mn90403

The person who runs Bill's forum is Skip. I'll copy and past this for skip. Mitchel

What are your preferred settings?

I am on my 3rd black Garrett. The other two were lost and my wife now uses the 3rd one. I've bought a couple of used detectors and they came with pinpointers. One is that long pistol thing with sensitive tuner. Not something I will use. The other pointer is a Minelab. I've been waiting for a long time to say that the Minelab pinpointer is the worst product that Minelab makes. The sound and vibrations are much too weak when you are wearing headphones out on the beach. (My wife can't hear it either!) I also broke the cap when putting a Duracell in it. What did I buy to replace it? I bought the waterproof orange Garrett and it is great. It has three different levels of sound/vibration or vibration only and it is all controlled by one button. Simple to use, effective (except in a wet, salty hole with a big object) and it saves me a lot of time. I don't know what it does on nuggets yet ... or meteorites but it is an upgrade from the black one. Mitchel

Nice shooting.

I have worn the WM10 on my hat and it works that way except when the wave noise is high. Then it helps to wear the headphones. The headphones also are warmer and if I don't have the right hat with me then they will protect my ears from the sun. I have another pair of headphones that has its own power supply. They are Able Planets that can work fine. (Sometimes they hit my ears wrong so I take a break from them.) The thing I like about them is that you can put the threshold down low and turn up the volume (amplfy) on the headphones. They have a long straight cord that will work well with the WM12 for the 7000 when I get out to use it again. You are right about the module alone being a good option. When I have worn it on the back of my cap the swing is very intuitive.

Part of the problem with my sounds are the headphones. I mostly use the Koss UR-30s that come with their models but I have had problems. One set I sent back to Koss and they sent me a new headphone for the $15 replacement fee. I had to send Koss the old Minelab phones. Now I have a set under warranty with Minelab and I called them up. I told them the unit works properly with other headphones and they are sending me a new set without any return or further questions. It seems that this latest problem results from the short cord and if you get it caught and it pulls against the ear piece. It will pull loose some connection in the speaker area. (At least this is what I think.) I saw where Steve H had a problem with his headphones and his 2300. He is selling the old and new set together thinking one could be for parts but I don't know how to open the area that needs to be fixed. Minelab did a good service call by seeing my registration, believing me and sending out new headphones within 5 minutes. Mitchel

Last night I added some new finds from the beach with my 3030 even with my hearing loss! Gold, silver, diamonds, pearl ...

Remember ... you can ask what you want but a good buyer will not pay THAT price. Walk in with cash on the right day and who knows what they will take for 'common, impure (50%??, 60% at best??? ) gold from Australia where they have been finding lots of it lately' dah, dah, dah ... you have to 'beat up' the seller. I think with Fred's knowledge he could buy that nugget for less than half the asking price! An antique dealer without knowledge can be shown the error of their pricing by a professional.

When he drops that chunk on the coil you can feel it ...

I went out to the beach this afternoon and used the SE Pro and I have as much problem understanding those 'Responses' as I do on the 3030. Long and Smooth are the best. 'Normal and Pitch Hold' are a mystery to me. It makes me understand why I like them (3030 and SE Pro) because they have a screen which will show the target with and without the sound. I used the 3030 in Tonopah around all of the nails and found just a 41 nickel. Lu found a 47 dime with the SE Pro. You have to go really slow in the trashy areas even with the Fast Recovery. At another location we each found a Levi's button and some clips. Hunting and sifting the dump (not Lu's favorite) got us a silver fork and some other buttons for our 3 hours at it. That is not enough time to find anything really good. That means the Masonic Ring I found last year is even more lucky. Mitchel

Fred, I have started my hearing test online. It says that I have trouble hearing in a noisy situation. Another test tells me the frequencies that are difficult for me to hear. I wonder if it is those tones on the 3030? For those of you with similar difficulty or even if you don't here are a couple of tests that I took. Here is the best test I have found so far. It tests for frequencies you can hear. I took it with some headphones so that may have some effect. If you don't have good headphones or good speakers on your computer it will affect your test. http://myhearingtest.net/ This test is like several I found which test your ability to hear in noisy situations. http://www.hear-the-world.com/en/hearing-and-hearing-loss/online-hearing-test.html?gclid=CjwKEAjwnKCrBRCm1YuPrtWW0QMSJAC-5UYk7JIik7Cmx1rn4vXJ9dIcYCSWvgMyiEPyykAdcT4EVxoCksXw_wcB This one wants to get your email to tell you that you have trouble hearing in a noisy area ... http://www.beltonehearingtest.com/us/ Who has a link to a better test? What have you done to modify your detector to hear it better?

I have been using my 3030 for almost 2 years now and I still only use Smooth for the sound. It is quite good but sometimes it 'balances out' or becomes difficult to get it to repeat consistently. Recently I have been reading about some CTX programs for download and others use Pitch Hold. I tried it last night and it was just so odd. The threshold goes to a different sound and pitch, the volume goes to a lower level and I have a hard time hearing the target. After this I tried Normal and it makes me wonder how someone can use this also. Long is close to smooth. The difference is so much and unusable to me that I think I must send it in for repair. Before I do that I will have a friend come over and compare my sounds to his. Does anyone else have problems with these sound settings? Mitchel (All of this makes me want to get my hearing checked!)

The first time I used my 7000 was on the beach. I didn't get the coil wet but I went over wet and dry areas of the beach. It wasn't so noisy that I couldn't use it but I have a 3030 and SE Pro with discrimination that I use. When I went to Northern Nevada it was mostly dry and my problem was not with the ground but going to an area that had gold that I could detect. I didn't hear the noise on that trip but I didn't hear any gold either.

Good Gold!

I have always charged my units with or without an inverter while I was going from one hunting ground to another. It has never been a problem for me as long as the engine is running. Some trucks like mine are set up with a power outlet which is different than the cigarette lighter. Maybe that one has a better wiring but I don't know what the amps the old lighter required. Perhaps it takes more for the lighter than for a computer?

That nugget was found over 75 years ago it says in the details.

The easily adjustable bungee (bungy) that came with the 7000 is the best thing since sliced bread for me. I can go up or down a slope and adjust it with one hand and not ground the coil.

This brings up a sound that I have found while using my 7000 in the Arizona deserts. If I take my coil and run it over the top of a barrel cactus it will react as a 'soft' target. http://wc.pima.edu/Bfiero/tucsonecol109/plants/cactus_fhba.htm The soft sound would be like a weak hot rock but it doesn't ground balance out or at least I don't remember it doing it with the settings I had. I just avoided this cactus when hunting. I had noticed this before on a larger saguaro cactus root. I didn't want to dig under this cactus as it weighs many hundreds of pounds. http://wc.pima.edu/Bfiero/tucsonecol109/plants/cactus_sagu.htm Would this signal be caused by the water content of the cactus?

i got a tweet from Minelab! https://twitter.com/...708749045694466

Did you see the production charts in MILLIONS of ounces per year and we are trying to find tens or dozens of ounces for our own pokes? When interest rates give a return for a safe investment then gold will be sold so that a return can be made off of idle cash. This is like producing more gold. Production will continue when there is a healthy margin between cost and sale price. When the price of oil drops production of gold is boosted just as if the price increased. Oil exploration has been cut greatly in the Williston Basin and many thousands have been laid off when the price dropped. They can keep pumping what they have already found but have to reduce expenses to satisfy the shareholders.

Here are my best beach finds for the month and my desert finds as well.

I went out to the Franconia meteorite strewn field last Friday. It is an area I know pretty good and I know a fair bit about the types of meteorites you can find there. One of the major types of meteorites is what they call an iron. It is a small meteorite that was blown by winds to their present location after a main mass burst in the atmosphere. They landed away from the main strewn field. Prior to the 8th of May I had never gotten more than 3 irons in a trip with various detectors and coils which includes a GPX 5000. Many thousands of these meteorites have been found over the years by hundreds of hunters. When you detect them the larger ones can scream at you. They are never very deep. This was a good and different trip. I had a Zed. I found 25 of the irons and a couple of larger meteorites. The largest iron at the top of the circle is .8 grams. It ends up with a tiny meteorite that I can't weigh. The total of all irons is 4.1 grams. The two larger meteorites are 46.7 grams and 114.4 grams. They were found in the same area with a depth of less then 5 inches. The Zed had no problem distinguishing them from the hot rocks. Now, bring on the gold fields!

When I first got the 3030 I felt that it had the best balance of any detector I've used and never considered an assist with the stock coil. My detector just before this was the SE Pro and I used Doc's Swingy with it because that detector would make my arm tired. With the big coil I gave myself tennis elbow and now I use the 5000 harness and various bungys (bungees). A trick I have learned is to put my strap for the finds pouch (The Red Minelab one) on the outside of the hipstick which is clipped to the bottom of the 5000 harness and not my belt. This outer strap reduces the slippage and I can go for 6-7 hours without a problem. I go in and out of the water but I don't dive. I'm not a big fan of the dry sand but I'll hunt where there are targets. I'll put up a picture of my best finds of the month later.

I don't get to the desert as often as I would like and it seems lately my results haven't been what I like either. When I do get out several times a week it is here at the beach where I live. Last night I went out with my wife in the weeeee hours of the morning when the tide was low and we had a good night. These are my finds. I use my 3030 with the large coil. This lets me cover some ground but also find coins in the wet sand down to 14 inches or so. Most are not that deep. My best target last night was a moonshiner (on the surface) and didn't need any digging. The ring is 14k/7.5dwt with 3 puma type cats on it. The more I look at it the more I like it but it doesn't fit except on the pinky. You guys post so many of your gold nugget finds it was time that I show you what I find. Happy Hunting on the Beach or in the Desert.

No matter where you go you get'em. Good job and thanks for showing.