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You probably have better luck finding a gold reale than a split window :0 If you have never used a Tejon you may notice it will detect your hands if you swing them over the coil. That's pretty sensitive! I can also detect a nickel silver lapel pin nail. Something my AT Pro and Sea Hunter can't do.

Small finds pretty are impressive for a large coil. I use the Nel Big but find it difficult to get a clean spot to properly gb it. Also find it a bit heavy for all day swinging but the extra depth is hard to walk away from.

My thoughts and some of the reasons I didn't buy an XP: EMI with wireless everything is an issue where I live and detect. Even running my pinpointer on full sensitivity causes it to fault in some areas. Putting all the guts into the coil makes the coils too expensive and limit the options other manufacturers have with choices in sizes and even 3rd party brands ie Nel, Coiltek etc. Display is too small. (in the case of using a cell phone then battery life is an issue) XP specific having the coil battery in the lower shaft I assume limits how deep it can get wet. I think it's a novel idea that needs much more refinement. If I were to have a dream machine I would put the brains in the shaft shielded from EMI with coils that snap in using the shaft as the conduit for the wires. Have the display that can used remotely or clip in for underwater use. Headphones should be the same unit with the ability to plug into the display box or upper shaft for undewater use or retract the cord and go wireless. And lastly all using a rechargeable battery system.

Wondering if that is part of a scale of some sorts? Seems to have a pointer and the beveled inside edge must have some significance. Sorry for the double post.

You could measure it and compare to known pieces. I would assume some sort of equestrian doo dah would be a different size than sun dials. Wonder how much other stuff is there? Do you have an all metal mode to find faint or ghost signals or there too much trash there? Cool find!

Found this seated liberty and possibly the remnants of a large cent, could barely see a ghost of something that might have been readable at one point in time..... possibly. Also found all the poison sumac they cut down the hard way so I now need to be more cautious searching.

You don't have an acid test kit? From what I ran into platinum runs higher on vid than white gold. White gold should be really close to 14k. I like the ring holder, I use similar ones for potato chip bags ?

Trash usually gives erratic signals maybe from the odd shapes or the alloys used or combination of the both or in many cases there are other objects around that can mask the target such as iron rust, nails, can slag and even halos from zinc pennies. I don't dig everything but rather take my time to try to isolate the target by slowing and shortening your swing so just the overlap of the DD or in case of a concentric just the inner coil passes over on either side of the target. The machine should settle down on the target and start to give a more stable number. You can also get an idea how big the target might be by the distance it takes for the signal to start and end.

I have the AT Pro for a while now and it is very reliable. I got it just before the AT Max was released. Buddy just got the Max recently as he was using my Pro and the controls were familiar for him. If you don't already have a pinpointer and looking for a complete package then the Max is a great choice. Depth wise it goes about 50% deeper than my AT Pro with the same size coil. That is the equivalent of my AT Pro with a Nel Big coil weighing 3 lbs and measuring 17x15". The true All Metal mode is great in open areas with little or moderate trash, Iron Discrimination on Max is better. AT Pro with stock coil hits quarters 12" or less on average on the ground around here that has high mineralization though I had picked up a Spanish Reale at 14" but it was really faint. Typically in poor conditions the Pro hits in the 10" and under range" which is average for any machine with an 8 1/2 x 11 coil Comparing the 2 machines I think the AT Pro audio tones are a little easier to follow and notch discrimination is just a simple 2 clicks. The Max has a threshold control that is adequate but I find the lowest tone is none and next tone click up is a little loud. That could be just my preference as I also use a Tesoro with much finer controls since it has potentiometers and is an audio only machine. Both the Max and Pro have fairly course id blocks as compared to other machines out there and can limit discrimination but going a block under or over is not a big deal. Learning curve on the MAX is really short, no menus to decipher through and you should be up and running in a few minutes. There are no canned pre-sets as many machines have. The AT Pro has canned Standard (noob) mode that bings on a target and is rarely accurate and Pro modes with tone roll that I ended up using quickly and found it more responsive. The Max is basically a more of a professional model of the older Pro. I had considered upgrading my Pro to the Max, maybe next year as they are solid and reliable machines and the Max does pretty well in the Salt in the single frequency class. If you decide to get one also consider the RnB lithium battery for them. I get over 40 hours running with no performance drop as compared to alkalines that as they wear down the machines performance diminishes. Think the rechargeable battery runs around $80.

Reminds me when I kept getting sporadic falsing and turned out to be my steel toe work shoes. At least I didn't dig for them.

Here is one that is new, http://bigvalleymetaldetectors.mobi/ Of course no idea on repairs. I have the concentric coil version. I think that particular coil combo really makes that machine shine. If you have not run a tejon and in trashy or iron littered areas simply set disc one to squelch out the primary trash ie iron to foil. Set the disc 2 to pull tab or just slightly over. You will still find relics like musket balls through quarters and big silver and anything that cuts out below disk 2 that sounds good just nudge the disk 1 knob between the nickel range and if it cuts out clean in the middle its a nickel or med gold ring, beefier gold rings and platinum hit towards the higher side of that range, beavertails can sneak in on the line below. Thin gold rings will be just above. Square tabs have a harsh pop when you swing over them, coins and jewelry tend to have a soft loud soft sound without the spiking. Of course cans and large metal objects like VW busses will cause the unit to overload when you all metal over (pulling trigger).

Ring doesn't look that beefy so it could read lower. Old silver cross I found is higher than 925 and rings lower than a quarter for some reason. I go more by sound than what any vdi will say. Clean consistent sound is always worth digging. VDI is handy to tell you the ball park of something but the way square tabs and junk can cross over I would rather have a handful of tabs and a ring than nothing at all.

What happens when a telemarketer calls? You know just when you think you have a good target......

Last post on this, I was wrong and BeachHunter was right. I thought it was pewter and when I was comparing the acid test on the cross to another piece the acid turned a bright red which means its higher than 925. Being silver it then it had to be lost wax cast and not sand. Still can't seem to find any more info on it since the local coin dealer doesn't touch religious artifacts. Not sure if he would burst into flames handling it or not so I guess I have to keep looking around. Any idea when they started to use steel or iron jump rings? About the only clue I have.

Awesome read, now I guess I have to search some old areas all over again and get an idea of what might had been there! Guess ill scout by looking for small iron first than get an idea of the area to pick through. Some old foundations near me that have been picked through but there were older buildings that were taken down way before the better documented structures.

The bubbles could be washout from the sand casting. Good chance they just sand cast these period and rather than repack both sides of the frame they kept using the same mold. I tend to lean towards sand cast for a couple reasons. Back is extremely flat. Front has no under cuts and there is a substantial draft angle on the surfaces. Investment casting and rubber molds the is no need to worry about draft angles. Thanks on the castings. I use a small sla printer to make my patterns and masters so those objects I made in my cad software. Why I envy the craftsmanship on the cross as it was hand made and the symmetry is really good.

It is possible it was spin cast and the masters were sand cast. The back has the sand cast texture making me think they put the back on the drag side of the frame then packed the top. I have done similar technique on belt buckles to give the recesses a nice texture. Putting the pattern face up in a sand mold helps prevent washout when the metal is poured. Other pics are some castings I had done using delft clay in a similar mold but delft clay has a much finder texture. Cool you have done jewelry work BeachHunter, now I have someone I can try to pick their brains :)

Did an acid test on the cross and it is not silver. The VDI shows it closer to pewter. I have pewter samples from castings I have done and thinking BeachHunter might correct on this. I have a centrifugal casting machine and though the casting is relatively thin and shows no thickening from any high speed spins and the fact it isn't grayish lends me to believe it was cast hot and slow with a lead free pewter with bismuth in it rather than the antimony brit 8 pewter. This would explain why it hasn't really tarnished as the bismuth pewter is 98% tin. The master was probably clay then sand cast and polished up. Still skillfully done but if spin cast it would date it in the 50-70's? not so old. Still one my favorite finds.

I did an audio recording of my Tejon of different items and you can actually see differences in the audio forms between nickels and pull tabs. My recording was way hot and had clipping and plan on redoing them and posting again. Wish the VDI machines had those tone differences other than flat beeps and dog squeak toy sounds. The weakie weakie weakie as you pass over certain items doesn't do the find justice.

Rumor has it they filed for bankruptcy and if so that could mean they are shaking debt and reorganizing or shutting down. Only ones that really know is the Giffords and would be nice if they just posted something on their site. My hunch might be re-organizing but I'm being hopeful.

That's pretty cool. Buddy mine loves his MX Sport, he finds tons of old coins and relics with it and prefers it over his TDI. Really nice machine loaded with features.

You could look at one of the Garrett Ace machines with the DD coil. The Concentric picks up too much trash as the Rx is too large. Also Whites Coin Master is also a pretty nice machine. I would avoid a machine that has a needle for the target id as they are so slow responding it is really difficult to pinpoint or even know what it is doing. I had one on my old Bounty Hunter and found it to be annoying at best.

Nice finds, maybe the new machine and new sounds got you looking a little closer than before. Bigger coil does increase your chase as your more likely to overlap your swings. I constantly find stuff in the local park, some too deep to dig without getting kicked out. I noticed when using larger coils, just like you mentioned the shorter swipes over help the machine to focus on the smaller area.

I had that happen on other detectors and I think the ground conditions have a lot to do with it especially if the moisture content is different than the other times you hit it. I would guess wet conditions and a lot of rust can cause some masking or alter the signal. I tend to listen to the signals more than rely on the vdi though the vdi is handy I think you can hear a trashy signal vs a subtle clean signal and if not sure just dig it anyways. I'm not too proud to pluck a pull tab or 2.

You may want to look at the Anfibio multi also. The only real advantage the Orx has is weight. Coils are horribly expensive and the stock 9" isn't going go as deep as the larger coils used on the Equinox 800 and Anfibio. The AT MAX goes incredibly deep with it's stock coil. It actually hits as deep as my AT Pro with a Nel Big 17x15 coil! The monotone all metal mode is not bad at all and seems to lock down on targets quickly and no real issues with masking for the bit I used it. Couple things I think Garrett could have done better is have more steps for threshold. Seems lowest is none and next click up is a bit loud for my taste. They also moved some of the controls around so notch discrim is a bit of a pain compared to the Pro. Another buddy was about 25 yards away and could hear the MAX on his MX Sport. If your doing any VLF beach hunting the choice would be the Equinox 800.