UtahRich

Looks like the Yellow Ribbon tied around the old oak tree. That’s Gotta get the heart rate up a bit. Rich.

That's a beauty ! Nicely done, Thanks for the pic. Rich -

Alaskan_EOD, Sitting here on a cold winters' night, I enjoyed following along on your trek to the creek and breaking in the new high banker. With the first trip to "the bend" under your belt, I will be pulling for wild success on trip #2. Thanks for the post and pics. Rich -

Coinboy - Exceptional find - Just a walk in the park for the Etrac. I'm guessing you're pleased with your choice. Rich -

Rick, Some nice thoughts there. My wife and I are sitting here with a fire going in the wood burning stove. Makes for a cozy evening when the temps drop. It's 19* (F) outside at the moment and moving lower. Certainly not as cold as our friends further North, but cool enough to chill the bones. The ice fisherman have been out on the lake for a few weeks now. Plenty of 'free' firewood around as well as that available with an inexpensive permit from the Forest Service. Rich -

Good question - I think much of the future is determined by WHAT it is that you are hunting with your detector(s). In my case, I started off coinshooting for older coins. Many of the easier areas have all been picked over for years and finds are fewer than in the past. But as others have mentioned above, as technology improves, I'm still able to glean some good coin and token finds out of areas hard hit for years. As finds have thinned in some areas, I've tried to branch out into others, like jewelry hunting, both land and shallow water. Decades ago, this interested me only slightly as I really loved hunting around old homes and buildings, parks and schools. But, I've found that i do enjoy the hunt for lost jewelry. And, it has been one of those targets that gets replenished, unlike the old coins and tokens. I'm also looking into electronic prospected as it too, at least in my mind, gets replenished through erosion. I guess what it boils down to is doing better research, expanding my horizons for other opportunities and keeping an eye on the advancement of technologies that can give me a step or two on detectorists from the past. Rich -

I've found some success in a slightly different approach when it comes to dealing with conductive trash in an area with older coins. In these areas I hunt by depth rather than discriminating out a segment of the scale. With so much conductive trash, 5 tones works for me. If I'm hunting for old coins and such, I lower the audible response on my iron segment (-9 to -1) as well as my foil segment (0-11) and the tabs segment (14-17). I have separate segments for nickels (12-13) and IHC level (18 to 40). I can tweak with the beginning of my high coins segment depending on the area I'm hunting. zinc pennies are typically shallower as are the square tabs and pull tabs. By turning the iron audio down, and lowering the "foil" audio to something comfortable (both volume and tone) as well as the "tab" audio, i can still hear those items from those categories. By increasing the audio / tone on the nickels and higher coins, these signals stand out to my hearing and can bring a quick STOP and allow me to investigate the target. Also, by still being able to hear the "diminished" audio of the foil and tab segments, I can listen for deeper targets that are likely older items worth investigating. This is something that works for me in some of the sites I hunting with lots of conductive trash. Rich -

Thanks for posting your PIC and sharing your finds - Rich

oneguy - I'd come out west for silver dollars as well. Most of the guys I know and hunt with have found one or more silvers dollars. More than a few have found a gold coin and couple - more than one. In speaking to my parents and grandparents prior to their passing - silver dollars were in very common usage here in the UTAH area. My grandfather owned a bowling alley and ice cream business. Both very popular. The till was emptied and frequent trips to the bank made with a big heavy bag containing the silver dollars (and other silver). My mom was one of those that had to haul it to the bank. Large transactions of silver dollars would be awkward due to weight, but my parents and their parents all had coin purses or pouches for the silver and other coins. It is common to find coin purse hardware (the frame for the working / opening end that has the snap) while out hunting the ghost towns and such. But I've yet to turn up the hardware and the silver / coins from a lost coin purse. When I was young in the 60's, the little rubberize squeeze coin pouches were popular with the kids for lunch money. But those faded out in 70's and change was eventually just kept in the pocket and bills in the wallet. Many women still have small purses kept inside their larger purse for coins, bills, earrings, credit cards and such. Here's hoping there are plenty more silver dollars and gold coins for us to find. Rich

I agree big silver does weigh a good bit. I can't imagine carrying around $40-50 of silver in my pocket today. I'm completely ok if somebody back in the day swapped those heavy silver dollars out for a few gold coins and then managed to lose, misplace or stash them. I could do with finding another gold coin or more. When you see that reeded edge 🙂 ! Back to the original post - a big congrats to Cal Cobra for taking the time to put together the video. Glad to see Tom out putting the Deus through the paces in a ghost town. Interested if he's going to keep at it or retreat back to the Explorer 2 or maybe go another route. The Deus and 800 are my go to machines. I've used and had success with both in the ghost towns. Rich -

Erik, You mean there's MORE TREASURE than just that huge gold nugget !? There's silver coins as well ? !!!! That's Amazing . . . . Nothing wrong with the 'shaky cam', it worked for all of the Jason Bourne movies, it can work for you too. . . . A big thumbs up! Rich

I've been using a Coin Popper for close to 35 years. The overall length is 12". See center of photo. They were advertised in the old Western Eastern Treasures Magazine. I had two. One was lost. I had to replace the wooden handle / grip a little over 20 years ago with a custom made nylon grip. The lazy S shape of the shaft is key to easy probing and target removal. In conjunction with my Pro Pointer AT, i can recover items in the first 3" +- very easily, if the electronic pin pointer can reach it. If I get deeper than that in grass maintained areas like the yard of an old home or a park, I prefer to cut a plug. On occasion the circumstances may require No Plugs in which case I will pin point as best I can and probe for the target. Like Mike mentioned above, "touch" is important. If the target is located in the first 3 inches, i can slip the end of the probe under the edge and lever the item up and out. Very quick and easy. If deeper, I can cut a slit above the target with my lesche, slip the end of the probe under the edge of the target and lever the item and some dirt up through the slit. Think of a baked potato. Once removed, any dirt is pressed back into the slit and the slit is pressed closed. Brush up the grass and it is very difficult to tell anybody has been there. I've modified many, many screwdrivers of various shaft shapes and lengths. I have brass probes (that bend easily) . No contest that this Coin Popper has worked the best for me. I do like keeping an old screwdriver (8-10") in the car / truck if the off season (winter) just for testing ground, whether it is frozen solid and not. A quick poke with the screwdriver reveals if I can cut a plug for deeper targets. Rich -

Monte, It's a bit chilly at 27* outside and I have several inches of snow in the yard with more falling. So, I am stuck checking my newly replaced APEX w/MS3 headphones inside. I have a good spot of concrete in the basement without any ferrous below where i can Ground Balance a detector than toss some items on the floor. Items detected. No falsing as i sweep back and forth or from movement with the cable. Headphones pair up super easy and are comfy. A quick run thru the frequencies, up and down with the sensitivity. All targets detected. This is good. Now, what to do for the next few months - - - - - - Rich -

Brand new Apex +MS3 on the doorstep this morning. Cudo's to Garrett.

I have an aftermarket cuff on my 800 - and had one on my Etrac and Explorer as well. But it is due to the factory cuffs being too small for me to use when I wear a sweatshirt or coat during colder weather. I'm pretty sure you could pad the cuff with foam or something to raise the arm away from the cuff area and steepen the grip. Not sure how to go the other way without completely removing the control housing on a detector and slapping it on a search rod / grip that you liked.

My right shoulder and elbow have been problematic the last few years. Good physical mechanics can help keep the issue from flaring up in the first place. However, as a golfer, i relate that some days my elbow is irritated and painful. I use ice to help reduce / stop swelling AND relieve much of the pain. Excessive use of ibuprofen is hard on the body. If I resort to some nsaid assistance, i have found alleve to help, used in conjunction with the ice. I have easy access to an orthopedic surgeon and have had some cortizone shots. Only one I ever had that I thought was painful was in the spine. Can't say the rest were painful, but then i guess it is all relative, as I've been no stranger to injuries, pain and surgeries over the years. Years ago I was swinging an Explorer XS w/Sunray X-1 pin-pointer, then an Etrac. After a shoulder injury and surgery, the shoulder was much improved BUT, the weight of the Etrac plus the X-1 limited the amount of time I could hunt to less than a couple hours before I had to stop. Sometimes not even that long. I loved he Etrac w/X-1, but necessity demanded a change. So I dropped the X-1 and purchased a hand held pinpointer. This weight reduction helped extend the amount of time I could hunt before I felt the need to stop. While I couldn't do the Etrac all day, I could do more than a couple hours. A couple years ago when Minelab introduced the Equinox 800, I switched. It was a win/win for me with better ergonomics and less overall weight. I do miss the Etrac display. But my 800 has been good to me AND has reduced the weight i have to swing. That keeps me in the game. My thoughts are to decrease the amount of weight you have to swing, ice that elbow immediately afterward if you've exercised it too much and have pain, and stretch those muscles / joints some before and after. Best of luck out there. Rich -

My APEX heads back Thursday morning for Garrett to have a look.

The initial appearance to me is that the trouble is on the coil cable side of the connection rather than the connector / housing / PCB side. HOWEVER, while it feels like i am not putting pressure on the connector itself with the wiggling of the cable, i could be. I also gave Monte a call - he has a couple early APEX's and is going to do a some checking. His initial thought is that he is NOT having this issue with either of his units. I'm assuming this is a very small issue as I have not seen broad reports to make me think otherwise. Oh, and i did hear right back from Garrett customer service this morning. That was fast. Rich -

Palzynski, I too have an APEX and i too had what I thought was excessive falsing. I came across a post on the Findmall forum / Garrett Users Forum / Trouble with my apex. The poster had similar complaints to what I had experienced and had isolated it to the junction of the coil cable / connector / detector housing. I did some troubleshooting myself with this bit of wisdom and found that my cable connector is snug and locking ring is snug, but the cable / connector junction seems to be the culprit. With the APEX on, and the coil away from all metallic objects, i can gently wiggle the cable back and forth at the junction with the connector and get a nearly 100% result of falsing both audio and Target ID that runs mostly in the mid-80's. It sounds and responds like a target under the coil. If I turn down the sensitivity to 5 or less, I can get it to stop. But at full sensitivity (8) or the next 2 segments, it continues to false with a wiggle of the cable at the connector. Any movement in the cable causes a false. I do wrap the cable around the search rod, but not so tight as to be immovable or to put strain on the connection at the housing or the coil. I'm thinking there's an issue with the cable termination in the connector itself for my Viper coil. I did contact Garrett Electronics on the website this evening and am waiting for a reply. Rich -

My Equinox 800 -

Any new AQ Limited's going out ? Or are we still at a halt ? I apologize I've not been following as closely as I have earlier in the summer. Neck deep landscaping a very large new yard from scratch. Last I was able to pick up was there were 8 LTD's out there, 1 had been returned and Fisher is/was looking into that. Joe was continuing to retrieve all gold rings lost on the East Coast with a combination of his tried and true Excal and the new AQ. Steve was working the tahoe area - UtahRich -

Sounds like this new detector is going to have multiple personalities.

I look at this subject as most areas I hunt for coins and jewelry have been hunted before, in some cases, many times. So whats left to find and why was it 'missed'? Were items missed due to poor coverage? Deeper than the previous technology could reach? Collocated with other ferrous or non-ferrous items? Does the area have difficult ground? Digging it all isn't an option in some areas, there are simply too many possible targets. The key is having a detector and operator that can effectively sort thru what's there and separate various metallic items from the soil and do it at what is maximum VLF depths for that area. Rich

Very nice ring ! When is a "zinc penny" signal a good thing for me? When I'm in a Ghost Town - likely an IHC or token. When I'm in the shallow water looking for gold rings. When it's a deep target in a park or old yard. Rich -

Lol. We know that cuda. But John Wayne will ALWAYS be John Wayne to everyone that watched those old Western movies. The same for Joe and all of us who have followed his exploits for such a long time here and on other forums. 👍 Rich