Goldseeker5000

Years ago I used to just take canned goods, chili, stew, you name it, but my buddy reminded me a long time ago that good meals out in the goldfields, prepared over a open fire both fuels you properly and eases your mind and allows for downtime to think about where I detected and where I haven't. This allows me to put more clues together to get onto the nuggets. For years now I will take Ribeyes, New York steaks, wild Alaskan sockeye salmon grilled over a fire pit with garlic, lime juice, and Ginger powder coating the salmon. Fried potatoes. Sauteed mushrooms and onions in butter. One time I told a friend he need to get out of town for a while and unwind, so I had him go detecting with me for 5 days. I told him to bring plenty of food for three meals a day, five days. He showed up with a small bag of frozen veggies and a small pack of two round steaks and a case or two of beer. And he brought his fishing pole. I had two coolers with meats, milk, medium cheddar cheese (Tillemuk), and two storage tots with dry good foods. I always go prepared for just about anything into the goldfields.sometimes even a portable shower, til it broke. Will be getting a new one this spring. They have come out with some nice options recently. A well made tasty meal and a hot shower can keep me going for along time. I have done this for as much as 7 months at a time. I don't like being miserable out there. It affects your morale and your positive outlook for finding gold.

JP, that has got to be tough knowing what you may well know about it, but not being allowed to devulge what you know.

Rob, great video. Stuff like this is what my books are all about. Looking for the clues, piecing together these clues and developing a picture of what was done years ago by the old timers. I believe learning as many of the clues is absolutely crucial to finding gold consistently with a detector. Keep up your awesome videos. Maybe when I get down to Arizona this next fall we can team up for some of these videos for all of our fellow nugget hunters.

Hey amitchla, did you try rewinding the cable with less stress on the plug? If so did it help?

Bring on those stories Steve, I'd like to hear them.

Hey Steve what do you mean in regards to control?

Just letting everyone overseas in Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania,Canada and everywhere else outside of the states know that I got the shipping rates corrected for The Nugget Shooter's Field Guide, and reduced. Even the rates for ordering in quantity is way less.

Very nice score for your second nugget.

Yet another reason I will stay with the 5000. Any of the Gpx series for that matter except the 6000. What good is spending $8,000, $9,000 ,or $10,000 for a detector if it is so easily damaged. I have heard so many horror stories about the 7000 that I will never invest in one. I am sure this will also be the case with the 6000 when it gets released. The 4500, 4800 and 5000 just might be the last of the well made Minelab gold machines.

I'm not overly impressed to part with my gpx5000. I like detectors to have ability to fine tune for various conditions, not overly simplistic such as the monster. Don't get me wrong, I love my monster but I do wish it was more adjustable for different conditions. As for me, I will take the versatility of the 5000 with this beast.lol

Nice job Lunk, your finds are helping me get through this recovery period with my Achilles tendon. Lol. Keep them coming.

AussieMatt, thanks for that link. I think that helped me make up my mind on wether to get the NF 25XDD or the NF 19 Evo. I will be going with the 25 XDD. The areas I hunt have produced lots of large nuggets. One area has given up several 1-2 ozer's, I have heard about a few 10 ozer's, and there have been a few in the 20-34 oz. range. The other area has produced nuggets of various sizes from sub-grain to a 27 lb. Specimen. My main use for getting this coil is going after Skarn Gold at the contact point between the granodiorite intrusive and the carbonate rock(limestone). In all the areas I have searched the carbonate rock is completely eroded away at the contact with just altered carbonate rocks littering the areas. My goal is to find nuggets in the orange clay seems between the intrusive and the carbonate contact where the carbonate was cooked to a clay deposit separating the two rock types. At this point the gold is freed from it's carbonate host rock and produces straight gold nuggets, more often than specimens. These type of deposits can produce large nuggets and lots of them. My hope is to get onto at least one of these nuggets. I have held a 4.5 ouncer from this area and I used to have a friend who found some 9 ouncers in the area. If Nenad reads this post, I would greatly appreciate any more info you may have about the 25 XDD. This ground is extremely hot.

This is a question for anyone in the States or Australia that owns and has had time to give solid, detailed, performance information on NF 25"DD X Coil. I'm interested in knowing coping with the weight since it weighs 4.4 lbs., Stability with ground noise, depth of nuggets you have personally dug using it, not stories you have heard of, have you used it on open hillsides or just on flat ground, size of nuggets you have found with it, what is the smallest you have found with it, does it impress you, how does it do on pinpointing, and any other info you can think of regarding it. And last, do you really really like this coil?

Great story Lunk, nice gold. All tailing piles have a story to tell. I think there is great knowledge to be gained by working all types of piles. There are some dry-land dredge piles I detect and the gold in them is small sub-gram gold. The old timers thought that the pay layer was from bedrock, up to 3 feet, but they were wrong. I found out from a mining engineer friend of mine that the pay layer was actually from bedrock up to 5 feet. The old timers through out alot of gold. These piles have two to four distinct appearances about them and they give clues as to the gold content in them or absence of. Alot of trial and error went into finding the first little nugget in these piles. In fact, I have still only found one in these piles, but there are more to be found. It just takes unraveling the clues to paint a picture of what was going on. Thanks for sharing Lunk.

I would love to hear more in depth store about the terrain you found them in. Was it forested, no forest, steep mountains or hills. We're they found on a ridge or in a wash or gulch bottom or side slope of a gulch. Discribe your surroundings and what you think or know was going on with the gold geologically without telling us the location. This is a fascinating story. Tell your story in detail, I am sure there are people here that might gain ensight from it .

NorthofNorth, I was going to try this earlier this summer to try and map out the mineralized boundaries of a orange clay layer, part of a contact zone, but never got around to doing it thanks to my Achilles Tendonosis. I was going to use my Minelab X-terra 705 because it has pinpoint sizing. I was going to crank up the sensitivity to max while in pinpoint sizing and try to find the boundaries of the clay layer. It seems plausible if it is shallow enough but I never got around to it. The 705 can find the edge of a target and keeps a continuous tone until it reaches the end of the target. I have located the exact beginning and end of iron pipe in the ground for a gentleman a few years back. I was able to show him the exact direction of the pipe and length. I was going to use surveyor flags to stick in the ground to map the detected area.

I don't believe that the current price of the 5000 will have any bearing on what the 6000 will sell for when it comes out. The original price of the 5000 most likely. Since the model number is 6000 then historically speaking, I believe Minelab will set the initial price at between $6,500-$8000. Maybe a smidge more.

I would have to agree with Jerry on Montana. There are areas I detect that a vlf is 100% unhuntable and when you use a pulse induction detector you will still have hot rocks come through every couple feet. I have found the only thing you can do with the 5000 is hunt in high mineralization in order to wipe out all the hot rocks. It isn't just the hotrocks though. If you dig down in the sides of these washes you will hit a layer of black sand about 3/4 of a foot down and I tried to dig past that layer, only to never reach the bottom of the black sand layer. It wasn't black sand mixed with lighter sands, but solid layer of pure black sand.

Goldtree, don't get into a rut by sticking to one setting or two. If you have the 5000 then you have 8 timings plus other modes. If you are getting ground chatter then you should try hunting in any of the other settings and modes until you get the quietest operating setting. Don't get caught up with hunting with a setting that someone else swares by unless they are hunting the exact area you are and they are able to hunt with a totally smooth threshold. You will learn to operate your Gpx like a pro if you try hunting awhile in all settings each place you go too. If you have a very hot ground, try hunting in high mineralization mode.. Ground balance often, experiment. Some settings are good for small gold some for deep, some for hot rocks and so-on.

Tell more about how this can locate old buried river channels that Steve talked about. What would these look like with the image? Also, can this locate Skarns close to the surface, but buried and will it locate Skarns braking the surface and partially exposed. Can it differentiate between two different solid bedrock types indicating a contact zone, a batholith sub-surface at shallow depth.? What would it look like if it can locate a gold or copper Skarn? Have you used it for anything like this?

Here a video from Terry Solomon on his review of the book.

If any of you are getting stir crazy with winter and all you can think about is getting back out come spring to find the gold then check out this good documentary on The Oregon Trail's counterpart, The Bozeman Trail, and the gold rushes of Montana. It's pretty good.

Welcome SG CT to the forum. I'll get your book mailed out in the morning 👍. Thanks for the order.

Welcome to the forum Tree. So your nickname, does it have anything to do with a Ghillie suit?

Phrunt, the Gpx does have good discrimination. You can't compare the Gpx discrimination with the Nox or Monster or even the 705. The Gpx discrimination only goes down 6" so if your target is deeper, it won't work till you get within 6" of the coil. Furthermore, the discrimination on the 5000 and the 4000 work flawlessly for what it was designed to do in the goldfields. Dig every target regardless of what disc says and test some various sizes nuggets and you will see it works perfect for what Minelab wanted it to do. I trust the Gpx discrimination 💯%. It has never let me down. And I don't expect it to do what I know it can't.