Search the Community

At times of the year, I really struggle with Black Sand in my location. This year was no different. I have done more comprehensive testing on updated machines. On many days I hunted half days on each machine so I could tell differences in same conditions. [thanks to my wife delivering machines] I want to outline a few general recommendations: 1. Slow Down, 2. Use Tracking GB, 3. Sensitivity set so you hear just slight Black Sand interference. 4. Look at your fringe targets with a couple more points of sensitivity. 5. Don't trust your machine is working well with moving water, wave wash. [do checks]. D2> So much to unpack here. First, the D2 is a tale of two machines. One [the devil] in Black Sand, the other, [the angel] in non-Black Sand. The positives> Light to hunt. Fair separation of iron from non-ferrous. Good separation of targets. Good at noise canceling. The negatives. Noisy. The Menu. Clipped target sounds at depth for non-ferrous. Moving water takes D2 out at any depth. Must look at many targets from Mutiple directions[time consuming] . Equinox 800> Not much to unpack. The Positives> Better Black Sand handling. The Menu. Good separation but under the D2. GOOD sounding targets [not clipped]. MUCH better target sounds at depth. Better and faster deciding iron from non-ferrous. Works with moving water unless target is deep. The Negatives> Lousy noise cancel. Heavier to hunt with. Waterproof issues. Sometimes loss of targets in the hole. Hunting summary> For about a week I hunted the D2 exclusively, I really wanted to get a gold chain hunting in Beach Sensitive [which I think is better than Equinox Beach 2.] [no gold chain] Then had the Equinox out a few times. Then updated the D2, and started hunting both machines daily. Every day I started with the D2 and switched to the Equinox. There was not ONE DAY that I wanted the D2 to remain with me. I find the D2 ear exhausting, both in how it handles Black Sand and in deciphering targets. The clipped and bite-y sounding nonferrous targets at depth are a real PIA. The range of pull-tab numbers are ridiculous. Tough to make headway with the interrogation needed on some targets. Not much difference in hunting with a max frequency of 24 or 40. Maybe 1-point sensitivity lower with 40. ANY moving water would completely wipeout the detection field of the D2 in both Beach and Beach sensitive. At best I could only pull a 91-sensitivity setting, but most detecting was done at 87-89. The Equinox> So MUCH better on handling Black Sand. Most hunting was done at 21 even with water contact. Detection field works in moving water but not on targets of depth. With the Horseshoe mode on telling the difference between Ferrous and nonferrous is MUCH easier and quicker. The unmistakable double ring of iron is clear and smooth. Target investigation time is cut down. I don't think there is a winner in the small bit category. Both machines seem to find small bits well. While I did not do any head-to-head burying of targets. Both machines seem to have their moments of man that was shallower than I thought and also the holy crap, that was deep moment. NOT trying to make this a one is better than another, your conditions may provide different results. If you have compared other machines to the ones I have PLEASE post! I will answer all questions of settings or conditions or ??? In the picture: ALL of the larger jewelry was found with the Equinox yesterday. Only a few small bits with the D2. This has been a bit of a trend. I give the nod to the Equinox's ability to tell ferrous from non-ferrous at depth. Most of this jewelry was deep with negative numbers but had clean one beep hits. My D2 will be in the closet until the black sand subsides.

Does anyone know who makes the Extreme Scoop handles and would you know the weight of the 46" handle? Thanks, El

Good afternoon to my fellow detectorists I'm looking for any recommendations for sand scoops for the beach, wet and dry sand. I'm currently using a 41 inch stainless steel scoop that's durable but it gets to be fairly heavy after a few hours. I was looking at the Extreme sand scoops but the titanium is way more that I want to spend right now. Any suggestions would be appreciated

Has anyone started this as a thread before? How Much GOLD Is In Home Depot Sand? - YouTube

I only had 3 hours window to detect.. so I said to myself f it, never used AT Trash Reject before.. All setting were default except for recovery speed down to 5.. the objective was to dig between 8 to 60, anything clean (not necessarily solid) in tones and on centre line.. Forgot to take trash picture but its around 30% to 40% from the above picture

Panama City Beach can get extremely busy during season. The roads are stand still, hour plus waits for food, beaches are jammed. Cameras tucked into bikinis, no limit to body art. And before the crowds come in the morning and after they leave is the time for hunting. Sometime after Labor Day things start thinning out. They say November could be the best month to clean up. BUT, it's not November it's January, it's sanded in and unseasonably cold. On top of that when I arrived, too rough to wade. So here I was looking like a nimrod, pushing my Tar up the surf zone. Must've been only a hour or so, 4 tent pegs and a pull tab, hunting in AM. I heard a very faint tone, different from what I've been hearing. I'd taken a couple steps before it registered that I better check this out. Back tracking a bit, I found it just where the Surf crests. As soon as the turmoil recided I plunged my scoop in to the hilt. Nothing, but the distant target still buried in the hole. The hole itself filled back up by the following wave. Finally after several scoops , I spotted the target as it surfaced still in the hole. A mad dash of the scoop and the prize was mine. Just a quarter, green and crusty with sand not even all that old but. That old feeling came back, not just a quarter but a hard fought for Treasure. Turned out, it was the best find from a dismal lot. So, as the song goes "The Road goes on Forever and the Party never ends"

Here is another video of my Manticore at Newport Beach near Santa Ana River at an area with heavy black sand. I made an earlier video but didn’t specify what modes I tried. This one I do. However the default Iron settings are in effect - I didn’t try All Metal. Also interesting is this guy’s video that’s pretty close to where I was - he’s showing higher than normal radioactivity there! Here’s a short video showing the ferrous content:

Try THIS in Lake Tahoe STEVE.! Below is a link I hope works to a admittedly low quality phone video I took at the worst black sand area I have ever seen. NOTE - The Outrageous settings on the Axiom are - Salt Mode, Sensitivity at Minimum of 1, Threshold at -9 So NO Threshold, Auto ground balance off. Machine would not ground balance in ANY mode or sensitivity on this ground and gave a Zero Zero balance number for both balance readouts, and no target could be heard over the very loud ground noise, SO I turned threshold OFF completely, and that helped BUT now still the ground was being detected as targets.! SO I reduced the sensitivity until most of the ground was no longer detected, that turned out to be all the way down to 1, and still I had to lift the coil about two inches above the ground to eliminate most ground signalling, to test a target I put a dime down 3 inches and it Clearly and Repeatedly detected it, even buried. Note it does have a different target sound than normal. I did not try it deeper, but am sure it would work with the signal as strong as it was with the coil 2 inch above the ground, so actually a distance of 5 inches in this ridiculous ground. Salt Mode, Sensitivity of 1, and NO Threshold - Went From Undetectable Ground to working well, Who in their right mind would even try such settings.!! 🙃 https://photos.app.goo.gl/rVhX4avWLfiUBTrc9

This test was on the worst Black Sand Ground I have seen, although it is not as bad as it was a few years ago, I suspect the Black Sand has sunk deeper. Years ago NO detector could even see a Brass Shotgun Shell deeper than even with ground level.! I tested 3 detectors, My Equinox 800, My Whites Goldmaster GMT, and the new Garrett Axiom. The first two are very good VLF detectors, the Axiom is the latest technology Pulse Detector. Pulse Detectors are almost always better in really bad ground conditions. ALL 3 detectors would not ground balance fully on this ground, at least at anywhere near normal sensitivity, the GMT did at reduced sensitivity. Interesting Axiom testing -- I tested with 3 coils, The 11 x 13 DD, The 7 x 11 DD and The 7 x 11 Mono. NONE of the coils would fully ground balance at even a sensitivity setting of 3, and was noisy at 2. The exception was in Salt Mode, it at least came close to balancing, so was the quietest with a low threshold setting. Fine Mode, was basically non usable with ALL coils and a sensitivity above 2. Normal was usable but noisy at 3, But really hard on the ears. Large, about the same as Normal, just not as clear on the target. Salt, was by far the quietest but with depth loss of 1 to 2 inches. Target - a piece of lead, likely a banged up 22 bullet, just 6 inches deep, NO coil would detect this target in this ground at less than a sensitivity setting of 3, and was Very Noisy at 3. INTERESTINGLY -- ALL modes, except Fine, could be run at FULL Sensitivity, but with the Threshold OFF at -9..! AND detect the target.! The ONLY other way to run it was with sensitivity below 3 (and miss the target) or go insane from ground noise. ( NOTE - I usually run my detectors slightly hot, with minimal threshold, so am used to background noise, But that is NOT possible here.) The 11 x 13 DD had the clearest and strongest target response. The 7 x 11 DD was OK, But Surprisingly More Noisy. I had expected it to be less noisy looking at less ground, but maybe it is more sensitive, so reacts more to the ground that is not fully balanced out. The 7 x 11 Mono was as expected, slightly more sensitive than the same size DD, But substantially noisier. Strange, But with no threshold it has to break past a zero point to signal anything, But it will in this extreme ground. Normally there is a substantial sensitivity loss with no low threshold, but with ground this noisy it seems to filter the noise, with a smaller sensitivity loss. Unfortunately the Dual Balance did not seem to work, even holding the button until it goes into dual balance, I suspect because it was not hot Rocks, Just Black Sands, so couldn't tell the difference, and balance numbers were inconsistent and all over the place. BTW, neither VLF could see the target deeper than 2 inches.

I am probably going to rant but will try to get all the information out. Been using .71, since inception and now just changed to 2.0. Summary: I was really impressed with the overall difference between the two operating systems. Beach and Beach Sensitive used with 9"coil. Will provide all my settings if you want. With 2.0 1. Better handling of Black Sand mineralization. 2. More punch power, with better TID's 3. Better TID at depth. 4. Not as much Iron up-scaling [but a caveat] 5. WAY---WAY easier on the ears with mineralization noise. Identical sensitivity and the ability to hunt one or two-points higher sensitivity. 6. Good job of still blanking bi-metal coins. I started right away with positive results. VERY deep coins that were reading strong in volume and TID. Noticed good iron blanking and Black Sand disruption was more muted on the ears. Meaning easier to pick out targets from ground noise. Today's take, with trash:

I stumbled across this video and thought what a cool idea, you could put on some workman type clothes and wander around the beaches even during high traffic times collecting all the recent drops and act as if you're just a worker cleaning the beach 😛 In some places this type of thing would be quite successful, and a bonus is you really are cleaning the beach, you'd have a lot of rubbish to dump at the end of your scooping session. I wonder where to buy these things, they even seem to make them with wheels, although I think I like the one in the video better than the one with wheels. https://www.cleansands.com/store/p40/SAND_CLEANING_TOOL_-_Production_Starting_Soon.html

Especially necklace, how do you hunt the elusive necklace, chain etc.. lets say if you found a pendant.. then what will you do... I have found few pendants (on different hunt) but no necklace .. so I figured maybe I do something wrong or not enough... The way when I'm hunting for necklaces is I will spiral out (around 3ish meter radius) from the pendant I found and dig everything that has even a slightest bit of positive signal. The setting I used is Beach LC , Sensitivity dependent on soil mostly 23 to 27, Recovery 4, Ferrous Limit 6 - 2 Each pendant found on different hunt around 4 to 7 inches except for the necklace around 3 inches. Would love to know your methodology when hunting small chain, neckless etc.. Thank you in advance.

While on holidays I had the chance to detect a very popular beach in the Kootenays. Course ground rock sand with a lot of black sand, and absolutely littered with old nails and spikes. I managed to recover approximately $3 in clad, some wheaties and a small silver ring. Conditions were such: if target was within 1/2" of surface it would be identified correctly by detector. Otherwise, pennies, pulltabs, whatever, would give an iron grunt and show on the 2d screen as iron. Stabilizer settings had no effect on filtering out the high iron content. All in all, one of the toughest technical hunts, ever.

Recently my old RTG sand scoop started to fall apart. Served me well but I put the bugger through hell and then some. I have a regular scoop but it's big, wide and I prefer the basket type as they shake out easier. There was a thread about scoops and Michael pointed out Boarderline Engineering so thought I would give them a try. The scoop is absolutely built to last with impecable quality and attention to detail. It should work well around the lakes and rivers here as well as the beach. I bought the heavier duty all stainless as the lightweight ones can bend too easy getting rocks and gravel out of the way. Probably be the last scoop I'll need to buy.

I occasionally come across intensive black sand conditions in my Orange County beaches and I’d like to set up such conditions at home to test different detectors. Any tips on purchasing such sand or ferrous concentrations for such tests?

I ran 2 buckets of sand from my local gold producing river through my modified Geo highbanker and caught this much gold. So..........when the river is too high, dig the sand. You will come home with at least some gold. Easy digging, no holes to fill in and stay in shape for your next prospecting trip. Check it out...https://youtu.be/43KHLnsgoks Feels strange not having any tailings build up behind the hopper.

It has yet to be tested on the field, but this xtreme scoop is huge! I'm definitely not going to be missing targets anytime soon, and those zincers that sink into pooled water will finally be able to be extracted! Easily 3 times bigger than my previous scoop and looks fairly durable! Carbon fiber handle makes it light weight and has a great grip compared to the iron rod I am currently using. I'm excited to try this out tomorrow!

Build quality of scoops from amazon are extremely poor. Xtremescoops has a 10 yr warranty on their scoops and I need something durable to last me more than 3 weeks of use. Main concerns are handle and weld quality.

Well surf was calm this morning and I finally got back out Nice change from getting knocked over and beat up in the surf of the Atlantic. Did end up to my neck getting a pair of sunglasses out 😆. Darn things rang up like a gold ring. Hotter than @#%$ down here so nice to be in the water up to waist maybe a lil deeper at times. Actually did not want to get out or leave, but my list of things to do today was a little long. Wife met me when I stepped out of the water. She did good with coins so it helped pay the gas for the day 😊. Only bad thing was I lost the 925 opal ring I dug in the surf to her waiting hands😆 😛. First target of day was the cheap gold plated sun earring that I barely could make out in the dark, but saw the color. Translation = junker, but it got the heart pumping. Beaches long and flat but I did have an area that had a trough running along the beach and a few deeper holes. Wife did score a brand new Samsung Galaxy S23 1ft down in wet sand and we were able to get it back to a visitor from St Augustine. Meet the young guy at a local park — yep he said he just bought it. He tried handing me money, but I refused to take. Told him take his wife to dinner instead. Used D2 dive program and it worked great (smooth). Beach Sense when out of the surf and on the beach/wet. Mainly looking for fresh drops that’s why the pulse is taking a break and I need to figure this XP out. Hopefully I get some time to read other posts tonight. Just been busy.

It seems carbon fiber handles are all the rage for sand scoops. I hunt inland lakes and the bottoms are a mixture of mud and clay. Have you ever broken a carbon fiber handle while pulling loose a full scoop? Also, I am replacing 2 year old scoop. What do you recommend for my kind of hunting?

Hi there, Has anyone had any experience with suction dredging in rivers with fine gold and a lot of iron sand / black sand (say up to 10% of gravel which passes through the sluice). I'm considering the use of hydraulic riffles but can't find any data in regards to relative gain in recovery versus a standard keene triple type sluice box. I realise this is a very complex issue as a lot of factors affect the recovery of gold but it would be good to hear from someone who's had some practical experience. Pictures of the gold at the location.

Gonna go hunt a freshwater beach that produced very well with the Nox using Park 1 . I'm trying to get an idea which program might help in finding smaller gold rings or earrings. Any input would be greatly appreciated, thanks

Today I went out for a beach hunt in the morning. (Just one silver band.) I switched back to my little scoop that I pull to me. It is an all stainless steel scoop with a 6" basket. It is a delight to use on a shallow target beach because I can dig the targets faster that my big scoop. My big scoop is of European make that I'll fondly call Godzilla. It is a heavy sucker with 8" basket and a step on back. It is twice the weight of my pull scoop but I can get the deep targets that are 10" or more. A couple of days earlier this week it came in handy. It does not bend or give. It will overpower ALL sand. Other than it being so heavy it also seems to make pinpointing harder. I think the presence of additional metal mass throws off my ability to use the tip of the 15" inch coil on my Equinox. I thought about that today as I was using the smaller scoop. Does anyone else note a difference in pinpointing with your different scoops?

I got myself a cheap poly-carbonate sand scoop. It's kind of sturdy, but I already found that it doesn't work particularly well, especially in wet sand, for at least three reasons: it's not as sturdy as stainless steel and digging the gravel is not easy, the holes are not big enough for the wet sand to fall through easily (I think I need a mesh at the bottom somehow), and, for compactness, my scoop doesn't have a long handle, which makes it pretty difficult to dig quickly and often... I was hoping that somebody could point me out to a better scoop that I could either buy online (Amazon, Lazada - the latter is better as there are no import duties in Thailand) or that could inspire me to ask someone here to make for me. The ideal one would be: small in size with the mesh that allows the wet sand to fall through (but, which would also allow or the scoop to be pushed into the sand with one's foot) with a longer handle, possibly removable (but not the full length as it won't be portable enough the way I do it - motorcycling...) cheap... (I know, but one has to start somewhere...). Cheers!

Now I am not starting a fight hear but I own a Tarsacci, and was wondering has anyone compared the two detectors, i would like to know