mn90403

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!

Here is the picture of one that I made a couple of years or so ago. As I remember it I had to buy a new handle because it was said that where my broke near the screws was not covered. I bought a piece of coupling that had a 1.25 inch interior diameter and got a short piece for the 't' and snugged it on in a way that didn't require glue and it was quite comfortable. If I were to keep it on longer I would have installed the switch.

I had a handle break on me as I was taking it out of the car. I designed one out of PVC plumbing parts that slid over the shaft so it could never break. I took it off when I got the replacement handle but I could swing that shaft and handle combo much better than the original. I just didn't install the button but I should have. Mitchel

Merton, You set a good 'tone' for wanting to express doubt and concern about existing products that WE use from Minelab. (There are other threads for complaints about other brands!) These complaints and concerns are stated to give some feedback to the designers and marketers that will cause them to keep US in mind on future units. When it comes to 'insider knowledge' about people, places and things that auminesweeper references it goes beyond me. I can only try to understand the product that I've bought (just like a car) and not understand the corporate culture and choices they have. All of us are dealing in a diminishing supply when it comes to gold nuggets (and to a large degree meteorite hunting). When you take a nugget or two or a hundred ... those can't be found again. What we can find is what has been missed or patches (strewn fields) that have not been discovered. We buy our detectors accordingly. Relic, coin, park, beach, treasure and hoard hunting also has a diminishing supply and requires improved technology for maximum success. I use several different Minelab detectors for all of these uses and I'm glad that I do. I'm glad that they are responsive to my calls in Chicago and I'm glad for what they do in the anti-mine arena. I wish them success but also know looking at the future they will have their own diminishing customer base here in the United States and Australia. They must be profitable or they won't remain as Merton alludes to. What will keep Minelab profitable? More countries? Deeper gold finding? Mitchel

I agree with you Steve on the upper end market and also find the 'design flaws' of the Go Find series as a 'blow' to their brand. I don't plan on owning one of those. One other thing of annoyance on the 2300 was the arm rest. We had a pin fall out of ours and had a new one sent as a replacement. That replacement showed up missing a pin and you can't insert them yourself. We are on our third one. (I didn't have to send the defective ones back.) Our battery problem was solved by putting tape on the originals and also getting a set from Amazon that fit the compartment more fully without loss of power during use. No company is perfect but we should point out their flaws also so I stated a couple of gripes. Mitchel

Thanks Steve. I like the video and it makes me feel better about Minelab. I have several Minelab products and after watching this I still don't know how they come up with some of their things getting through all of their steps. (weight, materials, ergonomics, etc.) The one I can think of first is the compartment for the batteries on the 2300. There seems like a 'better way' to have connections for more consistent power. I'm sure others here will wonder about the features of their products also.

NIce as always ... 1/4 ounce for a trip works quite well.