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Beach hunters might’ve heard the mighty uproar over at the prospecting side of the forum.. They’ve got their undies all knotted up over their high frequency VLF detectors reacting to carbon rods.. As if they’re the only ones.. Whilst Geotech’s excellent video shows that carbon rods don’t react when the detector is in multi-frequency beach mode (where the rod’s signal is filtered out just like a salt signal), not all beach detectorists hunt exclusively in beach mode.. Nor do they just hunt on beaches.. I for one also hunt gold, silver coins and the occasional bit of ‘old junk’ (relics).. I don’t buy any manufacture’s claim that reactive carbon rods only effects a small, easily disgruntled, part of the metal detecting community.. Prospectors are not the only ones who demand the best performance from their tools.. When I read about this ‘problem’ I straight away started to think about ways to fix it.. Even if there's only a slight chance that a carbon rod is gonna make me miss a gold ring (or anything else!), then to hell with it.. To this end, I’ve put the original lower plastic rod back on my Nox 800 (with a carbon fibre upper rod) to serve as my general purpose detector, whilst the fully carbon fibre Nox 600 stays in beach mode as a beach detector until I can get another plastic lower rod for it.. Just like every other detectorist, I don’t want anything to screw up my chances of finding my favourite bit of metal..

Cointopia was a great learning experience for me, very little trash, probably 20 coins to every bit of junk. I really got to hone my silver finding ability by having so many silver targets in the wild to recover. The more you dig targets, the more you learn how they behave, what they sound like and so on. I got to the point I was always confident of the coin I was about to dig before digging it, and I was rarely wrong or surprised. Sadly jewellery is not my strong point at this stage, either people don't lose it or I suck at finding it. I quickly learnt I was the first to detect those sites, and oddly enough detecting is such a rare hobby here I can pretty confidently go to plenty of places and be the first to ever detect them. IT's grown in popularity lately in the big cities, but once away from them into the small regional towns you can be the first still to this day to run a detector over the hot spots. It's a shame your trip was so short and you didn't get to experience some of this stopping in at the many places you drove past to swing a coil, you would have found your own cointopia for sure, guaranteed. If I can dig it all in places I do, hard in parkland type places and certainly not in sports field areas, at least in gold areas the rabbits dig more holes than I ever could so the damage I cause is very minimal by comparison, so I can dig dig dig and I do. I'm not sure if you wandered down to the lakefront beach in the heart of Queenstown Mitchel, but it's very likely I was the first to detect that only a couple of years ago, if I wasn't the first the person that went, the person before me wasn't very good, as they left a lot of very old coins in the ground and over $100 worth of $1 and $2 coins that I was able to get my first time detecting it.

I retired from the rat race in 2023 which naturally opened up a lot more time for metal detecting. I didn't know what to expect for 2023, but I did figure that I would at least get more opportunities to detect which hopefully would translate into more quality finds than in previous years. It turns out that was case, but what really made 2023 enjoyable was not just the finds but the opportunity to try out different things and to hang out more with my detectorist buddies. Especially partnering up with Bob (@F350Platinum) who is just constantly pillaging the Northern Neck of Virginia with new finds and permissions. I was fortunate to meet Bob 3 years ago after he started posting his yard finds on the forum. He was really just starting out and while I knew he was aware of the history behind his amazing finds, I am not sure he realized at the time just what a detecting paradise he had at his doorstep. I know a lot of folks who would consider just about everything he found on his first few hunts as bucket listers because they would not have ready access to detect such historic relic laden areas. As a Northern Virginian city dweller I had little to offer in terms of reciprocation in terms of permissions and sites but I did know detectors and how to detect relics and met up with him to detect and share my knowledge of detectors, history, and relic hunting. The mentor soon became the mentee as Bob's opportunity to frequently detect, his rapport with the local landowners, and his research and IT skills soon lapped my abilities and now I am just thankful we became friends and he let's me tag along with him at his permissions. Anyway, with that backstory out of the way, on to early 2023. We started out hitting some of Bob's sites that he has had access to for a couple of years. Happily pulling out whatever we hadn't already found or that were turned up in the plowed fields. And as per usual, we ran into one of the landowner farmers who were out and about on their properties. An offhanded comment to that landowner and low and behold Bob made another connection and a potential permission to a farm we had been eyeing for some time. Off to a new permission and all the excitement that comes with it. We've posted our finds on these sites before so not going to bore you all with that, suffice to say, I found some bucket listers and finds that I have never before recovered including a pipe tamper, a brass men's ring stamped 18K, and a North Carolina CW button and the largest spectacle buckle I have dug (though only partial). Bob snagged A LOT of silver coins from the "front yard" of the home site. It was supposedly pounded previously, but the site was challenging with lots of iron and other junk and we felt that in this case, the latest D2 detector technology (fast recovery, multifrequency) provided an advantage vs. those who had gone years before us, probably with slower or less discriminating machines. We were rewarded and had a great time visiting that site throughout the year and anticipated Fall harvest to access fields that were unavailable to us at that time. Bob and I attended a group hunt we both attended the prior year that was fun and productive. This year, not so much. Bob managed a CW Eagle button and, I managed...nothing. I was focusing on learning my new Axiom PI detector and also testing out a new smaller coil. I could have exploited some previous minie ball hot spots, but decided to not limit myself and we explored a large portion of the farm. It happens and the Axiom proved itself later at a bigger group hunt in hot soil. That was Diggin' in Virginia (DIV) at a new site that was the location of a running artillery and infantry battle of the Civil War called the Battle of Freemans Ford which was a tactical water crossing of the Rappahannock River. Union Artillery and Infantry units engaged a Confederate supply column that was being protected by a number of Confederate regiments. The Union units were routed back across the river but the Confederates took a lot of shelling from the Union batteries on the high ground across the river. A ton of artillery shell fragments, fuses, sabot, and unexploded ordanance were recovered as well as other typical CW relic items such as plates, buttons, minie balls, etc. Since the site was adjacent to the river, it also contained a number of old Colonial, 19th and 20th century former home sites. I recovered a number of shell fragments, sabot, a fuse, and small arms projectiles with my new Axiom, but one non-CW-period find was my favorite. A 1923 SLQ in excellent condition. Probably dropped exactly 100 years prior. The Axiom proved itself that day and my GPX found a new home with another detectorist. Over the summer, during the traditional relic detecting hiatus (the fields are planted, the bugs are out, and the sun is high), I did some beach detecting on the Chesapeake Bay and also met up with Bob a couple of times at his local "beach" haunt at Colonial Beach VA. Found some bling and a lot of quarters and yet another beached Sacagawea dollar coin (weird) and generally had a great time soaking up some rays and talking to the local beachgoers. Sometimes getting some more leads to permissions in the general area. When fall finally came around, we some of our old haunts. Didn't expect too much because the sites had either been minimally productive or we had pounded them to death. In that context of low expectations I had one of my best days ever. Three 1930's silver quarters and an Bob snagged an eagle button, but nothing else out of a traditionally stingy field so we moved on after a couple of hours. The next field we had pounded multiple times but hit the known hot spot areas. We weren't getting much other than lead bale seals until we hit a known iron patch where we started pulling out various old flat and ball buttons and other pieces of brass. I then finally pulled an unfamiliar two-piece button with an anchor on it. I knew it was some sort of Navy button or possibly even a civilian decorative button until I did the research and found it to be a British Naval Officer's button from the late 1700's to early 1800's. In context, it makes sense. The area was raided by the British during the war of 1812 and also there may have been colonists who were former British Naval Officers who lived there. Anyway, for me this is a bucket lister in the sense that it is potentially linked to British military action in the area during the war of 1812. I also got to detect some sites up north in central Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland and scored some silver, copper, brass, lead, and pewter Colonial spoon bowl. Bob got some additional intel regarding one of our sites about a potentially unexploited former home site. It was in a field in which we did not have previous access due to crops. When the crops were finally harvested, Bob let me know, we met up and we "attacked" the area and were successful in finding the site. We hit that area twice and it was very productive. Bob got a 1798 Largie (a bucket lister for me is recovering ANY pre-1800 minted US coin, silver or gold would be a bonus). I was very jealous of that because even though I was seemingly pulling relics from the ground at will, I could not get my coil over any coin. Regardless, it was a great couple of outings and stood out to me because of the sheer number of relics but also because, even though I was not able to snag a coin, I was able to snag silver in the form of a very old, patterned cufflink. We capped off the year with a hunt at an initially promising new site that coughed up a number of colonial buttons, some oddities (including an unexpected Eagle GS button), and we each somehow managed to snag Merc's in the same area to finish off the hunt with some silver, which is always nice. My final hunt of the year turned out to be the capper for me, and hopefully, a sign of good things to come for 2024. It was an especially good year for silver for me. At least 4 silver quarters, a number of silver dimes, a silver 1840 Seated Liberty half dime (my first), and the silver cufflink. We hit a field that had iron but had only given up a few keepers. I noted to Bob that I was not ready to give up on it, though we both had low expectations based on our previous visit there. Bob and I started to hit areas that we had not detected previously and hit the iron patches hard. A few brass relics started to pop and then I hit a solid 91 that did not waver even after I did a 360 turn. I thought to myself, well at least I am going to dig a silver or clad dime. I flipped the plug, pinpointed and flipped out some more dirt and silver DID pop out of the hole, but not what I thought it was going to be. I thought, wow its a quarter or half, by sight, but that didn't jive with 91 TID. I looked closer at the coin design details and realized that I just popped my first 2 Reale Spanish silver - 1793 King Charles IV (stamped as Carolus IIII on the coin) with a Lima, Peru mintmark. If that coin could talk and tell the tale of how it ended up in a Virginia farm field, I would have loved to hear it. Called over to Bob, and even though it was only 10am, told him my hunt was over and I was going home because I knew I couldn't top it for the year, much less for the rest of the day. I might have dinged it with my digger, but in my defense, I thought I was recovering a dime. It happens. I stuck around though, for the rest of the day, and we pulled some more brass and then called it a year! In 2024, my quest for my ideal VLF IB detector has pretty much ended with the Deus 2. I still dabble with other machines but if I am serious about the dig, it's going to be the Deus 2. ALL my quality finds this year were recovered with the Deus 2 or the Axiom. Thanks to Bob for some great detecting adventures and friendship! Goodbye 2023, had fun. Hello 2024, can't wait! Wishing everyone great digging in 2024.

NOT IN THE DREAMWIND CANYON JOURNAL : These posts are the result of a conversation with a man named Clint Storm (name slightly altered at his request). I have his permission to write about his experiences in the canyon. Clint explored the canyon alone back in 1980. He is not a prospector or miner but an adventurer. It seems he had heard similar stories about this area from some old timers who had been in there several times and caught the bug to go check it out himself. He actually camped inside the walls of the canyon during the Summer heat and he also knew about the so called secret spring where potable water was available. The first issue he had was with rattlers. One morning he woke up with one of them actually inside his sleeping bag. He was afraid to make a move for fear of getting bit. He said he was forced to lay there in the bag until mid afternoon when the snake finally decided to exit the bag. The temperature had climbed to well over 100 degrees and he was drenched in sweat when he finally got out of the bag. Another time he was climbing a rough outcropping of rock when he heard a thud just behind him. A rattler had struck at his back side and just missed him. He pulled his side arm and shot the snake. He was lucky two times. One night he was sitting in his camp gazing at the stars when he swears something came cruising down into the canyon from maybe a quarter mile to the north. Clint said it was a white glowing disk and made no sound. Then he said the fun started about half an hour later. While he was watching the sky and also the area in the canyon to the north of camp he saw several metallic objects or figures floating through the air about 50 yards away. They looked to be silver in color but at times became transparent. The objects sometimes took the shape of humanoids but also reverted back to oblong shaped things. They floated up the canyon walls and eventually out of sight. He didn't see them for the rest of that night. There's more that Clint told me and I will post it when I have the time.

Hello treasure hunters! As someone deeply immersed in the world of precious metals, I’ve noticed that certain areas and techniques are particularly fruitful for discovering silver artifacts. From old trade routes to battlefields, understanding the history can guide our searches. What are your go-to strategies for locating hidden silver? Let's swap tips and maybe even share stories of our most exciting finds!

I tried the setting today on a beach with a lot of black sand. I was surprised by its performance. There was not much on the beach. As I went along for about a half mile, I did become aware of the truncated sound I don't like. It sounds clipped which makes me think I was missing something. I wanted to modify it to something a little more tailed out so I kept everything pretty much the same except I switched to Deep rather than Low Conductors. I was around some targets as I did this and I was digging one of those sounds (turned out to be a rusty stake) and out of the mix the high tone was a little silver ring. (Don't have a picture of it yet.) After that I wondered what standard Deep would be and then I wondered what settings would stay changed in the limits and other things, got lost in the screens without my glasses and just reset! Deep by itself on the way back found a couple of coins but then I was done for the day. I'll have to revisit those settings and maybe put limits up to 5 or ???

Went to a small sandbar beach where boats anchor up to enjoy the surroundings. The tally for 4 hours was 42 pull tabs, 24 coins, a little silver star and 1 gold ring. Anxious to get back and finish cleaning it up. Managed to bring a little snack home too! 😁 Was using the new M9 coil on the Manticore.

Hi Steve G. Thank you for being brave and hanging in there when others on this thread have been over reacting in my opinion and taking this issue way beyond where it needs to be limited to which is specific and as you say a niche situation. I too want one of the partially non-conductive lower rods for my Manticore M8 coil for gold prospecting. There is definitely an issue using the Manticore's gold prospecting mode and its stock CF lower shaft that I would prefer to avoid. I do a ton of mostly coin, jewelry and relic detecting with the Manticore and so I hope everybody hears this Loud and Clear: I am totally, absolutely, 100% fine with the stock carbon fiber lower shafts supplied by Minelab on the Manticore for those detecting purposes. I am sure that your current stock of CF lower shafts would be great too for that kind of detecting. I thought there would never be a VLF detector that could do what the Manticore is doing in the dirt here in Central Colorado. I am up to 58 deep silver coins (mostly Mercury and Rosie dimes) in the last 4 months and most were deep in the 8 to 12" range in really bad dirt and on ground that I had already detected as had many others with previous great detectors like Deus 2, the Equinox series, the CTX 3030 and the Etrac. If there is an issue with CF lower shafts on the Manticore with depth, separation or whatever for this kind of detecting.........I'm simply not buying it. No problem here just like Carl and many others have said. So, if you get coin, jewelry and relic customers wondering WTF as far as using your carbon fiber lower shafts for that kind of detecting, just direct them to this post.

(if lazy to read, skip to the bottom for the video and pic) Hiii guys!! I'm back. Lots of no work at the moment, plenty of time off to hit up some beaches whilst we still have some hot days left in our Aussie summer. Practically living off gold finds at the moment LOL . Had a few beers so mind the lazy grammar tonight sorry! ? I went out on the weekend at sunset, it was over 30 degrees C, very hot and very busy. Almost did not go in the water because it was a little bit choppy and there was lots of people swimming. Little did I know another prospector whom I know was watching wondering why we were pondering so hard from the carpark hahaha. Finally went down, said g'day and he wished us luck. Wow the water was amazing!! You can hear how busy it was, I even had a woman skim over the top of me on her surfboard which you can see in the video, just as I found a gold ring. The first hunt, I got in the water and found a coin right away, then the 18ct band, all within 3.5 minutes of actually getting in the water! which told me there was going to be plenty to find. I think that's the fastest gold ring I've found. When I came to this spot 2 weeks ago it was sooo sanded in, I got almost nothing after about 4 hours so I'm very glad to see lots of clay and rocks this day. The 20gm silver bar was random, it has a name and date on the back and cleaned up really nice, 20 grams of 999 silver. Lots of silver on those rocky parts, rarely gold for some reason? Maybe cleaned up by said friend already lol I got 1 ring which looked silver but rang up really low, so I'm thinking maybe pewter. all others were gold and then a junk ring which was on the wet sand. went out the next morning at 6am and as soon as there was some daylight I was right in the water. another 3 gold rings. Yay. I cut down about 5 hours of gopro footage to 8 minutes to skip all the boring parts. No talking, no music, no bs. Simple video for all to watch just showing the finds. I plan on editing it further one day and maybe doing a proper youtube video, hence the watermark slapped right in the middle and the dull ending. I think the wrist watch will work, it hasn't got any water in it, I'm just waiting for a new battery to arrive whilst it airs out. Definitely been there a while! I found a old Tag Huer 2000 there last week about 20 meters away which was completely ruined sadly. Total weight was just over 20 grams of gold, about $1100 AUD in scrap. Assuming the "S" pattern one is 9ct for hope sake but it kinda looks like 18ct, just not hallmarked. Obviously using the Manticore - I gave up with the D2. Gave it a chance a few weeks ago but far too noisy (in this spot), too fidgety, too hard to charge, too annoying, too many breakable parts, too quiet and already on my 3-4th warranty. On a side note; I'm using the gopro hero+ since I lost my hero3 last winter. I have the WASABI extended battery, total was about $50aud and the mask from China was about $17. I like it much better than the hero 3, theres a much wider lens i think. I had lots of issues getting it going which turned out to be a non compatible SD card in the end. the battery is fine without the extended battery, I get 2-3 hours of recording and I love it! sadly I don't think they can handle anything above 32gb SD cards so I'm a littleeee limited on storage, whereas I had 64gb compatibility on the hero 3 - it was just impossible to find an extended battery setup from WASABI since they're discontinued.. hell even the Hero+ ones are "old stock clearance" now. Super open to criticism about video quality/editing if anyone wants to input some feedback whether positive or negative ? Enjoy!

Holy Cow what a can of worms we have to deal with.. LOL... Sorry I missed the party again as I was running around one side of NV to the other for the last 5 days and 1500+ miles on my truck. All efforts were to find a Seated Libert Silver and I got Snake Eyes on the Seated. Anyway, I'm back and reading with enthusiasm all the great comments and potential new options. I just wish it was from Minelab? Yes I was stunned back in March when I got the call from one of my Field Staff Experts. He was so pissed and expecting a Minelab RECALL on the lower shafts of the EQ-900 and Manticore. I really don't blame him for thinking so, but I know Minelab and they will not do such. This is a great opportunity for Steve's Rods or Doc. So before I go much farther and make it seem so unthinkable of what Minelab did to us, I want to share some insight. 1st off. In my experience, the majority of people using a carbon fiber rod will not even realize it's being detected as a metal target . Heck, I've had a Manticore for over a year and never realized it. But I did notice something was not right when Prospecting for Gold. Putting detector down caused signals and chatter, detecting steep incline caused chatter, and hunting tailing piles was the worst. Manticore is the most bump sensitive detector I have ever used. It's so bad, I kept changing coils thinking I had bad coils. Back in the day, when a coil went bad, one of the issues was bump test and if it responded, then it was bad. I feel the majority of people who own an Equinox 900 and or Manticore, will not need to worry as much about the CF lower rods as us Prospectors and that's exactly why I think Minelab will not even raise an eyebrow. As for Minelab and Tom D testing the CF rods and not seeing ANY ISSUES. You folks believing that, go right ahead as I know much better. In fact, if you folks believe it, then you have no issues to deal with and go on your merry way. You see, I've been with Minelab for 25+ years, heck it could be 30 or darn close to it. I have tested many detectors for Minelab and have found issues on a rare occasion. Sometimes they get fixed and others they just roll their eyes at me. Trusting everything about what Minelab says to be truth in my time, has not proven them well. I have been accused of not running detectors properly. I have been told that my detecting style is not normal. I've been told a certain detector, the operator is supposed to use headphones so you don't hear the EMI to make it operate properly (only to have an update later addressing the real issue). I could keep going, but the bottom line is,... I've been swinging detectors near 50 yrs and in that time I've seen change, progress, and technology advances I would have never expected to see when compared to what I swung back in the early 1970s and or even 80's into 90's. In my opinion, Minelab is the best metal sensing detector manufacturer in the world. They have opened so many doors (including mine) and allowed thousands of detectorists to enjoy the Hunt. But in all their fantastic ideas and wisdoms, they are people and do make an occasional mistake, just like the rest of us. In my experience with Minelab and what's different with them, they'll never admit to it. Steve G and his CF rods, are an absolute great product and I applaud him and all his efforts he's put into such. Please don't be upset with him as he's just trying to protect his business integrity, the shafts that so many (thousands of customers) are happily using. Not one of you folks ever complained about this issue out loud, so keep swinging and having fun, it's all good. Sorry folks I ran out of Likes today, so I have yet to read all the comments. Steve G or Doc, please provide this old rough Nugget Prospector a real shaft that does not respond to my EQ-900 and Manticore detector. I'll add some more later.

I just picked up a new D2 weeks ago. Curiosity got the best of me. I never owned an XP before. It was a real struggle getting started . I did not do well reading thru the manual to get started. I finally watched a few you tube videos from brass medic and mental metal to get the coils paired. I was able to get the 11 x 13 coil paired, but not the 9. I finally looked at the serial number on the 9 coil under a magnifying glass and realized the B actually could be a 6, so I typed that in, and it finally paired. Mental metal Scott did a great job of explaining the basics to get the beast up and running. I watched a video from Rattlehead (NWGA detecting) and he showed in great detail what buttons to push to load in his Silver Slayer program, So I got it loaded, and went to a local park, put in about 6 hours , then took the D2 to our 120 yr old homestead, to test it out in the heavy trash. Between the house and garage is a 20x 20 sand and gravel parking area. It is wall to wall crap! 10-20 targets per swing. I went thru there in the past with my other top of the line machine, using a 11, 9, and 5 x 8 coil. Big iron, scrap aluminum, etc. Did not pull up anything good. I put the 9 coil on the D2, using the SS program, 95 sens, react @ 3, everything else the same. went thru the area, nothing good. I bumped up the reactivity to 4, tried it again. I hit an 89, dug a 6" wide hole, at 4" was the spike in the pic. 1/4" x 1/4" x3". still getting an 89, dug out the 22 brass shell, still 89, 2-3" deeper the steel eye bolt. Still an 89, in the 7-8 " range the 1962 cent! I was dumbfounded. 7' away I dug another 1960's cent , 7" deep with more crap in the hole. I'm totally impressed with the D2's separation capabilities. The audio on this machine rocks. Its fun to use. Thanks to all the guys here and on You tube for helping us old foggies to shorten the learning curves on these detectors.

I took the D2 into my fav 120 yr old park, yesterday. Alot of shade, not a huge sink rate on targets, so there is alot of trash build up . One 30' x 30" area near the band stand, is wall to wall targets, resulting in machine gun audio. I went thru it with the 5 x 8 coil on a different machine, speed cranked up, I think I pulled 8 coins out of the mess. I put the 9 coil on the D2, SS program, reactivity to 4, in 2 hrs I pulled out 11 coins. 3 nickels, 8 copper cents. No silver yet. But man this machine/ program is crazy good! It has become my fav machine for hi trash areas in short order, (.20 hrs ) I really need to try the other programs , to get to know the machine better. But this bad boy is fun. Fortunately, detecting in this shady park has kept my neck from getting redder! But I carry sunscreen just in case!

Five days of heaven and its not done yet. It was a nonstop adrenalin rush and I cant wait to get back on the site. My favorite is the silver buckle with a makers mark of silversmith Thomas Shields, he has a cool history and his works are in museums. All the silver buckles I have found have been busted up by the plow so this find was very speciaI. Dug 7 King George II coppers one was clipped, 4 George III coppers, 2 Connecticut coppers, 1 New Jersey copper, a 1723 Woods Hibernia halfpenny, French Louis XV 1 Liard [1719-1723], Spain 1724 2 Reales Madrid, Spain 1723 1 Reales Segovia, and a 1853 seated dime. A bunch of cuff links all of which I have found multiples of at other sites, they were sold on cardboard displays in general stores, I love finding them. Lots of buttons and smalls. Also found a similar Oak Island trade token whizzer.?

Hi Rvpopeye, yes I still hit the beach in winter but now the good part begins. This year something more prepared, one new Nemo, Manticore and Nox 900. It seems a little better to me than 800 for silver, likes Gold just as much or more. With the Manticore for now I still don't fully understand it. That Silver is from a couple of hunts...

Right from the get go when I got the Manticore a year and a half ago I started using ATHC 100% of the time. I did really good with it and really thought it was the best program despite the falsing. I have recently switched and have been using AT General full time to give it a good test. I definitely think General it's a lot less prone to falsing on iron in my ground. You don't hear quite as much spurious noise as you do in ATHC. I can see why people would gravitate to it vs. ATHC. Using AT General is much more pleasurable detecting experience all the way around. I'll have to do a lot more testing to know if I want to stick with it. At the moment I think in low iron and low modern trash ATHC is probably best. Iron and heavy modern trash AT-General is probably better from an overall detecting experience type thing . I am not currently sold on the M8 coil. It's deep on air test, but I just don't find many deeper targets while hunting with it despite many of the places I hunt having really mild ground. I used it for several hours the other day finding mostly targets from on the surface to 3"-4" max. I decided to put the 11" back on after using the M8 for 3 hours and the ground just came alive with many more targets being heard. Were they doubles of shallow targets? I don't know but I was hearing a lot more targets plus the deeper ones I don't think the M8 was alerting on. Within 20 minute of putting the 11" back on I had a silver ring and a 43 silver Washington. Both were 6"-8" deep. I just never have good luck with small coils. My buddy was using the M9 and got 2 Mercs and a War nickel. I didn't see how deep they were, but they were definitely 5"+ according to him. We did an air test of one of the Merc dimes laying on top of the ground in a spot free of trash and the coils seemed decently close depth wise. I was very confused by that.

Typically people hunt silver by digging high tones or running discrimination very high. Silver can fall into the aluminum trash range and wrap to iron when stacked. Response of IB machines is not just based on metal type or purity but also size, shape, orientation and depth. Coils have a focal range then the signal will fall off. The focal range is effected by ground mineralization. EMI can also effect depth as the machine will try to recover balance as it is being interupted. As you go beyond the focal range of the target the frequency will drop off which results in phase change. This can make tiny silvers difficult to detect. I prefer mid to high frequencies as they give silver targets a softer response vs other targets because it pushes them up in the response range and gives me more detection gamut range in the aluminum trash range. Some people like to hunt with lower frequencies that will give silver a stronger response but that can effect small gold and thin brass/bronze objects. Old areas I typically hunt by size and depth listening for weaker signals. Machines with good audio modulation or vco are ideal. Overlapping swings and using the edge of the coil to see how targets fall off in signal will save you from digging a lot of trash. Aluminum almost always has a sharp fall off in signal vs other metals in their same phase angle.

Detecting silver here in the UK as such is not a easy specific task and the main reason is that our history goes back 1000s of years,our hammered coinage vary not only in size but also the silver content is not always the same ie depends on what state the economy was at the time of making the coins as sometime silver was not in abundance so the coinage would be of a lower purity than some other times. Of course different sizes and quality of silver can throw a spanner in the works TID wise,so one cannot give a specific number range,also our gold hammered coinage can be exactly the same and TID various as well,its not until milled coinage started that the weights and silver/gold content became standard due the manufacturing process rather than someone hammering a coin blank between 2 dies hence that is why its called hammered coins. Our silver hammered coins can come in the foil range as can gold hammered coins which can also come into the iron range as well,so basically the bottom line is you cannot rely on TID on any detector hence why we tend to rely more on audio and if you are still not sure you have to dig the find out,that is the only real way of finding out what the find is,it makes no odds if its coinage,jewellery or what ever alas no simple reply can be given about 'Tips for Targeting Silver Relics' Your spade is still the best method.

I know I am late to the thread but I like the legend a lot. I didn't know nel was making coils for them. Mine is the slightly older version with the 11 inch round coil. I also have the 6 inch but my favorite nokta coil is the lg24. if I saw this thread before I would have ordered a slightly different coil...and I still may. I found a little silver dime the other day with the large coil using the 1.09 firmware in a tight area against a sidewalk. Picked it out just fine. I just loaded up the new 1.15 firmware but haven't taken it out yet. one thing it doesn't like is my tekpoint pinpointer but it isn't enough to make me seek out another brand one yet. they are tough and well built and you can see the screen in the sunlight very well compared to other units. the only thing that take a little getting used to is the menu system. But once you get that down really the first 4 settings is about all you ever fiddle with. you may have already bought yours I haven't read this entire thread but I do believe you will like it.

Hit one of my colonial cellar hole sites that is worn out but has given up some nice finds over the years. I am swinging slow to see if I can pick something out of the iron when I hear that beautiful soft fluttering flute high tone that Minelab machines are famous for. It stopped me in my tracks thinking maybe it’s a deep early American silver or a Spanish real. I swung the coil again and got silence. Then problem #1 dawned on me. I wasn’t swinging a Minelab. I was swinging my Deus 2. Then problem #2 dawned on me. I was in Full Tones PWM which is a raspy sound and sounds nothing like the Deus High Square tone which tries to emulate the Minelab sound. I heard that soft flutelike tone again and realized it was not coming from my headphones but from somewhere above and behind me. I scan the trees and see this barred owl just looking at me and doing its best Minelab imitation. It stayed there a few minutes before flying over to another nearby tree to snatch a fledging baby oriole. It flew back to the first tree and “Minelabbed” me for a few seconds before swallowing the fledgling whole in a few gulps. Anyway, I managed to sniff out a couple of pewter buttons. They always get my blood going as I dug a nice USA button at this site some years back. Last target of the morning was a nice mouth harp. Lodge

In my in ground tests with a silver dime lying flat, the 11" coil on my Legend went about 2" deeper than the 9.5x6 coil. With the dime on edge, there was no notable difference in depth between those coils. The latter is understandable given better sensitivity to small targets with the smaller coil. I suspect that if I did the same comparison using the 9.5x6 coil and a 9" round coil, then the depth on edged coins would still be the same with each coil, but the 9" round would hit the dime lying flat about 1" deeper. Given that minimal increase in depth (and often no depth gain), coupled with the slightly better separation and unmasking of the 9.5x6, then I'm kind of thinking the 9" round coil be redundant. Yet, I'm constantly questioning whether or not to use my 11" round or 9.5x6! So a 9" round coil would appease that questioning and probably be the coil I never take off of my Legend 😁

rvpopeye Full Member 2.8k Location: South Coast of Maine Author Report Posted April 1 (restored on 6/3 after reset) Two layers of wool and fleece lined pants with a rain coat wind breaker was the key . Just happened to have it all laying around.. (Might get slammed on the 3rd+4th so not time for the cargo shorts just yet. Summah is still a long way off uptah camp.) Did it again yesterday 2 clad dimes and 3 zincs. The dimes were "thanks for hunting" on my way back to the rig walking through a parking area with 3 stinkin' zincs and junk in the pouch. There's a pretty hefty pile of fair junk for only 4 hours too. I think I'll save any curiosity items from the pre season hunts for a pic in case someone recognizes any of it. (Great bennie of hanging out here on D/P ! So many experienced eyes...) Time for round 3 , the bee bop beep box just finished charging. 5kts and a slight haze 44* . Where's my shades ? My future is bright. Quote rvpopeye Full Member 2.8k Location: South Coast of Maine Author Report Posted April 2 Yesterday and today's hunts , 6 hours total. Weather was sunny and 50* uptah camp and the winds still 5kts today . The digging was easy . 😎 Only 4 people asked if I found anything good . 😩 800- 6" coil , park 2 , recovery 6. Swinging over an area where 2 big carny rides were set up. It took a while but I finally located where the lines of people were.. Things looked a lot different now vs. then.. 1 quarter , 4 dimes (1 a 1966 almost but no cigar) , 4 nickels , 9 copper memorial pennies and 18 zincolns. 1 8d crusty square nail . A 100 amp electric plug casing (rusted steel probably a carny cast off). Also found some bling bits . 1 looked silver-ish but no markings....arrrrrrr🏴‍☠️ I had to get a bigger junk pouch ! Using a 1 qt insulated water bottle holder now , it even has a trap door on top , @ goodwill for $2 👍 The sky will be falling the next couple three-four days best I can figgah accordin' ta some young fellah on the tv . But the lows just around freezing so the ground's not gonna be gettin' hahd . 8-10" heavy and wet on the shore tomorrow night but the rest of it should be rain dontchyaknow Chummy . 18" or more up in the hills oooie ! It's lookin' like I'll be the only one with power again..... Son of the beach

i had a good day with my vanquish 440 3 silvers and 11 wheats thanks for looking Steve

Took the D2 out to a small Confederate camp using the general program because the ground is saturated. Three tone, notch 07-40, tone break at 68. I had dug several bullets all ringing up as 82 when I got a solid 84. Out came this cut 1730's Spanish silver. you can see the beginning of a 3 for the third digit in the date

I'm back again. This was maybe my 3rd and 4th hunt for the year back in early Jan. To keep it short (i'm supposed to be working lol) Was gonna go back in the water where I found the large 22ct ring in my last post, but wifey convinced me to drop her off at "our good spot" before I went there. Not wanting to leave her alone, I decided to just hang out and do the same spot. Especially after seeing the washout on the shore which had already uncovered at a 1/2 tide. Once it got down to almost the lowest point, we went out in to the water. Immediately, bang, bang, bang, rings, watches, silver, bracelets, you name it! Hell, she even found a Google phone!! Although there wasn't much left of it. The silver dumbbell thing is actually a early 1900s sterling silver baby rattle! You'd think after doing this same spot for 3 years I would've uncovered such a large silver target already, but apparently not. It was really deep under the rocks. Anyhow, I think we went out for 2 nights, maybe 3, and this is my haul. See the shiny ring next to the coin? (not the flat shaped one, the one above it) God I thought that was gold! It was stained by the yellow clay and came up BRAND NEW. Most silver we find is tarnished, like the others you see, but this one must have only been there a few days. It rang up super high though, which immediately told me it was probably gold plated silver. When I got home, the yellow stain buffed off and yeah it's super clean 925 silver. The RAAF tag was cool. After a lot of help from a researcher, we found the owner. He was a RAAF Engineer who was 1 of a handful who graduated in about '71. He's in his late 80's now and living in rural western Australia. He was happy to have it back, though not sure when he lost it but recalls visiting the local pub once which is likely when. Casio watch doesn't work sadly, neither does the Tissot. Oh well. All up, only the front 3 are gold. The rest are mainly silver or stainless/titanium. I think being right after new year, they hadn't had a chance to rot away yet, so they ring up really nice. I think getting in to winter, they start to rust away and break down so we mainly find gold and silver in winter. Cheers. HH

I was hunting one of the original Denver area parks that was built in the late 1880s. Shovel digging is not allowed at these parks so recovery is with a screw driver or probe. I have found plenty of wheat pennies, a couple of Indian head pennies, several Barber, Mercury and Roosevelt silver dimes and two silver Washington quarters at this park in the last four years after first getting the Equinox 600 and 800. I was deliberately hunting an area that I knew would not be too wet or frozen under some trees at the edge of a popular sledding hill. I have hunted this exact spot many times with the Nox 600/800 with 11" coil and Deus 1 and Deus 2 with their 9" coils. I am guessing I have hunted this area at least 10 times since it is near the top of the sledding hill and fresh dropped jewelry and coins happen in that area every year. I was actually looking for gold jewelry but I was also interested in deep high conductors. I had my Manticore in All Terrain General Multi, sensitivity 23, recovery speed 5, iron bias 0, and I had the horseshoe button engaged so that I would hear all target responses including iron. Ground balance was 4. This ground has plenty of magnetite, square nails, modern nails and is loaded with many years of aluminum and steel trash. There are very few places to ground balance. I heard a deep iron signal, saw red numbers and decided to turn on it and I was able to hear some faint, very short intermittent high conductor tones along with lots of iron tones. I pinpointed the target area with the Manticore's onboard pinpoint function and was able to isolate two separate targets and saw them clearly on the 2D screen with one upper area iron and the other at the high conductor far right edge of the non ferrous line. Depth was 8" on the depth meter. I dug the high conductor farthest right target first and it turned out to be the silver Washington quarter laying half way on edge at the center of the dig hole about 7" deep. My handheld pinpointer was still picking up a target on the left edge of the hole which turned out to be the business end of that iron skeleton key in the photo. It was laying horizontally. I recovered it, filled the hole and rescanned. I got a coin sized high conductor target response plain as day with target IDs ranging from 90 to 99 with very few intermittent iron responses about 6" to the left of the hole that contained the Washington quarter and skeleton key. Depth was again 8" on the depth meter and only one solid target trace was at the far right of the non-ferrous line on the 2D screen. Basically, I was starting to freak out. I certainly had not heard any target responses like that with the other detectors that I had used at this spot. The Walking Liberty half dollar was about 8" deep standing straight up on edge at the center of the dig hole. Basically, the Walking Liberty half and the silver Washington quarter were in a spill at the same depth with the skeleton key laying roughly horizontally between them and they were all under the Manticore's 11" coil at the same time. They were situated sort of like this but buried under about 7" of iron mineralized dirt.