dig4gold

My first ounce with the 6000 here in New Zealand was 31.16 grams in 305 pieces. That reflects our small kiwi gold. Just over .1 of a gram average. That's lots of digging & that's not counting the rubbish digs. By far most of it was with the 11" & a few with the 14". I don't have the 17" as there are not many places I could swing it where I detect. Same really with the 14" as I haven't used that coil much but where I have I got a few bits. Have been using the 6000 for over 6 months & have had no issues except for the shaft twist. I like it. D4G

To get the chip & from what I have been reading all along since X coils became a thing, you can still use the coil that the chip came from by putting a connector back on to the cable so the chip is still there via the adapter. If you have access to X coils then you have the ability to still use the minelab coils as well as the X coils. Best of both worlds. What is so hard to understand about that? As we have seen there are issues so it isn't for every body. But it is a choice if you so choose. D4G

This is all just fiction..... right? D4G

Although this has a bitter sweet ending there is some good stuff in this from Bill. Always is in his videos. He tells it & shows it how it is out in the field. For those of you that struggle with the ratty threshold with the 11" mono he covers this & I thought he had his detector running pretty damn nice. D4G

But... have you even tried the 14" DD? You will never know if you have never tried it. It is what it is there for & you have paid for it as part of your 6000 kit. The 14" will go deeper than a smaller coil & you may surprise yourself with its ability. Why are you so reluctant to use it? D4G

Have you tried the 14" DD in your EMI areas? Instead of pushing the mono continually to try to get it to a point where you don't appear you will ever be happy with it because of EMI. That is what the DD is for. I think you have more than proved to yourself, & us, that the 11" mono isn't happy in the environment you continue to keep tying it. D4G

I may have missed something here, but if gold is Au$84.85 a gram, as it was/is today, multiply that by 40 grams = Au$3394.00 Apparently a GPX 6000 is around Au$8000.00 How do you work out it owes you only 40 grams? D4G

Maybe the chicks on the beach in their bikinis are the game & the detecting is just an excuse for getting among them. Do you wear dark glasses? 😂 D4G

Personally I don't think it needs a booster. Audio is plenty loud enough. D4G

Could always become a vegetarian.

Tossing your scoop discards willy nilly into the never never is a bad practice. I have always just placed mine in a careful pile beside the dig/scrape, so if what happens as is being discussed here one can go back to the "waste" pile for reevaluation if they have inadvertently "chucked" out the item that was the cause of the signal.

That's not good enough when the 6000 is already an expensive detector here in New Zealand. NZ$9k At least the warranty still stands for those getting problems from their coils. Mine still seem ok 6 months down the track. D4G

Todd Hoffman did not have a good track record on the gold. But he has a good singing voice. Check out his stuff on You Tube. That is where his gold is.

Thank JP for your reply. Since the GPX 5000 is a long way down the track from the earlier SD, GP & GPX models & these model coils also suffered from becoming noisy & touch sensitive over time, & I guess the reason is from what you have just described. Wouldn't you think Minelab would have improved & eliminated this problem internally in the coils as they became aware of it? Are the 6000 coils potentially going to suffer the same fait? Thanks. D4G

Yes, the kero tin was square. I thought "your" pic of that bucket looked square as well. Although a bit beaten up. D4G

Hi JP, How do the internals, like the shielding & windings, of a coil wear when they are not exposed or come in to contact with anything due to being inside the coil housing that takes the abuse on the outside? Hence skid plates being replaceable as they wear out. Thanks D4G

I use my wife's elastic hair ties. The type with the little plastic ball on them. Just a matter of looping it around the cable & shaft & the ball locks it in place. Works a treat. I thought the lasso of the velcro on to the shaft first, then looping around the cable & shaft was obvious. Mine lost there velcro attaching ability after many coil swaps so gave up on them in favoure of the hair ties. They never let me down.

When I was a young feller my father, who was a very keen gardener, would spray his roses & fruit trees using a 4 gallon kerosene tin with the top cut out & the top lip folded over to hold the spray mix. I got the job of pumping the sprayer while he squirted what ever was being sprayed. The tin bucket looked just like that one but in much better condition. Complete with number 8 fencing wire carry handle. I am really enjoying the journal. Thanks for the effort in putting it up. Appreciated. D4G

I subbed to GG&T for years. Have a huge pile of them but stopped getting it a few years back. It became more advertising than articles. Adds are where the money is. Look at online stuff, like YouTube.

I wonder how a coil of that size will feel on the 6000 shaft, strength wise & the shaft twist issue?

MMmmm.... Todd Hoffman springs to mind. LOL. I wouldn't call Dave Turin a mining legend.

The 6000 isn't heavy.

Nothing wrong with a one gram bit of gold.

It is a shame that ML didn't make an 11" DD & a 14" mono for the 6000 & also a smaller elliptical coil like a 12 x 7 or a 10 x 5. The 6000 does find crazy small gold but smaller coils would allow for detecting those tight to get into spots that "we" know there will be gold. But this is getting away from the content of this thread which is about Africa. Greg.

If you suspect there is a gold bearing reef present then the loaming method is your way of finding it. Good luck. Greg