Steve Herschbach

I would not discard any quartz without examining it, especially the larger chucks. See this post for some ideas.

You and your detector are both in tune with each other I’d say! Congratulations Brian!! ??

It was a great machine in the day but realistically not worth a lot as Fred mentions. Minelab GT 16000 Manual Notes On Older Minelab VLF Models

Good for you Mike. I always wanted to get a Cortes with a Cleansweep and if I did not have a V3i/Bigfoot combo I'm sure I would have, but never could convince myself I needed both. Just curiosity - you know how it goes. And the light weight package does appeal.

Snow is invisible to a metal detector. You can’t ground balance to it. If you are getting a signal, it’s not the snow.

French speaking with english subtitles. Nice finds but wish he showed more of the detector in action.

Here is how I go about deciding what to use. Since you have and Equinox and a Sea Hunter I assume you know when you want to use a VLF for discrimination and when you want to use a PI to dig it all. It sounds like you lean to the dig it all for more depth mentality that leads to using a PI. So for this discussion I am assuming you have decided to use a PI. The question then is whether you need a ground balancing PI or not, which is why I asked about your beach conditions. I have not used the Sea Hunter but have a lot of experience with the White's Surf PI, which is similar. The Surf PI and Sea Hunter do not ground balance. The TDI has a ground balance option, so that is the difference we are exploring. In general with a ground balancing PI you will get the best depth with the ground balance off. Most PI detectors for saltwater detecting like the Sea Hunter therefore have no ground balance. There are conditions you will encounter however where this presents problems. First, in heavy black sand you will find that if you raise and lower the coil off the bottom the machine will signal due to the mineralization. This is a particular problem in heavy waves or when working a very uneven bottom. If you can keep the coil at a perfect distance over the bottom it is no problem as the autotune will smooth the signal, but if you raise the coil off the bottom the autotune can't keep up, so you get a false signal. In heavy waves where you can't keep steady footing raising the coil causes these false signals. If the bottom has lots of troughs and depressions, passing over these areas creates a false signal. The only way to deal with this if you have a Surf PI or Sea Hunter is to detune the detector until the false signals from lifting the coil off the bottom go away. But now you lose depth. Or you can leave the settings more for depth and try and sort the false signals out mentally, but this is very tiring. You can also run into hot rocks, typically basalt or rhyolite rocks embedded in less mineralized beach material. These will give a nice gold ring signal. Again, with a Surf Pi or Sea Hunter, you either detune the machine until they go away, giving up depth, or try and sort them by ear. In either of these situations a ground balancing detector allows you to eliminate the false signals I have described while retaining more depth than would be sacrificed by detuning the detector. The ground balance is basically just a ground notch setting that let's you eliminate troublesome ground signals. Gold rings that read close to the ground balance setting lose some depth. It also creates two tones, one for objects above the ground balance setting and another tone for those below the ground balance setting. Generally on the TDI if you ignore the low tone you will pass on most high conductive coins, large ferrous junk, and possibly very large or exceptionally high purity rings. Digging the high tone only gets the vast majority of rings, aluminum, nickels, and zinc pennies plus small ferrous trash. The dividing point is around zinc penny but it depends on the ground balance setting. See this thread for more details. So if you have having problems with false signals from heavy beach mineralization and hot rocks a TDI may be your solution. If not, you probably won't see much benefit, unless you think you understand and can apply the weird discrimination properties for some advantage. That's just my take on it. I'm perfectly content to use a Surf PI and dig everything in a lower cost more waterproof package than a TDI. Unless I run into conditions like I describe above, which for me were common in Hawaii. Than a ground balancing PI like the TDI can be a good alternative.

I’ve never detected Southern California beaches. In general west coast beaches are full of black sand magnetics derived from the coastal mountain ranges, and so a good place for the TDI. The other factor is trash levels and your desire for digging trash. In general places with lots of ferrous rusted stuff are a pain. PI detectors love ferrous stuff. Think hair pins and wire tie wraps.

What region are you in? The TDI as a ground balancing pulse induction detector shines in mineralized beach conditions. Volcanic islands for instance. Not so much on coral derived white sand beaches.

As a separate item? I don’t know. No mention of it on White’s website. Obviously they are making them since they come with the GMX so maybe all it takes is a phone call to the factory. Which I have not done.

Ok, it’s February.... where are the coils? ??‍♂️

The two detectors are neck and neck for gold finding capability. The 48 kHz White’s 24K at $729 is lower price out of pocket, but the 45 kHz Gold Monster at $849 comes with two coils and a rechargeable battery pack. If tuned as hot as possible but for stable operation the machines have almost identical performance. It is possible to overdrive the Gold Monster sensitivity to get a slight edge over the 24K, but it comes at the price of the coils becoming unstable and knock sensitive. I like both machines a lot and when I weeded out my collection they both stayed longer than most as I had a hard time deciding which I liked best. After a year of using both I finally sold the Gold Monster and kept the 24K. Why? Ergonomics had a lot to do with it. The 24K comes with an adjustable length rod, the GM a three piece screw together rod. Yeah, you can replace it, but why should you have to? The 24K “S” rod is counterbalanced by the battery pack under the arm, and is more comfortable than the nose heavy GM. The round handle on the 24K fits my hand better than the squared off GM handle. Finally, the 24K stays put when set on the ground and does not roll over like the top heavy GM. Each of these is a small thing in practice but all together add up to a solid ergonomic win for the 24K. The biggie for me however is enhanced options and control. I won’t make a list, suffice it to say the GM was designed for simplicity and as few controls as possible. The 24K on the other hand has a full suite of tuning options including full target id capability, which the GM lacks. I’m a control freak and more than anything else that’s what tipped it for me. The 24K is more versatile. Finally, coils. The GM you have the 5” round DD and 6” x 10” DD. The 24K has the 6.5” round concentric, 6” x 10” DD, 4” x 6” DD, and very soon 8” x 14” DD. To sum up I look at the machines as being a push when it comes to gold finding capability. Give me either and I will do fine and be happy. I recommend the GM for somebody who is control adverse and won’t read manuals. It’s as near automatic as you can get, just don’t overdrive the sensitivity. The 24K offers more versatility for those who thrive on that sort of thing, and along with the ergonomics out of box and extra coil options now I believe White’s has produced an excellent offering in the 24K. In my case at least it’s the one that stayed when the others went away. White’s Goldmaster 24K Data & Reviews

Welcome to the forum! Check and see if you have any local metal detecting clubs... always a great place to start.

You are a true inspiration Joe, thanks! ??

I’m not too worried about the name. It just seems like this would be the next detector on the list at Nokta/Makro, and a reasonable target date might be Detectival in September for an announcement. Availability next year. Just guessing.

Welcome to the forum!

The ferrous/non-ferrous break point in the 24K is set at 50 and gold in highly mineralized ground may read lower than 50.

How Deep Can I Detect Stuff? Most items you will dig will be less than a foot deep and only huge items more than two feet deep. People in this hobby spend another thousand dollars to get another inch or two of depth. $300 can get you a top notch detector these days. Good locations and hours are the key to success.

Take it to a local rock club or school geology department. Of post a really sharp photo.

Did anything ever come of this contest? It’s been over a year since the last post.

Too out of focus but at a guess I'd say arsenopyrite, a sulphide, and highly conductive. Second guess graphite. If it will easily mark up paper go with graphite. Whether some magnetic minerals sound off or not depends on the ground balance setting. Others that are conductive, like arsenopyrite, will pretty much beep no matter what. I have found many pounds of arsenopyrite while metal detecting so toss the sulphides are undetectable theory. It just depends on the sulphide.

There is an edit button under existing posts Jim. I fixed it for you but you can edit your own prior posts for up to 90 days. Your welcome Larry. The 24K is a great nugget detector and with some knowledge can be used for other tasks as well.

Sadly, not doing well according to this post.

Nice looking backpack. Longest part is 24" so a GPX upper rod or CTX lower rod would not fit but that's not the pack's fault. Really made more for smaller VLF detectors. If I did not already have a pile of packs I might be tempted but at US$149.00 I'll pass. Not my language but the video is very good....

Nice!