oldmancoyote1

Late last summer I took my new Gold Racer to the park along with a conventional detector.  I swung both, one in each hand.  At one point I got a strong signal on the GR but nothing on the other detector.

I dug it and found a one carat cubic zirconia on a silver tie tack.  I took it home, and just before I left for my winter home in Mexico, I put it under the GR for an air test.  It came up a unshakable ID50.

Now ID50 is about what I would expect for platinum.  I was way too busy to pursue it further at that time.  Now all winter long I'm going to wonder:  Why would anyone mount a cubic zirconia on a platinum setting. 

Angus MacKirk... was acquired and moved from Boise to Canada.  I bought mine from Boise online before the move.  I suppose the new owners at http://brokenback.ca would be a good place to look.  They do indicate several west coast retailers.

Thanks guys.

I did a study last summer.  I dug the first 20 "hot rocks" < ID 5 and >ID 90.  All were hot rocks.  Still I wonder about these targets.  Next summer I'll re-do the test with maybe 50 "hot rocks."  Finding 50 "hot rocks" here will not be a problem.  :  )   If I still don't get anything, I'll kiss off "hot  rocks."

I'll also follow the consensus here and dig anything else that doesn't lock on ID  20/21.  After a couple of months, I'll re-evaluate.

I'll also do more testing with test nuggets in hopes of learning more about the audio signal.  Training my ear will be a priority.  I'm utterly in the dark about audio.

Any further advise from forum members would be much appreciated.

Thanks again guys.

Oldmancoyote1

Steve:

I spent about a month learning my Makro Gold Racer this summer.  I went out almost every day.  Most of the time I worked bare red soil over siltstone (ground balance values about 67) in and close to old pocket gold diggings in the Klamath Mountains.  I didn't find any gold this year, but next summer I hope to do better.

I have a few questions.  Your answers might well help me succeed.

1)  Would you advise I change the following protocol:  In All Metal mode I ignore anything less than ID 5 or greater that ID 90 (lots of hot rocks here). I'm not inclined to dig anything that shows a dominate signal above ID 65 or anything that mostly grabs onto ID 20/21.  However, most of my targets show multiple IDs (mostly in the teens and 20s with a few IDs above 70), and I dig any of these that show a few indications in the 40s or 50s amid the other IDs.

2)  Do you feel you get useful information from careful attention to differences in the audio response?  I discard responses giving the null-beep-null pattern even though I have seen some using a test nugget.  Otherwise I ignore differences in the audio.

3)  In one of your posts you dismiss using the Gold Racer in highly mineralized ground.  I will have to deal with a lot of this next summer.  Would you discuss the issues you had with highly mineralized ground?