Leaderboard

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

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

After owning the axiom for about 8months and only using monos with great success I decided to treat myself in a trashy site to only digging non ferrous targets and hey it worked! In middle of about 20 pieces of trash I could clearly hear something shining thru, low and behold 10 or so beautiful gold pieces. Half went with a friend that was with me, my half in the picture. Ended up digging every target in the pike for 2 day as I thought we were on some high grade ore but all the gold was sitting right on top with lots of trash.lol

I recently obtained permission for my club to hunt a sizable piece of property with historical group usage going back over 100 years. Over 40 of us showed up on the designated day. I heard several people say their first signal of the day was a silver dime! By the afternoon, I was getting a little discouraged with a wheat or two, some bullets, a fishing weight and a couple modern coins. I had also found a 12 pound section of an old brass pot or urn. Based on the radius of curvature, that thing must have been huge, not to mention extremely heavy! I had to make a special trip back to the car for that thing, as it was too heavy to carry with me all day. I finally broke the silver drought with a 64 Rosie after lunch. A while after that, another club member hunting near me found a beautiful Ben Franklin silver half. I told him it was gorgeous, and mentioned I had never found a half outside a seeded hunt - let alone a silver one. He encouraged me and said I will find one sooner or later and it might be a Walker or even a Barber. As he moved on, I hit a nail patch and decided to slow down and go over it. I was using my Deus 2 with the 11x13 coil - not optimum for dense nails, but I wasn’t going back to the car for the 9” that late in the day. After a little comparison, I switched to the Tekkna program. From what I have read, it might not be the best program for a large coil and dense ferrous targets, but it was more stable and much quieter in the dense nails than my custom program. After walking two lines through the nails, I had recovered four wheats and a worn cuff link (?), and figured there may be more hiding. Sure enough, I hit a nice mid-90’s signal that was so strong it had to be a can lid or the like. But, with multiple nearby wheats, I was digging it anyway. About three inches down, I caught my breath as I saw a silver disk emerge. Surely, it was an aluminum punch like another one I had found, but then I saw the reeding on the edge. I was flabbergasted to see Lady Liberty emerge from the dirt! Despite the dense iron (based on the stain, it would appear the coin was actually in contact with iron) using Tekkna and the 11x13 worked well. I would say this is the best coin I have ever found! In hindsight, I wonder what would have happened if my club member had said I would find a $20 gold piece…🤪 I also found a maple tree tap and what I think is a musket ball. The wheats range from 1911 through the 1950’s, with only the 1920’s not represented. We are working on permission to go back again!

In a last ditch effort to find something cool today I went out into my pasture this evening. I found a gun. Judging by the barrel the kid used too many caps at once. 😱😂

Nokta Gold Pie Generated with AI ∙ April 23, 2024 Nokta Relic Pie Generated with AI ∙ April 23, 2024

Thanks Chuck. Yes research is a big part of success. But most of these camps I hunt have been hit for decades before I ever got to them. Maybe a pocket of untouched relics here and there where I found a bunch of stuff concentrated. But more importantly, the people that hit the areas were after the high conductive targets. Big bullets, big buttons and silver coins are all but gone. Plenty of the low conductors left if you don't mind sorting through the .22 brass, .22 lead and percussion caps. Generally speaking, officers were paid in gold and enlisted men paid in silver. Enlisted men's pay in the 1850's was about $11 a month if I remember correctly. Whereas an officer would earn anywhere from $30-40 a month.

Looking at social media a lot of people are getting very annoyed at Garrett and their marketing method for the Storm, people really don't appreciate these hype up marketing then nothing type releases. It's turning people against them, people are choosing to buy competitors machines as they've waited and waited and it hasn't arrived, a lot of expectations were around the Anniversary celebrations for the release, that never happened so now expectations are it's a long way off or they would have done it then. What we do likely know though, is its name is the storm, with a nice little coil for the O in the name. The hats are a bit of a giveaway. I don't think the detector is going to be bumble bee yellow and black, it's blue for sure. I think the long lead up to releases is very damaging for a company to do, they may see it as it stops loyal customers buying another brand in the meantime knowing the Garrett is coming while they get the detector ready for release, but it looks to me like the opposite is happening as very few like the marketing method, and it's pushing them into buying other brands and some other brands are taking advantage of that sentiment with very good price reductions going on now. It went from initial excitement to annoyance about waiting.....

It’s not that hard to find gold nuggets if all a person wants to do is be a hobbyist and find a few. It’s the making solid money detecting gold nuggets that has gotten extremely difficult. In a way it’s too little too late, but drying up does not mean dry, just getting there. Think silver coins. Not gone, but they sure are rarer finds than 40 years ago, even though machines are far better now. But on the other hand high PI prices have been a barrier to ownership for many; a good low price PI will find buyers, as Alfoforce has already proved. Also, rising gold prices is boosting interest in chasing even the crumbs that are left. Occasional large nugget finds keep the hope alive. Long story short there is still a market for a gold nugget PI, but as Minelab knows very well the heyday is long over. It’s just competition fighting over ever smaller pieces of pie 🙂 This is a real problem overall for all detector companies now. There is not one area of detecting that is not facing declining returns. People still beach hunt, still hunt for silver coins, still hunt for relics, still chase gold nuggets. Newbies are still enticed into the fold. But I doubt any of us here who have been at this long think things are as good as they used to be. In a way we are victims of our own success. Long story short Nokta has indeed missed the big bus with this detector that should have come years ago and now they will be fighting for a seat already taken by others. As a nugget hunter I know there is nothing they can do that will really matter except make a machine that clearly blows away a GPZ 7000 and I am not holding my breath for that. In the area of affordable PI AlgoForce is already taking sales from Nokta in Australia, and it’s only the delay in reaching the U.S. that’s giving Nokta any breathing room here. Yes, they are way too late compared to what they might have achieved just three years ago prior to the GPX 6000 release. What the market clearly lacks at this time, the machine that I personally would buy, is one that is a very good nugget detector but that also is a fully submersible water machine. Minelab only offers the SDC 2300 but it’s a joke for water detecting since it floats like a cork. Axiom, AlgoForce… not waterproof. Impulse AQ Gold dead before arrival. What I was hoping for from Nokta was a machine that would extend my nugget detecting by also being an excellent beach detector. I would sell all my other PI detectors to own that machine. I think others would also. If there is not a model that captures that desire, then not only will Nokta be late to the party, but they will have lost my interest in this detector. It’s the one thing really left to do, make a good alternative to the 7 lb Garrett ATX. Not a very high bar, but are they even going to try? The initial ad blurb is not promising. I need something better than this…..

If I'm remembering what I learned in class correctly, this is where I'm supposed to say I found them down in the lake . - Dave

Flat Spiral Wound Coils increase and concentrate the magnetic field near to the coil. The following four ten inch coils are designed with 2 mm Litz wire with number of turns needed to approximately meet the industry standard inductance of 300 microhenrys (uH). The flat spiral coil has 43 turns in a 3.39” band that leaves a 3.23” diameter center hole. There is another flat spiral coil that has 0.1 mm spacing between turns. It has 55 turns that leaves a 1” diameter center hole. The 5x5 stacked coil has 24 turns in a 0.4” square band that leaves a 9.2” diameter center hole. The cylinder coil has 16.5 vertical stacked turns in a 0.2” band that leaves a 9.8” diameter center hole. The magnetic unit of Tesla or milliteslas (mT) is named after Nikola Tesla. Examples are (5 mT) – the strength of a typical refrigerator magnet; (.05 mT) – the strength of the earth’s magnetic field on a compass. The attached chart shows that the magnetic field of spiral wound coils is strongest close to the coil and concentrates through the center hole of the flat windings. This provides exceptional results on small nuggets and sharp pinpointing within the center hole of the coil windings. Click on chart to expand it.

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.

Decided to go with the 13 inch coil today at one of my cellar hole homesteads out in the woods. My plan was to use a couple of variations of the Tekkna program. I've been using it on my 9" coil and it keeps surprising me by sniffing out nonferrous targets at some heavily hunted sites. Wasn't really sure it would work well with the big coil with all the iron at this site but once again it surprised me with a handful of nonferrous finds. I started out with the "classic" version of Tekkna in Sensitive Full Tones. But the falsing got annoying fairly quickly so I switched to Tekkna General 4 Tones. With multi tones I can play with the tone bins so the falsing doesn't bug me as much. I didn't find anything special today but I dug 7 small buttons, and a thimble with the big coil. Also dug an iron chape. Don't find many made of iron. The partial shoe buckle frame next to it appears to have been in a fire or it is made from an odd alloy. The whole trifid spoon and the trifid spoon top peice were from the previous hunt using the 9" coil and Sensitive Full Tones Tekkna. That is a very late 1600s or very early 1700s spoon and the first complete one that I have found. Those buttons below the spoon were from the earlier hunt. For me, Full Tones is most affective on the mid tones and it has been a button killer over the years. It loves the small bits of lead and pewter as well. I still can't quite get my head around using all that Disc in Tekkna, but it is putting finds in my pouch from some tired sites. Lodge

Understandable, very hard to see NZ in that amount of time, you'll be in a mad rush, I could spend 2 weeks just in my area and not run out of stuff to do as a tourist and many do, that's a pretty normal stay time around here. Always check the sky at night, especially when outside of cities on the South Island, the Aurora is very active at the moment, 2 nights ago taken from Queenstown Botanical Gardens.

Said like a true detector addict in denial, Simon. And being one myself, I don’t believe a word of it.

I don't see why anyone would think prospectors don't need ferrous disc. A gold PI is typically going to be designed to hit the tiniest bits possible and that can also mean tiny ferrous bits. A relic PI might be more tuned to hit bullet size targets at max depth while being less sensitive to every tiny bit of ferrous trash. In theory though you can do both in one detector so interesting to see why they feel the need for two models. It could be nothing more than what coil the machine comes with. We have no idea what the detector really looks like but let's go with the fuzzy profile as being real. Standard configuration with collapsing three piece rod, fairly large underarm battery. Big question - it it submersible? Beach hunters will be disappointed once again if the answer is no.

They just published on the Nokta site. Two new pulse machines are coming, one made of gold and one made of relics

Nice cover excuse but the point is it should be announced when ready, not before. I like Garrett 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.

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

Gerry included, there have been several very helpful people here that I would have to thank for their help, the well-knowns like Gerry and Steve, Chris, Rob and Ron, and the other members whom I was able to meet up with and go detecting with. I was recently fortunate enough to meet up with one member here who brought me out to one of their detecting places and gave me some great tips and pointy fingers, and as a result, this is what I found with my 6000. A little .21g nugget, and my first with the 6K. They’ll go unnamed, but they know I’m very appreciative to be able to go detecting with them. Thank you!

I killed many,many bad men with one of those, I also robbed banks and stage coaches. and absolutely no mortal man could out draw me, but nothing matched my famous shot when I got the giant rattlesnake in the eye at 300 paces. The next day was even more exciting. Thanks for the memories.

September 22 2002 Part Two Conor and I were working gravels through the tom when I got a call on my walkie talkie. It was Jacob and he wanted me to come up to the dig site. He said he had something to show me. When I got up there he had shut down the excavator and was standing near the edge of the giant hole he had been expanding. He pointed to the west side of the pit and said he had struck a solid wall of sloping bedrock. He had found the lateral boundaries of the rich material. Then he told me that the bedrock continued to drop in that area with no sign of a bottom. He showed me a test pan from and there was still plenty of coarse gold there. The area of the second stage drop zone was about 20 feet by 20 feet. He figured the best gold was still to be found wherever the bottom of that drop contacted bedrock. There was no way to tell how deep he would need to dig. He had a nice platform sitting on the first area of bedrock to start the next section. He would be able to go down about 20 to 25 feet from there without expanding his footprint. If the bedrock was still deeper than that he would need to back out and come back in from the south side by digging what would amount to a massive trench that would slope downward deep into the channel. If that was needed it might require timbering the sides for safety or digging a very wide cut. In other words, a big project. All we could do was hope he struck bedrock from where he was presently stationed. TO BE CONTINUED ..............

The young lady below lost her favorite sterling silver ring on a sports field playing lacrosse a couple days ago. Once she demonstrated approximately where she was on the field and where/how she was throwing the ball when the ring popped off, it look less than a minute to find it. Right on the surface under the unmowed grass, and multi-repeat 42/43 on the Legend. It took longer to power on and set up the machine than it did to find the ring!

September 21 2002 Part Three The only place we had to go would be back into the creek and they had quickly gotten the high ground and to the north as well as blocking us east and west. I hollered out and asked them what they wanted. There was only silence. Then I heard Jacob holler out. His voice was loud and deep and enough to scare off a grizzly. He told them that if they wanted a gun fight then they would get one. He called them every foul name I had ever heard and maybe a few others I hadn’t heard. He told them we were well armed and would shoot them to pieces and bury them in a hole on the mountain where no one would ever find them. One of the thugs hollered back to Jacob saying we misunderstood what they were doing and they only wanted to talk with us about possibly leasing a spot to mine on our claims. I hollered out that they had a mighty suspicious way of approaching us about a lease. Then I told them we were not interested and to get off our mine. Once again there was complete silence. Suddenly, without warning, Jacob opened up with his Thompson. He discharged an entire magazine up into the woods in the direction where the voice had come from. The rest of us opened up with our guns but kept our shots high. It sounded like a war was on. They did not return fire and all was quiet. Once again Jacob challenged them to fight like men. I heard some rustling of bushes up to the north and it sounded like they were leaving. We all fired more rounds up that way and also a few to the east and west but kept them high. Then it got quiet again. I was thinking they might not have realized what they were up against but now they knew. Would they leave or come back? TO BE CONTINUED ................. .

I am just scratching the surface as far as learning the Manticore, especially as far as how to work with the upper and lower ferrous limits and what the 2D screen is capable of. Since January 2024, I am at 34 US silver coins, 8 silver rings and 3 gold rings. All were found in public parks that I thought were on the verge of being hunted out by me and others using the Equinox 600/800 and were at least 7” deep in tough iron mineralized dirt.

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!

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

I suspect that not only have you gotten technically more proficient at metal detecting, but that your research methods narrowed down the areas where those quality finds were to be made and you focused on hitting them. With better machines, yes, but I'm thinking the key to those quality finds is really between your ears.

September 22 2002 Part Three We finished up our day without any problems or interruptions with 100 yards of washed gravel. We will do the cleanup in the morning. Guard duty will be shared in shifts tonight starting at dusk. I am ready to get the season finished up and head for home. I have not talked with Jacob or Conor about their plan to stay the Winter out here but I think it is a bad idea. TO BE CONTINUED .............

From https://cornellpubs.com/manufacturer/hubley-toy/ "Hubley — Founded by John Hubley in about 1894 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the Hubley Manufacturing Company made cast iron toys. Its earliest products were trains and trolleys powered by live steam, electricity, or spring mechanisms. Hubley produced stoves and still banks beginning in 1909. It later added horse-drawn fire and circus wagons, cap pistols, trucks, cars, motorcycles, and, in the 1920s, dollhouse kitchen appliances. By 1940 Hubley had become the world’s largest manufacturer of cast-iron toys. Increasing freight charges and foreign competition made the company switch to die-cast toys of a zinc alloy. Hubley was acquired by Gabriel Industries in 1965 and now produces die-cast zinc and plastic toys as well as hobby kits." Photo of a similar model for sale here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/256318411250

I relic and coin hunt in my local area mostly at old homesites. I’ve done this type hunting for about 40 years when time and family life allowed for it. My first factory made detector was a Garrett back in the ‘80’s. I enjoy using both Apex detector and D2-9”. I bought the Apex soon after it was released. I had previously owned a ML Sovereign so I knew the virtues of SMF machines. More recently , the GTI-2500 was nice technology, but the Apex felt like heaven to my arm to swing especially since I’m older. I learned the Apex and could hardly wait for each day I could go out and use it. I still like it and use it today, anywhere the soil conditions allow. Being rechargeable, having wireless headphones and 5 tones, SMF like the Sovereign, but so much lighter than my old machines was and is a win-win for me. I will use the D2 when the soil conditions are tougher, and like that I can tweak a few settings to the soil conditions. I wish I could do even a subset of similar adjustments with the Apex as it would be the icing on the cake for me. I eagerly await the “Storm” like a lot of other Garrett fans, and I hope they address some of the (lack of) adjustability of the Apex. Meanwhile I’ll keep using and enjoying with both machines. Let’s hope it the Storm appears soon.

It was a good training and good company. It was a pleasure getting to get acquainted with you UT Dave and everyone else that attended. Had a blast myself. I would recommend this for anyone that wants to learn about this hobby, or even people that have a good foundation and want more specialized training. Wasn't my first nugget but I managed to scare this one out of the ground, I mean middle of the lake....

A few more photos of the Aurora Lights viewed over the weekend from various places around the Queenstown area. Very spectacular. I believe Mitchel is heading for Queenstown. D4g

At least where I detect, the Legend if setup for the ground conditions can hit and identify 10" coin sized targets no matter what conductivity they are. Much deeper than that and the targets (similar to the Nox 600/800) start to sound like iron. The Deep Target feature just released in V1.14 may help with that. My Manticore will also tend towards iron in the higher iron mineralized dirt that I hunt in especially on lower and mid conductive coin sized targets at around 10". Anyone just getting 8" max using their Legend must be hunting with iron rejected and with the iron filter on the default 8 setting, one of the smaller coils and/or they have the worst dirt on the planet. There are lots of absolute newbies to detecting giving their opinions about the Legend on Facebook and even making YouTube videos. Some of what they are saying is leaking onto the forums. They obviously don't know much about detecting yet, especially deep target detecting and I disregard most of what they are claiming. I like the name for the Deep Target feature. For me it really helps to clean up the iron/not iron choice on 8 to 10" deep ferrous and non-ferrous targets if I keep the setting on 2. In testing on 8" test garden coin sized targets and on actual 8" deep wild targets it has worked great. So far, I have gotten more information and cleaner hits using it on those targets than the Manticore gives me in ATG All Metal using 5 tones, in places where I really need good information.

The translator sometimes plays tricks on me 😂

I'm finally going to spend a day on this permission tomorrow. It will be my first time out in a known gold bearing area. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm heading there with high hopes, and will probably leave with a big dose of reality. Either way, my wife and I will have a great time. I'll update with any good finds.

I budgeted for a new Detector this year and was waiting to see what the Garrett Storm might be all about. With $500 off and a 15% Veteran discount I jumped on a new Manticore today. I then got to wondering if Minelab has made a "pre-emptive" strike against Garrett and the upcoming Storm with offering the Manticore at such a great price. Time will tell I guess. In the meantime I now have one Detector for each day of the week 🙂 Sure glad the wife enjoys detecting as much as I do.

Back in the late 60's, early 70's we would metal detect Patton's Desert Warfare training camps. We kept mainly to the camps near Desert Center, CA, Coxcomb, Iron Mountain and Granite. We also did the ones near Hyde and Horn, AZ and Camp Laguna by the Yuma Proving Grounds and one over towards Bouse, CA. Camps Coxcomb, Iron Mountain and Granite were where we did the best. We found a lot of stuff. Blank and live ammo, spent tank round, spent artillery round, 5 gal gas cans, bayonet, jungle knife and a ton of coins. Pretty much everything associated with an Army Camp! I was able to locate some pics of what we found. I also include a US Calvary crossed sabers found at Camp Hualapai up near Prescott, AZ. It was a US Calvary post that protected settlers traveling to the west coast and a New Zealand penny found in my grandparents yard in Walden, CO. My favorite find is the 3rd Armored Division lapel pin!

What an amazing group of eager customers we had on the 3 Days Field Training. The weather could not have been any better with temps in the 70's. Friday was so sunny many of us ended up with red face and a few days later peeling skins from the sunburn. Soil was still very damp and in fact some standing water in mud puddles on the way up to camp. My Field staff/I enjoyed a variety of detectors in the class. Gold Bug-2's, Gold Monster 1000, Equinox 800, Equinox 900, Manticores, GPX-6000's and a GPZ-7000. 1st day was mostly classroom and as soon as the students with a variety of backgrounds were able to witness the varieties of gold and how they respond to different detectors, boy did they start getting excited. As expected, the GB-2's coils respond to the tiniest of gold best, but as soon as you went to a small picker nugget, the Monster, Equinox and Manticore took over. Then it was seeing how the bigger 6000's & 7000 did on small, medium and large gold. It's amazing that everyone talks the depth of a PI or GPZ but how many of you have actually seen with your own eyes, one of those detectors respond on big gold at 2 feet, 3 feet and even 4'? Yes that's what we did one a couple big ones. Some people had no clue and wondered out-loud, if they could even dig a hole that deep??? Realize this was just an air test, but it's still impressive. Of the 12 customers, most found a piece of gold and a couple folks doubled down. I know 3 of them just quite didn't get that lucky but they tried hard and there is not much we can do about that. The good thing is they were able to find small foil and #8 bird-shots, so we know they are doing it right. No big gold was recovered as expected, but I know there still has to be a few chunky 1/4 oz'ers out there. I know a couple years back Arky's wife was running around with her 7 while he took the class with his 6 and she dug up an 8 gram solid chunk of Au. So yes there are still a few but nothing like it used to be. A couple of the students mentioned that they had taken Ray Mills class (in CA) and was noticing such a difference. Ray knows Geology and so most of the 1 day class is dedicated to such. They realized this class is much more detailed on the detectors and how to get the most out of them. How to tell ground from a true target and importance of proper coil control. It's funny how I can toss a small nugget in front of a student and yet they can't find if, even though they just seen where it was tossed. At the end of the class, the students can find that same nugget and then some. That's just part of the reason our class is 3 days instead of 1. I totally agree with Mr Mills class as well and so if you desire more of the geology side, you might reach out to him. The main road along the lake was actually the best I have seen it in years. But those of you who know Rye Patch area (and Northern NV) know the rocks are treacherous on tires. There was 3 flats during training, 2 flats just after class and yes one guy had 2 flats, but I took home the cake. I had a slow leaking tire and was able to limp how, getting air at each little stop all the way to Idaho. Luckily my truck as tire pressure sensors and I can see exactly which tire and how low. Well the drivers front got down to as low as 22 pounds between air ups but still held until the next stop at Rome Station (they have a pump that uses quarters). Anyway, when I got to Boise and took it in, they pulled the tire and showed me a tear in the face that was to big to be repaired. To order the exact same tire and size, would take 3 days. Well I knew those stock tires were on P rated (most 1/2 tons are), so I decided to get something more designed for my off road travels. $1250 (after military discount) and I'm sporting some new heavier tires and better tread. Moral of the story. If you are running around in N Nevada roads, you better have at least LT class tires or higher. Make sure you have at least 1 spare tire and the correct equipment to change it. I left my compact air compressor in my big truck, so dumb me on that part. Here's the truck with the new tread. Yes those of you running around that weekend did in fact see a semi truck driving around out there. That lady has balls. UT Chris took advantage of the Anniversary Promo and $500 off. Gerry's Detectors hand delivered it to hm right out there in the field. Below - Geno from NV using a GPX-6000 and CoilTek 14x9" GoldHawk coil finds gold. Below - Dave from UT shines a smile with his 1st NV gold using a Manticore and M8 coil. Below- UT Chris found the 1st nugget of the class early Saturday morning before we even got started that day. He scored it with a GPX-6000. Below - Geoff from NV was able to find a couple with his GPX-6000, here's his 1st. Below - Chris from Idaho started the class with a GB-2 but when he seen how the Identification System on the Equinox performed so much better than most other detectors, he traded up. Good for him for trading that last day, as he still was able to find his 1st gold. Below- Nancy the trucker is tough as nails. For someone of that age to be out there roughing it and go go go, with the never quit, it finally paid off with a little help from the Staff. She knows her Manticore can find small picker nuggets. Below- Dennis from CA was an interesting guy. His brother from Idaho took my class last year and so he knew exactly what to expect. We was happy as heck once he got the golden monkey off his back. He found it with his Equinox 900 and small 6" coil. He is also the same guy who ended up with 2 flat tires. Yes he drove a new F-150 with stock P rated tires. Below - Geno gets another RP nugget. This guy is getting the hang of it really well. Below - Horny toads were just starting to come out. We only seen one snake and it was at camp but not a rattler. Why do they call them Horny Toads? Below - Dave from UT find his 2nd nugget and it's pretty nice. He used the Manticore with M8 coil again. Did you catch the phrase on his shirt? My 1st piece of gold in 2024. No it's not worth sticking in my mouth like some of my big dogs. It took all of 45 minutes to find right near the burn barrel. I used GPX-6000 with stock 11" coil. Below - Best looking nugget of the trip was Jill and her Gold Monster 1000. Again, The group of students was so enjoyable and upbeat. Geoff/Jill brought a box of smoky quartz crystals and told everyone to take a couple for good luck. Boy it must have helped as most folks found gold. What's more important to my Staff/I than customers finding gold. Customers understanding their detectors more, learning to tell the difference of a ground noise and a target, proper coil control, knowing when to ground balance and why, what machines do best on a variety of gold and most of all.... self confidence in your detector and abilities. Thanks Eli, Lunk and Spencer for your support again. I have already received a few emails on how happy the customers were with you guys. Anyone else wanting to take advantage of the Anniversary Sale and save $150 off the Equinox 900 or $500 off the Manticore..call Gerry's Detectors, as I have a few left. Also remember, those who purchase their detectors from me, get an additional discount of $150 off the 3 Days Field Training. You only pay for training when you show up. Happy Hunting. Gerry in Idaho

As Steve said finds are drying up. Which is not to say that everything is gone. But it does take more research and effort to find good spots to detect. I've personally found more good quality finds over the last 10 years of my 40+ years of metal detecting, than those earlier years. Finds 40 years ago were plentiful, but the quality of the finds wasn't there. Technology has played a big part in bringing those good targets to light. That being said, I can see the writing on the wall and so my push over the last few years is to get my metal detector arsenal down to a few VLF's and 1 good PI. For me having multiple metal detectors is just getting to the point of it being too hard to store all the coils available for each unit and keep track of headphones, charging cables, etc. I've already settled on the 2 VLF's I prefer at the moment. But I'm still looking for the perfect PI. Hopefully Nokta will bring out something that will compete with what's already out there and at the same time offer people the features they have been asking for.

On the subject of gold and its value back in 2002 -- gold was anywhere from $310 to $350 an ounce that year. There were several partners that were part of the crew early in the season and left. They got their gold cut up to the time of leaving. When they were there and working it was a 4 way equal split. After they left the gold was being split up equally amongst Jacob and myself. When Conor came to the mine Jacob paid him out of his cut. Gold cuts and percentages can be a touchy thing, especially when there is gold fever in the camp. It can destroy a crew and ruin friendships. We were lucky. Jacob was not a greedy person. In fact, he was quite generous. Did we ever hit the jackpot at the end of the rainbow? Let's find out.

And, for fun and being real. Just some of the non-gold tiny bits I dug. I was keeping them for the first day and a half. Gerry told us how Lunk got his nickname. If they had been giving out nicknames for this class mine would have been Junk. I'm pretty sure I dug more tiny trash than anyone else by a pretty wide margin. That actually gave me confidence though. One of Gerry's staff members, Eli, helped me a lot with discerning targets from the ground. As I was getting a LOT of ground signals that were the same as a nugget signal. This junk really upped my confidence in believing I could tell a real target from the ground. And those three little bits of wire towards the right side, those were all three under the coil at the same time as my first nugget. And that felt pretty darn good to suss that out. - Dave

Steve, I'll do better about comparing detectors in a dedicated brand topic. Given the fact I have been comparing detectors for many years both privately and publicly, it's a hard habit to break. But you are right, we don't want to downplay one detector against another because we do well with it. To me, that's about where to take it. I only did so because these were two detectors I owned recently and had experience enough to talk about them. I'm not to speed" on most all the newest detectors. Can't say I want to be anymore. I just want to hunt. I remember one of the few times my wife actually went metal detecting with me and I gave her a popular non-motion discriminator I was testing at the time. I was using "old faithful". I asked her if she would like me to set it up for her... "No, I'll be fine!" I gave her some brief instruction on how to operate and she was gone across the school field extending the lower rod as she went. After two hours she returned to where I was and I noticed the searchcoil was swiveled around so the majority of the coil surface was under the pole! I started to smirk until she opened her hand, it was filled with coins, many were silver! She said, "How'd you do?" I had "red crickets"! 🙂 You are a good Admin, thank you.

September 22 2002 Part One Back To Mining Last night’s trouble ended as quickly as it started with no further incidents. The five men had vanished into the night. We must have scared them off. The question for us now is did they leave the area or are they still hiding out on the mountain waiting for the right time to rob us? There is no way to know. This morning we all got back to the work at hand after we had a quick meeting over breakfast. We will need to take turns on night guard duty for the remainder of the season. The weather remains in our favor and we will push on and hopefully get all of the gold out of the glory hole we are working. The mining season is growing short and I am anxious to get back home with my gold. TO BE CONTINUED ...............

As a dedicated Beach Hunter and owning the D2 and Equinox 800 I will not be getting the Manticore. We have done numerous depth tests over two seasons in different conditions different days, maybe close to 15 buried tests. To be honest the D2 and Manticore are too close to call on depth and the Equinox might be 1" difference less than both of those. One thing on the Manticore I do not like is, all the coil cross supports. I am a ground scrubber and the Manticore is one big sand plow. In my location, I do not see any advantage that the Manticore would cover different from what I already own. 😎

I live on the property of a 1400 acre conference center that also has two summer camps for kids. Up on the mountain behind my house is a former camping area. There’s also an old spring up there where I’ve found old relics and two silver dimes. The camping area probably hasn’t been used in at least 20 years so there’s older stuff mixed in with newer stuff. I hiked up there Saturday afternoon determined to find something good. I’ve hit this area quite a few times, but I never really scoured the camping area that hard. I immediately stared hitting some modern clad and then I got a solid 57 using the Tekkna program. About two inches down was a 1.43 gram 10k ring! Soon after that I hit a shiny silvery looking ring (not silver😧), and then not long after that what looks like an old copper wedding band. Here’s some pics. The pic of the spring was taken back in 2022 when I discovered it.

I have over the years built a few detectors and a large number of coils of all sizes and configurations. I have spent many hours with oscilloscopes and test equipment looking at results of the different timings and settings of the GPX 5000 with different coils and different target sizes. I have generated a lot of Excel spreadsheets in the process. Some of what I have learned is that the best coils are constructed with Litz wire which reduces skin effect losses. Coils should have an overall coil resistance of less than 0.5 ohms. This is important to ensure enough current flow has occurred to fully magnetize the coil before discharging it. Otherwise it will result in a weaker transmit magnetic field. High coil frequency response is required to sample for the smallest nuggets right after the pulsed magnetic field collapses. To accomplish this the coil is constructed in a manner that reduces stray capacitance and when possible low proximity effect losses between adjacent windings. Spiral windings are a partial solution to reducing stray capacitance and proximity effect losses and providing a high frequency response. The magnetic field pattern/lines of force around an air core coil are pretty much the same whether it is AC or DC or Pulsed currents. In order to save time I now rely on online calculators to simplify the process and design of coils. I used the online calculator below to generate each one-inch magnetic value for input data to the previous Excel chart. https://www.accelinstruments.com/Magnetic/Magnetic-field-calculator.html

Thanks Jeff. To be honest I’ve been needing some inspiration and motivation, and your post helps provide just that!

From what I have read the rope tensioners from the Civil War were made of wood, here's a patent for the metal ones that dates 1880. Civil War era rope tensioners were as mentioned made of wood and usually in the shape of a dog bone, some can be seen in this photo of Abe Lincoln in a Civil War camp at the Battlefield of Antietam, Maryland

After owning and loving 5 Equinox 600/800s, I thought I just couldn't survive without one. Now I own the Legend and Manticore. I simply do not miss my Equinox 600/800s at all. I don't even think about buying another Equinox or have the slightest bit of seller's remorse. The Legend and Manticore easily out perform the Equinox 600/800 where I detect the most and I don't have to worry about leaking and build quality either.