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I had my Sunday free so I went up to the Sierra to try to get one more trip before the snow starts. 5 hours total driving and 6 hours of detecting... Priceless! I have been detecting alone since the summer. I like not having any interference from another detector in the area but there is just something missing when you have to hike, eat lunch, detect and, in the case of this trip, fist pump over a nice find...by yourself. That might just be me though. It took about 3 hours to find the first one which was the largest at 2 dwt. the total for the 4 pcs was 0.2 ozt. The last 3 were all within about 20 feet from each other and the 2nd largest was literally only about 1" down. I think the one on the bottom left looks like a Tyrannosaurus Rex skull! I always look for shapes in my nuggets like some people look for shapes in the clouds! I didn't find the nickel on this trip but I did find it not too far from this spot. I was swinging for hours with not a single target and this nickel was all by its' lonesome! I suppose a miner or logger dropped it on accident. It was a beautiful day and I was really glad to have made it up there.

This time of year in the High Desert you have to be and arm chair Meteorogist! It was the best, the type of Weather you can hunt all day without busting a single bead of sweat! 4 1/2 days of smiles before I had to toss the towel in and head back home to Robin. I couldn't establish any new ground on this hunt, but my old spots didn't let me down! My next few trips out to Rye Patch will be swinging for new spots to add to the old spots. Wish a Patch would replenish its self like a favorite fishing hole...well that would be to easy! Until the next hunt LuckyLundy

The image of the equation and the explanation of the variables can be seen on Wikipedia. The most important thing is that r prime in equation is the distance to measurement (ie, the target of the detector) and with r in the numerator, and r cubed in the denominator, the field strength drops off with the cube of the distance. Since the eddy field from the target back to the coil also drops off at the cube of the distance, the return field strength is dropping off at the 10^6 power of the distance, explaining why it is so hard to get increased depth of detection. Steve already posted the weight - about 1 pound more than the current 14 inch. However although a pound does not sound like much, its a lot on the end of a roughly 5 foot shaft.

Hello all. Hit SoOregon this weekend for some pocket hunting and all I found was bullets, more bullets, and poison oak. But the size of the 22 fragments I was finding gave me great confidence in the TDI SL with Miner John's coil. Luckily the factory let me borrow both! Gotta get back out there - we ended up in a great spot with shallow dig holes and were pulling up old square nails, boot tacks, and buttons that were good signs of gold productivity deep in the woods. Last week we shot a video that scared me to film... I was talking with an engineer about the testing process for the MX Sport. How do they figure out what is "tough enough"? He told me to grab the camera and I was a little scared to find the answer out --- especially with some of the nasty stuff people have said about the MX Sport. Not that it was unwarranted. We're in a great place with the machine as it stands right now, in large part thanks to forums like these to help us collect user input and improve the MX Sport. I would not suggest doing some of these tests with other brands' models... Actually, you probably shouldn't do these with ours either. But it's nice to know that we do, and that we build machines to put in work and not get babied---

I love the casual use of vector calculus in the blog post. Nenad: are you going to do a vid comparing the 14" to the 19"?

The Gog Phones I sell have 150 Ohm drivers (same as the Sunray Pro Gold's), and these sound really good on the Zed. You can hear all the warbles, wobbles, woo-ees and every other target response the Zed makes

Fantastic blog by Phil Beck http://www.minelab.com/anz/treasure-talk/the-gpz-19-coil-does-it-really-detect-30-deeper Study the depth chart carefully

“When using Normal Ground Type (in milder soils) I’ve actually been able to run a higher Sensitivity setting. I just couldn’t believe how smooth it was running for such a big coil, and I blooded the coil with its first piece after a short time, a very small flat piece of about 0.1g which proved that the big coil hasn’t given up much sensitivity." Nenad Lonic "It will also cover more ground and pick up less ground noise, but it is heavier and can also pick up more EMI" Minelab

Thanks for the nice comments. Scott, the two large pieces were found about 100 feet apart so I don't think they went together but the top 2 and bottom left were all found close to each other. I just tried to put them together anyway just now. No go but good thought! Until next time!

This true most places I've been too, to be a Meteorologist I think the main requirement is being very good at the guessing game, I always look at the big picture of all the weather fronts heading my way on satellite and usually predict the weather better than most of the guys on TV.

I appreciate this is an old thread but thought I would update the information. In respect to current Minelab models I can recommend Kellyco in the USA and the Detectores in Brazil, both will repair older machines but its always worth checking they have stock parts for the repair before sending, as for current models the answer I am sure is yes get it booked in. And then I would like to mention Lunatek, we are based in the UK and cover the UK and Europe and stepped up when Ireland service centre closed, we are the official Minelab UK and Europe service centre, you can book in online and feel free to get in touch. https://www.lunatek.co.uk

It is also very common for silver to leach out of the surface of nuggets, resulting in a thin but purer "rind" of gold on the surface of the nugget. This is seen when jewelers buff a naturally gold nugget, and it turns a lighter gold color when the rind is buffed off. It also can give misleading readings of the overall purity of the nugget if only the original natural surface of the nugget is tested. COMPOSITIONS OF PLACER GOLD IN THE RAMPART-EUREKA-MANLEY-TOFTY AREA, EASTERN TANANA AND WESTERN LIVENGOOD QUADRANGLES, CENTRAL INTERIOR ALASKA, DETERMINED BY ELECTRON MICROPROBE ANALYSIS by - R.J. Newberry Department of Geology University of Alaska-Fairbanks K.H. Clautice Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys Download at: http://www.dggs.alaska.gov/webpubs/dggs/pdf/text/pdf1997_049.PDF

Actually, gold can vary even within the same deposit. Even where most of the gold is fairly high purity you can get some nuggets that are much lower. Color is not a perfect key to tell you what you need to know, but it does tell you something. The upper two in the picture below are both from a spot in Nevada where Steve and I were chased out by rain recently. Nevada does produce some nice gold of at least average purity. The lower three are electrum. The one on the left is from California from a deposit where all the rest of the gold was typical California buttery yellow except this little chunky nugget. The one lower middle is from Nevada, a mining property where a guy asked Steve to evaluate for its metal detecting potential (It was the only piece we found); the lower right is a piece from a spot that has produced some nice wire gold for both Steve and I, but all the rest that we've found there was a nice yellow in color. A friend recently found a nice piece of ore on an old mine dump. It was heavy and a geologist friend of his cut it open and made a few slabs out of it. It is shot through with silver. He showed me some photos and I know the mine it came from. Almost all of the true native silver is formed by secondary processes (processes related to weathering and natural chemical alteration); this ore specimen is primary, so I told him it was unlikely native silver but instead high silver electrum. He told me the geologist had told him the same thing. The geologist is going to get it tested by probe as a favor. They touch it with a XRF probe and get a reading of what the purity is.

AZOUTBACK has a study posted that Chris's Dad did many years ago...I expect the info is still relevant ... http://www.arizonaoutback.com/azoroot/shop/custom.aspx?recid=75

It is too bad these machines do not display coords in "decimal degrees " format. IMO its much easier to use.

Reporting back on the Gp 3500 repairs. My brother's 3500 is repaired and working very well. The problem was located at the point where the power leads come into the circuit boards. What appeared to be a control unit was fried, so my brother decided to fix it himself. But he couldn't find the burnt component anywhere. A friend gave us his broken 3500 and my brother cut out a one inch chunk of circuit board on both machines and glued the friend's still good piece into his machine. After soldering the piece at six locations we took it for a test run. Worked perfectly and we found gold that day. This repair is not for the faint hearted, as the entire circuit is covered with a white coating that doesn't seem to dissolve and has to be scraped away to expose the damaged components. And the parts don't have a known numbering system. But remember it's just an electronic circuit though and follows all the rules of electronics. Sure would be nice to have a circuit diagram since Minelab no longer wants to repair the older models. We could keep them running forever. My brothers restore old cars and since the auto dealerships, like Minelab don't and really couldn't supply parts for the old machines, search the world for parts to bring these old automobiles back to life.