Norvic

For me, to be competitive a new gold detector has to beat the Z/X coil combo and the 6K in performance firstly, and of course be lightweight. I`m fickle and don`t care what Manufacturer or tech. VLF, PI, ZVT or something new, but a wee birdie tells me ML will be that manufacturer and the tech is ZVT. Prove that little birdie wrong Garrett.

I`m an old guy and I concur I`ve had very little detector troubles, after dozens of em, only returned a dead GM2 last century, returned a few coils under warranty and killed many. Build quality falling I don`t see it, every detector I`ve had if I wanted to be negative had a problem to dwell on, but I`ll go for the positive, bar one they all paid for themselves in weight many times over, and I`m not called sandpaper coz I treat em with kid gloves. There ya are cuz ya got this oldie in?

Free Beer, dancing girls... whoopi... here I come Maggi....

Deathray, love it.... fish every day.... I`m in the process of selling out from anOZ dry goldfield to a move to the coast amongst the fish, only concern is that wet coastal humidity and my gold fever. We reach an age where our driving ability develops limits, limits we don`t have in our younger, drive all night, fish/prospect all day, days. Not going to sell the gold detectors yet just in case.

Now get ya finger out and get a bigun, Barradise early in the morn with moon going down in the west. A golden morn, av a golden day all.

Aye, 8.9 this morn. clear as down on the sea at Barradise.... Ya soaking in it now Paul

Aye the 6Ks top response is a wee deceptive, gives one the mistaken idea it`s a shallow machine but it aint, love to see an Xcoil CC of about 17"plus on it ( if this bloody FNQ grass disappears). AU have you tried switching back to normal rather than difficult over one of those inverted signals? I have on a number of occasions and it mostly reverts to a normal signal (channel switch) if its non-ferrous, much the same as the Z and the other PIs.

KL, nah nah nah, don`t try and put some blame on OZ for The Outback Tanks foreign lingo, I got him straight off the plane from the US on his first downunder trip, well almost straight off the plane, the folks at the airport kindly fed him and tried to locate his chauffeur but they had no idea what he was on about..... Anyway only words it seems that he spoke we understood in FNQ was "burger with the lot" and "beer". Fortunately he writes English otherwise he`d be still at the the Cairns International Airport hands full of burger and beer.

Crikey that`s got me giggling, probably this trip you`ll start betting on a particular fly walking up the pubs wall in the fly Derby.

Crikey I can hear violins.......... in the background behind all the WA tortured moans and groans..... ah no that Outback Tank`s coming back @#%$!&^$%#@ ?

Suspect your spot on, just maybe they`ll offer the 6K without a coil.

Yeah, I suspect Covids got a bearing on it, coils... well normally ML make solid but not brilliant performing coils (SD 18" rubbish bin lid mono coils excepted) I think the reason then was stated that the fiberglass resin used in that coils manufacture reacted and took out one channel of the PIs. But I`ve had 2 Coiltek PI mono coils fault too, as in MLs case quickly replaced under warranty. Maybe there is more to our mono coils construction than meets the users eye. No doubt Covids thrown a few spanners in our lives other than catching it.

Bloody oath mate.

Now... now... cuz you`d be chasing ya first if it wasn`t for a ML but ya right they had a rep of near perfection, halos slipped a bit maybe they`ll compensate us users by ditching those chips. ?

Seem to recall (my recall systems on old fart RAM too!!!) was told initially it was an exclusive club and they`d look after us ..... to give us early adoptees a proper run to clean up before the masses strike but looks like there`s a use by date? Its usable still and gets that heavy stuff but the Zs onboard still.

Yeah mate, would have to have another building to house all my detectors if I`d kept them all, have the Z & X coils, GM1000 (use as pointer when swinging big coils), EQ800 and 6K currently and as I`m not using the SDC time someone else did. Note my 6Ks 11" is getting a wee bump sensitive, a glued on PC skid plate seemed to stop it for a month or so but looks like my early lottery win has timed out.

Actually not hard to do GC, hack saw, PVC pipe and ends from hardware store, the SDC CB is very easy to remove and fix, is rugged as, no soldering or alterations to stop one putting back into original case, batteries are just RC LiPo readily available. Another advantage is more stable threshold, I believe the voltage supplied is much more stable and does not depend on the tolerance of the voltage regulator to regulate, not because of lithium batteries used but because there is no longer spring loaded battery connections.

Being a mad SH Engineer as all are helped.?

If you want a lightweight, ergonomic, lithium powered super modded SDC23000 (probably unique as could be only one in existence) with two coils, 2 batteries, USB battery charge cable. I`ve mine for sale. Sure could be organized to be sent over the ditch. I found like the 6K it beats the Z/X combos on scraps of low conductivity which are common in my backyard. But it does not have the depth of the 6K.

Because I prospect amongst tall grass, I often resort to following wild horse trails (brumbies) to virgin patch hunt, with very little side to side movement of the coil in the swing (linear detecting). In this application the ellipticals shine for obvious reasons but I`ve always found round coils, as Gerry has illustrated, give better depth for coil weight, thus if your not pushing your coil into tight spaces, between rocks or clumps of grass the rounds shine unless your chasing more coverage and not more depth.

, 83 pieces, 73 is Tele Code for cheers.

Aye, tis why one cannot with any certainty know the capability of detectors/coil combinations in different gold fields they haven`t detected on, also why tests of planted gold over undug gold are not a certainty but just an indication eg. JW found the SDC was of little use in his ground yet in other grounds others found it the go. Another eg. VLFs still are tops on some gold, the PIs, then the Z/X combos now the 6Ks I consider are closing that gap on my ground. Yet on your ground you consider Z/X combos are closest to the VLFs, (coil size specific). I suspect this "certainty of uncertainty" will always be the go as it has since we migrated from older tech to newer tech MDs/coils. Different jockeys on different horses for different courses.

On you crikey a bit different our count for first 1oz with our respective 6Ks, mine was 83pieces. Good fun.

Not real crazy ground in the Whipsticks from my memory, just it being on the outskirts of Bendigo a pretty large inland town for OZ, good stable signal without any obvious EMI. I found it was the same throughout the OZ fields I prospected in, varying from crazy to benign. Good sample vid of the King fitted with a NF coil for me.

I am a Qlder not a Victorian thus think your question would be better answered by a local so i`ll leave it for one, although I did spend a few months in the Whipsticks area back in 98, in short to appreciate our varying goldfield ground Phrunt you would have to experience it.