mn90403

I've been made aware that Minelab thinks most of the Zed owners want larger coils. That is the Zed market for them. This is one of the reasons why they are not building a smaller coil for the Zed themselves. It seems that all you WA guys, Africans and Russians are able to find big, deep gold with larger coils on Zeds and other detectors. Go big must be the motto based upon the Coiltek and Nugget Finder coils. Xcoils offered an alternative (including smaller coils) that Dave found worked for him and others. You further 'compliment' the Minelab model by taking one of their other detectors (2300) and find the small gold with it. They also have the 800 and the Monster for small gold but that won't be used much for deep patch hunting. Find a patch with a Zed (including deep gold) and clean it up with something else! Least we forget, the GPXs are for people who don't believe in the Zed or just don't want to hand over that much money to Minelab. Now and next year may be a time for those to get a used Zed and see what they have been missing with a standard or new coil.

Simon, Those of us that don't have any Xcoils will probably opt for a coil that is more 'functional' than the two Minelab made already. It seems that Madtuna has the Minelab ear as they think Zed owners want bigger vs smaller. Many of us in the states would be buying these coils to fit into places where the 14 will not go. That would mean looking for smaller missed gold because a big piece doesn't need to be 'touched' by a coil to be found with the normal fringe detecting. If we were able to find previously unseen gold then that would be a big bonus determined by use. JW's very specific results for him there in NZ puts many of us ready to use a coil that will find that 'type' of gold he is getting that was unseen by all previous technology and coil combinations. His wondering if the NF Zed coils will still find 'unseen' gold is a good one as he has thrashed the areas that you and he go to for years. There will be little 'missed' gold but perhaps the Xs have changed his technique and he can now target areas that may still have that type of gold that an 800 and an SDC didn't get. The last two years I've only used and found gold with the Zed and the 800. I've used the 800 on gold with the 11 and 6 and only found 5 pieces but I've tried many hours in places where gold was found before. The 6 did not find any tiny missed gold for me but many hundreds of missed bbs. I have an SDC I don't use because it is uncomfortable. I have a 5000 with a range of coils up to an 18" NF and I stopped using it when the Zed came out. I was fond of the 18 and the Commander 17 but also the 8" Commander which I am told now has a flaw you can hear when you press it. When I buy one of these Zed coils it will probably be small and probably without the benefit of using one first. I'd concentrate on going back to where I had found gold before as the few here who have Xcoils here have done. The new coils should be 'easy' to hear the target as some of the subtle sounds I still haven't learned (or can't) how to hear. That still may be the JW advantage of now being able to hear that subtle sound that lesser detectorists miss. There is somewhat of a limited window of opportunity for Zed coils I'd also say. The QED is priced at a point where someone wanting to find unseen gold could use it and purchase it with a coil for the price of one of the Xcoils for the Zed! That combination is certainly lighter than Zed and coil. (Let JW use your QED.) The other 'window closer' will be the next model of Minelab which is being hinted at for next year. We know it won't be heavier than the Zed. haha Can you make a good nugget coil with less wire so that it reduces the weight but it still has finding ability? That will probably be the frontier for nugget detecting in a declining results environment. Mitchel (I didn't mean to write a book but I woke up and couldn't sleep so ...)

Nugget Finder (Rohan) said this special is only good for Australians! Xmas Super Special Offer Buy any Coil from our Evolution Range during December and receive the ever popular (8"x6") Advantage (Sadie) worth $290.00 FREE...

Just to think ... until this thread many just thought we were f**ked!

I was thinking that military had been stationed in his area as prep for the Pacific War. It could explain a few things. How many silvers was it for the day? The 11 is a really nice coil. It gets great depth and it hears a little better than the 15 in my opinion. Mitchel

I like nuggets ... maybe even better on their own! haha

Jonathan, Thank you for your response. I think now we have all come to the same page. Your use of the phrase 'dongle surrogate' rings true to the Xcoil world. I've used the 19 sparingly even with a hip stick. It takes great faith and knowledge of an area to want to lug that coil for any length of time. Mine stays in the car with little interest in hauling it out. With the introduction of the Equinox many Minelab detectorists find the Zed and the 3030 platform to be a burden when it comes to weight also. Other manufacturers are trying to take advantage of this nugget detector weight problem to Minelab so it seems a lighter nugget detector must be in the works. I wonder if it will use ZVT? Anyway, I'm in a wait and see mode (hoping for other coils) but the Zed with the Xcoil may still be the ultimate combination if it can see unseen gold in existing patches. Mitchel

Simon, These guys are hijacking your thread with all that dirty (even the clean stuff) gold. Tell them to start their own thread! Mitchel

Chase, Thanks for adding a lot to Steve's forums. I think that Flakmagnet could lend us his tone experience here also. It is topics and 'solutions' like this that help me to think about more optimal setups also. I'm glad we have a place to discuss it. Perhaps there are other places but I don't Facebook or go to other treasure sites where tweaking is the primary point of discussion. I just happened to remember my beginnings with the 800 and how it took me a while to HEAR what the Equinox was saying. Mitchel

You guys know more than I do so I hope Gordon might be sent this thread and tell us if he still can tune his instrument this way and get the high tones Happa is after.

Randy has replied and said: Hello Mitchel I have just found Gordons post on the Minelab Owners Forum and I have copied his settings below and I can see why people are getting confused. Yes Gordon is using 50 Tones and he is correct in saying that you can set the lower tone pitch with the only one option in "Tones" which displays "TONE 1" (ie) silver paper, thin silver and gold coins and all that it means is that the lowest tone threshold is starting at this low sounding conductive tone then as the machine detects non ferrous according to the conductive scale for example a large copper coin the responsive higher "Tone" is heard. Notice Gordon does not mention anywhere in his post below that there is the ability to make additional "Tone Breaks" or make any selective "Tone Pitch". All sounds produced is totally reliant on the conductivity of the metal object and that is where the LOW to HIGH Pitch Tones emanate from and is produced on the tone pitch scale 1 to 50. Good Hunting Randy ======================================== Gordons Post from his thread. Re: Making an Equinox sound like a CTX3030 You can change the tone pitch on all tone options (1, 2, 5, 50). 50 tones is done on Tone Break T1, and a low setting of 1 (T1 = 1) gives the lowest target tones (lower range of multi-tones). T1 = 11 moves the tones range to their highest settings... and of-course setting in between correspond to tone pitches in between..

There are some other threads this could have been added to but I couldn't find them! haha Note: These are the tons of gold held by countries. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-29/gold-is-the-new-obsession-for-east-europe-s-nationalist-leaders

Fred has steered you in the right direction. I've been to Holbrook at least 4 times. The first time was in 2012 for the 100 year anniversary. It is a LONG way from things and the meteorites are difficult to find. The 'location' is easy and I had maps when I was there but the identification of the meteorite vs the other rocks is difficult. The first time I went there I had taken with me a big shop magnet. That didn't help so I didn't take it back. Send some messages to those on the meteorite forums Fred showed you and you'll get an update. I haven't been there in about 3 years and some of the land had been cleared, some was private and the rains had moved things around also. Mitchel

I just asked Randy Dee if he can help explain what Gordon means and perhaps he may have changed it with the updates that have been made since he was one of the original testers of the Equinox.

Steve, you are right! I wondered when reading 'what could the rest of the stuff' possibly be compared to a nugget of the first size or the second size. You could have heard me all the way to California from Scotland if it was found during a legitimate hunt. It could possibly be found at a location 'near' an off limits area and now the 'foggy story' is presented to let it fly but they are already on to it.