Mike Hillis

Their websites have nothing to do with factory productivity. These belong to marketing. I miss the World Treasure News. I miss the old Fisher Intelligence articles Tom used to write. I re-read my old ones periodically. Would like to see some new ones. I miss the downloadable catalogs. These things fueled my buy and try fever for years. I'm so old school I miss the print magazines. I don't mind the digital stuff. I put them on a Fire tablet to read at night without bothering my beloved, but I like the feel and smell of paper and ink. Dust mites and all. HH Mike

Hi Argyris, I don't use a Equinox but I often run into the same situation with hot rocks and tiny trash targets. My solution is to hunt in a single tone audio mode. Either a monotone or a VCO audio mode. The tiny stuff will sound tiny and the good targets will sound robust. I don't know if the Equinox offers a single tone audio mode? HH Mike

When I need to supply a loaner, its always the EuroTek Pro. They don't have to spend a lot of time learning it. Its easy to setup, easy to use and finds stuff. HH Mike .

Jeff, If you like understanding how things work, the DFX is a great primer for metal detector 101. If you don't have a good mixed mode model, the DFX has a great bumble bee to chase around. If you like getting a second opinion on deep targets using the DC phase number, which works in All Metal, by the way....(mix mode tip)..... And you don't need the money you will spend on it..... I say,....why not? I get the DFX bug at least once every three months and talk myself out of it because its kind of redundant since I got the V3 but it still calls to me. Good luck.. HH Mike .

There she is! Thanks Brian. That is a good looking ring. HH Mike

Operating frequency has characteristics for both reactivity and discrimination problem solution. I'll often use 2.5 kHz on the V3 to ignore or limit paper foil response when I'm am hunting through a high layer of surface trash on athletic fields. It behaves like a density check as a certain level of density is required for a good surface eddy current at 2.5 kHz. 5 kHz is still a bit high for a density check, though. HH Mike

Thanks, Steve. It was an informative video. Garrett has entered the realm of Whites and Minelab by being able to offer full spectrum detection along with the individual frequency selections that make up that spectrum. Interesting that Garret directly states it's Multi-Flex mode operates throughout the whole 4 frequency spectrum of the Apex. Glad to see none of the Minelab Equinox smoke and mirror advertising at work here. I wonder how they managed the battery drain of running all 4 frequency at once? Much more attractive than the Vanquish series. Minelab fumbled there as I'm sure the Nokta/Makro full band spectrum offering will also look more modern than the Vanquished when it's released. I'm sure 1st Texas Products is working on a selectable with full band spectrum unit as well since that is the new direction of general purpose models. HH Mike

Cal_Cobra Share another picture of that ring. That one was a real beauty! HH Mike

I like it. However, it is still a Garrett, and Garrett IS Garrett. I wouldn't expect any special sauce in the different programs other than discrimination patterns. Hopefully I'm wrong. Just need an operating manual to set me up or down. HH Mike

Jasong, thanks for sharing your trial and tribulations with the thieves and thieves and thieves. It helps me ask the right questions as I look at places for retirement or summer homes. Mike

Nice gold. You know I have yet to find a class ring and I am always a bit envious of those that do. HH Mike

Man...that is ugly gold. It's behaving like plate, though. But a ring is a ring and you take them when you get them. HH Mike

Thank you for adding the pictures, Steve. They make it a better read. Mike

I recently had the pleasant surprise of a mint condition Tesoro ‘Outlaw’ metal detector, minus coils, showing up at my doorstep as a gift from a very generous enthusiast and forum friend. It is an attractive metal detector and after spending a little time with it, I find it a very interesting detector, operational wise, as well. It has three operational modes; a motion all-metal auto tune mode, a non-motion all metal mode, and a silent search discrimination mode, all accessed via a three-position switch. It also includes a manual ground balance control dial that affects all the operating modes, a threshold control dial, a on/off + sensitivity control dial, a discrimination control dial, and in the center below the speaker louvers is a dual layer push button that servers both as a pinpoint and a retune button. Seems all very straight forward at first glance, until you discover its secret: The Tesoro Outlaw is a true, threshold based, metal detector. The threshold setting affects every aspect of the detector. The good news is the threshold setting is a set and forget control. Set it to where it gives the faintest hum and leave it alone. For me that is approximately the 1 o: clock position. And that brings us to the center Red Button. That little red push button in the center of the Outlaws face plate is the most important control on the detector. It is imperative that after every setting change that you make to the detector settings that you press and hold that red button and hear the threshold return. I mean after EVERY and ANY adjustment to the detector settings, no matter what the change is. If you change the disc setting, you press and hold the button until the threshold returns. If you change the Sensitivity setting, you press and hold the red button until the threshold returns. If you change threshold settings, if you change operating modes, after you ground balance, you have to press and hold the red button until you hear the threshold return. Takes about a second, maybe a second and a half for the threshold to return. No big deal once you understand it but it has to be done. If you don’t return to threshold after every and any operational setting changes the detector will be working at reduced performance/reduced depth, as if the threshold had been set somewhere below the audible hum, which will affect your depth. That is the way it operates. Once you figure that out you are golden. There are two all metal modes. The far-left switch position says ‘AUTO’. This is the motion all-metal mode with auto threshold retune. This is the operational mode that you need to be in for ground balancing. The all metal gain is preset. Sensitivity is controlled via the threshold setting. The threshold auto retune speed is perfectly acceptable for the majority of ground minerals. Might be a little too slow for really bad ground but for most of us it is fine. The middle switch position is the non-motion all metal mode. You control the threshold drift via the red button retune. Again, the all metal gain is preset. Sensitivity is controlled via the threshold setting. Ground balance affects depth performance for high conductors in all operating modes. Too far positive (clockwise) and you will severely impact high conductor response. However, the ground balance does not go all the way to salt so low conductors are not affected by a maximum negative (counterclockwise) setting. Yes….if you do not intend to use the all metal modes you can Power Balance in Disc mode. Yes….if you do not intend to use the all metal modes you can super tune the Threshold. The Discrimination mode is the far-right switch position. The Sensitivity control only affects this operating mode. The Threshold setting affects this operating mode. Ground balance settings affect this operating mode. Assuming you have your Threshold setting where you want it, and are ground balanced to an acceptable point, then you can further increase your sensitivity with the Sensitivity control. Discrimination control is classic Tesoro. I think the Disc range is ED120 or there abouts. It is easy to max the disc and just hunt high conductors and it is easy to disc out most small foil and hunt nickels upwards without losing a lot of depth due to the disc setting. I put the Cleansweep coil on it this past weekend and hunted recent drops and found it good on both high and low conductors. The Cleansweep is a fairly shallow coil….5” to 6” tops in Disc mode. Maybe 3” more in all metal modes. I was happy with its performance on both low and high conductors as a 10.6 kHz unit. I was happy that it seemed pretty EMI resistant. Ground balancing in the Auto tune mode is pretty straight forward, except you have go a bit slower on the coil pumps than you might normally be use to as you have to let the threshold retune between pumps, again about a second, second and a half. It’s a neat detector. I’ve never used anything quite like it before. HH Mike

F44 to the Equinox 800. That skipped a lot of tech and you don't know what you don't know. I'll point you to look back to the Minelab Etrac, or White's V3i, and even the Fisher F75+. All three are Flagship detectors that offer different and varied feature sets and performance gains in different scenarios. So before looking forward, look back and get some bench marks. Good luck, HH Mike

Quote, "Do we process more dirt? NOPE! Our secret is we spend our time processing dirt that is more likely to have gold, than other dirt.". That statement right there is the secret sauce. HH Mike

They are not black.....so they were not just laying around on the surface.....unless they cleaned them up.... HH Mike

I like it. Is the cross hollow or solid? If its hollow that would make a good test piece as gold crosses are normally hard to find due to their angularity and low conductivity. HH Mike

I like Garret myself. I like their fan base too. Lots of down to earth people that are nice to be around. I hope they continue to do well and help keep the treasure hunting equipment industry diversified in product offerings. HH Mike

Garrett rocked the detecting world with the ACE release and they rocked it again with the AT release. They may well be getting ready to do it again. HH Mike

Don't you just LOVE gold showing up? Nice find. HH Mike

I'm glad to see the Etrac is still in the line-up as I've become a fan of it. HH Mike

Hi Rick, The little 3mm 10k white gold stud earring is really more of a mineral target than a metal target and the premise is that if you can hit this difficult target at some acceptable distance (acceptable as determined by the user) then you will be able to detect any of the ultra small (micro), difficult to detect gold jewelry items, including the tiny non-round angular items. If your equipment passes this test, you know you have a capable detector for this type of hunting. You still have to learn to how to do it. Reality is that most of the gold targets will be yellow gold with is much easier to detect, and the majority of them will have some sort of closed loop, however small, to detect, which makes it much easier. For me I want some thing that I can take to a known hot spot that I KNOW has a good chance of holding these little and tiny gold items and if it passes this earring test then at least I know the equipment I'm using has the capability. HH Mike

I enjoy finding foreign coinage. I think its cool. Very nice dime!!! HH Mike

I love seeing gold come out of the hole. HH Mike