Hard Prospector

In my opinion; the Fisher F19 and thats coming from a guy that likely has more detectors than I care to admit.

I've been prospecting the CA high desert area for a lot of years (Coolgardie, Rand & the Dale) , and the F19 and TDI SL are usually my go to machines when swinging new areas between Ridgecrest south to 29 Palms. 

The F19 (or GB Pro as nearly one in the same) is very effective on small gold, handles mineralization well for a VLF, has great discrimination, lite weight,  coil options and probably the easiest machine to use. For about $2000.00, you could buy both machines and have a very effective PI and VLF combo. There are more expensive possibilities  but I have done just fine with these machines in the Mojave

Lots of options....Good luck!

White's doesn't have a great track record when it comes to taking input, suggestions or criticism from qualified, experienced people and thats too bad. The company as well as us customers all end up loosing in the end. They lost their most talented engineer Dan Geyer and Jimmy was their best ambassador..... now he's gone too. Hopefully White's is just going through some growing pains which will smooth out eventually

Always an unexpected treat when you drop into any TDI discussion Reg.....Thanks

The average person can out run Africanized bees and studies have shown them to typically break-off the attack after about 100 yards. Each person needs to ask themselves; "If attacked, can I sprint all out this distance?"

My neighbor last year had a swarm of Africanized bees attempting to make a hive in his yard  shed. He took one of those Black Flag "flea bombs" and pitched it in there .......done.  Also a mixture of soapy water sprayed into the air will knock em down and kill them. 

Nice write up John and thanks for sharing. I have two SL's and my experience with this detector is extensive but limited to nugget hunting; Here are some of my observations with the SL;

  This machine works best with small mono coils; 7.5" Mono Aussi,, 4x6 TDI Mono Shooter, and 5.5x9.5 Miner John. The SL just seems to lack the power for depth and stability for the larger mono / duel frequency series of loops.

Running these small coils often allows me to run the gain maxed and even at times turn the GB off .

The SL's lite weight and great ergonomics(with small coils) make it easy to swing all day. I actually removed the control box from one of the units and belt mounted it. This has really helped prospect for shallow residual / eluvial placer bleeding off epithermal deposits on the steep mountain sides out in the desert.

This IS NOT the machine to nugget shoot washes and arroyo's where over-burden can be a factor and depth capability is key

Even though not waterproof (or very water resistant) it can take one heck of a beating.

The unit has been very effective for me finding small "picker" size nuggets in some very shallow yet nasty mineralized soil. I would suppose the SDC2300 is probably a better choice for the same  applications these days. However for me, the TDI SL (and GB2) are the right tools for specific tasks that I know very well and can work effectively. I think about  getting a 2300 and Gold Racer some day............but not yet

A take like that means its time to start stacking rocks and moving boulders

Very nice pan and well done

11 hours ago, Sourdough Scott said:

My grandfather used to take old hood and trunk lids from old cars, and dry the dirt on them. Back in the 40's.

Great idea

Hands down for backpacking the Gold Bug, GB Pro or F19 can't be beat. Very lite weight, uses only one 9v battery, entire unit breaks down into compact pieces and easily fits in any pack (I would wrap the control head in a t-shirt in the backpack and roll the shaft sections in with my sleeping bag)  tough and easy to use. On over night backpacking/prospecting trips my crack hammer,  F19 and Falcon MD20 are my tools of choice.

What kind of placer ground are you referring too, dry(desert) or wet as in year- round water course?

I don't see much change in gold unless the Dow has at least a 5000 point  correction and or the US slides into recession. A lot could happen after the next presidential election depending on who wins. The "lucky winner" will inherit trillions in government debt and a rickety economy to say the least....if you ask me

I've had some petty theft around my camp in the past and unless someone stays on site every minute (unrealistic) it may happen, but I have found a way to deal with it somewhat. I always leave a bottle of Wild Turkey on the camp table and cheap bottle of wine in the cooler.....each a 50/50 mix of booze and piss. Whenever it disappears at least I get some satisfaction, have a drink on me  dirt bag.

As I've never found any nugget over an oz my opinion here is very limited. It seems to me gold being so heavy, the effects of gravity, wind, water etc keep it traveling until it parks itself for a very long time. Further geologic forces over millions of years push the mountains up or erode them around that "one pounder" either exposing it some day or keeping it buried till the sun burns out.

Back to the old saying: "gold where you find it"

This is the first year (since I started detecting) that I've found more jewelry at the beach than nuggets in the desert. A possible trend? Time and effort will tell.

Silence is golden..........pun intended

I'd get your SDC2300 back and also pick up an F19

The specimens I've found have all been fine gold in milky quartz with virtually no signs of any sulfides. Still, I can't help but think that somebody has been successful at it to a certain degree, especially with the right detector.

I was just curious how much luck some of you have had detecting gold/quartz specimens which also contained substantial sulfides. 

It seems like all of the woes at White's began with the tragic loss of senior engineer Dan Geyer (god rest his soul).

On 4/14/2016 at 8:17 AM, auminesweeper said:

Absolutely,

I don't envy anyone having to make this choice nower days, Once it was easy you had the GBII and the GMT so you picked the features that you liked and go for it, But now with all the VLFs and the mid frequency machines that are on the market, you have to sit back and wait to see the success of others and read all the reviews etc, just look at Nokta/Makro the have bought out 4 machines in the past year or so and they have 3 others on the board, we are not use to such dedication and I have 3 on my short list which does not help,

john

 

Very well put John, Nokta is a detector  company "on steroids" these days and I'm sure US companies are feeling some heat.  As for now, I'm still a White's, Fisher and Tesoro guy (I love that sand shark)

Its worth sharing that what gold I  have found in old workings came beneath or near old stopes. The 4 nice ore specimens were all kicked off to the side just below stopes and the F19 nailed em. All showed some free gold once hit with a crack hammer.

Many of the ore veins the GB2 would sound on happened to be near stopes. I'd break and pull material out of the stringer ti'l the detector stopped chirping. Sometimes having to comeback with a 4-6 lbs. sledge and bigger chisel. Taking the material home, I would crush in a large mortar and pestle (man I really need to get an impact mill)

Pushing in a stope must have hard dangerous work so the material had to be really good to be worth the effort. Most of these old mines are hazardous places and there have only been a few I've felt comfortable working in. Play it safe and good luck!

The floor of old gold mines are full of metal trash.  In my limited experience detecting in them; F19 over the floor (great discrimination) with the ultra high frequency GB2 over good looking vein material in foot or hang wall. Don't forget a crack hammer, couple stout chisels and  bucket

3 hours ago, Reno Chris said:

Do a little research on Google and you'll be able to answer your own questions.

I don't  think this was the kind of help he was looking for............

With PI's, the coils are very specific to the electronics and tuning (including the length of wire from loop to control box) 

Your creating a "zombie PI", I wouldn't go there. BTW, I would keep any TDI  far away from water. Even a quick dunk and its done.

No worries guy, I'm sure its covered under warranty and not worth getting pissed off and irritable over. 

I have two GB2's; made one into a pinpointer and the other is still my bedrock sniper. They have become "task specific tools", and when prospecting in the desert where water is scarce, its amazing what that machine can do with just a bit of creativity. I know they're finally on the cusp of being over-taken by newer machines but  I will always have one.