Norvic

Yeah, that piece "in maybe an amazing find", was about 1/2 metre in front of me or so when a 16" mono picked it up, plus it was 1/2 metre down a dry waterfall. Has your experience Dale shown DD`s are better at this then mono`s on smaller stuff, say around rocks ? That "look over here signal" not sure but have feeling, sometimes there doesn`t even seem to be a signal, sort of its calling you. Sounds weird and illogical, but they may be critters (re.Featherfisheads mate) and just want to be found on rare occasions. On thresholds I think as you get older, you cannot sense that pitch & volume change as well, my excuse anyway when my son scores a deepun where I`ve been.

I found the DD coils on Minelab PI Machines had this more than the Mono`s, but I used the mono`s most (more depth & sensitivity). For this reason I found the DD good for poking around base of rocks as there sometimes be a nugget hiding under the edge of a rock, mono`s didn`t seem to be as good there. I found this was also so with the vlf machines, except I think they used DD & concentric rather than mono (from memory) I recall taking a new fellow to a spot he had a new Minelab 1500 (DD coil) I was using a A2B, he`d never found gold and called me over to check a signal at the base of a rock, the A2B didn`t register it so we rolled the rock aside and there under the edge of it was a 4 gram nugget, he was stoked, so was I nothing better than seeing a fellow get his first. The coil on the GPZ seems to be even better at this again.

Wow, that is some incentive for the young to get out there. I am a wee envious however, my Missus has got me making furniture.

My sentiments exactly, is magic to prove up a detector on own ground.

Tis the Goddess of Gold me lads, if you haven`t her on your side leave your detector at home, just go sightseeing.

Never noticed that chirp sound on the 5000, but have noticed similar bare change in the threshold of the Z from the very rear of the coil, so far has been deeper sub grammers. The front and centre of the coil do nor register it until you`ve scraped away with the boot and got the coil lower. Audio smoothing off, medium mineralisation firstly considered it may have been simply the wireless audio slight delay.

Son lives in the big smoke, just recently he bought a 705. A few coins from park near where he lives, those smaller goldy looking coins a the front are $2, a boon to the OZ detector operator.

I can`t think of a deep nugget of size that didn`t give a warbly response and sometimes a null over centre. I believe that is why a lot of such responses are left by operators, I know I did on a number of occasions and than next morn when bright and revitalised back and recheck and dig up another nice one. Just love those indistinct warbly signals, makes the heart pump. Their not all horseshoes.

After a few hours use of the Xterra705, just got to say it is a great little lightweight machine, sensitive on gold and the notch discrimination for coins Wow! Not having used a VLF since the 1700, they have certainly come a long way, have a lot of learning to do with this machine. Thank you for advice all.

Might be the secret, we give the machine a bit of "curry", which puts the Goddess of Gold in a good mood and bingo Now I only got a couple of scraps today, I`m bloody sure my GPZ`s playing up.

That photo certainly lays my concerns to rest. Keep the faith fellows, just a matter of guiding the Z over them.

Do you a direct trade your bro-in-law for mine. Bloody ants`d bolt from him.

Ditto here Featherdfishead, is very refreshing to know there are others who appreciate animals in the wild, something I feel all in this crazy fast moving world should stop and do for a bit. Even our flora, we have a insignificant twisted small bush-tree that just on the wet its white small flowers fill the air with a subtle fragrant scent we call it bush frangipani because that is what the scent is like, that is just an example. Mother Nature is amazing , makes our gold too, every nugget different.

I have nothing of size also but the ground I`m in hasn`t the depth to have hidden any from the GPX, but does have the depth to hide the subgrammers to grammers from the GPX which the GPZ is picking up no drama. I did think there was larger pieces out of range of the GPZ, and felt a little like you, but because it is getting those smaller ones that the GPX would have no trouble with shallower. I now believe those larger pieces have been got. A clue to this and I cannot remember exactly JP`s early words is he felt sometimes disappointed then it changed and it was like the GPZ was making gold. I think it may be just that, no larger gold there. But gotta keep an open mind and will as I get the hours up, think of this.

Thinking about the death I spoke of, it appears that what drives people to kill snakes is fear of them. It seems from stats most snake bites come about from people trying to kill them. It is illogical but you try to say that to someone who is intent on killing a snake. Me I leave them alone and they seem to reply in same manner, but I do have a suspicion that they can sense the RF field of our detectors and move away. Up till just recently had a carpet snake in shouse keeping the rats and mice population down. He/she moved on when the rats disappeared. Always welcome here but they are not venomous and are very docile. Your on the money Dale, respect, understand but don`t fear

Not a tick problem but last couple of seasons, every bush with green on it seems to be loaded with green ants in NQ OZ, and they just love protein. Give you hell, not deadly unless you have an allergy. They are also tasty and thirst quenching but kill em first or they`ll bite all the way down.

The Pi`s did it now the GPZ, from the VLF to the PI get a signal get down a bit whoa this is gonna be a bigun, not so same with the PI to the GPZ. Disappointment yes but it is bloody magic. Thank you for that JP, videos say it all capture the moment, technique, emotions the works. I`ve been going from low audio smoothing to OFF, but not trying lowering the sensitivity. Certainly give it a shot this weekend.

Like all hobbies, the more you put in the more you get out. I am a real slacko, hardly read manuals more just skim through them but being new to forums, I am getting a lot out of forums especially this one, group of people separated by 1,000 of miles chewing the fat tis magic. I know fishing is no different 10% of the people get 90% of the fish, why, simply because their out on the water a lot, getting experience. But detecting like fishing supports a lot of aftermarket gear and how-to guides.

There is a aftermarket battery system available for the SD,GP,and GPZ, in OZ, locates the battery & speaker on the control box, seen a fair few fellows using that. Battery only had 4 hours reserve but getting rid of cable is a godsend. With tech gains there may become a way to cut the coil weight on the GPZ, that would be a top mod, bet the aftermarket guys are working on it. First with a light coil will be laughing.

Testimony to the GPZ`s ease of use is how it recovers gold in areas flogged by everything else straight out of the box with no operator training, just charge battery and go for it. Waiting for coil choices, especially a smaller one to battle the grass and rocks. Keeping body from coil certainly is a wee problem when retrieving small bits. Currently training my dog to come along behind me with the 705.

Klunker, I`d rather take my chances out in the bush with taipans than drive in city traffic. Heh ! how about trading for some sticks and chase a little white ball round the paddock. Come to think of it not much different then running around the bush listening through squeals and howls of a detector rather then good music. Are we touched by the sun or gold?

Me too, I just leave them alone. Had an acquaintance attack a taipan with a long handle shovel bit him on the hand, they are that quick, hardly got into vehicle when he started bleeding from the eyes than died.

Spencer@wy, Weight of battery is bugger all, I just love the GPZ the way it is, no cables from detector wireless speaker/headphones. That gives heaps of freedom when you are recovering targets especially in narrow creeks, in fact haven`t used it with headphones yet, probably no need have speaker right under best ear.

To clarify my post a wee, I was in heavy grass ground had approx. 4inch dia rocks imbedded in surface half protruding, certainly not knocking the GPZ, in fact it found pieces down to 0.14 gram at depth in those conditions with a 14 inch coil is remarkable. But it does cancel out those small signals in conditions like that when trying to pinpoint the piece after digging out. I found setting the user button to manual GB, locate nugget in manual than hit user button again and go back to auto GB to continue, did not seem to interfere with auto GB setting. Got to concur leave the track trigger alone, seems no need to use after initial setup. For me is very early days, got a lot of learning with the GPZ Gold Magnet.

My take this early in my use of the GPZ, it will balance out small nuggets. To prove this get a 0.5 grammer or smaller, and after half hour or so of using GPZ without touching the tracking, ie GPZ is GB for where you are, place small nugget on ground pump up and down over it and listen to the signal get fainter. I think it might have been JP who early in the piece advised setting the user configurable button to manual GB, I have done that and feel it is the way to go. I went through a very frustrating time on a patch of small pieces, (but fun) trying to locate once dug out, by setting the user button to manual GB getting piece then going back to auto tracking the GB setting the GPZ had reached before going to manual GB seems to be not affected. But I stress this is my take, it is early days.