Gold Hound

We spend 90% of our time pushing into unexplored area's. And the rest cleaning likley old area's whith new technology when it comes out. Steve my biggest 2 piece's both large specimen's you could have detected with any detector! My biggest piece I picked up from 1.5m away sideways to the coil! But the tiny specs that lead to their discovery would not have been found with any detector with lower performance than a gpx4500. Gold is heavy and big gold (over 10oz) takes a massive amount of energy to move even a short distance from its source. Ecept if it comes from a steep hill then the weight + gravity move it very quickly down to the first trap, which is usually the bottom of the hill. Then it moves very slowly once more, usually it just stays in the first decent trap. We have proved this over and over again. And as such we target these particular area's.

They use carbon paper in some coils on the top as shielding, so no good underneath!I just silicone a piece of 3mm lexan plastic that I cut to shape in stead of the the standard coil cover and it lasts years not one month like the standard coil cover. Just make sure that you cut it 5mm bigger all the way round to allow for edge wear.

I like the Auto timing Idea a lot Steve. I recon they could expand on your Idea and have a mineralization line graph on the screen telling us what the current and past ground conditions are doing under the coil and the suggested timing. You could use this to identify and follow a particular ground anomaly. And wouldn't it be cool if they had a visual threshold display that acts like an oscilloscope and visually shows you the threshold and target response! They could easily with some work incorporate these in to the next generation ZVT detector! Just imagine how this would open up the gold fields again!

Hi Steve I think you did a pretty good job on your guide for beginners as the GPX can be a rabbit hole for the casual user. My first advice is always; READ THE MANUAL, then read it again, then read it some more! seriously you cannot read the manual enough!

Thanks Rege-PA That's why I tried to explain as best as I could the effect of each setting so you could more easily make an educated decision in YOUR situation. My gold modes are a good start but you still need to read the ground and apply and modify the right one to optimize for your area. I know the 5000 and all other Minelab pi's inside out for both gold field in Australia and treasure hunting in Europe, but I have only 6hrs on the Zed due to a badly broken arm, so I'm still in my Zed infancy!

I added the exchange2 file and added the link to my original post.

I have the 17 but I took it to Europe and left it with my treasure hunting kit because I hardly ever used it here in Australia. And the 6in I gave to my friend and prospecting partner Tremain because he didn't have a small coil. So I only have the 11 and the coiltek here in aus.

sorry guys I couldn't post the exchange2 modes file It says wrong file type???????

CTX 3030 on gold nuggets Hi guys I have had the CTX since it was released. However I did not purchase it for the same reasons as most others bought it for, I bought it primarily to look for larger gold in areas that have a high trash density where non discriminating detectors like the GPX will drive you nuts digging junk. It has the best discrimination and target separation of any detector I have used this far, particularly if the trash is iron. That is why I use it for this job if the trash density is low I just swap back to a gold detector and would never waist my time using it in low trash areas for gold nuggets. To give you an idea of what I am talking about with trash density’s and to establish an understanding I will break them into 4 groups. 1- Very low trash= up to 10 targets in a 5mx5m area. This area I would use a gold detector like the GPX in. 2- Low trash 10 to 25 targets in a 5mx5m area. This area I would still use the gold detector in if it is worthwhile. But if the gold density is low I will start to use the discriminating detector. 3- Med trash= 25 to 50 targets in a 5mx5m area. I am definitely reaching for the discriminating detector now unless there is a high gold density. 4- High trash 50+ targets in a 5mx5m area. Discriminating detector only! any other is a waist of time. Ok now that I have established a base line of trash density’s we can get to the nitty gritty, I will go through the settings that have an effect on gold field performance one by one and explain how I use them, or play them against each other to squeeze the best performance out of the CTX that I can for my given situation. Target trace; I turned it on and would never turn it off as it is very useful in helping to identify a target or multiple targets under the coil and I am yet to find a reason to turn it back off. Why this key feature was not on by default is anyone’s guess. Target trace pinpoint; I turned this on and never turned it off ether, as it greatly assists in pinpointing particularly if there are multiple targets under the coil, by using this feature you can pinpoint only the desired target most times. Threshold Pitch; I run it at 13 but everybody is different all you are after is a threshold pitch that is comfortable for you to listen to all day. Threshold level; set up threshold so that it is soft but clearly audible, the manual covers this in detail. Volume Gain; now this is a important one, I mostly just have it at max=30 but if you are getting spurious noises like those faint blipping noises that you can sometimes get in mineralized ground you can wind this back to cancel them out with less loss of depth than turning back the sensitivity, however it has its limitations in this regard. It is basically an audio amplifier that amplifies the target signal. Sensitivity; Obviously you want to keep this as high as possible, but in the gold fields the ground usually contains various minerals and because the CTX is a multiple frequency detector ‘Auto’ sensitivity is more effective in these conditions, because the processor individually adjusts each of them to their optimum setting. Where as in manual you can only adjust them all to the same setting which means that if one is effected by mineralization or emi and becomes noisy, you have to turn them all down to the level where the noise stops in that frequency and you are effectively choking the rest to quieten the detector. So this is why Auto is the best option on the CTX in gold field areas. I can usually run Auto +3 but I turn it down if I am getting a lot of spurious ground noise and I can’t use any of my other tricks to get rid of the noise. Response; My favored response is ‘Long’ but I also like ‘Normal’ as well. It depends on my anticipated target size and trash density as to which one I’ll use. In a medium to high trash area I prefer Long particularly if the gold size is 3g+ like in tailings oversize piles. I like normal for smaller gold and lower trash density. Recovery Fast; I nearly always have this on as it aids in target separation. And superior target separation is one of my main reasons for using the CTX Recovery Deep; I have this on if the trash density is low or medium particularly when using the smaller coils. Recovery deep improves the ID on deep targets and can improve the signal on deep targets marginally but it can cause spurious noise in some mineralized ground. So if it’s on and you are getting spurious noise recovery deep could be the cause so try turning it off before dropping the volume gain or sensitivity. Target Separation; The 2 best target separation modes for gold nuggets are ‘High Trash’ and ‘Ground Coin’, I use High Trash the most as most areas I target most with the CTX are med to high trash areas and High Trash is good at handling mineralization and still gives you very good target separation. In a area with low trash density that is mineralized I use Ground Coin but it dose not perform well in high a trash density as you will get some blending of targets. In a low to very low mineralization area ‘Ferrous Coin’ performs very good no matter the trash density, but is no good in mineralized areas as you will get blending of the ground and target, which makes the target ID go crazy and blending is a problem. Gold Hunting Discrimination and Audio Patterns. Below I have posted a few example modes that have a good base discrimination pattern and audio pattern to suit the situation that I use them in. 100’s of hours of work went into building each of them. When building your own pattern I recommend that you do what I did which is scan as many nuggets as you can get your hands on of various sizes. When I did this I scanned just over 1000 nuggets ranging from .2g to 32oz and I put the ones that show on the edge of my pattern aside and took them to a few locations and buried them in different mineralization to test and modify my mode’s, then I got my bucket of junk and scanned 1000’s of pieces of junk commonly found in the gold fields. Then I modified my modes again to cancel out most of the junk whilst still keeping most of the nugget area open. They are not perfect by any means but they have been pretty useful for me as a base but if I keep getting one type of junk in a specific area I will modify the discrimination to deal with it and save it as a new mode in my file. You might also notice that in all of my gold specific discrimination patterns that I have the top two lines rejected, this is because in mineralized ground the ground will give you a blipping signal always in these top two lines and rather than sacrificing performance by turning the sensitivity or audio settings down I dealt with this by blanking it out, buy doing it how I did I lost no depth due to having to back off the settings and no good target ever ID’s only in these lines. The audio patterns that are part of the mode also have a few tweaks that I have done for gold nugget specific reasons. If you look at the Audio profile in the exchange software you will notice that I have set the low Ferrous tone line very low down at the 32 ferrous line, I did this because I found that when using the discrimination pattern if the tone was set higher up at say 17 for example I would get some audio blanking or mixing on some good targets in very trashy areas. This is the main reason that most of my Gold nugget modes have ether a ‘2 Ferrous Tone’ or ‘Combined’ ‘Tone ID Profile’. But when set low at 32 ferrous line the separation was very good in a cluttered area. It is not that noticeable on larger 3g+ nuggets but on the smaller ones even on the smaller coils (6in and coiltek elliptical) if I had the ferrous audio line higher it would not separate the nugget from the trash as efficiently. That is why I mostly prefer the discrimination pattern over the open screen also. http://www.detectorprospector.com/forum/files/file/4-gold-hound-ctx-gold-modes/ Coils My preferred coil for the CTX is the standard 11in coil because I mostly chase the bigger gold in the tailings oversize piles and old diggers camps. But in areas with predominantly smaller gold I put on the coiltek 11x5. I also did away with the skid plate on the ML 11in coil as it wears out in a matter of hours in gold field situations and I silicon-ed a piece of 3mm lexan plastic in its place. And after 2 years of heavy use it is still in good condition!

If you guys are interested I'll do a full write up on gold plucking (thats what we call it) with the CTX in trashy areas in gold field dirt. I have done 100's of hours of this, and have easily pulled over 10oz since its release.

Its a pitty they never delivered. As this is a major failing on the Whites. I love the excange2 software and how quickly\easily you can make a entirely new mode with discrimination pattern and audio pattern and settings to suit your needs. I have made 47 different modes for all of my different types of locations and goals. Although the manual is quite simple you can do a lot with the CTX to customize it to suit your needs. I really like the long audio type in conjunction with a two tone audio pattern And my custom discrimination pattern it is deadly on gold in the trashy tailing's. The target separation and discrimination is second to none when you learn how to best use the settings, target trace, audio pattern and discrimination pattern to get the most out of it.

I really liked the Whites but the Achilles heel of it is that it dose not have software like the minelab excange2 software to change the settings and make patterns\modes ect. Doing this through the detector is a real pain! If whites made software like minelab there detector would definatly still be in my kit. I got rid of mine because I play with the settings constantly and it was a pain compared to the CTX and it filled the same need. But I loved being able to use one frequency. If the Whites had software for bulding modes, changing settings like the CTX It would probably be my goto coin\treasure detector.

All I do is camp on the area say tailings piles and detect all day as normal away from camp. Then after dinner I just wander around the piles. The only trouble with this is I sometimes get carried away and stay out to late when I find a nice bit!

I've been using the CTX for finding gold nuggets in trash areas like tailings oversize piles, old diggers camps, ect here in Australia since its release. I have easily found over 10oz doing this. I spent alot of time building my discrimination patterns and audio to suit and playing with the settings. When I was building the pattern I scanned over 1000 different nuggets from .2g to 32oz. Here in aus our ground varies alot from heavy mineralization to low mineralization so I built 3 different modes that cover these all with minimal adjustment's. Once you learn the CTX and how it operates under different soil conditions and get to know the target trace it is a weapon in any area that has a lot of trash particularly iron. The target separation and discriminator is the best I have ever used for this type of work. And all of the audio options availabe I just love it!

Look up 'inverse square law' on Wikipedia and you will se what I am talking about. You're right about energy traveling out from the source in 3 dimensions, it travels out in an ever expanding sphere. My explanation and mathematics are correct the inverse square law takes into consideration all 3 dimensions.

That explanation is still simplified and dose not explain what is hapening correctly.Both the transmit and recive are governed buy the 'inverse square law'. The transmit field is emitted by the detector's coil this disipates at the square to the distance from the source, the coil winding. Detector technician's know this, that is why all coils are a closed loop and the most efficent shape is a circle. As the shape of the coil concentrates the signal under the middle of the coil. To plot the field all you have to do is ise the 'inverse square law' and draw circles radiating from the coil winding where these overlap under the coil is where the field is strongest. This concentrated field energizes the target, the target now produces its own signal, many times weaker than the original signal. And this signal now dissipates acording to the inverse square law in more or less a spherical pattern depending on the target shape. And the detector now has to try and recive this much weaker signal. Now think about how the different types of coil's recive this signal that is dissipating according to the inverse square law. Once you get an undersanding of this simple law of physics and think about what is happening under the coil you will get a real understanding of what is happening under the coil what ever type it is. If I had any computer skills I would make an animation or a diagram of what is happening but I don't. Simple physics really! I blame all of the detector manufacturers for spreading over simplifed information on this subject when it is not that complcated.

I hope minelab are listening! If they don't bring out a big coil like a 20in round or even better if its bigger there will be a lot of dissaponted pro's out there. And its us that find the bulk of the gold that make them look good and if we are out there pulling out lumps its free advertising for them. Give us a 20in or bigger coil! Any smaller will just not do for us!

Simple just flick into fixed gb when recovering the target problem solved. I will make flicking to fixed part of my modus operandi if I get the same problem.

Do a sg test on it. Weight in air then weight in water to figure out its sg. If its any higher than sg18 its likley a pgm.

Hit it with a hammer if it is brittle it is likley to be antinomy or bismuth. If it is not brittle it could be if your lucky a pgm. If it is hard enough to dent or mark tne hammer it is almost certainly a pgm. Pgm= platinum palladium osmium rhodium iridium ect.

I had numerous offer's to go to Sudan but when I found out off a friend that seved in the sas over there that a aus\uk\usa passport is worth over 1 million dollar's there and the whole country is controlled by different militants I decided against it!Same goes for new guinea, I was offered a job to manage and desighn the plant in a large dredging operation over there, lucky I didn't go as 9 out of the 11 in the crew got brutily killed when the Rascal's robbed them. The three places I will go to oneday are Mongolia, Alaska/Canada and Greenland I love remote area's and the struggles and danger's assosiated with them, and of corse the gold!

No worries Steve I have not been to Africa but one of my friends went to Sudan a few years ago and he tells me that it is generally med\high mineralization there. That is what I based my advice off.

Don't buy a pump until you measure the diameter and depth to the water table of sample holes and check if they are sleeved.

The gold bug (i own one) and the fors gold are good as far as VLFs go but they still struggle in med to high mineralized soil that is the most common soil type in Australian and African gold fields.They perform well in the USA because their geoligy is younger and they have low mineralization compared to us. A pi is much better in our soil, the VLFs are un usable in alot of our soil, usually the best gold baring soil! I would buy 1 used pi over the VLFs any day. Your pump will likley not be the right pump for a bore, generally you need a submersible pump for a bore as normal pumps like say a centrifugal pump commonly used in mining cannot suck or vacuum water any more than a few meters.