Digger Bob

Oh, I know all about that censorship on the "official" Whites forums. They actually banned Reg from posting on it because he dared to compare a Whites machine to another brand. He actually mentioned the name of the other brand! How dare he! So, yeah, from that standpoint, some of their marketing strategies are very strange.

Don't get me wrong, it's a very good machine. It's just simplified, much like the GMZ was to the GMT. Or the SST is to the MXT. And now we have the SGT, a simplified GMT. The market strategy may seem odd, but it makes sense. Easier to use and cheaper for someone just testing the waters to see if they like detecting. All brands have different models with different features and prices for a wide range of potential customers. Just trying to cover all the bases.

It was actually made for the African market, along with the SGT, the simplified GMT. The Africans didn't like it for several reasons so Whites kinda got stuck with a lot of inventory. It's been sitting "in storage" for the last two years until Jimmy decided to take a chance and see if there was a market here. It had to be priced right too, under $1000, to make it viable. It's the same as the SL but with some of the controls removed. It was thought a simple pulse machine over there would do well against the high priced Minelabs, but it didn't fly. Digger Bob

Good to have a bit of time to speak with you Steve. Too bad you're going to be gone all summer. Gonna miss those beautiful Nevada sunsets out in the desert. We'll try to hook up this fall for a hunt or two. Digger Bob

Our family was camped at a lake outside of Phoenix, AZ. that day. Suddenly, my dad and his friends noticed the water at the shore was slowly receding. It was a small shallow bay and at first we thought it was boat wakes causing it. But there were no boats going by at the time and the water kept dropping and dropping everywhere they looked, not just on our little shoreline. Then it starting coming back up to it's original level. Then it dropped again, then back again. It did this several times before stopping and settling into it's original level. They were mystified as to what could have caused the entire lake level to drop so suddenly and then return. It wasn't until we got home a few days later we learned of the quake so far away in Alaska and finally decided that was the cause. Incredible that the effect could be, not felt, but noticed so far away and in such an unusual manner. Digger Bob

Next up will be the previous property owners. The names and location won't be secret for long. As soon as that's known, the lawyers will crawl out from under rocks and try to claim it. And woah to them if it's learned that it used to be state or county land back in the 1800's. Then the government will take it all. Keep your mouth shut! Digger Bob

Interesting that you are having problems with EMI on the TDI. That's the one thing I noticed right off the bat when using it, that it hardly ever has problems with that. I can use it anywhere in town with no problems, whereas with the Minelab, I have to go 5 miles out of town before it begins to settle down. Digger Bob

Jimmy should have gotten the new loops today or in the next few. And yes, there is a plan to advertise and promote them. He also got a stock of the Digger loops which are a bigger version, but in Mono. So, if interested, give him a call, or better yet, your local dealer. Digger

The 9x5 Dual Field loop ( Jimmy Loop) was made for Whites and Jimmy Sierra by Dan Geyer. The bad news is that Dan passed away last year so no more have been made. There are still a few out there in dealers stock, I have one. The good news is that I hooked Jimmy up with a new person who is now making them, although of a slightly different construction. It is the loop I was using last weekend to find those nuggets I posted. It has the same sensitivity but is a bit more ruggedly built. Price remains the same. Digger Bob

Last Saturday I decided to get out and enjoy the unusual, for January, weather here in N. Calif. I met my partner Reno Jim and headed for a spot we've hunted for years. We didn't expect to find anything, maybe a crumb that had been overlooked in all the trash. It was just a good day to get some exersize after the holidays. While Jim worked the banks digging trash, I started up a dry creek bed rechecking exposed bedrock I'd already hunted before. I came to a spot where a 10 ft section of new bedrock has been exposed. It looked like a gully washer had come through and blown off the overburden. It was just above a spot I had done well at in years past. I wasn't expecting anything as I had seen fresh dig holes further down stream. Within a foot of hitting the new bedrock I got a good signal which I knew for sure was a bullet. I scraped a bit of dirt off and the signal was gone. Checking the dirt, there it was, right on top, a nice little 1.5 dwter. Wow, that was easy. I wonder how that got missed. I moved another foot up stream, and bang, another signal. Again, I was sure it was trash, it was so big and loud. This one I checked with the pulse delay to see if it went away like a nail, but it was still there, so again, thinking it's a bullet, I scraped off the dirt and got the signal in the cup. It couldn't be a nugget, that first one was a fluke, the only one in all that bedrock. But, sure enough, out rolled an ugly 3 dwter encased in red quartz! At this point I thought I'd better call Jim over to hunt the rest of the spot. He'd been on a long dry spell. He hunted that spot the rest of the day but could only come up with one tiny little .1 dwt grain. I left him to clean it out and moved further upstream. Around the corner was more bedrock that I had hunted at least a dozen times over the years. A couple of nails later came a loud booming nail signal right in a little pocket of rock. And again, scraping the dirt out with the pick, again, I look down and see a huge flat nugget just laying there. I couldn't believe it! How could I have missed it before? Because it was SO big and loud, I just passed it up KNOWING it was trash. Geezz, you think I would know better by now. Glad I wasn't hearing nearly the iron trash of years past because I was using my TDI in low conductivity which knocks out the larger iron. We were both using the TDI SL with the 9x5 Jimmy loop. So, by the end of the day, we each had found one more small piece for a total of just over 1/2 oz. The big ugly slug weighs 5.7 dwt. Good start to the new year! Digger Bob