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Picked up my GM1000 from Gerry on Friday, then after doing chores up at the cabin got it out yesterday and today. Used the larger coil for scouting out a new spot and after a couple hours of no decent targets yesterday, went over the same area with my GB2. Still nothing, so at least I didn't miss anything in that area, but I wasn't real comfortable with the Monster yet. So today, after yacking with VA Nurse Paul last night and Scott T today...both singing its praises, I put the small coil on it and went to my "old reliable" bench to see if I could squeak out another baby nugget. Moved rocks and dug up some sagebrush....initially hunting with trusty GB2 to get a target, then compare it with the Monster. Wow, it could hear the Fly-poo AU I find up there, and the disc was pretty reliable! I found 3 pieces using the GB2 first, then once I was more comfortable with how the Monster responds, it sniffed out 6 more! I noticed on some "iffy" signals that the Goldbug heard, the Monster picked them up a bit better. I was using manual 10 sensitivity and All Metal/deep, and as others have mentioned, it does false if you hit a rock etc. Not using headphones and having no threshold hum was actually nice for a change too. Pretty cool machine....tomorrow I'm going to hit the hard rock gravels and see how it does. :-)

Hello everyone.. Im rookie starting out gold prospecting with a metal detector. I have always dredged for my gold and wanted to give metal detecting a go. So i have gotten the GM as my first gold prospecting detector and i would have to say im very impressed. Im happy with how simple it is even in our hot soil here the Dominican Republic. I had to switch from deep all metal to "Gold Mode" most of the time because of the ground noise. But it was manageable for a rookie like me just walk everywhere and just detect. Found a couple false signals but they was like pockets of black sand they appear while scraping off the overburden to reveal more the signal. So i have went to a place where some lady just walking by found a piece of gold since i dont know of no place here where people would metal detect since no one do nugget shooting with a prospecting machine. After about like 10 minutes i got a good signal and i dug my first gold nugget about 4" down. It weighted in at 1.4 Grams. After trying to search the are for 10 more minutes and not founding nothing more i left since it looked like it wanted to rain. So i have found my first place where i know i have found shallow gold. Hope i could start now a list of these deposit to revisit when i have a PI machine .

A couple of days ago went to a new area, no diggings around, and no finesse to my detecting, I`m not working low and slow trying to hear faint changes in the threshold, I`m hooking in and covering as much ground as I can. Two days ago I hit a point oner that I thought for sure was a birdshot and yesterday I got this one. So for about nine hours detecting I got 2, the gold is hardly leaping out of the ground all over the place, but it`s a big area and I`m still young (i wish). 2.69 grams. Dave

*** NOTE *** DO NOT ENTER MINES. This trip was with an experienced geologist and miner. Leave the mine exploring to the professionals. Never enter a mine. STAY OUT, STAY ALIVE. The discovery of gold in Quartzville started a small-scale gold rush in the 1800's. Not as big as Althouse Creek or Sutter's Mill, but big enough to cause farmers to lay down the plow and head to the hills above Sweet Home to seek their fortune. Much of the gold is small, including wire gold, but a seasoned prospector can do well and come across some gorgeous nuggets if they know where to look. Nowadays most people work the creek using dredges... but like all placer gold it came from somewhere. A lot of people who tell you "don't waste your time there" are just trying to protect stuff like this: Saturday about 8am I went out with two guys who had a lot of history with the Quartzville District above the White's Factory. The idea was to check out claims and use the metal detectors to do some true prospecting in and around old workings that date back to the 1880's. The GMT seemed like a good fit for the size of gold and what our goal was since we would need to read the mineralization in the mines to locate pay streaks. I brought a TDI as well to use in one section with some pocket gold. But they were just tools to help us locate mineral samples for the most part. I will never be a geologist, but I did try and pick up a few things from these guys. The climber is a geologist (and the claim holder), and the hammer-er is a seasoned dredger who has pulled ounces of gold out of Quartzville Creek (legally). This was the first mine that was completely flooded to the roof, so we took some samples and moved on. And yes, the only way up the mountain was to billy goat where the guy with the backpack is climbing. This was not a trip for the meek. I am a pretty regular hiker and this had me huffing. 45+ degree slopes, thousands of feet up and down. But it was worth it. Just above where I took this shot was a massive quartz outcropping. The view was incredible. With the claim holder's permission I took a few quartz samples for the wife. She is a rock-hound and likes it when I bring her something back. Some of the quartz was so hard even a rock pick and sledgehammer didn't do much to loosen it. But it was a good sign! The next shaft had water in it too. But the claim holder said it was only 4 ft deep. Still too deep to see what was under water. Luckily I could feel some of the timber underfoot and used that to keep from sinking to my neck. The other guys did the same. Still had a couple OOPSes that led to dunking. It is an eerie feeling in the dark when your feet can't feel the bottom. Plus the water was COLD... After we got through the water it shallowed up and we made our way to the back of the mine. The air was good but a little stale. Timbers were in amazing shape for their age! There aren't too many mines with the ore cart tracks still in them. So this was a neat thing to see. We used the GMT to scan for pockets of mineralization in the vein, which let us know where to sample from. Previously the material was assayed at .17 oz/ton. So we were curious to see if having the detectors along would be any help in locating streaks of mineralization. We listened for threshold raises to target "hot spots" on the walls.. and hoped for that screamer signal that might be a nice-sized nugget. Time to check and see if it was worth it... Hard to make out, but definitely gold! We checked a few other spots around a known pocket mine and didn't find much besides square nails and other mining junk. With a heavy bucket full of samples, backpacks, detectors, and a gallon less water, we headed back to the trucks about 6pm. It had been a pretty full day, and it was burger time. Even though we didn't get rich, it was a successful trip! We got to help a guy work his claims a bit, I got to know more about the mining district, and we even found some gold. I will say that compared to Rye Patch, this was a lot more interesting and gave me a serious workout. Plus, I came away with some new friends.

OK, I have to admit the years are sneaking up on me. Comfort takes on more meaning the older I get though I am way behind most people in that department. Roughing it in a minimalistic fashion is just ingrained in me. That is changing however. It used to be just a squat over a hole behind a bush. Seems like these things take longer now and my haunches don't like squatting for long - help, I can't get up! So for several years I have used one of those small, cheap folding toilet seats for extended field operations. They are rather precarious and really too small but they get the job done. I finally decided I wanted something a bit more upscale for camp use that is large enough to straddle a deep hole for a field privy. A trip to Walmart for a cheap steel folding chair and a soft padded toilet seat gave me what I wanted for about $20. Just cut the hole to fit with a jigsaw, a little smoothing with a file, and mount the seat. Only catch was lid would not fold up and stay up due to the chair back and so it just gets set aside while unit is in use. I now survey the desert in comfort from my new field throne when camped in one location for more than a day. A worthwhile upgrade!

You know we can't do that without lying.. It is the honorable thing to do amongst prospectors and fishermen. 2300

Dang! If I had one of them things I wouldn't have to pay so close attention to my camp diet. Uhm, Steve- I hate to ask, but you do fill your holes don't you?

Made me laugh. I'm still in the squat-behind-the-brush phase, but I make sure to leave a nice-sized fishing sinker everywhere I do my duty. Careful where you dig at Rye Patch!

A nice overview of why some people like to go metal detecting. This is a bit of an experiment as an embedded Facebook video so let me know if it does not work for you.

Very nice report Peg, and I know you know your Gold Bug 2 - thanks!

Well boots down in Oz land, tis magic. Got a small bit to break the ice on a hard hunted patch. .3 grams but its a start. Doing a section 40 and going to point around a bit. No glamor shots :) Slow and quite for a bit while me and my mates figure out our targets. Cant describe the smell of eucalyptus in the morning from the local fires or the beauty of the bush from a long drive from Perth but it puts in in ya. Coogardie is the drop TA!

On a side note Steve, I bought my first sluice, a Keene A52 hand sluice, from AMDS back in 2010 when on my first and so far only trip to Anchorage. You built an awesome store, and the staff were super friendly and helpful. Definetly a good reason to go back there, once the exchange rate improves. Cheers! It's now the secondary recovery section on my wash plant setup.

For those that do not know vanursepaul is in Australia for a nearly three month long adventure, with gold prospecting at the top of the list. Imagine his distress when he arrived in Australia and the control box portion of his new Minelab GPZ 7000 was missing from his luggage!!! This on top of just having his previous GPZ 7000 stolen over the winter. The solution to this serious problem is buried deep in another thread but I thought it should not go missed by people not following that thead, so here is a copy of Paul's post today at http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/topic/3724-nurse-paul-in-oz/?page=6#comment-41276....

Interesting. This new Youtube channel popped up recently for somebody calling themselves X Coils It appears to be Russian? and they appear to be working on coils for the GPZ. Here is a peek at the 12" x 10". Personally, that's a bit too similar to the stock coil to interest me - I would rather see a 10" x 8". Still, it's interesting that somebody has managed to make some coils that might work on the GPZ without blowing it up. This is one detector that I will have to let others gamble with first on this sort of thing but I knew you would all find it interesting. Edit - the videos disappeared so I deleted the link. Here is the latest X Coil 2021 News

Now, I might just have to see one in action! Good shooting!

GB_Amateur… yes those must be the two books I suggested above, although the covers have changed since my copies were bought several decades ago. My simplified version is 128 pages, and it is my everyday, keep-it-in-my-knapsack companion that I often refer to when on rockhunting trips. More detail can be had from the larger volume back at camp, incidentally my copy is 317 pages so evidently it has been enlarged. Merton if you’ve read Jules Verne, particularly Mysterious Island, you’ll find the same chemical / mineral terminology usage dating from the late 1800s… sometimes it is difficult to determine just exactly what material he has in mind. So I understand your frustration. My goal is try to retain an understanding of the fundamentals for mineral identification and to learn rock and mineral associations in areas that specifically interest me. Even that is a pretty tall order considering the diversity of minerals in central, eastern Ontario… specifically the renowned Bancroft area where most of the known minerals do occur. Steve’s ‘chloride’ explanation for the mining of silver chloride is excellent and in line with your post above. Otherwise, the term 'chloride' refers to a chlorine atom that has taken an additional electron from another element such as sodium (for example ionically bonded table salt NaCl) and added it to completely fill its outer electron orbital path to become a stabilized chloride ‘anion’ that now obviously possesses an overall negative charge (Cl-1 ). Of course in silver bearing areas where chlorine is present, the product could very well be cerargyrite… a silver chloride that you referred to above. Jim.

Very nice job. Sounds like the Monster is the real deal.

Merton I thought you did a pretty fair job of summarizing your interpretations. I think the first step is to buy yourself (a) the simplified Petersen field guide to common gems, ores, and other rocks and minerals authored by Frederick H. Pough. This book is about 1/3rd of an inch thick and is very understandable in learning about basic mineralogy, for example basic rock formations, basic crystal forms, simple field tests to identify minerals, followed by brief sections ranging from native elements, and commonplace... sulfides and sulfosalts, oxides, haloids, carbonates, sulfates, a section on phosphates, vanadates, uranates, arsenates, and a final section on silicates that provides a pretty good breakdown on feldspars including the plagioclase feldspars... chemical formulas, crystal types, where you learn about some of the terms you listed above. It also covers the quartz, zeolites,amphiboles, pyroxenes, and the garnet groups. All with good illustrative photos. (b) the full Petersen Field Guide entitled Rocks and Minerals by the same author... which covers just about any subject you're likely to ever need in more detail. It is illustrated with decent photos and decently easy to read, I use it as a reference volume and refer to it constantly for information about minerals we are interested in finding in eastern Ontario. These include the more commonplace materials such as quartz, apatite, titanite, tremolite, fluorite, beryl, garnet, corundum, some feldspars such as moonstone, sunstones and amazonite, and so forth. Learning about mineralogy seems a bit challenging, but in time, combining reading and field work quickly gives you a pretty fair working knowledge. Hope this helps a bit at least. Jim.

That's really good news Paul and a much better option than the guaranteed by-back solution we were having to look at. When you send it back to them make sure you actually pack the unit into the parcel before putting said parcel in the post. JP

I know it is really early in the bout. But possibly is the new kid on the block going to knock out the reining champion of many many years in the gold nugget VLF sport? I'm hearing so many good things about the GM 1000. And I'm really leaning on getting one soon. Hearing so many good reports from " Average Joe" dectectorists. I have had way more experience and success with Minelab detectors than any other brands. So I guess I speak Minelabbian better than anything else. My gut feeling thinks that we might be crowing a new Welterweight Champ. I guess time will tell?????

Nice photo there Dave and nice piece of gold.My early on detecting partner found a 10g nugget with a standard sovereign in Sofala in a creek bed,a miracle nugget.

Nice one ... It could have been a sunbaker? I'd say if the weather is good keep on swinging. We have 110-115F in our gold fields now. It is time for beach detecting! Mitchel PS ... was reading about Bathurst the other day. Are nuggets still available around there?

It's possible to disassemble the ATX coil and shaft assembly. http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/topic/168-disassemble-clean-garrett-atx-shaft-cams/ A rod could then be fashioned to do the job and the cable is long enough for such a project. You can see one I made myself at http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/topic/462-garrett-atx-strip-down-rebuild/?do=findComment&comment=3580 However, just my personal recommendation - the Infinium starts looking more attractive as a complete out of box solution that can be hip or chest mounted. It's debatable for your use whether a lot of mods, backpacks, etc. would be worth it. That of course is something only you can decide.

I received this message in my mail inbox just now. I read the introduction and description of the contributors needs, and ultimate successes, never knowing who that contributor might be. I finished the introduction, trying to think of possible names of that person who might most appreciate such a convenience, the only name that kept coming up in my mind, was "Doc". Yes, that Doc. The man who we newbies cut our first gold hunting teeth on, reading his funny stories, and buying his neat supplies. HE knows how to camp for sure. Even to having his own enclosed power shower to wash the Nevada desert away. Having said all that, your END result turned out to be very novel and useful. As with all novel inventions, the first is the one who you and others might build on, and improve a bit, beyond it's primary function. One idea I had was to have a Costco chair I saw available in the past week, with an attached side table, and cup holder, modified with your idea here. That would be GREAT I thought, total leisure and comfort, where you can read and drink while you, well, you know... Thanks for being a great source of information, Steve. Your "Detector Prospector" is a great source of knowledge which I look forward to daily! ~LARGO~

Put some wheels on it, hang a cooler on one side, a BBQ on the other and finally one of JP's detector arms mounted off to the front and you'd never have to get up...patent pending.

Very informative and impressive report.

At my age I'm at the "give me my self-contained toy hauler trailer at base camp" to do my duty! ;-)

I was excited about the AT Max until I saw the operating frequency. 13 kHz needs extra attention to deal with EMI. Hopefully they are changing it back to the ATPro's 15 kHz. I can hope anyway. I'd look at it again if they did. As of now its dead on arrival in my book. HH Mike

Thanks everyone for ya comments. And Mn90..im the only one on my sector nugget shooting that i know of. People around have a muilti purpose vlf and use them for treasure hunt. But very little know how to operate these machine since they come in english. Kiwi- i start of on auto sen+ with discrimination and as it gets quite i meaning no ground noise or metal objects i try to back it down to deep all metal and sensitivity to 10 and it just might work well for a minute to i get very soon to a hotter piece of ground . So i just stay mostly in autosen+ and in discrimination mode . GoldRat- GoodLuck!! Hopefully you find a muilti Gram nugget =] I love the discrimination on the machine i just couldnt figure how i would have ignore all these iron signals from blasting my earphones and digging it without it. *something i notice is the sound coming off the speaker are kinda low at full volume . I dont think i could even hunt just using the internal speaker it makes me struggle with my hearing to pick up these signals .*

It's a start Paul

Congratulations principedeleon on your great find 1gram + . I run an SDC and have found over 200 nugglets all under 1 gram can't tick that 1gram box yet . Going out Saturday with a friend and his Minelab Monster maybe there's a 1 grammar waiting for me . Hope you enjoy detecting and find plenty of gold . Cheers goldrat

I was out detecting today and thought of something I would like to see in a 7000 software update. In "ground type" instead of having Normal, Dificult and Severe, have it like the volume control, constantly variable. Severe 50, Difficult 25, Normal 1. I was detecting in ground today that the 7000 appeared flat or listless in Difficult but every time I switched to Normal it was just way too noisy. I think this would have been good ground to set the detector at say 12 ground type. Dave

Well done. Nice nugget. Do many detect there already?

congratulations Principedeleon What a great first find!!!

I love mining gear rigs like this Bryce, thanks for posting. It was too good to leave in the other thread so split off on its own. I am glad AMDS treated you right, although I am afraid they have struggled with getting knowledgeable people on board since I left. I met with them recently with ideas on how to turn that around but sadly it is not what it used to be at this point. Hopefully improvement will be seen going forward.

Great adventure and photos Tom - thanks for posting! The White's metal box machines are more water resistant than most people realize. Box is gasket sealed. Speaker is plastic cone and sealed to box - you can pour water in the speaker holes and the water will not get into the machine nor hurt the speaker. There are orings under the knobs and rubber caps on the switches. There is nothing in the pods that is sensitive to water. I have run an MXT in rain for days on end with no protection and no harm done.

Thanks Matt! The plastic bin up top is the mucking stage, it's got spray bars in it to saturate the material and break down the gold stealing clays. Which is why the bigger tailings are so clean. Then it's screened to an inch, then to 1/4 inch. With the middlings running through a nugget catch. No nuggets found yet. Sub 1/4 inch then is sluiced through a 12" wide sluice x 60" of recovery area 1 10 H expanded metal with noodle mat, then through the Keene A52 with 3M miners moss. Unfortunately I am going to retire this rig in favour for a lower mucking bin and only classify to somewhere between 1/4" and 1/2". Thinking a BBQ grill with the ends cut off to not get roots building up. Schlepping a couple tons, 50lbs a time, of feed stock 6' up a ladder is painful and clearing caught up roots between pails is inefficient.

Impressive! Nice pieces even if they don't weigh much.

Scott T = gold bug 2 pro. Great guy! strick

Kalgoorlie W.A. ( Australia ) is celebrating the 60 millionth ounce of gold to come from the hole " Super Pit ". P.S. Photo shows 1/2 hr after blasting, To see whole area of "Super Pit", Suggest go into Google Earth and have a look. Cheers Ashley

DD, that was wise not getting Nurse Paul to pack your detector in........................ Beware BB with his 3030, but most of all soak it up and enjoy.

sweet find, congrats beach hunter/...

Still a very nice piece of jewelry.

I had a truck that would only start after being roundly cursed with drywaller hanger bad words...give it a try! fred

MINELAB AU Well.....back to the detector issue... The control box (CB) was not in my baggage and customs has not found it laying around.... Right before I left for a week detecting with Norvic, I called JP, and MinelabAU to see what could be done... JP didn't have an extra he could loan out, (I will be here 2 1/2 more months)--- I was thinking of buying one from him, but I wanted to wait and see what Minelab could do... Sarah from Minelab AU and I had discussed me buying just a CB from them..... Right before Vic and I got out of cell range on the drive down to our secret detecting spot -- I wrote Sarah and basically begged for some help, I said, "Maybe you all have a returned control box that was sitting on the shelf gathering dust----maybe one that was traded out completely due to the pixel thing.. whatever...as long as it worked I would use it...." Sarah replied almost immediately to that e-mail , BUT... I didn't get to read it until we came out of the bush today---- I was totally stunned by her reply..... She said she had had some success and would be shipping me a control box to use while I was here in Australia.... if I would give her a address. Is that customer service or what???? From the very get go.... Minelab AU was trying to help me---(you know when they are and when they are just passing you on)-- I felt like everyone I talked with at Minelab was genuinely interested in my problem. Darryl, Kathy, Sarah and ALL at Minelab have salvaged an adventure of a lifetime for me! I am so grateful. Can you guess what brand of detector I will buy next time?? It starts with an M.....

Thanks for the replies fellas....Interesting little read on bottles http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/what/44880-what-used-old-odd-bottle-round-bottom.html I give them to my buddies wife who puts them in her collection. She has a nice glass case they go into. Merton- Buddy likes to play with the Lizards mostly. When I tell him to "drop it" he seems more than happy to! Deathray- I fixed the pick....like new now.... only a couple inches shorter. I have yet to find anything really good near that chimney site.... The first time I hunted there I turned on the Deus walked 2 steps and found a nice very old Wheat penny. Thought to myself this is good ....I'm gonna kill it here. Only found one other coin a Chinese variety.....gave it to my bud who owns the place...and I been there about 4 times now lol. Clark I hope your right about the ring.. I've dug so much aluminum! Buddy goes to work with me every day. He can dig with the best of them..but like some prospectors he does not cover his holes! More photos for you dog loving Aussies! strick

Piercing Pagoda low quality "fine" jewelry. Will have the stones tested later in the year with all other questionable jewelry. Very similar style currently for sale on their site here: http://www.pagoda.com/diamond-four-row-anniversary-band-sterling-silver/product.jsp?productId=41819086

How about changing a flat?

"Is the ATX recovery speed faster than the Infinium? And in non-motion mode do you find yourself retuning the detector often?" I do not currently have an Infinium to make a direct comparison with so I am going from memory. In general I would say the ATX seems to recover from a target and hit another one slightly better than the Infinium. Large items do not seem to grab and hold the audio in the same way they did on the Infinium. But by VLF standards it still has a very slow recovery time benefiting slow, careful coil work. I have not used the non-motion mode near as much as I have intended and plan on really getting on to using both it and the factory reset un-ground balanced modes more in the near future. The ATX holds steady in non-motion mode when sitting still so there is no inherent drift going on. Any retuning would be strictly in response to changing ground conditions, and the one beach I gave it a go on seemed to allow non-motion to be used with little need to retune. However, I also noted no major depth advantage in that short little run. In other words, the non-motion mode did not blow me away but I think that is because the ATX motion mode is so good. This is really making me want to get another Infinium to be better able to make direct comparisons. But given that the ATX is basically better in every way except physically it is hard to justify. All I would be doing is getting a better handle on quantifying just how much better the ATX is than an Infinium, and right now I am plenty happy with just knowing it is better! The ATX does frustrate me though. When I look at it as a waterproof detector it is a home run. When I look at it as a prospecting detector I sense this hot machine trapped in an ugly body. Given that most detector prospectors are in arid regions a waterproof housing and waterproof connectors makes no sense. A machine designed purely for prospecting or at least dry land use would really be sweet. So on one hand I get really excited by the ATX and on the other it is more a case of what could be.