Chet

Looks like good country to look in and just being there is great. Recommend reading this post if you haven’t already. My Tips On Nugget Detecting With The Minelab Equinox https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/7468-my-tips-on-nugget-detecting-with-the-minelab-equinox/ Have a good day, Chet

Mitchel Running over the detector and breaking the lower shaft says a lot about how well the Russian coil is built. It was supporting a huge weight from a loaded vehicle. Have a good day, Chet

This is an excerpt from one of my previous posts; It is reasonable to be concerned about interference from the two connectors being located so close to the coil. This is not a problem since the detector only detects motion change relative to the coil. A simple experiment will demonstrate how the detector nulls out metal that is not changing position relative to the coil. Place a small test target (0.06g) on the ground with an aluminum soda or beer can about 2 feet from it. Swing the detector over the small test target. You will only hear the response from the large can.

Using other materials that Jason mentioned can be used on small coils where the coil is wound around a small core. Small AM radio antennas use a ferrite core to great advantage. Some pin pointers and metal detector probes use ferrite rods to reduce the size and concentrate the magnetic field. But the cores weigh more than the wire wrapped around them. Any material used must not dampen the high frequency positive and negative transitions of the ZVT waveform. Which is much higher than any VLF frequency. I haven’t seen an example of using a light weight dispersed or a ring of mat

In the ZVT function there is an abrupt square wave transition between reversing high positive and high negative current levels. The transition periods are a high frequency function that requires Litz wire for efficiency. The Minelab and Russian GPZ coils both use Litz wire in the Transmit and Receive windings to reduce high frequency energy loss. Magnetic eddy currents from nearby wires have opposite polarity and cause energy loss in coil windings. There is less energy loss in single layer Spiral Litz windings since there are no adjacent wires above and below the single layer

Here are some thoughts and trade-offs that companies may consider on how to reduce the weight of a coil. Use smaller gauge or less copper wire. Bunch wound coils use a little less wire than Spiral wound coils which can reduce performance. Smaller gauge wire in the transmit winding could reduce overall performance. Use less plastic by reducing the overall thickness and strength of the housing and the shaft attachment area. Use lighter weight foam or other material to fill and support the windings within the housing. Some lighter weight fillers break down with age and heat.

From this article it looks like 5-7 lbs for weight. https://detecthistory.com/news/minelab-gpx-6000-new-2021-minelab-metal-detector/

Having the D-ring positioned higher on top of the shoulder puts more of the load onto the back of the shoulder or even a lifting effect on the back strap instead of having a downward load similar to a backpack load.

I have two favorite picks. One is a 3 pounder and the other a five pounder. Either one is carried on a padded military belt. The pick holder is a Drill Pouch from Home Depot. It is attached to the belt with a 10/32 screw, fender washers and locknut. It swivels and allows the pick handle to be slid into the large opening without looking. The five pounder is often carried in my left hand when hunting without the Equinox in areas with little trash. Both picks have rare earth magnets attached so they can pick up much of the trash. The key to carrying heavy picks and heavy water loads is

Many years ago a local Mining Supply shop had a break-in with a much better outcome. The shop was full of expensive dredges and metal detectors. The glass counter had gold and antique guns on display. The owner had an alarm service that informed the police of the break-in. They responded too late to catch the thieves. They ask the owner for an estimate of what was missing and a value for their report. He looked around and to his amazement the only thing missing was a large galvanized tub full of sand and water salted with gold for customers to learn how to pan for gold. The

Yes I tried that. My mistake was not transferring the Find Points to the Exchange2 program before loading the software fix into the GPZ 7000. The GPZ 7000 manual states that the GPS limits are 100 Find Points, 100 Way Points and 10 GEO Hunts. So I will store the Find Points in the Exchange2 program in three files; California, Nevada and Arizona. Then load the detector with the appropriate state Find Points prior to leaving home. Have a good day, Chet

The other settings are mostly the default settings except the Threshold is set at 1. This area was well hunted with a GPZ 7000 and a Gold Monster. So seven of these nuggets were barely detected with the 7000. I tried different settings on the threshold on some of them. It just caused a lot of noise and the small nuggets were more difficult to hear with the noise.

I always run with the GPZ 7000 in enhanced GPS mode and record all Find Points. When Minelab fixed the GPS software I accidentally lost approximately 50 find points when I loaded the fix. On this trip when I tried to record the fifth nugget location it would not accept the Find Point because it had limited out at 100 Find Points. In the trashy areas I hunt with the Equinox 800 with the small coil in my left hand and the GPZ 7000 in my right hand. That way I can discriminate out most of the shallow trash. The 10 nuggets were all to deep for the Equinox to detect until some of the material

Brian we really do need to put big numbers on those big round rocks and big trees. LOL Chet

In one of the many hydraulic worked areas.