jrbeatty

Unbelievable!

Starting to feel more affluent, or less poverty stricken anyway 😉

Wish I'd kept more big lumps from the 80's-

Dave:

It arrived safely but was damaged by heavy handed Russian customs officials.

Haven't heard anything else-

13 hours ago, phrunt said:

They also make a 26" Concentric, I think @jrbeatty has one, and a 32" Spiral mono for the older GPX series.

They've sent a few 26"s to Australia although a difficult process, but they're not a coil that is easy to ship because of its size, and 32" is for their part of the world only because of that, the size is just too big to ship.

Correct Simon. 

Haven't had much chance to run the big 26"CC for all the reasons outlined in my earlier post.

When I did use it briefly (in a very wet Victoria) it fully lived up to expectations and scored half an oz or so of mixed size bits - but we need more time together under better conditions to fully understand it's potential before I release a report-

Shipping big coils IS a hassle. Just before Putin's "Special Military Operation" ended direct contact with Russia, Reg and I managed to  send to X Coils Ilya John Hider Smith's 36" spiral wound coil for an assessment.

Costa plenty 😉

Cobill:

I haven't responded to my thread here recently since circumstance have prevented me from prospecting for over a year - initially saturated flood ground in Victoria and now severe drought conditions on the far south coast of NSW require me to daily drought feed stock for an indefinite period  😞

I think experienced operator Rick has summed up the current X coil CC situation in the field far more adequately than I could currently-

13 hours ago, Reg Wilson said:

One option is to build a large coil like Jim Stewart's 'Bismarck' only instead of wearing it in a bulky harness swing it like a line trimmer using a sling and counter balance it with a battery. I have seen this method used to great success in central Victoria and WA by John-Hider Smith, one of the best and most talented prospectors who ever swung a coil.

The man himself-

That's one elegant scraper Dave.

Your smithing skills are a credit to you-

I owe some of my best finds to abandoned detector holes (both in and around) so have mixed feelings!  

On 2/17/2023 at 1:01 PM, Aureous said:

 John HS's claim at Beggary Hills in Wedderburn was similar. I was astounded at the lack of punch there too.....as well as the sheer noise!

Yes indeed Aureous, Beggary Hills is often stated to be archetypal "hot" Victorian ground but as you know there are many lesser known "scorchers" in the "GT" which equal and may even exceed it for detecting difficulty.

One that springs to mind is Roberts Gully, Kingower. Pushed back in VLF days, both JHS and Jim Stewart regarded it as superb ground for testing prototype detector technology - and it still is.

Amusingly, I found my first ever gold (an oz piece) on John's Beggary Hills claim back in the 80's with a newly released GT 16000.

.....should have seen the look on his face!!

8 hours ago, Swegin said:

Hopefully I'll see Pieter this weekend at the gold and gem show.

 

Swegin: 

Fond Western Australian memories of working with Pieter and Debbie (with the late Jim Stewart) decades ago. Please pass on my greetings!

L to R: me, Jim Stewart, Debbie, Reg Wilson, Pieter, John Hider Smith.

Yes Jerry, personally had wonderful results with that coil, as did many.

Here's Ian Jaques with a few colours on the DBL:

Reg Wilson commented:

"Ian with some of the better slugs that we found with our brand new SD2000's on the first day we used them. Between the two of us we pulled over 60 ozs in 2 days. What a way to break in our machines!"

- From the Reg Wilson Gold Album topic:

https://www.detectorprospector.com/forums/topic/4335-the-reg-wilson-gold-album/?tab=comments#comment-46784

Great workmanship Dave.

Keeps you busy while waiting for the nugget season to open lol!  ☺️

12 hours ago, Sourdough Scott said:

How would one go about doing this epoxy? I would be interested in seeing some pictures or videos on this process.  

Soughdough:

Basically paint/smear epoxy resin (such as "Araldite") over principal wear surfaces on the coil (edges, sides, bottom's where needed)

Here's a 22" CC to illustrate:

Not much wear on big coils so an edge bead suffices in this case.

A smaller well scrubbed coil may require more surfaces coated. 

If excess wear is detected simply smear more on 😉

Never used skid plates.

Epoxy resin "Hardfacing" far lighter and costs considerably less-

What's a skidplate? Never needed the unnecessary extra weight personally but sure used a lot of epoxy resin as "hardfacing" underneath coils over the years.

Must be the result of my early years operating and rebuilding ground contacting earthmoving equipment 

1 hour ago, GotAU? said:

I’m curious, is the receiver coil on that CC 15-inches? I wonder how close other people can work  near it with their detectors?

That's correct gotAU. The transmit (outer) coil is 26" in diameter.

On my last outing, detecting mate "Broke in Bendigo" was able to work within 20 meters or so without much interference - once we had tuned each other out.

The Bismarck in action at Rheola, Victoria. I designed and built the lightweight carry frame:

3 hours ago, GotAU? said:

James, was that photo of Jim Straight and the Bismarck taken in Australia? If so, I didn’t know he took it there with him, or was it a local product? Now that I’m looking closer at the photo, I see eucalyptus trees all around him. It could’ve just as likely been taken here in the US, your weeds are all over the place here in California!

Your 26” looks like it has pretty good sensitivity From your photo but it’s hard to tell size, what was the weight of the smallest nugget you recovered with it? 

 

GotAU: some confusion here. The image upthread is of Jim STEWART (late of Laanecoorie Victoria) and his 36" Bismarck bundle wound monoloop. He was a close friend and pioneering electronic prospector. I have not heard of Jim Straight.

The 26" CC X Coil is mainly designed for deep gold. It is in effect a turbocharged 15" spiral monoloop so quite sensitive on smaller bits as well.

4 hours ago, jasong said:

You use a 26" concentric coil to prospect for new ground?  You must have a fair idea you are in ground where gold has been found already then?

I wouldn't normally but the principal purpose of this trip was to test the 26"CC in gold ground - and hopefully pull up a decent piece for the sake of myself, Ilya and the X Coils team 😉

However, an unusually wet winter cut my detecting time back to less than two weeks from the planned month. The boggy track conditions further prevented access to my most promising deep ground so I resorted to scavenging and prospecting as an alternative.

I also found some separate bits with the 17" spiral and the 22" CC.

I plan to return in the Autumn if conditions are favourable.

1 hour ago, Aureous said:

How many days detecting to get you to half Oz James? I hope the Z8 next year will be available with CC coils as suggested. 

Aureous: 

Was down for a month but due to weather conditions probably only a couple of weeks actual detecting.

Couldn't access my favourite big gold ground so spent some time prospecting new areas with Reg (until he went overseas) and then with "Broke in Bendigo"

That's where most of that came from, promising new ground! 👍

2 hours ago, phrunt said:

What does it weigh James, I wouldn't be surprised if it's not much different to the 19" Dog coil in weight.

Is it just my laptop screen or is that coil glowing like a Halo in the first picture 🙂

My dodgy phone camera added the aura Simon 🙂

The 26" CC coil is only 25 grams or so heavier than the 22" CC so no big deal. Quite happy swinging it but no deep gold today, only deep steel so far-

Gerry: 

Overlap essential with CC coils. For all its size it's in realty only a 13" coil.

I'm only using it for hunting deep ground where big gold has previously been found.

3 hours ago, GotAU? said:

Jim Straight still had you beat:

…but that coil should do well with what you have attached to the other end! Good hunting!

Jim Stewart and I found some good gold with the mighty "Bismarck" (pictured) including a 30 oz piece.

Hopefully the big CC will hit on something big it couldn't hear-

14 minutes ago, Valens Legacy said:

I would hate to see the hole you have to dig to put that in the ground and stay on target.

Good luck and good hunting, let us know how it works.

VL: The coil definitely stays on top of the ground! 🙂

Any pinpointing required will be done with something else-