kac

I recently broke my stock dd and replaced it with the 9x12 concentric. For the life of me I could not ground balance the machine in snow, just an inch or 2 it would false out like crazy. I did repair my dd but it is slightly out. Sent the 2 coils to Garrett along with the AT Pro and they repaired the machine, put in new firmware and confirmed the dd was out of wack. Went to use the machine over the weekend and still can't gb it with the concentric. Does anyone have a 9x12 concentric on an AT Pro and can confirm the issue? Not sure if it is the snow or the machine is marginal and sensitive to the cold or not. Thanks

I have the SeaHunter too and with the larger 10x14 coil it hits close to what a TDI Beach Hunter does. Big turn off for me when I was looking at pi machines for the beach was the TDI Beach Hunter has a hard wired coil so you can't change it out and if it breaks the machine has to be sent in for repairs. I use the hip strap on my SH and can swing it all day with the larger coil. I would sell the Nox 600 and get the Nox 800 and snag the larger SH coil. Lastly when beach combing or wading I use the M2 headphones on the SH, audio is so much better. Much easier to hear the tiny targets.

I did a little digging, in Wichita there is an airforce base that was established in ww2. https://www.sheppard.af.mil/Home/Welcome/ There seems to be 2 memorials out for Edwin E Estes, one a Sr other Jr. So my wild guess those tags might be Korean war? Possibly WW2. Thinking someone dumped an urn and tossed the tags in the ocean and you were kind enough to recover them :)

Has the tooth groove on one end, I do believe it's a military dog tag. Maybe an Iraq war vet lost it?

Think you can find the owner of the dogtag? Wonder how old that is? Cool finds.

Audio on the pro is much better and annoying when people run them with the iron disc at 0 and iron audio on all the time then complain they can't hear anything hehe. I have used the Max and if you don't tone them down and run full blast they are noisy. Nugget that size he could have used his pin pointer 🙂

Did you ever get the machine back? How was the service?

I'm thinking the tiny silver must have been up in the dunes and washed down as there has been tons of erosion. Might take my Tejon out and hit the high sides just because there is so much iron and fencing it is hard to get through with a Pi.

The musket ball blindness could have been a bad user setting or maybe early firmware? Always wondered how a machine could miss something like that, seemed unlikely.

I was imagining you crawling around on the beach with a pinpointer LOL. I have a dedicated pulse induction machine I use on the beach and use my others on land. I do like my SeaHunter mk2 and depth is pretty descent, goes deeper than my vlf's in the salt without the hassle of ground balancing but it is weaker on small high conductors and small jewelry. Discrimination on it is pretty poor and you really need to keep your coil speed consistent to get consistent results. At best I can trim out the small iron but still find loads of deck spikes and big iron. Stock headphones are harsh so I recently tossed on a pair from my other detector and the machine is so much nicer. Lastly on the SH is the stock coil is great in the water but too small to comb a beach so by the time your done your in the $700+ mark. With that being said, a machine like the Vanquish I would guess would do really well. Be nice if someone with the 12" coil posted their results at the beach with it. My guess the elliptical coil on the Vanquish might be a bit better or more stable than the stock 11" round coil on the Nox 800. That would be a good comparison of machines.

Finally got out to the beach, lot of wash but wanted to give my seahunter a run and try out the m2 headphones instead of the stock waterproof ones. M2's make a world of difference in the audio on that machine, can hear the target much better especially tiny targets with the discrim kicked up. Dug much less iron as I can tell better what I am hearing. Anyways not much there as the storms ripped the dunes down and the banks are 9-12' up where they used to be only a few feet. Besides the wash I got all excited and thought I found another trime but instead it was a 1951 netherlands 10 cent. Amazing how it held up next to the other coins I found in the area.

That is a good take, well done! I had been eyeing the Orx or Deus for a while but wish they had a real waterproof version. How's the HF coil vs the X coils?

Did it work before? How good are the batteries? I try to shoot for the stupid stuff first, can't tell ya how many times I worked on a piece of equipment, hit the power switch and stared only to realize I forgot to plug it in.

You seemed to have done pretty good with a pinpointer! Those are used to narrow down the search once you come across a target and have dug it out with a shovel or hand digger. I don't bother with a pinpointer on the beach as the salt tends to make them sound off and I am a bit lazy and just use my scoop so I don't have to bend over. Detectors rang in prices are pretty wide. Usually the more expensive ones have more bells and whistles but not always essential. If your planning on hitting beaches, parks and fields a waterproof detector might be the better choice. There are couple of new models out that are targeted to the new guys and have many of the functions preset to make it easier. They also perform very well. Minelab Vanquish and Nokta Simplex. Next tier on all terrain machines by price would be Garrett AT Pro, AT Max, Minelab Equinox 600, 800, Makro Kruzer series and Nokta Amphibio series. After that your hitting the 1k+ mark in price. Best thing if find a machine that fits your budget, purpose and is comfortable to use. Big favorite out there is the Equinox 800 but it is on the upper range in price.

Epoxy used in coils is not flexible for a reason because if it was and was allowed to flex the coil would constantly go wonky and machine would sound off every time it was bumped. I didn't realize how little movement is needed to be out of balance until mine cracked.

Mine broke because I snagged it on a log in the woods and it was in the low 20's F out so I am sure the cold makes them bit more brittle. Tapping into things and scraping shouldn't hurt them.

Great find! I take it you don't practice catch and release :)

When I broke my AT Pro stock dd it would false out when tapped or touched. I use a high power laser pointer 405nm to illuminate the surface and was able to see a hairline crack that was the culprit. Tapping around the edge you might be able to find the spot. Assuming you checked the connections and cable. I did repair my dd and it is usable but slightly out of spec now so I keep it as a backup. Repairing wasn't all that easy either. Because the crack is so fine you can't just smudge some epoxy in. I used a pressure pot at 60psi to force the epoxy in and though not perfect it did the trick. Lastly the epoxy I used was the standard 2 part clear which is slightly flexible and could be the reason it is slightly out of wack. For 3rd party coils I have a popular one made in the Ukraine and have been unable to contact them about possible repair/replace on that coil as they do not respond to any of my emails for the last 3 months. Your better off with coils from the original manufacturer unless the company is nice enough to talk to their customers and actually honor their warranties.

Didn't know a bad coil won't hurt a vlf. I just sent my ATP back in to Garrett for repairs after breaking a coil. It was unable to calibrate to other coils after that but maybe the coil didn't mess it up or not. Garrett won't say but they did replace some parts and put in a new firmware. My repair job on the coil did work however but the coil is slightly out of tune.

Nice finds. That soil looks like ash, what state was that? I have found similar buckles, thimbles and buttons up here.

Seems like the coil has a short. I wouldn't risk putting it back on the machine or you may roast that too.

Any new concoctions and methods on cleaning coins?

Would the Nox work better if your not going that deep? Only real advantage on the Tiger Shark is it can go 200ft. Hate to see you spend the money on that and if something goes wrong with it there is no repairs.

Have you tried your TDI and do some crude discrim on it using the gb?

Best bet is use the diameter for reference. Looks like a copper or copper alloy coin. I have found a few blown out coins in my parts and cleaning them makes little or no difference as they are almost always junk below the patina. An ultrasonic cleaner with some mild ammonia and water and bit of dish detergent might take some the loose crud off. Was that in a yard or field? Fertilizers and road salt seem to be the biggest coin killers. Based on the size you have it could be just a large cent 1793-1857. Buttons in the area might help narrow down the age a bit.