Steve Herschbach

Who you calling a rat?

Use a VLF when you can and a PI when you have to. For most low mineral ground in Alaska with no hot rocks and small gold I'd pull out the VLF first. If you are having trouble with hot rocks then go to the PI. Axiom in Alaska I'd stick with the 7x11 mono unless you realistically have quarter ounce or larger gold in the ground.

I lost track of the number of 1-3 ounce nuggets I've dug, with a few larger than that. In my experience settings were not the biggest factor. I'd say any good PI from SD2100 on up with a decent large coil, say 11" to 18", can do the trick. I got most of my large nuggets with the GP 3000 to GPX 5000 range and favored 16-18" mono coils. Tuning is purely ground dependent. My tuning is in reaction to ground feedback and so varies with location. Run it as high as you can until the ground itself is giving you issues and ride the edge with whatever settings put you at that edge. If you are not digging a hot rock or two, the settings may not be high enough. If you are digging too many hot rocks, you may need to back off. Find the bearable medium. Settings in severe ground will be totally different than settings in mild ground. Relying on canned settings is useless - learn how to tune up the detector for best performance in any given area. See the post on the GPX 4500 linked to below - the methodology is the same for all detectors. Like I said, tuning was not the thing that produced for me. As you noted, the area must have large gold history or at least good geology for producing large nuggets. If you are in an area where no large nuggets have been found the last 100 years, good luck. I researched and put myself on ground that had historical records of such gold being found. I found that with a decent but not superb operator (me) running a decent detector and coil with decent settings, I could figure getting maybe 90% or more of the over one ounce nuggets in the first pass. Being first over the nugget is 100% the key. Going back with later detectors, coils, tuning, etc. was always needle in a haystack work looking for the nuggets that I did not get the coil over. Ground coverage was my thing so following myself was always a bad bet, but I did get a few since nobody is perfect. The big ones I ever found that were because of some new detector or coil going deeper were very rare indeed. As geoff notes, hunting flogged ground is not the best way to find large gold. Large gold is the easiest and earliest gold to be found, in fact VLFs got a lions share by being first on shallow ground when the pickings were both large and easy. To sum up worry less about settings and more about research and doing whatever travel etc. it takes to put yourself on ground that has never been hunted or at least not hunted well. Such places still exist but are getting as rare as the big gold itself. There are still quite a few in Alaska, but all would require contacting mine owners for permission to access not to mention small plane travel to remote locations and related logistics.

I can neither confirm nor deny such a conversation ever took place.

The site has no restrictions on words and terms except the worst explicit language. I very strongly suggest you find a better place for your tales as you said you were going to do previously. You started one new story, did not finish it despite pleas from the fans here since the viewership is not up to your standards. You said you were done. Then we get reposts of prior episodes. Now it’s complaints about restrictions. This really has run its course, and you and I both agreed you’d be better off finding a new venue. If and when you ever do let me know and I’ll be happy to point people in that direction. It’s time for this zombie thread to die.

I lobbied very hard for them to actively support aftermarket suppliers and was basically ignored. Maybe they think it would be competition for what they sell, or think they would sell someday? I don't know, but in my opinion it has hurt Axiom sales more than they realize, if the detector would have had robust aftermarket support out of the starting gate.

As far as coils I'd like a standard DD 12" round, both above water and a water neutral wading coil, plus a 4x6 mono. If I had to pick one it would be the 12" round standard DD above water version. No interest personally in real large coils as they ruin the ergonomics, a prime reason I use the Axiom.

https://www.detectorprospector.com/magazine/steves-reviews/whites-tdi-pulse-induction-metal-detector/ https://www.detectorprospector.com/magazine/steves-mining-journal/whites-tdi-moore-creek-alaska/ https://www.detectorprospector.com/topic/3615-under-4-pound-under-2000-gbpi-challenge/ Depends what your intended use is. For nugget hunting any PI made now is a more powerful and better option than the TDI, including any Minelab made since the SD2200D. A Garrett Axiom for $1999 new (less on sale) is twice the machine a TDI ever was for nugget detecting. On the other hand the TDI original big box models were some of the best beach PI detectors ever made. If by newer designs you instead mean the newer TDI SL - it's actually less powerful than the original TDI and TDI Pro models. The links above should help. And if they are not enough here are 230 more threads to look at: https://www.detectorprospector.com/tags/whites tdi/

See thread here by person that shot the video To show a video here go to the actual YouTube page for the video and look for the share link, copy and paste here. Or sometimes in upper right of video itself - "copy link" button, copy and paste.

Sadly you posted it right before the forum meltdown last year, so it went missing from the old backup I ended up having to use to restore things. I'm truly sorry about that. I wonder if Internet Archive picked it up before things went poof?

Some of Nicks earliest posts were some incredible internal photos of Axiom coils, and explanations about their construction. Unfortunately those posts were lost as part of the “forum reset” that occurred last year. A real loss as the information was uniquely informative, and displayed Nicks great technical knowledge. Yes, good to see, as old dogs like me fade from the scene.

Thank you for the kind mention Nick. The GPAA magazine must be about the last printed magazine left now that all the detecting magazines and the ICMJ are gone. Or maybe there are some I am unaware of… I’m afraid I don’t peruse the magazine racks like I used to back in the day. Before the internet the latest issue of Western & Eastern Treasure or the ICMJ was the only way to connect with the community at all if you had no local club. One way communications for sure, and once a month at best, but all the more valued for its rarity.

More news here…. https://www.detectorprospector.com/topic/27875-nokta-active-magnetic-sensor-pi-detector-is-getting-closer-the-magnetar/

This is a very rare Coiltek Platypus 12x8 DD coil for the Minelab PI series and White's TDI. I bought the coil on eBay last year. The coils were sold new from about 2010 - 2015 so this coil is at least 10 years old, but is in excellent condition considering the age, cable is clean and flexible, showing no adverse signs of aging. I have included a new coil bolt, not shown in photo. They sold new for $295 (se old 2011 ad below). I am selling for $190 shipped to Lower 48 only via UPS or USPS. I accept PayPal and will only ship to the address shown on the buyers PayPal page. What makes these coils unique and rare is they are one of the very few epoxy filled and 100% waterproof coils for the Minelab PI series. Being epoxy filled means they are neutral weight underwater but heavier above water. This coil weighs 1 lb 9 oz or 704 grams with scuff cover, not bad really due to the open spoke design. This coil will also work on the Minelab SD-2000, SD-2100, SD-2200, GP-Extreme, GP-3000, GP-3500, GPX-4000, GPX-4500, GPX-4800, and GPX-5000. It WILL NOT work on the GPX 6000. This coil is also compatible with all White's TDI models except the TDI Beach Hunter, which has a hardwired coil. The new Algoforce E1500 was designed to run mono coils only. DD coils will work, but only one half of the coil will be active. I did run this on my Algoforce and it worked fine but what you end up with is really a 12x5 coil operationally.

Cleaned up ad deleting the sold items.