RedDirtDigger

Steve the doubt minelab cause to users and dealer sales by dribbling a release over 6 or maybe nine months is good for no-one. I believe they should at least say whether it is a premium relic or gold model or budget...whatever...so they dont cause anguish and a hold on purchases over the whole spectrum of users and models

Info coming in few months...release in november for christmas maybe? maybe just once Minelab will provide a detector with a longer shaft that a tall person can use comfortably and give you a control box cover to protect your big $$ investment! ...and plastic that doesn’t break and charger wires that are not thin as hair. Its the design package that lacks not the platform. im a lover not a minelab hater, i have had most gold models since the 2000, its just that they never listen

Great topic, yes its hard to put some of the concepts of sound and hearing into words. After years of detecting I believe my brain has become wired to listen for targets, (even the targets that are represented by a slight miss in the threshold noise). You know the zone you get into where you are oblivious to all around and only hear the detector melody in your ear. After coaching/walking with many people newish to detecting and seeing what signals don't register with them as they detect I can see how we/I, always need to seek to improve my listening skills, especially for the faint small... and deep subtle big slug targets. I think maintaining the ideal swing speed is still my greatest weapon... and cutting out wind noise as much as possible. I love headphones. RDD

Thanks for the comments and praise members. An update, while I am keeping some of the nice pendant pieces I have sent a 570 gram parcel to the refiner. The gold from this trip had many different shades and I had a suspicion that some of the nugget runs contained a lot of silver. The (reliable and accurate )results came back at 86.32% gold and 11.93% silver. Happy hunting, RDD

Thanks phrunt, yeah I think the americans would laugh at our big monuments. The big Potato at Robertson is my favourite. It just looks like a big T##d. By the way, I am waiting for you or kiwi to find the biggest recorded nugget in New Zealand. The "Honourable Roddy Nugget" is the biggest and was only 99 ounces. I am sure you guys can beat that. I await the write upon and images on this forum.

Two of us made the 5 day trip from eastern OZ to the Western Australian goldfields for a 8 week detecting trip.(armed with 7000,s and SDC) We targeted remoter spots that are not really on the radar. We invested in a pile of permits and researched lots of available ground spots. Lots of walking and lots of barren gullies and creeks...... but occasionally we found the odd gully or slope not touched by a detector that yielded some nice runs of gold. We went 50/50 with our finds, sharing is the way to get a bigger tally when 2 or 3 of you (of equal ability) spread out searching large areas. All up we shared 45 ounces between two of us. There are many ugly specimens not pictured and we will have a big crush and smelt day soon. Cheers RDD

Nice gear Tuna. Met a bloke in the Pilbara with one. Poor bugger had quartz crush fever. He spent the time detecting, not looking for deep nuggets and patches.... but putting all his swinging time walking to likely quartz shows & tails looking for reefs. "All I want is a little reef to crush" he lamented to me over a coffee. yep quartz crush fever watch out for it

Hi Norvic, my mate runs Oziexplorer with geology/tenement layers to get us to coordinates and keep us away from Mining leases and on legal/40e ground. Close up viewing of google earth and WA sat imagery and sat burnt area maps from the NOAA satellites are the biggest help. Using sat imagery to find and mark the route of very faint 4wd tracks that get you close to where you want to go is main game in research to get to areas to explore I have found. RDD

Thanks Mitchel, it was arrogant of me to say 23 oz was not good. Its just that I go detecting there a lot and know many spots and do research and rely on my hobby gold income. I do aim for a big tally. Its gold fever I guess. But I am in a good place to detect, where big untouched patches still do exist. And I am sure there are some over there too. cheers RDD

I did the annual 5 and a half day drive from east oz to the Pilbara area in western Australia for 8 weeks prospecting with a friend. Floods earlier in the year scoured the creeks out and that helped, but a lack of natural fires meant many places are covered in thick spinifex giving you only about 10% of the ground to detect on. We managed 23 ounces between us, which was not brilliant considering we know a fair few places from earlier trips. But the trip, scenery, camping and people we met made the annual trip something great and I can't wait for the dry winter WA prospecting season to start each year. Some of the gold...hundreds of nuggets were sub grammers, my best was a 76 gram flatty found at about 26 inches down with the 19 coil. My favourite piece is the squashed leaf gold nugget with little pyramidal gold crystals on its surface. cheers RDD Ps. I hope to visit the US and take in the scenery/people......and detect a couple nuggets from some of your iconic goldfields one day.

Hi John, always like to see how prospectors are preparing for remote trips. I take my troopy off track a lot and weight is always an issue as I go places where you cannot have any trailer attached. With Jacking I use two bottle jacks and a block of wood. My back up is a airbag jack (with a thick piece or tarpaulin to protect it). I have used it a lot in soft ground bogged situations. For the benefit of anyone who is buying a tyre plug kit...they must be very solid steel like the one you have pictured. Spare reaming and plug insert needles are a must in case they bend/break. Steer away from the cheapies with plastic hand grips, on a 4wd tyre the needles can actually break through the plastic and drive trough the palm of your hand as you try press the plugs in. PS. I have seen many friends and prospectors outback with up to 8 plugs in their tyres...no worries. (although not recommended when you get back on the tar...keep speeds low). Best of luck on your adventure. RDD

Educate me please members. In Australia one of my goals is to detect a nuggie in every State. There are seven states in Australia. I have three States to go. How many States in the US is it possible to find nuggets in???. Have many of you managed to find nuggets from more then a few states over there? My first trip to the state of Queensland yielded gold....and my first taste of beautiful paper thin leaf gold. Some of the thin sheets have crystal faces that look like "sergeant stripes " on the gold. (the flat nugget at top right only weighs 3 grams....yeah they are thin....but give good signals. Cheers RDD

Have to agree with tucannon and Gambler. In Australian I can confidently say that the most used detecting boots are the Redbacks. They are comfortable, have no metal and are suitable for all situations except for long mountainous walks. The model above with the soft translucent sole is the one you want...in black or brown. I have used them for years...I waterproof them and occasionally have had to sew up a few stitches on the sides of the odd pair because I boot scrap the targets too much. In OZ they cost about $US75. Must be some good deals with cheap postage to US on ebay I am guessing. cheers RDD

Excellent finds DD. Its good to have one of them great days. We have a lot of lizards where I detect (and lots of legless reptiles too.) Some of the slower ones , blue tongues and shingle backs, I pick up and pull the ticks out of their ears and armpits....I hate ticks.

Yes I am, but for the places where the gold is only a foot or so down the 14 is the best coil for being able to discriminate out all shallow and double blip trash targets. Ps Nails and flat wire give the 4 blip signal and can be ignored also. curley wire and other weird bent metal often give a turkey warble signal and I do dig them in case.....because of the nice specimens I have found that give the turkey warble signal

Hi Steve, I always seem to get signals from bird shot and tiny rubbish no matter what settings i have on the Zed. If anyone has setting to eliminate tiny rubbish without losing depth on big slugs I would like to hear them. I think I am getting better at avoiding rubbish by using the signal responses the Zed gives. The Zed signals seem to give my brain much more info on the target and its depth compared to the 4500/5000 I detect a lot of farm paddocks that were not worked by the rush miners and where the surface is full of bullets, wire etc. Nearly all the gold is at least 6 inches down. By ignoring all double blip signals, and surface clangers and listening only for the deeper signals I can find gold amongst a lot of surface trash. While you could miss the odd shallow nugget, you will cover a lot of ground and not waste 3/4 of you detecting session digging trash. I find the Zed signal response/pitch/broadness is very good at giving you an accurate read on the depth of a target. Sometimes I ignore all shallow signals and only dig the deep signals that are invariably 1.5 to 2 feet deep...if in a spot where deep gold has been found. This obviously only works with the Zed, on undug ground where the gold is at depth, on mullock heaps I dig every target. RDD

I buy two cheap ($5) straw hats when I go on a long prospecting trip and I am using speakers. They are very good at keeping the sun off and fly nets do fit over them. I ceremoniously burn one on the camp fire when its buggered and on the last day of the trip I burn the other, usually along with my main detecting trousers which are also usually had it by then.

Great instructional video. Thanks JP. I am impressed with my 19 coil and its depth capability but have yet to come to grips with the best settings for certain locations. I need to put the 19 on the stick and leave it on for a while...now the grass has been chewed down to a workable level in the places I detect. RDD

If you do not own a dedicated GPS unit I can recommend a GPS phone app that is simple and accurate. To be honest for most detecting situations I only use my nav skills and my iPhone for a back to camp GPS...and also for offline map navigation. (if detecting in thick scrub or very rugged hilly areas etc...get a dedicated GPS) The phone is in an Otter box and I carry a spare battery. I have utmost confidence in the reliable nature of my phone/ long long battery life with all networks etc switched off. The free app I use is called "Locatier". Its a simple GPS and direction pointer back to home program using your phones GPS.(no mobile reception needed) I like the simplicity, the last waypoint marked and named is always on the top of the list. And when you look at the list it gives you your distance and direction from all waypoints on your list. Handy for checking out places where you may have marked gold finds spread out in one area yo are doing big walks in.. I have used it for a couple years and it is very accurate and reliable. PS I carry a Personal locater beacon, satt phone and detect in very remote areas with a friend nearby.

Hi Ig, sometimes when my settings are dialled in enhance on a 4500 say on gain 10 you will get a fast chatter noise from some noisy ground types. I will then often try out Sens Extra and put the gain down to 6-9. You need to swing slower then you normally would but the setting has surprised me. You can still get broad groaning ground noise, but any targets will scream. It does not work well where there are lots of hot rocks...they scream too Next time you get a faint deep target, switch to sens extra and see what it does to the signal even if you dial the gain down to say 4.

Scott, Bug repellant is also a must pack where I detect in summer....and for night detecting with a headlamp you need to pack a head net to keep all the flying bugs from hitting you in the face. I look at the Feather river posts/videos with envy....some of my best detecting days and picking up sunbaker days have been on rivers immediately after massive floods. RDD

GOLD LAYING AROUND WAITING TO BE PICKED UP!!!! Reports of the fabulous gold finds in California have spread through the gold camps over here in WA. I'm quitting my poormans goldfield over here in Australia, packing up camp, kissing the wife and 6 kids goodbye and buying a ticket on the next ship to California.....I'm gunna be rich.

Main goal is to find world biggest nugget, anything bigger then 3123 Toz (214 pound) gold content, it doesn't have to be a solid, it can have some added quartz. Secondary goal...find a patch over 1000 oz's. Third goal, like Fed Mason... find a really really big fresh Pallasite Meteorite with big glassy peridot crystals that can be sliced to look like a lead light window. RDD

I use the program "locatier" as the back to base and coordinate recorder on my iPhone. The app always puts the last coordinate entered on the top of the list and it has never failed me. Very accurate using just satt signals. I like the quick text in a location name and go. It shows you how far you are away and what direction from all your recorded points as you scroll down the list. My IPhone is in an Otterbox and I carry my phone anyway as reception improves in remote areas. I also carry a PLB (locater beacon) and have a 2nd car/buddy somewhere near by. Must admit I have not used the detector GPS beyond a play around. RDD

Thanks for sharing Lunk. 150 nuggets +, + your mums. Well done. It was the dozens of ounces my mum was finding a year that got me obsessed with detecting cheers RDD