Cal_Cobra

56 minutes ago, George Kinsey said:

I would have thought you would dig a 2-piece California buckle in the gold fields.

 

I've only detected one time in gold country. 

I found a couple at a trading site we found that turned out to be a bit different then initially anticipated, but in a positive way.  Turned out to be late fur trade right into the G.R. era and then ceased to exist.  TomCA just dug a nice G.R. era tongue and wreath buckle, got just dug a star buckle at one of our sites that appears to have fizzled out by the mid 1850's I'd say.  Anything you dig there's going to be something old, but not necessarily awesome, but it'll be old, even if it's camp lead 😏  I dug an eagle buckle at this camp on our first time, dug both sides a few feet away and managed to loose the wreath half.  Surprised we haven't found it, or if we have it got mixed up with another tongue.  Oh well.

7 hours ago, George Kinsey said:

Thanks Cal. I also have 3 of your favorites found at an old trading post site along a local river.

Love finding Phoenix buttons!  I wouldn't complain if a buckle would get under my coil though 😁

Nice job!!!  Gold always shows up when you least expect it!  I think your ring's older, has that 1800's look about it.

Nice ring!

17 hours ago, strick said:

Great videos thanks for posting them...very impressive depth and speed...looks like its finally time to cull out the CTX 3030 and at least one of the nox 800's I'll keep one just because...

strick 

Given that the original Equinox coils work on the Equinox refresh, I almost wouldn't mind the EQX900 as a Manticore backup.

All bucket listers for me 😲, what a great collection of your local history passed down to the next generation 👍

An interesting, yet not unexpected play.  Doubt the new EQX models will detour Manticore buyers, so nothing for ML to loose.  I could see the 900 potentially eroding some XP D2 sales. 

On 11/25/2022 at 3:03 PM, phrunt said:

I guess a new revised Equinox would make sense, it's been a troublesome detector build wise so much so that the competition was using it's quality problems as a way to market their better built detector.

If they did an Equinox 600 and 800 v2 with the leaking fixed and other problems resolved it might be a good idea, at the moment the competitor has a better value detector clone of the Nox built far better for less money, more for less as their marketing says.  It must be making it quite hard to sell the Nox for more money with less of a quality build and performance that is so close to the same.

They could strengthen the ears without a total redesign so older Noxes could fit the new stronger ear coils, that way they wouldn't need to make two sets of Nox coils and keep them compatible with each other, and the Pod could just be replaced with the waterproofing method they've learnt for the Manticore.

To really annoy the competition they could incorporate Bluetooth LE into it so it has the better audio than the competition and then they could ditch the WM08 to help keep the cost down.

I wouldn't be surprised if they did a Nox2 or EQX1K that just addressed the issues that've been a thorn in their rear since it was released (rod, weight distribution, headphones, leaks, etc).  Question is how many are will to pay say slightly more than the current EQX800 price?  It would have to make business sense for them.  I'm sure they have a 10% warranty reserve from each Equinox sale, and while they probably have a higher then industry standard defect rate, they can still siphon off the warranty reserve to fix platform failures before the warranty times out.

31 minutes ago, Bill (S. CA) said:

When it comes to new machines, Cal, I really like the way you cover them AND use them.  I hope you can favor us with some videos when yours arrives.

Bill

Thanks Bill.  I plan to get some videos once I get all the settings figured out 😏

I received this message from my dealer:

Manticores starting shipping to US warehouses yesterday.... You are number  1 on the list..You still wanting to purchase  ?

Response was yes please, just take my money...

Great email to receive!  Unfortunately it doesn't sound like I'll have it in time for an upcoming detecting trip, but that's okay I want to bring something I know well to uncharted territory.  The Manticore will get a good workout at a particular Spanish outpost site that I think could be a good fit for it with plenty of time to experiment with the new settings.

On 9/7/2021 at 4:12 PM, GB_Amateur said:

Even if possible without a hardware upgrade, would it make financial sense for Minelab to execute such a 'free' change?  Have they ever made such a significant change via software upgrade?  From what I've seen over the last several years, they don't even add new coil options and seldom do they allow aftermarket coil makers to do that.

Doesn't the 25+ year old Fisher Gold Bug 2 still the have the highest operating frequency (option) of any ground balancing IB detector?  If Minelab were to develop a detector for which a 100 kHz ground balance capability has significant application(s), would they even include it first as a selectable frequency option on a simultaneous multifrequency detector?

Considering that a special HF coil would be required, sure it could make sense as they can now sell you a $300 coil.

That said, given Minelab's lackluster coil portfolio for the Equinox, they're clearly not in the coil business, so I doubt this HF coil and upgrade will ever see the light of day. 

On 9/7/2021 at 3:37 PM, ☠ Cipher said:

With Nokta Makro intending to compete directly with the Equinox 800, and outdo it in build and features, then considering Minelab is title sponsor of Detectival, I wonder if it will force Minelab’s hand to go to a 4.0 update with more features for equinox. It sounds like there’s a good chance of hearing something about NMs SMF this weekend. Will Minelab respond in kind? The hosts of Detectival said on a recent UK podcast “there are a few surprises coming.”

Very unlikely.  The Legend is a great machine, the XP D2 is a good machine, but these machines effectively just caught up to the four year old Equinox. 

With the Manticore's imminent release, I'm sure it's all hands on deck at Minelab to get that machine into production. There's almost no incentive for Minelab to update the Equinox.

What updates would you like the see on the Equinox?

Good hunt, not sure on your mystery items, but pretty sure I've found one of those flange things, and the other thing might be gun related.  Then again 🤔

Interesting idea.  I've always thought that detecting vendors should make the angle adjustable 15 degrees in either direction to accommodate everyone's differences in physical build. 

I've seen people cut a piece of those foam "noodles" and put it under the control pod so your thumb isn't smashed into the control pod. 

On 11/19/2022 at 7:01 PM, longbow62 said:

I pre-ordered Aug, 27th. so I should be at the very top of the list. Unless we have a harsher than normal winter weather I detect quite a bit in December, January, and February.   

Those are prime detecting months out west, as many of our sites get overgrown come spring, and then the ground turns to cement coupled with 100F + temps in the summer usually keeps us at bay until the next fall/winter/early spring returns. 

14 hours ago, abenson said:

I agree, I was just telling one of the guys I went with that I could drive 3 hours from my house and dig more stuff in a day than I dug all week. However, I can't find much Confederate stuff out west. Some of those Confederate bullets can fetch a few hundred bucks a piece.

I guess that has to be the angle, I didn't realize some of those Confederate bullets were that valuable.  I see guys back south with 5 gallon buckets of dug bullets.  We don't find rebel relics out west, and I'm surprised we don't find something, buttons, buckles, or whatnot. A lot of Confederate soldiers migrated west after the war to start a new life, entire townships were started by them, so one would think rebel relics would turn up, but I've not heard of anyone finding anything.  Odd.

Thanks for posting this, I enjoyed your video.

That looks like a ball buster hunt site!  Seems like we have better odds at our desert sites eh?

Nice digs! That's a nice gesture to give the land owner a finds display from his property. Those acts of kindness can pay off in spades with more permissions 🙂

The Navy button should be around 1850's, back probably says Scolville & Co.

4 hours ago, abenson said:

Yea dug some relics, I'll try and make a post tomorrow or Sunday. That buckle looks like it's stamped brass, is that what it is or cast?

Yea but probably a $100 or more behind LOL.

It's what Tom call's the "flimsy" style, so yeah stamped thin brass not cast.  They seem to be the most common.  There's a recently published book on these Gold Rush era tongue and wreath style buckles. 

Tom's dying to get #17 but he can wait, I'm only on #2 maybe #3 is waiting for me on our trek LOL

I bet you got some good stuff, I'll look for your post of your adventures!

5 hours ago, abenson said:

Just getting around to reading this post as I was in Virginia all last week looking for Civil War Relics and it took me until today to get caught up on work. Nice bunch of finds guys! You really have the cream of the crop for sites to hunt.

Tom what's the story on the star buckle? Is that a Texas buckle? Part of a cast buckle was found with a star and those are Texas soldiers. 

BTW Tom I picked up #17 this Summer

Did you get any CW relics?  I believe the buckle is a Gold Rush era buckle. 

#17, so you're one gold coin ahead of Tom? 🏆

6 hours ago, Tom_in_CA said:

You know one or two of them will be the next "magnum opus".  After all, I'm over-due for #17   tsk tsk   😏

 

Come to papa 🤠

5 hours ago, phrunt said:

yep, I really struggle with 50 tones, DP on my T2 which is full tones had me sitting inside taking headache tablets when I gave it a go. 

I'm a 5 tones kinda person 🙂 I guess you could call me a target ID hunter, as I rely on them the most except for gold which is mostly dig it all.  I don't think I'm very good at finding coins at all, I'm just lucky to be in a place where it's easy with little to no competition and detectors that can by and large identify my deep coins very well.

I couldn't handle DP on the F75, mostly because it was so digital and artificial sounding, that it was very  unpleasant to the hears.  The few that mastered it did okay with it, but it's just not the same as Minelabs full tone analog like audio where there's no mistaking that deep silver tinkle you get on a deep silver coin.  You just didn't get that on the FTP machines DP audio.  At the end of the day, use what works for you, we all process audio data differently.  

14 hours ago, deathray said:

Lol. I remember when he wouldn't give up his Whites Eagle for the explorer, until Ron totally kicked his butt in a bay area park. Hey man, he's KILLER with that explorer 2 now, if it works, it works. Something to be said about knowing a detector like the back of your hand.

One guy( who Tom knows from decades ago) that I hunt with, still uses a Whites 6000, and KILLS it.

That's exactly what he said, Ron changed his mind when he was a White's fan.  No doubt about it, he does well with the Exp2, but it's getting harder to get parts for, a few of his got "splashed" while beach hunting and met their demise, but he keeps finding replacements on craigslist and ebay.  We'll see how he does with the D2. 

4 hours ago, steveg said:

This is really, really odd, Cal.  He's a tough nut to crack (and hard to understand...can't believe he bought a D2, after his disdain for the EQX (and now presumably, the Manticore?)

Steve

Undoubtedly a tough nut to crack.   Personally I don't really care what machine he runs, I just find the not waiting perplexing, heck he's had the Exp2 this long and loves it's full tones, so what's a few more months.  Given the D2 is XP's first foray into SMF, and Minelab's been doing it for decades, it's a bit of a no brainer to wait for Manticore field tests.  Perhaps it'll be a good thing, for me 🤠