Steve's Over Caffeinated, Hi-nrg, Maxed Out Zed Settings Find Virgin Patch In Gold Basin

[Guest Jennifer]

Well after getting skunked on my usual areas in Gold Basin today, I was getting the feeling that maybe I should try something new (I move around a lot, as people who detect with me will attest). If I'm not on colour or it feels wrong, I'll move at times several miles and start again.....

So, I went to an area that I'd been hoping to try again after being chased out by trash last time.... it dawned on me today, why....  I got out of the truck, did a quick walk up to the side of the hill/bench and fired up Zeddie.... but this time, I thought... I'm not getting skunked today.... let's crank this bad boy up.... I had been running at sense of 10-15 today, depending on the area..... I thought to myself, let's give Steve's Mac Daddy Go Big or Go Home settings a run... In all honesty I'm usually running very similar settings, minus his hi gain. Well up it went.... wow, noise much but I figured.... I had nothing to lose,  I'm learning the machine this Summer, I might as well see if i can get use to running super hot..... I did a quick ground balance and away I went... I got less than 10' and heard angels (well, ok, maybe it wasn't angel's but you all know the sound).... BOOOOOO YAAAAAAAAAAA nice rough little nuggy DEEEEEEEP.

I proceeded to do a little "Beat the skunk, thank you Steve's settings" dance in circles..... as I was filling in the hole it struck me, why wasn't this found, out in the middle of a huge wide area, easy target... oh well.... then I commenced detecting..... and as I wandered and dug HEAPS of small trash that should have been dug by detectors before me, it dawned on me...... and then... mid thought... WOOOOOOOOOO WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO oh man.... a pop can, like I need another one of those..... and down I dug...... hmmmm when did gophers start drinking soda, this thing is deep.... and then out came a 73 grain chunk.... oh yea.. oh yea... who your daddy!!!!

I then realized, I'd found my first virgin patch, and on Gold Basin no less...... 20 sensitivity is my new normal....... wow, what a huge difference... I've gone from hating a chatty threshold to now realising the power that same noise has.....

It was getting late, the patch is hard to get to/from in the dark so I left..... this story will be continued.... (I hope)

I'll post updated cleaned pics after they get a bath. $324.00 at $50.00 a gram... I may have an extra ice tea tonight at dinner.

Thank you Steve........ for your continued reference in some of your posts (including your one recently with the shovel in it) where you mention this may be an option for some.... it was for me today and is my new norm.

Jen

[Steve Herschbach 12,883]

That's quite awesome Jen! It has been very interesting watching your GPZ journey. Early on you were having issues but I am getting a bit wiser with age and stayed quiet. I figured you would either come to it on your own, or that the GPZ was just not for you. To this day I still think it is far easier to transition from VLF detectors to the GPZ than from PI detectors to the GPZ. Skills built using hot, noisy VLF detectors in difficult ground help very much with the GPZ.

The same goes for my settings. They are based on how I run my Gold Bug 2 not on how I ran my GPX. I have been using them almost exclusively for two years now. The secret is getting the audio set so the chatty stuff just becomes a relatively quiet background sound. After you get the ear for it nuggets jump right out of that background artificial threshold. 

Now you can argue nuggets are missed due to being masked by the noise but the way I run it the "noise" is the threshold, and it really is no different than using a normal threshold. Your ears and brain will rapidly start to ignore the "normal" noise but any variation does jump right out, just like with a regular threshold sound. In other words, I am not hearing noise or chattiness - to me it's just my normal GPZ threshold sound.

The proof is simple. You have to find a few nuggets running the settings though to see the proof. Each time you find what you think is a nugget, try other settings before digging it. I don't care which, try them all. Nine times out of ten the signal strength will diminish, and in a lot of cases the target will just disappear. Once you see this a few times you realize that you would not find those nuggets with any other settings. I really, truly understand the theory of quiet thresholds and target masking due to excessive noise, but if the detector can't make a peep at all on a nugget I found running these settings with any other settings....

As always though I have to throw in my caveat and warning that these settings do not work everywhere and not for everybody. If nobody else except me uses the settings I will be just fine.

Congrats on the great nuggets! And thanks for a warm fuzzy - I love seeing it when something works for somebody. 

[mn90403 1,532]

Jen,

I think Steve's settings and your personality might be a MATCH!

All of those different voices in one machine (talking at the same time) and all of your energy for separating it will be quite a formidable force against the remaining gold in the basin.

Good shooting.

Mitchel

[Guest Jennifer]

4 minutes ago, mn90403 said:

Jen,

I think Steve's settings and your personality might be a MATCH!

All of those different voices in one machine (talking at the same time) and all of your energy for separating it will be quite a formidable force against the remaining gold in the basin.

Good shooting.

Mitchel

I reckon we start calling them the "Steve's Type A Personality Zed Settings". I don't know about Steve's personality type but it suits me =+)

Jen 

[Guest Jennifer]

Cleaned in CLR and ultrasonic. Iphone camera never does gold justice in photos.

It's hard to tell in the photos but that little one turned out to be a GORGEOUS little speci... love it.

[1515Art 579]

Very, very, very nice!

[Guest Jennifer]

3 minutes ago, 1515Art said:

Very, very, very nice!

Thanks Art

The little ultrasonic cleaner I bought off Amazon for $50.00 is worth its weight in gold, a detecting buddy in Rye Patch turned me on to it, best $50.00 I ever spent.

 

[kiwijw 2,613]

WOW....Awesome Jen. Good on you girl. I can see I am going to have to try those insane settings of Steve's. Thanks for sharing you exciting find...both in gold & using those hot settings. Obviously works. Well done.

Good luck out there

JW  

[IdahoPeg 425]

Absolutely beautiful! Congrats! 

[strick 1,082]

Great to see that you and the GPZ are still making beautiful music together... Like a high end thoroughbred race horse  sometimes the Zed just wants to  run! ..... crank up the music, let your hair down and enjoy the dance....Try not to over do it there in all that heat 

strick