schoolofhardNox

5 hours ago, phrunt said:

GPX 4800 and 5000 have a coin and relic timing and the salt timings.   It's wise for Minelab to broaden their horizons beyond gold if they can.  I think a discriminating PI is on just about everyone's wish list.

If the price of the machine is high, I would agree that adding some timings for other than gold hunters would increase sales. But the bottom line for a gold machine is, that is has to offer gold prospectors something more than they already have provided previously, or it is of no use to them. So it will have to focus on gold. But as we have seen from the previous GPX models, they also work for relic and coin shooting if you get to learn how they work.  So in the end we should all win.......hopefully 😄

Not that I have a chance to nugget hunt here in New England, but the GPX 5000 has been my favorite for many years now, because it seems timeless to me. I'm sure there are better machines out there (and in the future for sure) but it will always remain in my lineup, even if it takes second place sometimes.

2 hours ago, abenson said:

Just my 2 cents. But I suggested the Equinox 800 to a friend that had never owned a metal detector before. He bought it at the beginning of the summer and I have been out with him a few times. He is really struggling with the unit even in the preset modes. I go over a target and have him listen and he still struggles to understand the tones and ID. Not sure the Equinox 800 is a good choice for someone who has never owned a metal detector before. The Vanquish IMO would be a better first detector, the tones and ID are more straight forward. Nokta Makro Simplex would be another good one.

Why not just put it two tones and not multi? That would solve everything.

Way to go!!! 1 dollar gold is very tiny. I wonder how many are just beyond the range of our machines??? In that area I would use a pulse machine after you are done hunting with the I/B machines. Most gold will respond with a tone opposite of large iron, but the same as small bits of iron. It would be worth a try. Great hunt finding that elusive gold coin👍

Here's how I viewed the release and the agreement. Most companies are doing the same thing  EXCEPT they don't tell you that their new machine isn't really completely refined. They rely on selling it first and letting us discover the problems later on. That is the way it has been done for a long time now. They release a new machine implying it is tested and ready to go, but in a couple of months the "bugs" start to appear. Now with thousands sold we are left to complain to them that this is broken or that didn't work. It's a back and forth tug of war. At least Fisher and Alexandre told you up front what was going on. If you don't want to be part of the process, then you don't buy it. But if you do, you know up front that it is still a work in progress. Do we still complain? OF COURSE 😄 that is human nature. But when we complain we never feel we were cheated and not told anything. That is the difference. Everything was up front , so no hard feelings.  I like it better that way than to find out after a couple of months that things are not as I expected them to be. 

1 hour ago, ALEXANDRE TARTAR said:

Yes, we take into account all the messages and we modify.

We lengthened the lower shaft a few inches. 

Are those for sale also? I wouldn't mind having a spare in case it breaks while I am detecting. The extra few inches is welcomed.

9 minutes ago, cudamark said:

I received my new lower shaft and clevis today. I'm pleased to see that it's longer than the original one. Since the clevis is attached to the shaft, there's no way to see if it's now solid instead of hollow. Hopefully it's at least made of a thicker wall plastic. Hopefully, I'll get out soon and give it a good test now that I have one of OBN's batteries and the new shaft.

You will like the battery! Nice to do a full hunt and not worry about it.

11 hours ago, AU_Solitude said:

So anyone else reading "an ease of use technology" as a push towards operation simplification? I mean, names can be misleading but I would have to think they are implying this GeoSense is some new version of automatic ground tracking, possibly combined with automatic tuning for ground conditions? An attempt to "idiot-proof" it similar to the SDC and Monster?

A GPX/SDC in one will be great (maybe not to those whom already own both). Given the teasers they have released thus far, and given the good machines in the market, I think this one is going to find a home around that $6,000 mark.

I'm hoping the "ease of use technology" is not a synonym for " limiting the technology" One reason I loved the 5000 over the ATX was the fact that I could adjust it for almost any environment.  If it's taking away a lot of control and presetting everything, then it's a no go for me.

9 minutes ago, Joe D. said:

   I understand the need to protect your "honey holes"! That's tough to do on any day! I do my best to give other guy's a wide birth! When going the opposite direction! And if i hear any other detector's in my headphones, i will be the first to shut mine off! A few have been thankful for me giving way, and actually stopped to chat a bit! I especially try to be as respectful of the regulars I've seen, because they sometimes share some tidbits of information about locations, and finds! But that's just the icing on the cake!👍👍

I'm the same way unless you are a jerk and cut me off and try and detect in front of me when there is a mile of beach to hunt. That's when I turn the GPX to maximum and follow you closely. 😄

1 hour ago, Joe Beechnut OBN said:

Great report and a Big Congrads on the 1st And 2nd AQ golds. Sure takes the pressure off..

Thanks Joe. Your battery had a lot to do with it. I was able to do what I wanted, when I wanted and not worry about battery time. I think that my decision making prior was based on odds of finding things instead of instinct. So far I ran the battery twice for a total of 8 hours. I'll probably charge it only because I don't like swapping batteries midstream.

4 hours ago, Johnny Crunch said:

Thanks for sharing the story. How big is that ahnk?

The Ankh is 1" and the loop is another 3/8", so decent size but not overly huge. Also that chain is 22" long

17 hours ago, Joe D. said:

Great story and finds; congratulations!

  You all need to include some beach pics in with the finds! You can edit out locations and landmarks! I personally just like to see your beach and surf conditions! The features of where your finds are coming from are helpful in beach reading! No matter what part of the world you may hunt!👍👍

I don't usually show pictures of the beaches since competition here is fierce 😲 But the first beach has calm waters, so not much changes except for whatever the wind takes away or if a big storm pulls some sand away. The beach where the gold was found has some rough waves (by New England standards), so the beach changes somewhat a lot, especially after a storm or full moon. We don't get the big cuts around here, so no 3-6ft drops for us, but exposing rocks or clay is a BIG deal for us and usually leads to silver and gold.

Great 2 day hunt. I'm assuming conditions have changed or are you hiding hunt #3 from us? 😄

What a hunt!!!!! I'm still looking over that yellow stone ring you found. Most times it's topaz or citrine, but I keep thinking it's yellow sapphire or if you feel real lucky .... yellow diamond. Just has that expensive look to it. I'd have that one checked out for sure. Super hunt, Congrats!

20 hours ago, phrunt said:

My understanding is the reason coin and relic mode is so deep is because ground balance is disabled which is why it only works in mild soils/beaches where the ground doesn't matter, PI's that you can disable ground balance get a huge depth increase over ground balanced detectors, so by it's very nature they can't improve that mode's soil handling without adding ground balance to it.   The only way they'd be able to do your request would be to improve their ground balanced soil handling which would be fantastic for prospectors too 🙂

I didn't realize that GB was disabled. So I guess I am asking them to get better ground balancing 😄 Seriously, coin / relic goes real deep for me on the beach. I would love that same depth in the woods when I do my metal detecting survey of old 17th century villages.

I'd like to see a truly waterproof GPX 5000 with 2 more additions :  1) Extremely good EMI control, with no trade off in losing depth. 2) The ability to use coin and relic timing in more mineralized soils, not just at the beach or in extremely low mineralized soils. That would be a really good detector I would be interested in.

It may work in very sandy areas, but the shells and rocks would clog a small pipe. Increasing the pipe size means more power and greater visibility. You'd get spotted in a heartbeat. I dream of that unit attached to a small boat with the detector below it doing all the work for me 😄. Would be nice to do it on private land in ponds.

What's lunch? I eat mine while I'm driving home 😄 Sometimes the beaches get busy with detectorists, so if you go to eat, they take your spot.  I bring my drinks with me but when you run out, that's when the trouble starts with dehydration. Joe's batteries will let me detect all day and dehydrate me at the same time 😂

Some sweet finds there. Land or water?

5 hours ago, ALEXANDRE TARTAR said:

Whoever does 10 hours a day does not detect in water, because 10 hours in water you end up like a pudding.
So if you are not in the water you can have 4 small 18650 cells on you to interchange.
It is true that you will not be able to make several days with a set of 4 cells 18650. But I do not find that annoying.
It must be recharge at each cession. 😉

Batteries recharge in less than 2 hours during the lunch (1 hour 30) I speak about the final version.

 

I can sometimes do 10 hours on land. In the water I wouldn't last 30 minutes😄 I could never swing the coil that slow fighting against the water.

On 10/28/2020 at 8:23 PM, cuniagau said:

It took me 4 short hunts to finally run the battery down.  Total run time was approximately 11 hours and 35 minutes.  That sure beat the 3 1/2 from the factory battery.  I ran about 95% of the time in AM and only switched to Tone or Mute to check targets. Running mostly presets on the other settings.  The audio of certain targets is starting to become inbedded in my brain now.  Nickels are easy to recognize now.

That is the main reason I do not hunt for any long period in AM. I don't want to drain the battery down just as I am getting into the groove of things. Joe's battery has solved that problem. 👍 That leaves me with only the problem of finding the right place to get the gold 😄

I wish he had better video of finding it, so we could see how deep it was. He's a bit off on saying it only finds gold. That is not correct and he should have said it finds targets in the gold range, including lead, nickels, pull tabs etc. I'm not a fan of videos made (by anyone) before they get some time on the machine and learn what it does and does not do. I hope he reads up on the machine and watches some videos on how it works. A little disappointed with his video. I expected better from him. But in the end the AQ found gold as we already knew it could do.

That double loop thing almost looks like a watch winder. Must have been fun to detect a place you have always looked at but could not get to.

This machine grows on you. I guess people's expectations are that you are going to find gold right away. It doesn't work that way. You still have to think where would it be most effective? Those that stick with the machine will find a place and time to use it. This would be a killer dive unit if they made it into one. Short shaft and waterproof to at least 30 ft and I bet you would see some great videos (or maybe people would just keep their mouth shut) 😄