Lanny
Hope you enjoy your Nox. A new pick also sounds good. Next year, I plan on getting into the water with the Nox (good to 10') to see if I can detect silver or gold that are out of reach to most detectors. A few years ago, I tried for nuggets with scuba gear with a Fisher CZ21, but it was not sensitive enough to small gold. I would now only use that machine in deep water on exposed bedrock.
The one thing I learned about the Nox is to be wary of the numbers on the screen. With other detectors (eg. Fisher F75) the number will tell you the metal, especially on an air test after the target is dug up. With the Nox, as the objects get smaller, so do the numbers. When I first started using my Nox, I probably passed up on some good targets because I ignored really low numbers. On the other hand, really high numbers on large objects can mostly be trusted. The Nox seems good at disregarding quite a bit or iron trash, but still has a problem with the little pieces of slaw from dozer blades and the such. I think the best answer (unless you are in a hurry or whooped tired), is to dig everything with a repeatable signal that the number doesn't bounce around. Any target that was bouncy eg. 7/12/16/5 that I have dug has always been junk. Same with targets that were not repeatable on swings from different angles. On the other hand, a 7/7/6 or 3/3/3 or whatever that is more consistent needs to be pursued. I still ignore zeros and ones or I would exhaust myself digging holes *** unless the little spot has already yielded results. If you learn something different, I am all ears. ;-)
