Norvic

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.

Ah Ha If the Goddess of Gold didn`t have you in her grip before, she certainly has now. Top Stuff.

My GPZ`s first "virgin" patch is fairly tight, but with the tall grass and surface rocks I will leave for later in the year when the grass drops. Many years ago the indicator there was gold there was when I scored a small piece about 20 yards downstream in creek, as it wasn`t on the bottom it had recently dropped into the creek. Flogged the immediate area than no more, again with the 5000 but the GPZ proved it up quick. Its depth ability around rocks and grass is outstanding, Have had to resort to difficult ground setting and turn the audio smoothing on to low, rest of settings as per default except I like the volume at 10, just speaker no headphones. Now thanks to recording those isolated finds with GPS and moving map software, I believe this will not prove to be a isolated case. To me the GPZ is a gold magnet and feel in time as I learn to capitalise on its features, it will prove to be a super gold magnet. Off the shelf at default settings I have found it has the edge on the 5000. Right arm is stretching but I am stoked, bring on winter.

No I didn`t think for now, but I read you sjmpainter, your spot on and now after the positive and enthusiastic posts in this thread, well this whole forum I`ll make sure if the GPZ scores in Lizard Ck. I`ll take photos and post them, because really the photo says a thousand words. Yesterday I spent some hours running the GPZ over a likely looking spot and got 7 small pieces at depth, as there is a lot of tall grass there it may prove to be a good patch to, I should get a better idea of its extent today. I gave my 5000 to my son last weekend, thus having no small coil option, I`ll be battling the grass with the 14inch. But I won`t be suffering. Now I`m stoked and raring to go as I wait for the sun to rise. Every nugget big or small is still a joy for me, like a kid in a candy store. PS Capitain you shall have the reports on your desk pronto

I got the name wrong the sat company is Inmarsat but the phone is the Isatphone Pro, not Inmarsat Pro . But Dale knew what I was on about, Another Senior moment for me vanursepaul and it`s international so you`ll get it over there. It is on my belt whenever I`m detecting, it`ll drop off one day and become a artefact from the Electronic Rush era. Inmarsat don`t give us the good deal they did at first, pre-paid credit was for 2 years. Now think it`s down to 6 months unless you fork out many 100`s.

I think most of us "oldies" may be in the same boat. We just didn`t take enough photos, we had the gear to do it, I want to tell episode two of "Lizard Ck." but I`ve no photos of any but that big piece. But I`m going there this winter with the GPZ and camera for episode three. GPZ magic I hope, just gotta be another biggie at depth, never got there with the 5000, busted a CV joint on the way in. That is why I really go for the Gold Hound videos, imagine in 100 years, your descendants coming across those videos. Whowll !! look how my great greats lived, look at the magic journey their life was, in 100 years we are all going to be born with a bar code on us or chip implanted, no individuality, like bloody robots. Keep them coming Hounds.

Yeah true every man to his own, I`ve a lovely 220acre virgin bush block, fully equipped now and plenty of ongoing projects on it to keep me going, I traded my gold for that. Just love the peace and quiet away from the hustle and bustle, I`ve said it before and it never bores me, I am very privileged to have participated in the Electronic Gold Rush. It may have made us seem a bit eccentric to the "norms", but it has been and is a magic journey.

Does your GPS show the EPE (Estimated Position Error) , to avoid marked waypoints being way off, ensure the EPE is 10m or less before you save, can take many minutes in some locations but by doing so waypoints can be relied on. In fact be wary of manufacturers claims they lock on faster than the opposition ones, might sell GPS`s but not much good for users. Simple to check this, hold GPS in one position save waypoint when it informs you it has lock, save another couple minutes later etc etc, check those waypoint cords if they vary by much between first saves but gets lesser with later saves, you have an idea, but you should find a EPE or averaging measurement under menu functions. Now with prepaid on hand held Satellite phones, it is more affordable although the cost/min is higher but for safety only takes a few minutes to contact if you need help in a hurry. I use a Inmarsat Pro which has a GPS inbuilt and allows you by a few button pushes to email your Lat & Long to whatever email address you wish, so have made a rule if the wife doesn`t get my daily email she knows something is wrong, plus of course I ring her once a day even more if the Goddess of Gold has blessed me. The missus really likes this saves her worrying when I`m out there, good for me too she lets me go more frequently. About snakes, I see them when I`m walking around but when detecting with detector on, only seen one over the years. Often wonder are the snakes able to sense our detectors field or is it simply because we detect a lot slower then we walk, thus they move away?

Can`t say I`ve ever noticed any difference, just feel it would be very minimal.

Yes, I think a lot of part timers save it for good, I did until I realised I`ll never be comfortable showing it for safety reasons, then as I aged why not crush and sell. I have sold nuggets of sub grammers to about 10 grams via Ebay in OZ but the larger ones ounce and up went to US or Germany. I guess it is a population thing our 20 mill against your 300mill, just not the buyers here. It would be interesting hearing what JP and the Gold Hound do with their large ones. I do know of brokers who do just that and travel over to the US and Europe. That requires trust to hand to them. End of the day crush, smelt and sell to Perth Mint (AGR) no drama plus there is that other creek out there calling you with bigger and better just over the next ridge. For sure I can feel it. It is different when I see those lovely crystallised gold speci`s you folks find over your way, they are a thing of beauty.

Perhaps I could have chased around more to sell as is, but none of the offers I did receive for it came near what I got for it smelted down. But if fellows like JP and GoldHound, those who do it full time tell of their amazing finds when they retire, you`ll see there is a lot of pieces like it and a lot better looking and larger out there. I really don`t believe there is a big enough market out there. When I showed it to the gold buyer I sell through, he didn`t hesitate, crush it, smelt it and I`ll send it off to the mint he said and save yourself a lot of bother.

May be just a coincidence in fact should definitely say it is but then !!!!!. Fred relooking at photo it does have some resemblance to a lizard-head, the coincidence is, I refer to the creek,as Lizard Ck., and have so since finding, because there is a lot of lizards there. Somewhere in my fragmented memory banks I recall a "series" called believe it or not, I think this coincidence would slot right into that. Steve thank you for having such a forum that I felt comfortable telling my story, has taken a lot of years and only a handful of people would have handled this nugget. That I know of that is, I did have it stored with a trusted independent person who tried to sell as is at arms length for a few years.

Been having same dilemma, and finally made mind up and ordered the xterra 705 today. I went for the 705, as it seems to have pretty sophisticated discrimination, has 3 frequencies utilized with respective coil change. With that it seemed top value to compliment the GPZ. Never regretted a Minelab purchase yet, come to think of it any detector purchase. We are just boys.

Well I could`ve pissed down my leg I was so excited, I didn`t notice, although my original intent was to camp out a few more nights, I was home a little after dark that night to show the missus. Have kept quiet about gold finds for obvious reasons but replaying the event has got me all stoked up again, and is a good feeling to finally let it out. I feel these events should be recorded, to leave something of the electronic gold rush and what better way than through a forum of enthusiasts.

Like a kid in the candy store, you`d reckon the GPZ would keep me happy for awhile. Decided on the Xterra 705 Gold and ordered one, blimey when I grow up I definitely wanna be a kid.

Looking through your Amazing finds, the Ganes Ck one and this one from appearances could have come from the same area. However this ones from OZ I found about same time as The Ugly Nugget Was prospecting new country what I call fringe country, got a few small pieces at head of small creek than down about 100m got a massive signal at dry waterfall of about 2 metres high, creek about 2.5 metres wide. Halfway down that waterfall I could see gold exposed, and probably been exposed for 100`s of years the above piece. It tipped the scales at 1.72 kg, crushed to give 42.314 ounces gold 4.442 ounces of silver after refining. From there down this small creek was a jewellery shop, all signals the heavy stuff not a piece of iron in creek. Creeks length about 300 metres max, then runs into a larger creek. Never named it because it had no real shape, much like your Ugly Nugget Steve. Perhaps this story and photo could be added to Amazing finds.

Too much choice we have, tis confusing, my shortlist is expanding again also just received some info that makes me think I should also add the AT gold, just didn`t initially consider as I am a dry prospector. The F75 should prove AOK with its features.