mn90403

Steve and others, When hunting in the desert or on the beach there are always 'side signals' which indicate a target is near. (When you are several inches away from an aluminum can for instance you start to hear it.) Sometimes this is a source of interference and other times it leads to a successful target find. Are any coils better than others for producing a larger, useable off the coil signal that makes for a virtually larger coil than its measured size? Mitchel

While looking around on the Minelab site I came across this article by Bruce Candy. It will certainly be a re-read for some but for me it was a first. There is much more than just Minelab in the article. It included ground balancing, discrimination, gold detectors, coin detectors and a host of other related issues with knowing some of the technology about target detecting. It doesn't yet include ZED technology but does explain why it is so hard to have a gold detector that discriminates. (When you discriminate you lose targets!) Metal Detector Basics & Theory by Bruce Candy

I just finished reading all of this blog and some of the errors of the users were highlighted. I have made some of the mistakes. JP steps up and answers all the real questions. He also made an admission which I don't know if all of us have seen. It is: I have spent considerable time with the GPZ in WA during development so can vouch for the detectors ability to work in WA (well over 100 ounces found in WA), in fact the bulk of my major successes with the detector have been in WA. The main issue in WA is salt, learn to avoid these areas during start up and all will be good

Fred, I'll add to your post. I'm still in (No) Gold Basin. I haven't found any gold with my 7000 yet because I don't know where gold is but I do know where the meteorites are. Here are a couple I found today. One is 32 grams and the other is 4. The crust on the large one is pretty nice because you can see where it is, where it was and how it broke up. Mitchel

In one of the latest videos from JP and his 7000 about Smoothing you will notice he is using a HipStick. I use it for all my detectors. A recent innovation for me is to put my finds pouch belt around the outside of the HipStick and this prevents just about all of the slippage around the side. It pins the stick to my body and it is more comfortable. Mitchel

I've seen Swifty find a couple of small nuggets. The two I saw him find were a bit flat. He's been at this finding gold game for a long time. I'm not able to report finding any gold on the same patch with my 7000 but I did hear his first signal before he dug it up. Thanks Swifty. It helped me determine my headphones needed replacing. Mitchel

What a story! I have taken the programs out in the field and tested them. They are good slot programs that will let you miss the other trash. It is somewhat surprising how different nuggets look on the screen based upon size and composition. My test was in an area with lots of iron and hot rocks. I couldn't find gold with my 7000 so it was no real possibility of finding a nugget with the 3030 in a short period of time. I'm going on a trip this summer and hope to find gold with it there because it is bigger and more shallow with mining trash in the tailing piles. Mitchel

Thanks. Fewer controls on the 7000 but it shows that even a professional could have missed that target if the setting on just one of the controls (audio smoothing) was set improperly. I've discovered a bit of a problem with my earphones so if I can't hear EVERYTHING clearly then the problems can be even worse. There is no visual screen or numbers to assist the ears. Now I think I should also go for a hearing test. Mitchel

That is a beauty!

Here is a picture of the white cover 'inside' of the black cover. It seems at least a 1/2" smaller than what it needs to be to fit the coil.

Here is a link to KellyCo and their white and black cover. http://www.kellycodetectors.com/products/search/?q=Fischer+Gold+Bug+Pro&refinements=&formid=NTUzNDc5NDEyMjJkOQ%3D%3D&p=0#P1 I bought my GB Pro with a black cover on it. It is soft and rubs through quite easily. I ordered the white one from KellyCo and it does not fit. I use it for a dish in my house. What other Fisher uses this white cover? I was told the older Gold Bugs. Mitchel

The GB Pro standard coil is a bit larger than the 5" GB 2 cover. I ordered one from Kelly Co and when I got it it would not fit the Pro. It said 5" cover. I have been to two other dealers and they don't have them either. The larger cover we have for the Pro has a great cover.

Where can you get a hard white coil cover for the GB Pro? We have to put shoe goo on the black cover to fill the holes we get from scrapping it. The GB 2 coil cover will not fit.

My coil covers for beach use have been removed because they affect the signal by trapping water and black sand. The nearness of this to the coil has the effect of making my signal fuzzy. A nickel will not sound like a nickel and I will not get the depth when things are on the coil or trapped by the cover. I rinse my coil often. My detecting is more effective when the coil is removed.

Have you noticed you got us excited too? I'm stoked! Thanks for the story. It does remind me of the surface of a specimen I found. Your gold take was much greater.

What a CREEK!

Well said!

Fred, Don't carry the cat. Train him to find the new patches for you. The weight will drop off the cat as you follow him to all of the new spots. You'll only need the GPZ to dig the nuggets. Mitchel

Lunk, LUNK, LUNKERS in your future.

I have found a hand saw but that is way over the top!

Well done!

My beach wet sand was too hot for the thing today. It was quite noisy and I have to go really, really slow compared to the 3030. It works better in the dry sand so the 3030 is still the wet machine.

I have discovered another problem with the WM12 that I did not experience with the WM10. There is a rubber cap that protects the connector on the WM12. This cap has a little 'flap' and today when I went out to use it I discovered that the flap is only held on by less than 50% of the remaining flap. I don't remember ripping it back like that but it has happened. Maybe some kind of glue will help it. I'll have to call MineLab and ask them about a replacement.

The subject is serious. If you can't hear targets then you can't get nuggets. Hi, low, on, off, a little of this and not so much of that ... is this machine more art than science?

Paul, Do you know where the nearest hospital will be on each flight? Mitchel