Detectorist Dan

Ahhh i see. I will have to re read what JP wrote

I'm thinking nice bottle of whiskey! 😁

🤣🤣🤣 I believe he mentioned he was rather busy at the moment with fulfilling orders. I definitely will take his class, just currently busy with building a house and two young kiddos taking up alot of my time and vacation. Also as "Brian" mentioned above, We travel over into WY to get our nuggets

Oh for sure computers can better adjust settings quicker and more accurately. As long as the engineering behind the algorithms is solid, which with ML I tend to think they know what they are doing more than me! But if I can already run in 9 or 10 sensitivity and maybe get a little chatter, wouldn't that be better than having it auto adjust to say 7. Maybe I am not fully understanding what it is doing in Auto and Auto+

Grab a bag of popcorn and a beer, this is gonna be a long read. (Skip to the third paragraph if you are only interesting in my review of the GPX 6000) Before getting into why I decided to purchase a GPX 6000, I would like to give some background into what got me to the point of making that purchase. My friend "Brian" (Yes the one from Gerry's visit to SD) had been nagging on me that detecting is WAAAY better than sluicing or highbanking for gold. Me being stubborn, I would not listen to him as I was told by many of old prospectors "Theres no nuggets here". Were they hiding something or just oblivious to the truth, I do not know. After a year of recirculated highbanking on my dry claim and "Brian" detecting, it became clear to me that there is some truth to the message he had been preaching to me. That fall I purchased a Gold Bug 2. I loved that it is all analog inputs that require you to actually understand what the different knobs do. It allowed me to gain a better understanding of what the detector was doing. Not just letting the computer on it think for me. That fall gained me no nuggets as I was learning not only the detector but how to be successful at detecting. Many frustration finally led to my first small nugget that next summer. I was getting pretty good I thought as I would come home with a pocket full of tiny lead beebees and if I was lucky, a small nugget. I felt comfortable with the GB2, until I noticed that even though I felt I was doing well with the GB2, "Brian" was doing even better with his SDC2300 and GPZ7000. He would go back over areas I had just detected and pick up what I left behind. It was a perfect game for him as i would clear the garbage and shallow smaller nuggets and he would get the deeper larger ones. 😤 😄 I would even come back over to where he would have a target and check it with my GB2. It became obvious to me that ML technology had a clear advantage over my GB2. About the time I decided to go all in on purchasing a GPX 6000, I joined the detector prospector forum. I did more research into my GB2 and read Steve Herschbach write up on the GB2. Running the settings "hot" still didnt match the performance of the Minelabs detectors. After talking it over with the wife, I gave a call to Gerry at Gerrys Detectors, and after a pleasant 20min call with him I was sold. I gave him my deposit and waited patiently for my GPX to show up at my doorstep. Gerry, being the outstanding man he is, hand delivered it to me as soon as it had shown up at his store. (perfect timing pays off 🙂 ) Our first day out was a total success. I bagged the largest nugget of the day weighing in just under 2g, my largest at the time. Gerry and "Brian" also did well, both scoring more nuggets and pickers than me. This was also my first gold from this patch. The ground at this patch was very mineralized and had many hot rocks. Listening to my GB2 was a nightmare and I had not been successful at getting any gold from there until this day. There is probably more I can learn on the GB2 but I feared with the larger nuggets being around 10" deep my only chance was to run hot. The GPX ran like a dream comparatively. I was not used to the wobbling threshold that this detector has and it took me some getting used to. We were also less than 500' from a larger powerline and I was still able to get two nuggets that day.(and yes we were just running the 11" Mono) I was able to learn from Gerry while he was there on his trip, but he made the comment to me that I was already doing very well. Everything I learned up this point was from "Brian" who took Gerry's class from one of his past purchases. Gerry and his team must do extraordinary training as I only have had second hand training thru "Brian". I hope to make one of Gerry's training trips to get a chance to do some more detecting with him and his team! On to the GPX6000. This detector has been a dream!! And I really mean that! Ergonomics are very important and ML has indeed hit this one out of the park. I never ran a 4500 or 5000 so I cannot compare to them, but "Brian" has let me run his GPZ, and I was tired after an hour with that detector. Even though the GPX is slightly heavier than a GB2, I do not notice the weight. I can go for 8 hours and not be completely dead, unless of course I am digging a lot of targets! 😄 The controls are very straight forward. One thing I always liked about the GB2 is it is quite literally turn it on and go. With at least the SDC and GPZ (as these are my only other references) there seamed to be a long start up. Not with the GPX, turn it on and in 10 seconds you can be swinging. The onboard speaker is decent. I think I would have preferred it to be by the display as the sound is coming from behind you instead of in front of you. Its not a huge deal, I can still hear it fine, I just find that when your coil is making noise going over grass and banging on rocks, I find it harder to concentrate on the threshold. With that being said, I do prefer to run with the headphones as this allows me to concentrate better on what I am listening to. I know there have been alot of complaints about EMI. I would say that the first 15min seem to be extra chatty but after that it seems to settle into it. Maybe it is just my mind canceling it out, but I do not find much issues with EMI. I even leave my IPhone on in my backpack which is usually anywhere from 20'-100' away from me. When I do notice more EMI, I just click the noise cancel and in roughly 12 seconds I am going again. The one thing I noticed is there is about a 5 second delay after running the noise cancel(7 seconds) before it is running properly. (probably has something to do with an averaging function that it is running) The threshold is a bit different to listen to for me at least. Its more of a wobbly hum. Once you get in tune with it you just listen thru it and the targets are obvious. Even when you think you've heard a target, just a simple swing back over the same spot and you will have your answer. The collapsible shaft is spot on. It packs down small so it does not take up much space. Its also nice for getting thru thick areas in the woods. I do not like to overtighten the nuts as this then allows me to twist the coil about the shaft instead of twisting my wrist or arm to keep the coil parallel with the surface. It is also more comfortable for me to not hold the display straight up but more turned in towards me. I do not like to run on the automatic sensitivity settings as I do not like the idea of the computer making changes that I am no controlling. (even though I know it is doing some automatic changes with ground tracking) I have been mostly running on 8-10 for sensitivity and normal soil. The spots I have mostly been to are fairly mild soils. When I get a target, I will give it a little scrap and check again in difficult. If the target is still there then I go after it. I have found that the normal soil setting can give you maybe an inch or so of extra depth. If there is a target there, It will go off on both after scraping a little off the surface. I have noticed that the difficult ground settings will give a better response to small nuggets. On to the gold! When I say that this has blown me away, I mean it! I know I am not very versed with other detectors, so for some of you this may not be as impressive as it has been for me. My first trip out after Gerrys visit, I go to a patch we call the E patch. We have worked this patch on and off for several years now and had felt fairly certain we were done here. There is a lot of garbage here, and I mean A LOT of garbage and most of it is tiny shrapnel and the thinnest pieces of wire I have ever seen. My first day here with the GPX banked me 42 pieces of trash and 5 nice nuggets with the two larger ones weighing in both just over 1g. As you can see, that pinpointer is about 10" long and there is another 2" of soil above that. This piece was right at 1g. This was my gold from that day. The top left is the one shown in the hole above. Needless to say, I was a happy camper that day. My next day out with the detector would net me 10 more little nuggets. I have to say, it is a blast when you are getting that many pieces no matter how big they are! It is hard to read, but that total was 1.14g. The smallest of these was 0.03g and this was about 2" deep. In fact this scale would not register it. I had to use a more precise scale to get a measurement. The last day I was out once again surprised me. Both the detector and this location! In about 2 hours I was able to pull out another 10 pieces! this time though the weight would be 8.25g of gold! With the largest piece coming in at 4.25g! My largest pieces yet! This also puts me in the lead for largest nugget of the year in one of my running bets with "Brian". These bets are for a beer for each bet 😉 The depth of the largest nugget was about 14". The image is deceiving. I dug a narrow hole but if i put my hand straight across from the scoop, there was at least another 2" of soil above my hand and the scoop is roughly 12" long. The depth of this piece was about 8". Again this image is deceiving as the hole was fairly wide at the top so the scoop is laying down more. This piece weighed in at 0.35g To sum things up, YES I am well pleased with this detector. It has delivered me gold that I missed with my GB2. It has given me the confidence right from the get go. I know that if there is gold under my coil, this is giving me the best chance of seeing it. I no longer have to wonder if I am missing targets that other detectors would see. Overall I find this detector fairly easy to use and the light weight makes it easy to use all day. Will I ever pay this detector off, that depends on what you mean. It has already paid for itself in fun! It may very well pay for itself financially someday, but I will rely on my full time job to feed me. 😆 I can not wait for further usage of this detector and will always remember the awesome time I had detecting with the legendary Gerry McMullen! Like I said above, the GPX6000 is not just a detector... It is a thrill ride!

Apple basically did that with their phones. 😂. That is if you wanna use corded earbuds

I would tend to think that locking the coils down with the chips not only protects their detectors but also protects them financially. If you messed up your detector before by putting some cheap(or maybe not cheap) coil on your detector and it screws up the detector, you send it in and its covered under warranty and ML covers the cost because they have no way in proving that you didn't put an aftermarket coil on. Its not like they are making more money by only allowing their coils to go on the detector because they only offer 3 coils currently and it comes stock with 2 of them. Seems logical to me (as a mechanical engineer, so what do I know) that would protect your products however you can. Just about all major companies are making it harder to put aftermarket products on. Try putting an aftermarket stereo in a newer car, almost impossible.

Van conversion? You must have me confused for someone else. lol I also figure I will just put some loctite 425 on the nut next time.

I've always said gold miners are some of the smartest and most ingenuitive people to make their way into the wild west. Just seeing the old workings, mills, flumes, ditches, ect that they built in order to find their fortunes never ceases to amaze me. I believe in order to be successful still today takes a bit of this same smarts. This story starts last fall. While out detecting a small ravine with previous working for the better part of a day, I found myself missing the plastic bolt and nut to my coil on my GB2. I searched for about 15 min, but the grass and pine needles made it impossible to find the little black pieces. It was close to the end of the day anyway so I called it early went home cracked a cold one and ordered myself 3 sets of bolts and nuts to make sure i had extras for when this happens to me again. Now flash forward into last weekend, I found myself in the same predicament. Thinking, AHA! im prepared! I found myself tearing my backpack apart, but alas, they were not to be found there. Since this was the beginning of my day, and I had hiked 2 miles over two ridges 500' high through a maze of fallen tress to get to this spot on a drizzling day, I started brainstorming. Reaching into my inner MacGyver, I start looking at the ground around me, I figure there must be a twig that could fit just right. After attempting several different twigs, I found one that fits just right. Its snug to get in. I believe its gonna work. My partner with me shakes his head and goes off detecting as the previous two twigs were too small and my coil was just floppy. I pick up my detector and go off and start swinging. Seams to be working, in fact, because the twig is snug, the coil is not floppy and is working great! Several hours pass, my partner gets the first piece, ~0.25g piece. Cool now we know there is detectable gold here. another hour passes and my twig is holding in there, I hear a good sounding signal. Babam! my piece for the day! and its a bit bigger (bragging rights! 😁) We finish the day out not finding any more pieces as the rain was starting to wear on us. We hiked our way out happy that we proved gold in another location. I have since been out twice for a couple hours and my twig is still holding on in there. I could just put the new bolt and nut on but im curious to see if the twig last longer 😆. Maybe it can be the stock inventory item for the Gold Bug 2! This just shows you, even though its no engineering feat like an 18 mile long flume or a mine shaft that sinks 1000's of feet, it pays to not give up and to use your smarts! Just another story from one happy prospector

Ya i was thinking about a 10” when i was writing this🙄. Plus who had to come over and re locate that piece for you when you lost it 😆. Also just because you dug a 3” deep hole doesnt mean the piece was that deep 🤪

Should have been using a Gold Bug 2 with the 10" coil like us real detectorist use and you would have had more pieces like the ones below! 😛 0.4gn, 0.8gn, 0.5gn, 0.2gn. The 0.8 was about 1" deep, the others were within the top 1/2" or so

This is actually what afreakofnature and I were recently talking about. Except for me I would have my Gold Bug 2 instead. I think its a grand idea to be able to pull out a vlf and quickly see if a target is trash or not. Also been thinking about just carrying along a nalgene bottle to put tiny targets into instead of trying to find them in my scoop, then just pan them out later. Hopefully save some time while out in the field. Hoping the 6000's start showing up in the US soon!

Audio kinda sucks but here is the link

Let your friend buy it and be your infantry 😬