1515Art

I spent a few days up in the high Sierra running the 7000 around looking for a new patch, a first patch...not to be this trip and not surprising as hopeful as I tried to be I have also come to terms that finding a new patch will likely be a long term endeavor. Exploring is fun however and every outing provides a tid-bit of new info, view of old workings new to me and more experience hunting that elusive nugget. Paying attention to the sage advice of those far more experienced than me offering their wisdom here for us newbies I allocated a portion of my time to hunting previously fruitful earth. This proved to be very good advice as I've scored one of my most important goals, finding a nugget suitable as a pendant for my wonderful wife (she did give me the 7000 for my b-day, I think that was a good thing). It only took 2 1/2 years, but on the afternoon of the second day I hit a old well known patch and scored a nice flat 9.7 gram nugget sitting on edge down only about 5 inches with another 4 or 5 inches of Forrest mulch on top of the dirt. I had been hunting for about 30 minutes when I got near an area I'd found a small round 1/2 gram on the previous trip. The 7000 was running so smooth with the new update I decided to jack the sensitivity to the max just because this spot has been so heavily pounded...after swinging the coil forward possibly 3 feet I picked up a promising target signal and out popped this little hanger for my sweethearts birthday next month. I also scored another little half gram nugget back at the old patch on the next day to sweeten the drive home. The little round one was found hunting the previous time up after meeting up with forum member relic/park master Strick for a little social hunting. Happy hunting, clark

Portola the new Stepford, a plot by the towns menfolk...are they putting it in the water?? I knew that place looked to good to be true, any homes for sale?

I used the new update in the hot rocks and mineralized soil of the high Sierra for a few days and must comment the update is terrific, ground balance is faster and after running the coil over the ferrite ring and surrounding soil the ground noise for the most part melted away, this was true both on the first gb in difficult and a much better gb after switching to normal than before updating. I ran mostly; high yield, normal, sen-9, thresh-27 (will try 29 next time), audio smooth-off, vol-8, semi auto gb, everything was reasonably quite, switching to locate patch made everything very steady and subtle targets seemed to stand out against the background threashold better than with it off. The worst hot rocks still gave off a little high/low groan that was easy to differentiate from a compact metal type signal response. This was a great update for the conditions I was hunting (now if only the iron disc...). Need to put the coil over the yellow stuff as none this trip, still...the zed felt one with the force and I had little doubt I would hear the signal if it came. cant wait for the next release, zed is getting so much better the next go should be sweet!!

Ten posts, very reasonable...give a new member time to say hello, doing them a favor really as a little street cred bumps the value of what's for sale in my mind. Was someone new selling a ctx3030 pkg on another forum for a great price, the detective members there outed the seller in hours. Seller advertised the sale as US location, someone on the forum was sharp enough to ID the "baseboard molding" used in the home shown in the pictures as not sold in the USA, but European and they also spotted non standard electrical sockets as euro...from there the whole sale story fell apart and the photos were outed from an England eBay sale, amazing...scammers would be better picking easier targets.

I use one of those plastic coated wire twisting things you get at Home Depot for securing wire cables and hang my keys somewhere under the car or someplace out of sight, can even put them up in a near-by tree above eye level.

Apparently, they were just waiting for me to buy the 9"round before starting sales...you're welcome.

Deus 9" hf and pinpointer first impressions I got my new Deus 9" hf coil and wireless pinpointer yesterday, thank you Rob everything was perfect and the delivery was right on time. Assembly and syncing everything went smoothly, I'd watched a couple of short utube videos on setup of the new coil the day before and it's a simple (intuitive) process anyway. I didn't think I was going to like the white color of the new coil, but now that I have it it looks fine and the coil cover is black, so OK. Now all my comparisons are against my experience with the 11" standard coil, that's how I bought my original package new from the dealer. The balance is now much improved, the two coils don't feel all that much different off the main shaft in your hand, but once it's out there the new coil is much lighter and feels great, it also looks tiny in comparison to the 11". The new coil completes the startup/EMI operations faster than the standard coil, at least the flashing light indicating completion of the operation seems to cycle in about 1/2 the time of my 11" coil. The little I've run the new hf coil in some parks I'm not at all disappointed in the performance, it's smooth and manageable in all frequencies and is less bothered by emi. In one area I was directly under some power lines at a school where my whites sst had been unusable and the 11" coil really struggled. Directly under the wires I did pick up some chatter, lowering the sensitivity (70) helped a lot and 10 feet away I had no problem with the emi. The depth I'm seeing seems about the same as the 11 standard, I'm picking up wheat cents and other deeply buried old clad I missed with the 11" and tiny pieces of aluminum fragments from bottle cap retainer seals. I'm still getting a feel for the target I'd numbers the 11" numbers jumped around so much they weren't very useful, these seem better more stable... the tones are also crisper and its easier to lock on to on a desirable target sound (I think anyway). Most of these things I expected to improve just by going to the smaller coil, the 11 will now be reserved for speciality hunting, beach and wide open areas. Pinpointing is very accurate both by the wiggle or pinpoint function. Speaking of the pinpointer it's easy to sync, doesn't false works perfect, very accurate tones (meaning the pitch setting), easy to adjust...I can hear it in my headphones, very nice lanyard and belt clip, it worked perfect, one time I did have to switch back to the pointer and then coil when the coil volume did not sync but the switch from pointer to coil is almost instantaneous and automatic when you press the pointer power button. I love this pointer and now could not part with it this is a must have for the Deus. I ran the coil over some tiny gold in my back yard, the Emi is really bad I have old power lines and transformers running directly across the rear of the property. I had no trouble hearing the tiny nug with the chatter from the electrical lines, I'm anxious to get up in the hills and try out the new coil next week in some trash areas in gold country and see how well it handles the iron and hot rocks. happy hunting, clark

Richard, if you really want to keep your cost down some very good deals can be found in the classifieds on this form, as well as most of the other major detector online forms. If you use just a little due diligence and purchase from members with good positive history, I think you are very safe (Steve keeps a tight ship).

Hi GB, The first treatment was a quick scrape with a knife blade while visiting with Peg Leg John at his trailer on my way back from the hunting grounds, I always stop in to say hi and see how John's doing. Also, his money has been tight for him lately and he had some trouble with thieves and such in the area, so I buy some crystals from time to time or try and make the day better in other ways if I can (gas, smokes..), the piece was pretty green from the oxidation and we thought galena with some copper, nothing that special. I was looking for information on the piles of dirt it came from so I thought 5 bucks for an XRF was worth the time. The middle pic is what it looked like at the time of the test. After testing for fun I tossed it in a big rock tumbler filled with park clad and laundry soap for a couple of hours and then gave it a buff with a buffing wheel and compound. Still worth the 5 bucks as everything tells me that chunk of melted brass has some age and those piles of red dirt and crystals have been there fore a while. The big crystal and some of the small ones as well as most of that trash came from the piles without going beyond the surface more than a few inches. The smoky quartz was a gift from john to my wife, he knows she likes rocks and sent her this on this trip. If you find yourself in the area stop in and pay him a visit, he appreciates the company, is very helpful and is full of great stories.

Condors reports are very encouraging I'm really looking forward to trying it and even though I don't have anywhere near his experience or skills, will give feedback as best I can. The high frequency coil is the reason I bought the Deus in the first place be natural to pull the trigger now on the round coil instead of wasting more time, only thing is last minute plans are moving my next trip up a little so the high frequency coil will have to sit at UPS and I won't get to try it until next time up...guess I'll have to schedule another hunting trip soon, Oh darn.

Ya, you sure do find all kinds of strange melted, rusted globs out there. Just one more thing to confuse us new guys...at least I never thought it was gold and the hunt goes on. Keep telling myself the only way for sure to not find gold or anything else cool is not to try, still it's a head game.

Thanks Condor, I think the 9" hf option may be better as an all around hunter anyway and when the elipitical shows up, if it's that much better then I will consider getting it, or the GM as it would be best as a loaner for a friend with no experience to hunt with. Called Rob and ordered the 9" hf and new pin pointer should have them in a couple of days.

Steve your chair is a very nice solution, may build one someday and as usual a lot of good solutions here even for natures call. Made the mistake of walking into a roadside rest stop deep in the China country side, no matter how fast you look away some things can't be unseen, really could have used one of those folding chairs then, it was a long drive to the next city.

Found a copper ore nodule scanning some mine tailings in n Nevada, 94 on the Deus and very heavy. XRF readings at the local pawn shop were; Fe 1.53%, Zn 27.37%, Sn .632%, Cu 67.68%, Pb 2.37%. Sure wish there was a little Au in there, next time I wish. Or, could this just be a melted fitting buried in the tailing pile way in the desert high on the side of a hill?

I am getting a little impatient waiting for the Deus elipitical as summer starts and I find myself wanting to explore more with some discrimination while still being sensitive for tiny gold. By tiny I mean the small stuff I'm missing with the gpz, but big enough to see with my old man vision...not flakes I'd need tweezers to collect. I have the Deus with 11", so going down to a 9" coil would be great improvement in the feel of the detector, also I've been using it for a year now and am beginning to understand it a little. The reports on the 9" hf have been good as have the reports on the GM1000. Wondering if anyone has any thoughts as to how they might compair? Do I keep waiting with still no firm release date? Is it technical issues or marketing strategy delaying the release? I'm planning a drive to Colorado the end of next month and was going to bring the Deus with a hf coil, now I'm beginning to wonder if I wouldn't be better off with the GM?

Put some wheels on it, hang a cooler on one side, a BBQ on the other and finally one of JP's detector arms mounted off to the front and you'd never have to get up...patent pending.

Chuck, A little training and you could have him recovering nuggets for you all you need is to find out what scent to spray on the ground where you mark a target with the zed and then turn buddy loose on it.

That's some very nice looking silver, pretty gold...and the dog looks proud of himself too. Nice hunting Chuck and you will be back on the gold rings soon, just a matter of time as there's a big old diamond gold ring just sitting and waiting for ya on the next swing.

All the companies could improve, XP is just as bad... here we are 1/3 of the way through May and honestly I have little faith we will see the elipitical here in the US this month. No matter... as I'll be drooling all over myself when it does arrive and all will be wonderful.

What about space rocks? Some awfully big conductive chunks of outer space have been dug up from time to time and there must be more, how big a chunk would you need to find from a low flying air craft? Would it be economically worth the effort, guessing no?

That's cool that it's a vehicle reg tag, I'll bet those are in pretty high demand with the antique car crowd. original lead tags have to be scarce and anybody doing the show route would want to sport an original tag on their show car. Lots of targets is an understatement, extreamly unlikely you'd ever hear the words "hunted out" uttered there unless as a good natured barb. That was a blast the area is so big and I just wanted to be everywhere at once...took me an hour to convince my feet to settle down and wait for my coil. Found some cool stuff, can't wait to try the new elipitical there as I'm sure a lot of small targets were being masked swinging the 11" on the Deus. Thanks for the great hunt Chuck and next time I'm gonna bring the big pick that concrete is only going to get harder in the summer sun. clark

Some nice fossils, minerals and gems. http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/24039/?utm_source=bonhams&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=STS_Lapidary_24039&utm_content=link3

Bhonams now has this one up for sale.

Wouldn't be practical selling gold without a high reserve, be interesting to see the auction results... I had an old letter from 1774 been sitting around the house for years, another one of the thousands of items my grandfather collected in his business. As a rule they aren't worth much surprisingly they are fairly common, one day I decided to google the name at the bottom of the page, Geo. Taylor (George Taylor), I contacted Bohnams (Christie's wanted it but they were too late, I'd have been better off with Christies) they got $11K for it and kept $3k for their trouble. Worst part is about a month after selling it I found out one of my friends in China wanted to buy it and would have paid more and I'd have had no commissions. Still better than a sharp stick in the eye...

Gold and mineral auction with lots of pretty nugs, could even be some from someone we know? I get catalogs from this auction company all the time and I thought this one would be of interest here, hope this link works its worth looking at; http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/24041/?utm_source=bonhams&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=STS_Gold_24041&utm_content=link3