Happa54

You're right Cal... he dropped off the radar but is back swinging and killing it. I've been in this hobby for 1.5 years and have done quite well due to my aggressiveness, passion and most of all the mentoring I've received from people like Jamflicker and Dan. Jamflicker is active on FMDF and you can see his finds posted there each week. These guys hunt close enough to where we can walk over to check each others signals, which has been great to my learning curve. At this juncture, I can't say too much about the differences between my success with the Nox vs my Safari. I just don't have enough time on the Nox. I look forward to the day where I can pop out as many coins as they do and pass on the experience.

Yeah Cal.... that would be Dan (CaptSE). I hunt on & off with him. I also hunt regularly with Jamflicker. Between the 2, they are phenomenal silver hunters with their Etrac and Explorer. I could never keep up with them. Thanx for stopping in....

Planned short morning hunt yesterday in a polluted L.A. park. I decided to lay off the silvers for awhile and seek my first V nickel. Field 2 with factory settings and blocked out mid conductors with 12,13,14 open. My first coin was a '36 buff in nice condition. Second coin was a worn V nickel. Other nickels followed. I was blown away at how fast I got these coins. I did dig a few pulltabs too but not too many since I am getting pretty good at identifying nickels based on how they jump around in the numbers. I think I'll keep running my machine this way for awhile and see how many Buffs/V's I can get over the next several months. Thanks for stopping in and happy hunting.

We have slopes like that in the older L.A. parks and I've taken some of my oldest coins from them. I pretty much avoid them now due to the tendonitis I'm suffering from from all the up & down and down & up with a heavy machine. I love those slopes though.

My hand is raised too. Gonna do my first ever beach hunt in 2 weeks. It is my opinion though that default settings would suffice, which is the way I run the other modes.

Same here. I'm ready to do my upgrade. Been watching "Dirtfishin" video on the tone breaks, etc. Looks simple as everything else about the Nox is anyway.

I use Historicaerials A LOT. I don't know about your area but down here in Los Angeles, the aerial photos date back to the 40's and 50's which means.... Mercs, Rosies and Wheaties. I use it mainly for parks and lots. Use the slider tool to go back and forth to view present and past. It works great!! Good luck !!

Thanks for your time and effort with the video Mark. When I started this thread I didn't mean to rain on anyone's parade but it's just that I have seen a few videos on this subject and my inquisitive nature wanted to investigate further. I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to retrieve good stuff whether "coin on edge" or not or for whatever other reason. With proper MD techniques and the proper settings, it can only get better for me. After all, with approx 60-70 hours on mine, I've scratched off 2 bucket listers, over a dozen silver coins, several dozen wheats, rings, tokens and a ton of clad. Irrespective of some of its early reported faults, ie; arm cuffs, wobbly shafts, etc. I have come to like this machine due to its simplicity and power. Far easier to maneuver around its settings with only the movement of my thumb. And, much lighter and easier handling than my Safari however I have not dug anything deeper than I have with the Safari and that's probably because my coil has not passed over anything deep yet. My confidence level with the Nox is such that if and when the 800 is plentiful and there is no wait for it, I'm buying it.

Thanks for putting this into perspective for me. I can live with it when you explain it this way. For me, only 1.5 years into this hobby I read a lot...and I mean a lot...everyday a lot...LOL. The research and testing that everyone does on a particular machine means something, even if just a little and we have to confirm in our respective soils and environments. Nonetheless, I like this machine for it's simplicity and adjustments at my fingertips. I'll find my way with time.... Thank you

Yes, I did the test with both machines, same slot, same coins, same everything in the soil in my test garden. I'll do further testing if I can think of anything else or based on suggestion on this forum.

Hey Everyone; I watched a couple of youtubes on "Equinox coins on edge" which prompted me to do a test on my own. Honestly, I really don't know what to make of it and I don't have anything to say positive or negative other than, I hope the percentages of coins on edge are low. Yesterday at the park I laid a silver dime flat on the ground and ran the coil over it in Park 1. The signal was loud and clear. I then stuck it in the ground on edge so the rim was barely showing. Ran the coil over it and the signal came in scatchy and broken up with VDI's bouncing around between the low and high numbers but nothing above 20.....mostly low single digit numbers. And in many passes, no signal at all. I wouldn't have dug these. Did the same with a silver quarter, wheat penny, '40 nickel, and the same scratchy broken signal on all or no signal. This morning out to my test garden.... did the same again with the Nox and the same results as of yesterday at the park. Cranked up the Safari..... hit them loud and clear whether flat or on edge. Do I really need to be concerned about this? Any words of metal detecting wisdom on this? Thank you

I'm guilty of mode hopping. Owning the Nox is like having multiple lollipops in front of you and you want to lick them all. I watch a lot of youtube videos and each time I do I'm anxious to try another setting when I get to the field...ie; one youtuber says Field 1 hits coins deeper than Park 1 & 2. Then another youtuber is pulling deep coins out in Park 1. And then others swear by Park 2. Aye, yai yai !!!! This is too much toy for me. LOL

It is interesting you say this re the Nox. A couple of months ago I was at an old 30's small semi-desert park and the infill was sand and grass on top. I hit some deep high CO signals and after about 8" of digging I covered the holes and walked away thinking deep rusted iron or irrigation pipe. I think I understand now and I may have walked away from some good finds. Also have the So Cal beaches at my disposal and yet I have never hunted them. I do good on coins but lousy on jewelry. After seeing your wrap up I think I better head to the ocean and at least give it a try. Thanx for sharing.

Holy Cow!!!!!! That is a super fantastic wrap up. Not only do you have the "much wanted gold", but you have (more than most can get) a large amount of silver too. You must be up there in the 1%-5% class. Congrats on that impressive haul !!!!!

Now this is making me crazy....LOL And we know for sure the '43-S has a TDI of 20+

Wow... I spoke too soon. High mintage numbers on the '43-S Year Mintage Numismatic Value Range 1942 P 57,873,000 $1.00 – $95.00 1942 S 32,900,000 $1.00 – $150.00 1943 P 271,165,000 $0.90 – $120.00 1943 D 15,294,000 $1.25 – $1,100.00 1943 S 104,060,000 $1.00 – $200.00 1943/2 P unknown $30.00 – $1,265.00 1944 P 119,150,000 $1.00 – $500.00 1944 D 32,309,000 $1.00 – $300.00 1944 S 21,640,000 $1.25 – $900.00 1945 P 119,408,100 $0.80 – $300.00 1945 D 37,158,000 $1.00 – $500.00 1945 S 58,939,000 $1.00 – $400.00

Good analogy GB and this war nic thing is getting interesting for me because I dug one. Now I'm curious to know how many were minted at this possible 50/50 mix. I'll have to search this one out. Please post if you find the same. Thank you

Great research GB and Steve. Find this hard to believe that "Congress gave the Mint the authority to vary the proportions, or add other metals, in the interest of the public". One would think that mint standards would be the same across the board. Very, very interesting. On the left, a 1943 S and on the right a 1944 D. The '43-S signal is 23 - 25 on the Nox, but seems to like 24 the most. The '44-D is a solid 13 with no wavering at all.

Thanx everyone for chiming in on this subject for me. Thank goodness there are very little changes to the VDI's with the nickels. One bump on the #'s either way is manageable. So, I may have to dig a little more but that's okay. Time will tell. The number of nics I dig will set the bar for me. I don't want to miss that V, Shield or Buff. Re the War nics...I remember the first one I dug about a year ago, was a high CO signal. Upon retrieval, I thought to myself, "Oh, a nick in the hole with a dime or maybe some silver". But I couldn't find anything else. So I passed the nic across my coil and there it was...a high CO signal. That was when I realized I had a War nic that I've heard so much about. The other War nics I've recovered were consistent at 14 on my ML Safari. A while back, my Etrac buddy asked, "Did you get that high tone or mid tone on those?" Obviously he had the same experience. So now with the Nox, where will the VDI be on a high tone War nic? I'm thinking they will be somewhere between zinc and dime. I guess so my next question in the future will be...."What was the VDI on your high tone War nic with your Nox?" Oh boy!!!!

Thank you Tom...I'll follow your suggestion and open up 10 - 14. The times I have seen an 11 or 14 mixed in with the 12/13 it has always been a pulltab. But then somewhere I recently read (and I don't remember where) that a deep Buffalo can come in at 11. So, we'll see... I"ll start digging more trash if it means getting more buffs and my bucket lister V nic and if I'm lucky enough I might get a Shield.

Cool finds. That lead man looks like an umpire...is it?

That's admirable of you and will only send good karma your way.....

Congrats on those nice finds !! It's too bad your beaches close up in the summer months.

Hey Everyone...I hope you all had a great weekend hunt. At present time, I'm chasing buffs & V nics. I did enough silver and wheats since last year and I want to focus on different things one category at a time. This morning I was able to spend approx 3 hours at a 3-4 acre 1920's park until they took over the field for soccer. Got 6 nics and other goodies. There were just as many quarter signals as there were dimes and pennies signals. Tells me that it isn't getting hunted much, if any... right? In my quest for nics, I'm blocking out everything except 12/13 and 18+ and I have been doing well with the nics this way. If a silver gets in the way, then it's icing on the cake. What prompted me to write is this morning I dug a nic with an erratic signal and it got me wondering. It rang up as a weak 12/13. Threw it in AM and a 16 pops up, then a 14, but then drops back down to 12/13. Threw it in 10khz and the numbers didn't move much. I decided to dig which I normally would not do if it isn't a steady 12/13. But I did anyways, then out comes a bent, slightly cut Jefferson. There was nothing else in the hole after a 2nd sweep of the coil. This now makes me wonder if I need to open up the numbers a little more... like maybe 11 - 14? I don't want to miss that V or Buff. Thanks for stopping in and giving your feedback.

I agree. Nox makes it so you can easily and quickly move between modes and settings while working targets. So much easier than ML's other FBS machines.