schoolofhardNox

Jason, Your scenario is probably the toughest scenario for any PI. If you have the small Minelab coil (5x10?) DD or any DD small coil, use that. I would also start with a very low gain of 5 to narrow the signal a bit. Very slow, short sweeps. I would start with an iron disc of 5 to be safe. If you are looking for coins and not nuggets, then 8 or 9. But be careful, non ferrous targets close to the surface will mimic an iron blanking (kind of). I think low gain and very slow coil control will be your best bet. Let us know how it goes.

Same here in New England. I dig more than most hunters here, but I learn a lot from it too.

Did you get a chance to try it in the other modes

I hope that it works out that way in my style of hunting. If it performs that way on a beach, I will buy one. My fear is that EMI will kill most of those advantages.

Yes. Most of the points we have found were made from brass trade kettles, most likely Dutch.

I bet that would bring out the details on worn out coins. No more guessing what your worn out slug is!

I am always interested in something new, especially if it is beach related, or EMI mitigation related. But honestly I am tired of waiting on machines that never seem to come to market. Maybe if they would just let us know what is going on instead of silence, that would help. Minelab is always silent on their machines and never gives you more than a small glimpse of their new releases, but at least they do release them. My money is not everlasting by any means ?, so if I buy something today while waiting for the promised machine, I will not have the funds to buy it if it does come out! That happened with White's one time. I waited and waited and then the E Trac came out, so I bought it. They lost my sale, and helped Minelab get into my main line of machines used. Hard to knock them from that now, especially with just promises. I think it really hurts the credibility of a manufacturer to cry wolf too many times.

Does it also disappear if you pinpoint? or just when running normally? I've had them disappear while trying to recover the target, but have always heard them in pinpoint mode.

Yep, they are arrow points.The conical ones are pretty deadly looking, but the triangle shaped ones are fairly thin and bend easily.

I've been meaning to post this for a while . After seeing the great finds GKman found on the Equinox forum, it reminded me to post this. Here is a shot of most of the brass Native American kettle points we found from an ongoing project. These points were found by 4 other hunters and myself. I get asked a lot of times from people that find their own points, how old are they? and what tribe do they belong to? The time period is easy, early to mid 1600's., but the attribution is more difficult. So we are in the process of starting a data base of points found while metal detecting. Since I am a metal detectorist, first and foremost , I informed them that the exact locations are not going to be disclosed ?. No one is going to give GPS numbers on their finds. The people I have worked with for the past 8 years are excellent people and are only interested in general information and a good, clear picture with a ruler or measurements (length and width). This data base will allow us to see where points are generally found and will eventually be able to attribute styles of points to actual tribes. I have only 1 point that was found at a cellar hole, on my own and have given them the information on where it was found. Only the town and state. That is all they needed. So if anyone is interested in contributing information (anonymously if you choose), I would be glad to log it in. Hope you enjoy the picture. It represents around 10 tribes that fought along side the English, against the Pequot tribe. If you have never had the privilege of digging one of those, I can say it never gets old. I have had the pleasure of pulling a lot of those points pictured from the dirt and the feeling is always the same ?

Kettle points are Native American arrow points made from cut up trade kettles. They usually are brass. Kettles back in the 1600's were shaped more like buckets and the natives cut them up and made points. They come in a good number of varieties.

The after market coils are also built better. I don't have the 7000, but on my GPX I have switched to Detech coils because the Minelab DD coils just don't last. Plus the variety of sizes is nice too. Maybe there is just not enough money in it for Minelab to get serious about coil manufacturing.... They may be too busy coming out with new machines that will squish back the competition a bit

My money is on a bad coil. That is why I switched to Detech coils. More rugged and never had one go. I've lost 3 DD Minelab coils. The problems you are having sound like the ones I had.

Is that Maple frosting??? Yummmmm. I should do that since I am on the beach all winter long. What did you use?

Same here. Dad did not camp, like any sports, fish, hike, swim, sled, ride a bike, show any interest in collecting coins, stamps, walk in the woods, etc... Maybe THAT is what made me like to be active LOL

I must say that I have a love/hate relationship with the Equinox. I found it easier learning the GPX 5000 than the Equinox. Sure, if you stay with the presets you are ok, but if you are going to try and tweak it for maximum performance, you better understand what each setting does. More importantly you better understand how each setting relates to the other settings. I guess that is the general problem most people have is that the relationship between RS, GB, IB, etc... matters a heck of a lot more on this machine than previous models. It's also harder to gauge if the setting you just adjusted did what you thought it would do. The older models were more forgiving and smoother in changing settings. Until we understand these options, you will continue to hear complaints. IB was one control that I hear the most complaints about. What does it really do? Sometimes you don't see any difference in response no matter what number it is set to. No doubt this machine has many benefits as well as drawbacks on the beach. It rocks on small gold, but I find at times I get great depth on certain parts of the beach one day and mediocre depth on that same part of the beach on another day (EMI and shifting sand considered). For a machine that is aimed at the masses, it seems to confuse more people than other models. For me, I loved long tones on the CTX. On the Equinox you can sort of get long tones by lowering the recovery speed. But it doesn't bang out the elongated tone like the CTX did. That was crucial in effortlessly hearing them quarters at 10-12" on the CTX. The squashed ID scale - heavily condensed on the low numbers - does nothing to get the average detectorist to like or understand it. Does it have great capabilities --YES, does it make it as easy to get those great capabilities as previous models ? NO. My grade would be a B - If it controls reacted as good as the GPX it would be a solid B. If the scale was expanded to remove a lot of the overlap it would get an A. If it would dig my holes (especially through hard packed rocks) it would get an A +++++++++ LOL

Luckily those took me a couple of seasons to dig up. The gray patina on silver is ugly compared to land hunts, but finding them is mostly for the challenge of it. Beaches are hit a lot these days, so the silver count is way lower. You have to work for them. The Indian Head may be from those detecting club planted hunts. They get together and have a hundred+ detectorists all seeding the beach so they can re-find the items. I tried doing some of those hunts but I always wandered off to do the natural hunts

We can swap beaches, so I can rid yours of them.

I want one now

They come in better than they should. I almost want to ignore them but they intrigue me just enough to get me to dig them

That was my go to coil for a long time, relic hunting as well. Now I use the Detech coils and they work great (and waterproof too).

Shotgun pellets suck too I get those on my land hunts. They sound like nice, small, deep targets. I always use a DD coil on the beach. I've had great success with them. I takes me 1.5 - 2.5 hours to get to a beach depending on which one I go to, so I just use what works and never ventured into the mono coils much. I will never learn anything new until I stop finding things. Then I probably would say "why didn't you try that mono coil earlier dummy?"

I couldn’t resist the good weather and one final beach hunt. First beach I hit was invaded by 3 bus loads of teenagers and a small pack of little kids. I think it’s one of those religious outings. One minute it’s quiet, the next minute it’s total chaos . So, I left to another beach and finished the hunt. This one is all GPX, as my metallic cuff for the Equinox was not in yet. I found a little bit of clad, with a decent amount of copper Wheats/Memorials and some nicely toned nickels. The good finds were limited to a Mercury, silver Roosevelt, silver wave ring, and a silver earring. No gold this time. Not a spectacular hunt, but a good way to end the season. Next week starts the archaeology detecting season that should go right into November. The last two pictures are from 2 seasons of CTX, Equinox and GPX hunting of beaches. I know a lot of people dread pull tabs, (especially park hunters) but on the beach Bobby pins and tent/canopy stakes kill me. Nothing like digging 16” looking for a stake that is really on the side of the hole at about 10” But I guess we all do our share of cleaning the trash from the beach.

Wondering if it says Britannia, with the misspelling of the last "I" with the "T". If the missing top piece was there, we would see if the first "I" was there or a "T" was used. Google Britannia metal and it was widely used.

Absolutely stunning!!!!!