Andyy

And - you remind me of my wife. wife: "Hey honey, which blouse do you like better the red one or the blue one?" me: "I like the red one" 15 minutes later, what is she wearing? the blue one!!! Well why did you ask?? LOL In all seriousness, And, I can still understand why you got the GPZ. In my opinion it takes a little getting used to but it can find gold below half a grain. Problem is (as others said) it does not have a small coil option. That is really the only thing that really kills the reputation of this detector (other than insane cost). It does not work well in rock creeks. And what do most creeks have … rocks. So I find this frustrating. This is one reason I wish I kept my 5000 with the small coil. Instead I had to get a GM1000 for these cases. And I have not regretted it. Good luck with that GPZ. Comb this site especially hard. It has many good GPZ tips and tricks. Andyy

Here is one more pic to show the bottom loop connection. The point of all of this is to be able to put the GM on and off without taking off the backpack.

All - I thought I would share an idea on carrying your gold monster. This is more for those of you that hike very far before you are ready to detect, or maybe you already have your hands full with another detector like a GPX or GPZ. It is not an original idea but one I saw recently for carry spare fishing poles. I recently tried it on a night hunt and really liked how it handled. It allowed me to use my GPZ and then switch to my GM1000 when I hit the bedrock. A major caveat is that I have converted my GPZ to telescoping rods, but I think the idea might still be useful for some people. For starters, this is for people who have made their own stand with PVC pipe fittings. you simply remove the elbow at the end of the stand so that you have a straight piece at the end. This is key, because the first contact point is low on your Camelpak (or other backpack). For this low contact point, you need a zip tie or similar method to make a loop. This is where you put the pole end of the GM1000, then you swing it over your shoulder and hook it to a caribiner that is latched to a high point of the backpack, typically the carrying handle. I used a caribiner but you could sew a velcro loop on there with back pack clips. There are many ways of doing this. Whichever way you choose, don't forget to bring the stand with you. ?

For overlays, and Birdsey, I use Garmin Montana. But realize they are in the very high price range. The Garmin Oregon has similar capabilities and is a little cheaper. Selling point for me was definitely the overlays and having a big screen. My small screen etrex drove me nuts .. but it was still a great gps.

Being able to put my geo maps on a gps is priceless to me when I am hiking all over the place and don't know where I might end up. I used to manually make my non geo maps in google earth and then import them to the GPS. Now I just pay to do the BaseCamp. It is so much easier than trying to line up points exactly with the township boxes... (those of you that have done it, will know what I mean) Whatever GPS you get, you will likely have an attachment point. I just put this on my chest (right side) clipped to a carrbeaner. When I want to know where I am at, I flip it up to look at it and then let it go when I'm done. Easy cheesy.

I'm with Steve. I have the Garmin Montana, which is like a Rolls Royce of GPS, but I really wish I had a Rino to communicate with my partner.

Dang, Norm. That is a crazy rough one. You must have found it not far from it's birth place. I agree with Walker. Reunite the rest of the family. There's got to be more near there.

When you're running the Z, you have a good idea if it's a small piece or a gnat. I use divide and conquer for the large or small pieces, but the ones that are faint, I will put dirt in the scoop and then run the coil over the ground to see if I got it. Then I will spread it out on the coil like Phoenix said, either moving it with my finger or blowing the lighter stuff away. I used to lose the really small pieces before because I didn't know how to separate the really small < .03g pieces. Now I get those little suckers every time :)

Hey there Nuggetnewbie!! Here are some prospecting clues that I wish someone had told me..... 1) definitely mylandmatters ... 2) start with a detector that picks up the smallest gold first(there's more of it - you'll learn quicker) 3) know the depth of ground this detector works good in and dig EVERYTHING at least for your first year 4) pick shallow washes with bedrock - sort of goes with #3 5) when in known gold territory with diggings and handstacks, hot rocks (them are some clues), slow your detector to at least 3 seconds per direction keeping it level. You have to work for it by getting dirty, in the bushes, move a few inches of dirt with your shoe, and kick away rock for more depth - that gives you virgin ground. 6) and study...study... study.... and hunt hunt hunt. Enjoy your time outside, because a lot of the time, that is all you come back with :)

I understand everyone's view and did not mean to start anything against bears. Really, I was only attempting to add a little humor. In truth, I am not a hunter and LOVE animals. I don't even like seeing coyotes shot. But not everyone agrees because we all have our own situations and locations. In the "True Story" I spoke of, me and my buddy were hitchhiking across Alaska and in very remote areas. I would never shoot my partner. But we still get a good laugh about that conversation to this day. But I still do not underestimate what a bear can do. For instance, I was in the forest service, and when they drop you off in Alaska to fight fires, they give the Squad Boss a 12 gauge shotgun for the bear, JUST IN CASE. Not that anyone is going to go after them but if you know grizzlies, and you come upon a mother and her cubs by mistake, it'll likely be the last time. Sometimes a shot in the air may stop a bear. Plenty of situations when it hasn't. Secondly, in Wyoming's yellowstone national park, a bicyclist was attacked and killed a week after my family arrived there for vacation. It shocked us. But unfortunately it happens every year. It does not take much research to find all of the people mauled by bear who were not looking for trouble. Plenty of stories like this here in the states, in bear country. BUT... do not get me wrong. I DO NOT advocate shooting any bear, grizzly or otherwise. We are here to live with them. I carry a gun not just in Alaska but in my home areas of Arizona as well. Unfortunately, we have a lot of rabid animals and sometimes the mountain lion that are hard on their luck will stalk you. The gun is good to just scare them off. And then we have the crazy drug runners and such. I could go on and on with stories. Guns here in America are just for those JUST IN CASE situations. And honestly, I would much rather be talking about gold over guns

You notice there are two people and one of them has the gun. When I went backpacking Alaska with my buddy, he started razzing me saying ... "what are you doing with that gun? That .40 cal isn't going to stop a bear." I told him that he was correct, it likely would only anger the bear. But it doesn't have to stop a bear. It just had to slow *him* down. He gave me a blank white stare. True story.

Ever try to run a ZED with even a 14 inch coil in a mine dump area? You will be there for the rest of your life. Tight spaces and mine dumps are not the ZED's cup of tea. There are better detectors for this, for sure. That is where my VLF shines. So as Steve has said before, there is no best detector for everywhere.

kind of sad. It is interesting how quickly we learn about gold once we find our first piece. If I hadn't gotten the fever, I probably wouldn't know what to look for either. Heck... I'm thinking of going back to make sure all that gold I am hoarding away isn't pyrite.... LOL

My experience with the Sadie 8x6 coil on the GPX 5000 is that in general, you were very lucky to get anything less than .2grams even when touching it. But ... the Sadie had phenomenal depth on everything larger in size. It really amazed me in this respect. So it definitely still has a place.

Tried those adapters along with many other types and they wouldn't work (on Black Widows or Sun Rays). I know a lot of people who tried and failed as well. Then I ended up running into a guy on the other forums who finally made an adapter that worked. Now I can just use my one set of headphones. Still not sure what Minelab was thinking when they came out with a different jack.

I still think there is a way that they -Minelab- could stuff that wire into the smaller coil version for the GPZ. Not having a small coil is really a huge negative for people wanting a GPZ. I can understand why people keep their GPX's. Those Joey and Sadie coils are killers in tight areas. I had to buy a Gold Monster just so I could work these types of areas.

Wanderer, I did not do well with the 705 and mineralization. I would recommend the Gold Monster 1000. It handles the mineralization so much better if this is your concern.

What they are worth is dependent on the user .. :p I know, I am being dodgy. They are worth whatever you can get them for. They come down in value pretty quickly once they are used. Shop around like you would a car and you will soon answer your own question. But you can find some good deals around if you talk to the dealers. Don sold me his but if you can, go to a minelab dealer so you get training then you KNOW you are getting a fair price and a genuine gpz. This training can be extremely valuable. There is a learning curve and a lot of people do not take the time to learn it. But getting back to the question, base your price on the warranty left and conditions and extras (like the 19" coil, spare batteries ..etc.)

Don - I had no problem running your GPZ in hot ground. For Arizona, it handled it better than my GPX5000. First thing I did was pounded areas I had with the GPX5000 and I'd say 75% of the time, I found more gold that was either out of reach of the 5000 or way smaller than the 5000 could hear. But here is what I learned: 1) forget running the GPZ like the GPX5K. They are different animals. Expect a little more noise. It does not sound exactly the same, does not tune the same, and will pick up some extra ground noise more in a useful way (if that makes sense) Treat it more like a VLF on crack. 2) GPZ needs to be moved slower and kept more level. It is due to the coil design. 3) The one big weakness (which may be what caused your issue-as I have heard it before from others) is not having a salt mode. I *do* think GPZ fell short with this. People running in certain places of Rye Patch have encountered this. As for the new timings (I don't notice a difference at all) So if you're mainly running salty soil ... I think you still might be disappointed. (curious what others might add) Also damp soil was a problem sometimes on the GPX5000 but the GPZ handled this damp ground very smoothly. But then again, my damp isn't salt damp. 4) and to be fair, the other big weakness is that there is no small coil size. (so you will miss the tight places) So if you can deal with #3 & #4 (and the price tag), I would definitely put the GPZ in the lead. But if you have all the 5000 coils and you're happy, why change. I would still choose my GPZ 100 times over myself. And the people who go out with me know I have found a heck of a lot of gold with it (large and small). If I had the right coil, the 5000 may have found some of the big pieces. "If I had the right coil" being the key words. As for the air test ... don't do it. It is useless ... means nothing. Just my opinion and I mean no disrespect. Just that more than half the work is tuning out the ground for the situation, so why remove it from the equation? Also, the GPZ is typically run at much lower sensitivity numbers than the 5000. I typically run no more than 4 or 5. (unless you're used to vlf machines and then you can run the smoking hot settings discussed on this forum). For me, those settings do great on the small stuff but can mask out the deep stuff. But all this is just my experience with both machines.

Nice job, Walker. Some killer nuggets there. Tom - yep ... all the big stuff is gone in AZ. No gold here .....

Interesting, JW. Sometimes I put it through the top loop of my water pack (meant to be a handle). This still isn't very ergonomic, though. I am thinking some sort of shoulder sling with a loop on it would work well.

I am just wondering what you all did with your picks? Did you grow third arms? I like the Guide Arm, but then the only place to put the pick is on your hip. I do not like having to have a big chunk of metal on my hip. Some say they do not notice it, but I do. For a backpack I use the Camelback and the hip stick. This way I always have water with me. If I could find a good way to use the Guide Arm, I would do it, just to save my shoulder.

I agree with Dsmith. Manual Sensitivity will not track out the gold. I keep mine on this most of the time. Auto sensitivity, however, is really good in mild ground and can give you more sensitivity than Manual at 10. But I am not fortunate enough to be able to really test this. I believe this has been discussed a few times in this forum. Andyy

Smallest I could get with my GPX5000 with 9x14 or the Sadie, was .2g. But this could be due to my settings and ground conditions. I ran my machine very conservative and quiet. In my opinion, my settings are better for the deep gold in mineralized ground. Small gold depth can be improved if you can learn to handle a little more noise in your threshold. But also .... If you want to go smaller, get the flat wire elite or evolution coils. They seem to go just as deep but allow you to sense smaller gold than the non flat wire type. As for the Sadie, that coil is probably one of my favorite. It will get .2g nuggets all the way up to 2oz nuggets, VERY deep. At least it did for me. Of all my coils the Sadie (except for ground coverage) was the most versatile to the different sizes of gold.

Rail Dawg - not sure of your history with detectors but the GPZ is a different animal from the GPX 5000. It can seem to be a little noisier than the GPX but it is actually giving you more information. Be patient with it and she'll treat you well. Learn her language, take your time, and read the advice on the forum. Hope to see much gold in your future!