phrunt

Meanwhile in New Zealand 🙂

Only problem is the queues are big with it being school holidays.

There is gold in those gullies.

That should cool you all down a bit 🙂

It's quite funny how the Kookaburra starts laughing when the 6000 doesn't pickup the 21 gram at 300mm at the 22 minute mark 🙂 Well timed,  I miss Kookaburras, such cool birds.  In saying that the 6000 is using a smaller coil so it's expected it wouldn't compete for outright depth.

I would struggle with the noise on the 6000, I was quite happy to get away from the noise of my older GPX 4500, I really like the smoother threshold of the GPZ, especially with the Concentric coils on it.  

I think the guy did a decent video, sure you can pick it apart for faults but he gives a general idea.  I really like the idea of the super sensitivity of the GPX 6000 on small gold, It will be interesting to see what X-coils can come up with next for the 7000 🙂

The nuggets are on the range on the other side of the valley, no nuggets on that side unfortunately!

5 hours ago, afreakofnature said:

Me too I am curious as well.  What I am wondering though is if so many 6ks and coils went to Africa how come no reviews or comparisons done from them.  I mean they were sure quick to get out intro vids before the release date.

Also why no 6k vs Z in-depth comparison reviews?  Even folks who wanted to see this and now have a 6k to do this have gone silent.  I am looking at you you Rob 😊

This guy has done one, while not perfect and it was his first video he did an OK comparison I think.  There are a few flaws in his methods I guess but it gives some basic information.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BGVbwBFips

I went back today, she wasn't there, I guess she's given up.  I'll see how I go in late spring when the snows melted a bit and not so deep and try find whatever it was.  It's snowing tonight so whatever it was will be even deeper by tomorrow.

This is the lift it's under, unfortunately it's a long way to the base so I'm going to have a fair hike in summer to get to the spot.

I ski a fair few times a week over the ski season, and often in summer I go to the ski fields and detect under the lifts, it's been quite good for finds, more phones than you can imagine as they just fall out of pockets and instantly sink out of sight.  The snow under lifts is usually not groomed and soft and fluffy, if someone drops something it's instantly gone.

Today much to my surprise only about 10 minutes after the ski field opened I saw a girl under the lift trying to use a metal detector she'd obviously borrowed off someone to try find something she dropped.  I have no idea what detector it is but it didn't sound too great.  No display screen, like an old Minelab musketeer or something I have no idea.  The coil might be a giveaway to someone as to what it is.  She left her helmet and goggles on all day, probably to hide her face as she was embarrassed by it all.

Every time I went on that particular lift she was still there, and she was digging a massive hole.  I felt quite bad as whatever she dropped was likely yesterday and it wouldn't be too far down, I doubt out of the reach of a Equinox with a bigger coil, I've detected on snow quite a lot and the Equinox is amazing the depth it can get through snow, basically air test depth.  

It's going to take a long time to back fill that hole 🙂

What to me it appeared she did wrong was she started digging in the area she thought she'd lost whatever it was, rather than walking around on the surface using the detector, she was then trying to use the detector in the hole she was digging.  Disturbing the snow probably wasn't a good idea and in my opinion she'd be better off detecting the area before digging as what if she had whatever it was in the shovel and threw it away.   I was tempted to go and give her some advice and help but I didn't want to intrude and act the know it all, especially as I had no idea about the detector she was using. 

Unfortunately she was there all day, digging like mad, I often saw her fall over, she was on quite a slope.  I'm not sure I did the right thing by not offering to help, but after I went in for lunch and next rode the lift a bunch of people were down there helping her.  I was going to go talk to her towards the end of the day and see what went on and if she didn't find it I was going to offer to go there in spring once the snow melts and recover whatever it was for her, but I went back just before the ski field closed and it appeared she'd finally given up and left. 

A guy was trying to use the detector for her at this stage.

If she's there tomorrow trying again I will offer her some help, I'll throw the Nox and CTX with big coils into the car just in case.  Otherwise I'll just find whatever it is in summer and let the ski field know I found it so if she speaks to lost and found they'll be able to give it back to her.  I suspect a ring, perhaps one with some family importance as I can't see a phone or some coins being enough motivation to spend a day trying to find it.

What would you do in this situation?  I know I'll find whatever it is she lost in late spring or summer if she doesn't find it before then, but I'll struggle to find a way to contact her and that's my fault for not going to talk to her at the time.

1 minute ago, Sheppo said:

Got to make sure those pins stay in place too, mine have already tried to come out a couple of times and my detector is only about 7 mths old, and is used less than most.

That's very unusual, I found the pin very hard to get out, I ended up using a small phillips screw driver and tapping it with a hammer to get it to slide out.  To get it back in I also tapped them with a hammer as there was no way I was going to be pushing it back in with my fingers.  I wonder if your pin is slightly smaller than it should be.

eucalyptus oil is great for getting rid of tape residues, I don't know if you can get it in the US, but it's easy to come by in this part of the world being smack next to Australia where they're every second tree.

3 hours ago, Mike C... said:

Is there a chip in the new 6000 coils ? 

yes 😞

I used my Equinox a lot in longer grass, and also in very rocky areas.  The spoked design coils are never my preference but that's all the Equinox has.  I couldn't believe it when the Coiltek 10x5" came out as an open design and I asked if they intended to make a solid coil cover for it, they told me no they don't.  It would be very funny if Nugget Finder started making solid skid plates for the Coiltek Nox coils, In fact I hope they do.

I noticed they have them for the Equinox 11" coil, so I just had to have one.  I hope they continue this trend and make them for 6" coil too. 

Seems well built, fits well... is solid, what more could I ask for?

Now I just hope they make more sizes for the other coils, especially the Coiltek 10x5" and ML 6".

I just use 3M PVC electrical tape, Geof's idea seems good though.

Northeast, you have a SP01 correct? Seeing you're hunting in Manual 1 at times and the target signal is significantly less volume but still very apparent does using the SP01 with it cranked up high help with that?

All these reports of EMI issues are quite scary for me and there are a number of people talking about it, as we have high voltage lines through a lot of my gold hunting spots and the reason I didn't overly enjoy using my earlier model GPX and often felt like wrapping it around a pole and tried many things to resolve it even those funky EMI reducing metal covers you can buy for the GPX that claim to help with EMI along with the Coiltek AI coiil and was seeking out an alternative in the QED for a machine that handled EMI better and ended up settling on the GPZ which works excellent in the power line areas especially with the concentric coil.     One of my favourite gold spots is right near an international airport and the planes are coming into land near it 🙂 The GPZ isn't overly bothered by that either and I just had to keep away from the area with my GPX, or dumb it down so much I never found anything, since getting the GPZ it's become my most productive area.  We are such a small country a lot of the gold areas aren't remote, often you can see houses while detecting 😉

I wish you could hire machines here, I'd only need one for a day or two to work out how well it'd do here. Oddly Kennard's hire which I recall was in Australia too hire out CTX 3030's but no other models.

There are rumours of a couple of 6000's in NZ now but nobody I know of has one so there is just no information yet how well they go here just yet so I am trying to decipher and translate information from other countries 🙂

Thanks for your reporting Lunk, it seems a very good detector. 

I have no doubts the 6000 is a great detector, my post was more of a joke 🙂 

that's a monster ring! and to get two rings! well done.

Based on the equipment I already own which I am completely happy with I'd spend $1 on a Lego metal detector to keep with the theme of the question and spend $7999 on buying gold nuggets 🙂  That'd be more nuggets than any possible benefits of spending the money on another metal detector would ever find me in my life time!

Yes, I am a member and it works fine for me.  It's still active.

Wow I was lucky to score a TRX from the USA after Whites closed for $100.  Happy I bought it, but I doubt I'll use it, I don't overly like it, I now have two of them 🙂

The automatic button thing was a bit of a joke 🙂

It's good to hear it can detect near power lines quiet well, especially while sticking with the Mono coil. 

If it was the built in speaker in the video it sure pumps out the volume, sounded really loud, pretty impressive, a lot like the Gold Monster speaker I guess, that thing roars.

You're famous 🙂

Looks a very nice detector.  One of the better looking modern designs.  The carbon rod looks great on it too.

I really hope you'll be writing up a story and taking many photos of your trip, I'd enjoy reading about it,

Have a good journey! A few coloured rocks in your pocket on the way home would be a big bonus and hopefully you get many but the trip will be the real gold this time.  Enjoy.

The guy using the 6000 needed one of these set to 3 minutes for his auto tune button, an auto auto tune 😉  It got quite bad on the second target, I didn't continue watching after that.   The speaker volume was much louder on the GPX than the WM12 was so it made it difficult.  I wonder if the GPX was using the external speaker causing the EMI issues on that second target.

The 6000 seems good on small targets.

I change coils more than most, in fact I've changed coils 10 times in a day when testing out various coils on bits of gold, by doing this I'd caused myself some lower shaft wobble, it turns out I'd cracked part of a clip on the shaft, the clip with the little rubber pad had a crack in it, so the shaft wasn't holding on tight.  I suspect the people that had upper shaft issues where it wobbles a bit have either got the same crack on the pressure pad or they've just worn the little bit of rubber out.  Fortunately it's a very easy and cheap fix.

Here are the part numbers for the clip mechanism

X2 8008-0056 Pressure blocks
X1 8008-0072 Camlock lever
X1 4308-0033 Pin

The part I'd broken was the pressure blocks.  They come in a twin pack for replacement and are very easy to replace.

You dismantle the clip by removing the pin, I used a small screw driver to push it out of the clip.  You then just use a small flat head screw driver to lever them off, pushing each side of the pressure block away from the camlock lever as pictured below.

This is the shaft with the clip removed.  You can see the grooves cut out of it where the pressure pads need to slide into so when reassembling made sure they're straight so they fit into the groove.

You can see the little circular lump on the left hand side pressure pad, it's what goes into that dug out groove.

This is how the rubber pads look, I guess they can wear out over time and if they do your shaft would be wobbly.

Minelab sell all the parts individually, so you can just order what you need for the repair.  They were very helpful with me, and had me solved by the next day using express shipping.  I bought a heap of the little parts so I have spares seeing I change coils so often.

In my case I just needed the pressure blocks, the pin and camlock lever were obviously fine.

So if anyone's putting up with some shaft wobble, it's cheap and simple to fix.

NZ tourist shops sell canned air to the tourists for as high as $143 a can.  They buy it too, a lot of it! now that Covid is around they're probably paying a lot more for some fresh air 😛

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/world/87066936/fresh-nz-ar-selling-cheap-in-china-at-44-a-bottle

https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/canned-nz-air-hit-china

Would you believe it was a hot selling thing? forgot chocolate bars, kiwi fruit, wines, stuffed toy kiwi's and other things, the tourists wanted the canned air 🙂