Lunk

That has to be the save of the year, Gerry!

Nice gold, WTG!

Jim, have you thought of just removing the metal eyelets? I've been doing that for many years with cheap pairs of hiking boots from Walmart and Big 5. Just make sure they don’t have a metal shank by using a pinpointer or rare-earth magnet.

Nice haul for both Luckys…congrats!

I'll take the opportunity to segue here, Steve. So far in what I would call moderate to medium mineralized ground here in the southwestern desert region of Arizona, the 8-inch prototype DOD X-Coil for the Garrett Axiom does not ground balance in the Fine mode, but does in the Normal, Large and Salt modes. So I'll be putting the coil through its paces in those modes this winter and report my findings in a new thread, so stay tuned. I too am scratching my head at why X-Coil would bother making coils for the Axiom because of their premium prices, as well as at their choice of coil configuration; I personally would've rather chosen a concentric coil. At any rate, from what I'm seeing with the prototype so far, my guess is that a production coil on the market is still a long way off.

That is so thoughtful, Gerry, thank you! Here's a token of my gratitude for you: Happy Thanksgiving, all!

That certainly is some nice crack, Allen…WTG!

That sounds like my old hunting partner, the legendary Smokey Baird; he told me the exact same thing when I first met him at Rye Patch nearly 24 years ago…has it been so long?!

Nice gold, Condor. Sorry you had to suffer the knee injury.

Great job on a hard won haul of nice nuggets, amigo!

Thanks, GC. The reason I chose the GPZ-19 coil over the NF-17 is simply that a good used GPZ-19 costs less than half the price of the NF, albeit being twice as heavy. I was using Extra Deep instead of General Gold Mode because it handles the alkali soil better, in addition to another reason, but that is another story for another time…

It's an old patch of mine, Bill. There are indeed open areas for the big coil, some deep ground and a history of big solid nuggets; always trying new angles here to try and snag another prize. Simon, it may be a closely guarded secret amongst savvy Zed owners, since discussions about the Extra Deep mode are virtually nonexistent. 🤷‍♂️ At any rate, cats let out of bags tend to run off very quickly; I doubt many still have or would even care to swing the 19-inch “beast”, so no worries there, mate. 🙂

During a recent detecting trip to the Rye Patch region of northern Nevada, I was intent on searching for the ever elusive large nugget at depth, wielding the Minelab GPZ 7000 equipped with the GPZ-19 coil, set to Extra Deep Gold Mode in Normal Ground Type. This combination of Gold Mode and Ground Type handles the local alkali ground very well, allowing the faintest signal responses to be heard; and good thing, too, as I would have certainly missed a couple of nice bits had the threshold been variable due to ground noise or EMI masking. They were buried at a depth of 18 inches and recovered from cracks within the weathered shale bedrock. A friend who was detecting with me swung over the undisturbed target zone with the Minelab GPX 6000 and 17-inch mono coil and there was no discernible response, so that added to the anticipation of deep, chunky gold…not exactly the large gold I was looking for, but at 3.3 grams and 2.2 grams, I'll happily put them in the poke any day!

That is caused by the air gap between the bottom of the coil and the coil cover. I used some gaffers tape to stick the inside of the coil cover to the bottom of the coil and voila! Way better now.

Looks like this version was the first to be released: I have the white coil with red labels, and I purchased it new around nine months ago. 🤷‍♂️

Don’t worry Gerry, I’ll never take that ring into the ocean, as I'm a landlubber. That “hog” of a ring was originally a northern Nevada gold nugget weighing nearly an ounce, the finding of which was chronicled in an issue of the Mining Journal, in an article entitled “The Pothole Patch”. I always admired the unique color of NNV gold, and so decided to have the nugget melted down and forged into a solid band, the color of which is such a bright yellow that, if an 18 karat gold ring is placed alongside of it, that ring looks like copper in comparison; it definitely is a beauty.

Nice detector training round-up, Gerry. It's always a pleasure to see students learning their machines, building confidence and scoring their first nugget.

SS, I'll work up a topic about this in the future, so stay tuned. PP, here is an article by Jonathan Porter that includes why you would run the Zed 19” in the other two Gold Modes as well as in Extra Deep. It is a very versatile coil that has different applications in each mode, but the key is having the room to swing it. But as you suggested, most operators would use it to search for large, deep nuggets, myself included. Another good GPZ-19 coil write-up with video. Sorry Drellim, as I don’t mean to hijack your thread here; the video that you referenced shows a remarkable signal response from the modded GPX 5000…quite impressive!

It is strange how the Extra Deep Gold Mode of the GPZ 7000 isn’t given so much as a mention in this thread, given that it is the lowest frequency option and coupled with the 19-inch coil would be the Zed's weapon for large, deep nuggets. 🤷‍♂️

Guaranteed good times, as always!

Nice one, amigo!

No doubt one of the quirkiest looking nugget detectors I've ever seen, the SDC 2300 is nonetheless a top performer in the gold fields. Compact, rugged, waterproof and equipped with full-time automatic ground balance, it is a turn on and go machine able to go anywhere and handle any ground type from extreme iron mineralization to alkali salt rich soil. Its sensitivity to tiny nuggets is exceptional. The jittery threshold took a little getting used to, but once I did I was amazed at how even very faint targets were recognizeable amidst it. The unit is a little on the pricy side, but definitely worth evey penny.

By far the best performance gold nugget detector I have ever owned. Superior depth and sensitivity, outstanding ground cancelling, great user interface and downloadable software updates make this machine the weapon of choice for professional nugget prospectors as well as the serious hobbyist. Even though it could shed a few pounds and cut its price tag in half, I believe the GPZ 7000 still merits 5 stars based on its incredible performance alone.

If there's such a thing as the perfect VLF gold nugget detector, the Gold Monster 1000 is it. Super simple to operate, lightweight, weatherproof, extreme sensitivity to a wide range of nugget sizes and depths, boosted audio, rechargeable battery, two coils, great price...what's not to like?!

This was my first gold nugget detector, and I don't recall anything that I didn't like about it. Although there is a learning curve to operating it, once I undersood what it was telling me no piece of gold was safe, not even the smallest crumb.