GB_Amateur

Here you go again, teasing us with what Chase might have found.... 😁 That padlock looks to be in excellent condition. What is its composition? I have a large skeleton key I found in a schoolyard that looks something like that. I'll round it up to see how close. (I don't think mine is older than the 1950's, possibly for a cabinet....)

Yes, that was the first thing I wondered when watching the video, and I went back afterward to see his settings, hoping I had missed it -- I hadn't. I also wondered about this choice, and particularly when he swung the coil relatively quickly. I don't know that he would have gotten a stronger signal with the Eqx had he changed those, but it's one of those things that I look out for when watching detector performance videos. Unfortunately I don't undestand a lot of detctors (XP's in particular) as well as I know the Eqx, so I can't be as critical of the settings chosen for other detectors. Always a weakness of detector comparisons -- how well do the testers know the detectors they are comparing? It's difficult to ignore the comparison part completely but IMO they should always be taken with a large grain of salt. I like this video for what it shows about the Deus 2 on its own. And as you note, possibly it also could be configured for even better performance in his test. Overall I appreciate his efforts and they do seem to show that the Deus 2 is a strong performer, in his conditions and for his targets at least.

Interesting video which was linked on the Dankowski forum. Not perfect (as none ever is), but worth a watch, IMO. It's not typical of ones I've seen. (Pretty sure this isn't posted here yet....)

Somehow I missed your two previous hunt posts; glad to get caught up. Seems as though you like winter detecting there in New England! Have you tried waxing your coil (cover) to help minimize snow buildup? Works for my snow shovels. I use carnauba paste wax (automobile version but wood floor version probably same thing). Heck, the choices for cross country skiiers -- I bet there's a perfect one for your situation. I like seeing all your trash (and of course the better stuff). Besides the lower weight, do you see any advantage of the 6000 over the 5000 for you type of detecting?

Let's see where this view of Beach 2 being the weaker sister comes from. As discussed, two things stand out -- "lower transmit power" and "very low weighted multi-frequency". The first part makes one feel that depth will be lost. The second park (see Steve H.'s recent treatise on the relationship between target size and transmit frequency) is a mixed bag, depending upon target size. A large artillery shell being found at sigificant depth with Beach 2 (and giving a better signal than Beach 1) could be due to this second point -- transmit frequencies weighted to the low end. (Jeff, I realize this second point is what you were saying with "Target size matters." I just linked to and added a bit more background explanation.)

Welcome, Johnny! Appears you're a seasoned veteran of metal detecting, and that fits right in the spectrum of raw begeinner through world expert. I look forward to your participation. What do you find in the lead mine tailing piles?

You had me feeling guilty, not giving more respect to the 'many others' you refer to. Surely the Europeans and Brits are responsive to them. Then, out of the blue comes this post (magazine cover photo on 5th post of page 8 of this thread, if this link doesn't go straight there) -- note the irony of the timing of the featured articles:

The ones earlier detectorists left for us... I don't know the age (or use) of that park, but think about it -- 50 to 100 or more years of drops with no detectorists to hunt them down. I've found over 10 clad dimes in a day, more than once, in parks and schoolyards that may have been already detected (probably not in the last 20 years, though). I know others here do way better than that with their clad Hoovering. And I don't live in a big city like San Francisco. Raphis still finds multiple silvers in an LA park that he and others have detected for decades. I think he's related some of his stories from years gone by and I know his annual counts are astronomical compared to what I can get today. A new latest and greatest detector to hunt today or a trip back in time to use one of those dinosaur (agility AND weight 😁) T/R's? I know which one I'd choose. Only problem is I'd have all of you as company. 🙄😉

Say what? Did I miss something? Or do you and I use the term "back to the drawing board" differently? Last I saw (from Dilek) they are implementing some tweaks/fixes that were discovered by field testers. Maybe I read some speculation by people thousands of miles away from the action, but I try to not be drawn in by that.

Apparently the author of this piece doesn't read his/her own article. Solid? The cube measures over a foot and a half on all sides and has a wall thickness of about a quarter inch. (emphasis mine). The $11.7 million is probably right, though. A solid cube of pure gold, 18 inches on a side..., now that would be worth something (and also be difficult to move around, weighing about 2 tons or as much as a large automobile).

For all metal detecting targets it's "all of the above". But don't throw out composition as it's one of the components. Trying to determine the order of imprtance of the variables would a tall task indeed, and IMO would not likely lead to a universal relationship but rather one inter-dependent on the variables. E.g. for coins it's one order, standard (no jewel) wedding bands another, gold nuggets..., earrings.... And that's the tip of the iceberg. Change any one of the variables and a new relationship might exist. As an (extreme?) example of composition effect in coinage -- where the geometery is the simplest -- take the USA Wartime 5 cent piece. 35% silver and 56% copper. So far you'd think "high conductor" that would likely ring up somewhere in the 20's dTID on the ML Equinox. But if you'll notice, that only adds up to 91%. What did I leave out? 9% Manganese -- one of the poorest conductors among metallic elements. That drags it down to ~13 on the Eqx dTID scale. Where are silver rings compared to gold rings on the dTID scale? Today there are a lot of wedding bands made of base metal alloys -- titanium, tungsten, stainless steel are examples. I haven't found any of those in a while (because I concentrate on US coin dTID's) but I don't think they are all the same dTID's as similarly sized (or weighted) gold rings. But geometry (including thickness -- look where the European hammered coins ID) play a huge role, too. You mention other geometric (orientation) and chemical (ground mineralization) factors which are also important. Thus why I say "all of the above".

As I watched him find deep copper pennies, I was wondering how mineralized his soil is. Those sure were loud-and-clear signals (with steady dTID's) on the two pennies (I think one was 9 inches and the other 10 inches deep, or there about). I like the Eqx Gold Mode for park detecting but so far only for investigating weak Park 1 hits. Having a mode with lower frequencies, as on the Deus 2, could up the value even more. IMO, this kind of live video tells me more about how a detector will perform (obviously in the ground & trash conditions present) than other types of videos. Admittedly that field seemed to have particularly low trash (and low mineralization?), which is ideal, of course. I'd much rather see a few recoveries without edits, as this video shows -- i.e. the sounds, the screen, the digging, the final recovery plus seeing him skip over targets he decides are trash, while telling you why he's doing so. Real detecting -- the good, the bad, and the ugly!

Welcome Ed! Check out this and this and this (note: hovering cursor over underlined text will show a link, usually).

Too bad you don't have it with you. I haven't seen a video (yet) of anyone using it underwater to search for natural gold. You could have swung by Nome on the way home. Safe trip and I look forward to your reporting of your experiences with your new detector, hopefully in a couple weeks.

Welcome, Croc! Have you done a (auto) ground balance? As the coil moves toward or away from the ground, even a small amount, the ground can be heard if the detector is out of ground balance. This doesn't necessarily happen in every environment and similutaneous multi-frequency (SMF) detectors such as the Equinox are more forgiving since they can do some ground balancing internally by comparing responses at different requencies. But there's a ground balance function on the Equinox for a reason (and it's not for a placebo effect 😁). Your ground may be tough enough that a ground balance is needed for quiet operation.

Four oldie day -- I'd be thrilled with that. Daffodils? Spring is just around the corner! 👍

For completeness, here is a link to Part 1. The following (from early in the article under Spanish Exploration) makes the following statement: Gold finds in what is the U.S. today prior to the 19th century were non-existent. For the most part, very little gold was found by these early explorers in the Southeast, Southwest, or any of the other parts of what would become the U.S. and Canada. That's a surprise given the many stories of lost Spanish mines. Yes, some of those stories about about silver mines. (The Southwest USA was part of Spain and Mexico during most of the first half of the 19th Century, so stories about gold mining then aren't specifically rejected by the above quote.) Note that the two sentences above may be contradictory -- "non-existant" and "very little". I'll see what else I can dig up. Q. David Bowers has an entire book on USA mints. I'm a bit surprised (or more accurately, 'disappointed') that I see no mention of that in the article. The Bowers book was published in 2016 and possibly the article was written previously, but given the date on the webpage articles it should still have been mentioned, at least in a footnote. (Possibly it was and I missed seeing it....)

If you go to Ebay, do an Advanced Search ( Garrett "AT Pro" -- if you don't put the AT Pro in parentheses you'll also get pinpointers, etc.), checkmark the "completed" box (i.e. those items that actually sold so you can see actual settled prices), also in the sidebar check 'used'. There are many on that list right now, and the prices vary, but you can click on them and see the original listing. (Sometime there are added items, e.g. coils, which will bring higher prices. Damage, of course, means a lower price.) Auctions always involve an auctioneer's (or auction site) fee, and online auctions have shipping costs, so that needs to be folded into the evaluation. Sales tax is another potential add-on. The 20 hours of use is a plus, but those kinds of things can be difficult to monetize. There's often an issue of trust when that enters the picture.

Would you give an example or two of minerals that fit this profile?

Thanks for the test, video, and showing the settings. For future tests, best if you include showing the response for the ground/hot-rock/etc. without the conductor present -- a control. Otherwise we're left wondering if the response for the combination was merely the response of the background host, with the conductor fully masked.

It took me a while to figure out who 'CB' is. (Calabash Digger -- now I get it.) Still, a link to the video you are referring to might help....

Here's a good (long) thread from Dankowski which has been linked here before (that's how I found it). You'll recognize a lot of the same suspects (err, posters) there as here. Eye-opening for me. Just when I think I understand my detector.... 🙄 Below is a thread here on detectorprospector.com that refers to the above linked thread and at least one other, plus some discussion. How did I miss all this??

Welcome, Turhan! Please tell us a bit more about your detecting experiences, equipment, and goals/plans. I know you have a lot of history there just awaiting discovery. Nokta/Makro user?

Thanks for the vid, Andy. Seems like an objective comparison to me. I do have a question. When switching the Eqx from Park 1 (where you stated, if I remember correctly, Recovery Speed = 4 and Iron Bias F2 = 0), did you use those same settings for Park 2, Field 1, Field 2?

Good to know, but your previous post included: There are certainly a lot of rumors flying around on about any subject one wants to investigate. I don't know if the social media explosion has led to the practice of people saying anything they wish to say without pointing out it is purely their speculation or opinion, but it sure seems to be rampant. You're a welcome new addition here and I don't want to discourage your participation. From other posts you've made I've seen some good, personal observations. Other metal detecting forums aren't quite as well maintained as this one. (I'm not a moderator -- that's Sysadmin Steve Herschbach's practice. He wields that sword sparingly, and from what I've seen, primarily for personal attacks, spam posts, etc.) I'm just one member/poster, but it's in all of our best interests if what is written here is reasonably accurate and if possible, referenced, but in the least labeled as speculation/rumor/etc. when those are its foundations. Bottom line is although starting or spreading rumors isn't prohibited AFAIK, it's definitely preferable those kinds of posts be explicitly labeled/qualified as such. Again, welcome and I look forward to your continued participation.