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mn90403

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Everything posted by mn90403

  1. Skull said just about all of it. Keep your powder dry and your nuggets near.
  2. I was 'struggling' with the smoothness on my last hunt as well. It was not really possible to make it completely smooth with audio smoothing off and hy/normal. I stuck with it off although I did 'test' the audio. My threshold was up at about 25 and it was really difficult to hear the one little nugget I did find.
  3. HELENA — The Prospector Shop in Helena is asking for the community to help to find some stolen gold nuggets. https://www.ktvh.com/news/helena-prospectors-shop-asking-for-help-finding-5-figures-worth-of-gold-nuggets
  4. Chet, What were your other setting? (Still a low threshold?) Mitchel
  5. I've gotten another survey since this one that deal more with hardware. They were asking about other detector brands I knew about and used. Steve is right. They are in the game and know the competition.
  6. I have said for years, the Minelab pointers are their worst product by far. I own one and I don't use it. It was weak and failed me so ...
  7. I use it. In a dark desert I lose sense of direction. Simon, you told us you don't detect in some places where there are HUGE NUGGETS because you get lost. Turn on your GPZ GPS!
  8. It seems that Wall Street has found gold stocks! https://finance.yahoo.com/news/wall-street-throwing-billions-once-233147743.html
  9. Last night I wanted to go out and see the Comet so I needed to go to a dark sky. I know a couple of very dark sky places where I have hunted nuggets in the past. I had checked the weather and it said it was going to be 106 for a high and still at 100 at sunset but it was a pleasant 88 when I got there. I left the coast at 4 PM and the trip was just awful with traffic. It took 4.5 hours for a 3 hour trip. I got to the viewing area at a good time and couldn't see anything because the sky was still too bright because the sun had just set. Before I could get my boots on a couple of the red ants had already stung me. While I was waiting I started to detect. I was getting some little bbs and some trash so I was in an area that had not been completely worked. Meanwhile the sky is getting dark and then I see a faint glimpse of the Comet. I tried to take some pictures but I don't have those skills so I'll show a sunset picture. I could see the Comet well with the unaided eye but it is not possible to see details. It has quite a long tail against the dark sky. I was detecting with a light and checking back against the sky until it became too difficult for my eyes to adjust from lighted ground to sky. I concentrated on my detecting as the Big Dipper rotated and the Comet got too close to the horizon. At midnight I had no nugget and I wanted to make a short move. As you can see the moon is a sliver and it set so the desert is a very dark place. I think I would be there until sunrise if I didn't use the GPS on 7000. The car gets lost after a 100 plus yards or so. I had two detectors with me but I was determined to use the 15x10 Xcoil and find its first nugget. About an hour at the new location and several hot rocks later I got an almost 'ghost sound' and decided to scrape. The signal got better and it wasn't surface trash but I had dug hot rocks this deep already. When I got down 6-7 inches the target was out. I knew it wasn't big but I could see a little hot rock and I captured it with the magnet. I waved over the spot and the response was still there. Could it really be an end to the skunk? The last time I detected for gold was April 3. I had been out 3 other times this year with no result. I had dug bullet pieces tonight that I was 'wishing' were golden in color but all were dull gray. I separated the scoop material and heard a little thunk and saw a glimmer of gold. It was time to relax. This was a .4g nugget. I've found larger nuggets, smaller nuggets and more nuggets than this night but I had accomplished my goal. I had seen the Comet and gotten a nugget. It was time to get back safely and not fall asleep on the 3 hour drive. I got back at 5 AM before the traffic this time. Mitchel
  10. Norm, What detector were you using? Mitchel
  11. I know my energy beaches pretty good I think. These are the beaches where the targets are cast up on occasion by waves and tides. I think there are some deep beaches too but I don't know if I can find them. There are some good PI beach hunters here. I had a good rest last night so I have to try harder. haha Mitchel
  12. I've told myself for months it was time to go out with the 5000 and the Coiltek Platypus mono coil and try for some deep targets. Last night was the night. I think I learned more about my beach then I did about the detecting setup. This is the coil: https://www.seriousdetecting.com/product/coiltek-12-x-8-platypus-mono-300x220mm-for-minelab-sd-gp-gpx-series-detectors/ I don't have any pictures of finds because it was all junk except for 2 pennies. I went out to a low tide wet area where I never find much with the Equinox 800 and I didn't find much with this either. I was going after deep targets and I got a few aluminum can bottoms at 15 inches plus. I had my giant scoop for the task so I didn't have to give up on the targets like I would with an arm scoop. What I learned is that with these conditions there just wasn't a patch of targets in the 'staging area' waiting to be washed up on the shore. Maybe they are farther out. I mostly used the 5000 in Salt/Gold and I was really able to go as high as I wanted with the gain. (For about 20 minutes I used fine gold but it had a hum when I swung.) I stayed around 16 for the 2 hours I hunted. I used my harness that I got with the detector in 2010 and a hipstick but it is a heavy load for me right now. It started to hurt my back between the heavy scoop and the detector. I cancelled my long walk style that I do with the 800. I was trying to go places where I would go with an AQ. I may have learned enough to not want one of those now. I was impressed that the battery worked fine and has not been charged much since I got a Z for the desert. I'll use this setup again on a better conditioned beach that has more targets but it is just not that much better at depth for it to be my regular detector. Mitchel
  13. There are lots of 'nuggets of wisdom' buried in Steve's forums. Do we just stumble across it or is there a way to 'grid it' and get better stuff?
  14. What Simon? I read the thread ... 80% and it reminded me of the current AQ threads. A lot of stuff here.
  15. Gold strikes again. I just saw an old post of yours as OBN on TN from about 6 years ago. I should read more of your posts there. Mitchel
  16. Let's bring up an old thread and see what happens!
  17. I tumble coins in a Harbor Freight tumbler and always do the Amazon thing. This last year has seen a much lower account total. One year I had someone 'hack' my gift certificate online and they bought a camera with it and had it delivered to an Amazon locker in NYC. Amazon was informed before the drop but they let it go anyway. They made me 'whole' because they were at fault but those 'purchases' stayed on my account for about a year before they removed them from my profile. I had kept my gift certificate online rather than lose the paper. If you lose the Coinstar paper you are sol. If you have a lot of pennies that won't go through Coinstar or any other machine you can still cash them in. If you end up with pounds of them you can get the Federal Reserve Bank to accept them. I've looked it up and I think they will just weigh what you bring to them or send through the banking system and give you an estimate. An alternative to this is what a friend of mine does. He has always taken his unspendable change to his bank and they give him the face value and then they get recovery from the Fed. All those coins I've thrown away add up to several hundred dollars (maybe the value of a new detector). Mitchel
  18. My recent calls to Minelab in Chicago generally end up in me leaving a message but I do get a call back. Don't try to keep calling to get someone live or you will waste time.
  19. Randy's comments here may be of interest because he wears hearing aids.
  20. Norm, I'd get in touch with your dealer first. Back when I first got my 800 some people were talking about a better bluetooth and I bought one set of headphones that I use as a backup now. This is the website: https://avantree.com/all-products Here is a search where people talk about them and alternatives here: https://www.detectorprospector.com/search/?&q=avantree&search_and_or=and&sortby=relevancy
  21. Well done and as Joe said good to see you here. Mitchel
  22. Closer to 4 hours (12 AM -4 AM) than to 3 hours actually. There is 'something' on most every beach if you have enough time to find the patches or walk the line. Last night was a challenge because there really wasn't a black sand line. The wind waves had blown in a lot of little stuff and seaweed. I think that is why I found the lite little gold ring. It appears to be a recent loss. Down at the other part of the beach the little waves were concentrated and washed up the crusted ring shell. That was right in the last bit of wave before dry sand. I don't wade or snorkel like Joe either.
  23. We don't have a very good wave pattern and we don't have super low tides yet but I did manage to get a 3 ring night. To my surprise I got some gold in the scoop. It is 2.7 g and it hit on 9 with the Nox 800. This ring and other light trash came from a 3+ hour hunt along some of my same beaches. You have to check the producers before someone else does. When I saw the gold and saw the sparkle I wanted it to be a big diamond. I didn't have my glasses so I had to wait and confirm the 14k. After I got out my diamond tester and bummer ... it doesn't heat up. I'm not giving up on it entirely but I think the tester is accurate. I tested my cluster ring from last week and it says those are diamonds. I tested another solitaire ring and it lit the light. I was actually hunting the 'staging area' in the wet water and wet sand most of the night. I walk around in calf boots to protect my feet. Last night I walked long distances but I also had to be careful to listen for the 'little' sounds which is what the gold ring was. The mass of the ring is just not a boomer at any depth but this was 4" and I knicked it with the scoop. I did that on this one because I always dig for where the rod goes into the ground. The truth of the matter is that the target is above that closer to the Minelab logo or the top edge of the coil. I didn't get above it quite high enough. I can get it smoothed out if I want to keep the cz on it that way. Mitchel
  24. I went out for a late beach swing because I had an hour or two. If I found something I'd stay but as it turns out I didn't charge the Nox. This was my 4th trip on it. So the trip was cut short but not until after I found a little ring. It came it at 17 on beach 1. It was 6-7" down. There were so few other targets I knew I needed to dig it. Soon after I found it the volume dropped significantly and I looked at the battery indicator and it was flashing. I had about 20 minutes after that before it died. So this little ring has a great bit of trauma that I didn't cause. It would be interesting to know why that happened. It weighs just 1.7g and the marking on the inside is RSC. I looked for that marking online and some say it is a gold mark and some say it is a maker's mark. What say you?
  25. https://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=231125 https://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=231258
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