Has your gold jewelry finds increased any since you've learned more about using the detector?

[Ohio Coinhunter]

I've been reading up on the V3 and am thinking about trading my brand new Explorer II w/Sunray probe and extra coil and a near mint QXT Pro for a nice used V3 if I can find someone willing to trade. I am focusing more on hunting heavy trash sites and recovering gold jewelry (aren't we all!) and it seems that the V3 may do this a bit better. I know all machines read tabs and gold the same and one has to dig everything to get it. My questions are: Have your gold finds increased since learning the machine over using previous models? Have you been able to reduce the amount of "tab" digs to some degree and recover more gold items? I plan on hunting inland areas as no beaches are nearby. The Explorer II is a silver killer and does go deep. However, the readouts on tabs and gold are spread out to where I pretty much have to dig it all as with most machines. I like the fact that you have more info options to analyze with the V3 before you decide to dig. Thanks for your input.

Happy Hunting

Jim

 

[nw1886]

Is the V3 the "holy grail"? I have never swung an Explorer so won't do a comparison. Don't know your search habits so can't say if you'd do better with another machine. What I can say is that my experiences have pointed towards better separation in iron and am getting tight, fast response on small low conductors and seemingly tighter VDI's on all the gold range signals. Picking your search area well, knowing your machine and fast retrieval, are what brings in the jewelry best. The V3 is adjustable (like nothing else) so I guess it would depend on how far you want to learn and enjoy that kind of experience.

As far as a trade...you'd be hard pressed to find someone to trade for those two as this is a V3 forum and both are solidly a step back. (I'd just sell and find a good V3 package.) Good luck on your decision.

 

[Neil in West Jersey]

Jim,

I am in the process of putting together a comprehensive report of the responses of different metal targets in 8 different frequency settings on the V3. I should be done in another week or so, at which time I will publish my results on this forum.

I have completed my research on coins and buttons, and just last night I began the jewelry portion. I should get to trash targets by weeks end.

One preliminary observation is that the V3 is significantly more sensitive to low conductive targets (gold) in the 22.5Khz frequency. This should come as no surprise to experienced users, but what they may not know or understand is that a small gold ring can become nearly invisible to the V3 while in 2.5KHz.

If gold is your goal, my advice is to keep your V3 in the 22.5KHz single frequency mode.

 

[Ohio Coinhunter]

Thanks for the feedback. I am no stranger to White's detectors as I have been hunting since 1979. My 1st was the 6000 D Coinmaster Series 2 with the depth meter. Then I bought the 6000 Di Pro and used it for many years. I had the Spectrum, Quantum XT, 6000 Pro XL and DFX. All good machines IMHO and produced well over the years. I have a QXT Pro now that I use for the ultra fast recovery speed in trash and the ability to set the Nickel Zone as a high tone. A lot of gold rings register there, but the key is getting that 3.5 Snooper coil which is hard to find. I switched to the Explorer II a few years ago when I was hunting and old schoolyard with my buddy who had gotten the EX II when they 1st came out. He got a quarter signal @ 10-11" that was solid ID and tone all the way around. I swept over the target with my DFX, tweaking it as I went and the best I could get was a broken iron tone which I belive was due to ground conditions and a concentric coil. My buddy dug the target and recovered a 1921 sterling silver track medal from the school that was a bit smaller than a quarter. After that, I sold my DFX and purchased an Explorer II. I've had the E-Trac, X-Terras with the 18 kHz coils, etc. Those have gone to the wayside and I am back to the Explorer II for now. Yes it is a deep seeking machine and I have found quite a bit of deep silver coins with it, but gold in the midst of tabs is a challenge as with any machine. But my area has a lot of mineralization in it that the Explorer enables deeper detection. So, I'm not brand bashing or brand loyal because I believe White's makes great detectors or I wouldn't have used them, kept one for trashy sites (QXT) or consider a V3. The V3 is another tool in the arsenal to get the job that I seek to have done. I know that there is no "Holy Grail" of detectors but each brand has its area of excellence. If the V3 can give a better edge in aluminum trash with the ID features and setting different tones for common tabs/trash and recover a bit more gold, then I have another tool to get the job done. The days of silver are thinning fast in my neck of the woods and I know that there is plenty of gold jewelry waiting to be recovered as well as being replenished compared to silver coins that will not be replenished. Most hunters, including me have been after coins for years. If gold came then hooray! Now the task for me is to really hit the trash sites hard. Rather than put shingles on a roof by hand with a hammer and nails, I'd rather use a nail gun to get the job done. Just like that nail gun is a tool designed to make the job better and increase performance, the technology in these machines is to be used in the same way. Any edge we can get can only make our hunts more productive. So I look forward to seeing how things are going with finds now that most users have had some time to learn their machine.

 

[Neil in West Jersey]

I always had great depth with the DFX. Sometimes it is the settings, and not the machine. I have found dimes at 10+ inches with the DFX, and a large cent at more than 14.

There have been other times when I could not get quarter at 6 inches, but the settings were not adjusted for the different soil - mineral composition. Once the settings were changed, it rang out loud and clear.

 

[Larry (IL)]

Great post Jim............ I have been a White's guy for almost 30 years, but I also liked the Minelab for the those deep silver hits that I couldn't hit with the DFX in my ground. I used to use the ML for deep silver hunting and the DFX for all other hunting. I mentioned on the DFX forum a year or so ago that it would great if White's could make a detector with the lower VDI sensitivity of the DFX, yet able to hear the deep silver like the ML. An added bonus would be the gold nugget sniffing ability of the MXT. I think the V3 is a true three in one detector in my opinion. Although not as good as a dedicated nugget hunter, for the occasional nugget hunter, I would like to think it is as good, if not a bit better, as the MXT.

I'll post a picture of some of my gold finds on a separate post.

 

[nw1886]

Heck...you have a ton of experience then.(Should have done a "all posts "...my apologies to ya.) The V3 is giving me separation in trash really well. You can adjust the recovery ultra quick and set your filtering accordingly. (Seems that this last one is dependent on personal sweep style but it generally is best to keep the filtering high for jewelry.) I'm sure you are no stranger to a test bed and this is where you'll really get up to speed in what you are wanting to do. All the info is nice and once you have seen some volume of signals, they stay real consistent. (Which does vary from "textbook" depending on what you are up against and the settings you have set.) For the most part though, the info stays real close to factory "textbook".

I like Neil, Larry and a bunch of others never had an issue with depth on my DFX (once I got the basic balancing of sensitivities, gain and filtering down). I hunted some pretty nasty soil occasionally and it still had enough punch to go at least 7 or 8 inches even in that. Record on my DFX was a dime at 10 to 13 inches. (Not sure because I bypassed it in my pile and found it after I'd dug a bit more.) Indians at 9+ were common.

I'm having to detect in some soggy ground these days,targets aren't tending to be deep (as there is a clay layer @ about 7 to 8 inches) but I am "clearing out" a lot of wheats and occasional silver that is almost touching iron! For some strange reason the moisture is allowing me to get closer in to the rebound and see a closer target? That recovery delay adjustment is one heck of a tool on this box. Will be indispensable for you in your quest!