abenson

My $5 is a 1901 Maybe mode has an effect on ID. I usually use General or ATLC and the ID is the same on both of those modes.

Yes some of the gains have been made due to research. But in the case of mineralization handling and recovery speed, more finds have come to light due to those changes in metal detectors. Without naming a certain model or brand, there is a site I've hunted for at least a decade with an older model/brand machine and thought I had it cleaned out. New detector X comes out and in the first few months of using it on this same site 15 silver coins come to light all dating pre 1860.

Odd that he has such a wide range for the $5. Could be that a Liberty Head reads different that the Indian head. My Liberty head $5 reads 49-50.

As Steve said finds are drying up. Which is not to say that everything is gone. But it does take more research and effort to find good spots to detect. I've personally found more good quality finds over the last 10 years of my 40+ years of metal detecting, than those earlier years. Finds 40 years ago were plentiful, but the quality of the finds wasn't there. Technology has played a big part in bringing those good targets to light. That being said, I can see the writing on the wall and so my push over the last few years is to get my metal detector arsenal down to a few VLF's and 1 good PI. For me having multiple metal detectors is just getting to the point of it being too hard to store all the coils available for each unit and keep track of headphones, charging cables, etc. I've already settled on the 2 VLF's I prefer at the moment. But I'm still looking for the perfect PI. Hopefully Nokta will bring out something that will compete with what's already out there and at the same time offer people the features they have been asking for.

Apex/Axiom style control housing and menu layout is definitely one of the best setups on the market right now. Nice wide screen and LCD that's easy to read and don't have to wear a pair of reading glasses to see the screen. Menu on both machines are great too. You don't have to have the user manual in your hand trying to figure how many sub-menus and hidden options there are or try to decipher icons on the screen. I would like to see a 3 piece rod system with camlocks similar to the Axiom (maybe not as beefy) on the next model so it can be collapsed down nice and compact.

Thanks Chuck. Yes research is a big part of success. But most of these camps I hunt have been hit for decades before I ever got to them. Maybe a pocket of untouched relics here and there where I found a bunch of stuff concentrated. But more importantly, the people that hit the areas were after the high conductive targets. Big bullets, big buttons and silver coins are all but gone. Plenty of the low conductors left if you don't mind sorting through the .22 brass, .22 lead and percussion caps. Generally speaking, officers were paid in gold and enlisted men paid in silver. Enlisted men's pay in the 1850's was about $11 a month if I remember correctly. Whereas an officer would earn anywhere from $30-40 a month.

Yea it's been approximately 3.5 years since the Apex was released. I though it would be the first of many models to come. Let's hope the Storm is something we can all appreciate. Anything short of a Legend/Deus2/Equinox/Manticore is going to be a disappointment. Or at least a series of storms with different options and features. Maybe a Hurricane, Tornado, Cyclone, etc.

I like the Apex audio myself. I also think I would like it better if I had more tone options. 2 or 3 tone would be great.

A few weeks back my buddy and I braved a snow storm to get to a site that had an open window of opportunity. If we didn't go now we wouldn't be able to get back in until early June because of ranch activity. When we arrived there at 9 am there was 1" of snow on the ground and the storm had subsided. I had both the Deus 2 and Manticore with me but decided to start off with the Manticore and 11" coil. Manticore settings were AT General, 1 region all tones, recovery 5, sensitivity 22, stock ferrous limits, normal audio with a simple profile. Worst part about hunting snow covered ground is the build up you get on the coil, requiring cleaning every few minutes. We hunted for a few hours and for the most part finds were few and far between. I think I had a few small cuff buttons and a percussion cap in my pouch. At about 1 pm the snow started to fall again, so we decided to call it and work our way back to the truck. As I rounded a bush I got a solid 24 on the Manticore and in my mind I thought this could be a gold coin, knowing from testing that the type 1 $1 comes up 23-24. As I was digging the hole I heard thumping and brush crashing to my left to see a moose running past me, stopping just long enough to take a look at me. Taking out a few shovel fulls of soil, the edge of the 1850 $1 gold coin was visible in one of the dirt clods and came from a depth of about 7 inches. I called my buddy over to take a look and take pictures as I broke it from the dirt and put some water on it. Turns out it was worth braving the elements. For those interested, the ID for US gold coins on the Manticore are Type 1 $1 23-24 Type 2 & 3 $1 20-21 $2 1/2 37-38 $5 50-51 $10 65-66 $20 76-78.

That was definitely another reason I moved on to other machines. Mineralization here is bad and also limited depth with the Apex. 5" dime here was a no go with the Apex. IMO the Apex having SMF and ground balance capabilities, should have been able to handle the ground here. The Legend at slightly more money than the Apex, is a very impressive machine. I hope Garrett gets it right with the Storm.

Having had 3 Apexs at different times since release, I experienced similar issues when hunting target rich areas. This ultimately resulted in me giving up on the Apex for my type of hunting. Not saying the Apex is a bad machine, but target rich environments like ghost towns and relic site are not one of its strong points. I noticed it just has a difficult time isolating good targets in these scenarios and target ID is very unstable. One the other hand it can pretty much hang with the best of them on the salt water beaches.

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

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.