Roughwater

Wow. Interesting read. So much time and money devoted to equipment. A prospector up there best be half Mechanic. Wish I could have got up there a few years ago when the gold was better. Thought about going this year and looked into it but the start up cost and shipping anything large up there or back out of there is really expensive (4500 to 7500 or more one way). Even most of the nearby sea is claimed up. So it looks like I'll go to Chicken AK instead. Least I can drive there and only a short 10000 miles round trip from my home.

Thanks DD, Nevada and Calgold. What's the Terrain like around Sumpter? Flat, hilly or OMG hilly? I've been reading all of Steve's detector reviews. I also saw the poll someone took maybe Steve, not sure as I've read so much lately. The one where he asks folks if they found any nuggets last year and the detector they used. Thought that was interesting since I'm in the market for a VLF machine. Interesting too as nobody responding had used a Garrett which is what I was maybe thinking of buying. When hunting in or around water it would be a great advantage to have not just a waterproof coil but a machine that is also waterproof (hear that Nokta?). One slip and dunk in the water could be it's last especially in salt water. That salt is wicked. Ok Nokta, your next mission if you choose to accept it, is to build a multi-Freq machine (12, 15 and 60 Mhz) that is waterproof with great discrimination. Terry

Thanks Beatup. I hope to get a small coil as well before heading there. So Everything I mentioned? Does that include Bigfoot? I hope the Permethrin we use here in NC will also work out there for the Ticks. Best thing I ever found to keep them off me, actually the only thing I found that really keeps them off. Terry

I live near the East coast and never done any Beeping in Oregon. I am set up to go there in July. I don't know the terrain, the weather there in July or much of any thing else about the area. I have a GPX 5000 with the commander DD and mono coils that come with the detector and hopefully a 16" round mono soon on it's way. Are there snakes to look out for, Ticks, Ants, Big Foot? What coils would be recommended for the 5K to use there? I wonder if there is lots of Iron to the point where a VLF machine would be a good choice? I live only 150 miles from the east coast so have been thinking about a VLF Machine suitable for the beach and for use in nugget hunting, maybe something like the Garrett AT Pro or ATGold? I know there are better machines but trying to find something in what is left of my smallish budget. I'm not a total newbie as I've been to Rye patch a couple times and Alaska as well and used coin detectors in my past with some success but presently the only real detector I have now is the 5K. Any advice would be appreciated. Terry

AussieMatt, I don't want to try to come off as an Xpert as I'm not. If I understood you correctly you said you went over some ground with the 14" Coiltek Elite mono using your 4500 then again over the same ground with the SDC and found 8 subgram nuggets. That shouldn't be too much of a surprise. Even though the 14" elite coil may be enhanced over other older 14" coils it's still probably not a good choice for finding subgrammers. Of course if you put a 8" coil on the 4500 which is what is on the SDC you probably would have hit those subgrammers. As to a placebo effect, I think there is some there. If I already had a properly working 14" moncoil I would not invest in a new "enhanced" coil and I would bet the difference would be small. But on the other hand, if I were looking for a lager coil to find deeper gold the enhanced coil might convince me to pass on buying a cheaper older coil for the newer model.