Northeast

OK. So I guess pepita = reasonably small, about the size of a pumpkin seed? And 5g is obviously 5g. The reason I ask is that if you have mostly small gold, mostly shallow gold and very mineralised red ground then the SDC 2300 is maybe going to be your best choice. It is the cheapest of the models you are looking at, it excels on small gold, it excels in mineralised ground and it is really simple to use. However, it is not the deepest of the machines you are looking at and coil selection is very limited compared to something like a GPX 5000. And, like geof_junk said, the 5000 is very versatile and would help in lots of different situations. It is also much more complex to learn than the SDC 2300. There are always trade-offs unfortunately. In the end it is of course your decision and will depend on other factors like how much gold do you think there is to find, how often do you go out looking for gold, is this your hobby or your job, how much effort do you want to put into learning a complex detector versus a very simple detector, etc. Best of luck and please come back and show us your gold when you find it 😊

Is the gold you are chasing mostly small and shallow or larger, deeper pieces?

Again, thank you 🙏 It has been annoying me a bit that when I do send the GPX 6000 11" coil back for a replacement (cracked ears and cracked at the lead insertion point) I have to pay the postage. I'll send the postage costs with it now 👍

The words 'usually' and 'likely' concern me 🤣 I might email Minelab about it. Thanks for the pertinent links 😉

Sorry that this is not related to the thread but your sentence here pricked up my ears. I have never used my Equinox 800 underwater but now I happen to have the means to do just that. Are you suggesting that if it drowned, even though it is outside warranty period, that Minelab should have to replace it as it is absolutely a known issue? Re: the topic of the thread. The only thing I have brought from a big box store was a Profind 35 and it was only because I happened to be there when they have a 20% off weekend - it was a bit of an impulse purchase. Everything else has been Miner's Den (when I first started), JP at the Outback Prospector and Nenad at PhaseTechnical. Can't imagine I would ever be in so much of a hurry that I can't wait for Nenad or JP if it is an item that they actually stock.

A) ridiculous that it is only available when asked for. Surely they thought someone in Australia might want a wireless solution that does not just involve the supplied headphones. B) why not JUST provide the Z-Link receiver standard with the Axiom and people can use any headphones/ear buds they wish and don't even bother providing wireless headphones with the unit. Most people complain about supplied headphones anyway. C) something Minelab should have also learnt (I think) considering the WM08 supplied with the Equinox was excellent and yet they provided nothing similar with the GPX 6000. Just my opinion but I find it frustrating from an end user perspective. I don't think the designers/people choosing accessories actually think about what the user actually wants and will be best suited to the field conditions we experience. GB - glad you've been able to get some units into Oz with a bit of 'encouragement' 👍

You mentioned that your friend was in manual 4. Was the quietness still evident in manual 10 and/or Auto +? Got a mate who was keen on the NF but that might change his mind 👍

Yes, at home I use the 17" rarely as it is not a scrub/bush type coil, but in W.A. and some parts of central Vic it has certainly seen some use. Yes, no idea re: the practicalities of the technology or the amount of wire and having to stuff it in a smaller housing. Hoping @Coiltek or @Aureous might be able to bridge that gap.

Nearly 2 years on and I must say that my use of the DD coil on the GPX 6000 is limited. A couple of specific areas in Northeast Victoria and 2 times in W.A. last year that worked brilliantly on killing salt signal but found me no more gold. One of the reasons that it hardly leaves the storeroom is that I find it large and unwieldy for working scrubby areas. It was OK in W.A. on open, flat ground but still heavy. Now that the monos are mostly out, I am wondering if anyone has some scuttle butt about some smaller DD sizes in the wings? A 10" X 6" for example? With the Garrett Axiom getting 3 X DD's straight off the bat I am wondering if Minelab might be encouraging some after market manufacturers to delve into the DD space for the 6000? @Coiltek ??? And if I could 'poke' NF, Detech, Nel, X-Coils, etc I would 😃

I am sure I remember Steve H writing on here somewhere that just because you can set your recovery speed fast, it doesn't mean you need to swing fast. Setting your recovery speed at 6 or 7 and then sweep with a mild swing speed might open up those squeakers that are hiding between the grunters 👍 (disclaimer: after 4 years with the Equinox I'm still a noob!). You've probably already read these but worth posting anyway. https://www.minelab.com/community/treasure-talk/recovery-speed-target-masking#:~:text=Recovery speed defines how quickly,coil at the same time.

Hence why I don't wear jewellery at the beach!! 🤣

Yep, can use a small sluice and can use a high banker. Can use mechanical stuff to shift water (for the highbanker) but not to extract gravels. Any extraction is hand tools only. We also have excluded streams - about 70 of them - where no form of prospecting is apparently allowed. That is a bit of a grey area though as it is a very old rule and actually speaks to ‘occupation’ for the purpose of prospecting or something to that effect. Unfortunately, yes. Bit like our miners right stating the need to re-fill your holes when detecting and that still doesn’t get done 🙄

Never had an issue Steve. Thanks for all that you do 👍

Hi Gary. Sometimes it can even be basic stuff. Are your connections all nice and tight? Is the coil lead well secured on the shaft? I’m thinking if the lead is moving at the end of each swing and causing the coil to ‘see’ the lead. Is your swing speed really fast and it is jerky motion at the change of direction that is causing the falsing? Does it happen at sensitivity of 15? Does it happen in a single frequency or only in multi? Does it happen in any of the other modes away from the beach? Have you got someone else’s coil you could test your machine on. Maybe a dodgy coil? Sometimes it is just a process of elimination. And if you get too far lost in setting changes there is always a Factory Reset to bring it back to square one. Best of luck finding a solution 👍

I wonder if at some time in the past, if on a valley floor, the water may have actually run 90 degrees to where it now runs and therefore the parallel crevices were at one time cross crevices? Not sure if that’s possible on the location of which you speak? I know the river I intend to work the most has quite a wide valley floor and at some time in the past the river would have flowed right across the floor and at all different angles.

Hey RR. Definitely would be helpful but unfortunately (or fortunately) we are not allowed to use vacs or any sort of dredge in Australia. Unfortunately because it would be cool to give it a go and a tiny dredge would not do a great deal of damage. Fortunately because I am a bit of a greenie and the mess left behind by big suction dredging and whole scale working of rivers is both damaging to flora and fauna and very ugly to look at - often in what should be pristine and protected environments. Just my personal opinion, please don’t hang me for it 😉

Just getting into this myself. Interesting point. Would have thought the cross cut crevices would have held significantly more 👍 Me too. Considering what the old timers scraped out was laid down over millions of years, I wonder how much is going to get replaced over 1 big flood event or a decade or a hundred years. Do you use a pinpointer at all? Less sensitive than an 800 coil but also a lot easier to fit into nooks and crannies. Has the water gone down enough to let you get in yet? Infrequent rain events are just frequent enough and just heavy enough to be a pain in the butt here re: visibility and just a little too much flow.

Does too. It’s here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHIZQOmdcBCyqP2hGWvW-Sg Only had a quick look as I am supposed to be working. Couple of nice bits. 1 very nice piece!

Congratulations. This probably needs a thread of its own but, can you detect for gold in China? It isn’t something that I thought the government would allow. Can you keep everything you find?

Pulse Dive 2in1 kit and a Nokta zippered finds bag ordered from Nenad just now @PhaseTech https://phasetechnical.com.au/product/pulse-dive-scuba-pointer-2in1/ I promise not to check the mailbox more than 3 times per day 🤞 😉

🤣 Madness 😳 It is at the top of the list at the moment. The big question is, do I get the kit with the smaller coil included or buy the pinpointer on its own and get just the big 8" coil. Decisions, decisions 🤔

I did read somewhere that it actually works better in salt water - does that sound right? I am a freshwater based 'diver'. Although I won't catch and release any size piece of gold I am primarily looking for those 5 gram and upwards pieces as they generally add up a little quicker (location known to have multi ounce pieces up to a verified 10 ounce piece found in 1982 during a drought). Based on freshwater and size I am going for, is the Pulse Dive still top of my tree? 🤔 Or are the Pulse Dive, Scuba Tector and F-Pulse all optimised to work better in salt?

Unfortunately only waterproof to 6 feet and no coil attachment. Won’t be used in the goldfields, just underwater. Still got the Pro-Find for the gold fields 👍🏻 But again, thanks for the suggestion as it is exactly what I asked for 😉

Thanks Joe. I did see them but had never heard of them and wondered if they were legit. They obviously are! https://www.treasureproducts.com/index.html Yeah, shame pinpoint mode/coil mode can't be had in the same unit. Seem like a reasonable price too - even when converted to AU$. Although they don't make noise by the looks? Must be fairly decent vibration?

Thanks Tony. Yes, they look OK but the underwater pinpointers are either a straight pinpojnter or a coil probe - not interchangeable as either. And the coil probe converts to about AU$700 😳 The price and the lack of local warranty support mean that I can scrub that one off my list. BUT, thanks for the suggestion 🙏 😉