Steve Herschbach

Wow, terrific find, and good chance of some key dates in there! Congratulations. Very few of us ever get to find a genuine stash like that.

No, it’s simply having the coil and mind integrated as one. The detector and coil by extension literally become part of my body. I have an inherent sense when I sweep a target correctly and the target id seems correct as opposed to making a swing that seems a little off center or too fast or too slow..... whatever. Sweep speed can be very fast, very slow, or anywhere in between depending on the detector. An experienced detectorist should know without even having to think about it that either slowing the sweep or increasing the sweep will improve the target id. It depends purely on the exact scenario as to what will work best. In most cases I find after getting a target that speeding up my sweep will help “sharpen” the target id number. Other times I may need to slow down. I think that connection between the mind and coil is one of the things that sets the best detectorists apart from the crowd. It is also almost impossible to define in words. It’s like trying to describe how to be great at swinging a golf club. The Minelab Equinox is a good example. I see people comment about the target id being inaccurate. I personally consider the machine to have an extremely accurate target id. The difference I believe is that some people think a detector should deliver very tame numbers that are always or nearly always the same. They see the Equinox numbers jump around and blame the machine for being inaccurate. I in turn am hearing somebody say they really don’t understand how an extremely fast, extremely accurate detector actually works, especially when sensitivity is being pushed to the edge. It’s all about coil control and knowing that you have “hit” the target correctly and knowing internally that the target id delivered is a “good one”. The truth is the Equinox is delivering the reality of the nuance under the coil. The only question is whether the operator can develop the skill required to accurately understand the machine and what it is saying. Coil control is critical to that ever happening.

Last four days....

I almost never took my GPZ coil off the ground and wore out several skid plates. Lifting off the ground is to deal with extreme ground. Generally not required in the U.S. From https://www.minelab.com/__files/f/254716/KBA 24-1 Basics of the GPZ 7000 Technology Zero Voltage Transmission (ZVT).pdf "In any of the above settings, it pays to swing the coil an inch or so above the soil surface if the soils are considered saturable (VRM). Saturable means that a detector ground balances well if the coil is raised and lowered down to about a few centimetres above the soil surface, and for the worst saturation, down to several centimetres, but not if the coil is swung up and down to a height lower than these saturation ‘height thresholds’ (e.g. down to the soil surface.) In addition, the degree of (VRM) soil saturation is considerably less for Difficult or Severe than Normal. As the metal detector coil is moved towards a soil, the transmitted magnetic field in the soil gets stronger. This causes a (very) small degree of VRM signal ‘saturation’ that happens to cause the resistive signal relative slope of the tilt to change. This is why the amount of VRM soil saturation is far less for Difficult and Severe than Normal. Soil saturation often requires the user to operate the coil several centimetres above the soil surface for best results. However, whilst soils do have resistive signal that are very accurately log‑linear, unfortunately this is not perfectly accurate for some soils, and, because the GPZ 7000 has such very high sensitivity, even miniscule deviations in the straightness of the line of the log‑linear resistive signal will cause ground noise signals. Severe is less sensitive to these miniscule deviations than Difficult. Whilst the GPZ 7000 does not have a dedicated ‘salt’ detection setting (saline soils), the best Gold Mode setting for salt soils is Extra Deep." That article was later refined into this newer article on the GPZ and bad ground.... https://www.minelab.com/__files/f/254714/KBA 27-2 Gold Detecting in Difficult Ground Conditions.pdf

Ganes Creek ran for ten years as a pay-to-mine operation - there are several more Ganes Creek stories on the website about the place. Over 1000 ounces of gold nuggets and specimens found by visitors in that ten years including several nuggets weighing over a pound! Our visit got the ball rolling and so was the start rather than the end. The scale of Ganes Creek commercial operations made the pay-to-mine pale by comparison. The last thing they were worried about was visitors finding too much gold. Just the opposite - when it got down to where people were having to work too hard for “too little gold” then the place got shut down. I don’t expect it will reopen to the public though commercial operations continue to this day. Between Ganes Creek and my own Moore Creek operation a “golden age” of nugget detecting was possible for visitors to Alaska. Opportunities still exist but nothing even close to what those two operations produced.

Hey Brian, that Memorial Day weekend in 2001 was when the whole idea of Ganes Creek as a pay-to-mine operation really got off the ground. I had an almost embarrassing run of luck that weekend! Ganes Creek, Alaska

If you would like to read an amusingly enthusiastic review of this pinpointer/detector combo check out Jack Barlow on Findmall.

Wait... he’s not!!!?? ?

The M97 is as basic as a detector gets. It goes beep, you dig it up. No discrimination, so lots of metal dug. It might be fun on a beach but in most places it will have you digging too much trash. Fisher M97 Owners Manual

My first CTX 3030 had a GPS that would not work new out of the box and had to be sent back for repair. I have never heard of one quitting that was working before, but it is certainly possible.

No, nothing on the X-Terra is a direct fit for Equinox. https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/4626-will-the-lower-rods-from-the-x-terra-work-on-the-equinox/

Solves what problem? The artificial problem being made up here on this thread? The one that does not actually exist and never did? The simple solution is to not make up problems before they exist.

Only if they are less than a few inches deep.

I prefer the Equinox over the Orx since the Equinox is waterproof and I want my detector to have that capability. That being the case I would also take a Multi Kruzer over the Orx. It’s all about deciding what features matter most to you.

If you mean White’s Official Forum it does appear to be down. White’s abandoned Findmall so I guess it’s possible they are letting that forum go also. Or maybe just a glitch....

Thanks Simon, I had not noticed that. The 24K is now the same price as the GMT - $729 with a single coil. Big jump from $599 ($699 dual coil package) and does change the equation. The 24K was $100 less than the Gold Monster when both came with two coils. Now it is $799 Gold Monster with two coils versus $729 Goldmaster 24K with one coil plus $149 for the small accessory coil. Looks like I need to fix a few of my info pages to reflect the price increase. Or should we say the end of the introductory offer?

This has been reported on extensively on the forum. Here is a list of threads. Leaving out dealer related threads there is not a lot, I will grant you that. From my perspective they both get the job done with neither machine having a clear edge. The Monster has the simplicity and the 24K the threshold sound and extra adjustments. I believe it is going to be a site specific and operator specific thing as to which machine is preferred as neither clearly blows the other away.

The only way to get good, accurate metal detector comparison videos is to do them yourself. The Orx just came out so expecting tons of videos delivering the exact kind of content you desire is probably premature. And nobody has ever considered the Orx to be a “beach detector” anyway so that’s about the last video I would expect to see. My own opinion is the saltwater beach, if you are halfway serious about it, is the place for a multifrequency machine or a pulse induction detector. The Orx will be just as poor on a saltwater beach as any detector running at a single frequency. It is inherent in the technology.

The “pinpointer only” version sells for only $119 which is the same as other similar units like the Fisher F-Pulse.

Nokta/Makro PulseDive brochure page 1 Nokta/Makro PulseDive brochure page 2

https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/8314-minelab-multi-frequency/page/6/

https://tarsacci.com Tarsacci MDT-8000 Data & User Reviews Tarsacci MDT-8000 metal detector

TheHunterGT Published on Mar 3, 2019 - Took the Anfibio out the old park for another "get to know me" hunt. So far things are coming together quite nicely. Found a nice Superman silver ring at about 8 inches and a silver Roosevelt dime at about 1-2 inches. Not a bad day TheHunterGT Published on Mar 21, 2019 - Another day out metal detecting the old park with the Anfibio. This spot never ceases to amaze me with all the shallow drops.