Steve Herschbach

If you want competitive depth tests you will have probably have to wait until after the machine is for sale. All decent VLF detectors made these days get depth within about an inch or less of each other. I’m sure the machine will perform well, and just as sure it won’t somehow blow everything else away.

Not in Reno but David H. Fell has a good reputation.

I gave it a brief spin. The Tarsacci Forum would be a better place to discuss that. I use what intrigues me, and right now I'm infatuated with the AQ. I have several machines, and can only use one at a time. https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/13112-first-gold-nugget-with-mdt-8000/

This scoop has a semi-pointed nose and I’ve been digging in rocks for years with it. The scoop is just fine, it’s the handle just finally gave up the ghost. I might get another scoop sometime, but I’ve got no complaints really with the one I have. The Stealth 720i would be high in my list for sure.

I have, mentioned it here.

Bottle caps and wire items, literally wire, and bobby pins, many are just going to sound good and have to get dug. I avoid most of the wire type stuff by digging deeper targets. Bottle caps, some give me a little ferrous edge. Many don’t. I’m still hunting exclusively in tones as I am not lacking for targets and need to weed them out. I am definitely going to hunt silver in a park with this thing. Coins in tones.... nice low tone, mellow, round signals.

I will later. I’ve got months of hunting ahead of me. Right now I’m using waders and paranoid about getting water in my eyes until I’ve completely healed up from cataract surgery. In a few weeks the water will be warmer and I will switch to my wetsuit and mask and snorkel work. But for now while learning the machine I’m quite content doing what I’m doing. Some of the best rings I’ve seen were in water shallow enough that moms can splash and play with the little kids.

I almost never hunt out of the water when at the beach. This stuff is mostly knee to crotch depth. Thanks for the tip on a homemade bender. 👍🏻

Here are my latest digs in the water at Tahoe. Things were going great until the handle on my old scoop finally gave up the ghost. Can't complain, it served me well, but not like you just run to the store and get another. I'll have to make one. Anyway, I have to admit at this point I am wondering where my first gold ring with the Impulse is at. Popular beach, tons of people in the water for many years, plenty of targets... no ring. Maybe somebody is running a magic detector here that finds gold rings while leaving all the aluminum tabs and nickels behind? I'm actually very pleased with this mix of trash. Exactly what I expect to be finding, but getting it pretty focused, good ratio of ferrous to non-ferrous. I’m digging tight signals that have a little depth to them. Generally ignoring boomer targets and surface double-blips, though a few surface targets got dug just because they were so easy. It's mostly bottle caps and large ferrous faking me out, but not so much as to bother me. I expect a certain amount. Anyway, I need to get a new handle made up so I can get back in the water tomorrow. Best find - a Buffalo nickel, can't read the date so far. The item in lower left is a corroded zinc penny. I’m in thick magnetite sands with lots of rock. Hunting tones exclusively, 7uS, sensitivity to max, ATS and reject at preset. Fisher Impulse - the non-ferrous Fisher Impulse - the ferrous Broken scoop handle

I usually toss the junk also, but have been saving everything to be able to show people "the full picture" at least initially.

It's no different than any mono coil on any PI detector I've ever used. It is a function of a PI mono coil, which is why it was easy for me. I've been doing this to locate small gold nuggets in a pile of dirt for many years. Long story short, it's not some kind of AQ magic.

The modes are just names. You can find reasons to use any mode for just about any type of detecting. Yes, “Gold Modes” are 800 only, can be used for coin, jewelry, relics... anything you want. It is a VCO audio mode, where the audio pitch and volume is tied directly to the target strength, not a “Gold Mode.”

As a guy that has used a lot of TDI detectors I can confirm that. An easy upgrade progression for any TDI owner.

Well, for me I’m a bit past worrying much about finding stuff. I’ve been detecting long enough to know if I put in the hours, that’s just going to happen. Sometimes sooner, sometimes later, but it will happen. I’m jaded these days and it takes some new intriguing machine to get me fired up. Frankly, since Equinox I’ve been bored waiting for something else to get my interest going. AQ is doing the trick. I’m having a ball with it. I really can’t ask anything more of a detector than that.

Is that everything you dug? If so, great results for a very focused target mix! 👍🏻

I’m pretty sure we would all be ecstatic if we could do just that, dig gold rings only, and no “other stuff.”

Posted by Metal Detecting For Arizona Gold July 4, 2020 In this video I go out to the Double J claim to gather up some mineralize soil for the Minelab Gold Monster 1000 depth test. I use 7 different Gold Nuggets and conduct the test using Auto 1 and Auto 2.

A house is a EMI (electromagnetic interference) generator, especially if you have any new LED lighting. Best bet is outside and well away from power lines.

Could have been electrical interference at that location, which usually can be confirmed by moving to a new location.

Yes, the unit came with two fitted scuff covers. But not a solid full bottom one like I am describing would be beneficial as a nugget hunting accessory. I wish the salinity control was a magic solution. However, even run at 50 it has no discernible effect on these type flat steel targets, while at the same time definitely attenuating the response to gold nuggets. That is why I ended up running it disabled.

The headphone cable on the AQ underwater headphones is over 6 feet long. But it is coiled up so tightly it pulls on and stresses the cable near to where it connects to the detector. Now certainly a good preventative measure is to use a tie wrap to attach the cable to the rod under the elbow as a strain relief. I'm a little lazier though and want my headphones to not be pulling that hard in the first place. The cable should hang with a bit of a slack in it before it gets to the detector, instead of pulling sharply upward. So this is an oldtimers trick to relax the cable on new headphones. Just tie them up and let them hang. You usually do not have to worry about them getting too long. In fact, you may have to do it again later as the try to go back to the original coiled configuration. But I get mine to where I want them, and worry a lot less about stressing the connector down the road.

I have no problem at all pinpointing with the AQ, way easier to get used to than my GPZ 7000 was. Targets in ground you have to work the signal with the coil. The threshold autotune will make the target get smaller and more defined with every sweep, until you get a good sharp, centered beep. If it will not do this the odds are you have a complex target or multiple targets under the coil. Once out of hole and into a pile, coil goes on edge, about a 45 degree angle, and hit from a couple different directions. I can almost put my finger on the target doing this. In general I also am digging targets that start off being well defined and centered, “round sounding”, more than it appears that you are, so they by nature are easier to pinpoint. Then they get more defined and sharper as I work them with the coil. It’s one of the characteristics of a ring type target, not just the sound but the shape of the sound. Bottom line is it sounds like I’m cherry picking my targets more than you are, which in turn is making them easier to pinpoint.

I shy away from absolutes in life, including detecting. I personally advocate for having both a VLF and a PI, for both land and water hunting. Personally I use PI detectors for almost all my detecting, whether for gold nuggets or on the beach, but I would never be caught not owning a great VLF. Owning one detector is like having a toolbox with only one tool in it!

In PI land there is a tendency to point at bad results and tell people “if you just knew your detector better.” It can’t be the technologies fault, it must be operator error. The reality is you can say the same thing about all detectors, VLF included, which also do not have perfect discrimination systems. It always helps to have more experience and know your equipment better. Yet this is also true. I can take a person who has never detected before and hand them an Excalibur and an AQ and have them use both for the first time for a half day at the same location. They are going to dig more junk with the AQ. I can also take a person who is an expert with an AQ and an Excalibur both, and they will no doubt still dig more junk with the AQ than the Excalibur. There is a genuine difference in the results that will be seen with the technology regardless of the experience levels of the operator. One answer to the issue of too much junk may be “you just need to get to know your AQ better.” The AQ however is not some kind of “cut through beds of iron and only see the gold” detector. There is another possible answer and it might be “should have used a VLF.” Use the proper tool for the job, and not all sites call for a PI.

Specific examples. I was nugget detecting in an area where multi lit up the hot rocks. Some experimentation revealed that the hot rocks went away using 20 kHz only. Employing single frequencies is a well known way for dealing with EMI in certain locations. 5 kHz only has been noted as having benefits of silver under some circumstances. And in this latest test here, GB got some surprising results using 40 kHz only in Gold Mode. More to your question directly however. Do you need the 800 over the 600? The 600 will do everything most people need, and will get exactly the same results on most targets as the 800. For beach detecting in particular the 600 is a great value, if that’s all a person wants to do. Others will insist the 800 has features they absolutely cannot live without, well worth the additional outlay. I fall into the camp of preferring to have capability that perhaps goes unused, than to find myself in a situation where I wished I had it but don’t.