abenson

Finally looking like they will get something out. Hopefully by the end of the year.

Metal detector sales must be slow. Fisher has the fire sale going on eBay and Minelab has dropped the price drastically for a few weeks on what should be their most popular models.

Make a reasonable offer on that Gold Bug 2 and I bet they would accept it. I needed a new pin pointer and made an offer for the F pulse for $100 and they accepted.

There's always room for improvement with every new detector model. But I agree, why would Minelab put out a metal detector that's going to obsolete every detector they've made up until now as well as anything they could produce in the future. Not going to happen. They're going to milk the technology a little at a time. There's probably not a lot of big gold left deeper (2 feet plus) that won't take an open pit mine to get at. But there's still plenty of 3 gram and smaller stuff within 18" of the surface current metal detectors can't hear. If you don't believe that just take a few inches off the surface of a proven area and go over it again and see just how much that few inches opens up. Technology that can handle EMI, salt and minerals better will eventually allow deeper detection on smaller nuggets. Heck better handling of EMI on the 6000 would help drastically. Even being able to have control over the threshold on the 6000 would be an improvement. Minelab make me a 6000 with manual ground balance, threshold adjustment, a few more timings, iron reject option, and a standard DD coil I can run on any of the timings and I'll buy one. Oh yea put the Manticore cam lock shaft on it too and get rid of the twist lock system.

Thanks Gerry, Yea I'm kind of emotionless when it comes to some finds. However my first gold coin you could here me screaming clear across the beach. Same goes for the CS tongue I found a few years back. Some finds get me real excited and some don't. I would imagine if I found a 1 oz nugget I would be hopping up and down.

Yes that's the best so far 4.1 grams. Laughable I know for some of you veterans.

I thinkni had it about 4 years with 100's of hours on it.

Coiltek 14" had a broken winding inside the coil when I tore it appart.

Disc depth on those big coils are 6 to 8" max. Yes he still has the coil. As seen in the last Pic the cable support is broken but it works fine.

Yes I've found a few of those too.

Gold nuggets, they are potentially millions of years old

Well maybe they are clearing out what's left of the limited before they release the new improved model. Just something to consider.

It'll be interesting to see what they have come up with.

I've had the same experience with mine. Left it charging all night and half the next day and it was still flashing. Unplugged it and turned it on and it showed the battery fully charged.

Good to see the Axiom is getting you some gold Chris.

Usually you just consider the width as your coil size in comparison to other coils. I've never noticed any better depth of a 9" coil vs say a 9x14" coil. Maybe others see a difference in milder soil but in my more mineralized soil I don't see any depth increase.

I've had the 12.5 Detech DD as well and really liked it. Only reason I bought it was because my 14" Coiltek went belly up at a DIV event and the 12.5 DD was the closest thing Fort Bedford metal detectors had available. In all reality the bigger coils including the 15" spiral DD are within a few inches of each other on a bullet. People might say otherwise, but have they actually buried bullets side by side at different depths? I have and can tell you they're not that much different in depth. But you know what they say, miss it by an inch might as well be a mile. IMO the most important thing is to use a coil you can swing comfortably for hours at a time. It's no fun when your back and arm are killing you, at point your head is out of the game and you're missing stuff.

gold nugget hunting I've dug a few targets like that and some have turned out to be small nuggets, others have been small bits of iron. One the flip side, relic or park hunting, I don't dig those targets unless there is some indication of a decent target. I recently dug several buttons and bullets at a site I've pounded over the years. I was just getting a chirp with ID in the 90's, no trace and depth meter pegged out. 2 turned out to be small pewter buttons, 1 was a .69 cal bullet and 2 were nice coat buttons 1 GS the other D for Dragoons. I did dig 3 deep nails as well. The small pewter buttons were both over 6 inches deep and the buttons & bullet 9 or 10 inches deep. So IMO it's worth checking out signals that are out of the norm.

If you really want one I have a friend that will sell his for $250

I've had both coils. 15" spiral DD is a back & arm killer to swing unless you get a hip stick. For me it wasn't worth the extra 2" over the 12x15 commander coil. There area few diehard relic hunters that won't use anything else, but im not one of them. The Coiltek 14" DD was my all time favorite coil for relics and its dang near as deep as the 15" DD. The other thing about the 15" Spiral DD is its real sensitive to small stuff, something you don't really need when relic hunting. 22 brass and lead sounds real good with that coil and you soon get tired of digging them. I'd borrow one before you buy one just so you know what you're up against.

I think you're right Simon. I remember reading somewhere that the coil bolts were expensive. I've already lost a washer and had to go to Ace Hardware to find a replacement.

I got interested in gold prospecting when I joined this forum and although I had hunted for gold nuggets before was not all that interested in it until about 7 years ago. The first thing I did after I bought my GPX 4000 was take a class from Gerry, which is actually where I meet Steve Herschbach for the first time. The next thing I did was buy a bunch of books and join a gold prospecting club here in Utah where I found out real quick that Utah doesn't have much detectable gold. So I joined 3 clubs down in Arizona and went to a few club hunts and meet Jeff R. from Dolan Springs I think on this forum. For about 3 years I would go down to the Gold Basin area and meet up with Jeff who really helped me understand the why and where to look for gold and meteorites in the area. I didn't find much in the way of gold, a few small bits here and there but did find a lot of meteorites. As I've gone to more club events and meet more people both on and off this forum I've learned more and more about gold hunting. Since I have to travel so far to get to areas that have detectable gold, 9 hours to Arizona and 6 to Nevada, it was very important to have help to get started so trips wouldn't be wasted not finding anything. I can't thank Jeff R., Steve H. and Steve F. enough for all the help they have given me over the last few years and thanks to everyone else that has contributed on this forum to help me and others learn how to metal detect for gold.

I called Mary at Garrett this morning. She said they don't list the coil bolt and washers on their site and it's not the same as the AT series bolts. You have to call Garrett directly to get one and it's covered under warranty if you break one. Kind of weird they don't have any listed for sale. Also, kind of weird that every coil they sell doesn't come with one.

I'm surprised at the number of people that say they can't tell target size with the Equinox or Manticore. I personally have no issue telling a small target like .22 bullet from a coin or pop can unless it super deep. If you're new to the Manticore it will come with more time on the machine. All of the coils are fairly sensitive to small targets. Lowering the sensitivity can help as well as selecting rich audio profile under your audio type can also help.

Video of the hunt for those that are interested.