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Aussie Gold Monster Appraisal


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Hi Kiwijw

This is the largest Iv,e found ,in amongst scattered quartz it is slightly water worn and rounded on top, I also have some quartz pieces that have given a positive result but I have not crushed them I  also have about 4 smaller pieces similar to what I have seen on the forum. The areas I detect have been heavily hit with sdc2300,s so you have to be persistent and lucky.

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Hi ophirboy,Interesting report .Let me just say that I have looked on 3 continents on forums about testing of the Nokta Impact on goldfields and have found nothing.I posted one about the Impact on goldfields in Australia a month ago on an Australian forum and on this forum only last week, so I have been the first.I daresay you are also the first to file a report about the GM 1000 on a goldfield.Congratulations.We Aussies obviously like to live dangerously.My Nokta Impact is a real monster and very sensitive.Found a 0.1 gram of steel which gave a normal signal in all metal mode 4 inches deep I reckon it might have been a chip from a digging tool such as a crowbar.I am detecting in the Golden Triangle here in Victoria in the very high mineralisation such like you.I reckon I had some false signals in the hotter areas in the discrimination modes early on when I first started to use it.I have not bothered to find the optimum settings to get rid of the falsing on any disc. mode but I have some ideas on how to do it.I mainly use the all metal mode called GEN with the minimum disc.setting of 01 to listen to iron and hot rocks.So I get 2 tones,a low and high tone.It makes life a lot easier and I just dig up all the high tone signals.

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Hi Mike .

Good to hear from another Aussie on the forum . I don't know a lot about the Nokta detector although a lot of people have mentioned them as one of the brands that led minelab to develop the GM 1000. A lot of members from the states seem to work in much lower mineralization and therefore there reports can lead you to believe that the detector sensitivity can be ramped up and give good results. Be cautious as our conditions can cause what some call fogging to the receiver circuit ( like headlights in fog) that can hide small targets if an unsuitably high sensitivity setting is used . Quite often a more conservative setting can give much better performance. this would certainly apply to the Golden triangle. It also makes your discriminator marginally usefull . As I said in the report , learning the machines strengths and weaknesses is vitally important to success , Good luck and I hope you do well down there. 

PM ??

 

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Great reporting ophirboy - many thanks. You hit the nail on the head. The Gold Monster is a very High Gain detector and taming it via appropriate sensitivity settings is critical. With the GM1000 more so than other detectors lower sensitivity is often better.

Nice nugget!

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Hi ophirboy, Apart from testing my Impact and ascertaining it is stable on our very high mineralisation, I have not found a speck of gold even though we have camped out in a tent in freezing nights for 10 days at a time. Yesterday we detected at Kitty,s Lead just South of Ballarat near where we live ,one of the richest deposits of large nuggets found in Australia.Surprisingly the ground had only low mineralisation with completely white quartz and few hot rocks.I am finding small non ferrous targets up to 4 inches deep varying from 0.1 to 2 grams.I always now keep the gain at 70 which is the default setting in the general mode and have never had to lower it to compensate for hotter ground.I think the Impact needs a lager coil for gold prospecting in Australia; the Black Dog XXL which is 13x11 inches and very light would be my favorite choice but it is unavailable here.We were thinking of going over to the West next winter but do not know if it is worth the long drive to get there and if there is enough free Crown land to detect in without running into leases everywhere.Perhaps you can give me the benefit of your recent experience.

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Hi Mike 

The main thing about detecting is that no one has struck it rich with there detector in the cupboard . I'll read you a quote from a newspaper  correspondent at bendigo in 1852 " The new chum arrives believing that nuggets can be dug up as easy as potatoes in a farm paddock but soon discover that they will blister there hands and knock there shins on many a boulder before they see even the specks" If this sounds familiar your in good company . Detecting is about persistence and luck . You sound like your going to areas that are likely prospects however I purchased my first detector in 1976, it was a whites coinmaster 5000 D and I thought it was the ants pants it took me 2 years to find my first nugget but I just loved being out in the bush meeting and talking to other diggers. The Aussie diggings have been hammered for over forty years with all manner of detectors . And the PI detectors go very deep compared to vlf, so try and concentrate your efforts where the diggings where shallow or where the distance to the washing area was far away . Lots of dirt fell off wheelbarrows on the way to puddling machines or creeks. Or search out bedrock areas exposed on terrace or bench deposits as the yanks call them . These areas are obvious by the stacks of rocks with pathways between where the diggers washed the soil down to bedrock and needed to stack washed stone from the sluice boxes. If your finding small lead pieces then  your in the lottery with a chance , but as I have said before , ferrous junk can be identified by its irregular or wide signal . Rusting iron slowly leaches  into surrounding soil giving a small item a much bigger signal " halo effect" and a nail will even give a double signal because of its dual polarity like a compass needle. On the other hand non ferrous items with little corrosion give clean clear signals . These include brass bullet shells , eyelets, lead shotgun pellets , bullets and gold . I find detecting more enjoyable when you enjoy your surroundings and accept the junk as education that is slowly giving you the experience to find a nugget when your lucky enough to walk over one . I wish you well with the Nokta Impact and remember to share your knowledge with others when you become an expert.

Happy times on the diggings

Paul ??

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5 hours ago, ophirboy said:

newspaper  correspondent at bendigo in 1852 " The new chum arrives believing that nuggets can be dug up as easy as potatoes in a farm paddock but soon discover that they will blister there hands and knock there shins on many a boulder before they see even the specks"

So true, nothing has changed in 160 +years, even though we get about in 4 wheels and have these new fangled electronic thingos that look into the ground. 

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