New Book

bigscoop

Gold Member
Jun 4, 2010
13,535
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Wherever there be treasure!
Detector(s) used
Older blue Excal with full mods, Equinox 800.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
As some of you guys already know, I enjoy writing and sharing. So, here’s a simple 36 page publication for those hobbyist who plan to metal detect this coast. It discusses a lot of the beach elements I’ve had to learn to deal with since moving here, so if you’re thinking about hunting this coast in the future this simple book details a lot of the elements that you’re going to be facing so you can plan ahead.

book3.jpg

Lagoon River & Research by LagoonRiver on Etsy
 

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Burl: There was a lot of good information published on the Golden Olde website, which no longer exists, by the late Norman Garnush. I believed he mainly used a Fischer CZ 20, which are often upgraded to a CZ 21 when repaired at the factory. You can pull up his excellent articles on Way back Archive - but the pictures have been lost.

I have heard that some of the members on Treasure Net have archives of his articles, including pictures on CD or on their hard drive. I sure hope so, as I would love to get a copy of these for my library and use as well and would be glad to offset any cost(s).
Norm's website is not gone and can be seen here. The Golden Olde I've made a few copies and gave them to friends because not everyone has a stupid computer.
 

Good words on the compare of the CZ to the xcal BigScoop. Only thing I can add is the number of people that own xcals compared to CZ's, numbers sell books. Bigscoop what do you think the ratio is on that....just a wild guess, maybe 50 to 1?
 

Good words on the compare of the CZ to the xcal BigScoop. Only thing I can add is the number of people that own xcals compared to CZ's, numbers sell books. Bigscoop what do you think the ratio is on that....just a wild guess, maybe 50 to 1?

I don't know, but I can tell you this. I was a very loyal CZ user for many, many years until I finally tried the Excal for a couple of weeks. Now I hardly ever use the CZ anymore unless the Excal is sick, charging, or I just want to do a quick spin at a fairly rapid pace.
 

Now, about the book. Having them reprinted. Apparently some of the books in this first run were missing a page, so, I have halted the sell until the corrected copies arrive and I have also sent out some emails informing buyers of the problem and a couple of options of their choice. Corrected copies should arrive Saturday but I won't be able to resume sales until then or reship until the 17th. Sorry guys, but it was a hit or miss issue that wasn't caught in time. And there is my first bad experience in publishing. :BangHead:
 

I don't know, but I can tell you this. I was a very loyal CZ user for many, many years until I finally tried the Excal for a couple of weeks. Now I hardly ever use the CZ anymore unless the Excal is sick, charging, or I just want to do a quick spin at a fairly rapid pace.
I talked to a guy this Summer that was the exact opposite of you...he had been a long time Excal user and had been using a CZ for for the last three months and said you couldnt give him two excals for his new CZ.
 

I talked to a guy this Summer that was the exact opposite of you...he had been a long time Excal user and had been using a CZ for for the last three months and said you couldnt give him two excals for his new CZ.

Tell him I'll make him a great trade. A fairly new CZ for an Excal. We'll both be happy. :laughing7: And as long as it works with no real issues, I don't care how old his Excal is. Seriously, I'll make anyone the same offer. (Just no Swords.) :thumbsup:
 

Now, about the book. Having them reprinted. Apparently some of the books in this first run were missing a page, so, I have halted the sell until the corrected copies arrive and I have also sent out some emails informing buyers of the problem and a couple of options of their choice. Corrected copies should arrive Saturday but I won't be able to resume sales until then or reship until the 17th. Sorry guys, but it was a hit or miss issue that wasn't caught in time. And there is my first bad experience in publishing. :BangHead:

So that explains why I didn't see any for sale... It's highly unlikely that I will ever hunt in your neck of the woods but I'll order the book just the same.
 

So that explains why I didn't see any for sale... It's highly unlikely that I will ever hunt in your neck of the woods but I'll order the book just the same.

Printer called me Tuesday afternoon and "Hopefully" I'll have the corrected copies later today. If so I'll relist them and send out the corrected copies on Friday.
 

If I am hunting for modern jewelry I use Excalibur. Old coins CZ. CZ can cover a lot more ground and gets silver just as deep.

I agree. The CZ is very deep on silver and it performs really well with moderate to fast sweep speeds. I use it over the wet sand when I want to cover a lot of ground before the tides return.
 

Tell him I'll make him a great trade. A fairly new CZ for an Excal. We'll both be happy. :laughing7: And as long as it works with no real issues, I don't care how old his Excal is. Seriously, I'll make anyone the same offer. (Just no Swords.) :thumbsup:

Just curious, why no on the sword?
 

Got the corrected copies today and will be mailing out on Friday. Listing is also active again. Sorry about the mess-up fellas.
 

occy
Just curious, why no on the sword?
They are no longer repaired by minelabs, and this would be only if parts are not available. The good is several parts from the newer can be used, coil, headphones. the Pod is a different size along with the mainboard/PCB. So anything contained or a part of can no longer be fixed. The O'rings are a different size but one can find near sized and they can be replaced. Many of the Oldtimers still claim they were the hot ticket with the full eight inch horseshoe design coils. All of the knobs still have the same functions......
 

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ok, i am not understanding the excal being lightyears better than the cz!!!! joe(obn) has a video that shows a stock cz21 blowing the doors off of a amped excal! my cz6a seems quie a bit deeper than my excal on the wetsand beach. i have not done head to head comparasons of the two yet and cant right now because the excal is apart on my bench. yes the excal is more complicated due to its tones but thats about it! both are usually equal on depth and sensitivity with one or the other being better in certain situations and at different times. excal gets the nod for user modification and having more knobs to play with.
chuck.
 

Not light years ahead, just more versatile because you can use it just about anywhere. The CZ is prone to places like boat ramps and sea walls with re-bar, in the U.P. of Michigan there were places where I simply had to take the CZ back to the truck on account of all the hot rocks, copper and iron. There are three condo units here that I can't hunt behind due to some type of interference that just drives the CZ nuts. In all of these cases the Excal can hunt right through them. The Excal also provides better target I.D. capabilities. The Excal can also be, "fine tuned". Silver, most coins, and chunkier gold, the stock CZ is deeper then stock Excals (in my experience). Both are great machines but the Excal is just the more versatile machine. Toss in the modification capabilities and fine tuning capabilities and there is another huge plus. Just my opinion as to why the Excal is on a higher plateau.
 

excal would fail near boatramps and seawalls due to rebar/iron the same way a cz would, the excal would not ignore or see through iron. am i missing something, cz would beep like crazy, excal would continually null?
as far as emi... yes, one might work when the other would not.

when i complete the mods on my excal and get my cz6a fixed i plan on doing some serious sensitivity and sweep speed testing on the beach and in the water! thanks for the offer to borrow your cz, if everything goes well here i wont need to. we need to get together and figure out how to defeat sand and mother nature!!!
chuck.
 

joe(obn) has a video that shows a stock cz21 blowing the doors off of a amped excal!
I really enjoyed my trip to Jersey last year and meeting a great CZ hunter, My plan was to learn more about the CZ from "Easy" since I had planned on using the CZ20 here in the Bay....and to see how well both the excal and CZ21 matched...A few things I learned, CZ is deeper, but requires you to be centered right over a deep target because of the {coned} Conc Coil Field, the excal has a wider {Blade} field because of the DD giving you better coverage on deep targets...the deepest the excal could hit a 7.5 gold ring was 14 inch's, the CZ hit it at 15 inch's...and these are digable signals. If I remember correct the CZ could not get the ring in Auto tune, but discrimantion set at {1} at 15 inch's. So I learned alot about both machine, " Knowing the Limitations of one's machine and the competitions is important", My opinion, Both great machines.
 

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excal would fail near boatramps and seawalls due to rebar/iron the same way a cz would, the excal would not ignore or see through iron. am i missing something, cz would beep like crazy, excal would continually null?
as far as emi... yes, one might work when the other would not.

when i complete the mods on my excal and get my cz6a fixed i plan on doing some serious sensitivity and sweep speed testing on the beach and in the water! thanks for the offer to borrow your cz, if everything goes well here i wont need to. we need to get together and figure out how to defeat sand and mother nature!!!
chuck.

The Excal will null on the iron, the CZ will tone on the iron. In other words, the Excal has the ability to positively I.D. the re-bar as iron, the CZ, however, will tone on the iron. The only way to stop the CZ from toning on this iron is to crank the Disc up, and usually way up because of the size and density of the iron, which obviously is a bad thing since now it won't be able to tone on gold and other possible good targets. The Excal will null, true, but at the same time it can also still be hunted with higher sensitivity to other possible targets. Add to this, that even though the Excal nulls on the iron, the returning threshold pitch still provides an indication of the target just located. Iron or a deep gold ring? Even though the Excal nulled, that returning threshold may be saying something else. I use to have the same opinion as you, until I actually took the time on the beach with both machines and a lot of various targets and put it all to the test myself. The CZ is a great, deep, VLF beach and machine.....but the Excal is like using two machines at once after you really take the time to understand their full capabilities.
 

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