A Couch Potato Or Gold Prospector? To Buy Or Not To Buy 6000

[aerospace guy]

Been 106 degrees or so where I live but I think I'll try and get out early to see what I can find before my upcoming knee surgery next Tuesday. I know if I don't, then I'm going to beat myself up thinking "now I have to wait and wait before I can go back out". This is an area I have found 2 nuggets, the largest 34+grams. I have 2 people with 6000's who want to go out when temps are cooler who will split the 'finds' with me and also let me try their 6000. In reality My EQ800 is more suited for the area as there is a LOT of small wire, tacks, hot rocks etc. BUT the 6000 detects WAY deeper, so what to do? I think I would maybe regret buying a 6000 as where I detect is so full of hot rocks and trash. In the past I had a 5000 and as I have said on DP, I really really regretted ever buying that machine! I sold it and the guy I sold it to sold it and bought a 6000.  The only way to justify the expense in my mind is to travel to areas like Nevada and Arizona.....still thinking this strategy over. 

                Will post pics of all the trash I find as well as hopefully some gold. Here is a pick of my latest find this year with EQ800.

[phrunt]

I'm puzzled by your dislike of the 5000 and I recall it's because you were worried it missed certain types of porous gold and while you will possibly find the 6000 easier to use as some people do and it will hit on some gold the 5000 misses I think you should really take up peoples offer to let you try before you buy, I wish I did.  Your area sounds a nightmare with a 6000 and perhaps your Nox is the best tool for the job.  If you're planning on going prospecting all over the place then a 6000 might be worthwhile, but your 5000 would have been too and you offloaded it. 

Yes the 5000 will miss some gold for various reasons, so will the Equinox obviously with depth limitations, and so will the 6000.  No detector is perfect and your expectations are possibly too high.

You've got an offer to try before you buy, take that offer.

[Aureous]

All PI units will have windows or gaps in the detection range. Each new ML gold prospecting PI changes this range of gaps it seems. The 6000 is a killer and sounds like you've got a great offer. Just beware that your junk ratio will skyrocket, the amount of lead in the ground has surprised even me....I had no idea there was so much of it until I got a 6000. My ratio of gold to junk sits about 40:1!

[oneguy]

Just my opinions so take with a grain as I have no experience in AZ. or NV conditions.  To be well rounded you really need both a vlf and a PI.  The 6 is an impressive unit but threshold seems a little too wild for my taste so sold it and went back to my SDC.  Take up with your buddies and try the 6 yourself and see how it works for you in your area(s)?  I also hate trash so I try and use both a PI and vlf if the ground I'm on isn't too steep/brushy.  I added an adjustable strap and a telescoping EQ800 shaft to my Monster so I can collapse the unit and throw it over my back when hiking in/out.  If the area isn't too steep/brushy I also mark 6-7 targets I find with the SDC with bright flouresant markers then chase them down with the Monster.  IMO this saves me BUNCHES of time by being able to PP faster/use probability meter to dig or walk and not have to dig up every target the PI finds?  Kinda a pain in the ass packing 2 machines around but I'm getting it down pretty good and find at the end of the day I've been able to check more targets (more chances for gold).  Also had a 5000 and sold it because of all the fucking cords and bungees and harness crap getting hung up in the brush....BUT it did have a very nice stable threshold, unlike the 6.  Either way...you really should have both a PI and a VLF ...imo   Good luck whatever you decide....

NICE noogie...!!!!!

[aerospace guy]

Thx for the constructive input! I agree you should have both a PI and a VLF and yes I will take them up on their offer to try the 6000. I saw the 1st 6000's last year at Rye Patch and was REALLY impressed with their performance...they heard targets all our EQ800's could not at an impressive depth.

                   Still thinking over Nevada and AZ. Funny, I guess I have a totally different philosophy than most other prospectors. That is, I am willing to take people with me to productive ground while the majority of detectorists treat it like a big secret. Just me I guess!

              

[jasong]

I wouldn't buy any expensive detector on the basis of just a 2 nugget patch unless you have a good reason to think there is quite a lot more gold left deeper there, or you have some other areas to work in addition.

If time is of the essence due to surgery and the people with 6000's aren't coming until next year, might see if any shops or dealers in AZ rent a 6000 or 7000 for a day. Back in the early 2000's there were a couple that rented GPX's, not sure about now. 

If you are mostly after deep, larger stuff though, the cheapest way to do that would have been with that 5000 with a 16" or 18" coil. Larger coils on an older GPX also have the benefit of ignoring some of the smaller trash, and you can ignore it further by running settings like Salt Coarse. A 6000 is going to hit every piece of tiny surface trash.

[aerospace guy]

jasong...I agree with you...I feel that there is SO MUCH trash that the 6000 would NOT be a good choice my area(SoCal/El Paso mountains). What inspires/motivates me is being contacted by 6 owners with pictures of lots of gold (all pretty small though) found with their 6's in "milder" Nevada and AZ ground. As they put it.."it makes detecting fun again" finding gold after gold after gold. I saw this in person at Rye Patch where the 6's and 7's found multiple targets that my EQ could not even "hear". So to justify a 6 purchase I feel significant time needs to be devoted to these areas with a 6. That means extended time away from home.

[phrunt]

Minelab are very smart, or manipulative... one of the two or a bit of both.

The previous GPX 4500/5000 series wasn't so good on really small gold so you had to buy the SDC.  At the time I am sure they could have made the timings that would slam on the small gold just as well as the SDC but then few people would buy both, or buy the SDC at all.  Aftermarket coil manufacturers started to release coils like the little NF Sadie and the flat wound coils that rapidly started to catch it up to the SDC in small gold performance.

Along comes the GPZ, the deepest they've made and clearly the most powerful yet they prevented it from being excellent at small gold by restricting small coils on it even though they said early on they were going to make a smaller one, they're not going to make that GPX mistake again where the GPX caught up to the SDC on small gold by aftermarket coils, perhaps they had the GPX 6000 plan way back then.

Then comes the GPX 6000 which hits small gold similar to how the GPZ with small coil does and has many of the other attributes of the GPX 5000's performance except any of the setting as they decided people don't need settings, the machine is smarter than the people using it at selecting settings for them.

That opens them up to making a GPX 7000 at some point with the performance of the GPX 6000 but with all the settings added back onto it along with the fully auto mode, and perhaps of course the discrimination on it again and once again it will sell very well as people get back what they miss from the 5000, so I'm sure the GPX 6000 won't be the last of the GPX series and the GPX 7000 will be significantly better by just doing that.

The GPZ 8000 will come out with both big and small coils to retain it's top position in the line up.

So yes, people are telling you the 6000 is making detecting fun again and finding lots of tiny bits of gold, that's what it was designed to do, find the small bits their previous models were designed to miss.  We are just pawns with wallets 🙂

Out of interest you said you didn't like the GPX 5000 as it was missing gold?, what timings were you running in when this took place?  There are some timings that are far better than others on porous specimen type gold so timings could have something to do with it too.  Yes the GPX 5000 isn't the best detector on that type of gold, but it still does pretty well when setup correctly.

See the bottom line of this chart.

This chart doesn't have Fine Gold as it was made for the GPX 4500 however if you were in Fine Gold you'd be missing gold no matter what, it's a very aggressive setting cancelling out hot rocks and bad ground and with it some gold will be missed.  If you didn't need to be in it you shouldn't be in it.  I think it's a shame you offloaded your GPX before really getting to know it as it's not as bad as you think and now you don't even have a PI to use at all without a very large investment to buy another one.  You can easily make the GPX look poor on various gold nuggets by selecting the wrong timing and this is where the 6000 has an advantage, all gold, all the time and that's what they mean you don't need to be in the right timing anymore for the gold in the area you just turn it on and go.

I think if you were to buy a 6000 you'd need to intend to use it outside of that junky area, it's very sensitive to small surface junk so you'd be digging a lot of it that you just skim over with your Nox and its discrimination.  In areas like Rye patch it seems the 6000 would serve you very well getting the smaller bits others have missed in the past (by design) 🙂  It's a very good detector and great at what it's designed to do and I'm sure you'd be happy with it if you were to broaden your detecting areas or have a lot of patience where you currently hunt.

[aerospace guy]

P..as usual, you get right to the salient points and have a reasoned argument. Yes the 5000 frustrated the heck out of me (even running a DD coil) or a little Sadie. I think at my advanced age (read patience..NOT) the 6000 would be perfect but NOT HERE as you point out in this "junky" area. As I was in training last year, June, at Rye Patch  (when the 1st 6's came out the same weekend I was there for my EQ800) I watched the 6000 pop nuggets out at a 'decent' depth my Eq didn't pick up! Heck..there were 2 7000's there that were even finding "small" size nuggets. So you are right in saying that Minelab has me 'over a barrel'. As you and most everyone has said that it is good to have a PI and VLF. I have a decent VLF. Wish that 8000 was coming out sooner than later! Thx for the input!

PS: I have more than a few offers from 6 owners who have had some time to get proficient with their machines and at some point this year I am going to invite one or more of them to detect the area...mostly the slopes/sides of the wash.What 'Jasong'  and others don't know but I DO know is that this "small" area has produced 3 to 4 1 ounce or bigger nuggets that have been documented as well as smaller. So I really would like to see a 6 or 7 detect the sides.

[aerospace guy]

Phrunt...see pic (missed by 5000) according to Gerry