Joe Beechnut OBN

3 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Man Joe, you are killing it - good for you!

What is your theory of the similarity of the insignia rings? It's like an entire ring set in different sizes. What are the letters? They are so stylized I can't really make them out. Very interesting.

Thanks Steve, I've got 15 from this beach since July. It was the type of ring that was popular for that time period. (And maybe that area)  Most are not stamped with a fineness mark .....so it dates them to the late 1800's to early 1900's.  You really have to look close to make out the initials ......Also took me a second to figure out how to shoot a photo, slanted them downward in the front. I love this beach for there are so many things that personalize the rings that I find here. 

Back out again for 5 hours during a nice lowtide. 

Great thread, I'm catching up on all of these since I'm new to the forum. I'm guessing you live around New Hampshire, Maine area since the tides play a big part in where you can hunt. Thanks for taking us along on the ride. And please continue.

Steve I have two bread tray sifters and I'm getting ready to redo one sifters with a smaller plastic mesh. I just came across this the other day and ordered. Should be here in a few weeks...I have one spot I get lots of little things by "accident" .........most come up with another bigger target I was digging......Like. Ear rings, charms, small gold chains....Hoping it's what I need and can help me save a few of the gold ones ......It was a Small beach but really packed them in during the 30's to 60's.  I'm not really a Micro Jewelry hunter but nothing worse then seeing a gold earing post fall thru the holes in the sifter....Got it off of ebay, used for the bottom of planters or pots to keep the soil from washing out..I'll keep you informed on this..

The the items need to complete...

One reason I made this type of Sifter is I have several beach's I have to walk a distance to get to so I needed light weight and easy to carry. I just loop the pull rope over my head and it crosses my shoulders to carry, it rides on my side.

I used a bread tray from the local grocery story, trimmed it up but did leave the handle on one side for when I need to empty the shells or debris in the water I just push the handle down to flip the sifter and push it back. Plus its a good way to carry it coming out of the water.

Very easy to make, some short cable ties, 4 inch and larger one's for the Noodle,.... 24 inch heavy duty

Then the mesh, I get from McMaster Carr. And a friend of mine gave me something called Rock shield which seems to last forever.

The Pool noodles I have used several and found I like the real big Jumbo size, and the reason is I like to slam my scoop in the sifter when I'm dumping the scoop. The big jumbo noodle breaks the shock of the scoop when the handle hits the noodle. Saving the plastic mesh, got those off of Amazon. 

Thank you....Here is some info on the sifter, McMaster Carr is where I get the mesh when I first started..............some one just asked a few weeks ago so I did a vid for them also..

Also a friend of mine got me something called Rockshield Mesh...which has been the best I've used...he works construction, they cover the pipes with it then fill in with rock, the mesh protects the pipes.

http://www.typargeosynthetics.com/products/pipe-protection-underground-marking/protectamesh-hd-rockshield-mesh.html

12  years detecting, early on I did fair..last 6 years have been the best

4 Excalibur's used...paid around 500 each for them...found over 80,000 dollars in gold (as of 2019) and one 2 carat diamond plat ring, valued at 23 to 27 grand...Silver found and sold 3000.oo  Melted ...Clad found, don't even keep track, clean it and spend it.

1 Minelab CTX used...found one gold diamond ring..sold the machine for what I paid for it, luckily right before the Nox came out

1 Whites DF used..never found anything good...sold it ..lost 300. dollars

1 Garrett Infinium LS New...found some gold, ...lost 400 dollars even with the gold found

I'm with most here, Great for the body, soul, and mind. At 67 I keep telling myself "keep moving"..And it's easy since I love finding treasure.

Been nice if Carter Pennington got one of the first "AQ's", he does do some interesting tests. And he hunts in the water with most, not just the wet sand.

During the winter here in the Chesapeake bay my main goal is to watch for the best conditions, then try put and myself in the right location to find gold. I seen a Opp coming Monday mornings lowtide,  No  winds and calm water. Perfect conditions and I knew where to go, a spot that has been very good to me since July 2019. First target of the day a Nice 14k cigar band, 45 minutes later gold ring number two for the day. A Victorian ladies gold ring, no fineness mark. Ring was badly stained. Third and final gold came as water was starting to get rough. Cutting across in the water and headed in I got a strong signal, two scoops and out came a badly stained gold band. Unmarked / No fineness mark which is very common for this beach since it opened in the 1880's.  Not many targets this hunt, 3 gold rings, 2 coins, several sinkers and a few pieces of brass in a little over 3.5 hours.  Water temps are now in the low 40's, a month from now should really be some great hunting with constant lowtides and NW winds......water will be in the lower 30's but I can do about 4 good hours with my drysuit setup....Thanks for looking...Joe

Steve you really have me thinking about a beach rake, and a Save the Bay T-shirt. I have down days where conditions are not the best at the Bay front beach's, be good to give this ago on those days at the smaller cove beach's. 

Steve....Off subject.......Interesting question about using a rake would be many State and Federal beach's are closed to metal detecting. Some year round....... some summer only.  It would be a interesting the reaction one gets from the local park rangers on the use of a rake.

Maybe something to consider not only for the little chains.

I think I posted the same a few months ago on the other forum, No Disc ...Straight PI. ..........Something to compete with the Whites beach hunter TDI's .........price range. I think it would be the death of the Beach hunter TDI.......

I'm not much for relics at all. But love your story. Thanks for sharing and keep us updated...when it's all over..

Thanks for sharing and all of the time and effort that went into the field test. Hats off to you and those who helped.

The test from my point of view shows One's knowledge of his machine is what makes the difference. A very close Second and Third would be having the correct machine and familiar with those hunting conditions.

I'm wonder how the "AQ" will do at the edge where the rough water and wet sand meet. A very abrasive area, as far as the coil to shaft fittings....That's a lot of contact points for sand to get in and wear. A problem once in the saltwater also....... specially when a person hunts over a thousand hours a year, like Dew. Me, the "AQ" won't be my number one for I plan on using the excalibur to locate area's of interest, then go in with the "AQ" and dig all. So the "AQ" maybe looking at 400 hours use a year for me. So how is this ...Zero Pressure Technology.....going to hold up? I'm looking at it and thinking sand..composite material....Mixed....problems in time. 

1 hour ago, LowTide said:

This may turn out to be somewhat of a mute point.  With the initial released info that the detector was rated for 1 meter depth, it appears that this was designed as a shoreline detector meant to be used at waters edge.  The 1 meter rating would provide protection if dropped into the water.

The later 3 meter figure suggests an attempt to turn this into a wader type detector which would be fine in fresh water.  Because, further info reveals that the detectors ground balancing system will not be able cancel saltwater and allow detection of small gold, with the coil submerged in saltwater.

So the question remains open as to how stable will it be in say waist high saltwater with waves rolling in?  Will it's depth be similar to existing PI's?  How stable will it be compared to existing PI's?  What about the salinity levels at various geographic locations? 

My same questions, was it tested in  rough waters.....saltwater and black sand ..chest deep. 

4 hours ago, dewcon4414 said:

Steve ..... take it out there chest deep in water you can’t even see your coil in.... try to keep your balance and not get that deep target on the side of the hole in the first dig.   Things tend to move off that sweet spot it seems to in the salt water.   You can get a chuckle watching a first timer.   Lot of things going on in moving water lol.  One reason people also like a DD coil that PPs easy on the tip.
 

Joe .... did Cliff call you reference using the audio sears on the MDT?  Didn’t work.... so I’m wondering if it will on a PI? 

Yes it works on PI's, that MDT is not your normal. I wrote Cliff back, just sent

Very easy to build our own LiPo 14.4v  with a excalibur battery pod. Once we get our hands on a battery pack. I did read that the M-8 connector for the headphones had went to a 5 pin. Bottom picture is of m-12 endcaps I made for the xcaliburs...

It's going to be interesting to check out the coil with the Audiosears speaker and determined if dead center on the coil is the Hottest Spot. (That is what it looks like in the video) I am almost thinking this all might work out on deep targets if you just take your time and circle the target like LE JAG does, and have a deep hitting scoop. My biggest issue is going to be making sure I don't start digging targets in deep water where I have to go under to get to the target, fine during the summer but winter is a No No.  By the time we have this figured out maybe the smaller coil will be out by then.  Being able to get the coil in the deep hole would be a a lot easier.................One question.......I'm wondering if the coil size goes from the stock 12.5 inch to a 8 inch .............how much depth will be lost with the "AQ"? I know the excalibur lost about 1 to 2 inch's going from 10 inch's to 7.5 inch's in All metal. IS it the same with a PI? A few inch's depth can make all the difference in the world when it comes to finding gold.

Yes, wish the Audio was better but it does give a good idea on Pin pointing deep targets with the "AQ" . Won't be long all of us will be testing...And Video's. 2020 is going to be interesting..

3 hours ago, Carolina said:

I use the Souriau on all my Excals. just not to the extent of Joe. So far no problems but since i got the MDT they lay dormant haha. $2500 is not going to be paid off in my location for quite some time. Melt value and what you actually can get are two different things. I also don’t live in a target rich environment like Joe. MDT is better suited for the new drops here and the AQ use in the bay. Road trip !!!

 I hammered those Souriau's good with over 700 hours or more of hunt time in the water. And with changing the coil often...

I am hoping that the "AQ" wakes up some of these spots Mike and I hammered good. They start coming alive it maybe time to go silent...

10 hours ago, LE.JAG said:

I paid my goldscan 5c
2000 euros second hand and without warranty
he was over a kilo ...

---

the biggest problems was
the coil connector and the rod
electrolysis / radiation problem
= resolved..........................

I'm a little concerned on the coil connector, but I can change myself later once the warranty is over. I used the Souriau connectors before, Stainless steel is the only way to go when it comes to connectors..

the weak point that remains
in my opinion
this is the headphone connector

I would have preferred a mounting in ventral of the unit
less risk in water ...
in the current configuration
has thought up the battery belt (see ventral = the higher, the better )
to avoid pulling on the audio connection.... 

and provide a rescue cable
battery / detector (if you make them yourself, longer will be better)
and ideally / add a tensioner
so that the cable / battery-detector / is never under tension

and he shouldn't have any problem ..

I see what your saying, thank you for the tip...a tension cable to keep from pulling on the Fitting.....

 

+ for the price
I am in a region
where there are not many tourists
I could repay it on average every two / three months

but we can always come across a good spot
and do it in 3/4 days
or find a beautiful stone

those who have access to volcanic beaches
go, reimbursed much faster ...

 

I can see paying for it in a few months, once the warmer weather kicks in come Spring, just in time for the release..I hope.

 

 

 

 

What is a reasonable price on a Eric Foster performance machine? 2000.oo would be low I would think? 2500.oo closer..And really if it performs as said...That would be a deal.

It will be interesting to see how much the testers came up with as far as issues......... catching them and saving us the grief. As much as I hunt in saltwater I do see myself in time working on it after the warranty is up...Just hope I'm not the first to do the honors. Going to be a interesting two years...

Congratulations Dan on your fresh water lake treasures. Nice older looking gold class ring!