Steve Herschbach

The Goldmaster II came with a 6" x 10" concentric coil. This actually is a very good coil for milder ground but you would benefit from a DD coil in more mineralized ground. The new 6" x 10" DD is a good general purpose coil and the smaller 4" x 6" DD is great for nooks and crannies and chasing the smallest nuggets.

White's is finally getting serious about giving the other guys some decent competition in the low end of the marketplace. I think it is safe to say the Prizm series never had much impact. The new units are running in the classic coin detector frequency range of 7.8 kHz so they have no serious application as nugget detectors but will be of interest for those looking for a good entry level machine. Nice and light at only 3 lbs running off only two AA batteries and a big easy to see screen. And kind of fun that they resurrected the old Treasuremaster name. I am tired of detector names that are either three letters or something that sounds like a jet fighter. Looks like I personally have to wait for White's to do something to really get my attention but at least this is a start perhaps of a new direction for the company. Rumors of a PI/hybrid by year end? White's Electronics Treasuremaster White's Electronics Treasuremaster Pro Treasuremaster Specifications

Here is a chart showing gold prices the last five years: Note that we are pretty much where we were with gold prices five years ago. From this perspective it looks like we lived through a gold bubble that saw prices nearly reaching $2000 an ounce. Many gold bugs have lost the faith, but some, like Peter Schiff, are still calling for $3000 and even $5000 gold. What do you think? Has gold settled into a reasonable supply and demand range after flirting with higher prices? Or is this just a pause setting the stage for dramatically higher prices in the future?

Hello Jim, Well for what it is worth any posts about hunting silver would not muddy any waters and be most welcome. I prefer the forum stay varied in content. Interest in new detectors simply follows the fact of them being new. Flavor of the week sort of thing. The forum however is about all issues pertaining to prospecting and needs to drift back in that direction.

8 ounces - wow!! I guess that GPZ has paid for itself. I really wish you had not kept silent with your opinions Norm. It bothers me people are worried about ruffling feathers here. I do not like mindless bashing but well considered criticism is another thing entirely, and I welcome it. I started a whole thread critical of the GPZ at http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/topic/725-reasons-not-to-get-a-minelab-gpz-7000/ hoping you would chime in. I have personally witnessed depths with the GPZ over the GPX far exceeding the "up to 40%" claim. The problem is people keep wanting to interpret "up to" as meaning "always under all conditions". It means "sometimes under some conditions". There are plenty of targets a GPZ will hit no better than a GPX, and in some alkali ground and in certain hot rock areas the GPX is a better choice. But if anybody hates the GPZ and thinks it sucks, seriously, who cares? Not me. I swear on the internet people get way too much in the "insult my detector, you are insulting me" mode. My main complaint with the GPZ at the moment is it has me digging deep screamer nuggets that end up being much smaller than they sound. I dug a couple gram nugget over a foot deep recently and would have swore it was going to be a quarter ounce or bigger. Anyway, good on you for a fantastic find!!!

One thing I like about the FORS Gold is that it is very easy to operate. For general nugget detecting use the all metal General (Gen) mode. If you get into lots of iron trash or hot rocks use the two tone Boost (BST) mode. Low tone will be ferrous stuff and most iron hot rocks, high tone non-ferrous. Use manual ground balance at all times unless the ground is extremely variable or hot rocks are killing you. Automatic ground balance will smooth things out. Go easy on the Gain or sensitivity as the FORS models are very high gain units. The unit will overload easily on shallow targets - just lift the coil to get a clean signal. Finally, in very mild ground reducing the standard iron mask setting from 10 will give you a bit more sensitivity to small items but will introduce ground noise if you get too aggressive. Conversely increasing iron mask slightly can help with bad ground/hot rocks but will reduce sensitivity to small items. See my review at http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/topic/352-detailed-review-of-the-nokta-fors-gold-nugget-detector/ for details. Good luck!

Hi Tom, I am sure your powers of persuasion are as least as good as mine in that department.

Great updated thread with photos by Jim Hemmingway at http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/metal-detecting-gold/461891-white-s-tdi-pro-northeastern-ontario-silver-country-revised-edition.html

I think that due to the ground rules here it is safe to assume all posts on this forum have good intent. I have not seen a single post by an Aussie here that ever gave me any reason to think otherwise. I thank you all very much for that. No snakes in Alaska so I am a newbie in snake land. Yet I have not seen a single decent snake wandering in northern Nevada and north east California in the last two years. So no snake guards/gators for me at this point.

Minelab has not used Chinese manufacturing facilities as far as I am aware. Many models are currently made in Malaysia, as are Intel processors and other high tech items. My assumptions about metal detectors run in the opposite direction. Many models undergo unadvertised improvement over time. Just minor tweaks, newer and usually better components, etc. I will always as a rule buy later production detectors when possible rather than older ones.

Fantastic find! I have a bucket list of things to find with a metal detector including a meteorite, a platinum nugget, a ring with a 1 carat plus diamond, and........... a gold coin!

I had both the original green SD2200 and a SD2200v2 and I can't say one was better than the other.

Log into the XChange2 program. Plug in your CTX 3030, turn it on, and it will bring up an icon for the detector at the top of the list. In the XChange2 program, when you click on File, you will find three options in the top of the "gray space". One is Import. Import the file from your PC. It will be placed in File. Then drag it from File to the icon for your CTX 3030.

I once developed tendonitis from detecting. By the time the pain is really felt it is too late. It shut my detecting down for half a year - luckily a winter in Alaska. It was bad enough I had to start using a mouse left handed when using a computer. I always use a bungee support or some other form of support like a Hipstick now and highly recommend that most people do also. Repetitive motion injury is serious stuff.

Most of the gold I found in Australia seemed to be derived from ironstone but little or none attached. I need to take a look. Here is a 1.96 gram specimen that was sold at goldrushnuggets.com http://www.goldrushnuggets.com/1graugosp.html Thanks for posting Gerry!

Got the post converted from a Word doc to standard post so should be visible to all now. Water crossings can be scary for sure alls well that ends well!

Sadly, that is just a leftover website page from many years ago. There was a copycat version made about a year ago but reviews were lackluster at best.

Good info, thanks Chris! Apparently genuine Minelab scuff covers and backup batteries are available now at some Australian dealers. Presumably they will be available at U.S. dealers in the very near future. The Razorback version scuff cover may be cheaper and better, hard to beat a deal like that.

I think the fairest thing to say is that Minelab does pay attention to what their customers are saying. I do not want to make it out like this forum is an official "post it here and Minelab will read it" sort of thing. It is possible that because of the high quality of the membership and number of GPZ related posts that much of what gets posted gets read, but what action might be taken and when I have no knowledge of. I am doing my thing based on the idea that the GPZ I have is what it will be for some time.

From http://www.minelab.com/emea/customer-care/product-notices?article=271570

I really am remiss in not getting this done yet. Chris and I have actually been out doing a lot of blue sky prospecting in California and Nevada the last month. Just visiting lots of new places looking for future possibilities. I am hunkering down a bit to finish off several projects so I can not have them hovering in my mind while I am detecting and this is one of them so stay tuned. Eventually! It has been fun messing around with the options but the fact is I am just out using the stock ATX as is and learning to live with the weight, much like I am having to do with the GPZ.

Hello Dan, Sorry so late to reply. We were out prospecting "off the grid" with no internet access for a few days. This is from my page at http://www.detectorprospector.com/gold-prospecting-equipment/garrett-atx-metal-detector-accessories.htm and is the answer I got specifically direct from Garrett: "The ATX can be operated with Infinium DD coils. Performance with Infinium DD coils should be normal but is not guaranteed. The ATX cannot be operated with Infinium mono coils or any other Garrett coil other than ATX coils and Infinium DD coils. Recon Pro coils will not work on the ATX. The Recon Pro is not the same machine electronically, even though it looks similar. Use of any coil other than ATX coils and Infinium DD coils, including the use of 3rd party coils, will void the warranty." "will not work" does not mean it may not seem to work if plugged in, but runs a risk of damaging the detector.

Fantastic Steve, good for you guys!

Most of my nuggets are much, much smaller, and most can be relied with the GPX to produce very clean, pure tones. Not so with the GPZ as anything close to the coil produces some complex responses. Even then working hydraulic pits I can identify most ferrous targets in advance versus small nuggets based on the response, which tends to be cleaner with nuggets. A risky strategy for sure but one I have used when I just get too tired to be digging it all. The last hour or two may I start cherry picking. The GPX is a much better machine for cherry picking targets, especicially considering it actually has a discrimination function. Even beyond that however the tones were much easier to read. The GPZ can produce some very strange responses and there seems to be no rhyme nor reason to them at times. Some gold detects much deeper than I would expect, other gold not as deep as I would expect. A very different beast indeed.