dig4gold

Respect to that GhostMiner. That is the honest truth right there. Dreams sink many a boat.

Have a good Xmas

D4G

Why not just get the longer shaft & cut it down until you are happy with the length. You can then just glue a sleeve at the point you cut it to hold it together. Problem solved & you have a custom fit.

Personally I prefer the Minelab Pro swing harness. I don't like the hip stick. It amuses me when people go on about being trunked up like a Christmas turkey when they wear the harness. It is a tool to do a job or multiple jobs & supposedly make things easier & more convenient & comfortable. Works well for me. The Pro Swing developed from the early days of the ML PI detectors with the lead acid battery in the pouch in the small of your back & then the bungy taking weight off the detector by clipping to the "D" eyelet up by the shoulder strap. That had its own issues. The Pro Swing then incorporated the "hip stick" into the harness to direct the weight to your hip. I have just got so use to wearing the harness from those early days that it is just like putting on another bit of clothing & I don't even notice it. Also good for clipping external speakers & signal boosters too. The waist strap is handy to for slipping your pick into. I can't see the issue people have with it. But we are all different. Bit like people not liking to wear head phones. Head phones save battery life in a days detecting & not to mention better to hear the signals on a windy day plus keep you ears warmer on cold days.

D4G

On 12/5/2023 at 1:39 PM, Redz said:

Get a piece of AR 600 or a boron harrow disc and make your own.

Not all people are equipped or have the ability to do that. Guess that is why we go buy stuff from shops.

D4G 

Be interesting to see how these price rises pan out for Minelab with gold getting harder to find by the day & gold found getting smaller & way smaller in weight.

D4G

10 hours ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Well, to cut to the chase they are charging a solid $1000 more for a GPX 6000. The price increase is more than most metal detectors sell for. They can’t squeeze a profit out of $7999, one of the highest prices ever charged for a consumer metal detector? It costs $1000 more to ship them? The chips cost $1000 more? Labor costs in Malaysia went up an aggregate $1000 more per machine in Malaysia? Just call me one of the doubters for any anyone trying to rationalize a price increase like that as anything other than a money grab, gouging gold prospectors to subsidize the sale of machines like the X-Terra Pro and X-Terra Voyager at extra low prices.

Yes, mining the miners. Or maybe they are recouping costs of all the failed coils replaced under warranty & the EMI issue & possibly shaft cam locks. The 6000 certainly had its issues. With its release back in April 2021 there are still 4 months of warranty to go on the first release models & likely many more months/years on later purchases.

D4G 

18 hours ago, phrunt said:

Well, it works, but would you be as happy with it if you paid the new pricing and it only came with one coil for that price?

That depends if I knew about the old price was & what I got for that price compared to what this new price & offering is going to be. Ignorance is bliss. If you didn't know, then you didn't know. Most things go up in price as time & inflation move forward. Probably costing Minelab more to make, market & release their detectors these days. Bit like going to the super market & knowing it costs you more almost every time you go there. But you still buy, or don't & go hungry.

As to the Nox 800 compared to the GM, it really was a bang for the buck detector. Still is but you have to buy the 6" coil as an extra. Even with the standard 11" coil it still hit pretty small gold. With the release of the 900 I don't suppose they are still making the 800 but just selling off what they have left in stock.

D4G   

I agree. The GPX 6000 should never have been called a GPX. No similarities at all to the earlier run of GPX's. Minelab certainly have their weird moments.

D4G

6 hours ago, PhaseTech said:

Don't know about overseas markets, but here in Oz, nearly everyone I know uses the 5" coil exclusively.

I prefer the 5" as well here in New Zealand. Nothing to do with mineralised ground but just a nice sensitive small coil for tight areas. Haven't used the 10x5 since trying it a few times but favoring the 5". An extra battery I would gladly swap out for the 10x5 coil knowing now that I will never be using the 10x5.

D4G

I like your Gold Story. Thanks for sharing.

D4G

7 hours ago, phrunt said:

if sticking with Minelab just get an Equinox 800 and 6" or 10x5" Coiltek and have the superior detector than the GM, its days are numbered and needs discontinued and replaced with a multi freaker to catch up to the general purpose detectors for prospecting needs not price hikes.

I have a Nox 800 with 6" coil & the 10x5 coiltek. I still really like my GM 1000 with 5" coil.

D4G

8 hours ago, schoolofhardNox said:

The 6000 for me is uninteresting, no matter who makes a new coil for it 😄. I now use it to prop up all my other detectors. Makes a great book end🤔

That makes for an expensive book end. What is at the other end, A GPZ 7000? That's an even more expensive book end.

As much as you poke fun at the 6000 & its short falls. It does well at finding gold.

D4G

Maybe they are hoping for a buying spree before the price increases take hold. Wouldn't then be surprised if they back peddle on said price hike, or make it quite a bit less than stated. Seems to me like suicide as gold is getting harder to find day by day & getting a lot smaller when found. So needing to find a lot more to get some weight in your poke. Pretty sure we have had the best of detecting for gold. Down hill from now on, has been for a while. Sad but true.

D4G

On 11/29/2023 at 8:31 AM, phrunt said:

On 11/29/2023 at 8:30 AM, Luis said:

What would be the price Simon?

They haven't worked that out yet.

Hi Phrunt. If they haven't worked out the pricing  yet how have you managed to be getting one sent to you. Are you being given it, & if so, why?

D4G

Hi Phrunt. Don't you have a 15"CC X coil for your GPZ 7000. Have you not tried that at this spot you speak of? From what I have read I would think the 7000 with 15"CC would be better than a 15"CC on the 5000. The bonus of this coil for the GPX's is that no adapter is required. Plug & play.

D4G

I think you will find that most gold detectorists finds have changed over the years. Especially in over all weight. May be finding more individual pieces but way smaller. That equals more work & effort for less reward money wise. Not to mention the cost of new high end gold detectors & accessories.

D4G

On 11/25/2023 at 9:34 AM, Jonathan Porter said:

For max depth with  the 6000 you need to run Max manual sensitivity, that is by far the best detecting scenario IF conditions will allow. This is why I like the new Nugget Finder 12x7 Xceed coils, they were designed from the ground up to work in hot variable soils so run very quiet allowing max manual sensitivity. Max manual sensitivity opens up the sensitivity filter to provide max edge of detection response, once again assuming the conditions will allow it. The NF coils have a natural mellowness to them which then flows through to the end user especially in hot ground. The main aim being opening up the sensitivity “Filter” (*for want of a better term) to get max information through to the end user.

In super quiet soils the ground balance has nothing to work against so target sensitivity can actually suffer, suggest operators carry around a mild hot rock and ground balance to that occasionally and see how things go. One of the reasons why I don’t like a full auto GB and prefer to have the ability to FIX the GB. Put the hot rock on a string and throw it down every so often, sweep over it holding the Quik-Trak button in to help keep the GB centred and averaged, give it a try you might get a pleasant surprise.

Hi JP. Long time between drinks. Thought you must have fallen off the planet. Why so long a time for your wise words of wisdom that are always appreciated?

What you said about the 12x7 above. Probably why I prefer the ML 11" in our very mild New Zealand soil conditions. Only using the 12x7 where I can't get the 11" into. I also find the edge sensitivity on the 11" better than on the 12x7. Having you explain the 12x7 being designed from the ground up, was there a pun intended there?, to work in hot variable soils etc. Now makes sense to me & why I found the 11" better in my ground conditions. I like how you make a point about ground conditions, IF conditions allow, & In super quiet soils.... In the past this seemed to go unknown by many as I saw many people reply to posts done by some who ran there detectors in full max gain & hot settings that people were basically calling them liars, & that just isn't possible. It all came down to very mild ground compared to hot mineralised ground.

A mild hot rock on a string.... Thank you for that tip, I will give that a go. Would a ferrite ring do the same? Thanks & welcome back.

D4G 

26 minutes ago, phrunt said:

Now we just need reliable discrimination, that won't be a hair of an improvement like we often see, that will be a game changer for many.

Discrimination just means you leave signals in the ground undug believing it is non gold. The only way you are going to know 100% for sure is to dig all signals. That has how it has been for many of us over the years, digging all signals. How many of you have dug an ugly signal "knowing" it was not going to be gold only to be very pleasantly surprised? I bet too many times, & now why you still dig all signals. The other bonus of digging all signals first time around, even if it is junk, is to remove it from the ground. That way when you come back over that ground again with the new kid on the block, maybe for the 2nd or third time or even more, that" junk" target won't be there for you having to deal with it again.

I don't believe it is possible to have a 100% accurate discrimination in a gold detector because of the fact that the gold purity in nature is never the same from location to location. Plus the fact that iron/ironstone in nature is often related to gold, if not even attached to it or coating it. The only way would be for the detector to tell you the total metallic elements & there amounts contained in the item detected. Maybe one day that will be possible.

Like Phrunt said, You will never know what you didn't dig. Personally, I can't live with that. I have to know. Then I can sleep easy knowing I haven't left gold in the ground.

D4G  

1 minute ago, Nedkelly said:

Yes the bigger chunker pieces usually are the first to go. I seem to finding lots of light porous type bits and species lately. I'm sure there's still some solid nuggets down deeper,  just out of range. Might need a grader or dozer to take a skim or two off to reach them though LOL. 

Yep.....👍

D4G

35 minutes ago, Nedkelly said:

Yea I agree phrunt. After going over numerous patches for years with various detectors, settings and coils up to and including the gpx 5000 I finally decided that they where finished. But after hitting them with the gpz 7000 and gpx 6000 with various coils only to find out they weren't finished. You just don't know what you're missing.

That is why we are always wanting the next release detector/coil. They bring old haunts back to life. All be it with the 6000 mostly smaller/deeper gold. The fun thing is we all have our old patches that had seemed to of dried up until the new kid on the block comes to being. Then it is game on again..... for a while. Then we are waiting for another "new kid on the block". The bigger gold though does seem to have become very scarce. 

D4G

I agree with Phrunt, as we both live on the South Island of New Zealand, I at the top end & he towards the bottom end. Our ground being very mild I too favoure manual 10 over the Auto settings, threshold on & usually get away with full max sensitivity but not always.

D4G

On 11/21/2023 at 9:39 AM, Norvic said:

Ohhhh Lunk..... buy, borrow, even steal a Xcoil large CC.

Hey Norvic. He would need to make, or have made, an adapter to do that. Might be against his grain.

D4G

On 11/14/2023 at 6:06 PM, phrunt said:

I don't get how gold gets to where it does, right on the top of a ridge can hold nuggets and often oddly does.

To remotely get an understanding you need to study the geology of your areas & learn how the land developed & gold formed, & how & why the mountains grew & from what. Tectonic plates, faulting & folding. Glaciation that has come & gone a few times, advance & retreat, destroying mountains & eroding the quartz gold reefs liberating & depositing the gold. Ancient river channels & glacial material, gold bearing, lifted to thousands of feet above sea level. Can be a real mind f%*k but that is how the gold got to where you describe. The study of that is fascinating in its self & most people that love chasing gold love geology too. The two go hand in hand & for good reason.

D4G  

17 hours ago, phrunt said:

The Manticore isn't really a giant step over the Nox I don't think although I'd much rather it than a Nox 900 and, in a few ways, prefer my 800 over the Manticore. 

Minelabs business model is not to release upgraded "technology" in new release models in really giant steps. But to do it a tiny step at a time to milk more money from customers with each "new" release. Mining the miners. Take a look at the GP Extreme through to the GPX 5000. Pretty much the same platform with small improvements to each unit but a hefty top end price per "new" detector. We were lucky that the coils were interchangeable. Not like now.

D4G

Is Australia "still" the homeland of Minelab?

D4G

Nice. Good for you & happy for you.

D4G