Mike Hillis

I bought a equalizer to work with my Gold Strike, thinking I could remove the low tone. Didn't work. Yours might. Dunno HH Mike

I want one of those scoops! HH Mike

Mr Bill Crabtree was one of my favorite dealers. He kept inventory of all kinds. Sometimes when I had money burning a hole in my pocket I'd call him just to see what he had laying around I might want to try out. Often times he had something that caught my interest and I'd buy it just from him talking about it. I miss folks like him. Of course you could resale pretty easy in those days too so it wasn't hard to get your money back and go another round. HH Mike

I agree, Phrunt. I liked the way it id'ed that large iron as iron with iron bias on high. Also liked the tones of the Vanquish. The video was helpful. HH Mike

Hi Monte, There are a several things that I gravitate to on the 8500. Since I'm hunting specific non-ferrous targets in both non-ferrous and ferrous trash I like something more than just a phase shift target Id number to help with the discrimination. The Omega 8500 has the phase shift TID number and the Multi-Target Category system: "calculates four independent numerical Target-ID’s on each pass of the coil; one primary and three secondary. Each one of the Target-ID’s will correlate to a target category on the LCD. There will be one solid primary category lighting up and up to three additional secondary target categories. All are different readings of the same target, with the primary category being the one with most reliable signal. If the Target-ID’s vary, they will show up as multiple illuminated categories, and this could indicate the detector is picking up noise, a faint/weak signal or that the target is irregularly shaped" I like this feature. It helps with those steel crown style bottle caps, flat tin, and some canslaw. But it also helps in identifying irregular shaped objects as those never give steady id. Its a useful feature. I like the volume control for each target category and I like the ability to notch out high conductors. But using notch discrimination hampers the use of the Multi-Id Target Category system. By using the audio volume feature and turning down, or turning off the volume of the segment I don't want to hear I get to keep the Multi-ID target category system in play. My experience has been that the clipped audio is typically metal. The question is: are they good targets, rejected targets falsing past the disc/notch setting, decayed iron falses, or a hot rock. The deep clipped audio affects the tone id...and the only remedy is the non-modulated D5 mode which can drive you nuts with too high an sensitivity setting. I've hunted the clipped tones, every one, in easy to dig environments and they have all been metal of some type. Some tiny and shallow, some deep....but they were all metal objects. Odin.....coil question....The stock 10" elliptical coil has better disc TID and a smaller coil footprint. The 11" DD has a larger coil footprint, more depth, less stable TID. HH Mike

I'm on hold. I apologize. While I was price checking the 8500....I got sidelined by another make and model's advertised pricing, and when I followed up on it I basically couldn't walk away from the deal. Have you seen the price of new detectors lately? Unbelievable. This is certainly a good time for new folks to get into metal detecting. Anyway.... Continued at a later date. Mike

Chase, When in Multi mode, when you chose the program Detect mode and Profile, you have in effect chosen which frequency set will be used. You control that. That is select-able multi-frequency operation. The Vanquish only has one frequency set. None of the Detect modes are "weighted", to use Minelab's marketing speak. Whatever the frequency set consists of is what you have. The Detect modes differ only in recovery speed, discrimination patterns, and tone breaks. HH Mike

Getting ready to buy another Omega 8500. I love the feature set on this detector. I field tested prototypes of it and got a 1st production run model for compensation of my time, which I sold last year to fund some other detector purchases. Looking at the market there really isn't anything to compete with its feature set when you need something more than simple phase shift target id in its price range....when you get the chance take look at the operating manual. I especially like the Multiple Target Category System: This feature is available only in Discrimination Mode. For each target, the Omega 8500 calculates four independent numerical Target-ID’s on each pass of the coil; one primary and three secondary. Each one of the Target-ID’s will correlate to a target category on the LCD. There will be one solid primary category lighting up and up to three additional secondary target categories. All are different readings of the same target, with the primary category being the one with most reliable signal. If the Target-ID’s vary, they will show up as multiple illuminated categories, and this could indicate the detector is picking up noise, a faint/weak signal or that the target is irregularly shaped. It has its warts but I have found some good gold jewelry with it, attaching a little 18K eye candy... Now just to figure out where to buy it from. HH Mike

I loved watching them fly the wing suits in the new revised Point Break movie. I bought the movie just because of that. Too cool.

Chase, you are exactly right about hitting your good spots with different makes and models of detectors. That is a good advice for anyone as each detector model and make has its own weaknesses and strengths. Running them over the same ground just allows you to apply their strengths where the other model's weaknesses may have caused a miss. And they ALL have them. I thought about a buy and try on the Simplex just for curiosities sake but the resale detector market is in the dumps and I really don't need another plain jane phase shift target id detector and Waterproof doesn't really mean anything to me. I am closely watching the Vanquish however as that one will stand the market on its ear. Multi-frequency full spectrum detecting starting at $199 is going to take off like hotcakes. We jaded high end owners may yawn over it, but Minelab is redefining the low end detector market with this one release much like it has redefined the high end market with the Equinox release. Since I don't own a Equinox and have no plans to own an Equinox (not that they are not a good detector, they just don't offer ME anything useful), I am willing to put out a much smaller outflow of cash on the Vanquish to experience Multi-IQ for the masses. HH Mike

Or....maybe....I just thought this...maybe the rubber jack seal is universal and you unplug the end you are going to use?????? I dunno...just a thought.

Yeah...they started out with dual jacks, then cut down to just the 1/4". My first Gold Bug Pro version 2.9 had both the 1/8" and the 1/4" headphone jacks. They replaced the 1/8" headphone jack with the rubber headphone jack seal. All current Gold Bug Pro detector come with the 1/4" headphone jack and rubber seal. HH Mike

Hi Denny, I would have like to seen the trash pile so I could judge the trash to treasure ratio. What do you think it was? HH Mike

I am of the opinion the Vanquish will be a digital version of the Fisher CZ series. Multi-IQ at its heart is a two frequency simultaneous multi frequency detector. Selectable multi frequency on the Equinox, non selectable on the Vanquish. That is what has my interest. HH Mike

Entry level detectors are important. I myself entered this hobby in December 2003 with a $99 Bounty Hunter Tracker IV. I was going to spend the coupon on either a new fishing reel or a new backpack, but the detectors caught my eye and decided to redeem my coupon on the detector. Dick Sporting Good never got any stock in to ship my order and I used the coupon on fishing stuff in the end....but.....the seed was planted and in January of 2004 I bought the Bounty Hunter Tracker IV from Kelleyco. And I have been like a fish on the line every since then. The 3300 is a fantastic deal for 99 dollars. The F2/F4/ 3300 are basic George Payne designs. HH Mike

Continuing....Note I am almost always in the Micro operating mode. Regards Micro Jewelry: Per Tom Dankowski, I found a little 10K White Gold 3MM 4-prong stud earring to use as a test target. Note that 3MM is probably smaller than he would recommend as 3MM isn't a big enough stone to make micro jewelry hunting worthwhile, but..if you can you can pick up this particular target you can pick up anything as at this point that alloy and size is more like a mineral target than a metal target. The Gold Kruzer with the little 4x7 coil will pick up my test target at about 3/8" to 1/2" deep in Micro mode. Note that you CAN NOT test small gold with your hand. You have to put it on a wooden stick or something. The Gold Kruzer will respond to your fingers and give a false reading. The 10" concentric and the 10" DD will not respond to this target. So if you are really into true "Micro gold Jewelry" hunting the Gold Kruzer will limit you to the 4x7" concentric coil. Well....you can focus on small yellow gold and do ok with the larger coils but the micro white gold will be out of reach. I typically use the GK61 (my reference) as a clean up detector. For example if I have a good hot spot that I have been pulling good gold jewelry out of, then once I get the trash level down I'll come in and progressively hunt it down with the GK61. First either the 10" concentric or the 10" DD, and if I think it has promise for more, then I'll come in with the 4x7. I use the tone break to focus. The best number for me is 41. 41 has been good targets...open rings, lobster clasps....stuff like that. 43 through 46/47 has been thin/paper foil. Above 47 has been more dense targets.. I normally set my disc to around 30 and my tone break at 44 and hunt the low tone. A good VCO will get my attention now and again but mostly I've been focused on stuff that hits near the 41 TID. Reference...Nickels are around 62/63. This detector begs for a Notch upgrade. DIsc goes all the way to 99 so some sort of Notch feature needs to be developed and deployed for those of us who don't care to hunt high conductors. Say...when you put the Disc on 99, cancel out everything above 65 or something. Or give me some way to cancel out those 44, 45, 46, TID numbers. Anyway...that is the way I hunt it. Hope it helps HH Mike

Sorry guys....Been meaning to write about it but its been busy here I personally think its a keeper and a great companion to my primary jewelry units. You need to understand....61kHz is NOT hot on nickels. 61 kHz is hot on low conductors below the nickel range. If you have that clear in your mind and use it accordingly I think you will like it as much as I do. If your expectations are based around it being a nickel killer, then you will be disappointed. I'll have to come back later and add more.... Mike

Tom Walsh likes metal detectors. HH Mike

Yes, thanks for sharing. HH Mike

That is exactly why we have to hone our site reading skills to readily locate the hot spots and put our focus there. its counter productive to try and hunt the whole thing. HH Mike

I love the gold cross. Gold crosses are a tough target. HH Mike

Kind of funny how interested I am in the Vanquish series. Really looking forward to the release just to get more info. If its Multi IQ is the same as the EQ600 I'll probably get one. The thing that really ticked me off with the Xterra was the coil investment. Just a big money pit. But if Multi-IQ can give me full range target focus....at a price less than the EQ series, then I think I'm in. HH Mike

I don't know much but this I do know....its a must have book in your library if you do ANY prospecting what so ever. My opinion anyway. Mike

Gold and Silver......very nice. HH Mike

Hi Steve. I'm attaching the Pantera field test to add to your data collection. If you want the schematic, I have a hand drawn one. HH MikePantera Field Test.pdf