Rob Allison

Hey Reese, Great to see you are back home, away from this Arizona heat .... LOL A few guys purchased GPX 6000 and were hoping to see you in Gold Basin, but I told them I thought you bailed out for the season. Believe it or not, you got me fired up a few months back to get back out with the GPX 6000, so I did. I rounded up 197 nuggets in 5 trips, will post some pictures, but wanted to make sure I cleaned the spot up first 🙂 Wishing you much success in Montana this season. God Bless, Rob

Hey Guys, Well the good old days, if you want to call it, are long gone. They days that dealers could bundle great deals, which I loved to do, are pretty much done. I'm not saying Manufactures don't back the dealers anymore, or am I? I have been a dealer of many manufactures going back over 20 years and the culture has changed. We now live in a technology age, where it's just a simple click of a "buy now" button and your product is on your doorstep potentially the same day. Many customers, we are a small group here on the forum, just visit Amazon and it's there! I probably talk to a dozen of these type of customers throughout the year and none of them knew about their local dealer, any deals, current promo's or any training/support beyond the initial sale. They just heard from a friend, about a certain detector, jumped on Amazon and ordered. Now you ask why, have you ever been at a UPS store or even the post office and seen the amount of Amazon returns. Heck, purchase anything, use it, you don't like return for a full refund. If I did that on all items that a customer decided they wanted to use over the weekend and return, I would have a wall of returned, opened and used items I could never sell for normal price. The days of walking into storefronts to talk with your favorite dealer are far and few in-between anymore in the lower 48. I remember when I first purchased one of my first detectors, it was a place called "Arizona Al's." You would walk in, a small shop, but there was always other guys in there talking about gold and equipment beyond the people running the counter. Al ever put in a small table, but later realized he couldn't get long winded prospectors out of the shop ..... LOL At some point, business is business and you have to run the non-buyers, long winded prospectors out, the coffee machine is now broken - if you know what I mean 😉 I'm sure if you talked with Dealers like myself, Steve H., Chris G., Gerry M., and many others, you would hear the same theme. It's the days of getting great deals, free promotional items (hats, shirts, ect), yearly conferences and great support are long gone. When you start seeing companies like, for example - Bed, Bath and Beyond - selling metal detectors, you know at that point it's not about support to a dealer anymore, it's all about the dollar and who cares who sells it, as long as the manufacture is getting their money. To be honest, the small dealers are slowing being pinched out and what you will see is more direct sales from the manufactures and only a few big box retailers like Amazon. Those great prices, training and such will only be offered from a few dealers that will continue to not give up, giving their very small profits up in training, customer deals, discounts and everything that will benefit the customer beyond their own lifestyle. This is the absolute truth, many of us dealers are running on a very small profit line trying to keep the ship floating. God Bless the small dealers! Rob

Hey OzGold, We both use pretty conservative settings, but I ended up going from the typical High Yield that I love, to General/Normal with the larger coil, 17x13. I use wired headphones, Sun Ray Pro Gold's to be exact. I don't care too much for wireless, at least not yet. If I had to make an educated guess on how much more depth it's getting vs. the 14x13, I would say these nuggets were at the next level of detection, which I would say just a few more inches probably on smaller gold. All the nuggets I found, I think 13 total for like 3 trips on this location and about 6 hours total of hunting. I have found some larger stuff here back in the 90's-2000's era, so I was hoping for a larger piece deep. I think the largest I found was about 3 grams, smallest was about .25 grams. After finding the 13 nuggets and a small handful of deeper rubbish, I thought I might get lucky and score a 1/4 ounce or better at depth. There is still a lot of ground to cover, I just covered some of the places I knew I found a bunch before concentrated in a small area. Hope this helps a bit, Rob

Hey Scott, I have only been out a handful of times, but all over hammered patches with the new GPZ 17x13. I found gold every day, friend running the GPZ with stock coil got skunked 4 times with me. I have 13 small nuggets, from about 1/4 gram to 2 grams all found at great depths. A few targets my friend checked with his GPZ, running very similar settings and didn't hear them and doubted I even had a good target. No magic wands, just another $1100 coil that will find deeper gold 🙂 I'm convinced it will find a lunker deeper "if it's there!" Hope this helps a bit, Rob

Hey Guys, I'm not sure, but it seems every since COVID many manufactures haven't recovered 100%. Whether it's chip shortages, lack of work force or whatever, just seems like it's much harder to get really anything anymore. Nugget Finder coils are no exception, many have been waiting for the 6000 coils since last year, with only small batches trickling in. Anyone looking for Nugget Finder coils, we would love to do business with you. We do have a priority list for the new GPX 6000 coils, so the sooner you get your name on it, the sooner you will be able to get one. I always recommend dealing with your local or favorite dealer. Rob

Hey Bill and others, This has always been a debatable subject (hearing, signal enhancers and miss targets). This last weekend, I gave the new Nugget Finder 17x13 Z Searchcoil another run over hammered patches. My first trip out was actually much better, but we will talk about the second trip to some of the most hammered patches I know about. Keep in mind, I have ran over these few patches with the GPZ and stock coils many times over, along with friends and some customers. Prior to that, hammered to death from VLF's all the way to the GPX 5000 with various sized coils. The ground has been passed over probably every direction, even spots dug up where people found several nuggets in a small area. That all being said, went back with the GPZ 7000, new NF coil, Sun Ray Pro Headphones, No booster/amp and running some pretty conservative settings (Sen 10, Auto Balance, General, Normal) and picked up 3 nuggets over the course of about 5 hours along with several dozen trash targets and bullets. I pretty much concentrated on the area where I know I personally found nuggets. I was super surprised what was missed (many deep trash targets, boot tacks, wire, pieces of tin ...) and the 3 nuggets. I really thought will all the targets missed at depth, I would get lucky to pick out a nice one. Nothing to write home about, but one piece was only a few grains, other was a nice 1 gram specimen and another 1 gram crystalline nugget. A couple of grams only takes a small chunk out of a $1200 searchcoil, but I had a great time and realized you never can clean a patch completely out. My long time thought process has been conservative settings, very little background noise and concentrate on breaks in the threshold. This can't in my opinion be done well with external speakers or detector speakers, but only with a good set of headphones hardwired to the detector. Wishing you all much success! Rob

Great picture guys. I always enjoyed when Erik would come over, he would examine any specimen (gold, silver, copper or whatever) I had on hand. Great to hear you guys sold a bunch of your books. Anyone looking for Erik's books on Rich Hill or the 3 volumes on Quartzsite along with Reese's book we carry them. They all have amazing color pictures and a wealth of information for any prospector/nugget shooter. Rob

Hey Gerry, Hope we both can weather the storm. We both have been long time Minelab & Coiltek supporters, so hopefully they understand a little bit of our frustration. We haven't given up, we have continued to sell, promote and train anyone interested in these products for many years. God Bless, Rob

Hey Guys, Overall, Doc's had brought some amazing products to us over the years. One of the first was when Doc decided to build the Doc's Goldscreamer Power Pack System for the GPX series, as Coiltek decided to stop making the Coiltek Pocket Rocket. The Doc's Goldscreamer Power Pack System for the SD, GP or GPX system has been a huge hit along with the stand along Goldscreamer Signal Enhancers for also the SD, GP or GPX series. Minelab discontinued the Dome top 6v 15ah battery years ago, but thousands of users still owned the SD and GP series detectors needing a replacement at some point. Doc built the 6v 7ah and 6v 12ah Dome Top Aftermarket batteries, which we still sell a bunch of today. Now think of all the control box covers, cover kits, armrest covers, lower shafts 30.5 amd 34.5", Carbon Fiber Shafts, headphone adapters, slimline external speakers, knee pads, snake gaitors and much more. Now that Doc has the 3D Printer, no telling what he might design/build. Thanks for always being a great manufacture, distributor and long time friend. Rob

Hey Reese, How was Saturday's turn out at the Quartzsite Gold Show? Hope you sold a bunch of book and met some great prospectors. Erik is always a blast to talk and listen to, he's a genius when it comes to gold geology in my opinion. He's a long time friend and a great resource to boot. Rob

Hey Steve, Well said, it's nothing many of us didn't know 10 years ago when the Internet was going strong. I knew it was a just a matter of time until Big Box retailers were selling the products, then Amazon and such. I agree, many of the small dealers do in fact probably drop ship 90% of their products, but there are a few of us that still keep a full line in stock of most detectors and all the aftermarket and other accessories like Doc's, Apex picks, DetectorPro headphones, Coiltek coils, NF coils and such. We are a dying bread, small dealers will all go away at some point in the future. P.S. If you see me selling Lemonade along the roadside, don't laugh! Rob

Hey Phrunt, You have a good point, there has been a lot of regions where potential customers want to buy products, but their country don't even have a dealer/distributor and under a dealer contract, we can't ship outside the USA? I can see where this does benefit the end user. However, if that is the case, why not just open the dealers to allow them to ship anywhere in the World? Give us the opportunity to make that sale rather than the manufacture direct? I understand the local dealer in the area don't want to allow outside dealers to sell in their region, but potentially now they are selling against their Manufacture, what is the difference? Interesting if anything ... Rob

Hey Guys, It was brought to my attention that Coiltek is now direct selling against their own dealers in Australia. A customer asked if it effected the US market, but I told him I didn't even know they were doing such. Curious how it has affected the dealers in Australia, if any? I'm always curious when someone like Minelab will direct sale against their own dealers here in the US? I would think with all the hundreds of dealers/distributors here in the US that advertise on their own, have their own websites that drive sales, they wouldn't eliminate dealers/distributors, but could decide to just sell themselves. I hate to see this, but I guess business is business I always like the business structure of Manufactures and even their Distributors to not direct sell against their dealers, but for some products that is not the case here in the US either. Fingers crossed for all us dealers/distributors here in the good ole' USA. Rob

Its a real deal, not sure how many detectors they are going to release with a 6 month time frame ...

Hey Beatup, What a beautiful gold nugget! Congrats on the new find and the NF 17x13. Many have been asking about the success with the new coil, so glad we have some reports coming in. I hunt with very similar settings, High Yield, Normal and a Sensitivity of 9-10 max and have found many very deep nuggets and tiny gold near the surface around a grain or so. I like a smooth running detector and concentrate very hard to ID breaks in threshold or faint whispers or anything that disturbs the normal sounding threshold. When in doubt, a quick boot scrape of an inch or so will let you know! Rob

Hello All, I told Doc I would toss up a post here about his new "Doc's Gold Monster 1000 Control Box Covers with hood (Olive Drab Green and Aussie Digital Camo colors). The new Olive Green one is $56.95 and the Aussie Digital Camo is $59.95 + S/H. The older style will be discontinued that was $54.95. We still have them available and also bunded with all Gold Monster 1000 purchases. These new Gold Monster covers have a removable Hood and the Hook/Latch are made of 3M material for superior strength. Here are the new pictures. Doc always does a great job. You can purchase them from Rob's Detectors, any dealer that sales Doc's Detecting Products or Doc's himself. Olive Drab Green - https://www.robsdetectors.com/docs-green-minelab-gold-monster-control-box-cover-kit/ Aussie Digital Camo - https://www.robsdetectors.com/docs-aussie-digital-camo-minelab-gold-monster-1000-cover-kit/ Rob

Hey Guys, I have heard of two reports back as of tonight from customers that ordered them from us. Hey Bill, thanks for the order, you will love it. A customer of mine called this evening and stated he found a beautiful 1/2 ounce solid gold nugget in an area he hunted hard with the stock 14x13 and NF 12" Z Search that he also purchased earlier in the year. He said it was just a faint whisper, but said he flat out missed it, as several nuggets were found within a few feet and he gridded the area off. Sounds like he practically paid for the coil with one nugget, which we all hope to do at some point. I have found a few pieces so far, nothing as big a 1/2 ounce, most of them were 3-4 grammers at deeper depths in old patches. I have a few spots I want to give it a run on, but I'm so limited on time. We still have a few left in stock then we all have to wait until the next NF shipment arrives in the US .... https://www.robsdetectors.com/nugget-finder-17x13-z-searchcoil-for-gpz-7000/ Rob

Hey Deathray, I don't remember the conversation on my forums, I'm sure it was a long time ago. Was it about what coils came with the Minelab GP Extreme? Gerry's correct, when purchased new the GP Extreme came with two coils, 11 inch and 18" and they were both DD/Pseduo Mono's. You also got the black hard case, which was pretty nice if you traveled.

Gold Ryder, I agree with you. I still remember when the GPZ 7000 first came out, priced at $10,000 MAP. Many were sold, but most were die hard electronic prospectors that just had to have them. It's wasn't more than a couple of years, maybe less, that the price dropped to $8000. I have to say, I received many emails/phone calls as customer were frustrated to hear such. If the so called GPZ 8000 (if that is what it might be called) is lighter, more sensitive and maintains at least the same amount of depth as the GPZ 7000 now, I might potentially drop $8000 on it, but I honestly can't see paying more. It seems much more immune to EMI than the GPX 6000 or any previous Minelab PI, which I really like. Rob

Hey Reese, Great video and beautiful nugget. Hopefully the NF 12x7 coil on the way to you will give you great results also. Per on phone conversation, make sure you carry a nice hair comb, they work wonders on flicking a cholla ball right off you (you don't have to grab it and the comb allow you to get good leverage and break it loose). I have had many cholla ball attacks! Rob

Hey Guys, Hopefully we will hear some great reports soon. All of my coils were shipped to customers this week, so I'm sure by tomorrow or Wednesday some reports will start trickling in. The only NF coils for the 6000 to arrive on this batch were the 12x7 elliptical. They seem very well built, pretty light, so we will see. Rob

Hey Gerry, When the SD2000 first came out, several old-time electronic prospectors I knew couldn't wait to get this coil and Pulse Induction detector over some deep ground. One guy I knew that traveled from Arizona, Northern Nevada, California and parts of old Mexico was doing a pound of gold per day with this set up. He was smart enough to also get on one of the first flights out of the US to Western Australia and got 160 ounces the first season, which he claimed was a short season due to the time he arrived. I would guess 10's of 1000's of ounces were picked up in a few years from prospectors across the Globe using the Minelab SD2000 and the Trash Can 18" Mono (Fiberglass) searchcoil. I'm sure a lot of it was the right timing, the right ground with the right detector. Rob

Hey Guys, Being a dealer for over 20 years, you would think with some of these prices the units would be flying out the doors. The price of gold is nearly $2000 per ounce, but the sales are in the tank across the board. If you noticed over the last 6 months, they have dropped prices on the Gold Monster 1000, Equinox series, CTX 3030 and now for a limited time you can get a GPZ 7000 or SDC 2300 for 25% off MAP. What about the recent, purchase a GPX 6000 and get a FREE Gold Monster 1000 included. I've never seen this from Minelab. There has been some new detectors like the Equinox 700 & 900 to reflect the price drop in the prior Equinox series and the new Manticore (if you can get one) for the price drop on the 3030. Maybe we can expect a new GPZ 8000 to pop out this season, but if it's not much lighter and priced no more than $7999.00 I'm not sure it's going to be a huge seller either. Just my personal thoughts, kind of crazy times right now. Inflation is super high, prices of most good are double if not triple and gas is no cheaper. I think most people are holding close to their money due to the uncertainty in the World economy. Correct me if I'm off base .... Rob

Hey Gerry, Thanks for the kind works. Ya, the industry as a whole is much different. A buddy said he wanted to start selling detectors, don't know anything about them, but thought it would be easy. I told him good luck! Rob

Hey Guys, The NF coils are tough right now. We did get a small batch of the new GPZ 17x13 Z-Search coils, most of them all gone. We received some more Sadie 8x6 Mono's and 14x9 EVO's, but most of the other EVO's are on backorder still and NO GPX 6000 coils. We are only getting one size on the next shipment, I believe the 12x7 GPX 6000 coil. I also agree about the color, would think a lighter color like white or even gray would reflect UV better than black, shit we all know car manufactures claim a Black Vehicle is 3-5 degrees hotter than a White vehicle. Maybe plastic is different, but I look at just about everyone other coil manufacture and they are white, Orange, Tan and Gray for the most part. Oh well, if they work well, keep swinging them! Rob