mn90403

I have a working 5000 that I bought in 2010. It was the best money could buy at the time and that is what I used to find my first nuggets. Before I used it nugget hunting I used it on beaches of Southern California. I've never sprayed it with anything and there is nothing frozen on it now but I might just want to give it a treatment, if I know the right kind. This is getting 'off-topic' and perhaps we should start a thread on how to keep your old machines in shape with the right spray?

Will this do the same? I already have this can. https://smile.amazon.com/CRC-Heavy-Duty-Silicone-Lubricant/dp/B0042NWOLY/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=Heavy+Duty+Silicone&qid=1632414101&s=automotive&sr=1-2

WTG Chris. I hope people notice that your hipstick is of the new design without the canvas/nylon strap. I wore out my strap and when I bought a replacement the 'kit' let me use the old rod and put on plastic parts that will not wear out after 6 years or so ... haha Now, I wonder if you were using a detector that needed the hipstick? I miss northern Nevada this time of year.

Who felt the earthquake?

Said by a man who kills the beach with a 5000! I really do need to use it again on the beach. I used it for almost 2 years before I got a second hand SE Pro. That killed my 5000 at the beach for fear it would corrode from the salt.

Have you ever contacted the manufacturer of that suit? They may pay you some money out of great concern for what happened to you. You should let them know you have never told anyone you were wearing THEIR suit and see what they say! haha

Went back tonight and conditions are completely different at the same beaches. There are few waves coming in and few targets ... time to get some sleep.

When the waves are pumping you have to keep jumping! I was out for 5 hours last night and got 2 more Gold, 2 more Silver, 30 Quarters and a scull digger surprise. Here is the loot. Here is the good stuff. Here are the rings. Here are some details with 10k/10g/Reads 10 on the Eq 800/15/B1 Here are the rings from the 2 days by day first and by metal second. The gold was 18k, 14k, 10k Thanks for looking.

I mean ... who are the dealers? We have lots of Minelab Dealers but most of them don't sell a Garrett.

What is the best way to get a 24k? (or any other Garrett Detector?)

Sometimes there are just a lot of targets on the beach ... you dig and you dig and you dig and some of them are rings! Two of these rings are gold (18k/14k), two are silver (.925) and two are junk. When the energy is about it time to go out. These were the total finds for my session with the 800/15. There was about $10.00 in clad ($7 in quarters). This 3.6g/18k (marked 750) has some stones. I need to clean it in the ultra sound. I went back for a session with the 3030 and found this 1.6g/14k in the dry sand.

There is just something I like about this video in addition to some things I don't. I do think it is worth a watch in this new world of small gold.

Well done and told Simon. I'd say you have a keeper there for you area.

I'm sure there is a better picture than this somewhere.

Here is the Fisher AQ coil 'system' which I think would be excellent but would probably add a few bucks to a Minelab.

I have just put my 15" coil on for a night run at a low tide. When I put it on I thought to myself again that Minelab could have saved itself a lot of money. What could they do? They could just make the ears 3/4" longer and put the hole farther from the coil. My coil ears broke right at the coil because of the pressure applied. They did not break at the top near the screw hole. A little more length and flex would allow their design to work.

ColonelDan: I like what you have done. More pictures please. My purchased system has you attach the yolk after the coil ears have been removed. I don't use a skid plate on my beach detectors because they only trap sand. I'm not one to scrape a coil except when pinpointing in a hole. If I wear out a coil that way then I'll just buy a new one. The weakness of the ear system on the Minelab coils is that the material is made too thin in part and it can't take the torque applied to the screw which bends both of the coil ears. This weakness was avoided on another coil and shaft design that I bought on the AQ. It avoided the breaking issue by having two screws. There was one for each coil ear! When you tighten that coil you are making it tight against a 'non-giving' ear and not by trying to bend the ears together with one screw. Minelab or an aftermarket maker would have to make a lower shaft with two screws that could be tightened on their own but with the closeness of the two coil ears on Minelab coils it might not be possible. The solution then would be to make an adapter that fits snugly over or in the existing coil ears that does not move or bend the ears. Once that is attached then a different tightening system provides for adjustment while in use. There is a need at times to have the coil more loose than at other times but that should not break the coil ears. I wonder how many of these ears have really broken and how many tens of thousand this has cost Minelab over the years. It seems their engineers would have worked out a way to save that money on the bottom line of the company. Mitchel

Put on a Facebook blocker!

Yeah ... when you allow cookies on certain sites those become part of your profile and the push ads that come with it. This leads me to wonder what has afreakofnature been looking at when he is NOT on the forum here! haha I've never seen that ad before.

I own an Equinox 800. I've had it as one of the first ones in the United States and was the first one to find gold nuggets with it after Steve H who found his during testing. I now have 6, 11 and 15 inch coils. None of them has had a 'coil ear' problem. When the Equinox came out with this particular coil design I was very disappointed and knew it was only a matter of time before coil ears would break. How did I know this? It is because I had coil ears break on my 17" CTX 3030 many years ago. At the time the ears broke I didn't even know what to call them. I tried to heat and melt them back into position. I tried every glue and epoxy and it would still re-break. I was on another forum at the time and some suggest an individual who made a 'yoke' out of space age rubber. You see the problem with my ears was that they just did not flex enough to let me tighten the coil to keep it from flopping around. The ears broke laterally just above the coil. The first yoke I received from the guy was not really very good. It was designed to be glued on to the broken coil after you smoothed off the old ears. A few months later the guy in New York sent me his next fix and it still works today. You attach that yoke to the detector with plastic ties. I haven't had any problems. Maybe some of you have fixed your coils the same way.

That Pin was a hippo from Universal. It was found in dry sand with some of the coins after I left the beach because of the high tide.

This week I have used my 3030/17 two times after it being on the shelf for a couple of years. The reason why I got it out was because my wife was using my 800. I won't wait that long to use the 3030 again. When I first got my 800 I was switching back and forth because the 800 had 'foreign' sounds to me and I was not comfortable. I made the comparison at the time that the 3030 was still a very good beach machine and maybe even better than the 800 with 11" coil. After I got the 15" coil for the Equinox it was just easier to use and I have found lots of valuable things with it but that does not mean that the 3030 is not good. Today I was by myself just before an incoming high tide and I didn't have much wet beach to detect but it was just a joy to swing with my harness and hip stick. Targets were not that many but they stay on the screen and in the ear phones longer than the 800. I came to remember the sound, look at the screen and see on the grid where a penny, dime and quarter are. Of course the Equinox has numbers but not a graph which gives better discrimination than the Nox. When I got the low tone and saw the circle in the gold zone I was hopeful. My hopes were rewarded with a 2.7g/14k little bracelet. I can elaborate more on the detecting if someone has questions. I could really use this a lot more again. When I turned on the location of my finds it showed all of these finds I made back years ago. That is really special. I don't remember much about aftermarket coils for the 3030. My coils are the 6, 11 and 17. Gold Hound used it for gold and I've found a nearly half ounce gold nugget with it.

Well done again! It was a tough month.

Joe, Joe, JOE ... you da'man! You keep picking up after Bob and Frank and prove that there is still a lot of gold and Diamonds in the Surf. I echo School's sentiments that when you are quiet ... something is being found. Good luck with your fall. We need more waves to make my beach days more consistent. Mitchel

I guess now I'll have to keep track of exactly how my tent stakes go but for me they make themselves relatively hard to hear because of their shape. There must be a reject algorithm in the machine or in my brain that I sometimes override because I want to dig a target. I won't leave it even if I know it is a stake because where there are stakes there is gold! haha It takes a fair amount of wave energy and time to collect stakes and wash them up the hill.