Goldseeker5000

I've decided I am getting a Jackery 1000 with the solar panels. It will be the best method for me to charge my detector batteries. I'll be able to run my ICECO VL60 fridge/freezer 24/7 plus charge three batteries at the same time and never have to pay for power again.

I'm not sure yet. I will be calling them tomorrow and asking these questions and more. I have a 95 Taco

I have been curious about this myself. My Tacoma won't charge from the cigarette lighter socket without the truck running as well. I am trying to figure out if I should get a gas generator or a gas/propane generator or a solar generator. I am leaning away from the solar an more towards a regular generator with one or two deep cycle batteries as I will need to charge three detectors, GoPro/Canon batteries, computer, 2 phones, and a portable dual zone fridge/freezer. I will be living out of my Tacoma all this winter and next spring and Summer. I am not savy to all this electrical/ power consumption stuff. I am looking at two thousand watt generator. I want to get away from running my Tacoma in order to charge my detectors.

Valens L, is yours pretty quiet? Do you have a test nugget to test it on? Or a lead sinker. If it is overly quiet after noise cancel and ground balanced and not registering target tones then it has a problem. That is what mine did.

I did have suspicion about the 6000 back in Jan thereabouts based upon issues I have heard about with the 7000. Overall the 7000 has proven to be a great detector. Heavy, limited-expensive coils, but it did have issues with some units, more often than I care to hear about. When I heard early on what the 6 can do, I thought I should give it a chance. What I was again of happening, happened with the detector I received. I am looking forward to swinging it and seeing for myself, it's strengths.

Gerry, there is nothing funny about people on here getting defective products. Sure the 6000 has advantages, and I will appreciate those advantages in a couple weeks. Remember the detector and coil sales I sent your way. I am still waiting for the $100 credit you promised in 2018. How much is the 17" coil? Surely you would apply that credit to that coil. Right?

So some of you know that my 6000 arrived defective right out of the box and that I sent it back to be replaced the morning after I got it. Well the new replacement arrived yesterday and the detector works as I assume it should. Well, at least it will sound off on a nugget, so I assume it is working properly. I have the 14" DD on to test that out. When I picked up the 11" to pull it out of it's plastic bag, I noticed something odd on the top of the coil. There was a crescent shaped crack in the coil. What in the world is going on with Minelab and their quality control.?!! People spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on their detectors, you would think they would be more strict and precise with their quality control procedures. I sent the 11" coil back to be replaced, this morning at 9 am. It is possible it could have happened in shipping, however the inner box and shipping box were in great condition. No smashed areas anywhere on the boxes. Anyone else want to chime in about their particular Minelab detector defect. If Minelab is reading this, you have alot of people out there spending alot of money on your detectors because they are the best-Hands down, but it seems like since the sdc2300 came out the quality control is going down hill. I understand some defects can get by or crop up over a little bit of use, but this is not good.

This is red Jasper

My 6 will be here this coming Wednesday. They made sure it is working properly before they sent it to me. The Detector Center are good folks.

It's entirely possible something is wrong with it. Mine was defective right out of the box. Sent it back the next morning after it arrived. I was told they have some new ones in box's they would send one back to me now they don't have any left due to defective ones coming in. Now they are telling me they will get my replacement sent out as soon as more come in. Who knows when that will be, a few days, weeks or months. Especially with how things are going with shipping.

I have yet to experience the rod twist as my 6000 was defective right out of the box. Got it put together, charged the battery, turned it on - I emediatly knew something was amiss as it wasn't noisy like everyone says it is. I did a noise cancel and ground balanced it. I made sure threshold was on. I am in a backyard with power lines every where and the detector quieted right down, ran it over a 1.5 gram nugget and nothing. No response at all. It was as quiet as a mouse in the next county. I renoise cancelled and ground balanced and ran it over that nugget and other nuggets, even a quarter and no sound at all. In fact after I reground balanced the threshold went away. So I thought the coil might be bad so I switched to the 14"DD and tried both emi cancel and conductive ground cancel mode and still no target sound. Well it has to be a defective machine. I also noticed two vertical shadow marks going down inside the LCD screen. Very faint, but when the sun is shining on it right you can see it. That morning I called Minelab and talked to Nikki and she said box it back up and send it back and we will replace it. They should be getting the new one in the mail today. Just my luck to get a defective one right out of the box. This was what I was afraid of with the 6000. As for the rod twist, that would annoy me, so I like Steve's idea of the grip stuff for golfer's or there has to be something else, maybe fixative spray for artwork, as it dries clear and hard and is designed to give a tooth to the surface to continue working and take medium.

The story is in my book. After I got the guy calmed down to holster his gun I asked him how he was doing with sluicing. He said not very well. I asked him how long he had been prospecting, as I looked at his sluice. He said two weeks. He lost his job in the Troy mine and decided to try prospecting to make ends meet. At some point right after this I asked him if his pistol was a Blackhawk, and I believe he said a Redhawk. He said it was a 40 cal. Maybe he said 41 cal. This happened 20 years ago. He didn't hear me slam the door on my bronco and walk down to where he was. I called out "how are you doing" when I was about 8 feet behind him. That's when he wheeled around while drawing his pistol on me. I gave him some tips on properly setting up his sluice and why and he was thankful. The next day he found me further up Libby Creek and brought me an 18 pack of beer for partly an apology and partly for sharing my knowledge with him on sluicing.

I have had a chichaco pull a 40 cal. revolver on me, all the while shaking as he pointed it at me.

Karelian, I understand what you are saying. However, wait until hip arthritis sets in and you will wish you had a means to carry you into areas to detect. This hip arthritis is very painful and when it is flaired up, every step you take can feel like a dagger 🗡️ into the hip socket. I need to get an ATV asap for this very reason. I should have done it years ago.

Awesome Scott, your killing it on the gold. You can't be disappointed with the results you are getting. Glad your 6 is working like it is supposed to now.

I'm dreading this winter as I still am not released from this mess I'm in regarding my injury. I'm healed but they are trying to out wait me and make me go away. Been living in a tent in town since June 6, of this year. Nights and mornings are getting cold, 31 degrees, lots of rain. Gotta get a wood stove for my tent. I sure hope I don't get stuck in this situation through this year's northwestern Montana winter. It won't be fun living in it at -5F, -15F or -30F below zero all of which are normal here.

Big Bertha!!! That bear doesn't stand a chance!!!🤣😆😂👍

I'm in with Steve on the 10"x14" and perhaps an 8"x12".

He writes long posts like JW.🤣

It does in fact look artificial, but, if it is not, my guess would be Jasper. I have a red rock very similar but slightly dull in luster. My rock is Jasper.

Here we go again 😂!!!

This dig, detect, rake method is what I call the layering technique or layering method, and yes it can work virtually anywhere. I was up at Libby Creek in Montana and detecting on the hill many years ago and the excavator operator kept telling me you can't detect there because I would be in the way. I moved and was was again told you can't detect there. A third time moving and I was again told you can't detect there. I got annoyed at this, looked around and saw a spot on the slope edge of the road leading up to where the club was digging material out of a hole for the trommels to run, and asked him is this spot ok, or do I need to move from here too? He said that spot is ok. I picked a spot of the slope and gridded off a 6 foot wide by 7 foot long spot and started detecting slowly and when I had it covered, I raked a layer back towards the bottom. I repeated this process about 7 times and finally got a signal and it was a small nugget. So, yes you can apply this anywhere. It works! I speak heavily of this strategy in my book.

Gold Skarns have a tendency to produce big gold. As soon as I am released to get back to my life, these Skarns are a primary deposit I will be hunting.

Mungass, that bigger nugget sure is a pretty one and I sure like your wood stove. Interesting design.

Maxxkatt, I completely understand your thought process on going full time detecting for gold. I am doing this myself. To do this, you need to reduce your bills first and foremost, my wife kicked me out and divorced me, so now I live in a tent. So I have that covered. No rent or morgage. I have a plan for monetary sustainability, being first the gold I find, second income from my book sales, as I write on gold detecting. Next I will have income from writing articles on gold detecting. I will be talking about my book and gold detecting at club outings-more book sales. I have a YouTube channel called - Gold Seeker Adventures- which I will be putting out 2 videos a week, nurturing it until it starts bearing fruit. In addition to this channel I will be doing a series of videos that will not be on YouTube but instead will be on Udemy.com, which will be a paid online training course people can take. I have been detecting, prospecting for gold since 1980 and I have alot to teach on it, same as Steve, Chris, JP and others on here. Next will be a product line on my website other than just my book. Alot of my gold will be turned into basic nugget jewelry to sell to all those impulse driven women out there at various craft shows and gold shows. This is all taking place this month hopefully, maybe next month. Now as far as detecting and utilizing my time to the best in camp. Spending at least 8 hrs a day every day will be the norm, then camp chores and then sitting down in camp and editing and uploading videos, creating thumbnails, planning the creation of new videos, this all takes a plan of action and time to do. I will be working on my next book "Strategic Gold Detecting" each night. It will be a full time job. I can't drive truck anymore as a result of a work injury,in fact I can't go back to any type of work I've done in the past 15 years. Luckily I have an Associates Degree in Visual Communications to assist with the product line and YouTube channel. What Steve and Chris said about needing the knowledge to locate gold is spot on and even having the best of this knowledge won't guarantee that you will find a sustainable amount of gold every week or every month. I will be living out of a truck and maybe a cargo trailer if I'm fortunate enough and calling it good enough from here on out. This brings up another topic to consider, if you don't already spend alot of time living out of a truck or camping for many days or weeks at a time then there may be some disappointments ahead. I have regularly lived out of a truck and sometimes a tent for many months at a time for work and play, so I know that this type of living conditions is definitely my cup of tea. If you don't already have this means of living figured out and enjoy it, then hitting the road and hitting life's bumps alone this chosen course can break you, which is probably the point where your wife jumps ship and divorces you. I have already lost mine and I will never go down that road again, so living in the mountains and deserts alone detecting for gold and writing about my experiences, strategies and knowledge to find difficult well hidden gold is more attainable without someone nagging at me about how we are living. The key to doing this is having a side gig to bring in money. If you have a business that you can run completely from a computer and the money drops into your bank account without having to go to the bank too often then this is definitely obtainable but you still need the knowledge that Steve and Chris are talking about, and that doesn't come in a short time. Steve, Chris and myself as well as others on here know that this takes years to aquire. The idea of doing this sounds grand to the mind but anyone who choose to do this had better know what they are in for and the hardships they are going to face. Hope this helps you figure it out.