Search the Community

It was a rather strange day today ......broad spectrum of finds and dates of coins. BUT .........I got a tiny 9ct gold stud earring in black sand mix. A nice old penny, the other penny is just too far gone to see a date. Another coin for the scrap. Hubby ran off with the stainless steel hose clip thingys......guess some junk is useful eh?

I recently returned from a MD’ing trip to Cancun and the 3 of us used Minelab Equinox detectors. Finds included 100’s of coins, probably 10+ pairs of sun glasses, with 1 of them being Ray-Bans, 2 cell phones, numerous ear rings with 1 of them being 14K gold and another was a diamond stud. Chains, bracelets and metals, some broken and others hole. Over 30+ rings with many sterling, a few of the modern Tungsten and Stainless wedding bands and even gold rings (both white and yellow gold). 2 rings really popped out that were both 14K gold. One was the blue sapphire with diamonds and the other a wedding ring with a nice 1+ karats of diamonds. Even the 1st time lady digger scored a nice 14K white gold wedding band with a couple cool sterling rings. I managed 21 of the 30 rings so I won't complain but the amount of gold was certainly off my standards. Pic of rings on my hand were the ones I found minus a sterling that broke when being tumbled. We all enjoyed the warm weather, water and experience. The Equinox detectors performed as hoped. Used Beach Mode #1, GB on, open screen by pushing the Horseshoe, SENS around 17 to 19 and Threshold so I can hear it. All other settings were FP. What amazes me is the gold to modern metal ratio. The resorts I hunt used to produce more gold than modern metals and now it has flipped. in years past, I'd come back with 15 or 20 gold rings on a weeks hunt and never a modern Stainless or Tungsten. Now it seems I'll get more of them than I actually do the gold ones? Well the wife still likes going down there so I might as well get used to it and realize 5, 6 and 7 Gold ring days are long gone at those places. Guess I'll jump into a lake and follow BeechNut around as his gold ring counts are still good.

Heading to Mexico (Riviera Maya) in a couple days (if Coronavirus doesn’t get my Flight cancelled). Plan to use my Nox 800 mainly in the ocean in probably 4-6ft of water. Anyone have any tips or advice on settings and any good experience/finds in this area? I imagine I’ll run it in beach mode 2 and do an auto tune and manual GB once chest deep in the water. Sensitivity I imagine I’ll set to around 19 +/- as needed to stabilize. I’ll ignore everything in the -9 to 0 range and 12, 13 & 14. Threshold 0, recovery speed 5. don’t have a set of waterproof headphones yet so will be running volume on 25. Hope I can hear this. I’ll be snorkeling with head under water. Any good suggestions on waterproof headphones for Nox 800 ?

Was reading with interest forums on metal detecting after beach renourishment which happens often here on Tybee Island. The locals were saying it's not worth it but I went out anyways. Bought a Garrett Pinpointer and wanted to try it out. Found out I need to read instructions when I couldnt even get it to detect a quarter, lol. Was trying to figure out exactly where in the dirt should I start. Where they first place it further up on shore, or close to the ocean where they sand has been washing out to sea? It's the first time in a long time that I got to go metal detecting and that's why I went. Found a quarter, pencil, ice bucket and toy truck. On another question was looking in the White's catalog at the VERY expensive metal detectors, like the $1500 ones. Says they are for finding large amounts of treasure? Why wouldnt a regular metal detector detect that?

Hello all! One thing that I have not seen or heard since the Nox has been out is what people are finding for Spanish treasure and relics with the Equinox out on the FL Treasure Coast. Of course ever since the Nox has been out there has not really been any storms to get some good beach erosion going on. Out of curiosity, what settings and mode are folks using for the relic/treasure hunt on the treasure coast beaches, including the iron settings. Can't wait to hear the answers! I plan on being down there for a couple weeks in Feb and if the weather gives some good erosion I'm gonna be out there with the 15' coil swinging away! But even if the weather doesn't "cooperate" I'll still be looking for that modern bling in the Beach modes. I think I have to be the only person that goes on a FL vacation that hopes for a NorEaster

Hello to all back from the coast where i visited the G Beach again and another couples of beaches. 1st night i went to a local one 10 min drive and had £3.20.........hard to dig shingles i changed spade compare to last week which make it easier the box is capable of finding tiny none ferrous target on the beach i knew about his capacity to find gold when i met Goldrat in OZ in March last year.....(time flies......). in the morning on the 2nd day i was at G Beach at 5 am with my newly modded sand scoop i replace the shaft with a 1250mm stainless steel tube 1mm thick and sold with 2 U bolts welded which fit perfectly the sand is called EVOLUTION will put the link later. Back to the beach not much to declare where i spent time in the last couple of week and where i found the Gold ring,so what i did is moving using the groynes as reference points.And i realise the further i was moving from the "main beach" the more i was finding bullet (14/16 on the nox) few coins and few fishing weight ,also spotted a shiprwreck will try to see if it is listed on a map later at 9 o'clock i throw away the towel.I ll be back with hopefully more gold between bullets It was super windy and raining so i couldt take my pulse,tested some new gloves and was very happy with them,tired to spend 20 quids in gloves and throwing them super quickly. The 3rd morning i wanted to try a another beach closer to G beach as it has huge sandy beaches but despite my hard work i found not much the funny bit is actually showing what the nox can find you in the immensity of the beaches...........my machine is running quite hot and it s sparkly but with the new Digger i didnt leave a single target in the sand no matter how deep. Pick up plastic trash and 4 cans of cokes almost sanded to the thickness of a cigarette paper,ECO-BEACH GOLD MINER should me my new pseudo Sorry for the poor quality of the pics,my sleeping night are short and i can see the lack of focus. May Neptune bless you all Enjoy RR

After finding a decent amount of silver on my favorite beach the other day, I had to get out there again. A storm had just passed and I wanted to see if the silver continued in my new area. I had a lot of competition, with 8 other detectorists. But they were all hitting an exposed area like piranhas 😄. I was alone in my area. I used the GPX for this section because I needed the extra depth. I wasn't expecting this good of a day. A total of 34 silver coins, a silver chain, a silver religious medal and a nice 14K gold and ice? cross. I can never seem to get a good shot of anything that sparkles with my waterproof camera. 137 coins for the day. My copper to zinc penny ratio was threw the roof at 62 copper to 2 zinc. That is what a good storm does for you 😊 I won't be able to get back until next week, but I'm hoping I can start where I left off. Fingers crossed.

Hi there, I have about 100 hours on my new Nox and it rocks! Big time! It is my first "modern" high gain detector and I love it. Now that the swimming and sunshine season is about to arrive here in Germany soon, my plan is to hunt the shallow waters of some lakes highly frequented by people for years. I doubt that many detectors have been IN the water yet. Which program would be a good start? My suggestion goes towards Field or maybe the Park progs? My general hunting I do in Field 1. I would love to hear your experiences in Freshwater. The ground is not mineralized at all.

Hello to all , So i went back to the beach after another storm nothing really changed as i think it is protected from the ferocious sea. I managed few improvements in my detecting with the nox,first the finds pouch is now located where my heart is (yes i got one:)) which doesn't got down anymore every 2 minutes.And i found out that the bluetooth connection isn't that powerful that why it is cutting while i am digging or detecting in a certain way so i hang up the module WM08 on the pouch of my smock jacket work a treat. i started on the wet sand and after not much luck(tide was short anyway) i moved where the gravel/shingles break with the sand and mud,and my session turned into mudlarking something i am really familiar with, so my skills prevail not easy to retrieve the targets from a thick heavy black mud but here are the finds: a silver ring with mother pearl,a large medal few fishing weight a 50 cal bullet(maybe from a dogfight this time :) i may return now with the PI or try again those muddy patches. The next day i did a session of beach crawl with a mate digging into shingles is a night mare pinpoint isn't great and retrieving the target is worse i found few coins nonetheless and left with the question of what could be better to dig there than a spade..................hopefully this week i will do some Thames sessions. Last pictures is my now my full home made carbone set up cost me not much maybe £25 max and 25 minutes job.The main stem is longer but i am tall the lower one is slighter shorter and thiner the arm cup is the old style XP one.I will weight it once i got find a scale :).The big round stuff is a lead weight i guess must be at least 800gr Enjoy RR

Coins, bits, fishing sinkers and half a ring from beach last week in NZ. We have new 10, 20 and 50 cent cupro nickle coins which just degrade and rust in the sea salt or even the soil. The bad ones I just put between a cloth and a few whacks with a hammer to get the crud off, either rotary tumble with malt vinegar and salt or if Im feeling vicious.....into a container of CLR (calcium, lime and rust remover), then a container of water, finaly container of baking soda and water. Banks here will only accept coins that are recognizable.....no matter the colour, as in rotary tumbling I plonk the 10c cupro copper with "silver" 20 and 50's and they all come out a pretty pink! Only advantage of cupro nickle is they are magnetic.......using a 120kg pull neodymium is interesting fun !!!!!! However, what the photo does say is they were deep and bèen in the sand a long time.....and that is from a beach which is constantly detected by others.

The way I “classify” beach sand determines which search mode I use on my Equinox. It works well for me on our central Florida beaches. Since all beaches differ in terms of salinity/mineralization, I’d be interested in hearing from other beach hunters if they too make this “4 layer classification” of beach sand conditions. Dry Sand: area where the surf doesn’t or hasn’t covered. The sand is extremely dry and where most beach goers spread their towels and chairs. Area to the lady’s far left in the photo. Damp Sand: Area where the surf once covered but has recently receded to the point where it no longer does leaving the sand still somewhat damp. Smooth area to the lady’s immediate left. Wet Sand: Area where the surf still covers as the waves come on shore but recedes with wave action leaving the sand distinctly wet. Smooth dark area to the lady’s direct front and immediate right. Surf: Self explanatory...in the water. In the Dry and Damp areas, Beach 1, All Metal with sensitivity, recovery speed, and F2 settings adjusted for conditions works best. If I try to use Beach 1 and All Metal in the Wet sand and Surf, the amount of falsing naturally increases significantly. In the Wet sand and Surf, Beach 2, discrimination activated and sensitivity being situationally dependent works best...the EQX settles down considerably. This simply confirms Minelab’s recommendation but I’ve distinguished between damp and wet sand where they use dry, wet and surf classifications. Question: Anyone else see a performance difference in Damp and Wet sand modes/settings?

On the beaches here on Cape Cod my old trusty DFX was unable to auto ground balance but instead would initiate default factory settings. Scrolling through the many settings I always selected "ground tracking on" Hopefully, soon I'll have a Nox 800. as the DFX needs a new coil and/or some box work. Too old. Sorry DFX. Would using "tracking on" on the Nox provide better performance?

This little thing actually kills it! My cousin and I have been using the pulse dive in salt water exclusively and although it has a small coil, the ability to swing this thing like mad hugely make up for that fact! So far I’ve found the design/ quality of the PulseDive to be very ideal for salt water hunting. The machine simply beeps and buzzes in your hand, is easily audible through the water and there is practically no maintenance other than just cleaning the rubber seal/gasket every now and then but there is no knobs, cables, headphones or anything that I can see deteriorating on this detector. Depth is definitely surprising when digging targets but still decent in air tests with a nickel/10c Aussie coin hitting at 4” air test and depending on minerals in the sand it’ll hit deeper 5-6” even due to its non-motion nature. Anyone who wants to try water detecting I highly recommend trying the PulseDive, the small size and lack of headphones make it ridiculously convenient and even stealthy if you want to be discrete or are a bit shy! This isn’t really a review but just a quick mention of what I think is important to know about the machine 👍 Here is the gold we’ve found on the last few outings 👊👊👊 Pulsedive Scuba Detector & Pinpointer

It has probably been over a year since I've used my 3030. Tonight I used it for a bit over 2 hours and I got the hang of it again. It is a much different sound than the 800 and now I remember why I had a learning curve about hearing targets. One of the things that came back very quickly is the ability of the 3030 to be 'played' like a violin. By that I mean you can get a target and swing on it and make the detector 'sing' really loud. This was what was happening with the many tent stakes I found. You could tell that it was a mostly iron target because it was down in the lower right of the screen. I still dug most of them and some of the other iron pieces were just the same. The 3030 has clear identification of the target and that lets me choose to dig it or not. If I was getting better targets then I may not have dug so many of those stakes. When I get tent stakes with the 800 it kinda blanks out rather than sings out. The depth was good with the 17. One of the quarters was 13-14 inches. I use it with the Minelab harness because it is a bit bulky and heavy. When I first got the 17 years ago I used it without a harness for the first 3 weeks and I got something akin to tennis elbow. That took about 6 weeks to heal and I've never swung the 17 for more than 20 minutes without the harness since. The screen now has a flaw down the right side where it doesn't show data but I can live with it as a backup. The battery didn't last too long. We'll see what happens after this charge up. It was a real pleasure being able to turn on the GPS and see where I had found rings in the past. Many I had transferred but a few are still there and that made me slow down in those areas. This was an end of the weekend, end of the day hunt and I saw where several detectorists had been out before me. I'm ok with the results.

Just arrived in the mail, Nuggeteer 18 x 6 mono, mounts nicely on the Tdi pro using a Minelab lower rod. It is weighty at 1 kg but easily balances on the Tdi Pro, just don't have any metal in your shoes.. When the weather clears I'll go down to the beach and give it a good run. Useless air tests, test garden results and beach run results in the very near future.. karelian

Sometimes there is something better than a detector.... Another one (won’t embed)... https://youtu.be/zbXNcUqLAM8

Hello everybody yesterday was the best beach handing day so far. Why? Because I chose the right place. What was the right place? The beach in front of a close for winter beach bar. The result was 38.40 euros and a silver cross. Think that I search only the half beach (I didn’t have enough time) looking only for coins and silver with discrimination -10 to +17. If I can make it, I will go soon at the same place and I will tell you the results.

https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/regional/florida/wwii-land-mine-found-on-vero-beach/67-f09a5534-27fe-4728-a81e-60b41d0880fd

Last night after work i took my Nox with the 11 inch coil this time for another search of the beaches i went to 2 days ago. I took the Bus to the beaches further along beyond where i finished the other day . I started at around 10 pm and found a few coins but soon found that area was too built up for any successful hunt so i went to where i finished last time and worked back to where i started last time . Again i saw that there were new holes about , and again i started to find coins near and around where these holes were . It was a lot harder this time and the beaches are building up due to the longer tides and the sea hitting the beach straight on . I didn't stay out as long as i thought i would and finished at 12.45 am . I counted up and went home . My total for this search was £20.53p and a unidentified Pre Decimal Penny and a George VI Farthing . My next hunt will be either Saturday night or next week sometime . Someone on my last hunt post wanted my settings , i will put them on here when i have had some sleep .

First , Happy New Year to everyone . Today I had the chance to go out for the first time this year. Last year my total finds were £1632.53p in coinage , 1 returned Platinum ring , 13 Gold rings (1 returned) and 44 Silver rings and around 20 other Silver items and 20 junk rings of all types, Titanium , Tungsten , Steel etc . I searched 72 times for around 500 hours in total , maybe a bit more . This year I have set myself a much lower total due to commitments doing decorating which will take some time and not having the time to get out as much also because of my Oz Holiday soon . Work also gets in the way with shift work . Today I got my Nox with the big coil on and the 11 in coil in my rucksack and went to the beach at 5am by Bus and got to the beach just before 6am . I checked out the first 2 beaches and found that someone else was detecting in the distance in front of me as I saw his headtorch . I in any case searched in his tracks and found a few missed coins . When I got to the end of the second beach and crossed over to the next beach it was getting lighter and I saw it looked a lot better and detected the areas that looked best , I didn't see many holes but started to find targets here and there . That carried on for around a mile over 3 hours and before I stopped I found a large Silver ring . Where I stopped there are public toilets so I cleaned up my gear and switched coils to the 11 inch so I could search better between the Iron nails that litter the beach . I counted up before starting back and it was £55.15p and some foreign coins and a George V Penny and the Silver ring . I started back and found targets I missed but it was mostly quiet so I must have hammered it quite hard but shortly before I finished at 11.45am I found another Silver ring and a George Vi Penny and a George Vi Half Penny and a very worn Victoria Half Penny . My total for this search was £65.31p , 2 Silver rings , the 4 Pre Decimal UK coins and 5 Foreign coins and a Decimal 1970's Half Penny (discontinued 1982-3) . I have set myself a target of £700 , 6 Gold and 20 Silver rings for this year , more will be a bonus . But as cash is now getting very rare due to the cashless society I will be surprised if I find many fresh loses this year . I will also do 50 hunts unless I can get more in . Believe me it might take 50 trips to get my target ! How times have changed :( As for the Nox . I don't find it the most informative machine to use , target info is a bit poor . But I do have to admit that if the trash levels are not to high its a good machine to use . I have been using the 15 inch coil a few times and I find that coil the best for the machine . Normally I find the stock 11 inch coils are the best for most machines but I find the 15 inch coil is the best for the Nox . It gives it a bit more depth and I find its capable even in amongst the Iron nails better than the 11 inch coil !! . Maybe its settings but I use very low reactivity . I also find that the new V2 software has made it easier to tell not only Crown caps with I have been finding less but it gives better signals on Aluminium bits or blobs , I makes them scratchy on my settings most of the time. I do dig many of them just to be sure of them but I seem to suss them nearly all the time . My next search will be on Monday night from 9pm till 3am or about .

I've hunted this fresh water beach the last 3 days with some decent luck. The first 2 days I hunted it with an Explorer 2 with an 8" coil, and did ok. I went back today with the Nox and did even better 🙂 My settings were: Park 2 2-tones 0-ground balance Disc -9 to 0 recovery speed 4 F2 0 sens 20 The gold ring hit a solid 12 the 2 little pendents rang at 1...found within 6" of each other. silver ring 5 open ring, not connected at the top silver beads 12, I've found 8 so far The little junk beads hit at 1 all the cleaned up silver was found with the Explorer 2

I just moved back to Texas a couple of months ago and am about 4 hours from Corpus Christi and Galveston. I need some info on where it's legal to hunt and what to expect. Never hunted near the water except around a couple of lakes, any info would be greatly appreciated, thank you!!

The beaches here have been so socked in, but we finally had a one day event recently where there was some erosion and nice cuts. When that happens, we all drive frantically along the coast looking for the best spots to hunt...lots of competition. I got lucky and found a nice area with a big cut and only one other detectorist. Since this part of Florida is not touristy, you don’t find a buhzillion rings like Gerry does(see his recent post). This is what we dig up.... I did manage to find a nice tungsten ring with a gold band though, but I was more excited about the old nail...maybe from one of the shipwrecks? Also got a nice old tack... Along with this stuff....was REALLY hoping the item on the bottom of pic was a small Spanish reale.... But when I carefully cleaned it up, no sign of the cross etc...bummer. It’s actually 2 thin layers... So not sure what it is....rings in at 19/20 on my 600, same as some of the small reales found before by others here. I’ll have our Local Legend Terry Shannon look at it. And yes, HE found a nice half reale with visible cross etc that day! Hopefully, some day it’ll be my turn!

Two nights ago I went out to the beach and tried a place that I have had good success. I got there and discovered that I didn't bring my headphones. I decided to go anyway and just use the 800's speaker. That proved to be very difficult. I found a few targets but I was not able to hunt in my normal way. The waves were loud and I could not hear clearly no matter what setting I tried. I did end up in 5 tone mode rather than 50 but it was still a challenge to get the few targets that I did get. I am a headphone guy, especially at the beach. Tonight I went out (I had the headphones) and found a little patch with my 3 hour hunt. It was not a great quantity but the quality was good. I got one 14k/4.2g gold ring and a stainless steel ring. There is a cheap chain, a portion of a Kennedy half dollar pendant, an earring and a couple of chain rings. My sensitivity was best at 23 and I switched between 5/50. My clues were the crusty quarters and the tent stakes. When I found those I slowed down to a grid and overlapped, perpendicular to the beach above the black sand line. The stainless steel ring, chain and earring were within 10 feet of each other at about 8 inches deep. Mitchel

After 2 weeks of lots of work, I was finally able to get to the beach for a hunt. I was hoping that I could try the 18” DD coil I just bought for the GPX. The area I did well at with the 14” coil, was even more sanded in and that defeated the purpose of comparing it to the 14” coil to see if it could find something else there. But I did use it for a while, and it was heavy. I put a side arm on, to offset the weight and that worked, but trying to carry a bigger shovel and holding the arm did not work well at all. It seems I will have to get a bungee harness set up for any coil larger than a 14”. So, I brought the Equinox out and hit a patch of rocks that I later found out was being pounded days before. I heard it was a good section. I did ok, considering the amount of sand and other detectorists that hit this beach regularly. Junk, clad, possibly some silver rings, 2 Mercury dimes, a nice 14K earring and some good observations. First observation was that some iron was encrusting the small stud earrings. That’s not new news, but it only happens sometimes, and you need to pay attention to those times. That leads to the second observation, which just seemed like some junk jewelry trapped in the salt/sand mixture. But at home I noticed it looked gold and did not show any signs of being plated. It may be a low karat jewelry that was not mixed with copper, or the usual green copper encrustation was already gone. The other problem on this beach are the black rocks. Not all the black rocks respond to the Equinox, but the ones that do read a solid #1. That is the exact number that a lot of fine gold rings and chains ID at. But it was nice to get out and hunt for about 6 hours. 2 silvers and possibly 2 gold for me is a good hunt and worth the long drive.