Azavsfan

That's great! I don't want to hijack this one so I'll be posting another thread soon with a picture of what my wife got my son to get him primed for this hobby. Never too young for this.

Great ornament and best wishes to all!

Gotta get a pair of those sandals! Good laugh, thanks! Lunk - for a $50 dollar bill I am gonna try those. I really like the Keen boots I wear now, but this desert and boot scraping is not kind and they are not holding up at all for the price I paid. All - I really appreciate all the info and please keep it coming. It seems like others are interested in these topics as well.

Really 2 topics here. I am interested in what kind of boots you folks use while detecting. I prefer metal free and currently use a pair of Keens but the sole is already starting to delaminate and they have less than 60 hours out and about. I know they are good about replacing them, or so I have heard, but I would really like something that will hold up reasonably well and won't give me that falsing that can happen when I forget about metal in boots. I ran into a Border Patrol agent who said he uses a boot called Vibram Rocky that has no metal and stands up to the terrain down here in Yuma by Sea (sorry Condor, I can't resist repeating your catch phrase). Comments or new ideas? 2nd question is about a standalone GPS unit that folks use. I have an old Etrex but would like something a little newer and if possible it will accept Google Earth images/KML files so I don't have to try to redo all the points I have saved to my places and the special MRDS and other KML layers I've accumulated. Any info is appreciated and I know from experience that somebody out there is bound to learn something from these topics besides myself. Thanks in advance.

I use a Galaxy S5 and as long as I have my bifocal polarized sunglasses on, I am good to go. It still helps to shade the screen with my hat or body.

This is my first year with the SDC and I've only got 40-60 hours on the model down here in Yuma by the Sea, although 3 different physical units have been used to date. Since starting it's use I've managed to find a whopping 3.06 grams located in roughly a dozen pieces. If I count the calories burned, quality time with Dad and new friends made, it is priceless. Getting more knowledge every trip about the unit as well as areas hunted. Great stuff! Merry Christmas and I am not gonna let the skunk today ruin it.

I use that #9 in Steve's reply way back on page 1. Now that he mentions it though, it would be nicer to have the digging end flat instead of rounded. I'm gonna really start to notice that and now I'll be on the lookout for something else. Thanks a lot Steve. (Sarcastic humor intended)

Thanks for posting this. I can always use an excuse to get to Vegas but it's the approval from the Mrs that's the hard part.

Skunk-2, Yumans-1. As the score suggests the skunk got hold of Steve and Dad today but I managed to get rid of that stink scoring 3 small pieces with Condor's SDC (big thanks!) while mine is away. Drywashing wasn't good after a few buckets so we concentrated on the detecting. As you can see in the pic it's a paltry 0.31 gms and the biggest is only 0.16 gm but a few more for the poke. Next time I take the pic I'll have a paper towel so the gold contrasts more than it does against the scale. Our new guy called in sick so maybe next week. Good luck all and Merry Christmas!

I'm gonna have to find my bottle of Nic-a-date to bring the date out on that Buff, or just let it be. The 55 Lincoln features are sharp so I'm guessing those coins were lost in late 50's or very early 60's. Another friend of ours happened to find an 1854 Half Dime not far form the same spot. WOW was all we could say and those trash signals aren't always trash. As I am looking 50 in the face and Dad is staring at 70, we can definitely appreciate your words about enjoying the time together. My personal circumstances and health issues that led me here don't need to be publicly detailed here, but needless to say I am making lemonade from the lemons that life has thrown my way and I wouldn't change anything. I've met some great folks with this hobby, the time with Dad is awesome, and my overall take on the important things in life has changed considerably for the better (IMHO). Headed out with Condor tomorrow so I'll try to get pics up if we find anything. Gonna be taking a friend from school who has the fever bad. Young active duty Marine I met in class and just by chance got on the subject of gold/rock hounding and the 25 year age difference melted away. Being a vet didn't hurt either. Funny how those commonalities just bring walls down that most folks have up. We'll be introducing him to drywashing and that way we are almost guaranteed some color and he can quench that thirst. I know you snow bound folks like the pics as much as I do during the summer heat when I can't really get out. Good luck and Happy Holidays!

I have to say that Condor is a great writer but he also practices what he preaches. If not for running into him while out and about in the desert of "Yuma by the sea", we wouldn't have got our (Dad and myself) SDC units. We've been out several times with Condor since that first meeting and I am really glad that we waited for the owner of the prospecting truck we found in the middle of nowhere earlier this year to get back from his walk-about. I'm equally glad that we met before he got his GPZ or we probably would've got those instead. A little kindness goes a long way and who knows, you may end up with a friend or friends in the process.

Hello all. I haven't posted in a long time but have been busy! No hunting over the summer due to the wonderful Yuma weather we have. I started college in the fall so hunting didn't start until a few weeks ago. No sooner had I started the SDC up and it had problems. Bad falsing and audio cutouts/volume hi/lo variations. Tried different batteries and cleaning out skid plate w/no help. Minelab said send it back, again, and it's off. Not the same problem I had with first SDC in March, but similar and I'm really bummed as my winter break is over 11 Jan and so goes my hunting time. Fortunately we have a friend here that has a spare md for me to use (Thanks Condor/Steve!). Of the few times out, I did manage to find an old coin spill w/one silver Merc (1943S), an undated Buff and a 55 Lincoln cent. Jan school will be interesting since I'll be taking Geology 101 and my classmate is also my detecting buddy who is better known as Dad. I look forward to it but want my SDC back. Good luck and Merry Christmas to all!

It's been forever and a day or so it seems, but it was an SDC2300. Cool weather soon!

Nice job Dean. I'll let you know when I'm up there next time so maybe we can get out and cover some ground. Should be around the weekend of the 23rd or 30th. If one of those works better for you let me know. Ed

I got mine at AZO and wear em all the time. Between the eyes getting older, the headphones covering the ears and the gold fever obscuring everything, its a cheap insurance policy.

Thanks for running the test and posting results. My brand new replacement SDC was shipped to me and should be here in time for the weekend. As long as it works better than the first one I'll be back out soon. Currently in Prescott Valley and did some panning on Lynx to scratch the itch. Managed a few colors and it was nice country. Hope to be back up later this month and maybe get out with Dean or some others who are up here. Thanks again AjR and good luck out there.

Good stuff Lunk, thanks for sharing.

Nice gold! Good job on the finds.

Called ML Americas today and they agree that it's defective. Sent me a return label for shipping and once they get it they will send me a new one. Can't wait as there aren't many detecting days left down here in Yuma. We're looking for 103 on Thursday.

Congrats, that is one heck of a piece.

Have a safe trip Dean and I'll post after I touch base with MineLab tomorrow and let you guys know what the result is.

Thanks for the encouragement but the not so old detector isn't working right and hasn't since I got it end of March. What I thought was EMI is really my SDC just bugging out frequently. The hour run yesterday was a test where my Dad and I swapped SDC's for an hour and ran with same settings (3/3) since we got them at the same time. Within 5 minutes we both knew something was wrong with my unit. I couldn't believe how smooth and quiet his was and he was stunned that I had previously found gold with my unit because it just won't smooth out and is very frustrating to listen to for more than a few hours. I've emailed Chris over at AZO and will be getting him the unit to verify but will probably have to ship her out to Minelab. These things happen and it it's just the nature of electronics. I'll let you know how it plays it out. Good luck and happy hunting.

Congrats! I got out for an hour today but just lead and frags.

Good luck on next trip. I'm headed out tomorrow and hope to shake the stink as it looks like the 100's are gonna be here soon and once they get here they like to stay for a few months. In Yuma by choice and circumstance, not USMC or Army but I can hear em all the time with the detector.

Ok bado1, how did it go today? Down here in Yuma it was a cool 82 with lots of lead and bullet frags but the skunk continues it's 5 trip strangle on me and my SDC. I hope you had better luck with the yellow metal and stayed dry because it looked like it was headed your way.