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Not a Sole to be seen! Granted the Weatherman was calling for Winds from a mild Cold Front moving in from the North East. Condor, gave me a call stating he was heading out for a Hunt, I gave him the Weather report for the area and a turn down to join. It brought mild rain to my area of Reno. The next day another Partner gave me a Call, I told him I’ll watch Weather and told him Condor was supposed to be out there. Weather Report was perfect, I text my Buddy…Hunt’s on and to met at the October Patch (a gold patch in Rye Patch) to setup Camp. Perfect weather, Cool and Sunny as I unloaded my RZR and remember all the Bullets of Sweat of the hot Discovery Day of the October Patch. My Trusty Hunting Partner pulled up and geared up as I text Condor asking his whereabouts! He called back and said, he headed back home after his day hunt with limited success. Again, not a Sole to be seen with the perfect Fall Weather! Giving it some thought of where to start on the drive up, I remembered this long Ridge that I found a Patch of Gold at both ends, but few nuggets in the middle. Both of us feeling fresh legged at the Noon Hour we set off to the ridge. I dropped my Partner off at the edge of the well hunted end of Ridge Patch and I’d pull up 1/2 mile with the RZR and start there and head up Ridge and then when he reach RZR he’d pull up 1/2 mile ahead of me and I’d repeat to end the days swing for the Missing Link Patch. Well I’m swinging away, enjoying myself when I feel my stomach telling me to refill it. I turn around to see where my Mobile Chuck Wagon was at! It was at least a Half Mile back and my Partner wasn’t in view below it. I swung back to the RZR, picking up one dink nugget that lead to another One Nugget Patch. Refueling my growler, my Partner comes screaming up the side of the Ridge, like he is running from a Mad Coyote that was chasing him. He had something in his hand, but his Smile gave it away at 20 yards! He plopped one of those Legendary Nuggets into my hand. My eyes and smile matched his! 😳 Both of us with filled stomachs drove back to his 8 Nugget Bonanza! A small drainage feeding off the ridge with a Dink Nugget at the head and a dink at the bottom lead him into the Flats between a distant Ridge. I’ve always considered this a No Go Zone as a No Gold Zone…as I’ve spent more than few hours in that Sage Brush with No Joy. We reach his Discovery Patch, in the Middle of Nowhere! 100 yards off our target Ridge. We named it “The No-Where Patch” right then and there. Partner, found the sweet spot of his Patch and I circled it like a hungry shark extending the perimeter. The No-Where Patch had two gaps that anyone could have swung a coil thru the middle of it without a clue of a missed Payday. The length of the Patch is around 30 yards and maybe 12 yards at the widest. We pounded it with our 6000’s and the next day I went over the sweet spots with a very slow swing with my 7000 with hopes of some deep missed ones, zero missed nuggets. Which indicates the vast majority of this Placer, shallow patches. We did pick up a few on the very outskirts of the No-Where Patch, which may lead to the next nugget patch yet to be named! Wore out, we headed home at sunset of the second day. Partner’s Big Boy at 1.6 ounces and his other big nugget to the right of that was a near 1/4 oz at 4.9 dwts. My Big one was 3.6 dwts on left. The High Plain Deserts still yield its treasures to the hungry seekers! Until the next Hunt LuckyLundy

I haven't posted much in the way of finds the last year or so. It's not that I don't want to share with others what I've found. It's just that a lot of the time it ends up compromising a site that me and my hunting buddies have spent hours and hours researching, getting permission and making multiple recon trips to. Now that I feel like we've pretty much cleaned this site out, I think I can safely post some of the finds for others to enjoy. It all started in April of last year. First trip we made I used the Equinox 800 and 30 minutes into the hunt I knew it was going to be a great site. Literally the 3rd target I dug ended up being an 1852 $2 1/2 gold coin. Below are some pictures of my finds. We made about 4 trips to the place in total and I'll make some other posts at a later date showing what else I found. That's about all the information I'm going to give about the site.

I love hunting the wet sand at the beach but I am fortunate to have a few lakes to detect when conditions are sanded in. My last trip to the lake produced 3 more gold rings but the best one was a deep class ring that I am guessing was lost many years ago because it is over 40 years old and has very little wear. It's a hefty little ring at 14.4 grams and has a name in it so I have already taken steps to locate the person who lost it. I found this ring in an area that I have hunted many times before but this one was deeper than most and found using the "all metal' mode of the Excal. I usually hunt lakes using some kind of discrimination because of the trash but this find may encourage me to go back and try for some more deep targets and just tolerate all the trash.

A school I've been interested in for a little bit. Today was the fourth time I've hit it. But even including today, only about 8 hours total. Had not found old silver, yet, before today, but enough deep wheats that I felt there had to be some silver waiting. I have found a couple nice .925's there the three previous hunts. With the days getting shorter, I only had about an hour and a half of daylight to hunt this morning before the soccer army arrived en masse and it was time to go. Just a gorgeous morning to be out though. Cold enough to be comfortable in a hoody. Nobody there but me until the soccer horde descended. I don't mind the soccer horde though, they are no doubt the source of the fairly consistent .925 here. Running the Manticore in ATHC, sensitivity 20, recovery 5, one region all tones, finally pulled a silver coin out of this field, a '39 Merc from 7" deep. That's pretty good depth for any machine in this dirt and it gave a definitely dig me signal. When soccer is done soon, and before the snow flies, I need to spend some more hours here. Also pulled a .925 cross, that I initially thought was probably junk. It was balled up in mud and I thought it might be some sort of stainless steel clip or something. But I also thought it there was a chance it was some sort of bling so I put it in the keepers side of the nail pouch. And after rinsing the mud off at home saw it is indeed a silver cross of sorts. Truth be told, I'd MUCH rather be out in the desert ghost towning. But things have not lined up for that lately. Nobody else wants to go and I'm getting just old enough that going by myself on longer trips isn't as much fun as it used to be. But, even though I'd rather be doing that, I'm sure not unhappy getting in some fun turf hunts when I can! Seeing silver in the dirt is always a good feeling! - Dave

I was able to test and hunt with Deus 2 with 9" coil using FMF Goldfield V2.0 software for about an hour at a Colorado location with very tough magnetite and hot rock mineralization where I have found very small gold nuggets with the ORX in the past. Deus 2's mineralization meter was full at the testing and hunting site. I also took a photo nearby showing some marble sized pieces of magnetite as found on the surface which continue under the surface too. I dug a shallow 6" deep trench, cut a slit into the sidewall of the trench at 2.5" depth and inserted a plastic strip with a 0.1 gram piece of lead glued on it for a test target. V2.0 FMF Goldfield High Square VCO audio with Disc IAR 0, sensitivity 95, reactivity 2.5, audio response 4, threshold 5 hit the target very well and even displayed a target ID of 26 to 30 which is right on the ferrous/nonferrous borderline. I also tested this test target with Deus 2's Fast40 mono 40kHz program in Hi Square Pitch tones with Disc. on -6.4, Silencer 0, sensitivity 95, frequency 39.5 kHz, reactivity 2.5, audio response 4, threshold 5. Fast 40 also hit this target but with no ID and with slightly weaker responses. Those FMF Goldfield settings were actually a little too hot for this location so I increased reactivity to 3 and lowered audio response to 3 which helped a lot. I had to do some fairly frequent ground balancing since there were changing ground conditions with differing levels of soil moisture and magnetite sizes ranging from specs to golf ball sized. I did not find any gold during this short 1 hour hunt with Deus 2 FMF Goldfield V2.0. I did find three very indicative lead fragment targets however. All three were easily detected and had proper low conductor target IDs after a bit of a boot scrape. All were found at around 3" depth. Deus 2's V2.0 Goldfield sensitivity is much improved from previous software versions. Like I said, it was almost too hot for this location. I had my Nokta Legend with 6" coil along with my GPX 6000 with me for the hunt. I didn't even fire up the GPX 6000 due to time constraints and a sore right shoulder. The Legend hit all of the targets that Deus 2 hit but ran a little quieter probably due to its smaller coil. The Legend and Deus 2 have so much information available on the display even in their gold modes. They both have a ferrous/nonferrous probability meter which is all you get on some gold prospecting specific VLF detectors, a mineralization meter, numerical target IDs, depth meter, single digit level notching, onboard pinpointing along with other great features like SMF operation which gives good IDs and no nonsense ground balancing, iron filter settings, audio response settings, reactivity/recovery speed settings, fully adjustable threshold volume and pitch settings, and various audio options. All Deus 2 needs now for high quality gold prospecting is a smaller coil. Thanks again XP for making FMF Goldfield V2.0 a very viable small gold prospecting option!

My last couple of hunts have helped make up for the long hot dry Summer. The token dates to the very early 1900s. He was still in the 1923 telephone book but as a Manufacturer, no longer a tailor. The 1898 Sanborn map shows his address as a Tailor shop. I know a family of the same name & will enquire of them. Hopefully their Great grandfather. If so, they may like to have it. The combination tool is a special find for me. It gave just enough of an interesting tone to not be another cut nail. It was dug in the front yard of where a pre War cabin stood on the old main road, nearby to the old Republic blockhouse site. Troops were documented to have rallied & camped there on their way East to the action. Side arms were usually only carried by officers or Cavalrymen. The other items are just nicely interesting to me. The brass ring with ball may be some sort of buggy curtain rod ring. The ointment tube top is another example of the ornateness & attention to detail that was once give to even ordinary everyday items. All dug with the MXT in Relic mode.

Got a LOUD high tone on the Manticore as I was about 5 steps away from leaving the beach on Friday. I scooped it up even before looking at 2D line or the TDI numbers. Just thought it was another fresh dropped quarter. But that "clanking" in the scoop told me otherwise. LOL I suspected that it was a coin ring but had to wait until I got home and under the loupe. The 1937 date is faint but still readable especially with the loupe. The inside of the ring has a lot of great detail to it. One side has the reeded edge although it is worn down quite a bit. I can only speculate whether the ring belonged to someone's parent, grandparent or just a random ring made from a 1937 Walker. Thanks for looking!!!

During last week's event at a 1750s farm in Ashburnham, MA, I pulled a domed lump of rust from about a foot under a former pasture. There wasn't much to see apart from the tab sticking out on one side, and the very obvious nipple. This immediately led to the designation of "colonial pasty", but nobody had a clue as to what it really was. At home, I dropped the find in evaporust for a week, with daily brushings. It soon became evident that the little dome was decorated. It was too small for a Victorian door knob, and then there was that tab sticking out. A friend suggested it might be a bit or bridle boss. Modern ones are mostly plain and are typically made from lead or copper alloy. But 18th century ones are often elaborately decorated and are sometimes made from cast iron. The remaining tab on mine (there were two, but only a scar remains of the second one) doesn't have the characteristic hole, but apparently that's not necessarily a deal breaker. Sometimes the tabs were fitted into leather pockets on the bridle. I would love to hear your considered opinions on this!

Using advanced detectors need not be complicated at all. The presets exist for a reason - use them and I don't see why a beginner can't get going, then expand into learning the controls later if they want. Better that than buying a simple detector, then selling it later to upgrade. Surely most people can do this: I have a short Equinox tutorial here

This time I was using my ORX metal detector with the 9" round HF coil and had it set to 50 khz and the VDI I got on the earing was 74and it was on edge. The earing is marked 925

Went back to that rich flour gold patch today and again got a substantial amount of flour gold from the North Saskatchewan River. Today's amount was 1.9g for a 4 hour gig. So, that makes a total of four grams of gold during my last 2 trips (totaling 8 hours).

Ever seen all the "broken down chip readers" on card machines in gas stations, etc that have a hand written note saying to scan your card because the chip reader is broken? After 3 credit card #'s getting stolen I got suspicious about those and started wondering how it is that so many chip readers seem to break down yet the swiper part magically never breaks. It's because they don't. The easy to buy card skimmers work by taping over the existing swiper. The chip reader requires you to insert your card into the machine and it can't be faked without faking the entire machine. So they say the chip is broken and tell you to use the swiper instead, where you CC is stolen. Sure enough, I went back to the Loaf N Jug where I strongly suspected my last CC was stolen, and I used the chip reader despite the "broken sign". And lo and behold - it wasn't broken. It's these ones, here's a vid I found showing basically the same thing. I refuse to use any machine that says "broken chip reader" now. It's almost certainly employees stealing #'s. Something to be aware of today.

The 600/800, Legend and Deus 2 really do have target ID stability that is on another level. So SLD, consider that when making a choice. Thanks for that story about your wife and daughter using your Nox 800 and the photo of their finds Simon! I wouldn't have dug all of these targets shown below with the Nox 700/900 or with single frequency detectors since most were deep enough to change the air test target IDs that Simon mentioned into target IDs that were not as reliable or trustworthy at least where I detect. This is a photo of US clad and copper coins recovered by Deus ll and the Legend since mid July 2023 after I took the previous batch to the bank after cleaning them. The Deus ll with the 13X11" coil is also absolutely killing it on deep US silver dimes and Wheat pennies in aluminum and iron trashed parks that I thought were done. The Legend with the 6" coil is doing really well in thick iron trash on US Seated and Barber dimes too. It's absolutely true that these advanced detectors can also be used in their default modes by new users. I have had the pleasure of helping several club members with Deus 2, Legend, Equinox 600/800, and Equinox 700/900 purchases in the past year. Most were already experienced detector users and picked them up easily. The people that had never detected before needed a lot more guidance on keeping it simple in the beginning and doing lots of target testing before hunting to learn the basic common target IDs and audio responses. A few dropped out but several have become really good in a short time. Luckily we have this excellent forum with tons of information to guide people who want to purchase a quality detector that can make this hobby both fun and productive for them.

Welcome to the forum! Almost anyone need look no farther than the Minelab Equinox 800, Nokta Legend or XP Deus 2 for the vast majority of normal metal detecting - coins, relics, jewelry, and even gold nuggets. They will all get the job done and done well, and the difference between them is negligible. The Minelab Manticore will probably replace the Equinox 800 as the way to go once the software is finalized and coils fully available. It's probably a better bet looking forward for a really serious operator, but the Equinox 800 has bang for the buck that can't be denied. Outside of serious gold prospecting there honestly is no need to look at anything but these three or four detectors, and do rest assured they are all very good. Most of the debate on these forum boil down to hair splitting over the fringe targets, with all these models normally doing just as well on the vast majority of normal targets. Pick one that seems to be a fit for you for whatever reason, even if one just looks cooler to you than the others. Flip a coin. But if you get one of these and truly apply yourself to learning it and more importantly, putting in hours on good locations, you will do well.

I've heard rumors that Mr. H. was off associating with a nefarious gaggle of prospectors and not tending to business. I know that Mr. Condor was a renown criminal investigator, so perhaps he could look into the matter. I, myself, didn't know the forum was down as I was out doing what the rest of you should be doing.

I have all three coils. I still use the 11" the most. 11x13 is great at the beach or in open fields. I find it hard to use at some parks because it's more suseptabe to EMI than the 11". Like others have said, pinpointing can be a challenge at times. When I've compared the 11 to 11x13 on buried targets, they both seem about equal. So IMO ground coverage with the 11x13 is the main advantage over the 11. If you beach hunt most of the time, I'd say get the 11x13. Otherwise it's probably money spent you could have saved for something else.

The equivalent would be another V/Sat. An updated version is the Garrett/Whites Goldmaster 24K. Outstanding detector. https://www.detectorprospector.com/metal-detector-database/garrett-goldmaster-24k-r155/

I got scammed, I bought a Pro-Find 35! I paid full price too.... 😭

Well, not teeth marks like someone would have made. I use to do that But “Horse Dung Ridge” left a bad taste in my mouth! 😂

Just updated my WS6 Master, and it did not erase my custom program. 🥳 It's called V2.00 SPECIAL. Pinpoint is working, but I'll have to wait until Sunday to take it to the beach. Ophelia is just about here. Hoping for some beach erosion. Thanks XP! 👍

This stuff is almost as expensive as gold. I made 5.1 LBS of this stuff. Here's my jerky fresh out of my dehydrator this afternoon. Got to keep warm during the cooling days ahead.

Yep, I can tell by the type of vegetation and soil color clinging to the finds in that first photo exactly where Andrew had been...headed there right now. Seriously though, make sure any photos you are posting are at least stripped of any geo tag information in the image metadata (or, better yet, don't let your phone/camera tag the photos in the first place). That's the easiest way to inadvertently give away site or private permission information. Not only do you risk interlopers, you can add insult to injury and lose sensitive private permissions because the landowner may mistakenly think you are intentionally letting outsiders piggy back on to your site access without his permission.

I just have the 9" and 13X11" so I can't compare the 13X11" to just the 11". I can say that the 13X11"at 668 grams (1.47 lbs) is much heavier than the 9" at 448 grams (0.99 lbs.) and it certainly feels heavier on the stock shaft. Coverage is fantastic using the 13X11" and so is its ability to get through taller grass just by its sheer mass. I haven't used the 13X11" at a beach yet. The 13X11" that I have been using has been finding deep US silver dimes and deep wheat pennies that were missed by me with the 9". No doubt about it. Whether the 11" would have missed those compared to the 13X11"......no idea. Separation is still excellent using the 13X11". The onboard pinpointer function is not as accurate when using the 13X11" compared to the 9" I am using version 2.0 software. The 13X11" has been a good purchase for me so far.

July 9 2002 Part Two I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. Jacob cut a gentle slope into the facing of the wide trench. We hooked a chain up and slowly pulled it out and onto the surface. I had the water bypass open on the trommel and we took a few minutes to look it over. It was rusted and dented. The windows were broken and the interior was half filled with gravel. Jacob figured that the thugs that had murdered his crew had buried the truck so it wouldn’t be found. They had worked the claims for a few years and eventually hightailed it out of the area. Jacob said he didn’t know who they were but had heard rumors that they were wanted for a number of felonies. We pulled it out of the way and got back to work. Jacob said we could look it over more closely after we shut down for the day. TO BE CONTINUED .............

A couple more hunts the past two days. Welcome autumn! The leaves are turning to vivid yellow and red colors, the mosquitoes are gone, it's cooler and the days are getting shorter. And with little mountain runoff, the river is exposing more gravel bars. I again hit my honey-hole gold streak. Got another 2.6 grams to add to my totals. I am hoping the get an ounce this year.

Names are made up and people can even use a trusted name from one forum on another forum very easily. The bottom line is pretty simple - trust nobody and only use protected forms of payment. I’m constantly amazed by people that insist on using Friends and Family because they apparently think the insurance has no value. Yeah, it’s just extra money you are paying, UNTIL you get ripped off. Then I promise you will wish you had it. I insist on not using Friends and Family, and will only do business with PayPal address verified accounts. I’ve heard all kinds of excuses about why it’s not needed, or how you can get ripped off anyway, but my company in Alaska specialized in shipping millions of dollars of product worldwide, and I never got scammed. I have a finely tuned scam meter and know how to protect myself and using PayPal buyer protection is one of the best things going. Fraud is at all time highs and is everywhere. It’s a huge multi billion dollar enterprise, and if you don’t protect yourself it’s only a matter of time before you get hit. Buyer beware. Here is where the guy introduced himself. Even it raises red flags with me. An introduction that’s no introduction at all, clearly done just to satisfy the forum minimum.

Yep all my pictures I'll be posting were taken in my yard far from the actual permission. I recently learned about 3 guys who lost a good permission because they posted their finds on Facebook and did multiple YouTube videos with drone footage showing the landscape. Shortly after the landowners started having problems with trespassing and told them they were no longer welcome and to take the videos and post down. Amazes me what some people will do to get social media views.

As you know, $1 and $2.5 mid gold coins were tiny. For comparison, a tiny trime has a 14mm diameter, a $1 gold piece 12.5 to 14mm diameter and $2 1/2 gold piece had an 18mm diameter. So if you were lucky to possess one, it was also very easy to drop in grass or brush without noticing and even if you did realize it, still hard to sight find and recover. Many are found were people rested their horses near water. They reclined against a rock or tree, and it could easily slip out of a pocket there.

July 9 2002 Part Three We knocked off work a bit early. We had washed 130 yards of pay gravel and pulled the matts from the sluice run. We had concentrates from 315 yards of gravels in the tubs. We could see some nice looking gold poking out of the black sand. We will spend tomorrow doing the cleanup together. We got cleaned up and had a quick supper. Jacob wanted to look over his old truck before it got dark. So did I. Then he told me something. He said whoever buried that truck probably didn’t know he had some gold hidden in the dashboard. It seems he had stashed ten ounces of gold in two containers. They were tucked up behind the dash in a little compartment he had made. Jacob told me to feel up under the dash on the passenger side. I shoveled out some of the gravel from the cab and got down on my back with a flashlight. There was a black metal box bolted up there. He said yep, that’s it. I got some wrenches and after spraying the nuts and bolts with penetrating oil they came loose and I dropped the box down to the floor. There was a rusty latch on the box which I broke loose by prying on it. When it opened there were two smaller boxes inside. They were wooden but had been wrapped in leather. Jacob was shaking his head and gave out a chuckle. He said he remembered wrapping the boxes with leather so they wouldn’t rattle. He told me to go ahead and open the boxes. There was the gold still sitting in them. I weighed it up and there was indeed ten ounces. Jacob was holding them and remembered he had kept a poke of gold in the truck for emergencies. Unfortunately he had never got the chance to get that gold. He handed me one of the wooden boxes and said it was mine because we were partners. That’s the way he was. TO BE CONTINUED .......................

I found this guy's video interesting; he bought a 12" Concentric X-coil prototype for his GPZ off Dave Dench and was using it to compare to other coils/detectors for his own interest really but decided to film some stuff. He's not associated with X-coils in any way and bought both of his X-coils and the 12" Concentric he is using is a prototype and never released to the public for sale so he was lucky to be able to buy it off Dave. I already own all the coils in question in the video so already knew my results so I wasn't all that interested in that part of the video however what stood out to me in his video was the performance difference between Normal and Difficult on the 6000, I've heard a lot of people say there is very little in it, I always felt differently that difficult is fairly neutered compared to normal but I put it down to my soils, then I see this guy's video in Western Australia's red dirt and he's seeing the same as I do by the looks of it. You can skip to about the 10-minute mark to just see the difference he's seeing between normal and difficult on the 6000 if you don't have interest in the GPZ side of it. He found some targets and compared the detectors and coils on them, the targets turned out to be gold. I guess the people confident that there is very little difference between normal and difficult could be basing that off their soil where normal isn't working as well as it can so its performance is hindered making it more like the performance of difficult but for people that can run in normal on the 6000, they will quite clearly see the difference in performance between the two modes with normal being significantly better. The GPZ is the same although I think the performance difference is much more dramatic, if I had to run the GPZ in difficult I'd be quite disappointed by its performance as I've been spoilt by my soil conditions meaning I can mostly run in normal everywhere and I think that's partly why some think the 6000 is doing better for them than the 7000 did, as the 6000 even in difficult is better than the 7000 on very small gold in standard coil setups regardless of which of the modes you're in. In 7000 with a smaller coil in soils that it can run effectively in normal is a beast so I hope if there ever is a GPZ 8000 they have improved the ground handling enough so people stuck in difficult can experience the power of normal in their soils and that I think will be the key to the 8000's success along with offering the right size and types of coils. I even go as far as putting up with a noisy normal than switching to difficult on the GPZ as I've proven to myself time and time again that if I was in difficult on the GPZ, I'd miss so much gold and by the looks of his video he would be missing a lot of gold in difficult on the 6000 he'd find in normal too. If he had not cleared the rocks around where the nugget was to get the GPX coil very close to the ground it would entirely miss the gold in difficult but likely would find it in normal.

The Nox 800 in defaults is basically the Vanquish which is designed more for beginners, only they've added an option to ground balance which in some situations makes it even easier to use than the Vanquish, most need not trouble themselves with advanced settings, I rarely venture outside of defaults myself and I do just fine, I think. The Target ID stability of the 800 makes it a great beginner's detector, set it in your desired mode for location where is easily set out and understandable how to use and off you go, if you pass over a coin and know it's air test ID you'll likely dig it, even my daughter at 9 years of age was using the Nox on her first time detecting and found it easy to use and found a heap of $1 and $2 coins. I tried to put her on the Go-Find and then the T2 that day, both were rejected so I had to hand over my Nox as she wanted the good ID's and I used the T2 my wife refused to detect using the Go-Find and didn't want to use the T2 with its dodgy ID's so she just didn't detect even though we were in a place loaded with dollar coins. When she saw a 21 or 22 repeating over and over again on the screen, she knew she had herself some money and that's great fun for a kid. It ended up encouraging my wife and daughter to come back with me over the next few days seeing we were staying in the area and we cleaned up real good, all the gold coins are $1 and $2 coins. It's nice to be able to grow into a detector rather than have to replace it upgrading when you feel the time is there to dabble with settings.

900 is fine also - I was trying to keep it tight, not end up with a list a mile long. My comment in return is that if not Equinox 800 then go all the way to Manticore. But again, whatever, it’s splitting hairs over personal preferences. Let’s amend my list to Minelab Equinox, Nokta Legend or XP Deus 2 and leave the exact Equinox model up in the air. I’d be fine with any of them.

I have the 9", 11", and 13x11". I bought the 11" because the 13x11 was not out. A week later one became available and I bought it. I'm glad I did. I have not taken the 13x11" coil off my Deus 2 since I got it for the most part. Now that the WS6 can have almost all the same settings as the D2 remote, the 9" resides permanently on my original XP shaft with the WS6, and the 13" on my SteveG CF shaft with the D2 remote. Most of the year I have the waveguides attached, but take them off when I'm going to be in the field. I use the 13" everywhere, the beach and fields and campgrounds I hunt. I've used it in the water but prefer the 9" for that, and I have rigged up a waveguide to the WS6. If I plan on going submerged in water I'll use the 13". I agree with Jeff that the pinpoint isn't all that great, but by X'ing with the coil I can pretty much nail the target, if off center it is either iron or aluminum. The 9" is faster for retrieval but the 13" goes a bit deeper and covers more ground quickly. Its ability to find even small targets is fine. About the only thing it isn't great in is field stubble, but neither is the 11". I did some comparisons between all 3, and also weighed them against my Equinox 600 with a 10x5" coil. The SteveG rig with the 13" is just a bit lighter! The WS6 Master setup is insanely light. It only took a short time to get used to the 13", but I recommend a carbon fiber shaft to use it with. Get spare bolts, you will break them occasionally. I keep them in my finds bag. The coil's off center mount is not optimum for stability. I tried centering devices but broke more bolts. It will flop a bit, but I'm so used to it now it's no big deal. I do not regret buying the 13x11 at all, and really don't regret buying the 11", but it's kinda a "case queen". I keep it charged and bring it on trips in case something goes wrong with one of the other 2.

When working the hives we are very careful to not squash many bees. Not because we don't want to lose bees (about 50K in a hive and during summer they only live about 30 days) but because it releases an alarm scent that gets them riled up. If I smash a few on my suit they will often follow me back to the truck even 100 yards away.

Geof-junk, Using Penny/Dime Weight may give away my age. It’s a much simpler measurement for simpletons like me to figure. 20 dwts to the ounce vs 31.1 grams to the ounce. Of course I understand both when it comes time to sell 😂. Rick

There wasn't much beach erosion, but my beach program functioned well using it in the WS6 Master update. Low tide was higher than the highest tide I've seen here, I stepped off the bottom step right into the wash. Imagine a 4 foot surge above this. 😬 Yesterday I would have stepped in the water 4 feet higher with 3-5 foot waves above that. Bottom step of the stairs indicated about a foot of sand moved away from it, this step was nearly level with the beach last week. Didn't get to do much but I did find some stuff, one piece of iron and these two toasted copper memorials: Both were pretty deep under 6" of water and one was under a rock. The WS6 acted like the remote, pretty much no difference with the same settings. I was happy with finding them, and everything worked well except that pinpoint on the WS6 wasn't very loud. The headphones were turned up all the way with audio at 9, and I could barely hear pinpoint when I turned it on. I don't use it much anyway but that was odd.

How did they find the $10 bill? :⁠-⁠)

Wives that enable our fun are priceless. My Wife just giggles at my excitement over what I think are killer finds. She always asks if I found anything good, and when I say yes and show her an old silver dime and a junky piece of .925 jewelry she really does just giggle. She thinks it's just dumb, but cute 😆. I think some of the silly stuff she likes to do is just dumb, but cute too 😁. It works for us! - Dave

The 900’s target ID stability is a fatal flaw for my needs, I’d take an 800 any day, if they keep the 800 alive I hope they put it in a 900 body, if they do I’ll upgrade my 800.

Thanks for the add!! Long time reader, very informative forum this one. Don’t get a lot looking for gold, but when I do, I do enjoy it. Own gpx5000 and an sdc2300. look forward to learning more about the detectors. Cheers ant.

The UK distributor, Detecnicks Ltd. has the Versa available now. USA purchasers use their E Bay site to ship to the USA. The descriptions of the available packages are abbreviated so you have to compare the pricing to be sure. The higher priced ones include the accessory 9X8 DD coil. Mine should be here in about 2 weeks.

Thanks for all the comments guys. I'll update the thread as time goes on with more finds I made in the Fall of last year through the Fall of this year.

All good, you missed the joke in it 🙂

I went out on a freshwater beach yesterday and tried a bunch of different modes. I ended up using Beach Low Conductors with a recovery speed of 5 (at the end). After spending a few hours digging junk it was getting late and I was feeling less than happy with my results. I detected along the waters edge on my way back to the parking lot and ended up digging these pennies. The dime was my lone treasure find in the dry sand. The signals I was getting on these pennies didn't give me any solid indication they were lurking under the sand. I would get a faint high tone, a tiny smear in the upper 90's and see a high 90's number, but then it would be gone in a flash and there would be numbers jumping all over the 50's and 60's with a smear on the screen from the upper ferrous into the middle of the screen. I would hardly ever see the 90's number again. Sometimes I would be getting the 00 number with the blue wave underneath it. Most of the junk I dug I knew with a pretty good degree of certainty what it would be before hand based on my previous trip to this beach and digging junk. But I still dug it anyway just to confirm. I should have taken a few pics of just how black the sand was near the water. One pic of what the beach edge looked like where I found the pennies. Any tips for cleaning these?

LuckyLunndy a great write up of your adventure. I wish I had a ¼ of your skill with words, but no hope with my dyslexic spelling ability. It great to see the old measurements dwt and ounces but since gold has been at approx. a $100 Aus. a gram I have been leaning to wards the metric system. It is not a nugget unless it is a pennyweight or ounce 😉 Keep your story coming as it is always welcome. Using the eye and not Gerry's mouth is great. 🤣

Golden Eye 007 there used his spy skills to find a monster of a nugget. Very cool, and motivation and inspiration for those that think the days are over for Rye Patch area.

It did! I love evaporust. Reverse electrolysis would have worked as well, but I find I lack the patience and turn the amperage up too high, which results in pitting and things falling apart, especially wrought iron. The chemical works at its own pace, no matter how much I'm hopping up and down 😄

Bugs are gone, cool weather and low water opens up more gold-rich gravel. I think I found another pay streak today, judging by the amount of gold showing in my hopper drop zone on the sluice. Ran out of time to clean it this evening. Will do a final clean up later on this week.

I am using a 60A/Hr Lithium ion battery, with a Johnson 2200gal/hr bilge pump. The spray bars come with the unit. I purchased the unit at Geo Sluice Mining.