strick

I hate secrets.... feeding us little bits here and there. And that picture above.... I must have seen it 50 times already...it has not changed. Minelab must have consulted with Accenture's marketing department at some point. But it It can backfire  also.

At any rate I just may say the heck with it and buy a used gpx 5000 as I'm starting to get turned off to all this pre-super detector hype. 

And some are pre ordering machines not even knowing what the price is?  or maybe they know what the price is not?

Sorry this is all a little too weird for me 

strick

Gold fever is making me want to drive long distances now a days.  I have bought used since 1987. Mostly diesel trucks with under 50K miles on them. And I have not been disappointed.  I usually retire my work trucks into pleasure trucks. Recently I was looking for another truck as my pleasure truck (a retired work truck) had over 300K miles.  Used trucks (2 years old) in the class that I was looking for ran in the mid to high 40K range. And most of them were at dealers out state. I could buy new close to home for 52K and get exactly what I wanted so that's what I did. Back in the 80"s you could get a diesel 4x4 truck in the high 20's...seems its about double now.  Bottom line with trucks is similar to detectors.....if you want to play you have to pay.

strick

I'm wondering how much that coil weighs. I can pretty much swing my CTX all day long with the stock coil 11" inch coil. With the 6" coil it's like swinging a feather. Put the 17" coil on it and that's a different story...it changes the balance making it too nose heavy and not fun any more!  I'm assuming that Minelab has it balanced  perfectly with that 14 inch coil? I guess these are the things that we will find out when the duct tape is pulled from the mouths of the testers.

strick

Yea if I cant be digging gold I might as well be dreaming about it. Thanks for posting.

strick

Yes the suspense is killing me. I don't yet have a "deep seeker" detector and have been waiting patiently for this to surface.

strick

That was cool. My first prospecting trip into Arizona. Can you describe "the fault line" please? Is that the same as a "contact zone"?

strick

Nice work really like that big one.

Strick

No, Lightning EMI cannot fry your detector. If you and your detector are actually struck by the lightening itself, yes, that certainly can fry your detector.

Good to know   I love this site!

strick

It's always good to hang with folks that have the same addictions...makes me feel more normal.

strick

ATX and parks don't mix well. 

strick

"Hands and Knees" I'll remember that next time I'm out. Thanks Ray for posting.

strick

Thanks for the comments fellas. Always trying to learn as much as I can. 

strick

So I have had two very experienced older prospectors tell me that they don't like the 2300 because the threshold warbles. In other words it is not stable. It does not really matter which setting you use it still has a slight warble to it. Since I am new to prospecting I just kinda figured this was normal for the Minelab PI's They tell me that their 4500 and 5000 have a nice stable threshold which allows them to hear the faint signal's better. Therefore they don't have to use as much gray matter trying to figure out a target.  I have sometimes wondered  if I am missing small pieces of gold because of this. But then again I have found some very small pieces with the 2300. So my question is....is this normal for the SDC 2300 or is something wrong with both of my machines?   I'm guessing normal.  A few nuggets found during the last couple weeks. Biggest is .52 grams

strick

My wife talked me out of going to N. Nevada last week...I knew I should not have listened to her....or maybe she was right....let us know how it worked out.

strick

So I have been using the x pointer for a few weeks. I thought I was having battery problems till I figured it out. I already knew that if I had the ctx 3030 was too close to the x pointer  I would hear chatter on the ctx but it took me some time to figure out why I would get 4 beeps out of the x pointer when I turned it on. Turns out that if I turn on the X pointer too close to the CTX it beeps 4 times and will false on the soil to the point that it is useless. Move the CTX over to my right and turn on the X pointer in my left hand extended out to my left side and everything is OK. I really like that I can press the x pointer into the dirt as hard as I want and it does not false but it is a little annoying that it does not play well with my CTX and Deus. Going back to the Garret for a few hunts...

strick

It's very surprising that a company could re tool so fast unless it was already in the works.  For me a VLF machine must be "Thumb Friendly" meaning that all the controls must be  within reach of my thumb. I don't mind if the on/off switch is on the side or wherever but the main menu must be  easy to reach. Ergonomics and balance  are equally as important as  functionality.

strick

Yes Rick thanks for the spell check...I would not want to upset our allies in France. Goldbrick I barely know how to use my 2300 at the moment.

Strick

I can see I don't stand a chance as a newbie to prospecting.  Next thing you know you guys will be mounting one of these to the bottom of the chopper

strick

If Klunker ever comes down here and hunts relics with me he can use one of my Deus's  they are the "Sugar Ray Leonard" of metal detectors....

strick

That is the same deal I got for buying two at once (with WS5 headphones) a couple months ago. But Yea they usually list at around $1800

strick

The ATX is an amazing beach machine. And Dale equally amazing. I'd like to see all the Silver he must have found as well.

strick

I have one and have been using it for about a month now. I have not used it near a PI detector but have used it with my Deus and CTX. They do react to it more so then the Garret pro pointer which I have two of. The reason I bought the X pointer was two fold. Number one the garret false's too much for my liking when pressed to the ground and since I have a heavy hand it happens a lot. Number two I have had problems with my both my Garret pro pointers. The push buttons on them seem to be the weak link in that sometimes they don't want to turn on or off when pressed. I will go out on a limb here and say that that the X pointer seems to be better built then the Garret. The Garrets are my back up now. 

strick

Thanks fellas I have found some silver at this spot mostly with the CTX. It's hard to come by. The place most likely has been detected for the past 30 years off and on. Although it is locked up private property I suspect that there have been a lot of fence jumpers over the years. I'll post more pictures when I get the chance.

strick

Last weekend Lisa and I made a trip up to Timber Cove Lodge above Bodega Bay. We hit a few beaches on the way up. The surf was really bad breaking over the huge rocks that dot the coast side. I found coins that were paper thin from being worn down by the wave action. Instead we just hunted around the lodge with our XP's  My 16 year old daughter claimed the Teddy bear as soon as I showed it to her! 

strick

Did a little detecting this weekend. Saturday at one of my relic spots. Sunday at an old pit in the mother lode. I'm slowly learning the Deus. My main squeeze is the ctx 3030 but the Deus is kinda fun to swing because it's so light. The ring is stamped 18K and probably early 1900's It was in such bad shape that I did not even know it was gold until I tumbled it overnight. The nugget was 2.2 grains...Finding gold is a lot harder then relics! I'm slowly filling my poke.

strick