TTT2866

Hi all. Just want to put it out there, I've just made my first youtube video. I'll aim for somewhat regular uploads as I have hours of footage saved up. This is a video where I found 5 gold rings, a silver bar, a watch and some gold pendants. Probably in my top 10 favourite hunts. You don't have to subscribe, but it would definitely help 🙂

I'm fully open to criticism no matter how harsh. if you think the video is crap let me know what I can change. if you want it shorter or longer, or more talking?  This took me forever to edit as I'm fairly new to it all. 

Otherwise I hope you enjoy the video. 

cheers. 

I've been lazy with uploading lately. I'm either flat out with work or detecting and finding more than I can document! I've just hit 110 rings for the year (39 gold, yay)! 

Went out a few days ago with a mate and hit a spot we've been doing all year. After a few hours, he had a couple of rings and I had a couple of silver and a 18ct. I was pretty happy with that, but the tide started to come up and it was getting a bit cold and not much else was turning up. The beach has been good to us lately, I did the spot a few days prior just wading and scored 2 gold rings, and he went as well the next day and got another. 

We pondered doing another beach we both know well, where there's always tons of stuff but the conditions are extremely hard to do. Wow oh wow was it rough!! I said to him, I'll have a look and if its crap I'm gonna get a coffee and call it a day, I think he was a bit more keen than me. I took the long way around (got distracted by a garage sale lol) and we both met in the middle along the shore. Still equip with our snorkelling gear, we decided to go in anyway, as it was rough but the water was somewhat clear. 

For reference, I've found close to 600 rings scattered in this area over the last 5 years. They always get thrown up in to the shallow areas after rough seas, but we've never really gone in the water as the rips are so strong and the conditions never line up. 

Anyhow, within 24 minutes I had 2 bangles as well as 2 rings and he found 2 rings coming from the opposite direction. It was sooo hard to dig anything because as soon as you got the target, you'd be pushed off by a wave and would have to find it again. It was exhausting, especially with 11kg of dive weights. The rip was also extremely strong. I've never seen so many rocks in this spot, because again, it's near impossible to access. There were sooo many targets, almost 1 ever 1.5 meters. When I last got close to this spot I pulled over 70 rings but it was as they'd been thrown closer to shore by strong tides. 

Great day out. 

I went back 2 days later and while my partner was doing the shallows with her new manticore, I decided to wade in. my first target was a kayak anchor..lol, I wouldn't have dug it if it wasn't on the surface as it was a massive ferrous signal. This was equally as annoying as it was great, because I didn't have my dive weights so it gave me lots of weight to stay down, as my wetsuit is too buoyant. I was about chest deep the entire time (i'm 6t5) and it was a real struggle, the waves were hitting about 1.5-1.8 meters every 13 seconds. Again, soo many targets but after an hour I ended up with another 6 rings, 2 watches, a bangle and a brass bracelet chain. Including a nice 18ct band. 

As fun as it was, I think the 15 degree C water (59 fahren) was a bit too much and I'm now in bed with a cold, LOL. Totally worth it though. I'm so so so excited to go back there when we have a low swell, I just know there's going to be so much more there. I've never considered that all these rings washing up must be getting pushed from out in the deeper end. I was optimistic about the Seiko as I didn't see the water bubble at first.. it's a $600 watch. Sadly it's full of water. 

Here's a quick video just to show the conditions we were dealing with

Well, long story short I got me a 4500. Not without trouble but I got one somewhat cheap.
 

 The lcd screen is damaged though and has lines through it. does anyone know where I can get a replacement lcd from? And if it’s a simple plug & play type fix? Surely there’s some equivalent from china that will work..? 
 

it’s not BAD but it’s not great and it’s definitely not ideal. Would hate to be out and it stops altogether. cheers lads 

Always, as most of my spots are rocks/clay so it makes for heaps faster recovery

well done! What's the total weight? 

Very nice! 

Anyone here converted Grey Ghost headphones from the XP Deus 2 to the Equinox plug before? Hoping somebody might have a wiring diagram of some sort? One would think that only 3 of the pins are used but I'm not sure which ones.

Seems a bit wasteful that I have these $260 headphones but never use them. the plug seems like a generic thing I can get a female version of online, then make a patch lead/adapter. I've already got a Equinox 1/4" adapter cord that I can cut the plug part off.

Great to hear, looking forward to hearing what you find there! 

14 hours ago, matt said:

Another great find for you!

Some question if you don't mind because I am beginning to start this type of detecting. Do you use a sand scoop or just fan the sand and use the pinpointer? Do you use dive weights to help stay in place in the surf? My last trip to Hawaii was in the surf and shoulder deep and I could not stay in place with the waves pushing me a couple feet every time they hit me.

Thanks all!

I use a scoop only in murky water/rough conditions where I can not see underwater. This spot is usually clear enough that I can snorkel it so I don't bother with the scoop. I find so much here that I don't bother ever using the scoop, I just wait until I can swim it. 

I always use dive weights when I'm in the water, it helps keep you down, otherwise the wetsuit makes you far too buoyant and it's soo hard to dig targets, especially when there's waves which constantly push you around. I just weighed my belt and I'm using 13.1kg (10 weights) . It'll depend on your BMI as well, I'm 6ft5 & about 92kg, so you may need more or less. My wetsuit is also very thin, about 2/3mm. When I tried out a thicker wetsuit I was using near 20kg of weights and it wouldn't keep me down, so keep that in mind. It can get pretty cold in winter. A wetsuit hood also makes a massive difference. If you're planning on going deeper in the water (eg, scuba diving) it'll also vary as your wetsuit shrinks at depth. 

A quick tip as well which I find helps a lot; find a yearly graph of water temperatures for the location you wish to detect and print it out. I can see the water temp for each month of the year so I know when it will be coldest and warmest. Take advantage of the warmest months.  

Hard to describe the mixed feelings here. From initially seeing it come out of the sand and going.. "GOLD!"...then feeling the weight and being ehhhh, then getting to the car and not seeing hallmarks..but then saw no worn plating..but then it's very light...but also "well if it was brass, it's so cheap, why hollow it out?" "hmm looks pretty clean tho" . Ughh. Went straight to the scrap gold buyer with the XRF and was more than pleasantly surprised to hear that it was testing between 17 and 19ct gold!! Wow what a relief. I was hoping 9ct at best lol. Didn't sell, just holding it for now. 

The links are hollow and it's super worn, like hanging on by a thread of gold. Definitely for the scrap pile. 

I was soo thrown off by the weight. Being hollow links I thought maybe 13-12 grams, but not even close, 37.4 grams!! Although there has to be a little sand and water in the links so maybe closer to 35g. Still over 1oz and my heaviest gold to date. 

Up at 5:40am, left at 6am, got there 6:30am right at sunrise and left by 8am. Made roughly $2700AUD in scrap gold hehehe. Overall, terrible conditions in the water, super rough, 5m vis, very very strong current and big waves. I found a small patch and found a silver 2 shilling coin and a silver ring as well which was nice. Was hoping to snag a gold ring too in case the chain was fake but it was hard going after sunrise so I just left. Tides weren't ideal either. HH

Very nice! What's the chain weight?

23 hours ago, mn90403 said:

How much can a pink, 1 carat be worth?  I'm sure the insurance paid for it already.

a lot! This is only a 7P 0.11ct and it's $12k AUD https://www.pinkdiamondtradecentre.com.au/product/round-diamond-7p-0-11ct/

On 3/22/2024 at 4:28 PM, Lead Detector said:

I used to get 2.5 miles out of my phantom 3. Seems with every software update,  it got less. I can still get a mile out of it though.  My mini 2 se has the new oculus tech that will go 6 miles.   You can definitely get some detailed lay of the land in a hurry.

Whaaaaaaaaaat! I can get 500 meters on a good day 😅 I try not to get past 300m in case the silly thing goes in to ATTI mode and shoots off again hahaha. Thats about where i lose signal anyway. 

Hi all. Wondering about thoughts on this, whether it would even work or not? Mind the slightly drunken ramble but..?

I'm aware there are already some PI waterproof detectors out there, such as the Garretts, 2300, etc. I'm really looking for a waterproof PI machine with discrimination and interchangeable DD coils. What's to stop anyone from waterproofing an old 2200 or 3000, etc?

Is there any logical reason as to why it might not work underwater or any reason other than the expense to why nobody has done it yet? I'd love a setup like the SeaGhost mods. I have an old 3000 that I don't really use that cost me nothing..I'd be happy to risk it if this idea would work.. 

I've done some slight mods on it to get it to a state where it's rainproof, run out of a backpack, and uses a waterproof DD Detech coil. Great on heavily mineralised beaches and shallow water...but would be amazingly helpful underwater. imagine all the deeper stuff we're missing, or the fine chains and pendants. There's plenty of times I've barely detected earrings and fine chains with my manticore underwater just due to how much ironstone/clay is around. Sure I can get rings at 10-12", maybe barely at 13-14", but all the others at 14+ inches deep, there'd have to be heaps more.

Realistically it would not be hard to build at all. 6v lithium battery hard-wired, and change the coil connectors to waterproof connectors, then adapt some waterproof headphones to a new waterproof plug (or just hardwire), and encase the detector in a 10m waterproof rated housing? Not sure how the switches would work, maybe similar to the Excal switching system.

is there any reason this hasn't been done already that I'm not thinking of? I found this ring under about 1ft of ironstone/clay about knee deep in the water with the 3000 about a year ago, hence the thought.

yes! I use my phantom 3 to scope beaches sometimes. Though limited to only about 350 meters it's extremely handy. The first time I used it to locate an offshore washout I found a ring that sold for $2400. 

Keep in mind that you generally need direct line-of-sight with most models. Maybe exempt for the more expensive ones? A DJI Phantom 4 would be super handy for what I do.

I've only used it once to scope out a property for old ruins and it was really good as well. Also to check out an island about 100 meters off-shore which ended up being an old bottle dump that proved to have some cool finds. 

Is it a genuine pink diamond? or another coloured stone maybe? Very strange! Plug the number in to IGI or GIA and see if you can find a report on it. The pink Kimberly diamonds we stock, as well as lab and natural diamonds have the number on the girdle always. 

Would love to see a pic if you have one handy!

On 3/16/2024 at 12:57 AM, matt said:

Those are some great finds!

I watched the video. Thanks for posting it. Are you only using a snorkel for air or some type of surface supplied/ scuba?

On 3/16/2024 at 1:52 AM, GB_Amateur said:

Great couple of hunts!

Finding a silver bar is an unusual find, no matter where it shows up.  But what's it doing on the beach??  That ring that overlaps the silver bar in the photo reminds me of some of my pulltabs.  Maybe I need to be a bit more careful from now on before tossing those pesky things....  🤔

Thanks all! I really enjoy reading all of your comments at work - I can't always reply though as I can never remember my password. 

I'm simply only snorkeling, though I do sometimes use the Blu3 Nomad air supply unit. If you get the right conditions here, it's very easy to snorkel, it's rare that I use the Nomad now 🙂 Combined with about 10-12kg of dive weights as well. 

The silver bar is a charm/pendant, but made from a genuine ABC bullion bar. it looks like the part holding it to the chain was far too small and it must have snapped off, or maybe the chain was too thin for it. I've found about a dozen of these silver bar pendants varying in size - usually 2.5 - 5 grams only though, and 1 10 gram one. 

(if lazy to read, skip to the bottom for the video and pic) 

Hiii guys!! I'm back. Lots of no work at the moment, plenty of time off to hit up some beaches whilst we still have some hot days left in our Aussie summer. Practically living off gold finds at the moment LOL . Had a few beers so mind the lazy grammar tonight sorry! 😄

I went out on the weekend at sunset, it was over 30 degrees C, very hot and very busy. Almost did not go in the water because it was a little bit choppy and there was lots of people swimming. Little did I know another prospector whom I know was watching wondering why we were pondering so hard from the carpark hahaha. Finally went down, said g'day and he wished us luck. Wow the water was amazing!! You can hear how busy it was, I even had a woman skim over the top of me on her surfboard which you can see in the video, just as I found a gold ring. The first hunt, I got in the water and found a coin right away, then the 18ct band, all within 3.5 minutes of actually getting in the water! which told me there was going to be plenty to find. I think that's the fastest gold ring I've found. 

When I came to this spot 2 weeks ago it was sooo sanded in, I got almost nothing after about 4 hours so I'm very glad to see lots of clay and rocks this day. The 20gm silver bar was random, it has a name and date on the back and cleaned up really nice, 20 grams of 999 silver. Lots of silver on those rocky parts, rarely gold for some reason? Maybe cleaned up by said friend already lol

I got 1 ring which looked silver but rang up really low, so I'm thinking maybe pewter. all others were gold and then a junk ring which was on the wet sand. went out the next morning at 6am and as soon as there was some daylight I was right in the water. another 3 gold rings. Yay. 

I cut down about 5 hours of gopro footage to 8 minutes to skip all the boring parts. No talking, no music, no bs. Simple video for all to watch just showing the finds. I plan on editing it further one day and maybe doing a proper youtube video, hence the watermark slapped right in the middle and the dull ending. I think the wrist watch will work, it hasn't got any water in it, I'm just waiting for a new battery to arrive whilst it airs out. Definitely been there a while! I found a old Tag Huer 2000 there last week about 20 meters away which was completely ruined sadly.

Total weight was just over 20 grams of gold, about $1100 AUD in scrap. Assuming the "S" pattern one is 9ct for hope sake but it kinda looks like 18ct, just not hallmarked. 

Obviously using the Manticore - I gave up with the D2. Gave it a chance a few weeks ago but far too noisy (in this spot), too fidgety, too hard to charge, too annoying, too many breakable parts, too quiet and already on my 3-4th warranty. 

On a side note; I'm using the gopro hero+ since I lost my hero3 last winter. I have the WASABI extended battery, total was about $50aud and the mask from China was about $17. I like it much better than the hero 3, theres a much wider lens i think. I had lots of issues getting it going which turned out to be a non compatible SD card in the end. the battery is fine without the extended battery, I get 2-3 hours of recording and I love it! sadly I don't think they can handle anything above 32gb SD cards so I'm a littleeee limited on storage, whereas I had 64gb compatibility on the hero 3 - it was just impossible to find an extended battery setup from WASABI since they're discontinued.. hell even the Hero+ ones are "old stock clearance" now. 

Super open to criticism about video quality/editing if anyone wants to input some feedback whether positive or negative 🙂 

Enjoy! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNYQJI897Tg

Very cool. is this the same one that's listed on eBay at the moment? 😛

I've only been doing for 5 or 6 years and accumulated just over 700 rings. it's well worth getting in to. 

You are correct though, it's not all gold & glory, there's PLENTY of trash in between. Be prepared to dig a lot of junk! The advantage of beaches though is they always replenish, plus high tides, strong winds and strong currents move a lot of sand, often revealing old targets that other detectors have missed.

I personally would highly recommend considering a Manticore over a Deus 2 personally. 

Correct, if you make one yourself and something goes wrong, you will burn up your cable, and most likely damage your machine and battery. You also risk a fire within your car or equipment, not ideal.  I've seen it happen and it's not worth the risk.

Your best bet is to buy a Minelab one and just reinforce it. Maybe wrap some thick wire around it and tape it up so it doesn't move as much? 

Excellent coil, I really like my one. Yet to try it for coinshooting but I already know its going to be a beast 

My best tip is to truly dig everything at first even if it "looks" like trash. I found a nice 15gm gold chain coming in at the lower left corner, around a 10 TID but super scratchy and blobby. 

It definitely takes a bit to get used to, coming from a NOX but is a great machine. I'd never go back to a D2 or 800 now. 

On 2/7/2024 at 4:22 PM, midalake said:

OUTSTANDING!!!! 

On 2/7/2024 at 6:16 PM, Valens Legacy said:

Beautiful score on the rings.

Good luck on  the next outing.

On 2/7/2024 at 9:11 PM, TampaBayBrad said:

A hunter's dream! Wow. 53 rings in a month. I would be out hunting every day until the place dried up. Another vote for Manticore. Great story, happy snorkeling!

On 2/8/2024 at 7:15 AM, Rick N. MI said:

Amazing rings.

On 2/8/2024 at 8:55 AM, CalReg said:

Sweet! Nice to see someone out there finding gold at the beach!

On 2/8/2024 at 10:38 AM, okara gold said:

Now that's a nice-looking ring! Congrats on all the great finds.

Thanks all! Went back and got a few more goodies nearby 😄

The ring with the writing all around it is 9ct but rang up SUPER high when buried. Only a 60's signal when uncovered. Thought it was gonna be silver lol 

young Q.Vic shilling was a surprise, not many old coins turn up here. 2 18k and the rest are 9k. The "sun ring" was a lone signal a few days after, ringing up at a low 30's and about 30 meters away. 14ct gold which is very uncommon here. Looks very solid but was about 4 ish grams only as it's hollow underneath. 

Anyhow, I've replaced my missing GoPro so stay tuned for some videos this year! 

Grr, wrote a reply and it deleted itself.

Thanks all.  I stopped posting to Facebook, too much negativity and jealousy, I much prefer the forums 🙂

On 2/13/2024 at 5:57 PM, mn90403 said:

I've never found a beach like he and his wife have found.  

I did get 12 rings in one day but most of them were toast.  It was very much of a one-off type of deal.

2866 has one of those locations that takes decades of losses to have that many finds.

I'm an envious guy on the West Coast.  haha  It is really nice to see all the stuff tho.

Thanks Mn, it's a really cool spot not many people know about. The beach itself, many people have detected. But not many do the right spots, let alone in the water or during the winter. I've found very close to 600 rings there now, not including miss's as she doesn't count hers.  There's only 1 other person who's done well there that I know of. There's been more over the last 30 years I've heard rumors about, but they were extremely competitive and often argued about finds LOL. Thankfully I haven't bumped in to them yet. 

Unfortunately it's well sanded back in now. We went back twice last week and got nothing at all. All the good finds are back under at least .5-1 meter of sand.  😞 til the next storm I suppose. 

On 2/13/2024 at 10:57 PM, rvpopeye said:

Maybe we can talk TTT2866 into having a detecting party ? 😜arrrrrrrrr ! 

How 'bout it triple T ?  I'd even pay LOL  

 That is one NICE lookin' hand full of deposits though .   The pic sure would make a great advert for your guide school !  🖖

On 2/13/2024 at 11:47 AM, rvpopeye said:

🤯 IMPRESSIVE !  you should give lessons or sumpin' ! 😎

I've thought about it, but don't wanna see every person I teach start doing my good spots!!! hahaha.

For what it's worth, I don't think I'd make more money than what I find there yet but I've definitely considered writing a book kinda thing. I learned everything from a very experienced metal detectorist on Facebook who was nice enough to publish a guide years ago, though I don't think he every posted it officially on any forums that I know of? Unfortunately as we all know, it's not all gold & glory, there's many many hours and days where we don't find anything 🙂

On 2/14/2024 at 3:58 AM, mn90403 said:

Seeing the Super Bowl ads which included Mr. T and then seeing this haul lets us know, "It's still out there!"

You have to be too busy to post and watch this forum.

I want to find a Mr. T chain next hehehe