RickUK

Not as yet me old mate,been doing some major work around the house etc,but not forgotten about it.

Just ordered another full harness and will be using it with my Hipstick that will take the weight of almost any detector/coil combination how ever heavy they are.

Thats a fair old hunk of copper and plastic to lug around,never weighed my 20'' Sierra Grande Mono but it must be the same weight or possibly heavier,so can only lug it around with a full harness. Thats a nice Long Cross penny,well done !!

Lovely find but not necessary retrieved in the correct manner 🙂

That is a pro job for sure,like that alot !!

Regis,i reckon the QED could work well with your new Detech coil,are you thinking of getting one,must admit i really like the reviews that this Pulse is getting !!

For everyday use the original Garrett is the main one that i shoot from the hip but not necessary my favourite/s,i also use the DX-1 probe on my DFX which is still use but of course being tethered to just the one detector then although its a top pinpointer is some what restricted use wise.I also use the detectorpro-uniprobe headphones that have the pinpointer built into the headphones but although they are sensitive and deep i feel the extra cable to the probe from the headphones is a little restrictive,so dont use them as much as i could do but they can be used on most detectors and not as detector specific as the DX-1 probes that are limited to just the Whites DFX/MXT and M6 machines. But the good old original Garrett probe till keeps working for me even after all these years and when this one finally does go to the great detecting grave yard i will buy another one as well.

Some very nice gold,maybe a stupid question but what is that crystal thing that Steve mentioned for or was it found ??

This has been a terrific thread,Steve i take my hat off to you,really admire what you are doing and good luck for the future !!

I use the 7.5'' DF coil on my TDI Pro,probably about 50% of the time,mainly use it on a roman trading villa site which is possibly one of the hardest mineral content sites that i have ever detected its basically like black sand but inland.Very few VLF machines apart from multi freq can get any depth on this site,so its ideal for the TDI and the small DF coil......this same site over say the last 12 years has produced i guess nearly or possibly more than 10,000 roman coins as it was a trading site for 400 years. So yes i really like the 7.5'' DF coil,cannot recall the last time i used the 12'' DF as my main coil is the 14x9 Coiltek mono

Steve,makes great reading,many thanks 😉

Makes some interesting reading about this new coil for the TDI sl,i have what was possibly the very last TDI Pro that was sold in the UK,it was a special order that Steve Howard allowed to come over from the US,also was lucky to buy some of the Jimmy Sierra coils which had been made by Miner John before Jimmy had been forced too close down.Got some amazing bargain on the coils but my favourite by a large margin is the Coiltek 14x9 Mono coil which is of course designed for the GPX range of machines.But it works exceptionally well pn the TDI Pro the biggest main advantage is that its ultra lightweight as its foam filled. I doubt that after the major fire that wiped out MJ coils and all his moulds etc he will ever start up in business again,the small profit margins associated in producing coils means that you could not keep going unless you diversify and i guess MJ did by producing coil cover etc for GPZ and various allied machines.Not sure if MJ was covered by insurance ?? A couple of times i had thought about doing the upgrade modifications that some folks had done to the Pro version but that was about as far as i got,its finally out of warranty but still worried about doing something major and burn some of the major components out.

Looks like slag,dont think it is a meteorite but i could be 'meteorwrong' 😀 i dont think most folks would be able to tell just by looking at it,a simple test from what i have heard is a magnet should stick but that is not a 100% way of eliminating it.......getting it analysed in a laboratory is the best method i would of thought but then costs would be ultra high. It could/can be very profitable to find these items but its a real niche area and folks who predominately just hunt for these items are usually well up on the knowledge of location and what they are looking for so they usually are the ones that make top money.Its like most things in life if you are at the top of the game in your chosen expertise then they make top dollars !!

Burgon and Ball do a superb digging spade absolutely superb quality and should last many many years,Evolution and another very popular brand of digging tools ie hand trowels,spades and sandscoops,the ones that i have a massive selection of 7-8 custom made spades which i had made Free by the owner of JR stainless steel digging tools alas they closed down about 12 months back but all mine will last me a total lifetime and beyond as they are built that good,the sandscoop and handle are built like tanks and once again should last many years. But if i was to suggest a couple of digging spades then it would be the Burgon and Ball one which Regtons still sell and the Evolution selection which i am am not sure of who sells them but they are very popular. Another very popular method is buying a stainless steel border spade from a garden centre and grind it into a decent shape often 'shield shaped' for cutting through turf etc.Of course this option although is possibly the most popular one is only any good if you have a grinder or someone who does own one,the main No1 thing of going down this route is make sure that the top of the spade head as boot gueards on then as other wise they will rip your expensive boots or shoes soles to pieces.

I dont have a clue about gold detecting or infact anything about hunting for gold in its original form out the ground as we dont in theory have any natural gold as such in the UK. But folks who have vast amount of knowledge who are on this forum i would think would tend to keep all the information that they haave learnt over the years and decades close to ones chest as they say.They will mention the odd bit of information but they dont usually go into great depth and give more specific nugget hunting secrets away. Of course i could be wrong !!

Steve,love reading about your adventures over to 'good old Blighty' and the artefacts and coins that you find,that BA palstave is a beauty,but i suggest when you get it back that its treated for Bronze disease as if its not treated it can spread across the whole axe and spoil it,but its worth getting advice from the colchester club on how its done,another thing worth noting about BA finds especially axes and other tools that also its not uncommon to find more in the same area and what i mean by this is that Bronze was a ultra prized commodity in the day,they use to put scrap bronze items either damaged or broken items into a 'pit' in the ground for storage waiting for a new order for a better word for new weapons/tools etc and then the old scrap bronze was smelted down into new items.Also you can find brand new items like axes,spear heads etc in also new pits.Hence when you find something of BA origin its worth checking around for slag or other tell tale signs of a possible furnace or other pits. That Lizzy 1 coin is in surprisingly good condition as she was not a popular queen and folks use too try and rub her face away from coins hence alot of them the heads are usually worn away but yours is in decent condition,must admit we do tend to take for granted on what we find,but when i see what you have found and how happy you are and what it means finding say a BA palstave axe then i realise how lucky we are and must admit i/we take it for granted and find say roman/silver hammered coins as basically everyday finds. Outstanding write up about your adventure over to the UK and will look forward to next year with '2020' vision 🤣 🤣 Once again well done on some amazing finds !!

I downloaded the update software last night,very easy to do and thus far no problems,but saying that not used it out in the field as yet,but did do a quick test on my test garden and it did seem to work fine.

I wonder what they do when its time to renew the crankshaft as most of these engines are put in place and then the hull is built around it.Perhaps they have a long service hatch that they use and lower it inside ??

Well done on finding the small gold nugget,although nuggets are nearly non existent here in the UK,but my 6'' coil is basically staying on the Equinox all the time.I rarely use the stock coil at all,only 2 coils that i basically use are the 6'' and the 15'' but only then on pasture sites.

Wonder if these coils would work on a TDI Pro ?? most GPX designed mono coils work on a TDI but has anyone tested that theory with this coil,not sure if the TDI sl would have the power to run this coil but the Pro version could well do,i use a Detech 18'' mono coil on my TDI and it works a treat and also a 20'' mono from Jimmy Sierra so it can run coils uptp 20''. Any thoughts about this one ??

Although i dont own a VX3 i did borrow one for 6 months from someone who worked on the rigs,but i do own a Equinox,so can give some opinion,i always have been a Whites owner and still own 4 of them.Possibly the same performance if setup right,but setting them up is totally different,one is very very easy ie the Equinox but the VX3 can be a nightmare with so many variations and just that one single factor i feel stopped that top of the range from becoming a stellar selling machine. Folks want some control of the setting to get the maximum performance out of a detector but saying that who really want to spend so much time on all the variables of the VX3 which is the easier of the top of the range Whites machine in setting up. Of course loyal supporters will always rally around and support the various brands that they use,but the bottom line is Minelab have set the benchmark and going from strength to strength and Whites are basically fighting for survival and going the same way as Tesoro. How many folks use one of the Minelab Equinox machines and how many use a VX3,it certainly tells me alot.

I own a TDI Pro in stock mode without any modifications,dont plan on changing anything anyway,about 70% of the coils that i own and use on the TDI Pro are GPX ones upto 18'' dia,the largest that i use on the TDI is the 20'' Mone that was made for and marketed by Jimmy Sierra before he lost his Whites dealership. Mine is not use for nugget hunting as the bottom line is we dont have them here in the UK,but mine is solely used for deep artefacts/hoards.In my personal opinion a very underrated Pulse,not saying its perfect but does everything that i want from a Pulse detector.

I own the UK's 'steroid' version of the Vaquero,its a Laser Trident11 Extreme,it has the Tejon battery box,18khz,fixed and manual GB,high tone and a few other steroid improvements of a standard Vaquero,if i am honest i think it was a drastic mistake buying it brand new,nothing wrong with it but i changed it from the latest DD 11x8 coil as i could not get on with it,its currently being used with the NEL Snake coil,which has improved its usability some what,but only slightly as the few times that i have used it with the small coil is on ultra trashy roman sites and also for getting in between the stubble rows. The condition of it is as brand new,i pulled it out of my mancave to give it another session,put in 8 new batteries and tried in my test garden,30 minutes later batteries have been taken out and its been put back into storage again,wont part with it as i never sell a detector but all the hype that i fell for was a massive disappointment,must admit i get far better enjoyment out of my immaculate 20 year old Laser B1 and B3,the latter machine is my preferred machine,pure simplicity but does lack some depth though but with a brand new rare to find 7'' Concentric and even rarer 10.5'' Concentric make enjoyable detecting session,alas the new Vaquero model does not provide me with that enjoyment factor.

Must admit and this is just my personal opinion,i always thought something was not right from the very start with this thread,of course i could be wrong but pure gut feeling tells me i dont think i am wrong with my assumption !!

A similar setup was/has been used by Georgi who owns Nexus metal detectors,he used a small arbour/drill slightly larger than the coin buried,must admit he has not done it in the last few YouTube videos though.I guess with some of the crazy large GPX coils that he has been testing the holes at angles would be very deep.