mn90403

Merton ... it is Rob's Beach Erosion topic and Performance of Small Coils by Roughwater.

I like bobbie pins on the ocean beaches. It means lots of people (girls) have been there in the past and were concerned about their hair. When they care about that they wear jewelry! I don't dig them with the 3030 but when I was hunting with the 5000 on the beach it was one after one after one. And once in a while a good score! The guy I know who finds more good stuff than any other still digs big holes at the beach and lots of them but he uses a Surfmaster PI. I'm not that strong. Mitchel

Biological indicators can and can't be present for gold deposits. It is all a matter of percentage and perception. How many times is an indicator right and how many times is it wrong? We hunt in an area in southern California that has a yellow flower. The flower is not everywhere but it is on about half of the land. This flower is said to grow (only or best --- depending upon the prospector) where there is iron/ironstone. (It is easy to see when it blooms after a rain.) Where there is ironstone there can be gold. There can also be gold that has moved from these areas. Not all ironstone areas have gold. Much of the area has been pushed and natural soils have been modified. Should one only hunt where you find these yellow flowers? Is there a better chance of finding gold where you find these yellow flowers? One thing for sure ... gold is where you find it. If you are a hunter who only hunts when he sees the yellow flowers then that is your biological indicator. Go for it. You will be leaving all the other gold for someone else. You mentioned the trees. Maybe the tree grows better when it has a deep soil. Maybe an area of deep soil will hold gold that has moved in and settled there. If it is a gold vein source of gold it may be just a coincidence or the gold vein has been hidden all of these years by gravel covering it. There may be a successful pattern out there following a biological indicator. It may be better or worse than other methods. Most successful gold prospectors have one thing in common and that is that they spend a lot of time at it. I on the other hand have been lucky! Mitchel

I hunted Meeks Bay a couple of years ago and I didn't find much but I was not diving ... just wading in that cold, cold water.

Thanks Strick.

How much 'good stuff' was there?

I agree also with Strick. Then Steve put up the Edit Frame Size. I noticed when I was out today that it was Edit Frame size as the wording. That is what I was interested in 'using' if it was helpful. So when would I need to edit a pattern? Is that just the 'accept/reject, dark/light' pattern that is left? It seems that this has nothing to do with send/receive functions of the detector. Does it make any difference what Edit Frame size is while detecting? Does the Edit Frame size have any effect on sounds? Now on to Strick's other observation. Zinc Pennies These will be the bane of metal detector companies for years to come. Until the last couple of years it has seemed 'manageable' but now it is impossible to know these sounds because they are in pieces and corroded to a point they can imitate other good objects. I have had them sound like rings, dimes, pull tabs ... all over my screen! You just can't ignore all of them. The copper pennies on the beach now get a dime or sometimes a quarter sound (high pitched). This brings up another way I use my 3030. I listen and look at the screen and never run it in numbers screen. I care if it is in the upper right (silver) or the middle-left (round/ring) or bottom (irons/steel). That is how I use the 'spectrometer' functions of the 3030 which is a graph of the numbers.

You are still getting to the ones that are left! WTG

There are two very good threads now on the CTX 3030. One function that I don't see discussed is the use of sizing . This feature was available on the Explorers and it would allow you to accept or reject targets and size them. You could make that target look bigger or smaller with sizing. Anything close would be included in that ID. This is a specific 'carve-out' which is different than the two 'modes' you can use in each program. Most of the time I hunt with the 3030 in All Metal mode (smooth only) on any of the programs. I have downloaded other programs but I am most familiar with the sounds of the coin and beach programs so I go to them no matter where I am. I have used in high iron trash the rejected iron and trash patterns by hitting the detect a second time. There are times on the beach when I switch between the different sizes. Have you other 3030 users found a useful time to change the sizing? (High trash/lots of targets maybe on smaller sizing?) Mitchel

Rob, Very nice! Waves do group like items together on a beach if given enough time, energy and tides. There are times when sand is building and other times when it is being washed away. Much of this has to do with the intervals. It is often times as important as size. Sometimes you can go to a beach and find quarters at the top and sometimes they are at the bottom and many times they are not there at all. Rings are similar but not as frequent. You did good by going back again, again and again to a beach with production and pockets. Good job. Mitchel

Steve is right of course. I have a 3030 that I use more than any other detector. Others I have are an Explorer SE Pro (still very good and close to 3030), 7000, 5000, 2300, GB Pro and White's 6000 DI Pro. Its strengths are discrimination and accurate target depth depiction. The 3 coils I have are 6, 11, 17 and as the size increases so does the depth you can find gold rings and coins. Shape is important to the 3030. It is better on man made shapes than natural shapes. It is also really good at telling you when something is iron (you can dig it if you like). Goldhound has the best information and programs on Steve's forum that I have read. His most memorable point is 'don't use a 3030 to find gold nuggets unless there is high trash!' If there is low trash then there are many better choices. That being said last year in the Yuba river I used the 11" coil because I didn't have the 6" coil and found an 18g nugget (the only one with the 3030 so far) about 3" down in clay at the edge of the water. This river had/has lots of trash and the signal I got at the nugget was 'iffy' but not iron so I kept digging at it. California Gold has the best pictures of nuggets I've ever seen found with a 3030 and he also found some nice gold coins at an old mining camp with lots of trash. The 6" coil is something I have not used much yet but its advantage to me is the size. If there is lots of big or even small trash around then the 6" will avoid some of it. I've found some coins with it but haven't used it at the beach because I want greater coverage. I have more 'fun' with the 3030 than any other detector even tho now I'd rather find a nugget. Mitchel

Whatever you do ... make sure you are able to go out detecting next week. If there is a chance of an injury greater than that ... don't do it. I had a slip and fall while detecting and my knee bent. It scared me because I have always been protective of my knees. I skied on weekend in my life and said never again because I knew it was just a matter of time on my knees. There are too many things to do without an extended recovery. Be careful out there. Mitchel

Paul, They do import nurses from many countries and if you have a sponsor it is a stay of a couple of years. I've heard on a short visa they want you to leave on time ... not a minute late. Mitchel

You go one way and he goes ANOTHER. I wouldn't want to go behind him ... or you now that JP has had you ... Let's see I also wouldn't want to go behind Patrick, Chris, Lu, Martin, Fred, Merton, Wes, Wilma, Steve, Lucky ... anyone from Australia ... but most of the places I know someone has been there before!

I heard this on the radio and now I have the link that gives recommendations. Thanks. The Forest Service does a regular job of checking dead rodents. They have flea traps and the plague is found in some location nearly every year. How many cases of plague occur in the United States? Globally? Plague was first introduced into the United States in 1900. Between 1900 and 2012, 1006 confirmed or probable human plague cases occurred in the United States. Over 80% of United States plague cases have been the bubonic form. In recent decades, an average of 7 human plague cases are reported each year (range: 1-17 cases per year). Plague has occurred in people of all ages (infants up to age 96), though 50% of cases occur in people ages 12–45. Worldwide, between 1,000 and 2,000 cases each year are reported to the World Health Organization (WHO), though the true number is likely much higher. https://www.cdc.gov/plague/faq/

Paul, Congratulations on your service. Also, good timing on your retirement. You get Steve to give you detectorist of the year ... then you retire ... Steve probably thought you were going to keep working for a while and stay out of his patches. Now ... you'll be driving the van! Mitchel

Paul, They have a Masters and damn well want to use it! Mitchel

Merton is always trying to scare us ... Things like this would be fun for Paul!

Fred, There is something else I found out when I used my 7000 on the beach when I first got it. SIZE It sees lots of small stuff as we all well know now. You get signals on that and pieces of pennies, pins, nails that take up much of your time in wet and dry sand. I think there is some possibility that you could learn to ignore some of the trash but not all. I can't dig all of my 3030 targets now because the holes get so deep. I would give up after about 5 deep, wet sand holes with a 7000! Mitchel

Paul, Two things everyone will want to ask. 1. Will the VA be able to miss you for so long? 2. Are the Aussies willing to let you stay for that long? I'm sure everyone on both ends of this trip will have more questions for you over the next year. Mitchel

I need to add something ... in the last year that I have had the 7000 I have found more total nuggets than I did with 4 years plus with my 5000. My first year with the 5000 I didn't find any gold. I've also found many iron and chondrite meteorites with the 7000 so I know it can find ... it just seemed like an odd circumstance I described above. Maybe a latent bug that has crept into my software. I reset it. The 7000 is a keeper. I just want it and me to be in sync. Mitchel

Fred, My machine was used by another and he got it to hear a nugget he was working on but it was sizeable. Later I did use his and while I didn't find anything I thought I noticed a quality difference in the audio of the threshold. (my headphones, his unit and remote). The other 7000 user does not use a remote. He wants to be hard-wired to the transmitter. A better test should be conducted to let them use my detector longer. It is probably my error but the responses here have already made me feel better. Mitchel

Recently I was hunting with some friends in Southern California. Two of us had 7000s and one had a 2300. The two with the 7000s were finding several sub-gram nuggets on ground I was near. I think some were found on ground after I swung on it. As a matter of fact I think one was found on ground I had started digging a hole and didn't get the target. One user is a grinder and the other maintains a bit of space like I do. The grinder keeps his machine at nearly default but turns smoothing up to high. The spacer has similar settings. The 2300 user found more nuggets than me also but not as many as the other 7000s. They found more nuggets than me in kind of a 4-5/1 ratio and much smaller ones too. I was switching settings from Steve's to default and a little of Bogenes' as well. In the end I had the grinder put me on his settings which he NEVER (very slight) changes no matter what the ground it seems. I could hear some subtle targets in this ground that were less obvious than the .4 and 1 grammer that I found but they would track out. I was finding trash but my friends were constantly going to each other (I didn't want to see them by this time) and showing the next little nugget they found. I was falling further and further behind in nugget count and getting more frustrated by signals that disappeared. They were giving me advice and telling me where to hunt but this was not to be my hunt for the 2-3 days there. I started doubting myself and the machine. My question for anyone who has a 7000 is: 'Is there a 'flaw' in any units you have heard of that makes the machine track out targets or is this an operator error only observation?' Mitchel

Chris, Those batteries have no problem as you and Wes have stated. Wes has also made a great knuckle protector that lets my wife scrape the coil all she wants with the thicker, aftermarket coil cover and not damage the unit. She has been finding some nice gold with it ... her first over a gram just last week and not a single restart because of power. Mitchel

Making the screws too tight weakens the plastic part of the handle I think. The one I made had no screws!