Don in SoCal

What are your goals? What are your expectations? Never heard of anyone having a concern over the volume and the threshold breaks. First:..#1... Learn the Machine.....…..Random notes...……. The original BBS coils were a bit heavy and sometimes unstable Great performance using an 8" Tornado coil and a Detech SEF 10X12 or 13" Ultimate coil which should cover 95% of your needs. Later if you're feeling manly and want to really dig deep get the 15" WOT coil. If you have the digital ID meter it will help speed up the slow learning curve for recognizing the tones associated to the target responses. Ron in Mich. makes an affordable 180 VID meter. The original VID meters are heavier, about 2X the price and read out 1-550 VID numbers. With a mod they can be converted to 180 meters which most have found this number scale to be more stable and user friendly The control box is a very sensitive piece of electronics: hint if you open it up and fold back the shield, touching the component board could XXX out your machine. The only control box mod I know of is one for adjusting the internal pot for increasing the tone and that is posted on youtube by Keith Southern. I did install a remote PP toggle in the rod for my index finger. It allows me to carry the control box back under my elbow for better weight balance. I can toggle between the discriminate mode and the all metal PP mode with ease. The wiring has a M/F plug at the box so I can add an extension when I remote carry. This thing is heavier than I prefer so I use a harness.

IDdesertman, Sorry for the misleading intro. The gold classifier of the Yankee Fork Dredge may be for small gold. My interest is North in the Fairbanks Alaska Goldstream Creek near Fox where the old Gold Dredge No.5 operated and still sits. It is possible that the trommel classifier in No.5 dredge may have been sized for larger gold. I have not been able to find the spec.'s of the trommel to know for sure. I do know that larger gold did exist and exited with he tailings. The tailing piles are still all 'active' claims.

Discrimination not so much, in these tailings piles depth and area coverage would be my preference. I have watched a number of vids posted from down under where they have a very large PI coil attached to a GPX5000 and this arrangement being pulled behind an ATV. Looks humorous but the results seem to speak for themselves. The nox in all metal with a really large coil would probably be the ticket except for the pendulum weight factor having to swing it over a very large area of landscape. (yes, I know, I'm a whimp).

I've been looking at the spec.'s on this dredge and it shows the trommel classifier to have holes of a maximum of 5/8 inches. This dredge was built and put into service around 1939-1940. I would believe that the late date of manufacture and historic operating experiences would have dictated the design spec.'s to recover the vast majority of the gold available. That said the larger gold would have been ejected out of the fan tail in the pilings mix. I have detected tailing piles north of Fairbanks with my Tesoro LST and due to the low mineralization and favorable conditions I was hitting 22 lead at around 10 inches but no gold. A target greater than 3/4" is sizeable so I would presume maximum depth and large area coverage would be the best plan for recovery. That along with a coordinated dozer push to keep the overburden to depths of less than 2' I think would be ideal. My question might be which detector would be best? Low mineralization and targets greater than 3/4" and large area coverage.

Jeff's suggestions are right on target. You might wish consider joining a local club although the governors SIP is hampering meetings right now. I believe the High Desert Prospectors are in your area. Hopefully you will meet members willing to share their insights and you can see what they're using. Hands on tutoring is a big help not only for the machine but for the land and terrain. North of you is Coolgardie, your best bet, still some areas open, unclaimed and nuggets to be found. Dry washing is the norm as most of the gold is small. HH and good luck on your venture.

I do believe I checked the targets in both the primary and secondary disc. circuits and got the same results, I will do a retest. The pellets were equal in size and buried at 1", 2", 3", and 4". With my Lobo LST and the same coil I could hit all targets in All Metal, switch to Discriminate and in the lowest disc. setting I could get an easy repeatable signal from the 1, 2. and 3 " targets. I expected the same performance from the Tejon but in disc. setting I didn't get a response from any of the targets.

I need a little help here in understanding the primary discrimination knob. Here is my observation. 8X9 coil, Using a lead pellet as a test target, buried 3", when placed in All Metal the target sounds off loud and clear. When switched to the discriminate mode, knob far left (zero discrim,) I don't receive any signal. I would think that at the lowest discriminate setting I should be getting a signal from iron on up. Is it possible the internal discriminate circuit out of adjustment?

Hi Skate, Having been in construction all my life I too have had intermittent bouts with tendonitis. The Armaid looks like a great tool for therapy and thanks for sharing. For short term relief I have had to rely on the over the counter NSAID's available. Different NSAID's seem to work on pain in different ways. I was able to use and get by on `Ibuprofen for years, then when the relief from that waned I found Naproxen.

Tag, there is a 'Tesoro 9X8 metal detector coil' on ebay presently. Description says it's new and it's a 4 pin. Auction ends Sat. 1 pm. I have one and it is a good match for both the Vaquero and the Lobo ST. The Compadre with the 5.75 C has excellent discrimination and goes fairly deep for it's small footprint, not quite so much with any of the other coils. Having the 5.75 C for the Vaquero would definitely be redundant, but if you ever find a 5.75 WS grab it. I find it the best coil on the Lobo ST for nugget hunting a patch and it should do nearly as well on the Vaquero. To cover large park type areas I use a 3X18 WS on the Vaquero to locate and mark targets then go back to the markers with the Compadre (5.75C) for discriminating and pinpointing. Coils have different personalities and react somewhat differently depending on the ground and the machine they are attached to. The fun is finding the combinations that fits your needs.

Nice bird, 'Champion?' What's under the cowling? Gravel bars do create opportunities. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you Steve, I've got some reading to do. HH, Don

Drywashing according to Jim Straight requires less 5% moisture content for efficient recovery. Theoretically figuring then I would assume that desert dirt ground assayed at an ounce per ton, processing a cubic yard (3'X3'X3') should yield an ounce. I guess this would follow logic if the gold was evenly distributed? My thought is going back to the early years when an old drywasher miner up in the desert would stake a claim to run material. He had to conceive some method of calculating how much yardage he would have to process to justify his labor effort. Hopefully more than just putting beans on his plate.

RD, I believe they are referring to adjusting the sensitivity. Set too high and the PP wants to sound off to the iron mineralization in the ground. Both my TreasureMate PP and PistolProbe ( both PI pinpointers) did this. Too much, for maximum depth and it becomes unstable sounding off indiscriminately. So you to back it down, lose a little sensitivity and depth but it becomes stable for finding your targets. My question, being it is a PI unit, how does it compare to the PistolProbe or the LandandSea PP's on the market. Don

Capacitors going bad (leaking) will give off a scratchy like crackling noise. Most likely it will need a return trip to Sweet Home. GL Don

Must be related to the soil conditions where one hunts. My local park reveals clad dimes and quarters a dark reddish color and copper pennies a dark brown. Nickels have a purple coating but in good condition. I recover about 1 pull tab to every 10 zinc pennies, the zincs are usually totally corroded. My take is about 50/50 clad to zinc.

I may be missing something here but I'm inquiring to see if someone might clear up my question? I believe mining reports of gold recovered are quoted in ounces per ton processed. My question is 'what is the physical dimension of a ton'? I've done some research and came up with the general consensus that one cubic (3'X3'X3') yard of dry dirt is approximately 2000 lbs. However one cubic yard of dry sand is quoted as approximately 2800 lbs. and a cubic yard of mixed gravel is quoted as approximately 2600 lbs. Do these figures seem correct? I would think quoting ounces per cubic yard more meaningful. If drywashing I guess the weight for dry dirt would be close enough to figure the approximate recovery rate per yard?

Thanks Mike, the little Compadre puts a big smile on my face every time I pull it out. I'd love to see how it air tests with a cleansweep mounted.

Time to eat 'Crow'. My first post was just after receiving the coil and a quick hour in my backyard. I'll have to take a redaction on what I posted previously on/after "the interesting stuff". I've had this 3x18 cleansweep coil out now on 4 park hunts and 1 dry sand beach hunt. Ground balancing no longer appears to be a problem. Coil is no longer is unstable in the Disc. mode. It does 'false' when bumped hard on the ground or hitting the sand tops when swinging at the beach. For Mike I did the following 'air test'. This was done with a brisk sweep speed only obtainable on a bench. Mode AM Disc. both at sens. set at 8 all figures in inches penny 6 8.5 4.5 7 nickel 7.5 10 6 8.5 dime 6 8 4 6.5 quarter 8 10.5 5 7.5 First figure in each column is just under the first 1" of the coil where one would pin point. ( does this well). Second figure is across the center of the coil.

I've been in the hunt mode to find and acquire one of the rare 3X18 Delta 4 pin Hot Technology cleansweep coils for about 3 years. Finally got my hands on one. These coils have been out of production for about a decade and they're about as rare as 'hen's teeth'. Tesoro still makes the Cleansweep in the 5 pin Epsilon configuration but not the 4 pin Delta . Mating this coil up to my Lobo Supertraq has provided me with some interesting observations. Generally speaking it does cover a large swath of ground with each sweep, but the sweep speed has to be slowed down to say 1/2 to 2/3 of the speed of the stock 6x10 elliptical coil to get a good target response. My best depth was a measured 5 inches on a quarter on edge. It pinpoints fairly well off both the toe and the heel, but I do a full circle of the target to make sure the target is within my 6 inch cut plug. The coil discriminates very well. Now the interesting stuff. First, it does not fully ground balance in the All metal mode. Pumping the coil down and up, it sounds off loud on the down push and does not respond on the up pull. However, it is still functional in the AM mode, targets are still picked up clearly and the pinpoint function still works. Both modes, All Metal and Discriminate achieve the same depth. I ran the Sensitivity at a gain of 3, more gain didn't achieve any more depth. In All Metal with a smooth threshold the coil ran stable and only responded to ground tracking and targets. In Silent Search Discriminate (setting of 3 1/2) the coil had at times a propensity to load up and give off erratic chatter, it also sounded off on 'bumping'. I found the best way to run the coil was in AM and upon locating a target I would do a quick switch to Disc. to determine to dig or not to dig. I will do some further testing but I believe I have found it's boundary limitations. A good coil, it just has some quirks. I would imagine this would be more stable on a Vaquero.

Very good point Steve, you're response is one of the main reasons I did this post. Any issue with a detector or coil from Tesoro, even 2nd hand and for $50 they will make it right. I'm sure this is one of the main reasons so many call aftermarket coils a crap shoot. I wish the Tesoro factory still produced this coil size. Long Live Tesoro. The other reason for this post was to find out if others with the LST Snake coil also had problems with the LST's microprocessor not being able to ground balance and auto-track. This may be an inherent problem with this size coil on the Lobo. Quite possibly the CORS Shrew would be the same. According to Rusty, in the 4 pin Delta coils, the small elliptical coil and the 3 X18 Cleansweep were taken out of production because of the high volume of returns. Circuit incompatibility would definitely cause a manufacturer to cease production of an item if they offered a lifetime warranty on said item. Perhaps aftermarket producers have run into the same problems.

I really enjoy using the LST, most of the time it is wearing the 5 X10 elliptical coil. I've always wanted a small shooter coil so I picked up a NEL Snake coil, same size as the White's Goldmaster shooter coil. Installed the Snake and 'whoa' the LST will not ground balance in All Metal mode. Pumping the coil repeatedly ... down stroke nothing ... upstroke the coil sounds off loud. I tried changing the ground conditions mode and found no significant change. I put the LST in discriminate mode and the machine seems to work pretty normal, much the same as my Tesoro 5.75 concentric. Placed back in the AM mode, unable to ground balance, I tried sweeping a 5 grain pellet at 2'" then 1" and got no response. Needless to say, pinpoint didn't work either. The coil looks pristine, the previous owner had about an hour run time on it on his Vaquero. He says it performed flawlessly on the Vaquero. I emailed NEL just to see what kind of response I would get. Response... none. Perhaps I'll not get the NEL coil for my Sovereign I've been eyeing. At this point I'm very disappointed.

A little late chiming in. If you're in the High Desert....In Hesperia there is miningsuppliesandrockshop.... in Victorville there is helmsoutpost. Add a dot com to either for their site. They're both brick and mortar stores that should be able to meet your needs. http://www.miningsuppliesandrockshop.com/ https://www.helmsoutpost.com/