cudamark

If you're getting the silent treatment on what was initially a good signal, but, now with the plug removed you get nothing (target still in the hole), that's something that I've experienced with just about every detector I've used. It seems especially pronounced with the Minelab machines I've had over the last few years. With BBS and FBS machines (and now the multi IQ Equinox) if find they don't air test well. You pull the plug so that the soil or sand is no longer over the target, and it's more like an air test now. These machines just seem to like the targets to be in contact with the ground to get a good signal. Remove the ground and halo, the signal gets weak or disappears. I'm used to it at this point and know just to dig a bit deeper to get the target out of the ground. Once out, it comes back to life again.

I installed mine yesterday and took it for a short test drive at the beach last night. It worked just fine. I did seem more stable at the higher sensitivity settings, and the I.D. numbers didn't bounce as much either. Still too early to make any conclusions though. More time in the field is needed.

RIP Mr. Sniff. Even though I didn't know you personally, I know of your work, which still lives on as part of your legacy. 👍

Yeah, my totals are way down this year too. Lot's of competition out there these days, and many of them are using better machines (like the Equinox) than in days past. Since the 1st of the year, I've only found 3 gold, 15 silver, and another couple dozen junkers. Now granted, I haven't been out as much either with the quarantine going on, and there's been a lot less people (depositors) at the beach for the same reason, so, this is just a weird year all around. 

Congrats Clive! How deep was the ring?

Being a Aussie company. I'm surprised Minelab hasn't used the name Ostrich yet. I can picture the logo with the bird with it's head underground looking around for treasure. Maybe some other company can adopt it.

29 minutes ago, George Kinsey said:

Zero minerals on that Beach. Move up to the Carolinas and Va. to see what it will do.

Yup, I'd like to see how it reacts with our black sand mineralization. Still, It's not waterproof, so, I'd be leery about taking it in the surf, even if it's shallow. One accidental drop at the wrong time, and it may be history. I agree with Jeff. he needs to work on his recovery technique! About the only time I use a pin pointer at the beach is when a tiny item keeps falling through the holes in the scoop. My back would be dying if I did all the bending over and kneeling he did. A nice big wide stainless scoop would make recoveries a lot quicker too.

Looks like a great option! 👍

1 hour ago, phrunt said:

It seems the virus has sped up the demise of coins, even in NZ where we have eradicated the virus a lot of businesses even big businesses have signs up saying we don't accept cash, this all happened when the virus was active in the country and since then they've kept the no cash policy.  I too use my card for everything, the points add up quickly and I get free stuff, can't get that using cash. 🙂

I agree, except for the getting gasoline. The difference in cash vs. card can be substantial. I haven't used a card at a gas station for many, many years.

Maybe the best techs from White's can join forces with the best techs from Tesoro to create something truly awesome! Opportunity is knocking there if someone can take the reins and run with it.

On 7/15/2020 at 9:43 AM, Willy said:

Whatever iron target you use, execute the procedure I described to adjust the iron reject.

Yes, that what I do. I find the Expert procedure to work the best for me.

IMO, forget using that sample "nail" they give you. Find a common one where you are detecting and use that in your test and adjustment procedure. I found there was quite a bit of difference between the two in my settings. Deep, rusty and bent nails still sound good in my tests regardless of settings. Same with hairpins and bottle caps if you still want good tones and depth on small gold (in my tests only. still haven't found gold in the wild yet). 

A bit too staged and over the top, like their TV show, for my taste. Nothing looked very deep, but, it would have a lot more helpful to do a side by side comparison with their other machines instead of just being a back slapper for Garrett and Apex.

I'm still waiting for an Excalibur 3 where you can easily change coils and headphones, and one with a pin point switch already built into the handle. Having to pay $1500 for a detector and then another $5-800 to modify it so it is more efficient is ridiculous.

Sure, a short length of thin pipe cut in half should do the trick if the overall diameter doesn't get so big that the u-bolts won't slip over everything and the holes in bracket still line up. Wait until you get  a few more years behind you. Then you will appreciate the weight saving that the carbon fiber gives you. 😀

I'm just using the stock headphones with the volume and threshold set at 5. I haven't noticed any particular blast that I feel is uncomfortable.

I'm not sure you could use a carbon fiber handle with your Scoopal without some sort of adaptor. Carbon fiber and u-bolts don't fair well. If you're into titanium, Extreme scoops has a version in that too. They're not cheap, and I haven't heard a lot of feedback on how well they're holding up. Anyone have one they've put some miles on?

Same here. I haven't used the Patriot ones, but, the TE headphones are working great. They fit tight, but, to me they are comfortable and the tightness keeps the surf noise down.

If you use a sand scoop often, getting a good quality stainless (or titanium) one is a must. I've tried a bunch of them and find the Stealth scoops and the Extreme scoops are the best of the bunch. Stavr is not too bad either as an import. If you can afford it, I also recommend the carbon fiber handles. Real strong and light. If all you do is occasional dry sand, just about anything will suffice. For most applications, I like the widest scoop available. More likely to get the target on the first scoop and the least likely to damage the target.

My 5th outing with the AQ today at another beach I've had success in the past. My gold virginity with the Impulse is still intact. In fact, I didn't find any jewelry of any kind today. That monkey is getting heavy! I'm actually having an easier time finding coins with this detector than finding jewelry. I hadn't found a coin from Cuba before. Today I found 8! None of them were together, but, all were found in about a 25' circle. All were between 12 and 16 inches deep. I was hitting cobble on each one. A few U.S. coins too, some shallow, some deep. It hits on nickels loud, clean and with a high tone. Everything else is a low tone.....nice and smooth low tone. Some bad targets down there too, but, not many. As you can see, this thing just loves pull tabs....at all depths. Some were down in the cobble too. I searched in all metal, switched to Tone on all targets and then decided to dig or not. Mixed signals were mostly ignored as the few I did dig were iron junk. Smooth low tones and solid high tones were all dug. Still not getting more than 3 hours on a charge, but, my pin pointing is getting slightly better. Here are the grim results.

51 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Not at all, and it does not matter what I think anyway. 90% of what I tell manufacturers gets disregarded as “you are right, but it’s too late.” It’s just that one reason given for this limited release was to collect user feedback. The reality is the pressure is on to get the final version to market as soon as possible, and that is a good thing I think. In the process though decisions about the design have pretty much been made at FT once again, without regard for user feedback, and that means irreversible decisions have already been made that could have benefitted from listening more to people like Joe and others. It’s kind of a shame that after so much time things get rushed at the end. But that is the way things get done, and why, when all is said and done, people are going to ask “why did they do it that way instead of this better way.”

I’d vote for Joes design in a heartbeat, but that’s not what we are going to get. Still, four drop in 18650 batteries is a huge improvement over the current design. If FT keeps up putting out no more than a couple Limited units out per week, I also doubt we will ever see 99 Limiteds made. For me, if I had not been able to get one by October of this year, I’d end up passing, as winter does tend to shut me down here, and by the time spring rolled around..... well, long story short it seems to me that anyone that would rather have the new battery system and better depth rating are just going to be better off waiting, and that indirectly impacts Limited sales. It’s already getting to the point where the only reason to get the Limited is if you just don’t care about anything but saving a few bucks and want one ASAP. But wait, you can’t get one ASAP anyway. It’s in danger of fizzling out at this rate.

This is one thing we're trying to do with the Cygnus. Doc asked all of us on his advisory list to come up with ideas on what we'd like to see on a detector in the way of features. We discussed just about every aspect of the machine from the coil, to the shaft, to control head, to ergonomics, batteries, weight, etc. That being said, only Doc will make the final decision based on his power requirements, cost, availability, etc. All of us are still pretty much in the dark about final specs or even what it's going to look like. Why he didn't ask for some of you to also add your input is beyond me. Some of you would be much better on the technical end of it than I am. My input was more in the ease of use, ergonomic and structural design, and required features end of things rather than understanding the math and electronics side. That is Doc's purview. Hopefully some of my ideas will end up in the final product, but, that's up to Doc. I'm still like Sgt. Schultz from Hogan's Heroes.... "I know nothing"!

2 hours ago, phrunt said:

Kids also have very little patience, they get bored easily from what I've seen.  They won't put up with digging 50 bits of junk to find a coin.  I've found target ID numbers are more important for kids than they are for me.

It's not just kids that get bored digging junk. I find many adults taking up the hobby will buy an inexpensive beep and dig machine, try it a time or two, find lots of junk, and it ends up in the closet. Early success is something everyone wants and a better machine will help achieve that. Even though many advise newbies to not invest much money until they decide if they like detecting or not, IMO that is bad advice. I'm not saying to buy the latest and greatest cutting edge machine, but, a higher end machine will make the experience a more pleasant time. If they decide that detecting is not for them,. a popular model won't lose all that much on resale and will have more interest to potential buyers. 

My 4th hunt with the AQ was at a very popular beach......both with bathers and surfers, and with other detectorists. Probably gets hunted more than any other beach in San Diego county. Still did not get full battery life. About 3 hours today. I am starting to figure out some settings to help ferret out some of the iron. Like Steve, I'm still waiting for my first gold with this machine. I also haven't recovered any non-ferrous target deeper than 1 foot. The more I use it, the more I think you could find coins and other high conductors if you chose to do so. Today it was search in all metal, and then switch to Tone to analyze. With my current settings, I was identifying about 75% of the iron targets. I have yet to find a setting for bottle caps or bobby pins though. Fish hooks sound good too. Here's the good and bad of my hunt. You will notice that the amount of iron targets recovered has dropped dramatically since my second hunt. Some sounded good, some gave the reject tone, but, I dug most anyway to see if my settings were reliable. After a couple of hours, I relied on the tone to determine whether to dig or not. That helped keep the iron target recoveries down.  I rarely find a pair of earrings, so, that was a welcome surprise. Just junk though, but, in good condition. I actually predicted the dime due to it's sound. Same with the needlenose pliers. You can tell it's not just a big nail. You get what I would call an overload sound on those heavy iron hits.

There's a few beaches here that are loaded with trash too. At least I can attack those with a scoop and not have to get on my hands and knees with a Lesche to spend 5 minutes getting a Zincoln.

Fresh water isn't the problem. It's the salt that is.