jrbeatty

Unbelievable! Starting to feel more affluent, or less poverty stricken anyway 😉 Wish I'd kept more big lumps from the 80's-

Dave: It arrived safely but was damaged by heavy handed Russian customs officials. Haven't heard anything else-

Correct Simon. Haven't had much chance to run the big 26"CC for all the reasons outlined in my earlier post. When I did use it briefly (in a very wet Victoria) it fully lived up to expectations and scored half an oz or so of mixed size bits - but we need more time together under better conditions to fully understand it's potential before I release a report- Shipping big coils IS a hassle. Just before Putin's "Special Military Operation" ended direct contact with Russia, Reg and I managed to send to X Coils Ilya John Hider Smith's 36" spiral wound coil for an assessment. Costa plenty 😉

Cobill: I haven't responded to my thread here recently since circumstance have prevented me from prospecting for over a year - initially saturated flood ground in Victoria and now severe drought conditions on the far south coast of NSW require me to daily drought feed stock for an indefinite period 😞 I think experienced operator Rick has summed up the current X coil CC situation in the field far more adequately than I could currently-

The man himself-

That's one elegant scraper Dave. Your smithing skills are a credit to you-

I owe some of my best finds to abandoned detector holes (both in and around) so have mixed feelings!

Yes indeed Aureous, Beggary Hills is often stated to be archetypal "hot" Victorian ground but as you know there are many lesser known "scorchers" in the "GT" which equal and may even exceed it for detecting difficulty. One that springs to mind is Roberts Gully, Kingower. Pushed back in VLF days, both JHS and Jim Stewart regarded it as superb ground for testing prototype detector technology - and it still is. Amusingly, I found my first ever gold (an oz piece) on John's Beggary Hills claim back in the 80's with a newly released GT 16000. .....should have seen the look on his face!!

Swegin: Fond Western Australian memories of working with Pieter and Debbie (with the late Jim Stewart) decades ago. Please pass on my greetings! L to R: me, Jim Stewart, Debbie, Reg Wilson, Pieter, John Hider Smith.

I remain optimistic as well. The not so impossible dream keeps me going (with occasional results) For me, the CC coils have partially revived the good old days for deep larger pieces with the added advantage of pinging deep small pieces which the "dustbin lid" could never hear. Deep 2 ouncer:

Yes Jerry, personally had wonderful results with that coil, as did many. Here's Ian Jaques with a few colours on the DBL: Reg Wilson commented: "Ian with some of the better slugs that we found with our brand new SD2000's on the first day we used them. Between the two of us we pulled over 60 ozs in 2 days. What a way to break in our machines!" - From the Reg Wilson Gold Album topic: https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/4335-the-reg-wilson-gold-album/?tab=comments#comment-46784

Great workmanship Dave. Keeps you busy while waiting for the nugget season to open lol! ☺️

Soughdough: Basically paint/smear epoxy resin (such as "Araldite") over principal wear surfaces on the coil (edges, sides, bottom's where needed) Here's a 22" CC to illustrate: Not much wear on big coils so an edge bead suffices in this case. A smaller well scrubbed coil may require more surfaces coated. If excess wear is detected simply smear more on 😉

Never used skid plates. Epoxy resin "Hardfacing" far lighter and costs considerably less-

What's a skidplate? Never needed the unnecessary extra weight personally but sure used a lot of epoxy resin as "hardfacing" underneath coils over the years. Must be the result of my early years operating and rebuilding ground contacting earthmoving equipment