RickUK

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.

For the most part all my permissions or sites that i have detected on over the years are pretty mild mineral content,i do almost all my detecting just north of roman Londinium and never really have any major issues ground mineral wise,but i/we have access to a roman trading villa sites that has been detected for i guess just over 12 years,this sites was a active roman trading site for 400 years,so the amount of coinage that has been found with detectors without exaggerating must be approaching a 5 figure amount its been that prolific. Only trouble with this site the ground is basically just like black sand from the beach,very highly mineralised but just natural occurrence and not man made,the only machines that will really work on the site and produce finds is multi freq VLF and Pulse machines ,the current king and will be ongoing is the Equinox,and also CTX and Etrac's. This one of unique site is possibly the hardest site that i have detected,but it still keep producing finds on a regular basis even after all these years.

I still own and occasionally use my old faithful DFX,it was one of the 1st batch into the UK back in 2002,its found me some of my nicest finds,not necessary a deep machine as such but had a certain biased towards gold coinage especially when using the 10x6 coil or my all time DFX coil the 12'' Hotshot coil,amazing combination and the coil is ultra lightweight because its foam filled but of course would be no good in the surf as the coil tends to want too float. Only reason i still keep it though is that although i have used it for many 1000s of enjoyable detecting its still in remarkable good condition,would only get peanuts for it if i sold it anyway.So it stays in my detecting arsenal but still occasionally comes out too play. Like yourself i do also own a Equinox but because more modern and lighter machines have come out ie my Nox and Deus and T2 etc these 3 machines are far superior performance wise and also so much lighter than the DFX.I am away on a charity rally dig this coming sunday and may take the old DFX with me with the Hotshot coil on and blow the cobwebs off the detector.

Steve,appreciate all the work that you do with the site/forum......thanks alot.

Pretty easy to understand actually,beside the cable that goes to the pinpointer as in the picture that you posted is a connector that you screw in a audio lead that then goes to the audio socket on the detector.....you then have a switch that you run in audio mode as per normal headphone setup,when you locate a signal that you wish too pinpoint you then take the probe and flick the switch this then knocks out the uadio from the detector and all you then hear is the pinpointer sound. Once you have heard the target through your headphones and retrieved the target then you flick back the switch into normal detecting audio mode and carry on detecting till the next target and then the same method is used to locate the target. Rather than say having to move the headphones on one side so that you can hear the target you hear it through the headphone,also another major feature is that because its a PI probe it will give you extra depth of maybe a couple or 3 inches extra depth when locating the target. Also another big trump card with this setup is that you can buy a rod assembly and a mono coil from the suppliers,unscrew the pinpointer from the headphones and then connect your mono coil and you then have a self contained Pulse detector all built into the headphones,they do 2 coil sizes a 8'' and a 10'' mono coil,but in the last couple of years they have stopped selling this headphone/probe setup and also the coils and rod are hard too find as well,often you can find them that someone has old stock.I have located a 8'' coil from a supplier across the pon so that is heading home to good old Blighty.

I am aware that this thread is years old,but i finally got my hands on a brand new ' DetectorPro Uniprobe ' they are as i am aware not made anymore,but here in the UK not only are they ultra rare but also horrendously expensive that is when they had been stocked by just say 2 supplier.But in the last 2 days bought a brand new one and also 2 brand news coils for the PI headphones,but no shaft but as they are a common shaft setup will probably use a spare bran new Golden Mask collapsible shaft that i have laying around. Although the coil and shaft setup can be kept in the back of the truck,it was the headphones/probe part of it that i really always wanted,i am going to have too stop buying anymore detectors and coils as i am currently upto 26 detectors and 54 coils i jest not ?

Out of interest what does the 'w' stand for ?? or prehaps your surname is say wright'