abenson

I know this has been asked before and I'm sorry if one of the current Impulse AQ owners has already done the test and reported..........But we've all seen the nails stacked on top of the ring and the ring on top of a pile of rings. What I want to know is will the Impulse AQ pick out the ring in a 3D scenario? What if a ring is buried 2 or 4 or 6 inches deep and nails are placed above and off to the side of the ring. Can the Impulse AQ still get the ring.

Bad day to see them go. I grew up using Whites detectors, my first was the 6 DB. Found many silver coins with it. My first Barber Quarter I found with it a 1905, I can remember it like it was yesterday. My dad found a seated dime the same day using a 6000 D. For me Whites started falling behind in the 90's so I went to the Fisher CZ 6a and then Minelab when the Sovereign came out.

EMI generally is noticeable. Your machine will have audio interference as well as numbers jumping all over the place. Power lines, cell phones, cell phone towers, blue tooth devices other metal detectors and nearby airports can all be the cause.

In my ground multi works best unless EMI is a problem. I had a situation the other night where single frequency on the 800 was required because the EMI was so bad. 15 KHz seamed to be the best pick for the site. Even tried switching to multi a few times to check targets, but the deeper signals were lost in the noise. Nice to have options for different site conditions.

I personally like the Coiltek 12" X 8" DD coil for wading. A 15" coil is going to be harder to swing in water and I personally dig plenty deep with the 12 X 8. If you really want a bigger coil then I would suggest the Coiltek 15" Treasureseeker All Terrain. I use my GPX wading occasionally too, but not in the surf only in calm bays, waves can catch you off guard. I always bungee my GPX to myself just in case I drop it, but I also have rule to never remove my arm from the arm cuff when wading.

All those targets had very clean signals and varied in depth from 2" to 12". The round balls are very clean on the Tarsacci unlike a lot of other detectors, with the exception of the Equinox. Most iron junk is easy to tell on the Tarsacci (some flat tin and washer type targets can still fool you) The ID numbers will usually jump around a lot, both positive and negative. I circle around the target (conditions allowing) and if the ID stays positive it's usually ferrous. On that hunt I only dug two non-ferrous items, 1 was a round can lid (which sounded good) the other was a piece of wire (which I was pretty certain it was going to be junk but dug it anyway). The Tarsacci has far less falsing than the VLF machines I usually use, so it's a real pleasure to run in junk. There are other machines that unmask better, but overall I'm liking the Tarsacci more and more every time i take it out.

I was wondering about the GPX myself as that is what I generally use for the beaches when I want to us a PI. I have the 4000 which cost me $1600 so not a major concern on cost. When I get done hunting around salt I will wash everything that can take a dunk with the hose to get the salt off and then use electronics cleaner to get the control box cleaned up. Never had a problem with the GPX failing going on 3 years use around salt water. But of course I don't wade, just use it on the wet sand. There's only 3 places I beach hunt. Oceanside and San Diego, CA and the Great Salt Lake Marina and public beach next to it, which is a 35 minute drive for me. San Diego has lots of black sand and I know from my experience, the GPX does just fine. Rick has used the AQ limited in San Diego as well and so we know it gets great depth as well. I've never done any depth comparisons with the GPX while in San Diego or Oceanside because I was on vacation and wanted to get as much hunt time in as possible. But I know I've dug some pretty deep targets. At the Great Salt Lake, salt conditions are brutal, 8 times great than the ocean. This mega salt would be a great test for the AQ. In addition there are areas in the lake where bedrock approaches the surface and that rock is very mineralized. In the areas away from the bedrock I have done depth tests with the GPX running normal timing and low gain (still get some drift and it will not ground balance), with a 15" coil I can easily get a nickel at 18". Running salt timing I lose a few inches. Over the bedrock areas there is nothing I can do with the GPX to get the threshold quiet and drift free. Running salt timing and running the gain low with a slow steady seep speed is about all you can do. In those areas, depth on a nickel drops to 12". Those areas are where I really want to see what the AQ can do. The volcanic sand mode might be the ticket, but I also worry that without a ground balance feature it might not do any better that the GPX. If and when I get the AQ the Great Salt Lake is the first place I plan to test it out. I'm also an avid relic hunter and so the next place I plan on running the AQ is the pastures and fields I relic hunt in. Later Impulse models will probably be better suited but I really think the AQ can be setup to relic hunt.

Thanks for the report Steve. Sounds like the AQ limited is right up my alley. Now if I can just get my hands on one.

Great looking machine Steve and from your description it sounds even better than it looks. Looking forward to your Lake Tahoe report when you go on Monday.

Believe me I looked for the coins.

Took the Tarsacci out relic hunting in a place we've hit pretty hard in the past. Site has a moderate amount of iron and most of the targets that are left are pretty deep. I used disc mode set at -30, sensitivity 7, threshold -2, 18 KHz, GB at 757, salt balance at 41 and black sand OFF. As you can see it does pretty well at picking up both small and large targets.

This was the first year I have attended a WTHO event. I had a great time and meet a great bunch of guys. I didn't get to the hunt until Thursday and by then Monte had left so I didn't get to meet him, but there's always next time. OregonGregg cleaned up with some great finds and made the rest of use feel inadequate, LOL. The 2 cent piece Rich found was great too and I have yet to find one of those. Thursday I focused on hunting Cobre with my Deus 9" HF coil and got skunked other than your typical ghost town stuff like lantern parts, clasps, suspender parts, buttons, etc. Friday I spent the day hunting Toano with my Deus again and happened to find an 1887 IHP within the first 5 minutes of arriving. With a find so quick I thought it was going to be a productive day. But other than a purse clasp and a rosette i just found your typical ghost town stuff the rest of the day. Saturday I went with James a friend of mine that came along, to a military camp that was in the area. I used the Equinox 800 with the 11" coil that day. The weather was good until about 11:30 when it started to rain pretty hard for about 2 hours. We got in a little hunting before it hit and then waited it out and ate lunch in the truck. About 1:30 we were able to get back out and and hunting for another few hours. We dug lots of shell casings, 50-70, 45-70, 45-50, and .44 colts. I dug the base of a Military dress cap, 1 GS cuff button, 4 GS coat buttons, Eagle I coat and a bucket lister for me a Eagle C overcoat button. Sunday on the way home I stopped at Shafter for a few hours, using the Deus I found a few buttons and a Colorado Tax Token. Overall had a great time and look forward to the next WTHO

I've been using my Tarsacci mainly for relic hunting, it really does quite well in the iron trash. Still gets fooled by flat tin and round washer type targets occasionally, but overall runs much quieter that your typical VLF at zero disc in disc mode. It can also be run at -30 disc and you can hear all targets, this gives even more audio information. Last weekend I took it to a ghost town in Nevada and ran it for about a hour or so, it ran very quiet at disc zero. I didn't find anything with it but I also went back over the same general area with the Deus to see what I missed and the Deus didn't find anything either.

Do we know what pulse delay some of the timings are running at on the GPX 4500 or 5000? I suspect some are approaching lower delays under 10 but I don't think I've ever read where Minelab has reveled that information. Maybe someone else knows?

Couldn't agree more Steve.

From what I've heard even when the AQ gets released it's going to be in very limited numbers. Not everyone that wants one will get it.

Information about what is happening at Garrett with the current business restrictions, tips on things to do while you can’t go detecting, and an announcement of a new detector on the way, but no actual information. A full product announcement coming in the next few weeks. Update 5/15/2020 - The new Garrett Ace Apex has been announced - Details Here!

We're talking about metal detectors under $400 here. So the topic is getting off track, I'm partially to blame. I will say the Vanquish 540 is an excellent machine and it comes stock with the V12 coil not the V8, that's an accessory coil. So with that in mind you're pretty limited on the sites you can hunt successfully. Great beach machine for depth and stability also a great coin machine for parks. Take it to a trashy relic site or ghost town and it's going to be out of it's element. Get the V8 coil on any of the Vanquish detectors and it will perform a little better. Entry level machines give entry level performance. Although some are clearly better than others. As for all the Fisher Garrett, Minelab and Whites machines I've used in this price range, I'll take the Vanquish hands down. Site selection is going to determine what you use. If you just want to hunt modern coins almost any metal detector can find them. If you're going after older coins, relics, and gold nuggets then you just might have to consider spending more than $400. Sure you can find some old coins, relics, jewelry, etc. with a low priced detector. I know lots of people that have. If a metal detector that costs less than $400 is all that's in your budget, then learn it well and enjoy your time outdoors. Also, visit this section often, there is some great advice from very knowledgeable people.

That's weird because my Vanquish with the V8 coil only gets 4 out of 8 on my board. The F19 6 out of 8. I'm using old square nails so maybe the difference is in the nails used. But even in field tests the Vanquish is a dog in iron no matter what mode used. The Equinox with the 11 inch coil is way better. Maybe my Vanquish has a problem. But i can't imagine Minelab making the Vanquish a better performer than the Equinox. I haven't been that impressed with the Vanquish from day 1 when it comes to its performance in iron trash. Falses like crazy on deep iron and doesn't unmask very well. No matter I actually sold it last week because I prefer the Equinox and i can only swing one detector at a time.

Jeff Don't know if I was clear in my response, but I agree the Vanquish has much better ID than the F19. I still think the F19 even in disc mode has better separation than the Vanquish, at least in the tests and in field comparisons I've done.

Jeff I will have to disagree with you on the F19, it's actually a very fast machine and separates quite well in trash with the 5 x 10 coil compared to the Vanquish wearing any size coil. As far as target ID goes I do agree there, it is very stable and accurate.

My ground is about the same as far as your GB numbers go. I run my GB at 85 and it runs just great at that number. Doesn't get the depth of running it lower, but it's stable. I just set it and forget it, unless I go to a different part of the country.

Very nice looking $10 Tom! I will have to agree that the Western US is the place to be if you want to find gold coins.

Starting to see some different results from the relic mode on the 540 than I would expect according to the manual and suggested use of the mode. Maybe some other 540 users can confirm or deny what I'm seeing. First off in my soil it's not the deepest mode because of the mineralization, it's actually quite choppy on deep targets. However, what I'm starting to see, and I've tested this a few times and even confirmed it on Monte's nail board. Relic mode appears to have better separation in iron than either the coin or jewelry modes. This is contrary to what the manual says but I'm seeing this more every time I take it out. I'd say it performs about 20% better and I'm taking about surface trash not deep stuff with the V8 coil. Anybody else seeing this same thing?

I've only used it out there twice. Still prefer the Equinox over the Vanquish because it's deeper. Vanquish seems to work best in jewelry mode on beaches.