hawkeye

Just a couple of curious questions?  What model are those diesel Toyotas pictured in the above videos?  And the trucks with the flat beds seen in many other Oz vids, I assume they are also diesel Toyotas.  What model?  Thanks.

DDancer, your above post re the "interference" you may get from the iron you are carrying makes sense.  I carry a pick (Hermit) that has a lot of metal.  I have to carry it high over my shoulder or in behind my back tucked through the harness or I can hear the detector (7000) reacting to the pick.  So I pose this question, would the pick and other metal be affecting the effective depth and performance of the detector even when you can't actually hear the interfence?  This thought ran through my mind a number of times while detecting after I heard my pick interfering with the detector and moved it away.  

Two years ago I found a small patch of sub 0.5 gram "nuggets" with my 2300.  Last year I rechecked and expanded the patch with the 7000.  I found no nuggets in the area I found with the 2300, and none deeper than 6" in the expanded area.  Also, none of the other "stray" sub grammers I found were deeper than 6".  As I mentioned earlier in the thread I expected to find these deeper with the 7000.  Maybe I can next season when taking into consideration this discussion on settings and other suggestions.  Thanks everyone.  

Another area for improvement for me is target recovery time.  I spent way too much time on average recovering targets.  Big coil harder to pin point, lots of little pieces of wire and old tin cans, etc..  Big holes, moved a lot of dirt before getting the target in the scoop.  Sometimes the big hole wasn't quite on target and 12" hole was next to a target 2" deep.   Also, I dug at least one big a$$ hole per outing that was good sounding ground noise.  Good to have that Hermit Pick with the big scoop.  Damn that fever!

Oh, that feels better to get that off my chest.  Sort of group therapy for detectorists.  Thanks

Thanks for your input Steve.  On paper it all makes sense to me, but when it comes time to make those "trade off" decisions in the field a person (at least I do) starts to do a lot of second guessing.  This is where experience kicks in.  Little experience, more second guessing.  Throw in the sensitivity and audio decisions to be made and you have more stuff to second guess. 

In my situation I am usually detecting in the winter months in areas that have been pretty well pounded over the years.  My expectations of finding multi-gram nuggets are low.  With the SDC 2300 I did find sub-gram nuggets in those areas, not a great deal, but enough to keep me interested.  I had similar expectations when I bought the GPZ 7000, but I expected to find some deeper sub gram nuggets.  This past winter I found nuggets with the Zed, again not in big numbers, but to my surprise not any below approximately 6".  Less than I found with the 2300 the year before.  I have spent a lot of time thinking about why my productivity didn't increase with the 7000.  I wonder if I spent too much time fiddling with the settings while second guessing, something I didn't have to do with the 2300.  In fact, at one time I seriously considered selling the 7000 and sticking with the 2300.  But, I am again all fired up to give it another go this winter.  Go figure?

Interesting thread over on Rob's forum:

http://forums.nuggethunting.com/index.php?/topic/11962-what-are-you-missing-gpz/

These settings have been discussed extensively, but I have never seen a post indicating significant amounts being missed by running in "Difficult".  Seems strange to think you could miss targets by trying to run quiet so you could better hear whispers.  Still baffled by GPZ.

Chris,

You can add Blackberry to your list of those who failed to innovate while their competitors left them in the dust.  

Good job boys.  Most of us mere mortals  would be very pleased with those results from new ground.  Thanks for the pictures. 

1 hour ago, Reno Chris said:

Yup, there is a notable criminal element, and yep a lot of alcohol. Looking at what happened here in the US, it is said that the first 30 men to die in Virginia City were all gunfight injuries, and the number of saloons was astronomical, and there were more than plenty of prostitutes. So Flak says not much has changed in 3 years, heck, not much has changed in 150+ years! The criminals bought off or actually were the criminal element in V.C., so took about 15 years to get enough law abiding citizens to form vigilante groups in V.C. so that they became a scourge to the criminals (and the vigilante groups broke plenty of laws in their own way).

Many of the governments who take the concession money from the mining companies in South America, Africa and elsewhere are little more than a kleptocracy (a government that basically steals from the treasury and transfers the money to personal bank accounts). The mining companies engage in serious bribery to get those concessions, so its not a clear cut situation of who are the good guys and who are the bad.

As I said, "a sad commentary on our species". The human exploitation is the sad part.

Sad commentary on our species. 

Reno,

In your opinion, why would a GPZ 7000 with an 8 inch coil have an advantage over a SDC 2300? 

Loose batteries.  Much written about this problem and the solutions.  

3 hours ago, Gold Seeker said:

 I agree the first season was great, now it seems that the show only shows us the people with mental and or sociological issues, it's all about the drama for the Discovery Channel, the getting of gold is secondary, IMHO.

 I know a few guys that have been going up there for many years and they are nothing like the ones you see on the show even though they do experience some of the same issues as far as mechanical break downs, etc., but they expect them and are usually ready to fix the issues and get back to business ASAP, most years they do well and some years they are lucky to break even, but that the risk the take when they go there and know that.

 

Yes, the TV shows go for the drama.  We all realize there are lots real folks out there trying to make a buck doing hard and dangerous work. 

When this show started it was interesting to learn about what was going on offshore in Nome.  It showed a lot about the process and the clean up's. Then it became a soap opera starring a inordinate amount of folks with physiological hang up's and mental illness.  Then the looniest were featured in the under the ice version.

Maybe that's why we watched it. ? 

Oh, that is where I am making my mistake.  Walking too far from where I park.   

Nice shooting. 

55 minutes ago, Lunk said:

No, just illustrating what an old, worked-out patch looks like.

It is very interesting seeing that picture of the worked-patch on flat ground.  I am a Quartzsite rookie and have wondered if walking that flat ground that is everywhere would produce results.  I am now only 298 nuggets short of my 300th this year, and they both came out of a small wash.  

Best wishes, and wow 300!

In the last picture, are you the ambitious soul who did all the raking?  

Alex, good luck out there.  I can tell you, from my experience at Rye Patch, it is hard for a first time visitor to find a Nugget in that area.   The guys that are successful out there have many years of experience hunting the area.  One tip I can give you is to check around and under the bushes.  That isn't a big secret..

Looks like I was misunderstood.  I certainly wasn't suggesting putting an X on a map.  

Gee fellows, I would think we could be a little more helpful and at least point out a few other general areas (ie Rabbithole etc) that have detectable gold to research that are near the Rye Patch.  Just saying. 

Nice adventure, good gold.  Ah to be 60 again.

Desert placers can be eluvial or eolian unlike alluvial placers concentrated by water.  By the rough looks of the gold it appears not to have traveled very far from the original lode source.  By the way, nice work Condor.

Thanks Steve, but I am waiting to sign up for the reality show about a group of septuagenarians who detect fresh dozer scrapes.

Fred, thanks I will check them out.

Avavsfan,  I will contact you if heading that way.  Thanks. 

Fred, nice shooting.  

Do you know of a detecting club, or clubs,  that have claims in that area, and/or on the Arizona side.  As I recall that area is down near Yuma, is that correct?   That's an area I'd like to check out, so I need to do some research.  For me, checking some club claims is a good way to start in an unfamiliar area.  

There are probably kids out there interested in metal detecting, but most I see are heads down, thumbs flying, texting or playing games on their smartphones.  Oh well, I do the same but I am reading detecting forums. 

Take a kid out detecting.