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X-coil, Finally!


Condor

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Great report Condor and once again you prove that people who find gold in your area usually do because they work for it.

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45 minutes ago, Andyy said:

Alright, Condor!  I'm glad to hear you got your machine back.   Let's get us some more Xcoils in Arizona.. LOL.  Unfortunately, I won't be getting a 17" until I get enough to pay off my 10" xcoil.  😛

Yeah, at this rate I only need about 40 weeks of this kind of success to break even on my Patch Lead misadventures.

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6 hours ago, Condor said:

I got my GPZ back from Minelab last month, which included a new 14" coil and lower rod.  Only $3600.00 AUD lighter in my wallet.  As you may recall, I bricked the detector after the Patch Lead was defective.  It's still crazy hot here in Sunny Yuma, but I was bored and still curious about the X-Coil, so I shook off my concerns and cut the connector off my brand new coil and built the Patch Lead myself.  I was extra careful with the heat from the soldering iron and did a respectable job of putting together the connection.  I did a few practice runs on scrap wire and connectors so I was a little more confident of my skill. 

I got out 5 mornings last week for a total of about 12 hrs run time.  At sunup the morning temps were still in the high 80's and jumping to 100 by 9:00am.  Unbearable in the desert washes with no breeze.  The one thing that saved me was the synthetic chamois cooling cloths, one around my neck and one under my cap hanging down my neck. 

The first morning I did a complete set-up with the detector since it was, for all practical purposes, a brand new machine with all new printed circuits etc.  I waved the 17" X-Coil over the ferrite and got the machine nearly silent, though still reacting some to the ferrite.  I started in the area where I found the 28 gram rippa last May.  This area has a fairly hot layer of clay about 12" under the overburden.  Last May we were able to run this zone using HY, Normal, Sens 12,  (Threshold 27) with the Patch Search mode to quiet down the machine.  The 17" X-Coil in those same settings was way too sensitive, so I had to switch to Difficult to quiet it down.  Because I knew I could only be out for a couple hrs, I focused on trying to get that coil over gold hoping to then play with the settings.  No joy the first morning.

The next morning I went out to an area that had produced half a dozen 1 grammers when the GPZ first came out.  I knew it was deeper and a little quieter ground.  We tried Paul's 19" GPZ here when it first came out to no avail.  This time I was able to zero out the Ferrite and switch back to Normal from the Difficult setting.  The machine was still a little twitchy so I backed off the Threshold to 22 and got it humming along nicely.  I gridded the area pretty good and came up with a few deep trash targets and then, right as it started to get unbearable hot, I got a faint, sweet rising tone. A lot of digging and sweating produced a sweet 4 grammer right on the hardpack, about 14 inches down.  Now a 4 grammer at 14 inches should be well within the range of the GPZ and standard 14" coil, but I've been over that zone at least 6 times over the past 3 years.  The only significant difference is the ground is bone dry this year.  Last year there were still pools of water from late season rains.  

The next morning I was back to the area of the 28 grammer.  I found that the machine was more stable and I could run in Gen, Normal, Sens 14.  I got a couple deep trash targets and chased a number of hot ground seams and hot rocks.  The settings were really sensitive to hot ground, but in my mind that's the only way to find good missed targets.  Right at the end of the morning I got what sounded like another bit of hot ground.  I switched to High Yield from General and it brightened up the target, but still hadn't convinced me that it was gold.  The target was in the sidewall of a drywasher's hole, so the 17" coil was pretty awkward.  I dug out the ground so that I could get the coil level and the target brightened up a little more.  By then I had hit the hardpack which tends to hide these small, reddish hotrocks.  I dug dozens in this same area, but I needed to check this coil's capabilities.  The hardpack was brutal in the morning sun so I had to go back to the truck and get my handy Aussie (DavesGold) made pick.  I'm not going out without it now.  About 8 inches into the hardpack out popped a nice 1.5 grammer.  I can guarantee I  stuck the GPZ standard coil in the hole a half a dozen times over the past 2 years.  

Thur morning I got out in the same area.  I chose a wash that a produced 5 small nuggets, in the sub-sub gram range, in May.  I concentrated on the deepest gravels thinking deeper nuggets must be in there, just beyond the reach of the 14" coil.  I gridded the zone where a bench had formed on the inside bend of the wash.  I went at it from every angle and was about to surrender to the heat when I got the faintest of faint tones.  Again I switched to High Yield and it brightened up some.  I switched to Difficult, nothing.  I started pulling down the bank so that I could get a good level swing with the 17" coil.  Slightly improved tone, still unconvincing.  I pulled down another few inches and got a much improved tone.  I switched to Difficult and got a dull growl, more convincing yet.  After much digging into the hardpack out came a nice 1.8 grammer.   I even photographed the hole for this one.  The Aussie pick is 28" long.

I'm really starting to like this coil.  It's light enough for all day use with the addition of my homemade hipstick.    I run the hipstick to the bottom of the frame in my lightweight framepack, which moves the weight to the back of the hipbelt and off my shoulder.  I'm also running the SteelPhase amp plugged directly into the GPZ, no wireless connection between.  As per some of JP's guidance, I'm running the GPZ volume at 2, adjusting loudness at the amp.  I'm running the Threshold between 20 and 22 depending on how twitchy the ground is.  For the most part I'm running General instead of High Yield trying to reach those deeper targets.   The first 2 targets were well within the reach of the standard 14" coil, but somehow I didn't find them over the past 2 years.   The last one, doubtful for the standard coil.  As the weather cools I'll start doing a quick change to the 14" coil over new targets for a comparison.   Right now, it's still to friggin hot to bother. 

 

 

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Nice gold, well done. 

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8 hours ago, phrunt said:

I'm pleased you managed to make your patch lead and all credit to you for giving it another go, it must of been scary doing the snip again! Great to see you back in action... fingers crossed you find a big nugget to pay for the misadventure.

Gotta love those Davsgold picks, looks like you'd need it for that ground.

Yeah!  No more blanks ... you're all patched up.  You are more potent than ever.  Watch out old patches a Condor is on the prowl.

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