Mike Hillis

I think we are too small a group for any one to make something just for us. Most folks think like RickUK, and most Design Engineers have this thought in their head that any good relic hunter is all that is needed for a jewelry hunter that goes off the beach. In the mean time you are expected to have this dig it all mentality to be successful. HH Mike

Funny....I still have absolutely no interest in the Equinox models so they can't be the be all end all of metal detectors. HA! HH Mike

Probably a valid rant....their detector R&D was funded via government grants. If they have to fund their own thermometer development and production out of net profit cash flow then the cash flow drain will have an effect in a currently depressed treasure market. On the other hand, if this, too, is funded by government grants then probably not a money drain but perhaps a resource drain. A Electrical Engineer is an Electrical Engineer whether they work on metal detectors or thermometers. However this new focus has a larger potential payout in the world wide over the counter medical device market with a device with minimum regulatory over site requirements. IF they can get shelf space. As stated, I'd like to know when my coil is temp stabilized. Maybe this will help them with that. HH Mike

should have read....You would be surprised at how much chatter an unstabilized coil can cause. Mike

I wonder if I can use one of those on my detector coil so I can tell when it's stabilized. You would be surprised at how much chatter an stabilized coil can cause. I sometimes will just wait 15 minutes from the time I exist the truck to the time I start swinging just so I don't have to deal with it. HH Mike

What a huge coin! Talk about dragging the britches down. A pocket full of those would pull my pants down. HH Mike

Nice shine! It is funny how much we miss it when we don't see it for a while. HH Mike

That is interesting. Makes me want to look through my quarter clad and see if I have any like that. If there are more than one sample then there may be the makings of a mystery. HH Mike

I like the pictures. They encourage me when my workload is too high to get out myself. Mike

Fantastic news! HH Mike

I used to really look forward to Clevenger's mailing list. HH Mike

I'd like to see that. I watch a lot of Everest stuff and read a few books. Those guys got some will power to drive themselves up that mountain. Garrett AT Pro on Mt Everest. Very cool...I guess the real question now is,,,did they summit with the Garrett? I liked seeing the Whites GMT on Antarctica ice fields looking for meteorites. Did you see that one? Thanks for sharing. Mike

Steve.....like you said,,,its a crap shoot.....but my little 4x6 F75 concentric didn't work on any of my 19 kHz models. Sometimes the larger concentrics will work....but it seems as the concentrics get smaller they go into continuous overload. Good luck with it though.....you really never know until you try. HH Mike

I need it. Let me go count my pennies. HH Mike

There are a lot of feature similarities between the XLT/DFX/V3/V3I/VX3. I often reference DFX docs to help further understand my V3 features as many of the performance features are the same.....maybe setting differences but actual functionality is the same...ie. Hot Rock Reject for example. Thanks for including this XLT information. HH Mike

Are you going to wear it all day detecting or just leave it in "camp" as an anchor point? If you are going to leave it in "camp" then any well made good size internal frame will work, but then you'll need a second one for travel away from camp. A good utility belt and a light weight day pack with a 'camel back' might be a better answer. I guess it depends on how much stuff you need to be happy. Water filtration systems are a must though. They are fairly cheap and small while water is heavy (8.3 pounds per gallon) and large and often in fragile carriers to boot. When I'm having to backpack water I prefer to carry water in 2 liter coke bottles. They are easier to store full or empty and are tough enough to survive drops and falls. HH Mike

That is a pretty ring. I'd be happy to see it. HH Mike

Sorry....No. no DD coil was every produced for it. They made a 6" concentric, an 8" concentric and a 10.5" concentric. But no DD was ever produced for the Coinstrike. One other feature that was helpful in iron was that that it was very fast, but when you didn't need the speed you could turn "averaging" on. It would give a aggreate average TID response when turn one. Very solid lock on. It's kryptonite was steel bottle caps. HH Mike

The Fisher engineer responsible for the Coinstrike/GoldStrike/ID Edge/Excel was a man named Dimitar....the same engineer who is now independently making the MDT-8000 that Tom Dankowski is such a fan of. The CoinStrike has no CZ Quicksilver DNA and none of the CZ coils will interchange with it. It was a completely new series of detectors that for some reason never really took off. The CoinStrike was designed primarily for hot ground and dealt really well with it. I dug lots of deep dimes with it in ground where they normally moved across to iron id at about 4 inches but the Coinstrike kept them in the non-ferrous range. One that really stands out in my memory was a good 8" deep and was reading a 42 with a high tone. A normal dime is TID of 28. On a regular VLF this would have already wrapped around to iron and been giving iron tone grunts. But the CoinStrike has an extend high conductive range that allows it to hold high conductors in the high conductive range longer. It also has a 99 point iron range so in the worst of dirt that just flings high conductors across the FE barrier, you can still identify them once you learn the ferrous number.... It also has a very mellow audio at depth. The folks that really got into them often told of elbow deep holes, mostly true, but disbelieved by the general public. The Key was ground balance and learning and being consistent with the sweep speed it liked. It was also pretty good on low conductors and it was great in iron, both large and small but really great in large iron.... Guess who just talked themselves into another one....HA! I teased up some nice gold rings with . Here is a helpful webpage.....http://home.insightbb.com/~johnhetti/coinstrike/ HH Mike

My first pick for an Old coin hunting tool would have to be the Etrac. It seems to manage my ground mineralization better at depth and I can sweep it extremely slow with good audio tools to pull them up. My second pick for Old coin hunting in my ground would be the Fisher CoinStrike as it holds the coins in the non-ferrous range longer in hot ground than any other VLF every made. Takes a bit to get the required sweep speed down but it really does very well in high mineral dirt. HH Mike

I thought about it but if I do buy another, I'd prefer the Time Ranger Pro color. It goes better with the 8500. I didn't really care for the painted coils. They seemed brittle, and the two LTD camo versions I had experience with, the coils seemed sub par and kind of turned me off and I replaced that whole series with the IMPACT. HH Mike

I was just thinking back to all the 1st Texas products I've owned and used since 2004. Many of them multiple times as i often sell to buy even if I like them.... F2 F5 F70 F75 F75LTD F75 LDT with DST F11 F44 GoldBug Pro F19 T2 Omega 8000 Omega 8500 Alpha Eurotec Eurotec pro G2 G2+ Bounty Hunter Tracker IV Discovery 202 Sharpshooter 2 Time Ranger Land Ranger Pro And while there were not 1st Texas Products at the time, since they were Fisher products I'm going to include them too.. CZ-5 CZ-3D CZ-70 Pro CoinStrike ID Edge I think you should rep them too, Bohemia Miner, as I spend far more money on 1st Texas products than any other mfg. HH Mike

12" is a deep hole. Glad there was treasure at the bottom of it. HH Mike

that is why this place is called a "Magazine". thanks for all the effort you always put into this site, Steve. HH Mike

The F75 has a 5 year warranty, multiple algorithms and tone options and is an excellent performer. I encourage you to read the operating manual. Another one I like is the Minelab Etrac and the Nokta Impact. If you don't mind buying another Whites i can also recommend the V3/V3i. HH Mike