jrbeatty

- - - reckon a Konigstiger or T34 would hum up pretty well in the headphones -

Sure does Dave. Inspired by the success of friend and former detecting partner Jim Stewart, prospector John Hider Smith built his own 36" monoloop. Unlike the "Bismarck", This was flat wound (nothing new there) and also found much big gold. In contrast to the "Bismarck" this was mounted by a hook onto the belt to carry the weight. For such a large setup, it was also comfortable to use. Reg now owns the coil and has used it both as a sled coil and on his QED: https://youtu.be/v21liiSdLrM Damn! Don't know why these vids sometimes don't self embed - - -

The "Bismarck" found a considerable quantity of gold in its day. As shown at the beginning of this topic, Here's some we found at Guys Rush: Found at depth in Tertiary cement with Jim Stewarts 36" "Bismarck" coil mid 90's. Copied from HI8 video. 5 oz and 30 oz. Note the root like supergene growth marks on the 30 oz piece with some ancient scratch marks. Unfortunately, The modern "ding" marks were caused while chipping it out in the dark. The full story halfway down the page here

Here's a better shot of it in action: Fortunate Gully Rheola Vic. Jim Stewart, Johnny Morley (pick) Ken Leach (property owner) I designed and built the carrier frame. It was surprisingly well balanced and comfortable to use, but like its "Pocket Battleship" namesake, it took some manoeuvring, especially among trees.

The "Bismarck" in action. This was a 36" litz bundle wound monoloop made by Jim Stewart for detecting deep gold. It found plenty, but, unfortunately, never on camera ☹️ With Johnny Morley (on pick) property owner Ken Leach, Jimmy Stewart. Shot at Fortunate Gully, Rheola VIC.

The late Jim Stewart near Grays Reef Moliagul, with a 7 0z piece. Mid 90's

Indeed it is - and high clearance portal axles are always superb for off road work. Reading all this makes me nostalgic for my old vibrating sluice box. In the 90's they, along with dredges, were banned in Australian waterways.

Steve: Handy looking vehicle, but never saw those over here. We farmers used Willys Jeeps as runabouts, also Sherman and Stuart tanks converted to bulldozers for clearing bush - you could buy them cheaply at military auctions. - - - of course - - a scoop!

Steve- - a late starter to detecting but sure making up for lost time! Out of curiosity, In the last image, what's that in your pocket? I'll refrain from quoting Mae West - - ?

Correct Reg, along with the 5 ozer, they are shown above. My 2100 (run in conjunction with the "Bismarck") was standard but we only utilised one channel when hunting big gold. Jim had another Candy "tricked" 2000 box but we found it insensitive to anything much under 20 oz, so we rarely used it. Would have been great for finding UXB's though - - -

We Aussies weren't shirkers either, Wes. The giant water flume Lightning creek, Omeo, VIC

Tried it Northeast, almost nothing. An awful lot of other big gold came out of there. It was pushed in the late 80's but they must have been using Tandys. Jim Stewart specked another 5 oz piece there under a bulldozed rock. I did a full story on it here in the Reg Wilson album.

- - - over an hour from the Nineties. I haven't successfully transposed it to digital format yet but I'm still working on it. The sound is present but my capture device isn't yet picking it up. I'm a bit over the moon about it really, some welcome good news following a tough week shooting drought weakened sheep - - Starring are some memorable characters from the earlier years of gold detecting, as well as some nice gold. Here's some early screen grabs, hopefully the final MPEG's will be of higher quality. 5 oz from Guys Rush, Rheola VIC. found at depth with Jimmy Stewarts 36" "Bismarck": 30 oz from Guy's Rush, Rheola VIC, found at depth with Jimmy Stewarts 36" "Bismarck":

Phoenix: Gold is gold. Well done and keep listening for that big one - - ?

Blasted Anzacs everywhere -

Yeah Northeast, very different sounds. It takes some getting used to after the Minelabs, which is why new users sometimes adapt more readily. Threshold is present in that vid as a mosquito like background hum. This is fully adjustable, as is the pitch. With the Minelab GPX's you are limited to certain preset timings (fine gold, sharp, sensitive smooth etc) The selectable variability between "Mode" and "Bias" on the QED means these timings are, by contrast, infinitely variable. Just about every detecting parameter is fully adjustable, and the trick is to set them to the particular ground conditions you are working. In this respect the QED is not a switch on and go machine. It can be set to a "hair trigger" for locating faint deep targets or can be run in a far less sensitive way for patch hunting. It is whatever you, the operator, set it to be. A review from a previously somewhat skeptical Moderator on PA forum (TathraDJ, bottom of page) here:

Still killing them, Phrunt. I reckon it would shine in NZ conditions as well, but you guys are overloaded with detectors already - - -

Syncline: Hollers just as well on the deep ones - - -

"Looks like the area has been freshly dozed ? Nugget was very shallow as a result, and could have been found with a cheap VLF" Correct. Doze and detect operation. Thousands of ozs found that way with VLF's in earlier times. Welcome aboard.

Unearthing a colour. Love that white Tertiary gravel. A video just sent to Howard (QED inventor) from Queensland, Australia:

Ah! Jin. The old hollow stump again - - - Even extremely experienced prospectors can get fooled sometimes. The late Jim Stewart once confessed to me how he wasted an afternoon chasing an excellent deep signal in the roots of a tree with one of his big loops - only to find it getting fainter as he went deeper. Finally he looked up and saw a short length of chain wrapped around a large limb - - -

Toolong as well, Phil. Sadly, nearly all of the good NSW alpine detecting is off limits.

- - -and what a piece! Thanks for the pictures, FM ☺️ Gerry: Glad to know I'm not the only one leaving them- - - !

One last cautionary tale: Rediscovering the Tarnagulla 70 grammer shook me up and I tried hard to remember similar instances of ignored signals. Only one stood out clearly in memory from several years earlier, and that was when I'd discovered a 4 oz patch in a paddock near Kingower, Victoria. I'd noticed that the road alongside the paddock had crossed a nice looking tertiary gravel bank. This had led me to the patch and the next logical step was to detect both sides of the road easement itself. Well! - - - as anybody who has detected roadsides knows, they are full of rubbish discarded from passing cars, as well as offcut wire from the fences thrown onto the reserve by the "cockies" themselves. There was also heavy eucalypt leaf litter and small branches, not to mention small wattles and thornbushes - in short - an extremely difficult detect. Nonetheless, having lifted the junk, a couple more bits turned up. Once again, for inexplicable reasons, I left two surface screamers. One was in a grader heap with an obvious squashed coke can poking out, the other almost beside it in a graded ridge on the very edge of the dirt road. Upon returning, things had changed. The grader heap had disappeared, but I remembered a nearby small stump which marked the spot where the second screamer had been - and the signal was still there. I can't recall which Minelab model I was using, but, having been humbled earlier, this time I "listened" to the signal before digging it. When held well above it, the shallow target centered nicely with that lovely big "dip" and none of the elongation and distortion that you often get with junk - - - Anyway, a brief scrape and all 52 grams of one of the prettiest pieces I've ever left behind finally revealed itself:

Steve - - A front seat view of a different time and continent, yet some of it oddly familiar - - - Thanks for sharing.