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A Few Nuggets For The GPX 6000 And GPZ 7000


phrunt

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Thanks, Simon, great report and awesome pictures/clip. Looks like the X-coils are doing a really nice job for you. Unfortunately, I have yet to get more experiences with them, very few are available here (if any). Re 6000, I find that it is as sensitive or even more sensitive than the GM in the grounds that I am hunting in. Unfortunately, it is not mild at all like in your case. Please give JW my regards the next time you see him. He sent me pictures from his hunting grounds that look like out of a fairytale. What an amazing landscape you guys are having.

GC

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Thanks Gold Catcher, yes, unfortunately in most of my photos I can't show the actual places we are detecting in as it might give away a bit too much information but If I could you'd get a real taste of where we can detect, the landscapes are outstanding.   The times it's painful are when you're up high in a hillside sweltering in the heat dripping in sweat looking down on a crystal clear blue lake wishing you were in there or looking up into the mountains seeing the snow caps while you're dying of heat 🙂  If you haven't noticed I dislike heat.

I guess I should elaborate on the Gold Monster sensitivity thing, what I was meaning is if I was to be hunting particularly tiny gold in bedrock cracks or something the GPX wouldn't be my first choice as the GM or other detectors like it are more sensitive to the smallest bits of gold and will find bits the GPX doesn't even see at all.  I had it in my head because of the Gold Monster comparisons the GPX was at that sort of level of performance when it's not and I didn't think all that much different to my GPZ with some of the coils on it particularly the 8" and 12" CC keeping in mind how hot the GPZ runs in our soils, basically maxed out.  Where I think the GPX probably pulls away is when the soil conditions get worse and the GPZ needs tamed or put into difficult.  

The GPX is remarkable in the small size gold it hits on well though, it just wasn't what I was expecting due to my own hyping of it to myself 🙂  The VLF will still be the more capable detector for that type of tiny gold.  That's not anyone's fault but my own, I made myself think it was better than it turned out to be so I would be setup for disappointment if I bought one before finding this out.  I hope that makes sense.

Keep in mind these are just some observations from one day of seeing it in action but it's enough to convince me I don't need one for now so that's good, I'm basically trying to talk myself out of an unnecessary purchase and by doing so saving myself a bunch of money 🙂

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40 minutes ago, phrunt said:

Thanks Gold Catcher, yes, unfortunately in most of my photos I can't show the actual places we are detecting in as it might give away a bit too much information but If I could you'd get a real taste of where we can detect, the landscapes are outstanding.   The times it's painful are when you're up high in a hillside sweltering in the heat dripping in sweat looking down on a crystal clear blue lake wishing you were in there or looking up into the mountains seeing the snow caps while you're dying of heat 🙂  If you haven't noticed I dislike heat.

I guess I should elaborate on the Gold Monster sensitivity thing, what I was meaning is if I was to be hunting particularly tiny gold in bedrock cracks or something the GPX wouldn't be my first choice as the GM or other detectors like it are more sensitive to the smallest bits of gold and will find bits the GPX doesn't even see at all.  I had it in my head because of the Gold Monster comparisons the GPX was at that sort of level of performance when it's not and I didn't think all that much different to my GPZ with some of the coils on it particularly the 8" and 12" CC keeping in mind how hot the GPZ runs in our soils, basically maxed out.  Where I think the GPX probably pulls away is when the soil conditions get worse and the GPZ needs tamed or put into difficult.  

The GPX is remarkable in the small size gold it hits on well though, it just wasn't what I was expecting due to my own hyping of it to myself 🙂  The VLF will still be the more capable detector for that type of tiny gold.  That's not anyone's fault but my own, I made myself think it was better than it turned out to be so I would be setup for disappointment if I bought one before finding this out.  I hope that makes sense.

Makes a lot of sense, Simon, thanks, and thanks also for the clarification. I use the GM myself quite often for bedrock scraping, mostly with the small 5 inch coil. And yes for these applications the GM has an edge over the GPX IMO, also simply due to it's versatility for this particular application and the tiny coil size. VLF's have a solid place in my armamentum, and it could very well be that the GM has an edge even in sensitivity over the 6k/11 when it comes to get that super fast gold out of bedrock. Re GPZ, I agree with you that in mild soil with the GZP run hot (combined with your nice X-coil fleet) there is probably no need for the 6000 when performance is the only metric. Even with the NF-ZSearch -(acknowledged that you are not a fan of this coil)-I find the sensitivity to small gold being almost at the 6000 level, when run in HY/Normal/Gain 15 and up. However, the 6k is my to-go detector for a host of reasons (ergonomics, weight, sensitivity, coil options etc.) IMO it's an incredible fun machine with a performance for shallow to mid-deep gold that would only be matched by the GPZ when running really hot with either NF12 or X-coils. If depth is not intended, I would take the 6k any day. However, if you suspect deeper gold then the GPZ is the detector of choice, albeit at the expense of more weight. On a side note, I just wanted to sneak in a homage on the good old SDC (since we are talking about various detectors here). For small shallow washes with high mineralization/frequent hotrock occurrences nothing beats the SDC (IMHO) 🙂

GC 

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Yes, the weight of the GPX was fantastic, I was really surprised as it's not meant to be all that much lighter than a GPX 5000, although it certainly feels a lot lighter, a well balanced design I guess, and the coils are very light too.  Fortunately I'm not bothered by the GPZ weight, I never even used my bungee and rarely do, JW was surprised I even had my harness with me as I usually don't, he commented it looks brand new still 🙂

I figured I'd wear it so I could use my SP01 and external speakers, I had the hipstick connected to it you may see in the video, I don't know why as it's just an accessory I'll never use, by lunch time I'd ripped the hipstick and bungee off and put them in my bag as they were just getting in the way.  I bought my GPX 5000 from Africa and it didn't come with a harness so I bought someones harness that included a hipstick that they'd never used either, basically new so the 5000 at least has one now.  I can see the hipstick being beneficial swinging heavy coils or detecting for days on end but in my scenario of small area, lots of digging it's just a pain in the backside.

I guess the time will come I will start to worry about the weights but at the moment I'm fine, I know I should be using things like bungees to stop wearing myself out over time and if I was detecting all the time I would be more worried about that than one day a week or so and the ground I detect is never level so adjusting everything all the time is a pain.

I guess it's just a bit of a relief to me I don't need to buy another detector and spend that sort of money on one when I don't really need it.   I'm really comfortable on my GPZ and I guess we have to keep in mind we are talking about a modified GPZ vs an out of the box GPX.

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46 minutes ago, phrunt said:

The times it's painful are when you're up high in a hillside sweltering in the heat dripping in sweat looking down on a crystal clear blue lake wishing you were in there or looking up into the mountains seeing the snow caps while you're dying of heat 🙂  If you haven't noticed I dislike heat.

LOL! I can just imagine that. That's the nice thing about hunting in the desert. If you are hot, everything around you will even be hotter, so no mind tease for cooling off, unless you are loosing it due to heat stroke and start seeing things (almost had a few of those moments....).

GC

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8 minutes ago, phrunt said:

I guess the time will come I will start to worry about the weights but at the moment I'm fine, I know I should be using things like bungees to stop wearing myself out over time and if I was detecting all the time I would be more worried about that than one day a week or so and the ground I detect is never level so adjusting everything all the time is a pain.

Wow, GPZ without bungee. I am long past that time. I use my hipstick for both the 6k/11 and GPZ religiously. It's a tricky thing though: When there is too much trash I start cursing my hipstick set-up because I need to constantly get in and out of it. On the other hand, if I forgot my hipstick/bungee (or if I find out in the last second that I forgot to attach the sleeve with the hook on the shaft-ARGH)  and I detect in areas without much trash, my arm get's quickly fatigued and I wish there would be more trash (or more gold!!) so I can put the detector down. 😁 

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Simon,

Thanks for sharing the hunt with us, I felt that i was there with you and enjoyed the hunt with you.

Great skills that you have for being able to find the gold and keeping at the hunt.

Good luck on your next hunt!

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phrunt

Some nice looking spots there for sure !

I'm the opposite though, hate the cold times ..it lasts so long here.

Guess it's the extremes that are bothering us. The rest of the year isn't much of a problem.....👍

 

 

 

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