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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 believe the delay is probably about releasing a product that is as perfect as it can be. They (Garrett) are trying to avoid releasing a product with defects, and the costly procedure of shipping costs to repairs/damage control. There is often a conflict between engineering and sales. Sales want the product released ASAP vs. engineering arguing that the product is not quite ready. If it is a good product, it will sell, regardless of the current mood about it not being released on Garrett's anniversary and hype, followed by complete silence. It will be released when it is ready!

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

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.

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 ............

We are able to put in 6 Plans of Operation on two sides of virgin ground. The plan is to high grade the bottom 15 ft of gravel from the exposed sides of a big hill. This material has been testing out at an average of $60/yard after allowing for smelting. We will run a Pioneer 30 trommel that averages 15 yards of gravel per hour. So 150 yards of processed gravel per day at $60 a yard should gross about $9000 per day. We are running a 3 man crew who are all partners. We won't need to do any hauling of any distance (only 200 - 300 ft) but will run a skid steer as a loader. I still need to buy a small dump truck. I have been waiting for gold to rise to these levels to make this a worthwhile project and I think the time has come.

Nice cover excuse but the point is it should be announced when ready, not before. I like Garrett also but I also believe in telling companies when I think something they are doing is counterproductive, and I think companies are hurting themselves with this practice. The is a period of initial "giddyism" around a new release and people are excited and hot to buy. Wait too long and you not only lose that feeling, but start to create bad feelings. That is poor marketing. I'm not just opinionating, I'm a professional marketer. And since I do actually care, I'm drafting a email to the CEO and VP of Marketing with my thoughts on all this to follow up on the phone call I already made. I have found companies value me more for telling them when I think they are in error than telling them what a great job they are doing. They get plenty of that. The current situation could be alleviated by simply telling us more. Show a picture. Give a couple details. Keep the information coming. It's the noise followed by silence that hurts more than anything.

Getting ready for the new mining season. Just bought this nice mid size Deere 210.

That message from Nokta to revert to 1.13 is weird. I am just going to stay with 1.14 Beta until the final version comes out. 1.14 Beta works just fine on my Legends.

You'll solve the 11" bug hopefully soon, meanwhile try to put the M8 in an hard pounded place and wait for a surprise 🫢... This happened to me again today... I'm speechless

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)

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

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 )

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

Well Steve, I hope your email to the CEO and VP of Marketing gets us a few more 'hints" of what is to come. Lets hope it's a winner!

Thanks for the offer Joe (and Hugh) but I have the 5x8 coil. It's not worth your time/money or mine to be doing any mailing back and forth. Since I consider the 5x8 to be my primary coil this is not a big deal to me, and was only documenting it all on this thread so others might learn from it.

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

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.

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

Assuming it’s an overstock you get that inventory down and get very cautious bringing in more. In my business inventory control was every bit as important as sales. That’s cash on the shelf and you can go broke sitting on dead money. Reality bites in business and if the Manticore is not selling as hoped it may need a price reduction. More likely they flush the overstock and things go back to normal, albeit with lower sales. No gravy train last forever and all businesses have ups and downs. If the down gets severe enough you lay people off and/or close facilities. I think hard times and hard choices are coming in metal detector land. Tesoro is gone, White’s is gone, First Texas likely to be the next exiting the business.

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.

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.

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 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

Most likely a rehabbed drill site. All of the drill cuttings have been pushed aside with a dozer and the bags collected and dumped. Lots of these in the district. The discolorization is due to the drill cuttings being green such as diorite, serpentine or green shale. Often, Nickel deposits are in a green zone there I've noticed.

And Now the rest of the story by the man that found the medallion, Louis Haynes -- Former Soldier Using a Metal Detector Receives New Orders, Medallion Return When I received the X-Terra 505 metal detector from Metal Detectors 4 Veterans I would have never guessed that I would be assigned a mission to complete, one bound by honor and respect. Discovering the Gold Star Pilgrimage Medallion made by Tiffany & Co. in 1930 for the mothers and wives of fallen soldiers in World War 1, bound me to do my best to return it to the family of the fallen soldier. Although these events took place well before my life began, he is my brother-in-arms and I was honor bound. Even if that were not the case, the courage and love of his mother, that drove her to travel far from Utah to see his final resting place deserved respect and recognition. The soldier was Private Hubert Hyrum Burns from Randlett/Leota, Utah. When Hubert Hyrum Burns was born on 25 February 1895, in Pima, Graham, Arizona, United States, his father, Jacob Armstead Burns, was 31 and his mother, Rebecca Fannie Weech, was 24. He lived in Cove, Union, Oregon, United States in 1910. He registered for military service in 1917. He died on 4 June 1918, in Château-Thierry, Aisne, Hauts-de-France, France, at the age of 23, and was buried in Marne, Champagne-Ardenne, France. As I read this obituary from over a century passed the mission brief came into focus, for me any way. You see Hubert Burns spent his childhood in the mountains of Northeastern Oregon, in the same small mountain valley that I was born in, in 1966. I was raised 13 miles from Cove, Oregon in LaGrande, Oregon. Coincidence? I will have to let the reader decide for themselves. At the age of 23 he was engaged in combat for our nation on foreign soil. At the age of 23 I was leading a scout platoon with K troop, 3rd Squadron, 3rd armored Cavalry Regiment in Desert Storm. To add a little more to the mix, his family migrated from Oregon to Utah to engage in mining activities including Gilsonite, where my family on my mother’s side migrated, leaving mining behind, from Utah to that small valley in Oregon around the same time. His mother Rebecca Fannie Burns attended the Gold Star Pilgrimage to visit his final resting place and received the medallion with the serial number 2923, that I found, onboard ship as it sailed to Europe in a formal ceremony. To say the task of locating family was daunting is an understatement. I reached out to one of the metal detecting groups I found on Facebook, Utah Metal Detecting and a member there, Brandy Reynolds. (Need Info) provided a link to documents online titled: A LIST OF MOTHERS AND WIDOWS OF AMERICAN SOLDIERS SAILORS AND MARINES ENTITLED TO MAKE A PILGRIMAGE TO THE WAR CEMETERIES IN EUROPE. https://digital.library.villanova.edu/Item/vudl:458977#?xywh=-1591%2C-76%2C5577%2C2999&cv= Without Brandy’s assistance I don’t know if I would have ever made the link to the Burns family. Thank you, Brandy!! Through this list I identified one mother from Uintah County, Utah that requested a trip. In the official record, the County name is misspelled and her name is incorrect but her last name was correct. Armed with this information I reached out to Errol E. and Darlene Burns. As the former Public Affairs Officer for the Ashley National Forest, I had worked with Darlene when she served as a County Commissioner for Uintah County. Must be because we live in a small community that this fell into place, or was it? Again, I must let the reader decide. Armed with a telephone number, and the only thing to lose was sounding really strange leaving a message about a medallion from 1930, and a name that was hopefully a relative. I left the message in hopes that it would not be a dead-end. Several hours following my message I received an excited phone call from Darlene. The name I had was incorrect but lined up with the rest of the story about losing a son in the war and taking a trip. As fate would have it, Errol who is 87 years old is the grandson, and his sister, Ellen Burns Galley who is 90 years old is the granddaughter, of Rebecca Fannie Burns, who long ago traveled to France to visit the final resting place of Private Hubert Hyrum Burns, her eldest son. I was able to return the medallion to the grandson and granddaughter to remember the sacrifices their family has made for our nation, and the strength, courage and determination of a mother’s love to see the final resting place of her eldest son on foreign soil. As we talked about the parallels of our family personal histories the Burns family repeated to me again and again, that I was meant to find and return this medallion. All I can say is, Mrs. Rebecca Fannie Burns and Private Hubert Hyrum Burns, the mission has been completed. May your family, and all who have read this story, always remember your strength, courage, determination and sacrifice.

I agree that most of us are not 'rational' most of the time. Someone "important" at Codan's sales projections have proven to be over optimistic! I like the old saw "Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity, but cash is king".

I have an 11 x 6" elliptical on my current detector and really enjoy its depth and maneuverability in high grass fields and tough wooded conditions. I had 11" rounds on previous detectors in some of the same hunt locations that felt like I was swinging a garbage can lid filled with rocks! 🙂 Tough getting up close to some of those old big trees! For me it's all about comfort and focus on my hunting and not struggling with anything I use.

Specs. https://www.ritchiespecs.com/model/john-deere-210g-hydraulic-excavator

palzynski - Yes I agree about the 9" search coil option. I have never been a fan of big coils and very much prefer a smaller 8" or 9" for everyday use. Ellipticals are my favorite style with a 5"x10" or so being just about right for me. I am very impressed with the Nokta FindX and feel that it delivers a lot for its very reasonable price. I plan to buy one but would buy it sooner if I could get it with one of the above mentioned coils instead of the larger 11".

With Australia and NZ never having experienced a GPX 5000 stock issue and the US dealers saying it was discontinued there was some confusion going on, I asked here and was told it's not discontinued. Now it appears it's back at the US dealers, so was this a false alarm? Did the US dealers think it was discontinued for some reason without being told it was? Maybe due to a stock shortage or low demand in the US so stock being allocated to other countries with better sales. New Gpx-5000’s W Warranty Back In Us And Others - Metal Detecting & Prospecting Classifieds - DetectorProspector.com Brand New Minelab GPX 5000's Available, 2 Coils - Metal Detecting & Prospecting Classifieds - DetectorProspector.com The GPX 5000 sounds like it is still a popular choice for Africa, good value and just works, built tough for tough conditions and they're just used to using it and know it gets results. That doesn't sound like a detector you would discontinue unless you had a genuine replacement, which the GPX 6000 is not, very different detector.

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

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.

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

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.

good on you

All I can say is, for the price, I'm impressed after seeing the Nokta FindX. I'm not a fan of the pole mount control housings in general, but this is better than some. The unit telescopes way down which is nice. Hard to see if the shafts are round, but all they need do (if not) would be to make the handgrip/pod rotate into being parallel with the searchcoil folded flat and you could likely get this in a backpack. OK, we have wired headphones, but there are dedicated headphone kits available where the transmitter is hard-wired to the "audio out" and then wireless to the headphones. A wireless pinpointer could then pair with the headphones. If you could put that wired transmitter under the arm cup, you would then have counterbalance for even the minimal 2.6 pounds it weighs! OK, maybe it won't hang with the big boys in highly negative ground (as far as anyone knows yet), but I bet it does just as well or better as most single frequency VLF Motion's in the recent past. Battery source: 2300 mAh Lithium Polymer... Not too shabby. Most of all, I'm impressed with the simple-to-the-point layout of the display and controls in thumb's reach. Maybe the ID number size is smaller than some, but possibly looks to be readable without glasses. I like the fact the lower shaft fastens to the center of the searchcoil. That goes a long way to help lessen "toe heavy" large searchcoils if attachment is below center instead. We have a global economy, whether we like it or not, and competition is a good thing. We as consumers get what we want at a better price it now seems. Like "phrunt" says, "Good on ya Nokta"!

See if you can get lidar imagery of the area. Prospect pits/spoil piles are easy to see on those, but they have the be high resolution imagery. In the US a lot of the lidar is still the low resolution and the prospects are harder/impossible to see on it, I'm not sure about Australia resolutions.

@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.

Thanks Mike, I'm finally writing it! I'm not writing another general purpose how-to book on finding gold, just a book of my stories and adventures while out chasing the gold. But in the stories are lots of tips and tricks people can use on how to find gold, as well as some strange and amusing things that have happened while I've been out getting the gold. All the best Mike, Lanny

I have and use a MXT Pro, it still is pretty much on top of the vlf pile for coin/jewelry for me, I have tried some of the latest machines and gone back to the MXT Pro every time so far. Most my park finds are in the first 5" of soil, not worried about the latest and greatest, its very good on gold jewelry due to the khz freq, even with the 5.3 eclipse coil I can hit 10" on a coin if needed. The gold mode works well down to about 2 grain wt nugget, is limited in depth due to vlf but is a decent gold machine in some areas. Very wide range of coils makes the MXT very versitile.

Over a decade ago I would have given the White's MXT a five star rating, and am only giving it a four star rating because it is showing its age. The MXT was one of the first detectors to really leverage a microprocessor design in a metal detector by having a switch that made it like owning three detectors in one - Coins & Jewelry, Relics, and Gold Prospecting. Yet it stuck with an analog knob type control interface that is one of the best examples of simplicity and ease of learning I have seen in any detector. The controls are not only clearly marked with "cheater" settings but an abbreviated set of instructions is printed on the bottom of the control box! The MXT also has one of the best coil selections of any VLF detector ever made. The only real weakness is that as a non-waterproof single frequency detector the MXT is not the first choice for saltwater detecting. The MXT 14 kHz circuit is one of the best of the 20th century and the machine is already a true classic. There are newer designs that make the MXT look a little old fashioned but the fact is that it is a very capable detector that would be hard to go wrong with to this day. I have moved on to other units myself but will always consider the MXT to be one of the best metal detectors ever designed. See my detailed review for far more information than I can present here.