jasong

If it's that much more sensitive on small gold than the GPZ, and it can run bigger coils, plus it has better EMI and ground filtering which then allow for higher RX gains, why exactly would the GPZ still be better at depth on bigger nuggets? Especially with a 17" mono on the 6000. I'm guessing the small gold increase in sensitivity comes from earlier sampling. But with all that noise filtering why not give us a lot more RX gain to play with too, unless it's kept lower intentionally to not outpunch the GPZ?

Honestly, if you are hitting tiny stuff with the 14" DD in Cancel mode at 3" that the GPZ can't hear at all, then I'd be more interested in a 3rd package option - the 17" mono and 14" DD. How much smaller of gold could we possibly want to find? That 11" mono in Normal has to be screaming hot. I know lots of people want a small light coil though, so probably why it's part of the US package. Ok, next person in Quartzsite see if you can get a rough depth estimate in air on that 14" DD on like a 1 grammer now.

Thanks Lunk. That's some good performance with a DD, not to mention a 14'er. Were you able to test that little nugget in Salt Cancel mode? I can't remember from the manual now, but it was a different timing than EMI cancel even though they both use the DD right?

Minelabs slogan is "Performance is everything". Yet that's what we know nothing about! That's the only big question left for me. Ergonomics isn't enough for me to spend $6000. Performance combined with ergonomics is though. How it does in salt and compared to the GPZ generally makes or breaks it for me. They need to let field testers talk about performance, or give it to some field testers in Australia and the US to go do independent testing if they want to generate more excitement. The leaks and the ads are ho hum at this point IMO.

I think it's pretty well implied which detector is being used. Besides, we had 5 years of talking about and extolling the virtues of the GPZ, I'm not sure there is much more new to add there. Whereas the coils were a new unknown thing, and thus were the subject of new conversation. I have to disagree with many here though, certain parts of the GPZ are fragile and should be redesigned. The foot and the battery design among the most often mentioned ones. The great thing is, looking at the 6000 it does appear that engineers have listened and they not only got rid of the foot and made the bottom wider, but they rubberized the bottom too (it appears?), like you find in high quality power tools. Also following the high quality power tool lead they seem to have used similar new rugged battery insertion schemes there too. So, it's a good thing people mention these issues, they appear to have been addressed and that's a win in my book. I also have to take slight exception at the amazement someone might drop their GPZ 1 foot. I do it all the time. It should take it. It's a field tool meant for rugged environments. It's not hard to design sensitive electronics to withstand 1 foot drops. I've dropped my phone 10 or 15 times from hip or chest level, no problem, and it's an office tool. Dropped my Hitachi framing nailer from 16 feet onto gravel, no prob. And dropped my Makita's more times than I can count from roofs, ladders, and hips with no issues.

You asked specifically about the 17" mono size in relation to the Z14 though, not the stock 11" mono. My point is that when it comes to monos in bad ground you have to take size in account because it makes a huge difference. Ground which a 10" mono struggles in can be fairly easy to work with an 18" mono for instance. And in some mineralized ground, depending on nuggets and mineralization, a 18" mono will get better depth on similar nuggets as a 18" DD. So since you asked about the 17" mono and not the 11" mono in reference to mineralized ground, I'm telling you that if anything, the 17" will do better in comparison to the Z14 in bad ground than the 11" will do. And thus there is no reason to assume it's mostly intended for the Africa Not true, depends on size of coils compared again and level of mineralization. And since the 6000 has GeoSense, that puts another variable in the loop.

Since prices have been released now can someone ask in Quartzsite if we know what the MSRP on the 17" coil will be and when we might expect US availability?

Opposite. Bigger coils are better in mineralized ground (both for PI and the GPZ). Worse in salt (conductive) grounds. I'm guessing something along the lines of auto adjustment of sensitivity, ground tracking, and EMI cancellation? I'm curious how static the timings are. In other words, does Normal go "a little more Normal here, a little less Normal there" as you move along too? Or is such a thing possible?

Yep, it was something with them physically limiting how far you could move the dish from the service address you signed up with, I'm guessing they would disable it if it left a zone. But that was a while back, and I was just barely outside of the beta test area and not eligible, so I haven't looked at it for a year or more and things might have changed now that way more satellites are up. If you can move the dish around across many states then that would be awesome and I'm gonna get it and cancel my cable internet.

I live off BBQ beef jerky, Walmart dried mangoes and bananas (better than the name brand IMO), Bumblebee chicken salad n crackers, and Golden Graham bars. My mother would not approve. I don't do more than 2 day/night trips usually though. I throw in a few packs of Knorr Mexican Rice, maybe some Dinty Moore stew or chili, and I hate sardines but I loooove me a few tins of smoked oysters. And I have to have some kind of soda, if not with me than at least in the truck when I get back. My first stop back to town is whatever mom and pop I find for a heavy dose of fat like a cheeseburger and then a big fresh salad, and it's the best meal I ever had, every time.

Did they get it sorted out to where they allow customers to move the dish to areas other than where they started service? When I first signed up for the beta they said it would only be allowed to work within some short distance from where your service address was at and didn't allow travel. Would be nice if they changed that since then.

Yeah could be very likely too Lunk. I thought for sure when I first noticed the GPZ sticker that it was a 7000 coil, but comparing it to the 6000 Youtube screencaps, it appears to be the current 6000 coil housing design so it's likely they just tossed the 7000 sticker on.

It might be possible they put a GPZ sticker on a 6000 coil to hide it in public. Hard to tell exactly without seeing whats inside that coil.

Check this out. I just had another look at the photos. Notice anything strange? Look at the coil. The 6000 can use a DOD coil apparantly. It has a different connector though. They could be reusing the 14" housing for camo, but look closer, it's a custom housing with a new cable molded inlet and different support struts too, so that seems unlikely.

Dang, some of that is shedding off a source not too far away by the looks of it. If the state bought the land have you looked into wether VA does mineral leases and then taking a dozer out there where the big nuggets came from? Might be some more lunkers there to be found, might expose a vein or something too never know.

Also. We still don't know what exactly GeoSense is. There are some weird grammatical things in the manual and highlighted things that indicate this isn't the final manual and a newer revision will be released with the machine. As well as some stuff left not filled in with placeholders (various notes, coil winding, etc). I have 4 things specifically I'd be curious to test out before making any decisions on how good such a machine is - How that 2nd auto sensitivity mode works and how the no threshold thing feels since it's the most sensitive mode (is this GeoSense?) How the DD Salt Cancel performs sensitivity wise How good the performance in mono mode is on small/speci/crystalline/porous gold compared to the Z14 stock coil Can you swing this all day without a bungee?

Short manual. So basically, after brief read of the manual some various things we mostly already knew - You can operate with or without a threshold. Manual sensitivity has threshold and Auto sensitivity has no threshold. Ground balance is Auto. But there is a quick track button to adjust manual ground balance on the fly. DD mode has a Salt Cancel feature which will be interesting in Northern Nevada and similar terrains Noise cancel is only 5 seconds, significantly faster than the GPZ Two ground modes - Normal and Difficult Battery design looks much more robust and they got rid of the stupid breakable foot There is a Coil Error, so it's likely there is coil authentication (aka - a chip). Coil waterproof to 1 meter. Detector is rain proof, not waterproof. Headphones not rainproof. Looks like a well thought out, general purpose driven machine to me. That purpose may suit many, and might not suit others. Field performance reports are the big unknown left, and I hope they let JP talk about performance soon.

GPX 6000 Manual released (it won't allow direct linking the manual so I switched the link back to the index page with the links for all documents) Too many people click might crash the FCC site, no clue how much bandwidth they have. Also photos of the internals and externals of the 6000 are now live.

I posted this before but it probably got missed. That is not the real FCC site. The real FCC site has updated it's links including the manual, photos, etc, but the new links content aren't active yet for whatever reason, not sure if ML requested or because it just takes a while.

You got everything just right and then put the steering wheel on the wrong side! Kidding, that rig looks very well planned out and built. It's satisfying to look at since everything fits in it's place and no space is wasted.

Amazing Goop until someone comes out with a skid plate. On my NFA's I just Goop'ed each new hole until the entire plate was essentially covered in a thin layer of it and never bothered buying new skid plates. 😄 Easier for spoked coils I guess.

I try for 2 grams/day overall average generally too, or 3 grams when gold is a bit lower. If I start falling behind on a weekly basis I get nagging in the back of my head and start scrubbing old areas as meticulously as possible, try to imagine some new nuggets into existence, just to get back over that number then go exploring again. It's definitely getting harder in a lot of places! It was a good trip and got a lot done and new land explored to build from next winter too. It always clears my mind and puts me in a good mood when I spend some time away from town and out in the wilderness. Got some new coils to field test this Spring now, starting to lean heavily towards getting a 6000 now too. This upcoming year should be pretty fun! Haven't a had feeling like this in the air since the 7000 first came out and new possibilities abounded.

My winter season has officially ended. A total of 39 detecting days, 88 grams (argh, just short of 3 oz I was trying for) minus a couple grams traded for supplies along the way. Definitely no great bonanza this year, but by the looks of it I have almost paid for a new 6000 if I decide to get one. Anyone looking to buy nuggets let me know. 10% under spot if bought in 1/2 oz+ lots and I have another half lb or so at home slated for the refiner soon too if anyone wants bulk. I know it's not the prettiest gold, but it's cheap. 😄 About half this came from reworking older patches. The other half come from exploring but I wasn't able to find anything except scattered small patches this season so never quite hit the jackpot as in previous seasons. Thank you to X Coils for giving me a new 8" coil to play with, it was responsible for many of the smaller nuggets in the photo, as well as a couple of the bigger ones including the speci. It was nice to swing the GPZ with no bungee when using it and to feel truly mobile for the first time with any "big gun" detector. My field report on that coil is elsewhere on this site, no need to go into it here. For anyone who visited me at my land - I am packed up and leaving and this place is officially sold to a new owner as of tomorrow. So, don't come a knockin' cause he might have a shotgun 😄 Best of luck to the new owner. I have some plans in store for the spring/summer and next winter, thanks in large part to people who have generously offered knowledge and assistance. So, one chapter ends and I will be moving along to the next now. For now it's time to go home and finish the construction work I left behind this fall, get some money for an RV again to pursue this prospecting thing again when the ground thaws up North. Good luck to everyone I met and spoke with for the rest of this winter season, and to everyone else! Jason

Finding water is magnitudes easier than finding gold. Almost every O&G well I ever drilled hit water, in some cases we passed through multiple water tables. A water table is a plane of water, not pockets that are easy to miss. Determining depth is simply a matter of looking at existing well logs. The water table also varies with topography, which you can view with your eyes. Flow rate is a function of the type of rock, fractures, porosity, etc. A simple matter of geology. Also, how many wells are in the reservoir, a matter of public record. These are all things a driller with only a few years experience will be very familiar with.

I was avoiding mentioning that document release date, in hopes Minelab would forget, and not go file another extension to keep the manual private for another month. 😄