Gerry in Idaho

It is always a blessing to take Jesus home with you. Well done.

Thanks for keeping us informed on your Success with the Tarsacci. I hope it grows and gets even more news and reviews as I like competition from the different manufactures. Very cute ring too.

A couple of those are some hefty rings and YES the toning of the gold shows their age. Back in my not so smart years, I thought those were gold plated or gold filled, but I have since learned the older rings have different metals and purities added for strength and their methods compared to today was much more crude. Now we don't see it as often, but on some 9 and 10K. Occasionally 14K but I have not dug a stained or toned 18K that was modern. 6 gold rings in a day is TOPS in 95% of most hunters books. I'm quite impressed and will say, a Job Well Done. Thanks for sharing too.

I agree 100% and especially when detecting those same #'s in parks and fields. Very nice save my friend.

Joel, His does have an octagonal barrel too. Thanks

I have not done a thorough test on gold rings with the NOX yet, but have probably found 40 pieces of gold jewelry so far with one. In fact I just returned from a Cancun trip using the 800 and scooped 21 rings and many other misc items. I have 2 styles of detecting the VBall Court and each has their purpose. 1st is to find recently lost rings. Todays newer generation often wear stainless, sterling and tungsten more than gold. Those rings including open toe rings are all over the #'s, so I dig all easy to hear coin size nonferrous signals. Most of the gold rings will read 18 and below with the majority registering 6 to 14. 2nd hunt style is to find it all. (Micro Jewelry) Not only do I find the mentioned items above, but there are those shiny dingler thingie things that hang from the belly button. Thin gold chain ankle bracelets, diamond studs earrings and nose piercings are much smaller than a ring and 95% of the detectorists have no clue how to find them. Do yourself a favor and borrow some of the wife's diamond stud earrings and or thin chains. Check with your daughter (if appropriate age) to test some of her piercing pieces. Most gold diamond stud earrings I have testes read 1 and sometimes 2, which is the same on a thin gold ankle bracelet or chain. The dinglers are of different sizes and metals as well, so no near #'s, but from 3 to #14 on the ones I have found. 2nd hunt style modified for the NOX. Put the 800 in Prospect 1 Mode, do a ground balance and be sure to turn Tracking Off..Also open the screen with the horseshoe button and go...it will amaze you the capabilities of this sub $1000 detector. Other important aspects of fine jewelry or Micro hunting is Proper Coil Control. You lift the coil 1 or 2" off some of those targets and the signal is gone. So if it is 2 inches deep..you better be on your A game. Gridding is a must and be sure to sweep the coil in the sand to leave your trail on purpose. Overlapping will give the extra depth on some of the targets (depending on inside of coil windings) so I like to overlap about 1/3 of the coil length. Bring a super magnet and a nonmetal nugget scoop or nugget cup to help in speed of recovery. The magnet is to help rid of any small iron bits and also help ID some of the really cheap jewelry. After some time and practice, you'll start finding the backings of earrings and at that point, you are starting to get dialed in. Micro jewelry detecting is very hard and takes a lot of extra time and patience. In reality you are hunting for the treasures the other 95% of people miss. On a side note. If you have a VLF gold detector, a volleyball court is a fantastic place to start. Yes, small lead bird shot is a must to teach yourself the detector and its capabilities. #6 I feel is to big, but #7 1/2 or #8 is right and if you have #9 dove load in lead...cut one open and start listening.

What is your goal of the hunt, a ring and coins or diamond stud? When I hunt for rings and charms from broken necklace, I dig all foil readings and up. If I have time and want to impress folks, then take a VLF gold detector and dig all nonferrous signals and especially the ones that have the signal width of a #9 lead birdshot. None of these were real diamonds this time, but I have found them. Keep us posted of your hunt.

Tom, It is period piece, but as you say could have been lost later on in life. I've dug enough relics in our region to get an idea of iron wrought and feel this one certainly is old. But part of the unknown is just that? When a TH'er finds a Morgan Dollar at a grade school and it is only an inch down, it is assumed to have been a recent loss. Reality is we don't know and most will never. I have dug period buckles out west with leather still attached and in fact did so last month. Either way, we enjoy what we do and I thought is was cool for him to catchit on video.

Yes we can see the road was just graved. We hunt a few old mining camps in the higher country that are and have been for 100+ yrs., main travel-ways. Each Spring and Fall they grade the roads and it is a good time to metal detect them. This actual find...I am must certain was under sole until it was graded. I have found Chinese Coins, an Indian Head Cent and even a gun barrel without a detector and as many experienced nugget hunters know, even a few gold nuggets on occasion. I have found 2 Morgan Dollars without a detector and they were at different locations and I didn't even have a detector with me. You are right about the condition of surface finds Back East. When I was stationed USMC at the Port of Wilmington, NC. I used to walk the banks at low tide and find pieces of history. If most of it was stuck in the mud, then it might be ok. If it was exposed, the condition would be much rougher. Mud and clay are great preservers of metal objects. 20 yrs ago my wife and I were detecting with Jimmy Sierra Normandi and my wife recovered a 5th Century Saxon Cruciform Brooch that still had cloth fragments attached. The archaeologists were running around going nuts. It is now in the Norwich Museum and the certificate is proudly displayed in my shop with actual drawing and photos.

My good friend RJ was scouting an area to detect and his eye catches something not so normal. Very cool video and heck of a history save.

Tom, You certainly have the upper hand on GC's than most of us. Just for info to know their denominations, could you tell us how many of what? I found an 1852 $2.50 with Explorer and an 1903 $5 found with Explorer-II detectors. Wondering if most folks finds the smaller or larger ones? Also, if you don't mind mentioning what detector did you find this one with? You are correct, as in the amount of them found. Most of my clients have only found 1 and a few scored 2. The daddy/daughter duo found over 10 at one site, but I count that as a Cache since they were all found same day in about a 20 foot area. Detail on your Eagle is Stunning, so hats off to you.

Mitchel, I have to agree with some of the comments mentioned too. I also feel you have tuned the beach hunt (so much closer to you and 10X times more hunting than gold hunts) to your main focus. As said by a few, the beach hunting style is so much different than swinging a 7000. I have not hunted a beach with you yet, but know ground coverage is a big part of beach hunting. I say it in reverse when chasing a nugget for most sites. It is not how much ground you cover, but finding an old patch and covering that same ground (much smaller area too) very methodically, and slow. Why is it that I can take a dink nugget and toss it in front of a new customer in a 10 foot square and they see it hit the ground, but can not hear it with their detector? If I took a ring and tossed it 50 feet down the side of a beach, I know you would find it. Your ear, mind and thoughts have been trained to listen for beach type targets on a pretty smooth (for the most part) surface. In order for someone to find that little dink in a 10 foot area, they need to keep the coil scraping the ground (making more unwanted noise), overlap at least 20 to 30%, have perfect coil control, swing really slow and be willing to investigate any slight change of threshold. So you think you did in fact find the target??? Now try to pinpoint and then get that dang little bugger in the plastic scoop. I've watched customers spend 15 minutes on 1 BB signal. I've even found a target, gotten it in the scoop and then tossed it back down, as I did not think it was in the scoop? Ears my friend and then some luck. I travel quite a bit and detect most everywhere and have been for many years. Ancient Coins/Artifacts in England, Civil War sites back East, beaches all over the world, old coin and relics out west and gold nugget hunts where-ever there is gold. Gold Nugget Hunting is by far much harder and takes the most patience of all, in my opinion. Good post BTW.

JP, I am so impressed with the time you take to not only teach yourself the GPZ, but actually do photos to catch the moment, surface ground type, approx depth, soil condition the gold is in...and of course the yellow stuff we all dream of. Then to top it off, you again take more time and share your field experiences. You are 1 in million my friend and a great asset to Minelab and DP. So many people think a certain timing is the golden ticket, but even the ones my Field Staff and I share with customers, are really just starters. I have my Rye Patch favorite timings, but when I arrive and if the soil moisture content is different, then I'm trying to compromise and need to make adjustments. I let my ears tell me when it is right, or as close to it. Learning the GPZ - Oh my..what a session that will be for some time. Heck, Lunk and I are still finding ways to get more ( either depth, cleaner signal response, smoother threshold, or sensitivity) out of certain conditions and or for size/density of gold. There are just so many variables and or unknowns. I remember when 7000 came out, there were a few folks (good GPX hunters) who jumped ship of the 7000 because they did some testing/comparing and got spooked of their results on a certain density and size of nugget, not realizing in reality there are timings for those few pieces. I think a couple of those folks have also come to the conclusion, there is more to the Zed and its abilities than just a couple tests at a site with a few pieces of gold. Even with my own staff, our desired settings and how we run the 7000 is different than when it first came out. I do wish other Training would offer the hands on you mentioned. My staff and I also like to plug 2 people into 1 machine and we'll run it at first so they see/hear what slows us down, what we ignore and or investigate. We don't worry about loud targets often, as anyone can find those. Teaching customers to hear the faint signals most others miss, is usually what will put Au in the scrotum pouch. Self-confidence in one's ability with their detector is half the battle. Your psychology mention is spot on and even if a beginner goes home with 1 bit, that person is slowly learning from each piece of gold recovered. I sure don't know how you manage it all, but do enjoy reading your nuggets of info. Sorry if I don't get on here enough and tell you more often. On a side note. Hopefully some day Minelab will get you back USA and I am most certain we could put something together at Rye Patch area. Heck, even if Minelab would not flip the bill, there are enough DP readers who would pitch in, we'd certainly get the airfare taken care of. Now that would be a fun 3 day event. Thanks again Mr. 1 in a million...and hats off to continuing thread of said ZED Nugget Knowledge.

Nice variety of Au digs Dew. The 14K white gold band must be a common design as I've scooped a few and yes..most are 10+ grams. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and pics.

Beautiful cross. Looks to be white gold and yellow gold....what tone was it or ID#? I've saved a couple gold rings with white and yellow, a white/yellow money clip and my hunting partner was with me in MX and dug a white gold wristband with yellow gold as well. The diamonds are way cool too.

Oh my...I need to check the Jewelry forum more often. Hats off to the S & G saves.

Wowers save. Big name too. Probably only 10 platinum in all my years.

I'm not opening my foot and inserting mouth. I'm a viewer this round.

Congratulations on the Flowing Hair LG Cent. I've only found one (1798 Cracked Die Reverse) in my 40+ yrs of detecting. It was found over 20 yrs ago in NC. Now that you have that one checked off the list, what is your next target coin? Great dig.

I have one of the blue SD-2200V2's and a hardly used smooth running GP-3000 that I am in no hurry to sell. Yes I have the 2300, 5000 and 7000. I do feel the newer flat winding coils are better. One of my all time favorites was the orange CT 14" round MONO, then another gold getter for me was the NF 16" round SL MONO. Yes I still use a DD coil in some of Idaho and Oregon as the iron trash just wears this old man out and DD is a must. Another one of my favorite coils on the Minelabs is the Commander Semi Ellip 15" MONO. Talk about a solid built coil that just performs. As for the boosters...I pretty much stick with factory. Mods to a detector. If you are happy with the mods and feel it is working for you, then I'm happy for you. I don't get any of my machines modded, but I am also still selling Minelabs, so it might not be wise for me to sell a Minelab and then tell the customer to get it modded.

We were expanding from the gold camp and he just happened to go down hill and I went up. Yes, anything is possible.

Michel, Those ones fool the best of us (right Lunk) and our heads are still scratching, as we try to figure out how it got down that deep. Same thing happened to Lunk and I in MX a few weeks ago. He was so far off the beaten path and was evening finding gold. Then that unusual soft reverse signal. He hikes over to me so I can video tape it as he was already over a feet deep. We hike back and he's telling me how he found some nuggets on the backside of a ridge. I get there and boy does this place look exciting. I listen to the signal while viewing the natural undisturbed ground and whooper is going through my mind. My video camera is on and rolling as we're about to get this clunker on video. Lunk is carefully digging, using more of the scoop than the pick so he does not damage the sold yellow metal. 5 minutes later and another 6" deeper... he checks it out and this thing is screaming bloody all the way down to Aussie land. It is totally reversed and we're like kids seeing a playboy magazine for the 1st time...just eyes wide open waiting for the centerfold. Then it happens and he has it out of the scoop. A tilt of the coil for some pinpointing and it is such an overload, I am expecting to see it with me bare eyes. Boy would I like to feel it... I can't wait any longer, so almost I jump in to help speed up the recover. Just as I start to get in the hole, for some reason he gets it in the scoop. We're both ready for a gold dance as he is separating the material and then...there it is.., the most disgusting brass bullet casing we've ever video taped. Holy crap, why is it there and how? We both scratched our heads as we filled the hole and I heard him mumble something to the effect...about "next time I'll get you". Sorry your nugget was not so golden, but that is what keeps us going.

You are correct for most hunting. He started out with the stock 11" and found a few coins in the area a couple days before. Nothing was over 3 to 4" deep, so when we went back I realized a slower sweep in the area with a small coin might pull something else. Well these 3 coins were not in the exact same spot, but still very close. Also, the small coil gets in the bushes easier too.

Most of you do not know the history of metal detecting and my family. We go back to the early 1970's, my dad, uncle, 1 cousin and I all were pretty avid TH'ers back then. In the 80's and 90's we took it to a new level and started concentrating more on older sites and doing research. Our old coin finds were better with a few Barbers and Seated Liberty silvers. The gold coin had still eluded us for all those yrs. We knew it was just a matter of time. Anyway about 20 yrs ago, my little brother started getting serious with detectors and making some nice finds. It was about 20 years ago when the McMullen clan broke the gold coin barrier (it was me) with an 1852 $2.50 piece found in OR. Then about 10 years ago on 4th of July I was greedy and hit another (my 2nd) GC of the clan. My relatives and family started getting a little jealous and well deserving. Especially my little brother who happened to be on that trip with me when I hit #2, It was a 1902 $5 found here in Idaho. Well last week I was with my brother in OR and his Equinox put a smile on his face in more ways than 1. Not only did he find a gold coin, but also a Barber and Seated Liberty Half. Me, I managed to find a clad dime, which is the 1st modern coin that I know of to come from this site. He does not do much with forums, but did say I could mention them and share the pics. I wanted to let him have his glory and then after a few days I'd share. Here is his 1839 $5, 1907 Barber Half and 1877 Seated Half. And you know what? I honestly was a little jealous for about a minute and then I realize his tears were real. I then became the proud big brother of another gold coin find for the McMullen clan. I'm so proud of this guy for continuing to go and just keeps on swinging. Now that I think back, it was meant to be and I was able to be there and share the precious moment with him.

Brian, Sorry I am late to the show, but was in MX digging gold nuggets. Then when I returned, I had to get caught up with customers orders and get their detectors shipped out. My hats off to you as one of the few folks who takes a detector and becomes one with it, as one of your arms. Those finds are hearth throbs even without the low mintage. But to dig like that for a day and then get done and open up the coin value guide and see $$$$ is even more incredible, but well deserved. I'll say this for sure. The Equinox has produced more gold coin finds than any other detector I have sold in such a short amount of time. I probably have 15 gold coins found by my own customers using the NOX. In fact I have not posted yet, but another was recently found. I'll get to it later, but your video, finds and story are certainly EPIC.