NCtoad

That gets a “HELL YEAH” from me!

53 minutes ago, F350Platinum said:

Thanks NC,

The difference is the upper part is all some sort of tough composite plastic, it feels as solid and possibly more rigid than the standard XP shaft. It still has the aluminum mid rod and can be retracted the same way. The hand grip is also plastic, not rubber like stock, but is just as comfortable. 

You're not off topic at all really, I meant to feature the whole rig. 

I bought it not only because it is $25 cheaper than the stock shaft, but also because I was curious and wanted to have a different take should someone else review it. 

I like it. 👍

Thanks Bob.  Do you happen to know the weight of the standard shaft?   I found the weight of the lite shaft at 320 grams, but can’t find the weight listed for the standard shaft.  Just wondering if it’s worth switching to the lite version.  

Very nice!  And well done on the vinyl cover!  Off topic a little but what’s the difference between the regular shaft and the lite one?   Not just the weight but are there any other differences like more flimsy?

I use the root slayer nomad.  I’ve been using one of these for about 6 years now.  I’m on my third one. First two cracked at the top serration.  Still a very durable shovel (I’m hard on shovels).  With that said, I still love this shovel.  I like the inverted V shape of the tip. It tends to cut through the roots rather than glance off to the side.  These can be had for around $45 if you shop around.  

7 hours ago, F350Platinum said:

I was asking Alexnov what he found, but very cool stuff man 🙂

I translated his post.

Gotcha!  I got lost in the translation!  Lol!

13 hours ago, Alexnov said:

Я люблю tekkna. Я не знаю, что это такое, но поверю Гэри на слово, что с этим происходит какое-то колдовство! Лол какое-то колдовство! Лол ,,,,🙂

The four copper coins are United States wheat cents.  The dates of those four are:  1930, 1934, 1945 and 1953.  The silver coin is a Japanese coin.  I’m not sure of the exact date but most likely pre world war II…probably from the 1930s era.  So they’re not very old.  But thanks for your interest.  

1 hour ago, palzynski said:

I am not surprised with your finds with the 9" which is THE reference D2 coil for ultra high iron trashed areas ... 

From my little field experience with Tekkna I found it excellent on high / ultra high iron trashed areas . Still very good on medium iron trashed areas but not much difference with other programs like SENSITIVE to my opinion there.  I found Tekkna to be more chatty than SENSITIVE but it is just a matter of getting used to it . Anyway I use Tekkna all the time now ...

 

Tekkna is now my go to program for old house sites.  

1 hour ago, F350Platinum said:

Outstanding, NC.

Your coin is a 50 Sen coin, date uncertain, but it's the "Small" one. .720 silver. 👍

Gotta love Tekkna. 🙂 

The 9" makes a difference when there's a lot of trash.

Thanks Bob!  I did a google image search and couldn’t find an exact date either.  I would guess that it was brought back with a soldier when he returned home from WWII.  

I am loving tekkna.  I don’t know what it is but I’ll take Gary’s word that there’s some witchcraft going on with it!   Lol 

More Tekkna finds.  Yesterday I went to a different area of this park and first target was a nice low 60s and about 4-5” down was a silver bracelet.  This with the 13x11 coil. 
 

Went back this evening after work with the 9” coil and hit the same area that I hit the other day with the 13x11.  This spot is loaded with iron.   Again, I dug some nails, but pulled 4 more wheats and to my surprise a Japanese phoenix coin that is silver!   Three of the wheats and the silver were in a very polluted area within a few feet of each orher.  The phoenix coin came in slightly scratchy but with numbers in the low 90s and a decent two way 90 degree cross signal.  I think most of the coins gave a two way signal.  By two way signal I mean a good signal in one direction then turn 90 degrees and I still get a decent signal.  Hard to believe I’m still pulling coins from this spot!  The only changes I made to tekkna was lowering the iron volume to 8. 

3 hours ago, phrunt said:

I don't know if I'd want a powerful magnet that close to the electronics.

I wondered the same thing. 

3 hours ago, UKD2User said:

The only reason I can think that they made it the way they did is that the red disc acts as some kind of resonator to amplify/transmit the sound more.  I thought Paystreak had a magnet epoxied into his.  The thread on the cap is easy to damage, but so far after 18 months I've not spoiled mine yet.

Hmmm, I remember watching a video of his where he modifies the mi6 to be louder.  He said the volume was too low.  Maybe you’re onto something with the red disc.  

The D2 also has over twice the VDI range of the nox, so I would expect a little more fluctuation on any target, especially something not round or not in the shape of a ring.  

7 hours ago, JCR said:

You could epoxy a rare earth super magnet in the recess.   I keep a square of rubberized shelf liner with my spare battery for the Garrett carrot. It can be hard to remove the cap also.

I think Paystreak has a battery glued in there.  I don’t think I want to do that, but that is an option.  

Is there a reason that XP made the end cap with a hollow cavity?  Unless I’m missing something, I just don’t see any reason to this as it collects mud and debris.  

I think this is that video

1 hour ago, F350Platinum said:

Hey NC,

Nice bit of pickin' there. 👍

Cool you were able to do that with the 13x11", when there's a tremendous amount of junk and nails, the big coil tends to down average, as does the 11", but you can still get great separation in the center. 🙂 I'm sure you've heard the "triple tap" from side to center to side on a single small object in a clear spot. 

When there is dense stuff, the 9" coil sees quite a bit less ground, so it should sniff out even more. I've found I can lower reactivity to 2, I hear a lot more stuff, but you can go higher for the trashy shallow mix.

Despite any complaints I might have about Tekkna, it's definitely a great tool. You do have to force yourself not to dig anything that isn't repeatable in all directions, but if something gives you 50% or more good tones it could be worth a look.

I can pretty much do the same thing with Relic but the extreme sounds are much easier to take with Tekkna.

Did you find you had to lower iron volume? I'm down to 6 or 7 now.

Yes, I did lower the iron volume.  I had forgotten about that.  It got a little annoying at time when at 10.  I think I put it down to 7.  

Even though I’ve hit that site many times with the 9” coil, there are instances where a larger coil will unmask a target when the smaller one won’t.  And vice versa. It depends on the distance between the good target and the junk target and the width of the coil.  I learned this from one of Loren Lemke’s (not sure if I’ve spelled his name correctly) videos.  Eventually I’ll get out there with the 9” and the tekkna program and see if anything else pops up.  

Loaded the tekkna program last week and used it on two separate hunts at the same site.  I have pounded this site with the nox (6” and 11” coils) and when I got my first D2 I frequented it again many times.  Last week after work I thought it would be a good place to try out tekkna.  This area is public land where a house used to sit.  It’s approximately 70’ x 120’.  I’ve pulled many coins and a silver ring out of there in past hunts.  Some areas of it are loaded with iron which consists mostly of nails and other areas of this site are fairly clean.  So on the trial run with tekkna (exact settings as Gary listed), I hit three wheats and an indian head penny!   I only have a pic of the ihp from that day, but I do have pics of all of yesterday’s non-ferrous finds. This all with the 13x11 coil!   Now I did dig some nails because of this place being hit so many times, I dig questionable signals, however the coins were pretty decent signals.  

5 minutes ago, F350Platinum said:

Nice rifle badge NC!

You don't always find them in silver, it's older if it says Sterling. 🏆 Shame the rings are junk, is the shiny one Tungsten Carbide? 

Double silver and a V nickel in great shape. That's a really good day. 👍

I really like the 13" coil too, it doesn't miss much. 😎 Congrats!

Thanks Bob!   Those finds are frim four different hunts.  I got the medal this evening.  At the top on the back it’s marked:  AULD-COL,O.

I looked that up and it looks like WWII era  made by a company called Auld in Columbus, OH.  Can’t find much more about it, but it’s in extremely nice condition.  The clasp for the pin still rotates and captures the pin.  

Nice bunch of finds!   I think the reel is actually a baitcasting reel.  And I think the screwdriver handle is a valve stem cover from a model T or A.  

37 minutes ago, F350Platinum said:

 

There is another phenomenon I've noticed however, the "magic disappearing target". You get a great signal, dig the plug out, and the item disappears. Stomping the plug flat and sweeping over it and sweeping over the hole produces nothing.

I immediately get out my trusty MI-6, check the hole with it, and find the target. It's either small or on edge after digging, more rarely in the plug.

This exact same thing has happened to me many times.  I’m not sure what causes it….maybe some type of halo effect?   If I’m remembering correctly this usually happens on deep targets.  
 

As to the OP lifting his coil and getting an iron tone, that dime was probably on the edge of detection.  

On 2/28/2024 at 4:55 PM, F350Platinum said:

Mine came today NC, thanks again for posting these. Very well made stuff, I got the tallest one to accommodate the 11" and 13", I hope it holds up as well as yours looks like it will.

Finally... 🙄

I’m glad you like it!   The guy that makes these is very meticulous and pays a lot of attention to detail!  Even his installation instructions are very detailed.  There’s another guy on ebay making a similar two piece stand but from the pics it looks like his uses a wood screw to hold the two pieces together instead of machine screws with a nylock nut.  Which are stainless I might add.  And he includes a made in the US allen wrench!  Let us know how yours holds up.  

1 hour ago, Dcraun said:

Yesterday was my 1st time detecting without the control box. I was on a very wet Virginia farm field so I went with program 1 general. Disc 6.4, 3 tone, tone break at 68, high square and notch 07-40.  I found it very enjoyable to just focus on the tone and not worry about VDI numbers. This was a fairly clean field and I'm not ready to go blind in a trashy one yet. Finds include a 1860 IHC , carved bullet, 69 caliber bullet, and various other bullets and melted lead.

I do the same thing sometimes and it really does make you concentrate on the sound of the tones.  With that said, the VDI numbers are another tool in the toolbox of clues to help decipher what’s in the ground.  Although guys like Paystreak only use tones all the time, I feel he’s not taking full advantage of all the clues the detector is giving him by not looking at the numbers.  

1 hour ago, F350Platinum said:

That's for the "Lite" rig, ordered the highest one for the regular D2. 👍

Thanks man! Somebody finally stepped up with a good one. 🙂

Sorry, I put the wrong link.  Here’s mine.  It’s the medium size.  
https://www.ebay.com/itm/364647857186?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=VpW7kC_7SF6&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=aM-gh_K9QNO&var=634169554812&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY