Northeast

Thanks too Norvic - just read your comment that popped up while I was writing. Normal and a sensitivity of 20 - you're a lucky fella. I struggle to get mine to run in Normal down here at anytime without 172 hot rocks per day

Thanks JP. I have watched that vid before but had forgot that you had tried Normal and the response was no better. I have seen for myself on an 11 gram piece that General/Difficult was way better than General/High Yield. G/HY simply didn't hear it at all. It suprises me that Normal ground mode was actually detrimental to hearing your signal. I was always of the belief that Normal would make every signal better (regardless of size, density, etc). But the increased ground response with Normal is masking the signal?? I know it is only a guess, but what do you think your particular piece would have done in Difficult/Extra Deep? Improved signal, same or gone? I've read that Extra Deep was going to be more useful when the 19 came out - has that been the case? I only have the 14" - is extra deep worthwhile at all for the 14"? Thanks for the response and the vid link. Always pick up something on a second watching.

Maybe a new thread if you have the time JP. "How to target large, deep gold with the GPZ?" Is it your conservative settings or something different again? How does the audio differ, etc? There are bits and pieces (linked below) that maybe all add up to an answer but if there are any other secrets you want to add JP, I'll listen

You mentioned in your original post about Reg being lucky. I suppose there is some luck in anything we do but after seeing how Reg approaches things, his mapping system and the hours he puts into research I would actually say that luck has only played a minor part in Reg's success. Time, research, time, good equipment, time, knowledge, time, a positive attitude, time ?? 10% of anglers catch 90% of the fish - same applies to gold I guess ??

DD - I'm really not sure if that is the same nugget but I'm guessing not as I was told it was over 100 ounces and I don't think it was shown in public. There is certainly public ground that hasn't had a detector over it. A coil is small and the area is immense. And the old saying of "an inch may as well be a mile in detecting" - a big nugget only needs to be missed by a centimeter, regarded as trash, it got too dark and they had found nothing for the day so they never went back - a thousand scenarios why gold can still be in the ground. And of course - as Reg showed the other day - there is simply patches on private and public land that have not been found yet. Lots of research, hopefully new patches and potentially long periods without gold are ahead for me - hopefully with an outcome of some bigger gold and less rubbish dug

DD - lots of questions. I know they are for Reg but I'll give my opinion if I can. I'm certain there are more 20 ounce + nuggets left. They pop up in the media every now and then and there are many more that never make it to the papers/internet. I know of a local person here who was detecting with a friend over near Bendigo in the last month and apparently the friend found a 100 ounce + nugget. I haven't seen photos but the story is from a reliable source. Not in the media so not made up for the sake of their '15 minutes of fame'. I was going to put this in it's own thread to thank Reg but it might as well go in here. Elusive (from this forum) and myself spent Saturday morning with Reg as part of his "Digger Downunder" business http://www.diggerdownunder.com.au/ I can only encourage you to do the same if you have the time/money to do so. I had not met Reg before and found the information presented was an amazing insight into how Reg has hunted the big nuggets for nearly the past 40 years. He was very free with the information provided, very welcoming and above all, just a good bloke to have a yarn with. I won't go into it too much but I believe it was a low cost for the 'light bulb' that has been turned on for me and the time spent with reg was 'gold' in itself. Good luck with your gold hunting. And thanks Reg

Davsgold - thanks, I will try that. I'd only ever tried it from the main screens and because it didn't work I never set up my user page but maybe that is the secret. Andyy - I have a very good memory for very random things - but not for the things that are probably important ? JP - also thank you. I did assume semi auto would make that taping thing completely redundant. At the risk of getting off topic - but sort of still relevant. There was a bit off a discussion here a few months back about ferrite balancing and I don't think we got your thoughts as you were burning the candle at both ends. It was around why do we want the Z ferrite balanced to the supplied ferrite and not to the ferrite in the ground that we are detecting? It seems to make sense that we would want it tuned to the local ferrite but this is obviously not the case - do you know why? Some of the previous postulations (especially from Steve H) can be seen here

Nice piece AU. Surprised it's only 1.47 grams - looks to be a little heavier. Well done

I've never tried that but I'm sure I read somewhere that somebody used to tape a ferrite ring on the detector shaft about half a foot from the coil. Not sure if it was a Z or a GPX but apparently it kept it real quiet as it was continuously tracking to the ferrite. Probably not required now if you run in semi-auto tracking as your ferrite is locked anyway. Related question. When you set it across to manual ground balance (during a dig) does the Z prompt you on the screen to re-use the ferrite ring and perform a Quick-Trak? Every time I have tried this it changes to 'Perform a Quick-Trak' on the screen and won't go away until I do it. It gave me the ships doing that so I now just change to a ground mode that I am not planning on using and it can sit there soaking up the data and then when I start detecting again I switch back to the ground mode I was using. How can I get it to swap to manual without making me re Quick-Trak? Please

Australia = 800...depending on reviews from 'on the ground'. It has to be able to handle the ground

Thanks for the clarification Steve. And no worries Buzzard, it gave me a laugh. I thought you might have just got back from the trough after a few frothies

8 kg - jeezus!! Just a little kilo nuggie will do us this weekend Reg

What is a wheatie? ?

Yes, there are bigger ones out there JW - but the plan with my album was to start small and get bigger. As per yesterdays finds my plan is working - mwahahaha

A quick session with Elusive today in the local hills. Having a bit of a look at a spot that he and his wife have found a few small pieces around the .5 to 1 gram mark with his SDC. He invited me to swing the Z over the tight little creek to see if we could pick up something deeper. Not 10 minutes and the Z sounded off nicely. .22 or a bit of gold by the sound. Sure enough, a nice piece of yella. Elusive's to keep but one that I can claim for the GPZ album It was a very thin, flat piece and we are guessing it was sitting on its side in a crevice. 1.575 gms on Elusive's scales. Really stormy around NE Vic today so almost impossible to try and detect the small pieces as the detector was constantly squeaking with EMI. A creek for another day with no storms and the threshold ramped to 20

I'm 100% sure you weren't the only one JW Welcome to the forum DD ??

Blue tongue and goanna - you don't know what you're missing!! But stay away from old moggy - they taste like crap

That's the story and we're sticking to it Steve!! The grey ghost, the silver fox ?

Have you got a Minelab dealer nearby? I'd be taking it back there to see if they can trouble shoot anything and at the very least you can have the support from a dealer that there is actually an issue. If they can see the obvious problem but offer no solution they can box it and send it back to Minelab for you.

And maybe Australia too Mitchell. The Equinox 800 may be the answer ?

Nice to see Rios. Hope it gets richer. Enjoy seeing your pictures and progress ??

Thanks again Reg, always an interesting read. Also, I have sent you a message - check the little envelope up in the R) hand corner. Cheers.

Jin, with the amount of gold you've been finding I'm surprised you haven't had a few wives wanting to head out with you And bread with your tinned soup - that's luxury Seriously though, really nice rig and great that the wife is interested ??

Can't say that I've had much of an issue with the GPZ but I'm also in the Godwright age bracket and 6' 3". I did have a short prospect with some older fella's a month or so ago near Bendigo. Approx 62 and 70 years old. The 62 handles the Z ok but has just had a titanium knee put in and that may well end his Z experiment. The 70 uses a hip stick and says he has not a single issue with the Z's weight - but before the hip stick it was almost an unviable proposition. The 70 year old also said he knows an 80 year old lady who has no issues with the GPZ - only because she uses a hip stick. It's on my 'I need to buy one' list.

Thanks Steve, much appreciated ??