Mike Hillis

That looks very nice. As I was looking at it I was thinking, WOW, I like to have one of those. But as I look at it some more, other than the vibration mode, I already own what that detector offeres in my F5 and F75. Maybe the mineral graph is better than the FE304 meter on my Fishers, but in truth I've already got that. So in the end, it didn't deter me from my planned V3i purchase. I'm still focused on the visual representation of the signal that a configured signagraph can give me. But nontheless, it looks great! HH Mike

Tom, That looks like "flea market gold" to me. The only way to tell for sure is to have it tested. Flea Market Gold is brass with a gold stamp. I found a really nice large chain with a 14k stamp on it that looked a lot like your bracelet. Got all excited when I saw the stamp as the chain had some good weight to it. Only I couldn't understand why it was so tarnished. Turned out to be brass and that is when I learned the term, "flea market gold". Not all that is stamped gold is gold. A couple of quick swirls in ketchup made it pretty and shiny again, like it might have been when it was sold as gold. Hope its not, though. I hope you really got some gold there. HH Mike

One thing to keep in mind about the F19 and iron volume and V break. The Iron volume is tied to the Ferrous TID range, not the V-break setting. So all audio below TID of 40 will be affected by the iron volume selection. For example, with a volume setting of, say 11, which is a very low iron volume setting......and a V-break setting of 20 where a low tone will generate for responses of 0-19, and a VCO audio will generate for responses of 20 and higher, both the low tone response below 20 and the VCO responses of 20 to 39 will be affected by the iron volume setting. This isn't necessarily negative if you know about it and set up accordingly. You just have to pay attention and train your ears. A requirement, really as the ferrous/non-ferrous break point on the F19 is soft. You'll seldom break it at 39/40. More likely it will be 34/35 ish. If you are going to break the audio down in the ferrous range below 40, set the FE audio based upon the VCO tone response below 40 instead fo the iron tone. That way you'll know right away when you hear the soft VCO tone that you are detecting something above the break point but below the 40 cutoff. HH Mike

Looks like you had a good time. That view from the lodge is beautiful. Suprised no silver coins showed up from looking at the Indian and the token. HH Mike

Steve, I don't recall ever hearing of the Bic pen test before. Made me want to test all mine. Right now there is too much interfence for the F19 and since there is no frequency shift on it, all I can do is wait for what ever is causing the interference to shut off. While I was waiting I got curious about how the Fisher F5 would fair in this test, so I pulled it out and had a go with the 5" DD on it. In Disc mode, with a Gain setting of 50, and a +8 threshold setting, I get a loud, solid repeatable 1.00" on the pen with the 5" DD coil. I'm thinking this is pretty good for a 7.8 kHz unit. However, both the audio and visual TID response is ferrous. Whatever is causing the interference won't let me test with a higher Gain setting or do a valid test in the All Metal mode. But I'm looking forward to testing again with different coils after it quietens down around here. I've had the F5 put up for a little while and had forgotten how sweet it was. HH Mike

These is my recommended reading guides for inland jewelry hunting..... DFX Gold Methods by Clive James Clynick Taking A Closer Look At Metal Detector Discrimination by Robert C. Brockett The DFX Gold Methods is really THE manual for inland jewelry hunting. His other books are good, but this one is the best. Clive sent me a signed copy of the Jewelry Hunters Handbook after he got it finished, and while it is good, I still consider the DFX Gold Methods to be the real manual. The second one, Taking A Closer Look At Metal Detector Discrimination, really highlights what effect discrimination has. This will also put into your mindset the usefulness of intelligent notching and focus. Once you see that, you start looking at the equipment differently. Its not about digging trash until you find gold, its about digging the right trash in the right areas until you find the gold. HH Mike

To tell the truth, the only reason I still use any Tesoro models is because of the Cleansweep coil. There is a man that will modify a H.O.T Cleansweep for the new Fisher Gold Bug Pro models but it doesn't work like a properly functioning coil should, although it would be fine for just nugget hunting in places where that size coil would be useful. It drops the high conductors in Disc mode. Works fine in All Metal, just no high conductors will respond in Disc mode. I liked the Bigfoot but the surface foot print of the Bigfoot coil is too big for my liking. You wouldn't think it would be so hard to reverse engineer a coil but evidently it is, or maybe they can but they can't get it V-rated. One company tried to make a long 3" x 20" DD for the DFX, called a Big Dawg. I didn't hear good reviews and of course Whites discontinued the DFX which killed the future of that coil. I sent them messages asking them to make that size for the new Fisher/Tek models. Nothing came of that and I'm not sure that company is still in business. I think there is a Beach Hog out for the TDI. 4.5" x 22". I thought about picking up one of these for my TDI but never did. Been after Dave and the gang at 1st Texas but they have no interest in what they term "specialty" coils. But hey, they made that monster 15" so I still have hope that someday they'll come around. HH Mike

Looks nice. Kind of like a Whites' TRX in a Garrett shell.

That is way cool, Steve! Hey, are those Chicken nuggets? Sorry, couldn't resist, Mike

Well, the connection seems to be holding...so I'm going to keep posting Staying with the inland locations, where do you find gold jewelry? #1, I would say is any place where someone would take it off. People take jewelry off for safe keeping, either so they won't lose it due to #2 below, or so that it doesn't get damaged while doing #2 below. Ok...so they took it off. Where did they put it? How would it get lost if it was taken off on purpose for safe keeping. Think about it. What activities would cause you to take off a ring or chain? Did you put it in your pocket? What would cause it to fall out of your pocket. Did you lay it by a landmark? What would cause you to forget to retreive it? #2 is where some sort of activity takes it off. This can be all sorts of activities. Who is wearing the jewelry and where are they doing activities that would cause them to lose it. Think about it. If you didn't take off the ring, what activity would cause it to leave your finger? If you didn't take off the chain, or bracelet, what activity would cause it to leave your neck or wrist? You should be able to make a list for both #1 and #2. HH Mike

Turning into a great thread. I love the pictures, plidn1. My favorites for inland processed gold..... Tesoro Golden Sabre II (GSII).....Discontinued......12 kHz, two tones with adjustable tone break, and the tone break will send shivers down your spine on gold when set correctly. Notch Accept or Notch Reject that is user adjustable. I have this tuned for hunting woodchip playgrounds with the Cleansweep coil mounted on it. I need to put a manual ground balance on it so I can use it in turf. I tried a couple of days ago but I had bought the wrong pots. I bought 10k ohm when I actually need 100k ohms. I tried anyway but it didn't work and I had to return it to stock. I hope to have another go at it next week. I want to put an external pot on it for both the ground balance and the notch width. Cleansweep in the woodchips. 8" concentric in the turf. Tesoro Golden Micromax with the new tone arrangment....Discontinued....10 kHz, with a gold tone that can be moved along the gold disc range. Worked well. But Tesoro thought its best attributes were bugs. When I called and tried to talk with them about it, they wanted to do all the talking and none of the listening. You can find my posts about it on Findmall, maybe. Many of my posts lost their content after the server crash/upgrade. I currently don't have one now but will probably get another one one of these days if I ever get the SGT sold. I loved the Cleansweep coil on this one. Almost never took it off. Fisher F5...This one is super for gold jewelry hunting in my opinion. I actually chain hunt with mine, well, not chain hunt, more like "clasp" hunt because it can be set hot with low gain settings and I just hunt the tiny clasps. Fisher F75.... I have a F75 LTD DST model and now that it's quiet and I can actually hunt with it I am finding it a super detector for just about everything. I find it working really well in JE mode with about a 20 sensitivity with the 10" eliptical coil off my F5. I love it. Teknetics Eurotek Pro... Low tone for iron, VCO mid tone for gold, and high tone for high conductors. This one works well for jewelry hunting. I should use it more. Its fun. Whites DFX....The DFX in 15kHz only, normalization turned off, or in reversed mixed mode. Whites V3i....I like the V3i mainly for the visual id. It offers spectragraph that shows three signagraphs on the screen, one for each frequency, but you can turn the spectragraph off, which then shows only one signagraph for the dominate frequency. It also allows you to adjust the number of VDI each bar represents, so you can change the defauft 7 TDI per bar to a smaller number, like 1 VDI per bar. There are other signagraph controls that allow you to tune the visual response just so, result being the best visual target representation available today, in my opinion. Intelligent visualization. I sold my last one to fund another purchase but will get another one in 2015. Those are my favorites. Right now I'm enamored with the F75. I'd pay a premium to get a Cleansweep/Bigfoot style coil for my Fishers. HH Mike

Sorry Everyone. I have been experiencing issues getting online, or when I do get on, keeping the connection. Mike

Here is a nice piece I found recently at one of my "claims". 14 Kt, somewhere in the neigbhorhood of 5 grams. I'd tell you the exact weight but my batteries went dead in my scale and I haven't replaced them yet. HH Mike

I do a lot of inland jewelry hunting in parks, playgrounds, school yards, and athletic fields. You might be surprised to learn that hunting processed gold (aka: gold jewelry) is a lot like hunting raw gold. I have found the adage; "Gold is where you find it," is just as true for gold jewelry as it is for raw gold. I prospect for locations that might hold gold jewelry, and once I find a piece of gold at a certain location, then I look to see if it might become a “patch”, A “patch” for me is a location that produces another piece of gold over time. A good patch might produce 6 or 7 nice pieces over the course of a year. I “lay claim” to a good patch by hunting it often and regularly. Hunting one of my claims is like hunting barren ground as I clean it out over time, so that each successive hunt can be faster and more efficient. The goal of course is to work the existing claims, while also making time for prospecting for other patches that might warrant a claim. Of course some claims are more productive than others, and sometimes a claim may dry up for a period of time. A good set of claims can put a piece of gold in your hand nearly every trip out, which is the ultimate goal. Another thing that prospectors and jewelry hunters have in common is the equipment set up, at least in my mineralized dirt. Just as for nugget hunting, you set up your detector to give you the cleanest sound possible on a nugget, so to do I, often using a test object to find the best settings (or detector). I normally use a BB just like a nugget hunter would use a test nugget. My ground can easily mask or break up a BB at too high a Gain setting, and then adding in Disc and Ground settings or combinations thereof can make it more important to setup for the cleanest response. Large targets take care of themselves but the small signals, and a lot of lost jewelry is small, takes a proper setup to find. Then there is the detector choice. While nuggets and jewelry can be found by any metal detector there are some that are better suited for the job than others. Just as some detectors work better at nugget hunting, there are metal detectors with features that work better for jewelry hunting. I’ll follow up with some of my favorites later. Hope this doesn’t bore anyone. HH Mike

A figure 8 would be the better route. Figure 8 gets much better depth than the DD configuration when compared side by side. For example, The Bigfoot coil is capable of 12" on a quarter while the Cleansweep is only good to about 7" tops. Same size coils, different configuration. The Bigfoot is a 3x18 Figure 8, the Cleansweep is a 3x18 DD. Figure 8 coils are like two box coils, only on a smaller scale. The hard part about figure 8 coil design is the tuning. A two inch bore hole limits you to 1-1/2" or smaller coils sizes. A 1.5" figure 8 would turn into a rectangular 1.5" x 9" figure 8, where the front 4.5" is the receive side and the rear 4.5" would be the transmit side. A 1.25 figure 8 would turn into a rectangular 1.25" x 7.5" figure 8, where the front 3.75" is the receive side and the rear 3.75" would be the transmit side. A 1" figure 8 would turn into a rectangular 1" x 6" figure 8, where the front 3" is the receive side and the rear 3" is the transmit side. You'd want to make all three and see which one works best. That size is probably looking at 6 to 8" on a nickel size target on a MXT. One thing to consider, 30 feet of cable connecting coil to detector is going to throw the whole thing off so after you get a coil built and tuned, you need to retune with a 30 foot cable in place. Good luck HH Mike

As I start to hear more reports of good ones, which, by the way were in peoples hands at the same time as the troubled ones I think it's all a tempest in a teacup. Like has been said before, a few with issues gets all the press. You also have to figure in the equation that many people really don't know how these things work, even if they have been using them for years. And some folks don't even like you trying to help. If you want to help you're called a stool pidgeon. I've decided to let that group figure it out on their own. Been trying all weekend to get on Findmall but I guess it's down. I just get DNS error messages. HH Mike

Hi Steve, I personally love the new F75. Mostly because I can actually use it now. My EMI enviroment has just grown steadily worse since the introduction of both the T2 and the F75 that even though I participated in their development, I was rarely able to use them in stable environments and sold them both. Late last year I had made one last try with a F75 LTD that was suposedly one of the EMI resistant ones, but it was totally unusable in my EMI environment and I quickly sold it and forever wrote the F75 off my list of potential high end detectors. Then right after the F19 was released, 1st Texas sent me a F75 to get feedback about it and the very first thing I noticed was it was quiet. I took it to one of the worst sites I have EMI wise, a place that even shuts down my Uniprobe headphone/probe combination. And it worked there! The other F75s never could. I couldn't max it out there, but a setting of 80 calmed it right down. And at the higher settings the EMI chatter wasn't "in your face" type chatter but more in the background. I loved what they had done with the DST. And the Fast mode. And the audio pitch selected in AM carrying over into disc, and the iron audio selections. I couldn't keep a smile off my face using it. It was that type of experience. The FA fast mode was singing off on targets loud and clear that didn't even give a response in DE. By the way, FA has to be ran at max sensitivity with the 11" DD coil for it to do what it does. Nothing less than 90, but better at 99. Anyway, made my report, and returned it when asked to. Then got suprised with a production model F75 LTD. They had listened and made DST user selectable and I'm totally in love with it. I said this before and I'll restate it again. It is impossible to go wrong with the F75 LTD now. I feel confident that the same can be said about the revised T2 LTD as well. Its no longer a crap shoot if a F75 or T2 is going to work for you anymore. Yes, it may have a slightly different feel now as compared to the previous revision. No, its not perfectly quiet in all types of EMI environments. But it is so much better than it was. The FA mode is the real deal, and all the feature changes are useful. I also admire that 1st Texas was willing to get involved in a upgrade project. They listened to their customer base from the last F75 update. They didn't have to but they did. Not only that but added the ability to extend the warranty AND make it transferable. I know there will be a minority that wont like it. But I know the majority will like it, and many, like myself, will just plain love it. Just needs some time to sort itself out. HH Mike .

I used to think those stories about people finding a vein or strike, then leaving, and then not being able to find it again later a strange story. I mean, how you could find something like that and then not be able to find it again. In my mind there would be no way I could forget how to find something like that. I would think I'd be able to go right back to it. Well, I can relate to the stories now. I was driving through a gold bearing area near me and saw an area I wanted to come back to with a metal detector. You know how it is when you have got the bug; geology takes on a new meaning. I'm always trying to identify what the ground is telling me. My wife gets bored with my amature geology convesation pretty quick sometimes as I start pointing out features as we drive along. To her its just rocks and dirt. To me its a story book. Anyway, we were driving up this road, natural on one side and cut on the other side, and I'm looking for areas in the road cut where the water worn rocks and gravel are resting on bed rock. It sounds easy enough but in reality it's not. Anyway I'm driving through a section of road cut rock and I notice a V in the rock from a old dry watercourse full of rounded gravel. Really caught my attention. A real X marks the spot type of moment. I mentally mark the area and determine to return with my metal detector at another time. I'm dreaming gold nuggets. That was in the early spring year before last. I went back about six weeks later certain that I coulc find the spot again, and guess what? I couldn't find it! To this day i haven't found it. I can see that V in the rock cut clearly in my mind but for the life of me I haven't been able to find it again. At least not yet. I think I have one more chance this year before the snow falls and prohibits travel on the road. If I don't find it on this trip then I'll have to wait for another spring to go searching for it again. Seems crazy that I can't find it. Just like it seems crazy for all those old stories. Anything like this every happen to anyone else? Drives me nuts just thinking about it. HH Mike .

Thanks. I appreciate the advice. HH Mike

Seeking some wisdom from the pros.... Those of you that hunt gold for a living, when you turn your gold into cash, how do you report the income? What is the best tax strategy to follow. Is it better to report it as individual income, or is it better to run it through a business? HH Mike

Hi Steve, Yes, so far I have kept it. I found myself liking it once I actually used it. Regards the 'iron grunt', it has no discrimination of any kind. No iron grunt, no tones, nothing. Just straight forward threshold based all-metal VCO. Any reference to any type of audio discrimination are misprints. I would imagine (or just being hopeful) that a larger release would have lead to mods for some type of discrimination circuit for larger iron or for a ground tracking lock function. Still, one may fall into the hands of a tinker :shrug: HH Mike

You don't see much about this one.....This is something I posted on Findmall. Still haven't got to use it in minerals yet. Its almost like my free time went up in smoke this summer and fall. I got some time off for Christmas and hopefully I'll get the chance to use it in black sand minerals and see how the tracking does in a more challaging environment. Anyway...maybe someone will find it useful........................................................ Finally got to sneak some time in and try out my new Sierra Gold Trac (SGT). I went looking for something like this for use as a cleanup unit for some of my jewelry sites (and if I was lucky with my time, even some real prospecting). I was looking for something in higher frequency than what was being offered in the new Fisher/Teknetics or Minelab Xterra products. I looked at both the GMZ and the SGT. I picked the SGT over the GMZ because of the threshold control. Right after I purchased it I got buyers remorse and put it up for sale, mostly because I didn't have any free time to do more than look at it occasionally. I think Ive had it three months now before I could actually work in an hour of actual me time to use it. White's Sierra Gold Trac SGT metal detector The SGT is a 48 kHz, all metal prospecting unit with only two controls; Gain and Threshold. Ground balance is handled by an Auto Ground Tracking feature that is advertised to come right off the GMT. The stock coil is a 6x10 DD. When I was talking to Jim S. about it he told me it was just a basic stripped down GMT. Now I didn't take it prospecting or try it out in minerals yet as I was only able to sneak away from home and duty for an hour while my beloved was taking a nap. So I took it to a close by wood chip tot lot just to get to swing it and fool around with it, you know what I mean? I should say that the woodchips are not mineralized but the ground the wood chips sit upon is mineralized so there is some mineral for the SGT to track to. However the mineral strength varied depending on the wood chip depth. The detector feels good on the arm and swings nice. I could use a little longer lower rod to make it a perfect fit but it was ok. I put the Gain on 7 and raised the Threshold until I got nice quiet hum, pumped the coil a few times until the threshold hum evened out and started sweeping. The SGT has a VCO audio response; shallow or larger objects produce a high pitch squeal and the deeper or smaller objects produce a lower pitch tone. No, it doesn't have tone id. That is just a botched website design that is picking up some of the SST information. But the VCO tone pitch variation is helpful in sizing and depth guestimations. As with most all-metal operating modes, smaller targets give a good zip and larger targets give a larger tonal sound. I didn't find it difficult identifying large metal objects because of this. The preset SAT is acceptable. The retune speed isn't super fast but it isn't super slow either so you have a little time to slow down and size objects before the threshold returns to normal and I didn't observe any noticeable overshoot nulling going on. I did see the auto ground trac feature tracking out targets. The first sweep would give a crisp audio report, the back sweep would give a good audio report and multiple passes after that would tend to degrade the audio information significantly. This was super easy to circumvent though. When I hit a target I'd give it a nice triple sweep to pinpoint it under the best part of the coil, then just place the coil off to the side, do a quick double pump to bring the auto track setting back to ground and then move back over the target. That gave me enough time to not only get another couple of good audio feedback sweeps in but also enough time to do the pinpoint wiggle with the toe of the coil to pinpoint with. If for some reason I wasn't happy, I'd move the coil off to the side and double pump the tracking back to ground and have another go at it. Wasn't really a big deal after I got going and understood what was happening. And I didn't get very many targets to track completely out but I could get them to the point of a very degraded, crappy sounding signal. Toward the end of my time out I was experimenting with the tracking out responses to see if I could get it to track out on the small ferrous like the little staples I was recovering while keeping the non-ferrous with a better audio however I didn't have enough time to make a significant determination about it and I'll continue to experiment with it. The adjustable threshold control was a bonus as I hunted with it a little at minimum setting (totally quiet) and a little time with it maxed out as well as at the normal light hum setting. I think there is some functionality there between the threshold control and the auto track target tracking that could be useful. I'll need some more time on it to see and that hasn't happened yet. Overall I enjoyed hunting with it. I will say a magnet stick is a must have as all the little ferrous will give a good signal and since there is no discrimination, that little staple has to be recovered. I just stuck a magnet into the end of my scoop and when I got a good zip, I used the magnet first, and if the magnet did not retrieve it I knew I had a non-ferrous object. I didn't find anything to be excited about during this hour, other than the fact I got out and found I liked the Sierra Gold Trac and I'm not in such a hurry to part with it now that I've used it. There was some things that I had trouble with. First the coil connector was fouled and I had to clean the threads to get the coil to connect properly. The first few times I tried to connect the coil to the box it wanted to cross thread so I suspect it was cross threaded at the factory. I cleaned that up so that it threads perfectly now. The second issue was that the coil seal is inconsistent on my coil. There are about three gaps in the coil seal that will allow this coil to suck water. I'll have to send this coil back to Whites for a replacement. Now I just need more free me time to hunt with it some more. Now that I got a little understanding I want to use it in more minerals. Until next time (read next year maybe if Im lucky), HH Mike

Thanks for the new prospecting forum, Steve. I liked your AMDS one. Didn't frequent it all the time but I did appreciate the knowledge. When I needed to know something about prospecting or prospecting equipment I could alway pop in there and find what I needed to know or get pointed in the right direction. Wishing you sucess. HH Mike

Thanks for the heads up. I'll check it out. HH Mike