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Well.....fishing trip is over.. Going back detecting to find some heavier nuggets so we can use them as sinkers and fish deeper out in the channel..

He's going to need isolation and decontamination when he returns. I hope he can stay with Scott this winter.

Paul has mud crabs. I heard.

Your in the wrong country. B. Gulch has been producing VERY well. Should I send you some larger ones? There seems to be plenty.

Hey Paul, I don't see a check for a WA woman. Maybe your preferences have been modified, you never know

So far it's been pretty tough in the penal settlement... Gold--check Barra-check Mud crab --check Meter barra-- ______ Kilo nugget--_______ WA Goldtour-_______

Did you guy tell Paul the Nurse the catch and release policy here in Oz The GOLD I meant not the FISH

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. :-)

Well, this video is not nugget detecting but it as close as I can get so far to the Deus elliptical coil so it will have to do....

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to be offered the use of a Macro Gold Racer with an 8x4 inch coil by a prominent local metal detecting personality. His name is Julian and has the blog at www.marlboroughmetaldetecting.com where he keeps track of all his finds and such. My first outing was with the racer was a lazy Sunday trip to a spot on a local river that you can literally drive right into the river. I was with 4 other guys, one intended to snipe and the others had three different detectors between them. We spent a few hours here which saw me locate quite a number of very small lead shot targets in bedrock crevices but gold eluded me right to the end of the day when I found a tiny 0.12g flake. Initial thoughts about the detector after this outing was that it was quite hot at finding tiny targets and it was the only detector that found gold on this day. My next trip was to a somewhat more remote area that turned out a little trick to get to. I had suspicions that there might be gold in this particular waterway based on local geology and nearby discoveries. As soon as we go to the river it became apparent that the VLF detectors we had with us were not going to handle the local levels of ground mineralisation. Bedrock was a mixture of igneous rock that in some cases overloaded the detector completely. Despite the racers variety of settings to enable detecting in tougher ground I found it impossible to get it to function here. I could get it to run reasonably quiet but then I was only able to detect a half grammer at a couple of cm and the signal was far from crisp. And lucky last trip. I took the detector to a mates’ claim for a run. This spot is also in quite a public spot and myself and others have hammered it in the past. At an estimate I have taken a couple of oz’s from it in the past in the form of predominantly <0.5g nuggets. The racer ran very nicely here with sensitivity at 80 and isat at about mid-way. It didn’t take long before I started pulling tiny lead shot soon followed by a crevice that gave a weak signal. With a bit of chipping I recovered about 20 small flakes and colours to for a total of maybe 0.1g from the crevice (not in picture). The gold was all located in an area the size of a 10c coin. I was impressed at having found such small gold despite it being shallow as normally an aggregation of targets seems to be quieter than one large target of similar weigh. Or so I have found. I carried on for a couple of hours and got 6 further pieces of gold for a total of 0.2g as well as a bunch of lead. In fact, 5 of the pieces together weigh just 0.1g! So, it seems the racer is ridiculously sensitive to small gold and has plenty of scope to be manually adapted to different ground. Personally, I found the detector a bit on the “manual” side with the option of setting a lot of search parameters yourself. I know this is preferred by some and less so by others, just like manual and automatic cars I guess. I’d like to say thanks to Julian for the opportunity to let me use his Racer, especially as he didn’t know me at all. It’s always fun trying a new bit of kit.

For the wife...what a crock! We all know she is smart enough to use it...... The question is; Are you??? Don't worry though, I'm sure she will take time to help you figure out how to use it.

One reason I'm going to purchase one is because the wife wants to give detecting a try also. So with the ease of operation and being lightweight, a no brainer. But I think I might like more. What I like about it is that it is easy for a novice to learn, yet still packs a punch for the avid dectectorist. So easy a Cavemen can use it. Or Aussie Nurse Paul..

No worries mate, The weight is much higher for the fish than the gold So far.....

Well it happened today.... Barra Gold !!!!! I love this country....

My last few pics of natures wonders out bush ( not so much critters ) Saw lots of Red Capped Robins while out detecting & also Wedgetail Eagles ( they have a 7ft wingspan ) Cheers

Suspect at this early stage tis the DSP of the Monster combined with its auto sens & auto gb, that may be the future. The power of the processor in short. Time will tell, exciting stuff.

I don't disagree with anything you are saying, but for me just hunting for fly specks in an area where that is all that is left or ever was does not excite me, l would rather be patch hunting or searching for larger pieces. I have been using the Gold Bugs since the original was introduced, but l think l like the GM 1000 better.

From my perspective it is more about finding bigger gold by finding smaller gold first. The tiniest flyspeck can be an indication that leads to better things. No gold being found at all leads to an area being written off whereas that tiny flyspeck will focus the interest and perhaps lead to better finds. I promise the person that has never found gold before with a detector will look at any size gold as being a huge nugget! I think it's the same old story - this detector is not better than that detector per se. Each has strengths and each has failings. That's why I own several. The key is to know which ones excel at what tasks and then apply them appropriately. You can pick any detector apart for its failings, but I try to focus on the strengths, not the weaknesses. I guess that's because I am a glass half full person. The main goal of the GM1000 was to produce a detector that would be as easy as possible for a novice to run while still being powerful enough to perhaps suit more experienced operators. That is the standard by which it needs to be judged, and I think Minelab has succeeded admirably in that regard. And more shocking to some of us, at a price that is extremely competitive. Currently a Gold Bug 2 dual coil package runs $849 and the GM1000 with two coils runs $799 plus includes rechargeable batteries and headphones.

Its the wire going into the coil-I noticed the falsing and secured the wire real snug to the lower pole right above the coil-No more issues Mike C...

Why should we expect a 'maxed out' detector to be smooth? Change the way you use it or use it at the normal or conservative settings. All of my Minelabs give me this choice. SE Pro, 3030, 7000, 2300, etc ... Friends of mine that are good with GB2s get them modded. It is a circuit board 'fix.' They also tell me that anyone who is not an expert with a normal GB2 should not and in some cases will not get modded. As to the coil bumping issue ... have Miner John make a 'nerf' coil cover so that when you scrap or bump it the 'bump' is not heard. Maybe this would also fix the grounding noise. I put one of the lexan plates under my 19" coil (mounted on picture hangers) and it has eliminated this noise because the coil can no longer touch the ground! Mitchel

I think they shine in different areas. For cross country work (patch hunting) in variable ground right this moment I would grab the Gold Monster. For site specific work hunting the tiniest whispers of gold I will still bet on that Gold Bug 2 fixed ground balance and 71 kHz as having the edge.

Phoenix, I'm not sure if that parameter can be variable but I agree 100% with you and I think I've seen others make the same comment - sometimes Normal is too much accelerator and difficult is too much brake - something in between would be nice.

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

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.....

Top of my list, 1) smaller coil option 2) SD slot for additional memory 3) Mac compatible software, also not dependent of using internet.