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Pinpointers For Gold Prospecting?


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1 minute ago, Joe D. said:

ย  ย  Reading about all you nugget hunter's exploits has infectedย me!! I got thisย from UPS two days ago, and have no memory of ordering it, or use for it here in S. Florida! Look familiar!!๐Ÿคฃ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘

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I like the bright orange because I'm careless and seem to lose a half dozen every year.ย  I've already lost 2 of the green ones in the past month.ย  ย I've quit buying Pinpointers for the same reason.ย ย ย I think I got these from Rob's Detectors.ย 

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ย  ย Do what we beach hunters do! All small hand tools and pinpointers go on a spiral bungee! Than when you forget to pick it up, it follows you!๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘

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These work pretty well for keeping track of pinpointers, $10. It auto retracts 4ft so keeps the pinpointer up high at the top of the backpack shoulder strap for running bigger coils, but long enough to get into 2+ft deep holes when kneeling down and digging. Strap is kevlar, hasn't broken on me after 3 years of field use, I just bought another one last week to put on a new pinpointer. Janitor tech for the win.

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On 3/26/2021 at 8:46 AM, jasong said:

These work pretty well for keeping track of pinpointers, $10. It auto retracts 4ft so keeps the pinpointer up high at the top of the backpack shoulder strap for running bigger coils, but long enough to get into 2+ft deep holes when kneeling down and digging. Strap is kevlar, hasn't broken on me after 3 years of field use, I just bought another one last week to put on a new pinpointer. Janitor tech for the win.

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Withย one of those keepers I might well have to buy another pinpointer.ย  I hate to highjack the thread, but what are we considering the best pinpointer for nugget hunting these days.ย ย 

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Not sure what coil you are using most these days, but with the 17" I have to have my pointer at shoulder height with the pinpointer hanging over my shoulder and behind my back to not interfere. So the way it works is I grab the pinpointer from behind my armpit basically, then just let go when I'm done and it retracts back.ย  It's attached to the top d-ring on my shoulder strap and naturally hangs on my shoulder blade/back more or less.

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I tried the Minelab Pro Find - which is supposed to not interfere with the GPZ when off by disconnecting the loop to avoid inductive responses on the GPZ - with no luck. That pointer is garbage and I have to assume Minelab doesn't actually manufactureย them because it's beneath their usual standards. I have a Nokta pointer that is ok but has issues and I retired it. The best pointer I have is the Garrett AT Pro Pointer, and I just bought a 2nd one since I've almost worn through the plastic on my old unit.ย But it will interfere with the GPZ when too close, which is frustrating. Even at shoulder height with the 17" coil I can hear it with each left swing if I leave itย on my chest instead of on my back.

The Garrett is about the best around when it comes to depth and sensitivity to tiny bits. But due to the interference, I only use it when I'm working bedrock, in very deep areas, or around delicate specimen type gold that I don't want to risk damage, and unclip it for normal detecting. I really wish a manufacturer would make a pinpointer that doesn't interfere with the GPZ when off because then itย could mount it in more accessible places.ย 

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I bought the Pro Find also under the proclamation by Mine Lab that when off it would not interfere with the 7000. It looks like no one from ML tried it out before making that statement. Worse yet, it's not even a good pin pointer.ย ย 

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I have been using the minelab pinpointer for 7+ years with the gpx and it suited my purpose fine and I didnt think much about it, but your comments made me wonder. what makes you say it is garbage, or what do the others do better?

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I have the ML ProFind 35 and it works well for me. Sometimes it goes off on it's on when at high sensitivity and in the air. What I then usually do is reduce sensitivity, point it back to the spot of interest on the groundย and then increase sensitivity again. In highly mineralized ground it sometimes does not work well though, i.e. if magnetite or iron rich basalt is around. Butย I guess all pinpointers would struggle in these conditions. I have no problem with anyย GPZ interference. I don't use bothย at the same time anyhow, and when I use the pinpointer after I dug a hole I put the GPZ on the ground with the coil pointing away from me in the other direction. No problem.

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16 hours ago, Redz said:

I have been using the minelab pinpointer for 7+ years with the gpx and it suited my purpose fine and I didnt think much about it, but your comments made me wonder. what makes you say it is garbage, or what do the others do better?

Mine wouldn't even initialize or work when I got it, it'd turn on but no detect or only detect randomly.ย Occasionally if I tappedย it against a hard surface, or put the battery out and then back in it would start, and then inevitably stop working again after 5 or 10 seconds even though the power stayed on. After a day or two of doing that it kinda started "working".ย In the time I had it "working" it still barely worked. Falsed constantly set to any sensitivity I would consider remotely useful, and would need to be oriented perfectly straight, which is useless for working bedrock, wash sides, or really anywhere. Sometimes it'd just flip out and go crazy and I'd have to pull the battery out to stop it.

I PM'ed Simon at the time since he buys all kinds of stuff just to see if he had the same experience. He bought a Pro Find that day just to see since he didn't have one, which is what later started his big pinpointer thread. He had the same results as I had. He said his dealer told him many of those are returned with the same result. The two other people I know with a Pro Find said the same problems, and both returned them.

It's kiiiiiinda useable if you really baby it and go slow and low sensitivity and keep it vertical. But it's incredibly frustrating to use, incredibly slow, and better to not use a pinpointer at all in that case IMO. Whereas the Garrett just works. Quick, done.

When I say it's garbage, I mean if I could not have returned it I literally would have thrown it away, it was totally useless to me and I would not feel right reselling it used. I seriously cannot tell the difference between a working and broken unit, even now. It's far below Minelab standards IMO. 7 years ago they might have had a different one or different manufacturing, the one I used was the Pro Find 35 and it was about 8 months ago.

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Thanks for the response. That is weird. I must have had a different unit 7 years ago. Mine has none of the issues you mention, and I use it to recover the vast majority of nuggets (because I only want to dig just as much as I have to). Only issues I have are forgetting to put a new battery in when it is low which causes it to act up (my bad), changing frequency on the detector to avoid EMI and finding it conflicts (my bad), and if I hit the tip hard on a rock (you guessed it). otherwise works in most orientations.ย 

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