LukeOzDigger

Call me old school but I just love dials and switches, I get too distracted with digital screens etc... This machine gets me more interested than the gold racer, and just made it "top of the want list" Watching with interest!

Spot on matt' not sure why it works good but maybe as it's just a normal winding nothing fancy.

Steve' Have you had a chance to spend any time with the mineralization meter? Does it work in reguards to following black sand/minerals etc? Or can it be used in this way? Sorry if this question has been covered I might have missed it.

Well' Iv had a GMT and done quite well with it, I bought a GB2 this year to hit spots I'd been over with the GMT other than the tiniest flakes the GMT didn't miss much. This Gold Racer for me has been bumped to the top of the list just for my general "jump out of the truck" detecting, I can't see why it wouldn't replace 3 of my current detectors. Looking good so far!

Cheers boys! Now I'm left hanging till the next vid' better look out I'll be up that way in May next year for a few sample pans... : )

There has been a lot of speculation that the modded SPP is up there with the SDC, this is not true although the modded SPP using the AA pack with good quality AA's and coupled with minerjohn's 5x9 folded is a real head turner, And the fact it's smooth as silk and not warbling your head off! Makes quite an attractive package. My TDI pro modded is a lot closer to the SDC's performance.

Rick' Yeah my TDI is modded but the setting will work on all the machines modded or not, no "test" these setting are proven and Iv been using them for years... In LOW' my all time favourite coil has been the 7x11 folded minerjohn design and it's found its share of gold. High' I'm yet to find a big chunk but it's coming....but lots of deeper targets, I'm using the 12x16 MJD in HIGH, but to experiment the older 18" minelab dust bin works pretty good and possibly better than the machines it was designed for "in severe mineralised soil".

John' Yeah if done a lot of testing with the 14" round minerjohn/razorback' it will go up to 2" deeper on coin size targets and has very similar sensitivity to the 12" mono on smaller objects, just note the 12x16 MJD is basically the same coil just stretched out' but elliptical coils sharpen up the signal response. Even though the weight factor is only just starting to creep up the 14" round and 12x16" elliptical would be all anyone would ever really need without getting too heavy and a handful to use, I use a bungy on the 12x16 and probably recommended but could be used with a control arm instead.

Just thought I'd share the settings I use when I'm out hunting for gold in Australia. First setting: General gold detecting Set pulse delay to 10' Ground balance in ALL as best as you can' between the high and low tone. Flick into LOW and sweep the coil if your getting ground noises which I generally do just turn the GB up half a notch' so from 9 go to 9.5, if need be you can go a full notch without any huge loss on depth or sensitivity' this should now allow you to use full gain. Dig all high tone responces and listen carefully. Just note that running Low you will only find gold up to about 7-10grams If you still continue to get strange sounds that you can't ignore by advancing the GB setting, try the the GB process all over again but at 12 pulse delay. Second setting: large deep items When Using HIGH set pulse delay at 15-20' ground balance in ALL as best as possible' it will actually be a lot smoother because of the pulse delay setting' flick into HIGH, to remove any ground noise you now "reduce" the GB setting a little say from 6 go to 5. In High you will only detect targets the machine thinks are high conductive and any gold over about 7 grams, don't be concerned about loosing small gold you won't detect it anyway so in this setting run big coils and Use full Gain if possible. Dig all repeatable low tone responces if it turns out to be ground noise reduce the GB setting more up to about 2 notches from the original GB setting or do the GB process again but at a higher pulse delay. This setting will go deep expect big holes. Set the frequency correctly if you can't, use the machine away from EMI but generally the TDI doesn't suffer that bad. Iv found heaps of gold with the first setting so it does work well' but I'm yet to find a massive nugget with the second setting but the deep items I'm digging up shows one will be gold hopefully soon. Hope it helps.

Aussiematt' Lately Iv been hunting for large deep "items" (no gold yet) with the TDI pro' I'm using a 12x16 minerjohn mono coil and operating in HIGH mode with the pulse delay about 15-18 and GAIN flat out. My TDI is modified but a STD machine will still work fine just maybe not at full GAIN. Now' "yes" using HIGH mode your not going to find small gold so turning the pulse delay up doesn't matter much, actually you probably won't detect any gold less than half an ounce, so using HIGH might not be the best option. The reason I'm using high as it's nice to only dig 4-5 big deep targets a day especially if gold has already been found in the area your hunting in, running in HIGH also allows you to turn the GB back a little and completely ignore our hot Australian soil that's means no more ground noise even with a big mono coil and no digging hot pockets (something you have absolutely no hope of avoiding in ALL mode) and smooth quiet detecting other than the odd funny sound. Most larger coils will work but you have to use HIGH, Iv also got a 20" minerjohn mono that's identical to the 20" Grande coil, Iv also heard good reports of the old minelab 18" dust bin coil. Basically dig a repeatable signal and a deep signal like the 2ft deep can I dug up on the weekend will be pretty quiet but still a low tone and repeatable, also I dug a solid chunk of steel about the size of a 20c coin about 10" but that was a good loud signal. One of the best things about using HIGH mode you can use it in trashy areas and not dig up all that small crap and can easy tell the surface trash and only dig the deep targets which is just nice sometimes. The SL will work fine with big coils and Iv tested it, the SPP will also work with some larger coils if the conductivity switch has been added, using a single mode in Australia is most important think of ALL as the GB mode' LOW= Small coil & small gold, HIGH=Large coil & large gold, so you have two detecting modes but can only use one at a time. You must GB first in "ALL", when you flick onto Low you turn the GB up a little to ignore the ground, when in HIGH you turn the ground balance down a little to ignore the ground (a little meaning 1/2- 1 notch) Hope this helps

This is a good article that some of you might enjoy reading. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/life/weekend-australian-magazine/the-ratter-on-the-ridge/story-e6frg8h6-1226607395170 Claim jumpers in outback Australia still go missing...

Yeah' all you hear are complaints about how the GB2 runs in hot ground, onestly compared to a PI yeah it's noisey as hell' but for a VLF it runs quite well.

Purchased the 14" coil. quick testing shows it's going to perform as expected it will see a .1 gram nugget shallow in hot soil (1") the machine does get a little confused/crackly in iron disc mode but overall not too bad. Hopefully get away in a few weeks and put it to work might even get some video footage.

I too would do back flips for a land only version of the SDC especially with coil options. I don't see why they couldn't replace the eureka gold with a base model SDC 2300 well it wouldn't be a SDC, but no reason it couldn't use the same case.

I haven't actually got out much this year but feel I used the time well' found 9 nuggets total with my TDI pro (modded) smallest 0.8 gram, largest just under a gram. At least half would have been found with a unmodded unit but not the smallest bits, the mods make all the difference not just to run a higher gain but a little easier to operate. Also found one .2 gram with a quick go with a mates SDC. My years not over yet' I'm away all next month and have 20 empty spots to fill! In Gold bug 2 country.

Just one of the many picks Iv built over the years' that's dry clay stuck to it as it's been a bit wet here lately, by far the worst ground to dig is sticky clay....

Well' the GMT 14x8 DD coil would easily pick up .1 gram nuggets close to the surface I'm assuming the GB2 with the 14" coil should do this also even if I had to drop the gain because of the ground noise... a part of the reason I started this topic was because of the lack of information on the 14" coil yes it does have a purpose and possibably in more areas than people realise but I may have to purchase one to find out if it works in my moderate soil. The reason I'm so interested in the 14" is these flat nuggets are sitting sideways down in a slatey sandstone reef just out of reach of smaller coils and a minelab Pi don't see them' some can be up to a gram but not enough to spend the money on a SDC, digging the ground up at the wrong angle knocks them deeper and usually ends up a big hole but interesting all the same.

So... Out of nearly 250 views no one else has any experience with this 14" but Steve? With the 14" coil in Iron Disc mode whats the smallest nugget one would expect A reliable hit on? Come on guys' this is one of the most popular detectors of all time and no ones spent any time with the larger coil just to see how it performs?

Come on guys we all knew Steve has used it' always good to get a few more photos out of him! Strange enough I get more enjoyment taming a machine a lot give up on' and using said machine where others don't for whatever reason.... The way I see it Aussies go for the easiest option and don't care about costs involved, the area I bought the drywasher and gold bug 2 for is a central Australian desert region' it's known for mainly small gold and larger gold not very common. The area does bombard you with many hot rocks but the actual ground is generally mild, The hot rock issue in my eyes is what attracts just minelab Pi's to the area' if said detectorist wasn't lazy and raked the hot rocks from the surface he would find that a PI gives no advantage over a VLF machine at all other than to give the impression that nothing will be missed. Yes' the SDC does work out this way quite well but hardly the cost or challenge I'm looking for, but to me buying the SDC from the gold found with the GB2 is... If I think of enough reasons to purchase a 14" coil it would probably be used mainly in disc mode for patch hunting as I don't plan to take the PI with me' for the first 2 months anyway. Thanks John & Steve' more reading material is always good Gold found in the area with the GMT What the ground looks like

G'day, I'm sure a lot will read this post and' should be able to give me some idea but... What is the performance of the GB2's 14" coil over moderate soil? And how does it perform in iron Disc if the ground was producing a lot of noise? Iv done the good old Google search and it seems that no one uses this coil, does it behave erratic or no one uses them.... Thanks in advanced.

G'day everyone' I think this is my first post but you will be amazed where I might turn up! Sunriseboy' send a PM with any questions... Like Reg said it's going to be difficult for a while until I get settled some where, there's talk of a trip around Australia' but also thinking of taking some gear with me so anything could be possible at this stage. Cheers