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Hi, I'm new to this forum but have detected on and off for the past 3 or 4 years and in the 80's with my dad ( I did all the digging), I recently got permission from my dentist who is in an old fine arts building that was built in 1840 in central Indiana, I dug this up at about 4-5 inches down and have Googled the heck out of it and can not come up with anything. I'm thinking it's some kind of decorative bell. It had a partial bottom that broke up and a magnet will only stick to the post, it has the number 1067 on the inside, I lightly washed it off with water and a towel and some shine came through on parts of it. ANY help or info would be much appreciated.

There is an area of a park that I hunt that I have gone over many times with my CTX, Deus, and EQ 800. I have studiously tried to learn how to use the many features of each detector to know good targets from questionable ones. Recently friends have expressed an interest in trying metal detecting so I bought a Quest Q20 to loan them because it is simpler than my other machines while still having minimally useful features. Took it out to the area of the park mentioned above to check it out and....you guessed it....found my best find of the past year, a heavy gold plated silver ring. Which got me to thinking.......(always dangerous). Its been discussed before of course but I wonder how many of us use all the info and adjustments of our machines to find the good stuff but only end up using all that info almost as a reason NOT to dig. Is that why a new detector always seems to "bring hunted out sites back to life"? Is that why, in the face of increasing technology, beep and dig machines are still out there doing well? Knowing your machine(s) is necessary for sure and it's fun tweaking them to get their best. But just what is their best? We've all seen a good strong signal turn out to be something other than what was indicated. Still, there are a few people who can tell an awful lot about a target before digging it and digging every beep is hardly a viable option. Plus you can't sweep every square inch of a site. BUT....... I'll bet most of us just outsmart ourselves more often than not. Or is that just me?

As i am getting more and more into nugget shooting, i've decided that i need to set up gold test garden, so that i can determine how the changes i make to the machines i have affect their ability to find gold. As luck would have it my backyard has some of the hottest soil i've detect on thus far. So the plan is to dig a trench about 3 feet deep then auger holes into the sides and case with pvc. Do this for every inch of increasing depth. This way i can quickly change the target that's in the ground but still come as close as possible to simulating a gold target in undisturbed hot ground. With the 6 inch equinox coil on the way i cant think of a better way to accurately compare its capabilities to the gm1000s capabilities, and then also be able to compare their two larger coils on larger gold at depth. Probably will put together a few videos. And as an added bonus the trench i dig will also be a prospecting trench since there is very fine gold and a source vein crossing my back yard somewhere. Will keep you guys posted. Let me know your thoughts!

Been out for a few hunts with my Nox 600, mostly 50-100 year old trashy parks. Everything is just great even got into some river hunts with some success. Where I’m having trouble is when I go out to my old coal mining ghost town sites which has trash from every decade. Also all the buildings have been removed or bulldozed so lots of nails, bullets and flat iron etc mixed around.(Pacific Northwest Washington) #1 I’m guilty of mode hopping at the mining site. #2 the site is so trashy I cannot find a spot to proper ground balance!!!! general settings sensitivity=18-20 iron bias=1-2 back and forth recovery=2-3 back and forth I would love all tips links etc. thanks so much for reading

After reading reports of the abilities of the Equinox 600 in multi against the 800 I was wondering if anyone has used the 600 for hunting small nuggets as I’m looking at a new general purpose detector that I can loan to friends on occasional prospecting trips , although I’m figuring a 6 inch coil would probably be required also . regards PM??

Ive attached a lidar map of the main area i prospect. Id like to get peoples knee-jerk reactions on where they would swing a detector knowing large nuggets (they have generally been very crystalline with a few specimens found) have been found in the creek. So what would be your number 1, 2, and 3 spots to focus on. Ive detected around a good bit and have yet find anything outside of the creek, but i want to see if im missing something obvious. lol Search Area 1.pdf

EDITED.........For a first timer just doing some experimental nugget hunting would it be worth a GPAA membership for access to the claims or just doing some research and hunting BLM land? Will be in Phoenix visiting a friend after a work trip that ends in Vegas. I am entertaining renting a car instead of flying and trying my luck for nuggets along the way! Thanks...Noah What group/club is best for AZ or NV gold detecting claims??? First time detector prospector looking for a nugget!!! Relic/coin hunter from Florida planning a vacation. Thanks

On my FB a few weeks ago I posted a photo of a thin metal tin rectangular in shape that had Chinese writing on it. Yes I know it is an opium tin, but what does the symbols say? Found these 3 at an old mining site with Equinox. Thanks for your help.

I did post this on another forum, but, different people, different responses. I have a question concerning an experience I had today at the beach. I was detecting when I came upon a friend of mine who was trying to help a woman find a pendant she had just dropped into the sand. I went over to see if I could help because my friend couldn't find the item. The pendant is very small. Think of a battery for a hearing aid only thinner. My friend Richard finally gave up so I decided to give it a try. Before I got there I was hunting in beach 1 with GB 0, RS 5, IB 3, five tones and nothing rejected. I switched over to beach 2 with all attributes the same and started hunting for the errant pendant but couldn't find it. The area was very small, about five feet by three feet. The woman was absolutely positive she had just dropped the pendant at that spot. Richard and I covered that small area very well. Finally, when I couldn't find the pendant, the woman said thank you for looking and started to walk away. Me, thinking she probably dropped it somewhere else, reset my Nox to the previous beach 1 set up. I put the coil to the sand, made one sweep and got at 2-3 hit. I turned 90 and it remained. I got my pin pointer out, pushed it into the sand maybe two inches, got a hit, reached into the sand and pulled out the pendant! The woman was about 30 yards away by this time so I had to holler to get her attention. She was very happy to get her pendant back. So, after that long story, here's my question. I'm a bit confused about beach 1 and beach 2 and when is it best to use one over the other? I switched to beach 2, from beach 1, because I've read it hits harder on small gold than beach 1. Is this true or have I mis-construed what beach 1 and beach 2 do? Is beach 2 only for in the water?

Hi fellow detectorists, Well i got back from my permission about an hour ago. Always feel good after exercise, but feel even better after detecting ? Anyways it was a crazy day, bleeps and chirps on almost every sweep. I kind of got a tad despondent after digging about 10+ holes and finding lead, wire, bolts, door handles, an old ladys lighter etc. They all seemed to reside in the 10-17 VDI range in Field 2. As i carried on, the vdi's kept matching the previous trash, and that made for the despondency. I found myself skipping good signals in that vdi range, and now back at home im kicking myself for not digging them. Especially when on one 16 (i think) i dug up a nice french centime 1969. Not a great dig, but nice to see a shiny coin. So my query is, should we really dig them all, because today i would of tore up the whole lawn with about 100 + holes. Its a dilemma, but im still sat here reminiscing of my digs. Oh and on advice from Steve, im going to ask this with the Brits in mind: What ground balance method do you chaps/chapess's use in the UK on fields please? Auto, manual or ground track? God i love this hobby. All the best peeps! Andy.

Hi Peeps, new member here, so hello all. Ok so .... A lot of the time im getting a one way chirp on the nox which shows a good VDI. Is this a coin on edge, is it worth a dig? I seem to get this a lot, so surely they cant all be on edge coins. Another weird one is that i get a moderate signal, but then when i really brush the coil against the grass, (to decrease depth of target) it then shows a good vdi. Is this falsing or am i getting nearer to the target? Again ... Seems to happen a lot. Thanks. Andy.

Streamlining At the moment I am a quantity clad hunter. Just looking for more efficient ways of operating. Currently I am using the Equinox 600 with wireless low latency headphones. I use park mode 1 with 50 tones and leave open VDI numbers 13, and 24 to 38. My method: I mostly bend at the waist with a little knee flex to dig (no kneeling); most coins are less than 5" deep. I use a Lesche 10" hand trowel and a smaller wider trowel for popping near surface coins. I only bend over once per target. I use a pinpointer after initial coil pinpointing leaving the pinpointer on facing away from the target while digging, dig target, pinpoint again as needed, recover target, turn pinpointer off, fill in hole, pick up tools, then straighten back up, pocket finds, holster tools and give the hole a final step on and start sweeping again. I have gone from using the pinpointer holster to using my back pants pocket as this is faster to draw and replace without having to stop and look to holster. Also started using a quicker holster for my larger trowel and keep my small wider trowel in my other back pocket. I use a small tie on hardware apron with a pocket for finds and a pocket for trash. My 600 is tethered to my belt with an elastic bungee cord so it hangs and moves with me when I bend and straighten up; it never gets laid on the ground. Anyone like to share their method of streamlining to increase efficiency and cut down on redundancy. 　Malcolm

I would like to understand how Depth Detection works with the Nox (I assume same for other detectors) and discover tips for improving depth detection. I've only been detecting for 1 year, using a Garrett ACE 150 with a dig-it-all attitude essential for beginners. I've now moved to the awesome Nox 800 and want to be more discriminatory in my digging. The Ace depth detector always gave a reliable indication of depth, each spade accurate to 2". I'm not so sure about the NOX, it may be that because it is detecting at such great depth (I'm finding down to at least 15") that more items seem to be >8" or maybe this is a weakness? Anyway it is a brilliant machine, by far the best choice for someone like me moving from beginner. So a) what is the physics behind depth detection?. (timelag measurement?, phase change?) b) what tips for deducing depth? (I've picked up on the triple tone for items very close to the surface, is when the nox shows 5 spades and the item is 6"down I find annoying)

Out for a couple mile hunt today. Didn't find any gold but did walk into a cartel grow being setup. Moving supplies in. Backed out quietly........

OK I admit that I am a coil control snob. I have always concentrated on maintaining a perfect 1 inch above the ground elevation and with the coil perfectly parallel to the surface. Having spent many years hunting on ocean beaches with very gradual slopes and close to tidal flat characteristics, I strove for perfection. I developed a gait where if my right foot was forward the coil was 90 degrees to the left. As the left foot came forward and even with the right foot the coil would be straight in front, and as the left foot moved forward the coil 90 degrees to the right. I was very efficient and could cover a lane about 7ft wide over wet/flat sand. So being the snob that I was. I observed other detector users with golf swings or scythe mode murder the weeds methods, and I was constantly saying tsk..tsk..tsk. If only they could achieve my higher plane of enlightenment and skill they would be much more successful. Pride doth cometh before the fall! When beach hunting I always arrived at the crack of dawn and most of the time there was a fog or mist still in place leaving a light coating of moisture on the dry sand. As I always had single and multi-freq detectors this never concerned me much as I could adapt to the conditions. Usually very early in the morning you see the runners and dog walkers out, and only occasionally another detector user. But there was one old codger that I saw quite often working the dry sand for recent drops, and he moved along the beach at warp speed stopping briefly to retrieve a target. I had observed him a couple of times from a distance and could tell he knew very little about metal detecting or how to swing a coil. His big mistake was that he was holding the coil at a 45 degree angle with the left side about an inch above the sand and the right side up about 8 inches high. He looked to be sporting a Tesoro Compadre from the shape of the control box and the coil design. He was whipping that coil back and forth and flying down the beach as if he was making a run for the porta-potty. About the third time that I saw him light shown through my snob fog. The dry sand had a thin layer of moisture on it in the morning and if he held the coil parallel to the surface it would chatter and false. So he had adapted to the situation with the equipment he had on hand. By only exposing the outer edge to the sand no false-ing. But only shallow targets(recent drops) would be found and he was only covering about a 3 inch wide swath side to side. That explained the rapid swing and foot speed to cover ground. Also iron was easily rejected because the signal was on the edge of the coil. And he wasn’t carrying a digger or sifter with him, he would just kick the sand to find the target. He was probably looking at me and thinking that I was sporting enough gear to make a moon landing. The arrogant Master had become the Grasshopper.

This may sound like a dumb question but I'm new to detecting and haven't really found many talking about where and when it's safe to dig. If this is posted in the wrong place, please do move it. When digging within city limits, parks, yards, in green strips along sidewalks, what about public utility lines, phone lines, or plastic gas lines in yards. How much of this are some of you concerned about? Do you have any "war stories" to tell? Any best practices for safety in this regard that you could share?

I spent a couple of hours on curb strips in my area that date back to the late 1890’s. The houses are long gone, but the squared off curbs and sidewalks are still there. I can’t get a shovel down without hitting broken glass. I got fooled by more aluminum screw caps from cheap wine and liquor pints. I’ve read and have a decent grasp on wiggle back giving an iron grunt on crown caps but is there anything for these stupid aluminum ones?

My buddy (who is still alive) was out using the NOX on Private Property last week and all was good. Then he gets a signal.. is bent over digging for treasures and not paying much attention around him. Next thing you know... he is looking down the barrel of a DBL Barrel Shotgun. What would you do? 1) Drop to your knees 2) Piss yourself 3) Run home 4) Call the Police 5) Thank the Lord 6) All of the above Your answers please???

I had to wait for 3 hours at DMV! That was longer than my hunt at the beach tonight. If I could write a complete thought I would say 'Learning to Love My 800' Mitchel

What the heck does that mean??? Well, what I mean by that is even though you may be finding mundane targets like nickels and the tiniest of aluminum pieces or even a deep penny. Be aware of what these recoveries are telling you. Once again I hit the deserted, pounded, hunted out, beach park. Not much in the way of replenishment with 40F temps, snow flurries and sleet, and 15 knot winds again. I wanted to give the area where I found my gold Jesus a thorough search just to make sure I did not miss any other pieces of the pendant, necklace, or whatever it was attached to. No luck on that, but I did learn or confirm a lot about the Equinox as the day went on. I then hit the shoreline/tide line again but the tide was coming in and high so the wet sand margin was small and high on the beach. Nevertheless I did find two, deep slimy nickels. This is telling me that I will eventually hit deep gold in the wet sand as the EQX is hitting the deep nickel mid conductors HARD with a clearly dig me signal. If I keep hitting that area, there will be deep gold jewelry that has not yet been recovered, I am sure of it, and the EQX will let me know the second I pass my coil over it. It also tells me that I basically have a new beach to hit since I can now hit the tide line at low tide with confidence that I will be able to pull some deep keeper targets. I kept finding the tiniest pieces of lead, aluminum, and steel. The would just bang out of the headphones. Small gold cannot be far behind. Keep swinging. Finally, I hit a strong ferrous tone with just a hint of a high tone. But the high tone was not ferrous wraparound (too low on the VDI and not quite in sync with the ferrous tone). I decided to dig it. I pulled out a steel wire about 4 inches long...and a penny from a bout 10" down. Yeah it was just a penny, but the EQX said dig me even with the super strong ferrous grunt. In other words, it was not a bottlecap or other junk target with a ferrous and non-ferrous signal component. I know that one of these days the EQX will be fast enough to unmask a military button or a silver for me in the thick iron. Pay attention to what your mundane targets are telling you about your detector's capabilities. That is why you should be digging just about every repeatable target indication you come across during the first several hours that you are learning the machine. HTH.

A friend of mine lost her gold ring playing softball. It was a family heirloom and she thinks it flew off when she threw a softball. We are sitting 2 weeks since the loss and the field has limited access so it’s unlikely that anyone has detected since the loss. We have a general idea of where on the field it was lost. I have a 600 and have only used it a few times in my yard. Are there any recommendations as to which program to run and tweaks that will allow me to cover the field quicker and hone in on a woman’s gold engagement-style ring? I also have a Fisher f2 and f44 with a lot of hours. So I guess the other question is would I be better off falling back on my f44? (But the Equinox is just so fun!) Thanks in advance, Dave

For mineralized soil relic hunting with Equinox I am hearing a few common themes emerging (my thoughts in parenthesis): Most seem to be building around Park 2 (I will also experiment with Field 2 and Gold 2. Sticking with the "2's" because they favor mid conductors or strike a balance between mid and high conductor detectability or favor hot soil conditions (Gold 2).) Field 1 seems to be popular in the UK. At least perform an Auto or Manual GB (am wondering myself about the effectiveness of tracking). GB will help with performance since mineralized ground will likely have a ground phase reading other than the default and the mineralization allows the GB algorithm something to grab onto give you a good GB setting. Don't overdo sensitivity. If you can run stable at 22 that's fine. No need to push it much higher than the default 20 setting. Hunt with recovery speed 6 to 8 (high end of 800 settings). Lower settings in mineralized soil increase ground noise, affecting signal-to-noise ratio and detracting from the ability to detect deeper targets countering the flawed claim that "slower is deeper". Minimize iron bias if you want to maximize ability to unmask non ferrous amongst thick ferrous junk. Drawback is propensity for non ferrous signal component falsing from the iron. These can be checked with the AM button. Upping iron bias to 3 or 4 (800 settings) in sparse iron situaions is ok as you run a much lower risk of encountering a masked target. This is definitely a YMMV area and experimentation is encouraged for your particular site conditions. Search in AM or without discrimination (AM gives you one touch access to turn disc off/on, so more convenient IMO to hunt with a iron disc'd out and punch AM button when necessary). Listen for both ferrous and non-ferrous hits and try to center the coil on target to determine ferrous-nonferrous symmetry (donut) for dig decision or dig it all if you are so inclined. Non-symmetric behavior and inability to find a non-ferrous tone and ID sweet spot are good indicators of trash or nails. But remember when relic hunting there are several desirable, relatively big non-ferrous artifacts worth recovering including sword blades, knives, bayonets, spurs, horse tack, cooking implements and ordnance. EQX should hit fairly deep even in mineralized soil and can give you some key additional info if you carefully interrogate the target. Tones: I have seen anything from 2 to 50 tones recommended and numerous tone break recommendations so post your custom tone setups and why. I am sure I missed a lot, especially custom tone setups which are more personal preference based versus performance based, so please add your tips, wisdom, and experiences to the thread. Thanks Shout out to Steve H, Daniel TN, Skate, Mtwolf2270, SteveG, Cal Cobra, Mitchel (mn90403) and all others I failed to mention (my apologies) blazing the Equinox relic trail.

Gentlemen; What USB microscope and what power do you recommend? I need nothing fancy just for looking at some coins, rocks and mineral specimens.

Lets say you have been a working person for 20+ years and contributing to the growth of our fine country. You are not rich by any means, but if need be you could find a way to get a good metal detector or two (just like most folks on here reading this). Heck, even after hunting season, you could sell a couple guns? NOT... You get invited by an old friend on a 1 week vacation Prospecting Trip to detect for gold. Yes, the trip of a lifetime for some and just another fun adventure for a few. You are told there are dredge tailing piles, hard rock ore dumps and also the potential to hunt both alluvial eluvial placers. Do you know these terms and the kind of gold generally associated with them? Which detector would you take and why? There is no wrong answer and please lets not attack anyone, brand or model.

Recently picked up by MCAS on a AZ military base (SAR crew-member posing with, "Tweaker-Tool" GPX.)