RedDirtDigger

Well done. Your specimen is good, your reaction to finding it is priceless.

Ps. Your digging is scary.

In much of the gold rich areas in Western Australia the rock has been above the ocean exposed to erosion for 2.4 billion years (give or take a week or two). Over a kilometre of ground has been denuded  down in that time. Eroded material has washed away to the ocean. (Leaving some gold behind, scattered far and wide as the landsurface lowered, so luckless prospectors find a lone nugget with no friends around it)

Whats scary is you can detect smooth alluvial nuggets formed 2.4 billion years ago and deposited in river conglomerates laid down in basins 2.4 billion years ago. And the once level conglomerate (river) rock layer is now tilted vertical and maybe extends kilometres deep.

I Prospect Pilbara WA most of winter (not last 2, covid lockdown here).

Flies are real bad say 1 in every 3 years. Black flynets are a must (see better through black, dont get green).

use deet spray as well, because the flies make the back of your hand itch.

cover all cuts/wounds well, so the flies dont blow them.

My zed thin checkerplate 1mmm thick plastic feet broke apart early. The 12v cigi plug lead for the charger had such thin wires coming out of a solid plastic plug end that with a little fatigue they shorted...and on a friends zed as well.

Minelab have a great platform but fall down in detector construction. (Equinox coil connection and plastics are way too weak. Testers ...if there were any should have picked it up)

My long standing bug is minelab should give you a padded cover for the main box/battery to protect your $10,000 investment.

Working hard in rocky desert conditions it pays to have a really really thickly padded cover for the zed box to protect from the occassional drop.

Well done mate. Miss wa. Does the vein run/outcrop along the ground or is it more pod like? Thanks for sharing.

Just saying the 6000 better have the latest low latency wireless bluetooth capability to any headphones...or i will be upset.

Also a clever company would have a screen setting (similar to nox) that has bars /numbers to show signal strength/depth/broadness.. for all the hearing impaired detectorists. Should be a simple for minelab to engineer this.

Just feel Minelab could spend more time workshopping/R & D time with some of the best long term gold detectorists

The zed and sdc have great software but coils, housing, chargers are not designed perfectly. The minelab design team should do better.

Having said that, there are many husband/wife teams with zed and sdc doing really well in the aussie deserts.

We have a sdc between 2 of us. Its fired up solely to speed up recovery time when a dense patch of micro nuggets is found. And these patches are relatively common in west oz.

If you detect alot with gold flowing regularly the cost of the detectors is just not an issue and its just pays in efficiency and as backup to have all the tools handy, a zed, gpx machine and a sdc in the truck. Also a big fencing crowbar and a set of 5 kg scales

I have a slice and a couple small pieces of Murchison. The new meteorite Aguas Zarcas is up there with the significance of Murchison.

Outstanding nvchris. Its true, research,  long walks detecting and long days are essential for the serious and for success. Just hope not too many of the welling mass of new gold detectorists catch on to the secret to be honest

I use a 70 litre trekking backpack. Slim and tall. Its aussie brand Mountains Designs tramper70. The main thing is to have a super thick angled waist mount and lower back pad so all weight is easily kept only on hips(no shoulder weight). The staps can moved up and down pack body to suit. All gear is in the main pack body in waterproof softsacks and it has a bungy net and one small Pocket but has straps if you want to strap on a complete wand or shaft and coil.

my pack is reasonably heavy cordura, it takes a bashing for life, but does weigh a bit.

Better to have pack where all gear is in. Hanging gear off sides/back is fatiguing. Get a slightly bigger pack then you normally use and you can easily fold in top when not carrying much gear.

My brain says it is signal imaging.

My offline moving map gps phone app with all mapping, mineral occurrences, google earth and tenements is my most valuable prospecting tool. Rather not have a big screen dangling off my machine. (Wish machine had small robust screen)

rdd

Nice finds Art. Its makes your day when you ping one straight up.

Snakes are thick as where i live in oz. I like night detecting in the desert in Western Australia, thats when you realise how many snakes are really there.

Some of my most memorable days have been in the remote east pilbara in wa when i have walked onto really old raked areas  (maybe with a dozen old 9volt batteries laying around). Gold everywhere deeper down and downslope some bigger slugs that the vlf machines from that first detector rush could not hope to hear.

Tip, When you find more then a few old batteries laying around on the goldfields have a good look around....and pick up batteries.

Ever since the 2000 came out i have suffered alot of brain damage on forums  reading about the rumoured new minelab models and the speculation. Now that i have had professional medical help and i now have the experience and detect heaps i just buy the latest gold machine, the week they are released and detect away.

 My biggest fear of new releases is praying the minelab design team dont muck up the design of any new coils and detectors.  Maybe one day having a decent length shaft, quality connections and plastic, and supplying a good shock proof detector/control box cover for our $9000 investment would be welcome. Military grade  detector specs so my detector can be kicked around daily in desert and temperate climates would be good.

My only weight and coin from new south wales australia. A 50 metre section of a small dry creek worked in 1855 gave up about 2 ounces in nuggets and the weight and chinese coin and a couple percussion caps. I could almost see the old prospector weighing his gold in the dry creek bed in 1855. Judging by what they left for me i bet it was a good weigh day and jovial night around the campfire. 

1 hour ago, Jonathan Porter said:

Sorry to be a pain, but what is your Volume set to on the bottom right of the Detect page?

JP

Vol is 7 or 8. GB auto, going to manual via user if getting gold and happy with detector stability. The main spots i detect have complex vertical dipping bedrock that changes beds every 50 metres with lots of iron rich volcanics and shales. I try detect along strikes to lessen my ground variation.

13 hours ago, Jonathan Porter said:

Hi RDD, Are you using Normal or Difficult? Extra deep samples much later than the other two Gold Modes so in Difficult there is a family large reduction in signal on fast time constant targets, this is gathered back somewhat in the Normal Ground Type mode. Also it would help if I knew how your setting up your GPZ settings wise and the method of listening to the audio.

JP

Im using mostly difficult, thres 27, sens 12-15, smooth off, ss300 phones straight from wm. ( steelphase put a hum in the phones so i not use for now). I use 19 coil when ground depth/gold finds prompt me.

Above seem to work well on very slow swing speed, happy for you to suggest better options for deeper targets on worked ground old patches

i have tried different settings but not enough over undug targets to work out what is superior.

RDD

Thankyou JP for sharing your knowledge and the large amount of time you have put into videos, clear explanations.

With a zed with 14 & 19 i have been chasing bigger deeper nuggies  in extra deep. I have recently slowed my swing speed down to incredibly Very very slow when gold is around and i seem to be able to get signals i miss with a slow swing speed. Not sure if i am imagining it

How slow is too slow for optimal signal response for deeper targets??? Is there a general guide for faster to slower swing speed relative to settings/ gold depth?

cheers RDD

Well done Tuna. Hook in there and kill it. Got to be some decent slugs there somewhere deep.

Busting to get over there after i do my winter prep chores, wood gathering for Deb.

cheers Steve

Nice pieces. Thanks for sharing

High end dedicated gold and relic detector in one, with multiple coils and software and weighing less then the zed....thats what i want. But the price would be scary.