Mike Hillis

Processed gold? The V3 does pretty good. Just need the updates I posted on Findmall. Hunting processed gold, the 22.5 freq tells me its low conductive strength and phase, the 7.5 freq shows the discrimination characteristics and the 2.5 freq shows the mass. This is what i posted on Findmall: I would like the ability to ZOOM to a selected frequency's signagraph. And If I can't get the ability to 'select' the frequency that can be ZOOMed.. then I would like the ability to ZOOM to the 7.5 kHz graph. Or...When turning multigraph off, I would like the ability to select the freq that will be displayed in single graph mode. Either of these will fit my needs. I'm just suggesting options to make it easier to accomplish. The color Spectragraph is the best thing since sliced bread. If you could add this feature it would be like putting jam on that bread. I run my Spectragraph with one VDI number per bar and a zero threshold. Beautiful pictures. I see the VDI number stacks, and most importantly, I see the missing VDI number stacks. Foil is easy to id by the way it smears in 2.5 kHz. Tabs are easy to identify by their missing numbers in 7.5 kHz. In fact I have a new appreciation of the 7.5 to 8.5 kHz frequency range. This middle range is the fact checker for the higher and lower frequencies. I would sincerely like to be able to be able to do a quick switch to a single graph view of this range. Currently turning multigraph off and selecting it for the analyze screen only gives me the dominate frequency. I really need to see the 7.5 kHz graph with the additional detail provided by the single graph view. Better if I could select the one I want to get a closer look at. Thanks Mike.

My TRX only interferes with my Golden Sabre II. Course both are 12kHz so its to be expected. It works fine with all my others. HH Mike

I'm sorry, SLGuin. Don't take my post the wrong way. Just trying to help. Hunting gold on land is different than hunting gold in the water. Hunting the tiny gold on land is different again. Frequency is the least of the required feature set unless you are truly after micro jewelry. Even then, frequency alone isn't the key. Jackpine's post on the 1270, my post on the F5, the posts you should be reading about the Goldbug II, all have something in common, and that is that the feature set of the detector enhances it use for such activity. As good as the Gold Bug II is, I'd never take it to a middle school athletic field. Its feature set is best for sand and/or woodchips. However, Jackpines 1270 would work good in the athletic field, as does the F5. I thought the GoldBugPro/F19/G2 would work good in the athletic fields but they don't because the Audio vs Sensitivity vs Frequency aren't designed in such a way to work well in that environment. But in sand they do ok. My best recommendation is to continue to use the Compadre, maybe by a used detector you are looking at until you can make a more informed decision on what type of equipment it takes to do what you after. You'll probably wind up like the rest of use with multiple units specialized for just one thing in one environment, or in constant flux as you try this one and that one until you get it sorted out. Good luck. Mike

You know, you could just jump straight to the top of the heap and get a Gold Bug II and be done with the equipment part and get to hunting. Its already a proven Micro Jewelry hunter and has a very tight ferrous/non ferrous break point that you don't have to play games with. If you need to see it in action you can purchase Tom Dankowski's video called, "Metal Detecting Real World Techniques Beach and Swimming Hole Hunting". He has a section in there specific to micro jewelry hunting that would help you no end. HH Mike

Just want to mention some features considerations... ferrous break point....is this hard or soft. Most small and tiny jewelry items fall below the stated ferrous break point. For example, if the ferrous/non-ferrous break point is 40. Most of the really small stuff (and some stuff not so small) will fall below this point. If you have 40 points of iron rejection and you just recovered items that responded between 32 and 40 you would be surprised at what you would find inside that ferrous reject range. Can the detector be ran 'hot' at low gain settings. Many detectors require that you max out the gain or sensitivity in order to detect these small items. The high gain lights up everything in the ground. When you add a high frequency to this it is like looking up at the night sky and trying to pick a blue white star out of a bunch of white stars. A good micro jewelry detector needs to be able to run hot at low gain settings. This allows a very tight coil footprint and allows a focused search for small/tiny signal response. Are the right coil selections available. The normal coin and relic coils are not the best for micro jewelry hunting. The best are the small oval concentric. They provide the best coil foot print and discrimination ability and are the easiest to focus, yet still get some form of acceptable ground coverage. Just some food for thought. HH Mike

I have always been a fan of the Golden MicroMax but it is still just a beep dig detector with your finger's crossed that this 'beep' is the golden beep. The new - toned golden was my favorite but Tesoro tossed that one. I've got a Golden Sabre II that I have slightly modified by adding pots for ground balancing and notch width that works better than the Golden uMax. I can select Notch Accept, set my notch width for the gold range I'm looking for and beep dig just as well. HH Mike

If I was forced to make a single detector do all my land hunting needs I'd keep my V3. I'd have to spend a lot of money in coil selection trials to make it just right for every condition but I'm pretty confident the V3 could do it. Little heavy on arm so I'd have to work out a little more. HH Mike

SL Guin, I would suggest that before you jump into "micro" gold jewelry that you get some experience with regular gold jewelry. I'm reading your posts and it is pretty clear that you really don't know anything about it. You are wanting "hot" and "high frequency", which combination will have you digging trash galore with no real ability to tell good targets from alum trash. The aluminum trash will bang so hard and loud that you'll never even hear the jewelry. I'd suggest a step down to a Fisher F5. The F5 runs at 7.8 kHz which will give you good discrimination abilities, yet the separated Gain and Threshold controls allow you to run it 'hot' at various gain settings. While it is not a true 'micro' jewelry detector it fits the bill for the normal and small pre-micro jewelry size. It is hot enough that It will pick up the little round ring on the end of the fine chains that the clasp itself connects to. That is pretty good in anybody's book. Start there, get some experience so you can make better equipment decisions down the road. Good luck, HH Mike

Can't wait to find that in a park! Very nice. HH Mike

That is a very nice looking ring! Your first gold ring find was a real hum dinger of a find. Broken rings like that give lousy signals and are usually dug by accident. Congrats. I bet it will start you off to finding another one. HH Mike

That is a nice display. Its the little bit of color added to it that makes it nice. It stand apart from the standard greyscale used by everyone else. Has that modern i-pod look to it. It doesn't have anything I need that I don't already have so I'm not looking to buy and try one anytime soon. But I do like the package. HH Mike

curved shaft with the post handle, like the F75 and Omega.

"resurrected Nautilus feature "Reject Volume". Adjust the volume of targets you have selected for rejection to 50%, 40%, 30% 20% or "0" the audio volume of the targets you have selected for accept." Just want to point out that this feature hasn't been in hiding. The Tek Omega 8500 has it. You can adjust the volume of any of the categories and use the volume control in place of discrimination or notch, and it works in all filter (deep) settings. Now the 8500 has to be in Disc mode to do this. I expect the MXSport will have to be in Disc mode as well for this to work. Adding disc funtions to true all metal modes have limitations. However, if it is a feature that is tied to a mixed mode feature (thus the reference to Natilus) it would be welcomed. HH Mike

My Goldstrike arrived yesterday. It is a cream puff. New as described. While I was bench testing last night I noticed something I hadn't noticed before; there is no spot in the ground balance settings that decreases the response to gold. The Ground Balance range is -99 to +99, zero inclusive, in increments of 1. In other words the range goes -99 to 0 to +99. At a -99 setting high conductors like clad dollars read as iron. As the ground balance is moved away from the negative side toward 0 the hi conductors start to re-appear as non-ferrous. By the time you get to -50 they are hitting pretty good and the response continues to get a little better as you move closer to 0. However, as you pass 0 and continue to +99 the high conductors continue to respond better and better until at last you hit +99. At +99, a clad dollar is responding with a repeatable non-ferrous response at 13". So the ground balance settings do have an effect on high conductor response. However. ground balance settings from -99 to 0 have no effect on gold response. Using my thin 18 K white gold ring, I noticed no change in response in ground balance settings from -99 to 0. I continued to get a pretty consistant 8" non-ferrous response on the ring which is expected for the 5x10 DD coil as I've discovered with my 5x10 bench marking exercise. But, as I move toward and to a +99 setting, the ring response improved, until at a +99 setting I was getting another 1-1/2" in distance. This was performed with a Sens setting of 9. Threshold setting of 0. Disc setting of 99. So a positive ground balance setting improved both low and high conductor responses significantly. No spot along the ground balance setting range deadened low conductor response. High conductor non-ferrous response decreases as ground balance settings move toward and to -99. Of course, since the GoldStrike is no longer in production this info doesn't help many people. HH Mike

I'll have to look in my library this weekend and see how old my copies are. I know my edition doesn't have any color pictures HH Mike

The Fisher 5x10 DD coil hasn’t been my most favorite coil because, in my mind, it always seemed to be lacking something. I have suddenly found myself owning several different higher frequency detectors, each equipped with a 5x10 or 6x10 DD coil. As a result I have decided to spend some time bench marking this particular coil size. Is the Fisher 5x10 DD coil really lacking something or is its performance in line with other brands similar size and type coils. Since my 5x10 DD coil came with my Fisher F19, I have elected to stay with higher frequency detectors for my bench marking. Nothing lower than 15 kHz. This allowed me to use comparable detectors and coils; the F19 with 5x10 DD, the Lobo SuperTraq with 5x10 DD, the DFX with 6x10 Eclipse. The targets consist of a modern nickel, a clad dime, a very thin (the band is perhaps 5/32” wide by maybe a 1/16" thick), 18K white gold ring that a penny will fit perfectly inside, and two halves of a fired .177 lead pellet. I cut the pellet in two, separating it into the solid head, and the hollow tail. All detectors were tested in Disc mode: The F19 operates at 19 kHz and fitted with the stock 5x10 DD coil. The settings were Disc at 40, no notch, Volume at default, Sensitivity maxed out at 100. At this setting there is an ongoing threshold like response at fringe depth that can be heard in air tests for a couple of more inches than what I recorded. I do not consider this to be a true audio response and I ignored this response. The responses I used to measure with were what I considered a real audio response. In other words, it approximated a beep type response rather than a threshold like response. The Lobo Supertraq operates somewhere above 18 kHz and fitted with the stock 5x10 coil. There are apparently two versions out with slightly different operating frequencies above 18 kHz. I do not know which one mine is but I am assuming it is 18.75 kHz. Settings were Disc at 2 to reject iron, Normal Soil setting, and Sensitivity at 10. I did not go into the Max Boost Range. Threshold settings play no role in Disc mode. The Lobo ST has a great audio response at fringe depth. As you review the results, keep in mind that the Lobo ST still had the availability of the Max Boost sensitivity settings available for use. Note that the dime response is a little bogus as I have the preset ground balance in Disc mode set negative but it still shows coil performance similarities. The DFX was tested in the 15 kHz single frequency Prospecting mode with the 6x10 Eclipse with Silent Search turned on to remove the threshold response. Pre-Amp Gain at 3, AC Sensitivity at 64, tone Id turned on and iron discriminated out. As with the Lobo, there is additional sensitivity available for use. The AC settings were rather tame but I wanted a rock solid response. The results of the bench marking told me that the 5x10 DD coils tested share the same basic performance and that my Fisher 5x10 DD is operating as it should be. This has increased my trust and understanding of the coil. Or should I say I feel more comfortable using the coil now. I'll add the GoldStrike 5x10 DD coil results to the mix tomorrow. HH Mike

Steve, Most of my urban EMI is too much for it on the F75 even with DST. But I do like it on my 7.8 kHz units well enough for my sports field hunting. I like the ground coverage and the depth is ok for what I'm using it for. That is pretty much the only reason I still have it. Not a coil I'd recommend to a friend. HH Mike

Thanks Steve, Yeah, I'm sure there are sites where the Gold Strike isn't the appropriate tool. But it does real good where it is. Out to be in my hands in a couple of weeks and I'll give another update. HH Mike

The Goldstrike isn't a detector that lets you ignore any targets. Each hit requires a second check. Each hit gets a couple of swipes and the All Metal audio says two things 1) just a rock, and nothing under it either, so move on, or 2) it is metal, look a the meter and see if you want to spend time on it. In All metal mode, after you get a high tone response on a hit, a glance at the meter tells you ferrous/non-ferrous and the strength of the response. At high signal strength response levels the minus sign - for ferrous responses is very reliable and you can skip those. At lower signal strength response levels, the minus sign - for ferrous responses is less reliable. You have to pick a response level at the site that you are comfortable with accepting and rejecting the information presented. Typically you can trust the ferrous indicator down to around a signal strength report of 30, but it could go less, or it could go more, just depends on the site and how comfortable you get with it, but 30 is a good place to start checking out the ferrous targets to make sure they are ferrous and make the determination of your trust in the ferrous indicator and adjust accordingly for the site. Goes without saying that the positive non-ferrous indicator + gets recovered all the time regardless of signal strength. In Disc mode the same thing applies only now you have set a ferrous reject point, and the audio response tells you the hit is below the reject point or above the reject point. You have 99 points of ferrous rejection so you can set it just where you want it. If you get into a bunch of nails you can set to just reject the nails, and again use the meter to give you the information needed to pursue the high tone hits. The threshold setting regulates the bottom end of the signal strength response so you need to pay attention to this. Not such a fine tune issue in Disc mode, but in All metal mode you don't want to cut too much off the bottom, if any. If you can get your bottom signal response down to around a 3, you got your ground balance and settings dialed in pretty good. In reality, your gain, threshold and ground balance is all about getting the lowest signal response cut off possible for the site. It is really a very nice unit once you get into the groove. In my mind it is a true prospecting unit: It forces each hit to be reviewed, Hot rocks do not mask metal, Gives the right information needed to make the dig/no dig decision, which Reduces wasted effort. and it hits on some pretty small targets. HH Mike

Been watching and waiting for another Goldstrike to come up for sale... Got lucky and finally found one, a new one for under $300 with the 10" coil. Yippe for me. I know many don't like it but I do. This will be my third one. I'll make a me a bag to mount it under the arm rest. Turn it on, set it up and go. I'm stoked. HH MIke

That garrett coil will not work on the Tracker II.

Eurotek pro frequency is 7.81 kHz Fisher F5 frequency is 7.8 kHz Fisher F19 frequency is 19 kHz Fisher F75 Frequency is 13 kHz. All the coils interchange among these detectors. I don't have any issue swapping coils between those units. The Land Ranger Pro is 7.69 kHz. Frequency wise, the coil would be compatible with the others listed above, HOWEVER... looking at the manual, the coil connector is not capatible. The BH LRP has a standard BH push in connector, while the aforementioned units have a threaded connector. So I was wrong. The LRP coil will not interchange with the F75. HH Mike

Professor, I'd steer you toward the new Bounty Hunter Land Ranger Pro. It has a great feature set for a beginner, plenty of stuff to grow with, AND it includes the Eurotek feature set among its many selections. If you search online you can find it under $300. I also believe the coils will aso interchange with the F75. Not advertised to do so but i believe the Land Ranger Pro is built on the same freq and platform as the Teknetics frat brothers and all those coils will work with the F75 and visaversa. I could be wrong though. (((Yes, you are going to get even more confused about coils when you find out a 7.8 freq coil will work ok on a 13khz machine but ignore that for a while))) Check it out. Its has a great feature set. Link to operating manual.... http://www.detecting.com/manuals/LandRangerPro-Reader.pdf Disc 3 is the EuroTek Pro audio feature Good Luck, Mike

I think that if you are consistantly finding gold, you have the fever, and you'll always upgrade to the best technology available if it finds more gold. After all, your gold will pay for it. So in that case, price doesn't really matter as long as you can justify it and have the gold to pay for it with the promise of more gold in your future. That said, I think you haven't yet experienced sticker shock until you see this sticker. I could be wrong but don't think so. HH Mike

Looking at the brochure, it seems to me that a dedicated prospector would have to have one. It appears to be 3 machines in one. And a whole new coil design. It doesn't appear the normal mono loops are going to work with their new technology. New business for the aftermarket coil mfgs. .1 gram mininum response. That is good for a PI. Do you really want to dig gold smaller than that? Severe ground still limits it, per the brochure ground setting recommendations, but then again, severe ground limits everthing. HH Mike