cudamark

Or, as my father used to say, "it's better to be pissed off, than pissed on"

Claim jumpers used to bother me a lot. Now, they just bother me a little. Nothing worse than someone jumping right in front of you and getting a good target, but, I've also found some great targets BECAUSE someone did that. One time in particular sticks out in my mind. A local TOTAL A-hole that everyone I know hates, pulled that on me one day. He thinks the beach belongs to him and makes a point to interfere with your plans. I decided to not let him get my goat, so, I turned in another direction than I had planned. I went about 20 feet and found 2 nice gold rings. Now, I just figure if I was meant to find it, I will. The beaches here are huge with plenty of sand for everyone, even if it isn't the sand you planned on searching.

Mine doesn't seem to react in the coil pinch test, but, I may have to repeat the test at another location. I have had quite a bit of EMI around my yard at various times, so, my recent tests there are suspect. I went in my back yard and away from anything metal to do the test. Turned on the machine, all metal, sensitivity maxed out, held the coil up horizontal at chest height, and all it did was squawk. A lower pulsating tone was constant, and if I swung the coil in any direction, it was like I ran over a huge piece of metal. Like I said, I'll try it at another location that I know to be free of EMI and any nearby metal and report back. In my surf hunts, it's pretty noisy in moving salt water. Each wave gives a siren sound regardless of settings. Turning things down helps, but, doesn't eliminate the falsing completely.

If you already have an Impulse AQ, don't you already have those measurements?

I have both the 720 and 920 Stealth scoops. If you work in areas with rocks and clay, eventually you're going to cave in the bottom. I've done it several times and had to straighten them out. Same problem with other stainless scoops I've had. The way I cured that problem was to add a reinforcement plate to the bottom of the 720. Now there's no way it will cave in. It made the scoop a bit heavier, but, I don't have to worry digging in rocks anymore. I haven't gotten one of the titanium scoops that Xtreme makes yet. I would be interested to see how they hold up to that kind of punishment.

I've had good luck with the Tony Eisenhower headphones I've had him make for me. Good quality speakers and plenty loud.

I have a set made by my buddy Tony Eisenhower. I've had no problem with them being loud enough.

I don't find them any harder to find than any other chunk of lead. I run in multi and "all metal", usually Park 1, sometimes Field 2. Other settings will depend on the site and personal preference.

The surf will definitely "talk" to you with the AQ. It doesn't sound like a target, more like a siren, so, not a big issue with me. My problem with the AQ is manifold, but, the salinity reaction is nothing much different than other surf machines I've used. I went out with it last night (actually 2am this morning) to hit the minus tide. Hunted a popular area from high slope to thigh deep in moderate surf. Still not finding any good deep targets that my other machines wouldn't find, and without the annoyance of a PI. machine. Deep iron? Sure, it's great for that, but, who cares? I pulled the battery off the charger as I walked out the door. Got 2 hours and 45 minutes on it before it went dead. Just pitiful. I guess I'm still not a PI guy, at least not an AQ guy. This is about the 5th PI machine I've tried, and don't find it any better overall than the others. Too much work and not enough fun.

A couple of weeks ago, I found an 18K Cartier gold band that read dead on 16. I've found many gold items in all areas from 2 to 25. At the beach, I scoop everything non-ferrous.......and even a few ferrous sounds on occasion. Parks are a different animal in my book. To me it's just not worth the effort to find tiny gold in a modern park. Larger gold reading 10 and up,, sure, as long as the signal doesn't jump around. Gold is usually very stable in I.D. numbers. Even then, some parks I just dig "sex sounds"......screamers and groaners. That would be 12 and 13, and 22-up on my machine. I'll also dig a few others if they sound good enough regardless of number.

I use the 12X15" coil almost exclusively at the beach....both in the water, wet sand, and dry sand. I love it! Still very sensitive to tiny targets, very stable using the proper mode and settings, and great for ground coverage. The only thing I've found that goes deeper (and only by a slim margin) is the Excalibur with the 15" round coil (both WOT and NEL Attack) The Excal will miss small targets, however, in comparison to the Nox.

I wonder if substituting 4khz (or even 3khz) in place of the 5khz in multi would be beneficial. Does that leave some sort of khz gap making it undesirable? How far can you stretch a khz gap before it starts to "break down" the advantage of multi? If too many frequencies dilute the signal too much, then fewer frequencies should be better, right? Why wouldn't a 3khz, 20khz, and a 60khz combo not be better? Too big a span between them? Sorry, I'm not an electronics engineer, just a button pusher! 😁

For gold jewelry, I wouldn't hunt a park, but, that's an answer to a different question. I'm sure you have your reasons to be that masochistic! 😄 If I were going to look for gold (including tiny gold) in a city park, I'd start with 2 Tylenol, then set my Equinox 800 in either Field 2 (the most sensitive to tiny gold except for the Gold modes) or Park 2. The Gold modes in a park would be way too much sensory overload IMO. I'd run 50 tones, recovery speed @6 or higher, and Iron bias F2 @ 6 for eliminating most bottle caps. I would start with the 11" coil. If the park was really polluted with trash, I may switch to the 6". Normally, I like to run in "all metal", but, in most parks around here, that just results in tonal fatigue in short order, so, I would discriminate out iron. If you don't care about tiny gold, I'd also discriminate out 9 and below, and 20-21 to keep from digging zincs cents until I couldn't stand it anymore. Sometimes I just leave the 20-21 in, but, just ignore those numbers unless they're right on top the ground where i can just pop them. If your're just after gold and don't want to recover coins, you can kill everything over 24 too. 24-up is not likely a gold item, but, I've seen some big gold in that range, so, I reluctantly would dig them if they're a solid number. Gold items don't usually have a TID that jumps around. They're usually a real solid number......unless it a chain or mixed metal! Ignore sketchy targets at you own risk! I like silver myself, so, I keep 22 and up and dig them all. In an old park I dig all deep targets regardless of number. For me, when I want gold, I go to the beach! Just be prepared to dig a ton of pull tabs and aluminum junk!

When I first started testing with my Equinox 800, I tried various small gold items. A couple of them (notably an 18K tiny link bracelet) would only be seen by the Gold modes, and Field 2. None of the other modes would pick it up regardless of settings. I've had stud earrings test the same way.

I much prefer a threshold tone myself. Whether it's true with most or all machines these days, I just think you can hear faint targets better with a threshold. I've searched in silent modes in the past and it seems that it takes more of a signal to break through in silent search than a slight tone change with a threshold.

Yup, Joe stole my thunder on that. I don't use it often at the beach, but, tiny items that fall through the holes can be a pain to recover without one, especially at night. Also, when I've been asked to find someone's lost diamond ring, I'd hate to break the stone out of it. Same goes for cell phones and cameras. No point in recovering one if you break the waterproof case or screen before you can get it out of the water.

Hunting in the water, I have to use a lanyard. I've had pin pointers float right out of it's sheath out in the surf. I just use a shoelace attached to a carabiner clipped onto a D ring or loop on my pouch. I'm so used to it now, that i use it on land too. Haven't lost a pin pointer yet!

Thanks for your responses. To answer Alexandre's questions......My beaches are mostly decomposed sandstone with quite a bit of ferrous black sand in most places. Like most of my other machines, I search in all metal. When I come across a target, I then switch to Tone (discrimination) to analyze the target and then dig it to see if my prediction is correct. My swing speed is a bit more than 2 seconds a sweep out of the water and in relatively trash free ground. I would consider that about average. In trashy ground or difficult ground it's a lot more.....maybe even 5-6 seconds a sweep. With the additional resistance swinging in the water, I've never heard of too fast a swing speed being an issue in the water, even with a lot smaller coil. Except for surface targets, I have yet to get a double blip on any target. Some deep nails sound good, some don't, but, none of them give a double blip at any angle or coil height. Bobby pins all sound good and no double blip there either using the same diagnosis method. I'll try some very conservative settings and see what it does. I figured that was defeating the purpose of trying to find deep good targets. I can run an Excalibur at max settings here without issue.

Yup, I love the Excal and Nox. That's the way I hunt with the Excal too. They're easy to detect with. I've done all kinds of surface testing with the AQ. It just seems everything is different when the targets have been there for a while. I usually adjust the ATS and Reject (the "expert" method) so that rusty nails just start to give a bad tone (and even further in my testing in trying to eliminate the damn bobby pins and bottle caps) Nickels still sound great at my settings. I try to run the delay at 7us, and usually can in the wet sand. In the surf I sometimes have to go to 10 to keep the chatter down..Volume and Threshold to a comfortable level, and Sensitivity as high as I can stand and then back off a hair so it's a bit more stable.

Figuratively speaking that is. Gold for sure, but, if I had actually struck it, it would probably split in two. Only 1.6 grams of 14K, but, I'll take it. Still not in love with this machine. Pin pointing is still vague, bottle caps sound great and seem like they're the size of a hubcap, and hairpins are driving me crazy! I just can't coax a double blip out of them, and can only get a reject tone with a max setting. I'm actually having a much easier time finding coins with it. The most disappointing thing so far is the lack of deep good targets. The main reason I got it was to find deep gold in difficult ground. I've been digging all targets and have yet to find anything good that my other machines wouldn't have found. This mornings gold ring is an example. In the 6-8" range, any of my other machines would have found it. Since I'm digging any repeatable target, I would have thought that I would have found some deep coins too. Nope, not a one. Nothing over a foot deep except iron targets that I just as soon not find. Oh, and this last hunt only lasted about 2 hours and 15 minutes before the battery died. Pitiful...... It had been a few days since it had been fully charged. Maybe I should have topped it off? Hard to believe it would lose that much life just sitting for a few days. If I don't start to click with this thing soon, it's going to be a closet queen, or E-bay fodder!

I hunted for about 4 hours today at a trash infested beach on a salt water bay. When running the coil in the salt water (no waves, just calm water in this instance) I usually have to use Beach 2 at no more than an 18-20 Sensitivity or it will chatter quite a bit. Today, with the 3.XX version, I could actually use Park 1 at 18 Sens with no chatter in the salt water. That's an improvement in my book. I find Beach 2 not to be as good with small gold/plat as the Park and Field modes, so, being able to use them in salt water would be a big plus. I'll see what it does in the actual surf in my next hunt, along with checking some of the other modes which I didn't do today.

Yeah, no scoop, long pants, and sandals are not the hot ticket in my book! 👎

I agree, the audio in discrimination is pretty bad. In all metal or combined or whatever you call it, it's even worse. I'd be tone deaf in a matter of minutesif I had to use that. Of course, I don't like the Deus tones either. Sounds like my dog's squeaky toy to me.

How deep were the targets? Oriented flat? On edge? have you tried Park 1 or any other mode? Also, I'm curious how it would react with the F2 setting at 8 or 9 in the iron.

Good video! I haven't used the Tarsacci, but, if this video is any indication, you need to hunt with it by tone, as the I.D. numbers were all over the place. I would have dug all of the Equinox signals except for the obvious iron ones, and maybe the cuff button. It didn't sound good at all.