Steve Herschbach

If you are looking for one - great! If you own one - ouch!

Well, the price part we got no say in - I do hope it is competitive. Parts/pieces will also be available separately for people that do not want or need the whole kit.

Unless they do something to directly address the issue of rotating paper at the county level fee increases would not fix that problem, but only make it worse.

Miners can break everything but yes, the pans and classifier are quite stout. I really think people will be pleased.

Personally I think Chris looks far more authentic than I....

Well, Chris Ralph and I have had a bit of fun being involved in the development of a new gold panning kit just announced by Minelab. I lent my endorsement to the project because frankly, I think this is a very good panning kit. All people that pan gold a lot have their favorite features. I learned to pan gold with an old steel gold pan and I have personally always favored pans with a similarly large open bottom area to work with. I don't like pans with a small bottom area. And while some people really love drop center pans, I do not. The drop center catch area just gets in my way when I shift from regular panning to final cleaning using the side of the pan. These pans feature the clean transition from bottom to side that I prefer. I like the dual riffle system on the large pan, one for quick panning coarse gold, and one for separating the smaller gold. This kit has pan features that check off all the boxes for me, including the dark blue color, which is the same as the color of the SDC 2300 and GPZ 7000. You even have the little hole along the edge to hang the pans on a hook. It's the details that make the difference.

I also like the screen because up to now most all of them on the market are the same. They all do fine, but I want to see something different, and this sieve features two large grip handles so you can really grab and shake. The sieve will be popular with people who really use one a lot to screen out and fill five gallon buckets.

It even has a carry bag included for once you take everything out of the box.

The bottom line is it sounds like hype me being quoted saying this kit is vastly superior to any panning kit on the market, but you know what - that's my opinion so there you go. It is the one I would buy looking at all the other options, and that's a fact.

OK, the news release at http://www.minelab.com/usa/go-minelabbing/news?article=278075 says:

"The PRO-GOLD kit will be on display at the Minelab Wedderburn Detector Jamboree 2016, being held on March 12th-13th, and available for sale from our Australian dealers soon afterwards. PRO-GOLD will be available outside of Australia from April/May onwards. The two pans and classifier will also be sold separately"

Product information page at http://www.minelab.com/usa/accessories-1/pro-gold

You can download the Pro-Gold panning kit Getting Started Guide

And the pdf of the Full Color Brochure (jpg copies below)

What does it sell for you ask? I don't know yet! I assume I will know by tomorrow since I will be in Las Vegas for the GPAA Gold Show the next two days to participate in the introduction of the panning kit. Maybe I will see a couple of you there.

Well, part of the problem as Chris pointed out is gold is not all that prone to dissolving in water. We have had classic water geochemical tests available for a long time. I had a ton of them for Alaska when a series came out up there right after geochem became easily available. The state ran them all over the place, and it became obvious very fast that it is not so simple as just testing a water drainage for a gold result. Creeks full of gold would show no gold at all in a normal geochem test. But if you were chasing gold ores carrying other trace elements that could be used in some cases. Part of that may have just been limitations on the sensitivity of the testing method employed but there is no doubt that gold does not like to corrode or dissolve, and that is a key thing you want if a mineral is to be amenable to goechemical sampling.

That said, very interesting report here that says that gold may indeed be present in waters in Nevada http://www.nevadaexploration.com/_resources/geochem_cortez.pdf

Thread on fake Garrett pinpointers at http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/topic/1216-fake-garrett-pin-pointers/

I guess I would be less worried about it being fake and just want it to work. If you can detect a nickel in the air at about 3 inches you are good to go.

Since they do appear to be a Garrett dealer I doubt you have much to worry about. 

Everything has limitations, just as in basic geochemical prospecting. It might be better in most cases to go after trace elements instead of the gold itself. I used to sell chemical based geochem kits and they were not cheap nor easy to use. Be nice to have an instrument based alternative if it were affordable.

This could be an exciting development for prospectors if the cost is something most of us could afford.

"Instead of a pan and a pick ax, prospectors of the future might seek gold with a hand-held biosensor that uses a component of DNA to detect traces of the element in water. The gold sensor is the latest in a series of metal-detecting biosensors under development by Rebecca Lai, an associate professor of chemistry at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Other sensors at various stages of development detect mercury, silver or platinum. Similar technology could be used to find cadmium, lead, arsenic, or other metals and metalloids."

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-02-hand-held-gold-sensor.html#jCp 

White's has added the official MX Sport User's Manual to their website and it is available here.

I have compared it to the preliminary manual and only see one change - the addition of one section on the Reject Volume feature. Other than that the manual appears to be the same, though with a much lower quality in the visual clarity of the tables - too much compression used on the file. The preliminary manual is much sharper when viewed or printed.

I have to admit I was hoping for some other operational gems to be revealed but that looks to be about it.

There appears to be an error in both versions of the manual in the specifications listing. Both tables show the MX Sport as having up to 22 tones. Yet the manual is clear that a 20 tone setting is the highest obtainable. Are they counting the 20 tones plus maybe iron grunt and something else? Maybe, but it is being repeated a lot on the forums that the MX Sport has a 22 tone mode when in fact it does not. I have made a change to my own version of the spec list to help alleviate this confusion.

Kind of like on the picture of the box below. Instead of "20 Audio Tone Option" it says "20 Audio Tone Options" which makes me think the machine has twenty different audio tone settings. Little things like that can leave people disappointed for no good reason, all over an extra letter "s".

Boxed and ready to ship.....

Yeah, it does not fold out and lock into place - you have to give it a good stiff smack!

I have fond memories of my XT17000 for sure. The Fisher Gold Strike although it was a market failure actually had very good performance also running at 30 kHz. Obviously the 20 - 30 kHz range is not an absolute no-go zone for detectors.

It is actually a bit funny coming from Dave Johnson in that particular article because the F75 at 13 kHz was one of the most EMI plagued detectors I ever used.

The low single digit frequencies do have superior ferrous handling characteristics and I had read of the Deus trick of shifting to 4 kHz quickly as a ferrous check. Not tried it out myself though, but daffodils are blooming in Reno so time to get with it. Very busy month ahead for me on other things though so unfortunately detecting is still taking a back seat.

Now that would be some unique and helpful information! Look forward to it and thanks in advance.

They may or not respond publicly. Just because Minelab did not chime in on that survey on the forum and comment does not mean it was not paid attention to. Whether they do or not is beside the point from my perspective, though certainly I would welcome it.

Great pics Ray, I am very happy to see you again on the forum. Your selfless sharing of great information and offers to help people detect is appreciated by many.

Well, at 10, 20, 30, and 40 kHz the new coil may just get glued to my Deus shaft. Do you use the 4 or 8 kHz often?

By way of clarity however it should also be pointed out that there are things no coil can do. The GPZ 7000 picks up gold a GPX cannot pick up because there is gold that falls outside the range of time constants a GPX can work with at the electronic level. In other words, the GPX just can't go there on certain gold and no coil in the world can make up for that.

The GPX thing versus GPZ thing reminds me of the MXT versus MX Sport fire that started on another thread. Two years ago the GPX 5000 was the undisputed best choice for the professional prospector. Honestly, at the current U.S. price of $4000 for the GPX 5000 Pro Pack there is still a pretty good case to be made there for power and versatility at a great price. GPZ? Yeah great, love mine, would not part with it. But toss it tomorrow and give me a GPX and you will still count me among the ranks of the successful. Anything that helps a GPX owner is a good thing.

Now, in my opinion (and mine counts for a lot here) this thread was about the 15" Detech DD coil and not about the relative merits of the GPZ and GPX so would you all please just let me have the last word here on that subject and get the thread back on track. The new Detech coil by all accounts I have read is a winner. Good for them, and more options the merrier I say.

Dilek does a great job but working the forums can be hard for manufacturers. Some people seem to forget there are people with feelings behind keyboards. Just because they work for companies does not make it any less so.

Sounds like somebody trying to think up new shows decided "what's the most dangerous way to find gold we can think of".

They best be very careful, and hopefully nobody gets killed for entertainment.

All GPZ detectors ever sold are still under warranty.

I ran a warranty department and this type of claim is a fun one. I have seen three exact ways manufacturers handle stuff like this.

Warranties cover manufacturer defects, so all warranty claims at the admin level boil down to "was this a defect, or just somebody broke something"?

You can say " if it was made right, it would not have broke" or "it was made right, you broke it".

I have seen similar issues in big buck claims go back and forth with the argument, eventually to land in court. Usually it boils down to weight and cost considerations versus strength, and where do you draw the line. And fact is, that is a matter of opinion.

Then there is the third option. The manufacturer simply says "you chose to spend a lot of money on our product, the cost to fix this by comparison is negligible. Let's not argue, let's reward you for choosing us".

All designs face issues in real life, and the wise manufacturer uses the warranty process as a feedback loop. One breakage, well, maybe it was too thin but just cheaper to fix under warranty. But numerous claims for the same issue point to a real problem, and it needs to then get fixed.

Honda in my experience used this methodology as a fine art. I saw numerous first year Honda product issued, and folks, nearly all complex first run consumer products have issues. Anyone thinks otherwise is living on a different planet. But Honda was on warranty like nobody else and second year, every issue just went away. An amazing company in my experience.

I would therefore be very interested in hearing how this issue gets resolved for you Norm, one way or the other.

http://www.minelab.com/customer-care/product-warranty/warranty-conditions

"Electronic control boxes (with the exception of the Excalibur II and GO-FIND Series detectors), Minelab branded search coils, handles, shafts, headphones, bags and battery chargers are under warranty for a period of 3 years (36 months) from the date of retail purchase as set out in the Warranty Registration Card (“Date of Purchase”)."

Ok, time to out myself. I am self declared promoter and cheerleader for all things metal detecting. I may appear at times to promote a certain brand, but simply Google me and study a bit and you will see I promote all reasonably good brands. It has nothing to do with brands. Ultimately, I am a consumer advocate and do what I can to foster competition and innovation in the marketplace. It is all for very selfish reasons - I want the best metal detectors possible to be put in my very own hands before I get too old to use them anymore.

I have always tried to the best of my ability to treat all the manufacturers fairly and with an even hand in commentary because I very much want to influence them if possible. Being too much on any one team would hurt me by limiting my access to the other team. Bashing anyone at all in an unreasonable way is self defeating, so the trick is to try and offer critical commentary without being rude about it.

You are all part of this. This forum had a specific goal by design of trying to attract the most knowledgeable detector users possible. Hand in hand with that is an insistence on polite, reasoned discourse.

I can tell you for a fact most manufacturers look on the forums as a Wild West show at best, and it you are honest the behavior exhibited on many forums should embarrass us all as a community. Why should manufacturers listen to a bunch of bickering children casting insults at one another? Or those who say that they, the manufacturers, are stupid dull idiots?

I am sure this forum gets watched by more manufacturers now than most, purely because there are some smart people here providing some smart commentary. That means that you, the forum member, have a certain degree of influence, but only if you present yourself well as a person who can put two sentences together to make a logical argument.

Do certain things about metal detectors frustrate you? Are there things you want improved? Competition is now heating up to unheard of levels and the only manufacturers that are going to win are the ones who start listening to their customers more than they ever have before.

Be part of my plan and get on my team as being a person to provide and offer commentary on what detector products do well and why. What do you like, what don't you like? Do it in a professional - that is the key - as professional a manner as possible, and I believe I can promise your desires and concerns will get seen by people who can make a difference.

You do have a little power here. Please use it responsibly.

I know people who do use DD coils on GPX detectors to increase their odds in thick ferrous trash, especially in tailing piles. Yes, it may be unreliable, but it is certainly more than 50% effective. One can argue the ins and outs of that being a good idea, but the idea that nobody anywhere uses a DD coil on a GPX to employ discrimination is simply not true. In particular, large numbers of relic hunters in the U.S. would disagree. Nugget detecting is not the whole world.

Sadly due to the way coil harmonics work it is almost a certainty that the old frequencies will not be applied to the new Deus coil and vice versa. In theory you could apply the "off" frequencies to the coil but the mismatch would probably result in performance degradation such that there would be no point.

Ultimately not everything can be done through software only.

I would assume Deus V4 will just add functions to what exists - there should be no need to go back to 3.2. You will just use the existing coils to access the existing frequency choices. And new coil to access new frequency choices.

There are a lot of 19 kHz machines and they are some of the most EMI resistant made in my experience, so I would not read too much into this. It is very dependent on an exact frequency situation existing in specific areas. Just another reason though why having frequency choices is a good thing.

That explains why the White's V3i had so many EMI issues for me in Anchorage, Alaska. One of its three operating frequencies is 22.5 kHz and Anchorage has a stealth fighter squadron based there.