tboykin

Made me laugh. I'm still in the squat-behind-the-brush phase, but I make sure to leave a nice-sized fishing sinker everywhere I do my duty. Careful where you dig at Rye Patch!

Both of the machines got wet from the drips, but they can take that. Just don't want to submerge them.

*** NOTE *** DO NOT ENTER MINES. This trip was with an experienced geologist and miner. Leave the mine exploring to the professionals. Never enter a mine. STAY OUT, STAY ALIVE. The discovery of gold in Quartzville started a small-scale gold rush in the 1800's. Not as big as Althouse Creek or Sutter's Mill, but big enough to cause farmers to lay down the plow and head to the hills above Sweet Home to seek their fortune. Much of the gold is small, including wire gold, but a seasoned prospector can do well and come across some gorgeous nuggets if they know where to look. Nowadays most people work the creek using dredges... but like all placer gold it came from somewhere. A lot of people who tell you "don't waste your time there" are just trying to protect stuff like this: Saturday about 8am I went out with two guys who had a lot of history with the Quartzville District above the White's Factory. The idea was to check out claims and use the metal detectors to do some true prospecting in and around old workings that date back to the 1880's. The GMT seemed like a good fit for the size of gold and what our goal was since we would need to read the mineralization in the mines to locate pay streaks. I brought a TDI as well to use in one section with some pocket gold. But they were just tools to help us locate mineral samples for the most part. I will never be a geologist, but I did try and pick up a few things from these guys. The climber is a geologist (and the claim holder), and the hammer-er is a seasoned dredger who has pulled ounces of gold out of Quartzville Creek (legally). This was the first mine that was completely flooded to the roof, so we took some samples and moved on. And yes, the only way up the mountain was to billy goat where the guy with the backpack is climbing. This was not a trip for the meek. I am a pretty regular hiker and this had me huffing. 45+ degree slopes, thousands of feet up and down. But it was worth it. Just above where I took this shot was a massive quartz outcropping. The view was incredible. With the claim holder's permission I took a few quartz samples for the wife. She is a rock-hound and likes it when I bring her something back. Some of the quartz was so hard even a rock pick and sledgehammer didn't do much to loosen it. But it was a good sign! The next shaft had water in it too. But the claim holder said it was only 4 ft deep. Still too deep to see what was under water. Luckily I could feel some of the timber underfoot and used that to keep from sinking to my neck. The other guys did the same. Still had a couple OOPSes that led to dunking. It is an eerie feeling in the dark when your feet can't feel the bottom. Plus the water was COLD... After we got through the water it shallowed up and we made our way to the back of the mine. The air was good but a little stale. Timbers were in amazing shape for their age! There aren't too many mines with the ore cart tracks still in them. So this was a neat thing to see. We used the GMT to scan for pockets of mineralization in the vein, which let us know where to sample from. Previously the material was assayed at .17 oz/ton. So we were curious to see if having the detectors along would be any help in locating streaks of mineralization. We listened for threshold raises to target "hot spots" on the walls.. and hoped for that screamer signal that might be a nice-sized nugget. Time to check and see if it was worth it... Hard to make out, but definitely gold! We checked a few other spots around a known pocket mine and didn't find much besides square nails and other mining junk. With a heavy bucket full of samples, backpacks, detectors, and a gallon less water, we headed back to the trucks about 6pm. It had been a pretty full day, and it was burger time. Even though we didn't get rich, it was a successful trip! We got to help a guy work his claims a bit, I got to know more about the mining district, and we even found some gold. I will say that compared to Rye Patch, this was a lot more interesting and gave me a serious workout. Plus, I came away with some new friends.

He's really pleased with his MXT right now. It's the go-to machine of most of the cellar hole hunters I've met. I think the simplicity and metal box are what draw them to it - it's a tank of a detector. TRX is a good idea though, I should see if he's got one.

Customer sent these pics of a once-in-a-lifetime find. This is a dream for many coin hunters on the East Coast of the U.S.

We did slim it down. This was based on customer input as well as Steve's post about our "archaic" loop design.

Updated the list on our forum.

For those of you who have not had the opportunity to meet Steve Herschbach in person - he really is that smart!

If you can get the 4x6 shooter for the GMT it might help around the rocks. Good luck and find some shiny!

Yeah they said since I couldn't grow a beard I was out of the running. But the wife is happy!

I appreciate it. I think having a less risky purchasing decision (sub $300 machine) is the way to go to get those people interested. Hard to justify spending $800 to try something out when many people under 35 are spending half their pay on housing...

Yep!

For YOU it is not a good machine. Everyone is entitled to their opinions! A simple YouTube search will show what others think of the MX Sport, and their incredible finds. Sometimes you just don't connect with a machine, that doesn't make it bad. For example - the XP "Deuce" is a fine detector... I just can't stand how it sounds! My opinion but hardly gospel. Also, try setting the Reject Volume at 40 for your alloy military buttons, or opening up your Disc mask to about -40. It should help a great deal. But still, it just might be too much raw horsepower for some. Try lowering the Recovery Delay down to about 30 (might have to play with this) and go into the Expert Menu to adjust the tones how you like them. You can assign any VDI to a tone. For a four tone mode emulation on the MX Sport you can put VDI's in certain buckets on your V3i. Bonus is YOU decide which ones. Takes time but can really help if your ears are setup like mine. I don't think the V3i will ever feel as fast as the MX Sport. The V is a beast of a machine, but the Sport just has a zip that most other detectors don't have. The AT Pro comes close and the "Deuce" is right up there too. But the V3i has strengths in other areas - saltwater, iron ID, and pure flexibility to setup however a user wants.

That was a while back, we've been trying to encourage our dealers to be active online for the past several years. Just to be clear, this wasn't meant to be a "help White's sell more detectors" thread, that's on me, not you guys (though I appreciate the good intentions)! It was a more high-level view of the hobby and it's slow decline in the US. There are other countries where hobby detecting is growing at a fast rate (China, Peru, Mexico, etc) and then of course gold booms and busts all over the world. Here's our channel right now, which I would say is indicative of the metal detecting hobby overall based on my travels and interactions with hobbyists across the US. Like golf, it's an older, whiter guy's hobby. Our field team is all over the map, from 26 to 50something, so we have a good spread to cover these bases.

They do their best but many of them are opposed to having any kind of online presence. So I think it's hard for them with the changing market. But some of them do alright without even knowing what Facebook is. Still, I wonder how much BETTER they'd do if they bit the bullet and learned how to use the technology at hand to increase their reach. Old dog, new tricks... Thanks to everyone for adding to the discussion. I'm starting to see that the generational differences play a huge role in the changes we are seeing to metal detecting. There's a whole new crop of hobbyists who spend a lot of time on social media and sharing is a huge aspect to them. They may not be in a detecting club or do much face to face sharing, but you can be assured their finds will show up on Facebook and get a ton of engagement from people all over the world. The interesting thing to me is how little cross over there is to forums like this. The younger set tends to stay away from internet forums. Well, they might read them, but they are not as active as the older guys.

I grew up hunting, fishing, camping, wheeling. It seems like the generation that is growing up with constant access to technology is less interested in the real world, but maybe that's just me. I would guess it's because the internet offers an instant (but I would say hollow) gratification - boom, you're connected. But hunting, fishing, detecting - those all take WORK to get something out of. Same thing with building something out of wood with your own hands. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I do think it's worth trying to get younger people outside but it's tough... Kinda like detecting itself sometimes.

Something I've been thinking about is "growing the hobby." It's kind of a tricky thing. For detector manufacturers to survive, there is a need to expand the reach and interest in metal detecting as a hobby. But, the catch 21 is that there are less and less relics and old coins to dig each year. The more people get into detecting, the less old stuff we find. And the finds are what get people into detecting in my experience. It's a lot harder to get excited about finding 37 cents at a park than it is to find a trime or a colonial buckle. In talking to old timers, the "good ole days" seemed to be the 70's, 80's and early 90's - when silver was easier to find and every site wasn't pounded to death. That's why making detectors that out-perform current machines is so important. A deeper, better discriminating machine can breathe new life into old spots, which is what most manufacturers should be working on. What do you think about introducing the hobby to new generations? Would you prefer it stay an "old guy hobby," or would you like to see the younger crowd pick up where you leave off? How do we deal with the fact that each day, there is less treasure (including nuggets) to find?

We taking bets?

Thanks you guys for all the feedback and votes. Asking.... for a friend!

I like this idea.

Ditto on headphones in snake country. If you are not aware of your surroundings (no matter which sense) you are setting yourself up for a bad time out detecting. This is coming from someone who has had several close calls with rattlers and one with a very curious cougar!

Good input! I think vibration could be a more nuanced sensory input than lights. The strength and frequency of the vibration could match the VCO audio of a gold detector. So the ZIP ZIP you get from a GMT could be felt as a very short, strong shake in the palm of your hand. Whereas an iron response could be a broken vibration with a hole in the middle. Just a thought!

Same here. But I have heard from hearing impaired customers that really have it rough. A vibration function is very useful for them, and I wonder if it might be for me too.

How many of you are "beepers" vs. "peepers"?

Before my days in metal detecting I had the pleasure of working on this TV show. Really cool, and actually sparked my interest in the hobby. I've never hunted meteorites - maybe someday I will find one by accident. Guess I will have to "dig it all" to make that happen!