Northeast

Thanks phoenix - appreciate the info

Ok, thanks. How long has this speci been in the wash?

Real purdy. What sort of acid are they bathing in?

I was thinking of the same thing a few days ago. Nice to know roughly where people are from. Northeast Victoria, Australia.

Short term = - crack the gram mark (thought I had yesterday but it was .94). - average at least 1 good days detecting a week for the year. Medium term = - crack the ounce mark. - recoup the cost of the Z and SDC by Christmas this year with gold finds. Long term = - stay healthy enough to continue detecting. - find a virgin reef - even just a little one. Would be very cool to work it from go-to-wo. - previously I would have said to "make a living from detecting" but as with all things if you make your hobby your job sometimes the shine wears off. Happy to leave it as a significant (obsessive, all encompassing ) pastime. Great question GoldEn

In the third pic - is that a dead roo a bit further down the road??

Ashley, Lunk and Steve - thank you. I really appreciate the time/effort you have taken to respond. And Steve, your response in particular - I was happy just to know the what but find myself now knowing the why...and actually understanding it Hopefully it will answer the question for someone else too. Thanks again

I think I once read that the GPZ will " make the goldfields new again". It is ringing true for you. Well done

The Gold Monster is sparking my interest in VLF to supplement my detecting arsenal. But I have a question - what exactly does a discriminating machine discriminate out? I am assuming ferrous and non-ferrous, which in my simple terms means magnetic and non magnetic. Please correct if wrong. So on the iron/ferrous side do we have - nails, tin, bottle caps, metal buttons, please add things in here. Where do meteorites fit in? On the non ferrous side we obviously have gold. But do we also include lead, aluminum, I think most coins aren't magnetic (never tested them), please add things in here. With VLF am I still going to be digging every bit of lead, aluminium can and coin? Or does is narrow down to just gold? I have done a brief search on here that got a lot of hits for the word discriminate but nothing specific. I also know I could google a lot of these answers but I know the very experienced on here will be able to give a very succinct list of what is discriminated out and I can only assume that this is a question many other newbies would be interested to know the answer for. I hope you can help. Adam.

Hi Matt - never had mine under water except for the coil. Will be scared to now! Idaho - definitely not the loose battery issue. Very different to turning off and immediately restarting. It did do that about 6 months ago and taped the batteries and no further problems. Also rang the service dept at Minelab in Adelaide and spoke to a very helpful chap there. He said that it sounded weird and definitely send it back. He also said that it sounded like I had tried everything that he would have suggested to try - which made me relieved. Now I am very nervous about my most expensive ever postage parcel

Spoke to dealer. No suggestions as to the issue. Please post back to Minelab. Will post today and see what happens. Will keep the forum informed.

Digger -About the first 4 times I used the SDC it drove me nuts - random warbles for no apparent reason. Finally dawned on me that the mobile phone in my right side pocket would bump against the control box. Moved the phone and no more issue. Steve - I will certainly keep the forum updated re: what the issue ends up being. Still under warranty so that makes me happy. Chris - that is my gut feeling. It seems that it is something loose that triggers on movement. Have never used it under water (except the coil) so confident that water ingress isn't the cause. We will wait and see. I mostly use the Z anyway so I won't be too lost whilst it is away.

Trying to ground balance was the worst - went really spacko then! Actually, jokes about German sausage - they are the wurst

Yes, forgot to mention that. Noise cancelled about 4 times each time I have had it on - no difference. And I have had times where it you can hear lightning and transmission lines coming through - this is completely different. And yes, even held off the ground, as soon at it is moved it's going nuts. Contacting dealer on Monday - person to speak to not there today. Thanks Chris.

Afternoon forumers, A few days ago I turned on the SDC to check a few hot rocks. It was going crazy with EMI (I thought) and I felt it was the bit of a storm that was happening up the valley. Although when I held it dead still (sat it on the plastic garbage bin) it was fine. Ran the hot rocks over it and they all 'pinged' which was strange because I felt that only the bit of quartz had the potential for actually having some gold. Turned it off, crushed the quartz, no gold, was confused. Turned it on the next night and same thing - very wavering, noisy threshold and would only be stable when dead still. Changed batteries to new, non rechargable - no difference. Took it up the bush today as I thought maybe it was just house, power lines, etc - although I have never had a problem with it near the house. Miles from nowhere in the bush and same issue. Any movement - especially rolling the machine side to side - it just went bananas. Sounded off on anything it went near on the ground. Took the coil cover off when I got home - thought maybe a sliver of wire had got caught. No change. There is no trouble shooting guide in the instruction manual. Tried different batteries again and no better. Re-read the manual and the only thing I could find was to turn the machine on when the sensitivity dial is at '2'. Made sure it was at 2 - no difference. To me it sounds like there is something loose in there or something has made it hypersensitive to any little movement. Any suggestions? Anyone had this issue? There does not seem to be any 'factory reset' type function/button. Feeling like it may be a return to Minelab job

Maybe hire a few different ones first? See if you like it. I took a mate detecting. I offered him to use a detector but he just decided to walk with me. At the end of 3 hours I suggested about making a trip to near Ballarat (near where he lives) to detect for a weekend. He is a very good mate so bluntly told me that he is never detecting again and that was the most boring thing he's ever done. Try before you buy

1/2 a ton JP - congrats and best wishes for the year ahead

Thanks GoldEn. Heading out again Thursday with the Z but might throw the SDC in for a play. These 'no threshold' settings might be enough to entice the Mrs back out into the bush - listening to the threshold wavering about the place gave her the irrates. Even though the SDC is pretty quiet Adam.

Evening all. I went out yesterday arvo and deliberately took the SDC to try these settings as it seemed like a good idea. Not sure if it was just bad EMI but I just couldn't get it to run with a zero threshold. Was constantly popping in and out with noise to the point where it was just hopeless. Tried a few noise cancels but no good. Maybe dropping back to 3 or 4 sensitivity or maybe running it in the morning may have helped - EMI seems worse for me in the arvo. Interested to hear how others go. And GoldEn - when you have yours on sens 5 and 1 dot of threshold is it dead quiet until you get a target?? Thanks, Adam.

Good question. I think I would be. But maybe not as often. And almost definitely wouldn't have bought a Z and an SDC - maybe just the SDC. It's too horrible to even think about Steve

Coota, what machine are you using?

"Severe is a variant of High Yield so has VERY good sensitivity to tiny gold." JP, it is these little snippets that have me checking this forum every day just to see if you've written anything about the Zed. They are the extra info that aren't in the manual. Thanks (again!!). Adam.

Yep, that is a good point. Northeast Vic and more so central Vic have plenty of hot rocks, hard red clay, etc and I've had switch to difficult frequently. Was in difficult most of yesterday as it was just too noisy otherwise. But I find difficult just knocks out such a large percentage of hot rocks, hot ground that I've never needed severe. Have only ever dug 2 hot rocks whilst in difficult - and yes, I smashed them to make sure there was no yellow inside Maybe severe is used on salt lake beds, ironstone patches like I see on videos from Western Australia, etc. Would be interesting to hear if JP had to use it in testing on various grounds during the development phase of the Z.

Welcome to 'Steve's Utopia' Wombat. I have only been here for a few months and have learnt soooo much. I only frequent 1 other forum, have no idea what's gone on in the 'Oz forum from hell' and don't wish to. Many very pleasant and informative people here and it's greatly appreciated by myself. Thanks keeping us drama free Steve

Fantastic start - congratulations