mn90403

Thanks for the visuals! They feed the passions.

I like the pictures!

Thanks for the link. I remember seeing it years ago on the show but have not watched it again. I met them a few times in Tucson and have their books which to tell the truth I mostly haven't read. I get the stuff and just put it out of reach in my stuff. I wish I weren't that way.

I think you underestimate the size of the Gold Basin Strewn Field. One of the best places still left to find meteorites is in the National Recreation Area. Some of the meteorite hunters went on the north side of Lake Meade just before they made that area off limits and they found a main mass weighing several pounds that was in two pieces. I saw it sitting on the table when they had the gathering at the 20th anniversary. It was only found about 3 years ago.

I think 'official' is the key word here. Where would it be applied? I've mostly assumed that all of the meteorites listed on the MetBull are just one of many possible. If you look at that map and you go to a fall then that is a good place to find more. There could be a strewn field and many more meteorites were found but not reported. Take Jungo Dry Lake or many of the other dry lakes. They have named meteorites found on them. Then other people come along and find more, and some are slightly different names because the composition of their meteorite is different than the first named fall and so on. I was with Twink one hunt in Franconia, and she found a chondrite and thought it was different. She submitted it and it was not the same as the other irons and chondrites in the Franconia Strewn Field. Her meteorite has a different name, and she is listed as the discoverer. In order to get her chondrite listed she had to have to exact GPS location. The official name is based upon that location, but she is the discoverer. You could suggest a name based upon map names already in existence but it's not like naming a new organism or star! haha

Did you look at the map to see if meteorites have been found and named from the area?

Steve, That is as good as it gets. I'm not a 6000 owner or want-a-be but I feel your pain. It certainly shouldn't be on you for it or any other detector you review and help the developers recommend. You simply want them to be the best they can be at whatever they do. Mitchel

I made a display of finds of the month. These were all found with the Equinox 800/15 inch coil. I wonder what I'll find with an Axiom? The rings and finds are placed on sandstones with fossils in them.

Thanks for the video Steve. It does stay real showing the trash and the gold. The old timers didn't think about metal detectors, so they left trash everywhere. I hope everyone notices that Steve is using a long-handled pick. I use a Leland pick and it has a handle even longer. It makes for easier digs for those of us who are back challenged.

Hellscript Have you found gold on this beach with other detectors? If you have, I'm certain if you use the settings you stated you will find gold with the Equinox. I noticed from your picture that you only worked 'the bottom' of 'the hill.' When I zigzag a beach, I go most often up and down until I find a line and then I slow down and connect the dig holes or circle a find to see how far up and down my little patch will go. As was suggested, the beach orientation is important based upon the most recent waves and tides. I don't go back to some beaches if they don't produce and will go to a better beach if I have the time.

Let me answer that for him. Everything from Santa Monica/Malibu to Santa Barbara! hahaha

That is a great story. Many of our 'finds' have stories waiting to be told but we don't get the details. I once found an MIT ring and tracked down the owner. It had a long story with it too but in the end, I returned it to a guy who didn't even say thank you. Yours is a much better ending. Job well done.

A few years back he put up all his detecting equipment for sale. He left it up for some time. I forget whose site but then he came online and said it was going to go to a family member. That could have been a daughter or granddaughter, I can't remember. I will always remember Bob though I never met him because he found his first gold in Franconia while he was rehabbing. Many years later when I found my large nuggets there he sent me a couple of nice messages about his early days. I can still remember an online site picture he had with jars of nuggets sitting on a table.

I tried last night to go to the online calculator that I've used for years. It just required that you put in the dry weight and the wet weight and it would spit out the amount of gold you have in a specimen. Unfortunately the calculator has been removed and the domain is for sale. JP ran a contest a few months back or a year or so and I used it and it was the most accurate to his actual gold recovered from a specimen. I wonder if the wayback site has working calculator pages saved.

Here is a long thread already on the forum.

I very, very rarely use the shoe. I want to hear everything as clearly as possible. I do see other people on their videos on the beach and they never hunt with the shoe off. I always wonder what they miss, and I'd like to go back behind them and see.

I went back the next night and broke my gold drought with a .6g stud less earring.

I use nearly the identical settings and also with the 15" coil. For years I went without using any F or F2 but I've seen my beaches get a little bit ratty with black sand lately and I'll adjust it to as much as 6 on the F2. In previous years and hunts I recognized the near 0 and below readings would sometimes be a good target including gold. Simon and I have mentioned it in threads before. I normally take the iron volume from 5 (default) up to 10 or maybe 12 so that I don't miss that type of iffy. Somewhere on depth and metal type there is a possibility I could miss something like you found. As far as size goes, I went out the second night where I had found my 5 rings and there was almost nothing, but I did get a 'little' 9 which always makes us stop and interrogate the source. I couldn't get it in the scoop, so I had to spread it out on the sand, and I finally found this little stud missing earring. By its weight I could tell it was gold.

These photos are some I've never seen. Enjoy and tell us of your Alaska experiences. Photos show the race for Alaska's gold over 120 years ago (msn.com)

There are different types of energy. Wind, waves and tide affect my beaches. If you add in directions, then you can end up with vortexes that cause patches. You just have to find them. This year has seemingly been more of a challenge because the sand movement is out of whack. I think the good stuff has remained farther out in the surf and it is deeper because there have been fewer event enhancements to the wave/shore lines.

Is Bob still with us?

People will pay for results. Detectors keep evolving. If you can find 'virgin' or less detected ground, you don't need the latest and greatest. If you are going back over ground that has been detected several times (let's say by a Gold Bug Pro), then you are going to need something that goes deeper than that detector or something that finds smaller gold. You can also consider the use of a multi-frequency which would be an enhancement over the older technology. With computers on chips the amount of computing horsepower is great. Signal processing and enhancement improve just as space telescopes have improved. After the pandemic the problem may not be the programs but obtaining the hardware to make these intelligent ideas happen.

My style of hunting is always enhanced when wave energy is right. Last night there was a reasonable amount of energy that washed coins ($6) and rings (5) up and also washed some of the sand from the blanket line down. This is what happens when you get a 'cut' on the beach. I've had much better hunts and I'm still on a gold drought, but the chain and silver ring are pretty nice. There is an unusual black ring with gold lettering that I can't recognize. Does anyone have any ideas?

I'll certainly will want to see more beach videos than this one.

I've read this thread with interest and wonder about warranty. How many of us have had warranty returns to Minelab at MINELAB expense over a range of their detectors. There are broken parts on the Equinox. EMI issues with the 6000. Broken coil ears, etc, etc. I wonder how much of a drain on profits it is for the warranty servicing? Could Garrett be building into the price some returns and repairs? Some place there has to be a budget for this. When shipping was 'cheap' just a few short months ago or at most a year then you could operate with just-in-time warranty repair and get parts from Garland, Texas for instance and get the detector back to the owner in a relatively short time. Hopefully Garrett would not have the 'go backs to the shop' problems but maybe some of the additional cost for Australia would be funding the warranty repair facility as insurance. I know it should be built into the basic price but things are different for Garrett trying to open up the Australian market more. Where is the repair facility in Australia?