Swifty

Hello all,

I have been having a little luck on the southern calif beaches lately,

Managed to find this silver standing liberty half dollar along with a merc dime and a buffalo nickel. They are all in about the same condition

being in the ocean and sand for who knows how long. Any ideas on how to clean them?

What I've been doing in one area where there's lots of hot rocks  is picking up a few positive and negative hot rocks in the area, toss them and the ferrite ring in a pile, gb to a count of 8 then again 2 or 3 times each time with a count of 8.  The zed gets close enough to stable where the hot rocks are no longer a problem.  This did not work in all the areas I've tried

Seeing that most of the regular posters are experienced detector users, I'm a little curious what type of threshold  you prefer.

I've noticed there seems to be 3 main choices for threshold.

1. Running hot, detector sounds a little unstable but still a target stands out from the rest of the sounds.

2. Running smooth and steady listening for any change in sound at all.

3. Running close to, or actually silent with a target the only sound made excepting an occasional EMI burst.

And second are you using headphones?

I run my 7000 close to silent, and my discrimination detectors with a smooth threshold.

I use headphones on everything.

Great video GH, what I like most is the info you give on assessing the area and what the Chinese where up to in the past.

Nice shooting Fred !. you have become one with the detector.

Thank you Steve for putting up a good explanation on what was very confusing to me. 

I have one of those brains that will never make  sense of all the extra background noises.  Cant play the guitar worth a crap either lol.

But as least I have an idea what others are saying when they express that the background  noise is giving them information..

I like rockey road ice cream, I like a quite threshold, it allows me to hear very slight changes in what the  coil is passing over. Someone else likes vanilla ice cream, they like a noisy threshold. I keep reading the term used,  its giving them information on the ground they are swinging their coil over. Let me taste your ice cream! What is this information? I've had stony meteorites. iron stones. and lead that all sound like gold. I've had gold nuggets that sound like pull tabs. What am I missing hear?

I once again am Mr. Oddball. In over forty years of metal detecting with countless makes and models I have never had dirt under my coil cover be a problem with the performance of the detector. At least that I was ever aware of. I do of course find a bit of fine dust or grit under some covers when I pry them off but frankly I am pretty skeptical that the amount and concentration would ever be enough to make a difference unless it was pure magnetite. And that I have never seen under any of my covers in sufficient quantity to matter.

Hey Steve, I honestly cant say it was affecting the detectors performance other then I was swinging some extra weight on a already heavy coil and it may have been giving me less of a true ground balance. But I don't feel I missed any nuggets with all that dirt riding around inside

Good idea!

Like the SDC, I think the "vented" coil cover on the GPZ has something to do with it being a detector you can use in the water. The cover isn't sealed on there with tape like the old ones. I think Minelab designed it to let water drain out of it.

I've since switched to the black coil cover cuz I wore my stock one out.

I took Lunks advice and did pan it, there were a few flakes of gold so im saying the upgrade works great lol..  If your Zed is starting to feel like it's getting heaver each time you use it you may want to check if dirt is building up under that stock cover.

So this morning my plan was to replace coil cover on the zed and then do the software upgrade. Last time I had the detector out it was slightly sprinkling rain and the coil had some dirt stuck to it. I grabbed the garden hose and just waved the spray over the coil. and wiped it down with a dry cloth. Then I saw water dripping out from under the coil cover and was a little shocked at how much water had gotten between the coil and cover so fast.  This is what I found when I pulled off the cover. I can say this is the first time I'm glad I've worn out a coil cover

Gpz 7000 and gold bug pro..

Add your car/truck smart key they, will make your detector act like funny as well.

Still take 3 detectors with me, gpz,  gpx with 10x5 DD, and a modded gold bug pro 5"round

GPZ 7000 Nothing better on old patches, use it for hunting new ones as well. Swing it 75% of the time

Gold Bug Pro for trashy areas, really small gold, and to pinpoint in those 2+ foot gpz holes. Swing it 15% of the time.

GPX 5000 with 10x5DD for large bolder type areas, bad iron stone, and miserable basalt. Swing it 10% of the time

The GPX is still the best on all different types of hot ground.

hehe I think Paul is Bidding $3500

Just from looking at the picture I would have guessed a lot more then 45 pounds.

Dang, Patrick, nice gold and the musk ox made the trip worthwhile...

 

hunting gold is just a good reason to wander to and fro in all the earth....

 

did you carry the detectors on the plane or in the baggage

 

fred

Hey Fred, They wanted your detectors in your checked baggage and any spare batteries taped up with electrical tape and in your carry on bags.  That's a TSA rule, The airline overrode that rule  in a second when the flight was overbooked, then all carry on bags, batteries and all could be checked in. 

That's a nice haul for few Hours

 

       P.S. I still have that dime!

 Funny Norm, someplace I may still have that bottle of Wine

The camp generators would run from 8am to @12-1p then again @8pm tp 12a, I took a ctx3030 battery and would use that while my zed battery was on the charger. Taking a nap after lunch helped a lot with getting rested up.

Nice one Rick!

A few more pics.

Akau Gold Alaska 2015

Hunting for gold nuggets in Alaska, something that sooner or later crosses your mind once you get the dreaded Gold Fever Bug. I started planning my adventure about a year before, having never been able to visit Ganes creek or Moore creek while they were in operation. With very few options to choose from for nugget hunting in Alaska; I decided to book my trip with Akau Gold It was my only real option left that I was aware of. My adventure began flying out of Burbank Airport, packing a week’s worth of clothes along with 2 detectors, a GPZ7000 and a Gold Bug Pro. Three plane changes and 12 hours later im in my cabin at Akau gold camp on Anvil creek, 7 miles outside of Nome Alaska.

My cabin was very basic with a wooden bunk bed and small portable heater. All their potable water has to be trucked in so showers are kept to a minum. Food was home cooked meals served @ 8am and 8pm and very good as far as my tast go’s.

They have an activities menu to pick from as far as what you will be doing each day be it panning, slucing, high banking, or Metal detecting.

I was there for one reason only, nugget shooting, and with 24 hours of sunlight and 600 acres to explore I can say I got my fill in the 7 days I was swinging a detector and maybe only covered a small part of it. The ground is mild but there is a ton of old iron trash, you need a detector with discrimination. My gold bug pro did not survive the airplane flight and the coil plate had somehow split open in my luggage. So for the 7days I was swinging my gpz7000. With a lot of ground covered by tundra and all the iron trash I stuck to checking old tailing piles and push areas.

I had a great time and will be going back again next year I hope.

Again accommodations are very basic, the weather changes every few minuets, it can get bone chilling cold even in summer, daylight is 24 hours so sleeping can be tuff. The hosts Augie and Betty are great and will do all they can to make your trip a good one. The food is home cooked and there’s gold still there but it takes work to get some, even in Alaska.

Hi Rob, Patrick Swift hear, I asked that very question of a Minelab rep while I was in Alaska a few weeks ago. His answer was Minelabs has no plan on making a smaller coil for the 7000 at this time. He had just arrived as I was packing to leave on the plane out so I did not get a chance to find out any details.

Very nice indeed!

hehe I'm seeing visions of a gold club with a on line data base, where you could shair other members gps maps and see where Rye Patch has been worked, by who, and what detector they were using at the time. Then work the uncovered ground, and slowly fill in the map till its time to sell the claim on e-bay. Ouch!

Very nice!