Aussieau

9 hours ago, flakmagnet said:

I wish there was a way to get a Supersede pick head shipped here as well.

That is my second most-liked pick but I do not own one.

 

i think the place i got mine may have spare heads , ill check on monday for you...once this stock is gone though its gone ...almost impossible to find anymore

Yeah im interested as well, will he ship to Australia or do you know an australian supplier? just picked (haha) myself up a Supersede pick for those times when you need to dig to the centre of the earth to retrieve the target (pic of the pick below :) ) but im looking for a new day to day pick that has better ability then the Walco pick i usually use to pull the dirt out of the hole

cheers N/E ill have to have a chomp when i see them available :)

The problem with the little half battery is the battery life, i unlike you steve need a battery that lasts all day like the current GPX battery does, the little half battery although i would love to be able to stick it to the side and become "wire free" is not viable when im kilometres from the car prospecting on the side of a hill somewhere... i tend to walk around quite a lot and dont carry spares with me ....What i need is a little battery that has a big batteries "life"! ahh in an ideal world :)

Norvic, you say its not the best eating fish but id give my left leg for a nice barra "steak" like what we used to get @ Robertson barracks (Army) what do you consider better eating? ill give it a go cause i love me some barramundi

barramundi not barracuda :)

i have been reliably informed this stamper was actually in use 14 years ago! certainly got some years of use :)

Thought i would post what i came across today, not sure how common stuff like this is still set up in the US but over here in Australia it isnt that common anymore with many being broken down and sold off or bits and pieces stolen over the years.

Its a Stirling 3 head Battery, used to pulverise ore releasing the gold , looks to have been reused in the 80s maybe even 90s as there is some fairly modern hoses etc connected but overall its a great piece of antique prospecting equipment....if it wasnt so bloody heavy i would have thrown it in the back of the truck and set it up at home :) hahhahaha

sorry must have missed that and now i read it back i see you mentioned al foil

1 hour ago, DSMITH said:

Stated that fact in my reply to Shasta Gold Hunter

as you prob know, lead and aluminium foil will also hit on the "likely gold" side of the meter

Gday Guys n Gals,

I thought i would retell this story from my page a few weeks ago as it still blows my mind that it happened :). Bob a lovely gentlemen from Northern California came across to Western Australia for a once in a lifetime adventure that he had been dreaming about for many decades. He wanted to prospect in the red dirt and flew across for 3 weeks with his next door neighbour Fred and a 7000 and a modded GP extreme(not the ideal detector unfortunately). After arriving he spent a few days doing an in class prospecting course which enabled him to use the company that was running the courses leases around town. Unfortunately Fred and himself didnt have much luck swinging there detectors and it reached the last day before they were heading back home the next day. For the entire 3 weeks i tried to get him to join me on a tag along tour(free of charge as my wife is american and i didnt want him going home empty handed) to some better ground but he persisted on his own until the last day where he finally gave in and decided to join me in a different area that i had access too. The guys only had a few hours before having to drive back to town before nightfall and in the last hour of the day and in fact his last hour detecting in Australia he managed to ping a fantastic 18 gram speci with approx 12 grams of gold in it! Unfortunately Fred who had never detected before this trip and using the GP extreme didnt find anything but Bob went home with a nice little chunk and in his words "at least my neighbours wont laugh at me now!" statement :) Made my day and i believe the gold gods rewarded him for his days & weeks of swinging that 7000 around Australia.

Steve

Congrats to bob who joined me on a one day tag along for his last day of a three week prospecting trip from America, three weeks he hadn't found a thing by himself with his 7000. Last hour of his last day detecting and he pulls out an 18 gram specie with approx 10-12 grams of gold! Absolutely made my day ! Well done bob ! Goes to show a little local knowledge goes a long way! 
✋✋✋✋Nugget in the Hand Prospecting✋✋✋✋✋✋?

def agree with you there steve, the auto settings on the GM1000 are the way to go, nice looking nuggets!

a 750mm & a 900mm according to their website but I have personally seen the 900mm in the shop the other day

bit old but yes finders keepers still have that pick but its MASSIVE...biggest bloody pick I have seen

Just thought you guys would like to see some of the bigger nugs found in the last couple of months detecting in Western Australia.....lots of little ones but the bigger ones are still out there just fewer and further between

lol well my local shop is the "minelab worldwide dealer of the year" so maybe they got preferential treatment lol

and orders were starting to be filled from the 26th last month , they just didn't get a massive supply, I believe only 5 detectors a shop but each week they have been getting more but I know the local shop still hasn't filled its backlog

Here is my review on the GM1000 if your interested, I posted it n my FB a few days ago but thought some people here may be interested and no I don't keep the machines I test and no im not a minelab "only" detectorist :) 

Well first off, very impressed overall with the Minelab Metal Detectors Gold Monster 1000. I tested the machine out in WA with our mineralised soil and it performed better then any VLF ive ever used.

It detected pieces of gold smaller then a 5000 with a sadie coil and in fact smaller then the SDC, basically pin pricks of gold! but thats not what i see as this machines "selling' point, the descrimination features of this machine are outstanding and the main reason i believe people should add this machine to their arsenal of prospecting gear.

Unlike the GP-X/Z range of detectors there is no hum of the threshold, just silence and when it detects a piece of metallic rubbish when the machine is set to descriminate, unlike the the GP series of detectors with a DD that "blanks" out the middle of the signal, the Gold Monster completely removes any audible signal that rubbish(tin etc) has been detected. You still get a visual on the screen indicating you have walked over a bit of rubbish but no annoying booming signal blasting your ears every 10 seconds.

There is a little indicator on the screen which shows a scale with "unlikely gold" & "likely gold" at either end. This is what shows you that a target has been found as well as a signal and although Aluminum & lead will show as "likely gold" 90% of rubbish targets will be removed by the descriminate feature on this machine. Making this machine perfect to clear out those rubbishy areas that are avoided like the plague on the goldfields all over Australia and im sure the world. This is what i believe is this machines strongest selling point & the reason i will be adding it to my prospecting gear & will have in the car at all times whilst out having a swing.

Of course with the size of coils available its going to be sensitive but how sensitive it was to tiny pieces of gold amazed me, having something so sensitive there had to be a give on the negative side somewhere and that of course is with depth...this machine will not be pinging targets at depth...unless of course its a 10 ounce nugget a foot down lol but pinging a gram nugget 15cms down would be almost impossible but as i said thats not what i believe is this detectors selling point.

Being able to turn the detector on in the front yard was an added bonus i forgot completely about after using the GP series for many years & i could see the detector being used for coin shooting etc as well as you can run the machine in "all metal" and it will detect everything that comes its way and at better depths

I believe it will handle salty ground quite well so using it for crevices etc around the shore line of the salt lakes is a possibility.

Also having the coil waterproof to 1m makes this a viable option to "crevice" under the water line on the east coast to be able to identify possible crevices to suck clean and run the cons, not to mention finding areas that "pool" lead etc as where the heavies pool so does the gold!

It would also be fantastic to go over old timers dry blowing piles that have weathered down over the years...i reckon you could pull little specks of gold out of those piles all day long !

In the end i was very impressed with the machine as a whole, this is not a replacement or even a competitor to the GPX/GPZ machines and nor has it ever proclaimed to be but it def gives you an edge being able to detect certain areas of the goldfields which have previously been basically ignored by the masses ,the few people that persist and clean out a rubbish area are generally rewarded for the hard work they put in, having this machine at your disposal will enable you to tackle these areas with a bit more ease and a lot less stress & annoyance!

The weight of the machine was as light as they come and a really cool feature i hope they add to the GPX/Z is the additional charger that has positive and negative alligator clips so you can connect directly to battery to quickly charge on the fly!

One negative was the shaft didn't "shrink" up and stays extended ...pain in the bum for fitting in the car but this can be rectified by using a GPX shaft I believe.

Special thanks must go to Matt, Tracy & Pockets @ Finders Keepers Kalgoorlie for enabling me to test the machine. If you need prospecting gear you cant go wrong with Finders Keepers

Steve

Nugget in the Hand Prospecting

Never seen or even used a Nokta , if they worked then I would see them being used in the goldfields of Western Australia and I would be the first person to run out and buy one , unfortunately when it comes to nugget detecting in Aust. There is only one.... Minelab. I'm not a supporter of minelab and I wish there was anyone else out there with a detector that comes even close to the 4000 let alone the 5 or 7..... Please I'm all ears if anyone knows a brand that works better out here ?

surely you jest with you 'no challenges south of the equator' comment ? even the bloody mozzies down here will lay you up for months let alone the fact I'll be swinging in 115 degree heat next week ..... Yeah the fun never stops ????

Here's a few pics of some gold found with my gpx 5000. Everything was found around the goldfields of Western Australia and everything bar the big specie has been found since December 2016.

the big specie ended up crushing out to 13.5oz of gold