Lacky

Idaho here, so neighbors at least.

A printed spiral winding maybe? That could be pretty thin.

I'll wait a bit to see how people like them, how well problems are handled, what the vanquish ends up being price a feature wise, etc, but that's a price I would pick one up just to see if I can get my kids interested and to have as a spare if anyone wants to come along. For middle class type incomes $300 is borderline impulse buy territory, where as the $1000 I spent on the equinox was plan, save, hope territory. Minelab really needs to hire the ad producer, simple, informative, to the point. I've yet to see a minelab ad that wasn't garbage.

That sounds like the right approach. I need to make another trip with that site as my only goal instead of hitting it late in the day already exhausted.

Can't say I'm sure, but the pinpointer said the target was in the bottom of the hole.

In town I can usually keep my phone on too. The spot I was in had one or two bars at best though. I ended up just keeping it on airplain mode, but then I would take it off airplane mode now and then to update my spot on Google maps and the detector freaked out each time. Then I'd put in back in airplane mode. I'd take off the headphones before turning on the phone just so I didn't have to listen to it.

I went up and hunted near Silver City in Idaho. It was a long day of climbing really steep mountains prospecting (bust). At the end of the day I hunted an old mining town that burned down about the time the mine shut down and was never rebuilt. Really bad soil and big iron, glass and pottery shards all over the ground. Targets were everywhere but figuring out good targets was hard. Big iron was ringing up in the teens or negative (both the ones I dug and the many I scanned just to see that were laying on the surface) and I'm not sure why. Different types of metal? The last target I dug rang up a solid 30 and showed it was just under the surface. I scraped out a few inches, still there, still 30. Dug a few more inches, still there, still 30, pinpointer said it was just a little deeper. Got to a foot deep, same, pinpointer maxed out. Gave up at 2 feet, basically because I was exhausted, it was getting dark, and to dig any deeper I was gonna have to pry out some huge rocks to expand the hole. In the digging I dug out glass and pottery shards and barrel band pieces. When I gave up it was still reading 30 and saying it was a surface target (event though at this point the coil was 2 feet over the bottom of the trench) and the pinpointer was maxed still saying it was touching it, as it had since one foot down. I did manage to dig up some 1800's cartridge brass in the town site, so not a complete loss, but I barely scratched the surface really. So, what settings should I play with to try and get some better feel for the good targets, or is it just not possible in a situation like this? Like a said, bad soil, bad coil knock issues, whole town burned down, etc. And...what the heck could that bizarre target have been? If it was just the detector I would say weird phantom, but the pro-find 35 was also ringing solid nonferrous, even though it should have been way out of range.

I really wanted to understand that thread but really most of it went right over my head. Between lots of references to other detectors I don't know and the jumbled writing style I just couldn't follow.

Well done, but I'm hoping I never have to!

Strick, I know I'm being captain obvious, but I have seen that, and it's when I have my cell phone with me and it is updating my location in Google maps with a marginal signal. Not sure why it is more then. I'm sure its probably not your phone because you would have thought of that but since it was exactly what you described I felt obligated to mention it.

Obviously I haven't been paying attention to all this for the years you guys have, but I've dealt with many companies over the years. It's like minelab has never heard of customer relations and has nobody assigned to the job. There has been a group of extremely loyal customers on here frustrated for the entire time I've been here and not one single word out of minelab, unless we count Jonathan. That's just weird.

Yeah, I did the auto pumping ground balance and started lowering sensitivity, but got down to 14 and the knock signals were still there so I just put it back to 20 and ignored them. Park 1, park 2, and gold 1 didn't make any difference either. My ground balance numbers were really high though, and like a said I'd never had any before, so I assume I was just in really bad ground.

Steve, I hadn't experienced the knock sensitivity problem, but today I took it up around Silver City. It was pretty ridiculous how knock sensitive it was. I knew you had written how to tame it down some but couldn't remember (and no internet up there) so j just lived with it. I got pretty good at ignoring signals where I bumped anything, but I do mean anything. Were talking twigs and grass, not hitting rocks. It was still detecting targets fine, so just annoying really.

I'd be lucky if I could swing that an hour...then I'd be layed up the next day.

My god that looks heavy!

It would be interesting to hear from someone who lots of experience with both how much difference there is on nugget hunting between the equinox and the gold monster. I've seen people say they both work well, but haven't seen direct comparisons, depth differences, reactions to mineralization, etc. I got the equinox because it seems to be good enough at everything I want or might want to do with it. It would be interesting to know how much I would gain going to a same priced "gold only" machine though. You make it sound like a lot Andyy.

I figured if Steve wanted real names he would just ask my name on the sign up. He asked for username so I gave that. I'm too boring to have anything to hide Reg, and I work in a prison so probably not a nervous person. Not sure why nicknames became the norm for forums but it's always been that way.

My first online poker account on party poker was lackingaces. When I signed up for twoplustwo (poker forum) I didn't know if I was going to have to type my name each time so I shortened it to lacky. I played poker full time for 9 years and part time for more, and am known as lacky by lots of poker friends so I just use it for everything now. It is always available.

Yep, I would agree with the equinox 800 and a 6 inch coil. You can find more information on it than you ever want to know here And info on nugget hunting with it here

Hey Stephen, might mention where you live or plan to hunt. That can make a difference in what works best. Also a budget range, as they go from about $500 to $7000.

"Not gonna lie, I hate you just a little bit right now. I'll get over though...sigh" he says as he sits for 12 hours in a dark hospital room guarding an inmate. Gives me lots of forum/youtube time though.

Your detector prices are 15% less than we can get them in the US. It seems like you guys get screwed on almost everything else, so that's nice.

Derek, I have a tesoro detector and always liked it, but I would not recommend one. They basically haven't changed at all in 10+ years but they also didn't lower their prices. They are basically old technology for new prices. If you found a used one in good shape at used prices, or a shop clearanced them out at 70% off then maybe, but even then repairs are a big mystery right now. I think your better off with an equinox or other new cutting edge detector.

Hence the entry level. People entering the market/hobby for the first time don't have 1/4 grey ghosts sitting around, they have a variety of 1/8 headphones and earbuds. It makes more sense for you to use an adapter than all of them. With my tesoro I always used an adapter for that reason. I have several quality 1/8 headphones used with computers and devices. It made far more sense to buy an adapter for a few bucks than to spend $150 on headphones that I could only use on my metal detector. I could certainly be wrong, but I expect more and more detectors will move to 1/8. It certainly didn't seem to hurt sales. You even bought one.

If they are targeting an entry level market no idea why the would go with a 1/4 plug when pretty much the whole world has gone to 1/8.