Glenn in CO

Chris Davis who wrote the article is using a XP Deus now and I'm not sure in 2015 if he was using an XP. Of course the Equinox wasn't around in 2015. Both clubs now have more XP and Equinox users, in which I've recently acquired a XP Deus.

Gerry in Idaho suggested that I post some Colorado Picasso's that I and my wife have found. We have been very fortunate to detect any area for many years that has produced crystalline wire and gold specimens. The other added plus it's a scenic area to enjoy while detecting. We started prospecting in the mid-1980's in this area and started using metal detectors in 1990. Each and every year from 1990 we have found gold, but the last few years it is getting tougher to find. Most of the gold that we find needs to be prepped (cleaned) to reveal it's beauty. This first specimen pictured shows how it looked before I cleaned it and then the final result which and take countless hours using different methods. I will post other specimens later on, so here goes: Look close and you will see diamond shape crystals embedded on the leaf forms on the specimen: Do you have a Picasso you would like to share?

Steve, this information was compiled in 2015 by Chris Davis who is a club member of the PPAL Club (Colorado Springs area) and now the president of the Eureka Club (Denver area) it was in the PPAL July 2016 newsletter. I know their has been a lot new detectors introduced between then and now, but I thought you might find interesting. PPAL/Eureka! Demographic Survey – 2015 Chris Davis Demographic and suggestion surveys were run on both the Pike’s Peak Adventure League (PPAL) and the Eureka! Treasure Hunter’s Club (Eureka!) for the year of 2015. PPAL is based in Colorado Springs and reports a paid membership of 65 during 2015. The Eureka! Club is located in Littleton and has 150 members. I am a member of both Pike’s Peak and Eureka! and can tell you from personal experience, they are both great clubs. Responses were received from 54% of the Pike’s Peak folks, and 39% of the Eureka! members. As with most surveys, there was room for error involved in this one. Of course, the more respondents, the better the information. Many respondents did not answer all questions. I could not assume, just because nothing was in the blank, the answer was “0” or “No”. If no information was submitted on a particular topic, it was excluded from calculation. Inadvertently, I asked several questions of one club, but not on the other. Never-the-less, all-in-all, I think we got some interesting and useful information. I discovered both clubs had a very good sense of humor. For example, for “Sex”, 3 PPAL members listed “Yes”, while Eureka! only had 2 “Yes” and 1 “Seldom”. As you might expect, there were similarities and differences between the clubs. According to the data: -The Male-Female Ratio and Age Composition of both clubs are similar. It appears most detectorists in the clubs are mature (older), averaging around 58 years of age. Half were retired. -PPAL members report twice as many years of metal detecting experience as Eureka! members. -The average PPAL member has been in the club twice as long as that of Eureka! members. -The Detectorists own an average of 3 to 4 machines. One PPAL member reported owning 14 machines. One Eureka! member said he/she owned 18 machines. -While a wide variety of detectors were used, it appears the most popular machine used by PPAL was the Garrett AT Pro. Eureka! members preferred the White’s MXT by a wide margin. -Eighty percent of both clubs used Garrett pinpointers. White’s fell in at 10-15%. -Both clubs averaged finding one gold ring, 3 silver rings and 3 silver coins per member during 2015. The 2 clubs reported finding a total of 93 gold rings and 236 silver rings last year. -Eureka! members attended more club hunts (6) than PPAL (2), but Eureka! held twice as many hunts, and the PPAL hunts were often multi-day affairs. -PPAL members report making approximately 3 hunts a month. Eureka! hunters averaged 4. -The data seems to confirm PPAL has more of an emphasis on Relic Hunting, while Eureka! being in the big city, focuses more on Coin and Jewelry Hunting. Most members of both clubs hunt parks. Eureka! hunts parks the most (92%), while 74% of PPAL hunts parks. On the flip side, 76% of PPAL hunt Private Property, while only 49% of Eureka! hunt private lands. -Eighty-odd percent of both clubs regularly read their Newsletters. -All suggestions and comments have been submitted to the Officers for consideration. A breakdown of the data, averages and ranges is listed below: PPAL Eureka! Total Club Paid Membership: 65 150 Total Responses: 35 (54%) 59 (39%) Demographic Survey Continued Age 60 (39-88) 56 (16-82) Sex M (75%) F (25%) M (70%) F (30%) Retired or Working Working (50%), Retired (50%) Years Detecting 19 (0-61) 9 (0-48) Years Club Membership 10 (0-43) 5 (0-31) Ever in Other MD Clubs No (64%), Yes (36%) No (95%), Yes ( 5%) Number of MDs 3.9 (1-14) 130* machines 2.8 (0-18) 142* *Husband/Wife teams probably double counted machines What Activities Are Folks Participating In? -Coin/Jewelry Hunting 97% 95% -Relic Hunting 89% 64% -Prospecting 49% 36% -Bottle Hunting 40% 12% What do Folks Say They Do Most? -Coin/Jewelry Hunting 61% 92% -Relic Hunting 29% 8% -Prospecting 7% -Bottle Hunting 4% Machine Used Coin/Jewelry Relic Water Coin/Jewelry Relic Water Fisher F-75 1 Fisher CZ-21 1 Minelab (no model) 1 1 Minelab Explorer 1 1 Minelab ETRAC 2 1 1 1 Minelab CTX 1 2 1 Minelab Excalibur 1 1 Minelab Sovereign 1 1 1? Garrett (no model) 1 1 1 4 3 Garrett AT Pro 7 4 2 4 3 4 Garrett Ace 150 1 Garrett Ace 250 1 1 Garrett Ace 350 3 1 Garrett AT Gold 2 2 1 1 1 Garrett Sea Hunter 1 White’s (no model) 4 4 2 2 2 1 White’s XLT 2 1 6 1 White’s MXT 1 1 17 12 4 White’s V3i 3 2 4 2 White’s DFX 1 5 4 White’s Surf Master 2 1 White’s Beach Hunter 1 Makro Racer 2 2 Teknetics 1 1 Demographic Survey Continued Machine Used Coin/Jewelry Relic Water Coin/Jewelry Relic Water Tesoro Shark 1 Bounty Hunter 1 Radio Shack 1 1 XP Deus 1 1 5 4 Pinpointers Garrett 81% Garrett (80%) White’s 10% White’s (15%) 3 Misc. 3 Misc. Gold Rings Career 5.5 (0-50) 176 total 7.2 (0-100+) 371 total Gold Rings 2015 1.0 (0-15) 33 total 1.1 (0-18) 60 total Gold Coins Career 2 total 6 total Silver Rings Career 11 (0-50) 240 total 27 (0-200+) 1,046 total Silver Rings 2015 3.1 (0-30) 103 total 2.5 (0-20) 133 total Silver Coins 2015 12.5 (0-200+) 399* total 4.7 (0-100+) 222* *2 PPAL individuals listed 200+ and 100 silver coins found in 2015. 1 Eurkea individual listed 100+. May have been quoting lifetime recovery, rather than 2015, possibly included planted coins. That, or they need to invite me over for a hunt. If drop the fliers we have: 3.3 (0-25) 99 total 2.7 (0-20) 122 total # Club Hunts Attended 2.0 (0-6) 5.9 (0-12) # Hunts per Month 2.7 (0-10) 4.0 (2-23) Where Are People Hunting? -City Parks/Schools 74% 92% -State Parks 35% 27% -Private Property 76% 49% -Other 35% (NF 5, BLM 4, etc) Where Do People Hunt The Most? -City Parks/Schools 92% -State Parks 0 -Private Property 8% Read the Newsletter? Yes 88%, No 12% Yes 81%, No 19%

For 2019 it was my best year for Indian Heads, Barbers, Mercury's and Roosevelt's. Best Barbers were a 1908 O and 1908S, found with a White's TDI: Best Gold find was my crystalline wire gold specimen, found with a White's Goldmaster: For tokens I found a couple of Stringtown, Colorado tokens, 12 1/2 cents in trade and a Good for 1 Drink, found with a Makro Kruzer:

This is my favorite for the year a crystalline wire gold specimen.

WOW! Love to know the story of how those coins got there. Someone needs to invent a time machine.

Look forward to the new products you will be introducing in 2020. Thanks for a great 2019!

Very nice specimen, it's amazing what the miner's missed. Thanks for sharing!

What an outstanding wire good specimen, congrats to the finder and thanks for sharing!

I just sold mine on eBay two months ago. It was upgraded to a V3i but was labeled Vision like yours. Spent the last part of 2019 selling detectors I don't use and buying new ones. Didn't realize what I was missing until I tried something different. Look forward to 2020 and learning something new.

WTG Lunk! Very nice specimen, congrats on a great find!

Very nice gold specimens and apparently they got your adrenaline going when you found them.👍

Very cool ring that was found 2016: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7691793/Amateur-metal-detectorist-finds-gold-Medieval-ring-tipped-fetch-50-000-auction.html

Looks like a Great Seal Eagle Button, around 1900's. With no dimensions I can't tell if it is cuff or coat button. Nice Find!

Steve, I too would like to hear more opinions between the X35 and HF coils. It seems the round 9" HF coil is more popular than the other coil options. I want to purchase a XP Deus or XP Orx, but struggling with the pros and cons between the two and the coil options they have to offer. I don't want to regret buying a Orx instead of the Deus, but also I don't want to buy a Deus and end up not needing the different features and options it has to offer when the Orx features and options would be just fine for my type of hunting. I see more value with Orx than Deus at their respective price points, but something keeps telling the Deus is the way to go. Decisions, decisions!

Here is a couple links: https://www.detectingdoodads.com/store/c4/Accessories_for_Minelab_Equipment.html https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3949618

Thanks! phrunt, I've would have not posted that link if I had that information. My browser doesn't share that information.

Nice Nugget! Great way to start your mining season. Thanks! for sharing,

I guess Tesoro is still alive. https://www.tesoro.com/IDS/ids.html

Looks like you had a good mining season, great gold and great memories. Thanks for sharing!

Welcome Jbone to the forum, Since you mentioned that you are relatively new to metal detecting and considering a purchase of a different metal detector, here is what I would suggest. Most newcomers to the hobby/sport purchase a metal detector and immediately start second guessing if they made the right choice or not. In my opinion you have made a good choice in the detector you purchased and it has more than enough features for a newcomer to learn and hopefully understand what each feature does over a period of time. Use this first purchase as a stepping stone in the future as you become experienced and understand of what your detector is capable of doing and if there is features that you find that are lacking in certain areas, then use that information in another detector that will fill that need. You will get many opinions on what detector to have or use on this forum, but it will be up to you and the time you put in learning any detector and that will translate how successful you will be. Also it seems the way the used metal detector market is today, the resell value would not be in your favor.

I'm in the low and slow group, the cruising part doesn't produce good results. If I'm in an area that I have found nuggets in the past I'm more confident that I will another nugget or more. When you spend countless hours with the same detector and listening to what it is telling you, finding a nugget becomes second nature. Some people have a nose for gold and will find it with little effort, others it is a constant struggle. You have to figure out the best combination in technique, detector pluses and minuses, location and mental attitude to have any success.

I have never replaced my CVT belt on my RZR. I have around 1700 miles on it so far and 98% of those miles is very hard off road miles in rocky and steep terrain. I do carry a extra belt and tools to replace it if needed on the RZR. When you are on the trail out in the middle of no where, you need to equip extra parts like tow rope, spark plug, tools, flat tire repair and so on. I've never needed to use any of it, but it a peace of mind to have it. I perform yearly maintenance every year and inspect the CVT belt at that time. Also I have a electric winch mount on the front. The ramp I use is similar to one pictured below. I taken it apart where it is hinged in the middle, so I am not restricted to the width when loading the RZR into the back of the pickup. I cannot have my tailgate on my pickup truck when loading or transporting the RZR as the RZR is a little longer than my 8ft bed, but the bottom portion of the rear tires on RZR are sitting on the pickup bed. The ramps are placed on the bumper and the RZR has no problem going from the ground into the bed of the pickup. Here is a reason to have extra stuff as I had to tow a friend out because his SXS wouldn't start: If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask.

I bought the storage box at Walmart and it was a Contico brand. I did put a spacer between the storage box and the bed of the RZR and the reason for that was the heat that is generated from the engine it can get a little bit warm back there. My Polaris RZR 570 is a 2012 model and you might pickup a older model pretty reasonable. Good Luck with your search for a SXS!

Hello Garikfox, I have a Polaris RZR 570 that is 50" wide and it will fit in the back of my pickup truck. I have a storage box in the back bed of the RZR for all our detecting equipment, rain gear, lunch, etc. It's great on trails and small enough to maneuver in tight places. No problems so far as to reliability.