Northeast's GPZ Gold Album

[Northeast]

Spent a productive few hours with Elusive yesterday chasing some yellow in a spot that he found a little while ago.  We had tried previously and got frustrated by EMI - the day that we got the little piece in the picture with the key on the first page of this thread. 

Supposed to be 40 degrees C here yesterday so a 5.30 a.m. start was decided on to beat the heat.  

About 5 metres from where we got the 'key piece' last time we picked up the little one in the photo below.  Up in the edge of the creek in a crumbling bit of rock.  Only just a signal with the Z and pinpointed in the small hole with the Monster.  A note to be made here - we originally could barely get a signal on this piece even with the Monster within 2-3 inches.  Then realised it was in Gold Mode rather than All Metal.  The difference when changed to All Metal was amazing  - probably get it at 6-7 inches.  The amount of depth lost with Gold Mode was an eye opener for us. 

Continued on for another 4 hours for a bit of crap and no more yellow, until....

I had taken all my stuff back to the car and was really just playing around waiting for Elusive to get back.  Thought there was a bit of a signal.  Scraped a bit...maybe that improved a little?  Scrape...maybe a bit better?  Maybe ground noise - I'd dug a few ground noise signals already 

Elusive caught up and I scratched a bit more off.  Definite improvement and could just see a bit of clay coming through. Off with the Z and on with Elusive's SDC so I can dig and he can pinpoint.  The SDC - nothing!!  What?  Z back on and a signal - bugger, maybe it is just the clay?  Dig, dig, signal improved.  Z away, SDC and now it was giving 'just' a signal.

Dig, dig, getting better.  Dig, dig, now it's screaming

Don't need to measure these bits against the echidna's nose on the coin 

Elusive kept the little tacker - about 1.87 grams.  We found out the hard way that it is a bit hard to split gold.  It's Elusive's spot but it was simply the power of the Z that got the big bit.  Well over a foot down and very strange that the SDC couldn't hear it until it was about 6 inches from the coil.  Hopefully there will be more to come and the ledger can be evened. 

Big one all cleaned up - woohoo!

And a few hours this morning in a totally new spot for Elusive, Outback 54 and myself.  Back to the standard sizes again unfortunately, but gold is gold. 

 

[Norvic]

On ya

[Elusive]

Great write up Northeast! I was really blown away by the difference in the signal strength between the Zed and the SDC. I know that the wife had done that area over a few times with the SDC and hadn't found anything there, apart from the usual junk. Well done and what a nice piece! Was a great finish to a mornings successful prospecting.

Those few bits today you and Outback 54 got today were ok for a new spot, nice to see a new area give up at least a few bits. 

cheers,

Elusive

[Steve Herschbach]

On 1/6/2018 at 8:58 PM, Northeast said:

The amount of depth lost with Gold Mode was an eye opener for us.

Great report! I never use the disc mode on the Gold Monster except as an extreme last resort. It not only loses a lot of depth but if a nugget is misidentified as ferrous you won't hear it and will never know its there. I prefer using all metal always and relying on the meter for a dig/no-dig decision. And that usually comes down to getting just one non-ferrous hit on a target, even if the other six swings show ferrous. I would rather dig some ferrous that falses positive than skip nuggets that false as ferrous if I can avoid it.

If the area if littered with trash and hot rocks that make such target by target analysis impossible, then it's time to engage the discrimination, but there is a steep cost. The graphic below and on the detector is pretty spot on

The SDC has very aggressive timings based on the "Fine Gold" timing of the GPX 5000. It aggressively rejects most hot rocks and bad ground, but in doing so there are "holes" in its ability to detect gold. Since gold and ground varies wildly, there is no way to know exactly where the holes are since they move around as the ground balance changes. Long story short, GPZ as a continuous wave detector fills in the "holes" left in ground balancing PI designs - one of its main design features.

[Northeast]

Thanks Steve.  You are right, the pictures under the "Detecting Mode" heading do indicate an approx 50% loss of depth which seems accurate to what we found on the weekend.  I had never given much thought to the accuracy of the pic, just thought they were trying to indicate that it lost 'some' depth. 

Certainly we knew the SDC would lack depth Vs the GPZ but were again just surprised how close the SDC had to get when the nugget was quite solid and had a reasonable surface area - although it may have been sitting on its edge making things more difficult.  It think it makes Elusive contemplate what he may have walked over with the SDC - and it makes me wonder what I walked over when I had an SDC 

Just another educational session and display of the 'power of the Z'   

 

[Bhogg]

Hi Northeast

Wow mate that’s some Absolutely Beautiful gold and big for around here!.
I haven’t been out for quite awhile now, still waiting for the Monster to come back
from Minelab.
And I’ll have to look into Nenad headphone adaptor plug so I can get a signal booster
for the SDC as I’m struggling to be able to hear the Target noises through all the other
noise the machine makes.
Your obviously onto a nice area where you are to find them! hopefully there’ll be plenty more to come!!
Look forward to some more nice size colour!.

[Northeast]

The GPZ 7000 is for sale for any of the Aussies that might be interested. 

Mitchel or Paul might even be interested for your 2019 adventures??

Link to the ad on PA is here  https://www.prospectingaustralia.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?id=29180

I'll be happy if it sells, I'll be happier if it doesn't   ?

[fredmason]

Nice deal for some one in Oz, Northeast!

I almost sold my 7000 when I got sickly two Novembers ago...I am glad I did not sell.  Having the GPZ gave enough incentive to keep going and now I am about 80% back. That is way better than a walker and wheel chair.

I just ordered a new coil cover after all this time it is coming apart...but, I am not a coil scrapper...

fred

[Northeast]

Sold pending pick up. 

Sad day. 

But also excited for what might be next and the research begins for something that is going to suit my plans at a price that suits expected usage. 

An SD?  A GPX?  A QED?  Time will tell  ?

[jrbeatty]

42 minutes ago, Northeast said:

Sold pending pick up. 

Sad day. 

But also excited for what might be next and the research begins for something that is going to suit my plans at a price that suits expected usage. 

An SD?  A GPX?  A QED?  Time will tell  ?

Northeast: I recommend all three ☺️  

With the coils now available you won't miss much - - - maybe the good old SD would be redundant nowadays,  they didn't miss much big deep gold though, especially the prototypes.