Mike Hillis

Now I see the issue. That picture looks normal, Tiftaaft. Looks to me that you are doing good. Add a bunch more foil to the picture and it could be my pouch we're looking at. The stable TID targets are the icing on the cake. All iffy jumping around numbers, ie, the trash are the "could have been's". Could have been gold, could have been old, could have been neat.... Some of my neatest finds have come from, "could have been signals. I'd say you are doing it right. You could cherry pick solid high conductors but you'll miss nice things like that watch in my avatar picture. HH Mike

I like the colors. HH Mike

The Fisher F75 3x6" is an elliptical concentric, not a DD. I don't use the small coils very often. For small target hunting I would be more likely to use my 3x6 over my 5" DD just because it IS a concentric. But again I don't use them often enough to give you hard information. HH Mike

The Tracker IV was my first metal detector. I still like it. Sometimes a low gain unit is very helpful. Mine found this ring earlier in the year. Mike

Will do. HH Mike

Sorry. My bad. Makes me look like a troll. Mike

Oh I'll probably do a buy and try on the Equinox like everyone else. I'm sure it will have its fine points. First time you crawl under a porch or into a crawl space with a metal detector you suddenly realize the equipment limitations. The AT series can come off the rod and be put in your pocket or on a belt behind your back or tucked in a sack and dragged behind you no matter what you are crawling through, over, or around. HH Mike

Same old same old to me. I don't see the Equinox really replacing much at all. It will probably be alot like the Deus; one or two frequencies work really good and the rest are window dressing. As end all/do all basic treasure hunting metal detecting tool, the Garrett AT series are better designed. The Garrett AT series is a use anywhere/take anywhere design Mr Charles Garrett would have been very happy with. The MX Sport/Equinox is locked into a pole design and thereby limited in usage to the normal A two digit phase number identification makes it another beep dig detector just like all the others. No enhanced visual identification to help me find good non-ferrous targets in non-ferrous trash. No way to compare results. Can go on but out of time....back later. HH Mike

I couldn't resist that deal. I ordered a G2+LTD green camo model. Don't forget the $449 is MAP price. Your favorite dealer will likely give you a little more off that. I like the G2 handle better than the S-rod setup of the F19. Whats really cool is I already have all the accessory coils for it since I can use my F5/8500 coils on it. HH Mike

Thought I'd throw this out there. I just heard about special fall pricing on the F19 and G2+ units. I followed up with a dealer about a G2+ model and got the response below. Bottom line is the pricing is too good to pass up and I bought a G2+LTD green camo unit. Your favorite dealer should be able to put a big smile on your face as the $449 is MAP pricing. I got mine from Craig at Show Me Treasure. He made me Happy Happy Happy. Anyway....this is too good not to share. You basically get a GoldBug Pro with enhanced Disc features. It is impossible to go wrong with this deal. HH Mike LIMITED TIME FALL SPECIAL! We are offering special pricing that will start Oct. 1 and run through Nov. 30. The special prices apply to our G2+ family of detectors. These offers are only for 2 months so don’t wait! We are accepting orders now. G2+ SPECIAL You can now buy all three flavors of the G2+ for the same low price! Take advantage of this amazing price before the offer expires! We have limited quantity on some camo units, first come, first served. MAP G2+ $449 G2+19LTD $449 G2+19LTD-P $449

I mostly hunt in alluvial granite fans or bajadas with a fill dirt overlay. Sometimes I get into basaltic lava. And occasional I get down into the river bottom silt, which is ok unless I get into sand or gravel, then I'm back into the minerals again. I like it though. When I get into the good stuff I can relate to some of the depth/performance posts folks make, but the majority of the time I can't relate at all. HH Mike

I envy people that have good dirt. Everything is so much easier for them. HH Mike

Did they ever say what their operating frequency is? HH MIke

No, Whites makes a 5" coil (they call it 5.3) placed inside a big 6+ inch flying saucer shell. I hate that coil. The shell says 6" coil, while in truth its a 5" coil and you have to place extra concentration on it to make sure your swinging it like a 5" coil. So yes, a 7" coil would give you quite a lot over the 5" coil, and there wouldn't be such a gap between the 950 and the next size down. The 7" coils sizes are really nice. Easy to swing and get good separation and depth. Fisher's little 7" coil and Tesoro's little 7" coil are both a nice size. Its unfortunate all the external coil mfgs just copy each others coil sizes and don't offer anything unique. Regards the correlate mode...the V3 and V3i have the same correlate modes. It only offers two types of correlation and you don't get to pick it. It correlates 2.5 kHz to 7.5 kHz and it correlates 7.5 kHz to 22.5 kHz. The peak phase responses of the target signal determines which frequencies are correlated, You don't get to select those. You can select the basic width of the correlated window, and adjust for any over wrap above +95 and fine tune the low or high correlate window with the frequency offset but thats about all. But as johndoe has already stated, I suspect the V3 is too complicated for most users and much of the available capability is under realized. HH Mike Edited the mixed mode tone statement.

I've watched the release of the new multi frequency machines like the Dues, Alter71, the GoldMask 5+, the Impact, and now the pre-release show of the Equinox and my personal thought is, "those are nice, but I already have a V3." At one time I was hot and heavy for the Alter 71 but again, after I completed my review, the V3 stood out as better. The V3 is just a hard to detector to top once you get your mind wrapped around it. Personally I would like to see Whites spend more time on the multi-frequency correlate mode. You could do a wider range of selective frequency like the Impact/Equinox,Alter71, Dues, but allow the user to pick the combination to correlate. Create a screen specifically for correlate mode, something like a bulls eye plot or something....something to make it easier to dial correlate in, and to see how signals are reporting in reference to correlated settings. Add the ability to give correlated responses a different tone, or tone id based upon the bulls eye plot. Maybe tone id by plot rings. I dunno. Wouldn't mind a larger frequency offset range for tuning it either. Anyway. Theres a lot I'd like to see developed around that mode of operation. Wish I had the money to licences the V3 correlate mode from Whites and develop my own set of detectors based around it. They'd be sweet detectors for the jewelry hunter I kid you not, and wouldn't be bad at other stuff either. Other than that I want coils. A 7" concentric and a 18" x 4" cleansweep coil for my V3. Got me dreaming now. Maybe I need to buy lottery tickets every now and then. HH Mike

Hi Steve. I stand by my statement. I was responding to Rajat's statement of. "I always have one question in mind which is the best frequency for silver and gold jwellary or treassure hord ". Silver, gold and hoards, while each of which have specialty units available, can be hunted with a good 8 kHz general purpose unit. And contrary to popular belief, some 8kHz units can make a good prospector. The Fisher F5 at 7.8 kHz has the hots enough to prospect with and the ground balance circuit is pretty decent. The V3i's 7.5 kHz is no slouch either. The V3i is probably the best around best you have the good 7.5 general purpose frequency along with the availability of the 2.5 and 22.5 specialty frequencies. Anyway...I've spent a lot of time in that range and it can do most things acceptably. HH Mike

I think the 8 kHz range is a probably the best mid range frequency for a general purpose, do it all, unit. Once you start going above that frequency you start to loose the general purpose aspect and begin the road to specialization. Sure, you can use the higher frequency units as general purpose detectors bu the higher frequencies start to induce inherent bias, which moves them away from a true general purpose detector. But as we have seen, the various engineers try to do a general purpose unit with all kinds of frequencies. But in use, you can tell which ones are and aren't. HH Mike

7 grams of 14K is always welcomed. That 10k thing looks a bit off though. HH Mike

Very nice! Great finds! HH Mike

Coils Coils Coils...... My biggest hang up right now is good detectors and no proper coils for the job. Make me a Cleansweep/Bigfoot size coil for my V3. You know, 3 x 18" or a 4" x 20" or something like that. Doesn't even have to be multi frequency if you can't manage it, even just a single at 7.5 kHz or a single at 22.5 would be ok. Also I need a 7" concentric for the V3's correlate mode. The 9.5 does ok but there are times I need a 7" concentric. The little 5.3" is too small. We limp around with other coils because we have no choice. Give us a choice to match our horse to the course. HH Mike

Evidently this guy has access to this left over stuff up from Jim Karbowski's workshop. He has added another in-process coil to the list. Looking at the coil design, I see the nulling coil in the background, with the transmit and receive coils in the fore ground. That big black thing on the edge is the grounding contact to the paint on the inside of the other half. It really doesn't look that hard to construct. HH Mike

A guy has a bunch of Bigfoot coils on ebay. None of them appeared to be sealed. One of them has a picture of the insides. For your viewing enjoyment.....the inside view of a Bigfoot coil.

Thanks, I haven't gotten to the stone yet. I'm thinking glass but not positive. It doesn't have that shine a good stone would give. HH Mike

I was out and about with my F75 LTD Sunday morning and found this ring. I thought at first it was junk but closer inspection revealed that it is marked " Sterling Shank" with a jeweler's mark. I had never found a ring mark Sterling Shank before so I had to research it. The band is silver and the stone mounting is silver plated. Its not a continuous band either. Its cut out at the top and the stone mounting is dropped in the notch and soldered in place. That would explain the zinc VDI reading it gave me. Researching the jeweler's mark, This ring has the ,the 1947 Vargas mark on it. Somebody lost one of grandma's rings. Link to a site where you can research jeweler marks. http://illusionjewels.com/costumejewelrymarksv.html I'm calling it treasure. HH Mike

Very nice! I like finding 18k White Gold. We need a green emoticon to show some envy. HH Mike