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phrunt

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  1. Because I've been using it lately for coins and jewellery, 87 coiins so far, 32 of which were silver. I tried bigger coils, and found I was able to achieve similar depth with a 12" coil, as I could with a 15" coil on a silver coin, the different modes such as normal gold and large gold do provide depth benefits over using the Ultra fine and Fine gold modes using these bigger coils, but there comes a point where putting on a bigger coil doesn't provide any benefit. What I've been saying is that it is pointless throwing something like a 20" coil on it and expecting to get dramatic depth increases over using something like a 15" coil. I was going to do a post on it as a coin detector, but perhaps it's not worth it as clearly giving information can be unappreciated. I'm just trying to keep your expectations in line with the reality.
  2. I think the best thing someone could do in this instance so they can understand for themselves how a detector will perform with different coils is to bury something like a larger nugget if they have one or even a lump of lead sinker from a fishing line, and see how deep they get it with a smaller coil, and then a larger coil and compare to other detectors. It's very easy and quick to see the depth differences on offer with different detectors. For me the GPZ and GPX 5000 provide greater depth advantages with larger coils than others, including the Algoforce. I'd love to be able to say I have seen the results with gold, sadly that's not the case as I don't find big gold, however I will say I've found a 4-gram nugget with the 8" Coil on the GPZ deeper than I can pick the same nugget up with the Algoforce with a 12" round coil on it. I found the QED a good example of this, by having adjustable pulse rates you could adjust it to pick up small gold well, but it suffered with deeper targets as a result, adjust it up for the deeper targets and small targets suffered.
  3. If you can pick out which episode it is let me know. Episodes | Gold Rush: Dave Turin's Lost Mine | Discovery You can click where it says Season 4 to go back through the older seasons episode lists.
  4. Was it this show? Dave Turns Lost Mines I would have access to it if I knew the episode.
  5. JW kindly passed on a few photos, his total gold from the day plus a photo of me detecting a slope, no gold on this one though πŸ™‚ I circled me in the photo. He found the smaller bits, that little 10x5" coil is a powerhouse.
  6. Yep, 11" stock, great coil except a bit noisy and reliability issues which seem resolved. Not often I'd recommend a Minelab GPX stock coil πŸ™‚ but the 6000 one is really good when you have a good one.
  7. I have a 15" prototype X-coil Concentric and while it doesn't calibrate it appears to work fine. These coils were designed for detectors with DD Coil support which they need to run as a Concentric. They can run as a Mono in mono mode on the GPX 5000, in my case the 15" CC X-coil runs in mono mode on the Algoforce, although it won't calibrate it seems to work pretty good. The naming of the coils like 18x18 is more for your benefit to know which coil, it makes no difference to the detector, you could do a 1x1 on a 20x20, makes no difference. I would wait and see what happens with firmware updates to the Algoforce, they may improve coil support for unusual coils, but really, the detector was designed around mono coils.
  8. I'd rather a 6.5 x 3.5 solid coil like the Legend now has from Nel with the Nel Snake coil. NEL Snake for Nokta & Makro: The Legend - Search coils NEL (nel-coils.com) Put this coil on the Mantcore and you likely have one of the best if not the best gold prospecting VLF's ever made for tiny gold. Combine that with the existing super sensitive coils like the M8 and 11", even the 15x12" is really good on small gold. This Manticore has so much potential to be the best there is, it's missing this one coil size to top it off.
  9. Yes, there are massive lakes in the area, I drive half an hour at about 62 mph along the side of one to get to this spot, and that's not even half the lake length, it's called the Lakes district πŸ™‚ It had glaciers all over the place, still does have some but much smaller ones now, this area we were detecting in was a big glacier at one point. From Bing search. "An inventory of South Island glaciers compiled in the 1980s indicated there are about 3,155 glaciers with an area of at least one hectare (2.5 acres). Approximately one sixth of these glaciers covered more than 10 hectares." It does indeed have little lines all going the same direction through the smooth surface, it looks like it's wet it's that shiny but it's not. I can't get a good photo of it, well one that shows how it really looks. Tilt it on an angle to show the sheen of it and it gets too glossy to see, and straight on doesn't show the shine. We aren't called the Shaky Isles for nothing, no shortage of earthquakes and faulting here. The 10x5" would be a better choice in the area due to it being deeper on smaller gold, which seems to be the gold we are finding in the area. I don't like to use the term more sensitive as much with the 6000 as the 11" will hit gold as small as the 10x5", so it's not so much sensitivity, it's depth on the sizes of gold and the smaller coils seem to hit the tiny bits deeper, which you would expect. I'm betting the 10x5" would give a better response to the piece of gold I was quite disappointed in the performance of the 6000 with, something I'd like to see, I can't do like I did with the Algoforce and just turn it on in my house and try it out though as the GPX just makes all crazy sounds πŸ˜› Only the Algo can be tested in a house like that.
  10. Yep, it's very unrealistic, the shows' primary purpose is going to be selling prospecting equipment to new comers that think they'll strike it rich. They were using Minelab detectors, one guy the GPZ and Dave Turin had a brand spanking new Gold Monster, so white was its coil it near blinded me, that things never touched the soil and no doubt at the end of the episode they could put it back in the box and sell it as new. Notice something missing? Dave doesn't even have anything to dig a hole, no digging equipment at all, just some gloves in his pocket so maybe he's going to dig by hand. Like all of these shows they're for entertainment purposes, and very unrealistic. They make it all sound so easy and if you spend a few bucks and get a detector you'll have fistfuls of gold in no time. Nothing in the credits about thanks to Minelab or anything though, and Dave does wear a Garrett hat later in the episode, and the hat looks like it's been around for a while, so not handed to him for the show like the Gold Monster was πŸ™‚ It was quite good to watch to see a bit of America, it seems strange pulling nuggets out of that grass paddock like that though, wish we could have nice flat grass paddocks like that here to detect πŸ™‚
  11. Yep, I like the 10x5" and 11" best out of my GPX 6000 coils, which are the 10x5" Coiltek, 12x7" NF, 11" and 14x9" Coiltek.
  12. A new TV Series has just started, Americas Backyard Gold. It has Dave Turin from Gold Rush with the idea being teaching people how to find gold with sluices, pans, metal detectors and the like. "In recent years, new gold has been uncovered in California due to heavy storms and flooding. From picking nuggets out of rivers, to metal detecting rare gold worth millions, Dave Turin shows you how and where everyday miners can find it." I've seen the first episode so far and I guess the metal detector manufacturers and those selling prospecting equipment are going to love it, it's going to bring in new to prospecting people in big numbers to the USA just like Aussie Gold Hunters did in Australia. A little rundown video of it. They sure make it sound and look easy in the episode.
  13. I'm guessing as it's a detector geared towards finding the smaller nuggets there is little point running a 17 or 20" round mono on it, much like the SDC with larger coils, a pointless exercise. If you want big deep gold with big coils, it's not the right detector to use. Even the 6000 is a small coil detector and bigger coils like a 17" round or 20" round are pointless, its biggest is the Minelab 17x13" so 13" wide, the NF was going to be a 16x10" so in theory the stock 11" could likely beat it for depth on some targets. These sort of detectors are just not the choice for big deep gold with big coils, if the Algoforce E2500 comes out, maybe it will be the big deeper gold detector for larger coils. They would recommend larger coils if you're chasing that as you'll have more hope than with smaller coils, I'd say πŸ™‚ Unlike the GPX 6000 they can't limit the sizes you can throw on it, there are just so many GPX 5000 coils available. If anything, the statement they added above should give you a clear indication this is a detector based upon finding smaller gold or shallower big gold and that's exactly what it is.
  14. Most of us are used to the waits with Minelab VLF's, waiting a year for them to get stock of detectors and coils isn't even unusual with them, I believe people are still trying to get coils that were released a long time ago now for the Manticore as they trickle them out to dealers in batches of 3 πŸ˜› I don't think Algoforce expected the popularity, although it was an untapped market, a cheaper good performing PI detector, but something people have been banging on about for years was needed, the first to do it reaps the rewards, plenty of people don't want to allocate the Minelab pricing for a fun hobby, those not overly serious about prospecting who don't think they'd get value out of the significant investment in a GPX or GPZ.
  15. Yesterday, JW and I went for a bit of a hike to a remote spot in the mountains, I hadn't been here at all since my GPX 4500 a few years ago, and JW had been a small few times since trying out his GPX 6000 and found a few bits. The hike in is what puts it on the backburner all the time πŸ™‚ It's a close drive from JW's house, but a big steep uphill hike, and from my house it's about an hour's drive so by the time I get home I'm stuck to the car seat, man it's hard to stand up after a massive hike and an hour's drive home after a day's detecting with the hike back to the car, at least the hike back is downhill all the way. I ran the car's seat heater the whole drive home to help the muscles recover! JW has a few years of age over me, but he is certainly fitter. It's a really cool place to go though, with great views of the surrounding mountains, unfortunately I can't put up scenery photos for fear of revealing the location to prying eyes, as you can work out the basic location by using the bigger mountains to get an idea of where I was. There has been a bit of mining in the area, and reworked in the depression years, but the earlier mining was done with a lot of work and water monitors (canons) blasting water at the hillsides to recover the gold. The Chinese hit it pretty hard too, staying longer than the other miners going over it again. It's interesting how they get somewhere, then just stop. The soils an interesting colour, almost white. Quite the drop off here down to the ground below, but oddly at least I think you'd be crazy not not to detect these high areas, as gold often pops up in the most unusual of places. My first bit of gold for the day was a bit of a surprise to me, it was a fairly faint signal, yet it was very shallow, I thought it is more likely a pellet although this area barely has any pellets at all, in fact it barely has any targets, if you get a target the chances are high its gold, aside from the occasional old bit of miner's junk like cans and a few nails most targets are gold so it's certainly a dig it all location. I took a little video of the target, so weak of a signal for the size of the gold I thought, although I'm more used to using the 10x5" Coiltek which is more sensitive but still, I was pretty disappointed. This is the little scrape of a hole it came from. The piece of gold. And its weight, quite a reasonable size piece for me, anything over .1 is pretty decent size for me πŸ˜› I was so taken back by how weak the signal on it was I tested it this morning with the Algoforce to see how well it would do, even though it has the larger 10" round coil on it, I thought the Algoforce gave a better signal response on this particular piece. It's a bit of rough looking piece. The other interesting thing is it was right next to someone's previous dig hole, probably JW or I, we were likely using older technology at the time, as I'd only been here with my 4500 which no doubt would miss this piece of gold. It's very unlikely this person didn't go over the nugget and they missed it. The joys of newer technology. Next piece was in the path you walk on to hike to this area, there are tracks all over the place, mostly from old miners I guess however now they're hiking trails and go all through the area, you can even walk from one of my favourite ski fields to this area on tracks. This is it's dig hole, another very shallow target, an OK signal. This is the little guy Smaller than the last bit, but a much better signal. Just ignore the shaft twist in this photo, it's a feature of the 6000 πŸ™‚ After that I was walking along detecting the path, but no other gold to be found in that particular area, I did find old boot tacks though which is pretty cool, one spot had a bunch of them in one hole so I gave up recovering them, that miners boots must have fallen apart at that spot πŸ™‚ The gold spot is the dig hole just above the pick in this photo. Here is a little video of it, I haven't watched the videos back yet but it likely shows this one had a better target signal than the previous bigger bit I found. It was pretty easy to film gold finds here as there is so little junk about, so filming bits of digs is worthwhile knowing they're likely gold. Next piece was on top of a little ridge It was my biggest bit of the day, had trouble carrying it for the hike back to the car. Deepest of the holes too. A smooth bit. This is its spot. And a little video of it, the second target next to it was one of 2 pellets I found all day. That was my last bit for the day, the day felt like it went really quick though, we finished up detecting about 7pm, but both of us didn't realize the time and thought it was about 5pm I guess. A benefit or a negative depending on how you look at it coming from the GPZ and GPX 5000 is the 6000 can have the pick so close to the coil it's not funny, it always surprises me how close the pick can go, even when you lay it down recovering targets so while using it I have a belt attached pick holder and in this location I am glad I did, as sometimes its half an hour between targets so nice to holster your pick. The super strong magnet I've got in my pick handle makes life easy too, if I'm using it more regularly, I can just attach it to my pick holder using the magnet to save the effort. It stays there when walking around as long as the pick doesn't bottom out on the ground. So other notable things from the day, this piece of quartz was so weird, it doesn't show up as well in the photo but its flat smoothed off and much like a tile or bench top, and really glossy, so weird. You can see the shine on that one side, but the entire flat surface of it is like that, and its smooth and flat although the photo doesn't show that well. It's like someone's cut it smooth and painted it with polyurethane. And my junk for the day, there was also a nail which I left behind and you can see why I say it's a dig it all location. I'm used to digging hundreds of pellets on the farm land locations, this spot, 2 πŸ™‚ Both big pellets too. And last but not least, some old miners' tins I found, I left them where they were, a bit of history. I think this tin can was never opened. This one looked like a giant sardine tin. I think I'll get a bit fitter so the hike and day of swinging a detector around going up and over hills and mounds of soils doesn't wear me down so much and go back to this spot more often, I do really like going there, it just takes it out of me. It's very difficult to E-Bike there too as much of the path is on a cliff side with a big drop and very skinny path no more than 40cm wide in many spots, I've done it before but ended up walking the bike much of the way as I wasn't crazy enough to ride it through the steep drop off areas. Today I'm completely jelly legs and walking is a challenge πŸ™‚ JW doubled my gold count, he came away with 6 pieces, pretty small ones too, he was using the GPX 6000 and 10x5" Coiltek coil, a better choice of coil for the day, I think. I only had the NF coil on as it was left on there from a previous time. It was good to take the 6000 out though, leave it much longer and the old motor may seize from lack of use.
  16. I rounded off the small change on all the numbers πŸ™‚ Batteries can be had for as little as $30 so that's insignificant too and you can use it for other purposes outside of detecting like charging your phone so it's' a multipurpose investment, not specific to the detector, and in my case at least I didn't need to buy coils, although adding a coil like the Sadie on isn't going to break the bank and I couldn't resist buying one for the Algo, I just hope Sadie supply can keep up with demand for those wanting one as it's a pretty good coil on it, although the spirals are more sensitive and I'd only use the Sadie for the size. Not sure how that translates to people in bad ground, they may prefer the less sensitive Sadie over a Spiral? It's within the price range it can be purchased for a bit of fun, VLF pricing really. I bought one for that reason, it's not like I needed it although the more I use it the more I see its potential for purposes outside of gold prospecting. I also think of the 7000 as the everyday machine (Not that I use it every day, or even close) and the 6000 the take out when I feel like it or need the lighter machine, I just yesterday took the 6000 as it shrinks down small for a backpack hike, I'm sitting here now with jelly legs and can barely walk from the big mountain hike yesterday, picked 3 little bits with the 6000 and 12x7" NF though so for me at least that's some success.
  17. The 10x5" is my favourite coil on the GPX 6000 as I do tend to find mostly smaller gold although perhaps if I stuck with the 11" I may find more deeper bigger stuff πŸ˜› It's followed by the stock 11", the 11" disadvantage is it's a bit more of a noisy coil but deeper than the 10x5", 12x9, and 14x9" as the gold increases in size. The 10x5" is more sensitive than the 12x7", a noticeable amount too, the 14x9" of course is less sensitive than both being larger. It's all relative to size, no big surprises. The 14x9" is deeper than the smaller coils as you would expect. The biggest surprise is how good the 11" is on tiny gold for the size of it, they really did a good job of the stock 11" coil in that regard. As someone that's used a bucket load of coils you can get a pretty good feel how a coil will be before even getting it. Coiltek seem remarkably good at making 10x5" coils, for the GPX and Equinox they've made really good 10x5" coils.
  18. I have a dark green scoop and if I lose it it's very hard to find, my friend has a fluro orange one, he's not losing it in a hurry, in fact I can use his scoop sticking out of his pocket as a way of seeing where he is off in the distance if I need to find him. The bright orange really stands out in the green and brown landscape. As for detectors hitting the wall, VLF's have, especially for prospecting, the Gold Bug 2 still excels over anything else on tiny gold but even that is a very small edge, nothing much is different between models, you could take one from any brand out with similar specs and do just as well. If PI's were not all patented up by Minelab it would be the same with PI's. For any company to do as well as Minelab with a PI they've had to do it by working around patents coming up with new ideas, different ways, quite the achievement. I'd love to see new good detectors, but I don't think performance is going to be where the changes are, much like VLF's the improvements are going to be in features and build designs, The 6000 didn't really bring anything new, the sensitivity it has the GPZ already had, but was just locked out with coils. An SDC with larger gold timings opened up, I'm betting they could tweak the GPZ more for a little bit more small gold performance too, being an old design now and their first release. Surely, they didn't get everything right the first time. PI's on the other hand, old technology tweaked and modified over decades to the point it's done. Discrimination could likely be improved over blacking, and incorporating Target ID's like the Algoforce has done would be great, a combination of the GPX 5000 blanking with the Algoforce Target ID would be the next step towards that. I wish the Algoforce had the iron discrimination / DD coil support as that would really change the game for coin and jewellery hunting, a combination of it's Target ID's which are excellent along with the DD coil iron blanking although I'd prefer iron grunting audio with an option to blank.
  19. I don't know why anyone is expecting a $2000 detector to do better than a $9000 and $10,000 detector and pull stuff out of flogged patches with them. It might find the odd bit but it's not going to be a game changer in that scenario. The Target ID may help in the trashier areas to come out with something too. The idea I think behind the E1500 is to bring a very cheap detector to market for people that don't want to pay the high pricing of those detectors yet still have a rather large percentage of the performance of them on the bread-and-butter smaller gold most people are finding. If your idea of buying it is because you want it to do better than your GPZ or GPX 6000, you're wasting your money. They're already beyond the first batch too, I've got a second one being shipped to me at the moment from another batch for a friend that lives in a country they can't ship too, he's picking it up in NZ on his holiday here in a few weeks. I think it's a fantastic detector and has great coin, jewellery and beach appeal which I can't say that about the 6000 or 7000, so it offers something there too, but it's not going to destroy the 7000 or 6000 on old patches, although if the 7000's using the stock coil or NF 12" I'd give the E1500 the edge on some smaller gold.
  20. Well I'm an Australian citizen but don't live in Australia, I wonder how they could police that.
  21. It's actually an interesting development, You don't redeem the coil from Coiltek, you pay Minelab for your detector, you go to the Minelab website and redeem your coil and they arrange the coil to be shipped to you. A partnership between Minelab and Coiltek. Could this be the future, maybe the debacle of the 6000 coils has inspired them to look more towards local production of coils again, and perhaps, seeing Coiltek makes great coils and has the equipment already they would make a perfect partner for the job. I don't know the failure rate of GPX 6000 coils, but many people have had at least one fail, many have had two or three. The thing that will have slowed down their failures is the fact many have moved onto the aftermarket brands and use the Minelab coils far less, if at all. If on future detectors Coiltek handles production of the coils rather than Malaysia Coil Manufacturing Company Kuala Lumpur Limited, this would be a good thing. No more coil ears problems, higher build quality, and good reliable coils.
  22. This GPX-Pro is sounding somewhat appealing, maybe they do have another opportunity to release a prospecting machine yet even if technological advancements are very limited.
  23. yep, the 24k comes with rechargeable batteries and a charger.
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