Hot Rocks

[fredmason]

I am hesitant to broach this subject. Please donot take this as my expert opinion as I am not in any way an expert. Also, I am not very good at remembering every setting I tried with the Z. So with those disclaimers......

When I was in Gold Basin for my maiden Z voyage the schiest-y rock there were abit of a problem. They were always really difficult with a vlf. I learned to trust my 3500 and 5000 when the distinct warble came through. However, the Gpz is completely new to me.

Inititially I tried the default settings and thought the tracking system would quickly eliminate the HR's...that didnot work well. Then i set up with Doc's settings he posted on Rob's forum. (thank you, Doc)...that seemed better for noise but the Hrs still came through. Then I decided to try my old system for judging if the signal was an hr or a legitimate target. While in auto-track I would raise the coil a few inches; if the signal completely faded away I was sure it was an HR. However, some of the bigger and/or deeper Hrs still gave a "good" signal so I would dig...just a another Hot love-stone.

There are a lot of these rocks in Gold basin so i was not thrilled.

After a while I setup the user button so I could go from tracking to manual/fixed...checking in manual the HR seemed less hot and using the fast-tracking they would usually track out quickly. Just to be sure I tested with my little test nugget near the hr...the nugget always came through albeit with a different signal...more testing and experience is needed. 

The few iron-stone type hotrocks I detected were handled better by switching some of the modes...again more experience is needed but  a similar result seemed to be had using the raise the coil or manual tracking/fast track option...I will be going to The dale area next week to see how the tons of ironstone is handled there. And to practice until perfect-that could be a very long time.

One of the meteorites I detected I was fairly sure  was ironstone but it would not track out...and it looked a little different...on filing an edge it proved to be a chrondrite...so even small meteorites will probably not track out-that is good news to me.

On my way home I spent an hour or so in the Potholes area on a field of basalt that has/had a little gold. I thought the basalt was handled pretty easy in HY/Diffcult and auto track...I used Russ' setting there mostly...the detector ran well but no gold.

I have much to learn so any tips or techniques for improving in hotrock infested areas will be appreciated...

fred

[jasong]

Maybe I'm not understanding your method, but couldn't you just stay in auto-tracking and pull the quick track button instead of switching back and forth between manual and auto with the user button? Seems like it'd be faster, fiddling with the screen is slow and requires stopping swinging.

The Z is just noisier in my opinion than the GPX, especially for guys who are really used to running the GPX. GB meteorites won't track out, at least in my testing with a variety of pieces from 2 grams to 450 grams, but the GPX will hit harder on them in a lot of cases.

I think I know the pieces of rock you are talking about. They look kinda like dark brown shards, sound like targets, but fade pretty quickly with depth and aren't usually any deeper than 3" or so so I've always just swept them away with a few boot scrapes since I don't run into more than 4 or 5 a day normally except in a few small areas, quicker than adjusting settings. Maybe those aren't what you are talking about. The only other ones out there I ever hit that sound like targets are the weird grainy dark rusty bits that occasionally are rotten enough to break apart in your hand, like partially metamorphosed sandstone, but they are even more rare. Gold Basin is easily the least hot place I detect, just was curious to read this. I haven't had my Z down there yet, waiting for Fall/Winter to hit my patches down there.

[fredmason]

Yes, I could just push the fast-track button and sometimes did that. However, I wanted to try fixed also...so I set the user button so I could get there easy-for me.

I am not in the modern day milli-second rush...a few more seconds is ok with me.

It sounds like you are finding the same hot rocks...there are more down toward Gregs HO road than to the west, in my experience.

thanks

fred

[LuckyLundy]

Fred,

I haven't swung the GPZ there yet! But, I would have given Extra Deep a shot and if that didn't work High Yield/Sever. If that wouldn't do the trick, I hold the coil off the ground and inch or two like we did with the GPX's. I've been hunting in Fixed the last couple days and you wouldn't believe how good it is. The GPZ, will run noisy and as you gain more experience with you'll get use to its language...swing that coil slow. Good luck!

Rick