Quick

I have worked in a lot of gold mining towns and I have to say Sierra City is one of my favorites.

I have told my wife we need to make a trip there so she can see it but we have yet to do it.

I must also add

Some nuggets are just on the brink of detection. They are only heard every second or so sweep of the coil. Ground balance may improve the signal or it may not. So you must repeat the process looking for the obviouse sign to dig. Yet this sign my not be there, you should still knock off a inch or two of dirt. Sometimes you will be surprised by a repeatable signal.

If my detector makes me investagate I never leave with out moving a bit of ground to get the coil closer.

Never thought about Mars!

Dibs on the first claims.

Just thinking Steve that some day my knees are going to fail me.To many years of "boot digging". I'm out of the habit now but the damage is done.

I like the exercise also!

I see there are now wireless detector coils.

I have day dreamed about building a detector that was driven by a remote for years.

I know anything is possible when the right person and the technology is there.

Any thoughts if this is possible yet?

Root

Ya gotta hack the pieces down so they fit in those little gold bottles…

That is crazy.

Don't you mean the crucibles?

I guess it is no different than what the old timers did.

Gold Hound your right good prospectors are hard to find.

I have spent a lot of my life pocket hunting. I have tried to have guys help but it never turned out for the better.

They loose interest after 1 or 2 months.

Finding gold helps and it helps you become a better prospector.

Root

I have had to ship my detectors to Minelab and always had them back with in 10 days.

Thanks for posting up your video Chris.

One thing is for sure when you run around most of the time with a 20 inch round coil on your detector it is not hard at all to recover targets when you change over to a small coil.

I like your jargon! Next time I'm out I'm going to try boot digging for road nuggets.

Root

The problem with cross platform phone development, at least when I was looking into it in the early stages, is that Apple is completely proprietary. To even start experimenting with programming for iPhone at the time I would have had to buy a Mac and an iPhone and learned their weird properietary language. Then Apple polices their app store far more rigidly then Google so I had no way of knowing if I could even distribute my app once I made it. Maybe things have changed now, but that used to be a reason some apps were only available on 1 platform.

With Android anyone can use any computer and program for any Android phone using Java which is a globally used and standard language, it's what they taught all the CS classes in when I was in school too so most people already know it. I can go around the Google store if I want and distribute my app even if they choose not to. There are benefits and drawbacks to both - you get more wheat and less chaff with the Apple method, but you get far more ingenuity with the Android method via crowdsourcing.

So it's easy to port from phone to phone, but it's not so easy to cross the Apple divide so to speak, it used to be a complete reprogramming. And a lot of smaller developers don't have the time or money to do that. Whereas with Android, ensuring that your app works on a Samsung phone is no harder than ensuring it works on a Motorola phone (generally), it's all compatible already.

I still use Backcountry Navigator myself. I haven't found another single app solution that provides everything I need as a prospector in a better package for less money. Actually for most guys the free version will do just fine. Though I highly recommend the surface ownership add on layers. I had intended on creating a WMS server for claims mapping data and seeing if BCN would add it as a mapping layer, but living in the field in a camper with marginal phone internet wasn't cutting it for as much data and updating as it required. Still, someone could pursue that route possibly if they had the resources and motivation and it'd be an awesome prospecting layer to have.

Some crazy stuff you got going on.

Looks like you know a bit about electronics. What field do you work in if you don't mind me asking.

I had no idea they had these.

I have joked with guys about putting motorcycle helmet tearoffs on my detector screen.

I have a Samsung. Will these apps work on my phone?

Another thing I see people struggling with is target recovery.

I wish I could but it is impossible to explain how to do it correctly with words.

Anybody know a good video?

Auminesweeper A review on a 3500 doesn't have a self life becuse a 4000 comes out.

It is still a review on a 3500!

Reveiws are not written in stone they are only reviews. The person that writes them my change their mind later but it gives the buyer a bit of insite on the product they are thinking about buying.

I used Steve's reviews when I bought the Whites GMT. I was looking for a gold detector with what I tought would have the best discrimination available at the time.

Personally I think it still has the best discriminator of all gold detectors that I have used.

Root

Good stuff Flak thanks for posting I have been looking into getting a GPS but it seems if I hold out it will soon be just as good on our phones.

What do you think?

Steve If people don`t believe your reviews or comments that is their problem.

 

I have been in the detecting game longer than most and if there is one thing I can say about Steve H is he tells it like he sees it.

This is important to those of us that buy detectors often. I have read everything I could get my hands on that he has wrote and I have learned from it.

Just because someone has a difference of opinion this doesn't mean that we don't believe his reveiws or comments.

Quite the opposite for me it gives me a different way to look at it and I thank him for that.

I bet you would have to look long and hard to find someone that doesn't agree with me.

Root

Good points Steve. Maybe I just need to use one more. Maybe Im old fashion in wishing it was in a metal case. Or might be that I just have a hard time with spending that kind of money on a detector that I know is not going to be Bullet proof in my hands.

I also know that most of the gold I found with the borrowed 7000 I would of found with a 5000

The 7000 did shine on the deeper chicken feed pieces. I was surprised how deep some were.

Also to pay it off I have to take into consideration that only the gold the 5000 doesn't get is helping me towards that goal.

Thanks for your opinion,Root

Steve what do you like about the platform of the 7000?

I'm not asking about its gold finding capabilities just the package Minelab put it in.

I personally don't own a 7000 but I have used one.

For the price I can't see why Minelab put it in a plastic case.

How many years in the sun will this plastic tolerate before it becomes brittle? The screen is also going to get jacked.The areas I hunt in are very rugged.My GMT has been back to a Whites two times to have the screen fixed because I crashed with it.

Also I don't like the arm cuff what was wrong with the old style? I even use the GPX Minelab cuffs on all my detectors.

They are kind of hard to use with a coat on but I get by.

Just because a developer has created a totally custom platform doesn't mean it is compatible with all operators.

Don't get me wrong I have used Minelabs almost exclusively. I feel they are the best out there and have been for years.

I'm just not happy with the 7000 platform other than it being cordless.

I have never seen this before.

I would call the assayer and have them explain it.

I have been detecting for gold off and on since 1986 and I would like to give a little advice.

I believe there are five main things you need to do to be successful.

You need to be in a area that has big enough gold to detect.

Dig all repetitive targets.

It does not matter what sound comes out of the speaker.If it is a repetitive sound dig it. I have dug big deep gold that was nothing more than ground noise but it was a repetitive ground noise and after a scratch or two it turned into a clear target.

Learn your detector, I still learn something new about my detectors once in awhile. I see guys stuck on one setting more often than not.

Sure you dig up hot rocks with the Normal timings on the GPX's but you are also punching deeper than fine gold or sensitive extra in some ground types.

Minelab put all those timings on there because they work! Use them!!!

Swing speed SLOW DOWN!!!

I watched some videos on YouTube the other day and I can guarantee some of those people are missing gold.

The big deep nuggets need a very slow swing speed and good coil control.

Learn how to ground balance. This is what I think is one of the most important things to learn how to do successful. Do it right and do it often and you will add more gold to your poke.

Hope this helps someone, Root

Hi jasong just wondering where you got the new coil and what was the price?

Thanks for posting the video.

From what the oldtimers told me the mines ran until they ran out of powder.

If you read the old reports in some districts some of the gold mines ran right on though WW2.

I think the mines that were high in nickel and copper were permitted to run.

My family worked a pocket mine during that time on shares and a lot of families in the area were in on it. The deal was they needed powder so they all got together and only worked one mine.

Not sure if it was illegal but knowing the history of my family it more than likely was.

I'm going to look up the War Production Board Order L-208 and learn about it. Might be interesting.

I must add like Steve I highly doubt it is gold. Might be a sulfide or telluride though. What ever it is it is cool looking stuff.

Cool looking stuff. I have never seen gold in jade before but I have seen it in serpentine.

Chris it freezes where I detect also and yes I have dug my share of frozen ground.

Just to let you in on a little secret you can detect nuggets that are frozen deeper than not.

I found this out on a patch that i worked for years. Then on one trip in the winter it got down in the teens.My partner and I both pulled a mess of gold out of that ground that we had been over before and the nuggets were deeper than any we had dug. I believe the nuggets become denser when they are frozen just like steel.

Put some in your freezer and do some testing you might be surprized!

Root