Slimpickuns

Congrats on the old gold there Joe! Good to see your out using the AQ again!

14 hours ago, Joe Beechnut OBN said:

That's a Great Month! And some beautiful Gold, specially the One! 

So glad to see another "AQ" lover! I do hope you can snag another Limited. Like you I have heard nothing other then what Russ said about 2022 being the year. 

Good Luck and continue the Mission!! 

Thanks Joe!  After a year of owning the AQ and using it non-stop on the wet sand, I definitely love it! Combined with your 11 hour big battery, it's a force to be reckoned with 😁 I do hope to snag a 2nd AQ ltd, but I feel that I may have missed my chance. I like $1499 price tag on it, not too hard on the wallet.. 

21 hours ago, Compass said:

Awesome finds Dave - congrats! Great job on taking the time to learn the new detector - it's paying off for you. I know how much you love that Sovereign so it being relegated to back-up status speaks volumes about the AQ.

Thanks George! 🙂

Nice work there Kob! Congrats on the gold & other goodies😁..I hit a spot for a few days during the recent high wind/high surf event, ended up with 4 gold and some silver. Loads of targets, the clad was driving me nuts so switched over to tone mode to weed out the clad and just target the gold signals, was very fun indeed!

You mentioned having to turn your head so you could hear due to the wind, does your head phones have weep holes? If so you might want to put some tape over the holes If you haven't already.. My AQ headphones have weep holes, I put tape over them and it helped keep the noise out during high winds..

I'm using the stock 12.7" coil, almost pulled the trigger on the 8" coil, but ultimately decided I didn't really need it. The depth is great! I cant imagine needing a deeper machine, I don't think I would want to dig any deeper unless I was going after a chest of gold 😁 I only have my Sov. GT and a Whites Surf PI to compare it to, before the AQ I would mostly use the Sov. GT for wet sand hunting in mild conditions and when I went to beaches where I knew the black sand was going to be thick, I would bust out the Surf PI since the GT would struggle in the black sand. The AQ has replaced both those machines for me, giving me the best of both worlds. I did a lot of black sand hunting in September where the Sov would have struggled, I would have missed a lot of targets since I would have had to dial back the settings and also keep the coil a few inches off the sand. Using the Surf PI would have worked, but I would have to dig absolutely everything including clad coins, and in a loaded target rich beach, I'm really only after the gold, I don't want to waste time digging endless amounts of clad coins, bobby pins and tent stakes. With the AQ I can work the thick black sand without losing too much depth and also weed out most iron, tent stakes and clad coins and just go after the gold signals If I want, which come through as a high pitch smooth squeal. I love the high pitch squeal it gives over gold signals, its music to my ears! I still have my Sov. GT and Surf Pi as back up, just in case I run into any technical problems with the AQ but for me it has become the MVP in the line-up for wet sand hunting. Honestly, If I didn't like this machine and felt that It was an absolute dud, I wouldn't be trying to buy a 2nd one that's for sure! 😁

Thanks Dewcon4414! Yea I think I might of gotten off easy as far as problems go with the AQ, When I first got mine about a year ago, the threshold nob wasn't working, I sent it back to Fisher and they replaced the threshold pot, took about a month before I got it back. Thankfully it has been working great ever since though..

On 10/10/2021 at 11:37 AM, Hamid said:

Very nice 🍹🍹🙂 

Thanks Hamid!  Have you been out hunting lately? Haven't seen you post finds in a long time.. What machine do you use these days?

11 hours ago, Joe D. said:

Great work Slim,

    Very much the opposite of your forum name!! And that ring is one of the most beautiful i have seen come off the beach!!💍🤯  Were all the stones intact??

   I wish Fisher would get their s$$t together for the AQ production model, but in the meantime, you, JoeOBN, and a few others are at a nice advantage! But I'm not jealous;💩😂 You guys are out there doing all the hard work!!

Keep at it, as long as you can!!🍀👍👍

Thanks Joe D!

Luckily all the stones are intact and present on the LeVian ring, the main stone is chocolate quartz, surrounded by white & chocolate diamonds, with 2 pink sapphires, one on each side of the ring.

Yea it's been very quiet on the Fisher AQ production front...I put myself on their waiting list a few months ago for a 2nd Fisher AQ Ltd to have as back-up just in case but I haven't heard anything since..I'm not really interested in the final production model to be honest, only because I have no plans on going in the water or under it. Here in SoCal, the surf is just too crazy for this landluber to handle and ankle deep is as far as I go. 

12 hours ago, schoolofhardNox said:

Awesome finds. How often do you hunt per month to get this amount? Lucky that some areas eroded out and released their goods!

Thanks SchoolofhardNox,

This last round of hunting in Sept was around 7 or 8 times If I remember correctly, which is usually what I've been averaging this year for hunts per month. All hunting this year has been in the wet sand, I just don't have the will to trudge on dry sand anymore...

Had another good month hunting the low tide wet sand slopes at a few local beaches. Some large surf eroded out a few areas, lots of black sand and lots of targets! Spent half the time in "All-Metal" and half in "Tone Mode".  For me, tone mode comes in very handy when weeding out those annoying pesky tent stakes when there is an abundance of them on the beach. I ran stock settings for tone mode and it worked out great at one of the beaches I was working that was littered with tent stakes!  The find of the month was a nice 14k LeVian ring, the surprise find of the month was another gold tooth crown, which makes my 3rd for the year! Acid tested it and confirmed it's 18k. I see Compass found one recently too. You would think the cremation process would completely melt the crowns into blobs, I guess the heat doesn't reach that point? Anyway it was a fun month. I went out recently after the oil spill for a night time negative low tide hunt, beaches were pretty sanded in unfortunately. I did encounter some tar blobs on the beach, but I always wear muck boots when hunting the wet sand anyway so I had no issues with oil on my feet. I was surprised to see a surfer out in the night time waters and also someone walking their dog on the shore..

So totals for the month were:

10k - 2.1 grams
14k - 15.7 grams
18k Dental Gold - 4.1 grams
925 - 3.65 oz

Thanks for looking, GL & HH out there!

Nice hunt George! Really like the design of that gold ring, very unique. Did you check the stone with a gem tester?

Congrats on the 2 day gold run! Always exciting when a spot gets hit with the right kind of surf and yields a ton of targets! 

8 hours ago, Hamid said:

Very nice 😎

Thank you Hamid! 

11 hours ago, Joe Beechnut OBN said:

Your AQ is Hot!! Love the Eagle! 

Thanks Joe! I do love my AQ, getting close to my 1 year anniversary owning it, used it exclusively all year and has pretty much replaced my trusty Sov.GT for wet sand hunting.

12 hours ago, Rick N. MI said:

Nice gold!

Thanks Rick!

14 hours ago, CCadrin said:

You have some nice finds there!

 

Thanks CCardrin! I wish the Onyx stone on the vintage ring wasn't busted though, I can resolder and fix the broken ring shank, but I cant do anything to fix the stone unfortunately..

Excellent quality finds there George! Congrats on the summer treasure, hopefully we'll be blessed soon with some fall/winter erosion.

1 hour ago, mn90403 said:

Well done again!  It was a tough month.

It sure was! This month so far has been even tougher though for me, the last low tide cycle was dismal as far targets go. Hopefully some big surf will carve out some sand in a few weeks...

Wow Joe! Killer summer haul ya got there! Amazing how many class rings you pulled out! Congrats!!

Not as much gold as the previous months but still had fun hunting the wet sand during the negative low tide cycles last month. All hunts were done in "All Metal".  First gold of the month was a 14k white gold vintage onyx diamond ring, unfortunately the onyx stone is busted and the shank is broken at the back. Next was a 10k yellow & white gold mariners cross pendant with eagle and small ruby for the eye. Since the bale on the pendant was intact, I searched around for the chain but no luck. Also pulled a decent amount of silver. Next day went back and hit a 10k ear ring with a depiction of The Last Supper, followed by a wide 14k band and more silver. The second low tide cycle towards the end of the month didn't yield any gold unfortunately. I did find a spot that had eroded out with black sand due to some heavy surf and yielded a ton of crusty green clad and some black crusty silver but no gold.

So the totals for August:

10k - 5.3 grams
14k- 13 grams
925- 3.63 oz

GL & HH out there!

Wow! Beautiful oldies you pulled out of the water there Joe, congrats! Love the Stealthy Excal too!

9 hours ago, mn90403 said:

Just giving some thought to the future and what will be left to find.  Gold nuggets are a vanishing commodity so what about a new beach PI Minelab?  I know there are a couple of guys out trying to use the 6000 on the beach but at $6000 a copy that is a bit of a high price point for a beach machine.  I like my 800 and my 3030 at the beach but what am I missing a little deeper?

I tried the AQ limited but I got a lemon and I soured on it quickly.  Should I try one again?  I live at the beach and spend 90+% of my time on wet/damp sand.  Hard to break old habits now.

Always good to have a PI in the arsenal for those extreme black sand conditions that can sometimes manifest on SoCal beaches...In the past I've hit beaches with my Sov. GT that were impossible to detect due to black sand, even with sensitivity turned all the way down..

6 hours ago, okara gold said:

No problem with silver for me either. Found these two small silver rings the other day. It hit hard on them. The chain is junk. 

Congrats on the silver rings! Man I hate those little junk chains, been finding a lot of them!

10 hours ago, mn90403 said:

Good detecting.  You found the heavies.  It was not supposed to find silver!

How deep did it go?

Thanks! I was running in all metal so I was digging everything including silver. The AQ hits Deeeeeeeeeep! 😁

On 8/21/2021 at 7:29 PM, strick said:

Those are some amazing finds...you got me wondering about a womens ring that I found a couple years ago..It has a black stone with a couple diamonds on either side...I figured it was onyx.... 

cant beat those PI's on the beach. I have a TDi Pro and it will wake up a dead beach thats for sure. 

strick

Thanks Strick,  So do you still have the ring in question? If so hit it with a gem tester and see what happens..

I remember a few years back fellow forum member Compass found a black diamond engagement ring, he posted it on Friendly and it was the first time I saw one, didn't even know they existed till then. I gotta take it to a jeweler though to check to see if its natural or heat treated/lab created, major price difference..

Heard and read a lot of good things about the TDI Pro, I was actually looking to purchase one, that or the TDI SL, before the Fisher AQ Ltd came out, and before Whites sold off their business..