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Showing content with the highest reputation on 04/18/2021 in all areas

  1. With all this talk about the GPX 6000, I’m staying with my retro detectors. I’ve found teeny ones at depth and bigger ones that took an hour to dig out. Picked up these machines from a retired detecting couple who had them as backups.....they were “new in box”. Totally unmodified except for the external tune pot on the 2100 and regulated power supply. Hooked up to the legendary light weight 18” mono Kevlar coils makes a formidable nugget hunter......no bungee required. Two detectors and six coils for 1/4 the price of the 6000. Then again, my 70 Series Landcruiser has a manual gearbox and you have to wind the windows down by hand 👍 ......
    12 points
  2. Hitting old grounds but this time using my Tejon and picking out the deeper stuff with the 10x12. Was able to pick out this old naval button 1800's. It was a 2 piece but back was missing. Still has some gold plating left. Not sure what the age is pre or post civ war. 2nd weekend the Tejon keeps winning the day in these picked clean places. Really got my settings down and having fun.
    11 points
  3. Decided to make a day of detecting today. It was a pretty nice day so I first went back to the hill behind my house, but didn't search there. Instead I went down a ravine in the woods to a spot where there might have been some colonial activity. It was supposed to become a boat launch when my area was developed but it never happened, the road to it is almost impenetrable now. Hacked around for a bit but found so few iron signals I decided to move to the landing. The beavers were getting mad anyway, I could hear them slapping their tails against the ground. I was hoping to get a good low tide to hunt the beach but it never happened. Wind was wrong and the tide didn't go out much, so I went to Plan C which was to just randomly hack around the landing. It's starting to grow a low cover of poison ivy, so I hunted for the most part where it was sparse or not there. Didn't do too bad! Got a huge tack buckle, a small D buckle, old faucet handle, a 1990 quarter that I dug out of the gravel in the road, a 1900 IHP, a military service button (WW1) backmarked "The Art Metal Works Newark NJ", my first ever complete 17-18th century shoe buckle (extremely fragile), and the puzzle piece of the day - the other half of a belt buckle I found there a while back. If you've been reading my previous hunts, I cleaned up that tiny anvil I dug in Savannah: Kinda disappointed it doesn't have any maker marks on it, was hoping for "ACME" or something. 😀 A while back I dug a sheath out of the river, it was so packed with black river gunk I had wait a while for it to dry to get whatever was in it out. Turned out to be this knife, sad that it's completely gone, it would be worth about $250. It's a 70s Schrade Old Timer 25OT Hunter.
    8 points
  4. I'm not sure why but I can tell you once you start shipping over seas and specially Downunder, Australia... if something goes wrong with the detector it cost a fortune to ship. Fisher is very good at paying shipping both ways on warranty issues......I've shipped stuff to Australia before, detectors, parts and the shipping is insane. Example ... 150 USD dollars to ship two endcap...Then add in import duties. To much risk and cost. Once they get service setup in Euro and other places I can see service being easier to the other side of the world.. All of this is me guessing also.
    5 points
  5. Not all experts are created equal. Can't really compare a person like JP who detects for a living and has access to Minelab engineers to some of the Easy Experts in Arizona who advise people to run in Fine Gold and 8 gain in very mild places like Q and GB, or who don't seem to understand what the stabilizer does still after how many years... I learned how to detect by targeting the voluminous amounts of gold missed by the latter group, and I see many of them still saying the same things today that caused them to miss all that gold 13 years ago, which means they still haven't learned and I personally don't qualify that as expert. Experts learn from mistakes, do what it takes to fix them, and then improve, constantly over and over. That's how an expert becomes an expert, and those who simply repeat the same mistakes over and over will hardly ever improve. I wouldn't bother detecting behind a person like JP though, and I can think of 9 or 10 people on this forum (and I'm sure more I don't know) in the US who I'd truly regard as experts too in the same regard and not bother working ground they've gridded. That's expert level. Give me a new tool that hits gold which the old tech simply can't hear, no matter how expert the operator was, and it's game on again though. That's one way to open up the goldfields, the other is to find new places. The second one can be done with 20 year old PI's and VLF's, the first way requires the newest cutting edge technology. The 6000 appears to be trying to bridge the two concepts together and create a lightweight, fast prospecting machine that can also light up the old worked ground. Will be interesting to see how it does.
    5 points
  6. Buttons and buckles , knobs and knives , keeps you healthy , wealthy and wise...
    5 points
  7. The importance of using a good quality metal detector suitable for prospecting has been widely explored in great detail. The introduction of the GPX 6000 highlights the gains in technology and thank goodness, ergonomics. Weight and Balance, at last. Matched by performance and cutting edge technology.. The one fact remains that at the end of the day the key is to get the coil over the gold. Some truly magnificent gold that has been found, could have been detected by any half decent prospecting machine. Still we should invest in quality and the new Minelab sounds superb. We need to utilize every tool at our disposal. Often after extensive research, Google Earth images, maps, books and word of mouth can all lead us to a certain goldfields. When we arrive there is a lot of suitable ground to explore. Perhaps too much ground and not enough time to give it the attention it deserves.. In an effort to narrow the search I have started to use a drone when exploring a new area. It allows me to gain perspective, to more clearly focus on areas and features of interest. When the terrain allows it, this will same me a lot of time and increase my odds of putting a coil over a target. Viewed from the ground vegetation can mask features which kind of pop up when viewed from the air, the drone allows me to focus on a smaller area of interest.
    4 points
  8. Interesting! Will be useful when we eventually have a colony there.
    4 points
  9. As far as I know I can neither confirm nor deny that question. I will reveal now I was involved with Vanquish, but after Equinox I kind of decided it’s pointless for testers to get involved in direct release commentary. I put in huge effort, and took not a small amount of risk to get people early info on Equinox, but looking back I unfortunately remember the rocks that were tossed my way when I said Equinox was the real deal. Just another shill, after over twenty years of accurate reports. Funny those same people now agree it was a game changer, but I’m still the suspect one? How does one fight being accused of lying by omission? I'm guilty for what I've never said, but that someone imagines I should have said? Basically, it's either be a calabash style "basher" (it's in the name even ), or be accused of being a shill. It puts a guy off the entire exercise, as despite rumor to the contrary, Minelab does not require testers to ever say a thing. Just the opposite really. It seems best when I just stay in the background, and stick to posting photos, specs, manuals, and other general info. How about this? The GPX 6000 has no threshold adjustment (just on or off) for $6000.00. No coil smaller than 11" round, only three coils (one that can’t be had yet), no disc. That's makes it shite, no reason for anyone to buy one. Minelab says the GPZ is still top dog anyway, so the right combo of prior models is all you need. There you go. I can take a piss if that’s what people prefer. Maybe I have street cred now. You’ve said it’s a simple equation for you Jason, ergonomics do not matter to you, only pure power, plain and simple. I see no reason why a guy with a GPZ with full coil complement would be considering a machine that Minelab says is a step down from a GPZ. Other than that you are conjecturing that the machine is better than Minelab has let on, because we know they have a long history of understating things? Or something to that effect, that maybe there is some niche where the machine will best a GPZ? That’s honestly something I can say about the Gold Monster versus GPZ, so why would the 6000 be any different? Salt mode exists on the GPX 5000, and why would that not work on the salt areas where that is an issue? There are even salt coils made for the 5000. SDC has a salt mode - who uses it? Have these possibilities been exhausted? It’s not like the capability does not already exist. The GPX 6000 is packaging its own performance mix, but none of it cannot be achieved by at least one other machine set up right. It does get dicey trying to compare small gold performance. Nobody is saying the SDC 2300 is bad at small gold, but the chart below gives only one star. Well, think about it, SDC 8" mono versus 6000 new type 11" coil. Might the 6000 be getting similar size gold, but just a little deeper across the board due to the coil? These are the things that go into the charts, not a basic this inches versus that inches. It's a sales guide intended to help sales people ask some simple questions that direct people to a better choice. The trickery and games people assume are counterproductive to getting people into the proper machine for what they are actually doing. That creates happy customers, not tricking them into buying things they do not need. Minelab has made zero claims of new absolute performance benchmarks, though again, it gets fuzzy in small gold land, where we are dealing in millimeters, not inches of depth. Minelab are just saying there is more gold finding capability packed into a couple groups of settings with the 6000 than exists on a 5000 in any one setting, that might better suit a lot of people than some of the other options. Number one clue about the chart below... only Minelab coils figure into the equation, and aftermarket coils can change the equation. I could make a sales pitch to you on the GPX 6000, but every discussion with you comes back to efficiency. Do you need a 6000 for salt areas, really, even if it kills salt signal completely? What effect does killing salt signal completely have on depth - are you really ahead, or better off at a crawl with no salt setting? Are you going to find enough extra to make that worth the extra machine and it’s cost - and the time spent finding out maybe those salt areas are not hiding as much as thought? That’s really not a machine question, but a strategy calculus. In general, saying all you’ve said, with a GPZ and full coil complement....... even Minelab is not saying you need the 6000. You seem well covered for your situation. Me, I am at the point where efficiency matters less than just having a damn good time. I like puttering with new things, even if I’m not finding much. That means I use what I like, and I’m not worrying one way or another over an inch. I do well enough to make me happy, and that’s all that matters. So a different perspective and reasons for needing a detector from yours. The GPX 6000 could have been custom made for me, and actually was in a tiny way. That being the case, it should surprise nobody, that just like Equinox, I’m GPX 6000 fan number 1. But maybe that enthusiasm makes me a poor candidate for the type of reporting most people seem to crave. Me, I’m more the giddy kid with a new toy, and don’t need anyone bringing me down. Life is good. The general consensus, which I can’t disagree with, is people wait about six months after release, to collect reviews from regular purchasing consumers.
    4 points
  10. Forget the GPZ, you may need to use some discrimination for gold due to all the meteorites, and it will be getting harder to detect as it’s mostly non-ferrous metals like aluminum and titanium that we have also been trashing Mars with so far:
    4 points
  11. Or smart... 😎 Living where almost everything can kill you... ? Hat's off to ya mate. 😀 Y'all are definitely bold.
    4 points
  12. Of course there is new tech. Bring it on. Every nugget JP finds in his flogged patches or Gerry finds in his flogged patches proves the new tech works better. There should be new tech. It becomes tedious to go over and over patches again just to find 'missed' nuggets. Will the 6000 get every nugget? I wouldn't bet on that. There will be another generation of detector that will get the few still unseen nuggets because that will be the only game in town then also. Jason is very much aware of the law of diminishing return. What is the old adage used by sales people and people in general ... 20% of the people get 80% of the sales ... so 10% of the expert detectorists get 40-50-60% of the nuggets? Luck has some connection to the nugget formula as Fred Mason told me often. I'd rather be lucky than good. It was easier to be lucky in the past.
    4 points
  13. That’s what is expected of the experts, since they understand the controls, and are getting close to best performance out of each machine. Minelab is not “blaming” anyone; they are simply stating a fact I’ve observed countless times watching other operators. The number of people who own GPX machines, and have very little clue as to how to use them properly is quite high, and this despite people like JP putting out training tapes. The fact is the machines are complex, and it should not surprise anyone that skilled operators are the minority. From what I’ve seen, a lot of people learn just as much as it takes to get them going halfway well, then it’s off to the races. Making machines that will eliminate this complex learning can only help the majority of people be better detectorists.
    4 points
  14. Those little weeds scare ya? My neck of the woods they are knee high, luckily I am barely allergic. Buddy mine catches it if I send him a pick haha
    4 points
  15. One time is all it can take to become sensitized! While most people are already! I got it so bad on my hands one year in my early 20's, clearing brush, that I had to get treated in the hospital! Ever since than, even the smoke of it being burned can get to me! Let alone handling it! I've since learned to be careful digging, and being around it! When I go North or West any distance!👍👍
    4 points
  16. I am impressed with it. It will my main coil this summer lake hunting. I like the razors edge tone when detecting. It is fast as it goes over targets. Depth is very impressive in my mild ground. I hate to say but my Anfibio Multi is the backup detector to my Equinox 800. Even with the 5x10 coil. I look forward to seeing what Minelab has coming.
    3 points
  17. Yesterday I went on a detect and didn't get much until a little area on the beach where I found a chain. It didn't have a definitive sound but it looked like it could be silver (it's not). This made me check the area more thoroughly as I had nothing else going. I came up with another chain which is a bit of odd construction. This one would be a bracelet. And then as I was exiting this little area I got yet another chain but this one is rusting quickly. This is chain #2 During the mile back to the car I thought about how the ocean can be very fickle. No coins around these chains but 3 of them. I wanted a 4th because the rhyme and title to this post was already stuck in my brain. It didn't happen. I got the cheap ring instead of a chain. Today I was going to detect with the 800 headphones again as a result of a purchase from a forum member. I was glad to confirm to him that while they were sitting on his shelf uncharged they charged for me and also paired. Great. I was now on another beach but it was also sparse pickings. No coins to speak of and I got to one area where someone left their grid marks so I skipped that. When I headed in the other direction on a mid-line I got a small tone. When I lifted my scoop up I could see the balled up chain and I knew this one was silver. My 'line' was rescued and now I could post the title. This is chain #4. It is only 1.6g/.925. Searching the slope proved unproductive so I headed away from the beach to a dig out and found the costume ring which I think is old style but of no value. That was my beach hunting. The old costume ring. Later in the afternoon, I took my son to the park and one of the nannies said she needed my help. They normally give me help and advice so I wanted to know what I could do. She said she had lost her ring in the sand. The sunscreen had loosened the ring she bought in Peru that was 18k with some little diamonds. I had my detector in the car so I tried to find her ring. She didn't have a good idea where it came off so it was unsuccessful. While I was looking for her ring after she left I did find the 1.1 g/14k ring with a heart shaped amethyst! I don't find many rings in parks because I don't hunt them often. This should probably change. It is just good to get out.
    3 points
  18. The first video I've seen by somebody that knows stuff. 4/18/2021 Digging with PhaseTech - Well, it is finally out, and finding plenty of gold already! The Minelab GPX6000 was a fun project to be involved in. Here's the first of many videos where I will showcase finds, tips and techniques, comparisons and just having fun with it in the field.
    3 points
  19. 100% this! I know people out my way who kill it on gold every season with old GP extreme's. I know people out here who find bucket loads with their 45's. I also know people who find an ounce or 2 every couple of months with their 7000's and 2300's, mainly in many small bits. The whole thing for me personally boils down to if physically I can be bothered going out for a few hours. With the 7000, which I still love, I umm and argh most weekends simply due to the pain I know I am going to end up in after 3 hours. The 6000 will change that for me....Patch hunting with a decent chance of finding any sized gold, with much less agony! We did some work with machinery on one of our leases last August and I swung the 7000 for 5 days straight. It almost ended up wrapped around the nearest tree. Took 6 months before I could move my shoulders normally again 😞 For me, its a hobby. I dont want a hobby to kill me. Thats not fun at all.
    3 points
  20. Someday somebody will make history by being the first person to operate a metal detector on Mars. An entire planet of desert hunting! And the winds are perfect for surface depletion, leaving areas scoured, with near bare bedrock exposed like in the photo. No doubt nuggets waiting on the surface to be picked up, and someday maybe a rover spots one. Or the planet has few heavies, just a ball of rock. The Clues So Far "It has for some time been accepted by the scientific community that a group of meteorites came from Mars. As such, they represent actual samples of the planet and have been analyzed on Earth by the best equipment available. In these meteorites, called SNCs, many important elements have been detected. Magnesium, Aluminium, Titanium, Iron, and Chromium are relatively common in them. In addition, lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, niobium, molybdenum, lanthanum, europium, tungsten, and gold have been found in trace amounts. It is quite possible that in some places these materials may be concentrated enough to be mined economically.[48] The Mars landers Viking I, Viking II, Pathfinder, Opportunity Rover, and Spirit Rover identified aluminium, iron, magnesium, and titanium in the Martian soil.[49] Opportunity found small structures, named "blueberries" which were found to be rich in hematite, a major ore of iron.[50] These blueberries could easily be gathered up and reduced to metallic iron that could be used to make steel."
    3 points
  21. Nothing to worry about but mineralization and hot rocks, armed with the 6000 and 7000. Wouldn't that be nice? No man made iron trash nor billions of casings and bullets. But this paradise wouldn't last long once mankind sets foot on it. We efficiently trash and destroy every land we ever arrive to. Won't take long. On earth or in outer space, doesn't matter.
    3 points
  22. That was bad. I only had a rash and itching. When I was in school I had a job with the DNR on a trout stream putting in logs on the curves. A friend there was really afraid of it and got poison ivy easy and bad. At the time I thought it was funny and pulled some out with gloves on and threw it in the river. He was going wild getting out of the river. Not so funny now looking back it. He was ok.
    3 points
  23. We've all seen them. There are these pages that make you click and show you treasure and say greatest ... This link is to a site that shows mostly the best finds from the UK. I learned a new way to rank the finds by viewing these. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/metal-detectors-led-to-these-stunning-treasures/ss-BB1esUcZ?li=BBnbklE
    3 points
  24. Bring one of those plastic lemons full of lemon juice. Helps neutralize the ivy oil then rinse your hands off with water after.
    3 points
  25. That there is exactly why I'm still looking at how the 6000 does in the field. I could care less about a thousand tiny dinks, my GPZ and 8"/10" finds them smaller than I care to hassle with already. It's truly a waste of time in my mind to spend all that effort recovering a 0.02 grammer that I can barely see, unless I'm just looking for patch leads. And my GB2 and GM1000 are lighter and just as sensitive for hard rock stuff (plus have discrim) when I need that. I think the bulk of what's left for decent finds in old patches are going to be pulled out of places where salt and heavy mineralization are masking them (and trash, but we aren't there yet with discrim). I really can't believe there is no salt performance data at all on the 6000, or that I seem to be the only person on this forum asking for it or interested in it! 1000 dinks, bleh. 5" deeper on a 2 grammer in NNV alkali? I'd have been 1st on the waiting list with whatever dealer could get it in my hands first if I knew there was some performance like that to be had. Anyways, I think the 6000 will recover a metric ton of tiny dinks in the major goldfields, I know they are there because I was recovering them with my 8" in pretty much every patch I revisted. But 1000 0.03 gram dinks is only 30 grams, not even a troy oz. So, I think the 6000 will definitely be great for those who struggle to find stuff or just want a bit of color on weekend trips, but I'm still waiting to see the money with regards to the improvements in salt and bad ground where the paying finds are likely at.
    3 points
  26. lets all hope for a good season with good gold prices and lower fuel prices
    3 points
  27. Awesome. Shoulda been my title. 👍
    3 points
  28. Has anyone tried them with a metal detector? I came across an article which displayed some Bose audio sunglasses. The concept was not something I had really considered but when you read about them they are built for athletes that need to be aware of their surroundings to avoid accidents. We detect in areas where we need to avoid accidents and critters also so hearing outside of headphones is beneficial. This would also have the potential of eliminating hot and or uncomfortable headphones for me in the desert. I don't think they could work well at the beach with crashing waves. Maybe we can begin a review of these Bose and other audio sunglasses here. Of course there would need to be some with LL and other technical specifications to work with our equipment but it could also be a new product idea for one of these companies. https://www.bose.com/en_us/products/frames/bose-frames-tempo.html#D61A74D4CFE947DB6685D4D8CE1982FC
    2 points
  29. I'm using a DJI Mavic Air, mated to an ipad with the controller. I carry four spare batteries and spares etc Everything fits into a smallish Pelican style carry case to keep dirt and dust away. Because I always fly within visual range as per rules.. I sometimes use a spotter with binoculars, safe range out to 1 km, often much less. I use mining records and maps to find locations of interest. Google earth narrows it down a bit also. Finally once I have arrived on the goldfield the drone allows me to fine focus my attention on specific locations. I print out a hard copy mini map of areas I intend to search, then use a pen to mark areas of interest as I search that area by drone and on foot. A printed map works for me, digital alternatives on the ipad are used in camp to plan the days search. Research and planning.. analog and digital. Quickly learned that large metal objects like cars and hot mineralized ground play havoc with the drones electronic compass. Calibrate well away from the car and off the ground, then launch the drone from a tree stump if available.. The birds eye view helps me find the best parking spot and camp site. Quickly identifies the boundaries between private property and public land. Just a very useful tool in new areas. All the best.
    2 points
  30. Yes! This!! 100% I did pretty well with the GPZ 7000 with 19” coil. I also, despite harness and bungee, after days of use, felt my shoulder go “boink” and that was that. And now, no more of “that!” I've got zero issue admitting I'm not the tough young buck I used to be, and taking it easier with what I have left is key to keeping the game going for me. The youngsters do not quite get it, but plenty of you know what I'm talking about.
    2 points
  31. You are not bringing me down at all Jason, and I never claimed you gave me any flak. Your questions are entirely reasonable, as are people’s desires to get what they perceive as totally unbiased reporting. What that means is you are the better candidate than I to be doing a bunch of critical comparative performance testing. I’ve already told you what I think, and don’t have anything to add at this time. The problem with honesty is it does not deliver the black and white answers people crave. Reality is a bit more of a bummer, in that nuance and gray areas rule. Everyone has their own set of needs, and different machines match those needs differently for different people. I’m willing to ditch the GPZ 7000 for the GPX 6000, and JP is not. Why? JP pays bills with gold, and in his opinion the GPZ 7000 is what he has to use as a primary machine. Other machines like the 6000 are secondary for him. That seems equivalent to your situation. Me, I made the move from paying bills with gold, to being a casual detectorist. So I’m more in the boat with a different crowd than you. That’s the basis for my opinion, but it’s nothing more than that... my opinion. Some people I’ve just told them they should get a GPX 6000, no worries. You are a more serious operator, as are many here, and I’m not going to assume I know your business better than you do yourself. In my opinion, if everyone would just read all the Minelab info, including the star chart, and accept that it is all ballpark accurate, a lot of this fuss could be avoided. Some of the star chart positioning does involve intangibles, like will easier learning make for better operators. It simply is what they say it is, no big mystery, but like everything when you try to be simplistic, a little wiggle room is left on the table. From what I’ve seen, Minelab has nailed the positioning here very well, below GPZ 7000 but above the rest. But do not beat me up if somebody finds gold with a Gold Monster that a 6000 will not see, $900 versus $6000. That could happen, so does that make the Monster the better machine? Maybe, for some people, especially those with small gold and a ton of trash. In a trash pit, the Monster operator could wipe the street with the 6000 owner. The world is not black and white, and almost every machine has a tiny area that it really excels at, where others are weak. As far as Geosense, we know the GPX 6000 has far fewer settings than the GPX 5000, yet it claims better performance across the board. People say that can't be done with fewer controls. What if the machine was reading the ground and adjusting the timings for you, instead of requiring you to somehow know what the ground and gold is like before you've even started? I'll never claim I really know how Geosense works, but it should be obvious that it is this feature that allows for so many settings to be removed. Part of our thinking on how to choose a proper 5000 timing has been built into the 6000, so we do not have to make that choice. With the 5000 odds are casual operators are not tuned for optimum performance. This is hard to do with the 6000... you'd actually have to purposefully misadjust it.
    2 points
  32. I had a chance to meet up with Jim in ma for a beach hunt. Always nice to detect with a fellow forum member. 🙂 Hit me favorite beach for about 6 hours and had to adjust my thinking, since the bulldozers had mostly buried my silver area. Thanks Guys! 😡 So, I moved over to the clad section to at least get to dig some coins. The ratio of silver to clad leans heavily towards the clad. But there was some silver to be found, including the big silver. 71 coins in all (including silvers). Oddly enough, there was not a single zinc to ruin my day. ❤️ Average depth of targets was about 14”. Some different finds of the day were 2 round ball, one being a 69 caliber, the pistol brooch, a chain which looks too thin to be a pull for a light, but still may be. If it ends up testing positive for silver, then it is a neat design for a piece of jewelry. It was really nice to get out, and I was pleasantly surprised that it did not rain as predicted. Today we are covered with a bit more snow than the dusting I thought we were supposed to get. New England weather! 🙄
    2 points
  33. We caught a break in the 90+ temps in Yuma for one last trip. Ostensibly, it was to be a quick trip to the spot we found the bigger gold in Feb and to test the X-Coil 15" Concentric coil over the ground we had covered extensively with the X-Coil 17x12 and stock coil. It's about a 1/2 mile walk to the spot but I pulled up short to detect a wash we were about to cross. My friend with the Concentric coil went on to the target area. I am using the 7000 with stock coil while waiting for some re-work on my patch lead for the X-Coils. I had worked the lower sections of this particular wash back in Feb and found 6 little bits in one small area, the rest of the wash seemed barren. My goal was work the wash towards our target area just to get the machine warmed up and my listening skills tuned in. I was working pretty quick really looking for a sitting duck rather than slow and methodical because this wash hadn't produced too well. About 100 yds on, I hit a pretty good tone right up against the wash sidewall. I pulled out the bigger of non-specie gold in the picture. From there over about 20 yds I pulled 3 more small pieces then hit the smaller specie gold on an inside bend of the wash. I continued up the wash and found the bigger specie dead center of the wash down in the bedrock. I found 1 more tiny bit up on the bank, but then starting hitting a lot of trash targets so I turned around and reworked the wash for 0 nuggets. Because of the specie pieces I then started a circle on the hillsides all around the area for nothing. I put down my gear and walked to the target area to check on my friend with the Concentric coil. He had found 2 pieces in an area well detected on our previous trips and attributed it to the overall sensitivity of the Concentric on small targets. Because of the heat and short trip we had no opportunity to make any comparisons on undug targets. I worked my way back down the wash to the RZR, over areas I had covered in Feb. On the last bend I was picking my way down a slick rock slide area and waved my coil over some overburen covering a layer of bedrock above me. I got a faint tone and started pulling down the overburden and reached some decomposing granite bedrock. The target sound got better so I ended up busting out the bedrock trying to pick up the target down in a deep crack. As I got further down, the target got weaker and I thought I was pushing it deeper in the crack, so I busted out some more bedrock. I finally picked up a half a matchhead size nugget and thought that just couldn't be right. As good as the 7000 is on small gold, that just didn't seem right. I then waved over my spoils pile with all this overburden and busted up granite. Targets everywhere. The sun beating down on me and I'm on my knees sorting through the spoils trying to pinpoint tiny targets with a 14" coil. After about 1/2 hr, I got most of them, 6 matchhead size nuggets. If I had my handy NOX, I could have made short work of this mess, but maybe I'll go back for the crumbs next year. I'm moving to Reno in a couple weeks, I'll be a snowbird in Yuma next year.
    2 points
  34. No! Still funny!! It's never stopped me from getting out there! Still love the woods! I'm just (a little) less reckless than in my younger years!! 🤣👍👍
    2 points
  35. I did get a shot or two, cream, and a nice bill, as I recall! (30 + years ago)! But my hands were totally blistered, like I had been burned! It's a good thing I didn't drink alot that day, or something else would have been blistered too!!😳🤣👍👍
    2 points
  36. I'm surprised you can go outdoors at all, and especially in the water. You would play with our wolverines like they were fuzzy pets. 😁 They make a poison-ivy neutralizer now that you can buy at the drugstore (OtC) -- rub it on after you've been in the field. Worst thing I've heard of is burning it and getting into the smoke where it can get into your eyes. Joe D. mentioned a hospital visit. Regular doctor's offices around here can give you a steroid shot which starts working in about 24 hours and has it gone pretty quickly after that. West coast USA has poison oak which I think is an equally nasty cousin.
    2 points
  37. Dendrocnide moroides That might keep the riff raff from gettin' in yer way out there though ?
    2 points
  38. You yank guys are wimps.😁 You try what us Aussies have to put up with. ( just kidding) What is the most painful plant in the world? Dendrocnide moroides The most commonly known (and most painful) species is Dendrocnide moroides (Family Urticaceae), first named “gympie bush” by gold miners near the town of Gympie in the 1860s. Gympie gympie (Dendrocnide moroides), a potentially lethal species of Australian stinging tree. ... The sting can cause excruciating, debilitating pain for months; people have variously described it as feeling like they are being burned by acid, electrocuted, or squashed by giant hands.28 Sept 2018
    2 points
  39. i used the pitch mode on the DEUS and kept the silencer @ -1 and it came thru for me , Got a good hit on many non ferrous targets today and some right next to iron . i was using the full tones but saw videos on the pitch mode i had to try that and it has proven to work very well the VDI on this target was 49 and 50 right where a 22 casing comes in or some foils . glad i dug it
    2 points
  40. It really is what they claim.It's a magic wand
    2 points
  41. As most detectorists go to the most likely spots to find gold, I can see the GPX6000 to be the detector to go to. I am sure JP and not forgetting other experts will be looking in other locations even if it is deeper to get some deceit weight close to hot spots due to their expertise. In old posts JP got attacked from a trip for saying that he had got over a thousand nuggets. One thousand nuggets as Jason said"But 1000 0.03 gram dinks is only 30 grams, not even a troy oz." Looking at a very limited UTube videos 1000 times many minutes in getting them, with my experience I will be continuing using my old GP-3000 looking for untapped new ground for new patches or an extra depth that can be gotten with later detectors/coils design that concentrate on acheaving deaper /large nuggets in known ground. To back up my thoughts, In my first double ounce patch we hand dug down up to 18 inches to bed rock. Yes we got a few nuggets that were out of range but the total weight was not worth the effort less than ¼% of the total. When we get a detector that goes very deep I will go over the deeper ground and hope it pays for the cost of a new detector. JP and other pros are still using their GPZ as their main deep searching gold detector to earn their income. Now lets be realist there are prospector and fossickers most start off as fossickers and realy enjoy finding gold no matter how small in size (skill in metal detecting) and value however some are more interested in prospecting that is finding new locations (hard to do but sometimes very rewarding) as their challenge after their lust for gold move to the next level. Considering all of the above I thing that the GPX might be a good patch finder.
    2 points
  42. I think the 6000 will create a niche on it's own, with the Geosense PI presenting some interesting opportunities. I do not compare machines as being either, or. We all know the 7000 will remain king for depth in the open field. Whether or not nuggets were missed before with the 7000 that now are being recovered with the 6000, does it really matter? One machine never fits all, and perhaps some nuggets were just simply missed for other reasons. So, I am pretty certain I will continue to use all my machines, including the SDC, for the appropriate situations. I was told I get my 6000 by the end of the month, can't wait to welcome it to my fleet!
    2 points
  43. I still say the experts can't get it right with previous technology. JP is finding nuggets with the 6000 on his flogged ground. We are both right. Everyone wins with this new detector but much of the gold is already gone.
    2 points
  44. Jason, I've thought about this quote a while since I've read it. Now I am reading some of the expert testers such as JP and Nenad show their results and tell of their feedback provided to Minelab to make this detector as good as it can be and also simple. Based upon their results as experts I would say that there is not anyone who has been able to tame their detectors completely. These experts are now finding nuggets in patches long flogged by all other detectors and detectorists before. No matter how many passes and how many timing adjustments and settings adjustments are made there is still unseen gold. This was proven to me quite conclusively at one of Gerry's metal detecting classes. He took several different detectors, gold nuggets and specimens and passed them over the different coils in AIR TESTS and not all the nuggets could be seen. You can only imagine what is not seen by even the best detectorists with some salt and mineralization. Minelab is 'blaming' its customers for 'holes' in its previous detecting technology. When you take the new technology and place it in the hands of experts and they find gold where no gold could be found with the old technology then it is not operator error. I'm glad for their improvements because they are not making any new gold nugget patches. You can go out and recover gold from old patches and because of its light weight maybe get to an unswung piece of ground with some virgin nuggets. Mitchel
    2 points
  45. I don't think so. Attempted to use silver polish on the first piece, and it just took the "Patina" off. No stamps or .925 marks. It was a 25 on the Equinox tho. 🤔
    2 points
  46. Great area to detect. I have dug in poison ivy too. I've only got it one time.
    2 points
  47. Gotta tell ya Ridge, I would much rather see you on the Can Am, than the two of you riding a 6000! Now I can't unsee that!!🙈 Thanks a lot!! 😂👍👍
    2 points
  48. Hello Cipher. Those 3d printed batt. packs are great for sure. And they are on a budget, compared to other solutions. The first Li-ion pack I build myself, as many of us did. Works as it should, but the 3d printed one is a lot more trustworthy 😉. So I ordered one and have to agree, it is a very well build battery pack which I really like. Into this pack protected and unprotected 18650 cells can be used, but I recommend the protected ones as you never know when the detector will really shut down at low voltage. And to me there is a big advantage to get the cells out for charging. In the past I had some issues with battery pack which had the cells soldered in a row. The charger showed them fully charged but when inserted to the detector the voltage dropped immediantely to the low bat. level. When the pack was metered the voltage seemed to be okay, but a measurement with a attached burden showed that one ore more cells were faulty. And for charging there are so many chargers in the market... this is what I use. It's a great thread you started, thanks.
    2 points
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