geof_junk

I brought a Garrett ADS Deepseeker one of the top detectors for my wife. I was a gold dredger at the time and was not keen on detecting. As females know more than us mortal men, I was converted. Carol was not impressed with the Garrett so I got her a Whites Coinmaster 6000 the ease of use and the discrimination (for coins etc) she was as happy as a girl in a jeweller shop with a credit card. I inherited the Garrett and I recon that it went deeper than the Whites though Carol disagreed. The Garretts was difficult detector for most people but I had confidence in it and found much gold. Back in those days the top detectors cost 4 ounces of gold each (That is 8 oz to get in front with gold). Since then all my upgrade have been with scrap gold, less than a gram nuggets and crappy gold rings. About 4 years after the first detector I brought the first Aust. version of their Whites GoldMaster which I think Jimmy Sierra had a copy later of it. It was a great detector as I did not use the Garretts much after this I gave it to a work mate that was interested in detecting. In the late 1980s before MineLab came out with the early 1990s Pulse Induction detector I made a PI detector from an Electronic Magazine that I up-graded the components and adjustability including a coil that I made with Teflon coated Silver wire.. It would detect deaper than our gold detectors however the speed of the swing was too slow for me and the Audible was of the old Geiger clicking system which was not to my liking. My brother in law got one of the early ML PI detectors I was not impressed on it performance on the size of gold we were getting at the time. Due to it price and the amount of time and gold that I would use it for, was limited I did not buy a ML detector till the GP series was release and I had retired early and decided to hit West Australia. The gold finds did elevate with the detectors (2 detector at a cost of 8 oz total early 2000s ... 20+ years after the first detector purchased ) and location that suited my detecting style. The point of this post is way back then USA made Garretts and Whites were the top detectors. They are now combine and have the ability to produce one of the best detector today. Lets hope they have learnt their lesson and get on track, and use the combined Garretts and Whites technology and make an acceptable PI at a non ripoff price for most Hobby Enthusiasts. Well we can only dream. 🥺

MineLab is doing their best to up the completion response, by keeping their prices as high as they do. If the small upstart Aus detector company that took on the USA leaders in the early 1990s. Anything is possible. Maybe the USA completion or the technical advance Europe and Asian including China could be drawn in to make a more suitable gold detector for the general public. Keep the prices high MineLab and let the other get a bite of the Golden Pie. 🤑 I would like to see an electronic box that I can add my stick, coil and audio that are available from other sources. 🙈🙉🙊 💔

I find that gold follows the stock market over long stable periods but go the other way when things are under short term deviations ( a couple of years). Remember 7½% interest double every 10 years and 10% interest doubles every 7½ years. It is inflation that throws a spanner into the work so how can you win, all you can do is try to stay stable. I guess my gold will be spent by my descendants making billionaires a bit richer. 😞

I found that if you switch a GP series DD coil to mono you will lose depth on deep nuggets but will get a boosted signal on a swallow nuggets that are very small for the DD coil. You would be better off burying a few nuggets of your area size at different depth and see what effect it has when you try both modes (DD or Mono) that should give you the best outcome and you should see the EMI effects also.

Welcome to this site, I'm sure you will have a lot of experiences that you can share here. All the best.

My detector is a bit old but it still works.

It is not the flaws but the time the Company takes to fix them that matters most for the next batch.

Good to see you got this far and I'm sure everyone has enjoyed your posts and photos.

SchoolofhardNox you should change your TAG to "SchoolofhardNox_junk" you have my permission. 😁

I can't say much about NZ but Simon (Phrunt) can tell you about all the TINY Nuggets that they have in NZ. I retired getting close to 20 years ago and WA Gold field were my choice for 3+ months a year for gold and 2+ months in QLD enjoying Kayaking and Bushwalking and the rest of the time back at home in Vic. I manage to over 10 years of this, till Medical Problems ( Wife's and mine ) started to have a reduction on the amount of time that Carol and I could spend away from home. All costs that we had for the time in WA prospecting ( including 6000 km return trip with Caravan ) were more than covered with gold finds but most people do not achieve this. The Gold Fields in WA are vast and remote towns with a Supermarket, Post office, Pub and maybe a Caravan park are normally 250 Km (150 miles) apart. Safety is a major factor to consider, self reliance, navigation abilities, water, but guns are not popular in Aus and if present they are out of site and require licences. Most areas that are within a day trip from the towns (let say 50 km round trip) have had a fair amount of detectors over them, but a talented detectorist can still find a few nuggets on them. The real finds are found at lest a few Km from know finds. Some of my locations had nuggets visible sitting in the sun getting a tan, so skill with the detector is only half the solution finding the location is the bigger reward. My advice to the question asked would be: Retire as early as you comfortably can. Keep your home. Detect in an area that has a large surface that may have detectible gold spread out on. Remember that home is home.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-26/metal-detectorist-reunites-hundreds-of-people-with-lost-wedding-/100828762 .....LINK.....

The best rating has to be made by yourself.

Slim is refused a drink in the pub because of the trouble he caused the night before; "What do you mean, I've never been in this pub before" Slim protested, "Well you must have a double then" the bartender said, "Good, make it a double whiskey" Slim replied 😜

On the gold fields dig what you can. Shallow target discrimination is a bad choice because the hole is easily to do. Deep target discrimination is a worst choice because most target will not register on them. How do you think you would do at this location. The wife and I got a dozen or two nuggets there but it was what got me on a really good patch within a mile or so. What you see is where we stopped. several hundred tiny bits of rusted junk was our limit.

Well some think gold is best and not paper. .............LINK.......... zimbabwe-introduced-gold-as-currency

LeighB Below is a post from a topic that I did 2½ years ago that might be what you are after, if so just click on this link .......LINK...... There is a few Google Earth images that shows some more nugget spread found with a detector in some areas that show the draining paths when the desert gets flooded as the ground is fairly flat and are mainly dry. Copy of the post This spread was south of a large reef area and digging hole sloping down to the north. The area in the circle is sloping southwards. About 40 nuggets were found and about half were sitting in the sun having a tan. Most were about 2 or 3 grams in weight. At the bottom of the slope about 400 metres south I got a quarter ounce (8 gm) fairly deep. If I get back that way I know that there is a good prospect for a week or two in untouched ground. I guess everyone want to keep their runs of nuggets to themselves. ­By the way I will be unable to post anything till the end of February. I forgot to say the circle is 300 meter across.

So that is why the double vision. 😏

You will earn more as a council worker for the year than detecting except for short bonuses with a good nugget. It takes a lot of skunk days finding a patch, than even with a dozen nuggets at 0.4 grams (not 0.04) each day, you just beat the ounce a week and how long does the the patch last. Let face it, it's a far more enjoyable than working for a boss those.

Pity you could only get 10% of them in that photo, Aureous. 😞

You are a brave man. 😎 and don't forget your thongs and do I have to remind you to take your detectors. 😁

I see you have included the most important COOLER but what is the GAS CRACK VAC more details wanted.😁

I found the same with USA postage charges. A small drive band 3/8 " and 10 " long that would fit in a matchbox cost more than 6 times the price of the tiny belt.

Thanks NorthEast for your detailed report it nice to see some real prospecting going on. I liked your photos and your Apple Maps showing the gold spread of your finds. The concentrations of nuggets are fairly close together, most of my GPS nugget spreads have a distance of more than 20 meters apart, as you can see in a post (This forum ) I did before COV-19 reared it ugly face ............LINK.........

More than 30 years ago I hit a paddock next to a catholic nunnery where an old school was nearby was closed and removed about 1930. It was a sliver mine for silver coins, all were pre 1922 but there was dozens of them most in good condition. Not all spots done 30+ years ago was as good. I was hoping for a 1923 threepence but to no avail.