Chris Ben

Wow! Solid haul!!! Congratulations

Yeah Dave it was a great half day. Well worth the drive. You should post a closeup of that big nugget. It has lots of character!!! Chris

Hopefully this is a better picture.

A plastic scoop, and pick.

Detected (gpz) this with my buddy Dave and couple of weeks back. It's tiny I know but looks possible. I tried to get some good macro shots. Chris

I was thinking about making the drive to Gold basin based on Jen's recent finds! Her skill behind the detector got me fired up. Instead I opted to stay in Nevada and headed to a closer spot. I decided to try a spot in usually drive by on my way to usually spot. I had check out a couple of times with my ATX, but there was an absence of bedrock, and what there was was mostly calichi. First signal in an area with no trash was a nice 1+ grammer up on a bench. Worked my way up a small drainage and got another both at good depth. I moved over to a bigger wash and worked up most of the wash for nothing then got a faint signal under the edge of a rock. Kept digging and the signal got louder and louder. Finally this plopped out of my scoop. .62g biggest nugget yet. I picked up a couple of smaller nuggets before I headed back to the truck to have lunch. After lunch I decided to head to some drainages coming off a ridge. Worked my way up one till I got a faint signal. Again it kept getting louder and louder. Finally getting it into my scoop! This specimen was exactly 3/4 of an Oz. I cannot believe what the GPZ is capable of. Total for the day. I'm 2/3 of the way to pay off my GPZ in the 2 months I've owned it! Now I have to break that 1oz barrier. Chris

My favorite "pick" is a modified potato rake used with a traditional pick. It works really good for the initial scrape after a signal. Easy to pull the rocks out of the way. Then when I get to hard pack I use the pick then rake out. I'm sure most people are comfortable using just a pick, but it works for me.

Nice nugget! I would detect for copper nuggets if I new where to go. I know south of me into Arizona some guys find then quite regularly. Chris

JW, I have a buddy in Rockhampton Queensland. I want to visit and he 'forced' me to watch Wolf Creek lol. I'm not a fan of scary movies. Good luck in the hills. Anyone named 'Madtuna' can't be a bad guy lol

Thanks Dave. I thinks it's the same camera as yours. The one on my phone Galaxy S6 lol Chris

For the Aussie guys, I would definitely bring a friend, especially if detecting near "Wolf Creek" lol just not safe Chris

Went out with a buddy Saturday and tried a couple of new areas. Full of trash. Got tired of digging trash with no gold see we decided to move on to another area that had been extensively drywashed in hopes of picking up a few scraps. Still a bunch of trash but I picked up the specie on a bench on bedrock under about 10 in of silt. Nice solid signal on the GPZ Same nugget, different angle. 3.3 grams Also found a half gram solid piece. Chris

Thank you everyone for your replies. I feel like my detecting IQ went up substantially. Can't wait to get out tomorrow and try a few things. Chris

Hi Steve, as a warning, when I clicked on link my phone kept flashing what I think is a "fake" virus warning. Fake Google page. It tried to get me to click on another link to fix. I just rebooted my phone instead. Not sure if it was something that only happened to me. Chris

Hello everyone, I am a relative new owner of a GPZ, also my first minelab product. So I don't have much experience with all the different settings. I have been doing really well in the last 6 weeks, but I get the feeling I may not be fully utilizing the capability of the GPZ. I have read the posts on the "insanely hot settings" and a couple on the "low sensitivity" settings. I have a few questions. Do you have settings you like, and stick with? Are you constantly changing setting during a hunt? Are there specific situations where you adjust settings? Any surprises when experimenting with settings? I am in southern Nevada, the ground is relatively mild. Most of the gold is sub gram to 3 or 4g, with the occasional 10 grammer. I usually run relatively hot up to max sensitivity, I do get lots of warble. I understand the GPZ is relatively noisy (much noisier than my ATX) Is it beneficial to find the smoothest threshold possible? Thank you Chris Excited to learn what I can.

Nice! I've been thinking about doing something similar . A member mentioned he checks all his GPZ holes with I think a gold bug, and picks up some extra scraps. Chris

Why would one need to use a harness? Those coils aren't that heavy? lol jk Chris

Lol being in the desert I always find rough chunky gold. Would love to find some of that water worn stuff. Attractive looking Gold. Chris

Great topic, lol I was going to post one about "the one that almost got away" same idea. It was Aug in southern Nevada HOT! and I was out exploring new washes. Went out farther than I should have, and just ran out of water. Told myself I would hit this last wash then beeline back to the truck. I was breaking every rule, walking to fast, not overlapping coil paths, coil to high off of the ground, and not working full width of wash. Really I was just in a hurry to get back. Well, I heard a little whisper with my ATX, and my first instinct was ground noise, and I kept walking. I got 3 or four steps away when I decided to go back. When I put the coil down, it was a solid signal. It actually was my first signal for the day, so I figured bullet. Dug down 10 inches and saw a little glimmer of gold in a crack in the bedrock. Tried to pick it up and wouldn't budge. After prying, out pops a 10.8 gram slug. Many lessons learned

Hi JW, I previously ran an ATX and still use a GMT. Really amazed at the GPZ. Chris

My mission to pay off my GPZ is off to a good start. Saturday was out for a few hours and picked up 8.2 g. Then today made it out, and got 10.6 g big one was 4.2 g. I was amazed at the depth of the 3 gram nugget. Just been hitting old patches mostly, with a couple of stray nuggets here and there. cheers. Chris

It's worth a shot, and most of the desert washes I find nuggets in will have fines, and will probably be worth drywashing. With that being said I have found washes with nuggets and almost no fines. So you never know Chris

Great looking gold!

I have had the problem of the falsing. It gets irritating. Not sure about the new coils. Did find gold with my ATX though. Chris

Randy, I can't wait to get back out myself.!