Northeast

Spent a couple of days in the GT (Victoria, Aus) last Friday, Saturday and 2 hours Sunday morning.  

17 pieces on Friday over a small area that I covered pretty well with the QED and a Detech Ultra Sensing 11" coil about 12 months ago.  Many of these pieces banged hard and literally within 1 foot of where I'd found gold with the QED.  All fairly shallow targets - nothing deeper than 6 inches.  Was able to use Normal for 90% of the time.  

Saturday I went walking in a few different spots out in the Whipstick, just having a bit of a look and seeing if I could find a little patch.  Did get a few pieces but mostly specimens off small quartz reefs.  Difficult was the only real option for the ground in the Whipstick. 

Sunday was a quick wander with the 14" DD close to where I was staying and actually found a new spot, got 6 small bits and have something to go back and work on properly.  The 14" really does hit on small bits well but I'm sure the 11" will do better there next time. 

Learnings? 

I find the speaker perfectly fine but there was little wind and not much leaf litter underfoot to dull out the sound.  Ran on level 2 for the whole weekend.  Still going to work on a Bluetooth receiver and a speaker set-up and am watching what others are trialling to see what works before purchasing.  

The battery - hit low battery alarm on both of the big days.  Was on the ground both days about 7.30 a.m. and worked until 5.30 p.m. each day.  A few short breaks for water, apples, bananas, chick peas and sardines - tasty detectorist menu ?

Normal Vs Difficult - Occasional hot rocks and ground noise but a simple scrape, assess the noise, quick flick into Difficult and assess again and spent some time scraping/digging a little deeper to make sure of what I am listening to whilst I'm learning the 6000.  I'm sure it will not work on EVERY signal but I did notice an unusual occurrence.   Every target that ended up being an ACTUAL target was still able to be heard after flicking into Difficult, albeit sometimes a softer signal than it had been in Normal.  

Noise cancel - did get noisy at times but the noise cancel is so quick and settles it down well.  The DD of course, was very quiet.  

Auto and Auto Plus - Pretty much stayed in Auto Plus the whole time after reading JP's comments the other day.  Although, if EMI is giving you trouble then reducing to Manual 1 Sensitivity knocks out all of the noise and still hits on targets.  

Threshold - used it.  Didn't test no Threshold.  Believe it or not I actually enjoy listening to a Threshold.   And I can't trust no Threshold ?

Porous/wiry stuff - I think Gerry is going to be happy.  The GPX 6000 does indeed seem to hit on stuff that others may struggle on.   Many of the pieces in the first pic are either stupid small or are quite porous.  Many of them aren't solid pieces - they are quite light for their size.  The 3rd pic - the piece at the left end of the tweezers has some real wiry stuff in there and I think 'stuff all' gold would be a good description of gold content.  

Wrap-up - I'm loving the 6000 the more I use it    ? 

First pic - about 6 of these are from a different trip - was just showing the wife the totals. 

A little speci from the Whipstick. 

Couple of speccies.

Very sad to hear that Norm.  

I do hope that any potential therapies that are available to you are helpful in managing symptoms and improving quality of life. 

I'm not sure what Palliative Care services are like in the US but here in Aus it is better to be linked-in well before you think you need them as they can provide lots of assistance, advice, equipment and support for the client and their families.  A lot of people are shocked when we bring up Palliative Care so early because they think it means they must not have much time.  We have to reassure them that PC isn't all about death, it is about living and living well.

All the best to you and your family.  And I hope the goings on of the forum can brighten your day every now and then  ?

N.E. 

If you haven't read Steve's 'Novel' then do yourself a favour - thanks Steve for taking the time  ?

Spent the day with the 6000.   Coil on the ground from about 9.30 until 5 p.m. with a half hour break.  

Over 2 small areas at different locations that we have totally flogged with GPZ's, a QED, a 5000, an Equinox 800 and a Gold Monster.  Areas are probably 5 metres X 15 metres each.     Quite a few targets today that just shouldn't be there!!  11 of them lead shot too  ?

At some stage this morning I had a fleeting thought of disappointment that what I had spent 8K on was not big and heavy and gave the impression that I've really 'got something' for my money.  And then I quickly realised that the light and nimble (yet well built and sturdy) 6000 was precisely why I forked out the cash on this new model instead of saving 3K and going for a heavy, harnessed, battery attached, need to work out something to make the audio wireless, GPX 5000.  Or even a 4500.  Seriously considered both.  I'm glad now, and my body will thank me long term, that the 6000 was the final choice.  

With the 11" attached the balance point of the shaft is about 6 inches closer to the control box than what the Equinox 800 is with its 11" DD and extended to the exact same length.  Hence, the 6000 is not quite as nose heavy and just feels really balanced.  All day today with no harness, no guide stick, no soreness at all.  Nice!

The manual says the 14" DD loses some depth but is essentially still as sensitive on shallower pieces.  The manual is correct!  The 2 smaller pieces in the photo were found with the 14" DD coil - ridiculous!!  ?  They add up to .07 gram together and to be honest I'm not sure how accurate that is - they may be lighter. 

I read where people said to throw away the DD and buy the 17" - based on the experiences of what a traditional DD offered I guess?  I'm not so sure about that.  Not a bad patch hunter I would have thought.  For a person that has never used a DD though - it is a bitch to pinpoint with ? 

More time is needed get a feel for it but Steve pretty much confirmed what I was thinking from today re: performance.  It doesn't quite have the extreme mineralisation handling characteristics I've found the SDC to have.  I did find about 4 hot rocks and did dig some ground noise.   Those are rare events with an SDC in the areas I went today.  Huge improvement on the hot rocks compared to the QED though. 

Small gold sensitivity?  Well, I think it pretty much equals the SDC in that regard.  But, if I already had an SDC and a Coiltek 14X9 I don't know that I would be racing out to buy a 6000 if my main local gold was small and shallow.  

Big, deep gold?  I don't know unfortunately, but hope to find out sooner rather than later  ?  It did find a few deep targets and it obviously 'lights up' targets differently to a GPZ and an SDC as some of these targets were right where they should not be.  

Today I was fossicking but purely to get some confidence on ground I know well.  There are a few other local spots that the 6000 will get a run to, as Reg Wilson would say, pick the last crumbs off the carcass.  However, I now feel I've got that light weight yet high performing prospecting machine that I can take out in the field with confidence.  

Almost forgot.  Played with the Threshold On and Off.  On for me.  Off was just weird.  Off is great on the Equinox when coin hunting but I can't see it getting a run on the 6K.  

Cheers, N.E.  

Got to spend an hour with mine last evening.  Thanks to JP for sending it out so promptly ?

What do you do with a new detector?  Put it in Normal and turn the Sensitivity to 10!!   ?

Went to a local spot that has been a very small gold spot - one that I have described here when using the GPZ and Monster. 

Found 1 little piece of quartz that could only be described as having a splash of gold on it. 

Got tomorrow off so will get out and test properly with more regular settings, undug targets and swapping between settings to see what works best in my ground.  

Ergonomics - brilliant!!  Audio with speaker - as loud as you could want.  Headphones - connected easily via BT and good sound coming through.  Threshold - considering I was in Sensitivity 10 it was actually not bad.  Think an SDC on Sensitivity of 3 - just a little chatty.   

Dug some ground noise and got 2 hot rocks but this is rich, red clay type ground with wet pockets in amongst dryer pockets and running the unit at max it was not a surprise.  

Initial impression - love it.