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Apologies but this is long! I seriously contemplated something like Klunkers 1000 word essay! 🤣 After 4 re-scheduled attempts last year that were all thwarted for travel restriction reasons, the W.A trip finally happened earlier this month. The trip was with my brother-in-law (we’ll call him Bill (for Brother-In-Law)) who lives in Perth and has been doing some prospecting himself over the past 2-3 years for some decent success. Flew from Melbourne to Perth, stayed one night at Bill’s place and then left at sparrow’s fart for the 9 hour drive to a super secret location somewhere near Meekatharra. The plan was to prospect 2 locations for a few days where his research suggested there might be some detectable gold and then, depending on success or otherwise, move down to his ‘patch’ where he has had most of his success. He found his patch earlier last year and over the past 12 months he and and a few friends in Perth had gathered nearly 500 grams of gold from it. Biggest piece being just shy of 9 ounces. Bill had organised access to stations, access to some live tenements via agreements and access to some pending ground. All up, we had about 5 rough locations that we were able to hunt and he knew would keep us busy for the 10 days we were out and about. Very thankful to Bill for organising everything as the W.A. system is a little complex for a newbie running a fly in/fly out, hit and run mission. All tenements and areas that we were allowed to utilise were loaded into the Trilobite Solutions Geology Travel maps and this would prove invaluable over the next 10 days making sure I stayed where I was supposed to be, logging prospecting walks that we did, logging finds, logging dry blow piles, etc. It is a great little app (for Australia and Canada). After a smooth run on both black top and good dirt roads we rolled into what was to be the first night’s camp at about 4 p.m. The camper trailer and swag were set out and the detectors were fired up. After such a lengthy build up to the trip we were finally into it! Bill wandered reasonably close to camp and I wandered a little further off. After 45 mins or so and a few short bursts of detecting I found my first little bit of W.A. gold. Easily a sub-grammer but it was a start - and day 1 was not a skunk! Couldn’t find anything more in a close area around that first piece and headed back to where Bill was as it was getting close to dark. He had found 2 small pieces and had another 3 signals marked for me to check with the 6000 (he was running a 7000 with stock 14” coil). I could hear 2 signals and felt the other was ground noise. He dug them up - 1 gold, 1 trash and 1 ground signal. Bill went off to start a fire and said for me to have another quick look around close to camp before it was really dark. Headed 30 metres west of where we had chatted and found a signal just down slope of an iron stone band. Another sub-gram piece of gold. Again, nothing more in a close area around it and started heading back to camp. On the uphill side of the iron stone got another signal - another sub-gram piece. This was quickly followed by 4 more sub-gram pieces and a signal left in the ground as now it was proper dark. Considering we arrived at this spot not knowing if we would find anything, it was a welcome start. Day 2 was, as all of them were, a start before sunrise. Straight back to the signal that was left un-dug the night before - gold. And day 2 was not a skunk! Bill left me to it and headed south from camp as my little patch turned into an approx 21 gram day for me. All little bits but the first 24 hours pretty much had my trip cost covered - everything from here on in was pure cream! Bill had also found himself a little patch with larger pieces but a lower total weight. I think about 7 grams was his biggest bit and total weight was approx 16 grams. Bill even ran the 19” coil on the GPZ 7000 over this area as it was flat and open but he could not eke out anything further. Day 3 saw a final clean-up of my little patch for a few grams (and day 3 was not a skunk!) and then several kilometres of walking, detecting, searching for new ground. We walked separately but the end result was zero. Bill had felt that if we were to find anything at that particular location it would have been quite concentrated - and he was right! Both small patches were barely 40 metres from camp. About mid-afternoon we felt the area had played out and we would be best served to head to the next prospect, set camp, have a quick search and then have a proper look the following day. The day ended with a new camp ground, no gold from a quick 30 minute look and a nice meal around the fire. Day 4 was a big day of walking. Again we targeted a concentrated area to begin with but when this proved fruitless the search was markedly widened. I headed east several kilometres and Bill headed north. The country is mostly devoid of low ground cover with the main vegetation being low shrubs and the occasional larger but stunted tree. It is a harsh environment of black rocks, red dirt, some areas littered with quartz and very, very little water. Something that amazed me for the whole trip were the dry blow piles that are assumed to be around 100-120 years old. They are barely noticeable in some areas due to their age but once Bill had shown me what to look for they were easier to spy. The sheer number of piles over a vast area is testament to the hard work those old boys did in such a harsh environment. Unfortunately location number 2 proved completely barren for any detectable yellow and we made the decision to cut the losses and move to ‘the patch’ that I had heard so much about. I guess sometimes it is hard to stay away from an area that has provided some good colour in the recent past. A couple of hours before dark allowed a little look around at where previous pieces were found, the lie of the land, a quick detect and the formulation of a plan for tomorrow. The evening detect found a couple of small sub-grammers for me and 2 just over a gram for Bill. Day 4 - no skunk! Day 5 saw Bill head north and myself head east for what was probably my biggest walking day. The plan was to spend the morning prospecting and if no success, to spend the afternoon around the ‘patch’ trying to avoid a dot day. Saw some good ground with the type of geology we were looking for. At likely areas I would set the detector and zig-zag slowly across and up a slope and sometimes check a small drainage or two. Very, very little rubbish in these areas which is a pleasant change to the usual Victorian rubbish areas. But on that day, also no prospecting gold. For all of the prospecting and some of the cleaning up thus far into the trip, the 17” had been the main choice of coil for the GPX 6000. It provided great area coverage when out prospecting and also allowed a decent area to be covered when going over old ground, with the hope of a deeper piece than the 11 might provide - although I am not sure if the depth advantage is that great. The afternoon again saw some hunting around the patch and a few small pieces coming from under bushes that hadn’t been searched quite so well or were just outside of the intensely searched area. Most under a gram but a few sneaking over. Later in the day I decided to put the 11” coil on to finish the day with a lighter machine and really scrub out an area in the middle of Bill’s patch. The plan was to see if there were pieces the 7000 had simply missed due to the different technology and coil sizes. A few small pieces popped their head above the threshold noise but honestly, not as many as I had thought. The move to the 11” coil also dulled out most of the conductive ground signal that had been coming through on the 17”. It wasn’t terrible with the 17” but the smaller coil certainly improved things. And day 5 was not a skunk 🙂 Day 6 brought about a different plan. I chose to finish off the scrubbing area that I started the evening before and Bill hooked up the 19” coil to look for some deeper nuggets and play with some settings. One was more successful than the other! Covering an area of approx 10 X 20 metres really thoroughly with the 11” I had marked 4 targets that were all soft. I felt 1 was probably ground noise but the others seemed like definite signals, although quiet. By this time Bill had ditched the 19’ coil due to no joy and came across to check my targets with the 14”. Bill really felt that he had scrounged every piece of gold out of his patch that the GPZ 7000 was capable of finding so he was keen to cross reference any targets that the GPX 6000 found. Bill felt the same as myself - 1 X ground noise, 2 X targets (very soft) and 1 that he could not hear at all. The 2 that he felt were likely targets were very soft and the area over the signals had just had the layer of small iron stones and quartz brushed off it - probably allowed his coil to be 1/2 an inch closer to the target than mine had been when first heard. Target 1 - ground noise. Target 2 and 3 - small pieces of gold. Target 4 - you beauty! This was a target that Bill’s GPZ could just hear and after taking 3-4 inches off it brightened with the GPX 6000. Another few inches and it brightened again. Was surprised that we had not actually dug the target out at this stage as it very much sounded like a small, shallow target on first detection. Another few inches and the detector was starting to really ramp up and we knew we were onto something decent. At over a foot deep the GPX 6000 was screaming in the hole and we moved to the Profind 35 and a little more delicate pick work and a broader area of excavation. Slowly, slowly dirt was removed and a final clump of ‘Kinder Surprise’ was removed from the hole. Bill broke it all up carefully and popped out the roughest, prickliest little personal best piece of gold that I have seen. A bit over 16 grams once properly cleaned at home and a few days in acid. A quick check of the hole revealed a further target which ended up being another very prickly but much smaller piece. Bill was excited by the really prickly nature of the pieces and was wondering what else might be in the vicinity, either slightly out from those pieces or slightly deeper. With some fairly decent enthusiasm he started to excavate an area approx 6 feet across and about 1.5 feet deep. The funny thing about this area is that it is not the real, hard pack ground that you might expect. It is actually reasonably soft digging once through the first inch or so with lots of rocks amongst soft, fine, red dirt. A swing around in the excavated hole provided a grand response of…zero targets. Bill is going to mull over that prickly piece and his whole patch for quite some time. He is thinking a dry blower might be useful but this requires a new type of application through the mines dept which may just not be worth it. The days start to blend a bit at this point but I think the day was finished with scrubbing and very little further gold. Oh well, it was still memorable for what ended up being the biggest and most unusual piece of the trip. Day 7 will be remembered for a long time to come… The day started with a combined walk south from camp to an area that had some adjoining rock structures that we thought was worth a look. About a kilometre from camp we split up with Bill wandering off a little further and myself starting at a small drainage. Moving about 20 metres downstream from where we had split, the GPX 6000 was fired up with the 17” attached, a step was taken and…bbeeeeeooooWWWWW. “Must be rubbish” I thought to myself as I scraped a few loose upper level rocks from the wash. Checked again and it hadn’t moved, scraped a few more inches and the target was moved. Definitely rubbish. Except that it wasn’t! 😀 A nice, solid, golden little ‘colour’ with some iron stone inclusions. Maybe 5 grams. “Hey Bill! You still nearby?” Well, Bill had moved off a little and with headphones on he only just heard me. Perhaps it would have been better if he hadn’t? 🤔 🤣 “What’s up?” was the reply. “You better come back here”. Bill came back expectantly and I showed him the prize. You beauty! We made a game plan of him moving upstream in the wash far enough that the detectors wouldn’t interfere with each other - maybe 25 metres. As he briskly took off I put the approx 5 gram piece (ended up just over 6 when weighed) in the keeper bottle, grabbed the GPX turned to start detecting and…bbeeeeeoooWWWWW. What the…? Another piece of gold! This time a larger surface area but really thin piece - about 2 grams. Bill’s readying up got a little quicker. Gold in the bottle, grabbed the detector moved 1 step…yep, you guessed it, gold!! Well, suffice to say that the next hour or so was a blur of digging targets, moving wider to try and get an idea of the area to be worked and stopping frequently to dig another target. Somewhere in that hour Bill dug his largest target for the trip - a 14 gram reefy bit with a nice solid backbone. Also during this time some idiot (currently typing a trip report) made a dumb comment in excitement of something like “We’ve got 4 days to clean up this patch”. Well, in 24 hours the smoke had cleared and we holstered our weapons. The patch was beaten. 55 grams was the total from an area of about 30 metres X 50 metres. The odd thing was that many pieces were reefy and were found really close to each other and most were about 5 metres out of the wash. The others were quite rounded and found in that 5-50 metre range from the reefy bits. We assume a large column of reef, broken down in stages with the earlier shed pieces moving a little and the later shed pieces having moved very, very little. And the reefy pieces were thin, really thin and like nothing that Bill has seen in that area before. So, the new patch took us through until about lunchtime on day 8, we scouted out for about another kilometre, detecting as we went but could not find ground that looked right or that brought up a target. It also took us to the limits of the tenement that we were allowed on. Bill had some other spots he wanted to try on the way home so we made the decision to pack up camp and hit the road. Moving a few hours further south would also cut some time off the final return trip to Perth. A full 9 hour trip and the end of some long days was not something either of us wanted. I can make the last bit short. Some further scouting at a location about an hour south proved fruitless and further detecting and an overnight camp another hour south only showed up 1 small piece on an area that Bill had previously found some multi gram pieces. About 4 p.m. on our last day the sky looked a little ominous and the last thing we wanted to do was pack up a wet camp in the morning. It meant that we probably lost 3-4 hours of detecting in the morn but we packed up camp and high-tailed it back to Perth, arriving just shy of midnight. With a total of 78 grams for me for the trip I was super happy. My goal had been to at least pay for the trip and that was covered many times over. Bill got 46 grams for his troubles. His goal for each of his trips is 5 grams per day. The distance he has to cover, time away from family, etc, means that he really sets a decent goal to make his trips worthwhile and well and truly pay for themselves as well. Being able to halve fuel costs with another person makes covering trip costs that little bit easier. A huge thank you has to go to my brother-in-law. Without his vehicle, knowledge of the areas we went, research he had put in prior to the trip, preparation with food, provision of bedding/sat phone/camp kitchen/EPIRB, etc, etc, etc, the trip would either have simply not been possible or at least would have been much, much more of a headache for me. And also not likely anywhere near as successful. Planning has most definitely started for next year 😀

My total. My biggest piece. Some of the really flat bits. Concentration of bits of my first little patch. And the second, bigger patch. The black circles where Bill got the majority of his pieces. The bloody flies! And this is apparently when they aren't very prevalent 😳 Old drill bags. Apparently 1 bag per metre of drill. They take a small sample from each bag, have it assayed and can return to take further samples if required. Obviously, these are quite old as the bags have broken down quite a bit.

, 83 pieces, 73 is Tele Code for cheers.

My first ounce with the 6000 here in New Zealand was 31.16 grams in 305 pieces. That reflects our small kiwi gold. Just over .1 of a gram average. That's lots of digging & that's not counting the rubbish digs. By far most of it was with the 11" & a few with the 14". I don't have the 17" as there are not many places I could swing it where I detect. Same really with the 14" as I haven't used that coil much but where I have I got a few bits. Have been using the 6000 for over 6 months & have had no issues except for the shaft twist. I like it. D4G

Actually skunks are the ones that pull plugs. Happens a lot when there are lot of grubs. Been using a probe here because grounds just too dry to dig.

Got all my stuff cleaned up today from my camping trip in NC. Found some interesting things. Tumbled all the coins, put away the 3 Hot Wheels style vehicles and musket ball I dug. 168 coins, only keeping 5. $15.73 going in the coin bucket. Only keeping one of the .35 Remington shells and the Brass Fossil key. Brass or gold bead on top, and the silver wave toe ring. Keepers are 2 IHP's, a 1926 wheat and a 1946 wheat, and one Canadian penny. Tumbled the medal with the pennies and it turns out to possibly be a 1607 Jamestown commemorative badge from the Jamestown Exposition of 1907. One of the parts appears to have a ship on it, maybe 3. The top piece clearly reads "1607", it was about the only thing happening in America we know of that year. 🤣 I'll probably contact someone in Jamestown and let them know I found this medal. Can't find one like it on the Internet. Last picture I took there before leaving the next morning. 🙂

That should do really well around iron infested grounds. My poor Tejon might have some competition now 😞

April 21 1937 Part One We had a good night's rest and went right to work early. We had our best day with five ounces. John and I couldn’t believe it. Somehow we had found us a sweet spot of glory gravel. Slim said he’d never seen gold like that but had heard tales in town that we’d mined thousands of ounces out here. I didn’t say much other than don’t believe all the bull shit being passed around about us. After supper Slim said the crew should go into town and celebrate. He kept talking and eventually had John on his side. I, for one, was tired of letting the town people control us so I asked Sarge and Ben if they were good with guarding camp while we went in. They said they were fine with it but didn’t exactly think it was a good idea. So John, Will, Hudson, Slim, and me rode into town and parked at the side lot of the tavern. When we walked in it was really packed. All the tables were taken and the bar was almost full except for a few spots at the far end. Then I saw someone whisper something to another guy and he turned to look in our direction. It was Dutch. He came walking over to me. It was clear he had been drinking and was in a bad mood. He was not happy we hadn’t included him as a permanent member of the crew. Then he spotted Slim. Dutch said he couldn’t believe we had hired on prison trash like Slim instead of him. Slim heard the remark. I was thinking this trip to town had been a real bad idea. TO BE CONTINUED .......................

April 20 1937 About two in the morning I got woke up to the crack of a gunshot. Then three more. I pulled on my boots and crawled out of my tent. The rest of the crew was coming out as well. I looked around trying to get my bearings and there was Slim with both Colts in his hands. Before I could say anything Slim pointed with one of the Colts to the area just outside of the camp. I shined a flashlight and saw a lion laying on the ground. Slim was hooting and hollering to beat the band. He said the lion was sneaking into camp and he let him have it. He was drunk but twirled both pistols back into their holsters without a hitch. Sarge came running over. Slim hollered over to him and asked what was he doing, sleeping? Sarge let it pass. Slim’s bottle had run dry and he went into the supply tent and pulled another. I told the crew to get back to sleep and John and I sat out with Slim for a spell. Slim ended up drinking until nearly daybreak but somehow he had sobered up. John and I had sat up with him for a couple of hours and he was telling us all kinds of things. He said he had demons running around in his head from all his years in prison. He said the law dogs had stolen his youth and he’d lost it forever. I tried to tell him to just start fresh and make the best out of his new and free life. The crew were all pretty tired this morning but we did our jobs, even Slim. He seemed perfectly fine by noon and had calmed down and seemed pretty normal again. We ended up getting one ounce and I was glad to get back to camp where I intended on getting some sleep after supper. TO BE CONTINUED ..................

Went to a local park yesterday and had a great time. This coil is awesome. Turn it down and get close to the large metal support rods and still find the small stuff. Some of these small items were of extreme difficulty locating since the pin pointer could find easily.

DeepTech has announced a new 8" solid round Concentric coil for the Vista X. I am looking forward to seeing how this improves an already excellent Iron machine.

I Started A Facebook Discussion Community For Le'Trap and Other Drop Riffle group. It's non-commercial and hopefully stir up some good discussion.( Please delete this post Steve if it is not allowed.) The Le'Trap was originally designed In Canada some 30+ years ago, and still has a following today. It has been reproduced by different manufacturers throughout North America. https://www.facebook.com/groups/425638906120030

& Coil by the looks of it. D4G

Back in the 80's, my hometown used to seed the beach with those small school sized milk cartons with .$50 pieces inside of them during the annual festival. They'd bury them in a corded off section of beach, and kids would be turned loose to dig for them. I'm sure not everything was dug up. Over time, the paper would break down and leave the coin behind. Likely they did something similar, or had a 'sawdust pile' type dig in the sand where these were buried for retrieval of the kids. In later years our festival coordinators got smart and started putting denominations on the bottoms of the cartons to be redeemed, rather than burying money in the cartons.

I read this story about Yarnell and did a search here. Strangely only two hits come up for Yarnell. I remember going there for the first time in 2010 to meet Chris Gholson and get my 5000 training. It seems so long ago now. Then came the tragic fire. There isn't much on Steve's forum about it but I know many of you have memories. Would you care to share a few here? https://www.azfamily.com/2022/06/23/yarnell-where-granite-mountain-hotshots-made-their-stand/ Mitchel

My son is a firefighter. He just drove down from California, to memorialize the hotshots.

It’s my favourite of the three Goldhawk coils, but I prefer circular coils over elliptical (personal preference) normally. For a small coil it does punch deep and has great sensitivity and manoeuvrability in thick bush.

Think the deepest ring I dug was 12" deep and was a 10k class ring. Was in a park where they had moved some dirt around and put in a sprinkler system. Majority of my rings had been far less. Small 2 tone gold/silver kids ring in the 8" range that dated to the late 1800's the deeper of natural sink. Majority of the rings where in the 4" or less range. If your grounds have a lot of natural iron and wet a very high frequency may be counter productive ie ground phase in mid-high 90's. I ran into that with the Gold Racer at 56khz but that is an unusually high frequency. I still do well in the 15-20khz for gold and it still hits silver well so if you ran at 26 you should be ok.

I spoke to Richard@Backwoods Detectors. He is placing an order within the next week so I will have one on the way.

some of the rings loose depth at 26 khz some gain, its like only an 1" or a little more but at 15.2 khz all the rings have good depth. Probably why my Racer uses 14 khz best on many targets

April 19 1937 I got up this morning feeling better. Slim and John were cooking bacon & rolling smokes by the cook stove. I noticed that Slim had himself a fresh bottle of whiskey as well. The crew had breakfast together and headed out to work. Sarge and Ben took their usual lookout spots and I asked Slim to come up the mountain with John and me and act as a guard for the pit & side of the mountain where the water line ran. He took his bottle with him. He had both Colts and John had given him one of his rifles. He picked himself out a good spot where he could see any movement coming up that side of the hill. On the hike up I asked him if he was still banned from carrying weapons. He just shrugged and said what the law didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them and nobody was going to take his guns from him unless they wanted a few new holes in them. I figured it was his business and he fit the attitude of our crew so I let it sit. We had a good day's dig and ended with two ounces of gold which wasn’t bad for the mediocre ground we were on. When we all hiked back down the mountain I noticed Slims bottle had run dry but he seemed quite sober. It was really hard to tell what he was thinking because he kept his feelings well hidden. The boys got a nice campfire going as it got dark and we opened up some beans and cooked more bacon. Slim got himself a fresh bottle. It was his pay as well as grub and a dollar a day so he took what he needed. I grabbed some cold beers out of the creek and we all sat and ate and drank and did some talking about last year and what had happened so far this year. Slim said he would have skinned my brother's killers alive and he said he wasn’t kidding. He told us he’d heard a bunch of wild stories in the tavern about us. I said they’re all true and gave him a wink. Slim said the law in town was next to worthless. He told me that he hoped those murderers wouldn’t escape from jail and we should have hung them when we had the chance. He said the deputies were in the tavern as much as they were on duty and drunk half the time. Slim said he hated law dogs with a passion. I changed the subject. It seemed like the more Slim was drinking the meaner he was getting. I was hoping he wouldn’t cross John or Sarge. That wouldn’t be a fight I’d want to see. But he seemed to get along with everyone. He said he’d tried gold mining briefly but didn’t have any luck and went back to cow punching. He said he’d gotten pretty good on horseback and bronc busting but his body was getting too old to bronc bust anymore. Sarge asked him what it was like in prison. Slim said it was a tough deal. He had spent thirty years inside and it had made him pretty mean. He said he didn’t have much patience with people and he liked to use his fists as much as his pistols. The night was clear and cold and Slim was on another bottle by midnight. I told him we were all turning in except Sarge who would be on watch. Slim said he was going to set out by the fire a spell as he had some serious thinking to do. TO BE CONTINUED ..................

Perhaps this one ? : Deus2 coil + RC + BH01 headphones 1368,90E , available in July https://www.maisondeladetection.com/196-detecteurs-xp-deus-2-fmf

It might be an idea to put a question mark '?' in your title, I suspect I'm not going to be the last to look at this thread to see what new features ML are giving us with this surprising update ....

The head broke off. Someone notched the shaft and soldered in the coin.

Aye, tis why one cannot with any certainty know the capability of detectors/coil combinations in different gold fields they haven`t detected on, also why tests of planted gold over undug gold are not a certainty but just an indication eg. JW found the SDC was of little use in his ground yet in other grounds others found it the go. Another eg. VLFs still are tops on some gold, the PIs, then the Z/X combos now the 6Ks I consider are closing that gap on my ground. Yet on your ground you consider Z/X combos are closest to the VLFs, (coil size specific). I suspect this "certainty of uncertainty" will always be the go as it has since we migrated from older tech to newer tech MDs/coils. Different jockeys on different horses for different courses.

This is my favourite one with a 22" CC, Also a Victorian nugget, Victoria seems the place to be for big gold, what was really good about this one was it was 165 grams, it was the guys first day using the 22" CC he'd only just bought it and he caught it on camera. This is the recent big lump found with the 22" CC With gold like that around I can see why you're excited to be getting a 26" CC James so hopefully it can find some decent size lumps even deeper, I am so jealous of the gold in your hunting grounds, it makes my little 0.03 bits seem quite embarrassing 😛 Ask these guys which detector is king 🙂

Its actually quite amazing the amount of small shallow gold that should've been heard by everyone, but wasn't. Only the 6000 appears to be able to sense they're even there. Same goes for the multitude of lead shot. There's obviously a lot more small gold around that has poor conductivity than we thought. Even today I got 3 bits that were on the surface where I had gridded previously with 3 other detectors. Its a head scratcher......

So Ive taken the plunge and bought myself a GPZ. I cant seem to find many people who use a GPZ in the uk, video wise, so looking for a little guidance. Whats a good beginners set up for my first few trips out. At this time of year im searching mostly pasture land, thats been done over the years, quite a bit, so is fairly quiet, on normal, non P.i Machines. At the end of July, harvest time, begins, and the hunt for hammered coinage, really takes off. My first trip out this sunday, will be on well detected grass land, Thanks

Awesome hunt. The medal is cool. Hope it ID's as a commemorative Jamestown medal.

I don't think that should have any effect on the MI-6. I usually run the detector pretty hot 96-98 most of the time and haven't noticed it affecting the MI-6 at all.

From what I've read on various forums, including here, Tony Eisenhower makes very highly regarded wired underwater headphones for the Nox and Excal, and now the Deus II (no WS6 puck required). He can only be reached though his email: tony@idigbeaches.com Get in touch with him and I think he can help you out. Cheers!

Awesome adventure man. And some fantastic gold. Good write up mate. Hope next year is as good or better for you two.

I looked around and found no evidence or announcement of an update for the Equinox.

Looks like a simple system to use, I will be checking into it more. Thanks for sharing.

You're doing very well, I was wondering when your next update would be. The more shallow gram style pieces that an 11" coil on the 6000 would pick up would have been picked up with the earlier technology I would guess, unless of course it's some weird specimen piece missed by them but the GPZ users would have claimed those bits.

That's about as close as I may get for now I would imagine. Just dreaming here......... If I could purchase the Deus2 coil + RC, with a dive shaft or preferably, a stronger one for rough waters..😍 I'll be making my own head phones for sure.

Bought those one https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/304485334221 RR

Sounds like a good coil. I wonder why it's solid.

“So just having some fairly decent shallow discrimination on a prospecting machine would be pretty useful in many cases and save a lot of time just being able to concentrate on digging the targets that are higher probability of being gold,“ My preference is to incorporate a separate VLF circuit board or integrated VLF circuity within a Pulse Induction detector with a fast switchover from one mode to the other. The switchover could be as simple as turn off/on the appropriate transmitter. The coil would require special or additional winding/s but is doable. The display and control functions would change with the mode change. For years when in trashy areas I have carried a modified VLF detector for discriminating and pinpointing. Currently I prefer the Equinox 800.

I am a Qlder not a Victorian thus think your question would be better answered by a local so i`ll leave it for one, although I did spend a few months in the Whipsticks area back in 98, in short to appreciate our varying goldfield ground Phrunt you would have to experience it.

All I can say is WOW, what a rotten video. He finds some bits of gold and some pellets that he didn't even need to dig for, sitting on the surface basically, he could have dug any of the targets in that video with one scoop of a teaspoon and he's carrying on how great it is. Come on, that's just embarrassing. Hopefully a proper video comes out for it to correct the damage this one has done in my head on this coil. His first target especially the pellet had a very poor signal response I thought, he was running in manual 1 though, a setting I'd never be using. Maybe I'm just jealous I can't wander around picking gold up off the surface. I think if you're going to show a coil off you'd want to dig for the nuggets, old digger Dave could have went out for the day without even taking his pick, he didn't need to dig a thing 🙂 I hope that coils a lot better than the video shows it, as it's the first on my list.

In my army days, it was common to have 30kg of kit on your webbing and pack, plus carry a 4kg rifle and march for 30km a day. My back is stuffed now and we got it easy nowadays with lighter, better designed gear. A well prepped pack is under 10kg and no rifle lol

Are you saying I`m soft???? As long as i`ve got the Expresso machine and genny to run it I`m sweet😉

I use the XP -ORX and have a X-35 coil on it I chose to keep it over the Deus, - well I have been testing on the many frequency's available on the ORX in order to find Gold rings , and this is what i found , 15.2khz is the best for gold , getting white gold yellow gold and low caret gold , and 14 k 18k, and also nickles one program i was using today is the 2nd Gold program called fineGold and using it with the 15.2 khz and a 2 recovery speed which is crucial for making the iron give itself away and getting you deep , but the gold really hits hard - I run the IAR at 4 and no bottle cap will fool you some iron will make a mid tone if its big and be stressed and hyper , but the tabs and nickle s give a cleaner sip sound today i went over a small area, i had hunted many time s and it was very clear to me this was pulling out the nickles, as all where deep and had set in the ground for some time . go ahead and try it out . I was using on an 80 gain but it is one of my favorite programs

You can also try powdered cayenne pepper! Pretty cheap for a large container, won't hurt the grass, or animals! But it is an irritant, and should deter animals from the spots! Water your plug, then sprinkle! Will last until a rain or sprinkler washing!👍👍

Phrunt - You said "The GPZ is like fine wine, it's only improved with age. 🙂 ". I used to say the same thing with an SD 2100, then GP-Extreme and after that the GPX-4000. Each series has gotten better at depth on smaller and course gold. Each series also added more Timings and Fine Tuning. Many owners were afraid of the GPX series and left themselves short. For those of us who took the time to learn it, were rewarded with more Au. I also agree about the ZVT having more upside than the old PI. I'd love to see another manufacture prove us wrong. Norvic - You said "So just maybe we are better off where we are. Yes/No". I'm not much of one to settle. I'm always wanting more options and something better. I've yet to find the 1 best for all situations. And I agree with the rest of your above comments but hope some other manufacture will step up their game. Steve H - You said "The real problem is the gold patches basically playing out, and “going deeper” is not going to make the majority of them come back to life. We have lots of relatively shallow placer here, and with the last small bits getting hoovered up, there simply is not that much left in most of the places that most of us have ready access to. It’s a good thing you are getting near to retiring Gerry, because I don’t think gold prospecting detectors are a growth market anymore in the U.S." I have thought that out the last few years with the GPZ-7000 and then we were given another option of the GPX-6000. Where can it go from here is very interesting and has me scratching my head. I think Minelab is also aware, so their next new KING will have to be something quite amazing. Yes, my retirement is now being thought of a little more, but I still really enjoy the training of customers and helping with them as they find their 1st gold nugget, 1st Indian Head Cent, 1st gold ring etc. I'm not pulling the plug anytime soon, but I do see the writing on the wall. JP - Yes the truth hurts and a good amount of us long time DP members on here are in fact getting to the age that our body is not keeping up with the desires of our mind. Gone are the days of a 3 week Prospecting Hunt as my body is giving out before my mind and or the detector. Heck, I'm pretty dragging ass after a week of the hunt. But boy does the desire of thinking a new patch or a nice 1+ oz'er keep me going. Few a select few of us, it's almost unbearable just thinking about putting on a GPZ-7000 and having to swing it a day, but for those certain occasions, I know I still will try. Rob Allison - You bring up some great points. But I'm going to point the finger back at Minelab and their greed. You/Chris/Doc/I and a select few others remember what our margins were back in the day. We also remember the promises made and not selling in retail stores. Now Minelab USA cuts the margins even more on their higher priced detectors. Minelab almost forces the smaller dealers to not want to sell them and only promote and sell the smaller detectors. Which the dealers do, because the margins are greater. What's going to be funny down the road is when guys like JP, you, I and the handful (small amount) of dealers decide enough is enough. Who is going to promote their top end products then? I can't wait soon enough for the day another manufacture (anyone) can make a decent high end gold detector and that manufacture offers decent margins to award those who sell it. Why our margins in the US is so much less than Australia is silly. Heck, ask for a free hat on a $50K order and see what happens. Minelab has totally changed from when we 1st signed up. Oh well, theres only so many more waves I can ride and then I'll put the board away. mn90403 - I know your question was pointed at JP, but if you were to ask me the same. I would not recommend getting into detector sales as a fulltime job if you want to make decent money. One of my main reasons for being a dealer today, is I still enjoy the tax write off benefits. I'm much more different than many dealers as I do so many styles of detecting and some of you know I even organized many group adventures to different states and countries. Most are tax write offs for me as I also test and promote new products. Thats part of why I still enjoy traveling as it's part of my job. If I just sold a few units here and there, it's hard to justify to the tax man, a write off of trips to Bahamas, Cancun, HI, AK, England etc. Just to make a living selling detectors with no write offs. Stay away folks, as you'll be living a lean life. phrunt - You said. "Gerry could sell steak to a vegan. 🙂" Probably if I tried. But I do know, I'll sell about 7 GPX-6000 for every 1 GPZ-7000.

I did notice the patina difference, but some were in the surf, some in the high wet and some in the dry sand. Some were half a mile apart and a couple were two feet apart. They were also found over a two-to-three-month period. Salt water and father time will take its toll on clad and in a hurry sometimes. I do wish some of my other beaches would spit out halves instead of Zincolns. LOL Knowing this beach as well as I do I would say that the likelihood of a seeded hunt while surely possible, is highly unlikely. It is just too busy from before sunup until late at night. And I think I would have heard about a local beach seeded hunt just from me being local. But as they say, "given time and money, anything is possible"!!! Just thinking back on some of the really weird stuff that I have dug on the beaches, 13 Kennedys hardly seems out of the ordinary. LOL Thanks for all the responses. It is a very interesting hobby (addiction) that we share.

Gerry could sell steak to a vegan. 🙂

guess you did not read my post. All accept the puck. Detecting DooDads, Serious Detecting.

It is certainly not a technology issue as there are a few discriminating pinpointers out there. But I think you answered you're own question...namely, are you actually willing to pay the premium cost for such a pinpointer for the handful of times where it might actually make a difference? Once you've started digging the plug, you're typically committed and seldom do people simply walk away because they realize that high tone in the headphones was really just falsing iron based on the signal from a discriminating pinpointer. What if you pulled out the nail but you were just out of reach of the coin that was actually giving you the high tone. In other words, how much do you trust your discriminating pinpointer such that you would fill in the hole and not pursue the target just because it was telling you the proximate target was iron? And if you leave the nail unrecovered in the hole, how do you then check the hole to see if the nail (that you did not recover) was the sole target and not partially masking a keeper. Basically, detector manufacturers have provided a few discriminating pinpointer choices to the level the market will bear, but it is really not a difference maker in reality despite the promise of more efficient target recovery. I think detectorists for the most part think that it's not really worth the trip and certainly not worth paying a significant premium for so the manufacturers are not really getting a big demand signal for such a product from detectorists.