Gold Catcher

Congratulations, JP! It is always an inspiration to read/see your reports. Merry Christmas!

Great summary. I wonder though how no threshold at all would work for a high end detector. For the GM I see that, but not for a high end PI or ZVT. In my view, those faint threshold variations, sometimes barely audible and up for the operator's "interpretation", are what gives these detectors (and their operators) a performance edge, especially in situations where other detectors would not pick up anything.

It's not all trash though what you find there. Here are some representative small nuggets from that area.

I could not agree more. Some people claim to distinguish trash from gold just by the sound. I am not on that level and don't think it is a reliable way since so many factors influence the target sound. This was a smooth symmetrical low/high, as you would expect it from deeper gold. Oh well, that's why I have such a huge drum of trash 🙂

Thanks! I have to admit, I am no expert in anything else that isn't gold, so I assumed that it must be from a longer time ago. This whole area is prone for flush flooding and it is part of a tributary to the American River. The fact that I had to hammer it open for the crevice to be revealed means that it had to have sneaked in there by a different way. The bedrock is foliated with cracks in other areas, so I am sure it got in that way. Good to know though that the SDC picked it up through the rock. And it is Motherlode country, so you never know what's hiding 🙂

No you are right! Just googled it and they were founded in 2012. Even more amazing how it got in there. Thanks!

Here a story that I am sure all of you have had plenty of. Some days ago, I was hiking in a river canyon and checked the bedrock side walls with my SDC. Then, after several hours checking, I got a really good signal from one of the rocks that was part of a larger bedrock formation on the ground. The coil in the pic is at the location with the strongest signal. The rock was super hard and I could not chip anything off with my pick. So, a couple of days later I hiked down again to the rock, armed with all my equipment and a heavy rock hammer. I worked on the rock for 4 hours. I was pounding it really hard and the signal got stronger and stronger, despite getting only about 2-3 inches deep. I was completely exhausted and with a bloody thumb (no big deal). I was just to give up for the day, as finally on the bottom of the rock a bigger piece broke loose. To my surprise, a crevice opened underneath that wasn't visible before. I put my pin pointer all the way in and got a signal. So, I started digging for another hour. Finally, I was able to reach the target with a long crevice tool, while lying flat on my stomach in the mud. It turned out to be a screw cap!! I first thought from the 40's or 50's, but actually, it turned out to be much more recent (post message note, Thanks, GoldTree! )The Rock was completely sealed and I had to hammer it open. I have no idea how it got underneath there. But it's all good, I'm at peace (for) now.

I am actually thinking about bringing the drum to a jeweler and have the whole metal garbage molten to make "jewelry" out of it. Perhaps a bracelet or neckless (more like 1000's of them...). A reminder of all the sweat I lost in the desert and mountains.

I have a small box with all my nuggets and a large drum with all the garbage I find. I call the drum the "drum of tears"

IMHO, the SDC is as good with small gold as the GB2 or GM1000, especially with the SP01 combo. And yes, where I hunt the soil is highly mineralized (Motherlode). Especially with the ultramafic Serpentine outcroppings that are part of the Motherlode belt. However, the worst soil I have encountered in some areas of the Mojave desert in Southern CA. Some of these areas are so rich in iron that the compass doesn't even work (magnetite, iron-rich basalt, iron ore, etc..). Go figure....

Rarely, can't remember the last time.

I still wonder though why a 12 in coil was chosen as the first model and not a 10 in one. It appears from all the feedback that a significantly smaller coil is the biggest need for GPZ users. Next to weight reduction and a bit more sensitivity, this would be the biggest buying reason for many. The 14 in stock already is a very good coil, so perhaps something that you absolutely can't do with that size coil would convince most to pay top dollar.

Excellent point. And in the elite gold detector category, Fisher is just not anywhere close to a match. The ML brand is so established that I doubt that even if another manufacturer would create an equally high-end/quality/performing detector it would be a thread to ML, not even at a much lower price. Detectorists trust ML to give them the biggest edge in the filed. This trust is worth a premium for most. I bet that if you would analyze all YouTube video's that show gold detecting you will find >90% ML detectors being used. This is a brand advantage that you can't easily beat.

Given the current situation and the high demand I doubt we will get these coils to the US anytime soon. I guess I have to move to Au...

Haven't had one of those in a long time...Awesome, JP!

Great example of how General can give a better response than High Yield for deep targets. I usually use HY as my default gold mode, makes me wonder if I should use more General instead. General still seems to be good at shallow gold but captures more depth, so perhaps a more balanced overall mode? I noticed though that in General the threshold is less stable than in HY.

I could not agree more Gerry, well said!

If you look at Fig 2 of the patent (see my earlier post) it does refer to some sort of memory function provided by GPS when you come back to a spot that you have hunted previously. Well, anyhow, we all shall see. Don't we all love the rumor mill and mystery around ML, almost like what the presents will be for Christmas. ML always has surprised us with big technology leaps. That's why I think they just dominate the detector space with no real competitor. I guess I have to start scraping money together for the 6000 release...

As long as those would not be your own footprints, you have nothing to worry about! Quality always trumps quantity. Awesome finds, as always 🙂

The question is, if you already have a GPZ, would this new GB method be a convincing argument alone to buy the 6000 as well? Assuming coil options would be comparable for both machines.

That's exactly what I think. Most GPZ operators use semi-auto GB. Here, the machine already does a lot of automatic adjustments anyhow all the time with just the X being locked. So, why not having a supercharged version of it? Kind of cool if the GB algorithms factor in locations and remember the ground conditions where you have been. For instance, If you revisit spots where you have already been then the machine remembers the old algorithms and has a better way for further fine tuning, with less dependence on how the operator handles the machine. It might overall give you an edge in the field, since it all comes down to how to make a target stand out better. As long as you still have manual GB, as you say, I am all for it. I like to use manual at times to not track out faint targets when I zoom in on them..

It appears to be a new ground balancing method by implementing locations determined via GPS

Very nice! My early GPZ days were much less successful. I think my first one I found was a sub 0.1g piece and it made me all excited 🙂

Very well done, thanks for sharing

I still think it will all come down to performance. Is the ZSearch really so much better than the 14 in stock? (aside the 300 g weight loss)