Tortuga

The first one looks more natural to me. Silver nugget someone dropped maybe? A simple acid test should tell you if it's silver or not. You can get the test kits for about $12 on Amazon.
The second one does look like slag.

Really nice looking gold. Wonder if it was from Arizona or California.

It's a great cover. It's pretty much the only option out there.

Doc must be left handed tho because the little logo shoulda been stitched to the other side of the cover! Also the logo on the screen cover is upside down.

I did product design professionally for many years so I'm a little critical of little things like that 

I really don't see myself wearing this thing out tho, ever. Kinda like the black GPZ coil cover.

Now Doc or somebody needs to come up with a better arm strap like the Eureka Worx ones for the GPX detectors.

90% of all the gold found each year is by only 10% of the hunters.

The guys that are good find it for a reason. And they keep finding it again and again.

I don't usually like to kill them but sometimes you have to.

I didn't see too many this year at work or out detecting either. Guess I was just lucky...

They make the best. But if I was a full-time prospector I'd look at the GPZ and think it was built like a toy.

Then again I've used mine pretty hard this year and haven't had any problems with it (except for the lower shaft "twist").

Maybe their products come off as a little dinky but they perform well. Which is what counts.

Nice video. I love watching anything detecting related. Just gets me pumped up for my turn to hunt out in the desert.

Yes it is the same find, here is a shot with some perspective.

.5 gram

IMG_1574.JPG

Looks like a ton of quartz there.

On 9/28/2015 at 10:57 PM, indianbullet said:

Having shot target archery all my life as well as lots of pistol ammo burned. I find it odd that some of these detector company's haven't made custom size grips/removable panel's for their machines, after all its not a one size fits all in the hand world.. With all the different type of molding material used in the gun world as well as custom archery grips. I find it odd guys swinging a loop aren't doing the same if they are that uncomfortable?

I bought some thick tennis racket tape off Amazon for about $10 and wrapped it around the handle of my GPZ. Made it A LOT more comfortable. Compared to the fat foam handle on the GPX, the plastic handle on the GPZ seems a little small to me.

I also heard the rubber coating on the handle starts rubbing off after awhile too and looks pretty bad.

Man you guys in California have some beautiful country to prospect in. Gotta love all that fresh air and green trees.

NVChris- is that the same baker you posted a pic of on the GPZ Facebook page?

Like it's been said many times before you find gold, where you find gold. Everything else is pretty subjective

Wow didn't think you could find gold in jade/nephrite... What a combo.

I've heard of gold in amethyst (purple quartz) before occurring around Rich Hill. That'd be something to see.

I've got time off work around Thanksgiving and Christmas and plan to do some detecting and maybe camping. I'd like to explore some different areas than the norm like maybe Rich Hill or the Bradshaws. Still need to get up to Gold Basin and Quartzite one of these days too.

I always take a few days off work to attend the gem show too. Never know what kinda cool stuff you're going to find there.

Pics of gold?

I'd imagine that tree had something to do with people on drugs.... 

Steve's method is to run the machine maxed out and filter the sounds yourself to pick out the good signals.

Bill Southern also wrote a pretty good article in the latest GPAA magazine about running the machine as quiet as you can so the ground noise doesn't mask metal targets.

I ran my GPZ noisy on Normal Soil setting most of the year but lately I've tuned it down a little and ran it on Difficult.

I've had issues with tree roots and saguaro roots here in Arizona. The Difficult Soil setting seems to eliminate most of that.

Just remember a metal target is usually going to hit a lot harder than ground noise. I've dug tree roots that have gotten louder the further I've dug down but I can usually eliminate them because they will still make a longer "Wee... Woo..." target noise that doesn't drop off sharp at the end of the swing like a metal target.

Lucky you!

I didn't get my email yet 

Maybe because I'm just a newbie.

I just ordered one of the Garrett Carrots from Rob.

Over the weekend I borrowed one from a friend and it really made pinpointing down in a deep hole a lot easier. The coil on the Z is just way too big sometimes.

I'll prob keep the Carrot inside an upper pouch on my pack and just break it out when I need it.

Nice work. I had some nice luck after the update too..

Claim holders just have rights to the minerals in the ground on their claim.

And yes, all the signs are a pain. Who knows if half of those are even paid up, valid claims. Anyone can buy those yellow signs online and post them up to scare people off their patch.

And a lot of people do hang onto claims for years and years without doing anything with them because they hope one day a big mining corporation might come along and buy it from them for a couple million dollars.

That sounds really cool. I'd like to do a prospecting trip like that. Pack all my stuff in and make camp when it gets dark. Then get up the next day and do it all over again. Atleast until all the batteries die on my detector

Tortuga,

I have tried to join AO for the past year but it always asks to validate even though my avatar name is on the form after I login. I always resend the validation, but after 5 or 6 tries it never happens. Not sure what the problem is . Regardless, I do enjoy all the forms I am on especially this one. Hope you have better luck with your validation.

Same here. There's a link to contact the site admin, I'm going to try that today.

It's cool to have an entire mountain range that's mineralized in that area. So much potential to take a hike, hit a wash and find a new patch that no one has ever been on before.

In southern Arizona we mostly seem to just have little concentrations of placer deposits that run the length of a few gullies and washes here and there that everyone and their brother already knows about.

I finally signed up on there to see the pics but gotta wait to get validated before I've got full access. Would love to see them...

Interesting stuff...

Does the GPZ retain multiple ground balance "signatures" for lack of a better term then? Like if I did the gb procedure to let it learn the ferrite and then I did the same procedure over a piece of banded iron formation would it keep both of them in memory and use each as it was needed and neither of them if I was on quiet ground? And then a 3rd entirely different signature for the general ground I'm over like if I'm in a quiet low mineralization spot?

I can't wait to get to the goldfields and be able to do some testing, I didn't get my ferrite in time so I haven't even been able to try that yet let alone the new firmware update. I'll make a vid on it next month with some test results once I get out.

Pretty sure JP and Steve have both said each time you squeeze the button and GB it wipes any previous data saved in the machine. It's why they've both recommended to just GB right off the bat when you start up and don't touch the button again for 20-30 mins unless you're really having issues with mineralization.

Nice looking gold. Can't wait for the nice weather to roll in.