tboykin

On 7/24/2017 at 8:27 PM, johnedoe said:

Not bad for stock settings I guess....

Would be interesting to see what setting was needed to improve the performance though. 

I will have to give that a try with my MXT and V3i with the different coils I have and of course the settings possible with the V.

John,

You can easily improve the MX Sport's by enabling REJ VOL (iron audio) at about 30 and also taking one point of iron disc off, just below zero. These were tweaks I made in the field when Monte challenged me to take this test that helped the coin pop out a bit better. His Nokta's had some adjustments made specifically for this test, and I was kind of surprised at how the MX Sport performed without doing anything special.

The whole point of this video was to show the detector's performance with this standardized test - even for people who's only adjustment is the power button. An expert can setup almost any machine in a specific situation like this, but the reality is that most people just want a turn on and go machine.

Tom

My personal preference after using the first gen TDI, TDI Pro, and SL is the SL. It's light, affordable, and works where VLFs will not. I also use it to hunt deep silver that other people can't reach. You can use a combination of the ground balance and conductivity switch to knock out iron and cherry pick other targets.

I know everyone likes Minelab here, which I get - it's a prospecting board first and foremost and they focus on gold machines. But you name me another ground-balancing pulse machine for under $1200 (and under 4lbs) that can do what the TDI SL can do and I will go without my coffee tomorrow!

On 7/18/2017 at 4:13 AM, fishersari said:

Hi guys ,

Tq for the reply, now it getting clearer, and what the difference between coin  jewelry + salttrack on mode and beach mode, using both at beaches

Pro tip that has helped me out in farm fields and hot ground - enabling salt track in any mode results in quieter operation and more stable signals. But requires a slightly slower sweep speed to allow the ground tracking to track the big changes in ground conditions.

17 hours ago, sod said:

The 7" coil floats too.

GL&HH

Sod

Really? When I use that coil to hunt swimming areas it feels pretty neutral. It's epoxy-filled so it should sink. Feels a lot less resistant to water too.

21 minutes ago, GB_Amateur said:

I can't weigh in on what you have, but in my experience, an ohm-meter isn't a good discriminator for metals.  I looked up some electrical resistivities (mostly pure metals) and then did some measurements with my (admittedly cheapo) multimeter.  To put things in perspecdtive, at room temp, gold is quite low in resistivity (not as much as copper or silver, but close).  'Brass' (don't know which alloy) is 3 times higher ( = worse conductor).  'Bronze' is a factor of 2 worse than brass.  Lead is another factor of 3 times brass.  Titanium is again a factor of more than 2 worse than lead.  Yet I have pieces of all of these (exept gold ) and they all measure resistance (not resistivity, though) at 0 on the meter. The meter's precision is 0.1 ohms, so I conclude that these pieces all have the same resistance within about 0.05 ohms.

A clean sample of uniform composition should read pretty reliably on an fluorescence X-ray spectrometer ("XRF analysis").  The poor man's method (which includes me) is to use Archimedes Principle to find the density and then use that to rule things in or out.  Gold has such a high density ('specific gravity') that unless alloyed <~50% it's distinguishable from most metals, and all the metals in its density ballpark (from what I know) are quite valuable except for tungsten.

I've read here that some coin shops have XRF spectrometers and the nice ones will analyze a sample for free.  You strike me as a sweet talker -- I bet one of them will do it for you!    There is a company in California that advertises in the ICMJ that will do it for $25 per sample.  (Read their fine print, though, if you decide to go that route.)

 

 

Awesome info, thank you. There's a coin shop here I can take it to. My plan is to slam the nuggies on the table and say "I'll sell ya this gold for $100!" At which point the shop owner will scoff and say "That's not gold!" Then I will say "PROVE IT BUDDY!" Free test achieved.

10 hours ago, OregonGregg said:

tboykin, congrats on the nuggets. Hope they pan out to be the real deal. It also showed me that I guess I had better stick to finding old coins. The only gold I may ever find will be round and have a date stamped on it. When you stopped and showed them to me......I would have never guessed them as gold. 

And yes it was fun seeing that girl find her 1st silver coin with the MX Sport. She was so excited , she was shaking. Also, there are a few post/pics over at Monte's site about that weekend.

 

https://www.ahrps.org/forums/read.php?4,6636,6636#msg-6636 

Same here. Your coin collection was amazing to see. Something I will never match! Nice meeting you and when you stop by the factory next please don't be a stranger.

19 minutes ago, IdahoPeg said:

Wow...some nice finds! Way to go if those bigger ones are gold.....I've been tricked when detecting in hard rock gravels/sulfides, ended up being weird copper mix byproducts in my case.  Hope yours are the real deal! :-)

Thanks - I plan on having these checked by a local shop to make sure they are legit. These were down on a flat bench right above the confluence of two rivers. I won't know for sure they are gold until I have them professionally tested.

Steve as always is spot-on. If you are somewhat new to detecting I would run a low (or NO) threshold. When you get used to that increase it and enable the REJ VOL to hear all the iron in the ground. It can let you know where to slow down and pick through a spot.

We are just about sold out on these already. Should have more soon. Did not expect them to go so fast!

These are made by a real nice guy who contacted us on Facebook. They are laser cut and have a nice finish, plus you are supporting an individual when you buy these, not a giant corporation. His hand-written note to the factory when he sent us some samples to evaluate was a nice touch as well.

I think it's good they are taking the time to tweak it.

Kinda feel bad for the dealers who took preorders so early, but at least they can offer an MX Sport to those who don't want the summer to slip away before getting a new detector.

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!

7 minutes ago, mn90403 said:

How did you keep the GMT dry?

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

4 hours ago, Des D said:

'Probably, the Holy Grail of a coin find in the USA.

It has the look of something that came out of a stream / river / waterlogged site but not corrosive soil?

Well done to the finder: he/she must be chuffed?

Did you present the finder with a New MX Sport Tom Lol.......?' (maybe a TRX as a runners up prize)

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.

2 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

I thought the same thing and was Googling for part number changes yesterday but could find none. The scuff cover I ordered was large and a bad fit so I do think the D2 was slimmed down. I will weigh mine and post. More investigation needed.

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

On 5/25/2017 at 7:40 PM, Tnsharpshooter said:

Private message sent to TBoykin,,asking about White's forum update as far as M6 being reflected as discontinued.

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! 

2 hours ago, jasong said:

I think that's a pretty accurate representation of the current industry too.

But the reason I posted my chart was to show the growth segments. Which are the demographics which currently have interest and are potential customers, but don't yet own detectors and don't attend shows, for what I believe are the reasons I posted.

I'm just posting for general interest, not in specific reference to White's. I just think the detector industry as a whole has really passed over a lot of potential customers due to their pricing schemes. Treasure hunting in general appeals to a lot of different age groups after all so the fact that a large segment is absent as product users should be a red flag for any manufacturer.

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...

4 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

https://press.discovery.com/us/dsc/programs/devils-canyon/

Tom B., is this the show you auditioned for last year?

 

Yep!

27 minutes ago, Shelton said:

MX Sport is not good machine. A lot of software errors. This unit is unfinished.

  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.

2 hours ago, johnedoe said:

With the versatility of the V3i I was wondering what settings I would have to make to set it up to emulate the MX Sport....

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.

9 hours ago, johnedoe said:

It wasn't too long ago that white's put a lot of restrictions on the dealers and their online presence if I remember correctly............. I might be wrong but I seem to remember hearing that.

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.

8 hours ago, jasong said:

You would think 65+ would be the largest demographic for a gold prospecting/metal detecting related detecting channel, but in fact, it's not even close.

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.