Some Alaska Gold

[dig4gold]

Nice finds & have to agree with the scrape & detect mythology on the smaller type gold when the bigger gold has already been cleaned out. How did the 6000 do on this? I don't seem to have seen anything mentioned by you on how the 6000 did for you on your Alaska trip. Not even a photo, or is that still coming? Cheers. 🙂

[Steve Herschbach]

I was happy with the results with the GPX 6000. I used it the most, and it produced the bulk of my gold on the trip. However, since I was involved in the development of the machine, I decided to take a back seat on commenting about it. It’s inevitably seen as promotion, and I’m sure Minelab marketing does not need my help. Best to listen to regular retail purchasers of the detector, of whom there are plenty on this forum. I said pretty much all I intend to say about the GPX 6000 in this post back in May.

[dig4gold]

Hi Steve. Thanks for your reply & that link. I have always appreciated your up front, honest & unbiased opinion on detectors over the years so I was surprised you had not shared anything of your experience with the 6000 on your Alaskan adventure. I was so looking forward to you doing so.

I have been using a 6000 here in New Zealand for over 2 months with good results with the 11" mono coil. Nothing overly deep & nothing over 1 gram & not very deep. Nothing deeper than 4". My GPZ 7000 seems to have done a good job on deeper bits & larger bits. I will admit that in 15 times out with the 6000 I have yet to not come home with no gold. All be it pretty small. I have not yet tried the 14" DD but may need to to see if it gives me a bit more depth. I wish Minelab had made a 14" mono coil & I guess there will be those that wish they had also made a 11"DD.

I am waiting for a 17" mono coil to arrive to give me a shot at anything that may be at depth that the 7000 missed. That will be very interesting. There doesn't seem to be much out there with results or thoughts from people using the 17".

 

Cheers. Dig4gold. (Greg)   

[Steve Herschbach]

Thanks for the kind word Greg. Like I said, the 6000 works fine for me, and it incorporates many things I have wished from Minelab for a long time. It took a while, but they listened. I actually did go to extreme lengths to collect a huge amount of information, and report extensively on it early on, but some of the commentary left me cold, so I erased it all and walked away. I’m tired of these Minelab intros and the drama they seem to attract. And the nit picking negative nellies that inevitably have their day trolling other people’s fun. I decided it’s best that I just go use what I like and avoid the drama. Or focus more on machines like the 24K, which do not attract the drama in the first place.

In low mineral ground I’d use a 17” mono over a 14” DD if seeking larger, deeper gold, especially if it’s already been hunted with a GPZ. Seeking new ground not hunted with either is a better bet. The GPZ does not miss much larger deeper stuff, and the 6000 can’t put back what’s already gone.

It stands to reason there are not many 17” reports since it only started shipping. JP has posted about it. It’s been my favorite coil in Nevada, with impressive depth on larger bits, while still being amazingly sensitive to smaller stuff. The 14” is heavy, and so a coil I only use if I feel the need, which ha been not much so far. It’s real benefits are seen in extremely mineralized/high salt ground, and I’ve been in less extreme situations as of late. I ran the 11” mono exclusively in Alaska, as it best suited the terrain and what I was doing. Nevada’s wide open spaces favor the 17” mono, with the 11” good for tight sagebrush areas, and DD for the salt ground. The DD is also good in magnetite laden serpentine ground.

Your best source of information as a GPZ user who has had a GPX 6000 for two months is yourself. Neither is better than the other, as they both have strengths and weaknesses. The Minelab star chart lays it out pretty well. I simply prefer the 6000 personally, but have little interest in arguing with those who prefer the GPZ.

Hopefully we will see more coil variety for the 6000 in the future. I’d love a 6x10 mono, but I’m not holding my breath on that one.

Me recovering a signal in Alaska with GPX 6000, photo courtesy of Travis...

and a decent nugget I recovered at depth back in April with the 17" mono...

[Skookum]

1 hour ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Hopefully we will see more coil variety for the 6000 in the future.

This!