brogansown

I'm a great fan of the 6000, because it has basically paid for itself.  But I've also dug a wheelbarrow load of square nails, most of them at 10 to 15 inches.  So, I agree with tboykin-iron discrimination would be a big improvement. Two days ago my brother got two nuggets with his Gold Bug 2 and me a sack full of nails and iron fragments.  But I wonder if discrimination is even possible?

An open spider web type coil to lighten the load would be good too.  Leave the Bluetooth headphones alone as they are perfect.

To think way outside the box, I need a tiny receiver in my detector to point me to my scoop that I keep losing all over the hills.  I'll glue a transmitter chip to the scoop and swing this new detector feature around my back trail to find it.  

I'm having good success covering small wiring repairs with Gardner Bender's Liquid Tape.  It can be painted on in areas where you can't put on a shrink wrap.  It takes several coats, but is flexible and tough.

I agree with all those who have replied, so far.  The vast majority of us enjoy this hobby for the challenge and a chance to get out in the hills, where the only thing we are concerned with, is a change in the sound coming into our earphones-hour after hour.  Finding a nugget among shotgun pellets, square nails, bullets, tobacco tin tags, pieces of tin is really nice, but we still go back out even after a total skunk.  It's a good hobby with occasional golden rewards, like day before yesterday. 

GC - Thanks for the video & photo and for getting us excited again for what we hope will be the best season yet.  Well, we all hope so!  I too, am amazed at the 6000's sensitivity.  Best machine yet.

Took the GPX 6000 out yesterday to the hills here in Eastern Oregon.  Despite the snow; frozen, but, in places muddy roads and a hip problem, just to say I got out.  The hillsides are bare, but the gullies have crusty snow, so I had to detect a hammered gulch with muddy ground.  I got a lot of signals, mostly shotgun pellets, bullets and fragments and of course, lots of square nails.  And like the previous "Smallest nugget" article, had over a dozen positive signals, that I just couldn't find in the mud.  Maybe they were pellets, or iron, but maybe a nugget.  Your articles inspire me, so thanks and good luck next year.

Most of the streams here in Eastern Oregon have magnetic black sands, but not all have visible gold.  As others have said, gather and pan some gravels (as high up as possible), use a magnet and you might be surprised at the number of tiny specks of gold you find.   

February was a real disappointment this year and March is even worse.  It snowed here in Eastern Oregon last night.  Maybe brother Jim and I can get out in April after we finish the Museum repairs.  We know there are more nuggets out there.  Think I'll charge up the 6000 just in case.

Steve is pretty much spot on.  As our nugget hunting grounds are depleted or shrinking by ownership changes we are forced to buy an expensive detector just to stay in the game.  Unlike parks, yards and beaches, our gold hunting grounds are not being replenished.  I'm pleased with the GPX 6000, aided by a Gold Bug 2 and hope for a few more years of "just getting out into the hills."

Gerry, Yes, the 6000 is finding lots of small nuggets at depth and several grammers as well.  Took me awhile to get onto its full potential.  It is truly turn-on and go and I really like the Bluetooth headphones.  Learning to pay attention to those low repeatable signals is the trick.  And you're right, we got lots of snow up in the mountains and I think we are done for the season.  Hope to see you again next year.

Goldseeker - Enjoyed your videos and appreciate all the work you put into them.  My thoughts- I traded my black trowel for one of SE's green Prospector's Scoops.  Nuggets settle in the bottom quicker and are easier to see and show up better on video.

Here in Eastern Oregon we have lots of range fires and so cigarettes are frown on while out in the grass and brush.  Not a good look on video either.

Keep up the good work. I'll look for more

Aureous, your rewards parallel my own experience with the 6000, except I haven't had any problems with the detector.  Really like the Bluetooth headphones, the ergonomics, and the super sensitivity.  I am still learning how to pinpoint with the coil and identify targets by the sound tones.  For instance, gold is a soft tone and iron screams and my backward signals have always been iron.  Although, it is a "turn on and go" detector there is a lengthy learning curve.  Liking it so far.

Phrunt,

Your junk photo looks almost identical to most of mine.  Nice nuggets too.

Although gold is the nobliest of the nine noble metals, it does form compounds and in fact, my friend Mike found a quite large piece of calaverite near where we were detecting the other day.  Gold forms compounds with the halogens and cyanide, of course, which is used in some extraction processes.  But if, (and it's a big if) there is an "halo effect," its more likely to be associated with the other metals in the alloys such as, copper, tin, silver, lead and even iron leaching out. The halo effect is very real and noticeable when we find heavily corroded nails, pennies, lead bullets & pieces of copper and tin.  I don't understand the PI detection process as well as the rest of you, but I'm sure Aureus is correct when he said each pulse creates an eddy currents around the nugget and it is influenced by the shape, size, density of the metal and the makeup of the surrounding soil as well.  I don't how this will help us find more nuggets, but it sure is an interesting topic.

Phrunt is correct in saying I probably moved the nuggets somewhere in the pile and it got even deeper.  But, I've left at least a dozen good original and repeatable signals because I'm impatience and just couldn't find the darn things.  So, I'm going to make a GB 2 pin-pointer with my extra detector, like Steve's old example and pack it around for awhile.  It not fair to my younger brother to have to follow his older brother around and rescue him.

I really enjoy trips to the hills and only thinking about a rise in the sound in my earphones-all day long.  Occasionally meeting some wildlife adds to the pleasure. 

GB_Amateur the "iron" is a tin tobacco tag that was pressed in plug tobacco by that company.  Although I found that one here while detecting, the most prominent tin tag around here was the "star brand."  And the next was the round "target" brand.  They are plentiful around here and can be quite collectable, with hundreds of brands. 

Gerry, seeing your Christmas Tree reminds me that if I can sell my 4500 and the Equinox "and" if I can bring the wife around to my "need," I plan to get a 6000 this spring.  There's got to be lots of little nuggets just below the reach of the Gold Bug 2.

Gerry, I really get a lot of interest in the coffee pots when I take them to the Museum.  I reconstructed the eight ounce beer mug you gave me in that bag of treasures and plan to drink a beer out of it one of these days.  Merry Christmas to all of you guys too. 

This is a little off topic, but is about gold on the beach.  Back in the 80's, I was in charge of MK's construction of Nome's Community Center.  While there, I remember several college students setting up a pump and sluice rig on the beach next to their tents and sluicing gold from the beach sand.  They made enough money from the gold flakes, to go back to college the next year.  I still have a couple of their little vials of gold sold there to tourists.

My concrete supplier got his sand and gravel from the beach east of Nome and ran all of it over a large sluice to catch the gold.  His profit was in the gold, not in the concrete. 

I see you're back.  I'm sure any glitches will be resolved as they arise.  My thanks to whoever got the site back online.  I assume it was Steve.

Thanks guys for the response.  I was just watching a video of a guy in Victoria and although he was getting tiny nuggets, he got this great signal from about 10 inches down and it turned out to be.................a shotgun pellet.  Got to get me one of those,  so I can add to my pellet collection.