dewcon4414

Oh no Joes cashing in some of that pirated gold to go down under and plunder. Hopefully travel restrictions will loosen up by then. Thomas.... i think part of the issue with repairs is the visibility. Most testing goes on and changes are made with NDAs. So by time these machines hit the street the companies hope they have MOST of the bugs worked out. We have seen changes being made.... so hopefully the machine will be even better. Im hoping water noise can be cut some. I think having that coil connector in the front could be part of the issue. You dont get nearly the vibration of the cable from water displacement when its on the side nearer the shaft. I still would have liked to seen a 9 or 10" coil rather than the 8.

Joe .... so what connector are you using for that NEW battery pack.... i see it has a screw on cap is why i ask? That 100 hour pack is something Fisher could have or SHOULD have done all along. Explain the audio shout off please. Im also curious as to how many of those ring you think you might have gotten with the ring slaying Xcal? I know how you are using them.... you know your sites... when and where to use them. Everyone should be watching to see if that warranty is going to be transferable especially if you intend to use it in salt water.

I believe fisher was going to do it in a box..... we saw pictures of the proto type, but opted to go to an option which could be used i believe when they do the digital. Thus a delay of the limited. Those boxes do tend to float a bit out there in the water very deep too. Even the CTX does.... which had a pretty hefty price tag. Fisher has a tendency to do an MSRP higher than we pay..... so im still guessing its going to sell at $2200 with an MSRP of $2900. I do find it difficult to buy a NEW machine for a little depth which in a lot of cases that same depth could be made up with a coil option.

We are crazy for depth and having an edge. I used to own two AquaSounds.... new those babies were $3500 and a coil was $500 adds a battery change and there was another $400. I of course did NOT pay the new price. Great machines and the first machine to both GB and Salt Balance IN the water..... and it was single freq. Only really used here in Fl because black sand killed the depth. My point is we paid for the depth even thou it was only good here. The disadvantage the production model has ..... is how much more depth could they or did they squeeze out of it? We have seen the limited.... there will have to be some pretty decent changes to get a $3000 price tag. Yes they will sell.... but not nearly as fast as with a reasonable price tag. It appears marketing has changed..... it’s going to be interesting to see where this all goes.

Like any machine with a bit more depth.... be prepared to hit virgin targets.... DEEPER target of all sorts. You are the man if you are mud hunting. That even sounds like work and makes my back hurt lol. You using a sifter? They can really cut down recovery time. Closest thing to mud bottoms i hunt is Ft Meyer beach.... you have the river mud mixed with sand. If you get movement there.... it gets crazy with the bottle caps and can slaw.

Thanks guys for the info. Seems we keep making some great improvements. Those twist locks are old school and a pain in the butt if you use them very long in the water. Joe .... you need to compare the two coils depth for us on some gold buddy..... as well as sensitivity to the smaller stuff. I assume the smaller coil can run a bit lower uS out there? I’m also curious to see a comparison of your limited and the production model.

At this point i think there are two factors hurting the sell of these machines. One.... is they must be near to coming out with the production model. Two.... with a small number out there seems to be several going back for repairs. With no transferable warranty .... anyone want to sell theirs is taking a loss and the buyers are taking a chance. Had they given a transferable warranty more of these may have been passed around and Fisher may have gotten even more info for improvements if needed.

I have to say .... i was floored to see the MDT only required one battery and to replace it only costs $6...... AND you get to as well as the charger which will recharge both at the same time. You can get them easily anywhere on line. Why are we paying crazy prices for battery packs??? You just cant beat old fashion KISS. Ive used mine a lot.... they still charge to 4.1 and ive had mine a couple of years now. This is one well made tank of a machine.... yet light weight. Im hoping SteveG comes up with that thinner lower shaft for a little better water movement. Thou i have to say the 12" coil moves pretty darn well out there.

Im curious as well why they went with a standard style ears and lower shaft connector. Will they change the larger coil on the production models ears? Anyone had trouble with the larger coils ears? Could be a cost saver to just beef up the ears on the larger standard if its going to be used in the water.

P.... we tested mixed and AM the other day at the beach in wet sand with the 12" coil. We wanted to take advantage of both and AM and disc.... but we also want to ensure it was as deep as AM in mixed mode. It was... for the depth and targets we were testing. I dont use disc except to reverse disc. Its just to solid of a tone.... i like a more drawed out tone that AM gives me.... that bang and more pops than false tones. It depending on if your headphones are using speakers or pizzos as to how much modulation you may get. AM in most machines gives a better size and depth modulation..... thus why it may seem like a weaker signal. Its much like the old Explorers ..... i maxed out the gain so all targets sounded the same in trash so those weak signals didnt get lost or filtered out. In open areas i used less gain giving me a little depth modulation on targets. The 12" coil initially for me had more chatter near the surf. The way i had been adjusting the standard coil didnt work...... that was moving the SB higher. What i found was in some cases moving it down cleared it right up. If Aarons post on small aluminum is correct then .... moving the SB lower on this coil may make it more sensitive to some smaller gold. Ive been real pleased with the depth of the targets ive been digging as well of the coverage..... and no i wont be taking it off either.

I really got beat up over some of the things i thought the machine needed to improve on before the production model comes out. A few of those were fixed...... the battery was a huge one to me.... and still seems to be less than expected with Joe being able to do what they couldnt/wouldnt. I was kind of hoping for a 9" coil as well. Im still not certain we will see the machine in July as some have predicted. But hopefully you will get first choice on one Steve.

I think both VLF and AQ hunters are working with "acceptable loss".... the advantage, in the water any way, for a VLF is disc at a respectable depth to ID some of these targets.... like the bobbie pin. Bobbie pins are right there at the point of almost being a non-ferr targets on a lot of TID screens. -2 you start picking them up.... but the double beep and volume indicating a shallow target stops you..... yet the screen (if you can see it) allows a quick leave-er-right there response...... wire even more quickly. Depth beyond that will obviously go to the AQ.... and theres the required learning curve..... as well as the advantage of getting something deeper. Another factor i see with those here in Fl any way is TIME and a desire to cover a lot of water in a short period ... which means mostly recent drop hunting..... to about 8 - 10". Everyone says dig it all .... we all know that dont happen. So ... its acceptable loss we dont get it all. At least with the AQ, unlike some of the VLFs they didnt dumb it down for the average hunters use. They provided the power necessary for the more experienced hunter where even he has a learning cure.

Hey buddy.... I’m out of town but will send you an email rather than get off topic. I do have a few hunts on the coil now.... I prefer the coil over the standard.

I honestly cant say any of the machines ive used handles the wash really well. I do agree the Nox will loose targets there as the water moves over the coil and rushes thru the sand. But then it can loose targets in the hole out there as well. But then you take advantage of either the high or low tide too hunting the shallow at various times. There is a large of concentration of minerals, tiny aluminum, black sand and its all gets moving constantly there. I had an issue the other day. The sand was being correlated near shore producing a mound in the wet sand.... and some what of a trough at the waters edge.... i had to adjust my settings. We have a good bit of seaweed at various times during the year. That stuff gets buried in low areas trapping a lot of these materials..... and it WILL make a machine chatter. Heck .... even a sting ray will swinging over them. Coil flip is another reason.... just like swinging N to S with a slop.... a lot of machines dont like that either. For me it would be more important that it ran smoothly just out of that wash and into deeper water.

Both the black and red O rings can be bought on line at McMasters-Carr. I put the part numbers on here somewhere that were given to my by Dimitar. I think i passed it to Chase as well or Badger. Its also on that looooooong thread on Tom Ds site. However, ive had mine in the water for well over 2 years now as has Cliff. I think we both may have changed them out once. I changed mine when i got a couple of drops of water in the box.... my fault.... that was very early on. So i dont think it was needed.

The machine reacts much like an Xcal. Set the Xcal in disc in most cases you can only set it at 7 sensitivity before it becomes unstable..... but switch to AM and you can hunt very much like a PI with little to no recovery time.... it quieter and those falsing become easier to read. YOu also can take advantage or running just out of AUTO. Once the MDT coil gets in the water a good bit of that EMI looking screen jump changes too. Gold tend to stay in that 5-6 range .... unlike say a pull tab or other aluminum.... if deep it will just into the 20s range .. high tone. I run my GB here at 560 and salt at 30 most of the time.... and reverse disc with disc set at -30. You get more POPS in AM than a disc tone which to me is easier just because most of the time thats minerals or iron flakes. Its a learning process running this hot. If im using the screen and i get some iron along with the high digits... say in the 26 range normally its aluminum or deep iron. I will say..... no matter the machine you are using .... on a deep bottle cap that gives mixed tone most will at least check them. You dig more..... but i at least have a comfortable feeling im not missing much. Thats always my goal..... find the target. THEN decide what it is.

At least you are getting out. Might i recommend if you are AM hunting and reverse disc.... try disc at -30. You are only using it to check targets not find them..... so i like the strong iron sound on shallower targets and on deeper ones thou a little more difficult you still get some iron tones mixed with high tones from wrap around. Depending on how much junk working it could be more difficult than with say a multi tone machine especially if you dont want to mess up the landscaping. Those coins werent deep so id hit it likely with my Nox first then came back with the MDT. Coin shooting often includes you wanting to dig everything that aint iron.... that can be a lot of digging. Sometimes pattern hunting an area.... for just say coins then coming back for a day of dig it all can be more rewarding. Which coil were you using?

Its possible places like Bass Pro may contract to get first shot at machines. If i were in the business my priority would be to try and get them in places like Bass Pro, Amazon.... heck even Wal-mart. It take inventory to do it you have to have a lot more machines out there on display thou. ML has made it difficult on dealers who sell or want to sell other machines. When the Nox was coming out.... then got out it seemed to stop all sells even used.

I think Aaron said 1.6 lbs .... 5 ozs heavier than the stock. So those numbers seem close enough

Ooops hunting buddy pointed out ... the 11” is .485 thick and the 12” is .504. My Eyeballing it failed to take into consideration my 11” has a COIL COVER. Which almost doubles its height.

I did some more testing today with both coils. The first photo shows the rings i tested the sheets show how many were in each category.... white, yellow, mixed gold and PLAT. The first sheet shows how the digits compared. I also mentioned when i have wind i have EMI..... im showing a sheet of what that EMI can do.... same rings in the same order. What had happended during the testing was a lot of wind while testing the 12".... then it just stopped as i began testing the 11". Soooo i retested both with NO obvious EMI. Gold changed very little with the exception of a couple of rings between the coils. I retested the coins and they do seem to upscale 1 digit for me. My changes were sensitivity at 4 and Threshold at -2 in AM.... i wanted a good stable reading. Let me also mention something i noticed. I wondered why this coil moved as well if not better than the standard. Well the 12" is HALF the thickness and doesnt have a flat front both of which makes for MORE water displacement.

Bob now has the BROKE it trophy.... if it can break he’s the man lol. I’ve seen him one the beach when he broke his.... then he was carrying his Nox box trying to hunt because it fell off the shaft.... ML couldn’t get his Xcal right.... AQ in the shop for two months. Have I covered it all Bob. This used to be me. I believe I have 5 pairs of Tony’s phones now. I believe Gray Ghost Amphibians are made by him now too. For your purpose.... the ones you ordered should do the trick without breaking the bank

I’ve not had time to test any gold. However the 3.9 gram 14k I found today was still in the 5 digit range. Waves were pushing pulling a lot today so I got to use it in some good moving water. It handled very well. Coil control was better than the standard. Not nearly as much flipping or being pushed up. Could be a few things.... added weight, design it self or fully filled epoxy. I didn’t think I’d like that the ears was not dead center... but this one works the coil connector allows you to run it right up the shaft cutting down on cable vibration. Out of the water ... I honestly didn’t notice the weight.

OK.... i got the 12". I think this needed to be on there in the first place. First impression ... i like the beefier ears the rubbers make it fit well. Coil connector is in the right position to run the cable up the shaft. Weight .... surprisingly balanced and i didnt really notice much weight difference when swinging and you dont find yourself twisting the coil at the end of the swings. Nothing to fill with sand so maybe ill like this without a cover lol. It is over filled so i dont think you will get coil separation like some Xcal coils did. Epoxy reminds you of JB Weld plastic..... that stuff is hard as a rock. Tomorrow im supposed to look for someones ring i didnt find it today. So ill take a little gold chain with me. fairly small. Ill be watching to see if it upscales the aluminum and deeper trash. Hopefully thats not changed because it puts it above a quarter..... so for my gold hunting it starts narrowing down what i DONT have to hear or look at. I love new toys lol.

Chase i could have said that better for that i apologize. I felt you were being a little under estimating the number sold. What i ment about get wet ....is thats where the real depth of this machine is IMO. Its pretty impressive to maintain nearly all its depth when VLFs tend to loose a good bit. Ill try not to over sell the machine..... but i guess i am a fan. Again..... i ment you no disrespect.... i truly appreciate your knowledge and skill.