mn90403

I did a reverse image search and didn't come up with a match with the wired area on the top end of the cross. I didn't have to clean it. Most religious pieces I find especially Catholic seem to be on the modest gold content. This one is not solid but I think that makes it more wearable. The other ring is junk. It is some type of corroded pot metal with flashy little glass 'stones' with reflectors behind the glass.

This is a collection of my last two hunts at a local beach. There really has not been that much to brag about but you just have to stick with it as they say. Yesterday was better than the previous day with the cheap bracelet, cheap ring and the nice 14k cross (that is how it is marked on the clasp but who knows about the other parts of it). The swinging was sparse until I got to a culvert that I normally skip over because of the iron wire in it. Just before I got there I found the coin with a hole in it. It is a 1959 East Africa 1c coin. I've never seen one. That slowed me down with the 3030 and just before I got to the culvert I got the high pitch of a quarter. As it turned out that was the first of 5 $1 coins. This was the only good area I could find and I got nearly on top of the culvert and could still hear targets. I'll go back with the 800 now that it is working again but I need to give it the latest update. I tired of the gridding near the culvert and I went over to where the day before a grounded sailboat had been removed. About a month ago I looked out and thought there was a movie shoot going on and it turned out to be a 40 ft sailboat aground. It looked like it had not been there long and could be pulled out on the high tide. That didn't happen and over the weeks the mast went down and waves pounded it and then a salvage crew from San Diego just removed it by land yesterday. The only thing I got from it was the trash on the right side of the items. After I walked back towards my car I went over the $1 coin area again and found I missed one. It then 'dried up' and it was time to go but I worked my way out on the line that held the coins. I got a signal and looked down in the scoop and it reminded me of the screw scrap but ... it wasn't. Sand was sticking to it and in the top but I knew it was pretty good if real. It does have good markings. Nothing was near so I kept the same line and about 300 yards down the beach was the bracelet. It sounds good but it is cheap. Today I used the 800 at a couple of different beaches and found next to nothing. What a difference. More about that another time.

That beach will keep you busy! Well done.

Steve, How is it going to be on Southern California beaches? Mitchel

Yes, I want to see more patches come back to life as they have for JW! I've just had my initial day with it so far and there are many more to come. I've got a couple of days lined up with friends so I thought I'd make the same offer to forum friends. All days out in the field are enjoyable and finding some yellow pieces makes it more so sometimes. Mitchel

Ok, I have a working 15x10 X-Coil in Southern California. I'm willing to meet up with someone within a 3 hour drive of Santa Monica (Bakersfield, Arizona border to Yuma) and you can try it on my Z (preferred) or your Z (at your own risk) and see how it performs. We can meet at a place of your choosing (if you want to know how it performs in a specific spot) or we can go to one of many well known spots. I belong to several clubs and I can take a guest. We'll both be detecting and keeping what we find. (No pool and split because I don't know how to divide equally. haha) You can use the X-Coil half the detecting time and I'll use it the other half. If this sounds like a day of detecting for you let me know and we'll see if we can set up a day. Mitchel

I heard about a guy who found a big nugget on the south side of Quartzsite. This video made me think of that. The guy who told me about it when I was in Quartzsite told me he had to drive to Phoenix to sell it. I guess he was anxious to cash it in. Any guess where this one was videoed?

Good video, is that you?

The splicer did spend some extra time on making the adapter, looking at the online video and looking at the files from you and Dave. He still didn't have the time to do the 19" coil end but I am to report to him this week and tell him everything is fine. He was willing to fix any problems but there are none. He checked for shorts and the wires are a bit fine so it probably exceeded my basic skills and now I am confident in his work and so can he. (If there had been a serious problem there would have been nothing he could have done to fix the board!) When I tested the adapter it was first without a coil. Because of the chip in the adapter the Zed did not say there was no coil attached. It wanted to go through the settings. I didn't want to do that but I'm not going to attach a coil while the Zed is on. I shut it down and put the coil on and started it back up. I have no falsing or anything other than normal touch sensitivity. I can make it sound like a target if I strike something hard but I didn't do that often. It balanced well with the ferrite. I asked him if he might want to do more of these and he hesitated a bit. I think that was because he was doing it as a 'one off' for me. When I go back to him to get the 19 I'll ask him what a profitable price would be for him to do more. He can't feel like he's doing favors all the time. Then there is the logistics side of things. I went to his shop and dropped it off and it took 2 weeks. What would he want to charge if someone sent him a coil and he had to ship it back out in under a week. Would he want to do it? I'll let everyone know and give his name if he is interested. I had considered learning how to do it and what would I charge? haha

There are 2 BBs there in the center and the little tiny wires really sounded off good. I chose this location over any of the others because I have found more total nuggets around this area than any place I've hunted. I can't take the nuggets I've found and those of others and find them again. It was a good area for about 2 years. The occasional nugget that might be left now would not let me think it is still a 'gold producing' area so I would have to go to completely new spots next time. It is like what you said when you and Simon went to a spot way up in your mountains ... it may not be worth a trip back up there anytime soon. I don't need any more proof that we've gotten 90% of the nuggets that had been there. I can still go to spots where there are still 20% or greater or even find that 50% patch! I'm sure there are some Rye Patch nuggets in that coil's future.

I know I'll be able to put that coil into places where the 14 will not go. Of course I'm still learning it. I did a combination of cruising (going fast) between patches and gridding (going slow near my targets). I changed some settings and I did some testing. There is only one area in these several square miles where gold had been lodged in rocks (a combination of granite and quartz) where I hoped to find unseen gold. I tried that area for about 30 minutes hoping the X would see something that was oriented differently than the other coils and detectors did not see. I call it Tortoise Hill because when I found my first nugget there years ago one of our ground turtle shells was near. You don't want to get caught disturbing them but roads all over this area are being shut down to preserve the habitat. Most of that same shell is still there. I included one of our hotrocks in the picture. It is the type that sticks to a magnet as hard as steel. I think the X saw fewer of them than the 14 but I'll know when I go back to Gold Basin and I look for meteorites. I want to see a space rock and I forgot to take a meteorite with me to test. I know it is difficult to distinguish a meteorite with the Equinox. The weight of the X is really not an issue. I used my hipstick as always but I now have replaced my old bungee. This one is now a snap at the hipstick which I never open to release it (that was a pain) and I just have a loop that I put over the handle kinda like an open laso and when I bend over to dig a target I just slip it off the handle. It works for me.

As you can see I'm back after an 8 hour day of detecting from 7 AM until 3 PM. I hit several spots where I have found nuggets before, I even have them marked on my Z screen but today didn't get any gold with the new X-Coil. I knew we had hammered the place and I was the only one around today but there were grid marks (kinda like chaining) that showed someone had been around. I think this is the first time I've been there since September or maybe before that. I don't normally find this many bullets. Today was a combination of going exactly over my swings from the past and stretching the area and finding the tiny wires, a couple of shot and the bigger bullets. The larger 50 cal are said to have been used for WWII practice. None of it was particularly deep. This is the same sort of trash we found a few years back when we first opened up these patches to the Zed. I told us that the GPX guys before us hadn't actually swung over much of the area. I haven't totaled up my finds from the past but it would be over 200 nuggets with the largest at 3 g. Now to the X-Coil. One of the reasons I have more trash and the marked coins is that I can stick the coil into places where I couldn't stick the ML 14. I could also wave the coil over some dry, dead plants and see the targets through it like the coins. Someone had planted them in the middle of dead bushes. No wonder they were still there. I was able to use the default settings all the way up the Chet's setting without much problem. I would say at 20 it was not a smooth threshold but if I ran over a target I could hear it anyway. I brought it down to 15 much of the time. The coil ignored many of the hot rocks but we have some that it can't ignore. That is ok. We dig them and sometimes gold can be near. I was certainly hoping to get gold first trip out with the X-Coil but it didn't happen. I don't have much reason to go back to Barstow now. Next trip (whenever that might be) will be to the Gold Catcher area in the El Pasos.

I got up at 3 this morning and I went to a spot where I found 2 nuggets with the Equinox. I think they were the first two nuggets found in the United States by a customer. When I got home I didn't have the nuggets. 😛 I wasn't going back the next day so Swifty went by where I was parked and sure enough the wind had blown my purple plastic bottle away from my pouch before I could get them home. Simon had said at the time 'no picture, no nuggets!' I got the vial a couple of days later and posted the picture.

I'll go to Barstow and try to stay out of the wind. It will be near freezing at sun up. We found some gold up high but it is flat near Coolgardie.

Oh, there is another one ... OC 49ers. It takes a 4WD to get to their claim back in there. The dry washers have been hitting it the last couple of years and it is almost dead now also.

I don't know that one. I've found some gold at the Dale, my first piece was there in 2010 or 11. But keep guessing. I belong to Taft, GPAA and PCSC.

Keep guessing. I've never found that much gold there.

It works! Now sometime early I'll be going out to use it. I'm going to a place that has many patches and we've hit it pretty hard. The last 10 times I've been there I'd say I've only found gold 3 times. This was a place where my highest number count of Z nuggets was 12 in a day. I'd say it is not a real 'challenge' to the coil from a physical standpoint as it is mostly sand and slopes. The wind is going to pick up so maybe a bit of detecting before dawn? My best hope is a nugget or two at one of the places.

He is leaving that part up to me. I have that good Gorilla black tape. Not a problem.

The adapter has landed. I picked it up this afternoon late. My jury duty is over. I was not called to serve. Originally I was going to go out tonight and be out early in the morning but that plan has changed. I'm going to try and get out for a 1 day hunt on Saturday morning before the rain. My splicer said he went according to the PDF that Simon sent me and the online videos. He followed them completely and has tested the connector for shorts. He told me that he has done about 40 coils over the years but these wires required a bit more care. I don't mind. It is too late for me to test tonight. I can test tomorrow. While I'm waiting I'd like to hear from those with an X what settings you have used and it be effective. Mitchel

I use Pat's SP01 and his headphones. They work great with the Zed. Simon, Get his headphones.

He shows you what he missed every time he goes out but by chance you might find a spot he didn't think of so you are a smart guy. Get your maps, put them on the wall of your detector room and throw darts or read them. You will end up at different places unless you are a champion dart thrower. haha JW has taken you to spots. Now you know what gold country looks like. Stop when you see it.

Simon, There is a shortcut to the process. Find a spot where the old timers and Chinese were finding gold and then work those places as if no coil has ever been used on it. Mitchel

JP and Flak I have remembered this procedure (in a little less detail) from a previous posting and I seem to balance out the ferrite well. You may have answered a question for me about other detectors that 'sound off' when making a turn on gridding. I've noticed most on the 3030 a false signal when returning (turning 180 degrees) on a grid line. Maybe this is the detector 'coupled' to the ground and when it gets raised it falses. I haven't noticed it on the Z but it may do it and just not sound off. Maybe a wider turn is better? Mitchel

Well Fred, let it rain. I'll still be able to try it. This is not a magic coil. It is not going to make me hear any better and it will not make gold or meteorites reappear. If I already have them in my poke I won't find them again. I'm just going to use that as a clue to where there may still be some gold. It seems to work for JW but I don't know if it will work for me. You and everyone else will know. I've heard from some that find a bit of unseen gold and seen it happen with Chet. I'll just do the best I can and it's kinda like one of those days when you have a good pool stroke or a special pool stick. Things can happen just right but then there are those days when ...