Norvic

Flak and other interested folks, a couple of movies (although recoing movies to Flak is akin to recoing gold techniques to Steve, Gerry and others) The Dry (Eric Bana) and The Drovers Wife (Leah Purcell) poem/short story by Henry Lawson.

Australia is some 24% smaller vs America, there are some areas that are still in drought, some are now at the other extreme and flooding. Drought is not reported on by the News with the same enthusiasm as flood, mostly it affects the low population rural areas as our high population areas have sufficient dams to carry them over drought times. Rural districts like where I am are "food bowl" areas, without these areas there is no food, some of these areas are still in drought but it balances out by others like mine which are coming out of drought with the flooding with our dams full.

The calves on my block are being birthed now and they are ear high in lovely green pasture a time of bounty for them as will be in the other rural areas once the flooding subsides. The bad sad times for when we are affected by drought then flooding is balanced out by that bounty that follows, extremes yes, but that mostly is the reality of living downunder. 

It`ll be dry enough in a couple of months to go out and get that lovely heavy stuff again, the cycle continues.                                                                                 

Naturally a flooding wet depends on ones experience/perspective from their environment, the News views cater to the majority, if this wet does continue as it`s started there sadly will be flood disasters for that majority in our cities/towns in NQ as most were originally built on flood plains/reclaimed lowlands on our narrow eastern coastal strip with massive recent expansion on even lower ground, we are becoming more urbanized as our rural industries become more mechanized and haven`t as yet learnt how to tackle population growth to avoid compounding natural disasters.

I live in a farming/pastoral remote district of low population that requires water for crop irrigation thus we have a different perspective to urban areas, on fire as well as rain. Rurally we have three seasons green, brown and black. ie. color of our land. The prospector in me hates the wet and looks forward to the annual controlled fires, but my block needs the rain for the pasture and to fill its dams, thus I`m a wee at odds within myself, my immediate family live in cities and feel for them at flood times in particular, even more at odds with myself.

This wide brown land for me, although a land of extremes. 

Is an annual thing in OZ, sometimes more flooding sometimes less but always some, it is just the News these days have an agenda to make out its something new. Flooding, drought and fires are and has been part and parcel of downunder since year one. We go from green to brown to black most years Thank you for your care Flak, below excerpt from Dorethea Mackellars poem "My Country".

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror –
The wide brown land for me!

1 hour ago, Tony said:

I guess the Axiom is that good after all….🤔

Nah, whilst I have some heated "differences" of opinions with JP I don`t believe he`d be concerned with the Axioms top performance, he`s not that one eyed and will use the Axiom if it puts more weight in his pocket or pushes ML to better. But each to his own and that`s my belief, come on JP tis not a sheep station, we miss you.

The lads gone a drovin and we don`t know where he are. Words taken from a famous OZ poem by Banjo...... There ya go US DP folks a quiz What Poem? and who`s Banjo?

Nah not experienced an unwanted PMer.

No worries Qlden, thank you for confirmation of the "eagle" landing. Also many Thanks to all who entered, I reckon I`ll make it an annual bit of fun to bring in each New Year with Steves OK of course. Wee bit wet downunder here in FNQ so be a few months &^#$%^^&$# before I get out again.

On 1/8/2023 at 1:04 PM, Gold Catcher said:

I have been going back and forward with this, but I am landing now to get my first Garrett detector ever. So, you are still excited about the Axiom? Is the GB control as useful as I am reading? Is the reduction in ground noise cutting into selectivity/depth?

GC

Just having manual GB is useful, GB control is precise you can have the Axiom purring like a kitten with a nice steady threshold or as GB says dial it up from 5 to 8 if you like it ratty on most grounds, I have not had enough time behind it on the very variable ground I have that is overlaid by hot rocks to know its capability there (read; haven`t scored that heavy stuff on that ground as yet) but I`m fairly confident its got the go once I get the hang of it. Hey MLs got Z2 on the way has had since they released Z1...... Decisions decision decisions.... Toss a coin.........

A dink in US?, a scrap in FNQ, a colour in Vic what`s in a name 🤪  tis that bloody lovely golden stuff. I am dirty jealous, be months away before I can get out, just watch out cuz ya might av an old poacher coming over the ditch.

52 minutes ago, phrunt said:

The true potential of the GPZ isn’t realised unless run in normal where it shows the GPX who’s boss even on tiny gold with the right coil

This is where the Axiom enters, having much like a 6Ks sensitivity to deep scraps but with manual GB, Auto slow etc and that 11x elliptical mono that comes with it WoW. Normal on the Z/6K is out in most of my backyard thus as always the potential varies with ground. No doubt we are all different Jockeys, with coil size/ground relative to sensitivity/depth but that aside the Axiom may be the beast once tamed, that challenges the ground handling/depth of the GPZ in a light weight package, certainly it may influence a lot in MLs ZVT/PI development not only in weight. The light weight PI detectors we have dreamt of for years are here. 

GC I`m not sure about the GPZ7000, to me the 6K showed clearly more depth on subgrammers even with the 10 inch X coil, now the Axiom with its control options, light mono coils and no chip in the coil, the ZVT swing all day days are over for this old codger, unless ML can do something magic with DOD/CC coils weight (the main GPZ weight problem) they can never hope to compete weight wise with Monos which both the 6K and Axiom have brought back into the arena. Large monos for the Axiom buh????? maybe even just a changed plug on those NF and Coiltek flat wound coils???? Heh cabin fevers setting in quickly here in wet downunder as in those snowed in places upover.🤪

53 minutes ago, Gerry in Idaho said:

On a side note, if you see that cute blonde at the local waterhole wearing the pasties, tell her Generous Gerry said "Hello".

I`m not doing that again, she said "generous????" and promptly decked me.🤪

7 hours ago, Gold Catcher said:

TY, Norvic, that was fun. Let's do this weekly 😉

Steady on GC, the Axioms good but not that good. 😉

0.74 grams Folks, that puts Qlder as the closest at 0.73. Qlder please PM me with your Postal address and when my local PO opens after this break I`ll have the Nugget and its small sidekick winging away to you.

Thank You DP Folks for entering and Thank You again Steve, may you and all of us DP Members have a Golden 23.

No ones hit the correct weight as yet, tis sunup here in OZ, in another 8 hours if the correct weight has not been guessed I will post the photo of the nugget on the digital scale and declare the closest the winner, if there are more than one closest then I shall dig into the Axiom finds stash and ensure the closest each get an Axiom nugget. Good fun folks to start 23 golden.

Still no correct weight, to ensure the nuggets have a new owner by the New Year, how about they go to the closest if the correct weight is not guessed in another 24 hours?

5 hours ago, bklein said:

It is possible to make a cable that connects the control head to the pod placed on your waist. You’d still need the Minelab harness though to hold the weight. Your swing mass would be less so better on the right arm tendons.

Back in the early days of detecting gold we used to hip mount our detectors on waist belt, with an extension cable going from that to the coil shaft, unfortunately if I`d taken a photo of such I cannot find it, otherwise I`d attach to illustrate.

1 hour ago, All_Metal_Mode said:

Lovely pieces, glad you were able to get out and find them. My guess is 1.29.

Oh, and not to re-state the obvious but that tiny hard to weigh nugget was detected by the Axiom? Roughly what depth?

Aye was on surface, about 1 inch from coil on first swing, "clear quiet slow you down signal", sens 4 manual 49/27 GB. The larger piece was about 4inches down. I suspect the GB reading may in time have meaning to us, thus I am noting.

Thank You Steve. All DP members are most welcome to post a guess, even those not touched by the Sun. That lovely liquid sunshine has come down nice and steady here all night, perhaps a feed of field mushrooms is on the menu today.

Righto, judging by the rain be months before I get out Axioming again, below is a photo of my largest and smallest Axiom nuggets, colours, scraps, whatever etc. If Steve gives his OK, I will send them both by standard post to whoever firsts guesses the weight of the larger piece to 2 decimal places in grams, small one doesn`t register on my uncertified digital scale, only 1 guess each and I`ll declare the winner once 1st correct weight is posted, on my usual daily DP visit. Biro tip is that of a fairly standard biro/pen, squares on backing are ?????, nah I`m not going to give any more hints.😉 Just a wee bit of fun to usher in 2023.

 Low-balI ? not get insulted? on DP? Sir SS we can only hope KL ensures you realize your a disgrace to the DP Race for having such items.

At this early stage of this old codgers Axiom use, I will back what AU says, "get a 6000" but another alternative "get an Axiom". With the Axiom you have the control settings + as per the GPZ and like the 6000 it is deadlier on sub grammers and much lighter stock standard.