name for sure, and some really odd parameters. Here's the first video: The idea is that it's supposed to help you find small coins in iron infested areas. Let me first mention that no program or set of parameters for the D2 is "magic", although @Rattlehead's "Silver Slayer" was as close as one could get on V0.71 in my opinion. 🙂 That was for coin shooting. Today I went back to continue my grid search of the place I was yesterday, but I quickly found out there was really nothing else, I believe it was a spot that was used a few times for a gathering in the early 1800s, there were oyster shells everywhere and occasional big iron hits, I dug a couple of them and they were all kettle fragments. I then switched to random hunting, located another really trashy spot further away, put the 9" on and tried Tekkna. Purely by coincidence I swung the detector a few times and got an 87 in all the trash, Tekkna really sounds off clear when you have a non-Ferrous target. Between a few odd bits of heavily squelched iron, I dug this: Yet another Spanish coin, #5 this year. 😎 I believe it to be a Half Reale cob. The reverse is this: Not much to go by other than the cross size, it would be much larger if it were clipped. Cobs are oddly shaped and cut. I searched around for two more hours using this program, made a couple of tweaks to it, first iron volume which I reduced to 8, and then Audio Response which I increased to 5. I also lowered Reactivity to 2 rather than 3 and heard a lot more targets, but from then on the only stuff I got was bits of lead. I also put bottle caps at 3 because the first time I used it here I dug a bottle cap. I might change that to 5 if I get another, it really doesn't mess things up, I've found gold in the beach with it at 5. Here's his second video posted today that gives clear instructions on how to set it up on the WS6: And here, in a nutshell are my notes for setting it up on the RC unit if watching the first video doesn't help: Tekkna Program Based on Sensitive Full Tones Disc 42 95 sensitivity Frequency Max 40 Iron volume 10 Reactivity 3 Audio Response 4 Frequency offset 10 Bottle Caps 0 Notch off Silencer 0 My impression of this program is that it is "interesting", it's not for the 13" coil for sure. You're going to be using it in machine gun iron hoping to squeeze one more target out. 😅 You don't need the bigger coils grabbing stuff on edge that might overwhelm the center. I lowered iron volume because it really hammers you, 8 is rather comfortable. I raised Audio Response because I wanted targets to jump out slightly more, and lowered Reactivity because I felt I wasn't hearing enough. I don't think the program is really "unmasking" anything, it's just giving you a better chance to find good stuff in the bad stuff. From other tests I've done live in the field I have yet to see any D2 mode "unmask", that seems to be a myth to me. If you're like Gary (I am) and want to feel like you're hearing everything, albeit a whisper until you catch a diggable target, it works rather well for that. It did find a small desirable coin in a bed of crap. Understand though, my area of the country has a lot of Spanish silver, you're not gonna just go out and have it appear. 🤣 I'm pretty sure the UK is a lot different than my mild soil here in Virginia, but Tekkna might be another tool to add. I did not dig any iron, and had no instance where I might have. Check it out. I'll be testing it a lot more very soon, and will update this with any other observations I make. GL, HH 🍀
    16 points
  31. I went out for two days in the NV desert to use my new Axiom. I played with the setting for the first day trying to figure out the machine and what it was telling me. By the end of the day I was running a negative threshold. Day two I spent the morning in an area that looked promising. Tons of quartz and thermally altered schist with veins of quartz mixed in. This area was absolutely silent except for a 22 bullet down about six inches. I decided to give Rye Patch district a go on the way home. The Axiom ran so quiet in the morning I thought I was way off on what I was doing. At Rye Patch I started picking up minuscule bits or iron. I was also finding tiny fragments of bullets. I met a fellow detectorist while I was there. He was using the 6000, a 4500 I think, and a goldmonster. Preferring the 4500 over the 6000 which he said was giving to much feedback with the underlying clays being so wet. Since I was finding so many little fragments and bits I knew the machine was working as it should. When I found a target I would scrape the top 1-2" and check to see if it moved. Most of the little bits were surface. A few troublesome pieces of wire were 4" down. It was getting late and I was still working on the skunk. I was headed back to the truck and got a nice hi low sound that gave a similar result when I turned on it. I scratched off two inches and it sounded better. Went to 4" and it sounded better. At 4" I was hitting some rocks. I pried the first one out and poked the nose of the coil in the hole. The sound was so good. I pried the second rock out and stuck the coil in the hole. Nothing. Checked the rock and it's a fantastic signal. I scraped the clay off the rock and ran that glob over the coil. I had it. My first nugget ever! Update of first impression. The Axiom battery seems like it will run forever. It dropped 1 bar day one and 1 bar day two. I did re-charge it overnight. The arm cuff felt tight the first night I tried it but it flexed into a good fit. The Zlink headphones will drop out if not positioned properly. The settings I settled were 7 and -7. Very little ground noise.
    16 points
  32. We get out and sometimes we find nice things along with the junk! This was a pretty nice find.
    16 points
  33. Got out today despite the threat of rain to see if I could tease any more jewelry out of the site where I found the big silver ring. The day started out nice and warm, about 55, so not bad. Ended up with rain late in the day, Today I used Tekkna and Relic, Tekkna where it was really trashy. I want to mention that while Tekkna is a great program, you only dig when you get a consistent signal, it's probably not the best when the place is loaded with aluminum and brass, and molten bits of metal. Since I was using it to find any more jewelry items, I ended up digging a horrific amount of junk: However, no iron at all. 🙂 Finds were still pretty cool, and I kept my silver streak going. Ended up with an assortment of the really old and new, especially the 1906 IHP and the 1946 Roosevelt dime. Got some wheats, some interesting tags, and a couple of thimbles. I did get one piece of jewelry, this Sterling collar stud, this is the front: And this is the back.
    16 points
  34. I was looking through some of my old pictures today and man the memories! Many years ago I had the occasion to go to Rye Patch for an outing. Now I had been to Rye Patch a couple of times. Once I got snowed out on the second day and once I got rained out on the second day. First time I went was in 1991 in my little Suzuki Samurai. I loved that little buggy. I didn't care that I could see the ground passing under me through the rotted-out floorboard. LOL This time I went North most importantly knowing, I would see some old friends and catch up on non-sense. Little did I know I would meet a couple of new friends who were about the sweetest folks I have ever met. So this goofy guy, named Lucky, and his lovely wife Robin sort of took me under their wing. Lucky invited me to come along with him the next day prospecting and man he put me right in the middle of the gold. And by the way, if anyone knows how to find gold it is Lucky Lundquist. Probably no one knows more about Rye Patch than Lucky. The stay in Rye Patch was one of my most memorable. and not because of the little gold I dug out of the ground, but the big golden friendship that was formed with Lucky and Robin. They invited me to eat with them, and we shared stories. Lucky can hang with the best of them when it comes to storytelling. And he is funny as all get out and genuine and just an all-around nice man. He's the kind of guy you are proud to call a friend. So Lucky! This one's for you buddy. God Bless You and Robin. Doc
    16 points
  35. This is a brand specific forum and like all brand specific forums is for people with an interest in the brand. Like all the brand specific forums they are created for people who don’t like being reminded constantly that some people think their interest is stupid and they should really be interested in this other brand. People who persist in this behavior are called trolls, and I take a very poor view towards trolls. If they persist they get banned. I have a forum specifically for this versus that brand comparison commentary where you can compare away all you want. So this is not me censuring anyone, it’s me saying take it to the appropriate forum. Anyone who thinks this or that brand is better than the E1500 is welcome to start a thread on the comparisons forum and lay out their case for that. I’m all for critical comparisons as long as they are honest. But persist on any brand specific forum with comments on how some other brand is better and you will be tagged as a troll and ejected. To be clear just a casual mention or even two is not an issue. It is when any one person repeatedly keeps doing this, especially in the face of little push backs I might drop in now and then. It’s this type of repeated, persistent, and frankly boorish behavior I’m talking about here. On the other hand it’s a given that members of a brand specific forum might rag on and look down on some other brand. So members of the Minelab Forum might be derogatory to other brands and that’s not unexpected. People on the Fisher Forum might take a dim view of Garrett detectors. That is what brand loyalty is all about, liking this brand but not the other. So pay attention to context, which specific forum you are on, and consider how what you are posting fits in. Again, the Comparisons forum is gloves off, and by and large so is the main DP forum. Brand specific forums, not so much. People who insist that the E1500 should outperform much more expensive detectors need to just get over it and move on.
    16 points
  36. I actually like digging clad. So... Pigging out on a big clad haul is always fun for me. And, clad pig outs are getting fewer and farther between as the clad just kind of dries up for good it seems. Last Friday, I got out to a known clad sprinkle. It's super, super pop tab and bottle cap trashy, but the trash is also just littered with clad. I worked it over for awhile with the M8 and did pretty good on the clad. Got tired of digging so much and wandered off into a little wooded section, where it was if anything even more trashy and also sprinkled with clad. But, from about a foot apart, I pulled these two pretty oldies out. I don't see intact old pocket watches, like, ever. I've dug a lot of backs, and frames, and guts, and lids, but this is the first time I've dug one fully together. The token, I could tell was unusual, but not sure what it was. Found what it looked like when new online - poached these two pictures. Did not find any date for them, but if $10 off a used car was worth advertising, it has to be pretty old :D. About then, it went from sprinkling rain and wind to hard wind and hail and it was time to leave. It snowed heavy they next day, which was one week ago today. Snow is melted now one week later and I had a whole entire morning free. So I went back! And hit it with the Manticore and M8 again. And found another cool old relic. A Denver & Rio Grande Railroad padlock, which I was able to find online just now and looks likely from the 1920's. And pigged out on clad too! Over 100 coins, about half of them quarters. Snagged five nickels without a single pop tab. It was a good day. The weather is starting to break, will be able to get out to the ghost towns pretty soon! - Dave
    15 points
  37. No, digital components don't change with age. The newer detectors still have 3 elements that can change, though: the coil, the preamp, and the ADC. The ADC and the opamp used in the preamp are pretty stable. The coil can shift over time, but that will mostly change the null and affects the point where it overloads, but depth should not vary. The preamp has resistors and capacitors, and that's mostly where depth variation can occur. Ironically, many newer designs place the preamp inside the coil so replacing the coil might be the solution if depth degrades.
    15 points
  38. Solid two way 27 with no wavering on the Manticore. Came out in the plug looking shiny yellow. Heavy! Gold Plated Tungsten 💩. Should be international sanctions against this... Disgusting. - Dave
    15 points
  39. Just thought I’d share some of the original adds from the old PI adds. Maybe someone has even some older ones they could share. lot’s of familiar names from the hay days. 😃 Even found some Vlf adds.
    15 points
  40. Currently as I see it, us Aussies (and a certain Kiwi) are the field testers for the AlgoForce and its abilities on the goldfields. As it is high summer Down Under there won’t be many guys out there putting in the hours till the weather cools off some. I have done a couple of short stints with mine at a public detecting area where old gold mines exist and the ground varies from mullock heap pipe clay, cemented conglomerate, heavily mineralised red clay and ironstone. The E1500 is no different to any other PI in fixed gb when it encounters a reactive patch of red clay or deeper larger hot rocks. It will react with a signal that needs investigation. The red clay patches can mostly be dismissed with a ‘proper’ reground balance. By that I mean you should wait for the “beep..beep” sound to occur. This can take up to 6 to 8 pumps of the coil. These pesky buried magnetic hot rocks can’t seem to be ground balanced out though, so I needed to dig ‘em out. Geez, they give a nice sound... even a Z or 6000 would have trouble with these. Anyway I can’t wait to head over to the Victorian goldfields or up north to Tibooburra when the detecting season opens up. I’m sure you guys Up Over will be watching with interest when the gold finds start to appear. I did some in ground testing with some sub grammers as well and was pleasantly surprised with the results. With practice I’m sure I’ll get better at distinguishing between the crisper response of a true target and the broader sound of iffy ground noise and hot rocks.
    15 points
  41. Glad you pointed out the obvious to me and a select few. So many folks want to compare it to top end proven detectors at such prices difference, is just stupid not reasonable in my opinion. Did we see anything from AlgoForce stating depth comparisons to Minelabs and or the Axiom? Not yet anyway and I seriously doubt we will. Does the suggestion of the E-1500 not proving depth as good or better than higher end detectors make it not desired? Not in my mind one bit. Now with that said, I still feel this detector has a Nitch to fill and especially the price point. Lets look back at each one of us and how our gold hunting as progressed. The majority of us in the Sates started with a VLF type gold capable detector. Why? To test the waters. Those of us who enjoyed the challenge eventually stepped up and many of us it was incremental. A White's TDI, Garrett Infinium was within reason price points and those detectors have proven to do better at overall depth on gold. Then for a few of us who had the financial blessings from the wife, stepped even higher on the price machines of $3000+, such as the early PI Minelabs and ATX. With more expereince in the field and justification of finds being dug at better depths, a select few of us (many of DP), reach for the clouds and dropped the big bucks. But what about the masses of people we chat with at Prospecting Clubs, Outings, Gatherings. Look around folks and you'll soon realize us swinging $4000+ detectors are not the norm at all. In fact we are the minority. So, I'm going to stand up and Salute AlgoForce for providing so many new people an option to own a Pulse Induction gold detector that has some amazing features and functions at a price point that's focused on the missing masses. I look forward to seeing the new crowd soon to be coming. Will those of us who own 3 to 6 different detectors purchase one? Some of us still will do it, just because the potential to hunt a few sites in EMI and or use some Iron Discrimination. Thanks Steve/Phrunt for sharing and clearing up some of the folks who have big dreams with such an affordable detector.
    15 points
  42. A Kiwi boy in far north Queensland. D4G
    14 points
  43. I'm just as thrilled finding a bit the size in the photo below as I am a 1-gram nugget, where as it appears some people wouldn't even bend over to pick up a bit a hundred times the size of this one I do it for the fun, the challenge, so finding a bit like this is often harder than a much bigger bit. So for me, the smaller the better, always a great feeling finding the tiniest bits. I have no interest in selling any gold I find, even if I was fortunate enough to stumble on a lot, I'd keep it all, my little throphys have value to me far more than their money value.
    14 points
  44. If you do, outside with lots of fresh air. lol Attached are some photos;
    14 points
  45. Righto, I`ve put many hours behind the E1500 got enough weight to stick my neck out a wee bit. With the NF EVO12 round it is dynamite on depth with subgrammers, up there close to the Z with the X 12 spiral in sensitivity and depth. Like the spiral EVOs and Elites did before the 6K GPXs, brought them right up to near GPZ performance. I suspect there will be many who end up being just E1500 users, a spiral 12 round on the 6K might be the only thing that competes close with it overall, taking not just performance but ergonomics and weight with the E1500s massive coil choice availability Of course the user has to be prepared to tweak settings and use a Fixed GB that requires GBing often in noisy ground but that is how most experienced users used the GPXs back to the SDs (not the 6K of coz)
    14 points
  46. Sorry Rick, can't help with running videos (at the moment) but a few finds are starting to be shared. This one was from WA, accompanied by this note: Hi Nenad, This is the first time out with the E1500 and got these three in the first hour. The machine ran really good, nice and stable. The targets stand out, and it’s easy to use. The design of the stem and control box is really nice – well built. The display is unreal and can be seen in broad daylight. Just went and bought the 14x9” Nugget Finder – will give that a go as well. This is good machine, I’m able to tilt it and it stays quiet. The ground where the nuggets came from is where we are working and has been pushed. Going to go to some ground where it has only been detected. Well done to AlgoForce, top unit, can’t wait to see what they bring out next. (Prospector in W.A.)
    14 points
  47. I went for a little weekend trip back to the Mojave desert, and spend this afternoon at one of my favorite places. The landscape is just breath taking, and makes me forget the busy life that I am usually having. Prospecting to me is much more than just finding gold (or not...). It is like being in a meditative retreat, where I can just enjoy the beauty of nature and disconnect from the day to day routine. I went back to one of my favorite places, and after several lead pieces and bird shots I heard an extremely faint warbly signal which caught my interest. The signal could have easily been overheard had I not swung really slow. My settings were treshold on, manual max, difficult (in the video I say 13 but I think max is more like 10 clicks). I started to dig and to my surprise the target turned out to be rather deep, next to a buried hot rock. It was a small flat 0.15 grammer at about 13 inch depth. I was stunned to find such a small piece at this depth, and with a rather small coil. This once more shows the excellent performance of the 6000 for small gold, even at depth.
    14 points
  48. Very close, except it would be a KFC bucket, I never did fancy popcorn much 🙂 My employer genuinely did bribe me with buckets of KFC to take on overtime or work back late when necessary, paid of course, but the KFC was the clincher 🙂
    14 points
  49. I got two more this morning, both in between 2-4 inch depth. One is really tiny. I am usually a dig-it-all guy. However, there are times where I use my ears to deceide if I dig or not. This works in particular well when you know the area, the type of gold and depth, and the nature of the trash. For instance, the area where I have been has tons of BBs and very little iron trash. The gold is generally small and at greater than 2-3 inch depth. Most shallow BBs give a loud sharp zip type signal, whereas the gold gives a more rounded smooth signal. And if it is deeper, only a faint warble. Based on that information and the knowledge what to expect, you can totally use your ears to deceide if you dig or not. If it is a sharp loud zip signal dont't bother. If it is a somewhat mellower signal, then scrape about 2 inch off (love my Hermit pick). If the signal is gone, it was likely a buried BB. If the signal persists then dig and recover. Assuming you know your area well, this works exceedingly well and I can highly recomend it. In comparison, VLF IDs at depth > 3 inch for small nuggets are not working at all (at least not in my experience), and hence with a VLF you are in the dark, if it would even detect the small nugget at all. So, assuming you know the area, the PI target ID exists and can work well and is totally free. You are born with it 😉. GC
    14 points
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