GB_Amateur

Welcome, Tree! You may be on record pace for likes thanks to that excellent (well written) post you made in another thread. It's clear that writing is an enjoyable pasttime for you, though I'm guessing not quite up there with searching for nature's prizes. Keep up the good work.

I was out in the park today searching nearby so I decided to try some of the ideas & suggestions you guys have provided. Thanks to kac and Joe D. for those. ElNino77, I didn't see your post until I got back home. Thanks and I'll do some experimenting with your recommended settings. I was detecting with the 6" round DD (excellent coil -- found some coin-ID non-ferrous in areas I thought I had detected and where I'm sure others have, so likely taking advantage of the better separation a small coil provides). I was playing around with Gold 1 mode, recovery speed = 6, using threshold discrimination set at 10! (Well, since I don't typically use any disc. that is a lot for me.) But when I made it to the iron infested path along the creek I switched back to Park 1, no disc., but upped the recovery speed from 4 to 5. I only spent about 15-20 minutes, my simple goal being to dig some of the iron hits. I found two small nails (don't know the size, but no larger than 4d) and a piece of barbed wire. The nails were within an inch or so of the surface and the wire was down about 3 inches. Hmmm. I don't think this area was ever fenced, at least not along the path or creek as it is a natural gully, but it's not impossible. IMO it's more likely that the iron trash was somehow embedded in the path's gravel when that was laid down. I previously thought they might have strained/sifted/classified the creek gravel for the path but I would expect that would leave wire (think lobster traps...), not nails. So now I'm thinking the gravel was hauled in and for some reason it was 'contaminated' with nails and fence wire. Not sure why that would be the case, though. Remember this was done during the great depression so they were likely in recycle mode whenever possible. There had been a dance hall and swimming pool (with parking lot) during the Roaring 20's that burned down. I wonder if they stripped the no longer needed parking lot and the nails were mixed within after the fire....

Most responses thus far have been about natural occurring gold or beach/water detecting. Here's something from a book I'm reading which seemingly applies to all forms of detecting and seems relevant to this topic: The pristine, virgin... sites are becoming fewer and fewer, as most detector-users know all too well. Seldom does a person find an obvious hunting spot that has not been searched already, not anymore. (emphasis mine) and later: Who amongst us has not heard, over and over again, "Oh, that's a hunted-out spot."? OK, my quiz question for the day to you: what year was this written? (Answer in a couple days if no one gets it before then.) Your goal should be to get within 5 years of the date. I'll call that a 'correct' answer, but I may still wait unless someone nails it (likely someone who has read the book).

More information would be helpful, such as: 1) What Equinox mode and what frequency? What sensitivity/gain setting? 2) Did you ground balance (i.e. automatic or ground grab or manual)? 3) Which coil were you using? 4) Was your hole large enough to get the coil into? Wide enough to sweep the coil? 5) Did you use the detector's pinpoint function to estimate the lateral size of the object? 6) When the coil was still on/at the surface level, how many bars showed on the strength/depth meter? 7) Were you using a handheld pinpointer, and if so, did it ever sound-off on the target (i.e. after digging to the max depth)?

Unfortunately this story isn't about an interesting find. I haven't had many of those this summer but autumn weather (cool temps, cloudy skies, and many fewer park visitors!) are opening up so maybe I can break the bad streak there. I was in my favorite park where I've been searching most of this pandemic year. I've saved some of the parts which are most frequented by park visitors and thus the most difficult to exercise social distancing. (Most wear masks, but not all, and I don't like to detect with a mask on so I just do my best to stay far away from people, which works.) There is a ~2 meter wide walking trail about 120 meters long which is hilly and wooded on one side with a shallow creek on the other. The trailhead is in an open area which I've hunted more than once this year with modest success (old coin wise). As I got a few meters from the trailhead (detector running) I started to pick up quite a few ferrous hits -- considerably more than typical for this site. I quickly decided there may have been a building or fence closeby in the past. But as I started up the trail it continued. I'm talking 6-10 ferrous hits per swing. And it's pretty consistent. I checked my ground balance and it was fine. The hits were peaking in the -4 to -2 range, so very unlikely to be hot rocks (which are rare around here, anyway). I walked into the wooded part next to the trail and the ferrous hit rate dropped. I was using the ML Equinox w/11 inch round DD, Park 1, 5 custom tones, gain = 23, recovery speed = 4, Iron Bias F2 = 0, no discrimination/notching. As I've been doing lately, my user profile was Park 2, 50 tones, recovery speed = 6, IB F2=0. I use that for target investigation. I continued up the trail, only having to step aside for one small group of 4 people. On the way up I was covering the full trail with my overlapping swings and on the way back I went more quickly but still covered maybe 50%. During the ~2 hours time I found two 22 casings (surely over 50 years old since this is a municipal park) and one green (95% copper) Memorial(!) cent. Date turned out to be 1967. It was as green as most of my oldest Lincoln cents and the typical Indian Head cent finds in my area. I also dug a couple beavertails, but only 2-3. Normally I'd get about 10 or more at this site over that time period. None of these recoveries was deep; the Memorial was deepest -- maybe 3 inches -- and it was not a clean signal (nor pure VDI) at all. In that particularly recovery I got two pieces of wire and a boot tack(!). (Gold detectorists, you know the feeling. 😁) Another hit that sounded decent (far from ideal) turned out to be a small nail. So what was up? Here are some more clues. The trail itself was gravel paved, with the size ~1 inch and larger. But unlike most of the trails in this area, it was water rounded gravel, not sharp crushed limestone or tiny river gravel. That was another headscratcher. Also, this park was a Work Progress Administration site (1930's federal government employment program to improve infrastructure and provide jobs) with many signs of that still remaining. After getting home and contemplating all this, I think I figured out what was up. (I'll let you speculate if you're still following this post and have interest in trying your sleuthing skills.) The lesson I learned (again, only after getting home) was that I should have adjusted my detector and settings. Would the 6 inch coil make more sense? What about a faster recovery speed? And now reading ElNino77's comments on discrimination, how about silencing the low (ferrous) VDI bins? (BTW, I did check what the Beach modes sounded like -- just as bad.) This trail has been used over 80 years (WPA ended about then). Maybe there are detectors better suited (e.g. XP Deus/ORX) but even they won't make this area a cake-walk. That means there are likely some juicy old coins here as any previous detectorists would have had similar problems. Any other suggestions on change of settings or detector are welcome.

Don't forget the SilverSaver, even if we don't know what it's intended use/target audience is.

That kind of artificial intelligence is doable today, although the R&D cost might be an issue given the limited market. (Metal detectors don't have the distribution volume of smartphones....) Maybe doing this in steps over the next few years is more reasonable. White's certainly was headed in the right direction for many years providing visual information to aid our brains. ML has done some, too. Much of that direction seems to have gone stale, though, from my viewing angle, anyway.

Can those be tied to a particular time period/skirmish/etc.? What's the silver-looking coin-like object under the two pennies in the photo?

Could that be a cross pattee? The depiction on the side might help narrow down what this particular ring's meaning. Is that some kind of bird-human hybrid?

I recognize part of a rosary (Roman Catholic bead set for keeping track of a prayer series): I can't tell from the photos if yours is precious metal (silver) or not. If 'yes', maybe the remainder is still out there and worth another check. Not surprisingly these come made of a variety of materials (from plastic to olive seeds to precious metals and gems). Didn't know the beach was a popular place to use one 😁 -- possibly in someone's purse or pocket that accidentally fell out. That's a nice variety of finds. The bracelet is pretty interesting. I'm surprised someone didn't find/pick that up from just sight.

I was detecting along a trail in a local park this week. A grandmother (apparently) and three youngsters came by so I found a convenient place to step away from the trail to get out of their way. (Social distancing...) One child who looked to be about 6 years old told his younger brother as they walked by: "that's a metal detector." Oh, but they still probably thought I was a weirdo.

That sums it up nicely. We don't need 'curse' in the title. We don't need exaggerations as the narrator does repeatedly, much to my annoyance. We don't need pirates or Knights Templar or Francis Bacon or William Shakespeare. Except, if we want to watch, we actually do. Because they can't justify the small audience that would result from leaving out all the sensationalism. So those of us gullible enough to not have figured it out after watching a couple shows, who aren't so cynical that we think it's all fiction to make oodles of $ for the 'actors', TV networks, and corporate sponsors -- we come back for more. Sometimes it's disappointment and annoyance, but often enough there are tantalizing pieces of the puzzle to tickle our curiosity. For some of us, anyway.

A year and a half ago you told us this, but apparently in my case it went in one ear and out the other. Thanks for your patience. Although my ground is only moderately mineralized I still need to give this a try. I've always been averse to using notching and threshhold discrimination except for one tone detectors (e.g. Tesoro Vaquero) but if it improves the VDI -- that's a different story. Thanks, again El Nino77!

If I understand what you say, I'm surprised, and I don't recall anyone mentioning this (or if they did, I missed picking up on it). Have you or anyone exhibited this in contolled (test bed/garden) conditions? I've always assumed that notching out the lowest channels was the same as applying a sound filter to your headphones -- blocking out any sound from the low channels but otherwise doing nothing. I do recall people setting tone breaks (and possibly notch discrimination breaks) at key locations to highlight certain targets by their erratic audio signals at those breaks, but it seems to me that what you are saying is a considerably more drastic effect.

I asked a similar question a couple years ago, around the time it was released. It seemed strange to me that the magic number 0 just happened to be chosen as the most typical/neutral setting. I recall Steve H. saying (paraphrased) "no, there's nothing special as far as the meaning of zero." In other words, only a slight change occurs going to either -1 or 1, as would be expected for ground adjustments of detectors. Of course he might have changed his mind since then. 😄

This topic comes up often (for metal detectors in general, not just the Minelab Eqx). From what I've learned here and in other readings, 'mineralization' as used in metal detecting refers to ferromagnetic minerals which are far and away dominated by certain (not all) iron oxides, particularly Fe3O4. Two naturally occurring minerals which are the most responsible are magnetite and maghemite (but not hematite, which is the most common ore used in iron processing, AFAIK). Ground balancing is matching adjusting for the phase shift of ground minerals in general, and although Fe3O4 will contribute, there's more to ground phase than the ferromagnetic component. Thus knowing the ground phase or ground balance setting doesn't tell you the mineralization. (Some detectors such as the Fisher Gold Bug, the Fisher F75, the XP Deus, and some White's models have actual ferromagnetic mineralization strength readouts.) The Equinox unfortunately does not. I think the recommendation for ground balancing of the Eqx goes like this: "When first learning the detector, leave it at 0. As you get more comfortable with the detector, adjust it." I always adjust mine at turn-on if I don't foget, but it often tells me when it's set improperly by grunting when my coil isn't swung perfectly parallel to the ground. Even in my moderate ground it can change over scales of 10's of meters, so I often adjust in the middle of a hunt. Also note that each mode and even single frequency within a search category (Park 1, Park 2, Field 1, etc.) has its own ground balance setting. (Ground balance is a 'local' setting, not a 'global' setting, using terms from the Eqx manual.) BTW, welcome to the detectorprospector.com forum, longbow62!

That caught my eyes and ears (he mentioned it on the preview last week), and gave me a sinking feeling. That was confirmed last night. In the last 5+ years I've watched about every treasure/prospecting show that regular cable carries. This one is my favorite, and the reason is because of Marty Lagina in particular. He's not one of those "stars in my eyes" kind of people (like his brother, who I really do like also). He's an Occams Razor skeptical type of person. The other thing about this show that sets it apart -- they use the most up-to-date scientific investigation methods, and include many knowledgeable and experienced investigators from universities, etc. And that's why I'm disappointed. I really couldn't care less if Gary Drayton falls for hocus pocus. I just wish Marty had less confidence in Gary. So what's my problem with the OKM exp 6000? Simple. I've looked through their literature and I can't find anything where it says how it works. They brag about all its (seemingly questionable, IMO) capabilities, features, bells and whistles. But anything about the science behind it? Not that I can find. If that (in conjunction with its pricetag) doesn't signal ones skeptical side, well, it should. I looked at Carl's page and can't find this one listed. Maybe he'll see this post and chime in. Ok, I'll post the link to their USA distributor (it's manufactured by a German company). I'll give you one guess and a hint -- a recent new member of this forum has the same name as this company. Read all about the OKM products here. Don't expect to get any straight answers on how they work, though.

I wonder if that's a typo given that the max temp in F units is 120 (almost 50 C equiv.) Either that or you can run under higher ambient temps only in countries that refuse to convert to the metric system. I wonder if "Speeds 10" refers to recovery speed.

You mean out of the ground, just sitting there after turn-on, it drifts?

18k gold should be easily distinguishable from pure copper (or bronze or brass) in a specific gravity measurement. (See this useful table.) Still, 4 gold rings and 3 silver ones -- just wow!

Was the beach made up of clean sand? I'm asking because I see that the silver pieces are tarnished and wondering why that happened. Excellent haul -- hope you can make it back for more soon and thanks for listing your settings and digital TID's.

Could you (or someone) link us to more info on this coil. From the 'Evo' in the name I'm assuming NuggetFinder coil for PI detectors. But I really don't like to assume....

For starters, he was on sensitivity 3 out of 4....

If that isn't your find-of-a-lifetime I'd like to know what is. Just beautiful, IMO. (Excellent photo, too.) I don't expect to ever match or beat that, but I guess I can hope, and thanks for proving it's possible. Reminds me of strick's 1918/17-S quarter find. I would be giddy for a month (at least) if I found a rarity such as either of those. I suspect Whitman (authors) are working on a new edition and this one (6th edition) is out-of-print. The 5th edition is available for a much more reasonable price, and if I'm right the 7th edition will be, too. If it were I (and I didn't already have th 6th) I'd either wait for the 7th or maybe pick up the 5th, possibly a used copy. Of course there are always new entries but most of the valuable/interesting ones don't change from edition to edition other the estimated value and possibly survivability estimates. (Always exceptions, though.)

I wouldn't buy a metal detector yet. The first thing you should do is find out your rights. You could start a new thread in the main forum (https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/forum/4-detector-prospector-forum/). Title it something like "seeking information on Canadian mining laws". Then ask your questions about mineral rights, ownership rights, etc. Assuming you have some rights to recover gold on your property, the next step is to find out what size gold has been mined there and in your area. Some locations have only tiny gold which will not be detectable. Size matters! I mentioned member Jim Hemmigway earlier. You could send him a private message via the little envelope icon on the very top of the detectorprospector site you are viewing right now. It's located at the far upper right corner. Just give him a brief overview like you have here and ask for his advice on proceding. Even if you have no mineral rights on your property there still are possibly areas not far from you that you can prospect and maybe even detect. You're on the right track asking questions. Persevere.