alaska detector

I absolutely love my 6” concentric coil on the the Whites 24k. A very good coil on a solid detector that pairs well with my 6000.

I took the 10x5 out again and aside from finding more gold, I found a treasure I consider even better.
 

I was detecting in the middle of nowhere up a hillside, and checked under a boulder that I wouldn’t have been able to reach with the stock coils, and pulled out this beauty. Given it’s age and where it’s at it certainly dates to the local gold rush. I have no intention in selling it so I cleaned it up, and I think it turned out great.

I too have found a drum stick nugget, though it looks like someone took a bite out of it before I could get to it.

Building off of what @GB_Amateur said there are several good prospecting YouTubers out there that are educational and entertaining, Dan Hurd, Vogus Prospecting, Schwendi, Pioneer Pauly, Tassie Boys, etc the list goes on with a lot of good ones. I learned quite a lot from them.

Matt

I’d say prospecting is as much of a science, or more, as it is an art. A rudimentary knowledge of geology, physics, and the ability to study and research areas to prospect -are essential to success. I’d highly recommend getting two books, the first being “The Essentials of Geology”, and the second being “Fist Full of Gold”. I bring this up because what you have here is an assortment of rocks from a stream system 
 

It’s going to be really hard to attempt at answering your question, but here’s a general rules; gold generally travels with the heavies which is all dependent on the local geology and history. Has the area had past gold production? What have past geological surveys or reports said about the type of gold in the area (size shape)? Are there pay streaks, or are there pockets? Are there indicator minerals? What layers was the gold found in? Was the gold found on bed rock? Was gold found on falls bed rock? Etc etc. A qualitative answer is so nuanced that I’d be throwing guesses at a dart board and I don’t want to lead you astray. The red one appears to be some form of hematite, and the small balls on the left looks to be lead. The top rocks looks to be quartz, and the bottom, idk could be a lot of things.

I’d highly recommend looking to see if there are any local prospecting groups or clubs in your area that you could join or tag along on. You’ll learn so much more from an experienced prospector one day in person than you’ll learn in a month researching online. Not to say that online doesn’t have value, it does, but when you’re trying to get started like you are it’s best to tag along.

I hope this helps.

Matt

What’s the compressor that you’re running for air, can it handle two divers? The compressor is the main factor on if you can support two divers, if it’s a PCA-10 type then you’re good there. So far as the reserve tank, idk, I’ve seen all kinds of set-ups, and I suspect there’s more than one way to do it, the main issue is if the reserve tank in use can withstand the pressure, and supply enough reserve air for the divers. But, I’m relatively new dredger too so grains of salt. I’ll ask a couple of more experienced people I know and see if they have a better answer for you.
 

Have spoken with Scott at ADMS? He’s a dredger, and is pretty knowledgeable. Also there’s a dredge builder forum on FB that I’m a member of and has a lot of knowledgeable people to ask.

1 hour ago, flakmagnet said:

Also, let's remember there are ten people for every one on this forum, who are out there doing their research, putting in the effort in the field and finding amazing gold…and they don't feel the need to say a thing. I don't blame them.

I certainly don’t say anything, it’s the easiest way to get a bunch of people on the patch you worked so hard to find.

Call me jaded but I’m always initially suspect of grand claims unless there’s ample proof, or multiple trusted sources. There’s too much incentive for people to lie about a find to garner attention or raise the value because of the location or size. I’m not saying this is the case here, but I’m always skeptical. As an example I think back to that find in the late 2000s purported to be a massive nugget from California that ended up coming from Australia, it’d had already been auctioned off and it was a big mess.

Here’s some more on Liberty with Nick and Rob’s mine:

I had rattling in mine too that I noticed when I was cleaning it up for the end of the year, I was concerned. I took off the cover for the plate for the speaker and saw there was a screw that had worked it’s way lose, and another that was going to be. These were the two top screws that look like they connect to the shaft housing? You may want to check there.

Anyways, I tightened them back down, and crossing my fingers because I love my 6000.  No issues other than the screws, though it’s was pretty noisy the last time I took it out, but I chalked that up to the snow on the ground and it clinging/freezing to the coil.

I’m sorry your having issues, it really is a great detector when they work.  
 

For sure, and they seem Kiwi as too, so no surprise the content is down to earth they’re just doing their thing. I went for a 3 week trip to NZ some years back and it was one of the best places I’ve ever been, really reminded me of AK. Boarding the plane to go home I was thinking, why in the hell am I going back? 

I love watching abyss dredging’s videos, they really get on the gold and seem like genuinely great guys. Where they’re detecting, I’m fairly certain this is in the west coast of the South Island, probably between Greymouth and Nelson.
 

Given how river worn those nuggets are I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re coming from an old channel. I really hope they’re plotting their finds into a GPS so they can look for patterns.

I mostly hunt remote bedrock canyons with little to no background EMI issues, so I’ve been running the 6000 in the 11 inch mono at Auto to Auto + with and without threshold.
 

The few times I’ve run into issues on these settings was when it started pouring down rain, and I couldn’t the detector to quiet down. And the other time was this weekend when it snowed overnight but the ground hadn’t frozen yet, snow was clinging to the coil and ice was starting to form. The detector wouldn’t quiet down at all until I wiped some of the snow off, but even then it was really noisy. In both cases it was getting to the end of the day and I was cold so I packed it vs resolve it.
 

This probably isn’t common, but I’m curious if anyone have had issues with this detector, or other detectors in snow. 

I’m absolutely drooling at the all of the fabrication equipment, great video.

There was a break in the weather and I went back out with a friend this past weekend. He’s a noobie so I pointed out a likely spot to crevice, gave a quick demonstration on how to pan and left him to his work.
 

I spent the afternoon exploring new spots and checking out some hidden bedrock by rolling some small boulders and got a good signal, after breaking up some bedrock out popped a quartzy nugget that was just under a gram.

I wanted to search more, but we had a cut off to get him back to town so made my way back to him to see how he did. He ended up pulling almost a gram of gold out in pickers and flakes, and had no concept how good that was for a first timer in that spot. This is the same guy who pulled out an almost 30 inch rainbow on one of his first times fishing and didn’t want to take a picture of it because it wasn’t a big deal, while I’m losing my shit for him. Some people!

Matt

I think you’re correct Steve; the semiconductor shortage due to Covid disruption, spike in demand from manufacturers starting back up, in addition to the explosion in crypto mining has made it really difficult to even get basic GPU (I’m still trying to get a 3080). While it’d be easy to hate on a big company that has a near monopoly on high end detectors, and they aren’t doing themselves any favors with the lack of transparency, I have to cut them some slack.
 

But, that being said…. I’m going bonkers as I’m flooded out of doing any kind of dredging due to continued spring runoff, and that damn detector can’t get here fast enough. 

I’ve been on the waiting list with my local dealer for months now too, but like everything else I’ve been trying to get done it’s delayed. Oh well, just need to let it roll off the back because me stressing about it isn’t going to make it get here faster. 
 

But, I did get to hold one when Steve made a stop in town to talk about it and metal detecting in general. Aside from it being light, I was struck by how perfectly balanced it is with the 11 inch coil, and how compact it really gets. The 6000 is going to be perfect for the mountains and canyons I hike into.

A lot of this could be tied to the chip shortage. I build PCs as an extension of a gaming hobby and it’s been near impossible since September to get a graphics card. It’s gotten so bad that I’m considering buying a whole prebuilt computer just to get the upgrade I need. 
 

Of course a chip shortage probably isn’t the only factor, but it sure as hell probably isn’t helping matters. 

22 hours ago, AussieMatt said:

Any Bluetooth headset will work but to get the optimal level of low latency you need Bluetooth with the aptX Low Latency codec.

People also need to be aware there is different aptX codecs also. Not all will give the optimal low latency. 

There is also standard aptX, aptX HD, & aptX Adaptive.

Only aptX Low Latency products will connect with the GPX6000 (or Equinox/Vanquish) with lowest available Bluetooth latency. Need to look for aptX-LL on products.

https://www.aptx.com/product-listing?product_category=7&aptx_type=3

Transmitters/receivers:

https://www.aptx.com/product-listing?product_category=8&aptx_type=3

Thanks Matt, this explains it perfectly.

This may have been answered already, but does the 6000 work with any Bluetooth headset? Let’s say I have a Bose or Sony noise canceling headphones, or even AirPods, would those work with this machine?
 

I rigged up my GM24K with a Garrett MS-3 Z-Lynk headphones/transmitter and it worked pretty well, just a bit kludgy. I’d prefer not to have to install a transmitter, or use specialized headphones if I don’t have to.

Ok, you started me on a bit of a rabbit hole. I’ve been reading about some of these early gold rushes in the Carolinas, Georgia etc and there are some of the stupidly big nuggets found then and since then, 17lbs, 23 lbs. Wow. 

I shouldn’t be shocked, these are mountains that though a lot older than the west coast originally had probably had some similarity it formation, metamorphism etc. I used to live in Georgia and was all over this area for trout fishing , wasn’t into prospecting yet. I could have been walking over gold.

Awesome finds! I didn’t know there were nuggets this big on the East Coast. Were you finding more with the 4500 or the monster?

1 hour ago, Gerry in Idaho said:

I see you like to chase big deep gold and if that's the case I think a GPX-5000 with the 30+ coils options out there might give you more diversity and at a lower price.  

Now if you are like me and prefer lighter weight and better ergonomics and as a bonus, the GPX-6000 is said to perform better on smaller gold (the majority out there), then the 6000 is the way to go.

You have a dealer in Anchorage that might be able to help you out.  If for some reason he does not have the inventory when you are ready to purchase, or you'd like to get from a dealer who offers Field Training, just look me up.  But give him 1st offer as he is in your area.

I see you swing a 24K, how you like it?  It was one of my favorite VLF gold only detectors.

I really like the 24K/Sport, extremely easy to use, and great at picking up deeper small targets. Some of the areas I detect have a lot of iron trash and the discrimination is great.