Tortuga

Interesting vids. 

I've been a High Yield guy since I've had my Z but for the last few months I've switched to General. Seems a little more stable on hot ground and I don't have to dig as many microscopic pieces of wire and iron. I'm honestly looking for the larger, deeper stuff anyways. I'm ok with missing a few sub-gram dinks along the way. 

3 hours ago, DDancer said:

I find it kind of funny myself that its taken this long for this kind of info to have come up in topic.  In 2015 I made the same observation with Target Volume and sensitivity.  Combined with Threshold it really kicks target id up a notch especially with depth on small stuff~ .5 grams or less~ however it does lend to higher incidents of the howlies in salt and high iron grounds.  Backing off sensitivity does not overly effect any change in high saturation grounds but Target volume and Threshold do.  Part of the combination I learned only this year by swapping info with another (read on).

I only ever shared the observation with a few others and it generally fell on deaf ears at the caravan parks.  However with novices to the Zed I do share the info as I set them up ~ pitty I never get any feed back there :(  as they are pretty much one time events.  This pretty much why I've never really talked about settings here.  I also figured others knew but kept it under wraps as its hard to demonstrate easily.  Something that comes with experience.

That said I did have one success in passing the information, even got feed back when I met the guy again at the same park, this last season *2016*.  His issue was a bit different though.  Seems he had purchased one of the first batch of Zeds that came out and was impressed with its sensitivity to his pick among other things.  He'd damaged his Zed and sent it back to have it replaced by another unit~ standard operating procedure by ML and one I disagree with~ only to find the new unit did not perform like the original~ could not hear his pick.  Apparently he made some video with his new unit and a friends original unit and sent the complaint in to his dealer along with the replacement unit.  Got another new unit and same results.  Another complaint and another unit and again same result.  When I met him he had his latest unit and while we talked he was about to scrap it as well thats when I shared my settings and information.  Couple of weeks later we met again and he was most pleased.  The new unit now worked like the original and I even learned a bit as we traded observations on combinations of Target Volume, Threshold and Sensitivity. 

As to his original machine I suspect he messed with the settings initially but forgot them and for whatever reason he and his friend did not set their units up exactly when they made the complaint video but that's my thought.

Thanks for reading.

DD

I'd like to hear about what settings you use, if you don't mind sharing. 

Kinda a stretch..

I'm still getting one tho 

It can't be that bad. I just can't imagine Minelab would develop and sell such an expensive coil with such minimal improvement over the stock one. 

The same story has to have been repeated over the years whenever a new, hot coil comes out. Grumpy purchasers dump all over the new coil on the forums then later on you find out half of them don't even own it. I'm still holding out some hope for it. 

I've gotten many a false signal on tree roots with my 14" coil. I'm very pessimistic when checking any targets with my GPZ near the base of oak trees where I detect. Saguaro and prickly pear cactus roots have also given me false readings that sound like faint, deep targets. Like hot ground though the signal from tree roots is usually a broader sweep and after taking a few inches off the response doesn't get any louder like it should. 

6 hours ago, desertpilot said:

Chris,

If your able to get out in the Tombstone area there is some nice silver specimens that can be found underground. I'm still searching for silver in the Sierrita's and Arivaca area.  Would be awesome to find something like the silver dog. 

 

Wow killer specimen there. Will have to ask you about that one 

Wow all those nugget look unreal. So awesome. 

The "Planchas de Plata" were found south of Patagonia just south of the border on a ranch called "Arizonac" which led to the region being called Arizona and eventually the U.S. state. 

They were huge slabs or "planks" of silver and large balls. 

I've wanted to hunt the gold placers in the Sierritas where the silver dog came from. Besides the club claims out there the best I could figure was they were right smack in the middle of a trailer park now and the others are on State Land 

Gerry's Detectors posted on Facebook today that he's offering the 15% military discount on the new coil.

I'd also imagine Rob and the others would be doing the same.

Second vote for Sun Ray Pro's. They aren't quite as loud as Black Widows but the sound quality is better. Everything is leather on them too instead of vinyl. I've been beating the hell outta mine here in Arizona for a few years and they just keep on tickin'. 

I had the little rubber door rip off the first WM12 I had. I think on my new one I'll just remove it.

As far as mounting I have a nylon caae for the WM12 that came with my GPZ control box cover kit from Thesaurus Detecting. Pretty crappy control box cover but the WM12 case is good. It's very similar to the case Doc includes with his cover set except it has a loop sewn on the back. I've got a carribiner on that and I clip it to my Camelbak shoulder strap. Works great and I've never lost a signal.

22 hours ago, PhaseTech said:

I compare High Yield to General a lot on undug targets. Often the case is if I've found something in HY, General will usually also see it, but the response may be weaker. But when using General, if I've detected something bigger or more solid, when switching to HY I often get a very wobbly or fluffy response, so General definitely better. So if you want to get all the smaller stuff, stick to HY, but if you don't care about missing the odd tiddler, but like the idea of hitting a better deeper bit, then stick to General. 

What is interesting in the graph is that with the 19 in HY and Difficult, seems to be matching the 14 in HY and Normal. I found a lot of my early Zed gold in HY/Norm but was restricted to milder ground. If I can get that level of performance in hotter ground.......fun times

That's interesting. I've been in many spots where the teeny tiny pieces of wire and specks of lead keep coming and also the occasional dink nugget. It's deep ground so after a day or two of hunting the place I'd like to sniff out bigger, deeper stuff. And I do know that wobbly response you mentioned in HY, we discussed it in the other thread. Might have to give General a try now 

The GPZ seems pretty simple at first but the more you learn about it the more complex it gets, in a good way too. 

A whole pound heavier than the 14" coil.. yikes. 

That might be more than I can handle. Been swinging my GPZ the last two days and if it got any heavier I might need to get a hipstick. The bungy I use doesn't even seem to be taking the weight off that much anymore.

I never realized General was so much better on larger deeper gold (according to the graph). I always run High Yield and if it's finding the small stuff I always figured the big stuff would be that much louder. I realize General drops the sensitivity a little so you hear less ground noise but it just seems counter intuitive to me. Strong > Weak. Guess I just haven't wrapped my head around it yet. 

6 hours ago, Steven Blair said:

Still no indication of weight, or if there will be a longer shaft to accommodate the larger coil.

???

Steve

It'll come with a lower shaft attached, no clue if it's longer tho. Maybe you can tell from the pics. 

Anyone know once you've already replaced one GPZ 7000 if you can ever replace the new one? I don't remember how long the warranty is (two or three years?) but is that basically how long you're covered starting from the initial purchase? Or does your warranty start over with the new replacement unit? I'm on my second one now and considering how I like to prospect and how this "new generation" of Minelabs are being built based on the CTX I'm a little concerned about its longevity.

The more I think about it the more I like how everything is just in one small box on the GPX, there really isn't too much to damage on it. They really hit a home run on the design of that detector. Just another reason to consider sticking with your GPX or possibly going back to one from a GPZ. Sooo much lighter too 

Where there any indian tribes in the area you prospect?

I'm getting some work done on my Tacoma as well in preparation for the upcoming prospecting season. Gotta treat 'em right and give them some love now and then. 

6 hours ago, Condor said:

I fashioned a hipstick out of a fiberglass tent pole and attached the lower end to the bottom of the pack frame.  I then ran a short piece of cord from the top of the pack frame to the top of the hipstick and attached the bungy to that right above my right shoulder.  It gets the detector further out in front of me and transfers all the weight to the packframe and hipbelt.  I generally like to cover a lot of miles and want all my necessities with me in case its a long day away from the truck.  Tomorrow I'm working on positioning the camelbak bladder to center the weight a little more.   It's not the most efficient detecting style, but I like to keep exploring new ground.  A detecting harness just won't do for all the stuff I think I need out there.

I've never tried a dedicated hipstick before. The GPZ is such a heavy beast it might be nice to use. I've got a big camping trip coming up and cuz the heat is still hanging around here in Arizona I've got to really pace myself between the hiking, swinging and digging. Gonna try and do five days out there. 

Nice gold. I loop the bungee around the handle of my GPZ and I clip the plastic Y-harness to two plastic D-rings on the shoulder straps of my Camelbak pack. Takes the weight off my swinging arm and the detector hangs down the front of my chest. The detector balances a lot better from the handle too instead of if you attach the bungee down low on the shaft. 

3 hours ago, TAZMAN1972 said:

Tortuga, I didn't see that you asked about my settings.  I run it wide open.  High Yield x Normal x Sensitivity @ 20 x Volume at 7 with stock headphones or 14 with speaker x Audio Smoothing OFF x Threshold 23 x Ground balance Auto.  I used to run in manual but I can't seem to find fault with auto so there you go!  When it gets too noisy, on occasion, i put it on Difficult but I don't touch anything else.  It is really like swinging my GMT with all the blips beeps and whining but the real targets seem to scream out.  I have not actually found any new spots since getting the 7000.  I have just been going back to the places I have been getting gold for the last 4-5 years, that had gotten hard to find gold at, and they seem to produce almost like new.  It may sound backwards but I figure once things slow down again I will try the opposite approach and try running quiet.  I have actually been switching to difficult when I swing over a target that is deep (doesn't sound at the edge of the coil).  There has been more than one target that was so faint I am not sure I would have recognized it the first time if I had been running in difficult.

Thanks for the response. I've been running the same except Sensitivity at 15. Maybe I should just crank it up to 20. 

Also, if things get a little noisy try switching from High Yield to General, instead of Normal to Difficult. In my experience Difficult is such a drop from Normal, I literally lose inches of depth with that setting. I've done a little testing between the two and Difficult wouldn't even give me a response on this fat old rusty nail that was about a foot down in some thick clay that I'd initially hit on in Normal. Was quite surprising actually. 

5 hours ago, RedDirtDigger said:

I,m with Fred, after using most of the earlier Minelab gold detectors I have learnt a new skill with the Zed that some gold signals are mere missed beats in the tone...almost undiscernible changes in audio. I always have used speakers with earlier models but I don't like the audio clarity on the WM unit or speakers run through it. I am now always using headphones, swinging very slowly on high "gain" and could not be happier finding smallish nuggets at depth. I am slowly getting better at hearing the subtle missed beat signals the Zed gives on nuggets at the limit of its detecting depth. 

Cheers RDD

I'm with both of you guys on this. After my summer hiatus here in Arizona I've been out swinging my Zed a lot and a few deep and small targets have almost been in my imagination as well. Sometimes I have to scrape around the dirt for a good 5 or 10 minutes before I actually get an actual metal target response. This season none of the faint signals have been gold yet. The last few nuggets were pretty easy signals I scored through just consistent elimination. Dig everything 

I had this when I was about 10 years old!

Yeah it's rare, and I don't hear it much but it's real. Would love to get video of a target with that kinda response so others can see and hear it.