DDancer

I'll be posting more later as I've recently come back from my walk about in OZ.

I strongly suggest that one use the hip stick.  Even with the Pro Swing unless one uses the full harness and supports you Will *that's a capitol* find a world of hurt waiting for you trying to use the Zed without support.

*note: some of us cant be manly men and quite frankly wimps don't pan out either but working smarter not harder is the best bet all the way around*

The Pro Swing in a 50 percent config, ie just the one j-rod with the harness fitted proper and Tight, with the Hip Stick *regardless of vendor* will cut down and eliminate the "Zed Arm". 
Whats the Zed Arm?  Its the fatigue and eventual damage one will cause to ones arm while doing the manly thing.  I know because I experimented in the field doing 8 to 12 hours a day this summer in OZ.  Watched my partner get messed up to but he was "manly" and persisted.... well we both whined and cried later

Had a get together with a bloke and his wife while in Mount Magnet.  He was swinging the Zed and she a 4500.  When we all sat down to a cuppa his complaints were the same as we had experienced.  Long story short he had a hip stick, had left his J rods at home , however after adjusting his harness and adding the stick he felt the immediate improvement and I expect he's right as rain now.

Support is everything when your swinging an anvil and trying to hammer little nails with it   The bungee trick only helps so much.  A full harness and supports can be, well is, restrictive. *especially in a bush emergency after a bad meal*  The hip stick with a partial harness is a good combo to this guy.

GPZ 7000 and I'm coming back to the USA now

Well I'm down here near Kal and seeing a lot of saturation in area's that I don't feel are salty.  I'll give it a go.  Gotta see if I can talk the ML dealer here into giving me a Ferrite~ seems ML only told him to give them to people he dealt with and the bead only came out just before I left the states.

Curious how the bead will help with black as ironstone hills.

Partner and I have been calling the saturation signal the "howlies" and to date only dumbing up the machine helps.  Try manual next.  Funny pumping the coil to check balance in the howlies does not show any out of balance condition most of the time...

Any thoughts or is this just riding in line with what is being said about how auto is grabbing the salt as it sweeps to howl...?

I'll catch up with this post when I get back into town.

Thanks.

Well all things considered be leaving out for WA tonight.  Hipstick~ in place in OZ, Screen protector installed, handle grip covered with tennis wrap and spares, coil sealed and tape installed that dulls the bong considerably, box cover knee brace like Steve works wonders, spare's well.... none because ML don't make them yet but got a line on a CTX battery when I get there, Vehicle~ should be a trooper camper waiting in Perth... rest of my kit well I think its covered.

Partner is asking on coils but told him Nope not yet.  No worries.  Cold and wet hehh.  Fly net Natures balm *flies* yep... Going to be some gold for sure.  Just about there.  All the tips and hints plus some practice/experiments check and check.  Catch you in the flip.  Not sorry to waste some time getting it down and digging down.

Cheers,

DDancer

Wireless is the way to go if you get the right set up.  Not sure how Bluetooth is working now but older versions had hang ups with delay in audio primarily.  Some can be noisy to the detector as well.  Pro's are you can set your detector down and way without the tether, as you noted no tree branches snagging you up and with light weight headsets, I've got ear buds, no sweaty ears.  Hard for find good FM based sets now but they are out there as well.

Hehh   This is just heating me up!  Love it!

One thing you can try is to install another charge port with heavier gauge wiring as this will minimize the voltage drop from the battery to the charge port. 16ga wire or better would be preferable for distances longer than 10 feet.  Dual battery is the way to go out bush

Steve

Relating to your post on getting stuck out bush when it rains in Australia~  2010 was one of the wettest years in WA and my mates and I got stuck in pretty non-productive areas for a week at a time from just the mildest of rains.  The soils there turn to instant grease that challenge any 4WD so the best advice there is just to wait it out.  Even walking around is a trick in the wet.

Roads, dirt tracks, are bad enough and rut out easily~ frowned apon~ and getting stuck might just land you and your mate in a heap of trouble.

Some roads also have to be left alone after a good pour because getting caught out on them can get you fined between 100 and 400 dollars a tire.

The deserts of the West here in the USA are about as troublesome but help is generally much closer at hand than in AUS.  Biggest problem for deserts here are the washes where flash flooding can leave you sleeping in your car for a while if not swept down stream.

I'm looking at wheels right now in OZ and see some troopies I'd like to pick up   Gonna hit the backpackers up first see if I cant score a good set of wheels with a partial kit.  *another week to go!*

Its hard for me not to come home or back to camp without a rock or two.  I'm always keeping an eye out for the unusual or nice specimens of an area.  I've never tried the sexstone line of thought but I get funny enough looks when people ask me about leaverite.

May sound silly but one of my additions is always at least 3, 2 by 6 or 2 by 12 pieces of hard lumber about 2.5 feet long.  They are useful for jack pads, to lay across a tire for breaking the bead for tube installation, make a great cutting board and lap table for dinner and just about anything else you need a chunk of lumber for.

Working in aviation as an electronics tech I also carry a multimeter, splice kit and safety wire pliers with a roll of .32 safety wire.  Duct tape and baling wire   A butane soldering iron and a good torque wrench are also helpful for the tool box.

In 2006 I had to use all those plus some other stuff~ fixed a starter and changed out a transmission bush.  In 2010 helped my mates with the repairs on the front end hubs of his 4wd *bearing went bad, fried the spindle as well*, hubs for another trailer *bad bearings again*, replaced the injector for another diesel.  Biggest bitch was finding a torque wrench in Australia that time around.  Packing my own this time.  A full set of tools goes along way.  Heavy blankets as well for laying on similar to what Swifty pointed out.

I've not had the chance to deal with salt yet~ my experiments on the beach here in NC had to be put on hold for work related reasons as I gear up for WA next month.  However as I read I'm reminded of how I use my own coil.  I don't scrub it much.  In fact I feel I've always had better balance and sensitivity with the coil a half inch to an inch above the ground and rig my bungee to maintain that.

Reading this I wonder if I'm just off in my thoughts.  Granted this is what I came up with on my old SD2100 and later with my GP. *addendum*  I read the link and saw what JP had to say about scrubbing~ interesting.  Still I am curious for other thoughts. *addendum 2* then I thought lets read Steve's post and now... well I'm just going to keep quite on the thought of how I rig.  Seems I'm ok.  Hahh.

Salts on the GP where dealt with similar to whats being described for the GPZ.

A silent thresh hold is what comes to mind as I think about the problem described.  How much does anyone think this will impact performance in noisy ground types?

Hehh :P Man do I feel a bit foolish.  Been trying to figure out a way to set the bungee for a while so I would not hit my fingers as well as hit the balance right.... such a simple solution.  Many Thanks.   I guess its not such a silly question after all.

Nice space gold there   Figure you'll have the basin cleared out by the end of the season?

I certainly appreciate the work you all are putting into your endeavor's.  I feel the 5k walk to get to the goal and love that you guy's/gal take the time to enjoy the view as well.  Some things you just cant capture in pictures and video but your lot is doing a good job of it.  Actual prospecting and not just digging a bunch of holes!

I've always found it a bit refreshing and disconcerting both speaking with and reading posts in regards to Australians.  The old Finders forum is a good place to cut your teeth on speaking down under   As to how a conversation between an American, Englishman and an Aussie goes.... well been there and its a hoot with or without libations around the camp fire.  Thing is the Pom and the Aussie will leave the Yank out of the convo till he tries to chime in and then they let the Yank have it both barrels.  Solidarity there with the Queen and all I think.  The Yanks best bet is to draw on his own native language and let the Pom and Aussie wonder what the heck he's talking about.

When it comes to a good long cuss I'm still not sure if the Aussie can outdo a Southern Yank but I do know the Pom will be forgotten as to proper    Though I've run into the Welsh and they are pretty close to unintelligible whether its a cuss or a long yarn.

auminsweeper says it best :

So if one day I happen to say something that sounds a bit off just think about it from 2 angles and somewhere in between is what I mean,

  I have a hipstick waiting for me in OZ from a mate of mine.

I appreciate the feed back on my silly question.  I've never quite figured out why such a tool is so often overlooked or shunned.  Though in klunkers case I suppose it could be beneficial in a brawl

True enough that in some areas its just not very practical or feasible to use a support but I keep shaking my head when I hear about how heavy a detector is.  And there I am with the same gear, only supported, zipping right along still shaking my head.  Main reasons I seem to hear are that : The harness is to hot, I don't like the way it feels, I don't need it: for not using a support bungee or other device.

Maybe a bit of machismo?

Thanks for the feedback on the base rock Norvic.  Your research pile sounds like mine. Hahh.. mines scattered across 3 states now in various storage units though.

With a make up like that I'd call it a granite. Certainly a metamorphic stone.  The old timers may not have been so much rushed as they may have been more on the spoiled side with rich ore like the report says.  Been to a few mulock heaps that were rich in species however the main loads where what was concentrated on.  Good for us folks nowadays   Saw plenty of examples of it in Victoria AU and here in the desert southwest US.

Some of the best examples of crystals are found with macro/micro photography.  For good size bits like the one pictured you may be able to burn them out for a small mount.

Its a silly question but I am curious to know how many use a bungee or other support system while out bush or even in a park?

I use just a standard harness and bungee pretty exclusively as it reduces wear and tear on my person   The advent of the Zed kinda makes it imperative to me now.   I gain extra control of my coil, regardless of the machine, and I don't have to worry about dropping it to take a break~ or that someone will try to grab and run with it. 

Silly question but I'm curious to ask.

Norvic that is certainly and interesting tale and I appreciate the references.  The alchemy might not work so well though I bet joints will appreciate the heat

Not all gold is associated with quartz.  Its just a common theme.  The main theme to gold formation tends to be hydrothermal activity and associations with other heavy metals.  Its a very nice specimen and I would be interested to know what the base rock is if you ever get it identified.  Looks to me to be granitiod. 

Many years ago on an Arizona prospecting forum the discussion came up about "Magnetic Gold".  It may still be floating out there, but the gist of the whole conversation was about what your talking about Gerry.  Nuggets and gold that had been picked up with a magnet~ often times to the surprise of the prospector.  One of my motto's, Always Check your pick (magnet).

Personally I've picked up bits out of my pans here in the USA but not on my pick yet.  Down in Oz, depending on where your digging, its not uncommon to pick one up.  Done it, picked one up with the pick, several times and I still keep one little momento to a hour hunt that drove me nuts on an ironstone pebble infested patch. Story there is I kept picking it up with the magnet, not finding it and it sounded sweet, cleaning it off and scattering the other stones with it.  The residual magnetism made all but that one sound off up close.

Had to keep separating them till I got one hand full and dropped it on the coil slowly.

When I finally isolated it, figured it for a meteor by then, I chiped the side and saw the gold.  On that trip it was the first of many back in 2006 with one being a 4 grammer totally encased in iron stone just sitting on the top with all its black buddies around. *found that one a bit quicker *

Steve the WA nuggets associated with black ironstone blows are the most notorious I've found for being picked up with a pick and like the picture above are often encased or have ironstone attached to them.  In my experience the magnetic ones are usually on the surface or in an inch and when I do my trash sweep they will show up or I will drop them close by for a re-sweep.  Kicked plenty of them to with the foot scrape as well after the trash sweep... and shown them later by my mate picking up my trail.

Deeper nuggets don't tend to be picked up very often because only the surface stuff is swept with a magnet as that's where all the tin is usually found.

Norvic hit it on the head in his way.  Gotta look out for the city folk. Seeing it for myself down OZ way with my partner. *mind he's seeing this post*.  Just jumping out of bed and saying "I'm going to find Gold today!" don't cut it

Planning is a big part of going out for a look.  Might get by on a few scrapes or digs with a sleeping bag and some granola but if you want to get into the thick of it its gonna take more than a trip to town every two days to stock up and more than a trip a day to get wrapped around the area you in.  Silly stuff like that. Dead parrots.. hoot. don't know many who drink from a bore... there's good water where you look for it down under and most American water is ok too. hehh.  Ah... just a thought.

Wear them all the time myself.  A cheap piece of insurance.  I find them very useful against spinifex and when I'm "gardening" in bushes and cactus.  Have not had to test them against snakes, I find my coil to be pretty resistant to them, have had a few rattlers have a go, but I'm reasonably confident I'll have a good chance of walking away if ever I do get struck at.

It should be interesting to see if there are some software upgrades to allow some of the thoughts here to come true.

Probably have to have a few hardware upgrades for moving maps and such though is my thought.

Now when is someone going to come clean on the testing of some new coils? *grin*  I gotta think they are out there. Hahh!

My partner is now down in Australia and he just put the battery and main components in his check luggage and carried the main box in his carry on with no difficulties.  I've never had problems carrying my batteries along and I travel by air frequently.

Hehh, well that confirms my thoughts on AA's with the Zed.

Nice finds, the chevron stuff is on my bucket list, great to see you and your other can share the experience.  Now can you share the gold?   Hahh!

Gonna have to get busy as the Miss's is cleaning the patch while your jawing with the guys *grin*.  Luck and keep swinging.