Gold Hound

No problem mate, try my way of running the 5k, you are better to learn the most productive way to start with in my opinion. The 5k is a great Detector and I could still make a good living off it if it was my only detector!

Hi guy's here is my take on how to best set up your 5000 for any ground. GPX 5000 Setting Explained. Hi guy’s, here is my advice on better understanding and applying settings on the GPX 5000. I believe I know the GPX 5000 very well, I used it to make a good living from its release date until it was replaced by the GPZ 7000. As most of you know I am a professional prospector, to be successful as a prospector you must understand your tools and their capabilities and limitations and know how to apply them for greatest effect or you will quickly go broke. So when I get a new tool or detector I do rigorous testing and comparisons to understand its strong and weak points so that I can apply it to greatest advantage and thus recover more gold and have a better lifestyle as a result. I spend around 8 months 7 days a week 10 to 12 hours a day prospecting with about 90% of this time detecting the other 10% rock chip sampling or stream bed sampling to prove prospective leases. This equates to over 2000 hours per year detecting to give you an idea on how much time someone like me spends swinging their detector. I also travel to different Gold fields all over the country that have wildly different soil and bedrock compositions. Below are the settings explained and my take on how to use them to their full potential, I have a philosophy... “If I am going to own a Ferrari I am going to drive a Ferrari, and drive it hard!”. My settings reflect my philosophy and are not for the feint of heart. Front Panel Search Mode switch: each setting activates a group of Minelab preselected settings for the particular scenario. They are all reprogrammable so it basically gives you 5 modes that you can pre program and have ready at one flick of a switch. I change all of them to suit my needs and just remember what switch they were under so I can quickly select them on the fly without having to go through the whole menu and changing every setting, say when I want to pinpoint or check a questionable target for example, I will select the mode I have my amped up pinpoint settings under. The switch activates the following settings: General, Deep and Custom, Custom also activates Patch, Hi-Mineral, Hi-Trash and Pinpoint. So you basically have 5 groups of settings that you can have preprogramed to suit your needs and quickly select on the fly. Soil/Timings switch: Normal, best general performance and is particularly good for long time-constant targets. But suffers in areas that have long time constant ground signal. This timing is very good in mild mineralisation or areas like stream beds that have lower mineral content than the flats hills or terraces that may be higher mineralisation. Enhance: this timing clips some long time-constant signal and a smaller amount of fast time-constant signal, it is very good in highly mineralised ground or areas with a lot of hot rocks and it also has some clipping of fast time-constant signal that can eliminate false signals in some ground Special: If you choose Special on the Front Panel the following settings will then be selectable on the Rear Panel under special. Sensitive Smooth: only use for very severe soils. Sense smooth clips both the long and fast time-constant signal to eliminate these types of ground signals hot rocks ect. But it will cost you targets that fall within this range. Fine Gold: Fine Gold is similar to Enhance but is much more open on the fast time-constant end of the timing. This makes it way more sensitive to smaller targets whilst it has similar capabilities to Enhance on larger targets. It ignores a lot of hot rocks and ground signal a very powerful tool once understood. Sensitive Extra: this timing is similar to normal but is more open on the fast time constant side and a bit less on the long time-constant side. It is useful in mild ground on smaller targets but increases hot rock signals with mono coils. Its good with Double D coils for smaller targets in mineralised ground too, very useful for crumbing in bedrock with a small coil. Salt/Gold: For very salty areas - salt lakes, high salt content gold fields. Sharp: Is the most powerful timing on the 5000 it has a larger detection field and is more open on the long time-constant side of the timings than normal but this makes it very susceptible to ground signal. I have found it very useful on larger deeper targets in mild ground with a mono coil. But this timing really shined with a large 20in concentric coil that I had made for finding larger targets in mineralised ground and it also worked a treat on the larger DD coils too, one of my favourites was a 14in DD that I even ran in basalt soil in sharp with great success. Coin/Relic: I only used this in Europe for treasure hunting. Coil/Rx: Double D, Mono and Cancel, I have foam stuck between the case and the switch so that it keeps the switch in Double D and the switch cannot accidentally be knocked into Cancel, you can run the switch in DD for both monos or DD coils. And I never want the detector to accidentally be knocked into Cancel as you loose most of your performance and there is no way I want to be walking around for hours or who knows how long wasting time walking around in cancel then having to go back over the area again! Ground Balance: Tracking or Fixed, I always use Fixed, except in highly mineralised variable ground. Threshold: I set this to a faint but clearly audible hum, this was generally at about 3oclock on the knob, I usually re adjust it after changing the other settings below as well, particularly the Target volume setting, which you play against eachother to amplify targets but tame chatter. Auto tune: Always perform an auto tune on detector start up or if EMI increases re-auto tune the detector. Back Panel Volume limit: Set this so that a loud target dose not blow off your ears. Ground Balance type: general, specific and off, I nearly always use general except in the worst Iron rich ground that requires special. Special: Explained above. Manual Tune: I usually just use auto tune but I always make a mental note of what frequency it ends up on. Motion: Very slow, Slow, med and fast. I nearly always use very slow or if it is very quiet ground I might use slow. This is a filter that modulates the audio to suit your swing speed. I use this setting in conjunction with Quiet Audio type to tame Threshold chatter whist maintaining the target response on very small or very deep edge of detection targets, this allows me to run very high gain and stabiliser settings and greatly enhances target response. Rx Gain: Range of 1 – 20 I pretty much leave it at 20 unless I’m running Sharp or Sens Extra timings which may need to be run quite low even below 10. Sometimes I use this setting to tame ground signal in more extreme ground conditions, but I never use it to deal with EMI or Threshold chatter ever! Or it will cost you performance that you don’t need to give up! Audio type: Boost, Normal, Deep and Quiet. These settings modulate how the signal is processed and which part of the signal is more amplified. My favourite is Quiet as it has a linear profile which makes the EMI chatter less amplified and gives a better amplification of the target response when other settings are run high. Basically it trims chatter but strengthens target range signals when your other settings are set to suit. Audio Tone: Set it to suit your hearing. Higher tones for younger people for older people or if your like me with industrial deafness a low tone can be better. My sweet tone is 30, find your tone by getting a small nugget and tape it to a stick at barely audible depth, this is to make a control signal now swing the nugget over the stationary coil and play with the tone setting until you find the tone at which the faint target is loudest or easiest to distinguish, this is the best way to set your tone to find gold! Do not make the mistake of setting your tone to make the Threshold sound nicer like most do! We are after targets not Threshold! Stabiliser: The stabilizer is a filter that is used to tame the high frequency noise or chatter that is usually the product of EMI. I never use this setting to deal with ground noise ever! I just use this setting to smooth the Threshold chatter down until tolerable. Do not use it to deal with ground signal as you have way better setting options for that and you will just loose performance that you don’t have to! Most of the time in the morning this will be set quite high but as the day heats up and EMI increases it will have to be lowered to suit. High for me is 20 and I almost never go below 11. I always adjust this setting after auto tuning and with the detector stationary and facing the the way you are detecting! Signal peak: 1 to 20. I run this at 20 as I want definite targets, lower numbers cause blending and sound mono tone which can cause missed targets. Target Volume: 1 to 20. I run this setting at 20 nearly all of the time this is an amplification filter that amplifies target response, it dose make the Threshold louder at high numbers but you just lower the Threshold until it is at the right level as discussed above. What you are left with when properly played against the Threshold is amplified target response and a good Threshold volume. Response: normal and inverted. I use normal as I never used AI DD coils. Tracking speed: slow, med, Fast. I nearly always used slow and fixed GB but if the ground is highly variable I use tracking and the speed that just keeps up with the ground variations. Iron reject: I leave Iron reject off because the GPX is un reliable at Discrimination. I use a VLF detector if trash density calls for it. Range of Motion Understanding Range of Motion and its effect on how targets are heard or not heard because of it is one of the most important aspects of learning your metal detector. Once learned targets stand out more and you can use it to separate false targets from definite targets by modulating your swing speed, this can’t be learned from reading you must do testing of your range of motion skills and learn every new detectors best range of motion by testing it over known buried targets and known false signals like termite mounds or hot rocks for example until you become proficient. Spend time doing this and it will reap rewards for you.

I like round coils better due to the physics of how both the Tx signal field is transmitted evenly and the Rx signal response is received evenly, this makes round coils quieter and have better depth. The only time I use elliptical coils is when chasing small gold and the largest one I use is the 14x9 size, for the reasons above. I don't like or use any of the larger elliptical coils, but the smaller ones are a valuable addition to the gold finding arsenal. I hope Coiltek dose a 14in and 20in round monos a 20in DD and a 12x6 eliptical mono.

Its a waist-product of brewing beer I believe, I think it is the yeast tar leftover that precipitates during brewing. Probably from V.B. (vomit bombs) or Foster's. Lots of beer brewed here... so if we didn't eat the by-product we would end up swimming in it🤣 Or one of us would be detecting out in the far-reaches of the desert and fall into a sinkhole full of the stuff, next to one of their illegal nuclear dumping site's.

2 gives you immunity but regular boosters are required 🤪

That is what we Aussies call a "Hot Sheila"😉 Not to be confused with a "Rough Sheila....

Touch sensitive is when the coil makes spurious noise or false signals when bumped or when bad even touched. The cause of this is loose, broken or damaged in some other way coil windings or coil lead. I prospect for a living so my detectors get way more Hrs put on them in a year than most will see in their service life if owned by a hobbiest. Most coils are fairly robust but there is only so much constant abuse that they can take and then something has to give. That is why I never send them back to the supplier for replacement unless they break within the first year(one prospecting season). I figure if its lasted 8 months out of a year getting scrubbed on the ground and used to knock sticks and rocks out of the way 8 to 12 hours a day im happy with that.

Sorry for the belated response, I throw away the stock skid plate as I use it until it wears out then I stick the 1.5mm lexan directly to the coil the 1.5mm lexan will last the life of the coil or about a year for me. By then the coil will usually go touch sensitive and be replaced. I do this on all of my coils. Just remember to make the skidplate about 5mm wider all the way around as the edges are the new wear point. You will never again wear through the base if you do this.

Orogeny!!!

I just silicone on a piece of 1.5mm lexan cut to 5mm larger than the coil size and you wont ever have to replace it. Lexan or pollycarbonate sheet is way harder wearing than any off the shelf skid plates

I use primaraly a battle belt with molly pouches attached for everthing I need to carry or if I need a little more capacity or extra water I use a very compact backpack with a battle belt attached to distribute the weight of the 6l of water i sometimes need to carry. The military molly system is definitly the way to go as it is totaly configurable to exactly what your needs are.

I use roof and gutter silicon to stick all of my coil covers on. It is there until the cover wears through. After it wears through I just peel it off and re silicone the new one on. Or I usually replace the standard cover with a pice of 1.5mm to 3mm lexan that is siliconed in place of the standard coil cover. All of my coils end up with the much tougher lexan on them after the standard coil covers wear through. Tape requies constant maintanance or crap, oftern metallic crap gets inbetween your cover and coil and can create unwanted signals or noise.

Very interesting, thank you for the info. I have my own theory that gold and other elements are formed by transmutation by way of a combination of heat, pressure, catalist minerals and sound frequency. They have demonstrated transmutation in nuclear reactors and post nuclear explosion. But I belive that this can occur in with way less of an energy relese and at lower temp with the aid of naturally occuring feromagnetic catalist fluxes and sound freequency.

I have 15 and a 20in spiral wound DOD coils. I ran them last year and im happy with their performance. I did not have any problem with following the instructions to make the addaptor. Edit add detail> I have not ran the stock coils since. Below is an example of Aussie lingo and how it can be missunderstood by foreighners

I like the way you think Trent! Minelab hasn't let me down yet either. Actually... the profind pinponter was the only time, what a pice of crap it was!🤣

We are mainly zapping the quartz reef around areas that I have traced by years of metal detecting or panning. We mill the samples down to 20 micron and peletize them which makes a more homogenous sample and lessens the nugget effect like you were talking about. But then I leach the samples with two different types of solutions that I developed. I then dry the leached material and re-mill it, pelletize it and scan it again. This takes about 15min per sample in the field. And you can easily perform the leaching part of the sampling concurrent, its the drying, re-milling and cleaning of the milling gear prior to the next sample that takes up the time. Because we are using a larger sample and concentrating it the results are much much more accurate, so much so that we can rely on them to make in field decisions.

Hi Jasong Our company owns an olimpus vanta. I have also used the Nitton gold3+ too. It costs $50 000 aud + extras so it a bit out of reach of the hobby prospector. For gold exploration you need the Rhodium xray tube as the accuracy with the other tubes (tungsten or silver) is very low on Au and PGM's. And a lot of the gold areas we are chasing have mostly free gold and little of the pathfinder elements accociated with them. Although the pathfinders are always elevated near the deposit in relation to the backgound norm for the areas, they may only have a small halo and this may only be slightly elevated. This is probably due to the large amount of water we get in such a little time here with our tropical wetseason. Which can render the pathfinders of little use to the explorer up here in parts of northern Australia. But in the more arid areas they are of much greater use. Our xrf has the gold and pathfinders suite but we also got the rare earth and base metals suite's too. But each program is expensive and an added extra. A suitable xrf is an essential tool in a modern technologically advanced exploration company. We have developed 2 special ways that we prepair our samples which increase the accuracy of the scanner and allow it to accuratly detect down in the lower end of its recomended minimum ppm. Our results closely mirror our assay results since developing these methods. Which further increased the usfulness and reliability of the xrf results for field use. The scanner saves the savvy user 1000's in assays and weeks in waiting time for assays which can be a real pain if you are in a remote location, as you may have to return after good results to resample a hot area further. It is much easier to be able to make on the spot decisions on the viability of further samples and when a hot area is discovered you can concentrate your efforts on that area rather than just taking grid samples and sending them to assay. There is also another technology that is of use to the modern gold explorer it is called LIBS. LIBS as an Emerging Analytical Tool for Mineral Exploration - SciAps https://www.sciaps.com/newly-published-research-libs-as-an-emerging-analytical-tool-for-mineral-exploration/ I am are looking at ways of increasing libs usefulness in gold exploration. Its limiting factor is that it only scans a very small area which can give you inaccurate results but Im trying to addapt the same technology but from a different sector where they use it in a different way that should prove very useful when addapted to exploration.

Gold can be a real bugger to find sometimes🤣

😏 I really hope Gerry smashes it... I get all tingly inside with the first blow of the hammer every time🥰 I also love the pour...

Smash it....

I have a trick that I have not seen anyone else do. I use triangulation to guage depth. This dosent work on very faint targets but it is a valuable weapon in the arsenal. After I locate the target and pinpont it with multiple sweeps I then lift the coil and tilt it at about 15deg and sweep it on the 15deg plane and visualise where I get the srongest target. Then repeat multiple times from different angles. I then draw the lines in my head and where the lines intersect will give me an accurate target depth and location. Then I can dig like a mad man and not damage the nugget.

Melted it today. I just melt them all now, I just couln't be bothered trying to sell as is. The only gold I dont melt now is crystal gold.

Thanks for the reply mate. It goes just over 10oz and scans 99%Au on the XRF scanner. It came from a remanant alluvial deposit left on top of a low hill far from the current stream. The ancient probably tertary age river had cut a iron rich auriferrous chert filled fault and the deposit sits on a calcium and chlorite rich green colored schist type bed rock. The calcuim is fairly mobile so it sweats into the lower layer in the alluvium and the lighter sands and clays have weathered away leaving the heavier Iron from the cherts, causing patchy vairiable noisy ground. The only indicator (without digging a hole) that the deposit is there was one out of place alluvial stone that I noticed on a lower sloap of the hill but dig a hole at the top after a foot of clay its full of heavy alluvial stone. I was quite supprised at the purity when I scanned it as this area is not known for gold as its a tin area. I looked here as I identified a type of anomally that I have found a lot of gold around before by using specialist satellite imagery. I have the same GB modus operandi. After locking the ferrite balance in semi auto when the detector goes out of balance I just flick into semi auto and back track over the targetless already detected ground to balance the detector again if the ground dictates.

Hey Trent... I woke up one morning and Paul hadnt put his socks on yet so I saw them first thing🤢 ruined my whole day! Some things just scar you for life🤣