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Showing content with the highest reputation on 04/20/2021 in all areas

  1. Today was a day at the beach like many others except I was out at a time when lots of people were at the beach. There were not that many targets but I managed to get a steel ring for my efforts. On the way back I decided to go dry sand and I happened to be near the area where I found the old costume ring. I just picked a line to my parking area and I got a strong signal. I was digging into the harder packed sand but it was starting to sound like an aluminum can with numbers at 33-34 on my 800/15 in Park 1/multi/23. I always expect to catch the edge of the can with my scoop and pry it out of the hole but not this time. It was out of the hole and I knew it was a 50c piece but it wasn't a Kennedy. It was a Franklin. My first ever at the beach and maybe ever but certainly I haven't had one of the big silver coins in a long, long time. Some of my joy was delayed because I didn't have my glasses but I thought I saw the 2 but I also couldn't ever remember seeing a sandwich Franklin. Here it is just out of the hole. Now I have it on display. Just under the Half is a 1949 wheat that I found about 40 feet from the Franklin.
    12 points
  2. The 6000 is all about light weight and amazing sensitivity on the sub gram stuff with good outright 5000 depth performance of which we are already very familiar. This has all been bundled into a modern electronics platform with the inclusion of GeoSense PI so the 5000 outright depth aspect of the 6000 will have a positive effect on its overall use. The 6000 does an amazing job at what it was designed for, namely pulling gold out of thrashed areas, everyone talks about not wanting to lower themselves to chasing ‘fly chit’ gold but at the end of the day its fun to go home with a few bits and pieces in the jar. For me the situation has not changed except in one aspect, I no longer carry around an SDC as a mop up beeper for when the tiny pieces are plentiful and instead use the GPX 6000. For those times when I do not want to ‘rig up’ a 7000 the 6000 is just plain fun and if I do get my 6000 coil over a nice piece then at least I am now in with a chance. At the moment I’m seeing so many people making little comments about ‘why get a 6000 when I can still get tiny pieces with my GPX 5000 or GPZ 7000?’, it grows so tiresome seeing this type of remark!! The 6000 has not magically stopped the other techs from finding smaller pieces. The 6000 is going to be very popular with the hobbiest who just want to find a little nugget without all the weight and complication of other machines, they just want to switch on and start detecting and have half a chance of finding some gold no matter how small. In the mean time my main stay detector is the GPZ 7000, it is still king of the mountain in spite of that mountain being huge and cumbersome. 😂 JP PS do you have any idea of how repetitive this sounds? 😡 For the past 20 odd years I’ve been saying the exact same damn thing every time a new detector comes out!!! Probably the worst machine in all those years was the GPX 4000 and it was still revolutionary thanks to the Sens Smooth type timings!!!
    9 points
  3. And that was in the difficult ground setting and the sensitivity set at only 4.
    9 points
  4. You know me, I've got to have all the right tools for the right jobs. Unfortunately, I've got a champagne taste on a Pabst Blue Ribbon budget. I've got to keep that Doodle Dog in tennis balls, she destroys 2 a day and I'm buying them by the gross.
    8 points
  5. Are JP et al trading in their Z7000s in favor of the 6000? Is this the "Go To" machine for everyday prospectors? From initial reports it would appear the 6000 excels at sub half gram nuggets in OZ soils, but isn't expected to compete with the 7000 on bigger/deeper gold. Here in the US, will I have to sell a kidney for the luxury of having both detectors? It may be some time before us CONUS prospectors even see the availability of such a machine, do I sell the 7000 before the market is flooded? Does anybody know what the recovery time is for a kidney donor?
    7 points
  6. Minelab have made clear that the GPZ 7000 is the top dog, especially for larger, deeper gold. I would expect vey few serious operators to ever take a step down, as the drive is always "more power, more power." JP already made it clear the GPZ is and will continue to be his main machine. Long story short it will not be a market dump for the 7000. This is not a deal where everyone is upgrading to what is being sold as a more powerful replacement for the GPZ. Most power users will stay with what they have, or maybe add a 6000. I think this is aimed at people who have a SDC 2300 or GPX 4500/5000 etc. type detectors, but for whom the GPZ 7000 was too much weight and too much money. GPZ 7000 owners are last on the potential customer list I would think. The ones that are considering the 6000 are probably more in my camp. Willing to give up the chance of hitting a one pound nugget at three feet. Guess I'll only dig mine at 2.5 feet. The 6000 targets the bread and butter around here. I'll not worry about the big one going beep if I get over it. I'm the target customer, not JP. So which are you?
    7 points
  7. I think these pictures sum up the GPX 6000 very concisely and also how I feel about those people who continue to suggest my input is biased or just marketing hype!! Tiny piece at stupid depth for its size, a typical target for a GPX 6000!! 2 Deep 2+ ounce gold content specimens retrieved at 2 feet with the standard 11” mono, both were very good signals at surface. How I’m made to feel when all the nit pickers come out of the woodwork at a product launch!!
    7 points
  8. Finally some actual measurements...thank you very much to these fellows! Add me to the impressed list as well, I think the 6000 had a better response on the big deep nugget with both coils, and clearly better response on the smaller, shallow stuff. Definitely curious how they both do in Normal and at high gains now.
    6 points
  9. I'm trying not to fall into the NursePaul philosophy of buy high/sell low and what don't get stolen you can give away. If I had 20% of the value Paul's stuff that's been stolen, I'd buy 2 6000s.
    6 points
  10. 5 points
  11. JP, I've followed every one of your reviews and tips way back to the first GPX and I well remember the heat you have taken on each new Minelab release. The old Finders Forum was a hoot because for me it's a hobby and the unbridled opinions and malice expressed by its members defied logic. My post was rhetorical, just bringing some of the various internet comments and questions to one place for a little pre-release exposure here in the US. Me and most of the DP members are anxiously waiting for your unrestrained views and experiences with the new 6000. Your expertise is always appreciated.
    4 points
  12. Impressive Only thing I would add in defense of the 7, he did say they were in Difficult ground setting, which is a filter and does not run the detector at full depth seeking powers, unless of course soils dont allow for Normal setting
    4 points
  13. Got a keeper ☺️ Been in the hole together with a rusty screw..
    4 points
  14. We pay 'attention' to it all. You just have to be at the right place at the right time and of course ... treasure is where you search for it. The more places you search the more treasure you will find.
    4 points
  15. Nice silver. Guess most people pay attention to the surf and coin line and don't consider the entrance/exit. That's where I found my gold ring, and foreign money. Great finds!
    4 points
  16. I have lots of thoughts. Who told you to run some of these setting? What is your IB? Think you really need to get down to basics and understand why Minelab recommends the initial settings of each mode. Here is what I run: Beach 2, Tracking GB [a must], 1 tone, IB FE 6, Recovery 6, Sensitivity 22-24. Run in HORSESHOE mode. Anything that shows ferrous scale and double rings, DON'T DIG it, it is iron. ANYTHING that double rings with a plus VDI dig, as well as ANY target that does not double ring or breakdown, as you work around the target 360 degrees. Center target to dig in discrimination [if necessary] I also own two machines. I have done coil modifications that help decrease effects of black sand and moving salt water.[Not ready to share this yet.] HOWEVER, one of my coils is WAY NOISER than the other in the same conditions [wet sand and moving salt water]. But yet this coil works 100% perfect in dry sand or on soil. Consider trying another coil on your pod. Dave
    4 points
  17. For those of you that carry a PLB or EPIRB, I’m not sure which Minelab or PLB and EPIRB models are affected, but there’s an interesting discussion and a Minlelab advisory about accidental activations due to a PLB sitting too close or touching an active coil. Just something to look out for if you carry one when you’re out and about. They recommend keeping it further away than 10 cm from a active coil. https://www.prospectingaustralia.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?id=35628
    3 points
  18. I probably will try that hack at some point. It seems easier than trying to fool the altimeter. Anyways, just wanted to comment on that since the question was asked about using a drone in the mountains in AZ and the Rockies, that's the main issue I had. In AZ I've been able to find high enough launch points, but a few times I've had to use the optical zoom after hitting the restriction. In the Rockies it turns into a real limitation though where mountains with prospects can be 4000ft+ prominence above the highest launch point you can drive to without climbing the mountain. When I bought a DJI Phantom like 9 years ago there wasn't really any mapping programs available, and I bought it to do my own high res aerial mapping for a Geocommunicator replacement website I made at the time (now defunct) called Virtual Prospector, with the idea of providing up to date high res aerials of the popular goldfield areas, for free. But I gave up on it because hand stitching the maps together and then georeferencing them manually was beyond time consuming, plus the distance limitations made it incredibly limiting (even with tons of aftermarket mods I barely got 1 mile in wide open Rye Patch), and at the time I had to hand attach a GoPro to the drone and couldn't get rid of the fisheye'ing entirely which made accurate georeferencing impossible even with days worth of hand correcting in photoshop. But I see a post that there are mapping software available now, and with the longer flight distances of these recent drones and awesomely high res cameras built in today, someone may try to do that again. Like Mylandmatters. Hint hint.
    3 points
  19. That may be a rule, but there is an absolute height restriction of 500m from launching point on the Mavic 2 firmware, so it's not possible to stay 400ft above the ground when flying up mountains. Unless I'm missing some setting that disables it, but I tried and couldn't find one, thus I have to find the highest possible point to launch. The drone does not appear to have any capability to measure height above surface, only altitude from original launching point (it probably uses an altimeter, doesn't measure distance above surfaces). It doesn't care if there is a mountain under you increasing height as the drone increases height, it only cares about how high from your launching point the drone is now. So, I can be 20ft above the surface of the ground the entire flight travelling up a mountain, and then hit the height restriction halfway up and it won't let me fly any higher to get to the top even though I'm still only 20ft above the ground. 1600ft isn't much, that's a hill not a mountain, so it requires finding a high enough point to launch from, which ends up cutting into the time saved by using the drone.
    3 points
  20. I should mention my hunting is mostly turf, looks like you are a beach hunter Erik. Abenson and others will be able to speak more to the beach performance... which I will be taking note of as well - as I am planning on increasing my beach hunts this year on the Gulf Coast of Texas. ~Tim.
    3 points
  21. I've had both but not at the same time. Got rid of both too. Although I didn't compare them head to head at the same time. I do have a coin garden I ran both of them through and spend hours changing settings and modes to optimize depth. In either case the bigger coils got very little depth advantage over the stock 11" in my soil on a dime sized target. If I had to chose I think I would go with the ML 12 x 15 coil just because it's a little lighter. The only reason I can see getting a bigger coil for the Equinox is for ground coverage. Unlike a PI, I generally see very little depth advantage with bigger coils in my soil. I have not used the bigger Equinox coils on a beach. But I would assume they would act similar to the FBS machines in that low mineral beaches you do see depth advantages but black sand beaches you see very little and sometimes worse performance.
    3 points
  22. Somehow a metal plate found its way into my EGR a while back, I've no idea how that happened- :)
    3 points
  23. Nice, haven't seen one of those in ages.
    3 points
  24. We have found only 2 Chinese coins and 1 Chinese lock. The Chinese coins were 100 plus yards apart. I would think there would be more but no so. I think out of all the coins (11) we have found here, all but 1 was next to a piece of slate sticking up from the ground. It is a very interesting place that gives up a little at a time at this point.
    3 points
  25. Latest Q & A on GPX 6000 from Nenad. https://www.prospectingaustralia.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?id=34961&p=23 Q. So Nenad, now the 6000 is released can you tell us how the Geo-Sense works? Also, how do you compare it to a 5000 and SDC? Cheers A. No idea how Geo-sense works from a technical point of view, only know that it does. It picks up the same type of gold the SDC likes, but at better depth. I got a faint signal with the 6000, scraped the surface and the signal was louder. Checked with the SDC and nothing. Scraped off 2 inches of ground and the 6000 was singing at this point. Tried the SDC again, and it now got a faint threshold rise. I dug it out, and then couldn't find it in the dirt with the SDC. I grabbed the 6000 and it clearly saw the target, and it ended up being a 0.3g bit with a lot of personality. Re the 5000 if the gold is of a solid or waterworn nature, then it'll be able to hold it's head high against the 6000. But on spongy / reefy stuff, it doesn't stand a chance. Some of the gold I've found with the 6000 I tested on the 5000 and 4500 later, in all timings, and the best I could get was "something" in the audio while rubbing the target on the coil. And these were bits found at 4 inches on the 6000. Hopefully I can demonstrate this in future videos. Q. Have you compared to the zed Nenad? I’m guessing at 4” the zed with standard coil would also have no problem? A. With the Zed it gets a little more complicated as there's a more blurred crossover point between target orientation, size and depth. One thing that clearly does stand out though is the Zed in normal gives more of a boost compared to the 6000 in Normal. And Zed starts to win more as target sizes increase. In simple terms, on most targets under a gram the 6000 will do as good if not slightly better than the Zed, particularly when the Zed is in Difficult. But not all targets. I found a reefy 5.4g bit with the Zed and 12" Z-search coil. Later did a quick test with the 6000 and there was hardly any difference, the 6000 maybe giving a slightly more "peaky" signal due to the monoloop coil. On a more solid 5 grammer, and I reckon the 7000 would have shown it's true colours, particularly in General.
    3 points
  26. Joined this forum and wanted to say hi. Started detecting in January when I purchased an Equinox. Have only been detecting on the beach areas around Fort Myers so far and love it.
    2 points
  27. Those EGR plates were obviously put there by aliens....they've been here too !
    2 points
  28. Taking the pictures with the drones is not the problem, there are many apps out there than can lawnmower an area automatically. Some even allow you to use shapefiles from your GIS projects and kmz files if you want to draw your areas of interest in Google Earth and set up all the paths and overlap necessary. I personally stick with DJI's apps because they allow you to set the zoom angle if using the Mavic 2 Zoom (my work drone). The real problem is stitching it all together and it takes cloud based processing to really get anywhere, if you try to do it on your own PC it might take days even to process it all. With cloud based processing it might only take about 4-6 hours to stich together a 1/4 section's worth. Big name companies are DroneDeploy or Pix4D, but my employer won't pay for the subscription so I use OpenDroneMap Lightning. You can pay per map or monthly and it is way cheaper, not very user friendly, but Jason I am sure you could figure it out. For hacking your drone I used drone-hacks.com Again at your own risk of course.
    2 points
  29. After seeing the latest test vid in the other thread my big question now is.........Why? It was hitting a 1/2 ozt at 18" in EMI in Difficult and Sensitivity at 4. I would think with the 17" coil you could hit a pounder at 3 feet 🤣
    2 points
  30. My problem is that it acts like it is set up for: iron grunt (if horseshoe enabled) target tone (mid tone) falsing or black sand exact same mid tone high tone = quarter, dime, occasional zinc penny Anyone else but me get annoyed that the detector seems to remember the last tone and use it later for any falsing target? Also annoying is a constant tone on every sweep (one direction only though) I found a stainless ring by realizing the target tone was present and the same character as I moved around it. But within a foot were same tone same amplitude false targets that changed character as I moved. Given these are same tone doesn’t that mean that iron bias will not help as the detector is not differentiating them or I’d hear a different tone for each? i suspect setting IB higher would just cut out the whole cluster and I’d only be finding isolated targets. I first tried my wiggle test at home but EMI was too high. Went back to the original location later in the day and I suspect you guys are right - the coil wiggle, not cable wiggle causes the sound. But I did see something very interesting: if I move the coil even a little in the sweep direction I get the sound - even if I move like 3’ from the car. But if I change to up and down motion (in line with the DD center) it doesn’t sound until I get to maybe a foot and a half of the car - and not a varying tone, a firm normal target sound. Too difficult to capture video with my iphone. I’ll have to get my wife to video it. Says to me in black sand we may have to move the coil real slow or we’ll get the falsing. Add waves and all bets are off.
    2 points
  31. We headed out Saturday morning to the camp. Wife has given up on the Vanquish because all she digs is square nails. So we swapped detectors later in the day. She then found an ax head and a big chisel. I scored the dime and other stuff with the Equinox before the switch. We bought a curio cabinet to house our growing collection of history so I will include a photo of it. Hope everyone is doing well out there.
    2 points
  32. I magically had one appear in my other car’s EGR aswell 🤔 completely unsure how that happened.
    2 points
  33. Hi. Those sandy beaches are so easy to dig it's a pleasure. Welcome aboard.😎
    2 points
  34. I tried to find this pic a few weeks back when this thread was alive and kicking. It just popped up tonight on Facebook. I have no idea whose it is but the pic has been doing the rounds for a few years now. Bloody nice setup. Especially if, like me, you also like your fishing 😉
    2 points
  35. Very nice find and it cleaned up really well. Good luck on your next hunt.
    2 points
  36. Just a bit of information on the Vaughan area as shown on old and new maps. The drone footage was over Ballarat Hill with the maps showing the same area.
    2 points
  37. I hate hype. Now every ML detector has had a 20% increase in performance in their hype. If they mean for a nugget that the SD2000 could get at 6" deep (the norm for VLF detectors.) Then SD2000 gets 100% so SD2100 gets 120% and the SD2200 gets 144% and the GP extreme gets 173% and the GP3000 gets 207% and the GPX4000 gets 248% and the GPX 4500 gets and the GPX5000 298% and the GPZ7000 358% in depth over 3½ times deeper than the SD2000. This is not the fact as I got a 5 oz specimen 19+ inches deep (with an old VLF 1980) if this was the case the GPZ7000 would have to detect it at 66½ inches or over 5½ feet deep most wimps today would quit at 3 ft and the power required to achieve this would exceed 2000 times that of the SD2000 and it battery would be dead flat in a few minutes. However ML would not lie so the thing is that they are using a yard stick that is different than most people think. MY way of thinking is that they are comparing the worst case scenario of the previous detector with that which the new model excels in. So when you look at advertising details keep this in mine. There appears to be some excellent improvements in the GPX6000 that would be of high advantage for me that I would consider but not yet.
    2 points
  38. It was a strong signal and I think it was laying on the upper part of the hard dirt/pan that was down about 10 inches. Part of the hole filled in before I took the picture. I think it has been there a long time but it didn't dark tarnish like the other coins. Earlier in the day I was at a play park and use 4khz because the sand box is on top of a drain tank. Multi has to be taken back there to around 18. The Franklin location doesn't really have any EMI issues. I broke off the ears on my CTX 17 and put the shaft back on with a repair kit that includes zip ties! It works fine. What I discovered about making the screw too tight was that each time I touched it to the ground to flatten the coil for swinging it strained the ears. It wasn't the sideways crunch that ripped my ears off but it was the rocking motion. Here is the coin before: And after an aluminum foil, vinegar cleaning: It really kinda pops with very little circulation wear.
    2 points
  39. Yes I am running 800's. You get to know the conversion. But there are several important items. I have advocated 1 tone for some time now at the beach. Stop that machine from chirping at you from different tones and listen to actual targets. With all the other ticks and chirps. Not sure where you hunt the most? But until you master the wet sand keep the Equinox out of the wash. Even though I can run 23-24 in the wet sand in my location, stuff that Equinox in the water and all comes unglued. There lies the issue. One almost needs a dual setting at a touch of the finger to do the two different terrains. Water contact and wet sand with the Equinox is a difference of night and day. Coil control is important, that is a whole topic on it's own. But in doubt, keep the coil glued to the sand and go slow. GB Tracking. The original FE-6 setting combined with recovery 6 is a magical combo in horseshoe mode that REALLY allows very deep id on iron with a double ring. Could you back down?? Maybe, but you risk instability and turning the sensitivity lower, that would be a locality thing. Also lowering the recovery requires even more coil control to ID iron. Yes as stated, I have one coil that stinks in wet sand and water contact. That coil acts the same on both pods. Dave
    2 points
  40. I just wanna know what the Taskmaster thinks about his..... Quit effin around an clue me in mate.!!!!!!
    2 points
  41. Besides seeing the coil is sensitive enough to pick up your hand it's hard to tell if there is a coil fault. Tapping the side of a coil to see if it is knock sensitive may show more. As for falsing. large coils are tough to use in the salt and bigger you go the more you may need to drop your gain. There is a limit on what a vlf can do in the salt. Stock 11" should be plenty. For wrapping the wire have the wire go straight along the lower pole then wind the rest from the mid pole to the control box. Make sure you have just enough slack on the lower so the coil can move and make sure you don't wrap too tight and have the connector to the control box as straight as possible so it isn't crimped.
    2 points
  42. Condor I don’t know what age you are but don’t sell something you going to need . If you were like me being I’ll be 80 next month I can assure you that I can let a lot of things go I’m not using anymore besides a Kidney.
    2 points
  43. I've got some Girl Scout Cookies about to mature. We'll do some horsetrading.
    2 points
  44. Yes it’s definitely only a handful of people. Heh, love the idea of planting identifiable fakes, that’s a really smart idea! I’m just thinking that one over... Nowhere near as cool as an EMP cannon though 😉
    2 points
  45. Condor If you’re the donor it’s said it will take about two to 4 weeks to get back to normal daily activity. On selling your 7000 it may be a good thing because less weight if we talking about the above person being you. Chuck
    2 points
  46. Electromagnetic radiation (of which gamma rays, X-rays, and UV are a members as are visible light, infrared, microwaves and radio waves) does not contribute to the generation of radioactive isotopes. They do break chemical bonds (as you note) -- interacting strongly with electrons surrounding the atomic nucleus. Radioactivity results from the atomic nucleus itself giving off ionizing radiation (including gamma rays but also neutrons, alpha and beta particles and in the case of the some of the heaviest nuclei, fission framents which are large chunks of the parent nuclei). Cosmic rays (charged particles arriving from outside the solar system, mostly bare nuclei) and solar wind (charged particles coming from the sun) can both activate stable (and unstable = radioactive) nuclei. The earth's magnetic field deflects the solar wind and the atmosphere breaks up the cosmic rays, providing considerable (but not complete) protection. Mars has little of either, as you point out. So activation does occur there. Most radioactive nuclei decay rapidly (typically in seconds or less) to stable nuclei. If surface material were brought back from Mars (at great expense...), the long trip home would result in most radioactive isotopes having decayed to stable isotopes before arrival at earth.
    2 points
  47. As others have noted, Beach 1 and Beach 2 default settings are exactly the same. Internally, Beach 1 has a higher overall average frequency than Beach 2 when their simultaneous operating frequencies are averaged. They both have the ability to adjust to black iron sand mineralization by automatically lowering the transmit frequency, oops I meant.....amplitude/gain, before overloading. Whether setting iron bias to F2=0 has any effect on that.......I don't know since I assume that the iron bias filter is only on the receive side of the processed frequencies.
    2 points
  48. The default tone settings (number, breakpoints, pitch, volume) for Beach 1 and Beach 2 are exactly the same by default and vdi’s for similar targets (e.g., nickels) are typically consistent across the board independent of the selected search mode. So unless you changed settings manually from the defaults, this statement does not make sense. Suggest you do a factory reset to get everything to the default settings and tweak from there. You may have adjusted something inadvertently and that is why your Equinox is not behaving well at the beach unlike your buddies who seem to have no issues based on your statements. Sometimes a user just doesn’t click with a machine. Maybe it’s just too complex or different than what you are used to (sparky and fast). So sometimes it’s best to quit trying to find fault with your machine (which is a known good beach performer) if it is otherwise not defective and banging your head against the wall and just go back to the CTX you keep comparing it too and seem to like. It does just fine at the beach, too.
    2 points
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